Last week's introduction of Caucus Critters was a roaring success, I would say!

Roaring?

Fans were quite enthused.

Critter diaries! High five!

Now we want to give them a particularly c99 signature look, rather than copy too closely that other place. So it's brainstorming time!

You wanna do something Gnu? Go Wilde!

Please note that there won't be any reference to TOP or anyone exclusively over there in critter diaries after today. But please don't call these MY diaries. They are OUR diaries!

It's a Group Effort! (Would this make a good Logo?)

So question: Caucus Critters: The name was suggested to me and I like it, but I'm not wedded to it. Other suggestions?

Related question: Over there, they have:

Moondai Furbutts
Toosdai Critters
Woozle Wednesday/Wednesday Woozles
Fursdai Furries
Freidai Furbutts
Caturdai Pootie Diary
#sekritarmy (Sunday)

Personally, I think we should have our own, at least slightly different titles, and I prefer a dae ending because it reminds me of sundaes, which are one of the necessary food groups!

Did you say Sundae??

And I adore alliteration. So here are some possibilities I came up with:
Sundae Sekrit Staff
Moondae Moppets
Toosdae Trouble
Wensdae Woozles (really, if any day should not be spelled "properly"...)
Thursdae Things
Freidae Furries
Caturdae Kitties

Over there, they use PWB Peeps as the group, as we could use Caucus Critters. But they don't use Peeps to title the diaries, using the above instead. They start with one of those, then add to it the topic of the day. So we can get into the pattern of, for example:

Caucus Critters: Moondae Moppets: Brainstorming!
or
Caucus Critters: Brainstorming!
or
Moondae Moppets: Brainstorming!

I do think a common title, be it for every critter diary or for each day's critter diary, is needed to help them stand out, so that fans can find them easily with a quick scan down the right-hand column.

So that's my two cents, which can be completely outvoted if you prefer. Please comment: How can we best do diary titles?

Ooh! Ooh! I Know!

Next: "Teh Rulez":

I used Tricia's rules last week, which made sense to me. But then again, we have no flags for enforcing rules! Should they be "The Recommendations"? Over there, as I posted last week, the rulez are:

No trolling the diary.
•If you hate pootie diaries, leave now. No harm, no foul.
•Share any and all pootie/woozle photos or issues that you would like.
•When it comes to problems, we may just have someone with experience who can help.
•Whatever happens in the outer blog STAYS in the outer blog. This is a place to relax and play; please treat it accordingly.
•There is no such thing as stealing a photo around here, but if you would like a pic from the threads, please ask the poster. He/she may have a copyright to those pics. Many thanks!
•​It should not need to be said, but ANY/ALL photos that imply or encourage human violence against an animal will be considered verboten! Whether it is “comedic” or not, it will be frowned upon and considered out of bounds.

Don't make us come over there and Enforce teh rulez!

Do we need these rulez? Do we need to change these rulez? If so, how? If not, will we still be a safe space as the site numbers grow? Your thoughts?

Next issue: LOLspeak. LOLspeak did not originate at TOP, per Wikipedia, but most likely on 4chan, and then popularized on I Can Haz Cheezburger? As far as I know, there are no standard spellings, the point is that pooties can't spell. Personally, I think the silliness is part of having a safe space that is a stress break from the grim politics, so intend to continue, although I will try not to do so much that it becomes unreadable for the uninitiated. But I figure other diarists can do as much or as little as they want. Will that work?

Today's Cheezburger entry from their site:

You Pawmise?

Next: Politics. Critter diaries over there have been apolitical. But it has been pointed out that there are lots of issues where politics and critters intersect and we may want to talk about them. OTOH, such are often sad. On another hand, we often discuss sad things in comments anyway to offer each other support, such as when a member loses a pet. Then again, politics is likely to create more controversy than condolences do. So. Keep the politics out or bring them on in?

I think a good compromise might be to allow any critter diarist who wants to discuss issues to do so, and then readers would learn that this particular diarist does more serious, less silly critter diaries. On that day, commenters could have full-blown discussions of the tragedies of animals and politics. But then I would say leave such topics out of the comments on other days because people will not be forewarned. But again, I am willing to be outvoted. Will this work?

A mild example: To be Vegan or not to be Vegan?

Next: Timing. This time works for me, but had the site not been down yesterday I would have created this diary then and scheduled it for this afternoon. Hopefully that will not happen again.

We haz your new Blog Security, Sir!

Usually I will be able to create diaries on Sunday and then schedule them for whenever, rather than taking most of Monday to create them for Monday late afternoon. So I am extremely flexible on when my diaries post. Of course I really want lots of exposure for the critter diaries. OTOH, last week there was participation for more than 24 hours, so a little lag Monday around suppertime didn't seem to hurt it any. So what do you think the best times to post are? What do you think the best day of the week is, until we have more participants? I want the time to be whatever most people would think would be the most convenient for future diarists to sign up and post their own critter diaries, so that if we have enough people, critter diaries will show up every day at the same time of day.

Waitin for the Critter Diary! Is it the right day and time yet?

Everyone please consider: I can only take time to post once a week. Please join me in being a critter diarist!! It would be the awesum if we had a critter diary every day! If they can do that in the midst of melodrama at TOP, surely we can manage it here? Please let me know if you'd like to be a diarist, be it regular or irregular. If you want the Monday slot you can do that too, I can move to a different day. If you want to be irregular, you can of course post whenever you see fit on diary days not yet volunteered for, and/or you can sign up for certain days, and/or you can provide diaries and ideas as backup for days my brain fails to work, and/or please feel free to email me! What do we call it here anyway, Caucmail? Help the little fella out. You know you want to:

I can write Diarees!

And finally, any other issues that should be raised? Now is your chance to make the critter diaries everything you want them to be!

Let's Make Something Beautiful Together!

UPDATE 8:30 PM: I pulled a muscle in my back this morning so I am getting increasingly uncomfortable sitting here. I think I'm going to have to go lie down. Please carry on without me! I will definitely keep track of comments starting again Toosdae morning and will uprate everybody and respond.

Meanwhile, if you need any last-minute Father's Day gifts, please check in with Snoopydawg and Michelewln

Thank you everyone! See you tomorrow!