I was just thinking about how I like the monthly themes for each spotlight round, and noticed that when you look at the spotlight, it's just a list of characters. There's nothing that says that month's theme or why those characters got the spotlight or anything.

I thought it'd be nice if we could just have something in plain text at the top of the spotlight box that just says "This Month's Theme: Quirkiest Characters" or something like that. Nothing fancy, but just something to show that there's a reason those characters are in the spotlight.

It may not seem important to long-term members, who already know the month's theme because they nominate and vote every month, but to new members who are browsing the site for the first time, it probably looks like just a bunch of random characters stuck up there for no real reason.

If they see the month's theme along with the spotlight winners in the spotlight box, it might peak their interest. They might say "Oh, these characters are the funniest on OoS? I should check out their profiles," or "Oh, these characters are the friendliest? I should RP with them sometime."

I just think it's a really simple way to encourage new members to RP, since I know when I first joined, I was overwhelmed because I didn't know who to roleplay with or who my character might like, etc.

I think that the staff have already discussed this since the last time that we did themes, but I honestly can't remember. After all, this season didn't have a theme. Just a regular spotlight. However, if my memory is flawed, I'll go ahead and say right now that the same thing occurred to me and that I think it's a good idea.

Not every month has a theme, but for those that DO have a theme, I think it should be a given that the theme is mentioned on the spotlight section of the sidebar. (And I thought that was the way it was going to be done.)

We may forget sometimes, though. You know, come to think of it, the spotlight bar looks kind of bare to me. Since the spotlights are done by month, there should be a heading that lists the month, and, under that, the theme (if applicable). Yeah. I think we ought to do that from now on. In fact, I think I'm going to add the month to the spotlight bar right now.