By the time most people look here again, I’ll be gone from the DJB. I sent a note out to a select number of people explaining it before they see the news post that will eventually come.
I sent in my complete resignation Thursday afternoon, but it seems like it’s taking forever for it to get off the ground. I just want to be out, and the slow process I’m facing is making it even more painful of a decision. In a way it’s actually starting to really tick me off. I made my choice, now let it happen.
I might be back someday – working in the background as usual – but for now I just need a serious rest.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Monday, July 02, 2007
Just About Had Enough.
A topic has been floating on the forums asking why you joined or why you stay in the DJB.
Why I joined? Well that's pretty easy. I had never encountered anything even close to what the DB was offering - a community with a rank/award system that played STAR WARS games and wrote STAR WARS fan fiction. I was heavily into the WEG SWRPG and Jedi Knight/MOTS when I started focusing my interests away from the EH and more on the DB. As you all know, at the time they were the same club.
I stayed with the DB through the Exodus, and in changing to the DJB. I stayed because I was having fun, helping the DJB expand and thrive - and in my own way I did for a while. I left the HRLD office because of my lack of time, but also because the negativity was starting to wear on me.
When Muz was elevated to DGM, I was asked to come back as HRLD to offer some stability to the Dark Council. I was reluctant but felt that they were only asking me because they needed me. I was hoping to not just oversee the position but to help expand it some more.
I'm starting to regret the decision to come back. Those who persist with the negativity are in full force. It's like they insist on being assholes for the sake of being assholes. I know there are a few who support me openly, and of course they are getting ridiculed by those people too. There's also the vast, and I'll assume neutral, majority of the membership who say nothing one way or the other. That's almost as bad as being negative.
Custom Robes? They're not even an official part of the club. Muz did them for fun. I do not have CorelDRAW, do not know how to even use CorelDRAW, or the ($600+ to go get/time to go download) CorelDraw, so I won't be offering them anytime soon. Cry all you want - I don't give a fuck. I'm tired of catering to the whims of people who don't care and shit on everything you do.
If everyone thinks they can do such a stellar job themselves - fine... Fuck you all. I have so many other things I could be doing with my time and efforts than babysitting a bunch of whiny little peckerheads. When the chaos ensues, the club will whittle down to the few that bitch the most just hanging out on IRC, verbally pissing at each other and looking down on everyone else, and that will be JUST great.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Distance, Going The
Recently, in a topic about the possibility of the Sith Order falling out of favor with members - mostly because they are still under the impression that activities are tethered to the social group's title - I had suggested the "unthinkable"...
Remove Obelisk.
Seems sensible to me. The Obelisk order was created for the Emperor's Hammer. It has no official standing in the Star Wars lore, though the name was derived from a creature in their universe. The DJB just uses it out of familiarity. If we really wanted to make a further departure from our former club, we'd eliminate the one piece that still truly ties us to them.
Should this happen? Yes. I'm sure somewhere in all that EH legal mumbo jumbo they say something about it all being their property. I'm sure Blazer couldn't possibly care less, but someone out there does. We should sever this final stagnant piece of our oppressive history, if only to keep them from holding it over our heads that we're using something one of their members created.
(I won't go into detail about how, for years after the Exodus, they used images of mine without giving me credit on a number of sites...)
Would this ever happen? Would the DJB cut off Obelisk and force their members to choose Sith or Krath? Probably not while I'm still hanging around.
Remove Obelisk.
Seems sensible to me. The Obelisk order was created for the Emperor's Hammer. It has no official standing in the Star Wars lore, though the name was derived from a creature in their universe. The DJB just uses it out of familiarity. If we really wanted to make a further departure from our former club, we'd eliminate the one piece that still truly ties us to them.
Should this happen? Yes. I'm sure somewhere in all that EH legal mumbo jumbo they say something about it all being their property. I'm sure Blazer couldn't possibly care less, but someone out there does. We should sever this final stagnant piece of our oppressive history, if only to keep them from holding it over our heads that we're using something one of their members created.
(I won't go into detail about how, for years after the Exodus, they used images of mine without giving me credit on a number of sites...)
