Posts made by Auspice

Ash vs Evil Dead will not receive a 4th season

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

but Pillars of Eternity, Numenera: Torment, and even Tyranny mainly bored me

Weren't you just going on at length a couple weeks ago about how amazing Numenera: Torment was?!

@faraday said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

@auspice said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

So we should focus on solutions that we can enact without coded crutches.

Not to be defeatist or anything, but if we rule out manual moderation, and we rule out automated tools, and we've demonstrated that policies by themselves don't help, ummmmm..... what's left?

I, personally, am not ruling out manual moderation. I do think we should rule out automated tools so long as we are on a software set that is causing people to post bug reports at least once a week. I don't trust nodebb at this point in time. I don't want to put time and effort into automated tools only to have them fail on me a short time later.

@kanye-qwest said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

@auspice said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

There's also the fact that we're adults.
It doesn't matter if soandso did it to you before. This isn't an acceptable excuse when you're ten and it certainly isn't acceptable as an adult.

But "what are you, ten?" isn't a helpful response at all in the context of the discussion, which was about people feeling singled out.

Fairness is about consistency. No one is perfect, and no one can perfectly be consistent, but meeting complaints about consistency with dismissive glibness isn't the way to enable understanding.

You've missed my point. A point that came well after the discussion on people feeling singled out, which I was actively a part of.

If this is an attempt to try to stir people up against me, you are actively contributing to the very problem you're claiming to champion.

I stared that we offer children the respect and responsibility that they are capable of not retaliating against others merely because the person performed a punitive action upon them, albeit in a simplistic and off-the-cuff fashion as I was on my phone.

Perhaps the following will be more descriptive and definitive: As we are older, more mature, and have a greater understanding and empathy of members of humanity around us, I feel that we are even more capable of this act than a child (who has much less control of their emotional and knee-jerk responses) would be.

If you are not capable of refraining from attacking someone merely because "s/he did it first" and have that punitive need to harm someone (often worse) just to see them suffer, perhaps participating within a community full of empathetic (as creatives often are) people is not for you.

@wizz said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

"We've got moderators, but we don't want to moderate, but there's a still a problem" is the conversation that is still happening like five months after I went back to occasional lurking?

As I've stated, I don't mind moderating. The issue I have is more that while I can handle some lashback to aforementioned moderating... I am not a stone wall. I do have some squishy insides.

I also need consistency and support from my fellow moderators. And there have been (for the sake of transparency) days where I have gone to them, pointed at something, and said: "I want to moderate this." and received a sort of 'eh, I think it's fine.' in return.

So I will say once again: if the forum wants moderation, I will moderate. I will moderate across the board. I will even begin using that fun feature where we can suspend people for just a couple days (for cooldown periods). A lot of people will not like it. I think @Ganymede has said they will do this, as well.

I also think it may be time to officially made the Ad thread ads only. No discussion whatsoever. Want to discuss a game? Put up a Hog Pit thread (for the down'n'dirty) or a Constructive thread (for the random chatter). Keep the ad thread for details (the ad, any updates such as big events, opening of new spheres or OCs etc) only.

This way there's no derailings, no 'well how come we can only say nice things?!'. And as those threads are made, someone can go in and link them in the ad thread.

How's that sound?

@arkandel said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

"But Bob did it to me before!" may or not be a legitimate concern, and one we can address as well seperately, but at that time it's irrelevant. Are you doing something wrong at that time? Is the fact we had to step in and bring you back in line fair? That's what matters, because if we're just going after you to be dicks and you didn't do anything objectively wrong then that's on us, but if you're the one being a dick then it doesn't matter what Bob did to you 'before'.

There's also the fact that we're adults.

It doesn't matter if soandso did it to you before. This isn't an acceptable excuse when you're ten and it certainly isn't acceptable as an adult.

Now as to downvotes: they were disabled because they affect a person's ability to post. Someone was followed around and downvoted to such an extent that they lost their ability to post entirely. I think one person did this to another rather than a group of people, but it showcases just how it could be used to bully silently.

Some of these suggestions are good, but please remember that we are beholden to a forum suite that is in beta, has plugins that are often not carried over to the beta versions, and none of us have the time nor capacity to code new ones.

And chances are? Any plugin one of us (probably me ;)) does find is going to break as soon as the forum updates to a new version.

