DragoonKain
05-26-2007, 08:22 PM
May Updates
Summer's here and it's that time for another run of updates, folks! There are quite a few updates here this month, including one pretty big one. Cheers!
HIGHLIGHTS:
* Fanfic Section v2.0
* Usual Staff Changes
* Calendar Events Ability Removed
* Private Message Box Size Increased
* New Teams System
* Coming Changes...
* Fanfic Section v2.0 *
It was brought to our attention that the fan fiction section being placed in the Kingdom Hearts area was confusing. It's always been intended that fan fiction written here did not have to be about Kingdom Hearts, so after being requested quite a few times now (yes, we do eventually listen), I am going to move the fan fiction forum over to the General Forum area. The same rules apply to the Fanfic area that applies to the rest of our forum: No bad language, no violent or sexual content, and no spamming.
In addition to being moved, the FanFic section is getting a new name and slightly new meaning. The Fanfic section is going to be renamed "Fanfic & Other Literature" and will be the place for fan fiction and... other literature. This includes short stories, poems, lyrics, non-fiction, biographies, fictional biographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, whatever. Enjoy!
* Usual Staff Changes *
Well, time to announce our staff changes for this month. First off, Twilight Blade has promoted to Super Moderator. He is joining the ranks of our legendary: Aerith, Riku, and Riku-Sora. Sora has been promoted to a Full moderator. Due to his excellence as a temporary moderator during our period of shortage, Khfan02 has been made a Trainee Moderator, and will start being a permanent member of our staff from now on. I would personally like to thank him for all of the help he gave us. Anyway, I offer my congratulations to all of those involved in the promotions, and I hope you'll offer a few words to congratulate them as well.
* Calendar Events Ability Removed *
Some of you may have figured out that the Registered Users usergroup had the ability to add events to the Forum Calendar. This ability was never intended, and has been removed.
* Private Message Box Size Increased *
There were some complaints that the private message box size wasn't large enough for comfortable use. Well, we heard you and we've increased your storage size a bit. You are now given up to 150 spaces. Remember that you can also disable saving of your Sent Messages so that they don't take up any space either. In the future we may increase it again, so be on the lookout!
* New Teams System *
The largest change this month to enact a series of staff-run, user-based teams who will help to run, manage, and invigorate various aspects of the forums.
Here is some of the information in a nutshell. More specific information about each team will be posted in the Forum Issues section as the team leaders finish preparations.
ENTERTAINMENT TEAM
Perhaps our largest team to date, the Entertainment Team will be in charge of various forms of member entertainment. They will run Forum Game events, moderated events, a forum newspaper and more. This team has a lot of exciting plans. The team will be split into 3 recognizable parts:
Forum Games - This part of the group will be in charge of creating and running various small forum games or competitions.
Events - This part of the group will focus on moderated events that may or may not be games.
Newspaper - This part of the group will focus on the Forum Newspaper.
The Entertainment Team will be headed up by Riku, Aerith, and Twilight Blade. Aerith and Riku will be heading up the Events and Forum Games areas as a duo. They will also cover in the event that another team leader goes missing. Twilight Blade is in charge of the Newspaper.
RPG TEAM
This team will be in charge of the RPG section of the forums. They will run moderated RPG events, and create workshops to help users improve their RPG skills. The team leader for this team is Sora. Sora hopes to organize the RPG section, dividing RPGs up into categories. They will provide members a guide-map of the various RPGs that currently exist, and will take submissions from people running the RPGs to keep the list up to date. If you run an RPG and wish to employ some of the services of the RPG team, Sora and company would be the place to ask.
Sora will be looking for members with high role playing skill, and people who generally follow the rules (no cursing, spamming, etc).
DESIGN TEAM
This team already exists. Riku-Sora is its leader, and he will be opening up recruitment in a battle-royal shortly.
GREETING TEAM
This team will be in charge of greeting new users who join the forum, offering tours, ensuring that new members are happy, and counseling existing members in case things become troubled. Greeters will work closely with another to ensure that new members do not get barraged with pm's from greeters of course. Greeters' sole purpose is to make sure that members feel welcome and happy. Counselors will assist with problems between members, fights, etc. They will work closely with moderators and elevate situations to moderators if the need arises. I would like to begin to withdraw my moderators from most battles if necessary and allow counselors to do as much as they can to improve situations around the forums. The leader of the Greeting team will be khfan02.
The team system has been officially announced today, but you probably won't start noticing the effects of it until mid-late June. Some of the teams will be ready before others (for instance, I think the Greeting team is just about ready). The Entertainment Team may have certain facilities available early, but that team will likely be late June before it's ready. I don't know when the RPG team will be up, but I'd expect it in the next few weeks. Team leaders are going to decide how everything from rules to recruitment will work. I don't advise asking questions about the teams here, wait until the teams post up their information.
