fandomhigh_ooc

In news utterly unrelated to any OOC events of the day, on Thursday, Fandom Island will be invaded by five hundred and three evil gray yellow-eyed goats that seem to appear out of nowhere. Their goal: to devour anything communications or information-related that they can find! Letters, books, your homework, your iPad, your phone, the wires to your network connections, the radio squirrels... all fair game.

Magic won't banish them. Teleportation won't touch them. Guns, edged weapons and energy beams will only make them cry. You don't want them to cry. They're really, really creepy when they cry. (The occasional very very evil goat will bring out his own weapons instead of weeping at you. Or even worse, while weeping at you. )

The only way to get rid of them is to punch them. Hard.

When you do so, 99% of the time, the goats will vanish into a puff of fur and smoke, and you might be lucky enough to get your chewed-up stuff back unharmed. Or not. (All radio squirrels will, however, be returned undamaged. If slightly slobbered on.)

The remaining 1% of the time, the goats will melt into a sticky puddle of varnish, instead. So... if you're worried, try to punch them on a table?

Goats are udderly utterly moddable, but if you'd like an NPC ruminant, we'll toss up a post tomorrow morning for that, too.

And yes, they really are evil; those characters who can sense such things are welcome to pick up their black, malicious auras.

It's that time again, Fandomites: time to report on what the newest Livejournal update has changed, broken, fixed, and ignored. News post | LJ Releases post

( Whoops... )
( Changes to Default Comments Style )
( Reply-to-a-Post Notifications )
( Fixes That Might Affect Us )
( New Scrapbook Going Live This Week (Staggered Migration) )
( No1curr )
( Still Not Fixed )

__

OCD-free mayhem is go. Discuss, suggest, have fisticuffs with ruminants, bring pie and/or cake.

If you are NEW to the Friending List GO HERE FIRST and follow the lovely directions as developed by krycek_rat!

If you have already used the friending list, here are the updates to remove inactive ljs from you friends list and add our newbies!

Copy each list into the Admin Console and press the "Execute" button. Please note there are characters moving from one filter to another in this update and defriending/friending should be done in the order presented to facilitate the changes.

If there is a name on either list that should or should not be there, please let us know!

( De-Friending List )

( Friending List )

Like a boss.

Because it is Monday, it is raining, and I don't think we've done this one since 2008. Wording stolen from rocksthescarf.

Fill this out for each character. Or just one character. Or two. Whatever you want. Tell us the reasoning behind your choices for your character :D

1. My username is ______ because ______.
2. My journal is titled ____ because ______.
3. My friends page is called ____ because ______.
4. My default userpic is ____ because ______.
5. My birthday is _____ because _______.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Marvel...

Please welcome our new townies, both returning and brand spanking new: Jack Priest (bitten_notshy), Natasha Romanoff (chernayavdova), Clint Barton (so_hawkward), and Phil Coulson (firstnameagent)!

It took a lot of thought to pick which journal to announce this from, ngl.

Hello, ladies and gents!

I'd like to announce the arrival of two new townies: April Ludgate (hatesmoststuff) and Carl Kolchak (all_the_news)! Congratulations, and everyone offer them a warm welcome!

Greetings, everypony! Guess what?

Have you guessed yet?

Well, it would behoove you to pretend you haven't, so we can pretend the rest of this announcement isn't superfluous.

This weekend, starting Saturday morning, the 19th of May, everyone whose player so desires -- you, too, alums and expats, whether on-island or off -- will be waking up with a mane, a tail and a cutie mark!* Unless you're Pinkie Pie, who has the option of turning human if she likes, or just gamboling about with the rest of us ponies again.

The effect will last until people wake up on Monday morning (or 3 a.m. Fandom time if you're stubborn enough to stay up just to see when you change back) and the ponies will be normal pony-sizes (not the size of toy ponies) but beyond that, their appearance is pretty much wide open. Wings, horns, rainbows or your average earth-standard palomino; it's all up to you.

To help you, er... pony up, we've got links to a number of totally-not My Little Pony (because that's copyrighted OMG) generators for you; you're also welcome to scour the internets for photos of actual custom ponies based on your character. Deviantart is a great place to look for those!

*Cutie-mark, which is that adorable/embarrassing pony-butt tattoo, actually optional. In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic universe, lack of a cutie-mark indicates that the pony hasn't yet discovered (or acknowledged) their special skills or gifts, so it hasn't appeared yet.

I'm going to be late to work and I don't care. Here, have a meme that we haven't done since December 2010.

From decoder_rings:

Login to your character's journal and comment here telling us:

- Their name and canon.
- Three facts about them from your personal fanon.
- Two reasons they are amazing.
- Five things that you'd like to see happen to them.

