In response to some questions about timelines coming up relative to Kittsunami in 2021!

The December prompt this month ends on the 28th for anyone trying to get the potential 2AP from that. ovob

In terms of Kittsunami we're tentatively aiming for some time around mid February to host the start of the event.

What this means for prompts in January/February. We're going to aim to have January's prompt span 2 months long, running through February as well. There will be 2 submissions total for that prompt. So if you're prioritizing getting growths done and don't need the AP you could in theory put your growths first and not worry about the prompt until February. Or inversely if you're relying on February AP for a growth you could start on doing both submissions early January to get those in before we close new approvals.

So what does this mean timeline wise?

A few things...

1. January 15th is the latest we recommend getting in questing/prompts for AP.
2. January 23rd will be the last day we'll be accepting any NEW design update submissions to our queue. We will be closing design updates at this point meaning it will not be possible to submit any new edits/growths/etc.
3. January 24th - February 7th. In this 2 week window of time we'll only be addressing any feedback for things already in the queue.
   - The first week will be focused on trying to get the bulk of feedback to people.
   - The second week will be focused on final edits. Specifically if you've submitted something and it has just minor tweaks needed and is resubmitted ASAP we'll try to get to it but no promises.

Things we want to emphasize:

1. We're going to do our best to address everyone’s approvals and quests in a timely fashion but given the team is entirely composed of volunteers our work is most commonly done during our free time, usually on the weekends, so don’t worry if some time has passed and you haven’t heard back yet.
   
2. We're trying to talk with team members now to get a sense for how busy they will be around deadlines. We know midterms for some of our staff are around then so we will be down 2 staff early February. At least 1 other staff member is considered an essential worker, meaning if the pandemic gets worse they may be busy as well. If anyone else on the team has circumstances pop up we'll be working around those too.
   
3. The pandemic is in full swing still, and unfortunately it's currently directly impacting Mana and her family. To be supportive we are expecting her focus to be on her family at the moment. So what does this mean for stuff currently waiting on her? We'll be doing our best to try to address what we can to get back to users with what we know for sure will work approval wise. This means we may recommend edits that we know for sure we can approve based on the current guidelines we have. Otherwise stuff currently waiting on her will likely be impacted.
   
4. We can't stress getting in things early enough at the moment. If you're confident you will have currency by Kittsunami please get in any WIPs you have ASAP. Those without payment attached will still be considered lower priority but the more time we have to review the better.
   
5. We expect a lot of approvals to hit us on all fronts (design, prompt, and questing wise) in January. We've had approvals open since September and will do our best to try to do what we can in January but please understand we will not be making last minute exceptions or rushing last minute to approve things that need a lot of edits.
6. We know there has been concern about the number of mods and that hiring more mods may resolve the issue. However the same concerns still apply in that at the end of the day, being a mod means volunteering your free time and we will always ask mods to prioritize their RL life/health first and foremost.
   
   We may consider the option post-Kittsunami when there is less of a time crunch for planning, but as bringing more mods requires input from Mana as well as training which is not feasible during events or Covid, this is not a solution we can consider until the distant future.

Hopefully this gets everyone on the same page! Some of our staff between now and then will be focusing more heavily on the planning side of Kittsunami. We will do our best but we're definitely not superhuman without limits. It's a lot of pressure and we don't want staff burning out before the event even starts. Thank you for your patience!