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Four years ago, I founded Wintreath as a refuge for myself and others who wanted a different kind of NationStates region...one where community and friendship would triumph over politics and conflict. Over those four years, our community has grown and blossomed, people have come and gone, and we've branched into all sorts of different things, but that original vision is still alive in the here and now, and I hope will be for many more anniversaries to come.

I feel that Wintreath's fourth year will be a pivotal one in its existence, one where what we do continues to change, perhaps drastically, but definitely for the better. I believe we will continue to separate our core community from NationStates, but that this is the year we will pick up or develop new, fun things to do. I believe this will also be a year where we take the things we're already doing and bring them to the next level. I think through our efforts and the strength of our community, the Wintreath we see in a year will be even more fun and exciting than the Wintreath of today...while still being the warm, friendly, personable community that we've always been.

Now instead of just making a bunch of rosy comments and getting a bunch of likes, I'd like to ask a question that will hopefully get replies: what can we do to make those beliefs a reality? What would you like to see happen? What would you like to be involved in? What would you like to see changed or improved? What do you want to do this year in Wintreath? Post your thoughts and lets get some conversation going!

Oh yeah, and happy 4th birthday, Wintreath. Here's to many, many, many more.

Happy birth, Wintreath!

One thing I would absolutely love to see is the writing community having more fun and doing more stuff. On the other hand, not everyone likes to write and pulling words from one's brain is not easy, sooo that's tricky. Something I have been thinking about for months is maybe setting up writing competitions/challenges? (More the latter, because I don't think I'd be a good judge). Like, say, there were a bunch of short writing excercises I did in English classes such as "six word descriptions" and I've been thinking of going through them. Or maybe chatting about what the writers in the community do (such as advice for writing stages, not getting stuck, finding best times to write, essay and prose tips, and so on) could be a thing.

I've mostly been sitting on that thought because I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested (and also it seemed really arrogant of me to suggest). But, it's something to discuss.

One thing I would absolutely love to see is the writing community having more fun and doing more stuff. On the other hand, not everyone likes to write and pulling words from one's brain is not easy, sooo that's tricky. Something I have been thinking about for months is maybe setting up writing competitions/challenges? (More the latter, because I don't think I'd be a good judge). Like, say, there were a bunch of short writing excercises I did in English classes such as "six word descriptions" and I've been thinking of going through them. Or maybe chatting about what the writers in the community do (such as advice for writing stages, not getting stuck, finding best times to write, essay and prose tips, and so on) could be a thing.

I've mostly been sitting on that thought because I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested (and also it seemed really arrogant of me to suggest). But, it's something to discuss.

I would like to note that forum RP and creative writing are highly related. Of course, there's tons of variation on RP style, from the single-line-of-dialogue-post ones to the ones where large story posts are expected and/or the norm. But at least for the RPs that I've taken part in, I generally see it more as an exercise in collaborative writing (and worldbuilding and such, depending on the RP), and it'd definitely be nice to see more overlap between the two groups here on Wintreath.

(Says me as I gradually get less and less involved in both of those communities. :P)

"Now instead of just making a bunch of rosy comments and getting a bunch of likes"

I accidentally hit like before getting to this part, sometimes for long posts I do it before reading all of the post. A Facebook habit I think, I'm used to liking a lot of stuff, like when you Like an article before reading it because you'll forget to do it after, but then if it's awful you can unlike it later anyway. It's weird, I suspect that used to be an option here, but isn't now? There are old posts which say "0 people like this post", and from a programming point of view, my first guess is that someone Liked it, which enabled that text, and then withdrew the Like, which brought the count back to 0, but the forum doesn't reset the flag to show that text. Not important, but that's what I've thought, I like to know the reasons for things, it's frustrating to not know things.

So, four years? Wish I was here for more of it. I like it here so far. I'm not looking to get anyone to confirm this for me, but I think I'm really starting to fit in here compared to being an obvious newbie earlier, much better than the last region I was a part of, where their RP emphasis and style didn't work for me and I couldn't find my place there even though I got along well with everyone otherwise.

Really the only thing that's weird, not really a problem but just weird, is the RMB feeling like a totally separate community from the forum. I look at it, and it's like Who are these people? Do they even know each other, given that it's nearly impossible to keep track of what's going on in the RMB when posts from only a few hours ago are scrolled off so quickly? Though, I suppose one benefit of it being separate, is that there seems to be no obligation to pay attention to it as a forum person, so there's that.

Also, I wish there was more to talk in our pro-LGBT subforum. That was the first thing that drew me here. I was looking for a region at the time that yet another idiot on Facebook was implying that all bi women are just sluts (hate that word), and I was like, ugh, I need to get away from that. Even on Nationstates, since the main NS forum people are often intolerant, and sexist. But I suppose I should help with that myself, need to find a good topic to start there if I want it to be more active.

