Zarla -- I'm really sorry for flaking out on you. I just had a couple rough days at work, and completely lost my will to live post. I'll have a DAXpost up as soon as possible, and I'm willing to backthread as long as it takes to get this done.

Javert-mun -- Second verse, same as the first. ^^; I'm really sorry for flaking, especially since the thread was going in an interesting direction. Do you want to backthread?

Well, isn't this long overdue? We've heard a share of complaints about the different layouts and it's about time for a change. Obviously the most pressing issue is the layout for the main community. Seeing how we currently have paid time for that account, we can have a custom layout for it. We decided the best way to get a new layout that's specifically made for Damned was by having a layout contest! That means any current player could design and code a layout for the game provided that it adheres to certain guidelines (more about that later).

The layouts would have to be submitted to us through email (or in some other secure way) and the whole thing would be anonymous -- the winner would be decided by a comm-wide vote, and the winner would get some kind of prize (most likely an LJ certificate or something along those lines).

As for what the layout should have on it, there have been a few things asked for by various people over on the suggestions post. There are a variety of things mentioned there, but there might be more things that people might see as a must-have. We don't want the guidelines to be too restricting, but we do want to get an idea of what aspects people generally would want to see on the layout.

So, what should the new layout definitely have?

[Poll #1446809]

Note about having visible tags on the posts, though: remember that dayshift posts in particular have a ton of tags, so it would result in more scrolling. Just something to keep in mind...

---

Now, we also have a share of other official journals with varying layouts. These layouts would need to be changed/customized using LJ's themes and such, since most of them aren't paid. We'd also be glad to find someone who would be willing to change these layouts around and tweak them depending on which themes are decided on, but we need to get some more basic questions out of the way before we get to that part. At the moment, some of these have nicer layouts than others and might not need changing, so... WELL, SEE POLL:

[Poll #1446810]

Keep in mind that what it means by same theme is that the theme would be the same with each journal having its own set of colors, so they wouldn't all look exactly the same or anything like that. (Or if you do want them all to look exactly the same, let us know that too.) Oh, and please be careful about how you answer. We realize it's a bit confusing, but double-check to make sure that you don't contradict yourself so that we can best organize this for you guys.

So yeah, once we... get more of an idea of how this is all gonna shake out, then we can take theme nominations and see if anyone would be willing to get down and dirty with fixing things up/color coding, etc. 8D;; As far as the contest, we'll be giving out more specific details once we've decided on the criteria from the poll.

Oh, as an added note, we got some new nurse icons from stopcounting a while back that we've been planning to upload, but that made us wonder if people wanted new icons for some of the other journals as well. If so, we can try to work out taking care of that too, probably also by appealing for more help from you guys. ;;

Thanks and keep it real!

P.S. My brain is officially broken after trying to figure out how to organize that poll orz

ACTIVITY CHECK.

REPLYING TO THIS POST IS ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY FOR ALL PLAYERS. FAILURE TO REPLY TO THIS POST, REGARDLESS OF CURRENT ACTIVITY, WILL RESULT IN AN INACTIVITY STRIKE.

The only people excused from participating in this Activity Check are players who are already listed as being on hiatus here (or who have already made a hiatus announcement to the lounge) and characters/players who were/are accepted for the 14th cycle. However, if a player comes back from hiatus during the course of the Activity Check, or if only a portion of a player's characters are listed as on hiatus, they must still comment.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

1. Go find the latest posts made to damned by your character(s) before this Activity Check post was made.
(Both damned and damned_lounge should show your own personal local timezone as the time stamps, as far as I understand; let me know if there's any problem/confusion regarding the time differences.)

2. Get the links for each of those threads, as well as the day/location/shift that they took place in.
(Click "thread" at the bottom of your character's most recent RP post (NOT the beginning of the current thread itself) or "link" in the header of the comment; then, copy-paste the URL.)

3. Comment to this entry with the form below.
(Don't include the "[ ]" brackets in the actual comment, please. By "mm/dd/yy," we mean month/day/year of that character's most recent post. Please add "(backthreading)" in parenthesis after a character's activity info if it applies.)

