Logging your activity
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This is mostly a question of how necessary you find logging. Some people do it compulsively, some not at all. How much does it matter to you? And which parts?
I have no idea what Rosita is supposed to mean, but I'm not doing this again, so feel free to vote for that if you want.
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I log scenes because the games that I play on use wikis with logs, and because I like reading back over the logs even years later.
I will go back and retroactively log (copy-and-paste) OOC communications if a problem has occurred, or I will proactively log communications if I'm starting up a conversation that I think might need it.
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I hate editing logs.
And no, your 'but log cleaner' doesn't help me.
I am an obsessive news file reader, +map checker, +finger/+sheet, you name it.There is no log cleaner in existence that can catch those.
And I'm not gonna have an alt on every single game I'm on just in the hopes I can remember to do those things in the right window (and some things, like on statted games, you can't check in another window because they're in the room with you).God bless Evennia's logging system.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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In order of more to less important:
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If I'm in a game where I need to log as 'evidence' in case something goes wrong during bouts of drama I'm outta there. No questions asked. I'll never 'log everything just in case'.
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I semi-frequently log scenes especially if they're PrPs that need to be posted... or at least guilt someone else into doing it for me.
("I run the PrP, you guys post it up!") -
I almost never reboot my PC so there's usually weeks of backscroll to wade through if I feel like it. While not exactly logging per se, it serves the same purpose.
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Now and then I paste weird or interesting things to friends... which thanks to Google/Skype's infinite memory means they are logged in a roundabout way. I've found stuff that happened years ago there.
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From the flip side I'd accept logs as evidence but if there's any doubt from a side about their validity then... probably wouldn't count it for much given how easy it is to fake. Having said that I don't even remember the last time someone seriously expressed the view a log was doctored.
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I log everything, at least for my own use. Because 11 months later I'm like, "Wait, who told me about that thing ICly?" and I go back and look in logs.
But also because I've had fun going back 7 years later and re-reading a great scene with friends from that long ago. Nostalgia!
a.k.a. Packetdancer (or "Pax" for short)
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I log most of my RP. Like @Sparks, I just like having a record, and sometimes it's actually easier to refer to RP than to wade through mails and posts. I also really like revisiting logs on benders of game nostalgia. This is why I adore wikis. No need to wade through 5-year-old text files (though I still have the text files, ephemeral internet being what it is). I likes ma stories, and sometimes things come together more coherently than I noticed in the course of play.
I rarely log OOC communication. Mails and posts and things I'm going to need for plottage are generally more easily stored in a gdoc or something than the aforementioned text file. And I agree with the flimsy nature of logs as 'evidence.' But, with the rise of wikis, I also rarely edit my text files anymore. So I generally HAVE a log of OOC stuff if I need it.
ETA: This is a personal thing. I am aware of this. But nothing gives me a better idea of the general level of activity on a game and what kind of RP I can find there than player logs. They really help me engage. I don't really care if other people log or not (I sure as hell don't read everything other people post, and if my partner doesn't want something posted I'll respect that).
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@Sparks said in Logging your activity:
I log everything, at least for my own use. Because 11 months later I'm like, "Wait, who told me about that thing ICly?" and I go back and look in logs.
This.
@Seraphim73 said:
I log scenes because the games that I play on use wikis with logs, and because I like reading back over the logs even years later.
This squared.
I'll pimp my log cleaner while I'm here. (It's down at the moment like all the other AWS-powered crap on the Internet today, but usually it works.) And yeah, like @Auspice said, it doesn't strip out block data like news/who/etc. It is possible if such data has clear line markers, but it's a PITA and just wasn't worth the effort to implement. I just keep an OOC alt for that stuff personally.
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@Auspice Nothing worse than logging with a client's logging function. The coder on Dark Spires - I don't recall his name - coded up a logger object that works fantastically. You drop it and it records only the IC that happens in the room so it doesn't pick up any of your pages, bboard reading, +wheres, etc. It's since migrated to other games, including Marvel: 1963 where @ixokai has greatly improved on the functionality and has configured it to the wiki format as well. I never log without it.
