Hello Southperrians,

It's the start of a new year and we have some great events in store for you all year long. First off, no, this is not the same event post that was launched back in December. With the holidays and deadlines both here at Southperry and the real world, we did not have the time we would have liked to create the best event possible. So, we have made some changes to the event that we feel will be much more enjoyable and streamlined. Please continue reading to view the event details.

THE GOAL

The goal of this event is to create a comprehensive user guide for Southperry users new and old. Perhaps you're a new user who is overwhelmed by all the great features here at Southperry and need a nudge in the right direction - or maybe you've been here a while and weren't aware of features like the Guld Emblem Creator or the Damage Calculator and would like to learn more.

BE SPECIFIC, BUT NOT TOO SPECIFIC

The user guide should not be a mind-numbing manual on how to operate your lawn mower. This doesn't mean your submissions should be written s0rta lyk d1z but you should be concise and to the point. Keep in mind that not everyone wants to read through paragraphs and paragraphs of wordy material just to find out how to ignore a user that is bothering them.

PRIZES

25,000 NX cash per winning category (a grand total of 200,000 NX available to be won). 10,000 NX cash for any entry deemed exemplary enough to be a runner up at the discretion of the juges.


Create a concise guide for navigating the site, mainly the top navigation buttons, including subsections and the like. Did you know it, and your options, change based on where you are? This will be geared toward newer users, but be sure to take a comprehensive approach to this section of the guide.




Create a posting tutorial. Write from the perspective of someone who has never used a vBulletin forum (or any forum, for that matter) before. Recommended topics:

• How to reply to a post
  
• How to create a topic/thread
  
• How to quote a post
  
• How to multi-quote posts in a reply
  
• How to mention a user
  
• How to use 's and 's in a post
  
• How to use prefixes
  
• Replacement words & smilies.
  
• How to use common BB codes (Spoilers, Images, videos, bold, italics, etc.)
  
• Southperry specific BB codes. Tables, hide, FAQ, header, imgsize, fright, fleft, bg, backgroundselect, glow, tweet, urlname, urltag, W (wikipedia)
  

Outline the various features of the user settings panel including:

• Private Messaging
  
• Visitor Messages
  
• Reputation
  
• Subscriptions
  
• Ignore List
  
• Privacy Settings
  
• 'Other' Settings
  

Include graphics if necessary and describe how to personalize and set each feature. The length per topic can vary but it is recommended no more than a paragraph for larger topics.





The dreaded rules and regulations! This is not meant to be a rehash of the rules. Be sure to delve into how infractions work and other potential punishments (if anyone is brave enough to tempt the mighty Eos) and the appeal process. You may use the official Rules and Regulations page as a reference but avoid recreating it; explain how to use the existing reference.





Southperry Blogs are a great, but underutilized, feature of the site. Southperry Livejournal anyone?! Describe the benefits of blogging at Southperry and how to create, share, and comment on a blog. Differentiate between what type of content belongs in a blog as opposed to a forum topic.





Describe the various user groups here at Southperry.net. Avoid discussing specific groups. Rather, explain the intended purpose of a social group vs a blog and so on. Break down the steps involved in creating, joining, and posting in a group.

You can view the group directory here.






Donations help keep Southperry alive and can give you some pretty sweet features as well.

Suggested topics:

• The Market and its purchasable items (some are even free!)
  
• Referral links and searches
  
• Southperry Swag
  
• Donations - the perks, the donor forum, and more
  

Identify various means of customizing your Southperry profile including your avatar, signature, profile photo, profile page color scheme, friends, blog, and other customizations available through the market.

Eos Wrote:Post your submissions here in this thread.
Up/down vote individual submissions using and

Post questions & commentary in the discussion thread - http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=71077

Good luck everyone! We look forward to reading all the submissions. Let's create something great for the Southperry community!

Post your submissions here in this thread.
Up/down vote individual submissions using and

Post questions & commentary in the discussion thread - http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=71077

Let's talk about spam, and flooding.
Contrary to what the rest of the internet has told you, here at Southperry the act of posting messages repeatedly is not spamming; it's flooding.
Let's go on ahead and quote the rules here.

Quote:Definition: "The act of posting the same thing over and over and over again consecutively, or any other unreasonably large volume of content with little to no actual value. This includes both text and images. Images of excessive size (more than 1mb cumulatively in a single post) also count as a 'large volume'."

This isn't just restricted to post flooding, where several consecutive posts are needlessly made. This also can apply to a single post.
And! Don't let that "unreasonably large volume" part fool you. Even something that seems insignificant, like copy-pasting a sentence five times in a row within a single post is is enough to get you into trouble.
And don't think you are safe in Shenanigans. Don't be fooled by the tagline "Light hearted fun. All rules but spam enforced." Because, even though our fun is light-hearted, we take our fun quite seriously. There's a reason why I pointed out that spamming and flooding are treated as entirely different things here in Southperry. While it may be true that spam may be tolerated in Shenanigans, flooding is not tolerated in any form.

