NEWS -- April 2012
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April 2012 News!

Secondary Character Adjustments

The Secondary Character requirements have been adjusted: members may now pick up their automatic second after reaching the new requirements: 4 weeks of membership and 45 IC posts. Early secondary requests have been abolished -- players must meet aforementioned requirements prior to picking up their secondaries.


Catacombs Adjustments

There were a few minor updates to the Catacombs, the skull-collecting game all members are welcomed to participate in.


  • A new OOC Catacomb Skull, the Ruby Skull, has been added. You can earn it by roleplaying five adopted characters for at least six months each!
  • The Rust Skull has been expanded to include Amherst and St. John.
  • The Shining Pearl Skull has been edited to reflect the disbandment of the Mentorship Program.
  • The 10th Birthday Skull has been moved to the Retired section, as it was available only for the 10th anniversary celebration.

Mature Threads

Our Mature Thread policy has been around since the game's inception. The formal template was added in recent years, but we've always had trouble with players forgetting to properly tag their mature threads. As the game continues to age and grow, and as the gap between our oldest and youngest players grows along with it, and we feel it is ever important that players remember to mark mature topics.
As such, we have decided to implement somewhat more severe consequences for failing to mark mature topics:


  1. First Offense: Warning
  2. Second Offense: 6 hour forum suspension
  3. Third Offense: 24 hour forum suspension
  4. Fourth Offense: Posts moderated* for one week

* IPB has a system to queue posts -- the board accepts your post, but keeps it private until a moderator/administrator approves it for public consumption.


We hope that these consequences are serious enough that players take mature topic tagging more seriously, but mild enough to allow room for mistakes and occasional forgetfulness. Members that have been previously warned about mature topic tagging will be starting anew with no record, so to speak. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns.


Pack Changes
InH Disbandment

As per our Early April Newspost, Ichika no Ho-en has disbanded. Sad We'd like to again thank Zyn for her leadership of the pack in its final months, as well as her patience with us for our mistake in deviating from InH's disbandment plan. We apologize once again for our mistake, and thank Zyn (and the membership at large) for their understanding!


SL and CdC Expansions

Salsola and Casa di Cavalieri have both received map expansions.


New Pack Formations

As there is now room for a new pack, we've seen several potential ideas go up in the past few days, and we wished to remind all potential leaders of the Pack Formation regulations. There's a lot to digest even there -- make sure your pack is within our guidelines, and remember, the Leader Handbook is an even more extensive resource intended to guide new leaders toward a better pack-building experience.


We also wished to remind everyone that we will not accept any primary applications for new packs until 3 May. Upon that date, we will be accepting any readied pack applications, sorting through them, and approving and denying them as necessary. Any packs which make it past the first application will be opened up to the second part of pack formation -- the hard part of actually building the pack! From there, the first to complete their second application along with all the necessary requirements will be accepted.


If anyone has questions regarding our pack formation, please contact the 'SA at your earliest convenience. Thanks!


A Note for Potential Leaders

While we cannot fault any potential leaders for their ignorance (the Leaders' Handbook is, after all, a private document) we wished to note one of our stipulations therein for potential leaders:


OOCly, Do not harass members to join your pack or clan. Politely suggesting is fine, but don't pester or try to guilt anyone into joining your pack. In Character methods of outright coercion are acceptable with respect to consent (players have final say in what happens to their character) -- IC is IC and OOC is OOC -- but you should not become overenthusiastic, pressuring, or otherwise coercive OOCly. Just be friendly and genuinely tell a newcomer why they will appreciate membership in your pack -- that should be enough! Smile


Please be polite and considerate with any recruitment tactics. If someone isn't interested, move onto the next potential recruit. Thank you!


Affiliates

Our Affiliates information has been revamped with some additional information and clearer requirements. Additionally, we're saying good-bye to our long-standing Featured New Affiliate program.

Spotlight and Community Soul

Congratulations to Shemonster, winner of Spotlight Soul for April 2012 as Alma and to Despi (Wander), winner of Community Soul for April 2012. For more information, check out the Community/Spotlight Soul thread!


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