ZU Newsletter Brainstorm (all welcome!)

Okay, I thought maybe I'd bring my add-on to Cody's newsletter idea into a separate thread to find out easier if the staff approves of this. I really like his idea of making a newsletter, so here's my add-on of an idea to form the group that will be in charge of making these newsletters. ZUNC, or Zelda Universe Newsletter Committee. I created that logo above myself, btw. :]

I'll start out with my ideas for positions in the group for each member of the group. While I do want to be a part of the group myself, I'm not saying I want any of these positions in particular.

• Manager
• Assistant Manager
• Article Editors
• Contest Leader
• Crossword Editors

The manager, of course, is the one who manages this whole project and appoints members to other positions as necessary. The assistant manager aids the manager in his/her duties and can temporarily take over if the manager cannot be around for awhile. Article editors write up the articles. There should be two members in this position. Oh, article editors will also add in the latest ZUBC podcast and ZUHC card.

The contest leader will be in charge of running the contests that will determine which sigs, drawings, whatever will get put into each issue of the newsletter as Cody's art piece of the month idea. There should be two of these at the least, I think. Crossword editors can make crosswords that are the topic of ZU/Zelda/Nintendo. Two of these should do.

One last thing, here are some ideas to put in the newsletter Cody has come up with as well as myself. :]

• Zelda/ZU/Nintendo Related Articles
• Art Piece of the Month
• A Comic Strip
• A Crossword Puzzle
• ZUBC's Latest Podcast
• ZUHC's Latest Card

And that concludes my post. I've put a lot of thought into this idea and would love to be a part of making the newsletters if Cody's idea gets approved. :]

EDIT: Oh yeah, and if anyone else has ideas to contribute to this, please give your input! ^^

You just changed the 'H' to an 'N' to make another project. xp

I would join, but I am terrible at editing stuff.

Well hey, don't you think it'd be weird to see ZUBC, ZUHC, and then some other group name that doesn't match? It'd be awkward if you ask me. XD

ZUBC, ZUHC, ZUNC. They go together well is what I'm saying. :]

EDIT: Oh, if anyone becoming a part of the group is going to ask about banners, we'll probably get either the site staff banner or the community coordinator banner if not our own. Just thought I'd say this before the question got out.

This project interests me. I had alot of fun with the gender wars and would love to be part of another comunity project. The problem is that I'm not exactly great when it comes to the art of the english language. Even worse with every other language. Is there anything I would still be able to helpn out with which wouldn't involve writting/ edditing (and no, I'm not a great artist either)?

Assuming this idea gets the staff approval, you could be a publisher if you're willing to send out lots of PMs/emails once every month.

Or, you can be a part of making the crosswords. Not necessarily constructing the crossword itself, but helping to provide the clues or words for each number.

BUT, if neither of these interest you, I'm working on coming up with other ideas for this where anyone can join and be a part of the project. Just so long as we don't get too many people wanting to, that is.

That sounds awesome! Let me know of what ever comes up.

I'd like to be an editor if this gets staff approval and all that cal.

Oh, I most certainly will! :]

Ringo Starr: Okies, as long as the manager and assistant manager approve of your skill, whoever they may be.

I should also say that when appointing members to positions, the manager does this with the consent of the assistant manager. Kind of how the US President appoints Supreme Court members with the consent of Congress you might say. ;D

Now that you mention it, would the manager be required to do alot of writting, because I think I would be well suited for that if not.

Oh no, the article editors do the writing. The manager and assistant manager are in charge of appointing those editors to certain topics and discussing what topics should be written about.

Also, I wouldn't go asking about getting positions quite yet anyway, to those of you seeking them, because this idea still needs staff and Cody approval.

Besides, I could also be manager if people wanted me to, considering my experience at managing the United Wise Men's Allies back in the day. XD

I like how you made this thread without asking any of the mods first. Or even mentioning it in the other thread beyond saying what you think the acronym should be.

