Announcement XXV

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<div class="pwcase"><div class="pwborder"><div class="pwtext">[/dohtml]Well met, fellow Istarins! Arius and I are excited to announce that we are continuing to update the site with goals to make things more visible and accessible to help draw in new members and stimulate new plots. To that end, we have rewritten and updated the Plot with a revamped advertisement to follow. Please check it out when you have a chance so you can decide how it might affect your characters going forward and so you’ll be up to date on the site’s current events. We will be making efforts going forward to further the plot, and we’re excited to include your characters as we do!

The Rules have also been updated, so please re-familiarize yourselves with them as soon as you’re able. Most of the changes dealt with simplifying or clarifying the wording, but there is one major change. Starting now, we will be incorporating player accounts on Istari. Every player who currently has an approved character on the site can register an OOC account immediately, which should be designated as the parent account and will be used for communications and OOC posts going forward. If you need help delinking your character accounts for your current parent account or have questions on how to register, please see a member of the staff for assistance.

EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that the "Delink Accounts" option was not displaying in the Sub-Accounts section on the new skin. This problem has now been addressed. I apologize for any inconvenience.

You can also expect to see a site timeline in the near future, which will incorporate both important events in the world’s history and noteworthy events taken from characters’ histories. We’re hoping this will help fuel ideas and help new players incorporate their characters into the site while giving everyone lots of opportunities to network and plot with each other as well. Once this has been implemented, we’ll be sure to let everyone know how they can submit additions!

We would also like to do something similar with groups or factions. This would include things like a werewolf’s pack, a witch’s coven, a guild or adventuring company, a military group, etc. and will give players a place to display a little info on their group and recruit new members, if they wish. We are looking at creating templates or forums that will let you list the group members and track group threads for easy reference and to help with potential plotting. Unfortunately developing a map of Istari has proved and impossible undertaking with nations growing and changing as players come and go, but its nations will get similar write-ups so that their general location, climate, and basic information will be easily accessible in reference to the other areas of Istari.

To conclude the current batch of updates, we have included an easy-to-use basic posting template available to all players and characters. In the posting window, you will now see a “post” BBCode and a “postd” BBCode. The first will display your text normally in a format which does not require <p> or <br> tags between paragraphs. The second is exactly the same, but will add a spiffy drop-cap effect to the first letter of your post, which you can see above. I am also working on a code that will let you display an image at the beginning of your post within the template, which you can expect to see shortly.

And finally, Arius and I are pleased to announce that Kay will be joining Istari’s staff as a cbox and advertising moderator. She has been an active member of Istari since its creation, and we appreciate her friendly personality and her willingness to jump in and help out new members. We’re very grateful she agreed to help out as Arius and I actively work to grow Istari’s player base and activity! With that in mind, thank you to everyone who has helped us make Istari what it is today – I look forward to what’s in store![dohtml]</div></div></div>
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Application Updates

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June 2nd, 2017</div>

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Well met fellow Istarins!

<p>As many of you know from the last announcement, there will not be a normal activity check this month. Instead, we have updated any apps on the old template to the new template and moved them to this forum. Arius and I have taken care of all the major legwork, so all we need you guys to do is add in new images and write out your characters powers and weaknesses in the new space provided.

<p>There are two image spots included in the new app template. The first if for a square gif or image with the dimensions 150 x 150. Any square image will work, as the space will scale your image automatically, but we strongly recommend your image be no smaller than the given dimensions, as enlarged images will appear blurry. The second is your standard app picture, and the dimensions are 400 x 250. If you don’t have access to image editing software on your computer, this site includes an easy-to-use online editor, which works with a variety of formats.

<p>And finally, there is now room in the application template to write out your character’s powers and ability-based weaknesses without having to worry about breaking up lines in a drop-down list! Your character’s powers were not entered into the new template, but your character’s old application has been posted at the end of the thread so you’ll have an easy reference. Your character may have some power-based weaknesses left in their weaknesses list, so make sure those are moved into the powers section as well.

<p>As a rule of thumb, anything directly relating to your character’s abilities should be included in their powers list, either as a separate entry, or included in the description of the power it pertains to. Anything that is a general racial weakness – such as an allergy to iron or being burned by sunlight – should still go in their weaknesses list, since they have no bearing on the character’s abilities. If these things negate a healing ability, however, they may still be mentioned in the description of that power.

<p>If you have any questions about where to put things, you’re always welcome to contact Arius or me and we’ll be happy to help you. These edits will be due by the 2nd of July, with an additional week of leeway for those who may need revisions after they’re finished. That means you must complete your edits and reply to the thread to let us know you’re finished by no later than July 2nd. If you have finished updating your characters’ images, powers, and weaknesses and we’ve asked for adjustments to be made, they will need to be completed by no later than July 9th, though you do not have to wait for the grace period to complete your edits.

<p>We are not opening up applications for other updates or additions at this time, but will be in the future, so if you’d like to bring your character current with where they are in-thread, you will have chances to do so at a later date. Thank you!

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Kalista and Arius</div></div>

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Special Announcement VI

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April 30th, 2017</div>

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Well met, fellow Istarins!

<p>Thank you to everyone for your patience while we gave Istari the love and attention it deserved. As you can see, we've had a slight remodel and face lift, and we hope you're as excited about the new features as we are! Here's a breakdown of what's new:

<p><b>Character Stats:</b> There is now a pop-up box in the banner that will display a stats table for easy reference. This table includes the number of characters per species, male-to-female ratio, and total number of characters.

