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⌦My suggestion is: [ Reach out to as many RP guilds as possible, and Gaia Online Magazine, and the Newbie Supporting and Training Guild ]
⌦How it works is: [ Get affiliates, tell them about the ball, and give them links to the information. Then, a month before the ball, remind them of the ball and give them more info. Repeat these reminders two weeks and one week before the ball. Display the affiliates banners during the ball, and leave a ball banner with links in the guild. ]
⌦By doing this, it will effect us this way: [ Newbies who are so new to Gaia that they will blindly into everything, literate oldbies who might have heard about the ball but never attended, and avid RPers of all experience levels are the target. This would help us because we would have more guests. I meant to do just this last time with the 11th ball, but I let this project fall through the cracks because I was moving to Japan at the time. Continue where I left off! ]

most of this was already on the menu as i'm active in quite a few large guilds as well. but the magazine and stuff i didnt know about - so i'll def get on that when we have a bit more going for us!

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⌦My suggestion is: [ We shouldn't do the ball in forums, we should probably do the ball in a place like Gambino garden or heaven(since it's Zodiac) ]
⌦How it works is: [ We should prepare the room with Zodiac stuff and each room would be in different places.]
⌦By doing this, it will effect us this way: [ this way, the people will be able to chat and see each other without taking too much clicks and the newbies might be able to attend without full consent which might be a nice way to make them know AURB exists.]

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⌦My suggestion is: [ An information thread where questions about the ball are being answered as soon as they are asked and a compilation of things that ball supporters can find easily, like threads that are raising funds for the ball, ball RP events, and ball shops. ]
⌦How it works is: [ One thread: all the information that Ball supporters, guests, previous hosts and new Gaians can access. It would need to be made with an account that is logged into regularly so that it's not forgotten but, if it is maintained, then it would operate as an informative go-to thread for anything anyone needed to know about the ball. ]
⌦By doing this, it will effect us this way: [ If this is all in one thread that a person, or persons, can subscribe to then they'll get a notice when it's updated with new events, reminders of events ending, when RP events go live, rules or instructions for said events, updates on fundraising goals, etc. There's always a lot of confusion when the ball goes live because people don't know what it is but if there's more information out there then this should help with informing the guests before they arrive.

We had an informative thread last year and it wasn't very active at the start but once we started using it there was a lot of evidence of people asking questions there, getting the information they needed, and even volunteering to help. We got a lot of donations because of the thread, reached out to old ball staff, and recruited more people before the event even began.

The graphics from the last thread are still available for use, too.]

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⌦My suggestion is: [ Flash Animation Advertisement ]
⌦How it works is: [ We have a LOT of differently talented people in the guild or supporting the guild so far so it's really great to use a little bit of everything we have from everyone - that's what the ball is kind of about, after all; showcasing our big Gaian family.

This Flash animation could be a number of things - it could be a general animation that has some information on the ball itself like the date, what people can look forward to, and the threads where they can find more information and be themed like a ballroom. It could also be a teaser trailer of sorts for the plot of this specific ball, without giving away the plot of course. It can have some of the main host characters and it can make people wonder what is going to happen at the ball, get them interested in the main plot, because that's something that's been very lacking in the last few years. People attend, they play games, they RP and they have fun, but there hasn't been a lot of user interest in the plot itself. Some of this is partly a lack of user interaction in the main plots, but it's also something that just gets overlooked by guests because they're not aware that the ball is not a BALL ROOM event, it's a Gala, a party, and it has a story.
]
⌦By doing this, it will effect us this way: [ Flash animation is cool, it's exciting, and it's something that people remember. People who might otherwise not read entire announcements or informative threads would get enough to wet their whistles with a little flash and then, if they were inclined, could go looking for more. As always, even just implanting the idea of the Annual Ball is enough to keep their subconscious aware of it every time they see something else about it.
This would also target RP minded folks who are looking for something a little more than a social hangout and games. ]

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⌦My suggestion is: [ Using our Gaian Moderator's assistance for:
Advertisement Annoucements
An informative blog
"Teaser" announcements for the ball
Spotlighting Annual Ball threads ]
⌦How it works is: [ Last year our Moderator, Zero Omega, was amazingly helpful. He was flexible, willing to listen to ideas, and troubleshooted with us so we could turn a crazy idea into something really cool.

We could advertise for our permanent threads, directing people to where they can find the information they want on the ball - namely, when it starts, what the plot might be (hence the teaser), what kind of games and contests they can expect. The more people know the more they'll be able to pass on to their friends and their friends and so on, plus the announcement itself is subliminal advertising even if they don't pursue the link to the threads. The more people even just see the name, Annual Ball, the more familiar it will be to the and the more likely they'll be to try and figure out what it is in the future.

If we have a plot and an artist then we can think about making a manga or comic, something visual to really excite people, and this can be an announcement all on itself. A comic that teases a plot but never comes right out in making it obvious to what it could be. It can make it clear that there will be multiple rooms, hosts to each room that are competing over something, and an overlord type character who is keeping track of the event.

Spotlighting threads will increase traffic and, again, awareness of what the ball is. We can have a "WTF is the ball" type post in every thread and link back to an information thread for some "do it yourself" information gathering, but we can also answer questions in our shops and threads too. The more people involved in each thread the easier this will be on whoever is taking orders so having some people willing to float between the official ball threads would be a good idea. ]
⌦By doing this, it will effect us this way: [ Ideas should be fairly simple when they're suggested to him, but if this resource is used more fully then a lot more awareness of the ball can be gotten because the Moderators have access to more than just threads and networking between guilds.

Lots of people check the announcements for new items or the spotlight regularly who might only ever spend their time otherwise in specific forums or guilds. It's also a means to attract more attention, recruit, and network all BEFORE the ball begins so that there is less people wondering what the ball even is before they attend. ]


I lumped a few ideas into one in that last one that I could have spread out. Sorry, it turned into word vomit once I got started.