So we should focus on solutions that we can enact without coded crutches.

@derp said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

@auspice said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

@tyche said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

IMO, less moderation, more drinking.

Are you volunteering to pay my alcohol bill?

@Auspice, remember that time that you said I could drink on your tab?

I said no such thing!

Watching Lost in Space, can I just say that I fuckin' love Penny in her interactions with Vijay?

Like... best teenage girl ever. I mean I love her for other things, but her interactions with him are gold.

@ashen-shugar said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

@auspice said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

And for the sheer amount of time that went on it was just like, 'wow. these people really, really think I'm worthless.'

This.

This right here in a very generic way describes the issue that a lot of people on the internet as a whole have.

I want you (the general you out there) to think about this real hard.

Why would someone who you have never met, have likely never seen, know nothing about, likely has no knowledge of you as well, nor likely has a reason to even find out, have any bearing to state that you would be worthless or not.

And an even better question. Why should you care?

Just, you know, food for thought?

This sort of falls into the great psychological divide of people who have severe depression and anxiety issues and those who don't. How the brain functions, plasticity, and the (relatively) recent discovery that people with depression literally have a vastly more difficult time accessing the portion of their brain that handles more positive thinking on a physical and chemical level.

Which is a discussion that is neither suitable for this thread nor one that this board as a whole is really capable of holding, I think.

@tat said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

@auspice I'm on a nodebb forum that has it done, so it's possible! Don't ask me how, but I've seen it.

Might be a plugin I'm unaware of! I'd have to dig through the piles of 'em to find. Or the settings again.

@tyche said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

IMO, less moderation, more drinking.

Are you volunteering to pay my alcohol bill?

@tat said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

I feel like one of the problems with trying to contain things to the Hog Pit is, as others have mentioned, that folks often do not even notice they're not in the Hog Pit. It's really easy to just adopt one voice on the forum because you have to go out of your way to track the area you're in.

Have you guys considered styling the Hog Pit threads in such a way that just LOOKS different from other areas? Maybe I'm being super optimistic, but I feel that it might help those who do want to be good citizens and self-police to do so more effectively.

I think this falls into a realm of... nodebb ain't built for that.

However, as I've said previously, I'm digging into other software and building pros and cons therein. I'll keep this in mind!

I really want Far Cry 5.

But I need a) the money to afford to buy Far Cry 5, b) the time to play Far Cry 5.

Sigh.

@sunny said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

@auspice

I am very, very sorry for my part in that. The way that I handled my issues was unfair to you. I am sorry that I hurt you.

ETA: I don't hate you.

Thank you.

It's just... hard to imagine the amount of ... vitriol, effort, and such put into some of what gets said around here not be grounded in hate sometimes. I know sometimes I'll start a post and then just... not? because it's like man, I could be doing so many better things right now. This is a lot of effort for something upsetting.

And for the sheer amount of time that went on it was just like, 'wow. these people really, really think I'm worthless.'

It's hard not to feel hated some days. Esp. when I lack the posse some folks have. I'm super bad at cultivating those. I always forget to go to the pet store to buy kibble, y'know? Or is it plant food? See, I'm the worst possemom.

@skew said in Choosing a MU Server:

Not sure if this is the point of this thread, but... Do you have an example of AresMUSH's web portal/web site/whatever? I seem to recall the one game I saw with it (7th sea? pirates something something) was still using mediawiki.

8th Sea chose to use it for aesthetic purposes primarily. They did also have some things on their web portal.

BSGU's is still active: http://bsgu.aresmush.com/

@ganymede said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

And the personal tone of some of the reproaching words directed at Auspice was nothing short of outrageous to me.

I can handle a fair bit, but man.

Everyone's got a breaking point and those hit mine. I didn't cry (which is good 'cause I was at work for a good chunk of that), but it was crushing. I really didn't realize until that point how much most of you guys honestly, truly hate me.

And that's why: while I will gladly delete posts, put people on 1-3 day suspension cool downs, and other methods of heavier management... I'm a bit hesitant. I can deal with snippy posts and a bit of back and forth.

I can't really handle spending 1-2 days a week of a thread full of vitriolic threats and hate (which is what I fear would happen if we begin moderating more heavily) because those threads stay out of the Pit since I feel it's fair for the whole board to see criticism against the moderation and I don't want those moved to the Pit since it'd (understandably) be viewed as said criticism being swept under the rug.

