Bunnyy- Well, I began my online community adventure at sailormoon.org. That name brings back so much nostalgia as it was right in there with Speed Racer and Voltron. I managed to reach the highest user level under the owner's first batch of homebrew code to control the insane (at the time) data access to their image libraries, but I much prefered the forums as a 'moonatic'. When he rolled out the 'crescent' community code of forums, user created teams/groups, items, and more I became a staff member in charge of forum moderation. As he developed the code and closed the site before it could decline I continued to help beta test the code by using it to administrate my own inheirited group, "ANCNT" (originally started by the person who is now sleeping in the next room, ironically enough.).
At some point I felt practically dragged away from my own projects as my users were leaving for this site called "go-gaia.com", where the only real bonus appeared that you could dress your avatars. I had no idea how catching an idea that was. I was given ragged clothes and when I attempted to introduce myself in a top "Hi, I'm new" thread there were so many replies that when the page refreshed it was pages and pages beyond where I had posted and I felt like nobody noticed me. I managed to stick with it, but always with rather minimal effort. I sometimes donated back to the site before it became 'for profit' and the donations were still non profit donations... so I have a few 'rare' items but nobody that I feel deserving or appreciative of to give them to. I tried to hang out in the "Extended Discussion" because that seemed to be the only place to find anything resembling literacy, but I didn't care for the 'debate' side of it as much, arguing for or against something.
I really can't recall how I wound up on Menewsha, but it was a godsend. The forums were reasonably paced. The moderators worked. You weren't being told to buy skittles every five seconds and or be sold out by the site owners to get spyware on your machine to afford the 'cash only' items.
The only thing that seemed off was the new user displacement. We are given nothing. I do not 'like' this, but the site policy then, as it is now, and will continue to be 'that is how it has always been and that is how it will always be, you have to work your way up!'. So I found
Kultura-sama's Charity where, after 40 posts you would receive a simple 3 piece outfit from the 52/back to basics/Studio 54 store. So there, I ended up chatting with about 8 other nekkid people all waiting for our clothes. Naoto-chan22 was one of them.
Ever since then I supported the charties and usually addressed the charity owners with "-sama" as an honorific of adoration for what they do. There came a day when Kultura's charity closed. I liked her idea, but didn't want to steal it, and thought of how I could 'improve' on it. Well, being an American I know the high appeal of instant gratification. I came up with a system where if a person could catch me online they could receive the starter clothes, akin to the gaia peasant clothes, just in one sitting! However they still had to make some conversation, maybe get out some questions.
I also needed to think of a way to reward those who helped my charity by being friendly guides to the new when I'm not around. When it's time for me to hit the retirement home I'll gladly have the internet plugged into my brain. Until then I'm not at my laptop 24/7, alas. We are not allowed to directly 'advertise' for our charities by site rules and regulations, but we are allowed to have links in our signatures. Version 1 of my signature incentive programme was that I had a list of people with links in their signatures, I would check them once a month, and if they were valid I would send them a trade of a fun common.
However, I received more and more people idling out of this within 3 months, plus the people didn't have to be active in this thread to receive the rewards. So now, the system works where for each page, I roll a dice. That post number wins a prize from the pile. In case it is myself or my charity mule I have two backup rolls waiting. If the person doesn't have a signature I send them a PM and/or profile post telling them what they missed out on. If they post here, and have the link... spoils!
Speaking of such prizes, sometimes real life gets the best of me. When I go for a while without keeping up with the prizes on a "page by page" basis it takes me a little while but I run a longer batch of rolls and offer Double Prizes.
The Current Signature Pile Looks Something Like This:
http://www.menewsha.com/forum/pictur...ictureid=48828
Oh, yes, new users also win a 'pluck' from the pile of 'shinies' as well. My charity
mule birdies are quite fond of shiny objects, after all. I just usually do a dice roll in white in one of my posts directed towards them :ninja:
So, from 1999 to July of 2011 that is basically how I ended up in this little corner of the internet right here and right now.
Also, everyone should celebrate and fix up your signatures if need be, because we will soon have another
DOUBLE shiny draw as an apology for the delay!
