Messages

Sorry it took me so long to find the bug, y'all, but wheee!  I'm glad I finally got it working.  

My funniest story is when I found out that Becki has been hanging out with the guy I went to prom with at NANO events. LOL I discovered it via twitter!

Didn't their website turn sentient and take over the club and boot all the mods last year? LOL

That's the way to do it!  Yay internet-less birthdays!  
Here's my image of Bree's birthday played out by little green smilies:  
:book: -> :knuddel: -> :tv: -> :knuddel: -> :sauf:-> :knuddel: -> :saufen: -> :knuddel: -> :banned: -> :knuddel:  -> :gott:  -> :knuddel: -> :winken:  -> :knuddel: -> :->  :knuddel:

 :ug:  

*DIES*

Yep, that's about how it looked.  ;)

Awww, I missed all the fun.  You can never trust ANYTHING with the word "Arolos" in it around the first of April.  

Like if they remake their Weyr into the Bunnyriders of Pern.  

Awww, hey guys, thanks! I missed this while I was enjoying a nice mostly internet-free birthday with lots of movies and books!  :D

Hey Paula & Becki! (And Eimi!!)

Yes, hanging out is so fun!  This morning, on my first work-free day, I'm busy writing.  God it's cool to be able to do that as a job!

 

I don't know if I can pick up any characters just now, but I've considered it!  :D  Maybe once I see how the rest of things shake out.  But I do miss hanging out with everyone!

Just popping my head in, though I haven't been around in fooorever.  At least not anywhere but behind the scenes, occasionally kicking the website to keep it running.

But I finally quit my day job to become a full time writer, so maybe now I have a littlee bit more time to at least hang out!

 :geek:

Do I get a sash too?  I got kicked out. :-D

Of course! Sashes and crowns and beer all around!    :king:

I'd love to see this rest for a bit, for everyone's sake.  There comes a point where you are so sick of it there's no way to be rational.  If you guys want to continue thinking, I think y'all are internet savvy enough to find a way to discuss it without us setting up a place for you to do it.  After all, I'm pretty sure y'all know each other's e-mail addresses.  

:geek:  I'll admit to owning the sash that says 'Miss Kicked-Out-in-2000'.

And it looks so pretty with your hat!   :king:

Triad's never going to be perfect, and the Council is never going to be perfect.  But one thing I do want to emphasize is something Eimi said that might have gotten lost in the shuffle: the voice of 5 people or 10 people is not more important than the voice of 1.  But if you do really strongly feel that five or ten of you share an opinion...you have an option.  Do what the Council does.  Compose a letter together that you're all willing to stand behind, and sign it with your names.  

And remember something else: we can all disagree and fight and make faces at each other, but we're all (mostly) grown up too.  Which means when we're done making faces, fighting, and throwing stuff...we can get back to having a good time.  

 

Test to destruction?  I'm your man!

Muahaha. Most excellent.  :D  I'm hoping to get a few days of peace this weekend so perhaps I can get something going.  PHPBB3 supposedly has some sort of easy mod installation, but I don't really trust it on this board, since this board has been imported, exported, upgraded and tweaked within an inch of its life over the years.  LOL

Update, Jane: they've released a beta version of the module for phpbb3.  Since it IS a beta version I wanted to install it on a dummy site first and see if I can get some people to test it out for me.  I'm getting ready to move residences (hopefully) but if a few of you are willing to wack at it while I'm busy moving, I might be able to get a test site up in the next week or two so we can see if it breaks anything.

I joined this club for the first time in 2001.  The Council imploded 5 months later and in the mess that followed one owner was ejected. I got dragged into the chaos and left shortly after.

I joined the club again in 2002.  The Council imploded 6 months later, and in the mess that followed one owner was ejected. I was used as the excuse for her being kicked out, and was encouraged to leave shortly after.  

In 2003 I wasn't even in the club.  The Council imploded. One of the owners was ejected.  (Hey, are we sensing a theme yet?  For anyone who's been around a really long time, just think back to 2000.  Some of you might remember that very same thing happening then, too.)  

In 2004 I rejoined the club.  Again.  Sometimes I never learn, but Triad seemed like a special place.  What can I say...I loved it.  Except it was struggling a little, possibly because all of the original owners had been kicked out by this point.  I took on some administrative duties.  Then more.  Then more.  I tried.  Sometimes I screwed up.  

In 2005, the only remaining owner of the club lost interest.  Emma and Clancey were trying to help out.  I recruited Eimi and Dana, barely out of mentorship, and pretty much forced them to learn the ropes as fast as humanly possible.  They had no idea what was going on and they worked 20, 30, 40 hour weeks trying to learn.  It was insane.  They were insane.  I was freaking nutballs, because this was a game, not a life calling.

But we learned.  And we tried.  And in 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009, the Council didn't implode.  Sometimes we fought with each other.  (Sorry, Eimi...I know you say we disagree, but here I'm going to disagree...sometimes we fought.)  Sometimes we were passionate in standing up for an idea or standing against it.  But the one thing we all agreed on, time and time again, no matter how very, very upset, hurt or angry someone made us: this club is not going to be the place where members are ejected unless they attack other members.

It turns out that's not the most comfortable rule in the world to follow.  When we were especially behind in our admin work I got to watch people I liked and respected picking us into little pieces on livejournal.  I had to pretend I didn't see it, because every member has the right to hate us, to complain about us, and to think we suck at everything and anything.

There is only one right I am reserving for the Council, and that is the right to go about their daily business on this forum without being dogpiled.  Because when I see a request for a place where people can express discontent while getting support, what I see is the past.  Mob mentality ruling the club and turning us into what we have struggled so hard to get away from: the club that implodes every year in such a spectacular fashion people stock up on popcorn just to watch it.

At the end of the day, you can agree with how we run things or you can disagree.  And if you disagree, you can decide what you want to do.  Pern fandom has a long running tradition in cases such as these: when you're convinced the council sucks and you could do it better, then do it.  Do it better.  Do it different.  Do it faster, cooler, nicer, less tyrant-y, less strict and hey, with all the NPC wings you want.  You'll have to do it with your own website and forums and associated headaches, but the option is yours.

No one will hate you.  No one will hex you or wish you ill.  But the council is not going to change the way they're running things.  They'll try to be faster, more efficient and understanding, but they won't be everything you want. They never will.

But they'll also not implode and kick you out, not for disagreeing, not for insulting them, not even for telling them you think they suck.  And in the grand scheme of internet clubs, you might be surprised how rare that is.

And that is all this tired webmonkey has to say.

Hey, Amanda.  :D

I was just stopping by to make sure all the weird database things had resolved themselves!