But it's crushing.

@surreality said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

Annnnnnd on top of all of that, a lot of folks assume they know what someone else is doing... and are actually wrong. Happened to me just the other day and I felt bad about it when it was pointed out. I've been on the other side of that one a lot, too.

When I say 'I know you know what you're doing,' I mean the people engaging in attacks, et al outside of the Hog Pit.

Those that do these things know they should not be doing it. They do it anyway. It's like when my goddamn cat sneaks up around the end table and reaches a paw up to hook a claw over the basket I keep keys and such in. He knows he shouldn't and he specifically tries to get out of my line of sight to do it.

I shouldn't have to tell him no. I shouldn't have to get the spray bottle. He knows he's being bad! He tries to get away with it anyway.

That's the sort of thing I mean.

You know what you're doing when you snipe at someone outside the Hog Pit.
I know you know.
I shouldn't have to call you (general you) out.

As for deleting posts? @Arkandel has generally not been a fan. I guess because of a fear of people getting really upset if their posts suddenly disappear (there's also the issue that quotes don't disappear, I suppose). But if people are okay with it, I will totally start going in and just deleting the offending posts.

It's much easier anyway. Go go laziness.

Since y'all have talked about Martyr a lot...

This sort of thing vexes me. So I'm glad the community is like "guys please, take all the time you need," but it's just frustrating that these companies still won't learn.

Like, gamers by and far are on board with the concept of: we will wait a few weeks to a few months longer for a polished game.

But the Studios still don't get it. Like hey, guys? We don't hate EA just because of monetization. We hate EA also because of their long history of treating their employees like shit.

If your game isn't ready, it isn't ready. Sit back, take a few weeks, polish the game. Let your people rest. Let them see their families. Let them work at the pace they need to make a polished, ready game that everyone will love.

Don't push yourselves and your people to make a deadline with something that isn't gonna be what you want. Because if you do that? Everyone's gonna be disappointed.

And it's just... vexing that the studios still don't get this point.

@thenomain said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

I think that Auspice’s responses are too jokey and Ganymede’s too trying-to-be-factual. (edit: this makes Auspice the new Thenomain and Ganymede the new Emmahsue. Go figure.)

Ugh, I don't want to be the new anything.

That said, I try for levity because when I'm more firm, it usually comes back with a panic because of the heavy handedness. A 'YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE SO MEAN I DIDN'T REALIZE...'

Which is a crock of shit. Y'all are intelligent adults. You know what you're doing. We choose to play games that require we write for hours on end. That's mildly insane in this day and age. We are, by and far, above average in IQ, and I treat you all as such.

Which is why I go for the more light-hearted in my responses. Because I know you know what you're doing. I shouldn't need to tell you to back off, but obviously I have to, so don't make me break out the mallet.

Or, do. We can have fun. >.>

@kdraygo said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

It's fine to be selfish mentally

Shut up. You like me.

@sunny said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

Reporting tools can (and are often) used as a form of griefing

To be perfectly and totally honest, I sigh and go 'what now' more often than not when I see a new report in the queue. Usually because if one of you reports something, 6 of you report it. And when someone is mass-reporting, I usually want to ban them.

Flooding me with reports is never, ever gonna make me go after the person you're reporting. EVER.

And akin to what @Arkandel has already said: a lot of people will report things like, 'This person attacked me.' ..........in a Hog Pit thread. This is part of why I think the Hog Pit is ridiculous. Because some of the very same people who argue about wanting the Hog Pit will turn around and report the people attacking them in the Hog Pit.

C'mon, y'all.

@calindra said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

@sunny Again -- You know what, I'mma just slide up in your DMs.

(Since @Rucket is slacking on the job.)

Maybe this should go in RL Peeves, but I ended up laughing so...

I've got one of those robodialers calling me. One of the IRS scam ones.

"This is an automated message from the IRS. We have received an affidavit concerning a lawsuit filed against you by the federal authorities so before things go worst against you....."

BEFORE THINGS GO WORST.
I didn't even hear the rest of the message I was laughing so hard.

I can't even delete the voicemail from the one earlier today.
I had to go listen to it just to hear that line again.

Before things go worst.