Posts made by Juniper

@macha "A medical emergency doesn't change our attendance requirements" is a take that is just begging to get sued

I really don't think that eavesdropping is a problematic feature at all. Looking forwards to future developments!

oh fuck yeah. How did I not know about this?

@kestrel Same. I am a terrible, awful person, and need the latest drama scoop.

I like a calm Youtube video, so I'm usually settling down to watch some sewing projects (Bernadette Banner or Rachel Maksy). Or I'm watching someone make and use wilderness technology. Primitive Technology ONLY, no knock-offs. I want to learn how to make clay pottery or a fire drill, not watch a couple of kids make their 100th underground pool that is useful for exactly nothing except breeding mosquitoes and falling apart the next day. I also watch hoof trimming videos, but I just want to watch the job, no clickbaity crap and constant talking / music.

So yeah I'm pretty picky about my chill time.

That would be true if Derp was personally the only RPer available to interact with hypothetical ungrouped characters, and we know that isn't true. If I had 2-4 hours a week available for RP I couldn't imagine spending that time ignoring my friends so I can go hound noobs who may or may not be bearable RP partners. This is a hobby, not charity.

In reality we see most people in the game forming their own pods, or McLonely gets scooped up by that one chick who does live in the game 24/7.

I mean, for those who don't RP as a full time job and/or aren't available at prime time, I don't see what's wrong with both of those statements. People want to spend their time in a way that is most fulfilling.

Brilliant jerks are the fucking worst. It's like they're completely unaware that their personal set of skills isn't the yardstick of competence for every human being alive. Or that everyone has a different lived experience and set of skills that the Jerk doesn't have - we just don't rub it in their face.

Also 9 times out of 10 when the Jerk is jerking about something, I actually already knew it and the source of confusion was his lacklustre communication skills.

@roz That makes sense, I guess I'll check the number of invitees from now on!

@silverfox said in The Work Thread:

I need people to learn how to use the 'accept but don't send response' option for their Microsoft calendar invites.

Wait, I'm not supposed to send responses to these??

@ganymede said in The Work Thread:

I'm tired.

I'm fucking tired.

I swear, it's like no one in the goddamn city can handle their own shit today and when I do it for them it's suddenly fucking unfair that I charge them for my time.

Like, wizzleshit, if you could've done it on your own, you would, but you fucking can't, so shut the fuck up about fairness.

Client: This isn't fair.
Me: What isn't fair?
Client: This bill. You told me it would cost less.
Me: That was before the defendants lawyered up.
Client: Well, I don't think I should be held responsible for that.
Me: You aren't, but I still have to deal with them.
Client: But why do I have to pay for it?
Me: Because the defendants made it your problem, and because you hired me to fix it.
Client: But it's their fault.
Me: I know.
Client: Why should I have to pay to fix a problem they caused?
Me: Because if you don't then the problem will never get fixed.
Client: This isn't fair.

Thank the fucking Lord that I have a fucking game plan in place and soon I won't have to deal with this bugger shit but fuck everyone they are the reason why I go fucking nuts about work all the goddamned time.

You could definitely put that on clientsfromhell.net!

@il-volpe said in Paying for a MU*?:

I was once invited/hired to TS people on a game where you paid like $5 to join and then could hire certain characters to TS and pay them for the session, and the game owners took a percentage. This seemed feasible but I don't think it lasted long.

What an entrepreneur, LOL. Monetizing TS takes some balls.

Not to mention, accepting payment in your MUD does not mean that you will be making a significant amount of cash. 20 loyal players tossing in $5 a month is $100 a month. That's coffee and server hosting money, not "quit your day job and code MUDs full-time" money.

@groth said in The Work Thread:

I think being assigned tasks outside of your job description solely based on your gender is discrimination.

@ganymede said in The Work Thread:

I agree, but what I read was that such tasks fell to her because her boss didn't do what he was supposed to do. Still, yours is a fair reading in context.

I didn't read anything here for a few days so I apologize for the belated clarification.

