Posts made by surreality

@admiral ...yegods, is that Ghostwheel? Is it still up and running somewhere?!

@ixokai, you pretty took the words out of my brain regarding my own take on this, but I didn't want to toss that out right off the bat there in case it might somehow prejudice the responses.

The other big one for me: this also helps people find the original authors if they want to use the same thing, rather than just yanking a copy and running with it.

Whether the creators are offering support or not -- and most people seem to be willing to help however they can if they're sharing the material in the first place -- this is just such a huge help, as you at least know who to ask about it.

(So, no drama at all, but this did come to mind re: people wondering where certain bits of code have come from here or there. )

What responsibilities or courtesies do you think people have regarding crediting the original sources of major game content when they use it on a new game? (By major content, I primarily mean MUX code, game mechanics, wiki code, etc.)

Does this change based on whether credit is requested?

Does it change if the content is modified?

Does this change if the content is modified, and the modifier appears to claim full credit for the work?

(There's no horrible drama inspiring this one, so there's no need to sniff around for one.)

I think @Kireek mentioned that whoever did (at least some of, I gather) their extra code had it on offer? So it may be a good idea to inquire with him about that to see if it's still the case.

@mietze Am incredibly proud of you for getting the paperwork in. It's scary as fuck, that's brave as hell, and consider a big thumbs up and a loud cheer (and hugs if desired) sent your way in support and encouragement. Am really really glad to hear this.

And kittens are awesome, always.

Though not staffing or playing anywhere myself at the moment, wishing you luck on this one. The first game I started on (Ghostwheel MOO) was Fallout-inspired, even though it wandered fairly far afield from that over time. If I wasn't completely slammed for at least the next month, I'd offer wiki help; if you don't have anybody around then for that, feel free to poke and I'll see what I can do to at least set up a simple look for things or what-have-you if you want.

@thenomain FWIW, from a costume pedant, the pins were not often super sharp. I have a few somewhere, or did at one point.

Know how people put a chopstick or a pencil through their hair to hold up a bun? Similar principle. It only has to be sharp enough to poke through the hat material. It just sorta... uses the hair as an anchor.

The modern reproduction ones you see most often are actually a lot sharper, and blunt much more slowly than the real Victorian ones, since they're usually plated steel instead of brass, copper, or silver, all of which dull and smooth out the point more quickly than plated steel.

I have to adult a lot this week.

I am not looking forward to it.

I realize I am posting here way too much and writing far too much, because it is much more enjoyable to argue about shitty people who make my teeth grind than to handle the adulting I need to do this morning alone, and shitty people who make my teeth grind are not actually enjoyable to even think about much.

I do not want to call the asshole surgeon to tell him the same thing he's ignored the past four times I've been to his office to tell him that I can't have the test done he wanted done by this week -- because he completely ignored what I told him the last four times I've been there -- knowing that the best result I'm going to end up with is a rescheduled appointment and more of the same antibiotic that makes my skin slough off in peeling sheets in anticipation of having at least one of my breasts partially or completely hacked off in the coming months.

I do not want to haul 3 more boxes, each approximately 80lbs, or have to open them on my parents' lawn to haul in the slatgrid panels individually to drag into their garage with the rest of our show gear.

I am really not in the mood to price shit today, either, even if know I need to keep at that steady because I was too productive earlier in the year and have a huge stockpile of crap that needs pricing.

@auspice OMG, I must have turned that auto-update thing off just in fucking time then. I hate hate hate hate hate the new skype on the phone, and if it's even slightly similar FUCK THAT SKYPE. So comparatively useless.

@auspice There are a bunch of people, sadly, who will flick the cruelty switch on when it's less likely a record of their behavior will be available, as it would with notes. (Same goes for when there are other witnesses.)

The more generous side of my brain hopes they just don't realize, in the moment, when talking, how horrible they sound/are coming across, when they would potentially edit or moderate themselves better in text.

That side of my brain is the one I call 'sucker' and let Spider stay here for months, so apply the appropriate volume of salt to that you feel might be warranted.

@auspice said in RL Anger:

Someone joined the online conversation who said she now works at a television network and owes her success getting into the industry to <instructor>.

...did they verify this was an actual student or a real person? Because it's not like the world hasn't seen sock puppet accounts popping up to do damage control for someone before.

I did not want to have to deal with ordering new displays this year for the autumn art and craft show chaos.

