The Frosty Bugle
Your Chill Summary - This Week in Wintreath
May 9th, 2021
A Word from the Monarch
In many ways it has been a slow but peaceful week in our community. We've had modest but fun Cards Against Humanity and Minecraft nights, we've opened voting on Chancellor elections, and we've brought on a new (well old) op on the Discord. You can read about some of those items below in the "What's Happening Now?" section.
However, in one way that has not been the case. We've seen the departure of several members from the Discord server for various reasons, not the least of which was the contentious topic of police conduct in recent weeks in the Content Warning section. It's understandable...it's a topic that people feel very passionate about on both sides. When opinions are expressed they can come off as extreme to those who don't agree, and debates can get heated very quickly, which has lead to rule violations and members feeling uncomfortable in the area. It's not the first time this has been a difficult topic for the community, either...it was as passionately and heatedly debated last summer, as part of a series of events that led to a temporary ban on political chat entirely.
Offline political chat is a relatively new phenomenon to Wintreath, because it was rarely brought up in the community's early years. We've always had people with all sorts of different ideologies and political beliefs, but in those years those differences simply didn't matter to anybody. Wintreath was an escape from the troubles of the offline world, and what mattered was a person's actions toward each other in the community. However, as offline politics has become all-consuming in the last few years, it has become a prominent fixture of Wintreath these days too, and the ops team initially struggled to get a handle on the conflicts that arose from it. People came to think less of others in the region because of their offline political beliefs, people left the community because they felt they were not welcome because of it, and it fed into a number of dramas that eventually resulted in a months-long ban on offline politics discussion entirely.
These days both the ops team and the community are better equipped to have and to handle political disagreements than before. The ban on political chat was lifted, and today most political topics are discussed respectfully and in the spirit of friendship. However, in some select cases passions and tempers still flare to the point where people forget this. In those cases it's the responsibility of myself and the ops team to prevent harm to the community, which is why I decided to restore a ban for this specific topic only on the Discord only (I believe it's easier for people to think what they're saying through before posting on the forums). It's not a decision that was made lightly and one that I know is contentious to some, but one I believe balances the right of members to express themselves with the right of members to feel comfortable and welcome as part of the community of friends that we promote and are rightly proud of.
In time, it may be easier to have those discussions without disrupting the community, just as it's easier for most political chat to happen than it was before. This policy will not continue for a second longer past that point...but that day is not today. At least in this area the work of handling intense, heated political debates civilly and respectfully will continue, but at the very least I hope that future weeks will be less contentious for it.
I hope that your future weeks will also be less contentious and more peaceful as well...as always,
stay frosty.
May 13th at 10PM - Cards Against Humanity Night (Discord)
May 14th - Chancellor Elections End (Forums)
May 14th at 9PM - Minecraft Night (Wintreath Minecraft Server)
What’s Happening Now
Voting for Wintreath's 1st Chancellor is Open!Voting is open for Landsraad Chancellor until
May 14th! The Landsraad is Wintreath's new legislature which is open to all Citizens, meaning if you're a Citizen, you can vote. The Chancellor is the person who will be in charge of enforcing the procedural rules of the body, in effect bringing order to the chaos of a legislature that dozens of people can be a part of. They will also be responsible for keeping portions our
new Law Codex organized and up to date. Candidates for Landsraad are
@Doc,
@Laurentus, and
@taulover, people who all have an extensive history in Wintreath, the Wintrean government, and specifically the former legislature, the Storting. I expect this to be a very competitive race, and we'll just have to see who wins at the end! If you're a Citizen, I encourage you to vote and make your voice heard!
Months after returning to the community last autumn, Denth Kasten has joined the Discord ops team! Denth (also known as Dawsinian) brings a long history of experience in Wintreath with him as a founding member (the third person to join these forums) and serving as senior operator over Wintreath's old IRC channel for over a year. He's also been in just about every government position possible, and was commended by the Storting with the honourific title "First Scribe". It's great to have him back on the moderation team again, and I hope that everyone in the community is as well!
Minor Forum UpgradesImprovement include a bug fix with posting Youtube videos through the new post editor, the ability to see more posts when replying to a topic, and a person's pronouns being included with their posts so you know how to address them when replying to them. Over the past few months, I've made a number of upgrades to the forum, large and small, and hope that it's making the forums both easier and more fun to be a part of!
New Forum Discussions
None this week!
