POST-SURVEY DISCUSSION

[Beatles.]

[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 415px; color: black; line-height:115%; text-align: justify;"]Alright, guys! We received 8 responses from the Badlands survey, and only 3/8 people said that they currently roleplayed in the Badlands. So, this is mostly a response from the public. You guys are allowed to discuss, but please keep it civil. We don't want this getting out of hand.

According to the votes, the IC COMMUNITY, OOC COMMUNITY, and HIGH POSITIONS need the most improvement. Out of everything, people have also noticed CLIQUES, OVERLOOKED THREADS, and OVERLOOKED MEMBERS the most. I'm going to address these, and then reply to individual responses if they present specific issues.

---

1) THE IC COMMUNITY
— There's been a few mentions of people getting overlooked when joining the Badlands. I'm truly sorry that we've come off as negligent or rude. What I'm going to suggest, when it comes to new people, is further interaction! Have your character offer them a tour (could be open or private). Offer to plot with them! Maybe show them the ropes of being a member here. You could even add in a note in their joining if you'd like, welcoming them or complimenting their character! The littlest things could make people feel like they're welcomed.
— As for me, personally, I'll definitely try reaching out as much as I can. I apologize if I've come off as standoffish on Charlie's behalf; he's a hardass. I'll try being more welcoming with him, though! Just know that, OOCly at least, you don't have to be afraid to reach out to me or any other person here. The more, the merrier!
— Character diversity. As far as this goes... I'm,, not really sure how to help that? While I agree that there's a big black-or-white divide (you're either bad or good), those are just the charatcers that people make. I'm not going to- tell people how to make their characters. It's ultimately up to them who they bring to the Badlands.
— Alright, overlooked threads. This has been an issue for a while now. If there is a thread with little to no replies, please feel free to post in it if you feel like you can! It's discouraging to see threads getting buried on the board. This brings me to "post-and-ditch" threads as well. Keeping it going and keeping the interaction flowing makes for a better experience for everyone (although this may be a muse issue, which I'll add to later).

2) THE OOC COMMUNITY
— There's been mentions of cliques once more, which we want to avoid! However, pretty much the most I can do is to encourage everyone to include everyone. On my part, I need to look out for specific groups of people and make sure they're not expressing cliquey behavior. I need your help, though! If you have someone/a group that you're concerned about, please feel free to message me, and I'll take care of it. There might be things that I'm not noticing, so y'all gotta help me out with that.
— I'll be gathering rules to add to the discord, because I agree that there should be some order. If you have suggestions for rules, post them below!

3) HIGH POSITIONS
—Okay, lots of people have said that we need more HPs. We only have... one, as of now. But, as I'm sure most of you have noticed, we have a lack of consistent activity. There's not enough people actively posting. I've had the HP tryouts up for months, and the people who were wanting to tryout either dropped their characters or just aren't active enough. While activity isn't everything, consistent activity catches my eye and lets me know that you're a dedicated member of the Badlands and are wanting to climb the ranks.
— As I've said before, activity isn't everything. There are multiple considerations that go into promoting someone, ICly and OOCly. There was even a comment saying that I was waiting for a certain person to return so that I can promote them, and let me say that this isn't true. While I look for consistent activity/presence, these were the IC reasonings that I detailed in the HP tryouts:

The leader looks for loyalty and dedication. This is purely IC reasoning. He likely won't promote someone who openly disobeys him or disrespects him.

This isn't to say that the past semi/high positions weren't loyal or dedicated, but perhaps that I was looking for a little more when considering a promotion. If you've felt that you've been treated unfairly, then I really am sorry!! But now that this has been brought to my attention, I'll work on it.
— But, this brings me back to activity. Now, the rest of the high positions are dropped, and there's hardly anyone that I can consider for a position. I have a feeling that, unless more people express interest in being HPs, then we won't have any for a while. However, I will be removing the vanguard rank, so hopefully it'll be easier to climb the ranks from there.

