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Agh! The best topic yet--and totally related to this awesome guild--and yet you schedule it the night before my early-morning medical procedure!

I'm so telling on you, you meanie-pants.

Agh! The best topic yet--and totally related to this awesome guild--and yet you schedule it the night before my early-morning medical procedure!

I'm so telling on you, you meanie-pants.

There will be more good topics!

All right. Let me offer a few apologies in advance of this week's posting, the first of which for last week's tepid and altogether unfocused debate. I may revisit the topic later on, but for now I believe that changes in the debate structure are needed before I host another one. In the meantime, I don't have a speaker lined up.

That leads me to my second apology, because I understand that having an alt speak on a topic is a bit of a cop-out for this sort of a problem, but I'm hoping that doing so will give me time to collect input for improving on, or redesigning the current debate format (if you have ideas, please share them!).

With that said, here's the topic. July 29th at 7:00pm, Warrior's Terrace.
http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i415/Kyalin_Raintree/Darnassianforum-8.png

Perhaps the debates should work similar to the old question-and-answer sessions?
Any who wish to speak a point on the subject line up, and may say however much in opinion to subject and other responses?

As question-and-answer was limited by a one-question rule, these would likely have to be limited to prevent plodding speeches from forming as others stand in line. I don't see harm in a Kyalin-moderated approximate length, each to be halted by our Warden if they drag on too long. (After all, it is her event)

In such a case, I feel that the line-based turns work better than the hand-raise order, as I can see people missing their call in text, and left without a " I'm at the front of the line now, it must be my turn" reminder; especially as speakers would likely be taking longer to end their turns, and one's position in a queue could be forgotten or lost in a sea of chat.

However, with an established order of speech, I'd predict there to be less confusion, as the text could be read in a more linear manner, rather than having to sort through Guy #1 and Guy #2 talking back and forth, while one or both are also responding to another person(s).

Still could come worry, and inevitable happening, of people speaking out of turn.
Verbal correction would be helpful, but if you happen to want to hire some mercenaries as manner-bouncers.... (I'm joking about that, of course. A little.)

I hope that a satisfying system can be found, so we may keep enjoying the forums.

PS: How is it that there aren't more people who would like to to talk for money?

PPS edit: Sorry for mild long-winded-ness. *is kicked to back of the line*

PS: How is it that there aren't more people who would like to to talk for money?

Two things--I can never remember to come to most RP events unless some friend is dragging me there kicking and screaming. And...I am also a leetle bit afraid of speeches. Give me a debate topic on casual terms and I'll ramble and rant about it until tomorrow, but ask me to prepare a speech? <shudder>

Anyway, for the rest of it, have you heard of Robert's Rules of Order? I use it for officer and guild meetings, and it seems to work fairly well at making sure everyone is heard and nothing gets lost. It does often take a moderator stepping in and saying "Wait a moment, everyone, let Guy #2 finish his thoughts." and "Guy #3, you can speak after Guy #2." and then an overall rule that no one can take more than 10 minutes/5 separate chat inputs to deliver their thoughts, but there's never really been a need for that one.

Although, I also do an itinerary that's drawn up before hand with suggestions from people on what needs to be discussed...not sure if you would have the organization for that. Also, making use of the raid readycheck as a way of taking votes, but that's more for decisions that need to be made, not discussions. (Unless the readycheck means "everyone ready to move on from this topic?")

As Lahkin's mentioned a raid group, I think that such a thing would probably help keep order, and any OOC speech out of saychat.

Also:

Give me a debate topic on casual terms and I'll ramble and rant about it until tomorrow

I'd put gold in to here Lahkin ramble for us at the Forum.

@ Lahkin: I have considered Robert's Rules, but it breaks down when there are no physical reminders. People just ignore them, which is why I'm ultimately thinking that it would be best to go with Kixek's proposal unless it gets too tepid. Debates are a trickier issue though. I'm thinking for that I might just go back to the rapid-fire-speaker method, I just need a method of not allowing them to go on for ten minutes at a time. (Timer or a character limit.)

That's the issue though. It's hard to balance between discussions that are restrained to the point where no one wants to speak and discussions that are crazy shouting matches.

I'd put gold in to here Lahkin ramble for us at the Forum.

Actually, you can. I certainly allow people to sponsor speakers.

I'd put gold in to here Lahkin ramble for us at the Forum.

Actually, you can. I certainly allow people to sponsor speakers.

