Posts made by HelloRaptor

Since I've had people poking me via other media to make sure I'm okay, with various theories on what might have happened, I figured I'd drop in long enough to clarify:

• I am not dead, obviously.
• I was not divorced by @ES and summarily banned.
• I am not posting under a secret alias.
• I have not lost internet connection.
• I did not lose my hands in a horrible industrial accident.
• I am not in a dome stress testing for life on Mars.
• I have not lost myself in Hello Kitty Online.

So on and so forth. I'm fine, I'm just not reading or posting here, aside from making this post. I regret that I won't be following up to savor the various shades of don't really give a fuck to follow. You gave enough of a fuck to click on the thread title, so my ego is secure.

Since just saying "I'm not reading/posting anymore." hasn't been enough to stop people from nagging me, I'll include here what I've said elsewhere:

I enjoyed the board (by which I collectively mean the string of boards this general community has inhabited going way back, whatever its name) most when it was a bunch of assholes and bullies being more or less comfortable with being and dealing with assholes and bullies, and it was a venue to vent about how fucking stupid people can be, and how terrible both their roleplay and their life choices often were. It was filthy and pretty vile, but also quite cathartic.

I enjoyed the more serious conversations that grew out of it, because generally people said whatever the fuck they wanted to say without much regard for what other people would think of it, both in terms of the ideas put forward and the often brutal criticism that came out of it. Again, assholes and bullies, but again that was a feature not a bug. Nobody really worried about hurting anybody else's feelings, because if their feelings were going to get hurt over some shit said on an internet forum for and by assholes and bullies, they probably knew they shouldn't be here anyway.

Soapbox isn't really that place, though. Which, again, is fine. It doesn't have to be. But it's what I wanted, what I enjoyed, and seeing it steadily replaced by a more standard forum with a growing community of finger-shakers and tsk-tsk-tsk types doesn't really sit well with me. I didn't read WORA to have people worry about my feelings before they posted, I wanted them to post whatever the fuck they wanted to and to trust that I was enough of an adult not to go kill myself over it, and vice versa.

The fact that right now there's probably half a dozen people immediately thinking about posting with righteous indignation about how cyber-bullying and suicide are never funny and how dare I only really illustrates why I lost interest in posting here.

None of which is meant to suggest that the community here, despite what assholes remain, isn't probably better off for the shift. I'm sure plenty of folks are much happier and more willing to post with the trend of mockery and ridicule and outright insult over their ideas getting more and more pressure to shut the fuck up. No sarcasm is intended there, either. It's just gotten to be a pretty far departure from my expectations and interests.

I'm not trying to call out @Glitch in particular, but when he posted that there was a place here for Play-By-Post subforums and shit, it sort of cemented that disinterest. Whatever we're calling it now, this board came up as a place to house the community that existed on WORA when it went down the last time, and the very idea of encouraging folks to PbP on a board used even in part for making fun of people's RP seems pretty fucking antithetical.

As of a bit ago nobody was actually using it, mind, but that it even came up as a thing (and was given the thumbs up in post by folks as a good idea in the past) cemented my impression that this isn't really the place for what I wanted. Inevitably somebody will bumble through using it, maybe to wet their toes in RP, and when somebody makes fun of them for it somebody else will cluck their tongue and post disapprovingly about discouraging folks from trying and first times and blah blah blah. Which is a pretty legit response, but again, the fact it'd even come up in the first place is just... meh.

I'm okay with making fun of people's RP (even my own), and I like tasteless, even vile humor, and I enjoyed interacting with folks in an environment where mostly nobody worried about anybody else's feelings and censored their shit accordingly, or got on anybody else's case to do the same.

I'm not trying to condemn Soapbox, or the community. All in all I think things have had a pretty positive upswing for most folks, even if not for me.

So, there you go. I'm not going to pull any dramatic 'NEVER AGAIN!' nonsense, but I probably won't be back any time soon. There's officially no need to poke me on facebook or skype or whatever to ask me if something's wrong, or if I'm mad at somebody, or blah blah blah. Not that you can't poke me, I'm still social, I'm just not posting here.

Laters.

@Glitch said:

@HelloRaptor I've actually never tried deleting an account. I wonder what it would do to the posts and the like.

Ah, right. Okay, good enough.

@Glitch said:

If you have any ideas or thoughts regarding any of this, feel free to respond here for discussion.

