Howdy AARland.
A few weeks ago, @TheButterflyComposer and I started thinking about some sort of community project to mark the end of what has been an eventful 12 months here in our corner of the forum. At first we mooted some sort of good humoured roast among consenting friends (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open FiAAR, anyone?) but taking various things into account we eventually settled on something which we think has a bit more of a general appeal: a yearly review “publication”.
The immediate inspiration for this venture is the December 2013 Christmas special edition of the AARlander, which for those who don’t know was a community newspaper published variously under a handful of editors and under a few different names between 2004–2014. (Browse the AARchives here.) The idea here is to compile a one-off “issue” to cap off the year, sort of like an almanac that is by turns reflective and irreverent.
Following some informal canvassing, and an initial ideation session over google docs, we have an excellent cast of AARlanders who have expressed an interest in taking part by writing. The main body of the Review will be just that: a look back at what 2020 had in store for AARland, subforum by subforum. Around this, as circumstances permit, we will hopefully have a few festive skits and the like, as well as some words of wisdom from pillars of the community. With luck, in time for Christmas we’ll have ourselves a really good celebration of the year, and something that will hopefully complement nicely other seasonal initiatives going on around AARland at the moment.
In the interests of both propriety and theatre, I don’t intend for this thread to be where all the fine detail work of planning takes place. This, I think, is best done in private and on the google doc. That said, owing to the fact that coordinating groups beyond about 6 can be quite difficult on the forum, I propose this thread exist as a central reference point that everyone involved can use to check in and keep things coordinated. As an added bonus, putting this out there a) means that we’ve committed so we have to pull it off, and b) lets us (hopefully) build a bit of excitement for what should be a good bit of festive fun.
(Once the Review is up, this can probably turn into the comments thread, as we used to do with the AARlander.)
Just to start, I’ll list everyone who has indicated to either me or Butterfly that they would be interested in writing, or in some cases have already contributed something to the doc:
@Bullfilter @coz1 @diskoerekto @El Pip @JabberJock14 @mad orc @RossN @slothinator
If you all would be good enough to check in below just to say whether you’re still up to contribute, and what sort of thing you’d like to write (be it a game-based round-up or something more irreverent) that would be massively helpful. After that we can work stuff out in more detail behind the scenes. (This isn’t aimed so much at you, coz. You’re already well ahead of me
) If you don’t have the google doc link and would like it, let me know and I’ll share it with you. (I won’t drop it here because that would give the whole game away.)
I should also note that this is not a closed shop and we absolutely welcome contributions of any scale from all comers.
All that remains to say, I think, is thanks for reading, and I hope that what we’re planning sounds fun. Any questions, either drop them below or get in touch by PM.
Greetings of the season to you all, and as is customary in these parts, happy reading!
DB
A few weeks ago, @TheButterflyComposer and I started thinking about some sort of community project to mark the end of what has been an eventful 12 months here in our corner of the forum. At first we mooted some sort of good humoured roast among consenting friends (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open FiAAR, anyone?) but taking various things into account we eventually settled on something which we think has a bit more of a general appeal: a yearly review “publication”.
The immediate inspiration for this venture is the December 2013 Christmas special edition of the AARlander, which for those who don’t know was a community newspaper published variously under a handful of editors and under a few different names between 2004–2014. (Browse the AARchives here.) The idea here is to compile a one-off “issue” to cap off the year, sort of like an almanac that is by turns reflective and irreverent.
Following some informal canvassing, and an initial ideation session over google docs, we have an excellent cast of AARlanders who have expressed an interest in taking part by writing. The main body of the Review will be just that: a look back at what 2020 had in store for AARland, subforum by subforum. Around this, as circumstances permit, we will hopefully have a few festive skits and the like, as well as some words of wisdom from pillars of the community. With luck, in time for Christmas we’ll have ourselves a really good celebration of the year, and something that will hopefully complement nicely other seasonal initiatives going on around AARland at the moment.
In the interests of both propriety and theatre, I don’t intend for this thread to be where all the fine detail work of planning takes place. This, I think, is best done in private and on the google doc. That said, owing to the fact that coordinating groups beyond about 6 can be quite difficult on the forum, I propose this thread exist as a central reference point that everyone involved can use to check in and keep things coordinated. As an added bonus, putting this out there a) means that we’ve committed so we have to pull it off, and b) lets us (hopefully) build a bit of excitement for what should be a good bit of festive fun.
(Once the Review is up, this can probably turn into the comments thread, as we used to do with the AARlander.)
Just to start, I’ll list everyone who has indicated to either me or Butterfly that they would be interested in writing, or in some cases have already contributed something to the doc:
@Bullfilter @coz1 @diskoerekto @El Pip @JabberJock14 @mad orc @RossN @slothinator
If you all would be good enough to check in below just to say whether you’re still up to contribute, and what sort of thing you’d like to write (be it a game-based round-up or something more irreverent) that would be massively helpful. After that we can work stuff out in more detail behind the scenes. (This isn’t aimed so much at you, coz. You’re already well ahead of me
) If you don’t have the google doc link and would like it, let me know and I’ll share it with you. (I won’t drop it here because that would give the whole game away.)I should also note that this is not a closed shop and we absolutely welcome contributions of any scale from all comers.
All that remains to say, I think, is thanks for reading, and I hope that what we’re planning sounds fun. Any questions, either drop them below or get in touch by PM.
Greetings of the season to you all, and as is customary in these parts, happy reading!
DB
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