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View Full Version : Let's put the calendar to some use!



An-chan
11-18-2009, 02:14 PM
So, the other day, I noticed we have a calendar. At that time, the calendar only showed members' birthdays. However, the whole thing sort of pushed my mind off a snowy cliff and ideas formed like giant rolling snowballs.

As you may notice, I started flooding the calendar with events a few days ago. NaNoWriMo is now marked down, as are Christmas and Halloween. I would have submitted Thanksgiving, too, but I have no idea of its actual date. But, trying to come up with things to mark down there, I got some interesting-ish ideas.

First of all, you know how some months of the year can feel quite of gloomy since all the holidays are packed into other months? I bet those months feel totally left out, and we should help them. We should make our own "holidays" to decorate those months that lack things to celebrate. I could think of some cool holiday-ish annual events, but I decided to post this thread to provoke some discussion about the subject.

My suggestions are as follows:

Admin Appreciation Day, sometime in March or February: Admins do all this work that never really shows to the regular users. I mean, sure, we can see mods locking threads and deleting posts and so on, but very rarely do we see the actual administration work that goes into running a board. Thus, I propose that we hold an annual event to remind people of that no, their favourite board would not work if it weren't for the admins. Something funny and special could go into this, but I have absolutely no idea how to tweak with the forums, so I have no suggestions concerning that.

The BBS Write-in or Fan Frenzy, in June/July: After participating in NaNoWriMo, I have come to the conclusion that doing stuff like that is really a lot of fun and very useful for you. However, writing is something not everyone can participate in, and November is the worst month ever to hold things like these. So, I propose we hold a Fan Frenzy (fan for "fanart", "fanfiction", and Pokémon-related RP, although original fiction would still pass, and frenzy for... um, well, frenzy) in the summer (of the northern hemisphere) to get more people to participate. And not to be unfair to people who don't write, we could add in a rule for "one piece of fanart per day", "30 pages of comic in 30 days", "30 posts for an RP in 30 days", and other stuff. I'm also thinking we could have two separate ways to do the writing: a short story per day or a longer chaptered fic that has to reach a certain word count.

We could then hold events in the Java Chat and on the appropriate forums that could include write-ins; brainstorming nights in for those who are in need of inspiration; word count and story snippet comparisons; real-time help sessions for those running short on time or ideas; and other such nice things that would really make people to get to know each other and feel the love. Because that's the thing that makes the BBS so great.

Also, those who reach the goal and win could get some prizes in either credits or as little icons to their stack of stuff on their profile, so this would do well in promoting the shop system, too. You could even sell some event-exclusive items during the month the Fan Frenzy takes place.

The Board's Birthday, be it September 20th or the day Kelly made this board in the spring: What's a better reason to celebrate that the birthday of someone or something? We could have a special thread that day so that people could give "presents" to the board, maybe in the form of art, maybe just by congratulating the staff. Credits could be given out in celebration, and some event-exclusive items could be put on sale. You could also offer special deals on the shop(s). We could also hold the kind of "member of the year" votings, but I've never been much into that, so I don't know how it works. Another special thread could be used for posting nostalgic memories or something to that effect. I'm just throwing some ideas here.

The others I thought of were mainly pointless but remotely fun, like the Annual Wynaut Day (during which, uh, I don't know. Name changes are prevented by shadow tag or something? I didn't think this through yet) or the BBS Official Christmas Party on the Sunday or Saturday before Christmas eve (unless it's the next day), on which we could have some christmassy special events - like art competitions - on the channel and on the forums. We could even have a one-day only party RP. *xD

So, what do you think?

I thought we could hold all the annual one-day events on a weekend, like, say, the third Saturday of March, so that people would really have time to participate.

Is this a good idea or am I shooting blanks here?

Prairie Chicken
11-19-2009, 10:30 PM
I like that Fan Frenzy idea. It'd be interesting to see the outpouring of creativity that resulted (and that "30 comic pages/30 fanart" thing sounds like a fun challenge). The other ideas are great too, but the Fan Frenzy is the one I'd be most excited about.

Jax
11-20-2009, 04:57 AM
You know, I like these ideas too. Nothing like a good celebration to get people to actually want to participate in stuff. That being said...

Admin Appreciation Day: This one I can't give too many comments on until more people drop by. I mean, I'm an egotist, but I'm not that much of one. XD

Fan Frenzy: Definitely. I'm thinking July so everyone has an extra day (and because no one ever really does much of anything in July), but it depends on whether people want to have a NaNo-style competition or what.

The Board's Birthday: Probably September 20 because, uh, yeah, we like to pretend I didn't spend months getting the site up. I definitely like the idea of another fic/art blitz, and this is a prime chance to give out points for no reason. *shot* That and the member of the year kind of thing sounds cool, but I'd like to hear what other people have to say about it.

Annual Wynaut Day: Yes. (However, maybe not name changes. I'll have to come up with something else that's potentially awesome.)


Definitely to the holiday parties, too.

Camisado
11-20-2009, 07:45 AM
Well, I'd be happy to be in charge of moderating these events onto the calendar. xD And uh, admin the IRC chan without upsetting people.

