NationStates Roleplay Symposium 2017 [Ended|Thanks to All!]

[Kyrusia]

...Tag?
I'm afraid I'm slow. What precisely would this accomplish? Is this a Mega Roleplay General Management Thread (a la Madhouse), a gathering of said Roleplay General Threads, or something new entirely?

This is an onsite announcement thread (and general discussion point onsite) for the on-going NS Roleplay Symposium 2017, that will be running through the fourteenth. You may read transcripts of our panels (linked in the OP) and see various guides debuting on our offsite forum (also linked in the OP).

Speaking of, our transcripts for "Diversity in the Roleplaying Community" are now live. Our next panels are as follows:

Monday, July 10th

OP Management and Running a Roleplay (Early Hour Panel) — 12PM Eastern/4PM GMT

Conflict Resolution and Out-of-Character Drama (Late Hour Panel) — 7PM Eastern/11PM GMT

Observations on Gameplay — 9PM Eastern/1AM GMT

[Kyrusia]

Our next panel, Conflict Resolution and Out-of-Character Drama, is set to begin in approximately 30 minutes. Feel free to drop by!

Also, our morning panel transcripts (OP Management and Running a Roleplay) have been linked in the OP for any who may have missed it!

[Kyrusia]

Our last panel of the evening, Observations on Gameplay, is set to begin in just under thirty minutes. This special panel will be featuring Todd McCloud of The East Pacific and a guest panelist from The Black Hawks, a raiding organization.

If you're interested, please drop by!

[Kyrusia]

The transcript for our last panel of the evening, "Observations on Gameplay," has been posted. A special thanks to our guest panelists, Reventus Koth and Todd McCloud. Also many thanks to Cerillium and Zwangzug. Overall, an exceptionally enjoyable evening for roleplayers, raiders, and defenders alike!

Tomorrow's panels are as follows. Please note: the War and Storytelling panel featuring chiefly Lamoni and The Macabees has been moved back by one hour. The OP now reflects this change in schedule.

Tuesday, July 11th

Conflict Resolution and Out-of-Character Drama (Early Hour Panel) — 12PM Eastern/4PM GMT

OP Management and Running a Roleplay (Late Hour Panel) — 7PM Eastern/11PM GMT

War and Storytelling — 9PM Eastern/1AM GMT

[Zanera]

Too bad I'm stuck on my Slow-As-Hell after my faster computer's cheap-ass charger 'broke'. I'm only really interested in the Worldbuilding stuff anyway. Either I can try to get on Discord then, or if my computer is extremely and profoundly uncooperative again, I can just smell the transcripts afterward.

[Grenartia]

Our first panel of the day, Conflict Resolution and Out-of-Character Drama has started. If you'd like to drop in and ask a question or two, feel free to do so.

[Kyrusia]

Our transcript of our morning panel, "Conflict Resolution and Out-of-Character Drama," complete with a special quest appearance by Reploid Productions, is now live!

Likewise, in a little less than an hour, our first panel of the evening, OP Management and Running a Roleplay, will begin. At 9PM Eastern, our last panel of the evening, War and Storytelling, will be hosted. If you'd like to drop in for a question, please do!

[Kyrusia]

Transcripts for both "OP Management and Running a Roleplay" as well as "War and Storytelling" are both live! It was a thrilling and wonderful evening, folks!

Tomorrows panels are as follows. Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, July 12th

Worldbuilding and Related (Early Hour Panel) — 12PM Eastern/4PM GMT

Writing, Exposition, and the Narrative (Late Hour Panel) — 7PM Eastern/11PM GMT

Thread Marketing and Formatting — 9PM Eastern/1AM GMT

Midnight Madness: The Revolving Door (Late Night Panel) — 12AM Eastern/4AM GMT
Hilarity and madness! An opportunity for members of the Mentor Program to provide more personal insights into their volunteer activities and answer general questions about their work and time.

[Lamoni]

Ever had a question about the Mentors? Who we are? What we do? What we like? What we are like? If so, then I highly encourage you to attend the Midnight Madness panel! I'm certainly already looking forward to it.

[Kyrusia]

In approximately thirty minutes our first panel of the evening, Writing, Exposition, and the Narrative, will begin. It will be followed by Thread Marketing and Formatting at 9PM Eastern.

Lastly, at 12AM Eastern this evening we will be having Midnight Madness: a chance for some shenanigans and personal insight into the daily activities of our Mentors. Plus... Whatever else we can get into!

Feel free to drop by!

[Kyrusia]

Transcripts for all but one of today's panels are now live!

Worldbuilding and Related (Early Hour Panel) — Transcript

Writing, Exposition, and the Narrative (Late Hour Panel) — Transcript

Thread Marketing and Formatting — Transcript

At 12AM Eastern, our Midnight Madness panel will begin. Should prove to be a lot of fun! Even so, logs of it may be delayed considering... Well, it'll be after midnight!

Tomorrow's panels are as follows. Hope to see you there!