Little pitchers have big ears! And while baby island Ingvar might not technically have ears as it is, in fact, an island and not a pitcher, that isn't going to stop Fandom from trying to shield it from the profanity so prevalent in this town she's housing on herself! This means that tomorrow (Thursday, May 10th), we are having a Word Substitution Day! Any time anyone tries to swear, they end up saying something else instead: something clean like smurf, ramalamadingdong, whatchawoo or maybe fudge. Or perhaps fildecarb netwick git mocktaab, if they're particularly potty-mouthed!

So, for example, Electroclash is going to be very smurfing annoyed tomorrow because the freaking island is messing with her asterisking vocabulary. Seriously, what the fudge? Bleep.

And don't think you can get away with using any imported dirty words from galaxies far, far away, either: all canon-specific cursing is affected as well. There'll be no use of the word kriffing for you, young Ben Skywalker!

This random event of smurfin' smurfiness brought to you by the smurfily smurfy heromaniac. Get your swearing done while you can, folks. Tomorrow will be a wholesome day!

Why yes, yes I do enjoy exclamation marks. And rainbows. And puppies. HAVE YOU MET ME?

H'anyway, your rosters are ( here )
Nobody needed to be RNG'ed out, yay! There is a rainbowriffic spreadsheet here, and please let me know if I've messed up somewhere and put your character where they shouldn't be or missed a name!

NPC Classes:
Algebra II
Basic Accounting
Computer Science
Economics
French Lit
Physics

Okay, all of these goodbye posts are depressing me, so tada, a new meme!

We've all sent characters off into the sunset. Here's a chance to babble about what those people are doing now. Are they married? Divorced? Suffering from high cholesterol because they don't know when to stop chasing a bacon truck, Biff?

And for characters who are still active, where do you see them being in five years?

First the reminder: workshop sign-ups for the first summer term will close at 11:59pm Eastern on Friday, May 4th, meaning tomorrow night. So get those kids signed up!

Also, invites to new characters for the game communities fandomhigh, fandomtownies, fandomhighdorms and fandomhigh_ooc have now been sent out! Go here to accept them if you haven't already.

new class tags have also been created (or in some cases, repurposed from earlier classes) and are ready for use starting Monday!

( And said class tags are under here! )

If you have problems or concerns concerning tags and invites, let me know!

Or rather, old townie! Or rather, old student!

Everyone welcome back the grand a_demosthenes, AKA Valentine Wiggin, returning to our island as a townie! HI BIG SIS.

The new kids are almost here, so that means it's also almost newbie shuttle time! So let me get my copypasta on:

Our local (for relative value of local) airport (BWI) has a Portalocity (interdimensional travel service) port and lounge. Students can arrive by either plane or portal and gather in the lounge until a bus from Fandom shows up to take them to the island. This is completely optional; your new characters are still welcome to arrive on the island in any manner you choose.

What we need: One new student character to put up the post and OCD, and at least one teacher or adult to drive the bus and greet the students. Traumatizing them before they reach the island is optional. The post should be made Friday Night (May 4th) sometime between 4pm-6pm Eastern, but be set for Saturday morning (before the picnic).

Newly arriving students are welcome to join the post and get to know a few of their fellow newbies before actually getting to the island. New teachers are welcome to grab a lift as well. Check out the links above if you want to read previous newbie shuttle posts.

Volunteers, questions, comments, chocolate?

It's a new semester, which means it's time for a repost of the birthday master list. This gets posted on the first of every month, give or take, and the master list is reposted at the start of each semester. Listed birthdays may be based on canon, actor birthdates, astrology, throwing darts at the calendar, and anything else that works OOC and IC. This isn't written in stone -- if you need to change a birthday for whatever reason, be it Jossing or IG plot demands, it can be changed on the list.

The list is of character birthdays, but it's for OOC knowledge.

Got it? Good. Comment with any additions or changes. Also, if there's a dropped pup still hanging out on here, please let me know -- I try to keep the list to current characters in hopes of making it slightly less epic in length.

May
godscrankshaft -- May 1
notconflicted -- May 2
psychic_wonder -- May 2, 1983
notyourpawn -- May 4, 1857
liarallmyown -- May 4
psycho_barbie -- May 9
forhisfriends -- May 13
exactlyaverage -- May 13
water_wonder -- May 14
ancientbschamp -- May 15
brat_inslayage -- May 20, 1983
Alexander Rosenberg Pevensie -- May 20, 2009
inaskinnyway -- May 22
myownface -- May 22
multiplez -- May 28, 2005

( The rest of the year lives back here. )

Yay, moar administrative copypasta: Calling all teachers! Should any of you feel in need of a space to plan all those awesomely awesome lessons, here is where you claim your office if you don't already have one!

The list of offices is here and the floor layout is here!

If you're a new teacher, ping into the appropriate OCD thread with the office you'd like! If you're a returning teacher and would like to change your office, ping into the appropriate thread and let me know! If someone has commented with the number you want before you got to it and you really want it, talk to them about it then let us know what the two of you decide.

