August 2017

Celebrating the Members:
The Core of the Community

The RPing community continues to grow and GP is also one of the fast growing communities of RPers on the internet. Every day it, and to see members enjoy and connect with one other.

Till next time,
LadyLare at least seven to eight new members popping in, and every month it exceeds thirty. With the vast number of members, there will be ups and downs in managing and sometimes, there will be an undesired lack of activity.

A community’s growth and relation depends on the activities they do together. While the site may focus on catering to mature RPers, members do tend to look for other things the site can offer. Maybe it's something that can connect to their writing to help them improve, or something else entirely that would ease their imaginative mind? Because of this desire to expand GP's horizons, events have become a popular medium that create community growth and relationships between members and staff alike. Here are some events that happened on Guilty Pleasure that garnered not only fun memories, but also created a bond between members.

Pink, one of the Administrators of the site, created an event to celebrate the site reaching ten thousand members! She called it “The 10K Greek Event” where everything was themed Greek Mythology. Twelve Gods were selected, and each god gave three challenges. Whoever won became that god's Champion. A lot of people participated and I was able to interview some of the participants!

Warpster77 said his favorite challenge was the one with Poseidon, where they were tasked to write a story from the perspective of a horse. He loves events that focus more on the creative writing of the members. For Banana Fan, she liked the Greek Event for its many choices of challenges to participate in. Many members also noted the creativity of the challenges, and they are hoping to see more.

The highlights of the event were the coliseum tournament, hosted by several staff members and community moderators, inviting members to create their own character that would face different mythological monsters.

The “Respect Event” was organized by the Ambassador Kalinda, and members saw a different light in the community of GP. When asked why she wanted to put together this event, Kalinda said, “Because I know how easy it is to disrespect people over the internet….. I wanted our members to be aware of that and I wanted to show to every individual on GP that we can succeed as a respectful and positive community.”

John Thaemos was able to show what respect means to him through this event. When asked if the event had changed his perspective on the site, he said “I think, we don't always agree with others. We can respect their viewpoint. As we are all entitled to one. I feel like the site is more than the sum of its parts. That they have offered a perspective to all on the website, that not everyone gets to see in their daily lives.”

Holden Caulfield said “…I did get to read the things that other people had written down about their own experiences. Really put things into perspective.”

The event had several threads where members were to share some insight about respect, shout-outs to people they respect on GP, and a thread that gave a chance to members to apologize for something bad they felt guilty about.

The “Pride Event” was organized by sirencall in celebration of Pride Month. The event showcased the members' love and support for the LGBTQ community. It gave everyone a way to show the positivity and acceptance of the differences of people on the site.

ThePurplePriestess, part of the Matchmaking Team, was asked how she felt about the Pride Candle Light Vigil. She said, “…it made me really feel like there were some awesome people left in the world despite all the bed things that happen.”

Events bring a community closer together. It helps them understand differing points of view, especially since GP is a community that stems from the internet. Sometimes online, we can find it difficult to understand a simple sentence since we do not hear the tone of the speaker's voice. Hence, we rely solely on our own interpretations of the words themselves, which can lead to misunderstandings. Events and activities helps us overcome these misunderstandings. With a lot of events in store for all members of GP, I can't wait to write about