There are old posts which say "0 people like this post", and from a programming point of view, my first guess is that someone Liked it, which enabled that text, and then withdrew the Like, which brought the count back to 0, but the forum doesn't reset the flag to show that text. Not important, but that's what I've thought, I like to know the reasons for things, it's frustrating to not know things.

Nope, those are dislikes that got removed when dislikes were removed from the forums.

(You can also see vestiges of the dislikes in PMs, which still show negative karma.)

Really the only thing that's weird, not really a problem but just weird, is the RMB feeling like a totally separate community from the forum. I look at it, and it's like Who are these people? Do they even know each other, given that it's nearly impossible to keep track of what's going on in the RMB when posts from only a few hours ago are scrolled off so quickly? Though, I suppose one benefit of it being separate, is that there seems to be no obligation to pay attention to it as a forum person, so there's that.

Indeed, the RMB is essentially a separate community, and that's been an issue in Wintreath for a very long time now. Creates quite the challenge for the Integration Ministry, and certainly presents some unconventional solutions.

It's not totally separate. Me and Ashton still remain somewhat involved (as French Albania and Thalasus respectively, because damn it if we're not going to make this war happen), while Justinian, Lily, and Commander Zemas are also there, if somewhat less so.

As for integrating the two - while it seems like a good idea on the face of it, at the same time just looking at the last 24 hours, the RMB is a relatively effective sink for the most cancerous parts of NS. I'd hate for the hateful, vitriolic spam that covered a lot of it yesterday to be here instead.
The problem is that this is the face that we wind up showing to new or prospective, er, 'immigrants', for lack of a better word, to the region, and there honestly needs to be some better level of enforcement that shuts down the worst offenders with an ejection or the like if we want to a) draw more people in and b) ever have a hope of actually integrating the two communities proper.

It's not totally separate. Me and Ashton still remain somewhat involved (as French Albania and Thalasus respectively, because damn it if we're not going to make this war happen), while Justinian, Lily, and Commander Zemas are also there, if somewhat less so.

As for integrating the two - while it seems like a good idea on the face of it, at the same time just looking at the last 24 hours, the RMB is a relatively effective sink for the most cancerous parts of NS. I'd hate for the hateful, vitriolic spam that covered a lot of it yesterday to be here instead.
The problem is that this is the face that we wind up showing to new or prospective, er, 'immigrants', for lack of a better word, to the region, and there honestly needs to be some better level of enforcement that shuts down the worst offenders with an ejection or the like if we want to a) draw more people in and b) ever have a hope of actually integrating the two communities proper.

Looking through the RMB more carefully now... oh wow that's pretty bad. A far cry from last time I seriously checked it out, when it was mostly Ainurians.

I would note that quite a few of the nations on the RMB probably could get deleted by NS moderators for their actions there, if people bothered to report them. I know that that happened once in NH, and the mods resolved it pretty quickly.

I haven't checked in what feels like weeks... and here we have one guy with a population of only 6 million declaring F*** Wintreath... seems kinda harsh. And then some other guy I don't know keeps saying that word I hate, "slut", I don't like that. Then there's some guy who thinks he's the first person to think "Master Baiter" is funny. Must be new to the internet... who was responded to by a guy making light of autism. Also someone got "your" and "you're" wrong, but that doesn't bother me as much as the other stuff right now.
Yeah, that was all within 24 hours. Pretty bad.
I've decided I don't even want to know the RMB people.

Happy birth, Wintreath!

One thing I would absolutely love to see is the writing community having more fun and doing more stuff. On the other hand, not everyone likes to write and pulling words from one's brain is not easy, sooo that's tricky. Something I have been thinking about for months is maybe setting up writing competitions/challenges? (More the latter, because I don't think I'd be a good judge). Like, say, there were a bunch of short writing excercises I did in English classes such as "six word descriptions" and I've been thinking of going through them. Or maybe chatting about what the writers in the community do (such as advice for writing stages, not getting stuck, finding best times to write, essay and prose tips, and so on) could be a thing.

I've mostly been sitting on that thought because I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested (and also it seemed really arrogant of me to suggest). But, it's something to discuss.

That's a great idea! When I think of writing, I think of stuff that takes a lot of time and effort, like writing stories and paragraphs of stuff, and it's intimidating. Having stuff that doesn't take so much time might make it seem like a less intimidating area.

"Now instead of just making a bunch of rosy comments and getting a bunch of likes"

I accidentally hit like before getting to this part, sometimes for long posts I do it before reading all of the post. A Facebook habit I think, I'm used to liking a lot of stuff, like when you Like an article before reading it because you'll forget to do it after, but then if it's awful you can unlike it later anyway. It's weird, I suspect that used to be an option here, but isn't now? There are old posts which say "0 people like this post", and from a programming point of view, my first guess is that someone Liked it, which enabled that text, and then withdrew the Like, which brought the count back to 0, but the forum doesn't reset the flag to show that text. Not important, but that's what I've thought, I like to know the reasons for things, it's frustrating to not know things.

