The Keep:Elven Grove

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The forest of challenges is besieged by The Entity's shadow

Elven Grove

"Inspired by the pirates, the elves have come out of hiding, and now wander the forest of challenges, hunting any that are past their time (or the more dangerous undead tasks, completely hollow and empty), nurturing the young growing ones, and guiding those that have been separated from their herd."

Terminology

The language of the elves as spoken in the forest.

Types of challenges

Abandoned: A challenge worth reviving that has an inactive owner and few or no participants.

Adopted: Taken on by one of the elves or another responsible caretaker who will look after it until its completion.

Dead: Not worth saving, with an inactive owner and few or no participants.

Forgotten: Past its stated completion date, with active participants and an active leader.

Hollow: Completely devoid of tasks, but with an active owner.

Lost: In a guild that is unrelated to the challenges theme or subject, and better placed elsewhere.

Orphaned: A working challenge with active participants, but an inactive owner.

Undead: Completely devoid of tasks, and with an inactive owner.

Wounded: Past its stated completion date, with active participants and an inactive leader.

Other terms

Guardian: A mod or staff member.

Herd: The guild or party the challenge belongs to.

Hunting: Deleting challenges, or requesting their deletion.

Speaking with the Forest: Getting information directly from the database.

Appealing to the Guardians for Aid

Some actions cannot be undertaken by elves alone. For some things, we must ask the aid of the Great Forest Guardians. In the halcyon times of yore, these actions were undertaken by the brave Cantras and Dewines, Guardians of the Hunt, with particularly tough cases involving relocation or adoption handled by the wise Goblin Alys, Guardian of the Lost and Abandoned. However, in the waning days of the year 2022, a great shadow befell the guild and the dear guardians became lost to the forest. The power to handle these actions now lies only in the hands of those who carry the title of the staff.

Hunting

Once an elf has found a challenge that must be destroyed for the good of the forest, they must return to the grove and ask the help of staff.

Relocation and Adoption

Challenges are tricky beasts, and will only accept a new home or master at the bidding of the Guardians. To request such a thing, go to the grove and ask for the aid of the staff. When doing so, provide the information standardized in the ancient tomes of the Goblin Alys, used to aid in striking the agreement.

For it is written:

I'd like to see:

• The URL for the challenge (it will contain the challenge's unique ID).
• The name of the challenge (not strictly necessary since the URL will be given, but it's useful for checking that a copy-paste mixup hasn't included the wrong URL).
• A brief note about whether the owner is inactive or non-responsive, or a statement that the person requesting the move is the owner. We can find the owner's details ourselves from the challenge so no need to include the details.
• Reason for believing it is closable / movable.
• If it is movable and the owner is active, they should either request moving it themselves (preferred but not essential) or their permission should be visible in a guild that an admin has access to (ideally a public guild, but also a private guild if the admin is sent an invitation).
• The URL and name of the guild to move it to (URL will contain the guild's ID).
• Requests should be placed in this guild. (Disagreements about this are especially welcome, including from the non-staff/mods who use this guild!)
• No limit on how many requests at once or how often. If a request hasn't been handled after a week, please send a reminder.

Some points to note:

• Requests might be denied if we feel they're inappropriate. I would expect this would happen rarely or never, but it's worth mentioning. It might happen more often for moving a challenge.
• If the move is to a guild that some might see as controversial, we'd have to be more careful (e.g., moving a cooking challenge to a guild where either the challenge or guild have a strict vegan focus and the focus isn't clearly shared by both challenge and guild).
• When moving a challenge, we might need to consider whether the challenge participants should be notified in advance of the move. We'll look into this more when it happens, and it might be a case-by-case thing for every challenge that's moved.

And thus it shall be.

Dangers of the forest

Current issues and happenings.

Tales of the Forest

Past issues and happenings.

The Entity

#1471

There was once shadow that crept through the forest, finding large challenges too slow to escape its grasp. It coiled itself around those it could catch, isolating them from the rest of the forest.

Around some challenges, the shadow grew thick that it became impossible to pass through it without the aid of a guardian. There was even a few around which the shadow was so dense that even the guardians themselves could not penetrate it. These challenges were given a merciful passing, and have been reborn anew.

It is unclear whether the entity has been vanquished or merely contained, but what is known is that a few brave smiths have subdued the shadows, at least for now.

The Undead Horde

Guardian Alys spoke with the forest and provided us a map of all the undead hiding inside. The elves revewed the list and provided the following report:

1. In the Sandbox, so probably under construction
2. Says it's a placeholder
3. Leader is active and it's supposed to be a workaround for a monthly task. Possibly under construction?
4. Gone
5. Pointer challenge -> Check out the "Weave Me a Challenge: Green Textiles" challenge!
6. Challenge set up for the purpose of awarding a prize gem in the STAG guild. Please ignore.
7. Gone
8. Challenge set up for the purpose of awarding a prize gem in the STAG guild. Please ignore.
9. Gone
10. Challenge set up for the purpose of awarding a prize gem in the STAG guild. Please ignore.
11. Doesn't need tasks, should be left alone
12. Gone
13. Gone
14. Gone
15. Pointer challenge -> Check out the "Weave Me a Challenge: Green Textiles" challenge!
16. Pointer challenge -> Check out the "Weave Me a Challenge: Green Textiles" challenge!
17. Leader active 7/11/15. Sent PM querying lack of tasks in challenge.
18. Gone
19. Gone
20. Provides info and link to meditation video in Portuguese. Owner inactive but does have a couple of active participants.
21. Gone
22. Pointer challenge -> Check out the "Weave Me a Challenge: Green Textiles" challenge!
23. Gone
24. Pointer challenge -> Check out the "Weave Me a Challenge: Green Textiles" challenge!
25. Gone
26. Gone
27. Pointer challenge -> Check out the "Weave Me a Challenge: Green Textiles" challenge!
28. Pointer challenge   Used Guilds for Sail!
29. Doesn't need tasks. Instructions are in challenge details. Should be left alone.
30. Owner has now responded to my PM and once I had explained that I couldn't edit the challenge and they had to do it, they said they would add tasks to challenge.
31. Gone

The Elven Grove of DOOM

By speaking with the forest directly, Guardian Alys assembled a great host of over 500 challenges with no herd of their own. The elves worked together to find new homes for those that needed them, and to cull the undead hiding in their midst. While a handful are still up for adoption, most of the challenges have been dealt with.