We've needed them for well over a decade, but naturally, when I wasn't flying solo, I got stonewalled with 'what we have is good enough!' while it was falling apart and looked like such crap that we got booted from some of the better shows we did because my dear sainted mother just refused to admit that her jury-rigged dimestore bullshit really, really looked like jury-rigged dimestore bullshit. (And by the time she finished making whatever, it barely cost less than the professional version of whatever it was -- sometimes it ended up costing more, and often enough it always required way more maintenance and thus cost over time, all while looking like hot garbage.)

So, yay. Creative control and I can finally start phasing out the crap... with almost zero budget. That's not ideal but it's an improvement.

What's less good is ordering stuff from all over the damn planet, splitting things up amongst accounts and my husband having to get some stuff and me other stuff, since all of our accounts are still separate, even if we share expenses for things and whatnot, and hoping it all shows up in time.

This year, it's gridwall hell. Bunches of huge heavy boxes that cost a bloody fortune to ship. $30 to ship a frickin' $25 triangle stand, people. What in the actual fuck.

When my husband saw that a few days ago, he spoke the magic words: 'screw that, I will just rig something up!'

(Because that's totally served us so well in the past, right?)

The rant he got was more blistering and hyperbolic than anything I've ever said here or on any version or variant of WORA through the years, but with the added bonus of cheesy impressions, living cartoon wild take expressions, and agitated Italian woman hand gestures a-plenty. By the end of it, we were both in tears laughing, but he immediately understood why we were going to order that goddamned triangle base without further carping on about the admittedly ridiculous shipping and we were going to like it.

(And then they dicked us around further, increasing the price because it's being shipped to a residence, despite not having disclosed this anywhere on their site or had any tick boxes or anything to indicate we needed to tell them that or that they were primarily geared toward sending shit to loading docks exclusively, and goddammit, I looked, 'cause that shit'll fuck you unexpectedly like that.)

For the past three days, he's been trying to forward the ship notification and the tracking info.

It finally came through late into last evening.

It will be here in the morning... possibly the early morning... so I am stuck sitting through insomniaville, chugging coffee like it's going to globally run out, trying to prepare myself to lug 3 60lb+ boxes into a house that is similarly and laughably ill-prepared to house 3 60lb+ boxes on my own, 'cause he decided to stay up north last night to catch a special art theater showing of a movie this afternoon with his gaming friends.

I'm under lifelong doctor's orders to never lift anything over 5lbs lest I finish completely fucking up my spine. Since no human can readily live this way I regularly ignore that, but I try not to do so to this degree, especially in the 'and it all gets thrown through the door at lightning speed' pace this is gonna doubtless entail. (Which will be after I finish moving everything away from the door. Yay. It is the first break from that bullshit now.)

FML.

That we have to go through this same bullshit next year, potentially with international shipments, is not giving me a case of the warm fuzzies right about now.

@ghost On the 'the casting couch has been a thing for years'... context would count.

'cause I can see it being a response that means either of the things below, depending on context. (Which, without any context... it's just gonna sound fucked up.)

1. It's been a thing for years, you knew it going in, if you did it you have only yourself to blame! It's totally OK because it's no secret!

vs.

2. Yeah, we've been trying to say this crappy horrible crap has been going on for years, it's fucked up and wrong, you're only waking up to what a thing this is and why it's bad NOW?!

@thenomain When the phone updated to the new one, I felt exactly the same way. More clutter, less useful info. At least there's a dark screen version, but it is so not worth the trade-off.

@mietze If there's someone you can talk to regarding a restraining order, please start that process as soon as you can. I know that it is scary, but the more dangerous thing, ultimately, is that they don't have a record of who he is and what he's doing.

It makes it much, much more likely that these things that may seem 'small' to an officer taking a first call if he does something like show up out of the blue again are an escalation and continued unwelcome pursuit -- it will make that very obvious, because 'stay away' will be unquestioningly clear, and him just showing up will far more likely result in him being prevented from showing up again.

@mietze I would be terrified, too -- and for precisely the same reasons.

Is there someone you can talk to in the org regarding security? (I really, really hope so. There ideally should be if there are political figures involved, but I am hoping they care about the safety and well-being of everyone present, and would think they absolutely should.)

It really does help with metabolism if you eat something, even if it's something small, within the first 20 minutes or so of getting up. If you're not a 'breakfast person', even something like a handful of nuts or trail mix or something that you can snack on shortly after waking up makes a pretty big difference.

I am officially out of <facerub>.

@ganymede All the in the world.

@ganymede I really really really want a 'glorious absurdities' thread now. Pretty please? These would be such a grand lead-off and snickerworthy absurdities are a joy that emerges from all manner of sources. And such a joy they are.