Would this ever happen? Would the DJB cut off Obelisk and force their members to choose Sith or Krath? Probably not while I'm still hanging around.
Monday, April 02, 2007
To Defy the Laws of Tradition
Another year has passed, and with it I have officially passed a decade in my membership to the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. Along with the only person who comes to mind right now – Oberst – I’m one of the few who has been around that long. This installment deals with a few things that used to happen, but for some reason we just stopped – or things that we’ve never given a chance.
April Fool’s Don’t.
I was genuinely disappointed that nothing happened to the site this year for AFD. I sent in a suggestion last summer that I thought for sure would have been used, but when I went to DJB.COM yesterday – nothing. Well, I should say ‘nothing unusual’ because there was stuff there, but it was the usual DJB crap. Since Michael Halcyon’s exodus from the Dark Side, the AFD website change joke has been something I’ve waited all year for. The Pokémon one was kind of funny, though completely out of fashion. Not that my suggestion was any closer… I had thought either Smurfs or Snorks would have been a great AFD complete site change.
At one point yesterday I started writing my own little AFD joke – a complete defection from the Dark Side – but I was quickly put off at the thought of hundreds of hate e-mail flooding my gmail inbox. It’s not a whole hell of a huge stretch though – I mean, just look at my dossier… or my wiki entry.
Hard Roles
Since the DJB SPG system is a long way off, I think we should just give general RP a chance. Sildrin and I have discussed starting an IRC channel for RP only. We’ve started defining some ground rules such as no OOC talking, no idling and no power tripping – this means all those low level people who like to talk big would find themselves in a world of hurt. This channel also wouldn’t tolerate much of the overly dramatic/quasi-romantic “nearly VTM” garbage that the Lounge (on the Forums) became.
I also wanted to extend this out to a JA map for strictly RP, but that’s a bit tougher I think. The server would have to have like 40 custom skins installed in order to satisfy the diverse choices people make for their characters. I kind of wish SWG had a ‘free local server’ option. The DJB’s own environment like that would be awesome.
WARNING – Tangent – A few things really pissed me off about SWG though. For one I couldn’t just use my damned character name. Secondly no one was ever really around when I was. Third the game punished non-combat classes with massive taxes and no viable way to make a living. Fourth, by the time I decided I wanted to try for Jedi I totally lost interest in the game because I was so heavily in debt.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Everyone knows all about how I ranted about respect being lost on the newer members, right? Well in some capacity I’m still right. However – in browsing the forums, I came to the realization of something I didn’t quite consider at the time of writing my original rant; Respect is truly a two-way street. I knew this before, but I was so blinded in my rage I disregarded it.
The one thing that popped up in a thread was that sometimes people who have not earned enough or do not deserve respect find their way into positions of power. These self-absorbed, megalomaniacal freaks latch on to low level leadership positions, then slowly work up the ladder. They do a good enough job in those spots, churning out activity and keeping people interested, but they lack in social graces (or they lose it when dealing with specific members). I’ve dealt with some people I flat out hate. Do they know? Probably not. Friend or foe, I’ve tried to be equal in dealing with people and their problems, even if their problem is me.
The point here is that sometimes you have to just suck it up and be the bigger person. Let the jackass dig their own grave. I know we’re all “dark jedi” and “evil” and all that crap but we’re also humans who make mistakes and communicate using technology that can easily distort one’s intent. Your character can be an evil monster. You shouldn’t.
April Fool’s Don’t.
I was genuinely disappointed that nothing happened to the site this year for AFD. I sent in a suggestion last summer that I thought for sure would have been used, but when I went to DJB.COM yesterday – nothing. Well, I should say ‘nothing unusual’ because there was stuff there, but it was the usual DJB crap. Since Michael Halcyon’s exodus from the Dark Side, the AFD website change joke has been something I’ve waited all year for. The Pokémon one was kind of funny, though completely out of fashion. Not that my suggestion was any closer… I had thought either Smurfs or Snorks would have been a great AFD complete site change.
At one point yesterday I started writing my own little AFD joke – a complete defection from the Dark Side – but I was quickly put off at the thought of hundreds of hate e-mail flooding my gmail inbox. It’s not a whole hell of a huge stretch though – I mean, just look at my dossier… or my wiki entry.
