Gooseberry High (OOC)

Hey everyone!

Just in case anybody is still waiting over here for action to happen, you might want to turn your eyes to Dreamwidth now! That's where all the IC/OOCs are going to be from now on, and posts are popping up there too! We're no longer going to be posting fake cuts to DW for events.

• Instructions on importing your IJ journal to DW: HERE


• Instructions on making a simple generator layout on DW: HERE


• If you haven't had your DW usernames added to the comms yet, please comment below letting us know.

We're hoping to have IJ posting completely phased out by Monday, but you can continue backtagging old scenes as much as you need to.

Thanks everyone! ♥

We've got a busy week and an even busier weekend ahead of us, so please forgive us if we're slow in dealing with things. ♥

• There's a Grotto party on Friday, and it's going to feature RNG drinking games and possibly a smooch plague of UK origins! Be sure to sign up your character by Thursday night if you'd like to play Spin the Bottle/7 Minutes in Heaven!


• We're still moving to Dreamwidth! To facilitate the move, please give us your DW usernames HERE so we can get you added to the comms. (Currently, we plan to post the Grotto party on IJ as our last big hurrah, but this does mean that there will probably be a delay in dealing with the RNG drinking games on Friday. We'll see!)


• Head's up: there's a plan in the works for a surprise camping event during the final week of March~~


• Finally, Spring Break begins on Monday, March 20, and students don't return until the evening of Sunday, March 26! Students may stay at school over break, but we didn't really plan anything for them? (This might change, idk.) If you'd like to make plans for your characters and coordinate with other players, please feel free to PLOT HERE. :)

One mod still can't access InsaneJournal reliably for large portions of time, and in fact, accessibility is continuing to worsen. Because of this, we're looking to start the move to Dreamwidth this weekend. We'll have a guide on how to transfer smoothly prepared for you by then.

For now, Meggie has posted the first Hunger Games target assignments in a brand new DW OOC discussion post. We encourage you all to head over there and help break that post in! :)

Thanks, everyone. ♥

Hi everyone, we want to address some things that have been going on in the game lately.

• First off, replies to this post are screened. If you'd like to leave your opinion, you may.


• Secondly, we're going to be actively slowing down on this detention giving plot.


• We're sensing there's some OOC tension over IC consequences, and it's making managing and moderating the game not fun for your mods. We work really hard to keep this game running smoothly and keep everyone satisfied with their experience, and it seems like this is becoming more and more of a challenge.


• Detentions and other punishments are supposed to contribute to roleplaying and plot, but lately that's been unfolding in a negative way. We don't want to remove the mechanic, as the setting is one that's reactive and characters can't do whatever they want, but we need to reconsider a few things.


• Our current plan is that the Head Boy and Head Girl can't hand out detentions without mod approval anymore. You can continue to use the dropbox Ali and Katie were kind enough to set up, but we're going to err on the side of caution. Ali and Katie, thank you again, and we apologize for this sudden change in policy.


• We also want to encourage people that if they're uncomfortable with how a plot is unfolding in the planning stages, please express your concerns then so that everyone can have a good time.


• The Hunger Games post has been delayed a little because the mods needed to discuss this. It'll be up in the afternoon.

• Remember to sign up for the Gooseberry Hunger Games! Tonight is the last night to sign up. Anyone who has not left a comment by 11:59 PM MST cannot play. Tomorrow, there will be an OOC post for plotting, where you may request certain pairings, although nothing can be guaranteed due to the heavy RNG element of this minigame. On Monday, everyone will receive their assignments and the first kills will be posted. Sign up HERE.


• Remember to submit requests for the Ilvermorny Quidditch team! You have until tomorrow night. Fill out the form HERE.


• At this point, most of you won't be surprised to hear that Gooseberry will very likely be moving to Dreamwidth. The date is undecided, and while we wanted to wait until April, technical issues with accessing IJ may force us to speed up the timeline. The mods will be hands-on making this process as seamless as possible, and we appreciate all of your patience. It's been a stressful last couple weeks, and we're lucky to have such a loyal playerbase willing to see it through with us.

The following is an announcement from Katie and Ali, who the mods would like to thank for their hard work:

Following Cecil's post about bullying on the journals, Cecil and Maggie collaborated to create a warded dropbox where students can report incidents of bullying on or off the journals, located here.