First of all, I of course can't comment on the Admin Appreciation Day either. xD But thank you for the recognition. *:3

Fan Frenzy! I don't know if I'll find the time to do it myself (full time work) but it sounds like a neat idea. I know lots of people will enjoy it the same way they enjoy NaNoWriMo. =)

Wynaut Day sounds fun, we'll just have to think of something relevant. xD And yes to the other annual parties. It sounds like a great way to get the community really participating with each other!

Well Jax, we'll count that day in May as the board's conception, yeah? *nudge nudge*

An-chan
11-20-2009, 10:34 AM
I'm going to mix these quotes up now to make this post logical and non-jumping-around.



Admin Appreciation Day: This one I can't give too many comments on until more people drop by. I mean, I'm an egotist, but I'm not that much of one. XD


First of all, I of course can't comment on the Admin Appreciation Day either. xD But thank you for the recognition. *:3

Well, there is a semi-official Sysadmin Day, so I don't see why not. I can submit stuff about that, and you can make Michael manage things so that it's not the "look at me, I'm an admin!"-day. I still think it's a fairly good idea, since even though people always look up to admins and, you know, respect them, it's not always obvious what they do except ban people and be all mean 'n' stuff.

Needless to say, I vote yes on this day. Maybe we can come up with a Mod/Super-Mod Day, too?


Fan Frenzy: Definitely. I'm thinking July so everyone has an extra day (and because no one ever really does much of anything in July), but it depends on whether people want to have a NaNo-style competition or what.


Fan Frenzy! I don't know if I'll find the time to do it myself (full time work) but it sounds like a neat idea. I know lots of people will enjoy it the same way they enjoy NaNoWriMo. =)

I think the awesomeness of this idea is the way we can make it very flexible. There are 31 days, during which you have to accomplish a number of somethings to be a "winner", but it isn't specified how carefully you have to do that. For example, for 30 fan drawings, something as simple as a funny sketch of an exploding Charizard could be one. Also, I'm thinking that you wouldn't have to get stuck on just one task. You could do, say, 15 drawings and 15 short stories, and that would count as winning, too.

As for time issues, I don't think having a job or going to school that month would prove to be a problem. When the rules are flexible like that, no-one should find it too hard to participate unless they're doing two day jobs and taking care of their seven children, all under the age of four. I mean, if you don't have too much time during the week and you can only manage two drawings between Monday and Friday, you can always do the remaining five during the weekend.

I'm also pretty surprised at how little time NaNo takes of my day. I write a few hours and my daily quota is full. I thought it would really take up all my free time, but *cough* I seem to spend most of my time chatting and browsing the interwebs.

The rules have to be agreed on by a larger group, though. It depends on how strict people want the rules to be. Still, I think a Fan Frenzy would be the perfect excuse for spending happy fun times together and really getting something done.


The Board's Birthday: Probably September 20 because, uh, yeah, we like to pretend I didn't spend months getting the site up. I definitely like the idea of another fic/art blitz, and this is a prime chance to give out points for no reason. *shot* That and the member of the year kind of thing sounds cool, but I'd like to hear what other people have to say about it.

Let's make it a celebration big enough to be printed on actual calendars. *xD Also, I think giving out points for no reason is made of awesome, since racking the credit count up almost solely by posting takes forever and prevents people from using their "hard-earned" credits on stuff from the store. And we've gotta use the store, dammit, it's too awesome of a plugin to just sit there unused. I think free credits would really encourage people to buy kittens and cookies and whatnot. That, and I love getting credits.
On credits for no reason, though, I seem to have a received a hundred additional credits sometime ago, and I have no idea why.

Besides, yay for something cool to be happening in September! It's sort of a tiring month with school and studying starting again and all.


Annual Wynaut Day: Yes. (However, maybe not name changes. I'll have to come up with something else that's potentially awesome.)


Wynaut Day sounds fun, we'll just have to think of something relevant. xD And yes to the other annual parties. It sounds like a great way to get the community really participating with each other!

Inorite?
I just thought of it and went "AWESOME IDEA ANNI", and then draw into a blank when trying to figure out what exactly it is. I thought maybe everyone's avatar could change into a wynaut one, but that would probably only annoy people. Maybe a yearly Wynaut Quiz with nice prizes for the winners? Or just, "hey, we wanted an excuse to say "happy Wynaut Day!" and give you free credits"? We wouldn't mind that either.

Maybe the events of that day will be born once we celebrate it for the first time. You never know.


Well, I'd be happy to be in charge of moderating these events onto the calendar. xD And uh, admin the IRC chan without upsetting people.

I can assist you by writing calendar entries and mini-modding (read: annoying the crap out of people) on the channel, perhaps? *xD Seriously, though, I'll probably be participating in every event on the chan, so you can count on me as a moral support or something, even if I do only have a voice. Unless there's something fatally serious I have to attend elsewhere. After suggesting these things and then whining about people not answering my thread immediately, it would be terribly embarrassing if I wasn't there when these things actually happen. *>>

Yees. This is really exciting. What else could we jam into the calendar? *:D