Also:

" A forum group you were a member of, Virus (Classic) Biters, has been deleted."

Since you can't change the actual ping, I just deleted it. I'll make another testing group once we decide on a naming conventon (probably one for one I actually have, unless anybody thinks it's important that I'm in all of them?).

oh look... ping groups are suddenly links again. that's handy.

so ideally if that's still working, all you'd have to post would be "Ping these groups to request service (or click the link to volunteer!): ❤️ #firstgroup ❤️ #secndgroup ..." ❤️ ❤️ (note: I've done weird code for this example so it would link to nvlb, but all you'd have to type in would literally be the #tag... )

(also note: you could probably make a url link directly to the join link instead of just using the tag, but I think it's better to let them see what they're joining than save them one tap/click)

nods at all of this

if it's worded right (i like the above example), i think it'll be fairly easy to understand for both the volunteers and the victims to either join their respective groups, or to ping whatever group they need. it might be more confusing to have both methods active at the same time? like information overload? but at the same time, i know even the smartest people can sometimes get confused by new things so shruuugs

also, i don't know if this aspect has been mentioned yet so i'll throw it out there...the groups might be more appealing to the people who aren't as confident on the boards and/or pinging people individually. it might mean people wouldn't have that anxiety (or as much of?) of having to decide who to actually ping, and feeling like they might be bothering people. i know i would feel much more confident pinging a group because in a way it takes the individuality (for want of a better word) out of it? like the difference between sending an email to a generic business address compared to emailing the boss of that business personally... and i don't think i've worded that very well, but hopefully you'll get the idea...like, less intimidating? so i do see a lot of benefit to the groups idea!

i'd be totally down with just joining the groups and not being on the individual list if i knew people would actively ping the groups - i wouldn't want to potentially miss someone who needs biting because they might be using a different method to me ><

for me, the community feel comes from just being active on the thread and hanging out, and just jumping in when someone needs help. i know my odd hours being online means most of the people i'm able to help weren't necessarily those who pinged me directly, but those who just came to the thread and said 'hey can someone bite me with this pls'

buttbruise for president

I still think a transition year (or just a thread or two) will be necessary because we need time for people to jump ships (directories like ours have been the norm for like, three+ years and groups will be kind of empty coming out of the gate), but we can lean towards one method while explaining everything.

It might help if we have a bunch of people say they joined the ping groups on the first pages. It might help for people to actively see the groups being used. I can also limit the number of people on the lists and prioritize achievement seekers.

If the ping groups take off, we can just drop the lists for the next thread (aside from achievement seekers but I don't think they need to be organized by strains).

And just remembered that post wranglers would still be a thing. They can ping groups or start pinging people from groups if somebody looks neglected.

You guys can also be extra good zombies and start recruitment prior to Survival. If the groups look reasonably large prior to Survival, then I will do achievement seekers only. Maybe we can make a thread on the forum group forum?

This means that groups should be made soon. Maybe by next week, @/krae?

when we get the ping groups and the list of people the first post could be something like this? at least for the first thread

We could probably get most of NVLB (at least the ones that are active year-round) pre-signed up, and as long as our clinic post has the links, it should be easy for more volunteers to join (even if they don't want to be in the NVLB group).

We already post "here's how to volunteer!" instructions, only this year it can be "click this button", instead of "please ping "...

[edit]... um. No reason, but does anyone know how to post a poll in here?

If end up tossing the list completely, I was thinking of something like this for achievement seekers:

But let's say we keep like, a max of ten people not in the ping group (includes achievement seekers), then we'll keep the spoilers as the are and just have so nice formatting inside.

If you need an extra week, you can have it. I'm not sure what your life is like outside of Subeta.

And you could probably use Google or Strawpoll? There's no way to do it on Subeta so far as I know, so you would have to do it offsite.

Vote on how to name the ping groups Vote on who should admin the ping groups

: Polls will be open for the weekend, please consider your vote and respond before midnight Subeta-time (5am GMT ; 9pm PST) on Sunday, so I can get started on Monday!

Just remember to do one more group ping before the deadline.

The votes are coming in though!

I also wanted to see what numbers were like last year to see what kind of numbers we were looking at. I'll probably do what we have already later in the week.

I don't know if this changes anyone's mind about what the heck we're doing about those vial strains though.

: I guess it'd be up to the vial biters? I don't have a problem making four extra ping groups, honestly, but there's no reason we can't start with a combined ping-group and expand it later if it gets annoying.

It'll just have to be down in the "Please specify what you are pinging us for" section with the don't-care requests. I've only got one strain so far, so I won't know if the ping is for me otherwise, like I would being pinged for eg #virusbites

(Also, I'm not sure if you're worried about having enough people? There's no minimum membership, and even if only two biters are in the ping group it's still easier than pinging them individually)

I think wanted separated groups, but I'm not sure what everyone else is up for. I only have Bulbous, and I didn't even put myself on the list last year.

And in general, I'm probably just going to be a little anxious about it until I see it in action (and then everything will be okay, I'm sure). People should probably just stop listening to me sometimes.

Also, number crunching is kind of fun so once I have some time, I want to see what NVLB has right now compared to last year too! The only kind of visualization we had for something like this was just how long the list was, which isn't as fun (and I think I'm the only who has it too). I was actually surprised that Fevermore is as popular as it is, and that Boobitis wasn't as popular as I thought it was too.

I have 2 out of 5 vial strains. I have the rest of vials already and planning to get them this year (hopefully).

However, others have the vial strains, so I'm not alone in this. They should also express what they would like, to be individually pinged or not. I stated my preference, but I'm going to be happy with whatever is chosen in the end.

I know you have at least a couple of the vial strains. Do you want to weigh in on whether they should get one collective ping group (people will have to state their preference) or four separate ping groups?

voted c: is there a limit to how many groups one person can have?

i'm sure there might still be people uncomfortable 'bothering' people with a group ping, but hopefully less so?

i'd be totally down for joining groups before Survival started. i mean, the start of any event is hectic, and if we're getting the groups up soon, then it's definitely something that we can have at least a little prepared well in advance. and yes, the post wranglers are awesome! those posts are usually my go-to spot when i'm stalking the board. like a mini first post list :)

Limit to your groups? I don't think so, maybe just how many you want to have to scroll through in your "My Forum Groups" tab...

Apologizing for pings? Probably still will be a few, yeah - it's just an easy little social obligation, I guess. At least for me, though, I'd be way more comfortable pinging a designated ping group than mass pinging ten individuals I picked out myself by name (and then, potentially, waiting fifteen minutes and picking ten different names...)

Also, I second that thank-you to the wranglers. First Post is a god-send for victims, and I blessed you for it every time I came with my own tasty flesh, but I hardly touched it during the feeding frenzies. The wranglers were there for me with a fresh post nearly every time I finished a victim.

Click here for preview ping groups: Skin+Bite/s and NVLB+Skin proposal examples!

(link to post in this thread)

ooh boy you accidentally pinged my cw group.. might wanna watch which groups you're pinging as that's a 200-user group. ;A;

anyone who got pinged here for #/butt i'm sorry!! ;_;