Cecil and Maggie may notify students of their upcoming detention (via the journals or in person), but regardless there will be a post every Friday by Cecil or Maggie that details: who has detention, where detention will occur, how long detention will last, and what the students with detention will be doing. This post will be public so everyone can know just what they're getting into if they break the rules, but be careful! Harassing the students that got detention can be a good way to end up there yourself.

The dropbox has three forms: the in-character form (for students that want to report other students in-game), the out-of-character form (for players who want to help out Katie and Ali by pointing out incidents that might be missed since Cecil and Maggie are trying to keep an eye on things as well as they can), and the dispute form (for students that get detention and want to argue their case!).

If you've got any questions, post them here or email Katie and Ali!

Cecil is hoping he'll get to post a lot of blank Friday detention lists, so be good students of Gooseberry! A week without detention may result in baked goods for all!

The mods are also on hand for questions (please excuse us if we're slow later in the day)! ♥

Hi everyone, this is a quick heads up that neither of the mods can access IJ reliably today.

• Marin is completely unable to access the site this morning. It's unknown when this will be rectified. UPDATE: Marin will not be around tonight, since she left the coffee shop and is back home without access.


• Meggie is experiencing frequent mini-crashes while at work, resulting in a lot of difficulties navigating the site or posting. Until that's resolved, she'll have eyes (kind of) on, but won't really be able to post. (I tried to post this four times, it's madness.) UPDATE: Meggie's back on a network that IJ arbitrarily likes.


• If this continues through the week, it'll have a negative impact on the obstacle course RNG game planned for Friday.

Thanks for your continued patience.
M&M ♥

• The plot calendar will be posted tomorrow morning (3/7/17) at 8:30 AM. It's a smaller plot calendar due to downtime and spring break, and as a result we're only allowing one sign-up per player tomorrow.


• Starting this month, House Points are going to actually mean something.
  
  
  
  • Via a combination of RNG and player influence, we will be giving a monthly update on House Points.
  
  
  • Did your character behave very poorly this month? That'll give their house a negative modifier on their roll. Did your character do something very thoughtful that benefited the student body? That'll give their house a positive modifier.
  
  
  • Prefects removing or giving points will also be noted, and will have an influence on this new RNG game. If your character starts using this power excessively, their Head of House may ask questions.
  
  
  • This will help us find who wins the House Cup and who wins the House Mug at the end of the year!


• The Quiddich game will be posted sometime between now and tomorrow morning. Marin is very sorry for the delay! ♥


• We're currently undecided about the possibility of a move to Dreamwidth. The mods are discussing the logistics, and will see how frequent outages are here. Regardless, we'll be finishing out the entirety of March here on InsaneJournal.


• Thank you all for being patient with all the downtime and delays on mod stuff! Things will be back to normal soon.

For historical purposes, here's a quick review: IJ went down for a week, and we temporarily relocated to DW for memes and crying. Here's links to all of the posts on DW, in case for some reason you need to find them again:

( discussion posts, memes and ic/oocs oh my! )

I want to thank all of the beautiful monsters in this comm for successfully getting our comment count up to date so we can actually use our damn comms. Marin is still trapped at work so she can't put up Quidditch yet, and Meggie made some ambitious promises last night regarding the plot calendar, so that's also on hold. However, we will be hustling to get those up by tomorrow morning at the absolute latest.

A couple of notes:

• Regarding February Activity Check (lmao i know): If you have not yet passed AC, you get a grace period of 24 hours starting now. Anything you post in the next day counts for activity. Anything you posted in the Emergency Grotto Party or the Single Working Page on DW counts for activity. If you do not check in for AC but I know you've been active, your characters will receive automatic activity strikes.


• Your mods would like opinions on a permanent move to Dreamwidth! I posted about the logistics, but if anyone has objections to this idea, please add to the discussion or post to our screened Dropbox, please and thank you. ♥


• Please accept the community invitations for all your character journals! We had to re-add everyone to get membership working properly again.

• I'm about to tackle the Divination Tower! Thank you all for always being so patient. ♥


• Absolute final call for the lottery event! We'll be selecting someone for it tonight, and the post announcing what happened will be up in the morning.


• The Masquerade Ball is this Friday! Use this post to look for dates and make plans if you need to. Also feel free to ask us if you have any questions on the mechanics of the Anonymity Charm. You can also ask Calvin or Ravi IC questions, as the resident mod-played nerds and part-time glorified NPCs.