Southperry is not your personal blog. Wait-- part of it is?!!

Yes, we have a blog section! Now you can write about all kinds of things that interest or peeve you! Hm, doesn't this sort of make the Angry Dome obsolete now?

Currently we have two categories: "My Life", and "Maple Life". As the names suggest, you have categories for blog posts pertaining to your personal life, and for activities in and around MapleStory. If we see enough demand, maybe in the future we could see categories such as "Mabinogi Life"!

Blog posts should be pretty straightforward for the most part, as your interface is very similar to the "New Thread" editor.
But here's the great thing about blogs! You have complete control on how the conversation might flow! If you wish, you may disable comments on a blog, or allow them. Or, you can choose "Moderate comments before displaying", and all comments not made by you or moderators will be invisible until you choose to approve them to be displayed.


Oh and here's a postscript: as an added bonus, blogs are invisible to guests. So google won't be crawling around and caching your rants as something to reflect poorly on your internet rap-sheet.... I guess.

Are you a special snowflake? Want to hang out with other special snowflakes? Got a special craving for elitism and it just can't be sated with the amenities of Southperry-proper?
Look no longer, because you've probably overlooked the Social Groups! Here, you can carve out your own little niche to hang around with like-minded individuals and do whatever nefarious (but licit!) deeds you're bound to do.
Feeling secretive? When you create your group, you can select an option that automatically hides all content that will be posted in the group, and such content will only be visible to those who join (and Moderators of course).
Feeling extra elitist? You can set your group to "Invite-Only" to ensure that only hand-picked members can join and see all your dastardly d...dilberts?

Joining a group is pretty simple! In most cases, all you have to do is click on "Join Group". There's probably at least two ways to do this, and one of them is incredibly obvious. As for the other, click on "Group Tools" in the header of the group page, which will activate a drop-down menu; and there it is! "Join Group"! You might find that you will be unable to join a group; that would happen to be one of those aforementioned extra-special groups that are invite-only.

And as for posting...it's just like posting in the forum-proper! Topic creations and replies are exactly the---oh wait there's no linked quoting. And mentions don't automatically parse (though you can still do it manually).

The homepage is where you will see the latest MapleStory news and extractions, Southperry news and other features.

[IMG] http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5472/11962...10ce_c.jpg[/IMG]

Southperry is known for its MapleStory Extractions, which reside in the Forums. But there aren’t just extractions – you’ll be able to:

• Leave a “Hello!” at Amherst, our beginner location for anyone new.
  
• (Chin)chill out at the Discussion Forum, where you’ll find discussion about MapleStory, including new content, systems, updates and more.
  
• Find news about MapleStory (from all countries), site announcements and forum events.
  
• Ask questions about MapleStory and get answers from other users.
  
• Buy and sell, or find friends in your world at our World Forums and Marketplace
  

Even though that was the main list of forums, there’s LOADS more you can do.

• Find more specific forums: Game Mechanics (for those calculations), Should I… (for opinions), Training Center (posts about jobs, equips, and stats) and Timelines (to keep up to date with MapleStory versions and updates from other countries).
  
• If you’re more into watching and viewing, Scroll Lock has a stock of screenshots, while the Maple Cinema features many MapleStory videos.
  
• Feeling arty? Post your MapleStory creations or fanart in the Expressive Arts or more generally, the General Entertainment forums.
  
• Find loads more content from people who are venting their anger , paint, draw and create or just talk about nothing in particular .
  
• And, if you play other games, check out the forums for other Nexon games or MMOs, such as Mabinogi or LoL.
  
  
• If you’re logged in, you can edit your forum details, check messages, and fiddle around with your settings.
  

We have user blogs that can be seen when you’re online, where you’ll read about MapleStory, or personal facts and stories from other users. You can easily make a new post.

You can also join a Social Group or make one yourself! Here you’ll find groups that talk about various aspects of the game, and also other social events.



You can donate to Southperry by visiting the Market. Here, you can purchase customisations that aren’t available to people who haven’t donated, such as glow or background effects on your username.

You can also buy Southperry merchandise, like T-shirts, caps, and mugs here.

[IMG] http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3815/11962...1c45_c.jpg[/IMG]

• Damage Calculator, Guild Emblem Maker and a slightly out-of-date database are all at your hands.
  
• The current GMS status for looking to see why you really can’t go on Kradia Channel 14.
  
• Southperry on Facebook, Twitter, IRC at irc://irc.gamesurge.net/southperry and Steam
  
• And of course, the the Rules and Regulations.