Hard Roles
Since the DJB SPG system is a long way off, I think we should just give general RP a chance. Sildrin and I have discussed starting an IRC channel for RP only. We’ve started defining some ground rules such as no OOC talking, no idling and no power tripping – this means all those low level people who like to talk big would find themselves in a world of hurt. This channel also wouldn’t tolerate much of the overly dramatic/quasi-romantic “nearly VTM” garbage that the Lounge (on the Forums) became.
I also wanted to extend this out to a JA map for strictly RP, but that’s a bit tougher I think. The server would have to have like 40 custom skins installed in order to satisfy the diverse choices people make for their characters. I kind of wish SWG had a ‘free local server’ option. The DJB’s own environment like that would be awesome.
WARNING – Tangent – A few things really pissed me off about SWG though. For one I couldn’t just use my damned character name. Secondly no one was ever really around when I was. Third the game punished non-combat classes with massive taxes and no viable way to make a living. Fourth, by the time I decided I wanted to try for Jedi I totally lost interest in the game because I was so heavily in debt.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Everyone knows all about how I ranted about respect being lost on the newer members, right? Well in some capacity I’m still right. However – in browsing the forums, I came to the realization of something I didn’t quite consider at the time of writing my original rant; Respect is truly a two-way street. I knew this before, but I was so blinded in my rage I disregarded it.
The one thing that popped up in a thread was that sometimes people who have not earned enough or do not deserve respect find their way into positions of power. These self-absorbed, megalomaniacal freaks latch on to low level leadership positions, then slowly work up the ladder. They do a good enough job in those spots, churning out activity and keeping people interested, but they lack in social graces (or they lose it when dealing with specific members). I’ve dealt with some people I flat out hate. Do they know? Probably not. Friend or foe, I’ve tried to be equal in dealing with people and their problems, even if their problem is me.
The point here is that sometimes you have to just suck it up and be the bigger person. Let the jackass dig their own grave. I know we’re all “dark jedi” and “evil” and all that crap but we’re also humans who make mistakes and communicate using technology that can easily distort one’s intent. Your character can be an evil monster. You shouldn’t.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Winter Update
Boy I've been busy. Real Life and Virtual Life are in serious competition for my time. Luckily I can spend some "real life work" time to do "virtual life work".
Begun This Crackdown Has…
Like it or not, the DJB is getting strict on some formerly loose policies. I know this is going to make some people cry themselves to sleep at night, but frankly I don’t care. Rules are there to help everyone, and those who break the rules citing that it’s ok because it was once approved by someone who isn’t around anymore are guilty.
The Wiki
Star Wars Realism. You’ve heard me bitch about it before, but now it has a bit of weight behind it. I’ve discussed it with a handful of the DC and have been given positive feedback paired with some serious interest in making it happen. It begins with Character Histories. On the Wiki we’ve started tagging articles that have problems. We’ll work with the author to fix these issues until they are at an acceptable state. Hiding behind the blanket of “The Shadow Academy approved it!” doesn’t work with anymore. The current HM knows there were many mistakes by previous administrations in letting things slip through, and much like how a pebble can cause an avalanche, these minor issues have gotten out of hand.
Character Histories are very important to the fictional realm of the DJB universe. Not taking it seriously is about as big an offense as cheating. By not bothering to formulate a decent, believable back story is a disgrace to the genre, the club and all those who participate by writing fiction. Those who write their backgrounds without a shred of regard for the Star Wars saga shouldn’t be allowed to be here.
I don’t mean to come off sounding like some sort of Star Wars zealot. This is the reasoning behind my thoughts. Imagine if you will a run-on competition involving a few members. One has no history written, one is filled with tales of single-handedly killing rancors through the Force when they were a child, and one person actually took the time to formulate a realistic-sounding background. The ability of the members to draw off each other is seriously hindered, and the quality of the run-on will fall in favor of the last person.