God, shoot met. Is there a way to delete your account from the "forum", or is logging out and not coming back as far as it goes?

@VulgarKitten

We were talking (at some point) about how ineffective logs can be. This was an example. Uh. Duh.

I don't... What? I don't think you understand how... This is crazy. What?

That's like commenting on a discussion of whether or not eyewitness testimony is reliable by commenting about how it won't be if someone is paying off the Judge to overturn an unfavorable ruling. Like, at that point absolutely nothing is effective, so why even bring it up as if the one might be related to the other?

In other news, seatbelts really aren't effective safety devices if your car is hit by a missile. In case anybody wondered.

@Arkandel said:

@HelloRaptor said:

I just woke up so

<looks at his watch and sobs>

(Yes, that's what I took from that post )

I started playing the Tresspasser DLC for DA:I yesterday evening and got so absorbed in it I didn't realize what time it was until like 5am. Derp.

@VulgarKitten said:

Also, even when there are logs pretty clearly showing one thing was said, and another thing was done? It's all dependent on a non-corrupt staff to care, which, of course, doesn't always happen.

How does this relate to anything to do with logs? I mean, everything is dependent on a non-corrupt staff. If your starting point is corrupt staff, you're already in a shit place.

@Ganymede

Remember how we all bitched and complained about how stupid the Autumn Mantle 1 bonus was relative to every other Mantle 1 bonus? That's applicable here. The Dancer Kith is shit.

So, like, House Rule it, you nobs.

Right. ;D

Hell, even if you just changed the first line to 'A Dancer gains the rote quality on all Athletics rolls, as well as adding his Wyrd to any Expression, Persuasion, Socialize, or Subterfuge rolls where movement would help. If a Dancer purchases the Parkour merit, they do not need to pay for the fourth dot.'

Annnnd done. Dancers can leverage their mastery of physical movement and coordination on Athletics rolls even if they aren't explicitely dancing, which has a pretty wide range of uses in and out of combat. Yes, they could use the Rote action on Athletics for throwing things or archery, but getting either of those isn't difficult with Professional Training folded into the normal list of merits (and no longer 'just for mortals', fuck that was stupid) and there's rules limiting how useful it is blah blah blah.

You could in fact play a Dancer kith who completely abhors dancing anymore (something the general writeup on Kiths indicates is totally a thing). You'd miss out on part of your Kith bonus, but still make use of what it drilled into you, just like an Author could refuse to ever write another story, but can still read anything in any mortal language. Honestly the handful of Kiths with more narrowly defined Blessings that don't include at least something like this, really should if they're serious about it being totally normal for Changelings to disdain the specifics of their Kith.

For instance, the Nightsinger Kith is already pretty good, but is entirely restricted to singing. Instead let them use their listed ability when speaking as well, but make it resisted by Resolve+Composure instead of just Composure, and the Condition fades Wyrd minutes after they stop talking. You've opened it up to concepts where the Nightsinger who once loved to sing now rebels against the idea of performing after what was made of her, but can still leverage the power of her voice. They'd be better at it if they sang, by far, but not completely denied a benefit of their Kith by choosing to do what the game says is not uncommon to do.

I just woke up so there may be implications to the shit I'm throwing out there that I'm not seeing in terms of rules interactions, but the basic point remains: Supposedly your Kith can be something your character totally rebels against, but that shouldn't be the same thing as it becoming mechanically useless (or so narrow in scope it might as well be, in the case of the Dancer's silly 'where movement counts' clause), so those Kiths with such strictly defined Blessings should have them widened a bit or allowed to be used in a less potent state as well as what's listed.

@Coin

There's nothing stopping someone from running a game in tabletop wherein a character with the Dancer Kith can make exceedingly good use of their Blessing.

And if there were a Zerbert Kith that got +10 dice when zerberting the bellies of small children, there'd be nothing stopping someone from running a game in tabletop wherin all conflicts would be with rowdy babies who need to be entertained.

What's the difference between "Dancer" and "Author"?

Uh, the difference is that even in the absence of its particular schtick, this:

• Also, she can read and interpret anything written in a mortal language.

Is still a pretty goddamn useful ability in any number of situations.

Concepts

There's nothing wrong with concepts, but a Kith blessing like the Dancer gets is pretty fucking narrow in scope. How about instead of Author we look at another performance-based Kith, like Minstrel?

• The changeling can never fail on an Expression roll. She gains one automatic success on any Expression rolls. When using Expression in an attempt to harvest Glamour, she achieves exceptional success on three successes instead of five.

