Yes, Hallow's End doesn't happen until the end of October, but I figured I'd give you all some time to work on some of this. I'll bet none of you guessed (what with the fascination with spiders and zombies), but I LOVE the season, and I'd like to make it fun for you all! If this goes well, I may set up other events like this throughout the year. I've found that while one-day events are tons of fun, lots of people miss out for one reason or another. So I'm taking it to the whole month, and moving a lot of the participation to the forums.

Hallow's End Events:

-Costume Contest!

On Thursday, October 23rd, a thread will open up for you to submit a screen shot of one of your characters in a costume! One entry per player, Savory Deviate Delight and other model-changing items need not apply (it should be a COSTUME, not a full model change). In-game screenshots are welcome, as are modelviewer projects. Think about spooky locations and props! The deadline will be Thursday, October 30th, so you'll have a week to post up your images, but you can start working on them now! There will be two winners, one male and one female!

-Scary Story Contest!

Write up some scary Warcraft stories! There will be two categories: Short (200 words and under) and Long (201 words and over). You can enter once in each category, but if you get inspired to write more you can place them in the In-Character forum. Entries to the contest can be placed here! The deadline for this is also Thursday, October 30th, so you'll have plenty of time to write! There will be two winners, one short and one long (if you enter in each category, you can only win in one)!

-Comic Contest!

Sponsored and run by Oleander! Make a Halloween comic and aim for humor. It can be a 1-panel editorial style comic, a strip, or even a 1-page thing. Keep it short, sweet, and funny, because that's how they'll be judged. The prize will be 3 silver tokens. Submit your entries here! The deadline is Thursday, October 30th!

-Grues!

Remember that little April Fool's joke? The last week of October (Friday the 24th to Friday the 31st), I will be placing three Grues in some dark corners of Azeroth or Outland. If you're feeling brave, gather some friends and seek them out... (Before you ask, Andre doesn't count for this one!)

The winners of the costume contest and writing contest will have their creations displayed as a news post for all to see for the day of Halloween! (And a while afterward, with how our news service works.)

Of course, if you have Hallow's End/Halloween pictures or costumes you want to show off, but don't want to enter in the contests, there's always the image gallery!

There will be other spooky things popping up here and there, but these are the main events!

I'm finally getting around to posting a news post re: guard outfits, whee!

Anyway, several weeks ago I finally made an outfit for each city guard uniform (save for one or two). These are statless, so therefore free. However, to acquire them, your character must be a guard in their profile, and said profile must already be approved. Just send in a ticket saying you'd like the outfit for whatever city guard - keep in mind, however, that you're expected to act as a typical guard of that city would. Please do not abuse it (basically, don't try and get armor just so you can be 'in disguise' as a guard, or something equally ridiculous).

That is all!

Well, kidies. It seems we have to say this, again. It's in the rules, but, I've noticed that a lot of people seem to think otherwise.

Conduct on the forums, is expected to be JUST as it is in game. We expect you all to carry through with respect, for your fellow players as well as GM's on here, as this forum is ALSO part of our server.

To be more specific for those of you who want to claim ignorance, or get so specific that you end up mudding the meaning of the word respect, here are a few simple things about forum etiquette I wish to tell you.

1. Do NOT berate other players on here, whether they are a GM, or NOT. This means if Joe Blow ticks you off in game, do not rant about him here. Be MATURE and send us a PM.

2. Topics that have been established became that way through people who put work into said topics. That means, that yes, there are people that care about the music, themesong, ect. threads, and attempting to de-rail it with something that has nothing to do with the topic is rude.

3. If someone has up a profile, it's all good and fine to say that you like it, but if you do it in that topic, it bumps it back, making it take longer for us to check. Instead, PM it to the person.

4. Hand in hand with that, and this includes in any topic, do not tell us GM's to "get on that topic". We read those at our own pace, and try to come up with ways to make it quicker, and having people telling us what to do does nothing but make us angry. Again, AGAIN, we GM's are voulenteers. Which means we have lives, and do things here for fun, and on our own time.

5. In picture threads, it really is unnerving for people to post their pictures in the first place. Those who have posted, it took them a lot of courage to do so. They did NOT do this for the purpose of being hit on, or solicited in ANY kind of way. If we hear of people getting bothered by anyone, or see it in the thread, we will not be happy. It's utterly disgusting.

6. Now, this is a lenient part, as I do beleive people can voice their opinions about GM's whenever they feel, however they feel. We are approachable, and human. But, I will say, we do mostly prefer you to PM your gripes ABOUT us TO us. You don't have to send it to the GM you have a gripe with, and we will take into account that you were being mature about it.

But, again, like I said, if you prefer to make a topic about it, there is nothing wrong with that either, if you can do this on a mature level, which includes giving the GM a chance to explain themselves to get the problem resolved in an adult fashion.

-----------------

Now, as for the innevitable question. Will not following the rules on the forum have the same consequences as in the game? Yes.

And, to answer you all, yes, I am utterly humorless, and I have never laughed at Monty Python, or cracked a smile. I also kick puppies.

Now, I'm done.

Rejoice! The auction bot has returned! Items will randomly be added to the AH once again.

Thanks to the original developer, Darvaleo, who updated it for use in ArcEmu.

A new guide has been moved to the Articles and Guides section! A wonderful guide by Fawee called "How to be OOC". To be certain it isn't missed, the text is as follows (with a modification to add in an important comment):

Quote:<Auntie Fawee lumbers over to her rocking chair and eases into it with creaking bones> Well my little Roleplayers, with all the recent events it seemed like a good time to offer some soft reminders of basic respect during RP. Just a few things to remember! ((Shush it's late and I'm eccentric!))

In all seriousness though, not directed at anyone in particular, and stuff you guys already know.. sometimes a reminder is good though as I've seen some people being lax on a few of these points.

~ When using your friend list or server status list to find other RPers, always ensure they are in a situation that welcomes other players to enter upon their scene. Ask first!

~ When observing RP OOCly, always check with the players involved to ensure they don't mind being watched.

~ When observing OOCly with permission, mark yourself as DND: OOC. You can do this by simply typing /dnd ooc .

~ When observing OOCly with permission, be quiet and discreet and do not interrupt the scene.

(TwilightDisciple notes: "Perhaps it should be enforced that doing things such as dancing or riding through and jumping around roleplay scenes do not mean discreet? I hate to seem dour or pendantic, but this has happened a few times. I think people need to be reminded. Cutting through briefly because there's no other way around, I don't mind, but leaping about the RPers or /emoting OOCly is rather mood breaking.")

~ Remember that if you are watching something OOC, you cannot use any information you gained there IC.

~ Once you are watching a scene OOC, you need to stay that way. You cannot decide partway into the scene that you are IC and join in, especially without asking first.

Also!

~ Make sure to monitor your own profile status and vouches. It is your responsibility to let them know you have three vouches and would like to be considered for level 70.

~ Make sure you are eligible to vouch (You are a Grunt) before doing so!

~ Remember to vouch! Don't let great RPers slip by because we forget to check or assume they've been vouched.