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 Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:03 pm
I am not nay saying. I was asking for elaborations earlier and just stating a fact the last post.
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:03 pm
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if I had to perish twice,
Valiae says...>> @Dustin: If I understood correctly, I think Envy was calling herself the naysayer.
@Envy: I disagree. No problems will ever be solved if no one brings the issues to light. Keep putting in your opinion, and it may help to progress the organizational system to a higher level! I agree with nearly every opinion on the problems with last year's ball that you have expressed, and I think that with so many of these fresh minds, we can come up with solutions to the problems. Acknowledging the problem is the first step to finding a solution! With that said, perhaps you could head on over to my good, bad and ugly thread and put in your two cents on what needs to be fixed. In my eyes, most of the problems stemmed from miscommunication, unreliability and the fact that all stages of planning took place waaaaay to late!
@Bliss: Happy belated! Our birthdays are pretty close together ;]
@AMK: In simple terms, here's what envy was explaining. To prevent the plot from being too reliant on one single playable character, like hosts and cohosts [if we keep those positions], there will be a mule account to guide the plot along in case such characters have to log off. The job of the mule will be to post announcements and updates, and to post plot developing anecdotes, like a narrator of a story. Since these will most likely all be predetermined, the job of running the mule can be shared between a few people, who, of course, need to have proper communication. The mule won't be a "playable character" that is involved in the plot, instead, they are kind of like an announcer that will share new developments with the guests in order to make them react a certain way. This way, we won't need multiple mules, just one per topic/room. Also, she was explaining that NPCs aren't active in the story, or they would be called PCs. They have backstories and appear periodically in anecdotes shared by the narrator, but do not interact with the guests. I believe you may have confused NPCs with mules. I hope that rather long explanation helped you understand.
For everyone else, thanks for your feedback on my idea. I understand that it will be a challenge to make a plot story for why such a variety of events are taking place at the same ball, but that could easily be overcome with creative thinking. Lady Angelishia had a great idea to connect them all! <3 
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
~Robert Frost
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:30 pm
 ♥♡♥♡♥♡♥
Thanks Val!
^^
And I agree! I am new to helping, so if Envy hadn't brought up the problems, I wouldn't have had any idea that they existed.
♥♡♥♡♥♡♥ 
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:31 pm
Okay, I just read up on Val's idea and Angel's answer to its connection problem, and loved it! <3
A contest of who can hold the biggest celebrations...Maybe there could be some sort of universal rare/special event to prompt this celebrations contest, to give a little more background. For example, a new star has been "born" or something like that. I'm just throwing out ideas, though! xD
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:34 pm
Val- ahh I get it now =D Yea I get all the NPCs, but I guess I confused mules with NPC's as I read through her explanation XD so the mule is like the GM in MMORPG games lol the ones who points the players in the right directions etc especially if something happened or they get lost.
Well as for the NPC and PC bit, I was thinking more along the lines of the guests as the 'PC's', and we the hosts as the NPC's. Sure, it stands for non-playable-character, but NPC in most games are similar. They have a set knowledge, and they give clues to the players. I was suggesting that we, as the hosts, should act as these NPC's who have a set knowldege- but we'll actually still interact with the guests/PC, and if the guests suddenly ask us about the plot or a topic on the plot comes up, we can only say about what our NPC's know. So we cant give too much away; so guests will have to move around and try to piece the clues together.
I dunnoe...thats what I had in mind at least <_<
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:43 pm
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if I had to perish twice,
Valiae says...>> @AMK: Right, the mules will be just like GMs. And how the hosts will act still needs to be determined by the planning committe, so thats not set in stone just yet.
Also, a heads up for everyone: I made an 8th Annual Ball meebo chatroom! Go to meebo.com, and you can connect through your meebo, msn, aim, yahoo, or myspace accounts. Then, just click the meebo rooms link at the top of the page. In the search box that says "see more..." type "8th annual ball" and search. Click on the room link that comes up and type in the password, which is: 8thannualball. I hope to see many of you using this for preliminary brainstorming, since communication will be key in making this a successful ball!And now, I'm going to bed. Goodnight everyone! <3
P.S. Remember to stay on topic in the chatroom and stick to using your gaia usernames so that people know who you are!
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
~Robert Frost
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:46 pm
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if I had to perish twice,
Valiae says...>> Also, check out and add to the "good, bad, and ugly" thread as well as the new "important/helpful links" thread. Thanks ;]
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
~Robert Frost
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:54 am
As val said.. Dustin I was referring to myself. I think I misunderstood the confusion as me going against the grain too much.