But, since I don't really expect the mods to look on this thread that badly (if at all), I wish the organisers of this luck in its making.

Uh, Sabbo, I mentioned it more than once in the other thread. I think that's more than enough. Also, I only posted this as an idea, not an official project.

Ah, then I've got two words for you.

Vroom vroom.

Well, seeing as this hasn't been locked yet... it might be fun.

Assuming this idea gets the staff approval, you could be a publisher if you're willing to send out lots of PMs/emails once every month.

The site can send the letter through e-mail. That's kinda why all the unknown members are posting in the other thread for this. Cody told the site to email 53,000 people. As for PMing people, I'd be happy to take that job.

Oh, and you keep mentioning staff approval. Well, obviously they approve of this thing overall, seeing as a webmaster brought up the idea and this thread has yet to be locked.

Uh, I suppose I could also just throw together a quick section on what's new in the SoI. There's not much going on there, but it might be nice to include a quick little section on it.

(Go thread go!)

Maybe so, but I would feel more comfortable if staff members actually said whether they approve or not either in this thread or the other one. I mean, it hasn't been that long since I made this thread, so a lot of them may not have seen it yet.

But I guess I'm manager for now since you've given good points. Right now I'm looking for an assistant manager. This person has to be trustworthy, mature, and be good at critiquing. After all, I WILL be consenting this member before approving others for other positions except for publishers (since that's such a simple task, anyone can do it, so no critiquing is really needed here. However, we DO need someone who has enough time on their hands for this).

You can be a publisher, Dog Dog. :]

Now, I'm not taking any apps for positions right now except for assistant manager or publisher. Once I get an assistant manager, other positions will be open for take.

A ZU newsletter, if it happens, would definately be distributed by e mail.
That's how all these new/unactive members are posting here- they got an email from ZU and are responding to it.

Ranil, the fact that you havet his all thought out and organized is quite impressive. However, before anyon in the world embarks on an indevor, the first question that everyone needs to agree on is this: Why are we doing this.

If you notice, as soon as Jason sent that e mail out, it got people logging on to ZU to share their opinions. people came on and said that they either always forget to visit ZU or are too busy to check it regularly.

Therefore, I'd saythat the "goal" of a ZU newsletter would be these things:
1. Give people Zelda news (if there is any)
2. Notify members of coming site changes (updates, maintenance, etc)
3. Site/Staff news (if major enough)
4. The most important thing: Get people coming TO Zelda Universe.

The newsletter needs to be more of an instrument to get people to check ZU more.
For instance, if there's a new game review on the main site, the newsletter would have an article about it, and maybe an excerpt from the review, but it would include a link for people to click on if they're interested in reading te rest,and it would bring them to ZU.

It all equates to more activity for the actual ZU website. because that is how tZU stays alive- traffic.

I think that any newsletter that ZU puts out should be MUCH less grandiose and complicated than this. I honestly think that the newsletter could be mostly carried out by already existing site staffers, and a very small team of people who organise andmake the newsletter.

comics, crosswords, etc... not really necessary, but if people want to make them, well why not.

BUT I say, the focus NEEDS to be on promoting more traffic to ZU, and as such, will not require too much fanciness in its writing staff. A newsletter is simply a "here's what's going on, come check it out!" sort of thing, not a Newspaper, as you seem to be trying to get going here.

TL;DR: this idea is too grandiose and complicated, and does not fufill the role of web traffic-promotion.

EDIT: stop doling out positions! that comes later once Jason decides what he wants this newsletter to be.

Oh yes, I definitely agree with you there, Margar. I was intending for this to do all of that and more. The comic/crossword may not be necessary, but it's a thing I'd like to add for some fun (and possibly for readers of the newsletter to learn something new). Newspapers always have things like this for the same reason, so yeah, why not? ;D

My intentions for Cody's newsletter idea are to not only get traffic to ZU, but to get people informed about things like contests, awards, podcasts, and more. Basically I'm trying to attract more attention/viewers to all of our other projects as well as the forum itself.

