I'm out, I'm done, that's it.

True, I have quit alcohol and cocaine indeed, but that's a positive way of quitting. It was a long and hard process, but I am very proud that I have overcome these addictions.

Edit: Like I said, Xz and Vorak stands still in the Jarinor and Snowmane user group, is that corrrect?

 

and yet, we remain. Good to see you post, Quincy.


...I wonder if I could drag Q back onto the forum. I think I still have him on msn.

Yes, we've been this for a very very long time. As Quincy said, things change. Time we do so, I guess. Either that, or we go out speaking the Kings.


...there's a special place in hell reserved for those who waste good scotch.

 

Say auf wiedersehen to your Nazi balls!

Best scene in that movie. Hands down.

 

Was she flamed into oblivion? I have seen no evidence of this. In fact, the bulk of the flame I've seen toward her came her way in this very thread after she'd already declared her retirement. Quite frankly, I am still surprised at how many of the Lords attacked her once she left. Can somebody link me to some of the more overt flaming of Xiao_Caity?

This is a piss-poor justification for immature behavior if I've ever heard one. We ought not flame newcomers for the same reason we ought not abuse children: harming the developing members of any community will unnecessarily create unhealthy members of that community. Abuse is counterproductive to a healthy community and that is all there is to the matter.

EDIT: A Suggestion That Occurred to Me After the Fact.
When newcomers come to The House, they are likely excited to find an active community centered around a topic that should be dead. These people are probably eager to participate and jump right into contributing as opposed to reading any drab Rules or FAQ post (I don't visit many online forums; is diving into a FAQ thread common practice?). If somebody whom we presume doesn't know any better does something untoward in The House why rake him over the coals rather than politely point him to the FAQ?

 

So I'm not the only one who missed out the flaming, assuming there was any to begin with.

I don't think that her desertion changed a lot in the attitude of the members of the community. Those who wished to attack her did so, and it's not like they were pretending to love her for years up to now. The rest simply took advantage of the situation to goof around a little and anyone should be able to tell the difference between joke and hate, seeing how this place shouldn't be taken too seriously. All in all, the House's reaction to Xiao's decision turned out pretty much how I expected it to.

A FAQ is like a technical manual. Everyone should read it before even touching the damn machinery, but let's face it, who does.

I feel obliged to point out that wobbler experienced a specific type of child abuse, erm, flaming. If I understand correctly, it wasn't the "Hey guys, he's new, let's flame him for the sake of it" type of flaming but rather the "Hey guys, he sucks at English, let's flame him and maybe he'll pay more attention to it" one. And hey, it worked, he said himself that that encouraged him to put more effort into his posts, therefore improvement came to being. It increased the average level of posts in the House, so it was a good thing.

I wasn't much of a fan of flaming newbies myself (apart from those who were so stupid they needed it to be said in their faces, I mean seriously), but truth be said, the method has proven quite effective over the years, being so very efficient at separating seeds from chaff. The method by itself isn't bad as it would guarantee that the forum would be composed of "high quality" members only - like it did for all those years - if only the amount of newcomers wasn't nearly non-existent nowadays, when it pretty much blocks the inflow of new blood.

Simple yet effective. This would be a good suggestion especially in cases of gravedigging, since the practise is allowed in most places on the Webz and people are very confused when they are being attacked for responding to the more dusty threads, not really understanding the problem.

EDIT: Silly typos are silly, they are.

 

The coals are more fun. I maintain that those who belong here end up staying here, and those who do not, don't. This is, for the most part, a self policing community. If we don't drive out the riffraff, we become a community of riffraff. This place would have gone to hell a long time ago were it not for the vigilance of the dearly departed ancients laying down solid rules and mercilessly enforcing them. As long as we continue to follow in their footsteps, the House of Lords retains its identity. As soon as we lower the bar and let our guard down, it becomes a house of trolls. That is a fate worse than death.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

 

Agree with everything there, The DavisChanger.

There hadn't been much 'flaming' of Xiao recently (there wasn't really all that much activity on the whole), however I think the VFX with Zanza was used as an excuse to escape, if anything. She most certainly could be annoying, but even the House of Lords has to tone down the abuse sooner or later unless you want this place to die off.

It's naive and rather ignorant to think of flaming (particularly towards newer members) as a 'good thing'; as TheDavisChanger said, it's counterproductive particularly in smaller communities such as ours. Larger forums can get away with it as very few members stand out of the crowd to the point where trolling and/or flaming becomes personal. Heck, the mere site of GD on a good day is probably more than enough to scare more than a few members away.

As for the FAQ issue, it is possible in phpBB2 (might actually be an extension - the software this site runs on is so fucking old I don't really remember anymore) to display the FAQ whenever a new member signs up.

Randomly drop a keyword in the middle of it somewhere whenever someones wishes to sign up and don't let it get any further unless they enter the correct word. That should force them to read most of it, atleast though it may seem like too much work for some. Perhaps a stripped down version of the FAQ?