4) ACTIVITY
I know that I've discussed activity, but I'd like to make a little note. TNW has had an activity issue for a long time, so there's not a lot I can do for overall Badlands activity. I've revamped the open threads list, set up a character development challege, etc. The activity issue isn't just the Badlands. It's all of TNW, and somewhat BB as well. BB isn't the most active site, and with all the attention going to the new TWC game at the moment, TNW is getting less attention. Therefore, less activity = less people joining, less people interested in HPs, less interaction. The activity is a stem of a lot of the issues. I'm not trying to bash the new Warriors game, because I'm hyped for it as well, but I'm just stating the truth here.

---

So yeah, feel free to comment! Charlie is the only leader I've really taken seriously, so I'm trying?? I'm still learning though, and I'm not perfect. Honestly, I really do need tips and stuff on how to handle these issues. It's not easy to just- fix them with a snap of my fingers.

[parks.]

[align=center][div style="width: 498px; text-align: justify; font-size: 8pt; font-family: calibri; letter-spacing: 1px; color: #494949;"]
track.

[dannychan]

quietly track

[aureate]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]Okay this seems really long but I'm mostly just rambling oh boy, everything is sort of. A mix of my opinions and also things that I think could help a bit? I'll probably have more ideas later.

This is sort of something that seems to have been lightly touched on in several of the responses you mentioned, but I want to put things into more. Precise words? And that is that in my opinion, there was very little reward in posting in BL. And I'm not just talking about positions or titles, though those do apply, but even just... Relationships. It took a really long time for Theo to even make one friend IC? I wasn't around OOC and I don't enjoy private threads, but honestly I don't think either of those should be required for my character to just have friends. It just felt like very few people had any interest in interacting with him, which made him hard to play at times. So I definitely think BL could use some bonding activities and plots that involve everyone equally. Or even ones that make new members sort of the focus (in a positive way), though my ideas for that are a little limited right now.

Maybe something like a buddy / mentorship program, where older members teach newer members about what goes on in BL, how they can help, and even just some cool spots around town. I think that could really help foster some positive relationships and also make people feel closer to the community and the goal of the group? This could also work really well for the alcohol business, as a "look, this is a cool thing, and helping us would be good for you" conversation.

I do think that expectations for HPs should be loosened a little, especially in terms of activity since this isn't the most active site out there. The IC desires are cool, but with Charlie being... Charlie, it makes it seem like those ranks won't fill. (Which is something I think a mentorship program could help with, because in my experience, people who feel involved, useful, and wanted tend to feel more loyalty to the person at the top.)

All that said, though, I really do think there's been an improvement? Definitely OOC, imo. The few times that I was around, people said hello and asked what I was up to, even putting conversations on pause to talk to me. So that was a really nice experience. And on your last point, I think you're an excellent leader! You listen to what everyone says and you're making a pretty fun group, imo!

[dannychan]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]Okay this seems really long but I'm mostly just rambling oh boy, everything is sort of. A mix of my opinions and also things that I think could help a bit? I'll probably have more ideas later.

This is sort of something that seems to have been lightly touched on in several of the responses you mentioned, but I want to put things into more. Precise words? And that is that in my opinion, there was very little reward in posting in BL. And I'm not just talking about positions or titles, though those do apply, but even just... Relationships. It took a really long time for Theo to even make one friend IC? I wasn't around OOC and I don't enjoy private threads, but honestly I don't think either of those should be required for my character to just have friends. It just felt like very few people had any interest in interacting with him, which made him hard to play at times. So I definitely think BL could use some bonding activities and plots that involve everyone equally. Or even ones that make new members sort of the focus (in a positive way), though my ideas for that are a little limited right now.

Maybe something like a buddy / mentorship program, where older members teach newer members about what goes on in BL, how they can help, and even just some cool spots around town. I think that could really help foster some positive relationships and also make people feel closer to the community and the goal of the group? This could also work really well for the alcohol business, as a "look, this is a cool thing, and helping us would be good for you" conversation.

