FAQ: The Great 2015 Census and You!

[milliways_mods]

The Great 2015 Census, and YOU!
(an informational update in the style of an FAQ)

So! Census! Wooo!

Why are you doing this to us?

Because we hate you and want you to feel nothing but crushing sadness and despair.

Wait...seriously?

No, no of course not!

Look, the short version is that due to circumstances beyond our control the domain that use to host our Cast List expired, taking all of our data along with it.

SO the Census is to rebuild the Cast List?

Yup! Pretty much. From scratch even! And in a way that will hopefully keep something like that from ever happening again.

So what does this mean going forward?

Well, first it means that our Application Process has changed slightly.

We’ve added a Contact List and a Cast List entries to the Milliways_Mod journals, and linked them both to the Main Bar and Back Room.

The Contact List is where you’ll be able to find not only the names of every player in the Bar and how to contact them, but also who they play.

The Cast List is where you’ll find the most Up To Date information on all the characters in the Bar. If they’re not on that list, then they can be app’d during the first 10 days of every month.

Buuuuut it’s looking kind of short, for a comprehensive list. And shorter because you’ve asked people NOT to add to it.

That’s not really a question….but I get your point.

Unlike the domain, which had a whole database set-up built in, this new Cast List is really just an html table, and as such each entry has to be hand coded. While it’s good practice for coding n00bs, it’s kind of labor intensive, which is why we’re planning something different for the Census.

Oh Right! The Census. What’s that all about?

I’m glad you asked!

The Census is how we’re going to get the bulk of the characters of Milliways onto the Cast and Contact Lists. Rather than go line by line with comments posted via DreamWidth, we’re going to use a Google Form that will go live starting in July.  

When you say “Bulk” do you mean everyone?

Well, as many people as we can. We’ll be sending out an email prior to July to make sure we’ve got the attention of as many people that care as possible. Then in July we’ll post the link to the Google Form in a locked-to-members post in the Back Room and a Flocked Post to the Mod Journal.

Okaaaay, but then what?

Then...people fill those forms out at their leisure, and we close it at the end of the month, transcribe the data collected into html table compliant bits, and *poof* Cast List and Contact List!

Hmmm. This does seem pretty straight forward. But...what if I have further questions?

Oh well, that’s easy too. Just leave them as comments on this post and we’ll answer them to the best of our abilities.