Posts made by Thenomain
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RE: Make MSB great again!
I see a forum as a place for historical record, and besides I don’t see a game as defunct just because someone hasn’t advertised for it in six months. The logic doesn’t fit to me.
I also think it’s adding work when none is needed. If someone reads an ad dated 2015, is it really that disconcerting if there’s no game there anymore? A problem looking for a solution? That’s how I see it.
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RE: Introducing... <Spoilers>!
I’m on 11, yes. My phone shows them just fine, however my iPad does not. I will try again after force quitting Safari. Ignore me for now.
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RE: Introducing... <Spoilers>!
The spoiler tag doesn’t seem to be working on iOS. It hides but does not reveal.
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RE: Make MSB great again!
Why are we talking about culling any post? Is there something about this forum that an out of date post needs to be removed?
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RE: Make MSB great again!
@paris said in Make MSB great again!:
@thenomain said in Make MSB great again!:
@paris (et al.)
Ironically, is this the place for this discussion?
I was going to make it brief until [...]
Until you (edit: more than just you, Paris, but you were the one I most directly responded to) decided to derail a thread about what's wrong with kids these days, yes yes. I'm not saying that you were wrong in your defense, just in the time and place, but as long as someone (Ganymede in this case) is on it I'm mollified.
It was, however, pretty damn ironic.
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RE: Make MSB great again!
@paris (et al.)
Ironically, is this the place for this discussion?
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RE: Make MSB great again!
I was hiliting your "it wasn't happening on its own" then supporting the statement. It won't happen on its own, even though we here are largely no longer anonymous to one another. I might not be known as anything other than Thenomain to a huge number of you, but Thenomain is a solid identity, as is Wizz.
That it's text is a huge part of why, but also as I mention in this comic-book game related thread, even when confronted about certain behaviors that we might call toxic, quite a few people stand up and are proud of them. This isn't just our hobby, this is the state of the world.
The only answer to people like this is moderation--to agree with you further. I was concerned when @Arkandel called this "censorship", but he seems to have backed down on that view. This is a pickle indeed and we are, indeed, human.
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RE: Make MSB great again!
@arkandel said in Make MSB great again!:
@thenomain said in Make MSB great again!:
This is mostly why I think it’s better to have the advert thread as being only advertisement information, and any commentary about the game, good or ill, in a separate thread.
The reason I don't like that approach is that I like gamerunners having a post in which they can just answer questions - "is this a L&L game or grimdark?", "do you plan to allow <X>?", etc. I think that information can both help others reading the thread decide if that's the MU* for them, but also game-runners who have this information locked in their heads realize that it's not readily available.
Then keep it to non-opinion-based posts. The point is that if you're going to split commentary, then split off all commentary. You can be Kumbaya-focused and still do this. Or better still:
@kanye-qwest said in Make MSB great again!:
how about just let people criticize or bring up negative experiences without letting it devolve into a bunch of RL character judgments and horrifying vitriol?
That is a very good question. Why can't we do this?
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I'm serious. Why is it that players and staff of any given game don't let this be an okay thing to do? Because...
@wizz said in Make MSB great again!:
it very obviously wasn't happening on its own.
Even knowing that forum staff cares at all is a step in the right direction, and empowers us users to seek out solutions knowing that we have some fiat and request to do so. This should also be a chilling effect on those who don't want to, which is a positive right there.
Wora had one global rule that Peverel came up with: Don't make the admins care. If the admins had to come and do admin things, there is no guarantee that anyone in particular was going to be happy about it, and they would do what they felt needed to be done.
Wora wasn't perfect, but with this and how criminally easy it was to split and move threads, we did start the move toward the forum model we have here today.
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RE: Make MSB great again!
While I like ganymede’s locker analogy, I think it has a major flaw in that this isn’t a locker situation. This is far more like someone advertising a business in the newspaper, and in the next edition the positive reviews are listed alongside the ad, but the negative reviews, any single thumbs down from anyone, is listed in the opinions section.
I think splitting all positive from all negative in this case to be disingenuous. One can have a reasonable discussion like adults and not agree, but if we’re going to split it then let all commentary be alongside other opinion pieces, where they belong.
