[dohtml]

Screen Resolution Poll

If everyone could take a quick moment and look up their computer screen resolution and then vote in this poll, it would be greatly appreciated! This information is to determine how future skins for RoW need to be made and what the layout might look like on your screen.

[dohtml]

Skins, Maintenance, OTMs

Just a few quick announcements as we wrap up the month of May!

Yesterday, I put up 6 or 7 new skins that were submitted to us by our lovely members. Thank you to everybody who contributed a banner to be turned into a skin. For anybody who's skin was not added at this time, don't fret! We'll be adding them slowly as we transition from spring into summer.

Some exciting news in terms of maintenance! You can now archive and revive your own threads again! If you participated in the thread or are a staff member, you have the ability to archive and revive the individual threads. Archiving a thread will move it to the completed archive forum, while reviving a thread will take it from the incompleted threads forum and return it to its original location. There was some strangeness with the revival function that had to do with some of the thread start forum values being incorrect, so if you revive a thread and it doesn't go to the correct place, just post in Maintenance and staff will fix it!

I'm still working on getting our Fun and Games manager all fixed up so voting can return to normal. Until then, please submit your nominations for the May of the Months here. This form will close on June 2nd.

[dohtml]

Of the Spring Winners

Thank you to everybody who took the time to nominate a member and a character "Of the Spring". We had a lot of excellent nominations, and it warms our hearts to hear all the nice things you guys have to say about each other - that kind of admiration for fellow RPers is one of the many aspects that make me adore the RoW community so much. So thank you to everybody who participated!

Member of the Spring - Sarah

A long time member of Ruins of Wildwood, Sarah has been a prominent figure in the community. She has played several characters throughout her time here, including {Kiche}, {Ozera}, {Datura}, {Slimtail}, {Desdemona}, and {Kyros}. Her nominators said that Sarah's "good attitude and general kindness are some of the best things about the site, and some of the things that embody what our OOC portion of the site is all about." A long time contributor to the site, Sarah has spent hours creating skins both for the site and for its members, created the flowchart that shows the evolution of the site's packs, and created and wrote the information pertaining to the RoW fight system. In addition, she approached the staff during the hectic spring months and volunteered her time to help moderate the site, and we have found her help and discussion invaluable. Thank you, Sarah, for everything you have done for RoW, not only during these Spring months, but throughout your entire time here.

Wolves of the Spring - Mapplethorpe & Datura

The adviser turned leader of Nomad's Pass, {Mapplethorpe} was praised by his nominators for his development. He began as a "half crazed wolf we met spitting broken Latin" at anyone who would come his way. His loyalty to his pack is unquestionable, most notably seen in his determination to track down Datura and bring him home. Despite his "deviousness", he is a "strong character" and nominators enjoying reading his threads and watching as Mapplethorpe meets every challenge thrown at him with grace and determination. Played by {Mapplethorpe_player}, Mapplethorpe's nominators look forward to see his development continues as more drama erupts on the mountain.

The golden prince of Nomad's Pass, young Datura Aquila has had quite an adventure in his first year of life. Growing up is never easy, and Datura has had his fair share of conflicts and hard decisions to make. Electing to leave his birth pack of Poison Path and rejoin his mother, Naira, and her newly established pack of Nomad's Pass, he grew into a "a delightful character to read and interact with". During the spring, Datura played a key role in the BWP, helping to discover new areas with the help of his "mate", Taima. Datura is played by {Datura_player}, and his nominators look forward to seeing him develop into adulthood and gain insight into his "intriguing" and "different way of dealing with things than those around him" as he begins his life as a young adult.

[dohtml]

New Packs, Leadership Changes, & PSAs

It is hard to believe that we are half way done with the month of May! There is lots going on in Relic Lore as we transition from Spring into Summer. One of the most important of these is the birth of the various litters around the site. Remember, they become playable 2 weeks after their birth. For a better idea of what those pups will be able to do, please refer to our development guide.

Along with new puppies being born, there are also new packs in Relic Lore! The newest one is Magnolia Glen, led by @Phineas and @Borlla. In addition, Grizzly Hollow and Swift River are both in the process of making their transitions and relocating to new areas - expect another announcement when those moves have been completed.

Leadership Changes

To accompany the growth in the site, the staff and current pack leaders have discussed a change in the leadership requirements. We are eliminating the one leader per player rule - the new limit is two leaders. We are making these changes to account for the situation where a leader goes inactive, and the II. Second character that would take their places is played by a person who already has a leader character.

We are also placing additional activity requirements on leaders. Leaders will be expected to post five times during each activity check period (5 posts for every 15 days). If leaders fail to meet these requirements two activity check periods in a row, they will be removed from their position. This excludes absences or situations discussed with staff before hand.