I do think that expectations for HPs should be loosened a little, especially in terms of activity since this isn't the most active site out there. The IC desires are cool, but with Charlie being... Charlie, it makes it seem like those ranks won't fill. (Which is something I think a mentorship program could help with, because in my experience, people who feel involved, useful, and wanted tend to feel more loyalty to the person at the top.)

All that said, though, I really do think there's been an improvement? Definitely OOC, imo. The few times that I was around, people said hello and asked what I was up to, even putting conversations on pause to talk to me. So that was a really nice experience. And on your last point, I think you're an excellent leader! You listen to what everyone says and you're making a pretty fun group, imo!

[finny.]

Track for now!

[eliza]

Track for now!

[Beatles.]

This is sort of something that seems to have been lightly touched on in several of the responses you mentioned, but I want to put things into more. Precise words? And that is that in my opinion, there was very little reward in posting in BL. And I'm not just talking about positions or titles, though those do apply, but even just... Relationships. It took a really long time for Theo to even make one friend IC? I wasn't around OOC and I don't enjoy private threads, but honestly I don't think either of those should be required for my character to just have friends. It just felt like very few people had any interest in interacting with him, which made him hard to play at times. So I definitely think BL could use some bonding activities and plots that involve everyone equally. Or even ones that make new members sort of the focus (in a positive way), though my ideas for that are a little limited right now.

Yeah, I agree with that tbh?? Maybe there can be some group tours when there's an influx of joiners,,, (that's the only idea I have right now o o ps)
I know that you mentioned that you're not around OOCly, but perhaps I should seperate the chatting thread from the plotting thread (aka make a new plotting thread entirely)? Because I know some people don't really like chit-chat but enjoy throwing plot ideas back and forth with other members, and that can be hard to do in a chat thread, ig.

Maybe something like a buddy / mentorship program, where older members teach newer members about what goes on in BL, how they can help, and even just some cool spots around town. I think that could really help foster some positive relationships and also make people feel closer to the community and the goal of the group? This could also work really well for the alcohol business, as a "look, this is a cool thing, and helping us would be good for you" conversation.

Mmm all of the buddy systems I've seen/participated in didn't last the month, tbh? There was always one buddy slacking, the threads not getting anywhere, etc. That's why I wasn't hesitant on implementing one in the first place. I do like the idea of experienced members teaching the newbies, though, because I feel that it would make sense? I'm really sort of tied on it. I can do a poll for it? Because I can go either way, I just wanna know what you guys prefer.

I do think that expectations for HPs should be loosened a little, especially in terms of activity since this isn't the most active site out there. The IC desires are cool, but with Charlie being... Charlie, it makes it seem like those ranks won't fill. (Which is something I think a mentorship program could help with, because in my experience, people who feel involved, useful, and wanted tend to feel more loyalty to the person at the top.)

Yeah, I've loosened up the activity requirement along with removing the vanguard rank, so hopefully the ranks can be filled faster.

But thanks for the encouragement, I definitely appreciate it! This is getting to be a smaller community so I hope it's easier to manage eeee

[aureate]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]To address the mentor/buddy system possibly failing, I don't think it has to be or even should be an official, organized thing? As in I don't think there needs to be a list of old members and new members or pairing or set threads, I really think it should just be on the more settled to do this sort of thing on their own IC, though certainly at Charlie's urging or whatever. You could have him mention in meetings that he wants to start getting new people settled in and better used to BL so they can be more helpful or whatever, and maybe tack on something along those lines of expecting every high position to help out at least one person. But yeah, I really think this can just be something that's implemented into the IC environment here.

I think a separate plotting thread might be a good idea!

[Beatles.]

Ohhh I get that. Yeah, I think it would be a good idea though? Because it /is/ hard to manage an official buddy system, but I'll try to encourage it!

And I'll do that shortly~