... Also if I accidentally listed anyone's office that's still in use as vacant because I was too optimistic in my ability to brain this morning, ping down below and I'll fix that with apologies!

Yay offices!

News Post | LJ Releases Post

Livejournal's been working on switching to a new photohosting platform for a long time now; this is for once a case of fixing something that really was at least semi-broken, what with security setting and login issues galore in the original version. This one has better multi-picture upload capabilities and general management, it looks like.

It's also, for once and shockingly, LJ telling us before something goes live.

( What we know: )

So that's what we've got right now: the new system sure isn't perfect either, but *crosses fingers* it should hopefully be a relatively seamless change, beyond driving the OCD-ridden among us crazy with the need to re-arrange galleries.

Please consider this entire post to be a universe-preserving OOC thread / open-season on goats.

Good morning everyone! It's time once again to sign up for classes, for the first summer semester of 2012! These sign-ups are for both NEW and RETURNING students!

( Always wear flats when sexting )

PEOPLE WHO COMMENT BEFORE THE OCD IS DONE WILL BE FED TO VELOCIRAPTORS. OCD DONE. MP AND NATALIE, GET IN THE VELOCIRAPTOR CAGE.

We haven't done a SotC since early March, and with graduation over and newbie day fast approaching, it seems like a good day for it. Also I'll be stuck on this computer all day and could use the entertainment. So, instructions, as taken from seaweed_demigod via ihavediabetes:

Everyone loves gabbing about their characters, don't even lie, so this is your chance. Talk as much or as little as you'd like! Talk about whatever you'd like! Upcoming plots, relationships (both romantic and friendship), enemies, plans for the future, anything!

For example:

Character name: Dolores Umbridge
Character's current mood: PISSED OFF
Character's current goings on: Sometimes, it's hard for me to play her because she's so intensive and tiring. But, she's having fun hexing students and pissing off teachers. I'm enjoying her games of give and take with Anakin and Wade, particularly. I'd love to see her thread more with Roy. She'll be leaving soon but not before a big explosive ending.
Needs threads with: Everyone because she wants to kiiiiiiiiill you all

And we have a handy dandy text box so you can just C&P it right in the box and fill in your answers. Get to it!

<b>Character name:</b> <b>Character's current mood:</b> <b>Character's current goings on:</b> <b>Coming up (stuff that you've got planned that's on the horizon):</b> <b>Needs threads with:</b>

And since we're in that weird transition period where some characters are riding off into the sunset this week while others will be making their first appearance in a matter of days, feel free to talk about those as well! What will happen to your departing characters in the land of the handwavy future? Where are your newbies coming from and who do you suspect they might wind up needing threads with? It's a SotC free-for-all!

Because we haven't done this since 2010, if the tags can be believed, add I suspect a lot of us want an excuse to talk about our newbies anyhow:

Originally from solo_sword:

So for those of you who have never had to choose a PB, I envy you because it can be very very hard. For those who have, who do you use? Why did you choose them? Or do you have any future journals you want to talk about how you searched high and low to find that one perfect face for your character, or complain how you haven't?

If you are NEW to the Friending List GO HERE FIRST and follow the lovely directions as developed by krycek_rat!

If you have already used the friending list, here are the updates to remove inactive ljs from you friends list and add our newbies!

Copy each list into the Admin Console and press the "Execute" button. Please note there are characters moving from one filter to another in this update and defriending/friending should be done in the order presented to facilitate the changes.

If there is a name on either list that should or should not be there, please let us know!

( De-Friending List )

( Friending List )

Hey folks!

We're still looking for a couple of intrepid big sibs and teaching buddies, so we're jacking up the due-by date to this Friday, April 27th. Cookies will be freely distributed across sign-ups!*

* provided you live within a fifty-mile radius of the Netherlands

It's tiiiiiiime!

To announce the new characters that shall be joining us all at FH shortly!

Freshmen

Bucky Katt (Get Fuzzy)
Fawn Singleton Farell (No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook and Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again: A Symphonic Novel)
Frank Abagnale (Catch Me If You Can)

Sophomores

Aino Minako (Sailormoon/Sailor V)
George Drayton (The Edge)
Marasiah Fel (Star Wars: Legacy)
Peeta Mellark (The Hunger Games)
Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar (Landscapes of Ephemera)
Sparkle (Habitat)

Juniors

Atton Rand (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)
Dorothy "Ace" McShane (Doctor Who)
Karolina Dean (Runaways)
Katrina "Tinny" Doyle (Republic of Doyle)
Thelma Bates (Hex)
Thomasina Coverly (Arcadia)
Victor Mancha (Runaways

Seniors

Matt Garetty (Chronicle)
Terry McGinnis (Batman Beyond)
Ulrik of Denmark (1632/Ring of Fire)

Teachers

Which include many familiar faces, along with some excellent new ones!

