I am not a fan of these sort of posts. I find a lot of the time it is people wanting to guilt trip people or get people to beg them to stay. That said:

I am not a fan of how things happened. Everything that has happened in the past couple weeks feels like it goes against the spirit of MSB. I don't believe MSB is the healthiest of environments and has some people who are (some where now) quite set on their views. However, in the culture that MSB cultivates, vitriol responses is part of it. It was (is?) a 'safe place' people can vent about their games, previous games, etc. I put 'safe place' in quotes because there CAN be a lot of piling on someone or over the top attack responses to certain things said. The claims that the dramas of MSB spreads outside the board, of course it does, friends talk with friends who talk with friends. That is the nature of people. However, I do think MSB kept MUSHes in a little better place than a lot of the other counterparts of mu*s because people could 'safely' express their discourse.

Now, I expressed to Gany that I did not think Derp is a good person to have as an admin. He might be the nicest of guys who advocates for the end of kicking innocent little puppies but his behavior and mannerisms have inclined me to think he is not a good leader type. When people were asking questions on his game and he had to repeatedly explain the same things to them he got very dismissive of people's concerns or thoughts very quickly. When people voice disagreement and upset feels about what he says that can be controversial or offensive he doubles down on what he says and insists that he is not saying anything that hurts the feels. His own friends have said he's not the best at social interactions. Which is fine, not everyone is. However, that is not a trait suited to 'leading' a group of people. No matter how hands off people claim to be on here (opposite has been shown for here) the admin/moderators are still the leaders and even if he is suppose to be just for code help (which doesn't seem to be the case any more?) Derp does not present a good face for some of the stuff that everyone here (and formerly here) wants as 'common' unaccepted and accepted stuff. He has more than once made comments that are very offensive and hurtful.

Gany mildly concerns me for if she is doing okay because everything that happened doesn't seem like it is in character for her. I get feelings were out of hand for everyone and it very much likely felt like a dog pile for Gany. More so after she said that Mietze is the one that needs to help solve everything that went down.Which I don't recall ever happening to Gany. I hope she is doing well, however.

With how a lot of the leadership here is I don't feel I can stay. I try not to subject myself to situations I don't feel safe or comfortable in anymore unless I have too. I know, that is a little ironic with how vicious talks in the Hogpit could get. That is expected discomfort and such, one that I accepted. The leadership stuff and the broken trust are not the 'expected discomfort' for me.

So, that is my ado.

Doesn't not having the hogpit rather defeat the purpose of what this board was originally created for? A place where people can express their displeasure/rants about games.

I was trying to keep my characters separate from my 'not on a mu* place'. In general I'm crap at keeping my characters separate. I always forget who I've told and why I was keeping them separate (usually so I don't get pages elsemu* or whatever all 'Come do thees!'

I'll just note my notable ones or ones I was fond of/cared about/remember.

Previous:

Hanya @ Akashat (Years ago)
Tekinta @ Akashat (and briefly on Shangrila)
Luralee @ Firan
Arethi @ Firan
Lysiana @ Firan
Tayani @ Firan
Several Different ones @ Firan
Kariana @ SerenityMush
Tempest @ Memories of Legend (staff alt.)
Adelina @ Memories of Legend
Azalea @ Gorram
Misaki @Gorram
Vic @ Gorram
Amira @ Beauty
Gabrielle @ Beauty
Valentine @ Beauty
Viviana @ Beauty
Several Different ones @ SerenityMUSH
Emilia @SerenityMSUH (I think that is how I spelt it)
Cela @ Shangrila
Several Different ones @ Shangrila
Nicky @ The Reach
Samira @ The Reach
Vancouver @ The Reach
Evelyn @ The Reach (A possessed model, since there was more than one)
Several Different ones @ The Reach (I like to CG)
Justice @ Society
Kenna @ Safe Haven Harbor
Corinne @ Kushiel's Debut
Jasmine @ Kushiel's Debut
Danette@ Kushiel's Debut
Reine @ Kushiel's Debut
Marion @ Kushiel's Debut
Lucile @ Kushiel's Debut
Zacharie @ Kushiel's Debut
Colette @ Kushiel's Debut
Rosaire @ Kushiel's Debut
Adia @ Reno
Mikaela @ Reno
Myriani @ Shangrila
Delaney @ Fallcoast
Kandi @ Fallcoast
Sarai @ Fallcoast
Muriel @ Fallcoast
Teresia @ Shangrilla
Poison @ Angel's Legacy
Muse @ Angel's Legacy
Mailys @ Arx
Isidora @ Arx (brief)
Sarielle @ Arx
Jayanthi @ Arx
Sameera @ Arx
Armani @ Arx
Kyla @ Fifth Kingdom
Jessie @ Stranger Than Fiction
Noelle @ Stranger Than Fiction
Elissa @ Fallcoast
Venus @ Sailor Moon: The Crystal Millennium (Staff/In progress game. Just got code stuff.)