My main concern about NPC that we actually "Play" verses use in reference is I can count on both hands how many assigned "NPC's" we had that were suppose to be played by people that either never got filled, or if they were filled the person either had a personal crisis or worse.. had absolutely no excuse what so ever for not showing up. This wasn't something that was an isolated issue in one or even two rooms-- but it was a global, across the board issue that had those of us who were present for the ball running around half mad trying to come up with solutions.
I'd much rather have us come up with a system and a theme that could basically run itself. I'd much rather us be over staffed than under staffed. I'd also recommend us picking a theme that could actually cater to us doing a.. well.. Ball, dance, formal, etc. As well as making it easy for the general public to do spin off threads based on our theme verses random threads to the point the forum looks like CB. Additionally, I'm not totally against the idea of doing a celebration that encompasses a mixture of themes-- I will say this, though.. if by the time the ball comes around and there is not enough developed on that particular thread that its completely scrapped from the agenda.
Another thought is extending the ball for a week and having each of those themes as one day of the event.
A carnival day one day, a steampunk day the next day, etc etc. Then we're not spread too far apart and things are constantly fresh and exciting. Its like servers really.. you don't open up 10 servers if you only have 10 people to fill those servers. Instead you start out with one server, and as that server starts to fill up you open another one.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:38 am
Sorry I thought you were talking about me because it came right after a post I made about T-Corp.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:03 am
I like that idea Envy. It covers a lot of different idea's that will seam to please a wide general audience. ^W^
It's like my friends birthday week celebration. Everyone is to dress up.
One night she was to party like an Indian queen and belly dance.
One night was Batman, where she would be Poison Ivy.
One night was at the bar.
One night was the Greek Parthenon. (minus the orgies)
and so on and so forth.
But what is the celebration for?
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broken_bleeding_angel Crew
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:57 am
♥♡♥♡♥♡♥
@Envy - I feel bad for bringing this up because it's such a creative idea, but I see some potential problems. Maybe you had an idea for dealing with this stuff though. Soes I'll just say them.
-What would happen to threads with ongoing plots that had to do with their themes?
-People would feel obligated to come up with 7 different costumes. Some people might find that fun, but for others it would be too much gold.
-What if someone didn't like the theme that day? We'd have people not attending except on the day of their favorite theme.
That's why I really like Val's suggestion of having a thread for each celebration. That way they all get to go on for the weekend- or week if you want to extend it. It allows for a main plot, the competition of celebrations, but then each thread could have it's own mini-plot like this year. Also, that allows for an avatar contest for people's favorite themes, and they can work on one good avi, rather than trying to make seven.
I think it's a good idea.
But I still like Val's idea of different rooms.
I really like the idea of extending the whole thing a week though.
<3
Maybe a good way to combine them would be to have the different rooms, but extend the ball for a week so people could explore the different celebration themes at their leisure?
Just an idea.
<3
♥♡♥♡♥♡♥
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:50 pm
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if I had to perish twice,
Valiae says...>> Hey guys! It was great to see that some of you dropped by in the chatroom. Sorry I was afk, I had to go to work. >.<
Anyways, I'm back now! I like the idea of extending the ball, however, it may make it harder for the people running it to clear their schedules for an entire week. Although the mules/GMs would be able to fabricate cover stories for people's absences, it might be difficult to run the ball if it was so long because there would be a lot of time that main PCs would be unable to attend. Also, we have the issue of whether guests would be able to attend on weekdays... although we would have good intentions of extending the ball, I think that the extention has the potential to cause more problems than it would prevent. I understand that a self-sufficent ball would be easier to uphold, but I'm not so sure that everyone is on the same page with what that means, and what would be required for that to happen. So, envy, could you explain what you mean?
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
~Robert Frost
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:17 pm
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if I had to perish twice,
Valiae says...>> Oh, so while we're at it, I think we need to discuss the balance of power in the new hosting system more in depth.
I know that I tend to be really organized, so I prefer using titles that make it clear who is in charge of what.
Personally, I'd like to have a 10 to 20 person team for each topic. From there, we would need to have a team leader called an Administrator. The Administrator's responsibilities would be to create and update a schedule of deadlines and what should be accomplished each week, schedule meebo chatroom bi-weekly meetings with their specific topic team, send out weekly newsletters via PM informing their team of what needs to be accomplished for that week, and assign tasks to other team members. The team leaders will not necessarily be a main PC in the plot of the room, instead, they would be leader for merely the planning stages of the ball. The other team members that would be needed would be: artists who wish to draw art for that specific room [they can draw for more than one room, but should be up to date on each room's progress], roleplayers, plot writers, advertisers, fundraisers, and coordinators.
