Original Post: Ember, May 29, 2016
Hi y’all! It’s been a fairly quiet May around site. In character, the clans responded to increased interclan violence by announcing a policy of isolation. Moving between clans will be restricted, border patrols increased, and tensions are expected to rise to start a full battle. We haven’t discussed much on the Plot Planning Page what exactly this potential battle and the smaller skirmishes should be leading to, so if you have any ideas we can discuss them on the Plot Planning Page. Out of character, registrations were opened for a few days and a bunch of new members were accepted into the roleplay. Welcome, guys!
Thank you so much to everyone who filled out the survey! If you haven’t gotten the chance to fill it out yet and will like to, the survey is still open and I’ll be checking or responses over the next couple of days.
The results have been very helpful in determining which features should be prioritized in updates, providing ideas for new features, and figuring out what features are working and which need to be changed. There are a few quick fixes that have already been applied, such as a hyperlink to the update log posted on the Character Updates Page and the splitting the rule requiring members to put effort into correct grammar and spelling and specifying the format for roleplaying posts into two separate rules. However, I don’t want to give away too much of what will be changed quite yet, as the moderators and I are figuring out exactly how these changes will work and when they will be rolled out. A blog entry explaining these changes will be published as soon as all of the plans are finalized.
There is one subject, whether or not names should be allowed to be reused, that I would to hear more member opinions on before a change is seriously considered. I’ve created a very brief survey you can fill out HERE on how you believe reused names should be handled.
Before we jump into the main topic of this Monthly Meow, I do have a few reminders. Firstly, leaders should be assigning new mentors to mentorless apprentices every time they do ceremonies. Secondly, please remember that metagaming (a type of powerplaying in which a character makes use of knowledge that the player knows but character does not have the means to be aware of) is against the rules. Over the last month, I’ve noticed an increase in the number of times characters are referencing events that they have no reasonable way of knowing about. This can become a serious problem as our current plot is centered around the clans being isolated from each other and for that isolation to exist, the clans can’t know what’s going on in other clans. Lastly, while using posts like “the wind blew” to avoid rules requiring all posts to contain some roleplaying is alright every once and a while, it should be avoided as much as possible. Instead, use the private message system or the home page chat box to talk to other members out of character or put some actual roleplaying in your post whenever possible.
As requested by a handful of members over the past two months, for this Monthly Meow I’ve created another clan demographics overview. This is the fifth Monthly Meow exploring this topic, the others can be found HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.
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The clan population is only slightly larger than it was in December, as controlled registrations have slowed the huge growth in characters seen in earlier demographic overviews. NightClan is the largest clan, while SunClan is the smallest, with a much larger difference in size than is ordinary.
The overall female majority can be explained as a result of most of our members being female and more comfortable playing characters of their own gender, while the differences in individual clans can be explained by the clans’ traits: the clans associated with traditionally masculine traits (NightClan and MoonClan) have fairly balanced gender ratios, while those with traditionally feminine traits (DawnClan and SunClan) are far more skewed in favor of she-cats.
However, SunClan is far more skewed toward female characters than is usual. To balance out the clans both in population and gender, it would be a great help for members to focus on creating male SunClanners in the coming weeks.
The average age is lower than it was in December and is most similar to last August or March 2014. I’m not certain as to why, as since this data was taken May 13th before the wave of new members. As well, the percentage of working/nonworking cats doesn’t particularly stand out either, if anything the average age would theoretically be higher, as there are proportionally fewer kits than usual.
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In last December’s Monthly Meow, I discussed the unusual dip in character populations over the summer, our most active time of year. I suspect this had something to do with how much attention the medicine cat arc was given. Unlike most arcs, where the majority of roleplaying remains about individual cats and their minor plots, the medicine cat arc was the center of most posts. This meant that less time was devoted to mates and kits, so fewer cats were born. Coupled with the violence of the plot, the clans’ population dramatically dropped.
Since September, the overall population has remained relatively consistent. The changes seem to be caused by registrations opening and closing and the general tendency for characters to be created in waves.