Current:
Faythe @ Fallcoast
Layla @ Fallcoast
Catia @ Fallcoast

I flitter across games and try connecting with the theme and junk. I've played on some smaller places I doubt many have heard of. And I know I have forgotten several.

Also, most of these are ages old characters.

Somethings I've seen involving abusive/manipulative/stalker/whatever types. Add as you will.

1. Their actions are often subtle that it is not easy to catch too late. Someone who has experienced that with them multiple times, as many have said, can usually see it but can't prove it.
2. They tend to use IC means more than OOC actions to be a dick so they can use the 'but it is IC' excuse.
3. Will gradually try turning peoples friends against them. Well placed words that may or may not be the truth. Rarely in an obvious way. More like 'Haha. X did this thing. Did you know that?' It doesn't SEEM like they are being the devil.
4. They skirt the boundaries people set. Not often going over them but pushing it.
5. They typically present as a 'good person', following the rules, not being obvious about their bad actions. By the time a lot of people who don't realize the person is not a good guy until they have made them seem like the better player to staff.

It is not easy to catch unpleasant people without expressing from another player the stuff they do.

Welcome to Atharia, a world where people keep repeating the same life over and over again because one of the Gods was angered by a perceived slight. The people now strive to break this curse put upon them, the kingdoms all have their unique they believe to be the way to break the Curse.

An important note is that Atharia is a casual game. Sometimes scenes for plots and over all can come in rapid succession, sometimes it could takes a couple weeks or so before another scene happens. We're more interested in being inclusive and telling stories everyone can enjoy over 'getting plots out quickly' or something. The majority of plots on Atharia will be 1 to 2 scenes long, some times more. The plots with more than 1-5 scenes, at most, are typically ones that will involve player focus.

Atharia is a high fantasy lords and ladies game the utilizes a custom FS3 on PennMUSH. Everyone has the ability to use some sort of magic. What we have as possible things to do: Play the social games (events, slice of life RP), political games (there are different kingdoms, political marriages), exploration, scholarly endeavors, religious focus.

Feel free to join us and see if it is a place that fits for you:

The website: https://atharia.vertinext.com/
To connect: atharia.vertinext.com 4201
Discord: https://discord.gg/RMVTKuAh9B

The story lines currently going on:

The people of Atharia are seeking the 'Children of Gods', citizens of Atharia who have a parent that is a God. Until recently they were hidden away for their protection. There is, currently, 15 know Children of Gods and 8 of them have been found. The people were given a necklace that glows brightly when an awakened Child of Gods is found. We absolutely welcome anyone who wants to play a Child of Gods. Unless we suddenly blow up big you can have 1 character be one. I'm also open to the possibility of claiming an NPC, as long as you understand they have been puppetted in scenes.
The logs for the plot: https://atharia.vertinext.com/index.php?title=Plot:_Children_of_Gods
The information about Children of Gods:
https://atharia.vertinext.com/index.php?title=Game_news:The_Children_of_Gods

Currently there is one exploration plot going on and it is called'Flames of the Mountains'. Flames of the Mountain is at a point new people can be easily added.
The logs can be found here: https://atharia.vertinext.com/index.php?title=Plot:Exploration-_Flames_of_the_Mountains

The people of Atharia have been tasked by the Gods to find the 'Lost Gods'. Two of the Children of Gods were discovered to not be the Children of the current known Gods. So, the Gods tasked the mortals with finding the Lost Gods. It has just begun so plenty of time to join in.
To see the logs: https://atharia.vertinext.com/index.php?title=Plot:_To_Find_the_Lost_Gods

The Children of Gods have to complete 'herculean' tasks to ascend. How difficult the task is will depend on which God assigns it and who they are assigning it too. The Child of one God might find their task easier than a Child of another God getting a task from the same God as the first Child. Several of the tasks have been done but the tasks are more based on the player doing them than over all. So, taking part of this is more personalized to the Child. The tasks can vary from being individual, to certain people doing it, to everyone. Each Child has to do, at least, 12 tasks.
To see the logs: https://atharia.vertinext.com/index.php?title=Plot:_Child_of_Gods_Tasks

I don't know if the Americans do something similar but Canadians have an 'Orange Shirt Day', usually Sept 30. It is to honor the children (some still living today with trauma, many died) taken away from their family and put into residential school.

