Oh! Speaking of switching partners, lol, I almost forgot! After talking it over with Aelin earlier, I have a surprise for two incredible members: @Heart ❤ and @LadyAzura , the two of you were so excited and happy to be paired together for this dance, but then you graciously both offered to swap partners when it was needed to make sure that EVERYONE got a chance to have fun and enjoy the dance. For this act of unselfishness, we've decided to, as a special reward, grant the two of you Power Couple pins as well! People with hearts like yours don't come along often, and you two really deserve something nice for what you did. <3
And the results are in, with Aelin and Cstar announced the KHV Power Couple of the Year! They cut it close in round 2, almost costing themselves the competition, but they played a solid game and they'll both be awarded the Power Couple pin shortly. Thank you guys for joining me in this, the first ever KHV Valentine's Day Dance, I hope you guys had fun and will join us again next year!
Actions speak louder than words. XD
View attachment 48636 View attachment 48635 View attachment 48637
Alright everyone, the final challenge has ended, and it's time to decide which surviving couple we want to name KHV's Power Couple of the Year! The nominees are Cstar and Aelin, and Midnight Star and Fearless! Both couples have made us 'awww' over their Matching Profile themes, made it through the questionnaire proving how well they know each other, and have wowed us with a solid performance in Creative Arts. But only one of them can become the Power Couple of the Year, and it's up to us to choose who that is! Whether you simply enjoyed watching them throughout the competition, or you believe they truly encapsulate what it means to work together and help each other through the challenges, go ahead and cast your vote! Voting closes at 9PM, February 21st. In the meantime, I just want to thank everyone who participated in this competition. When I put this thing together, I didn't even sort of think I'd have as many participants as I did, and I've just loved seeing you all work together and have so much fun with this. <3 It has truly been a happy Valentine's Day, and it's all thanks to you guys. ^.^ (Also thanks for being my guinea pigs for this lol I promise next year will turn out so much better. I have so many ideas on how to improve the competition, so really, I invite you all to try again next year, because it's gonna be grand.)
Aaaand, TIME'S UP, FOLKS! Let's see what we've got, hmm? Spoiler: The results View attachment 48630 The votes are in and the winner's of Challenge Three have been decided! @GarrettFinch and @tamale , we loved having you with us this year! Your Couples Profile had all of us rolling on the floor, and the shock of your Questionnaire results were the talk of the town. And then you brought it all home with the third challenge, giving us all the humor we were expecting and carrying your joke-theme through to the end. Your dedication and humor earned you four votes, but that's unfortunately not enough, and your journey ends here. @CrownMoksha and @LadyAzura , again, we loved having you here. Your profiles were adorable and you scored higher than anyone else in the Questionnaire, but with both of you falling ill just in time for the final challenge, luck just didn't favor you this year. Your co-made banner is wonderful anyway, though, and earned you four votes. I hope to see you both again next year! Your Participant's Pins will be awarded shortly, and feel free to join us in the After Party Thread for commentary, as we move to... The Popular Vote stage! @cstar and @Aelin , and @Midnight Star and @Fearless , you have survived all three challenges! Congratulations! You'll all be given the I Will Survive pin shortly. Your part in the Dance is now over... But we still haven't named the KHV Power Couple of the Year! A final poll will be posted in the After Party Thread, for all the viewers and your former competitors to vote for which of you two couples they feel truly deserves the coveted title. But either way, it was great having you participate in this, the first ever KHV Valentine's Day Dance! I hope you all enjoyed it, I know I certainly did! <3 And so it ends... View attachment 48629
Actually, although I don't know for certain, I believe Amaury uses light skins. XD
White: 2 - 4 Orange: 5 - 6 Rainbow: 7 - 8 Red: 9 Green: 10 Pink: jack Teal: queen Purple: king Blue: ace
A graphics worm?