It doesn’t take long to come up with something semi-useable, but then again it’s difficult to not feel like a carbon copy. There are so many fallen jedi and orphans it’s amazing. My story? Fallen jedi… and a clone. Yeah it’s far from original but at least I took the time to think it through. Hell I even made it super confusing until recently. The history I had on my dossier up until recently was a combination of jumbled ideas and intentional deceit.
The Forums
The crackdown is going to involve a great many things. Signatures are getting ridiculous. Obvious spam posting is getting out of hand. The place just looks out of date.
Signatures: I’m going to start flagging people. I’m making a new User Class, and moving people into it who need to change their signature. The rules are posted, but I suppose I’m going to have to clarify or refine them. The reasons behind changing people’s signatures are as follows:
The sig shouldn’t be bigger than your post. This occurs more often than anything else.
It says an image of a certain size OR 7 lines of text. Frankly I think it should only be an image of the correct size or your ID line minus your medals and Shadow Academy stuff. We know who you are if you filled out your forum profile correctly. There’s a link to your dossier under your avatar.
Image size restrictions are not there because we have a problem with disk space – they are in place because we don’t want the formatting of the forum to get thrown off. Plus, believe it or not, some people are on dial-up.
Spam: Unfortunately I had to be a bad guy and squash people’s fun. I’m all for people doing whatever they want for kicks, but when it directly affects my work I tend to get mean. The Dark Brotherhood of Spam were an unofficial group in the DJB who were competing with each other on who can get their post count highest. They started annoying me when they’d make useless posts all over the forums, so we opened up the Spam section to tally post counts. They had a website outlining all their participants, their mission, and their accomplishments. I gave all the DBoS people 31337 posts as a post count. I gave them all the 1337 5p4mm3r title. I was clearing out the trash and rebuilding the forums to accurately calculate their counts, so it was just some fun for them before they all got bumped back to their proper number a couple days later. They made me an official part of their little club but I really didn’t want that, so they removed me. It was nothing personal, but “spammer” is up there with “prison rapist” on my list of un-cool titles.
They wanted a Wiki article, and that’s where I had to start drawing the line. They were an unofficial piece of the DJB, and thus really had no reason to be up there. Plus it made it seem like the DJB was rewarding people for being a nuisance. I ignored the request at first, thinking that no response meant they’d given up the idea. I even asked someone to tell them I didn’t think it was a good enough subject for a wiki article. I tried to be nice about it, but then they got approval from Jac. He had no idea I had already refused it, so I don’t really blame him.
In the end they decided to just give up, disband the unofficial group, and go back to being normal members. I hate to ruin people’s fun, but when that fun is at the expense of many hours lost on my account I get angry.
The DC
The DC’s been kind of quiet, so I don’t have much to say on them.
GM: We had some conversations over the last month that had nothing to do with the DJB, but as for the DJB stuff, everything’s doing well.
DGM: He’s had his hand in a lot of stuff recently, but most of it is secret. I’d tell you, but I’d have to kill you.
HM: Talked to the HM here and there, but overall it seems the SA is doing well with its new format.
HRLD: He’s been busy. New robes and sabers, yay! Everything’s looking great.
SCL: Believe it or not, we don’t talk much, and when we do it’s usually not DJB related. I taught her some of the inner workings of the Forum Admin interface, but other than that it’s been quiet.
Tribunes: I rarely speak with any of them. They all seem to be getting along just fine with their respective positions.
Begun This Crackdown Has…
Like it or not, the DJB is getting strict on some formerly loose policies. I know this is going to make some people cry themselves to sleep at night, but frankly I don’t care. Rules are there to help everyone, and those who break the rules citing that it’s ok because it was once approved by someone who isn’t around anymore are guilty.
The Wiki
Star Wars Realism. You’ve heard me bitch about it before, but now it has a bit of weight behind it. I’ve discussed it with a handful of the DC and have been given positive feedback paired with some serious interest in making it happen. It begins with Character Histories. On the Wiki we’ve started tagging articles that have problems. We’ll work with the author to fix these issues until they are at an acceptable state. Hiding behind the blanket of “The Shadow Academy approved it!” doesn’t work with anymore. The current HM knows there were many mistakes by previous administrations in letting things slip through, and much like how a pebble can cause an avalanche, these minor issues have gotten out of hand.
