Oh hello there, lovelys and welcome to March, the month that brings us spring. Yay Spring! It's also a month that brings us a lot of news, board wise, so Lell and I are doing double duty on the announcement this month! Grab a drink, get comfy and get ready for loads of info.

Unlike the norm Lell and I had decided to save this months announcement for after the activity check. There was one main reason for this, and a reason that I'm sure a lot of you have already picked up on. Audrey, our in absentia admin, has been gone for three months as of this check. We've been in contact with her, and while she's doing very well, Audrey has decided to focus on other things, mainly her real life, instead of our little make believe one.

With the adorable family she has and the talent she possesses, neither Lell or I can really blame her for this decision. We will miss her greatly, as we are certain many of you will, but we totally understand and accept her choice.

Lell says: Woo for double-teaming staff posts. Ahem. Hi there. We're sorry to bring you the sad news about Audrey currently not having time in her life for WoH, but she is living life to the max right now and I am happy for her even as I'm melancholy about us losing her. As with most members, her OCs will be archived and her canons will be put back up for adoption...all except one. After long deliberation, Penni and I decided that Scott was really too vital a canon to NOT have in play given how key he is to the organisation and the history/plots that Audrey built up with him while in play. So as to not disappoint members and characters with plots with him...I will be taking him. In spite of my already vast collection of characters, this decision was made because we're more comfortable with Scott in the hands of an established member (and we all know I'm not going anywhere) and also a staffer since we know Cyke makes a lot of decisions. Penni has Logan and her playing Scott would deprive us all of that lovely dynamic and so, yeah, Lell-Scott. I hope I can do him justice.

The observant ones among you are probably already going 'HEY. LELL. WAIT. YOU ALREADY PLAY A SUMMERS.' Well, hold your horses, kids, I'm well aware of that. XD Way back when, I actually took up Havok to make Audrey happy and, in truth, he's never sat particularly well with me. But playing two Summers brothers is OBVIOUSLY ridiculous and so, by taking Scott on, I will also effectively be dropping Alex. He will go UFA from this moment onwards, though as a starred canon, which means he will have some contingencies in his shared history with Scott to maintain continuity because we love that here. So, technically, I'm not so much taking on a new character as replacing one. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Back to Penni!

While on the subjects of characters I think it's important that we put a little reminder out there that while we understand that romance (and all it entails) is an important part of life, and therefore role playing, it is not the be all, end all; especially of this site. Wake of Humanity is first and foremost a Marvel X-men based game which features on their struggles integrating into humanity and their character development as such. We are not here so that characters can couple up with one another. There are sites where such things are the purpose, and really the only reason they exist, but this is not one of them.

Relationships, while they do occur, need to do so with realism and time, and bearing in mind the consequence that with come as a result. If you have a character that is particularly flirtatious or promiscuous, there will be characters that view them negatively for such actions, the same goes if you have a character that's a prude. Try, with all things, to play them with as much realism and moderation as possible. If you had a character which drank all the time, or did drugs, they wouldn't be likely X-mansion members or X-men candidates. The Brotherhood would also likely look down upon such actions. Just keep in mind cause and effect, and things will be stellar.

Due to a brief mention in the cbox last night, as well, I feel the need to touch on something that Lell and I discussed today. There will be no character pregnancies without prior admin approval. Approval that is very likely going to be denied. Again. We are not one of those sites. In the words of Logan, everyone who is having sex should have enough mental acuity to 'wrap that shit up'.

Lell says: And while we're on the subject of house-keeping, here are some things that Penni and I have been noticing cropping up a little bit more often than we like and just wanted to touch on now. Currently, they are not yet problems and this is aimed at no one person in particular because I think we've all been getting a bit lax, so just consider this a refresher reminder of what it takes to keep our WoH environment happy and comfortable for everyone. Nipping any potential problems in the bud early, so to speak.

So our first reminder is cbox related. Now we're a very relaxed community and I love how comfortable we've become around each other, with crazy hijinks and running jokes and that amazing energy that defines WoH. What we want to ensure, though, is that that craziness doesn't get too out of hand and that we don't, a, scare off potential members or, b, make current ones uncomfortable. This means taking a hard look at the subjects brought up in the cbox and going 'are they really appropriate? Will they make people uncomfortable?' So if you think it's too pervy, too controversial or if you're stating something like it's fact, rather than opinion...well, maybe keep it to IMs. Remember the cbox is public and that anyone can see it, and that we want guests to judge us based on WoH's friendly, open nature, not on a scarily crazy group of people. xD

More cbox etiquette - name-jumping is hilarious, we know. But, again, so as not to confuse all the lovely people, all cbox names need to have some reference to your alias so you can be identifiable to everyone. For example, Lell going as Lell-o-phone because I'm at the zoo is fine, since you know it's me. Lell going as something completely random that makes you unsure as to who I am is not.

Finally, a familiar matter, but one that I think is very important - post-nagging. Again, this is because we've all gotten very comfortable with each other, but - joking or not - pressuring people for posts or plots in the cbox is neither productive, appropriate or acceptable. Neither is passive-aggressively asking for posts through repeated statements of being bored or not having anything to do. Basically, we want the cbox to be a chilled, relaxed place where ALL members of WoH can chat without worrying about being squicked out, made uncomfortable or pressured into posting. Most of us are extremely busy outside of WoH (I certainly know Penni and I are!) and roleplaying is our way of letting off steam. So let's keep it relaxing, folks.

One last note from Penni: The Staff and the Sidebar. I feel that as we've grown and collected members we've also grown lax about one more thing, the respect that the staff should receive. This isn't towards anyone specific, or really anyone with us at the moment, but just a general reminder, and an update. With Audrey having moved onto better and brighter things, Lell and I are now site Co-Owners. We may like to opt to talk to one another before making decisions, but we do not have to. We can each decide things on our own. Following us comes Am and Crystal. The only thing that they are unable to do is accept applications or make final calls. They are, however, to be fully respected and treated as you would treat your admins. Listen to what they have to say, respect their suggestions, and accept their answers as fact.

In order to further reenforce this fact the sidebar will be reduced to just the four of us. If you're one of our lovely adverters, you will still retain moderating privileges (so long as you actually make use of them) but you will not be featured on the bar. It doesn't mean we love you any less, we just feel it's an important structure to define.

Lell says: Finally, I would like to point out how much we DO love you all. We've been open over nine months now and the thing I adore so much about this site is the fact that we have this beautiful mix of members, some of whom have been with us practically from the start, and all of you amazing new people who have been joining us! Every app makes us happy, every new addition makes us grin. Because for all that we're staff and, yeah, we occasionally have to write reminders such as the above, WoH is completely member-driven and we quite simply would not be the successful site that we are today without you guys being awesome and playing scintillating characters and keeping post quality so unbelievably HIGH! Penni and I have several long-term board-wide plots in the works, but the amazing thing about WoH is that we haven't NEEDED to implement them - you guys have been making up and driving your own plots and that's the way it SHOULD be.

So we as your site co-owners want to say thank you to YOU guys. For everything that you do and will continue to do. Stay awesome, guys. <3

Penni and Lell.