April Fools - Advance planning & ideas - CENSORED THREAD

[Del Murder]

To do the bickering we'd have to draw up the teams within a couple days, and then stay in character until the 24th or so when we split. The difficult part would be staying in character until then, and finding ways to bicker in the forums (besides Feedback, which would be simple), though that would also be the fun part.

[Big D]

We could combine everyone's ideas, and start having really bad clashes over numerous policy decisions. Sort of like a rift widening between numerous staffers, where we get on each others' nerves and eventually disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing. This could include issues like spam, profanity, professionalism, closing threads/editing posts, and borderline porn. Goodness knows we often disagree, often passionately, on plenty of issues. With a bit of melodrama, we could ham it up into a full-blown personality clash, with staffers on different sides of the fence for different issues.

Feedback would be an ideal place for this kind of thing, but virtually any GC thread on a mildly controversial topic would be fine.

The only problem would be ensuring we all know when we're just acting... we'd need a thread in Staff where we post the link to every thread where we're pretending to argue.

Examples of snarky inter-staff posting:

I know YOU have a dirty mind, Shlup, but I don't really think the rest of us want that kind of policy change.

*snip* Edit by Big D: Flaming is bad, even when a staffer does it. Especially when a Staffer does it. See you in the Warned Members List, champ.

Shouldn't we keep these whiny pissing-contests in the Staff Forum where they belong?

In spite of what our esteemed Admin says, we haven't really discussed this issue in Staff so it's still open for debate. *Reopens thread*

These kinds of low-level hostilities could easily escalate into something big and nasty and definitely attention-grabbing. If we did it right, they'd totally overlook the fact that we're approaching April Fool's day.

If we just followed our instincts and disagreed however it suited us, we'd get a pretty plausible web of resentment and disparity.

[Del Murder]

I'm all for bickering around, leading up to one big incident that created the split (which I think should be one of the porn ideas). That sounds great!

It has to start subtle, though, and like D says we have to remember which side we're on.

I love D's quotes. The funny part is this is all stuff that ***CENSORED***, when there wasn't a big joke going on.

[RSL]

This sounds like so much fun. The best part will be Raistlin's LJ.

[Leeza]

I like Big D's idea because I think that it might be the simplest one to pull off.

[Yamaneko]

Let's start building up about a week before Fool's Day. This will be great. I'll take whatever side Del takes.

[RSL]

I wanna be on Kishi's team.

[Big D]

I'm just gonna disagree in whatever way best matches my own attitudes and opinions. In fact, we could probably all get away with that, as long as we also pretend to ignore our own enlightened ability to celebrate our differences and find a peaceful, loving solution to every conflict.


...Having said that, I'll probably end up on the same side as Tony, Leeza and possibly RSL.

[Del Murder]

I think the groups should follow somewhat of an 'old vs. new' pattern. Shlup is old but I think we need her to lead the 'new' group since she is something of a figurehead. Something like this:

Groups (very tenative):
Old: BoB, kishi, RSL, Unne, 4
New: Shlup, me, Xander, Yams, D, Leeza

I think Archie, Roogle, and Daryl should stay on staff no matter what since they wouldn't seem like the type to get invloved in our squabblings. Maybe RSL too, since he's always been on here. We can't have TOO many people quit, after all.

It's more believable if the new group quit, but it would be more of an uproar if the old group quit. Those guys would piss their pants. It would take a lot of work to get them to believe it, however.

Is there a different split anyone had in mind? Maybe we should pick teams like in kickball.

[Leeza]

I'm going to have to be on the side that edits the swears, etc.

[Del Murder]

Yes, there's the swears/non swears split as well. It's different than above, since obviously Unne and Leeza would be on the same team.

[Shlup]

We'll have to keep our "teams" in mind, but we can't stray too far from our actual beliefs or people wont buy it as much. Just act like normal, except forget the part where its "just a message board" and get nice and uptight. Haha

D, your example bickerings are hillarious.

We should probably start the public bickering in a Feedback thread. Like something that we "discussed in staff" and couldn't agree on, so one of us decides to up and bring the discussion outside of the staff forum, which is bound to tick off someone else and starts the nasty little comments. See where that goes.

[Leeza]

We'll have to keep our "teams" in mind, but we can't stray too far from our actual beliefs or people wont buy it as much. Just act like normal, except forget the part where its "just a message board" and get nice and uptight. Haha - Shlup

This sounds good. Just be yourself, but 100% more so and we have to decide ahead of time who is going to leave.

[Loony BoB]

I. The new style is now the only style.
C. Quitters: me, Shlup, Yams, Unne(?), perhaps one/two more
Thoughts: I could quit over this, but I probably wouldn't.

II. Borderline swear words added to the filter with continued editing of the filtered edits.
C. Quitters: Shlup, D, kishi(?), at least one more
Thoughts: I could quit over this, but I probably wouldn't.

IIa. Converse of II. Swear filter is disabled and swearing is free game.
C. Quitters: me, Unne, Leeza, one more
Thoughts: I could quit over this and it wouldn't look too weird... but some wouldn't notice.

III. A staff member (me for now) is banned for posting a porn image.
C. Quitters: me (banned), Yams, D, Shlup or 4, basically the staffers closest to the banned member
Thoughts: I can't imagine you posting porn at all and I don't think the members would buy it. Kishi or Shlup are the two obvious choices here. I could quit over this kind of thing.

IIIa. Converse of III. A staff member (me) posts porn and isn't banned for it.
C. Quitters: Dr Unne, Loony BoB, RSL, kishi (think of the uproar THAT would cause)
Thoughts: I can't imagine you posting porn at all and I don't think the members would buy it. Kishi or Shlup are the two obvious choices here. I could quit over this kind of thing. I don't think Kishi would step down over someone not getting banned for posting porn.

I still think we should definitely include the idea of banning and unbanning an account in a clear power struggle (likely ed) and then having the new staff remove Feedback and whatnot, as in my other post. It's the idea I think would be most believable by both oldbie and newbie alike, and it would show a clear power struggle which is most important. If we did go with the porn idea, I think we should 'ban', unban-and-knight and then 'ban' Kishi again. Or something.

The power struggle, the banning of a member and the removal of Feedback are the main things I think would make for a huge uproar, collectively.

[Shlup]

Lets fake a group suicide. Cult-style. WOO!