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RE: Make MSB great again!
@wizz said in Make MSB great again!:
@thatguythere said in Make MSB great again!:
People saying something is good while they are not allowed to say something is bad is utterly pointless.
This is not the place to criticise or attack either those games or their runners. If there isn't already a thread in the Mildly Constrictive or Hogpit sections for them then please feel free to start one, and we will link between them for easy access (but check first!).
That's a misreading, dude.
Is it? Because that’s how I read it. “Criticism” does not mean “not constructive” and it certainly doesn’t mean “attack”.
We have had many, many staffers who’ve taken anything less than kid-glove or glad-handing as an insult. I posit that those people are just as non-constructive as the out and out insults, but because they’re the defender in the case it’s more often and easier to forgive.
This is mostly why I think it’s better to have the advert thread as being only advertisement information, and any commentary about the game, good or ill, in a separate thread. It doesn’t have to be locked, but if it’s not updates or events or the like, it doesn’t belong in the main advert.
The more I ponder this, the more passionate I feel about my position.
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RE: Make MSB great again!
Because I'm not the slightest bit tired but should have been asleep two hours ago, I give you my breakdown of the boards, mostly by observation but partially by personal opinion:
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Announcements: Staff announcements, at the top. This miffs me on Mu*s because there are usually over 100 posts there, most of them out of date. With a web format it's not so much of a big deal, and I haven't seen anyone here yell at someone else for not reading each and every one and commit it to memory.
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Midly Consttuctive: The Mu*-Related Forum for Real Information. It's second on the list but first in our hearts, and if something is going to happen it's probably going to happen here or...
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Hog Pit: I don't know where this is because I've unsubscribed. I imagine this is what people want the Advertising boards to be: A place for tell-all and no-holds-barred.
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Adver-tis-ments: It was "Advert-is-ments", but a lot of browser-plugin adblockers were, well, blocking it. I think a lot of our problem here is that it's in neither Constructive nor Hog Pit, so there were no rules for it. What I've heard from people about what is allowed or not allowed there has been all over the spectrum (well, not that spec--actually, you know, including that spectrum). Nothing was not allowed therefore everything is allowed, as long as the Court of Public Opinion says it's okay on that particular day.
And this is where the comparisons between Soapbox and Wora are made. Wora was run almost 100% on Court of Public Opinion. Bans came for derailing threads to the point of pointlessness, but very little else.
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Tastes Less Game'y: The RL board. While we can surely click talking about games, I've been with circles of friends who talk about nothing but the games, and it can be hollow. I think here is where the board community comes together. There's almost nothing here that's so emotional that people will even want to shit-post. There is one thing, but it gets its own board.
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MU Code: 151 Topics? Really? I'm kind of impressed. Only one third of "Mildly Constructive", but that's still pretty neat.
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MU Questions & Requests: Kind of self-describing. I think people use this board when they don't want their thread to be lost in "Mildly Constructive".
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How-Tos: Specifically for tutorials on things that make our games good. Could go under "MU Code", perhaps, but it's a lot easier to find things when they're more broken down.
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A Shout in the Dark: Quick requests for information, both missed connections and searching for. Again, not something that is meant to be a drawn-out discussion. I think its sub-header is misinformative to how it has been and could be used.
From here on, I'm not sure what the purpose of the boards are, but I'm going to give it a guess.
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Suggestions & Questions: Soapbox-Specific Q&A. (Like this thread should be, perhaps.) I've seen many that could go here under "Mildly Constructive", but tomato, potato.
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Readers: Our love of books knows many bounds.
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Code: Code memes. Hi @Chime!
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Play-by-Post: Except for the board that convinced @HelloRaptor to leave because of how nice we were all trying to be to one another, I don't think this board has ever been used for its stated purpose. (Hm, I wonder with recent events if I could get him to post again? I bet not, but it's tempting to offer.)
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Politics: The RL version of the Hog Pit for the one topic that will get people shit-posting on a moment's notice. Serves the same purpose as something I can put on ignore.
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And that's my time-wasting babble for tonight. I did think it was a little topical, at least, to help diagram "just what is this board trying to do, anyway"? I think that people are here for four boards: Constructive, Hog Pit, Adverts, and RL. Everything else is either a nice touch or a...well, a touch, at least, of only slightly questionable purpose.