Here is a bit of info: https://www.orangeshirtday.org/about-us.html

There is a bit of an exception right now. Recently 215 children were found, buried and forgotten, by the people (Churches), that ran the residential schools. I'm not demanding it or anything but a lot of people, especially Natives in Canada, or at least my area, are honoring those children. IF it is something you can and would do, consider wearing one today?

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/remains-of-215-children-found-at-former-kamloops-residential-school-first-nation?fbclid=IwAR0toyraP7TwJG7YVs3SrPhdI7znatyiLGhrI5bUDtOhDYCdBCH0FRlBIOQ

I don't know how much of you know about stuff like Residential Schools, the 60s Scoop (which is when native children were snatched from their families) and many other events. A bit of a google search will probably bring up a lot of this stuff if it interests you to learn more.

@auspice said in How To Strip Comtitles in PennMush:

Personally, I wish more games would just ask people to keep to a character limit on comtitles. I don't mind the succinct ones. But when they're really long like that, they drive me bonkers, too.

But agreed, more com systems need ways to gag them on your end. I don't know a way on Penn personally.

The long ones are annoying but the ones that annoy me far beyond that are the 'changing' ones. I really have no desire to see different 'cute' phrases each time something is said.

It is not all the 'Speedy McSpeedy' person but sometimes the GM. I've joined PrPs and staff plots where all I am doing is adding fluff because everything happening is not something that I can get involved with because of one reason or another. For example if I am playing a social with no sneaky how exactly am I suppose to pose being all sneaky and skilled at it? I've even posed being loud and lagging behind. The GM of the scene basically ignored it. It made a not enjoyable scene because nothing I did affected what was 'already written.'

I've concluded, again, that Blood of Dragons is not the place for me. I was just looking at the 'application' process once again and it hasn't changed. I don't know why previous mu* experience is important. Someone who has never mued before could be a fabulous RPer (I've met a couple new people to muing). Also? Restricted chars need logs from previous scenes elsemu*.

Playing on BoD must be more like a job over pretendy fun time.

If one wants to make sure a char ends up suitable for going on a roster/in a character database? why not get the person IC then as time goes on /gently/ suggest background and the likes be modified because a person can realize the char is different than he or she intially thought they would be. Characters generally get WAY better when a person has played them for even a short time.

@ominous That really doesn't sound fun to me. I don't want to have to always pick something new to play.

I am not a fan of these sort of posts. I find a lot of the time it is people wanting to guilt trip people or get people to beg them to stay. That said:

I am not a fan of how things happened. Everything that has happened in the past couple weeks feels like it goes against the spirit of MSB. I don't believe MSB is the healthiest of environments and has some people who are (some where now) quite set on their views. However, in the culture that MSB cultivates, vitriol responses is part of it. It was (is?) a 'safe place' people can vent about their games, previous games, etc. I put 'safe place' in quotes because there CAN be a lot of piling on someone or over the top attack responses to certain things said. The claims that the dramas of MSB spreads outside the board, of course it does, friends talk with friends who talk with friends. That is the nature of people. However, I do think MSB kept MUSHes in a little better place than a lot of the other counterparts of mu*s because people could 'safely' express their discourse.

Now, I expressed to Gany that I did not think Derp is a good person to have as an admin. He might be the nicest of guys who advocates for the end of kicking innocent little puppies but his behavior and mannerisms have inclined me to think he is not a good leader type. When people were asking questions on his game and he had to repeatedly explain the same things to them he got very dismissive of people's concerns or thoughts very quickly. When people voice disagreement and upset feels about what he says that can be controversial or offensive he doubles down on what he says and insists that he is not saying anything that hurts the feels. His own friends have said he's not the best at social interactions. Which is fine, not everyone is. However, that is not a trait suited to 'leading' a group of people. No matter how hands off people claim to be on here (opposite has been shown for here) the admin/moderators are still the leaders and even if he is suppose to be just for code help (which doesn't seem to be the case any more?) Derp does not present a good face for some of the stuff that everyone here (and formerly here) wants as 'common' unaccepted and accepted stuff. He has more than once made comments that are very offensive and hurtful.

Gany mildly concerns me for if she is doing okay because everything that happened doesn't seem like it is in character for her. I get feelings were out of hand for everyone and it very much likely felt like a dog pile for Gany. More so after she said that Mietze is the one that needs to help solve everything that went down.Which I don't recall ever happening to Gany. I hope she is doing well, however.