Hey, look at that, some shit that's useful outside the pretty explicit name of your Kith.

Even other similar Kiths with similar blessings get more useful shit than Dancer. The Nightsinger's blessing is only related to their singing, but they get

• A nightsinger can play powerful haunting melodies. He gains the 8-again quality to all rolls to perform music. If he spends a point of Glamour, he can draw listeners' darker feeling to the surface. The nightsinger makes a Wits + Expression roll, Resisted by listeners' Composure. If the nightsinger wins, he can impose the Deprived, Guilty, or Shaken Condition on listeners, or other Conditions with Storyteller discretion. Listeners can only be affected by one of these Conditions from a single nightsinger at a time.

That's got some utility, instead of some nebulous 'where movement is involved' shit, and the rather dubious utility of inflicting Obsession.

The fact that a good Storyteller can make a shit writeup work if they try doesn't make something any less shit as a baseline, and Dancer's pretty shit.

@Coin said:

@Miss-Demeanor said:

Both and mechanic. Same stupid bonus to dance-related rolls. Having played a Dancer for years, I can tell you just how little it actually comes up. >.> Or matters.

This seems more like a problem with the concept of a dancer on a MU and how much actual dancing you'll be doing to make a mechanic practical and viable, than any actual problem in the theme or mechanic of the Kith itself. >.>

Does it? That was rhetorical, because no, it really doesn't.

@Ganymede said:

@Three-Eyed-Crow said:

It's particularly grating when said friend, who treats her untrained dog like a child she has to take everywhere, is mystified that I don't want it at my house. And that people at restaurants/Target/everywhere might not want it in their business.

I think the same about other people's untrained children.

Beat me to it. >_>

Have now finished all three DLC, ending with Tresspasser, obviously.

Holy fuckballs. O___________O

I do think I got the best (or at least most positive) possible endings for all my people, though, which made me happy. Apparently it's possible to get some truly dark shit for many of them. ;D

@Miss-Demeanor said:

Both and mechanic. Same stupid bonus to dance-related rolls. Having played a Dancer for years, I can tell you just how little it actually comes up. >.> Or matters.

Needs more Persuasion Spec (Seductive Breakdancing).

@mietze

I don't think logs are valuable as far as reporting bad incidents of behavior. Too easily doctored (I too have seen it go both ways, both staffside and playerside).

I don't really think that first part is necessarily true, even if the second is true enough.

If Player A comes to me and says, "Hey, Player B was being incredibly abusive on the channels earlier." and I ask "How so?" and they send me a log, it at least gives me something concrete to go to Player B and ask "So, this came to my attention earlier. Is it missing any context, did you say all this, etc?"

If Player B says it's all bullshit and they said nothing of the sort, then I'm not really any worse off than I was originally, with a he said she said (or any combination of pronouns you like). More often than not, though, what happens is that Player B says something along the lines of "Yeah, so what?" or gives context, or whatever.

There are few things more aggravating as a player than a staffer to come to me with a 'You know what you did.', when I have no idea what I did, or what they were even talking about. Logs shouldn't be considered any kind of ultimate, irrefutable proof, but to say they aren't a potentially valuable resource isn't really true.

@Usekh said:

I auto-log because after everything during the last few years my memory sucks. I also have to take notes on things too

A++ would quote again.

Diablulz:

• The Flavor of Time
• Logan's Claw
• Beckon Sail

Really, Diablo? Really? ;D

@Groth said:

@HelloRaptor said:

For the record, for your facepalming pleasure @Groth, the primary incident I was referring to above where I later found out I'd been played was because I got logs from everyone concerned (where multiple players were accusing one other player) and ruled based on what appeared to be the accused's log being doctored. It turned out the others involved had all doctored theirs in the same way to make it look like he was up to some shady shit so he'd get banned. People are fucking assholes.

I have no words for that level of terrible.

I do. It's 'This is why I think a clean slate for absolutely everyone is not always the best policy.', but I always get voted down when new games start.

@Arkandel said:

@HelloRaptor said:

@Arkandel

One of my many rules of thumb is that if I ever need to 'keep logs of everything' what I really "need" to do is stop playing that game.

The fuck? What kind of arcane programs are you bitches using to MUSH with? It is trivially easy to set up automatic logging. It takes all of a minute, if by a minute I include the rest of setting up a new MUSH world in your client.

