NEWS -- February Updates 2!
#1
[html]
News & Updates: February 2011

Important Updates

Character Drops

IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ.

Recently, we have noticed a trend of players purporting to drop a character -- only the player continues to post as this character. Unfortunately, this is against the rules. When a character is officially dropped -- that is, when you post a message in the Absences and Player Updates forum stating your intent to drop the character or otherwise make it known to leaders and staff that you plan to drop the character -- you may no longer post with that character. Note that you may still post in the Absences and Player Updates forum with an intent to drop a character, but once you have officially dropped the character and their forum title is removed, you may no longer post with that.


Drop dates are important as they effect our auxiliary character procedures. Please make certain you are clear with your intent to drop a character and you are no longer posting with that character once you have officially dropped them.


Players Helping Players

IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ.

Recently, 'Souls has seen an influx of new players like never before. This is awesome! Unfortunately, a few of these new players are more confused than the average joiner and might require a little bit of extra help. While we greatly appreciate any and all help our membership can give, we need everyone to take a step back and check this out first:


  1. Please do not approach a newcomer via Private Message to offer tips, assistance, etc. The Staff team has an entire committee of people (the 'Souls Welcoming Committee) dedicated to doing just this -- by sending people multiple Private Messages, often containing the same information (or even conflicting information, if you happen to be wrong!), we are only serving to confuse newcomers further.

    Note that if a newcomer sends you a Private Message first and you know how to respond to it, please feel free! If you're not sure how to help them, you can forward the message to a pack leader, moderator, or administrator. Otherwise, please keep helpful communications with newcomers to the forum -- after all, if you give the newcomer incorrect information over Private Message, no one will be able to correct you!
  2. If a newcomer posts in the Help and Questions forum asking for help, feel free to respond there! Many times people will look for character assistance, roleplaying assistance, and other sorts of help -- please feel free to respond to these threads and help these people on the forums. :3
  3. Check your answers first. If you are not 100% certain that you are correct and passing along correct information to the newcomer, seriously -- please let a staff member or leader handle it! By giving newcomers incorrect or flawed information, we are only confusing them more. Go double-check the rules or the RP Guide if you have to, and when you answer a question, link to the site location information so the newcomers can find out for themselves, as well.

Joining Thread Posts

IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ.

Recently, we have also noticed a trend of multiple people posting to joining threads. While this isn't terrible, having multiple packmembers respond to an In Character joining thread can certainly slow things down and it can certainly make things more confusing for the newcomer. If another packmember has replied (even if they are not a leader and your character is ranked higher), please do not respond to the joining post.

Slightly Less Important Updates

Open Characters Limitations

Due to concern about the fairness of off-board and on-board puppies, we have decided to restrict Open Character advertisements to characters seven months and older only, if they were born off-board. Although current characters listed on the Open Characters list are grandfathered and may remain, new characters must be at least seven months of age if they were born off-board. Seven months of age was chosen as it is the age at which puppies may become Loners and the age at which we also determine adulthood at 'Souls. Characters born on-board in 'Souls territories may be listed in Open Characters regardless of age.


Table of Contents

A lot of our forum topics and other informative topics now have a useful "Table of Contents" to the right hand side. These utilize anchor links to allow you to more quickly access information -- and link other people to specific parts of an informative topic. For example, if someone asks a question in the Help and Questions forum regarding whether or not they can play a Jackal, you can now link them to the exact section on the relevant RP guide page. Hopefully, this will make it easier for everyone to access and share our information!


Wiki Changes and Updates

Hay, have you checked out the Wiki lately? The Editing Guidelines have been refreshed quite a bit, hopefully aiding any would-be editors! If your character doesn't have a page, why not start one up? Anything you can add to the recent In Character history is also greatly appreciated!


Forum Changes

We have changed the names of a few forums -- Mentorship is now known as Help and Discussion, and Requests, Suggestions, Questions, ETC is now known as Requests and Suggestions. The Requests forum also has an introductory header informing users of what is appropriate for that forum. This should hopefully help members differentiate between what should be posted to each forum.

[/html]


Forum Jump: