Building a Community

[Spacy]

First indication something is wrong:  red triangle


When I click for details, this is what I get:


And, this is the major issue - about half the pages on the off topic give me this when I try to enter them (the Happy Birthday ET, for example)

[t_ras]

The problem was an image from the stated site that BU linked. I removed it.
Regarding the rest of the messages I woudnt worry about them.

[Buster's Uncle]

In a response to a friend's admonition about being gossipy, I just spontaneously ended up writing one of my policy speeches -not the what I enforce and why that goes in the rules thread, shorter because of a strong distaste for having to be Teh Man, but- one of those semi-eloquent TL;DR walls that go here because our biggest single selling point for this forum is respectful and thoughtful management that allows fun, not fight --- so here:

Green, if my only management priority in play was no drama, I couldn't allow any discussion of politics or religion.

Nossir, you're here to have a good time, every soul ever logged in on this forum is here to have a good time on some level, and that includes me, and you don't understand how or why I manage as I do without understanding I try to give the community its head in anything not too indecent or unpleasant I can afford to tolerate and still have a good place.

And maximum if-embarrassing-or-risky transparency is one of my more basic site policies.  You know a little about my history with the stupid drama blowback over incomplete PM and private subforum leaks -during my sordid past as a poison newb, mostly, but always going on a little- many in the greater community seem to have a problem with honoring confidences, and that's one of the few things that I'll turn into the Hulk and quickdraw the hammer over w/ no notions of mercy troubling, and not hesitate nor feel bad about afterwards.  I. done. been. burned. a few times that way.

Instead, I choose, knowing where you and Uno come from when you get onto me that way about this kind of thing, and knowing you're both right, to remove all possibility of misunderstanding by getting things only potentially dicey and not actively embarrassing up in plain sight and on the published record.

It is basic to the participatory aspect of how I manage here, Yr Humble Dictator depending on the counsel of his beloved people, which is exactly how you and I are currently interacting.  If I don't hang out laundry not disgustingly soiled, how can you know enough to usefully advise me?  You just engaged in gig-earning behavior over there, but welcome encouraged behavior here.  My way burns more time, but it's the right thing to do, and flatly just works better in this room with these people in the numbers we get.


Besides, if Lefty swung by and read this entire thread word-for-word, he'd probably never say a word to anyone, not having taken any great offense -or maybe argue with me- but I'd anticipate no great likelihood of provocation or hard feelings.  Some common camper who doesn't know me is more likely to take offense, but --- I should have such problems, Syn being it for CFC people who've posted here since Kyriakos was pushing his book last year.  (We're Apolyon's grandchild, culturally, is the big problem I perceive with drawing and keeping CFC people.)  Petek was far the most active CFCer for years in the beginning when we needed his support, but the gentleman doesn't OT, and I've said nothing I wouldn't want him to see.

This thread is for downage reports and gossip, one being a directly useful function, and the other a ghetto for when somebody wants to girldog on something not RL but not AC2 - check the OP; Zoid really meant to slag Locutus, not discuss downage.  I allow it, though bitter badmouthing is generally discouraged in this positive-atmosphere community, and actually forbidden where I deem it likely to be seen by the wrong person and cause trouble (and you are invited, if the search engine steps up better than I expect, to search AC2 for how many times I've said vyeh on this site, then count how many of those times I said something negative about; discretion is not an alien concept to me) but - allowing a medium-length leash in this thread serves a very real need.

-Not least of which sometimes I want to grouse myself - and I am a student of all forums in our circle, because my job, because it's related to my own need/love for talking shop about the number one hobby I pursue like a full-time job right here where you stand.  I'm always thinking about forum-building/running, and sue me for wanting to talk about it, and studying other forums in our circle and comparing / contrasting being part of my learning process - and talking about, my idea of a good time.


Again, it's my house and I am king here - but the way I roll is to want input, else how can I make you happy and encourage you to come around and entertain me?  I've always talked about a major fraction of what I do and how I do it, and I invite feedback, and none of that's likely to ever change.  It's carefully thought-through.  Few things can't be worked-out through talking it out - works for me...

S0, what have YOU done to promote AC2 today?  It's YOUR community, and YOU hold that power...

[Trench Dog]

So; with my rejoining of this forum and spark of interest in it again, the things I want to bring attention is this:

1. Getting more people on live multiplayer, figuring it out. I've got friends with interest in this game but they are intimidated by the very hard setup of multiplayer, there was a method as defined in Mandalore Gaming's video

(click to show/hide)

https://youtu.be/9oDIG4RRcLM?t=683 (yet to sit down for it though myself.)

2. I've posted an interactive story in Planet Tales, called Tale of a Scout, which follows Stetson Amberfield, the story being one where the readers can at certain points have decisions that can impact the flow of the story.

