Statement on Regional CultureNow that I've dealt with several unrelated topics to come out of this month's focus topic, the time has come to deal with the meat of the matter...our regional culture, or lack thereof. I was aware that culture was a weakness in our region, which is why I made the topic to begin with. A region of our size and activity should always have something going on culturally. Instead, it's one of our regions greatest weaknesses. The problem is, I wasn't sure what the factors were that contributed to this weakness. Was it a matter of us simply not doing things that people wanted? Was our cultural location in an obscure place on the forums? Are our activities things that people aren't interested in, or merely things that people have forgotten about? Was this inactivity the cause of users no longer interested, or organizers that aren't putting in the time they should to their activities?
The topic is still open, but thus far I've come to conclusions about three problems with our regional culture that I wish to address now.
The Ministry of CultureThe first problem I understand is with the Ministry of Culture...it's supposed to be our vanguard for everything regarding culture, from implementing things on its own to assisting Citizens that would like to try their hand at doing things, yet that ministry is easily one of the least active even after elections designed to give the ministry a boost. Even more upsetting, several people have told to me that they have attempted to contact the ministry or the organizers of events, only to be given runaround or outright ignored.
This will no longer be tolerated.I have discussed with Nox the need to be on top of regional culture and responsive to issues regarding regional culture that come up, and I have explicitly pointed out the issues that were expressed in the topic that I feel should be easily resolved. I'm looking for this to start a fire within the ministry to become more hands-on and actually lead a resurgence of Wintreath's culture. If there are continued issues with inactivity in the ministry, I will deal with them as appropriate. This issue is simply too important to ignore any further.
However, the blame cannot be placed entirely on Nox and Reon alone. As Monarch, I am ultimately responsible for the ministries, and I am truly sorry if our government hasn't done enough to produce a great culture in line with our expectations. The Ministry of Culture has been staffed for over two months now, and I am disappointed that I allowed this problem to continue for as long as I did without providing direction or intervening. I hope that now that the issues are out in the open and are being dealt with, we can turn over a new leaf and begin building the culture that our region and all of you deserve, and I won't turn my back on this area again.
Confusion About Starting EventsThe second thing that I get is that even though we have always intended for people to be able to easily start their own events, without explicit directions on how to do so the process was confusing. To clarify once again, the only approval that is needed is if you want it to become an official activity that receives its own forum. If you want to get something going, start a topic, run wild, and have fun. I have created a new sticky topic in the culture area saying as much. I hope this makes our Citizens feel much easier about pursuing cultural opportunities in the region, and clears much of the feared red tape that sparked much of the confusion I'm aware of.
Inactive RoleplaysFinally, I'm aware that we have many inactive character roleplays in the region...I'm not sure if it's because we have too many, or GMs have dropped the ball in running them, or players have lost interest. Either way, it's important that all of our official activities be active. We brag about our roleplays and other activities in our recruitment message, in our welcome message, and when we welcome new Citizens. If they're all inactive or dead, it doesn't make us look good as a region and takes up valuable forum real-estate. In the future, I hope to include a lot of support for our character RPs within the website as we develop it, and I don't want to waste such effort on dead activities that won't use it.
Therefore, I am ordering a new activity requirement for roleplays which are listed as official activities (are listed on the
Wintreath Activities Board). From this point forward, roleplays
must have in-character posts from at least five different players a week. Failure to do so for two weeks in a row will result in the roleplay being removed from the activity board and roleplay forum being deleted, although the roleplay can of course continue unofficially in the general culture area. I am also ordering a 20 post a week activity requirement for non-roleplay activities with forums, which at this time is Minecraft and the Gameroom.
We need to either ensure our activities are active or stop promoting them and focus our efforts on more successful ventures.
In ConclusionWith some time, effort, and support from our community, I envision that our roleplays, activities, and general culture could become one of the many existing things to be proud of as Wintreans. However, this
will take actual effort, and will not be easy to accomplish. We will all have to work hard to realize that vision, but I feel that it can be done if we truly want it to be. In the meantime, the regional culture topic is still open, and this statement is not necessarily the final result of that. Please feel free to post and contribute if you feel there are other aspects we should be looking at as well.
Yours, as always.
-Inric Nordrim Keystar (Wintermoot I of Wintreath)
-Monarch of Wintreath
