User blog:EvilhariboMadness/AI Updates

Hello everyone! This blog is the OOC followup of the blog that CK posted recently; which you can find here. This blog will contain some important information about the upcoming IC Minister Election as well as some other useful tidbits regarding expansions and events in the future.

Minister Election Information
As you all know, with Alistair passing away, the position of Minister for Magic is open! As of right now, Ferlen is the Acting Minister and will be until this election concludes. This one will be run a little differently compared to some in the past as we want to emphasise a united user base. Below, in bullet points, will be everything you need to know about these elections!


 * Anyone who has an adult character can put their name into the running of Minister. You DO NOT need to be on the admin team to put your character forward for Minister.
 * Whilst existing Ministry employees would, naturally, be preferred in the IC world, anyone can put their name forward.
 * Sign-ups will be opened as soon as this blog is published. You can sign up your characters’ intent of running at THIS PAGE HERE.
 * Sign-ups will last for one week (until 7th November at 12 AM EST).
 * Make sure to create a lot of posters! Engage in debates with your fellow candidates. AI wants this to be a fun thing, so please do try and generate conversation around this election!
 * The voting period will last from 8th November at 12 am EST to 15th November at 12 am EST. All rules will be on the page linked above.
 * Most importantly, have fun!

AI would like to remind people that, whoever is elected, will have the potential to work closely with AI regarding future events if need be. If you don’t think you can commit to that - whether it be through time or whatever - please reconsider putting your character forward as a candidate! :)

AI Tidbits
I’d like to preface this section with an apology for how long the past two expansions have dragged out. They are the first to experience the inactivity that DARP has been faced with, hence the feeling that all they’ve done is been dragged out. Whilst it is no fault of any singular person, AI has taken into account this inactivity and will try our best to tailor the future events and expansions - both big and small - to fit what the wiki can post on.

The Future of Events
Firstly, I'd like to highlight that a page exists solely as a way of suggesting what AI can organise that people of the wiki are interested in. You can find this page here!.

For the time being, AI is interested in putting on smaller events for the user base until we feel there is enough confidence in activity levels to attempt something a bit more substantial. This doesn’t mean that we’ve ruled out the possibility of doing some bigger events but, until we feel the wiki can breathe again, we won't be trying anything too unmanageable.

If you have any events that you’d like to see us do such as balls, dances, Lincliff City parades - ‘’anything’’ - please make sure to suggest them in the page linked above! :)

This Year’s IC Sport
Whilst I know Discord isn’t the best way to accumulate votes given that some users aren’t too active on there, given the time frame, AI held a vote on the ic-events channel on our Discord server and, from the results, I’m happy to announce that this year’s sport will be Quidditch!

We want to make sure that we’re doing what you, the community, want. Whilst Duelling did win in the previous vote done, we’ve had a lot of changes in the user base so we wanted to reaffirm what people wanted and, by doing so, Quidditch was seen as being the most wanted sport.

To spice it up a little, AI will be implementing a new element to Quidditch games wherein something could happen to make the game a bit trickier for those involved. Such examples could be the beater’s bats becoming rubber and floppy, causing them to hit the bludgers in more experimental ways with more disastrous consequences or the hoops changing sizes. AI will be working on a list of things that can happen that we may publish so you all get an idea of what’s going on. This will be trialled mainly to see if we can make the games more fun to rp. Any and all feedback will be appreciated!

Quidditch sign-ups will now be open! :)

Voicing Concerns
I’m putting this section in largely due to what was brought to the attention of the user base on Discord a few weeks ago. I won’t name names; if you want to look into it, then there are logs available. I don’t want to make this into any sort of spectacle, other than to reiterate that ‘’’if you are uncomfortable with an event that’s going on, speak to us and we can do something about it.’’’ (This is by no means a way to poke at what was said, I just feel it is important that we address this and this important blog about IC elements seemed to be the best place for it.)

At the end of the day, we put on the events and the expansions for the enjoyment of the wiki, to allow ourselves to be truly immersed in the fantasy world we’ve built. We, at no point, want to make people inherently uncomfortable and feel as if they can’t come onto the wiki to roleplay. That is not our intention in the slightest. Moreover, we cannot do anything without there being a level of communication - we cannot change or remedy things without the knowledge that there is something wrong. I understand that, for a lot of people, the admin team may not have been approachable but I hope to extend the message that we’re here to listen!! As both Head of AI as well as a user of the wiki, I’d rather we do a ton of smaller events that are fun and we all enjoy rather than one large expansion that not many people find joy in. We’re smaller than we once were so communication, from this point forward, is key.