May OTMs + Announcements!

Congratulations Alice and Askan!

Of the Month Winners for May!

Happy Summer! Have the OTMs -- and a huge shout out to Kydnt for providing beautiful art.

Alice makes it back to the MOTM board!  She first appeared in October 2016, but she's been rocking the post counts long before that!  She's recently expanded out from her main (Askan, who we have plenty to say about below), to take on a few adults, and puppies too!  Savion really showed just how much range Alice can include in her writing.  Between in depth plot and a beautiful craft, she's definitely one to keep an eye on.  Well deserved, and we can't wait to see more, Alice!

Askan has also made it back to the WOTM board, last seen in September 2016.  With over 600 posts in less than a year, he's certainly made his mark on many wolves across Relic Lore.  Since September, he's been Drestig's steadfast second, handling situations with the wolves of Whitestone Monadnock and the winter that wouldn't end.  He's even found himself a mate!  Most recently, Askan had everyone biting their nails as he was jumped by his uncle, Savion -- it was a close call, but our man made it in the end.  He's on the road to recovery now, though inevitably changed with the news of his family's death.  We're looking forward to another year of adventures!

And congratulations to Hearthwood River for winning Pack of the Month! They made 57 posts between their pack thread and other pack activities in the month of April. This proper heckton more than doubled their nearest competitor.  Great work and keep up the amazing activity!

We have a few general etiquette reminders, now that we have so many new joiners with the coming summer!

Chat Behavior
The chat is meant to be a friendly social place, and for the most part, we're glad to say we see that!  However, we've noticed things occasionally get tense, and would like to remind people to please keep respect in mind while in the chat.  With such a big community, you'll likely run into at least one person who opposes your opinion no matter the topic; a polite discussion is acceptable, but if you find yourself going into back-and-forth territory, the public domain is not the place for it.  Additionally, remember that characters are someone's brain child!  So even if you are making a comment 'in your character's perspective' in such a public forum, please remember everyone can see that, including the writer, and feelings might be a bit hurt.  Even if they aren't in the chat, they'll get the tags, and viewing the aftermath can be even more difficult to understand actual intentions.  Remember, this is supposed to be a fun place for people to relax and enjoy themselves!  We don't want anyone stressing about the chat.

Roleplay Etiquette
If you want to write with someone, it's generally suggested that you contact the person first!  Even in the case of a rank challenge or pack disciplinary action, which may not be fun for a secondary party, should at least be alerted.  If it's not written out, it can be handled appropriately.  Additionally, as time changes, so does style, and with the change in LP rules has come a change in how wolves join threads.  Particularly, we would like to address join threads: after polling leaders, most seem not to mind pack mates joining, however, a five-wolf thread tends to go slowly, and may be overwhelming for a new member who's just joining.  We'd like RoW to remain open and encouraging to old and new members alike, and so for now, we'd like to suggest that if you want to join a 'JOIN' thread, that is not labeled in the OOC text as all welcome, you contact the person trying to join and see if they mind.  We currently have a few plans in the works to remediate this problem altogether, but in the meantime, we'd like to ask that you respect the joiner's wishes.

Skill LP Requests
So as we updated skill LP rules, we previously noted that all demonstrations should be noted in an OOC section.  We'd like to reiterate that this is not optional.  We have many members and a lot of LP requests!  The mods will not entertain any skill LP requests that do NOT include all three OOC notes.  Additionally, we do actually read those posts!  So please make sure your wolf is demonstrating your specified role, and those posts are marked, and you should get your LP lickity-split!  

Thanks loves, and welcome to summer!