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Several weeks ago, I asked for Citizens and residents of the community to send me their thoughts something they that was working great in the region and something that wasn't working so great and should be improve. I have listed them below, and I hope that our community can discuss, take away from all the good things we're doing, and come up with ways to improve some of the things that need improving.

Note: I have removed the names of the people that submitted, and in some cases I edited portions of replies so that the identify of the person wasn't obvious. I also removed one entry that I felt was inappropriate in that it listed another member as a problem.

Good

The Military

I'm very impressed by how engaged and motivated the citizenry is in solving problems - the constitutional revision and the Gov situation come to mind.  Just about every member of the forums who's at least semi-active chimed in on the amendment drafting, and opinions about Gov were varied and the discussion was actually productive.  I think this is because Wintreath "government" is actually made up of its citizens - ironic since this is a monarchy.  Everyone that holds some government position is also active in cultural areas - we aren't detached automatons that only come here to legislate or pass judgment or something else useless.  The government's problems are the people's problems.

What I like about Wintreath are the active communities, and many of the areas on the forums that are roleplay-like.

I really think that our RPing is really helping to keep the region more active and also could and would probably be one of the best selling points to the region.  (Have we upgraded the Recruitment Telegram to feature the RPing more prominently, because that'd probably be fun!! )  I could go on and on with positives, but I shall now to respect your time.   

I really like the warm welcome I have received since joining Wintreath. I cannot currently think of anything needing improvement.

I do love how welcoming everyone is and how organized and well run this region is.

I feel that the best part of the region is the role play and the people.

I am happy to report that my time in the region of Wintreath cannot be better. I am very happy here and do not plan to move. I have no reason to complain but I have many reasons to thank for being such a great region and community to participate in. Not only is there a lot of freedom for variety but the nations here are all very kind and helpful. Of course this is my opinion, and as I have not visited any other sites related to Wintreath nor participated in any role play or the World Assembly, I do not know all that much. From what I can tell, Wintreath is fantastic.

Could Improve

On the place where improvements could be made, I really would like to be able to run some sort of Minecraft guild with the other Minecrafters.  I think it would be able to increase the amount of time spent on the server, mostly because it would allow people to communicate about different things Minecraft-related on the forums, and get people more interested in the happenings at the Minecraft server.  Does my thought process make sense?

There is only one thing I wish I could see more of, which is more roleplay opportunities within the region.

I think the guild system didn't quite work out the way we hoped.  The mentor guild never took off and the RP and recruitment guild have been stagnant for a while.  Maybe it's because most of our attention has been on the constitutional amendment?  But that might indicate a bigger problem - is power in Wintreath so centralized around a dozen or so individuals that we can only focus on one task at a time?  Or was the guild system overly complicated and required more attention than it was worth?

I feel things are picking up but the cultural side of the region has been neglected. Sure we have a few things every now and then to do on the forum, but if we're to maintain (if not increase) the in-game population then we need to do something to make the region fun and interesting. While it's easy to do fun things on the forum, we haven't been doing anything for the residents of Wintreath.

What could do with improvement is the UH.

I feel things are picking up but the cultural side of the region has been neglected

I'm honestly baffled by this since the cultural side of the region has been fairly active, as evident by the substantial activity that Werewolf just had.  Roleplays have also been fairly active as well, though I understand the earlier concern about the Guild itself.  It's been active-ish in applications and roleplay ideas, but that's been the extent of the guild forum itself that I've noticed.  But since the other parts have been pretty active, it's never been something that's bothered me.

Outside of that though, between the LJ getting a monthly release on a schedule, our monthly contest threads, Werewolf, the Dumping Grounds getting a lot of activity, and the Howling Taverns getting a decent amount...I don't see how the cultural side has been getting neglected.

Granted, more big games outside of Werewolf could be playing, but that's something for others to host, since I don't want to/can't logically host multiple games.  If others aren't interested in wanting to run a game (outside of Werewolf, which is just now getting interest from others in wanting to host), then there's really not much that can be done to remedy that.

I'm wondering what they were thinking of when they said "cultural side"

Not to sound overly defensive, but we did just hold a Werewolf game that reached a hundred pages, and the RPs are still turning up activity that make it difficult for me to take part as much as I would like due to my busy new schedule. How is this indicative of a stagnant Cultural ministry? Indeed, many people have decided to take the plunge and host their own Werewolf games too.

I'll be the first to admit that the guilds didn't work out quite as much as I would have hoped, but I will note that there is a lot more citizen involvement than there previously was, and people are finally taking initiative. Compared to how it was, this is a tremendous improvement. I have actually burnt myself out trying to do so many things for the community. I don't think it's completely escaped people's notice that I've been idling compared to how involved I usually am. And I have that luxury now because people are finally doing things.

It seems the good and the bad impressions listed there are actually quite contrary to each other, in fact.

As for something that I actually think could be improved with the RP Guild: I was surprised to see Pengu hosting an Academy class for RPing, and not one of the guild members. Were one of you thinking of holding something in it, and then Pengu beat you to it? Further than that, it's a bit depressing not to see the RPs advertised more.

Some problems are more to do with RP itself. It's not easy to hold an RP where anyone can just fall in and begin RPing. The more active an RP is, the harder it becomes for a new guy to get involved with it, and in my case for instance, to stay involved when life gets busy. At the same time, we don't want inactive RPs. So it's a tough situation.

As for something that I actually think could be improved with the RP Guild: I was surprised to see Pengu hosting an Academy class for RPing, and not one of the guild members. Were one of you thinking of holding something in it, and then Pengu beat you to it?

I will make a note that I don't plan on teaching the class alone in the slightest.  If anyone in the RP guild is wanting to teach a class with me, or even wants to cover a lesson themselves or a lesson I haven't listed, they are definitely more than welcome.  Just PM me and we can definitely set something up.

My intention is to teach the nitty-gritty basics for people just starting.  And I definitely welcome both input and help from those within the guild in teaching it effectively.

I will also say that if a guild member wants to teach the class instead, they're also more than welcome to PM me, and we can even set up them taking over the class completely.  Really, I'm not opposed to letting a member of the roleplaying guild taking over teaching the roleplaying class, and that'd allow me to divert all of my attention to Creative Storytelling. 

No, I do in fact think that if you beat someone to it, it displays a problem within the guild. I wasn't trying to make it sound like you shouldn't teach it, however.

I know that.  I'm just saying that if that really is the reason (they feel like they were "beaten" to it), then that's not really an issue since I'm much more than flexible about it. 

From reading the rest of the comment, I get the impression they were talking about cultural activities in the in-game region rather than the forum.

Ah. There's not much, except maybe for the WA, that can be organised efficiently on NS itself, unfortunately.

That's not necessarily true...Unibot's Rock-Paper-Scissors competition was popular, and the Z-Day event is a hit every year in the region. There's got to be something we can do in the region proper, we just have to think of it.

I would suggest that a visible portion of the forum for very direct in-nation RP could satisfy many members. An effortless opportunity to take the nation RP from RMB to our forums could motivate many members to get a citizenship (or at least register to the forums).

I was suggesting a similar thing on the IRC today - it'd be good to bring in people who RP on the RMB yet don't have an account here, and probably more to their benefit as well seeing as forums work better for play-by-post games

Are the two of you volunteering then?

Volunteering for what? Running the said portion of the forums? Yeah, I could do that.

Not just running that part of the forum, but being the driving force to make it happen.

I suppose that is in the end between me or anyone else and the Wintermoot. Let's stay tuned.