Mod Squad Update for the week ending June 2nd

Thanks to Darth Ludicrous, Liz Skywalker, Lord Bane, Vertical, and everyone else who helped work on this one


Weekly News from the Mod Squad


Titles: The Latest Source of Internet Drama

It began innocently enough. Zerosleep came into the Mod Squad and said "To whomever is the admin now, I updated the code with a new style assignment tool for admins and a 'assign title' tool for managers. Enjoy." Things started out well. "Perhaps then we should switch form having admin icons to having regular icons and titles," suggested farraday. As things started to get out of hand, Padme Bra suggested that we "hold off on giving any regular members titles for the time being until we can figure out how to handle this." Then things took a turn for the Crazy Side of the Force.

Darth Ludicrous took the initiative in creating a suggested set of guidelines (ones that look suspiciously like the ones that Gandolf the Grey suggested to the Advisory Council). Mods, Contest Winners, VIPs, and City Reps would all get titles. "Why don't we just put our areas of coverage in the titles? That would work best, I'd say," suggested Lord Bane. As things reached their worst outside, Vertical laid down an ultimatum: "OK, everyone with a title, REMOVE IT FOR NOW until we can get this sorted out, OK?"

After that, things calmed down. The managers and administrators began to start to give themselves titles (moderators cannot use this feature, only have it used on them), Vertical discovered that we could use HTML in the title, and perhaps went a little too far with that for a few minutes. Things seem to have settled down for now, though.


The Darth Ludicrous Icon Saga Continues

"I must be retarded," he said, "because I just went to change my icon back to my cool Jedi Outcast icon and I can't find it anywhere." Dark Darth Helmet wasted time with his usual quip, "Dude, your icon's gone." "Should be under admin with the big "Admin" under it though,"Darth Ludicrous said. "No, it is just not there. Most likely got deleted. Kadue had a sheet up in the icon thread. Did you check there and voice your opinion?" said Lord Bane, trying to be helpful. "It has to be a server mistake or something" protested Darth Ludicrous. Then Vertical reminded him that "If you're using a title, you shouldn't be using an "admin" icon. That's the rule."

And the epic saga continues...


The Fine Arts Forum

Lord Bane brought the issue back to the front, saying that "more than 50 people have signed the petition so far. And considering that the petition is in Comm, that's a strong showing right there. Nobody goes in there if they don't have to."

Liz Skywalker complained about Community brain-drain, saying "my big problem with this was always that it would take away from the JCC. Yeah, it's basically just a spam forum now, with a couple o' games. It's a relax forum, but there are ppl who basically only post to the JCC. If we take Culture threads out... also, who's going to define culture? Who's going to define art?" Lord Bane was swift to reply, saying "The JCC will not be hurt by this. It was not hurt in the least by the Senate's creation; why would this damage it? Already, few threads on these topics survive. The only movie and music topics around are fan clubs or threads hypothesizing on upcoming movies, bickering about which stars are hotter, etc. We wouldn't be taking topics away because they aren't there, they are not able to survive in a quick-paced forum like the JCC."

The Fine Arts Forum has now been created. Currently, a select number of mods and A

 

Hey, Gandolf, I'm going to go out on a limb and accuse you of being a fellow Mac user - turn off the smart quotes, dude.

Mel

 

excellent update! thank you, thank you indeed!

The Amphitheatre

i love it.. it's perfect!

 

Sounds good. It's nice to know that the FAF petition actually went through and worked

 

Credit where credit is due...I thought up the name Amphitheatre...although it was initially the Arts Ampitheatre.

IT WAS ME, ALL ME!!!

 

Heh.

Good update. I'm particularly pleased with the arrangement worked out with "the Amphitheatre."

 

acknowledging Darth_Dagsy's brain child...

well, good on you.. clearly you were inspired by a Muse

 

Quote:

---

No one bothered to reply, which proves that FanForce just can't win. They don't tell us, and we complain that no one told us. They tell us, and we don't bother replying. It's twisted, we know.[hr][/blockquote]
May I request that the JC mods take a little bit of interest in what FanForce is doing? The response in these updates leaves a lot to be desired.

 

Hasn't worked yet. Senate Floor is still sufficiently slow enough that making the new forum go live may not be neccessary.
Better to have one live forum to look after than split resources looking after two half dead forums.

 

PPOR about the new forum.

Great update.

 

I think the Senate is very much alive, it just doesn't have as high of thread turnover as, say, the JCC or AotC, which is a good thing. Replies are thought about, topics are thouroughly discussed and not tossessed aside to make way for the new topics of the day. There is a certain staying power that should be respected in the Senate.

 

not arguing against staying power, just saying that when the topics at the bottom of page one are 5 days since their last post, there is a lot more room for activity.

 

Nice update.

Also, where is the Amphitheatre?

//waits for an answer

 

I'm with Bane on this one. The Senate moves slower, but that's because people take more time to think out their posts. And I certainly wouldn't call it dead - if you miss a day in the Catholicism thread you're lost for a week.

Mel

 

Obi-Zahn, I think the amphitheater is only accessable by a few mods and members of the Advisory Council right now.

 

Yes, YodaJeff's correct.


As usuall, I might add...

 

Ah.

That's what I thought.

But when the Senate came out, it was accessible by all, just not postable by all.

 

We're taking a different approach since of late, there has been some questioning about how to proceed. As you read in this week's update. We figured it best not to torment users with a slow moving forum, to hold it back until we have consensus amongst ourselves (including the Advisory Council).

 

Gandolf...
"Darth Ludicrous took the initiative in creating a suggested set of guidelines (ones that look suspiciously like the ones that Gandolf the Grey suggested to the Advisory Council). Mods, Contest Winners..."

Bah, credit hog! I believe the record is clear on who first suggested "Contest Winners."

Otherwise a good update. Not really much there to worry about. Although I have to admit the whole "titles" thing was quite entertaining to watch play out. In hindsight, the responses were pretty ridiculous, IMO.

 

Genghis:

 

Friends, users, mods, lend me your ears;
I come to bury the newbies, not to praise them.
The evil that newbies do lives after them;
The good is oft forgotten when they become regulars;
So let it be with the newbies. The noble Red_Oktobur
Hath told you newbies created lots of spam and redundancy;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault;
And grievously hath the newbies answered it.
Here, under the leave of Red_Oktobur and the rest,-
For Red_Oktobur is an honorable regular;
So are they all, all honorable regulars,-
Come I to speak against the newbies.
We were once like them, eager and enthusiastic,
But Red_Oktobur says they are a problem,
And Red_Oktobur is an honored long time regular.
Newbies hath brought numbers to this board,
Whose strength makes this place so great:
Do in this newbies seem disruptive?
When the boards get slow, newbies give it new life.
Disruption should be made of sterner stuff.
Yet Red_Oktobur says that they're a problem,
And Red_Oktobur is an honored long time regular.

 

Incidentally, does anyone like/dislike/despise/love/ my Shakespeare misquotes?

 

I don't read them.

 

So you're towards them?

 

I'm not towards them (or "Meh..." as I might say) but happy they are there for others to enjoy. I'm on the go! I don't even have time to finish this po