Fankly I think it's ludicrous to hear that "Serenwilde has no RP."
When I was in Seren I found -plenty- to RP about. I left Seren for a variety of reasons but none of them were a systemic lack of focus at a commune level. Everiine is probably one of the most enjoyable RP people I've ever met and I feel he exemplifies a lot of what Seren has to offer, esp the age old traditions, reverance for spirits/ancestors. Earlier someone made a post about Serens use of Spirits and Mag's undead. This really easily CAN be slanted to fit in from an RP standpoint. I won't go into that now though.
Look harder, work with novices. The problem with Seren is the lack of people at the top wiling to crack the whip at times. IF you lose villages, do what Glom did when it had no villages. The old, "We don't need those, we have a FOREST."

Commune news posts are excellent for propaganda spreading (morale boost, laugh at enemy x, reminders, etc.). Use it more!

I am scared of the news after what a certain someone posted.

Yeah, I want to, but scared about posting.

Yeah, I want to, but scared about posting.

It's kind of scary knowing what you've posted will be there for all time, but the same reason makes it exciting. If you get approval, a bit of corresponding propaganda might show in our shiny new commune messages too.
Looking at posts you liked from other people helps when composing. You can ask someone like-minded to review it before posting too. Someone with different views may be able to help by bringing up points you may want to have an answer ready for.
You can do it!

I'm unsure what I should post here... but... I do have one thing to say as Anita is Minister of Cultural Affairs.

From an idea Enyalida messages me a while back now, I decided it'd be good to get all of the guilds within the forest to showoff what they're about, maybe teach others the history of the guild, through mini-events. People said they'd get to it, and then...nothing. I hardly received any feedback, and if I chased people up on it, "There's been no interest" or " is the only one who's expressed interest."

Hands down Xiran is the only person who actually started working on something and was getting in touch with me the entire time, and showing me what she was working on.
So I'm doing a take-two, but this time it'll be a "Join if you really want to, but you don't -have- to" event so that the things we've got planned for the Moondancers can still go ahead.

To me, there seems to be a lack of communication sometimes. ( I can't read your minds, by the way, however nifty that would be!)

I even did one design contest which never gave me much hope since I received all of four designs, which ended up being submitted privately because I was that disappointed (and that's with two people suggesting the design contest idea, of which they never took part in).

I really would like to know what I can do to motivate people - apparently no one really wants to learn anything about the place they live in, or really care about others within said place. This is the feeling I'm getting, and it just makes this job hard.

Part of the problem was you announced the event and gave only a few RL days to organize it--by the time I figured out who would be able to be there, the date was right on top of us. That's not enough time. And Ev has said repeatedly, "Give me a date for next time and I'll make sure someone gives a presentation."

Minister of Culture is a hugely frustrating job. My advice is to treat everything like a victory. If even ONE person shows up, make a post about what you did.

Everiine:

My advice is to treat everything like a victory.

This, for ALL the things.

I've always been impressed by those willing to step up as Culture Minister, simply because of the sheer amount that people tend to expect from their culture minister, and how easy it would be to get burnt out and jaded very quickly.

That said, it is very overwhelming to be faced with an open call for ideas with a rapidly looming deadline.

From my perspective, the Hallifax Festival that happened a while ago now was successful because Daraius did a beautiful job of balancing small group planning and delegating. He seems to have brainstormed event ideas with a handful of people, and then went out and got people to actually do the legwork on them by nagging.

I know that faced with an open call to come up with, write, and then run an event, my response would probably be to try to come up with something, not really talk to people about it because they're busy, or it's hard to catch them, or they intimidate me, and then when I fail shrug and assume that I can just see what everyone else does since surely everyone more experienced than me will be doing something.

Instead, I got cornered at the Matrix along with Aithera's ig husband and asked to write and run a Hallifax History quiz by a certain deadline. Which ended up being a lot of fun so when we finished it we voluntarily did another one. My understanding is that the other events were similarly parceled out to specific people who could then be nagged.

Another thing I'd really like to emphasize is how intimidating people with appointed or elected positions can seem to novices, or even not so novices, who are energetic and enthusiastic but maybe too shy to really put themselves out there and volunteer to help.

(And if you're one of those people lurking, go ahead and put yourself out there. Most of us love answering questions and brainstorming ideas. I promise. if you're Hallifaxian and want ideas for books/a new spin on reviews talk to me. It's what I'm there for)

I have an alt in Serenwilde, and when I logged on earlier today, I was very disappointed by a 'conversation' on CT.

(Serenwilde): Anrisi (from the Ethereal Plane) says, "What are the ethereal animals that hold the silvery essence? Manifestations?"
(Serenwilde): Ceana says, "Ethereal stags, opossums, and peacocks."
(Serenwilde): Anrisi (from the Ethereal Plane) says, "Not what they look like, what they are? Like why are they there and why do they contain essence."
(Serenwilde): Anrisi (from the Ethereal Plane) says, "Is there a story behind it, or the like."
(Serenwilde): Saran says, "You should be able to locate those within ethereal Serenwilde, though you may need to search the tree tops at the least."
(Serenwilde): Pectus (from the Aetherways) says, "Oh. Anrisi."
(Serenwilde): Pectus (from the Aetherways) says, "There should be a book in the library about them."
(Serenwilde): Teluria says, "They seem to show up after the fae leave."
(Serenwilde): Pectus (from the Aetherways) says, "I believe they pop up after we've brought in a certain amount of fae from Faethorn."
(Serenwilde): Anrisi (from the Ethereal Plane) says, "Alright, I'll check it out. I was merely intrested why they existed and if they were mockeries of the Great Spirits or perhaps a hiccup of the universe."
(Serenwilde): Anita (from the Aetherways) says, "You can kill them for the essence."

