Best posts made by surreality

@Rinel That is the kindest check on my bullshit ever. Thank you.

In that same spirit, pfft. There's an old saw about taking one's own advice.

@Sunny IMO, there is already an outlet to share those kinds of things with the folks who want to hear them: pages.

...it's really not just D&D.

@Ganymede said in Model Policies?:

having an online social faux-pas might as well be added to "death" and "taxes" as an inevitability we all need to be gracious about.

I could not agree more effusively. The reality, though, is that there is a huge hurdle in this community re: expectations, and how people react when someone who legitimately doesn't know better behave as though they surely did and it was all intentional shitty behavior -- the gossip and bitching chain starts, and that player is often screwed.

This is a substantially larger problem, in my view, than the usual sort of offense that triggers the reaction.

Knowing that everyone is going to make a mistake about something largely means that the overseers of games should act thoughtfully and maturely when confronting a situation.

I don't believe that's something for staff alone to shoulder, in part because they can't. Staff can be perfectly reasonable and handle the initial issue without any stress on them, or the player who made the mistake, but the remainder of the playerbase has a role to play here, too: to not be shits about it once the matter has been handled.

I think the best solution is to recognize that a player making a faux-pas is a person, that people make mistakes, but that there are certain mistakes that breach common sense and that these mistakes cannot be condoned if you want a player population to remain. And the best way to communicate this sort of policy is to tell players: we will do what we believe to be fair and consistent to the best of our ability to provide a welcoming player community.

I would put the latter bit thusly, to account for the points raised above: the administration will do what we believe to be fair and consistent to the best of our ability to provide a safe and welcoming player community and expect all participants on the game to behave in the same fashion.

I will not murder my father in his sleep.

(Consider this written on the proverbial blackboard 1,000,000x.)

Much sympathy. While I did not know her or play there, what she created is one of the longest-standing and iconic games in the hobby, and that will always deserve an immense measure of respect and admiration.

@Derp I love you so much right now for that connection.

Also: Americans living on a fat cat dragon just feels accurate on a level the eagle can't compete with. (Sorry, baldy.)

I'm with Gany on this one. It's writing. It's just not the same thing as novel/story writing; these two things are very different animals. The scripted/improv comparison is dead on, really. There's overlap, but there's overlap in watercolor painting and oil painting, too, but we'd never consider them the same thing.

@Aria I recommend, "No, Myra! No! No one in your family has ever been a drinker!" because I'm mean today.

Maybe also a very visible tally board? Or make up a custom punch-card, like a loyalty card, and just punch a hole in that fucker every single time, loudly.

@faraday I think she's specifically talking about 'writing a novel/short story/etc.'. Basically, we would call ourselves 'roleplayers', not 'authors'.

They're both still writing to me. Just different kinds.

On Lovecraft: his views make me flinch, and his writing is purple enough I just can't even.

I think the most forward-thinking and inventive thing he did -- and I do see this specifically as a positive -- is that he seems to be the first or one of the first who opened up the world he created to allow others to write fiction or create other works within it. Plenty have without his specific gross baggage and intentions and 'dude totally should have been a MUer' thesaurus abuse, which is pretty cool. This was a better idea than anything in the actual world-building is, and I'm glad it laid a foundation for other shared worlds to follow along after -- especially ones that don't have all the garbage attached.

Our sadness over kitty is one thing.

Tesla -- our remaining kitty -- being the soul of sadness over her sister no longer being with us? Is truly breaking my heart.

She has always been our most social and affectionate kitty, and for her to be the last kitty standing is... oof. Oof, y'all.

When we adopted her and her sister at 3-5 years old -- we still don't know, nor did they -- we were told she hates people. Is antisocial. Will barely let you pet her, and don't even dream of picking her up. 'Should be considered purely decorative and will spend most of her time hiding.'

Wow, were they ever wrong.

She's the dearest trilly cuddleflouf ever, and seeing her like this is just... oof.

@GreenFlashlight When talking about people from the past? Bluntly, it's sometimes necessary, particularly in light of the trend of damning absolutely everyone and their cousin Frank from 1700 for not having had the levels of social enlightenment we have today. There are reasons this behavior is completely ridiculous and they should be profoundly obvious.

It's important to recognize these things, and be aware of them. It is absurd to claim that no one accomplished anything of value before today (or even today) if they are not espousing the most socially enlightened view of the world and those inhabiting it as we know it today.

I am not interested enough in Lovecraft to know what his cat's name was, and no one reading his works should be obligated to know that before they decide if they like the writing or not. (I don't like it; that's all I needed to know.) This is not 'divorcing the artist from their work'.

This notion that someone should perform a modern sensibilities background check on any creator, regardless of when they came from, before even looking at the creation is utter nonsense -- and it's profoundly destructive nonsense. There's 'understanding the context', and it's important. It is not the end-all, be-all. It is not the only thing that exists. This 'if the creator's life didn't conform to modern sensibilities, their work should be disparaged and excised' mentality would burn the MET to the fucking ground, and as someone who has spent a shit-ton of time there over the course of my life? No.

ETA: This rant may have come from having to take art history every fucking time I transferred to a new college for more swiss army knife costume/art skills, which I'm super bitter and baffled about to this day. Still, dang. I may never ever ever want to see the dang Venus of Willendorf again, but jesus, this trend galls the shit out of me as someone who has had the foundational values of art in history drilled into her skull five bloody times. (More if you consider some places splitting it into multiple courses... )

@Rinel That must be hell. I would be a catastrophe of anxiety in your shoes. Fingers crossed the boss realizes this added stress to the situation.

@Seamus Probably, but... that would mean having to read that book.

@RightMeow Just promise that if it ever falls on a 3 day weekend, it will become The Birthening, a Festival of You-ness (or similar, it's pre-coffee, and my event day naming mojo is way off).

ETA: "Oh, you were in labor for 17 hours? It took 3 whole days for my amazing ass to come into this world." <-- also that.

@Tinuviel Addendum: if it appears more than everyone else combined, STOP IMMEDIATELY.

@Pandora Oh jeebus. Pardon me while I wipe the coffee from the monitor; that was spit-take inspiring.

That said, if we ever run out of things to gripe about here -- ha! -- I suppose reading everything in rewind could prove entertaining as a diversion.

@kk That is a really great list. Thank you for sharing it. If I ever try to cobble something together some day, I would love to steal lots of it to put in a resource section if you're cool with that.