User blog:JayeMalik'/June 6, 2018

Hello, guys! Although it took, in total, around 3+ hours, the administrative meeting that began on 6 June 2018 was completed just yesterday. Many topics were broached, all of which are listed here. Important to say is that a minimum of two bureaucrats were on at all times, as the meeting policy orders, and a minimum of six admin team members were in attendance in order to count as the majority. (We're a total of 10.)

Because the amount of information that I'm going to relay is... extensive... I'll just divide it in sections. But please know that if you have any questions or concerns, you can comment below or owl any of the three current bureaucrats to sort it out!

Sorting Forums
Although the new design is still in the works, the team was able to work out a rough outline of what they'll look like. Although they're very different, most of the requirements for the adult and student forums will remain the same. The history's minimum requirement will be reduced to three paragraphs of seven sentences, whereas the personality's minimum requirement will be reduced to two paragraphs of seven sentences. This is for everyone; the forums will no longer to divide between the amount of characters a user has.

The questions will be modified in accordance to the type of forum. For students, it'll become more open, such as 'What is your favorite class? Why? What's your go-to spell? Why?' rather than the ones we have now. This is to better establish what kind of character they are and where they would fit in best. Likewise, we'll be trying to reduce the stereotype-embracing questions we have, the most notable of which are the multiple choice questions. For adult forums, a career suggestion section will be added, for the sorters to aid users in deciding which career is best for their characters.

It's no secret that users become 'stuck' with their characters when they reach adulthood, mostly because they don't know where to have them work. This will hopefully remedy that and also encourage users to become more involved with the Ministry, Hospital, Hogwarts, etc.

At a later date, a blog will be released by the S&S team, speaking further in detail about the new forums.

Student Tracking
In the coming days, the OOC team will be cleaning out the year categories and updating them according to who is how old. We've got alumni in the first years' category and that's unacceptable. If you receive an owl regarding one of your characters and whether they're active or not, please don't be alarmed, the team is just trying to organize the students we have! It's our belief that organizing it and structuring the categories better will make it easier for new users (and old as well) to know who they can ask for RPs.

Side by side with OOC tracking, we discussed IC student tracking. A lot of people refuse to post with their characters in classes, which... doesn't really bode well. A lot of planning goes into the curriculums by some of the people with professors, yet they can't implement these plans because hardly anyone ever posts. As a team, we'll be trying to combat that by implementing some changes that will become effective starting next IC term at Hogwarts.

The administration team will draw together 2 different timetables per class. One that's theory-centered, one that's more dynamic. Professors will be encouraged to alternate between them, depending on the activity of the students in their year. The more activity, the more dynamic it becomes. Field trips will be permitted, mini class-related expansions will be allowed. That said, we don't want to control it all without some leeway, so people are welcome to present their own timetable to the three crats to approve it.

Many of the current users with professors don't have the tools they need in order to give an effective class. Our goal is to provide users with what they need in order to make classes more interesting and inclusive. You want students to post? Show it. Earn their interest. It's a school of magic; make your classes magical.

I'm happy to announce that we will be bringing back house points! Prefects, Head Students and professors can give or take points if so they see fit. But remember! You cost your house points, and they'll be out for blood. So be careful. To ensure that it's regularly monitored and the templates are kept up to date, a member of the admin team - most likely OOC or AI - will be assigned to check in every week in classes and with the users that RP prefects & head students to make sure that the final count at the end of the school year is as accurate as possible.

One of the biggest changes that we will be implementing will be freeform pages. There will be a "freeform" page added to each year/class as a subpage, where users can RP their characters exchanging notes and whatnot. Essentially, it'll be a cluster of RPs of students not doing what they're supposed to, mostly to stick as accurate as can be to how schools are as is. Rarely ever do you have a class of students that actually pay constant attention. This way, it's funner for everyone while allowing the classes to run smoothly and effectively! However, there's a catch. To RP there, the user must post on the actual lesson at least once a week. Both pages are archived weekly, so it's the same thing. You post on one, you post on the other.

Policies' Revamp
I'm excited to announce that the OOC department is working to revamp the policies e currently have, as it's no secret that they need some upkeeping and clarifying, to avoid loopholes. A month from now a meeting will be held to discuss the new versions the OOC team will present. Should the entire team agree on it, it will then be placed to a general vote, where any user can decide whether or not it's something they want implemented. Not only does OOC want the team's input, but the userbase's as well.

We can provide you all a glimpse, however, as to how they'll be structured. Below I will list how they'll be divided, followed by what falls under that specific category.


