Contessa Needs a Technically Skilled Volunteer - Males MAY Apply

It's long been known that men in perceived positions of authority or influence are unwelcome at Contessa. Well, that's apparently changed and I'm glad to see it.

Stacey is looking for some technical help with the Contessa website and I'm happy to add to the bandwidth. No, I was not asked directly, but I figure with something as positive as this is, I can put aside personal issues momentarily. I know many of my readers are technically inclined, and The Tavern is very much male appendage heavy, so it's doubtful many of you have seen the Facebook announcement previously (I was asked by a reader to share and share I will):

Almost all the volunteer help I've gotten for ConTessa is in the administrative/event growing/marketing/promotional help category, which is great and needed, but for them to do that stuff, I have to be able to provide them with stuff to work with.  

I've been spending so much time doing the nitty gritty, I'm failing on the higher level organizational tasks. I'm overwhelmed and juggling too much. I need help, and I'm ready to admit I can't be picky about gender. All the women with tech experience I know have so much going on they can't help out, and none of the women who have graciously volunteered to help have the skillset necessary.  

What I need help with:  

- Updating pages on the website. (Squarespace)  

- Adding new pages to the website for new events, promotions, and most especially for fundraising help. (Squarespace as well, this requires some design knowledge to take text and make it into a designed web experience.) 

- Prepping text and images for social media. (We use both raster and vector graphics, and have an inventory of purchased stock art).  

- Graphic design. (I enjoy doing this a LOT, but maybe do it too much) 

- Social media. (G+, Facebook, Twitter) 

So, this is to everyone - guys and girls - who's told me before they want to help. If you can fill some of these holes, it'd keep me from drowning. You should have technical knowledge in doing these things, and the time to donate I'd say no more than 5-10 hours a week.  

I can not stress enough that I need someone who is technical. We may well get into the nitty gritty of building our our own events app, and just from a day-to-day standpoint, I need someone who understands how to use CSS at the very least. It's also best if you have experience with Squarespace (or are confident enough you can learn it on your own), as I don't have time to train anyone.  

I need someone who can take direction, but who's also willing to offer their own creative insights. I'm very picky about how ConTessa is portrayed, and will often ask for several revisions on projects until I find what I like.  

Inquire within, or shoot me an email at stacy@contessa.rocks.

Before you know it, Contessa may actually allow male GMs...

If You Have a Con and No One Shows, Did it Happen?

In case you haven't heard, Contessa is an online gaming con. It's run by women, with only female GMs, although men can play. It seems to be having recruitment issues this year.

Part of it may be the idea that is is aimed (mostly) at female gamers. Maybe it's just me, but not allowing men to run games seems just a tad discriminatory. But then you can't discriminate against the majority (i think that's in the definition of discrimination somewhere) and men are definitely in the majority when it comes to playing RPGs.

I think the bigger thing that is holding it back is that all of the sessions are Hangouts "On Air". Sorry, I'm not going to play in a session with a bunch of strangers and have it up on Youtube until the end of time. Apparently the reason for the "On Air" part is so disruptive male gamers can be booted (which they can't be in a regular hangout apparently). It looks like male gamers have a bad reputation. I can see why one would want to restrict our access to running the sessions, as who would be there to boot us then?

Before it's even said, I have no problem with female gamers. I like to see them as an active part of the hobby, as it needs all sources for it to thrive and grow. Heck, one of the best DMs I ever played under was a woman back at GenCon in the mid 90s. She was certainly the best I played with at the con, and I was in way too many gaming sessions that year ;)

I just don't think excluding either gender from the organizing of a con and running the game sessions is the best way to encourage gaming with either sex. Segregation was a failure when it came to race and I don't think it fares any better when it comes to gender.

I'd actually like to see Contessa succeed despite the self imposed handicaps. We do need more organized play online and it is a well organized convention from what I can tell. I won't be participating though. The assumption that male players are bound to include their share of "creepy guys" and "that's why we have to record everything" creeps me out...

For those interested, here's the link to the games being run on Contessa. Looks like the OSR has made a showing :)