Ironing out the Creases!

Hi there, Surreal - this is going to be quite a lengthy post, so grab a snack and some spare time, and really have a good read!

There are a number of large-scale updates that I’d like to cover with this news post today so bare with me. Please take the time to have a read of all the changes and new initiatives starting as of today. These updates will concern everyone who is a part of Surreal so please do take the time to spread the word about this post to everyone inside the clan that should know this information.

Changes to Provisional Application Process
Provisional applications will not happen in the same way that they usually have since Surreal opened. I’ve taken some time to severely review the flaws of our process, and I’m having another shot at eliminating the problems in this revision to the Provisional process.

Applications will be created in the same way, but community and clan involvement will be strongly monitored and taken into account when clan member applications are made during the transition from trial to full. The referral system in clan member applications has been scrapped completely and has been replaced with staff approval.

The essence of a great member for a clan such as Surreal is one who is active in all aspects of the clan, contributes and makes it a worthwhile place to be in. This is where our previous Provisional process was flawed - we needed some way of measuring community involvement. Certain staff will be in charge of monitoring the activity and community involvement of Provisional applicants - those deemed inappropriate for the position of clan member will not be permitted to make the transition.

Inactivity Filtering
As mentioned in the last news post I left for you all to read, the Surreal Staff Team were going to work together to find inactive members in an effort to reduce our memberlist size and overall clan productivity. This has now hopefully been executed in the most accurate way possible.

The following members have been removed from Surreal as members and may not re-apply for 30 days:

• Blue Guy42
  
• SRL Venom
  
• SRL God
  
• Blinky Jared
  
• Freevizion
  
• SRL Cabbage
  
• Surrealbeast
  
• Xuhe
  
• Loserr
  
• Flying Fruit
  
• Hello7210

These activity filtering weeks will happen more often as this one proved very successful. My initial aims for doing this were to efficiently and quickly put the inactive people on notice that they should reconsider their spot in the clan for others who are willing to put up more time.

As there is now much more space within the clan, I have re-opened Provisional applications and we are ready to go once more! I'm glad that we're back on our feet!

A brand new Homeworld!
As noted in our Democracy topic - the clan has been looking for a new homeworld! World 79 has done us proud, but due to a history of problems with connections to that world as well as an increasing lag on it recently; it’s only fitting that we find somewhere more reliable to call home. As per user voting, our new homeworld is officially World 114!

Personally I believe this change of worlds will bring positive things to Surreal as World 114 is already a popular world for many skillers and has a great connection for a majority of the clan. We are aware that there is a Wilderness Danger notice upon login, which can be ignored as it will hardly affect anything we do, since not much of our time is spent inside the Wilderness, anyway!

Warning System
In light of some recent incidents I’ve felt the need to implement a warning system within the Surreal forums. If you have broken a rule that the clan stands strongly by, and a staff member happens to stop you on it; you may receive a warning level increase. This system will allow the staff team to easily keep track of members that should be watched, as well as members that do not belong in the community.

These warning levels add up and expire over time, here is a breakdown of what warnings can be given to members and the warning level that matches up to a corresponding punishment or ban. All of our current rules as well as the new, revised set of rules have warning levels attached to them should they be broken. These can be issued by Staff, Senior Staff and Leaders.

Revised Rule
There has been a lot of debating over our rules, specifically on language. Runescape may have had its chat filter removed, but that most certainly does not mean that profanity is allowed inside anything Surreal. That is IRC, Clan Chats, Forums and any other communication medium we may use.

Cosmetic Changes
Firstly, the default colour of the text in topics on the forums has been darkened a little bit to be more easy on the eyes. I've noticed that strong white did not match too well and was a bit hard to look at. Hopefully this should fix eye-pain issues!

We now have a brand new feature added to the website (homepage) called SurrealStream. This feature will in time paint a picture of how Surreal has been running, displaying Skill Weeks, Pick your Poison challenges, milestones within the clan as well as member of the month awards and much more! It may seem small for now, but we will very soon open up a page full of the history of this stream to paint a picture of Surreal's history starting from now!

Clan News
Finally, to close up this post, Pick your Poison will resume on Wednesday once Team Danny decides the next Skill Week as well as the next skill that will the next PYP challenge will be contested under.

On the topic of Skill Weeks, Skill Week #8 - Fishing has been doing great, it's lovely to see so much participation out of the clan - you've all done a great job and it's going to be a pleasure to make all the signatures for each participant.

Until next time, see ya!

Downfall
Surreal Founder and Leader

This seems fair, I really love the enthusiasm you bring to this clan Downfall, a true leader if I do say so myself. As a member of Team Danny, I am also looking forward to having an opinion in the choice of the next skills for the coming Skillweek and PYP Challenge, I feel so evil! Muahaha

Looks like I will be changing my favorite world from 79 to 114 too, good choice tbh, I won't often have use of the wilderness anyway

We hope these updates will do good for Surreal to ensure we have a good active community within the clan.
We want the best people in Surreal, people that want to move forward with us and to help us out to reach the top.

Now now now...let's try and rock this world too! We did it in World 79 so let's do it too World 114! Hopefully find some skillers and bring them into Surreal too!

Everybody be good now, no rule breaking or a warning for youuuu!

Danny
Leader Of Surreal

Good leaders = Good clan.

Surreal has that combination, so I can't see any reason why we will fault in the future.

Surreal pride

Very happy to see these new changes implemented, we are an active clan not a clan made up of inactive members - also its great to have the rules further explained and some kind of process when they have been breached

Great work Jord!

Look out World 114 Surreal is ready to invade

The spring cleaning was a nice idea, it makes sure this clan won't ever be filled with inactive people.
I hope this pick your poison will be as much as a success as the first one. (Do you know already, who fills up the blank spaces in the teams?)

I also like the new world. World 79 didn't really lag for me, but world 114, with it's requirement, is a decent one as well.

Nice work Downfall!

All sounds good, few people got kicked who i didnt expect to, but if they were inactive it was their own fault.

Oo Updates ^_^.


Sucks to those who were kicked ;/...

Glad i wasn't <3<3<3

New Homeworld Alsooooooo <3

Time to break in W114...Surreal Style!
All of those updates sounds great Jordan!