Best posts made by Auspice

@Thenomain said in Privacy in gaming:

@Auspice said in Privacy in gaming:

You are literally sending data over an unprotected means of communication.

If I leave my house unlocked, you are still trespassing if you enter it uninvited.

The technicalities of this are only part of the equation; the other part is expectation.

Honestly, the argument on whether or not players should expect some privacy has made me sick. The answer is not “you are on an unprotected server therefore you should expect none”, the answer is, “I have no interest in the work involved in protecting you from privacy violations, so expect that there are none.”

There’s a reason we don’t allow cameras in bathrooms in ... well, not in Ohio, and I’m hoping that’s everywhere else. Technically there’s nothing stopping people. Hell, the wall between urinals is barely enough to keep someone from staring.

We punish people who do things that are technically possible all the time. The idea that “it’s possible therefore it’s allowed” is what makes me angry.

There are many other reasons to not expect privacy on a Mu*, but “because we can” isn’t one of them.

That isn't even the point I was making.

The issue is that often, when this comes up (something something someone finds out that data is being or can be recorded), there's an outcry of 'oh my god why was this allowed?!' and it comes down to:
this is data being sent over an unsecured connection.

Just like what I am posting, right now, is going to an unsecured site.

Would I be furious if Arkandel used it for nefarious purposes? Yes, of course I would. But I'm not waltzing in expecting the forum equivalent of Fort Knox and that is what I think people need to stop doing. They need to stop going on games assuming that just because they go 'p name=hey baby lemme show you my dick' it is somehow 'OMG HOW DID STAFF GO AND FIND EVIDENCE I HARASSED THAT PERSON'

(see how it can be used sometimes in your favor, too???)

No, I am not saying 'because it's unsecure OH WELL DEAL WITH IT IF SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS'
My point is: there is something to be done on both ends of the equation.

Don't log onto a game expecting everything to be 100% secure (don't give out personal details on a game, leave a game if you find out staff is hella shady). If you run a game, consider a mission statement in which you promise players some level of privacy (we won't drill a peeping hole into your TS spaces, we won't check any server data/logs/flip on SUSPECT flags unless absolutely necessary).

I had emailed my recruiter to ask if she had any other contracts to put me up for because I like working with her (I do and it's not just because she takes me out to lunch once a month).

She emailed me back saying they've extended my contract to the end of January. It's not much but it's something and assuages some of my financial fears and helps me recover from 'flu and depression made me take too long to update my resume'.

@faraday said in Privacy in gaming:

@Thenomain said in Privacy in gaming:

If I leave my house unlocked, you are still trespassing if you enter it uninvited.

I think this is the wrong analogy for a MU.

It's more like... If you come into my house for a party and I have a security system.

Is it unethical for me to monitor my home? Of course not. The ethics are around how you gather and use that footage.

Creeping on people in the bathroom? Eeew. Clearly awful.

Reviewing the footage from a particular night to verify Jane's tale when she claims that John assaulted her? I think that's perfectly valid.

Combing through footage of guests at a party and eavesdropping on conversations they presumed were private? That's just a jerk thing to do, even if it is your house.

I do like this analogy much more.

Primarily because if someone commits a crime on your game (such as sharing underage pornography), you could be investigated as well because your game/server were utilized. Are you likely to be convicted? No. But it's still not going to be a fun time. So I'd like a level of awareness into what is going on and the ability to go 'Wait, you're telling me you have cause to believe SoandSo is engaged in wrongdoing? OK, thank you for telling me: I'll keep an eye on things.'

@nyctophiliac said in Favorite Youtubers?:

Lofty Pursuits Greg makes hard candy the old fashioned way. There's something about how it's made and his voice that's ultra satisfying/soothing.

def on my must list.

Others I watch errtime-

Food:
Bon Appetit - it began with Claire and now I just watch ALL OF IT. They're my BFFs and they don't even know it.
French Guy Cooking - DIY + Cooking + Charming French guy. It's a win.
Binging With Babish - You should know about him. If you don't, watch.
You Suck at Cooking - most hilarious food videos you will ever watch

Educational:
Extra Credits - games, books, history. I don't watch EVERY series, but man their episodes on Dune are MUST SEE.
Lockpicking Lawyer - He picks locks. And he's humorous about it.
BosnianBill - Also a lockpick, has a great bromance with LPL
SciShow - Bite sized science, often about shit you wanted to know but never asked.
Isaac Arthur - His lisp is a bit awkward (and he makes jokes about it sometimes himself), but if you wanna go HARD into scifi and astrophysics? He's your guy.
Alec Steele - THE MOST UPBEAT BRIT EVER. Watching his journey in blacksmithing has been great.
zefrank - you know zefrank. You might not know you know zefrank, but you know zefrank.