Angela Pearly-Gates Montenegro (Bones)
Callie Maggotbone* (Ugly Americans)
Dojima Yurika (Witch Hunter Robin)
Fitzpatrick "Trick" Maccorieghan (Lost Girl)
Kennedy *cough, shifty look* (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Romeo Montague (Romeo + Juliet)
Ronan Nolan (Young Wizards)
Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows)
The Librarian (Discworld)
Yakko Warner (Animaniacs)

Also returning to the fold is Emma Frost as a townie!


Please give everyone a hearty welcome, or welcome back, as the case may be. You know how it's done.
______

* Callie shall also be taking charge of Pixie Dust in town!

The IC yearbooks meme is over thisaway!

It's that time of year again for seniors to invite friends and family to witness their graduation from high school! For those guests who are going to stay at the hotel, here's how the process works.

( Information Under The Cut )

Two new things this time around: First of all, the fifth floor now contains lounge space with complimentary coffee, tea and soda accessible only to hotel guests. The lobby is still open to anyone who doesn't piss off Mary. Second, anyone who requests standard rooms will not have to wait for the RNG to get their room number. I'll be updating the spreadsheet and sending out those room assignments as I process them.

Comment to this post using the form provided under the cut tag. It's one form per room, but you can sign up for multiple rooms in one comment. If there are multiple people who want the same suite, the almighty RNG will decide. I recommend that if you pick a specialty suite, you list two or three back-up options in case the RNG does not rule in your favor. If you have an idea for a specialty suite, talk to me and it could be yours! The deadline to be included in the RNG is Thursday, April 26 at 10 PM PST. If you miss the deadline, go ahead and comment to this post to reserve an ordinary room.

( Handy dandy form )

And once again, comments are screened if you want to surprise everyone with a graduation appearance. Questions will be unscreened as necessary.

'Tis the season for admin spamming, falalalala lalalala...

• If you have summer plans for your graduating senior or other character we'd need to know about, drop those yonder! The IC deadline for those not sticking around for the first summer session to leave the island is Friday, May 4th.


• Workshop applications, big siblings and teaching buddies, and graduation guests and valedictorian applications are all due this Wednesday, April 25th.


• Requests for a new, randomly assigned roommate are due Wednesday, May 5th.


• Hug an Australian Day is Thursday, April 26th.


• Just checking to see if you were paying attention!

Hey everyone! We'd like to interrupt your paintball antics for a quick reminder that applications close tomorrow (Sunday) at 11:59 pm Pacific! So, finish those writing samples and send them in!

Is your room starting to feel a little empty? Does your current roommate snore and steal your socks? Never fear! It's time for the Fandom New Roommate Request Pool!

Dorm roommates may be taken from the incoming batch of characters or from other current characters who want a roommate. No requests for specific newbies, please. If you want your character to move in with someone specific who's already at the school, that can be done anytime through fh_office; this post is just for those who want a surprise! Also be aware that commenting doesn't guarantee you'll get someone, but we'll see what we can do.

Comments are screened for your pleasure,  but check in with your character's current roommate before signing up for a new one.

The deadline is Wednesday, May 5th, so get 'em in!

Since the Howells are still freaking here, the administration has racheted up the annoyances! Nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan!

Two new species will be joining the ranks of the evil swarming bunnies tomorrow! First, the ferocious gizka! They are small, frog-like reptiles who enjoy hopping around, crawling under anything that can be crawled at, getting in awkward corners and spawning by the dozens.

The gizka diet includes such delicacies as electrical wiring, and while they are relatively easy to kill, it's likely that for every gizka death, you'll see another three appearing from under any nearby available object.

Oh, and they're a delicacy on some planets. You're welcome to give it a shot.

Secondly, we have the Protopets which are, according to their developer, Megacorp, the ultimate plaything! They're bouncy and they have big cute eyes and they look comical with their stubby feet stuck on a blue, fuzzy blob of a body! You will shriek with joy when you meet your new adorable friends!

Or, you might shriek because they were released into the world with some design flaws. Like the fact that they have big sharp teeth coupled with the desire to try and eat other sentient life forms, and that includes you. As they're small and not too strong and don't even have hands to grab you with, they are fairly easily disposed of, but you better act quickly, because they reproduce fast and easy. By opening their mouths and burping out three new Protopets.

And you thought the rabbits were bad.

On the plus side, they're probably tearing up your uniforms!

Tomorrow is the chance to get your BDE fighty aggressions out: we'll have a big park post for you to get your asskicking on in a group setting, though there will certainly be enough of these things overrunning the island (and the dorms, and possibly the classes) for you to mod them in a more one-on-one setting.

