Right now in City Hall!

There is a festival going on! If you see strange avatars for some of our members, it is because there is a "free week" running. Two festivals fall under the category of a “free week” where the rules are relaxed, you may dress up your avatar, and have more site-wide roleplay. The first festival is called Shaoman (which is running now until November 1st) and the other is Bel Tine, which is held in the Spring around the equinox.

Right now there is an entire forum for silliness and shenanigans. (When the festival ends, it disappears.) There are games, contests, and revelry. There are trivia games, spam contests, story swaps, and more. The games are primarily forum-based, but there are also IRC chat events in #oldewarderandhen sometimes during festivals. It's an incentive to become a citizen--then you can join us!

Three Tower departments vie for new citizens to help out with the site! The Tar Valon Times, the public site newspaper, is looking for reporters. The graphics team, part of the Marketing Department, searches for people who know how to make buttons, graphics, and sigs (or even non-digital art too, like paintings, drawings, and photographs. Finally the online activities team has a big project coming up in April and would like some help getting ready. All these opportunities are available to you as soon as you become a citizen (and even go so far as to have been created for new members to get involved.) If writing, digital creation, and administration are your thing, now is a great time to become a citizen!

Rather quickly after Thanksgiving dinner (for those of us who celebrate), TarValon.Net reverted back to the boards software vBulletin 4 from version 5. This means the data between that date and approximately October 1st of this year was lost--including the accounts of those who joined during that time. If this applies to you, you should have received an email to the account with which you registered. If you did not, please email Zandera at mayor@tarvalon.net right away to get this resolved!

This weekend the citizens of City Hall are invited to the site's chat rooms to participate in a game called #chatmafia. This involves short text games lasting 3-5 minutes where the "evil" players known as mafia attempt to assassinate the "good" players known as innocents without being discovered. The games consist of day and night phases, and players often try to detect suspicious behavior, protect each other, and invent silly reasons to accuse each other of guilt (or innocence). This is a quick and easy way to meet other people and have fun doing it by playing a fun game! As soon as you are a citizen you will be invited to join!

While I thought this was an unprecedented idea, apparently it has happened elsewhere on the site before. (Where exactly? I'm not sure,) but right now in City Hall the Citizen Mayor has transformed into an overbearing women called "the MatchMayor"! Plagued by the unhappy frowns of those around her, she has taken it upon herself to brighten the day of her fellow citizens by finding them their one true soul mate! Clearly, this is the way. :shifty

There is an active thread soliciting participants. Upon private messaging the mayor, (also called PMing,) you would receive a list of questions to answer about yourself. Matches and stories will be posted all next week for the sole purpose of having fun. It is best when love is easy, after all, and love is easy when you are compatible with your soul mate! (Clearly. ) In order to participate in fun weekly events like this, you merely need to become a full member as a citizen--so get right on it!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Happy New Year everyone! Right now in City Hall, a new class has been introduced. This class, called simply the "Citizen Class", teaches participants more about the site, useful tools to navigate and explore what the site has to offer, and information on how to apply to the Tower and become an aes sedai or gaidin.

Though you cannot yet see it, there is an entire forum called "The Classroom" where members from all over the site follow lessons run by other members. These classes may be informational, where you can learn about the different groups located here, or they may be for fun and share information on how to knit, for example, or how to make a signature. Once you become a full member, you can definitely gain access to the forum and see all the classes available. In enough time, you could even run your own! However, you must first work to become a full member first, and who knows, I could soon see you in the brand new "Citizen Class." Keep at it--you can do it! :fistbump

As of the New Year, Integration is now live. What is that? While in the past, only women have been allowed to be aes sedai, and gaidin were only allowed to be men, you may now be either variety of senior member despite your real life gender. That is the definition of Integration on the site.

While this is a big change, not a lot is changing in the overall structure of the membership. Besides some senior members demoting and deciding to explore other groups to see if that is their home, the majority of the names, tracks, and identities of each membership group stay the same.

The administration has put a lot of effort into making this happen over many, many months and even years, so we appreciate them for giving new members like you more options about where to go, and what to see and experience. If you become a full member, you might end up an aes sedai or a gaidin. Who knows what will happen? You will have to embark on the journey to find out.

This week we're going to try our first ever voice chat hangout with a get-together on Skype! Though we've never done this before, electing for IRC Hangouts instead, it might be fun just to relax and chat and get to know each other in real life in addition to the Boards.

