Welcome to Gaia! ::

Okay, okay. I'm not sure how long it'll last, but I've been motivated to try and save The Gaian Press.

For one, someone sent me a very flattering PM suggesting we could become the official magazine of Gaia. As in, having our own special link at the menu head and everything. I doubt it, but I was quite flattered. For two, I'm suddenly getting staff applications, and we haven't even really advertised for staff. Meaning we're getting more notice. For three, I just got two consecutive PMs asking for a spot in advertising. And for four, two years is a long time, and I really do hate to see it go.

Plus our dearest Lilly has returned, of course (for however long). That's a pretty big moral-booster. (Thank you!)

But it's not going to be easy, and like I said, I'm not sure how long I'll be motivated. But I think some things need to be done first.

Operation Save The Gaian Press
Step 1) Get a new guild, and elect lots of crew and a captain and a CO-CAPTAIN.
Step 2) Make new guild uber cool with lots of public-accessable welcoming threads and up-to-date organization and things to help the new staff.
Step 3) Begin looking for reliable staff, including editors and someone to replace me, because I am still not going to be able to be on top. I may get us through the GP Revolution, but who knows how long I'll last afterwards.
Step 4) Persevere forever afterwards. Ideally.

In the meantime, we'll publish the next issue, and we may need to take a month off just to get through all the steps (though I hope not). Like I said, hard work.

I have in my Gaia account now just short of 10k, and I believe that our mule (with an incoming donation) will be over 10k.

We can do this, if everyone is in agreement, and willing to stick it through with me.

Yea or nay?

I can probably donate, and I'll definitely be around.

I'm the newbie, by the way. Hello.

Alright, I've been mulling over possibilities for our Guild Rejuvenation Project. First off, I volunteer to help with creation of useful threads and such in the new guild; I adore thread organization. I also like doing layouts, so I may be able to help if we need a new layout for the magazine. Also, as a suggestion, have we ever considered doing the magazine off site? Like, have our own website for it, and just posting a link to it each month, or something. That may be over doing it a bit, but I know some html, and it may may things easier...just an idea, anyway.

I'm also thinking of making a new column like thing, hopefully in addition to Geek Chic and my reviews. It would be called something like Anime Spotlight, and I would basically go in depth each month about a lesser known anime series. I figure it could appeal to most people on Gaia, and will give me a chance to plug some of my favorite series. It would differ from reviews in that I wouldn't be grading the series, just giving a plot summary and maybe some trivia, and then my own opinions on it. It would be my specific rants, not a place for the general public to comment (unlike the reviews, who are open to anyway). Basically, Rushifa's Anime Picks, or something...

Anyway, the idea is still in the works, and I don't want to implement it unless we get some other columnists as well. I don't really like the idea of kind of monopolizing the columns.

So, some ideas for threads in the new guild:

-introduction threads, obviously, telling people how to submit, how to join, etc, etc.
-a bio thread with information on the staff
-everyones individual column threads, section threads, etc.

as a side note, I think we should create the guilde using a mule, which the high senior staff will have access too, so never run into the problem we're facing now, where the guilde creator is gone, and we don't have access to certain things...

whee Ah, I'm so happy.

I also will be very occupied until about April (going on a cruise, woot!), and even after then I'll have other things demanding my attention, so.

As I think Lilly has said, we've thought about having an offsite place for the 'zine, but we decided that in order to be successful we needed to make the 'zine as convenient as possible, which meant keeping it here. Moving it is still a possibility, but I don't think we've got enough attention yet. Plus, advertising is pointless if it's not posted on Gaia.

I do plan on making the mule our captain, so no worries there.

I also brainstormed last night on the new guild, and made outlines on threads. I think more graphics would be good, though I would rather keep our original Issue layout. I thought about hiring someone to make more graphics, but if we can find some handy-dandy volunteer tech-monkies, that'd be awesome.

