Council of Elrond

Wolfgang has raised the idea of a CoE Newsletter. I think it's a great idea. If we are to proceed with such, however, we need a number of things:

(1) Audience: who will be the audience?

(2) Method of Delivery: how will we contact our audience?

(3) Writer: who will compose the newsletter?

(4) Period: how often do we expect to send out this newsletter?


I suggest we discuss these four items, then someone makes a motion if there is a degree of consensus.

(2) is there any other possibility than e-mail? I doubt it...
That raises the qustion, which email adresses to use.

Could we make the collection of email addresses part of the new constitution process? I.e., if you vote, you vote by email, and in so doing you become part of the CoE newsletter mailing list?

Or would that discourage voting?...

RE 2: I do wonder if people would decide not to vote, just to stay off of our mailing list. I do think it would be a good idea to send it to every list we can (metw list, wolfgang's list, meccg.net site, any others...) so we get the largest possible audience.

RE 4: At most, I would think monthly, but more likely bi-monthly. I don't know if we would really have enough info to write a monthly one.

2: there should definitely be a process to sign off from the newsletter, then the first issue could be sent to every mail address that has something in common with MECCG (hoorray SPAM ;P), and those who wish not to receive it would sign off

4: it should be often enough to promote any nationals. dates thereof can be set in 1-2 month horizon, so there should be similar time gaps between the issues (not neccessarily every 60 days, but e.g. more like, when we need in the next 30-60 days)

I have some ideas about this.

There should be a separate thread on Meccg.net called "Council of Elrond Newsletter". This will be OUR space for publishing information about the game, happenings, Worlds tourneys, some spicy tidbits about new decks to get players keen on what's happening in the game, etc.

Only problem with above is whether Gwaihir will allow it. I don't see why not; since COE is obviously still important to the game and he still supports us.

Another option that could be in addition to the above is to create a yahoo groups listserve for our game, called something like "Middle-Earth CCG Community." This should be an announcement-only listserve with multiple moderators set up to ensure the list NEVER dies. As you all probably know already, these listservs have *very simple* instructions for how to subscribe and unsubsribe (you send an email, like silentower) and we can give this info out to interested parties at tourneys, conventions, etc. and thereby spread our pallando-like sphere of influence. The advantage of this listserve is essentially that there will be many people who don't want to bother with checking into a forum (meccg.net) to read a newsletter or get game info, but wouldn't mind getting a simple email that highlights for them everything they need to know. And we may as well make things as simple for people as possible. In time this yahoo group could be as big as the silentower list. Here I must ask: why did silenttower die? Was there an administrative issue? I am *assuming* that a yahoo group would be better to create than a new silentower, but maybe i'm wrong.

How often do we publish? As much as neccessary, especially with new update announcements near Worlds, but not more than *once a month* and never less than *once a season*. This should be enough to MAINTAIN PRESENCE AND CREATE COMMUNITY, which is exactly what COE and MECCG needs.

Of all our ideas, in fact, I think the newsletter is the best one--something that's sorely lacking.

(Btw, why can't we have avatars next to our names on this bulletin board? )


Frodo

having it posted at meccg.net is a very good thing. i dont think, that the team of meccg.net will oppose this (there is still a team, isnt it??)

yep, yahoo egroup set up like a newsletter (only the mods are able to send messages). thats what i was suggesting too. vry easy to handle, very effective.
every message sent out will automatically offer to sign off the list.
no chance to get spammed via the egroup.

a newsletter once per month is just fine i think.

So is the suggestion now to replace the silenttower email list? If so, we should give at least several months for people to move over. If not, I'm afraid a good number of people will be unwilling to have two meccg lists spamming them....

I think what Wolfgang is saying is that this would be the way for us to send out messages, but this wouldn't disband the silent tower group, as MECCG players wouldn't be able to post to the mailing list he's talking about (or am I misunderstanding?). I do like the idea of regularly posting to meccg.net.

I have very little doubt about posting on meccg.net; in fact, as General Manager of the place, I can tell you right now I see no problems

This is what I understood:

A mailing list is no more the better way to do community.

So you'd like:
1) to have a NEWSLETTER once a time to tell the people what's happening

2) to use this newsletter to redirect prople on meccg.net FORUM to have there the community debate.

If I understood well, I like it.

1. audience: I think that this would be most useful to people, who are not really active, but are willing to play a game now and then, or perhaps visit the nationals/worlds
OTH, they don't check meccg.net often (or do not even know about it), they wouldn't make any action to SUBSCRIBE to a list
BUT, o lot of them would NOT unsubscribe, if the newsletter hit them only occassionaly with brief informative content

we do not need to address people like you and me, who are active enough to know about their nationals/worlds even without this newsletter, and who would subscribe themselves to eg. some yahoogroup

2. i think that this should perhaps use the GREAT NEW PLAYER LIST from the other thread
and the database would have column whether to send the newsletter or not

anyway, pointing from the newsletter to meccg.net forum for discussion is a great

K.