* Coming Changes *
While the updates this month were not huge, I think the Teams system should keep you all occupied for a while. However, I know that's probably not enough to keep us invigorated in the long run. Thus, in the coming months I'll be working on several more improvements to the forum. First off, a new rewards system for winning things such as competitions and events. I was thinking a system with little badges. Currently, I'm frowning heavily on the typical rewards such as title changes. Also on the drawing board is, of course, the change in the forum's visual style. Expect us to resume working on this over the summer.
* Closing Comments *
The past couple of months have been a bit rocky for the forums. People have been complaining about boredom, we were having a problem with several users, morale has been at an all time low, and people have been getting frustrated with the staff over various issues. As a staff member, and as the leader of the other staff members, I can honestly say that we are doing our best to ensure the happiness of as many members as we can. When our best isn't good enough, we up the ante and make some changes to ensure that our best gets better. This team system is one move in that direction. There are various things written all over this system to address issues that I felt needed to be addressed. The Entertainment and RPG teams are there to -help- keep people entertained, and the Greeting team will serve to foster new growth, and allow users to help deal with problems between members. This should prevent so much moderator intervention, which will both allow the moderators to sit back and enjoy the forums more, and also leave fewer circumstances where people might get mad at moderators.
Lately there has been a lot of talk about spamming. We know that you cannot go on talking about Kingdom Hearts forever. While the name of this forum is "Kingdom Hearts 3", these forums are not entirely about Kingdom Hearts. Ideally we'll talk about Kingdom Hearts, sure, but more than that these forums are about community. You have all banded together as a community, the common binding element is Kingdom Hearts. That is the joy that you all share in common, and that's what brought you together. However, what keeps you together is not Kingdom Hearts. What keeps you together is the friendships and bonds that you have shared, right here on these forums. You may talk about whatever you want to with one another, provided that its not nonsense, and that it doesn't interrupt current topics. If you would like to talk about something that isn't being talked about, make your own thread! We're a little bit tired of seeing threads filled with "thuk thuk cheleb" everywhere. Every once in a while is okay, but once it gets to a certain point it begins to drown the meaningful conversations out. As we've explained in the past, if you're going to spam like a maniac, do it in the Web Families section. I have singled out RKM and KoKH in this post, but only because I think they can take it. You two are important to these forums in your own way, and I respect that. If you would like to go spam places, create your own thread in Web Families and do it there.
Anyway, I've talked on long enough. I hope you enjoy our latest string of updates.
Sincerely,
-Kain
Summer's here and it's that time for another run of updates, folks! There are quite a few updates here this month, including one pretty big one. Cheers!
HIGHLIGHTS:
* Fanfic Section v2.0
* Usual Staff Changes
* Calendar Events Ability Removed
* Private Message Box Size Increased
* New Teams System
* Coming Changes...
* Fanfic Section v2.0 *
It was brought to our attention that the fan fiction section being placed in the Kingdom Hearts area was confusing. It's always been intended that fan fiction written here did not have to be about Kingdom Hearts, so after being requested quite a few times now (yes, we do eventually listen), I am going to move the fan fiction forum over to the General Forum area. The same rules apply to the Fanfic area that applies to the rest of our forum: No bad language, no violent or sexual content, and no spamming.
In addition to being moved, the FanFic section is getting a new name and slightly new meaning. The Fanfic section is going to be renamed "Fanfic & Other Literature" and will be the place for fan fiction and... other literature. This includes short stories, poems, lyrics, non-fiction, biographies, fictional biographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, whatever. Enjoy!
* Usual Staff Changes *
Well, time to announce our staff changes for this month. First off, Twilight Blade has promoted to Super Moderator. He is joining the ranks of our legendary: Aerith, Riku, and Riku-Sora. Sora has been promoted to a Full moderator. Due to his excellence as a temporary moderator during our period of shortage, Khfan02 has been made a Trainee Moderator, and will start being a permanent member of our staff from now on. I would personally like to thank him for all of the help he gave us. Anyway, I offer my congratulations to all of those involved in the promotions, and I hope you'll offer a few words to congratulate them as well.
* Calendar Events Ability Removed *
Some of you may have figured out that the Registered Users usergroup had the ability to add events to the Forum Calendar. This ability was never intended, and has been removed.
* Private Message Box Size Increased *
There were some complaints that the private message box size wasn't large enough for comfortable use. Well, we heard you and we've increased your storage size a bit. You are now given up to 150 spaces. Remember that you can also disable saving of your Sent Messages so that they don't take up any space either. In the future we may increase it again, so be on the lookout!
* New Teams System *
The largest change this month to enact a series of staff-run, user-based teams who will help to run, manage, and invigorate various aspects of the forums.
Here is some of the information in a nutshell. More specific information about each team will be posted in the Forum Issues section as the team leaders finish preparations.
