The Tainted Times - February 2018

[Songstress]

It's here!  A few days late, due to my being out of town and whatnot, but... you, my darling denizens of the Black Tower, are not forgotten!

 

NEW ARRIVALS

 

We haz them!  Three, count 'em, THREE new members joined our ranks in the month of February.

 

The first to brave tainted saidin was failemandarb, who also braved potential criticism of her chosen screen name as one of the least liked characters in the series.  Srsly.

 

We were joined next by jbarlow1, who seems to have avoided the WoT character screen name dilemma entirely.

 

And finally, the extremely tainted Terra jumped right in to the insanity.

 

If you've missed any of their welcome threads, make sure to pop in and say hello.  Or whatever crazy thing strikes your fancy, because this is the Black Tower, and random gibberish in way of greeting is certainly not out of place.

 

 

PROMOTIONS

 

We does not haz them!  (Yet...)

 

Staff is discussing potential changes to the promotion requirements, stay tuned for details and/or actual promotion-type things!

 

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

Our February Saidin Class (i.e. Welcome to the Black Tower, and What in the World Do I Do Next?) is underway - it's still early in the process, so if you're new around here and a bit lost (or not so new but still lost), sign up here (or give Nikon a poke).  If you're unable to view the Farmhouse to see these threads, please let us know so staff can make sure the admin in charge is soundly beaten about the head and shoulders.

 

 

EVENTS AND GAMES

 

Darthe is currently looking for signups for an advanced mafia game, apparently about a girl.  Or "About a Girl".  Whichever.

 

For the non-mafia-players, Niniel hosted a Winter Olympics game in the month of February, which has now ended because the Winter Olympics has also ended.  See how that works?   If you have suggestions for other non-mafia games we can run for fun and profit, feel free to post them here. 

 

 

AROUND THE BLACK TOWER

 

By popular request, this new section will (at least until such time as the board software allows people to stay current with private boards and notifications) link to the new and/or popular threads in the BT public board and other boards visible to members only.  I shan't include the usual social group business threads like the roll call and the points reporting/spending threads - unless that's something folks feel they need.   And this thread will be updated through the rest of the month, until the next Tainted Times is issued, with newly created or newly popular threads.

 

Forthwith!

 

The New Hotness (threads started since the last Tainted Times, February 1st):

You are invited to watch a Harry Potter Joust at the BotRH

Welcome to the Black Tower, failemandarb!

Welcome to the Black Tower jbarlow1

Welcome to the Black Tower Terra

2018 Winter Olympics

I want a garden and will pay with points

When does spring start?

My Asha'man Coat

February Saidin Class (2018) (private board)

Ithillian vs. DJ training match (private board)

Leyrann vs Illian Tear (private board)

 

Old and Busted?  (older threads that have seen recent activity):

Saidin Classes for BT Members

Marvel Universe - need some help here

The infamous 250,000 post thread

The Way of Kings

Saidin class signups: next class starting soon (private board)

Challenge Thread (private board)

 

 

OTHER

 

The 250,000 Post Thread update:

          As of February 1, 2018:          237,370 replies

          As of March 4, 2018:              237,437 replies

 

67 posts in a month?  Guys.  We're slacking.

 

The Battle for Spam Supremacy:

          Black Tower:                         711,031 posts (up 444 from February)

          General Discussion:            981,875 posts (up 3,328 from February)

 

Between D&D and the mafia forum, we languish further behind than ever.  Have we lost our will to spam?  HAS THE BLACK TOWER BEEN GENTLED?

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

This has been your February Black Tower news, brought to you by the letter TAINT and the number YELLOW.  

 

Journey before pancakes ~

 

~ Tress, Storm Leader of the Light 

 

[Leyrann]

I thought Egwene was the least liked character in the series...

 

Then again, I like both Egwene and Faile.

 

5 hours ago, Songstress said:

If you're unable to view the Farmhouse to see these threads, please let us know so staff can make sure the admin in charge is soundly beaten about the head and shoulders.

 

Not sure if Verb likes getting beaten.

