MS Update: Week Ending 9/8/04

Comings and Goings
- Surlygirle is back from her trip to Dragon Con.
- DarthSapient is back from his vacation to Disney World.
- ChrisHanel is working through some Internet connectivity issues.
- malkieD2 will be offline from 9/6 through 9/27 to run a course at another institute.

Promotions
Herman Snerd, DantanaSkywalker, and RedneckJedi have been promoted to manager. Congratulations to all.

Stepping Down
Mara_Jade_Fan has resigned from all Fanforce and JC responsibilities effective Sept. 5th. That includes Pacific Region RSA, GSA, and Collecting forum manager. She plans on spending more time with her kids, posting as a regular user, and getting back to the fun she had as a member of her local Fan Force. And dehrian also announced he was stepping down effective immediately due to stress at work and home. He will continue to post but feels he cannot perform his mod duties to the best of his ability. He will be missed in the 3SA.

Reevaluating VIPs and Titles
Discussion continues on who should be assigned a title on the boards outside of active mods. Those who receive titles are ex-mods, actors, actresses, authors, and other folks officially associated with LFL and/or Star Wars (i.e. Dark Horse comics, ILM, etc?). Game winners would still receive a short-term VIP status and title. Up for title and/or VIP status removal are ?icon makers and banner makers except for set durations of the winning of banner contests.? Other gray areas are those who maintain a thread index on a daily basis or coordinate forum-specific activities.

Flames in Signatures
Flaming a user in your signature is no different than doing so in a post. You are responsible for what you write. Depending on if it?s your first offense and the severity of the flame affetcs whether you receive a warning, ban, signature removal, etc... Where possible, the user will be given the chance to remove it themselves.

Archived Threads
A user PM?ed a mod asking about archiving threads. According to Obi Anne, it is not possible to archive threads. She also stated that, ?If they don't want their thread to get pruned when it's been locked for a long time, the best way is to contact a mod and ask them to unlock it, up it, and then lock it again.?

Big Brother 3
The game is now in production and things are going well. Send a PM to Dashy for more details.

The Unwritten Rules
Folks in Comms are continuing to discuss the unwritten rules of the boards in an attempt to better define them. Please continue discussion here.

 

Sapes ... did you enjoy Disney World during the Hurricane? ... or did you go before that? ... I live around there so I know how bad it got.

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[i]Up for title and/or VIP status removal are icon makers and banner makers ...[/i]

Hmmm ... while I don't care either way, my question would be how does this effectively clean up the Title Problems? Removal of a small group of Icon Makers and Banner Designers wouldn't do much IMO ... and since the Titles aren't given out freely there is no extensive handing out of Titles since you must work for them in the first place. IMO everyone with Titles have proven they deserve one and shouldn't be faced with giving it up ...

... Oh boy, I think I accidentally just started a debate.

 

And dehrian also announced he was stepping down effective immediately due to stress at work and home. He will continue to post but feels he cannot perform his mod duties to the best of his ability. He will be missed in the 3SA.

Very sorry to see dehrian step down. One of the best moderators in JC history, and an example that all moderators should look to.

She also stated that, ?If they don't want their thread to get pruned when it's been locked for a long time, the best way is to contact a mod and ask them to unlock it, up it, and then lock it again.?

It's also good not to have auto-prune turned on. To my knowledge, it's turned off for most (if not all) major forums.

 

Too bad about dehrian. He was an excellent mod and will be tough to replace. Good job d, hope you stick around.

 

So, if I take an already existing pic and trim it's size, I won't get a title now saying I'm an artist? OUTRAGEOUS!

 

So, if I take an already existing pic and trim it's size, I won't get a title now saying I'm an artist? OUTRAGEOUS!

Too bad that's not all that's involved in the process. You don't just make an Icon and get a title ... same with Banners. You must prove yourself as an Artist to be able to continually delivery quality Icons that you and everyone else in the JC can use ... same with Banners. If you devote some time to TheForce.net to better their services, I believe ... and hope ... recognition is atleast credited.

 

I see, so you have to edit lots of already existing pics into prescribed size? Well goodness, it's the modern equivalent of DaVinci painting the Mona Lisa.

 

Ignant - you don't think Icon Artists deserve a title, that's fine. But stop belittling their work, it really isn't helping anyone.

I really don't see the fuss about having the title. It was put in place for a reason... why is there now a reason to take it away?

 

zac, I agree

While it doesn't matter either way ... I am still wondering what would it help if you take away certain titles once they've alredy been distributed? What are we to gain from this move?

