Hey Star Army! I'm looking forward to Dragon Con this weekend and I've been enjoying hanging out with you in the site's new Shoutbox. Time to post about what's happening on Star Army!
Shoutbox and IRC
The new Shoutbox is up and running and we've been having some great discussions in it. Already it's way more active than our IRC channel. If you missed what's happening in there, don't worry, all shoutbox chats are posted daily at the end of the day (midnight) into an archive thread in the Starlight Lounge.
The shoutbox offers some major advantages to the old IRC channel. First, it's built into the site, so you don't have to worry about nickname registrations or dealing with a third party. Second, if you enter the chat, you can tell what people are talking about by just scrolling up, and last, you can edit your posts. The chat also supports some BBcode.
From an admin point of view, it's much easier for us to actually moderate, whereas moderating on IRC has historically been a problem. And lately the IRC channel has been almost devoid of activity.
Because of the above, I've decided to "Sunset" the #stararmy IRC channel to where it's no longer officially supported by or moderated by Star Army.
New users should no longer be directed to IRC, but to the shoutbox.
Edit: Someone asked me about channel continuity of the IRC once I stop running it. The current plan is to transfer OP into good hands, possibly Kyle's.
New Wiki Pages
I want to highlight some new wiki pages:
Donator Rewards Available
I'm getting together a list of Donator Rewards to send out. To get yours, I need two things:
Finally, A Clear Ban Policy
Star Army now has a Ban Policy. It's amazing that after so many years that we didn't have a uniform guideline for how long bans last. Now we do! The maximum length of a normal ban is now limited to a year. Staff may continue to update this as necessary.
Now that the ban length policy has changed, some long-term banned members can also appeal to have their bans expire, though I'm not going to just go out looking for these guys.
Founding Member Zack Returns
One of Star Army's original members, Zack, a.k.a Uso, is going to be back on the board after being in exile for 3 years. To be frank, this is unprecedented. Nobody banned this long has ever kept up efforts to get back in. It was rather unexpected. But you have to understand, Zack feels like this place is home. He literally grew up with the site as a major part of his life.
Zack was mostly active from 2003 to 2010. Among his accomplishments, he created the first non-Wes-run RP plot, played a Taisho in Yamatai, played a Grand Admiral in Nepleslia, was Faction Manager of Nepleslia. He's also still the 12th highest post count on this forum.
Zack's ban, and I'm simplifying this a lot, was primarily a result of being an arrogant dick to people, primarily during various arguments over technology in the setting submissions forum (NTSE), and creating related drama. This ban expiring is a result of:
Plot Audits sounded like we were looking at a game master's taxes or something, so we're changing the name of Plot Audits to Roleplay Reviews. Because, well...that's what they are. Normally we do RP Reviews every January, April, and August, but August's have been pushed back until mid-September so we can update the checklists. I'm also introducing the concept of the buddy review, which is where GMs pair up and help each other reach higher RR scores.
Help your GM out by updating your character's wiki pages and anything else that needs updating.
That's all for now, Star Army.
-Wes
Shoutbox and IRC
The new Shoutbox is up and running and we've been having some great discussions in it. Already it's way more active than our IRC channel. If you missed what's happening in there, don't worry, all shoutbox chats are posted daily at the end of the day (midnight) into an archive thread in the Starlight Lounge.
The shoutbox offers some major advantages to the old IRC channel. First, it's built into the site, so you don't have to worry about nickname registrations or dealing with a third party. Second, if you enter the chat, you can tell what people are talking about by just scrolling up, and last, you can edit your posts. The chat also supports some BBcode.
From an admin point of view, it's much easier for us to actually moderate, whereas moderating on IRC has historically been a problem. And lately the IRC channel has been almost devoid of activity.
Because of the above, I've decided to "Sunset" the #stararmy IRC channel to where it's no longer officially supported by or moderated by Star Army.
New users should no longer be directed to IRC, but to the shoutbox.
Edit: Someone asked me about channel continuity of the IRC once I stop running it. The current plan is to transfer OP into good hands, possibly Kyle's.
New Wiki Pages
I want to highlight some new wiki pages:
- Fashion in Yamatai - Lot of cool art
- Slavery - A setting-wide overview
Donator Rewards Available
I'm getting together a list of Donator Rewards to send out. To get yours, I need two things:
- Post in this thread in the supporters forum. This is proof you are a donator and tells me what to send you.
- PM me your shipping details instead of posting them in the thread (for privacy).
Finally, A Clear Ban Policy
Star Army now has a Ban Policy. It's amazing that after so many years that we didn't have a uniform guideline for how long bans last. Now we do! The maximum length of a normal ban is now limited to a year. Staff may continue to update this as necessary.
Now that the ban length policy has changed, some long-term banned members can also appeal to have their bans expire, though I'm not going to just go out looking for these guys.
Founding Member Zack Returns
One of Star Army's original members, Zack, a.k.a Uso, is going to be back on the board after being in exile for 3 years. To be frank, this is unprecedented. Nobody banned this long has ever kept up efforts to get back in. It was rather unexpected. But you have to understand, Zack feels like this place is home. He literally grew up with the site as a major part of his life.
Zack was mostly active from 2003 to 2010. Among his accomplishments, he created the first non-Wes-run RP plot, played a Taisho in Yamatai, played a Grand Admiral in Nepleslia, was Faction Manager of Nepleslia. He's also still the 12th highest post count on this forum.
Zack's ban, and I'm simplifying this a lot, was primarily a result of being an arrogant dick to people, primarily during various arguments over technology in the setting submissions forum (NTSE), and creating related drama. This ban expiring is a result of:
- The questionable way in which is was banned, which involved a poll topic and interpretation of a vague rule rather than solid evidence of rule-breaking.
- The new ban policy doesn't allow permanent bans for moderate behavior issues.
- The site staff has been appealed to by Zack and myself and we made the decision as a group to give him a chance to start over.
Plot Audits are now Roleplay ReviewsPlot Audits sounded like we were looking at a game master's taxes or something, so we're changing the name of Plot Audits to Roleplay Reviews. Because, well...that's what they are. Normally we do RP Reviews every January, April, and August, but August's have been pushed back until mid-September so we can update the checklists. I'm also introducing the concept of the buddy review, which is where GMs pair up and help each other reach higher RR scores.
Help your GM out by updating your character's wiki pages and anything else that needs updating.
That's all for now, Star Army.
-Wes