Best posts made by Ghost

@faraday Your wiki-fu is strong and badass btw. Pleaaaaaase don't take any of my feelings about the philosophical whatevers about wikis to be a negation of your hard work. Your MU-to-Wiki integration is a beautiful piece of work and you should be damned proud.

I understand entirely that my stance is some kind of Walt Whitman "close your eyes to the visual and enter the state of the descriptive subjectivity of life" prattling on.

And while it works for me, it doesn't work for a lot of other people, and in the end I enjoy having RP partners to not having them.

Addition: Is my stance outdated and romanticized? Quite possibly. It's important to evolve with the times and not forget the problems we had in the years before the wiki (issues with proving things with logs, etc). But I like to think that I encourage people to step out of the use of visual aids in lieu of what is typed out in the present tense. I love being challenged by good writers; it's my favorite thing in this hobby.

Batch of actually good TV show recommendations:

Crime

• The Killing
• Three Pines
• True Detective

Horror/Weird

• "From" (like a...silent hill meets 30 days of night)
• Twin Peaks
• Fall of the House of Usher (Flanagan)
• Midnight Mass (and really anything by Mike Flanagan)
• Channel Zero
• Slasher
• The Silent Sea
• The Last of Us (omg nick offerman... )
• The Strain
• Black Summer

SciFi

• Battlestar Galactica(04)
• Silo
• Monarch
• For All Mankind
• Ark (2023)
• Invasion (2021)
• Quantum Leap (2022)

Reality that isn't horrible

• The Circle (GO SHOOBY)
• Too Hot to Handle
• Squid Game Reality Show
• The Physical 100
• The Devil's Plan

Comedy

• Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Future Man
• This Fool

Animated (not necessarily anime)

• Invincible
• Arcane (league of legends)
• Aggretsuko
• Food Wars
• Castlevania

Try something new:

• AEW pro wrestling (TNT/TBS)
• Iron Chef

@hobos yeah I'm not into this court of mushers shit. Look a few posts back and I explained why I just want the answer to that y/n question. My angle here is simply that my gut tells me that there's a side of this not being disclosed and that this "court of mushers" shit is about as unbiased as a court date on the surface of Unicron.

The amount of pageantry involved in trying to get a pound of flesh out of a personal attack and come out of it looking justified, if anything, is the community side game. I just wish people were fuckin honest about it so it wouldn't look so much like weaponized insecurity.

This is a no-win situation. Part of the reason we never faced issues like these with the previous mods is because they were all but invisible.

Now we have moderators who have been involved in everything from logical discussion to Hog Pit dogpile sessions (negative involvement or not). The typical behavior on this forum is to very quickly apply intent/motive based on assumptions drawn from statements made by people, and use those unverified assumptions as a defensive wall against the person's ideas, assumed RL personality, or allegiances.

I hate to say it, but given the leaning towards toxic antagonism and conspiracy on these boards, @Arkandel @Auspice and @Ganymede will likely only serve the slow path to villainhood if they don't separate their personal selves from their MOD selves.

My advice: @Arkandel you should fire @Auspice and @Ganymede from staff forever and hire mysterious figures with logins such as Staff1 and Staff2 who will clearly not be Auspice or Ganymede.

Also, to add:

Of course, I joke up above with gifts of champagne bottles because the truth, tongue in cheek, is that despite the insistence of many that everyone here (including myself) is toxic, there sure are a lot of forays away from that safe space where we arent to interface with us and subject themselves to this so-called unbearable toxicity.

It's kind of the unspoken truth of the situation altogether

I think @Wizz has the right of it. The pervasive negativity would infect even the most constructive of posts. We have seen positive review boards attacked, and some kind of yelp system would really ultimately result in a demilitarized zone for people to hunt for their pound of flesh, regardless if their reasoning is justified or predatory in nature. Both approaches present themselves as the same.

So long as this board supports and openly negative and/or hostile environment, it will spill out into the environments designed to be constructive. Villains will be created on a weekly basis, which is what we are seeing here with Gany and Ausipice.

Understanding the problem is the key to overcoming it, and IMO the problem is cultural. It is easier to find entertainment in demanding blood than it is to constructively or peacefully find a resolution.

I say: Close the fucking hog pit

I recommend the Gundam/Stargate games, @Joyeuse. Both are settings that are easier to grasp with systems that the learning curve is less treacherous. The "get up and go" factor should be high. Smaller, less broadly-scoped games tend to result in more relevance per character to the plot of the game.

As for Arx? I have nothing personally against it, but it's a LOT of code, a very large population that is very faction-focused, and a lot of entrenched leadership and preexisting designs for how those factions work. It could be rewarding! but the learning curve is higher and it may take time to not feel like a tiny little mouse in Times Square.

@reimesu for the record, I legitimately empathize with the situation Gany got put in and think it downright sucks they had to choose between their conscience and appeasing the demands of the people who thought they had them in their pocket.

@surreality well, then perhaps alongside the actual serial harassers, people shouldn't use the Hog Pit as a means to conduct mob justice warfare against people theyre upset with, or were inconvenienced by, or don't like their poses, or descriptions, or PB choices, or differences of opinion, or choice in games, or opinions on how their apologies are worded?

The point I am trying to make is this: The Hog Pit has become (or is becoming) the same kind of brutalistic hyperbole zone that existed on WORA. The stigma surrounding the zone itself promotes these gamers to bash and insult each other and find reasons to create strife within these games that is wholly OOC based.

