Spring has sprung, and in many ways Wintreath has continued to, even as activity ebbed and flowed during the season, with some very active months and some much more quiet months. I feel like we have a stronger foundation now than we had coming into the season though, and hopefully that will translate to more consistent bursts of events, discussions, and interactions going into the Summer.
Progress on 2019 ProjectsWork on the projects I introduced last Christmas has been ongoing, but progress is uneven...in some cases we've met our goals or made great progress, while in others things haven't gone at the pace I had hoped they would. To break it all down:
Bringing the Minecraft Server out of the Shadows - Unfortunately, I haven't made much progress in this area, due to the need to parcel out my time between many projects and areas, and honestly due less interest in Minecraft server administration on my part. However, in May I made a spreadsheet organizing our server and mod versions, so that it's easier to see what needs to be upgraded in the future. My first attempt to upgrade the server to 1.14.x was not successful due to mod incompatibilities, but once EssentialsX supports 1.14.x I will try to upgrade once again. However, I feel that at some point we will need to critically evaluate whether the official server meets the needs of the community and whether it continues to make sense to have an official Minecraft server, given that it tends to get less admin work and support, tends to be inactive, and has often been eclipsed by unofficial servers (previously Gattoartico's and more recently Chanku's).
Reviving the NSFW Community - This goal was accomplished during the Winter season, and activity in the NSFW sections has been consistent if limited given the more private and exclusive nature of this portion of our community. On May 15th, I released a tool that scans for links and pictures posted to the NSFW Discord section and organizes it so that members can see anything that they posted for their own personal use. In the future, I would like to allow members the option to organize and curate their pictures/links and optionally share them with other NSFW community members, but this is considered a low-priority project.
Building Our Own Fun and Games - Development of Clickwar Season 2 has started, but isn't going at the pace that I would like it to, mostly due to the need to parcel out my work and time among multiple projects and areas of Wintreath. My hope is that Season 2 will be finished and released during the summer, and that I can begin looking at creating improvements for other forum games. I had previously mentioned Arena as a prime candidate for automation, although there has been community interest in adding tools for Werewolf after our experience with Mafia Universe. On Discord, I started weekly Cards Against Humanity games in April, reviving a game that we've had but has gone unused since the IRC era, and so far it's proved to be a draw for people already in the community. I've recently created a dedicated forum area with game recaps to make our games more prominent, and Wuufu has added more decks and recently ran a contest for new custom questions and replies that I think was very successful. He's also building a new Discord/Zaphyr game, One Night Werewolf, which has already received much interest in the community.
Improving the Wintreath Infrastructure - In the Winter Report, I mentioned that no work had been done due to the impending release of SMF 2.1, which would resolve many of the forum issues that we have today. However, I recently reconsidered the situation and now believe that not being mobile-friendly is hurting the forums along with everything that takes place on the forums, from forum games to government activities, and that improving the forums can no longer wait. In the last week, I've begun to redesign the topic view page to be cleaner and more mobile friendly, and this work will probably be extended to other pages in need throughout the Summer.
Discord StatsAfter reaching a peak in March, Discord activity went into steady decline throughout most channels in April and May, especially in general chat channels. While some activity shifted into smaller channels in May (#media, #spoilers, etc), May's numbers were mostly buoyed by the new Cards Against Humanity game in #zaphyr, as well as dicussion about Chanku's Minecraft Tekkit server in #minecraft. In May we also brought back #eurovision, a seasonal channel for chat about the Eurovision song contest, and launched two new channels: #mafiauniverse, a channel for Citizens (minus Laurentus) to discuss the games on Mafia Universe in which Laurentus is representing Wintreath; and #joint_rp, a channel for relevant officials to coordinate the joint RP we're launching with New Hyperion.
The success of the Cards Against Humanity game in particular shows that even in times of decline, people will continue to make an effort to be active and participate if they have a compelling reasons to do so. This trend has previously been seen with the forum when it comes to forum games and government activity. Also worth noting is that the NSFW sections remained steady through the season, with activity merely declining back to January/February numbers after a very busy March. This suggests that NSFW activity may also be resistant to activity lulls, though more data would be needed to know for sure.
