It's exactly 7 days until the Forge is 2 years old. (Note: The Forge is older than that. It's 7 days until the forum, and the renaming of the site from Hephaestus' Forge to The Forge, is two years old.)

I have no idea what we should do, but we should do something. The fact that there's a community that's existed that long and stayed this strong is pretty amazing.

I have no idea what we should do, but we should do something.

Perhaps a chatty, casual, low-barrier-to-entry "Forge Birthday Party" forum for one day only...after which it becomes a locked "Inactive Forum." Invite folks from RPG.net and ENworld. You could still guide the conversation somewhat by starting with a few threads.

Paul

How much trouble would it be to temporarily change the color scheme to bright, festive party colors?

What Paul said. Think "office party" as the model -- as in, the normal rules are relaxed, normally inappropriate trivial or personal topics ("Tell me how to pronounce your last name!") could be allowed, BUT you'll still be reprimanded by the boss if your conversation gets offensive or flamey.

How 'bout door prizes from indie publishers?

I'd suggest temporarily enabling graphic avatars but for various reasons (*cough!* *contra!* *cough!*), I don't think it would actually be a good idea.

- Walt

Paul,

Hey - that's a rad idea. I'll talk it over with Ron. I can even let guests post there so they don't have to register.

A couple of well-conceived polls might not be a bad idea for the party forum either.

Paul

So here's the plan!

1. Yes to the birthday forum. It'll go up on Thursday and stay up for four days, so that people who visit less often can participate too. After that, it goes into the Inactive Forums section.

2. No festive colors, unfortunately. This falls into the "Would be great but it's too much work" category.

3. No to polls. This is pure moderator spitefulness; Clinton and I both dislike polls in general. They're perfectly fine in the specialty forums, which aren't moderated by us.

4. Any topic is fine in the Birthday Forum. The only Forge etiquette that still counts is simply to treat one another like fellow human beings.

Best,
Ron

Whoah. I just realized The Forge was launched on my birthday. Freaky.

</tangent>

I think the party forum is a great idea - it will give us a chance to continue/restart some of the earlier social threads within known boundaries. Kudos!

April's Fools?

Adam wrote: Whoah. I just realized The Forge was launched on my birthday. Freaky.

Yes to the birthday forum. It'll go up on Thursday and stay up for four days, so that people who visit less often can participate too.

What about the idea of promoting it to other sites?

Paul

Mike Holmes wrote:

Adam wrote: Whoah. I just realized The Forge was launched on my birthday. Freaky.

Statistically likely that three other registered userd have the same birthday. People always seem to think this a great coincidence. 1:365 is just not that long as far as odds when you have a large group.

Anyhow, looking forward to the party. :-)

Mike

Paul Czege wrote: Yes to the birthday forum. It'll go up on Thursday and stay up for four days, so that people who visit less often can participate too.

What about the idea of promoting it to other sites?

So when's the birthday forum going to open? It starts today, right?