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The changes in individual clan populations are not particularly surprising. MoonClan and NightClan have been battling it out to see who would be the largest clan for the most part, while DawnClan and SunClan have been switching between third and fourth largest. From December to January, MoonClan was the smallest clan, possibly because so much attention had been put on them in previous months that members were more interested in roleplaying in other areas when MoonClan stopped being the center of the plot.
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For this Monthly Meow, I’ve plotted the number of cats of each age group differently from last the last demographics overview, but the results are largely the same— with each month, fewer and fewer cats are alive. While this trend appears to break at for cats of zero months, this data was taken on May 16th, so the number of cats in that age category will be roughly twice as large at the end of the month.
The sudden spike at four months includes characters born in January, the most likely reason for this spike being that members are more active around the winter holidays and are therefore more likely to make new characters.
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I’m not seeing anything particularly noteworthy in the individual clan graphs, they follow the same general trend that fewer and fewer characters exist at each age category with spikes reflecting the tendency for litters and other characters to be created in waves.
As always, if you’ve noticed anything interesting that I haven’t pointed out or might have an explanation for any changes or trends, please comment below!
MoonClan
Apprentices:
Scorpionkit, Angelkit, Pandakit, Turtlekit, Warriorkit, Palekit, Jackalkit, Embla, Leif, Brand, Geri, Fell: Early June
Sharpkit, Sunkit, Yarrowkit, Tigerkit, Lionkit: Mid June
Dawnkit, Spottedkit: Late June
Warriors:
Honeypaw, Dreampaw, Morningpaw, Mousepaw, Hemlockpaw, Treepaw: Early June
Immortalpaw, Robinpaw, Seraphpaw, Victorypaw, Cobrapaw, Mambapaw, Boapaw, Viperpaw, Aconitepaw, Twistedpaw: Mid June
Cherubpaw, Aphrodite, Sacredpaw, Brokenpaw, Softpaw, Oakpaw, Sprucepaw, , Rosepaw, Shadowpaw, Emberpaw, Kaori: Late June
Medicine cat: Surjeon (Late June)
Elders: Sunchaser
Deaths: Redstone
NightClan
Apprentices:
Brokenkit, Puppykit, Myvarr, Kaierr, Sunkit, Ryagarr, Thayarr, Lostkit, Brightkit, Wolfkit, Littlekit, Waselkit, Masonkit: Mid June
Pipkit, Duck-kit, Driedkit: Late June
Warriors:
Devilpaw, Vidar, Skuld, Baldur, Nidhug, Freyr, Odin, Ibispaw, Hyenapaw: Early June
Leopardpaw, Whitepaw, Tildalpaw, Scarletpaw, Cherrypaw, Shadowpaw, Dazzlingpaw: Late June
Elders: Lionstar, Blackpine
DawnClan
Apprentices:
Whimperingkit, Maskedkit, Koikit, Dancingkit, Survivingkit: Early June
Fluffykit: Late June
Warriors:
Maplepaw, Cottonpaw, Dahliapaw: Early June
Angelpaw, Sutcliff: Mid June
Athena: Late June
Elders: Nightshadetalon, Glowingnight
Deaths: Locust-strike
SunClan
Apprentices:
Yarrowkit, Pearlkit, Lionkit, Amethystkit, Ravenkit, Burntkit, Jaguarkit, Aurorakit, Mustangkit, Eveningkit, Littlekit, Morningkit, Desertkit, Lambkit, Agatekit, Jadekit, Rattlesnakekit, Thistlekit, Hurricanekit, Viperkit, Havenkit, Reedkit, Fallowkit: Early June
Oceankit, Tundrakit, Stonekit: Mid June
Pinekit, Mothkit, Tigerkit, Qilinkit, Kitsunekit, Wendigokit: Late June
Warriors:
Aloepaw, Agavepaw, Summitpaw: Early June
Floatingpaw, Mousepaw, Vaultpaw Fadingpaw, Rustypaw, Swiftpaw: Mid June
Scaredpaw, Fawnpaw: Late June
Medicine Cat: Dodopaw (Mid June)
Elder: Hallowroar
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