ENTERTAINMENT TEAM
Perhaps our largest team to date, the Entertainment Team will be in charge of various forms of member entertainment. They will run Forum Game events, moderated events, a forum newspaper and more. This team has a lot of exciting plans. The team will be split into 3 recognizable parts:
Forum Games - This part of the group will be in charge of creating and running various small forum games or competitions.
Events - This part of the group will focus on moderated events that may or may not be games.
Newspaper - This part of the group will focus on the Forum Newspaper.
The Entertainment Team will be headed up by Riku, Aerith, and Twilight Blade. Aerith and Riku will be heading up the Events and Forum Games areas as a duo. They will also cover in the event that another team leader goes missing. Twilight Blade is in charge of the Newspaper.
RPG TEAM
This team will be in charge of the RPG section of the forums. They will run moderated RPG events, and create workshops to help users improve their RPG skills. The team leader for this team is Sora. Sora hopes to organize the RPG section, dividing RPGs up into categories. They will provide members a guide-map of the various RPGs that currently exist, and will take submissions from people running the RPGs to keep the list up to date. If you run an RPG and wish to employ some of the services of the RPG team, Sora and company would be the place to ask.
Sora will be looking for members with high role playing skill, and people who generally follow the rules (no cursing, spamming, etc).
DESIGN TEAM
This team already exists. Riku-Sora is its leader, and he will be opening up recruitment in a battle-royal shortly.
GREETING TEAM
This team will be in charge of greeting new users who join the forum, offering tours, ensuring that new members are happy, and counseling existing members in case things become troubled. Greeters will work closely with another to ensure that new members do not get barraged with pm's from greeters of course. Greeters' sole purpose is to make sure that members feel welcome and happy. Counselors will assist with problems between members, fights, etc. They will work closely with moderators and elevate situations to moderators if the need arises. I would like to begin to withdraw my moderators from most battles if necessary and allow counselors to do as much as they can to improve situations around the forums. The leader of the Greeting team will be khfan02.
The team system has been officially announced today, but you probably won't start noticing the effects of it until mid-late June. Some of the teams will be ready before others (for instance, I think the Greeting team is just about ready). The Entertainment Team may have certain facilities available early, but that team will likely be late June before it's ready. I don't know when the RPG team will be up, but I'd expect it in the next few weeks. Team leaders are going to decide how everything from rules to recruitment will work. I don't advise asking questions about the teams here, wait until the teams post up their information.
* Coming Changes *
While the updates this month were not huge, I think the Teams system should keep you all occupied for a while. However, I know that's probably not enough to keep us invigorated in the long run. Thus, in the coming months I'll be working on several more improvements to the forum. First off, a new rewards system for winning things such as competitions and events. I was thinking a system with little badges. Currently, I'm frowning heavily on the typical rewards such as title changes. Also on the drawing board is, of course, the change in the forum's visual style. Expect us to resume working on this over the summer.
* Closing Comments *
The past couple of months have been a bit rocky for the forums. People have been complaining about boredom, we were having a problem with several users, morale has been at an all time low, and people have been getting frustrated with the staff over various issues. As a staff member, and as the leader of the other staff members, I can honestly say that we are doing our best to ensure the happiness of as many members as we can. When our best isn't good enough, we up the ante and make some changes to ensure that our best gets better. This team system is one move in that direction. There are various things written all over this system to address issues that I felt needed to be addressed. The Entertainment and RPG teams are there to -help- keep people entertained, and the Greeting team will serve to foster new growth, and allow users to help deal with problems between members. This should prevent so much moderator intervention, which will both allow the moderators to sit back and enjoy the forums more, and also leave fewer circumstances where people might get mad at moderators.
Lately there has been a lot of talk about spamming. We know that you cannot go on talking about Kingdom Hearts forever. While the name of this forum is "Kingdom Hearts 3", these forums are not entirely about Kingdom Hearts. Ideally we'll talk about Kingdom Hearts, sure, but more than that these forums are about community. You have all banded together as a community, the common binding element is Kingdom Hearts. That is the joy that you all share in common, and that's what brought you together. However, what keeps you together is not Kingdom Hearts. What keeps you together is the friendships and bonds that you have shared, right here on these forums. You may talk about whatever you want to with one another, provided that its not nonsense, and that it doesn't interrupt current topics. If you would like to talk about something that isn't being talked about, make your own thread! We're a little bit tired of seeing threads filled with "thuk thuk cheleb" everywhere. Every once in a while is okay, but once it gets to a certain point it begins to drown the meaningful conversations out. As we've explained in the past, if you're going to spam like a maniac, do it in the Web Families section. I have singled out RKM and KoKH in this post, but only because I think they can take it. You two are important to these forums in your own way, and I respect that. If you would like to go spam places, create your own thread in Web Families and do it there.
Anyway, I've talked on long enough. I hope you enjoy our latest string of updates.
Sincerely,
-Kain