There is definitely a way to be constructive and objective about some of these behaviors on games without utilizing this board into a never-ending court of public opinion from which people leverage their ability to craft an argument (or popularity) to damage people who may in fact be a target of predatory behavior.

This can be done without the venom, and can be done without the knee-jerk need to attack people like Ganymede or Auspice for differences of opinions or assumed malicious intent.

There is a difference between a miscommunication and malicious intent, but in many ways, the Hog Pit mentality doesnt seem to understand this sometimes. Maliciousness does not undo maliciousness, and I think many of us are adult enough, mature enough, and objective enough to know the difference.

We would be better off to move away from this mentality.

@Paris hahaha glisten? Like with baby oil?

...WhichPagePlease?
...becauseResearch

@ganymede @ThatGuyThere and to agree and build upon, I touched upon having some negative feelings when I said it earlier. Let's be entirely honest here.

GanyMod is no different from @Ganymede and said Mod would have to endure cries of bias based on preexisting assumptions about their personalities or assumed bias.

Staff1 would result in a whodunit scenario where the identity of Staff1, due to Oz being behind the curtain, would be scrutinized and have preexisting assumptions about their personalities or assumed bias applied to their decisions as moderators.

This is a societal problem based on intensity and an environment more skewed towards applying fault rather than constructively discussing difference.

People who want to reach a peaceful resolution have their disagreements privately or avoid them altogether. We are all very aware why people air grievances publicly, rather than privately.

It's because, on some level, public humiliation and punishment is wished for if the mea culpa isn't to one's approval.

My advice is to close the Hog Pit and moderate this board with the intent of cooperation and teamwork rather than punishment and feces throwing.

People that cannot behave without that level of venom will move on. Those that can will adapt, and might find themselves enjoying this hobby more.

Damn it. I could have made an amazingly popular character if he could secrete baby oil, lube, or pumpkin scented hand lotion on queue.

@admiral if you see no value in the forum without the Hog Pit, then that would be your decision, but you're helping prove my point.

I would prefer to see people finding ways to work together and be civil, rather than twist statements around into being sideways attacks based on assumptions such as making things the way only one person wants them to be.

C'mon. I think you could have a lot to contribute to something more positive. There's no need for that kind of attitude.

Seriously, what book/resource is this in, because I just googled and saw you can make vestments with prurient perfume, and I'm not above making making a Spring Changeling named: Johnny Lancome

I know I'm being flippant and I'm not trying to be a troll or make fun of anyone, but I think this is being taken far too seriously. I keep thinking about what it would actually take to create a moderator situation on this forum that doesn't result in the moderator becoming an instant target whenever they step in to actually moderate, and all I'm coming up with are things that step so far outside of the boundaries of honest, adult-like behavior that it's exhausting to consider.

People use this board for a lot of good things, but also as a demilitarized zone for attacking others. Some do it for good reasons, and others for sport, so you have to take this into account because when @Auspice and @Ganymede stick their necks out to moderate, it's only going to repeatedly create a target, and their moderation will only be accepted so long as their upvote/downvote social-media clout score remains somewhat universally accepted. Which, truly, will wax and wane based on their involvement in discussions and where they're playing which has nothing to do with moderating these forums.

WHO the moderator is, WHERE they're playing, WHAT people think about them and WHY they're moderating will always be held against a filter of people's opinion of the name following the @ symbol, but none of that has really much bearing on the actual moderation of a forum unless there are rules and guidelines for behavior to enforce.

So, what you have here, is a situation where a moderator has thrown a flag on the play, and people are arguing the validity of the moderator, the flag, the play, the reasoning behind it, any existing conflicts of interest, past history, assumed integrity, and timing of said flag.

This is your reality unless there are defined rules upon signing into the forum that are expected to be followed.

Otherwise, it's the Wild West, and sometimes John Ringo and the Cowboys roll into Tombstone, murder the Sheriff, and life goes on until the mayor finds someone brave enough to wear the badge.

One time, I randomly chose a person on +who and sent them +text code like this...

+text <Player>=Yo, we got people coming over in like 1 hour. Bring the herb. Peace.

Player paged me with:
"I think you texted the wrong person".

I replied "lol no I didn't. Wrong number."

"Uh. My character is a cop"
"Oh well."
"Oh shit, he's your character's neighbor, too."
"Werd. I'm down."
"Sweet"

I am always tempted to play a character that is horrible in bed.

I don't because I wonder if it will result in no one wanting to RP with me.

@Thenomain Know what would be cool? WoD wiki pages being based on who they are on top of the masquerade.

Bob is a vampire Hunter by night, but works at a copy store during the day. Bob's wiki page is about his job buddies, his love of pro wrestling, is listed as a mortal.

Radu the vampire is a 450 year old Hungarian Ventrue who has seen the ages turn. He has feasted. He has torpored. He has dined with kings. Radu's wiki is for Timothy Steele, a mortal financial investment banker who enjoys owning box seats for the LA Kings, is an avid sailer on his yacht, and loves his prized mastiff, Archie.

Nevermind the fact that both of them have had to wash blood off of them in a shower in the basement of a YMCA for entirely different reasons.

NECROTHREAD

Adding Defiance to this list.

Because fuck yeaaaaaaaaah buddy.

Defiance was awesome.