With how a lot of the leadership here is I don't feel I can stay. I try not to subject myself to situations I don't feel safe or comfortable in anymore unless I have too. I know, that is a little ironic with how vicious talks in the Hogpit could get. That is expected discomfort and such, one that I accepted. The leadership stuff and the broken trust are not the 'expected discomfort' for me.

So, that is my ado.

jane3_janey#6628 - Let me know who you are after I accept or I'll likely delete you. I'll probably forget but at least I'll know you are not a spammer or scammer.

@prototart said in Hog Pit as read only:

@alzie said in Hog Pit as read only:

What happened here?

narcissistic injury

But who is the injured party?!

Forums like this also allow easier cooling off period than places like Discord or Skype. Skype is instant so the 'You're being an asshole about my friend!' keeps ticking along as people rant. Although, it also allows boiling of tempers. So, double edged sword?

@enoch said in Feet Voting:

@ganymede Accepting responsibility would be stepping down from your position. You fucked this.

I haven't seen anyone clamoring for Gany to step down. More or less just a lot of 'I'm really angry you did this and keep doing it'. And people saying that their trust needs to be earned back. The only one I've heard about asking Gany to step down is Gany.

Both sides are reacting on pretty high emotions. Friends upset about friends being hurt, both sides, and it is causing everyone to get even more upset and chaining it. One person gets upset about their friend then another does, etc.

@jomomomo said in Hog Pit as read only:

It had effects that would go beyond just the message board subscribers. It wasn't like this hidden enclave beyond the view or senses of anyone who "opted out." The amount of manufactured and unnecessary drama that spilled out into the games themselves, discord chats, etc. is incalculable. And yeah - I subscribed because one day I was minding my own business and suddenly started getting paged by all these people asking me about some made-up, misconstrued BS that was emanating from that cess pit.

So.. It spread just like anything people upset about regardless of what game/hobby/whatever it is complaints about? Humans talk and gossip, no matter how much they claim they ignore it and don't do it. Who would have thoughts humans were being humans that were upset about something they perceived as offensive/perceived as a person being awful and that spread out of a single platform. If upset feels didn't spill into other things we would not have constant coverages about celebrities' or political figures.

Doesn't not having the hogpit rather defeat the purpose of what this board was originally created for? A place where people can express their displeasure/rants about games.

Atharia is active, depending on how you define active. If you mean constant RP at any time, we're not that. We're pretty casual and probably more along the lines of table top style.

I can, sometimes, run plots several days in a row or it could be a few weeks in between. A lot of my players have a ton of RL and I don't 'plan' events/scenes. I just nudge them on discord and/or on the game to see who is available for plot things.

That being said, we do have several plots available and as long as the game doesn't suddenly become so huge I can't keep doing it: I'm happy to run personal story plots/scenes for people. Like, if you want a chat with an NPC I control to talk about your day with, I'm game. Or you want to chat with a God I control, I'm happy to pop on. Or, you want to look/create past events for your character. Basically, anything you find of interest that I can do, I'm likely to do. Obviously if Atharia blows up far passed the 10 to 15 players we have, I'll have to rethink how to run plots and stuff. But, atm, I try to gear towards those about and push people to make each other shine over trying to do everything.

@faraday Isn't a character, PC or NPC, suppose to have depth when it is 'named'? Why shouldn't they have IC bias and do something extra for a character they have some sort of relationship? Even if the character is an NPC King.

IT is safe to say, with a detailed NPC, that it has bias in favor of the person they are banging/romancing/being friends with/whatever. It is why people seek out the favor of an NPC in X position or can do X thing. If they were doing the favor on OOC levels for OOC benefits is different. An NPC that doesn't have an agenda/plans/whatever is not generally much more than nameless NPCs people use for canon fodder.

Because I think it should be discussed after seeing it mentioned on the Arx thread: Should staff be able to TS players, NPC or PC?

My thoughts are: It doesn't matter if they do or not. They should get to enjoy the game they created as well. In whatever the method is that they enjoy it. They should do their best not to allow that relationship to influence their decisions but at the end of the day staff are people not machines and it will. I would be surprised if anyone was capable of being bias free. I feel like everyone wants their friends to be good people and believe what they say. So, this can cause gut reactions of 'X is the liar because Y is my friend!'

Note, I am on the side that staff should not be held to a higher standard/treat being staff like it is a job. Staff are people playing in a hobby they are there to have fun in and escape the BS they get from their job/RL. IF they don't like actions X person does? Go for removing that player from their game. I mean if they are to heavy handed with that, they aren't going to have many people wanting/able to play on their game but that is their choice.