Advisors would be second in command under the team leader. They would help the team leaders make schedules and assign jobs as well as moderate the meetings. When the team leaders are absent, advisors will take their place and distribute newsletters if needed, as well as fufill any other responsibilities such as attending weekly Administrator meetings in their place. Advisors and administrators on the same team will most likely be involved in frequent PM communication.
When the administrator or advisor schedules a deadline for a project to be finished, they would appoint a Project Coordinator to be in charge of the project. This way, the team leaders won't have to be running every single project or task that needs to be finished. There would also be a Project Sub-Coordinator for each task, who is second in command to the coordinator, and is assigned to help them complete the task. The administrator will then assign other team members to complete the task with the coordinator and sub-coordinator, or tell them to enlist help as needed.
So in my mind, the food chain would go [with the person with most power on top]
Administrator
Advisor
Coordinator
Sub-Coordinator
Other team people
Just a suggestion... so whaddya think?
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
~Robert Frost
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:35 pm
Once I found out that I was nominated as host I did start some random brain storming the administration food chain a tad bit, too. Which I based on how the planning of this year went. Mind you its not entirely ironed out, but ..
My idea is more of a revolving council of 7 to 9 people (Cus I like those numbers). These people are in charge of everything from public relations, to treasury, etc. Now they are not permanent positions that could change either month to month or prolly bi-monthly. If the person on council remains active they are likely to retain their position, but if they have to go inactive either due to personal reasons (a leave of absence, a vacation, etc) or because there attention seems to be moving away from the ball a new person would be placed into that spot based on their activity.
These people are versed in whats going on in not just one thread-- but the overall ball. They're also likely the group that would be holding the mini events/fundraisers throughout the year-- hence why they are needed to be active to retain their positions and those who want these roles should one of the people holding them need to step down would also need to be active.
Where as I know that most people will be more interested in one theme over an other-- I honestly don't like the idea of placing a lot of focus on dividing the teams based on the themes that interested them.
If the teams were based on anything, it would be based on art, plot development, contest developers, public relations and even rehearsals/auditions. I'd go as far as to say that I'd want the threads set up (assuming they are official threads) long before we determined who would staff them.
I won't lie when I say that an artist doesn't always make for a good hostess, nor does a writer always make for a good artist-- but lets face it..
How many of you ran into hosts or co-hosts who slid right into an esteemed position and did not live up to their role due to inactivity? Setting up a system where they must be active should eliminate some of that. It will also eliminate anyone who gets on board with just the intent to host or do nothing at all-- while also keeping most people on the same page.
Some of the threads in the 7th had like 20 artists working with them, others had like none.. or barely adequate artists volunteering. I also noticed that rooms that might have lacked in art had great writers. Me for instance, I'm great (I think?) in coming up with off the wall contests ideas would most likely be better on a contest development team. Why not assign a contest developer to each thread and a artist to each thread? If they're not on the same team we stand to have the issue where again in the 7th.. I think the vast majority of us all ended up doing very similar contests in our rooms.
and anime might be versed very well in steam punk and she will likely be someone who contributes a lot to that aspect of the ball but she might not be a great creative writer or good at coming up with unique contests. (sorry anime if you are versed in those forgive me, I don't think I have figured out all of your strong points/weaknesses yet-- so its just a random example.)
But what I do know is Val is someone who is awesome in proof reading and editing. (look at how she cleans up my points!) why let her skills go to waste by assigning her to doing what she does best in just one thread when it could essentially be her task on all of the threads.
And yes, Envy is sneaky, she has another motive on why she would set it up this way verses keeping a team for each thread - people are more apt to know what is going on in all of the threads and not just their own. And then we won't have too much swiss cheese action going on (hopefully).
I love uniformity - on the flip side it would run the risk of taking away some of the individual personality of the various threads. But putting people in their strong suits, as well as potentially advocating a bit of competition could progress us to bigger and better things.
Oh and.. another thing I know.. artists like fame and they also like contests where they can compete against other artists (Well many of them, not all.) Hell.. scratch that, everyone likes fame and when something is exclusive and they have to "compete" they tend to want to do it all the more than setting up a thread begging for artists to help us.
Set up some competitions! Something like. "best thread layout" for steam punk or whatever.. or even various categories. Should they win they get to be the one who has their layout used at the ball for all to see! And a credit back to them and/or their shop. The biggest prize being that they are showcased, but maybe even add in a thank you letter, too. Not a huge monetary prize that blows our budget, but a lil something to show appreciation. Same could be said for the writing aspects of the ball or contests. Meanwhile while doing the mini-events we are already in the position to net work with various artists who might be interested in adding art. etc.
One thing of the 7th I'd likely continue to keep is the set-up forum. Only difference being the deadline aspect (as I'd want the threads done and out of the way long before it was time to do the ball). I'd recommend that forum being something like that of a wiki project where various people are constantly contributing and expanding on it.