There might even be enough around to knock the Howells out of their oblivion.

...maybe.

Questions, concerns, adorable rabbits?

Hey everyone! We hope you enjoyed the friendly aliens today, because tomorrow's visitors are not going to be quite so nice. The super-smart Fandom High administration is going to be importing a small invasion of chompy bunnies from Portalocity.



Unlike their jugular-loving counterparts, these bunnies will be aiming more for ankles and knees. (They're low achievers. What can you expect from Portalocity?) They can be easily defeated by...well, any means you'd use to take out a bunny, but don't feel bad. These little guys will be sticking around until Friday, as when they're not attacking people, they'll be doing what rabbits do best, bow chicka wow wow.

If you have any questions, let us know here!

Hey folks! The almighty RNG has spoken, and here is the list of new, same-gender roommates for those who are currently in opposite-gender room assignments. Tomorrow morning, these students will be handwavily visited by a kind radio squirrel, with a message from the administration explaining that they will have to live in their new rooms until the Howells leave, with great apologies, of course. If you have any questions, let us know here!

Hey everyone! This is a reminder that things in Fandom are going to get a bit...well, normal for Fandom this week. Tomorrow (Monday), anyone drinking Red Bull, or any other caffeinated drink, will find themselves with wings, and on Tuesday, the island is going to be hit with an invasion of wee squeaky green aliens. These adorable aliens will be getting themselves into all kinds of trouble around the island, and if you save them, they'll follow you around for the rest of the day, declaring their undying gratitude to you in creepy unison.

Mwahahaha!

Big Sibling Program

New students need old volunteers to help them get settled in, right? Right. We need IC student volunteers to pair up with incoming students and help them adjust to Fandom's little quirks. (And by 'little quirks' we clearly mean 'their fellow students turning into monsters' 'sometimes the entire universe disappears' and so forth.) The idea behind this pairing is for the new student to have at least one person they can go to if they're not settling in too well and to ask questions and generally get answers that don't suck. OOCly-speaking, the big sibling's player should be available to help out the little sibling's player. Sometimes minimal help is needed as the little sibling will be a current player (or super duper fast at getting into the flow of FH) but if the player is new, you will act as their liaison and mentor while they get settled into the game. You need to be available OOCly to answer their questions, guide them in the right direction while they get used to the game, and hold their hand so they're not overwhelmed. Not literally, unless you expect to, like, stick your hand straight through the screen or something.

Buddy System

This is the teacher version of the big sibling program. The idea is that you currently play a teacher or administrator, and your character is willing to show a new teacher/faculty member the ropes of living and teaching in Fandom. ICly your character will be there to answer any questions and take the poor teacher drinking after their first week (knowing these classes, the students might need it more). OOCly, if the player is new (or new to teaching) then you'll be on hand to provide answers to their questions, help them out and generally guide them while they get used to the game and/or RP teaching.

What we need from you

Please volunteer if you fit the following:

• Your character won't be antagonistic about helping out someone (ICly, your character can be signed up against their will, but, please don't sign up if they're not going to be helpful to a new student or teacher)
  
  
• You have the time to field questions from a newbie, and your character will be around consistently for the first few weeks of the winter semester (for the record, newbies arrive Saturday, May 5th)
  
  
• You're genuinely willing to help. This game is big. It can be intimidating at first. Having someone who's a friendly face in the crowd helps new players out a heck of a lot, but being assigned to someone who disappears or isn't willing to help takes a lot of the fun out of starting up.
  

So, after reading all that, if you think you're up to the job and you think your character will be helpful to a new student character, use the OCD threads below to sign up for the appropriate job! Please sign up in the appropriate thread of this post by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday, April 25th if you're interested!

As always, if you have any questions you don't want to ask in the post, please contact the admins via administration@fandomhigh.net and we'll get back to you as speedily as possible!

Graduation is on the horizon -- woe -- so it's time to get some logistics taken care of!

NPC Guests
Guest NPCs can have their own journals, just like Parents Weekend, that need to be signed up here. Whether your character knows their NPC guests are coming is, of course, totally up to you and your level of eviltude, but we need to know by Wednesday, April 25th. There's no limit on number of guests. We expect people will app what they think they can handle playing with over the course of the weekend.

Please provide us with the following information for each NPC guest; comments are screened. ( Now with more scissors! )

Again, NPC guests are only for seniors. Other students are more than welcome to attend the graduation ceremony in support of their friends, but they can't bring their own NPCs.

Alumni and Expatriates
All alumni and expats are welcome to show up and don't need to be signed up here or specifically invited by a senior. They also don't have to count this towards their monthly 5 days of island visitation. All guests -- NPC and alum/expat -- are welcome to visit campus but need to sleep in town. The Arms Hotel will be open and usually has a post for requesting rooms up ahead of time. Guests can start arriving the evening of Thursday, April 26th, and need to leave the island by Monday, April 30th.

