The Portrait of Zool

Obviously, my penetarvelous inquisifem, the investimatious superiorations of our excelatious admiralleagues have priquently been authoridomenantly procliciferate! I agree, this clearly needs balancing. Care to volunteer?

These are FREAKING HILARIOUS!

Now that we have made a Facebook thingy, I wonder how many other writing and creative type Facebook thingies we could 'Friend' with, to spread the page out and make ourselves known?

Zool peers down at Wyvern from his perch on the wall, somewhat nervous at the proximity of the almost-dragon's heated exhalation to the portrait. Satisfied the chances of accidental ignition were minimal, but still keeping a wary eye, he spoke in turn... What would be great is if there was a way to dynamically categorize a post. For example, I would like to see a forum dedicated to RP, with it's own collaborations, stories, and poems sub-forums. The problem with that, of course, is then you would have two collaborations, stories, and poems sub-forums - one for in-character narration and the other without. It would be great if there was just a group of check boxes at the bottom of the posting screen where one could choose 'In-character' and 'Collaborations' - and make them default if you wanted (and also be editable) - to have the post correctly categorized. In reading mode one could select on the profile page how one wants to see the various forums - also with a default configuration, but editable by the user - in how one wants the various forums presented - whether to separate or combine the various (in-character versus out-of character) forums and sub-forums. But I suppose that's for another generation of forum software. In the In-Character forum one MUST make a character and speak in-character, with minimal OOC posting. In the other forum, not required. A multilingual forum we already have. We could also make an AV forum, for AV uploading, viewing/listening, and discussion, and link to it if we use an AV piece anywhere else in the other forums. Well, something like that....

Not sure what I could do, but willing to give it a listen... papa_k3n@yahoo.com (don't forget the underscore).

Wow. THAT RESONATES. I think this is exactly the thought we need to keep foremost in this discussion! Step 2; Accomplish! I like the way you think Jason. Okay, I've got some projects I have been thinking about - getting back into writing and the Pen is definitely going on my New Year's resolutions for 2010!

It's exactly this kind of commentary that helps give me some perspective on what the 'casual patron' may be looking for more of. Thanks! What may be a good idea, which I used to also love about Wyvern's Almost Reports (well, one step from, anywho...), and which I notice many other popular sites do, is have some kind of monthly or weekly mass emailler. I'm sure there must be an option on this site to put together a list of members and email them all at once. Perhaps we could add an option to the profiles to subscribe to the weekly or monthly emailler (with the default being 'Join'), which will list all the currently active RPs and recent stories and poems, etc. It could also give a little info on the RP's to help someone join if they want. The big trouble with this of course would be finding someone to actually do it. Few people would volunteer, I feel, because the sheer amount of work involved would quickly become overwhelming. I know I myself, with my busy family and work activities could never do it - BUT perhaps we could find enough volunteers to split up the work and make it manageable? Let's say we decided to put out a Weekly Reminder or Pen Digest to be emailed on Mondays (could actually be completed over the weekend) or Fridays (could actually be completed in the evenings during the week) and we had 8 volunteers to share the burden that means each volunteer would only have to complete a digest once every 2 months! THAT is a manageable workload, even for me. The only extra work would be one person who could manage the list, PMing people to ensure they remembered it was their turn and coordinate with the rest of the list during those inevitable times when 'something comes up'. This would, IMO, be a big help in sorting out what was active without wading through 100 new posts on 20 sub-forums since the last time a person was there, and they would be able to put all that saved time to joining an RP immediately or reading their favorite contributor immediately, etc.. The digest could also go to the Pen Facebook page, etc..

No worries Jason. I was a bit confused, as I felt I had already laid out my position in post #7, so I do appreciate your explanation. I see now how that post really doesn't answer your question at all. Apologies here too. Personally, I am for expanding the Pen in any way in line with our Standard, which as I see it is pretty much just to be creative and have fun together.

I'm neither claiming nor pretending to be captain of this ship - I was just letting you know how we currently meet. Thanks for supplying the particulars Signe.

