Don’t go waving relatively inexpensive and definitely haunted properties in front of me. I’ve been looking into building a larper commune for years now
7 Likes
Welp, I’ve found my dream home… Basecamp 35?
6 Likes
There are Scheduled Ancient Monuments at the northern and southern ends of the site; a ‘B’ Listed Building at the southern end; and, parts of the site are designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
Roughly translates as you can buy it and to do anything with it you better be a good gymnast, there will be many hoops to jump. Depending on what the grade b listing covers you may have some stringent conditions on what you can do to it, you might not be able to update a fire place, remove ceiling trim etc or you might be restricted on what roofing slate you can use, what window frames.
SAC may mean there are features that become illegal to change in any way. Change including deteriorating, which may mean expensive specialist work being required to maintain it. Or animals which you can go to jail if you disturb.
On the bright side it falls under the min value for stamp duty so you don’t have to pay tax to buy it and you get fishing rights, so you’re good if you like fish.
4 Likes
The community journals are some of my favorite things to pop up out of this forum in a long time. I love reading about all of you!
13 Likes
Read this this morning:
As a recovering perfectionist, I give myself permission to follow the “80% is 95%” rule. Have you ever been impressed by a friend who’s a foodie or a wine connoisseur or really particular about the fit of their clothes? But you just can’t tell the difference on the finer points of distinction between this one or that one while they speak paragraphs about it?
This is my “80% is 95%” rule, meaning if it’s 80% of what it needs to be to serve its purpose, it feels like 95% to someone who isn’t an expert in evaluating that particular thing. A “nonnoisseur” might tell it’s not perfect —but it’s better than good enough.
Like, if I could somehow internalize this… my life would be completely different.
14 Likes
I always try to remember that “greatness is the enemy of goodness,” and strive to manifest as much goodness in my life as possible.
9 Likes
I am struggling with social media, friends. Not personally, more on the business/promotion side, which I guess for me is also personal. 
I just don’t know what to do or have any idea what people want to see. The thing is, you all don’t primarily get your information about what I’m writing, doing, sharing, or occasionally promoting from Instagram or Facebook, right? You’re already here.
Because of that, my professional social media should essentially act as a funnel to bring new Mounties into the fold, but that means either making it much more promotional, which I don’t like, creating much more content, which I don’t have the bandwidth for, or making it much more personal with videos of me talking/explaining/etc., which… ugh.
I also feel like no one is interested in seeing me specifically talking and talking about all this, or anything really.
I like the new grid design at The Briar Archive, but I’m at a loss when it comes to what I should be using social for. I guess I should be sharing the Briarverse vibe there (a kind of dark academia I call “haunted hygge”) while also explaining what this all is. I’ve tried in ways I can manage, but the content is half-hearted because I hate “SELLING” and the engagement just isn’t there anymore.
Maybe one reason for the decline is because Instagram as a platform is on the decline, and people are migrating to places like TikTok? I LOVE TikTok personally, but the idea of having to create tons of off-the-cuff video content is about 3,000% worse than the idea of occasionally creating composed photo content.
I am slowly doing a soft rebrand of my social media and ads to “The Briar Archive” instead of “Ackerly Green Publishing” because I think it better sells the vibe, the experience, and the property, rather than the “company” (me) who produces it, and I think that can help with engagement. I think people seeing a comment might be more curious about “@thebriararchive,” which sounds intriguing, book-related, and more on brand than “@ackerlygreen,” which could be a person, a bank, or a grocery store.
Like, would you rather check a comment from @TheGrishaverse or @Macmillan?
But, yeah, I don’t know. I don’t have a question or request or anything. I’m just venting, I guess.
If you were new to all this (and some of you actually are), what would you want to see from my social media?
12 Likes
What about more frequent tidbits from the narrative itself, like “free samples” of a product to pique the interest of people to come and buy more? You could even just rework the stuff from the newsletter! Less “behind the scenes” and more “scenes” I guess?
