VH Town Hall Minutes November 9th, 2013

The Feedback system was presented, the Logo Contest was announced and officially inaugurated, issues of chat activity flow and privacy were discussed, and new events and games were planned. The addition of new features and new staffers with new responsibilities was also raised! Timber served as bailiff, and Kaoru took minutes.

Feedback System

• The Feedback System will be accessible 24/7 through a character profile on the Hollow named "VH_Feedback" - which will link to an external survey that will be managed by the administration team specifically, and send anonymous feedback to a server that Jay, Leshana and Kaoru will jointly administer.

• Questions were raised about the system:

1. - Is it for anonymous complaints about a person, or just site issues? (Both.)
2. - Who is managing it? (The administrators as a whole - Jay, Leshana and Kaoru.)
3. - Who do you tell if the link's busted? (Any mod or admin.)
4. - Is Kaoru doing this alone? (Nope!)
5. - Is this for anything the mods might handle? (Any issue with the mods, or how they do something, or don't do something, yes.)
6. - Is this for immediate problems? (Ideally no, but if there's no mod on duty, go ahead and submit through the feedback system.)

• Suggestions about improving the specificity of the feedback system were made, such as adding specific areas for people being dicks, and account issues.

The Logo Contest

• The logo contest's rules and regulations were presented by Timber. Excellently. You may read about them on the link above!

• The contest is intended as the first stage of VH's total redesign and facelift, as we move forward in attempting to carve and define our own identity, an identity that the entire community can take pride in.

• The logo we eventually choose will influence colorscheme and other elements of the site's login redesign, as well as other design projects.

• Questions were then posed

1. - Are there prizes? (Beyond being used to define VH's identity and involved in the redesign of the site, no.)
2. - Why can't we submit stuff to art sites before the contest is over? (To prevent favoritism and bias, mostly.)
3. - Does the logo have to match the entry page's colorscheme? (No, and in fact it shouldn't, since we're redesigning around the logo)
4. - Will the rules be posted anywhere? (Yes, on the wiki.)

• There was a suggestion that alternate backgrounds/colorschemes be enabled after the logo contest, and conversation began about that.

• Concerns were raised about readability of text, and solutions were proposed, including user-defined recolors, monochrome colors, and auto-color-adjustment.

• Although desire for a change was there, it was considered a secondary issue owing to the complexity of implementation, and the burden this might place on Leshana.

• The topic was tabled due to not being directly related to the logo contest.

Balance and Flow of Action

• Retna presented his topic! He talked about the perceived imbalance between conversation and RP, and asked, as someone not interested in RP, how to encourage conversation.

• DISCUSSION HAPPENED. Holy god, so much discussion. Many people agreed that there seemed to be an imbalance between talk and RP at times.

• Some had trouble finding conversation, others had trouble finding play.

• Numerous solutions were suggested, including filters on certain statuses or on emotes, increased mod-movement of RP or other topics to other rooms, the deletion of less-used rooms, and a multi-chat, single-userlist interface.

• Ultimately it seemed to be decided that the Hollow could make do with the tech it had, but many hoped for some sort of improvement, even while admitting that it would be hard to cater to all comers.

• It was also stated by Jay that discouraging RP was not part of what the Hollow wanted to accomplish. Kaoru concurred immensely. RP, like vore, is considered to be one of the cornerstones of the community, even if the chat environment is just as important.

Balance and Flow of Action

• Jaitsu presented his topic! He suggested the implementation of private rooms, possibly without logging, that people could take group RPs to if they didn't want lurkers watching.

• The following conversation became quite passionate, on both sides. Some supported the idea of private rooms, with or without a no-logging option, so that they could more easily have roleplays with multiple people.

• Others felt that private rooms would be the beginnings of clique-ism in the Hollow, and strongly opposed any implementation where they were a thing.

• No consensus was reached between the two, except that a group or multi-whisper function would be a desirable thing to have for the future, if it was technically-feasible.

Other Topics

• The floor was opened for other topics. Wasd raised one - the idea of appointing more moderators, and moderators for specific roles.

• There was a great deal of vocal support for more staff of one sort or other, especially for a Games Mod and a Wiki Mod. Other roles such as Events Mod, Social Media Mod, Outreach Mod, and Public Relations mod were discussed, but weren't as strongly championed - still, they remain options for the future.

• Concern was raised over the selection criteria for new staff, but it subsided after the last selection process was pointed to as a fair, open, and commendable way to find new staff.

• Mods for underserved times are also considered to be a priority.

• The topic was closed with a general consensus that more staff should be a priority for the Hollow, and individual responsibilities should be handed out, but that they should be areas of expertise and 'first points of contact', not 'the last word' on the topic. Inclusionary, not excluisionary, responsibilities.

• Kaoru asked for those interested in becoming full-fledged, on-call GMs to add their names to a list he was keeping. Several people stepped forward! It was mentioned that a Games Training Workshop would be run in the near future to allow new GMs to learn the ropes in a safe, supportive environment.

• The floor was closed, and closing remarks or comments were asked for.

• Dezzy suggested a community roleplay event day, where an ongoing roleplay could be joined into by anyone interested - one big roleplay that anyone could be a part of.

• Massive support was garnered for the idea, which sounds like it should happen in the near future.

• Necro suggested an RP that focused around story and action, magic, & adventure, although got a few less takers. Still, it remains a possibility for the future.

• In general, people seemed supportive of having more events at the Hollow in general.

• The Townhall was concluded!