It's March already and this year is flying by.  So once again we're touching base with the community!

Discord Changes and Clarifications

We've made a few notable changes to our discord this month and we want to clarify a few things that we've gotten questions about.

Recent Changes

• We've added a #writing_gallery channel to showcase written works to compliment our art_gallery which is primarily focused on visuals.
• Emoji use in the #questions and #design_feedback channels on discord will now be restricted to moderator staff.

A Few Clarifications

• The #art_gallery is a place for primarily visual arts, this includes drawings, crafts, and heavily curated photography.
  • We have gotten questions in the past on whether or not photography has a place in the #art_gallery, and the team feels that it does. If you're sharing photos though as an art piece, we do ask they not just be casually taken photos that may be more appropriate for other channels like #pet_appreciation, #cook_nook, #discovery_channel, etc.
  • No matter what medium you are sharing visual art of, please be conscientious of spam. If you wish to share many pictures of something drawn, photographed, or otherwise, we ask you to choose your best image or two and then link to a more robust gallery if you want to share more.
• Only responses in #questions and #design_feedback from modberries, prompt team moderators and design team moderators are considered official responses to general questions.
  
  • We have many channels where other members casually try to help out, and occasionally moderators may respond in other spaces too with a best guess, but these are not to be considered official responses to questions regardless of who they come from.
  • Generally questions asked in #questions and #design feedback goes through more than just one staff member to try to ensure we're giving accurate responses. When any moderator or group member replies in a one-off fashion in general channels there is a risk that their feedback may contain their personal opinion in a casual way or misinformation, so we ask group members to take these answers with a grain of salt and know they may not always be accurate.
  • Only discord moderators may hop into any channel to address discord specific tasks or conflicts.

Moderator Changes and Current Queues

We've had some adjustments in our staffing in recent months and many of our mods have had some things cropping up in their daily lives.

Tatter and Leechi Are Off to Other Pursuits!

In the past few months here we've had a few of our prompt team staff step down due to work and family commitments taking priority in their lives. Moderating was an aspect they didn't feel they would be able to keep up with. As always the team is supportive of moderators prioritizing the things they need to do in life. While it is unfortunate we have to see the teammates we enjoy working with go, we're hopeful to continue to see them around the group and taking care of themselves. Tatter was among the older staff members on our prompts team and Leechi joined the team a few years after. We're wishing them some easier times in months to come even as some other things in life ramp up for them!

Slower Responses and Queues this Month and Next Month

We just want to call some attention to regular group systems moving a bit slower on all fronts this month and potentially next month. We've had a few team members step down and several others are still helping out but currently experiencing some rougher times. Work has been strenuous on some of our staff while others are out sick or dealing with some difficult family matters. While we won't be going into many details, we did want to ask the community for a little more patience as the team works through things this month and next month. Please expect things to be a bit slower and try to recognize we're a bit of a skeleton crew during this period of time.

It is worth mentioning Starbask will be out of town for the last two weeks this month with little to no computer access. This means some more involved approvals, questions, or tasks may be on hold during that time and take a bit of time thereafter to catch up on. The team can usually handle many tasks and questions but some still fall to Starbask and Mana to confer on and clarify details on as needed.

A Raffle on the Horizon

We did a free kittom raffle back in December and we'll be hosting another small one this month. The raffle will go live soon, time permitting, and be open for a minimum of 48 hours with intent to be rolled some time Sunday March 17th, 2024 PST time. There will not be a prompt requirement to enter this raffle, however the form to enter the raffle will include a question about what your favorite part of spring is! So start brainstorming if there's some things you are particularly fond of during the springtime!