Yeah we could have picked a yellow that was pretty on a dark skin, but anything we could choose for that would have looked horrible on a light skin so we didn't even bother. XD
I didn't pick bright pink, I picked dusty rose pink. XD
View attachment 48619 Hear me say, you don't
Obviously people needed more rules other than "post 23 is my name" xD
Before I begin I just want to say that having this thread in the Spam Zone wasn't Ben's fault. XD It was originally posted in the Community News and Projects section, and it had to be moved as it triggered the automatic announcements on various other channels, and somehow ended up moved here. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So yeah that one isn't Ben's fault. XD As for addressing the post itself, a good bulk of what I have to say can be found in this post, as far as the staff overhaul goes. Because you're right that we need to overhaul the staff section, and some of the steps we've taken towards that are outlined in the post. Now to address the issue of the 'moral crusade' toxicity. Speaking frankly, I agree with you on that as well. Yes, it's important to create a safe place for people of all walks of life to convene, and yes, on KHV we have a zero tolerance bully policy. We do need to ensure that our rules are enforced and the site is a welcoming, open place for people to post without fear of being harassed. But that goes both ways, imo. To bring up a recent example, no, people can't attack other members with racial slurs or insensitive comments. But likewise people shouldn't be attacked for using a common expression, not directed towards anyone at all, that has an outdated and rather insensitive word in it. imo, harassment is harassment, no matter what side of the fence you're on, and for anyone to use the name of tolerance as a tool with which to attack others is only detrimental to the very ideals they're trying to protect. You also say you feel it to be a power struggle, that people seem to be acting on their ego in an attempt to 'win.' I, again, must say I agree with you in most cases. It feels to me as if there are those on this site who are trying to prove something, either to themselves or to others, idk. They're trying to prove they're above the rest, they're trying to prove they're better than the other members of this site, and so have been putting those members down to further raise themselves above them. And this, to me, is just as bad as anything those members might have said to 'deserve' it. I've seen this issue for a long time now, where people tend to feel like they can do whatever they want as long as they believe they have 'right' on their side. But things aren't always in black and white, and sometimes people who think they're doing what's best for the site are only hurting it more by their actions. I think it would behoove us all to be a little more thoughtful towards what we're saying, who we're saying it to, and if it's actually justified or if we're only causing trouble. And again, this isn't to say that we should just let people do or say whatever they want. There are definitely some things that no one should be allowed to get away with saying or doing, and it's not wrong to report members or to call people out when they cross a line. But while doing so, we need to be careful that we really are justreporting them or bringing something to their attention, and that we don't go too far and actually make them feel attacked.
Ah, okay. I haven't heard from anyone regarding the existence of such a plug-in for Xenforo, sorry. That said, it doesn't mean we can't do it in the future, but with everything else we're working on right now, I don't think we'll be able to do research into this plug-in at this time. If we can, we'll look into it further, but for now, I'm afraid it's going to be a "maybe next year."
Ah yes, sorry, I thought I'd been clear enough in post #5, but I guess not, lol. XD It was decided that we can't justify deactivating accounts from the past for the sake of giving username priority to others. Especially now that we're already seeing old members return due to KHIII. Usernames are half the way to even log in at all, so taking away a username prevents old users from being able to return, and we don't want that. I know it sucks (because Marluxia and Rachel are both taken so I can't have them lol) but that's how things just have to be.
