Semi-away, again!

I'm off on another work-related trip, this time to Europe. I will be gone for a week starting tomorrow, but I will have internet daily and though I won't have mobile access, I will be answering emails and the like several times a day. I don't anticipate much slow down in my activity because this work trip will mostly keep me occupied during the hours I am currently busy and not able to do DB work, anyway.

This report will be a bit sparse compared to past reports, so hopefully it won't be quite as much a wall of text for you guys to read through!

Traditions update

We have received our first Traditions proposal, which was well crafted and is likely to be implemented in some form. One thing I didn't make clear is that individuals submitting the name of the Tradition do not need to use the Adherent noun. Thus, an individual that ascribes to a submitted Tradition could be known as basically whatever you'd like, assuming we approve of it!

Additionally, we've had some requests to make a place for members to discuss potential Traditions and find other interested parties. To that end, I've created a discourse thread here for people to discuss Traditions and propose them to fellow members.

Test of Identity

As some of you are no doubt aware, a group of Dark Councilors has finally pushed the replacement for the Test of Lore live. The goal of the Test of Lore was simply to determine if a member was alive. With that in mind, we set about redesigning the Test of Lore to be something that would test if a member was alive, but also be engaging in a way that might keep the mas members. With that goal, a year ago we began working on what has become the Test of Identity.

We worked through a number of ideas and decided to go with a rudimentary character creator, because we felt that we could use it as a means to "Hook" new members into their new DB personas. Furthermore, it provided a simple launching pad for new members to get an idea of the kind of experience they could look forward to, with Paths and Orders. None of the complex CS elements are included, but members do choose robes and the like. I've included a simple screenshot of my favorite part of the "test," picking a species:

Curious to see the exam itself? You can mosey on over to https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/admin/trial_of_identity and take it yourself! Please note, if you are not an INI, nothing you enter in here will be saved to your dossier.

In addition to the new test, we also modified the existing Join system, such that new members are not assigned to a unit until they: 1) Finish the Test of Identity, proving they exist, and 2) Confirm their email. This way, units should be getting far fewer dead-on-arrival members. The Headmaster has been tasked with occasionally whipping the Initiates that haven't yet completed the Test of Identity, so no new members will go unpoked!

Unit Reviews

Now that we've distributed and heard responses from all units on the unit reviews for the last few months, I wanted to share some relevant numbers. This reporting period went from very the start of May to last week.

First, the Brotherhood had 3000 competition submissions in that period, from 280 unique participants. This doesn't include anyone that is now Rogue or on the Dark Council. Every unit had well over 60% of its members participate the last few months, and the majority had more than 70%! Excellent job there, all! It was very impressive to see these numbers, in a relatively quiet time of year.

I'll share a couple major highlights from the unit report. All of our units showed different strengths, much like the last reporting period. For the second straight reporting period, both Tarentum and Naga Sadow had over 70% unique participation in their unit, and Odan Urr weighed in with a whopping 78% unique participant ratio. Arcona took the most writing clusters(along with the most crescents), Plagueis had the most gaming Clusters, while Scholae Palatinae and Taldryan had the most competition entries overall.

Personally, I am interested to see how our new Join statistics for units change given the new Path/Orders, and the new Test of Identity. For that reason, we did not look directly into comparisons between units on random joins or recruitments, because the recent major change has meant that looking back into the past and comparing it to the last month would be likely invalid. However, it is worth noting that Landon Cruise has recruited dozens of new members to CSP, which is incredible. Good job, Landon!

Success of Naga Sadow

As those of you can see from above, Naga Sadow has done very well this reporting period. But even before that, earlier in my tenure as DGM, it was clear that CNS had excellent leadership. Locke has been a good leader, and an excellent member, for the last 20 months. CNS has benefited tremendously from his vision and dedication over the last 6 months as Consul. Not only has the unit shown tremendous activity and growth, but Locke himself has been an active participant at all levels of the club. So... Locke, congratulations again, on your elevation to EQ4. :)

That's it for this now!

TL;DR

• Mav to Europe; back in a week.
  
• New Tradition coming soon. Use Discourse for more!
  
• Test of Identity implemented!
  
• Unit Reviews look promising; lots of activity!
  
• Locke to EQ4!
  

Telaris "Mav" Cantor

Deputy Grand Master