Local Help

[Ainsley Lynch]

This is just a small idea, and I don't actually know how feasible it would be, but it's been on my mind for a couple of days so I figured I may as well suggest it.

The person who asked in the OOC section about NZ users able to offer local info made me realise it might be nice to have a list somewhere of NZ local users who've volunteered to be available to help with information specific to NZ, for people trying to plot things but not sure where to start. It could also be extended to people from other countries willing to offer help about their homes, but NZ is at the forefront of my mind for obvious reasons. It'd of course have to be entirely voluntary, and clear that people offering to help out aren't doing so in any site-official capacity, just offering local knowledge and experience. I don't know how feasible this would be to organise, but it could be nice for people to have a place to go if they need clarification on things like local slang and culture or are looking for places their characters could be from/details about those places, or Maori PB options from NZ media, etc, etc.

Anyway, just a thought! I don't know how feasible or useful it would be but it felt worth saying Being able to write stuff specific to my home is one of my favourite parts of the site so helping people out with accuracy always makes my day, and I know all the other kiwis I've talked to about this feel the same

 

[Nicolas King]

Hi Rowan,

Thanks for the suggestion, and being willing to help other users out!
I think, generally, asking is going to be people's best resource - especially for those locales outside of NZ.
For people who can give local knowledge about NZ, I'd recommend suggesting a new item in the excellent resource list that Claire has been curating (which I suspect will be pinned at one point or another).

Of course, we also have to be careful not to force people into any of our ideas about how they should roleplay... the Wizarding world has distinctions in terms of culture from the Muggle one, and we're roleplaying in the year 2045, so it's hard to imagine how countries and cultures may evolve between now and the future we're roleplaying in (and we're accelerating away from the present, so we'll never really catch up, either!). It's helpful to get a sense of actual NZ culture, for sure, but we'll never be very strict about enforcing anything about it because none of us really can say for certain!

 

[October Alcott]

That's fair - one of the things that made me a little hesitant about suggesting this was I didn't want to create any kind of atmosphere where people felt a requirement to go through their things with a fine-toothed comb for accuracy (that's not fun for anyone) I was intending it as a resource for people to access, but I did realise that could be a negative consequence & was a little worried about it. I mostly just wanted to make the help more easily available if people did feel like they wanted it.

Making it part of Claire's resource list is a really good idea though, it seems like the perfect place for this I'll get in touch with her about that soon, thank you for the idea!