Slightly off-topic, would anyone support the idea of round-robin article writing for such a newsletter? That way, it would spur on laggards (me ) and would serve to get everyone involved to come up with some "interesting" stuff (in depth card/deck discussion, tournament reports, ideas about scenarios). Obviously, this would not be enough for a whole newsletter but would provide some flavor.

MECCG Newsletter Ideas

Okay, I had a lot of brainstorms on this topic, and am now convinced this newsletter thingie can be the absolute coolest thing going for MECCG since Longbottom Leaf...

In tune with Charle's post:

The Newsletter would be a beautifully designed, full-color (since electronic), packed with information, card image-based and metaphorical gazette of great information. The title for the newsletter shall be ?THE RED BOOK: THE COUNCIL OF ELROND OFFICIAL MECCG NEWSLETTER.? Here's my starting ideas:

1) PIPPIN'S NEWBIE CORNER: (image: Pippin playing with palantir) This section would address newbie concerns and perhaps "teach" some basic element of the game in a paragraph or two.
2) GOLLUM'S GROTTOE: DID YOU KNOW? TIPS&TRICKS (image: Gollum playing riddle game) This section would briefly talk about two to three advanced Meccg game ?tricks? that not everyone necessarily knows about, like being able to play Marvels in the untap phase.
3) WIZARD?S VOICE: COUNCIL OF ELROND RULES DIGEST (image: wiz?s voice) Unless Chad doesn?t like this idea, we could published the COE Digest in the Newsletter, even if it?s long. Think about it: the newsletter is from the Council of Elrond, right? Well, the COE Digest is basically our only official piece of literature! It should probably be in here.
4) ????? :SAMPLE DECK LISTS TO TRY (??) Here we?ll publish one sample deck list, either ?super fun? or ?tournament-level?.
5) THE SHIRE SEASON: UPCOMING TOURNAMENT CALENDAR
6) MIRKWOOD PROJECTS-IN-THE-WORKS
7) HORN OF ANOR: CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR PROJECTS (image: Horns, Horns, Horns) Here we, the COE, will list a bunch of practical projects and dream projects that will serve the MECCG game and openly ask any interested players to contact us to execute said projects. We have hundreds of players playing this game, right? Well surely we can get a few dozen to do stuff like work on GCCG improvements, website stuff, Unified Rulebook, Color Underdeeps Map with Sites, etc. etc.
DENETHOR?S PALANTIR: THOUGHTS ON THE PLAYING FIELD (image: Use Palantir) Here some decent player will make his or her observations on decks to fear, up-and-coming-ideas, good haz play, etc.
9) ?? SIMPLIFIED RULES CORNER (image: ?) Maybe this can be combined with Newbie Corner. Basically, take a tough concept like what can be played on-guard, and break it down nice and simply. Who knows, maybe we?ll all actually learn something!
10) THE FELLOWSHIP: COMMENTS FROM COE
11) ?? TOLKIEN FACTS: Here we?ll actually present some cool info on Tolkien himself, or on the books!
12) WORMTONGUE SPEAKS: WHERE TO BUY ALL THINGS TOLKIEN (image: wormtongue) After we publish a few issues, we can apply to places and host their ads and actually make some advertising money to be applied for Worlds prizes, site maintaince, etc. I know some people feel weird about ads, but we?re not talking about website banners here. We?re talking about ONLY things relating to this card game, or anything middle-earth or tolkein-related at all, including figurines, collectibles, other strategy Tolkien games, etc. Remember that many of our readers will definitely be interested in where they can buy cool Tolkien stuff, ESPECIALLY packs of meccg boosters.

That?s all I got for now. The best way to do this, I think, is to have two co-editors, and they are in charge of soliciting pieces for each of the above columns, and/or writing some of them themselves. Like Charles?s idea. For instance, maybe Wolfgang would start by doing the Tolkien Facts column, etc.

Although I admit to being rather busy, the idea of the newsletter intrigues me a lot, and I?d like to volunteer to be the first editor, or one of the co-editors, anyway. Who?d like to be the second?

Oh, anyone know of a good newsletter creation program, or is MS-Word good enough?

Frodo

This all sounds quite interesting, Joe. However, I do have some concerns:

(a) Are you going to be able to fill all of these categories every time the newsletter is released? Suppose we release 6 per year, that's 72 articles. I'm afraid there's simply not that much NEW info to provide all that content. Many many many tricks are already documented on meccg.net for example....

(b) It looks bad to promise something and then renege. I'd rather that we bite off only as much as we can actually chew. As such, I'm afraid this might be overstepping....

What do you think?