2024 Summer Camp - Prep

Read more about Last Year's Summer Camp

Summer Camp is upon us! The annual event provides 40 article prompts over the course of a month(ish), and challenges worldbuilders to respond to as many as they can before the event is over. Different badges are awarded depending on how many prompts you answer. The month preceeding the event is full of teasers and suggested ways to prepare.
Last year was my first Summer Camp. This year, I'll be doing things a bit differently. Read on to learn more, or skip to my articles.

Goals

Last year, I managed the coveted diamond badge by writing roughly an article a day over the course of the event. I'm someone who prefers to only publish completed articles, so getting these 32 done took most of my free time and some articles were forced for the sake of a prompt. This year, I want to focus on improving my world as a whole. Instead of aiming for a badge, I'm working on quality of both new and existing articles.

Goal 1

Write articles that are meaningful to the setting or otherwise fun to write. No forced filler!

Goal 2

If a prompt matches an existing article, I'll update and improve that one instead of writing new.

Goal 3

Say no to being an over-achiever! Stick with a more comfortable copper pace of 8 new articles.

Preparation

Structure

Usability has always been my focus. As a new reader, I hope you're able to easily find your way around this world and start reading at any article without being overwhelmed with in-universe terms and references. I want you to enjoy your stay and come back for more. But I can't see my world as a new reader would, so if there's any place I fall short of this, please let me know!

Introductions

Welcome Visitor's Guide World Meta

Depending on your interests, there are several ways to get introduced to this setting. The Welcome gives a high-level overview in an interactive way. For a deep dive, the Visitor's Guide has curated reading paths based on interests. Lastly, the "world" meta is where I explain why I'm building this setting and what I intend to do with it.
All of these have been created or updated in the last six months.

Organization

Index Tag Overview

Categories are the obvious way to organize articles, and my current structure is based on location. From the Galactic category, which has information that's relevant everywhere, to more specific clusters and the planets within them.
The second method is to organize by tags. This is most useful in my index, where I use tags to give you several different ways to find interesting articles.

Styling

Having been voted among the top five most beautiful worlds for 2024, I'm not going to stress too much about this one.

I've come a long way from the flat text of my first articles. Last Summer Camp, I was still on BS3 and barely touching Grandmaster features. I've got lots of room for improvement still, and will keep learning from others and from practice. As my style changes over time, there are two guidelines I stick to no matter the methods:

Be Easy to Read

Use small paragraphs, good contrast, simple backgrounds, and plenty of space between ideas and content types.

Be Interactive

Encourage readers to interact with the article with hoverable content and other tools that entice exploration.

Behind the scenes, I'm rebuilding talos' CSS theme. The visual changes will be minimal, but the code will be more organized, more mobile-friendly, and more streamlined. You'll see pieces of it migrating here over time, such as my improved navbar and use of button groups.

Focus

Previously, I've talked about how Summer Camp is about flexibility - bending prompts and plans to fit your goals and abilities. To best be flexible myself, I don't want to make plans about what exactly I'll write about in July, or what each theme might bring. It's easier to respond to prompts when coming in with no expectations, compared to getting excited about something only to find none of the prompts match.
That said, there are a few areas I'd love to develop further:

• There are three more psionic disciplines I haven't written about yet.
• There's far more to space pirates than Captain Hawk and his crew.
• Writing about the dangers of space travel and the metadimension is on the agenda.
• The Vigil needs some love, and I have secret goodies planned for those who completed my World Ember Scavenger Hunt. That hunt is still live for those who want to get access to these secrets!

Progress

Camp Chill

Summer Camp Camp Chill Badge

Camp Chill (ID 4574878) by Rin Garnett

Nnie's Camp Chill Guidelines

• Remember the prompts are suggestions, not requirements.
• Write what you're passionate about, leave what you aren't.
• Relax when you feel tired.
• Fight off any pesky brain-squitos trying to make you doubt your work.
• Don't abandon your non-summercamp goals! Write that article you're itching to write, even if it doesn't fit any prompts.

Shared with permission from Annie Stein. Read her thoughts on 'Camp Chill' on her Camp Pledge.

If you'd like to repost this badge, use [imgblock:4574878] to include the guidelines or [img:4574878] for only the badge. Amy Winters-Voss made a block version you can use by adding [block:1050823] to your article.

Inspirations?

I struggle to detail specific inspirations for something as general as all of the Talos Sector. My world meta has what ones I've been able to come up with. If an article has a more specific inspiration, you'll see it listed under the author commentary heading in the article's sidebar.

Articles

Change

Refuge

Belief

Decay

Wildcards

Updated Old

Though older articles don't qualify for the challenge, I updated a few that fit some of this year's prompts.

Mother of the Stars

A charity or other organization focused on doing good.
A faction of an organisation built on belief.

The Scream

An environmental or other large-scale natural disaster.

Glow Market

A settlement considered a refuge.

New Argos Radio Tower

A building associated with joy and fun.

Juliet

A personal item that keeps you safe.