Valedictorian
Since it worked out quite well the last few years, we're sticking with the same method of choosing a valedictorian (and possibly a salutatorian as well): we're asking interested seniors to submit a brief in-character essay (up to 3 paragraphs) on why they should be considered for the job.

Keep in mind that the valedictorian will be expected to make a speech at graduation. All essays need to be submitted as a screened comment here, also due by next Wednesday, April 25th. If you have any questions, leave them here as well, and they'll be unscreened!

And before we kick off the BDE, how about some OCD for next semester?

Do YOU Need This Form?

• If you are a current teacher and would like to continue teaching, just read the next sections and fill out the form below.


• If you are a current townie and would like to teach a community center class, just read the next sections and fill out the form below.


• If you are a recent grad and would like to teach a summer workshop, please ping in here and then read the next sections and fill out the form below.


• If you are a current teacher wanting to move to townie status OR a current townie wanting to teach a student class, go here.


• New teacher characters should fill out the regular application form and ignore this post entirely.

What If I Want To Teach Adults At The Community Center?

Community center classes, much like FH classes, can be whatever the teacher wants them to be. If you want to teach a craft or life skill, or hold weekly lectures on why your character is the most awesome ever, that is your choice. The key is getting other players (and their characters) interested enough to show up each week. The difference between community center classes and FH classes is that while we would require someone teaching a course as their job to post weekly, there is no requirement for a class to show up.

Any adult can teach a community center course just for fun, too, in addition to their regular job. Again, just fill out the form here and let us know so we can put it on a little schedule, so players can know in advance that there will be a class available in which to participate.

What's Needed For A Class?

• The ability to come up with 7 weeks worth of classes (6 + 1 exam).


• The ability to post each class by noon Pacific or 3pm Eastern the day it's scheduled (you can also post the night before).


• The ability to interact with your students (slow play is fine, you don't need to be around all the time).

( The Form )Remember, not hearing from us right away is good - we will e-mail current/returning teachers to let them know their workshop works for us around the same time we send out final decisions on character applications.

Your teacher character's form will need to be in these comments by Wednesday, April 25th by 11:59pm Pacific for great scheduling justice.

Good Morning, Fandom! It's time for another round of our favorite livejournal game, Good News, Bad News!

Livejournal Release 91 is live: News | LJ Releases.

Good News

* The "multiple keywords = default icon" bug in the default comment style has been fixed. Sort of.

* Thread expansion should be working better... in the default comment style.

Neutral News

Otherwise known as "This doesn't affect FH but we're noting it for you just in case you use it elsewhere."

* Community moderators can now edit the tags of posts while they're in the moderating queue, before they go live. (FH doesn't moderate posts, so n/a for us.)

* Posts that have been approved from said moderating queue (which FH doesn't use) will now have a little stamp showing which mod approved them, in the default comment style (which FH comms don't use).

Bad News

* No fixes for any existing custom/classic comment issues yet.

* That fix for "multiple keywords=default" was accomplished by LJ removing all alternate keywords from your options in the default style only except the one that comes first alphabetically. No big deal for the visual browser since you see the picture anyway, but if you're using the Stylish script that gives you back a dropdown text list, all of those additional keywords will be missing from your list. (i.e. I have a (worksafe) icon whose keywords are "kink" and "porn" -- in default style with the Stylish script, "porn" is missing from the list.) This does not affect custom comment pages, which still show all keywords.

* Release 91 seems to have broken the Greasemonkey script that fixes the comment entry box to give you back the opportunity to add a subject line. LJ's not likely to fix that, since other people's scripts aren't their problem; it's highly likely that the author will put out an update, though. Again, this does not affect custom comment pages, just those using the default pages with scripts. ETA: Yup, that script has been updated - thanks for the heads up, Jara!

* All custom comment pages (including classic comments) are now displaying comment timestamps in UTC (Greenwich Mean Time) instead of your personal settings. That one's a bug LJ probably will fix, but we bring it up so you don't have to WTF like we did, and because it does affect custom comments, which includes the FH comms.

WDEK News

That stands for "We Don't Even Know."

* LJ has changed how LJ cuts display. They now look like this Your cut text here instead of like this: ( Your cut text here )

*Except it's not an image, it's a unicode symbol which means that it changes with your text size and some people whose browsers/computers don't display that symbol just see [] Your cut text here.

It looks okay in some styles and not quite so okay in others, but doesn't actually break anything. It's just some aesthetic WTFery, this who knows where it falls in the Good News, Bad News game.

( Actual Example, With Nothing Actually Hidden Behind It )

In conclusion, there is no goat-punching thread because that's what the whole post is for. There's only an OOC thread because it's Friday the 13th and we're not quite dumb enough to invite that kind of trouble.