Character Histories are very important to the fictional realm of the DJB universe. Not taking it seriously is about as big an offense as cheating. By not bothering to formulate a decent, believable back story is a disgrace to the genre, the club and all those who participate by writing fiction. Those who write their backgrounds without a shred of regard for the Star Wars saga shouldn’t be allowed to be here.
I don’t mean to come off sounding like some sort of Star Wars zealot. This is the reasoning behind my thoughts. Imagine if you will a run-on competition involving a few members. One has no history written, one is filled with tales of single-handedly killing rancors through the Force when they were a child, and one person actually took the time to formulate a realistic-sounding background. The ability of the members to draw off each other is seriously hindered, and the quality of the run-on will fall in favor of the last person.
It doesn’t take long to come up with something semi-useable, but then again it’s difficult to not feel like a carbon copy. There are so many fallen jedi and orphans it’s amazing. My story? Fallen jedi… and a clone. Yeah it’s far from original but at least I took the time to think it through. Hell I even made it super confusing until recently. The history I had on my dossier up until recently was a combination of jumbled ideas and intentional deceit.
The Forums
The crackdown is going to involve a great many things. Signatures are getting ridiculous. Obvious spam posting is getting out of hand. The place just looks out of date.
Signatures: I’m going to start flagging people. I’m making a new User Class, and moving people into it who need to change their signature. The rules are posted, but I suppose I’m going to have to clarify or refine them. The reasons behind changing people’s signatures are as follows:
The sig shouldn’t be bigger than your post. This occurs more often than anything else.
It says an image of a certain size OR 7 lines of text. Frankly I think it should only be an image of the correct size or your ID line minus your medals and Shadow Academy stuff. We know who you are if you filled out your forum profile correctly. There’s a link to your dossier under your avatar.
Image size restrictions are not there because we have a problem with disk space – they are in place because we don’t want the formatting of the forum to get thrown off. Plus, believe it or not, some people are on dial-up.
Spam: Unfortunately I had to be a bad guy and squash people’s fun. I’m all for people doing whatever they want for kicks, but when it directly affects my work I tend to get mean. The Dark Brotherhood of Spam were an unofficial group in the DJB who were competing with each other on who can get their post count highest. They started annoying me when they’d make useless posts all over the forums, so we opened up the Spam section to tally post counts. They had a website outlining all their participants, their mission, and their accomplishments. I gave all the DBoS people 31337 posts as a post count. I gave them all the 1337 5p4mm3r title. I was clearing out the trash and rebuilding the forums to accurately calculate their counts, so it was just some fun for them before they all got bumped back to their proper number a couple days later. They made me an official part of their little club but I really didn’t want that, so they removed me. It was nothing personal, but “spammer” is up there with “prison rapist” on my list of un-cool titles.
They wanted a Wiki article, and that’s where I had to start drawing the line. They were an unofficial piece of the DJB, and thus really had no reason to be up there. Plus it made it seem like the DJB was rewarding people for being a nuisance. I ignored the request at first, thinking that no response meant they’d given up the idea. I even asked someone to tell them I didn’t think it was a good enough subject for a wiki article. I tried to be nice about it, but then they got approval from Jac. He had no idea I had already refused it, so I don’t really blame him.
In the end they decided to just give up, disband the unofficial group, and go back to being normal members. I hate to ruin people’s fun, but when that fun is at the expense of many hours lost on my account I get angry.
The DC
The DC’s been kind of quiet, so I don’t have much to say on them.
GM: We had some conversations over the last month that had nothing to do with the DJB, but as for the DJB stuff, everything’s doing well.
DGM: He’s had his hand in a lot of stuff recently, but most of it is secret. I’d tell you, but I’d have to kill you.
HM: Talked to the HM here and there, but overall it seems the SA is doing well with its new format.
HRLD: He’s been busy. New robes and sabers, yay! Everything’s looking great.
SCL: Believe it or not, we don’t talk much, and when we do it’s usually not DJB related. I taught her some of the inner workings of the Forum Admin interface, but other than that it’s been quiet.
Tribunes: I rarely speak with any of them. They all seem to be getting along just fine with their respective positions.
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