Announcement: Changes to the Townlumni System

[loverlyviolets]

A little over a year ago, we announced the townlumni system for any townies, teachers, or other characters who left the island after being in the game for at least a year but still wanted to keep their character around for the occasional visit.. A handful of people have made use of the possibility since. Because Fandom High is a game that is constantly evolving, and because we want to make sure that the townlumni status still lives up to the demands of the game, we've gone back to re-evaluate the rules put into place for townlumni.

With the above in mind, we've decided to scrap the townlumni status in favour of the expatriate system.

What is the expatriate system?

Simply put, 'expatriate' is a type of alumni status available to any denizen of Fandom that's been around for a year and isn't a graduating senior. Unlike the old townlumni, expatriates come with all of the privileges and responsibilities of a normal alumnus. That comes down to a few things:

* Expatriate characters will be reserved and considered taken as long as the player keeps to the one post a month activity requirement.

* Expatriate characters will be allowed to travel to visit other expatriates and alumni by use of Portalocity.

* Expatriate characters will have their journals listed on the friending list.

* They will also have access to fh_alumni and be allowed to interact within the community, as well as in posts on the journals of other alumni and expatriates.

* Like alumni, expatriates can not return to Fandom without a plot application with a valid plotty reason for their visit. Unlike alumni, they also won't be allowed to return to the island during homecoming or prom, but there are other island events for them in the works.

What do I have to do to qualify?

It's very simple: your character has to have been in the game for a year to qualify. Normal seniors, on the other hand, still only have to complete a Fall + Spring term cycle to achieve alumni status. You also have to send an email to administration@fandomhigh.net to let us know you're planning on letting your character go expatriate. The status is open retroactively to all characters who've spent a year in the game and left between January 2007 and now, provided the player remained active in the game when the character left.

Existing townlumni

For OCD purposes, we'd like to ask all current townlumni to mail us so we can make a list of current expatriates. Just leave us an email, and we'll make the switch! Anyone with dropped characters who are eligible for expatriate status are also invited to email us should they wish to shift their characters in.

Fandom weirdness

Both alumni and expatriates have the chance to suffer any Fandom weirdness that hits the island, excluding BDEs, localized events (such as rocks fall, everyone dyes) or events set into motion by someone on the island (such as Liir causing everyone on the island to taste differently). That means that AU weekend, AU kids and weetiny are all open to alumni and expatriates, where alumni qualify as 'students' and expatriates as ' townies' in terms of who turns when.

And remember: nothing says 'love' like terrorizing your normal, everyday off-island colleagues with your big bad 8-year-old self!

The Activity Requirement (applies to alumni as well)

Alumni have a one post a month activity requirement, and the same will go for expatriates. In order to tighten our activity check for both these character classes, we'd like to ask all alumni/expatriates to reference their posts in fh_alumni. This can be a link to a post played out in the alumni/expatriate's journal, or a post in its own right. If you want your posts to count towards the requirement, however, you have to have it up on fh_alumni in some fashion. That way, we hope to keep up alumni activity and ensure that everyone's still getting fairly played.
~~~

Questions? Comments? Cake? (It would usually be pie, but we have to do something for a certain cake-lover in exchange for taking away the word "townlumni.")

Comments

[solo_sword]

YAY.

[withoutverona]

Awesome.

If you don't mind an incredibly picky question, does a "year" mean exactly 365 days? Two of my old characters, Elliot Reid and Melody Valentine, are less than a week shy each. Honestly, it won't break my heart if they aren't eligible -- I'd love to give someone else a chance with them someday -- I'm more asking for the sake of my own curiosity.

[thatsamilkshake]

As long as it's not more than a week off, we're good with it!

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

The cake definitely makes the loss of the COMPLETELY AWESOME WORD a little easier. Thank you.

Also, YAY!

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

*thanks you kindly from a character who will totally be taking advantage of this when he eventually leaves Fandom*

[weetuskenraider]

HI SO THE WRONG ACCOUNT FOR THIS.

But as far as one post a month goes, does activity in other alumni's posts count toward that?

[thatsamilkshake]

Yep, as long as there's a link to it in fh_alumni, it doesn't matter where the activity happened! (And we'll be working with the alumni comm folks to figure out the best way to deal with that so it makes sense for everybody. Y'all will probably hear more from them soon.)

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

*CHEERS*

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

The status is open retroactively to all characters who've spent a year in the game and left between January 2007 and now, provided the player remained active in the game when the character left.

What would this mean for current players who have a character go to expatriate now, but would end up with no active characters in the game?

[thatsamilkshake]

Since expatriates mostly conform to alumni rules, if players keep to the activity requirement, they can keep their character, and the player would be considered to still be 'part of' the game.

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[unddann]

The status is open retroactively to all characters who've spent a year in the game and left between January 2007 and now, provided the player remained active in the game when the character left.

. . . So, since when I dropped Nadia, I was dropping the game due to time constraints, that means she's ineligible? 'Cause she totally fits the other rules, from what I can tell.

Ah well.

[thatsamilkshake]

We're afraid that would be the case, yes.

[grand-fallguy.livejournal.com]

Is sad because he doesn't qualify but misses Fandom.

[apocalypsesoon.livejournal.com]

*still has anti!emo wine*