Gurashi said:

I've seen people get burned so much over using the DATE conversion and relying on the IC half to be accurate but in truth the further out you try to predict a date, the less accurate it's going to be. Always include some note somehow, somewhere when announcing when something is going to happen OOCly (like 8 pm CST or something etc). It isn't immersion breaking! It saves everybody headaches and having to deal with re-posting the correct date once the error is realized.

The google calendar really trivialised all of this for me, because you just see the event in your timezone so it takes out the conversion step plus you can sync it to get reminders. Seems like it'd be pretty neat for ascension as well and it's constructive metagaming in the end.

Tossing suggestions here. Feel free to add your own or discuss. I am not an expert. Please don't take this as prescription.

Communication

Getting the word out feels like the biggest part of parties and contests. Much of this won't apply to casual get-togethers.

1. OOC Calendar: Convert those dates somewhere, like Uzriel's post of the Bloodfaire. Or a Google Calendar to share.
2. Town Crier: If you have aides waking at different times than you, they're great to assist with being a town crier. And New Celest has an actual NPC for this role?
3. OOC Tweet: Give a town crier message before it happens, using Twitter. Since this is how conflict events and notices before admin-run things are given, best to tweet for something happening Soon. Can only do it once a RL month, unless you Issue yourself with a request. If doing the latter route, Issue early so admin have time to respond.
4. Org Messages: Probably the best place to get people's eyes on it in-game without expending energy. This works best if there aren't messages that have been there for a long time. People's eyes will skip a block if they see a familiar line at the top. Consider moving those lines somewhere else. (It's a lot of messages for people in all commune/city, guild, and order organisations.) Or swapping the message to be at the top. Changing the colour seems to help for visual folk. Consider the TMS Vote message in comparison.
5. News posts: Best format for getting out info, including tiers of prizes if relevant. These will fade from people's memory if it's not an activity in the next week.
6. Individual invites: These work for more formal events or big bashes. Make sure the invite won't decay before the party.
7. Not advised: Flyers at nexuses. People's eyes don't go to mortal letters or scrolls at nexuses because there's a lot of stuff already there. (However that special scroll to signup or the Ascension Gala would have the useful feature of acting as an RSVP and letting you get a headcount of attendees for goodie bags. Possible PR request?)

Types of Events

Xiran's on the serious side as Minister, so her planned things have a Theme or Purpose. Luckily other folks keep things fun and are better at spontaneity. Activities run the gamut from small to large, and they all work to promote culture. If you have people helping you out, that is amazing. If you don't, that is okay. It may start that way if things have been quiet a while. Find what works with the time you have available.

Small and Spontaneous

These tend not to need more than a single call on the aether. Gathering people together to paint (like Velcora does), or do rounds of psychodrama doesn't have to be more complicated than calling for an Astral hunt. Run a 'newbie session' once in a while for those new to the activity to get more people to join in. Tell stories or give tours of your favourite region or quest area. Give young ones tours of a village.

Some can be run in a quiet timequake or conflict event, if you're feeling sassy. People are gathered and at your mercy anyway, ohohoho. Play word games, pun around, drop a dartboard.

Small but Planned

Strike up a song and see if people emote dancing or join in playing music. If not, you at least got a session in.

Gather for little performances off-stage. Even though the stage is mechanically the same, people have stage fright. But emotes are familiar to them.

Quizzes take a fair bit of prep. I run these on the Commune aether so people not participating can still learn history and recent events. One could also run quizzes on what to do in an aetherflare or revolt (Xiran, campaign crusade, dang it!) or the like.

Vengeance and Arena Games

Can be spontaneous. May want to announce ahead to gather people.

Rituals and Ritual Events

This may move along the spectrum depending on a lot of things. These can be spontaneous as a brief prayer before doling out buffs. For things with purpose, or if an Elder's suggesting something might happen ahead of time, get on that news post or org message!

Contests and Submissions

The contributions are largely by others, but at this point communication comes in. Collaborate here with other ministers. Power contributions, Library submissions. Rounding up bards and scholars. Essence contests, design contests, fashion contests, a day of performances, and auctions go here too. Auctions* have been run as bidding on people's abilities - designing, hunting, and tradeskills.

