Yes, the forums are now up. I haven’t seen anything about the story there yet, but it will possibly come soon. I think at this point, all the invites were sent out, and if none of us got in now, we won’t later on, at least not this cycle. Good luck next time, if you applied, and didn’t get in.
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Someone from the story forum IS on the council. They put a tag next to your name if you are on it, saying “WoW Community Council.”
Who is it?
Naming them would be against CoC, and I’m taking no risks, but they’re a male Night Elf Mage.
He introduced himself over on the council forums. Seems like a good egg.
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Damn, it’s really against CoC? I didn’t know that. Well, I did find out who it is. Here’s his introduction post.
Kiraser, if you read this, I want to thank you for applying to the council. I’ve seen the Exploring Kalimdor posts you’ve made which have been pretty informative. I think you’ll be able to represent us well and you have my support. Good luck!
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I’m doubting I would get in. Since Blizzard as some sort of thing against me.
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Great… it looks like another boys club. Exactly what this game needs more of.
Well, we will always have the story forum. This is our little council of WoW lore nerds. And I prefer it here.
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I have seen at least two women on there, but I hope the ratio is balanced.
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They all seem like great people, I’m sure this will be an interesting way for the Devs to connect with the community.
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Everyone who has introduced themselves so far seem like good fits. My hope is returning. I think this will go well.
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I don’t know how I should feel about this.
I feel a bit dissapointed. I know my blog is small and doesn’t have a big following but it’s my passion. Warcraft is still my passion but it reminds me I still have a long way to go, maybe I need to figure out social media, I dunno. I just want to continue to have a place to talk about this story.
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Have you considered making a YouTube channel?
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Yes, but I don’t have the video editing skills. My friends on discord want me to make a podcast which may be a better avenue for me.
I think that may be something I try in the new year. Especially now that these story beats have renewed my faith in the story.
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I’d give it a listen.
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That means a lot to me 
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Asking you guys for some thread ideas.
My council activity plan is pretty simple at the moment. I’m going to make threads/articles about the larger issues with Warcraft lore. I will try to not ignore other topics because some people already blame the council folks for caring only about very specific issues, and I’m up for, say, a discussion about Timewalking or tuning raid mechanics for smaller raid groups.
Going back to lore threads, from the top of my head, the issue with continuity: Shadowlands is based on a substantial amount of unexplained retcons that are mostly tied to the old lore as actual progenitor concepts of well known old things (kyrians, Maldraxxus, mourneblades etc). Older story arcs get retroactively corrupted because of that. MoP also introduced lots of new concepts, but it respectfully presented the new ideas as extensions of the older lore (sha as Old God spawn, mantid as aqiri subspecies etc.). It’s also about the books: if they can get outdated so fast, why buy them?
The way how player immersion gets weaker and weaker. The suspension of disbelief, in Shadowlands, in particular, managed to hit a new level. Knowledge of the Death realm’s workings and rules should have giant circumstances on the living world. On the Forsaken, on the living humans, on everyone. There’s also the Scourge invasion. Is it still ongoing? Is it finished? We don’t know, it’s not addressed as something properly important. All of that breaks immersion. It’s noticeable that many roleplayers simply ignore SL content because of such things.
Sylvanas’s arc as the sign of miscommunication between the developers. And poor presentation to the players: what was her idea of that ideal universe again? Why didn’t she expect betrayal from the giant space Arthas look-alike? Also the issue of a major character getting written vastly different in various media: all during one character arc. Sylvanas is a showcase of many issues with Warcraft lore and story right now.
Factions. Tldr: the 4th war is over, but at large the playerbase feels bitter about it. The overall Alliance fans. The night elf fans. The Horde rebellion fans. The Horde loyalist fans. And the latest book already winks at the possibility of future conflicts. Do we need that if no-one gets happy?
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I’d listen to it hun 
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I think of the problems in three bubbles:
- General world building problems
Here are the issues you mentioned regarding the scourge being free on Azeroth, or the simple ankle deep world building regarding languages that doesn’t make much sense, etc.
- The problems of narrative equity and consistency and depth
Here are the issues of what races are centered the most often (humans and high elves), how characters are treated in the narrative (eg Baine being a hot mess, Tyrande’s arc in general, where is Malfurion lol, Thrall), and the more complex problems of world building (the cultural inspirations for the Cosmology and the diversity therein, the metaphysics of sin and damnation on shadowlands, etc)
- The Magic Circle Box
Recommend Virtual Worlds by Castronova for reading so you have more “game dev theory” language, if you haven’t read it. The book changed my life.
But tldr:
- Video games are virtual worlds with a virtual community
- Each player engaged with this virtual world via an avatar constructed by their choice (whether self insert or escapism) from within the rules set by the Magic Circle vis-a-vis the game’s construction
- The community is thus multiple avatars engaging with each other due to different motivations with some groups in common
- Teldrassil burning and Undercity blighting and Sylvanas’s character arc and etc are still haunting us (and will eternally continue to do so) because those narrative choice broke or at least smudged the magic circle for many players
- A game where the fantasy you chose for your avatar has been totally broken ceases to be fun, because the devs broke the rules you agreed to when entering the virtual world
- This magic circle is not just lore fantasy but is also PvE (ergo the systems complaints), PvP (ergo many notable pvp players quitting), and combinations therein and more too
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