 

Policing trolls is one thing. Braining newborns is quite another.

 

I think this forum is in due time for some change. Things that will encourage more posters to join, that will make threads more active, and in general revitalize the forum.

First of all, and most obviously, a larger scope of discussion is required. I personally think that just following RPG's in general, from the lens of Arcanum/Troika fans is the best way to go. So, the News forum would consist of all news related to RPG's, along with anything related to Troika's former employees/old Troika games. To do this properly more news posters would have to be recruited, with the goal initially being 1-2 news posts per week. A site name change may also be needed to account for this change in direction, but is not entirely necessary.

I think that for this to work, a re-structuring of the forum index would have to be made. What I am thinking now is a setup like this:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

::Forum Index::

General Discussion:
---> Site Feedback
---> General Discussion
---> Roleplaying Forum
---> Vault of Folly (which I am all for renaming "The Void", btw..)

Game Discussion:
---> Terra-Arcanum News Comments (Here is where all of the news will be posted and discussed, this includes news of new RPG's (Fallout 4 release date announced!) news of old Troika ones (Drog releases surprise patch! brand new bugfixes!) and news about old Troika members (Leonard Boyarsky moves to Obsidian!))
---> General Arcanum Discussion (A merger of 'Arcanum Discussion', 'Arcanum Hints & Tips', and 'Arcanum 2 Suggestion Forum')
---> Arcanum Modding Discussion (A merger of 'Modding and Scripting Support' and 'Module Discussion')
---> General RPG Discussion (For discussion on all RPG's other than Arcanum)
---> General Game Discussion (For discussion on non-RPG games)

Archives (Locked Forum):
---> ToEE Archives (All threads relating to ToEE made on this forum)
---> Bloodlines Archives (All threads relating to Bloodlines made on this forum)
---> Mystary! Archives (All threads relating to discussion on Mystary! made on this forum)
---> The Sierra Forums Gateway

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This format does away with redundant forums, as well as depressing reminders of the past (Arcanum 2 Discussion, Mystary, they are very upsetting forum titles) and provides room for the new discussion that will be taking place.

Obviously, the front page would also have to be changed to match the changes being made to the forums. I think the front page should be kept really simple as it is now, with links leading to the 'actual' site, such as the forums, download section, etc. Still, a little clean up and sprucing things up wouldn't hurt.

I also think that some changes need to be made to the rules around here, or at least what is perpetuated as 'the rules' by older members. I've seen a lot of cases where a newbie gets totally grilled for using an emoticon or 'grave digging' a thread (or what some of you seem to think is grave digging, no offense intended ) to me it's not a big deal since that is the culture this forum has cultivated, it's just that I don't think there should be any official moderator or administrator support for really harsh treatment of newbies.

This forum should play to its strengths. That is, the freedom of speech enjoyed by us here, the 'elite' atmosphere of the forums, as well as the fact that T-A is, at present, the biggest congregation of Troika/Arcanum fans, who to this day still discuss it and mod it.

My opinion.

 

Shucks *blushes*

Cloaked Figure:
Read the FAQ.

 

Jazintha Piper: Welcome back (Now we only need the return of Silvara, Vyenna and Rosie)

Edit: Could it possible to bring some of the older members back to this forum, like Ferret, Jinxed, Q, Snowmane, Jarinor, Vyenna, Mathboy, etc?

 

I already have...in fact it is these rules that I am addressing with my post.

 

I'm sure if they wanted to be back, they'd be back. For whatever reason they've moved on, best not to try and drag them down again.

Silvara is still around, she just doesn't post here that often and instead spends time lurking in IRC.

 

I don't know what happened to Ferret. He may still be active on RPGCodex. Jinxed, and Snowmane both vanished, and with my sitting in a position of authority, aren't likely to return. DE and I tried for awhile to track down Jarinor, but had no luck. Vyenna, I don't know about, and last I heard Mathboy was homeless. No, if anything, we ought to bring in new people. There isn't anyhting here to keep the old folks here if they do come back. That's why they left in the first place.

 

Let's not kid ourselves. They left because the tree got them, ipso facto they are all dead.

 

Xiao-bashing has always been balanced with (and the result of) her interaction with Papa Dog. I would guess that since Papa Dog's activity level has decreased, she really didn't have anyone to defend her and her self-esteem anymore, despite DarkFool's best attempts (which weren't gag-worthy and sycophant enough, but more lecherous).

I agree with what Cloaked Figure said. We should put up news. Maybe even post reviews of RPGs.

 

If I can remember correctly, Vyenna went posting in CN. (I am not sure, if she is still there.) Did not we lose Jarinor, through WoW? Also, does anyone knows where Bunny and Blinky are?

 

Woah, what did I walk into here? Oh, Caity is gone? Huh. I really liked her. Hope she comes back.

 

Didn't you say you left for good?