Gaming:
MannShorts - their themed D&D episodes are fucking hilarious. Watch the 'Florida Edition' series RIGHT NOW.
Puffin Forest - this guy would be the best DM ever

Misc:
Dope or Nope - it's stupid but it's like brain candy
Mr. Puzzle - German puzzle solver. If you can handle half an hour looking at someone's hands, check it out.
Chris Ramsay - I watch for the puzzles, but stay for the magic nerd
Colin Furze - this guy would make a great WoD character. Another SUPER UPBEAT BRIT who makes insane inventions.

Defies All Convention
How to Basic - eggs
kiwami - cucumbers

@silverfox said in MU Things I Love:

My IC Family.

Norwood's got some super solid players/characters around him (including all of the people who call him 'uncle' which is seriously the best.)

And Kenna's married-in-family is awesome, as is so much of her Whitehawk/Mercier, even if some of their players flux a lot at times.

In my eyes IC family trumps having traditional relationship RP.

I am abso-fucking-lutely thrilled because the new Gaston is someone super super awesome that is solid.
We had a family scene last night and I finally felt, for the first time in mooooonths, at ease in Blackram again.

It's the best when you have good family RP

@Kestrel said in Separating Art From Artist:

he seems to only like casting one kind of woman and that's "thin enough to be anorexic".

but then Firefly and Morena Baccarin who is neither of those things (anorexic thin or white) and same with Gina Torres.

I think the reason people labeled him a misogynist is that in his wife's article after the infidelity, she called him a fake feminist. And #believeher sort of extended into just taking her at her word (and not considering the fact that she was very, understandably, upset, and people say unkind things when upset).

I still like Whedon. I do agree that his quality has deteriorated and I think he'd be best served to work with someone to write things (Avengers still stands as partly being so great because of scenes like everyone sitting around trying to pick up the hammer: something that gave us this insight into who the characters are vs. just CINEMATIC HEROICS).

But.
He's an example of 'cancel culture' actively hurting someone. Like I said: I've seen people be pissy about people still liking his works, refusing to reject him, etc.

But I see his works as being the sum of their parts. I didn't love Buffy or Firefly because of him. I loved them because of the stories that the actors brought to life.

Nathan Fillion, for example, is a glorious human being. I have a friend who is friends with him and he is everything you'd hope. He does shit like support really legit charities (like charity:water as opposed to some ego-charity like so many actors) and when Molly C. Quinn wanted to go to comic con (to experience it as a geek and cosplay!) while still fairly young, but also super popular because of Castle, he stepped up to accompany her to make sure she stayed safe and had a good time.

like fuck you I'm not rejecting a show Joss Whedon wrote when there's actors like that on it.

I think I failed to get my point across well, so let me put it this way:

You see two guys flirting with women in a club.
One is being polite and respectful.
The other is leering and simply exuding gross.

Women are sort of conditioned to put up with both. Many are even going to welcome the former (if they're single/receptive). But they'll put up with the latter out of a fear of what might happen if they say no. What if he turns violent? What if he retaliates in some other way?

So chances are, if you witness this, you're going to want to say something.

Now I know we think: this is just a game.

The issue is... how many people quit games because of the discomfort? How many of us witness this and then worry...what if I'm next? What if another woman is next?

That is why I began this discussion.

Not to see a flood of people go: ugh, mind your own business.

Because I'm not talking about the guy being cool and respectful.
I'm talking about the one whose behavior, the whole of it, exudes slime. Where just reading it and witnessing it makes you feel like something is wrong.

And you can't always just straight bug out. Maybe it's an ST'd scene (and I don't want some Staffer coming over here on MSB later going 'fuck that Auspice for just leaving in the middle of something I was kindly STing, jesus' and then if I TELL that Staffer going 'fuck that Auspice for leaving just because some other player was posing in a way that made her uncomfortable; bitch could've stuck it out for a couple hours'). Maybe it's a scene YOU'RE running. The option isn't always there.