Dude - you are waaaaaay too connected. Though I can understand the reasoning of supporting multiple means of expression and interaction, I am also the first to admit I myself am probably the least savvy person here. I don't have a facebook account, a myspace account, a twitter account, or skype. Even my messenger capability is currently offline. Perhaps that will change - but for now most people I know at the Pen come here as much for the writing as the people, but it is known as primarily a writing site - though the people are first rate. In answer to your question, we have in the past, as much as we have done anything, communicated by IRC. At this stage, if you want to talk to everyone in common, I propose we schedule a meeting on IRC. It probably has a far better chance of happening than any other method. And that said - I haven't been on IRC in quite some time either....

I agree with you there - seriously. Interactive connectivity and some visual sprucing up would really bring the Pen into the 21st century. So... how do we do that?

I like the way you think!

I have been anxiously awaiting the release of Sherlock Holmes, being a rabid SH fan - though the previews look boringly Hollywood. :\ I'll look into the rest.

Indeed - I like what you've done there Ozy! Here's hoping I will get to posting some more myself soon...

Oh yes, a revival! That's a good word for it Master P! So, besides 'preaching' at em - - how do you spose we should do that?

Good luck on your finals!

Great idea! There are boards for the guild leaders and Elders, but the only real activity there for the last year has been keeping track of and eliminating spam, updating the board software (still pending), and the annual board hosting renewal - which we took care of this year without even requiring a fundraiser! There are a few other boards for higher ranks, under the idea that one should get 'something' with higher rank - but by far the busiest boards at the Pen are the regular boards at the front - the Cabaret, Assembly Room, Banquet Room, and Conservatory. If you would like to help out with things, especially in regards to executing an email campaign, it would surely be appreciated....

I agree the Pen has reached a point where it is ripe to evolve - though I'm not entirely sure to what. The Pen has always been a socially participative site, by virtue of the nature of RP. RP is by definition interactive writing - personally I would look closer at how we can bring this into the 21st century to see how we can make it more relative and exciting to the forum patrons of today. As to the upward mobility of the patrons, we already faced that some years ago with the mass promotion of mods and elders. The (then current) membership rose up with basically the same argument that Loki just gave, that 'a hierarchy is alienating' more or less, and our response was to give them the rank and privileges of those they said were alienating - to eventually lead us back here. The plain fact is that in any organization there will ALWAYS be a division between those in the organization, those who are not, and those who are in-between. That is pretty much what defines an organization from a mob. Now, I'm not saying Loki doesn't have a point - I'm just saying the problem may be a bit more fundamental than simply arbitrarily erasing the divisions between the membership strata. At stake is the very identity of the Pen. On the other hand, we don't want to hold that identity so close that it stifles all possible growth. Growth is, by definition, change. I am jubilant to see we have just got a new application in the Recruiter's office - but sadly, that is the first application we have got in over a year! This of all things should be our number one priority to change. I agree we should look again at our promotion process. I like basing it partly on post count, but not entirely. Quality should definitely figure prominently into the equation. At one professional forum I frequent they actually have an indicator (like a secondary rank) that says things like 'New Member' or 'Proven regular Participant' or 'Previous regular participant', etc, which is automatically calculated and assigned through a programmatic algorithm. Perhaps we could base it on several such measures - post count, participation, and member rating - which unfortunately would require more member participation, which is the problem shortage in the first place... I still think our Standard is completely fine. For one thing, I think it beautifully captures the Spirit and Intent of the Pen. For another, it is not so specific that it ties us to a specific method or course of action. No matter what ranking system we use (under whatever name) there will always be those who are dissatisfied with it - and they will usually be those who dislike being ranked anyway, or find themselves under a perceived disadvantage because of their relatively new status. As a matter of fact, this is exactly what one of the original purposes of the application was - to simply by virtue of putting a task on someone to 'join the group' it has the natural effect of filtering out those who lack the social perspective that the Pen as an organization is founded on - or so I see it.

Words of hurt of deprivation...

Methinks a ritual that allows the spirit to move Beyond might be ultimately more in order.

education

change

Yours

Mine!

Success!