So, four years? Wish I was here for more of it. I like it here so far. I'm not looking to get anyone to confirm this for me, but I think I'm really starting to fit in here compared to being an obvious newbie earlier, much better than the last region I was a part of, where their RP emphasis and style didn't work for me and I couldn't find my place there even though I got along well with everyone otherwise.

Really the only thing that's weird, not really a problem but just weird, is the RMB feeling like a totally separate community from the forum. I look at it, and it's like Who are these people? Do they even know each other, given that it's nearly impossible to keep track of what's going on in the RMB when posts from only a few hours ago are scrolled off so quickly? Though, I suppose one benefit of it being separate, is that there seems to be no obligation to pay attention to it as a forum person, so there's that.

Also, I wish there was more to talk in our pro-LGBT subforum. That was the first thing that drew me here. I was looking for a region at the time that yet another idiot on Facebook was implying that all bi women are just sluts (hate that word), and I was like, ugh, I need to get away from that. Even on Nationstates, since the main NS forum people are often intolerant, and sexist. But I suppose I should help with that myself, need to find a good topic to start there if I want it to be more active.

I'm glad that you like being part of the community, and I would say that you're definitely a big part of things.

Like taulover said, the RMB community has always been kind of separate. Whether that's something that needs to be fixed is debatable...some people just don't want to create another account on the forums or take the time and hassle to keep up with what goes on there. I try to promote things on the forum (though we could be doing a better job with that), but if we're going to bring over people from the RMB to the forum it's going to have to be for more than just a forum.

I wish there was more chat in the LGBTQ area too, but I think it's a question of what our LGBTQ community here wants to chat about...news about LGBTQ issues? Our experiences on different aspects of being LGBTQ? I think it's just an area that needs stuff to talk about, and the more people that pitched in on that, the better it would be.

It's not totally separate. Me and Ashton still remain somewhat involved (as French Albania and Thalasus respectively, because damn it if we're not going to make this war happen), while Justinian, Lily, and Commander Zemas are also there, if somewhat less so.

As for integrating the two - while it seems like a good idea on the face of it, at the same time just looking at the last 24 hours, the RMB is a relatively effective sink for the most cancerous parts of NS. I'd hate for the hateful, vitriolic spam that covered a lot of it yesterday to be here instead.
The problem is that this is the face that we wind up showing to new or prospective, er, 'immigrants', for lack of a better word, to the region, and there honestly needs to be some better level of enforcement that shuts down the worst offenders with an ejection or the like if we want to a) draw more people in and b) ever have a hope of actually integrating the two communities proper.

The go-to person for anything on the region page should be the delegate...a large part of the delegate's role is representing the RMB community as part of the Cabinet, and to be the local administrator as sort of a "Jarl of the Region Page". I can also do things on the region page as founder, but to be honest I'm rarely on top of RMB chat unless someone points something out to me or I get mentioned.

The go-to person for anything on the region page should be the delegate...a large part of the delegate's role is representing the RMB community as part of the Cabinet, and to be the local administrator as sort of a "Jarl of the Region Page". I can also do things on the region page as founder, but to be honest I'm rarely on top of RMB chat unless someone points something out to me or I get mentioned.

cough cough @BraveSirRobin cough cough

As for integrating the two - while it seems like a good idea on the face of it, at the same time just looking at the last 24 hours, the RMB is a relatively effective sink for the most cancerous parts of NS. I'd hate for the hateful, vitriolic spam that covered a lot of it yesterday to be here instead.
The problem is that this is the face that we wind up showing to new or prospective, er, 'immigrants', for lack of a better word, to the region, and there honestly needs to be some better level of enforcement that shuts down the worst offenders with an ejection or the like if we want to a) draw more people in and b) ever have a hope of actually integrating the two communities proper.

The Ministry of Integration has discussed thinking of Wintreath as being a network of separate but interconnected communities that still identify as part of a greater community as a whole, instead of trying to integrate the many Wintrean possessions into a unified bloc. That still presents many challenges, of course, the greatest one probably creating that sense of shared community, especially with the Wintreath and NH RMBs, but that model of "integration" might work far better with the Wintreath we have today.

The go-to person for anything on the region page should be the delegate...a large part of the delegate's role is representing the RMB community as part of the Cabinet, and to be the local administrator as sort of a "Jarl of the Region Page". I can also do things on the region page as founder, but to be honest I'm rarely on top of RMB chat unless someone points something out to me or I get mentioned.

I'm generally a NS-telegram away

If anyone wants to get a hold of me, that is.  Also if people want to introduce legislation I'd be happy to do that too.  It seems quite fun!

Woooooooooo! Happy fourth Wintreath!

Happy Birthday Wintreath!

(Hard to believe that was four years ago...)

Happy Birthday Wintreath!

(Hard to believe that was four years ago...)

Oh wow, you left Wintreath literally the day before I joined...