Thursday, July 13th

Writing, Exposition, and the Narrative (Early Hour Panel) — 12PM Eastern/4PM GMT

NS Sports: Mechanics and Roleplaying (Guest Lecture) — 4PM Eastern/8PM GMT

Global Economics & Trade: A Primer — 7PM Eastern/11PM GMT

Worldbuilding and Related (Late Hour Panel) — 9PM Eastern/1AM GMT

Edit: Nope! "Midnight Madness" transcript. It's essentially, "Well, this is an hour of Mentors shitposting."

[Kyrusia]

Transcripts from our earlier panels today, including a special guest lecture on NS Sports by Zwangzug, are now available:

Writing, Exposition, and the Narrative (Early Hour Panel) — Transcript

NS Sports: Mechanics and Roleplaying (Guest Lecture) — Transcript

Further, in approximately forty-five minutes (7PM Eastern), our first lecture of the evening, Global Economics & Trade: A Primer will begin. This will be followed at 9PM Eastern by Worldbuilding and Related.

Interested? Drop by!

Edit: Our transcript for "Global Economics & Trade: A Primer" is now live! Our next panel, Worldbuilding and Related, is set to begin in approximately 15 minutes!

[Kyrusia]

A transcript of "Worldbuilding and Related (Late Hour)" is now live!

Tomorrow is the final day of the Symposium, and thus the final day of our Discord panels. Tomorrow's panels will consist of the following. We hope to see you there!

Friday, July 14th

Community Questions and Closing Thoughts (Free-for-All Panel) — 12PM Eastern/4PM GMT

They're Here: Moderator Oddball Panel — 8PM Eastern/12AM GMT
You read that correctly. Ever had a question for a Mod? Want to hear an anecdote? Fire away. Obviously we won't be discussing specific cases, but we promise we're human. ...Probably.

[Meriad]

Heyo, Ceneria here; While I didn't expect to be able to participate in the Symposium at all, I was able to observe the GE&T and world building panels this afternoon, both of which I found to be interesting and very informative. A big hand to all the panelists and the mentor team for putting in so much time and effort (both during the Symposium and not!) in spite of their busy schedules. I would love to see this same idea repeated again next year!

[Kyrusia]

The transcript for "Community Questions and Closing Thoughts" is now available!

In approximately one hour (8PM Eastern), our final panel of the Symposium, They're Here: Moderator Oddball Panel, will begin. This will be a time to ask (a) Moderator(s) questions about their time as a Moderator, what it's like being a member of Moderation, etc. Please keep in mind that questions about specific cases will not be answered, and some questions in general may not be answered for any number of reasons. Even so, this can provide players time to at least get a bit of insight into at least one Moderator's daily activities (myself!).

We hope to see you there!

[Kyrusia]

Our They're Here panel has just concluded (transcript), and, with it, the NS Roleplay Symposium 2017 comes to a close.

I'd like to thank our Mentors who were involved, all of the contributors, our audience for their questions and seemingly infinite patience, to everyone who spread the word, to Ballotonia who was nice enough to post a news lead about this Symposium, and to everyone who made this Symposium possible. I'd also like to personally extend my thanks and gratitude to Cerillium, Swith Witherward, and Lamoni; they've all tried to thank me for this, but the workload has largely been on their shoulders from the beginning. People need to be thanking them, our Mentors, and our contributors, not me; I'm just a facilitator, at best.

Now... Onto some stats!

• We had twenty-one Discord panels. None had to be cancelled, something we were truly concerned about for a while, though some were light - especially in the morning. This is marvelous. Each ran somewhere in the neighborhood of one to two hours, with the average being around an hour and a half each. That makes for some 31.5 hours of panels logged for review.
• We saw fifteen guides produced and debuted on the offsite forum, most of which will likely be transitioned to onsite in the coming days
• We saw 59 members register on our offsite forums, and some 140 members flood into the Discord (making for a total of 228, when we originally expected only fifty new visitors).
• Six regions or organizations opened showcases; we'd love to see more next year. Cross your fingers!
• Ten players were spotlighted and nine Mentors were interviewed.
• Two well-known members of the Gameplay community participated in our Observations on Gameplay panel, including a raider from The Black Hawks. Not to mention one of our contributors and two of our own Mentors.
• I lost count of the goat-oriented jokes, though there was at least one Mod-related meme produced.

All-in-all, I share the sentiments of those who have come forward to tell us they have enjoyed the Symposium. I know I certainly have. It has been both entertaining and insightful. Even so, I know many have expressed interest for a monthly panel highlighting some aspect of the roleplaying community; know that this is currently under consideration, but please be willing to give our Mentors and contributors a bit of a reprieve. They've worked themselves to the bone making sure this went off without a hitch.

Lastly... Thank you to the NationStates roleplaying community for being involved and participating. Each of you were a pleasure to have and blew our collective socks off with your enthusiasm and persistent activity. This would not have been nearly the success it has been without your involvement. Give yourselves a round of applause. Hopefully, come this time next year, we'll see even greater involvement, more activity, and ever-more interest.

Many thanks from all of us!

— Kyrusia

[United Allied Earth Federation]

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