3. I plan on doing some content creation regarding factions, reckon this can be pursued more in modding but has the faction editor on the GoG version of the game been fixed with uploading pictures, custom quotes and related? I know back when I was doing it editing on note pad was the most efficient way with some specific file formats for the sound files needing to be used, among other things. Was wondering if new developments came in or if its about as similar as it was in the past?

No worries either way on the last one, figured to ask.

[Kirov]

How can I add many pics to a post? Usually I use one of those 'image upload' websites for posting in forums. But what if I don't want to do that 20 times?

Sorry if it's a bad place to ask that, I didn't want to start a separate thread.

[Buster's Uncle]

There's several ways, but I'd recommend starting an album here and img-linking from there.  It's what I do.

You'd probably want to open the album in a second tab while you're copy/pasting links, but that goes for any way you did it...

[Buster's Uncle]

Somebody at CFC started an OT thread, Are You a Mod for Any Other Forum/Subreddit? What's Your Story?  I posted, and want to share:



Ha.  At last, my time has come!

I was a newb at Apolyton of 2.5 months' vintage when WPC happened in early 2009 and I followed the enthusiastic SMACer migration.  At the shiny new place, there was naturally a great deal of talking and thinking and action about building a community and how forums work and such.  That's remained an area of interest to me since; my SMACX modding didn't always draw the feedback it deserved, but socializing with people was very gratifying.  I'm in it for the people.

-This account contains glaring omissions of drama and Nerdwars^tm, BTW.

So, after several years as a very enthusiastic citizen-soldier of community building activity in the SMACX section (and straight-up partnering with the moderator in the private GotM team folder running SMACX 'cause we both hate PMs) there was an open call for moderators in late 2011, and I stepped up.  I was asked to stay off managing people -fair; I had considerable history as a troublemaker and problem member I'm glaringly omitting- and focus on cleaning up the smilies and some graphical forum stuff of the kind.  I made a major project of it, also pitching in majorly on janitor stuff like hammering bots, and cleaning out old bots from the member list - it was like stuff I'd been doing forever, just with more buttons.  I do not mind the janitor stuff.

And when someone posted a Buffy nip-slip shot in Civ4, I was so sheepish in handling that no-brainer as first staffer on the scene that my popularity actually increased with that crowd, and the malefactor in particular.  (Beta wasn't in trouble at WPC, and never did it again.)  Related, I made a thread in SMACX, as a citizen, talking about what we needed to do as a community and as individuals about the ongoing Nerdwars^tm problems I'm not getting into here.  -Again, I was just making speeches as just another member -and I don't know if it ultimately did any good, either- but I definitely noticed that I was being listened to, unlike a few previous efforts to influence the community, definitely due to that shiny nerdbadge in my postbit.  That there's the origin of my thoughts about the necessity of leadership as inherent to a forum staff job description, and it's also where my love of the 'Kirk-speeches' began.

[shrugs]  Somewhere in this, I finally signed up at my moderating partner's side-project, Alpha Centauri 2, and a couple hours later got an email notification that I'd been made Administrator w/o any consultation.  Well.

A glaring omission later, 2012, we were at AC2 putting in the work to make it live -WORK- and just naturally fell into I was doing the people management.  My shock that I was good at it was as profound as anyone's...    I was never in it for any interest in telling anyone what to do, though I had always been a very bossy citizen - difference being that I've got opinions about what people do, but I have my own authority issues and am still uncomfortable being The Man.  At any rate, the next year I offered to kick in half the bills and became, ferchrissakes, an Owner.

But, you know, I'm in this community for the excellent people, and I've put my money and my life, pretty much, behind that, making a good place, attracting them and keeping them.  There are many good days when it pays off.  I love the people.

[Geo]

...And its not even Monday yet.

[Buster's Uncle]

I don't think you're talking about the Monday.

[Geo]

You, Sir, are very perceptive! 

[Buster's Uncle]

And I'm very obviously in a state.

Fun while it lasts...


You should totally be commenting on the golden comedy of the glaring omission handling...

I wonder if it's as funny if you know what's left out, funnier/what.  Personally, makes me sad...

[Syn]

This place have any equivalents to the Random Raves/Rants/Thoughts threads from CFC?

[Geo]

Well, BU's obnoxious thread is a good place to rave I think.

[Buster's Uncle]

BU's Foul Mood Thread.  -(BU's obnoxious PC thread is silly post-count bragging.)

I use it for my personal random thread, and encourage others to post personal issues if they don't want their own thread - but making an actual Random whatever thread would be better, way better for what you want, I'd say.

[Geo]

Oops.


(still awake, or already awake?)