This was the perfect opportunity to have some very engaging discussion with the entire commune. Even if no one can agree on one correct answer, the very act of talking about it will stick with people, and maybe they'll be more interested in learning about the ethereal plane. They will generate more questions, which generate more discussion, and so on.

I just feel like the above quote really exemplifies what's 'wrong' with Serenwilde, from an outsider's perspective. You say you have no direction, no one's engaged, but when you're given an opportunity to do something about it, even if it's as small as a chat on CT, you shrug and ignore it. So my answer to your question, Anita, would be to stop treating everything as nothing more than a game mechanic. Play up the RP behind things as much as you can. It's the only thing that truely separates you from any other org.

EDIT: Gah, where did those even come from?!?

Agh, the tags, they burn.

Lilia:

I have an alt in Serenwilde, and when I logged on earlier today, I was very disappointed by a 'conversation' on CT.


This was the perfect opportunity to have some very engaging discussion with the entire commune. Even if no one can agree on one correct answer, the very act of talking about it will stick with people, and maybe they'll be more interested in learning about the ethereal plane. They will generate more questions, which generate more discussion, and so on.

I just feel like the above quote really exemplifies what's 'wrong' with Serenwilde, from an outsider's perspective. You say you have no direction, no one's engaged, but when you're given an opportunity to do something about it, even if it's as small as a chat on CT, you shrug and ignore it. So my answer to your question, Anita, would be to stop treating everything as nothing more than a game mechanic. Play up the RP behind things as much as you can. It's the only thing that truely separates you from any other org.

EDIT: Gah, where did those even come from?!?

It's actually a Hartstone thing, I kid you not. The Aspects aren't just Aspects, they are Aspects of Dreaming, which are naturally powered up by manifestations of dreaming.

Enyalida:



It's actually a Hartstone thing, I kid you not. The Aspects aren't just Aspects, they are Aspects of Dreaming, which are naturally powered up by manifestations of dreaming.

Do the Aspects have anything directly to do with the ethereal critters? I've never known of a tie between the two.

Xenthos:

Do the Aspects have anything directly to do with the ethereal critters? I've never known of a tie between the two.

I'm more than half asleep, but I'm still fairly sure there's no connection. But I can't even remember if they had an event to introduce them.

Saran:


I'm more than half asleep, but I'm still fairly sure there's no connection. But I can't even remember if they had an event to introduce them.

Then I do not understand Enyalida's point.

We're talking about Manifestations of Dreaming, the event that introduced them was the 'dreams' event (involving the three melder guilds) during which dreamweaving was introduced among other things, right?

Bleh, for some reason I thought that is what the quote was talking about. Majorily distracted.

I think we're talking about the ethereal critters that drop essence, and Anrisi asking how they came to be / what they are. She (Anrisi) thought they were Manifestations, which they were not. Lilia commented how instead of answering Anrisi's question, Serenwilde just more-or-less shrugged it off.

Actually, I gave a long time for that event to be organized. I sent out letters and messages to Culture aides at the time, from which there was a general interest that it was a good idea. I even said the time frame could be changed, and no one ever said to me that they needed longer or that it should be changed. If I'm going to make things work, I need the feedback. Like I said, I can't read minds, and unless you tell me, I'm not going to know these things. In fact, it had instructions about how the aide from each guild should make a post about it, of which it seemed to never be posted for some guilds.

As for the essence creatures? I don't know a thing about them. Except that they come out after bringing a number of fae under Mother Moon's protection, you can kill them for essence which then can be put into the nexus. And I also asked about it a while back and that was shrugged off.
And also from that log, it suggest those people who were awake don't even know themselves. I really would like to know how many people read books in the library because if they did they'd know little things like this. (No, I haven't read that book on the essence creatures if there is one, yet. I'm reading books in the Moondancers Library first)

And lastly, for the RP? I do a fair bit of RP with the Moondancers. I've even gone to the pains of getting permission to include people outside the guild to stand with us in a monthly Canticle prayer - just to share the little things that make up the Moondancers. I don't just ignore it and shrug it off, I actually want the RP, but I feel very few people are inclined that way these days. I know when I played a Shadowdancer a few years back, that RP was the best ever. Glomdoring was amazing.

At the time of your little quote there, I was actually very tired and missed the entire point of the question. Hence my weird "You can kill them for the essence" at the end.

Everiine:

My advice is to treat everything like a victory. If even ONE person shows up, make a post about what you did.

OMG. COME TO GLOM. ASAP.

thisismydisplayname:


OMG. COME TO GLOM. ASAP.

NEVAR