Festivals, Festivals!
AncientWorlds is an evolving community, and one of the "evolves" of the last year has been to move from two site-wide festivals (Springfest and Goldfest in the autumn) to one site-wide "blow-out" (this year, it's SPRINGFEST at the end of April) and multiple "special events" sponsored by various worlds throughout the rest of the year.
It would be hard to top the events of The Orient's recent February Festival for ten days in February, based in every major region of the Orient! You could hunt magical beans, write stories with Indian themes, build lanterns, bop Chinese monsters, and in each event - whether the Vasant Panchami celebrations in India, the Lunar Festival of China, the Live Haiku Challenge in Japan, or the block parties everywhere - the Orient managed to painlessly teach a great deal of history and culture while we madly played for fun and profit. Kudoes to The Orient volunteers and scribes, one of quite a line, now, of our recent world festivals that mix fun and history! And it's also thought-provoking to see how many citizens of other worlds got involved in the festivities and were awarded their Foreign All-Stars status, known for short as the "Foreign Devils" awards. It's a good example of working through all the worlds to make a festival we can all enjoy - on multiple levels.
ACTA Schedules and Special Editions!
Since not only all our scribes, but all our ACTA editors, plus almost every volunteer visible on the ground, are already involved in bringing Springfest to life in late April, we're announcing a modified ACTA DIURNA schedule for this spring and summer that will allow us to bring you the important news piping hot as well as prevent editors and scribes from commiting hari-kiri from overwork. So here is the ACTA schedule from now until the fall!
April's "Springfest Special Edition" will hit the newstands on April 15, 2005.
Due to Springfest continuing until May 1, our May edition Retrospective will also be on the Ides of May (May 15th to those of you who don't speak Latin). The ACTA will have one summertime "first of the month" edition on newstands July 1, 2005,. Finally, after the lazy summer days of August, the ACTA will return to regular first-of-the-month coverage beginning again on September 1!
Living Well Online Through Arachne
A friend of mine IRL - who got sick of listening to my constant "news" about AW - finally joined and her first wail was "how do I decorate my domus!?" Probably one of the resources everyone at AW uses sooner or later, is Arachne's Web. The marvelous Art and Decor Sources on just where to find backgrounds, buttons, bars, and more with an "ancient" flair. So, you've got the background but how do you use it? Try Arachne's FAQs on how to create a "Best Home" online.
Helpful 'Newbie' links
Lost? Don't know where to go? Although we are revamping and updating our "Beginner's Guide" to AncientWorlds, in the meantime, there's a wealth of good information here.
We also have our global 'Newbie' help board and welcome area: Welcoming Newcomers.
For avatars, homesite decor resources or code help check out Arachne's Web HelpCenter & FAQ.