Sleep well, everyone. Unless you're just waking up, in which case "g'day, mate".
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RE: Make MSB great again!
@auspice said in Make MSB great again!:
@chet said in Make MSB great again!:
I want a merc board, where people can show interest in being recruited for work at games, instead of having to wait for someone to start up a project.
I'd say the MU Code board could prob. be used for that. Or maybe the Questions one. No need for a whole separate section.
Shout in the Dark has been used for more than a "missed connections" board. "Looking for people to X" has been there too.
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RE: Make MSB great again!
Except that you can’t rely on a community to change just because. It can happen, and it’s beautiful when it does, but without someone with a whistle sitting in the high chair by the pool, it’s just Lord of the Flies.
c.f. Right Here, Right Now.
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RE: Cheap or Free Games!
Tabletop RPGs are games too!
Bundle of Holding has:
Enjoy our rich gaming history! Also, enjoy Demon if you're into it. (I am.)
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RE: FCs on Comic MUs
@ixokai said in FCs on Comic MUs:
@thenomain said in FCs on Comic MUs:
Do you mean there are games where an original character can't be better than Squirrel Girl?
I don't quite know what you mean, if you're joking or if I miscommunicated.
There have been games that have rules that state an OC can't beat a FC at what the FC is good at.
So if there's Johnny Storm verses Fireboy the OC, Johnny's fire control must always win/be superior to Fireboy's fire control, by virtue of the fact that he's a FC, and FC's win in their specialty against OC's. We don't do that.
I don't know enough about comic books to be able to make a joke with nuance, but it slightly was. I understand Squirrel Girl to be a very low-powered character, and to say that nobody can be better than her at whatever she does just because she's a FC seems nearsighted.
Or the Jan & Zana, the Wonder Twins, in the 80s cartoon Justice League. They were meant to be teens, growing in confidence, not at the peak of their power. Same with the Teen Titans (again, cartoon, again an incredibly awesome show).
The nuance I was trying to get across was that this level of worship of comic characters would absolutely have me hating any game that mixed FC with OC. I hope that character builds are more thought-out than this, but each time I watch a Comic Book Mu* discussion unfold I can no longer assume it.
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RE: Make MSB great again!
@arkandel said in Make MSB great again!:
@faraday Why does it need to be sudden?
I think part of what she was saying quoted you directly (c.f., censorship). You're now the person who sets the tone for MSB. Its changes or lack thereof are directly and indirectly because of your decisions.
But everyone gets flamed on MSB.
When Wora finally died and @Glitch decided to make a replacement, that wasn't true at first. It started becoming more true and
we made the Hog Pit specifically for that(edit) we started pushing and splitting more threads that direction. It continued being true and the Hog Pit became opt-in only. All this work has become undone because it's been allowed to. All it takes is a few bad actors.The community in general is braver when riding a bandwagon, which goes well beyond this forum.
Who on earth thinks that this forum represents the community? I mean, besides Rasheem. You are the administrator of The Mu* Soapbox; anything more than that is due to how people see MSB and is a bonus, not the point.
This particular forum's community is also much shittier when riding a bandwagon. The bandwagon that brought us here was on fire, and more than a few people gleefully throwing lit matches around. If a civil but sole person tries to convince people to put the matches away, god help them because they're going to get the ire of hate and quite probably be lit on fire themselves.
There's more potential in what we're doing than what we're seeing.
Bravery doesn't mean intelligence nor righteousness. Potential is a sheathed blade; what will it be used for?
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RE: FCs on Comic MUs
Do you mean there are games where an original character can't be better than Squirrel Girl?
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RE: FCs on Comic MUs
So here is a good way to tie up superhero comic fans for hours, if not days:
"If you had any one super power, what would it be?"
Eventually the conversation would come around to: "What is 'one power'?"
The Flash has super-speed, but does he have a second power that increases his response time, and if so then does it also keep him from experiencing the world over 100x faster than anyone else?
What is it in super-strength that also keeps your bones from being crushed from the equal force pushing back against your body when you punch through a wall?
You get the idea.