I wear almost exclusively black, blue, green, and red. With some purple in there sometimes. And the primary purple thing I wear (a hoodie) is unisex.

But here's the thing about women's clothes: they aren't made to fit common body shapes either. They design to 'thin with slight curves' and then just add fabric for larger sizes. So if you're flat? Stuff won't fit right. If you've got an ass or if you're curvy? Stuff won't fit right.

My entire life is basically 'my shirt is uncomfortable.' So if I could at least have jeans that are the right length or have pockets that fit more than chapstick that'd be great.

LOOK WE ALL WANT TO DO BEDROOM STUFF TO MARISA TOMEI AUNT MAY

that's why she can't be NPC'd

@Alamias said in The Work Thread:

@Auspice Is it another contract job, or dare I hope you found something permanent?

It's an open-ended contract. So while it COULD end, it's more on-going. It's a contracting company that works with Google. But, the interviewer did say that generally, on this particular team/group, if Google changes the parameters/terms, they find other things for people to work on.

@Darren said in The Work Thread:

@Auspice said in The Work Thread:

That is the record for quickest turnaround from interview to job offer.

Video interview at 11:30am.
Assessment test completed by about 1pm.
Job offer at 2:30pm.

Start date will be March 2nd. So I still have a few weeks of super tight finances to navigate, but I'm still breathing a little easier nonetheless!

Congrats on getting the job!

Thank you!

And unfortunately, because people are making noises about 'we can't have everyone elevate!' (which is a sensible thing, tbh, and I feel that elevation makes sense for some houses, but not for others) we're gonna see, I imagine, a lot of Houses rush their way to be elevated before the (in their eyes) inevitable moratorium in which it's decided 'no other house can elevate ever'.

I turned down continuing the interview process from the phone interview today.

For one, it doesn't sound like it'd be a good fit in general. What they need isn't something I have professional experience in.
For another, it's a month-long interview process culminating in a 2-hour on-site interview during which the bulk of the interview is a presentation...... for a 3-month contract.

I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna spend a month working my ass off on interviews, assessments, and presentations for a 3-month contract (I also need to be putting effort into getting hired before then). The recruiter understood and I have a feeling, based on her understanding, that she's been hearing very similar from a lot of people.

@surreality said in Anyone kind enough to help me with oWoD?:

@Auspice It really is a melange of impressive and terrifying, isn't it.

@TwoGunBob @gryphter

Yeah, the recruiter was very polite and understanding. She said the market in Austin is opening up big rn for my career and suggested I keep an eye on their (the firm's) openings and to let her know if I spot anything that looks good. She also said they send out a weekly 'highlight' of a few people in their directory to companies and offered to put me in next week's.

So I think she understands, 100%, that what this company is asking is not reasonable at all.

We reserve the right to:

monitor scenes while invisible if we have reason to believe that foul play may be going on or because we have received complaints about a player’s IC and/or OOC attitude towards others;

This is giving me pause.
Does this include private scenes?
What constitutes a complaint worthy enough of spying on RP?
Would it be a continuous 'sitting in on every scene you have because Jane complained about a thing you said OOC the other day'?

I admit, the idea that everything someone does might be spied on because any complaint was filed makes me hesitant.

He's like
'I KNOW HER REAL NAME CUZ I'M A HACKER'
except she posts it on the Ares website so he's a hacker like

@GreenFlashlight said in A bit of trouble on Firefly:

Like, can you imagine being such a loser that dodging bans on a make-pretend game is how you feel powerful?

Oh yeah, I mean, that's the entire thing.

The whole scale of it is just so small and pathetic. There are people who cause serious, real problems for people. This guy? Is like a wasp in your house. Yes, unchecked, it could be a problem, but it's a single wasp and it's obvious, so you just open a window and shoo it out and it'll buzz and bump against the window angrily all 'hey hey, hey, look, hey, let me in, look, hey, let me in' and you can just go about your business.

He's causing more work and more effort for himself to keep going back onto places and that's what's so funny-sad about it all. He's so goddamn desperate to be a part of everything and yet instead of just not being a sack of shit... he's putting extra effort into being a sack of shit.

It's really easy to get along and he just literally cannot.