If a leader is removed for inactivity for failing to post the regular requirements of one post per activity check, they will be granted a 10 day grace period, where it is assumed that they are still hanging around the area. If there is no activity from the leader during this grace period, they will be removed from the pack and need to challenge their way back to a leadership position when they return.

These changes will take effect June 1st, 2013.

Public Service Announcements!

We have a couple of additional, general PSAs to share with the site. So please take the time to read through these.

- There is a new form for how to collect Life Points in the Maintenance thread to hopefully make it easier on the staff. Please begin using this new form.
- When posting large amounts of LP, please do not post them all on one account. LP requests should be posted on the account for which they are being claimed.
- Threadlogs now show italicized titles for threads which have less than 10 replies.
- If you are interested in creating a pack, it is necessary to get administrative approval before beginning any claiming threads.
- If participating in a fight thread, it is courteous to your RP partner to not create any new threads that take place chronologically after the fight. By doing so, you're godmodding the outcome of the fight, including the win/lose state and injuries.
- Please take some time to nominate a player and a character for the RoW Of the Spring voting. Voting for this closes tomorrow evening.
- The Tourist Information board is not a holding area for character applications. Please only post applications when the characters can be played. From this point on, applications that are posted with the intention of sitting until they can be accepted will be deleted.
- Shadow is putting together a survey to help with development of the site. If you have any issues or concerns, or areas/questions that you think should be included on this site survey, please sent her a PM on @Corinna's account.

[dohtml]

Of the Spring Voting

The staff would like to direct everyone's attention to this form here. To make up for the lack of member and wolf of the months during the spring months due to a coding glitch, we are asking that all members nominate one player and character who they think has contributed the most to the site. We ask that you please include a short paragraph about why you are nominating the person/character that you are, and to be fair to others, please only submit your nomination once and do not nominate yourself or your own characters.

The votes will be tallied on May 18th and the winners announced on May 19th. If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate by posting here and letting us know!

[dohtml]

Post Length Reminder

Just a quick reminder to everyone that according to our rules, IC posts should be around a 250 word length. Staff have noticed a sudden cut in this, and while we don't expect everyone to churn out posts of this length, if the majority of a thread has posts under this word limit, Life Points will not be rewarded.

Thanks everyone!

[dohtml]

Pup Adoptions 2013!

Guess what time it is, guys?! Click! Make sure to read the information thoroughly before applying for any of this year's puppies... and don't forget to ogle the cuteness of them all!

Lands Discovered!

Two more lands have been discovered! Umbra Copse and Dragonfly Fen have been revealed on the map.

[dohtml]

Spectral Woods!

Hmm.. Is that a new territory I see in the Vale of Secrets region..?

BWP Wrap-Up

Okay, guys! This is a brief message that the Boardwide Plot should be concluding over the next few weeks! This means that the Aniwaya Woods pack is on its way out and plots and threads should be wrapped up, or started and finished swiftly! This isn't an announcement to pressure anyone, just know that soon, the Aniwaya pack will be disbanded and the characters left to the demise of their players. ;)

To continue with land discovery, it has been decided that a new territory will open every week until all are revealed. If you have a plot/territory discovery thread idea, please feel free to PM the Spirit of Wildwood account and we will set up the area you wish to discover and open the board up for such a thing to happen; after all, we want everyone to have a chance to be involved in this!

[dohtml]

New Mod & Timeline Updates

The staff would like to extend a warm welcome to {Kiche_player} for being selected as our new moderator. Sarah has been a part of this community for as long as we could remember and we're happy to have her on our team. So congratulations, Sarah!

I would also like to highlight that a few updates have been made to the Timeline. You now have the option of hiding threads in your Timeline, whether they be dead threads or otherwise. At the bottom of the Timeline, you'll see the option to view your hidden threads and move them back into the regular list. Pretty nifty, right? You can also now use shortcodes and the error about a length maximum on comments has been fixed.

P.S. The next activity check is in 3 days, so if you haven't posted yet, better get at it!

[dohtml]

New Feature: Timelines

An article with detailed instructions will be coming along in the next few days, but I couldn't wait any longer to share this with you guys! I'd like to introduce to you the Timeline feature, unique to RoW. The goal is to help you keep a closer eye on your character's timeline, especially when it comes to backdating your threads.

You can view your timeline by going to your profile and clicking the timeline tag. By default, you will see all of the threads your character has ever participated in sorted according to the thread's start date. But wait! What is this "click to edit" text we see? Well, if you click it, you'll see a text area appear that will allow you to give a summary of the thread! Pretty neat, right?

Even better, though, is if you double click on the date of any thread, you have the ability to change it. Upon hitting enter, the thread will automatically be resorted in the timeline to its proper position!

There are still a few tweaks that need to be made, but the basic functionality is there. I'd love to get your feedback on it: what do you like, what would you like to change, etc. Below are some additional things that will be introduced:

- Ability to hide certain dead threads from your timeline
- Parse shortcode
- Select format for dates

Hope you guys like it!