• There will be a crafting session on Wednesday, February 22. Supplies will be provided by Event Committee with some of the extra funds accumulated by the flower delivery service. Do you guys want an IC/OOC for this? If so, can a kind volunteer player take a little pressure off the mods and post it? If no one is able to, then Mina will be the host. Thank you, Ivy and Laurel, for hosting the crafting party!

Time honored nosy mod tradition: Who are your characters' dates? ♥

• Cheer tryouts will be up soon! We haven't forgotten! ♥


• Spring break will take place March 20-26th. We realize these dates are kind of wonky but hear us out: we need enough weekends for Quidditch games and I'm going to design some RNG drinking games for St. Patrick's Day. Drink your friends and loved ones under the table! ☘️


• The game against Ilvermorny will be March 12. Get ready! Closer to March 12th, we'll work out a way to see if we can get some siblings and friends of the cast onto the team to visit Gooseberry!


• Remember to sign up for the lottery! Anyone can sign up, sign up all your characters, and do it by the 20th! This event will have lasting consequences for your character, and will involve them receiving a special item. Your character must be willing to explore the Grotto alone. Sign up HERE!

And I heard some of you guys asking for it, and we have a lot of new people and characters, sooo... mini-meme!

• What are your Gooseberry and Hogwarts houses?


• What Hogwarts house would your characters be in?


• Is there another Gooseberry house they could have gone into instead?

• Last chance to submit Valentines! Tonight, I'll be formatting them all, and anything not there before I go to bed (~midnight mountain time) isn't getting posted! The submission box is HERE.


• Galentines will be happening tonight. The mods will not be posting IC/OOCs, but you guys are welcome to do it for us!


• Valentine's Day is tomorrow! There will be a small IC/OOC with an RNG contest open to couples.


• Today, a list of all the couples in the school was posted in the lodge, including some characters who aren't couples. A freshman did it, and has added goofy "ratings" to each pairing. Examples might be: HOT HOT HOT, ALREADY MARRIED, DOOMED, WTF, LIZZIE & MR. DARCY, etc. What was said about your couple (or not-couple)?
  
  
  
  • Also, we have an opening for [Character O], who the freshmen making this list think is one half of a power couple with Sybilla Borgin. This slot is open to anyone to take! Plot calendar doubles are allowed. Taken! :)


• Last chance to place your Quidditch bets! You have until 8 PM MST today, so head over HERE and start some illegal gambling!

• Announcing the school counsellor has been pushed back. We need a little more time on that one. Thanks for your understanding. ♥ If they're not on this list but you would like your character to have been invited for counselling, please reply to this entry requesting to be added.
  
  
  • Ennis Harper
    
  • Katerina Ivanova
    
  • Casper Kim
    
  • Diego Morales
    
  • Isabelle Sargent
    
  • Riley Stamper
    
  • Sylvester Stoker
    
  • Penelope Vargas
    


• Remember, Sex Ed is on Saturday! Go submit some questions! There are two options for submitting, so when posting your question you can indicate which it is. (The default is assumed to be anonymous.) The options are:
  
  
  • Raising your hand! If you're bold, you can raise your hand and ask during the assembly.
  
  
  • Submisson Box. There's a submission box where characters can slip scraps of paper for anonymous questions. If you want to hide these from other players, feel free to leave your questions on the dropbox instead of on the plot post.


• Would you like to request a partner for senior monthly bonding? Hit up this comment here!

• As many of you have gathered, Wesley Carpenter was pulled out of school by his parents and will not be returning. His roommates were informed today, and that information can be considered public knowledge.


• That character name is going to remain untouched. Wes will remain part of game canon, and his PB will not be available for use.


• In the future, the empty spot in the cabin is going to be filled by... Damon Evercreech. Damon will be a Hogwarts exchange student who came under special circumstances. He's the older brother of Calvin Evercreech (evercreep), and will arrive when someone actually applies for him! This means that not only will you have a bratty little brother, but you'll get to play his arrival in America.


• This will be finalized later, but if you're interested, you can contact Meggie for more information on the Evercreeches. She's willing to retcon elements of the Evercreech brothers to provide more flexibility.

• Deadline for Grotto party kissing games is tonight! Okay technically it was last night, but if you've got last minute signups or requests for characters you want to push together, then get them in now because we're putting together the list tonight. Sign up HERE.