Rofl, hmm, would still need to think of a topic.

And to the other stuff--yeah. Sometimes raids help there, as you can kick out anyone being too loud, but raids also don't make for a "public" event.

All right. This week is going to start with yet another debate, with apologies to the gnomes:

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i415/Kyalin_Raintree/Darnassianforum-9.png

I'm changing the debate format again, hopefully for the better. I will lead us off with a short address, laying down the ground rules and casting a hopefully more focused lens on the prompt before the debate itself begins.

The debate format will go as follows. The first person who wishes to speak will take the floor at my indication, and give an opinion not longer than three complete posts. This should be more than enough space, but I want to be generous. After answering three questions (yes, we are moving back to the line. One question per questioner, no follow-ups or two-parts) the cycle will repeat with the next person.

As for why I'm giving up follow-ups and two-parts, just about everyone is going to have them, whether the speaker 'dodged the question' or not. What I don't want is a back and forth between two people. I'd like to get more participation from others.

So, the event again is scheduled for this Sunday, August 5th, at 7:00pm in the usual spot.

((I'm posting this up early because I have a few bulletins, some IC and some OOC.))

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i415/Kyalin_Raintree/Darnassianforum-10.png

*Attached to the bulletin this week is a notice, which reads as follows.*

To all attendees: Please remember that actions and speech before the forum are subject to the full reach of Darnassian law.

((I wanted to make the above point clear because I've started to see incidents which, if I were not hosting the forum, would demand for my character to act. I'm talking about things that would be blatantly in violation of Night Elven laws, such as attacking another forumgoer, espousing devotion for the fel, or raving about killing everyone on Teldrassil. In the past, I've let these slide for fear of crashing the event, but that will not happen anymore.

On a related note, I am looking for another person to help me run the forum. Such a person would run the forum if I needed to be absent, would help to keep order, and would be a person that I could bounce ideas off of for future debates or help me get speakers. Please contact me if you are interested in such a position.

Finally, new topics will be posted right after the old ones on Sunday, likely right after the event. I'm doing this because I will be starting the Masters in Accounting program on August 20th, meaning that at least Mondays through Thursdays will be completely blacked out for me, possibly Fridays also, given that I'll be studying for REG at the same time.

Sorry for the long post, and thank you for your attention.))

Here's the next topic:

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i415/Kyalin_Raintree/Darnassianforum-11.png

This is broad, I know, but I'd like to see it lay the framework for future discussions, or at least give me some new ideas for more focused discussions.

Sunday, August 19th, 7pm. Warrior's Terrace.

First off, my sincerest apologies for not having this up on time. This is my first week of Grad school, and because of a compressed schedule, I've had no time away from classwork. Hopefully I'll be able to make time during the week to get this posted next time.

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i415/Kyalin_Raintree/Darnassianforum-12.png

Update: Poor attendance at this week's event. Rolling topic over to next week.

Sunday, September 2, 7:00pm, Warrior's terrace.

Update above.

I'll set this out both as a reminder and as an update, but we do have cross realms to account for now, and I am willing to reach out to members of other servers.

My battletag is KRV#1555, (If you can get it to work, I've been having problems) so if you are on another server and would like to attend, the forum shall accommodate.

Here we go again!

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i415/Kyalin_Raintree/Darnassianforum-13.png

*Ducks to avoid flying mugs*

UPDATE:

The Darnassian Forum will be changing to Saturday evenings at 7:00pm, the location remains unchanged.

This will effect this week's event.

I don't like having to do this, but ever since I started the forum, RL obligations have been enroaching on, and threatening my ability to host the event, and it's becoming clear that I can no longer dodge them. Since this doesn't appear to be happening on Saturday, I've switched the date, and I apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

So again, effective immediately, events will be held on Saturday at 7:00pm.

REMINDER! This is TODAY! Not tomorrow.

All right, pushing the same topic to next week.

On that note, knowing that I cannot do Sunday anymore, would Saturday or Friday evening be more convenient for everyone?

Update: The forum has been cancelled until further notice. Please see edited original post for details.

If I could make a suggestion? Try hosting it less often. There's a reason, Horde side, we have our lore/discussion/forum event just once a month, as the past has taught us that attendance rates tends to decline if you have them too much. Certain events, like a tavern, do well as weekly events. Others, like this/lore night/story telling type things, generally do better on a less frequent basis.

Just a suggestion, of course.

*Edited for early morning poor grammar.