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@TNP said in Logging your activity:
@Auspice Nothing worse than logging with a client's logging function. The coder on Dark Spires - I don't recall his name - coded up a logger object that works fantastically. You drop it and it records only the IC that happens in the room so it doesn't pick up any of your pages, bboard reading, +wheres, etc. It's since migrated to other games, including Marvel: 1963 where @ixokai has greatly improved on the functionality and has configured it to the wiki format as well. I never log without it.
I was just talking on Fires of Hope last night about the need for an object like that.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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@Auspice Come log on M63 and see the help file.
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@Auspice It's awesome. Coder on Dark Spires is Exeter, I believe. He gave the OK for the code's distribution w/ credit (He might not have stipulated credit, but I always make sure it's there).
No need to page people joining the scene late, or if they've d/c'ed. They can just pull a recall on the last X number of poses to get caught up.
No pages, no channel spam.
Have several scenes in-progress? Just keep a separate object for each one then recycle after you've posted.
I highly recommend it for any game out there. I was on one game that refused to install it, I'm guessing because they thought it might be used to spy on players somehow? But 10/10, would recommend to a friend.
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Exeter. That sounds right.
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I don't log unless someone needs me to (if I'm assisting or running a scene), or if there's something of major concern.
I just don't like it. It feels like clutter to me because I never go back and read them. I guess I am not very emotionally invested that way. My favorite moments in mushing are more from community and camraderie, not just the writing. So logs just don't move me.
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@TNP said in Logging your activity:
@Auspice Come log on M63 and see the help file.
I'm not a coder, myself, but I've passed it on to the FoH Staff and asked them to check it out (as Hssiss seemed interested in such a thing).
@mietze I can think of one scene over the past... 6? probably more years that I regret not logging. Community def. wins out for me, too.
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Not listed: I never log anything.
Sometimes I will grab information from my backlog, but I think the one time I logged a scene was the exception that proves my rule.
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We need a function, much like timestamps, where if you are flagged correctly (much like NOSPOOF) the server gives you something that encodes the time AND the exact letters etc of a text string. That could be used for evidence.
Extra points if the ID code can be unpacked into the given string.
I have a waggish sense of humor.
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@Misadventure said in Logging your activity:
We need a function, much like timestamps, where if you are flagged correctly (much like NOSPOOF) the server gives you something that encodes the time AND the exact letters etc of a text string. That could be used for evidence.
Extra points if the ID code can be unpacked into the given string.
If the ID code can be unpacked into a given string, then it can be faked.
Way back when, the headstaff and coders of Shadowed Isles tried to control bbposts from the game to SWOFA* by adding a verification field. They wanted to say that without the code, the bbpost was not legitimate.
Well at first they used the built-in pack() function, and someone using the unpack() function on it discovered that the code was "timestamp + the reader", essentially making the person who moved the post from the game to SWOFA was outing themselves. Clearly the attempt was to find out who was leak and quite probably deal with them.
The lesson from that debacle is that verification codes are only as trustworthy as the people who controls them and the people who uses them. The far easier answer is to be trustworthy staffers on a trustworthy game.
Shadowed Isles was none of these, though I met some of the best RPers I've ever played with there.
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- Note: SWOFA was a much earlier version of Mu* Soapbox. This happened in, what, '98? '03? It's been forever.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos -
Everyone trusts me. I am a lovable tyrant.
I would propose something more complicated. Probably not unpackable.
I am fairly sure that with the right help, it could be done to actually act as a verification code and not be easily reversible.
I have a waggish sense of humor.
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I suggest that you represent the text sent as a series of UTF-8 characters that can only be unpacked by someone with intimate knowledge of the encoded language (let us for the sake of experimentation call this encoding protocol something like "English"). It should be hard enough to decode that anyone who goes through the trouble probably should pass the threshold of understanding it and be vetted that way.
