OTM Discussion (Please read!)

[Emily]

Okay, so now that the site seems to have returned to a much more active state of being, we the mods want to discuss OTMs. For our new members, we have done OTMs (of the months), as featured in the sidebar, usually every month. The summer was a special case because people were often away and busy and the site was less active so OTMs were put on hold for a while. Now we want to know if people are still interested in starting up the OTMs again.

If you guys are still interested then how often do you want to do them? Do we wants OTMs every month like we’ve been doing? Or do we want to do them every other month? Quarterly? Once a year? Whenever we feel like it? If you have an opinion or something to say, then we’d like to hear it. So, discuss away, soldiers.

Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I’m tired and sometimes I write stupid things when I’m tired, so please don’t hesitate to ask me to clarify what I’m talking about.

[Deleted]

I'm definitely game for OTM's coming back...and you know, "whenever we feel like it" sounds like a pretty good idea. Playing it by ear, since interest levels obviously fluctuate depending on what's going on.

We can do it monthly, but depending on interest levels, we'll combine months like we've been doing.

Just an idea.

Also, I wonder if perhaps we can expand the "character of the month" into "male of the month" and "female of the month"? Or is that too much? I'd even suggest villain of the month, but I know that'd be stretching it.

So yeah. Those are my thoughts.

[Lancelot du Lac]

I'm pretty well game for what Jasmine says. Which sounds like more of a cop out than I mean. I, for one, like the OMs, and would totally be down for doing it more or less by ear. I mean, there really was no reason to do it for a bit there, since the activity dipped for a bit there, whereas now, we clearly could use it, since there's about a bajillion people posting for some reason (I blame skool).

I'd also be cool with breaking to male and female, though I'll cop to totally selfish reasons of thinking I could finally win that if it was broken xD

I also wouldn't mind seeing a rotation built into it. Like, if Rem won character of the month for Sept, she couldn't win character again till January. It's not a huge deal, but it would give us a cycle and all.

[rafflesia]

I definitely suporting that villain of the month idea!

Well, I'm kinda new here, but if a lot of new player gonna come, it would be hard to expect everyone to know all the chars. But nethertheless, a monthly thing should work, I think.

[Shini]

I agree with the others, perhaps we should just open them up and then as soon as there's enough nominations (if we say maybe four or five per category) we'll hold the voting and then announce the winners, then after a week or two we open up nominations again and it just continues. That way they'll be more regular when it's busy and more relaxed when it isn't.

I also agree on saying that somebody who wins is exempt from nominations in that category for the next maybe one or two. So if Rem won member, she couldn't win again the next two rounds, but she could win character or thread or whatever.

Also yea, splitting up into male character and female character is fine by me (and people like chesh can just go in whichever category the nominator feels like at the time XD)


....you didn't see anything amiss.

[Deleted]

Ooooh, Shini, I REALLY like that "nomatinations quota" idea, that's actually kind of brilliant.

And everything else...yeah, that's sounding like a good idea. =)

[telemain]

I'm all for OTMs being once a month, as it gives structure and everyone gets a set amount of time to have their babies glorified. Plus, it presses us to challenge ourselves as writers by pushing us to write better and better stuff as nominations cycle through. I'm also in favor of breaking "character of the month" into "male" and "female". Personally, I'm leaning against the cap on winning a category more than once in a row; I come from the school of thought of "let the best be the best", but that's just me.

[Deleted]

I approve of all of this.




....thats all I got.

<3

[Deleted]

Yeah, I'm pretty much what Quinn said. I like everyone's ideas, and I'm game for whatever happens. I love the idea of a female and male of the month, and the rotation idea sounds good too *nods*. I'm flexible. I'll go with what is decided.

[flora]

I'm just saying that if we're breaking things up into Male and Female I hope Chesh wins both. xD

But I'm biased ;P

I agree with the suggestion of not being recognized more than once in a row for a particularly category. It gives new members a change to get in there and be recognized and it helps avoid accidental resentment. Like the feeling "well why would I nominate this month if XYZ is just going to win AGAIN?"

Not that anyone would feel like that, but just in case. ^_^

I'm all for them being monthly because I love OTMs, but bi-monthly or even by the quota would totally work too. Hehe. basically this post was not helpful at all. >.<'

[Deleted]

I would prefer to work to a quota of about 4 per category so we have a really good selection of who to vote for. I think male/female might be interested, but isn't necessary. If we only have about 2 per and all the other categories fill up, we should combine everything (in my opinion) and start up the poll.

I don't think we should make too many categories or it gets too bothersome to look up people to fill every category. I agree that we should not allow the same person to win multiple times in a row in order to spread the love around--we also have the kudos thread if people are doing a really great job and can't be recognized in OTMs (which might have to change to "Of the Moment" awards).

[lilo]

I just wanted to throw in some comments regarding adding categories. Like I said, I don't see a problem with splitting it into male/female, but I'd be wary about villains. For one thing, we only have two characters that I'd really call villainous (Eve and Morgana), so it would be rather hard to get our quota up on that. For another, it just seems a little too specialized. If you were going to do something like that, it might be a good idea to have some kind of rotating category. Like maybe have it be "spellcaster of the month" or "knight of the month" or something. That might spread it out and draw attention to various groups within the site, without necessarily locking us into a group that may or may not have enough members to hit that aforementioned quorum.

[Deleted]

Ooooooh, I like the idea of rotating the specialized one...anyway, it was really just an idea. I knew as soon as I said it that it'd be stretching it.

Anyway, it would appear that most of us are rather flexible about these things, soooo...perhaps we ought to make a solid decision? Fellow admins, what say you?

[neon1]

I think having a rule about no nominations after a win for a few months is really important. The OTM competition can give a great sense of personal achievement, as well as a boost in confidence and in muse, so it's always good to spread that around so the same people and characters aren't winning all the time.

And I don't really think Male and Female separation is necessary.

That's my two bits in

[Merlin Emrys]

I think indeed the staff can figure out the nitty gritty of making a decision at this point, thank you everybody for your opinions, and OTMs will be returning soon!