You actually thought my problem with that was technical? That I didn't know how to autolog everything? Tsk!

A bit of hyperbole to make the point. Setting up autologging requires no more effort than flipping the lock on your door when you leave the house. Doing so doesn't necessarily constitute any degree of paranoia, but it's something that requires functionally no real effort and might potentially be useful. Saying that the day you're so paranoid you're locking your door is the day you're looking for a new place to live is likewise a pretty weird sentiment.

Not too long ago I was asked if I had a copy of a news file I wrote for mage years ago, because they remembered it'd been funny but to the point they wanted to make. Took me about five minutes to find a search term, but I was able to pull it up and pass it along. Nothing to do with paranoia, it was just useful to have an archive of all the things ever. And again, it costs a trivial amount of space, and my mushclient is installed in a folder that syncs across computers so even if I crash I don't lose everything. I guess if my house burned down with my desktops and laptop in it, but then I'd have bigger problems than a lack of logs.

If people don't want to log shit, more power to them, but every time this comes up people act like it requires some degree of technical skill to set up or as if doing so would be an act of paranoia, and neither is really the case unless you're really, really technically inept or already paranoid.

@VulgarKitten

This is so very, very accurate it gets me in the feels. Yes, yes, log everything and this is much easier to negate somewhat. But you know what? I hate turning into the paranoid person who logs every damn thing. Also, logs can get wiped in computer crashes, et al. Yes, yes, back up your logs every day? See re: paranoia.

@Arkandel

One of my many rules of thumb is that if I ever need to 'keep logs of everything' what I really "need" to do is stop playing that game.

The fuck? What kind of arcane programs are you bitches using to MUSH with? It is trivially easy to set up automatic logging. It takes all of a minute, if by a minute I include the rest of setting up a new MUSH world in your client.

The only thing I'm 'paranoid' about is forgetting some shit, losing track of something I said or did that I might want to doublecheck later, etc. I take an extra few seconds when setting up a new world that mostly amounts to copying an old one with a change of address and log file name output, and then don't have to worry about it again. Unless the megabytes of space they use up after years is a concern, I guess.

Every time this comes up people act like logging shit is some onerous task that requires you to go out of your way, or that doing so is obviously a sign of paranoia instead of just what to me seems like some basic, common fucking sense. If you never feel the need for a log and nobody ever asks you for one, wow, you've got a truly miniscule amount of data stored somewhere in your computer. If you do ever feel the need for one, or someone does ask if you happened to log whatever blah blah a couple of months ago, you can dig it up if you feel like it.

It costs you so close to nothing it makes no difference. Not real time or effort, not maintanence, nothing.

@Coin

Not to mention that it's pretty trivial to doctor a log.

It's pretty trivial to doctor the truth, too, so why even bother talking to people when you're dealing with a complaint? Just go with your gut and don't waste your time with people who could be lying to you.

I've had doctored logs result in me making some really terrible calls. People lying has done the same. That either of these things happen doesn't make logs, or talking to people, absent of value it just means you need to approach both with care.

Also, as @Groth said:

While it is trivial to doctor a log in most cases, my method of dealing with it so far has been to ask all parties involved if the log is accurate

For the record, for your facepalming pleasure @Groth, the primary incident I was referring to above where I later found out I'd been played was because I got logs from everyone concerned (where multiple players were accusing one other player) and ruled based on what appeared to be the accused's log being doctored. It turned out the others involved had all doctored theirs in the same way to make it look like he was up to some shady shit so he'd get banned. People are fucking assholes.

@Coin

@Ganymede

I don't like anonymous complaints. As an adjudicator, I want to know who the accuser is. But that does not mean I have any obligation to disclose this to the accused.

I believe this was covered above, but when talking about anonymous complaints we were referring in particular to the person filing them being anonymous to anyone and everyone. i.e. I can put in a complaint 'Ganymede is a pedophile and tried to show me her kiddy porn collection.' and even the staff reading it have no idea who put it in. Which also means that when multiple complaints about the same behavior comes in, staff has no way of seeing that it's the same person making the complaint, which can be problematic if it would otherwise be clear that it's someone just trying to stir up shit for someone else.

@Lithium

There is no way to automate a system to take into account all the actions that a group of players will want to do.

Well, there's your problem, you're thinking of your players like players. If you'd just treat them like readers of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, like @FiranSurvivor advocates, it'd solve all your problems.