VH Town Hall Meeting

Revision as of 14:39, 23 May 2013

The VH Town Hall Meeting is a public meeting that will be lead by Retna on Saturday, May 25th at 5 p.m. Eastern Time in the Fourth Wall. The purpose of the meeting is for Retna and the moderators to report work that is being done around the chat and to open the floor for discussion about chat-related issues members may have. Hopefully, you can bear with us throughout everything, although given how long it's been since we've done this, we do rather expect this to end up being a long meet-up regardless! Brings drinks, grab snacks or food beforehand, and be ready to read and think and write! Also, feel free to put your name on the list of folks guaranteed a spot to talk, below!

Rules

To keep discussion civil and organized, the following rules will be in place:

• One person, selected by Retna, speaks at a time, unless otherwise stated. Everyone will have a chance to express their ideas and feelings, but to ensure these ideas and feelings are seen by everyone else, Retna will be selecting one person at a time to speak.
• Stay on topic. We want to cover as many issues as possible in this meeting, and the best way to do this is to stay focused and not get sidetracked on other topics.
• Treat others with respect. It is okay to have a disagreement with someone, but please remain civil if it happens. There is no need for anybody to get hostile.

Schedule

For ease of reference and so everyone stays on the same page, the tentative schedule-of-events for the meeting currently stands as such.

1. Introduction - Simply enough, this is a time during which people are likely going to be filtering in. The meeting's schedule and the topics to be discussed later will be listed off here.
2. Welcome - More or less the 'commencement' phase of the meeting. As the showrunner moves into this phase, folks should get settled, and the central vision for the chatroom will be laid out in brief.
3. What Is This Meeting - A quick word on why everyone is sitting around bouncing words off the Fourth Wall like a pack of mouthy hyenas! Mhhhh, hyenas.
4. What You've Told Us - A recap of the sorts of things that have been brought to the attention of the site's leadership team, so you know what we've heard - and potentially, what we haven't!
5. What We're Doing About It - Our current plan for addressing the issues discussed in the previous phase. Hopefully it doesn't come as a big surprise, and sounds good to people!
6. Open Forum - At this point, people will be invited to speak up - starting with the topics that have been properly entered on this page, and then opening it up to anyone who wishes to say a word or two, or raise a topic of consideration!
7. Dispersal - The meeting is drawn to a close, and everyone gets ice cream! Okay, maybe not really. There will be snacks provided, at the least!

Most of these will likely not take very long - besides clarifying a goodly number of issues and explaining just what's happening 'behind the scenes', the prime focus of this meeting is the forum, so we can all put our heads together, think, talk, and freely discuss what's been on our minds as we continue to build our community!

Forum Topics

As mentioned, the open forum that will take place after the site leadership has said our piece of things is one of the prime focuses of this event - and to help organize it, we're allowing people to sign up in advance to speak. It is hoped that seeing what other people are thinking about and considering means that we will all come into the meeting with our thoughts in order, and see who else might be concerned about the same things we are!

The following issues, all of which have been told to the staff by various members of the community, will be discussed first before the floor opens for anything else:

1. Retna's Vision - Some folks are confused over, or unsure as to the nature of, the vision Retna has for the chat. The head hyena himself will be clarifying this earlier in the meeting, most likely, but would like suggestions from users as to how to make such a thing more visible for users new and old!
2. Community Growth - Recently, the chat underwent the second or third 'surge' of exciting and curious new faces, and suddenly VH became a very hopping place! There have been concerns voiced about how to keep the spirit of the community intact as we continue to grow, and how to handle the increased volume of traffic and activity that we've got congregating in the main room! The Head Hyena will open the floor for thoughts on this from both those folks coming in, and what their experience of joining the chat has been like, as well as more established members, and what their feelings on the matter are. Since this is one of those topics we'll likely touch on earlier in the meeting, you'll have heard some of what we're already doing in hopes of easing these 'growing pains', but other proposals will be brought forward for commentary as well at this point!
3. Policies For Moving Heavy Discussion/Roleplay - Recently, there's been a lot of confusion and concern over new policies put in place by Retna that allow moderators to move heavy or disruptive discussions and scenes from the main room to more appropriate rooms. Retna will clarify the intent behind the policy, and then he will open the floor for opinions and suggestions.

Once these issues have gotten a good bit of jawing and discussion, we'll start with the people below. Please feel free to add your own name to this list, using the format provided, along with a word-to-a-sentence summation of what you'd like to talk about, if you wish!

PLEASE NOTE: This list is meant to be added to, but NOT modified - which is to say, do not change the ordering of the names or issues, do not edit other people's names, numbers, or issues, merely append your name to the current 'end of the list' using the format provided. Anyone caught changing the ordering of the names, removing names, or otherwise defacing this list - which we're mostly doing on the 'honor system' - will have their name removed from the list and not be permitted to speak at the meeting. Further disciplinary action may be taken against repeat offenders. The 'edit history' of this page is being watched - just be aware!

1. Name - Short blurb on topic
2. Kaoru - How to format lists (example!)
3. Timber - Puppy business (2nd example!)

If members have issues that they would like seen added to the list, but aren't feeling confident enough to add these issues themselves, whisper Retna or another moderator. After the above issues have been discussed, Retna will open the floor for issues not listed above.

When you are done presenting whatever it is you want to voice, or talk about, you are free to either take comments and questions on it, and the viewpoints of others, or simply 'sit down' and let what conversation may occur, occur. We don't want to force you to put yourself on the line just to say something that's important to you!

Secondary Meeting

Some members have stated that they will not be able to attend the meeting if it is scheduled on Saturday, May 25th. For this reason, Retna will lead a shorter meeting in the near future. Members that cannot attend the meeting are encouraged to whisper Retna dates that they are available.