Alright! Before I get down to my response, I just want to thank B and anyone else who posted here regarding this issue, because it is an important issue to be concerned about, and I'm glad that you decided to share your feelings with us rather than just disappear. I appreciate all the feedback, I really do, and it genuinely hurts to see my friends just disappear (ngl I have actually cried when some people leave the discord server lol idk if that makes me just overemotional or what but it's the truth) so I love that you were open about this and gave us a chance to address the problems you've been seeing. As for those problems, I agree that the staff is due for an overhaul. There are major problems that need addressed, and ngl, activity is one of them. That said, a major staff overhaul is already underway. Discussions regarding a structural reboot were opened in the staff section on December 29th, and a new system was agreed upon after much planning and discussion. The work towards implementing the new system was started on February 7th, the most noticeable change being the two new Supervisor usergroups outlined in this thread. In addition to the new Usergroups, the staff section is being completely reorganized and our policies and procedures updated and many sections rewritten to better fit our current staff team and userbase. We also have a five-year-plan for the site, a plan I've named "Plan X" and everyone else is humoring me with, lol, despite how corny it is, and we have a complete schedule for 2018, planned up until the last day of December, with new and returning events as well as scheduled section-reboots (such as the Writer's Nook Reboot we launched in January) and, teaser alert, the launch of a new Youtube Community channel and several projects therein. Which, as a note, is a big part of why you haven't seen people like Explode or Krowley around a whole lot: They've been doing a lot of work to prepare for a more active Youtube presence, and as such have been devoting their time to External Influence while leaving Internal Influence (events) to Aelin and I. Again, teaser alert: We're planning on launching the new Community Channel sometime early next month, and rebranding our current channel as a Cutscene Hub, so watch the front page for an announcement about the new channel once March rolls around! Also, I've got permission to 'leak' a little something for you guys, to show you a bit of what we've been working on behind the scenes, so I give you the new banner we're going to put onto the Cutscene Hub channel: Spoiler View attachment 48617 Depending on whether the viewer is using Desktop, Mobile, or TV, they'll see this banner in whole or in part, and I've tested it on my personal account. It's not perfect, (DO YOU KNOW HOW IMPOSSIBLE IT IS TO FIND QUALITY DiZ AND XEHANORT IMAGES IN THIS ART STYLE LOL) but it looks pretty darn good if I do say so myself XD So that's one thing we've been putting a lot of our focus on, and I especially want to mention Explode and Krowley again, because seeing them on your list is understandable, as they've been 'absent' from the site, but simply not fair, so I hope this clears that part of it up. But yeah, I'm really excited about some of the plans we have for our Youtube channel, though it will take a lot of time before things really get rolling. Which brings me to my next point: Even little changes take time to implement, and we're going whole-hog, massive change. It's going to take time before the results start to show, so I'd like to respectfully ask for a bit of patience with us as we figure everything out and adjust to the new Staff Infrastructure we're still in the process of setting up. Also, while I do appreciate you for taking a stand and addressing the issues you've outlined here, that do need to be addressed, people have pointed out - and I agree - that to call people out in such a public and direct way is kind of crossing a line. XD I don't intend to see you punished for it, because as I've said, I agree with a fair chunk of what you've said, and also because I believe that sometimes, desperation at a perceived lack of change calls for open and blunt communication. That said, I would like to see this discussion continued more privately, and respectfully offer to open discussions regarding the other problems you briefly mentioned as wanting to tackle next, over private chats with me and/or other members of staff, if you're willing. I open that offer up to anyone who wants to talk. Just come talk to me or anyone on staff you feel comfortable with, and we'll listen to what you have to say, talk about what we might be doing to solve that problem (while still maintaining our Staff Confidentiality Agreement, of course) and relay your problems to the rest of the staff in as efficient and productive way we can. If you want to make Group DM's on Discord with some of us, that's fine too, and will hopefully make it easier to communicate with each other and get these issues dealt with in the correct manner. Finally, to conclude my statements on the matter, I'd just like to drop that the 2018 Focus Group Survey is permanently open, and although most of the questions do relate to events, there is a question for whether or not the survey-taker feels like they'd want to stay on KHV and why or why not, as well as an open 'comments' section, so if anyone has any opinions they'd like to air anonymously (except not anonymous to me, but I don't blab lol) but don't feel like they've got enough to say to warrant opening a DM conversation about it, feel free to fill out the survey or even just parts of the survey, and send it to me to pass on to the rest of the staff. I really do care about what you all have to say, and I welcome any opinion as a chance to learn what you want to get out of this site. And hey, if you talk to us about what's bothering you, we might just surprise you and reveal we're already trying to change. <3
Yeah, the main reason I didn't just tell you I disagreed was because I wanted to make sure I was right before I said something, lol. And because, as I said, I was in a rush and on my phone and I generally try to avoid making spur-of-the-moment decisions regarding something as serious as racism when I'm distracted and on my phone. XD It wasn't so much a fear of confrontation (as obvi I'm comfortable confronting you about this whole thing lol) as much as it was an attempt to be open-minded and thoughtful towards your position and not dismiss your claims without considering them more fully. Because, I wonder what these messages about me might have been like had I distractedly replied that it wasn't a big deal and I thought you were overreacting, without being able to take the time to explain why. XD
Thanks, I think I will. XD B, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I haven't got to your thread yet, I promise I'll respond to it in the morning and give it the attention it needs. <3