There could also be contests with the various board games, Fate Decks, psychodrama.

Planned Activities

Scavenger hunts take some prep beforehand, but it's quite fun to see people running around. If there's some time in advance, you might be able to PR for godmin support.

Parties

Getting together around food and drink, usually with at least one small activity. There should be a reason for the gathering. (Positive propaganda is a reason.)

I think what makes these feel special is when there's Lusternian details. This can be having Fae and ancestral spirits join in dancing. Or serving carrion for Gloms.

Festivals

Anything that is a series of activities over more than one day. They support a larger theme or purpose. If something doesn't fit, consider running as a separate activity. Don't try to cram everything into festivals.

---

*Auctions: Personally, bidding on people makes me extremely uncomfortable. I'd probably run this with emphasis on bids being for a commission from or contract with them instead.

Planning

Avoid Overlap

When planning festivals or contests, consider what else is already going on, and potentially what big arcs the godmin might have planned leading towards Ascension. Try to find a quieter month.
Spontaneous things are nice in that they can work anytime.

Stretch Across Timezones

Are there people getting left out of activities? Ask them when their availability is. Sometimes a couple adjustments can make an activity asynchronous and more inclusive. Ex. Raffle a prize to players completing an activity, instead of awarding who finished first.

Find aides who wake at a different time than you.

Coordinate

If you have people willing to help, take them up on it. Culture's about building community, so people assisting on this side of things builds their sense of community and contribution to the whole.

If your activity involves more than you behind the scenes, congrats and good luck! Asynchronous communication OOCly is useful, like a Discord chat or Google doc. Confirm details before posting officially.

If details are moving quickly, having a meeting might help. For festivals where different people are running each thing, chatting one-on-one gets things done just fine. A meeting's only useful if all the people there need to know the details at the same time.

Reframe

Use your frame of mind to your advantage. Although there was intention to what was selected, I actually could not bring myself to call Serenwilde's celebration of the guilds a Festival. It made it intimidating. Viewing them as singular activities was far less stressful. An activity itself can be broken down into it's opening/middle/end too.

Give Yourself Downtime

Give yourself and other hosts downtime. Being the same person running activities even a few days apart can feel like a lot. If doing a string of activities like in a festival, space out who's doing what. Mix in elements that take less effort on your end while still supporting your theme, like viewing stage recordings or playing arena games. Use material that's already been done by others (while crediting properly, of course).

Wrap-up

This is more about the mental wrap-up. I'm usually in a daze while wrapping up a party and boxing up leftover goods for people who missed it.

Rest

Give yourself a break. If your energy's running low, then you might be overextending.

Reflect

Sometimes activities work out well. Sometimes they don't. That is okay. It's just an opportunity to learn and redirect your energies.

Only do what you can, and no more. Small and spontaneous activities at a more regular clip are great culture builders. Don't burn out trying to go big or make everything perfect.

Sometimes you run a contest and do everything right, but no one enters, or fewer people than there are prizes enter. That is not on you. You've done your part to make things fun. You're helping make Lusternia a lively game. People have lives outside of it too. I tend to advocate for closing the contest as announced, as extending it is unfair to those who have entered on time and are waiting for results to be announced. And extensions will either confuse people or get lost in newer things going on.

Xiran said:

Tossing suggestions here. Feel free to add your own or discuss. I am not an expert. Please don't take this as prescription.

Communication

Getting the word out feels like the biggest part of parties and contests. Much of this won't apply to casual get-togethers.

1. OOC Calendar: Convert those dates somewhere, like Uzriel's post of the Bloodfaire. Or a Google Calendar to share.
2. Town Crier: If you have aides waking at different times than you, they're great to assist with being a town crier. And New Celest has an actual NPC for this role?
3. OOC Tweet: Give a town crier message before it happens, using Twitter. Since this is how conflict events and notices before admin-run things are given, best to tweet for something happening Soon. Can only do it once a RL month, unless you Issue yourself with a request. If doing the latter route, Issue early so admin have time to respond.
4. Org Messages: Probably the best place to get people's eyes on it in-game without expending energy. This works best if there aren't messages that have been there for a long time. People's eyes will skip a block if they see a familiar line at the top. Consider moving those lines somewhere else. (It's a lot of messages for people in all commune/city, guild, and order organisations.) Or swapping the message to be at the top. Changing the colour seems to help for visual folk. Consider the TMS Vote message in comparison.
5. News posts: Best format for getting out info, including tiers of prizes if relevant. These will fade from people's memory if it's not an activity in the next week.
6. Individual invites: These work for more formal events or big bashes. Make sure the invite won't decay before the party.
7. Not advised: Flyers at nexuses. People's eyes don't go to mortal letters or scrolls at nexuses because there's a lot of stuff already there. (However that special scroll to signup or the Ascension Gala would have the useful feature of acting as an RSVP and letting you get a headcount of attendees for goodie bags. Possible PR request?)