 

Because everyone and their mother started to get one. Few of them even make sense (although most of those were/ are in FanForce). Heck, even I had a really silly title a few weeks before becoming mod. I talked my RSA into getting one, because I knew we could get away with this.

 

Well, then be more strict with the policy of handing out titles ... but how does taking away already Existing Titles help?

 

TwiLekJedi - We're talking about Icon Artist titles. I don't think there are too many of them... I'm seeing less and less thesedays.

 

zac brings up the point I made earlier ...

They're so few Icon Artists and Banner Artists that the effect of taking the Titles away won't really do much since that's not the problem in the first place. I am still trying to see what the benefit of this is ...

 

really don't see the fuss about having the title. It was put in place for a reason... why is there now a reason to take it away?

Because people lost sight of the original purpose and brought this entire mess on themselves.

We are currently in a situation where people are demanding titles for perceived effort, and then using comparisons to other titles to back themselves up.

As a hypothetical, someone in the Senate who posts a lot of news articles demands the title of "Senate News anchor," and then claims "but icon makers get titles...why can't I?"

and so on and so on.

Well, again, it is a situation where people get what they ask for, just not how they intended.

So instead of simply handing out VIP/titles to 99% of the JC, a standard, less arbitrary rule is being discussed.

 

erm. sorry. I thought you questioned the general idea of taking away titles. missed a few words in your posts.


okay, for that you gotta ask somebody else. in the case of Icon Artists I don't really care one way or another.


but in order to reduce the overall amount of titles, some existing ones have to go - because most titles that are too much are permanent or long-term, I believe.

 

I don't want to debate whether Icon Artists deserve a title or not... but why were they given them in the first place?

Just because some other people demand titles seems like a pretty weak reason to take them away from other people.

some existing ones have to go - because most titles that are too much are permanent or long-term, I believe.

Icon Artist titles aren't permanent though. I've had one at least twice (maybe thrice), but as soon as you stop contributing, your title is taken away.

 

If you devote some time to TheForce.net to better their services, I believe ... and hope ... recognition is atleast credited.

Like I said before ... why not just make the policy less lenient on Title Handouts? Why take away what some have earned just because other people want Titles?

 

?icon makers and banner makers except for set durations of the winning of banner contests.?

I personally think icon makers deserve titles, so long as they are contributing to the JC, etc. I know I've tried to make icons, but have yet to get past the ol' throw it in the garbage can when I'm done stage. They are horrible.

Other gray areas are those who maintain a thread index on a daily basis or coordinate forum-specific activities.
Who has gotten titles for maintaining thread indexes? Rather, let me rephrase that. What thread indexes have gotten their managers titles? 'Cause I wouldn't mind colors for managing the Jaina/Jag Index in the Writer's Resource

And I agree, people who argue that they deserve a title because the icon makers have them are just ruining it for a lot of other users

~LtJS

 

Icon makers deserve them i think, i mean we all get use of there icons do we not

but some fan sections why do they need titles

 

Like I said before ... why not just make the policy less lenient on Title Handouts? Why take away what some have earned just because other people want Titles?

Because in reality, some memebers here don't react that way. Less lenient means different things to different people.

It seems rather cut and dry on paper right? wrong.

Because if icon makers get titles, then EU consultants want titles, and Senate news anchors want titles, and Padme's assistant's club wants titles.

If everyone was mature enough to handle a simple explaination like what you described, it would be a non-issue.

However, as soon as it is explained that way, the allegations of favoritism, and double standards, and everything under the sun start flying.

Additionally, we have run into examples where people indicated they would stop contributing, UNLESS they were issued their titles.

If a person is going to do something, it should be because they want to, regardless of titles.

And I agree, people who argue that they deserve a title because the icon makers have them are just ruining it for a lot of other users

Unfortunately, that's usually how it ends up.

 

So this place is turning into a democracy? Interesting...

 

I'm belittling it because I think it deserves to be belittled. In other words, I agree with the administration on the issue of icon maker titles.

 

So icon makers, do you make icons because you like seeing your works around the JC, because you like improving the JC, because you get a snazzy title, or some other reason?

 

Well, I can speak for all the Icon Artists when I say that we don't do it for the Title. But it seems to me we are the scapegoat in proving a point here ... I think a lot of us would take offense to that ... especially when we earned the Title that will be revoked from us when we didn't do anything but contribute.

So icon makers, do you make icons because you like seeing your works around the JC, because you like improving the JC, because you get a snazzy title, or some other reason?

Raven, I do it for the Artistic Reason ... but see my point above on why I am so involved with this issue.

 

I'd still like to know why the titles were handed out in the first place...