My plans look a bit like this:

In the Main Forum:

HQ Thread
- For Staff discussions and chatter and planning, etc. Same as here.
- In the first post, we’d have a Intro and “See the Info and Nav thread for everything you need to know about us” message. Then a basic schedule with details on how we process the submissions and everything.
Info and Navigation
- This is our info dump, where we explain everything a visitor needs to know: what all the guild threads are, FAQs, how to submit/apply/affiliate/advertise/donate, where the graphics are (maybe just post them in the thread), where the past issues are, etc.
(Idea: Maybe make this a subforum. *See more below. Also some Thank You! graphics for donators.)
Introductions
- Basic introductory thread with another “See Info and Nav” message, and the first few posts by staffies introducing themselves and welcoming people.
- Possibly post the Sig Graphics here?
Staffies New and Old
- Staff list, how to apply, and mini staff bios with quests and etc.
- Divided into three segments: Oldies (including the retired staff), Trial Run/Newbies (those people who may or may not stick around), and “Blue-Mooners”/Part-timers (the people like Bane who pop up once in a blue moon).
- Explain how to apply and what we look for and staff requirements
Latest Issue
- Post the latest issue in the guild, so that anyone who dislikes hunting for it in the WF knows where to find it.
- Also include a link to the issue in the WF for BOI voting
- Also include a link to the next issue’s submission thread
- Small segment on Typo Watch, possibly. Maybe just a side note.
Ideas
- I don’t know if this would be a sticky or not, but basically we list ideas here, and readers can submit some. It’s like a Suggestion Box.


Subforums (because we will have them):

Beyond the Box
- This is to encourage more BtB’s. Post threads here and ideas, planning, work, etc.
Staffies At Work
- This is where The Mounds, The Oasis, The Draft, and all other threads of that sort go.
History/Records (Demoted to a thread in Main Forum)
- Post the Archive, Past Issues, and a Links thread for things like old Contests and old Submissions threads/Issue threads, and even the original, first ever Gaian Press HQ thread in the WF. With a request for NO NECRO-ING!
- It could possibly survive as just a thread in the Main Forum, or somewhere like that. Dedicating a subforum to it seems like a bit much.
- Let’s do that.


*I also thought of making the Info and Navigation thread into a subforum for questions and etc, and just sticking the Introductions in there, and maybe splitting Staffies New and Old into Oldies and Hopefuls (for those applying) and putting the Oldies in the Info and Navigation subforum (which would be renamed to Welcome! or something of that sort).

And many of these names should be played with, changed. Something that’s easy to follow, but clever, if we can manage that.


By the way, don't worry about gold. We've got plenty, even without the donations. Save it for the subforums. ninja

EDIT: I think we're getting rid of the Staff Positions too, and just calling them Specialized Areas, or something like that. General hands are more useful. Opinions?

EDIT2: Oh oh! What about a Writer's Aide subforum, to encourage more articles in that area? We don't want to do too much, but a little bit of help to the common writer may not be a bad idea.

And I also thought about encouraging competition by making a How We Did It thread. We already encourage competition by just existing, but I thought some more formidable competition would be nice. It could be a motivator for us as well. domokun

Only the ones that are still active or involved.

Graphics: [Waves hand around wildly]

Ah, this is great!

I would have been very sad to see the press go.

I'll donate anything I can. I don't have much now, but I don't really spend gold I get so...

Unfortunatally I phail with all graphic type things. I just don't know how it works, so I couldn't really help there.

But with anything else, I'd be happy to help out!

I'll try to make the guild before I leave for the cruise, then, and see how the subforums work. Then you guys could discuss the thread organization more and get started, if you like.

And there's still the March issue to work on. domokun I haven't done much, obviously. Someone else will have to publish it, since I'll be gone. And whoever publishes it gets to do the Afterthought segment as well. Just include the announcement about our plans and the new guild and me trying to retire. But don't link to the new guild, because I want it to be presentable first.

WOOOO! THE PRESS LIIIIIIVES!!

I totally agree with whoever said this should be made the official magazine of Gaia. I mean, it basically is, just isn't formally acknowledged as such.

Egads, you guys have done a lot of posts. But I finally read them all through. Eh, I have no idea what I can do to help except to stick around and take part in the new guild. I have a whole bunch of friends who are writers, so I'll do my best to persuade them to submit some stuff. (Do you need submissions for the March issue?) And of course I'll write reviews.



ZOMG, this is so much like History lessons. XD No, that's not bad. Just the revolution thing and all.

Hey, maybe you could have like two or three people in charge, instead of just one.

Oh, and it was my birthday yesterday. -^^-