<p><b>Alerts:</b> We have now activated the premium Alert System feature on Istari, which has removed the need for a tag box. To send someone an alert to let them know you've posted a reply for them or need them in a thread, add @[Character Name] somewhere in your post. Make sure the name matches the character's registered account name with correct spacing between the first and last name (if any). There's also an @Tag button with the rest of the code buttons above the post window now. You can check your alerts on the right-hand side of the login bar. The My Assistant link is still available as a button to the bottom left of the board next to the cbox and page return buttons for those who enjoyed that feature.

<p><b>Avatars:</b> Avatars are now 400px tall x 250px wide. We apologize for the inconvenience of having to upload new avatars for your characters, but we don't foresee this changing again any time soon, if ever.

<p><b>Titles:</b> You will now be able to give your character a custom title, which will be displayed under their name in their mini profile. This can be added from the My Controls panel after your character has been approved and activated. We recommend using a title, nickname, or profession, but a favorite saying or personal quote may fit as well.

<p><b>Gifs:</b> That gif field that's been hiding in your profile options is now fully functional! The dimensions for your mini profile gif should be no smaller than 130 x 130, but as long as you're using a square gif, anything larger will resize automatically to fit.

<p><b>MP3s:</b> Just like that previously-useless gif field, your MP3 field now works as well! Check out the Members' Lounge for information on what types of links will work for your music!

<p><b>New Character Info Fields:</b> Your character's mini profile will now show a little more personal information about your character. We've included a spot for Age, Sexuality, and Relationship Status, which can be found in the My Controls section. Please remember to keep this info to one or two words - it's there as a quick reference, so we don't need to know that your character is a Demiromantic Heterosexual with Latent Homosexual Tendencies in the mini profile. Simply "Heterosexual," "Heteroflexible," "Bisexual," "Bi-curious," etc will work, and the details can be left to the character's application, where there's more room. Naturally, the same will hold true for their relationship status. If it's too difficult to pin down in one or two words, "It's Complicated" is a perfectly acceptable entry. You're also welcome to put "Undisclosed" if you'd rather leave it to other players to discover through RP.

<p>These fields will work best to generate plots and interest for characters if they're kept up to date, so if you've chosen to disclose this information, please remember to check it every so often and adjust it accordingly. The staff reserves the right to remove and inappropriate entries or adjust entries accordingly (if an entry is running too long, for instance).

<p><b>Still to Come:</b> While the new skin takes care of the majority of our planned site work, we still have a couple updates on the way. The first will be updating every character to the new application template. Arius and I will take care of the majority of the legwork where that's concerned, so don't panic! Once we've updated all the applications, we will move them to their own Work In Progress section so players can add in new graphics for their characters and write their powers out in the new expanded format. When the time comes, players will have a month to complete their updates, and completing them will count as the activity check for that month. If you'd like to start planning ahead by writing out your character's powers or cropping new app images and saving them to your computer, you're more than welcome; the new dimensions are listed on the application template, and gifs are welcome for the image above the sidebar.

<p>The second addition will be implementation of a "Quick Reference Sheet" for use with the cbox. This is still a ways down the line, and we won't start working on it until all the applications have been updated, but you'll notice the link is already included in the new mini profile. Our intention is to provide a small template with at-a-glance information so players can easily locate your character's looks, distinguishing marks, accents, latent abilities that might affect their own character when close to them, etc without having to wade through the character's entire application. A link to the quick reference sheet will replace the current application link when clicking on a character's name in the cbox. When the time comes, we'll discuss what we're planning on including and take feedback from our players to try and make this new tool as useful as possible for our community.

<p>As a final note, if you have any questions regarding the new layout or notice any bugs, please contact Arius or me. We're here to help, and we appreciate your patience through this transition. We're so grateful to have such a friendly group of players, and we look forward to playing with you for a long time to come! Thank you!
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Kalista and Arius</div></div>

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Special Announcement

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April 26th, 2017</div>

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Well met, fellow Istarins!

<p>As mentioned in the previous announcement, Istari's anniversary is coming up on the 28th. In honor of the site's fourth year running, we are putting some much-needed TLC into the site. That means that for brief periods from April 27th through the 28th, Istari will be closed for maintenance. The cbox will still be visible and operational, so feel free to jump in to play or chat while Arius and I are working on things!

<p>The activity check is also due to start tomorrow, April 27th. Because the site will be inaccessible for part of the week when the activity check would normally run, we are skipping the check for this month.

<p>Thank you for your patience while we take care of this long-overdue revamp, and we look forward to seeing everyone on the other side!
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Kalista and Arius</div></div>

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Announcement XXIV

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April 1st, 2017</div>

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Well met, fellow Istarins!

<p>As some of you may know, April marks Istari’s four-year anniversary. We are grateful to all the wonderful players, both past and present, who have helped us develop this world and create a friendly, welcoming community for everyone to play in. There’s no way we could’ve done it without you, and we’re grateful for your continued support as we help Istari find its feet again.

<p>Our first step in this process was to update the application template to help simplify the format and give you more room to let your character’s voice come through. Those of you who also play on our sister site will already be familiar with it, and we hope those of you who are just seeing it will find it to your liking. Let us know if you have trouble with anything, and Arius or I will be happy to help you out. Please note that we have updated the downloadable Word document, which contains a color-coded version of the app template for easy use.

<p>And finally, to kick off April in preparation for our anniversary on the 28th, we are now beginning New Character Month! This means that new characters whose applications are posted during the month of April will NOT require an in-character post before additional characters may be created. We will still expect players to make regular progress toward completing these applications, but we will be more lenient on nudging players to finish them until the end of the month. If you’ve had a great character idea floating around in your head, or just feel like trying something new, now’s the time!

<p>Oh, and don’t forget to peek in on the 28th for one more anniversary surprise!
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Kalista and Arius</div></div>

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