• Team Gooseberry cheer tryouts will be held on Thursday, February 16! Tryouts will only be open to characters who are currently on a cheer squad. This is going to be more RNG-based, but cheerleaders can improve their chances of making the team by a) being generally active in the game, and b) writing a journal entry or comment before the 16th which mentions they've been practicing for tryouts.


• ...I had other things to say but I can't remember what they are. I know there's a ton of things that need mod attention but if there's anything you really, really want a response for, just remind me here, please?

• If you have not done so already, please post to January's Activity Check! I know half of you are... here... and still posting... :(((


• February's plot calendar will be posted Tuesday, January 31 at 8 AM MT. (If you need help figuring out when that is for you, check out the green indicator HERE.)


• There's a Grotto party on Feb 3! If you'd like to take part in the customary ~kissing games~, please sign up HERE.


• We'll be leaving the Quidditch tryouts post open for at least another day, so everyone who wanted a spot on the team has a chance to post to it. You can assume Mr. Thorn told everyone that the decision's going to be delayed because he has to confer with the Heads of House.

A few reminders!

• Remember to sign up for Quidditch tryouts HERE before the 29th! There will be an IC/OOC for tryouts, but decisions will be primarily made based on this little form.


• Responding to Anonymous Writer's question next weekend increases your chance of being selected for the lottery event. :)


• There's going to be a Grotto party February 3rd! :)))) Since that's such short notice, we're going to begin kissing game signups on this post HERE. Assume this party was in the works prior to staff's announcement. For references, the Grotto has always been off limits, but teachers are incapable of enforcing that due to the fact they can't find the damn thing.

• As the mods are having some personal emergencies, teacher responses are going to be delayed. We're prioritizing characters who need a response for plot reasons, or whom we already wrote something for. If you don't get a response tomorrow and did need something specific, hit us up on the Dropbox.


• We've made a few changes to Character Limits and Activity Requirements. They are: a) players who've been in the game for less than a month can only app up to two characters, b) you only need a minimum of 6 comments for a comment thread, and c) the increased activity requirement for five characters is no longer permanent. Thank you Meggie and Alex for being my guinea pigs to see how well that worked. I'm sorry for making you cry.


• Due to how many athletic, muscular kids we have, we're retconning that the school has a weight room. Mr. Thorn oversees it, and you can't use the large machines without a partner to spot you. There are showers, and a small sitting area with a magical water dispenser and a coffee pot.


• The school is currently interviewing for a counsellor, who will be a brand new NPC and staff member starting sometime next month! Some responses from teachers may say that the student is being recommended for counselling, and this is what it means. There are a number of characters with visible issues that the teachers have noticed, and they'll be asked to attend counselling. If your character would like to attend counselling despite not receiving a gentle order to do so, there will be an opportunity to request they be put on the list. The current characters who staff will ask to attend counselling are:
  
  • Ennis Harper
  • Katya Ivanova
  • Casper Kim
  • Diego Morales
  • Riley Stamper
  • Sylvester Stoker

• If you want to participate in Parent Teacher Conferences, or make any revisions to your submission, now's the time to do it! We're working on teacher responses today and tomorrow, so this is kind of the ~last call~. Sign up HERE.


• Thank you for all of your patience and enthusiasm! This is our first time being mods, and it's a constant process of adjusting to see what works and what doesn't. We hope you all are still having fun here because we have lots of things planned for the future!


• Does your character have a sibling who graduated last year? Let's talk about them!

• TODAY IS THE LAST CALL FOR SIGNING UP FOR THE TALENT SHOW. At 11:59 PM Mountain Time, I'm assuming that these are the only entries and I'm finalizing the order in which everyone performs. Last minute entries tomorrow will not be in the running for a win, and will be assumed to have performed sometime in the middle of the pack. Sign up HERE.


• Quick note, if you ever ask a question in an IC/OOC or try to seek out a teacher response and we miss it, you can take it to the Dropbox. We go through the dropbox regularly and clear it out, so we won't miss or forget your question.


• There will be an upcoming "player" event from Diego added to the calendar soon, Unsanctioned Overnight Camping Trip! Taking place the night before PTC, Thursday the 19th, it'll be with the presumed intent of allowing everyone to let loose before their parents arrive. This will be another event where you can opt in to getting in trouble, or having a terrible hangover when you have to face mom & dad.