Connecting in real life is a bit more of a trusting experience so only citizens and up may participate--and of course you would need some sort of microphone and speaker (or headset) with a Skype account, but it promises to be very fun!

If voice hangouts on Skype or other types of voice software such as Google Hangouts becomes a regular event for us in the future, I hope you'll join us.

I'm quite over due for our update, aren't I?

Well, that doesn't mean that the party has stopped in the mean time! Right now in City Hall, we are just starting to pick up our Bel Tine festival planning, where each group on the site changes around their avatars, and a grand festival faire ground (forum) opens up for limited time shenanigans. I'm pretty new to Bel Tine myself and am looking forward to participating in the Spring! All the citizens are going to come up with a theme together and have games, and if you become a citizen you can join us!

This weekend is also TarValon.Net's annual party, (called "Anni Party" or "Anniversary Party"). We organize a huge get together where people from all over the United States (and the world!) get together for a kind of weekend retreat, where we lock ourselves up in a camp or hotel and play games, share stories, talk, drink, and be merry! There are competitions for the Amyrlin's favor, costume competitions, raffles, and a community service project. Time is too short during this fun event. When you become a full member, you can see the Anni Forum, along with other event forums to get in on the fun.

Right now there's a festival going on! From today until March 27th there is a Faire Ground Festival called Bel Tine. There are three main festivals that happen each year, and Bel Tine is our celebration that happens each Spring. If you see some strange faces, it's because members are allowed to change their avatars for the silliness--don't worry, we'll be back to our regular selves soon. <3 Once you become a member, you can participate in the shenanigans too! I hope to see you in City Hall and enjoy the Boards!

The second round of the Citizen Class (called the "Remix") is currently taking students! This class, located in the Classroom Forum, was originally started to have an instructional place for new members to go to learn about where they can go next on TarValon.Net. There's nothing wrong with staying a citizen, but for those who want to travel further into the site, you can be a Resident Citizen, an administrator, and yes even a fabled Aes Sedai or Gaidin. The class has since grown to cover other topics, like the Tower's history, how to use the Boards, and learning about events here on the site. If you become a full member, you can be a student too and participate in cool classes in the Classroom Forum!

Right now in City Hall there is another round of match-ups, where members provide their name to the Matchmayor for a story and an introduction to a new friend! Where in the past there was the 'Soul Mate' match up where participants were paired by interest, this match-up allows one to be the 'Beloved' in an admirer and admiree structure. This event is a bit flirtier than most, so matches must keep on their toes when respecting their friends and also provide nice things for the potential Beloveds to win them over!

This was written by a recently-made citizen, Liam al'Eire, who is now a Bard of Tar Valon. I hope you like it as much as I did!


The Tower is More Than It Seems

If you’re new to TarValon.net
You don’t know where you’ve found yourself…yet.

You’ll find TarValon’s banner unfurled
With members all over the world.

Of course we discuss all the books
But the Tower’s much more than it looks.

As you get more acquainted you’ll see
We’re quite the diverse community.

If you’re serious, or just came to play
We’ll help you each step of the way.

From Citizen to Gaiden/Aes Sedai
You can master each step if you try.

We’re friendly, and easy to meet
From the Mayor to the Amyrlin Seat.

We have fun and share our points of view
But we do have a serious side too.

Anni, Fall Ball, our events
Do more than just pay lights and rent.

We have scholarships, blood drives, and more
To help our fellow man, to be sure.

If you need help, or just want to chat
We’re here. And we love to do that.

Our threads cover topics galore
Mental health, social issues, and more.

So come in, Join the Tower, Stick around.
You’ll be thrilled by the jewel that you’ve found.

It’s more than your wildest dreams
The White Tower is More Than It Seems.

~The TarValon Welcome Committee

Name That Quote! Trivia Game has just begun in City Hall. This is a perfect chance for you Wheel of Time experts to show off your knowledge; those new to the series can still participate and be in with a fighting chance! This event will be running until Saturday, July 18. So if you've been hesitating about becoming a Citizen, now is the perfect time!

A Treasure Hunt has begun! After much sneaking and scurrying, a secret Treasure Chest has been placed into the Tar Valon Library. Full of fabulous wealth, this spectacular prize has begun sending out its siren's song to all worthy adventurers. Intrigued? How could you not be? You can participate too when you take a stroll over to City Hall as a brand new citizen. The treasure won't be around forever, so stroll quickly!