Name/Handle:
E-Mail:
Timezone:
Personal Journal: _username_here

[Character 1 name here], _username_here: Day/Night #: [location/shift here] - mm/dd/yy
[Character 2 name here], _username_here: Day/Night #: [location/shift here] - mm/dd/yy
[Character 3 name here], _username_here: Day/Night #: [location/shift here] - mm/dd/yy

Comments/Questions: (if you have any)

<b>Name/Handle:</b> <b>Timezone:</b> <b>E-Mail:</b> <b>Personal Journal:</b> <lj site="livejournal.com" user="_username_here"> <b>[Character 1 name here], <lj site="livejournal.com" user="_username_here">:</b> <a href="most recent thread link here">Day/Night #: [location/shift here] - mm/dd/yy</a> <b>[Character 2 name here], <lj site="livejournal.com" user="_username_here">:</b> <a href="most recent thread link here">Day/Night #: [location/shift here] - mm/dd/yy</a> <b>[Character 3 name here], <lj site="livejournal.com" user="_username_here">:</b> <a href="most recent thread link here">Day/Night #: [location/shift here] - mm/dd/yy</a> <b>Comments/Questions:</b> (if you have any)

If you're still confused at all about how to fill out the form, please refer to my example comment below.

( More information on what constitutes inactivity and what the consequences of it are. )

If any otherwise active players happen to get caught by this particular Activity Check, we're sorry for the bad luck and we hope you'll make sure to announce your hiatus next time so that we won't have to catch you in our next one. After all, the reason we have these checks is to not make you guys pull your hair out but to instead ensure a healthy, active playing environment for everyone. ♥

TO MAKE SURE NO ONE ACCIDENTALLY MISSES THIS POST, WE'LL BE MAKING REMINDERS FOR YOU GUYS TO REPLY TO IT THROUGHOUT THE WEEK. Sorry for both the hassle and for the long delay between checks, and thanks for your cooperation!

All the characters listed below may be introduced immediately. Please respond with a description of your character waking up in a random patient room to this post. After that, you may have a nurse take them to any area specified by the intercom announcement.

Adam Monroe
Alex DeLarge
Gale
Rolo Lamperouge

SORRY FOR ALL THE MOD TAG SPAMMING T_T;

I'm not going to be posting for tonight since my few remaining braincells refuse to respond lately and I need a little break. I KNOW IT'S A LAME EXCUSE BUT BUT yeah that's all I've got. I am but a dainty little flower. :<

Apoligies to the people I'm backthreading with and anyone I owe a post to this shift. And especially Tad for putting up with my slow posting while she does awesome visitor things for me. I'll be back to posting hopefully sometime tomorrow night. OTL OTL OTL

- Sra (Badou/Nataku)

I'm going to have to go ahead and call hiatus for most of my characters this next shift. (And I'm sorry for not getting Yousuke out for the last one. If anyone wants him this shift I'll throw him out for you.) Backthreads are still a go and everyone should be posted for dinner.

Just suffering from a bit of brainfail right now and I want to be able to handle visitors as my main priority.

Lauren
(Sai, Leon (SO2), Matt (DN), Callisto, Yousuke)

As you may or may not have noticed, I've been uber-slow recently. I thought things would clear up, but the shit's really hit the fan around here so I may be even slower. This applies to Depth Charge, Kibitoshin and Lunge and will carry on until further notice- I really can't say when things will calm down, but it should be before nightshift (fingers crossed). I'm really, really sorry for everyone I'm threading with/ due to thread with, and I'm totally up for backthreading if you are!

All right, so, um...in the chat last night or the night before, someone mentioned to me that they wanted a character to meet up with Tenpou during fourth shift, and I agreed. The problem is, thanks to being a newbie of very little brain, I honestly can't remember who anymore, and I don't want to throw him somewhere and have him be in the wrong place for this meeting.

So...anyone want to point me in the right direction? And I'm free for other plottings, as well, of course.