 * General · Chat · Images & Videos · Character & Species · Roleplay · Voting · Blogs & Talk Pages
 * General
 * Age
 * Vandalism
 * Spam
 * Inapprioriate Usernames
 * Community Disruption
 * Sockpuppetry
 * Personal Attacks
 * Language
 * Copyright & Code
 * Stealing Character Page Templates and Wordbubbles
 * User Inactivity
 * Character Inactivity
 * Staff Inactivity
 * Vacation
 * Illness
 * Chat
 * Langauge
 * Inappropriate Discussions
 * Threats & Insults
 * Spam
 * Activity
 * Personal Information
 * Images and Videos
 * Reserving a Model
 * User Model Registration
 * Prohibited Face-Claims Sources
 * Age Realism
 * Representation
 * Characters & Species
 * Character Name
 * Character Limit
 * Exotic Character Limit
 * Age of Adulthood
 * First Signs of Magic & Abilities
 * Character Adoption
 * Character Species
 * Vampire
 * Werewolf
 * Nymph
 * Ghost
 * Veela
 * Hogwarts Headmaster/Headmistress Approval
 * Roleplay
 * Language
 * Godmodding
 * Metagaming
 * Realism
 * Canon Death
 * Marriage & Relationships
 * Substance Abuse
 * Character Death
 * Murder
 * Voting
 * Opening and Closing Votes
 * User Request Requirements
 * Voting for Best Candidate
 * Talk Pages & Blogs
 * Relevance
 * Inappropriate Content
 * Harrasment and Bullying
 * Talk Page Content Deletion

Trainings & Programs
Because a user wanted to broach the topic during the meeting, the team decided to put to a vote whether or not to implement the following training systems and programs: the admin team training program, the adopt a newbie program, and user levels. We all agreed that DARP is running pretty effectively as it is and there's no need to disrupt the system. Every user - especially those on the team - should already be forthcoming about roleplaying with new users and getting them used to DARP. Likewise, bureaucrats usually train whomever joins their department, making the admin team training program pointless. Similarly, because of the vote taken recently regarding the new 5 character slots, we agreed that we didn't really need to add in User Levels. It only gives us more work on top of what we already have.

User Model Registration
This change is a very significant one. Rather than allowing users to reserve four faceclaims at a time, they'll be allowed to reserve five. However, the rest of the rules remain the same. For further information, you may refer to this blog and this blog from previous S&S heads on the topic.

Exotics
Finally, the last topic discussed were exotics. To be honest, our exotics list is looking very... dull, and truthfully very misleading. For the next meeting, it'll be a priority to tend to this policy. For now, however, we came to a decision that we hope will better how things run right now. To reflect the increase to 20 characters, users will be allowed to have five exotics. It's only fair that the number increases with the total amount, leaving it at a well-rounded number: a fourth of the character count.

It's currently a rule that a user cannot have more than one character of the same species. This continues to be true. However, the team agreed that exceptions should be made. Two of the same species (per user) is allowed if and only if the second character is child of another pre-existing character. So let's say Zoya Bostwick has a child. She's an air nymph, so our user Asteriea shouldn't be allowed to have any extra nymphs. But with this new rule, she can continue to RP Zoya and Zoya's child, should she ever have any. (Fun fact: she will. She's pregnant.)

While we're on the topic of nymphs, I'm happy to announce that we're now allowing two nymph students and two nymph adults per each category! So there can be up to 4 of the same type. In the next meeting, when the policies are discussed, among the things to discuss for the exotics policy is potentially expanding on the types we have right now, so... we'll keep you all in the loop!

It came to our attention that our exotics list is super short. Because of this, the team has agreed that each rollback, administrator and bureaucrat will be putting together potential exotics to present and maybe even implement it. However, we don't wanna go nuts with so many new species, so only a select few will be chosen. This'll be like a vote-contest hybrid. Everyone will have a say, so don't worry. Likewise, everyone will have to come up with the essentials: strengths, weaknesses, backstories, requirements, etc. They'll count as any other exotic so they'll be part of the 5-exotics-per-user rule and 1-of-each-type-per-user rule. We'll ensure these potential exotics don't become ridiculously OP. Likewise, they will relate to Harry Potter. We aren't going to have demigods here in DARP. I assure you.

Farewell
That's basically everything we discussed. I may have missed some little details that might confuse some of you, though, so... if that happens to be the case, please comment or owl me! I'm sure I can set everything straight! Like always, if you have any input, it's also welcome. :)

Til' later!