2011 September 9th - Community Updates!

by **TNaismith** Sat 10 Sep 2011, 9:29 am

2011 September 9th - Community Updates!

Well how about that, September 2011 has rolled around, and things are pretty quiet around these parts! For many of you folks in high-school, college, university, or even out in working at part-time, or perhaps, career jobs -- summer vacation has ended either a fair while ago, or just within the last few days. I certainly can testify that most of the young folks here in Canada, those in high-school or even post-secondary school, have all started up new terms/semesters that will require utmost dedication in academic mind, passion, willpower, and heart. Those of you studying and learning in school, a hearty salute and best wishes for a brand new year -- follow your heart and your dreams, it may be more practical than you think!

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And now, enough of TNaismith's usual philosophical attempts at speeches and bouts of wisdom. Onwards to more community-oriented news, and perhaps even news from as far as say... Quito Ecuador? Lets move on to the first order of business!

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Community Member Rostner in Quito Ecuador!

One TH Member named Rostner, has been in Quito Ecuador since July 2011, around one and a half months now, on a mission for his church. He has written quite a handful of entries at his website/blog (here), and his latest entry as of this minute can be found (here). Be sure to keep a tab on his journey and to send some friendly comments or emails his way if your up for it!

Hope your doing well, Roster, on behalf of the entire TH Community!

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Welcome to our community's first Minecraft Coordinator, Crashday!

Crashday will be one of the first members to be pilot-testing a new concept of Coordinators within the TH Community. His shared knowledge and interest for the game called 'Minecraft' has led to an opportunity for him to further contribute in a larger leadership role to the growth and activity of this community, and our Minecraft players (a very small population at this time). He has already organized several events for our community's small-populated Minecraft server, and his enthusiasm for the game can be seen through his several forum topics/threads found inside the 'Minecraft Forum' section.

Welcome to the team, Crashday. Looking forward to working with your enthusiasm and Minecraft'ing spirit!

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Forging ahead with new community staff and ideas

Over the coming months, weeks, and days it will be an adventure all on it's own to further smooth out the responsibilities, structure, and role of 'Coordinators' in the community, but the main goal is to explore new possibilities of growing the TH Community not just as another family/clan/group of video-gamers somewhere out there in world -- but to grow as a dedicated video-gaming community with a passion and dream to gather like-minded players like ourselves together, and to further grow and spread our style of seeing and playing video-games with others.

And just what is our style of seeing, and playing video-games? It's being able to understand video-games represent positive social opportunities to grow and develop as a healthy individual physically and emotionally -- it isn't just about playing a video-game to 'win' a match or to 'get the best ranking/statistics/reputation'. Our style includes treating video-games, and this community of TH, as spaces to develop positive social friendships, relationships, and your own sense of identity in the world. It is a place where we encourage a positive and healthy attitude for learning about other cultures, and other people who enjoy playing video-games the same that you do; People that want to play, enjoy, and grow the fun in video-games through a welcoming spirit, a friendly smile, and boundless sparks of heartwarming imagination.

Most importantly, we ARE NOT a video-gaming community that supports behavior or attitudes around just 'Wanting to only play to win', 'Only caring about developing good stats/skills/rank/reputation', 'Wanting to only care about being the best or top winner', or 'Only hanging together to compete in competitive matches/tournaments'. We ARE about promoting video-games as places to truly develop positive friendships, and human behaviors that reflect values such as respect, friendliness, kindness, compassion, imagination, initiative, leadership, giving back, and to also encourage each other, and others, to make this video-gaming world, and the real world indirectly, a more friendly and positive-minded place.

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Thanks for tuning in to this community update. No promises, but you may see some more familiar faces being brought onto the community team in a short while. This means more opportunities to get involved will be available in the near future, but it also means that in this community we are going to begin openly recognizing the talent, strengths, passion, contributions, and personalities that people are willing to put in here to make this home a more positive and friendly place on the internet, and also those who show to have a firm belief and solid understanding of the community's goals/vision of making the world of video-gaming (and the non-videogaming world) a more friendly, warm, and positive place to enjoy.

Until next time,
~ TNaismith