Community Progress Update 11 | Strength-Commitment-Unity-Growth

[DarkMoonEnigma]

STRENGTH - COMMITMENT - UNITY - GROWTH

It's been quite a while since I've done a Community Progress Update, but the reason why is a good one. We have been incredibly busy behind the scenes with both environment and community development. The good news is, that during that time, our Moon community has grown exponentially and into something quite remarkable. Right from the beginning we were surprised by the unexpected gravitation toward what we were trying to do with Monria. Our goal has always been to build our community from the ground up with Monrian Borns and not solicit other planets for players, but then an incredible organic process took place.

STRENGTH

Monria Team
As Monria's management and development team, we find our strength embedded in our passion for the vision we have for where we want to evolve the Moon and its community. However, as a result of the level of support we have received in our efforts, we have also derived a greater level of strength from the members of our community who continue to inspire us to take it to the next level.

Monria Community
Our community has grown organically into something even beyond amazing. Community strength comes from caring about each other and helping those who need a bit of help now and then. It's taking a moment to acknowledge others who are making their way the same as we are, and answering questions or sorting things out when needed, whether it's in Monria chat, the forum, or other means of communication. It's taking a moment from our own personal activities to see what we can do to contribute to someone else's experiences that would make them better and more rewarding. It's sharing knowledge and offering time, but also giving others the benefit of our experiences and resources. It's giving others more of an opportunity to succeed.

COMMITMENT

Monria Team
Commitment means consistency in effort toward staying on track to achieve goals. It means having the same dedication from beginning to end and beyond. It's a means to validate our passion in strength to walk the talk and deliver what we propose to deliver, no matter how long it takes. It means never losing sight of goals, and remaining flexible when we need to adapt. Commitment is honoring your intentions.

Monria Community
It is never more evident than with our Community Initiative Programs (CIP) where we see the level of community commitment in support of our efforts. Our first year, and maybe a bit longer, was a trial and error period, where we learned a lot by progressively evolving through what worked and what didn't work. It became very clear to us who was on board in this venture, and who wasn't. See, we don't want to do this on our own and then say, here ya go. We want to do this with you, and not for you.

Our Monria Space Travel Program, managed by The Knights of Entropia (TKoE), and specifically by its Leader @Eric Shade Avenged and @Lamilla Lami Masterson, has been the most consistent program from the very beginning. We have now evolved into a community of dedicated volunteers who truly support our ever-increasing population. It's community helping community. Another CIP group that has recently gained momentum is the Monria Repair Skilling Program. Both @Chris moneyme mo and @Kingu have stepped up to host more repair runs on the Yamato. This allows not only our Monrian Borns to skill faster, but also many of us who could use more skilling ourselves.

I am quite pleased to announce that we are adding two new CIP programs with @Gredrrik Malgar and @ShadowDragonV co-managing both. This will be an experiment to see how well they are accepted within the community, but also how we can evolve them to be effective and get more of our community members to support them by participating. Besides, this is a husband and wife team, so it will also be a test to see how well they work together.

MONRIA SWEAT CLUB (MSC)
The premise of this new CIP program is to broaden the scope of the activities at the new Yogs Burrow sweating location in the DSEC Forensics crater [37627, 21562, 25]. We have begun discussions behind the scenes with Malgar and Shadow with regard to the specifics of how this will work, and as soon as we have things sorted, we will make the presentation in the public area of the forum.

MONRIA RESCUE TEAM (MRT)
This new CIP program is pretty straight forward. We took a page out of the Calypso Rescue Team (CRT) handbook and decided that it would be beneficial to have our own rescue team on Monria, especially since after our most recent update more community members are finding themselves stuck and dancing with higher-level mobs. This is most true for those mining and having difficulties excavating a claim that is surrounded by mobs who want to do more than just dance. However, this program also includes cave runs to capture all of the TPs because there are more mobs and a few mob waves to get past. We have also begun our discussions behind the scenes for this program with Malgar and Shadow, and it will be made public as soon as possible.​

UNITY

Monria Team
We are unified as a team to explore options and be open to feedback and suggestions from the community with regard to what is seen as beneficial in overall Monria experiences. We pay close attention to what is posted in the Suggestions section of the forum and have already implemented several ideas that have been submitted by community members. Our community is pretty adept at assessing where we were at the beginning when we took over the Moon on 11/26/15 and how we have evolved.

Monria Community
There is definite unity in our community beyond just immediate experiences. Our community members have found their comfort level with us as a team and feel empowered to interact with us about the environment that they call home. We don't distance ourselves, and make sure that we not only respond to any concerns or requests, but also disseminate information at the level that we are able to. We very much enjoy being in the trenches with our community, and always want to keep them on their toes, which is why we are known as the "Expect the Unexpected" team. There's also a cohesive unity in how the Monria community presents itself. They take pride in partnering with us toward making Monria the best possible experience, and that extends to both the in-game chat channels, as well as the forum. The Monria community is unified in their support of each other, as well as their support for what we do as a team.

GROWTH

Monria Team
I think it's safe to say that as a team, we won't grow beyond our current 4 members, which consists of Anhithe (Moon Owner/Manager), Kendra (Anhithe's RL wife, Moon Marketer, Monria Good Will Ambassador and Virtual Shopper), Pusherman (Anhithe's RL brother and our all-around awesome Tech Engineer), and yours truly who Ant has referred to as his second wife in the virtual realm, and Community Manager. It's basically a family affair, especially since they have treated me as such since we first connected. We have known each other for nearly the 13 years we have been in the game. I celebrated my 13th year April 2nd, and Ant will celebrate his 13th year in September. We work extremely well as a team, even though we tend to be a bit out there at times, but I think the community likes that about us.

Where we will continue to grow, is with our thoughts, opinions, ideas and perceptions, and how we can take our vision for Monria that has been in place from the beginning to the next level, while also employing enough flexibility to entertain and incorporate inspirations that will expand our horizons.

Monria Community
We knew out the gate that it would take a couple of years or so to build the kind of community we wanted, and one that would embrace an approach perhaps out of the ordinary as opposed to current experiences. To say that we were surprised at the result would be an understatement. We very much focused on growing the community with our own Monrian Born population, and directed marketing efforts as such. However, it didn't take long for word to get out that something different was happening on the Moon. The social environment was beginning to feel like back in the day when there were more gatherings and spontaneous creative activities that kept people engaged.

We have enjoyed a progressive and consistent growth over the almost 2-1/2 years we've been at this, and our ever-expanding (amazing) community is as much a catalyst for this happening as our own efforts. We are truly humbled by the continued support and love our community has for each other, and for their dedication toward helping us develop Monria to how they would like to experience it. We may not be able to implement every idea or suggestion, but we do listen, and we do appreciate the feedback.

IN CLOSING

We have a strong community that takes care of each other, but looks after us quite well too, and together, we have developed a sense of belonging that instills in all of us the motivation to continue doing better.

We, as the Monria Team, will always focus on community first, because that's where the heart of the Moon is, and where magic happens beyond our expectations. We have strength in our commitment to be unified in growing Monria to be the best possible experience we can deliver.

We're glad you're along for this amazing adventure.

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

UPDATE ... I added the Monria Repair Skilling Program to the Commitment section of the first post. My apologies for not remembering to include it when I first put this together. Not to offer an excuse, but having my sister visiting and here with my Mother until Thursday is presenting not only a lot of distractions, but limiting my time. This took 2 days to write.

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

UPDATE ... I added the cave runs as part of the Monria Rescue Team activities in the first post under Commitment.