Open MS Server

[Castano]

i had a good discussion in the nwn2 irc channel, couple folks may pop over to check us out.

[Galadorn]

Can we get a BOOYAH! in the hizzie?

Come on over to MS folks!
The more the merrier!
Make it attractive to newcomers!
there are boats! and goats!

[Veilan]

Make it attractive to newcomers!

What newcomers?

[Galadorn]

Make it attractive to newcomers!

What newcomers?

shush you!!

[JonnyJerny]

Yeah the newcomers.

[CloudDancing]

i'm workin' on it

[Rumple C]

Make it attractive to newcomers!

What newcomers?

Try being helpful, instead of un-helpful.

Cheers.

[Veilan]

Make it attractive to newcomers!

What newcomers?

Try being helpful, instead of un-helpful.

Cheers.

I am being helpful. It's called "calling BS" .

[Rumple C]

I would call it something else.

[Veilan]

Hah!

And I'd have some words for sulkily trying to silence criticism of a failed, if well-intended, policy .

[Rumple C]

So... Back to the un-helpful.

You may consider this, calling your BS.

(For the record, an open ended policy like this cannot fail. Even one new player is a win, and it will happen. Please take your ungrateful, unneeded, unwarranted, and unhelpful negativity and park it elsewhere. We'll keep on with trying to make alfa a better place while you do so)

((If I over reacted, my bad, but negativity pisses me off no end))

[Veilan]

So... Back to the un-helpful.

You may consider this, calling your BS.

(For the record, an open ended policy like this cannot fail. Even one new player is a win, and it will happen. Please take your ungrateful, unneeded, unwarranted, and unhelpful negativity and park it elsewhere. We'll keep on with trying to make alfa a better place while you do so)

((If I over reacted, my bad, but negativity pisses me off no end))

It's cool, I get your opinion, and your condescending tone and mode of reply is no skin off my back, even though I'm very unappreciative of gagging tactics and strong-arm rhetorics to silence criticism. That's not the board climate I wish to foster, but I can understand where your perception is coming from - I had to counter a fair amount of negativity when I was LA myself, coming in when ALFA had a general feeling of malaise. There's better ways to do it though.

But yeah, I still disagree - even an open-ended policy can "fail" because it may draw ressources and attention elsewhere with its smoke and mirrors. It already seems to have made Galadorn venture to an empty server and cry out for company. Luckily, MS has cool stuff to offer even sans thronging hordes of newcomers.

I think a short, concentrated, advertised, news-lettered to old members campaign - that can achieve a reasonable concentration of people and DMs - is the far better way to go about it. I guess something like we did when I was LA, and while it also failed to attract much new blood, it got us some - and, on the side, it gave great amounts of fun to the ALFAns who flogged there to try out characters and participate in the MS team's stellar efforts of entertainment. In any case, criticism can also help finding better ways of doing something, so that's another reason not to suppress it, but engage with it.

I'm not sure that advertising ALFA with an unfinished concept and an empty server is going to show our best side, but then again, maybe it's a more honest way to go about this then we cooked up back then. I do agree with you that it doesn't hurt to try - apart from the hurt that a jesting snipe inflicts . But those, in my opinion, are fair game.

Cheers,

[Wild Wombat]

[snip]I think a short, concentrated, advertised, news-lettered to old members campaign - that can achieve a reasonable concentration of people and DMs - is the far better way to go about it. [/snip]

If it gets you two to stop sniping at each other, I'll get back on my emailing of old members!

Seriously, I have slacked off and I apologize. Blame it on a mix of discouragement about so few replies and RL not cooperating (getting laid off tends to put one in a bit of a funk).

The fact that Mik, Fionn and Rick have wandered in on their own (well, me too, if I may humbly say so) shows that out current "inactive" members are a great resource for "fresh" blood, no matter how we get them back. But there are many ways to skin a cat and Rumple needs to be encouraged in his efforts ... where he finds it and his optimism may be a mystery, but let's nourish it.

(Hey, can I claim Rick and Fionn as email successes even though I think they came back in spite of my emaiils? )

[Castano]

Inactive members are a great resource and one of the primary recruting targets of any association.

We should be sending out a quarterly newsletter to keep folks energized, unfortunately when we created ALFA we did not have an email opt in so any mass email is considered "spam". I suggest we remedy this by asking existing members to opt in to the newsletter email starting now. (and the newsletter can simply be a cut and paste of the website articles on the front page.

Open MS has just started so to call it a failure is just game B stuff IMO, the reason people are not logging in is because it has not been advertised. If someone lets me know who to send website updates to I will get a post up on our page.

I've laid out a membership plan, it just needs to be executed with some help from you guys:

(1) email the old members
(2) get a post up in the DnD gaming communities outlining (a) where to buy nwn2 (b) how to join ALFA and (c) what ALFA offers for both players and DMs.

We're trapped in the forest arguing about tree species at the moment and no one is looking at the big picture because we keep getting side tracked by the small stuff.

Edit: thank you WW and Storm for the people you have brought back!

[Castano]

We had our first applicant play on MS Open while he waited for his application to be approved.