9 Likes
The decision to break from the Ackerly Green name is a tough one since it more properly fits the universe. I also really enjoyed the way the universe was presented to me; just a compellingly strange website on the edge of the Internet. But that really just worked for me and perhaps others with my mindset. I present the link to others with the same lack of information and to date I suspect I have almost managed to convince my wife to read the books.
Perhaps running two accounts would be useful in bridging the metafictional gap? @ackerlygreen could be used for strictly in-universe things with @thebriararchive there to include more stuff like announcements, fan creations, and that account could [rebloggify? tweetificate? insta-copypaste?] certain in-universe elements as a way to present those to the public as well
8 Likes
Social media is a beast that either could be your best friend or is gonna sit and glare at you from a corner.
I find that it all depends on what you really want the account to be and the platform. Like, I hate TikTok cause it’s that almost “fast fashion” mentality, where you’re trending for an hour and the next minute no one cares and have moved on. Twitter is great for reaching out, and I could see you using it as something along the same vibe route as Insta, just maybe more quote/advice/thought of the day? It wouldn’t need to be as time consuming as creating assets for Insta, or you could use the same across both to even the load a lot (a lot of brands do this). Also, totally agree with Augustus’ suggestions.
10 Likes
To piggy back on Augustus, harvesting context from newsletters is a great idea.
I wonder if, once a month (Guild Inductions?) or so, a call for favourite Briarverse quotes or images we have/create could go out to help give you inspiration and/or content. We know you’re going this alone and I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to give back in some way. Some call might give you a whole lotta nothing, but some might give you ideas for a few posts.
I also agree with Nim–TikTok needs to be your full time gig or it really won’t do what your looking for. Facebook/Insta/Twitter are the better place to focus, with TilTok for longer/more interactive supportive content. But that could be my 40 trips around the Sun talking (do we have a “get off my lawn” emoji?
8 Likes
Ohhh also piggy-backing off of Nim…I really love the Welcome to Nightvale twitter and could see that being a potential briarverse twitter inspo…they occasionally promote things like merch and shows and stuff, but they also just tweet out little snippets that don’t necessarily come from the show (that I know of) but fit into the world they’ve created. And I say this as someone who has read the first volume of transcripts but doesn’t actually listen to the podcast, their twitter feed brings me so much joy.
11 Likes
Can you believe it’s been 5 Years!
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CSprpI9AmqP/
Watch for a project update and a big fat thank you to celebrate our five year Briarversary!
13 Likes
Has it been that long already? Goodness
6 Likes
BIG product news (clickety-clack), a weekly update (of a sort) and a few sneak peeks at what the rest of the year looks like for the Briarverse!
12 Likes
6 Likes
I get the exact same feeling every time I get an email about an Ubisoft playtest. Not that there’s a whole lot coming up I’m anxious to get into but it still feels bad
4 Likes
I’m going to try and keep this journal updated more in 2022, even if it’s a barebones post like this:
Week of January 3rd:
I spent the last week of 2021 in the mountains with my family, where I learned the basics of both snowboarding and crochet, two hobbies I’d been wanting to pick up for years.
Turns out, crochet is much easier on my big hands than needlepoint, and I finished my first project, a scarf, in 3-4 days. It’s pretty basic, but the variegated yarn I used makes it look WAY more interesting.
I took three days of snowboarding lessons with a coach, and we had a blast. I spent a lot of 2021 getting in better physical shape, stronger, more flexible, and it was fun to push myself physically on the slopes and see how my long-term work last year paid off in stamina, endurance, and mobility.
Workwise, today is my first day back “in the office” in a while. I’m slowly working on strategizing for what will be a very different year from last year. If you watched this video, you know I’m making some pretty significant changes to my personal and work life, and instead of diving right into change, change, change, I’m spending a week downloading all my swirling ideas into a document and figuring out what my first priorities should be and where I want to end up mid-year, 2023, and five years from now. There are going to be some very big changes in the coming months, a lot of which you all won’t see for a while, but some that will also have hopefully positive impacts on your experience in the Briarverse, on the forum, and within this community.
12 Likes