Believe me, I completely agree with you here. :]

ok, it just seems like you're trying to make it more complicated than it needs to be, and with too many people.

this newsletter really only needs a few people.

the site staff already know the zelda news, and already are writing articles, so we dont need a team of writers. the only "writer" the newsletter needs is maybe one person to write a few things.

ok ok let me just make an example cuz that's easiest:

Originally Posted by margar's brain

Zelda Universe Newsletter, Volume 1

Hello, and thanks for checking out the first issue of the ZU newsletter! What's new at ZU? Glad you asked!

New OoT Walkthrough complete!
Staffer Zarah has been hard at work writing a walkthrough for Oot- from scratch! It's totally awesome and even if you know every quare inch of OoT Hyrule, check it out if only to admire the hard work! And remember, ZU is the place to go for all the zelda info you need! so reccomend us to a friend! click here to check out the shiney new walkthrough!<-( not an actual link, obviously)

Site Maintenance Coming up!
March 11th, 5:00am EST, ZU will be down for about 2 hours for maintenance. just warning ya.

Welcoming a new Admin: Margar!
Forum Mod Margar has been upgraded to the rank of Admin, after Jason and crew decided she had the chops and ZU had the need. Help welcome Margar into her new role in this thread!

10-year-old completes OoT in 4 Hours!
Yes you read correctly. Little Timmy Stevens of norfolk, Virginia, has completed an OoT speed run in just over 4 hours! Check out the news article here!

ZUBC Podcast coming soon!
The launch date for the next podcast is March 28 (not really, sorry ).
In the next cast, we interview the illusive Peefy! Powershot will have another glorious tale to tell, and we'll say goodbye to one of our own cast members- find out who it is in the next ZUBC Podcast! Got an idea for the podcast? want to contribute? go to this thread!


That's all for now, and thanks again for reading.
See YOU on ZU!

See how simple that was? (btw, I just made all that up off the top of my head). It doesn't have to be that short- there can be more in the newsletter, but that's the format I was thinking of.

but, the point I'm making is that the newsletter should not actually have its own articles and content, because then people could just read it, and never have to actually go to ZU again.
The format I am thinking of is basically just a tool to get people interested and provide direct links to the interesting things.

Too many people? Hm...

1 manager, 1 assistant manager, three article writers, three publishers, two contest leaders, one comic artist, two crossword makers. That's only 12 people. Doesn't seem like a lot to me, but oh well, if the staff thinks it's too many people, then I comply. :]

EDIT: Oh, also, since ZU is big, I wanted to newsletter to be big (but not huge, of course), so it will obviously be much longer than that. XD

Originally Posted by Lady Ranny

Too many people? Hm...

1 manager, 1 assistant manager, three article writers, three publishers, two contest leaders, one comic artist, two crossword makers. That's only 12 people. Doesn't seem like a lot to me, but oh well, if the staff thinks it's too many people, then I comply. :]

even the podcast doesn't have 12 people!

I'd say all that's needed is one manager, and a couple of assistants.

it wouldn't need a comic artist because ZU has comic makers already. It would be better to just feature a comic from the art/sprite comics forum, because then if the readers like it, they can go look at more stuff, and it would also encourage more people to do comics. instead of having one comic artist, anyone on ZU could contribute a comic for use. if it's not featured inthat newsletter, maybe in the next one, etc. That would also ensurethat we don't havea case of someone dropping out or going missing. whenever there'sa project like this, everyone wants to be involved, but very few people are actually reliable.

as for crosswords/puzzles... I guess that's cool I have no problem with that idea.

Contests... depends on what sort of contest. there doesn't need to be a contest every time, one contest could last a while. also, there are art and graphics contests on the forums, as well as brawl tournaments, too, so those could get a mention occasionally.

Honestly, between Jason, Cody, and all the site staffers and existing news team on ZU, putting out a newsletter would only take a small handful of people. like 3.