There has been much discussion about a recent lack of discussion in the streets and I thought I might try my hand at some sort of solution. I'm a very young bloodline and to those of you who've heard something like this before I apologize but I really am trying to be original.

From what I read, the main issues people are having is how can we prevent boredom and stagnation without promoting anarchy and chaos? I believe that we should take some form of pride in our streets, and I'm guilty of not doing my fair share. So now that I'm done stating the problem (which kind of sounds like bitching I know), I believe leaders should make an honest effort to combine ranking requirements with a certain street presence. Re-instituting street presence as a rank requirement would easily spike the number of attempted threads, but it would create a new problem as most of these will be crap to get your next rank. I'd ask the leaders to proof read the stories and make sure they're interesting but honestly that would never stick. So my idea to fix that problem would be to ask the community to rethink their posting methods to keep good posts alive as the bad ones fall behind and die. Threads like "How does this story end?" have proven that people can expand on intelligent ideas and attract an array of vocal followers. So I ask the people who post in these ideas to simply expand beyond the congratulations and provide constructive criticisms and pose questions to get others thinking. My belief is not that the streets are falling apart because people don't care, it's more because people are uninspired compared to days of old. Sometimes it takes conflict to inspire the public off their lazy asses. And sometimes all it takes is one original thought by an idiot to inspire a genius to do something we never thought possible.

In short: it's not the game changing, or people getting lazy. It's the fact Ideas have been played to death and we need to challenge the people to find new ways to use the tools they've been given.

So to get things started, I would like to publicly call out a few people I believe aren't going to get offended and aren't afraid to tell me to go fuck myself. Tell me how dumb and pointless this thread is. Chuckle (you're one of the best speakers so I don't really expect you to humor me), BuffaloJoe (known you for a while now and you know I'll be pissed if you ignore this), and Godmother Worley (had to choose someone from DT and couldn't think of anyone better); I would like to call you all out to respond to this, but anyone else who wants to criticize or expand on this please do so. If you have your own ideas, post it here or make your own thread. I'd even be willing to proof read any thoughts by any member of the community to help them get their point across.

Before anything you need to encourage people to come to the streets - Mass mail your relatives. If everyone says the streets are boring and a waste of time it is only natural that people stop following the streets. To reinstate the activeness of past ages you first have to make people come to the streets.

. So my idea to fix that problem would be to ask the community to rethink their posting methods to keep good posts alive as the bad ones fall behind and die.

While this is a novel idea, it is impossible for people to ignore certain extravagant and mostly idiotic so-called street speakers. I myself attempted to point out something new to discuss and barely got a glance. Instead the moronic ramblings of an insane man attracted the attention of many, myself included.

People just love a good freak show.

Firo, I would love to inspire my relatives to come to the streets, but most of them only go when there is something interesting. They're willing to post in topics that they find interesting, but flooding the streets with threads seems unnecessary. Not only that, but I have problems of my own outside of the streets, my list of contacts can only do so much for me (and those of you who've helped me know who you are and you've done a lot for me and I'm very thankful).

LottaBEssen, the freak shows are interesting, but eventually they come to a stop, maybe asking a friend to bring the thread back to the front of people's minds when the freak show is over could help it get the attention it truely deserves.

I think we go through cycles of generations with quite often the same thoughts coming every so often. Anyones ancesters that have been knocking around for years have seen and heard it all before so tend not to comment as they would just be saying the same stuff as their ancestors.

That said with newer bloodlines they may not have the confidence to step onto the streets and voice their thoughts. This is something that comes with time. My first ancestor here was a mute when it came to the streets as he didn't feel like he had the confidence or the voice to command attention so just lurked in the shadows, and this was not through lack of effort as he family head at the time who was a great street speaker. As you can see I am very different, if I feel it is something that I can discuss i'll throw my thoughts in, but I think that is only a confidence that has slowly been passed down the generations.

I think your idea is a good one and I wish you the best of luck to try and help people in the right direction but people tend to venture to the streets when they feel comfotable and confident enough to talk in front of an audience.

Listening to the confused young man's speech, he realizes maybe this youngin isn't so confused after all.

If I may, I have another curiosity. Many people come to these streets and preach as mafiosos, but little makes them each unique. Sure, we may all lead a life of crime and debauchery and excess, but there is no way we are all alike. Maybe if we show a little personality in our posts, it won't get so boring.

Which would you rather have, another mafioso either coming to the streets to make a point with the same old speech, or someone doing it with some FLAIR!!!

Tosses his walking stick into the air, whirling around and catching it, leaning on it again.

You see, there is something...missing. Excitement. You don't have to be extremely serious or extremely mean, or even extremely smart. You just have to bring a little grandeur and fun to your post! When people see that you're having fun, they're more likely to read it and sense the fun you had writing it.

Also, when you leave it open ended, provoking people to answer a particular question, that makes it far easier to reply. If you make the question too general, people can say too many things and go off on too many tangents. Keeping it simple and to one point directs the conversation and provokes specific ideas and solutions.

Kind of like this thread. No offense to the poster, he's a great young friend of mine, but this question is much too broad. There are a million ideas that come to mind when you ask for something like this, and people don't know where to start. Much like this post, it becomes a bit rambling and then people lose interest (as I'm sure they have by this point...it's my old age...).

So to sum it up a bit, have FUN when you write, and have a specific thing people can continue or comment on. I know the idea of FUN seems strange and foreign around here lately, but I think it can be brought back.

Sees a sign for a circus in a nearby city, knowing that one day the fun will come back to our streets one day.

I don't quite agree that everything is all about FUN, but it's definitly a good start on the right path. Maybe the ideas of how to post in the streets are considered too structured. Characters who do what they want and make their presence known through the way they express their opinions, like Mr Hogan, have shown that you CAN have fun without offending other people or trying to cause an underground revolution.

As far as the broadness of the subject, I'm hoping people can make statements that help us find the causes to why people are too afraid or unispired to come out to the streets. If we start broad we can find more potential issues to address.

WhereWasI - I identified your rather pathetic attempt to silence the TRUTHSPEAKERS in the Streets some time ago.  Whenever I, or another brave and hardy soul spoke, you would go and ressurect some other speech.  It was transparent and sad.  I'm sorry your father was killed but bitterness will just lead to hatred, hatred to sorrow.

Hatred is a terrible word, and I was never trying to hide it. If I think there is trash in the streets, I use my voice to try to bury it. The streets are dull and boring, we need a permanent fix. Your speeches are like heroin, when people have an addiction they have two options, give in to your shit and fall deeper into the hole, or ignore it and try to make yourself stronger; we don't need your nonsense because its only entertaining for the moment, it has the obvious side effects of tearing people down and leading to unnecessary deaths.

TRUTHSPEAKERS implies that you're speaking the truth, and rofl you're clearly not. Real revolutions aren't afraid to show their face, they make a stand and are proud of their actions. There's a difference between guerilla warfare and terrorism. You try to use fear to make people do what you want for your personal gain. Thinly veiling your intentions doesn't work, everyone knows you're slime. We all know it, and I'm disappointed in myself for even acknowledging you long enough to make a response... Now go away so I can ask the public WHY They dont want to speak, if we can identify a real problem we might be able to fix it.