Because reasons. And 'cause we haven't done this since December, and the instructions are easy:

Your character has just ingested a large quantity of veritaserum, or "truth potion." Any questions asked of them they have to answer truthfully, whether they want to or not! There's absolutely no way around it.

Remember to keep checking in throughout the day for moar people pinging in so you can ask them questions, too! GO MEME.

Hey everyone! This is a reminder that early applications for the first summer session must be submitted by tomorrow, April 8th, by 11:59 p.m. Also, all BDE signups will close on Monday, April 9th at 11:59 p.m.

*shares fudge brownies*

We haven't done this since December, and I feel like we could all use some warm fuzzies on this bright April day. So, here's how it works:

1. Make a comment to this post with the name of your character. (If you play more than one character, you can make a comment for each of them.)
2. Go through and leave anonymous comments in other characters' threads saying nice things about them. (About the character or how they're played, or even something you like about the player; any of this is acceptable as long as they're nice things.)
3. Read the comments your characters get and feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Please don't say anything negative to anyone in this post. Meanface comments will be deleted. This is about making people feel good. Don't forget to keep checking in on the post throughout the day to give love to the to the new people that pinged in! Remember, if you ping in, please try and go around the meme and leave some love too.

Anon commenting should be on, but if there's any trouble, hit me up at justonepersona [at] gmail [dot] com!

In order to plan for the summer terms, we need to know what your plans are for your students. Graduates are welcome to stay for the summer as long as they TA for a workshop (it's up to you to find a teacher to TA for), have a job in town where they can continue to work (as long as there's a post of them at their job at least once a week), or if you would like to have your newly-minted grad run a workshop of their own.

Some things to keep in mind:

• You can leave at the end the first term if you'd like (the beginning of July), or go home for the first term and come back for the second.
  
• The IC deadline for those who are planning to leave the island (graduates who aren't sticking around, students who are going away for the summer, and students who are leaving the game or becoming expats) is Friday, May 4th.
  
• Your graduate can ICly plan to stick around, but be whisked home partway through the term unexpectedly. This means their only option for summer employment will be a job in town- they cannot run a workshop or TA for one if they're leaving before it's completed.

All graduates will need to leave the island by the end of the second term (the end of August).

If you've got some summer plans that we need to know, please fill out the following information to let us know what you're planning (replies will be screened):
<b>Character Name:</b> <b>Moving to alumni status, or riding off into the sunset?</b> <b>If alumni, leaving the island May 4th, staying for only the first summer session, leaving but coming back for the second session, leaving unexpectedly at some point (please provide a rough date estimate) or staying for the whole summer?</b> <b>If staying, as a TA, workshop teacher, or working in town? (if you need time to arrange a TAship, just let us know you're working on it, then send in an update once you've secured your position. likewise, potential workshop details can go in the "call for workshops" post.)</b> <b>If you're a non-senior student (meaning other students and faculty) but you have some summer plans (leaving for first term, leaving for second term, leaving for the entire summer) that we need to know, please let us know them here: </b>

Also, because nookiepowered requested it: A commercial for this and this is what I see every time I watch Lost Girl on the Showcase website. (links not graphic, but probably not worksafe)

Given the current not-ideal-for-RP changes to the LJ default comments and our many discussions of alternatives, we thought we should bring together a list in one place of the various options and how to install each, as well as the attached drawbacks and benefits. (Not listed in order of importance! An annoyance for one user may be a dealbreaker for others, or vice versa.)

Most of this isn't new information, per se, but it's scattered over a number of discussion posts that might not be the easiest to comb through, so here it all is in one place! We'll keep updating this post as new options and tweaks come in, and link it from the FH user-info.

(Warning in advance that any "It looks like this" link is probably to a rather huge image of a full-size page.)

( LJ Default Comment Style )
( Default with Script Fixes )
( Classic Comments )
( Other Custom Comments )
( How Can I See Everything In A Style That Works For Me? )

[No opossums were harmed in the posting of this post.]

April
hoorayimrich -- April 1
thatsamilkshake -- April 1
ihavediabetes -- April 3
wannabehunter -- April 7, 1985
weetuskenraider -- April 7
notagoose -- April 12
izzyalienqueen -- April 14, 1983
awakestheghosts -- April 14, 1993
hurtingzeebo -- April 17
holy_daughter -- April 18, 1480
likethestore -- April 19, 1993
sith_happened -- April 19
ihatedenmark -- April 23
blondecanary -- April 23
dollpocalypse -- April 24
electrocynic -- April 27, 1978
not_a_parakeet -- April 28
glacial_witch -- April 28, 1994
onapalebicycle-- April 29
locointhecoco-- April 29
chief_cheerio -- April 30

Comments/additions/changes can go in the comments here!