 

5 hours ago, Songstress said:

The 300,000 Post Thread update:

          As of February 1, 2018:          237,370 replies

          As of March 4, 2018:              237,437 replies

 

67 posts in a month?  Guys.  We're slacking.

 

The Battle for Spam Supremacy:

          Black Tower:                         711,031 posts (up 444 from February)

          General Discussion:            981,875 posts (up 3,328 from February)

 

That's actually bad.

 

Also, D&D?

 

5 hours ago, Songstress said:

Journey before pancakes

 

Wrong forum.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

Thanks for the tainted times! Where does the time go?

 

other games that have been popularbhere are hunger games and I think monopoly?

 

less mod intensive games that got a lot of traffic were elimination games.

 

oh, suggestion, since new content isn't working and there's no good way to spot new threads, might we keep a pinned post with new and/or reactivated threads?

[Leyrann]

Eh, I guess we could do that, but in my experience it's easier to mark the entire board as read and then just read everything.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

The new DM makes it very hard for most of us to find new threads. You may have noticed that they don't get very many posts anymore.

[Leyrann]

Haven't noticed anything... What makes it harder compared to old DM? On PC it's just the same as before.

[Ithillian Turambar]

The Find new posts button will only show content on public boards. That means you have to trawl through everything to find stuff. Also it's really slow to load cos basically it's now a compact version of the main site. It used to be stripped back which really saved on data and loading. So there's no quick way to just check what's happening now. So Tbh I don't really check as often cos it's a pain.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

Yeah, the mobile version, which is what most of us use I think, is cumbersome and difficult to navigate. I also dont bother much anymore and when I do, I miss most of what I would be interested in. 

 

There isnt even a new threads tab on the main forum page, just the five most recent posts on the whole board, which is completely useless.

[Ithillian Turambar]

The new threads button is at the top next to the search button. It looks like a Web page.  It's not much good though, for the reasons previously mentioned. 

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

I dont see it?

 

you don't mean the unread content one? I mean the little menu that had the five most recent threads started on the site that was only useless on roll call day.

 

 

[Ithillian Turambar]

Oh I don't remember that one. Yup unread content. You can make your own search thing but that takes many more clicks and apparently only Admins can use it to bring up stuff from private boards. Yay.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

I couldn't even read through those instructions lol.

 

 

[Leyrann]

Well, there's some staff discussion going on anyways, I'll add the point of a post with recently active threads to it. It'll probably be on one of the sub-boards though, not the main board. Wouldn't want to clog too many pinned threads on a single board.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

Well I guess that would help people who are already members and have the time to go searching private boards but the problem with notifications is exaclty that we're not getting the new content info from private boards. Plus putting it on a sub board would cut any traffic it might gain for those threads to about nothing, as we're hoping to get new people and non members as well as busier or frustrated with new software old members interested and posting but... you know, I guess one pinned post might clog whatever board where no posting is going on so, ya.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

Here are the pinned posts from the main board now

 

there are two Roll calls, over a week into March, this thread, and the main BT info thread.

 

so... ya.

 

anyway thanks for listening, all points are apparently moot anyway.

 

carry on.

 

 

[Niniel]

I really don´t like that we can only see the main board on the unread content list. It really makes it hard to maintain any other boards. :(

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

[Leyrann]

@Mrs. Cindy Gill We're listening. It's likely going to be on the main board (if the other staff agrees), it may be part of the Tainted Times or it may be a seperate post.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

Yay!

 

ya that feature mostly works. Sometimes I get tagged and see a thread I've lost notifications for.

[Songstress]

New Tainted Times section added above: Around the Black Tower

 

By popular request, this new section will (at least until such time as the board software allows people to stay current with private boards and notifications) link to the new and/or popular threads in the BT public board and other boards visible to members only.  I shan't include the usual social group business threads like the roll call and the points reporting/spending threads - unless that's something folks feel they need.   And this thread will be updated through the rest of the month, until the next Tainted Times is issued, with newly created or newly popular threads.

 

Thoughts?

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

Yay! Thank you!

[Leyrann]

I don't know about the other staff members, but I will also keep an eye on the list to make sure it stays updated, so that Tress can disappear a day or two without the list getting outdated.