Forum StatsDuring the spring, forum activity declined by nearly a third from the winter, driven by fewer and less active forum games and activities during the spring as well as a decline in forum roleplay discussion. However, activity was down more broadly across the board, with most government and general discussion areas down slightly as well. It seems that chat and general discussion has mostly moved over to Discord at this point, so if those forum areas don't recover during the summer, it may be worth considering merging many of them back into the Howling Wind Tavern. During the summer, it should be a priority to maintain and grow our forum games without burning out game hosts or players, and it would also be nice to stabilize and grow our forum roleplay activity, although this has been a problem in Wintreath for many years now.
RMB StatsWhile RMB activity was more or less steady throughout the season, it was still an overall significant drop from the winter season, due to the decline of RMB RPs and associated chats about those. Today's RMB is mostly used for general chat, to help new nations, and to discuss regional announcements. At this time I do not anticipate these numbers to change greatly throughout the summer.
Additionally, we will begin including New Hyperion's RMB activity in this portion of the report because we have made it a goal to revive activity there, particularly through the Joint RP. Thanks to discussion about the RP, NH's numbers surged in May, but this was not enough to offset near-dead numbers for March and April, meaning that there was still a decline from the winter season. I believe that activity through the summer will depend greatly on the vibrancy of the Joint RP, along with any other ideas we may have to revive the NH RMB community.
Government StatusEvent LogMarch 1: Thane Elections Began
March 4: Katie and Ruguo Voted Wintreath's Finest - February 2019
March 7: Thane Elections Conclude
March 7: "Prohibition on Citizenship within the New Pacific Order" Fails Overhusen (5 Nay)
March 13: "Procedural Rules Tabling and Reintroduction Amendment Act" Passes Underhusen (3 Aye, 1 Abstain)
March 16: Wintreath Stands in Solidarity with Christchurch Shooting Victims
March 16: "Underhusen Election Protection Act" Passes Underhusen (4 Aye)
March 17: Relations with Sonindia Established
March 17: In-Game Embassy with The South Pacific Established
March 25: "Wintreath Symbols Act" Passes Underhusen (2 Aye, 2 Abstain)
March 26: Orendi XIX Released
March 29: "Underhusen Election Protection Act" Fails Overhusen (5 Nay)
March 29: "Wintreath Sybmols Act" Passes Overhusen (5 Aye)
March 30: Relatoins with Pacifica Established
March 31: Wintreath Celebrates Transgender Day of Visibility
March 31: Spyfall IX: "The Wizarding World of Spyfall IX" Starts
March 31: "Underhusen Seats for the Thirty-Third Storting Act" Fails Underhusen (3 Nay, 1 Aye)
April 30: Spyfall IX Ends in Spy (Pengu) Victory
April 2: Underhusen Elections Begin
April 4: taulover Voted Wintreath's Finest - March 2019
April 7: Underhusen Elections Conclude
April 12: Chanku Elected as Speaker of the Underhusen
April 13: Relations with Aukumnia Established
April 17: Wintreath Begins Joint-RP Negotiations with Aukumnia
April 24: "Grammar Amendment Simplification Act" Fails Underhusen (4 Nay, 1 Not Voting)
April 26: First Cards Against Humanity Night on Discord
May 2: Wintreath Withdraws from Joint-RP Negotiations with Aukumnia
May 4: Wuufu Voted Wintreath's Finest - April 2019
May 12: Joint Interstellar RP with New Hyperion Announced
May 18: Spyfall X: "A Show of Sorts" Starts
May 27: "Officer Motions Amendment Act" Passes Underhusen (3 Aye, 2 Abstain)
May 26: Relations with Cynosure Established
May 28: Laurentus Represents Wintreath in Mafia Universe's Sixth Mafia Championship