It's been a while since I've done anything useful or memorable as Cultural Minister but I love this thread.

I've seen people get burned so much over using the DATE conversion and relying on the IC half to be accurate but in truth the further out you try to predict a date, the less accurate it's going to be. Always include some note somehow, somewhere when announcing when something is going to happen OOCly (like 8 pm CST or something etc). It isn't immersion breaking! It saves everybody headaches and having to deal with re-posting the correct date once the error is realized.

Also if you're working with lots of people from lots of different timezones, having a shared Google document or something you can all throw ideas into is immeasurably helpful. Color coordinating, etc. That's what we did for the Glom 2019 Solstice event. Assigning 1-2 people per activity makes it so no single person gets overwhelmed and you have a backup if someone can't make it to something.  

Kiskan said:

Unfortunately we can't do this in the real world (it would be handy for people we don't know, or don't know well) but could they let people customise a pronoun?  That way I can always just honours people as usual and I know what pronoun they want me to use.  It could be anything you like, so long as it's less than... some reasonable number of letters.  Maybe let people change it once per RL year if they like (so that people don't abuse it knowing they can change it again tomorrow, and so that most of the time, people actually would hopefully know the right pronoun to use if they'd interacted with you somewhat recently).  The most wonderful thing about it would be, if you forget... you can just look again.  

I asked about this when I was making Mys, actually. That and adding a third gender are apparently pretty tricky from a code perspective. 

Aerotan said:

Triggers already need to account for the possibility of both currently in-use sets of pronouns. Honestly, if I was coding a system I'd have an empty capture there so that I didn't have to manually account for both pronouns anyway. Because I'm notorious for making code-breaking typos that take WEEKS to sort.

Yeah, I'm not sure who hardcoded in the gender set in the code itself, but I'm not surprised by it. Smacks of old, bad code from way back when. 

Gender was for a long time assumed to be binary. A lot of systems thus store this in a binary format, or use a true / false format for it (and the true is usually male, heh). It's actually considered a best practice to store something that would only ever have two states in such a field. And that creates further assumptions in the rest of the code. Depending on the age and skill of the ones who wrote the code, that can have some serious consequences. I'm overly simplifying this but I hope that this explains a bit to non-coders how such things work and why they might be hard to fix.

It's not yet an option on official documents here, but I was however glad that one software I got to work on (healthcare industry administration) had options for both, neither and unknown. It did pertain to biological gender but it was a refreshing difference. It was also not bound to the title the person carried, such as sir or madam.

Mysrai said:

Aerotan said:

Triggers already need to account for the possibility of both currently in-use sets of pronouns. Honestly, if I was coding a system I'd have an empty capture there so that I didn't have to manually account for both pronouns anyway. Because I'm notorious for making code-breaking typos that take WEEKS to sort.

Yeah, I'm not sure who hardcoded in the gender set in the code itself, but I'm not surprised by it. Smacks of old, bad code from way back when. 

IIRC, Rapture is at least a decade old. The older MUD code gets, the more outright weird shit is in there  - I'm reminded of the driver I saw with compile settings for UNICOS and direct calls to memory addresses. Gender is the least surprising thing to crawl out of the horrid heap that is MUD legacy code.

Rapture dev started back in 1999 I think, they released it sometime around 2001. It was Vortex before that and Hourglass back in the really early days. Guessing it's a holdover from Hourglass/Vortex that was ported into Rapture by the person who wrote Rapture. I remember it being released to a lot of fanfare. It definitely improved lag but then I was using GMud on a 56k connection back in those days so don't think I really noticed much...