These things can happen to anyone, but in my specific case I absolutely think sexism contributes to my boss's behavior. I don't often see this kind of stuff happen to my male colleagues, mostly because they don't cop blame and shame when things go wrong so there's no motivation to be sticking their neck out and ensuring that things outside of their strict job description are doing well.

@groth said in The Work Thread:

Only slightly related, another social theory that's popular in Scandinavia and I have not seen much in the anglosphere is master suppression techniques. They're a study of the ways women in the workplace are commonly socially punished and by being aware of them, you can try to counteract them.

Really interesting reading. I think most of these have happened to me or people I know, and I struggle with Withholding Information so goddamn much.

@ganymede said in The Work Thread:

I just won an award (thank you) for my extensive pro bono work, so I decided to hold a firm event for it. I got the food; I helped set up; I helped clean up; I helped put all the food away; and I did it because it was my party and I felt responsible for it. And I think that's a feeling that's sorely missed in Juniper's boss, and in a lot of leadership positions in a lot of workplaces.

This is an interesting side note to me, because I recently attended a retirement party for a male colleague. The event and the retirement gift were both arranged by female colleagues, one a climatologist with a PhD and decades of experience, and the other a project officer who is also very experienced. Both assumedly had more important things to be doing. The guy was only responsible for turning up and making a speech.

In my experience weaponized incompetence is usually the culprit, a technique that is employed in the workplace just as much as it is at home. "I don't know how to order catering / book a room / fold the laundry correctly, but Beth does!". But Beth didn't emerge from the womb with impeccable event planning skills, did she? It's just that you couldn't be bothered to learn.

@groth You're absolutely right but it's one of those things that is harder than it sounds.

I'm assigned these things by name, so if I want to not do them, I need to explicitly say no, come up with an excuse, and have a fight about it every time. The guys never have to fight to be free of busywork, they're blissfully unaware by default.

Had a new starter at the office today and I've been excited because we need someone else around who actually knows how to code.

New starter arrives at 9 and my boss has done NO prep. She has no desk, no PC, and no login details so I can't even give her a loaner.

And of course it falls to the women of the office to get this shit arranged and cover for his laziness. Preparing ahead of time is not that fucking hard, but he doesn't apply an iota of effort into doing organisational work (i.e. HIS JOB).

I am tired of picking up the slack and having my time getting eaten up by busywork. I'm a qualified professional, not your goddamn maid / receptionist. Setting up the conference room and buying the milk isn't exactly something I can put in my portfolio to angle for promotion, but my male co-workers are free to hog all the glamor work that will progress their career. And that's if they're not blatantly taking credit for my shit.

Fuck the boys club.

/Rant

@arkandel said in What is a MU*?:

@mietze said in What is a MU*?:
Consider an Ares game which - if you're logged on from the web - will display a generic picture of the room you're in. So when you visit the Blue Hearts bar you'll see a picture of a specific bar on the upper right corner.

Is it no longer a MU*?

I would view the image of the Blue Hearts bar as an enhancement on top of the text game.

I propose that if it is possible to play the game via text only while ignoring any enhancements, it is a MU*. If interacting with graphical components is necessary to play, then it is not a MU*.

Online friends are a trap for me. On one hand I'm far more comfortable communicating via the written word than verbally. My online friends tend to be involved in my hobbies so I have a lot to talk about with them. And that makes the relationship so much more meaningful than with anyone from my real life because I am not going to try to explain MUDs and gaming to my technologically illiterate older coworkers. Another appeal is that you can change online identities like you change underwear, so if I mess up a friendship or realise my current group of friends are racists ( it's happened! ) I can just digitally skip town and start again somewhere else. I find myself doing that every 3 years.

But it's a double edged sword. I will never tell an online friend where I live or what my name is, or what exactly I do for work. You can't take that information back once it's out. As a result I feel emotionally distant from both online and offline friends. They will never be that close to my heart.

@ganymede said in Antagonistic PCs - how to handle them:

As I said, once more, players ruin a perfectly good game.

Amen

@il-volpe I don't really have any suggestions to resolve that problem other than the tentative suggestion that it's not really keeping secrets that is the important bit, but having respect for each other's moments of revelation.