In short: a tree like/hierarchy formation of power. Ball Coordinator - 2 Sub coordinators who are in the position to replace the coordinator on a moment's notice, advise the coordinator, and an appointed position by the ball coordinator since they are someone who would need to be able to work well with the coordinator and be trusted by him/her- and a council of 7 (more or less depending on needs) who would be overseeing various aspects, art, writing, contests, public relations, thread set-up manager, treasury etc, . - Council would be the subject to activity and the most likely to have a revolving door in who holds those spots. Council members would need to be able to work hand in hand with each other and the ball coordinators-- while also delegating responsibilities to those who were on their team. In a nut shell, Val, I think we both have the same theory on a tree like operation, we just have a difference in opinion on how their roles should be.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:16 pm
Lady Angelishia ♥♡♥♡♥♡♥
@Envy - I feel bad for bringing this up because it's such a creative idea, but I see some potential problems. Maybe you had an idea for dealing with this stuff though. Soes I'll just say them.
-What would happen to threads with ongoing plots that had to do with their themes?
-People would feel obligated to come up with 7 different costumes. Some people might find that fun, but for others it would be too much gold.
-What if someone didn't like the theme that day? We'd have people not attending except on the day of their favorite theme.
That's why I really like Val's suggestion of having a thread for each celebration. That way they all get to go on for the weekend- or week if you want to extend it. It allows for a main plot, the competition of celebrations, but then each thread could have it's own mini-plot like this year. Also, that allows for an avatar contest for people's favorite themes, and they can work on one good avi, rather than trying to make seven.
I think it's a good idea.
But I still like Val's idea of different rooms.
I really like the idea of extending the whole thing a week though.
<3
Maybe a good way to combine them would be to have the different rooms, but extend the ball for a week so people could explore the different celebration themes at their leisure?
Just an idea.
<3
♥♡♥♡♥♡♥ Sorry about that last wall of text of mine - I start writing and I get interrupted and come back to it and completely repeat my points in it. x.x Honestly my celebration a day concept wasn't entirely ironed out. It was just a random idea that I thought up to make sense of such an extreme variety of themes while also ensuring we wouldn't be too under staffed. Some people love any excuse to change their avatar - some people won't ever change their avatar regardless if they love a theme. Additionally, some people might really love one theme and dress up for that one. We won't expect everyone to dress up on all of the days-- but if we inspire them to dress up at least once-- I think we did our job well! We'd never make it an obligation. The only ones who might feel the pressure of obligation would be those who are staffing and the thread mule. These costumes would not have to be the most extravagant and would likely done in the most inexpensive method possible. Event items/Gold shop items, etc. The ongoing plot would most likely work something like how broken mentioned her friend's birthday. We would have some reason why there was a differing celebration each day. (I won't think that hard into the why factor yet... as that is minor details that we could debate on.) But just like many were sad to see the books close so early-- I imagine there are people who are going to enjoy the first or second celebration and not want to leave it. Anyone who's ever been in an RP has come to the realization that RP time and real time runs on a different clock. I'd never want to cause anyone's RP to stop-- after all we want to promote RP. One option is to leave that celebration going. (Likely with less staff than it started with if we officially left it open).. or let it stay open "unofficially" if people are really submersed into the RP of that topic. Maybe each day we open a new celebration and end the last day with an around the world celebration where all come together some how. I think in elementary school we had some around the world festival where we did games and learned about various cultures each day-- with games and such that reflected that culture. -------------------------------------------------------------------- As for if someone doesn't like one theme and doesn't come that day? I don't see that as an issue either. There were many who couldn't relate to any of our main rooms and just did their own thing. If we inspire them to come at least one day-- thats awesome odds. And just knowing their favorite theme is going to be hosted on one of the days just might provoke them into checking out a theme that might not typically interest them. But if their favorite theme was going to be running every day, they'd be less likely to experience any of the other themes. And val made an important point about staffing - Again I take that negative and revert it to a positive. Instead of making sure that someone has the weekend off to be here for the entire ball - they volunteer at the ball to fit their personal schedule. I.e. if Val works during the day, she might come to help out at the ball in say the evening. We'd have a work schedule set up like that of volunteering at a con. You got time to sleep, you get time to be at the con as a normal guest, and you have a set amount of hours that you work during the con. (Although we all know sleep's a myth.) Also, the pro to running for a week is .. for some people.. by the time they even realized we were doing a ball it was over. So running an itinerary would allow them to participate when they wanted to, and also have more time to spread a word of mouth about the ball. Hope i covered all of those points you guys made. Mind you, some of these possible solutions are still in a brain storming formation so you guys are more than welcome to build on them. wink
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