Hello folks! It's time for Fandom to be invaded again, and this time around, the island's citizens will have to deal with...the school board! If that doesn't sound scary, well, just keep reading.

( We're not cackling, and if we were, it shouldn't be taken as a bad sign, really... )

This is my favorite meme and it feels like a good day for it, with our scrappy little snapshots of people's potential futures running around, so I give you Future Possibilities! Which we haven't done since November, so.

Ask for futures! Maybe some involving kids, even.

As need_no_moon wrote:

Tag in with your character, then people will ping you with their prompt. The prompt consists of
1) a time/place (ex. Fire Nation, Middle Ages, Medieval England, etc)
2) a cast: FH or canon character(s), as many as you'd like but think of the other person's brain
3) an additional random prompt (ex. end of the world, icebergs, football, etc)

Using these prompts, it's then up to you to think of a possible future for your character involving the three criteria given to you. It can be cracky, sad, happy, dorky, looby, romantic, angsty, etcetcetc. Just let your imagination flow.

If you tag in, please try to comment to others and check back later to see if new people tagged in.

Happy Sunday!

We modly types, as frustrated as you have been with LJ’s shenanigans over the last year, had been working on feasible back-up plans for our game and we finally have enough of the logistics worked out to share one with you!

While many of you may have taken the suggestion that we move to a commune as a joke, we took the time to seriously consider it. After a long debate on the matter, we've decided that the best course of action would be to purchase a few acres of property and give it a shot. Now, to make things more fair for our non-American players, we've decided to choose a location that can not be thought biased in one way or another.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia! Yes, it’s technically one of the coldest places on Earth, but we’re going to be spending most of our time inside anyway, and the dollar really does go further there.

Along with with land, we have also secured a goodly number of yak and steppe ponies for the use of the players. It may take a small period of adjustment, but we think that this sort of life will come easily enough to those of us who have roleplayed as characters from such settings.

In order to help you all with this move, we've gathered a few helpful links!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g293955-Mongolia-Vacations.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolia/History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolia/Culture
http://www.kayak.com

While we understand the burden of such a move would take time on the part of the players, we would very much like to have everything set up and fully populated before the second summer session. There are a set number of yerts available that have already been assembled, so any players who arrive late will have to build their own.

It's a big change, but we feel that, together, we can manage this!

( Poll )

Just a confirmation, y'all: everybody's AU kid apps are fine and dandy. Go forth and... try not to multiply?

As inspired by this post. Show us the cute -- and the surly teenagers! You know you've been dying to.

And if you want to talk about your fake baby names too, go for it!

With Prom coming up tomorrow, we've been doing some detective work on when, where and how the Classic and (other) Custom comments break pages, and putting together our best suggestions on how to avoid it. This is a "for now" thing, of course; should LJ fix the pagebreaking issues, we'll let everybody know ASAP.

Here's what we've discovered: as long as you don't let any individual thread -- one single line of back and forth replies counting from the top-level reply to the post (aka the OCD header) -- reach 100 comments, you won't break the page.

So, to make big posts like Prom and the picnics work:

When a thread gets to around 90 comments (or fewer if you want to be extra-cautious), do 1 of 2 things

• Move the conversation to someone's character journal, and end the comm thread with a link over to the personal post



• Stay in the comm post, but
  
  
  • Go back and reply to the third comment in the thread -- in other words, not the OCD header and not the anchor comment of the first character in the conversation (because other people might have replied to that too and you don't want their subthreads to interrupt yours)
  
  
  
  • Branch off from there with a "Continued from..." link, and start counting toward 90 again
  
  
  
  • Also make sure you add one more "Continued over here..." comment to the end of the previous subthread so everything's linked up!
  
  

If we pull that off, we can have threads that look like this, and pages that look like this without anything getting busticated!

(The screened comments are saving your sanity from the creepypasta I was posting when I got bored with replying YOUR FACE to myself.)

This has been tested in both Firefox and Chrome, and on the Classic Comments (which all the FH comms are in) as well as custom comments for Smooth Sailing, Flexible Squares, and Expressive -- so you should be able to use the same strategy to avoid breaking pages in your personal posts too.

__

As a related note, we're going to put up a resource post soonish on the different types of comment styles and how to enable them, the issues with them, and so on, linking up the stuff we've already posted in bits and pieces. We'll also include a discussion section for people to describe what they're using and either ask for help or offer it. It'll take a little while to pull it together, especially with this weekend keeping everyone busy, but it's on the horizon!

Also special thanks to longislandiceme for taking his shirt off FOR SCIENCE, and yes, I totally want to do Pixelated Naughty Bits day for realz sometime so we can have Equal Opportunity Shirtlessness.

Hey, folks!

This is just a friendly reminder that sign-ups for AU Kids Weekend end tonight at 11:59 PM (or as we say it in my neck of the woods, '23:59') PST!

Get yer get yer apps in!