Building a Community

[Resonance]

There are many people actively interested in SMAC/X.  The challenge which you/we are rightly exploring is how to concentrate this interest in one place.  While searching online for SMAC/X art I happened on this Anonymous discussion thread.  The surge of interest and joy of communing with fellow believers , erm, I mean SMAC/X fans is palpable 

https://archive.foolz.us/tg/thread/19931200/

This artwork featured on that thread was particuarly diverting 
https://0-media-cdn.foolz.us/ffuuka/board/tg/image/1333/85/1333859773195.jpg

[Buster's Uncle]

Thank you Res - sisko is always extremely interested in this kind of thing - he may be the foremost living expert on obscure SMAC-holes on the web, being multi-lingual and spending a lot of time searching. 

There is another way to contribute to building the community, folks; try to find SMAC(X) threads, forums, DeviantArt fan art, what have you - that sisko doesn't already know about.  He's too busy to live, so you can stump him.  Give us your links.  We're always looking to find the thousands of fans out there who've never discovered the mainstream SMAC(X) community.

The fan-art thread in Theory of Everything can always use more art, and while you're copying/linking something, why not make a reasonable attempt to make a courtesy contact with the artist, incidentally letting them know we're here?

[sisko]

thanks for the link, Resonance! we know there's still interest out there for this old game.
this site aims at becoming the meeting point for all those who want talk to about the SMAC universe and we appreciate everyone's contribution.

[NewAgeOfPower]

HNNNNGGGG if only Miriam were that cute in game...

[Buster's Uncle]

Yes, if only she was.  Have you seen my de-uglified alters of her in the fan art thread in ToE forum?




..................................................................................

sisko and I have been so pleased with the results of empowering t-ras in MP that we put our heads together and decided to empower him further by making him Moderator of The Command Nexus.  I don't think anyone's told him yet.

You don't have to call him sir, and we expect him to not let it go to his head or use his powers too much, but this is a measure of how pleased we are with him and how much trust he's earned already. 

Once again, let's hear it for t_ras!    (Oops.)



This forum is booming, and Fun Is Being Had.  People are stepping up to pitch in, and it's working.  We can do this.  We are doing it.

[NewAgeOfPower]

BU, there is some deuglification, then there is HNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

[Buster's Uncle]

Yeah, I saw that one as I scanned the thread.  I thought of Kilkakon - if you like anime style that much, why haven't you played his mod yet and reported back?

You didn't answer my question - though posting there would be better.

[NewAgeOfPower]

I believe I said I don't like Pokemon on that thread.

That is somewhat untruthful. As a child, I hated Pokemon with a burning passion.

[Buster's Uncle]

Dude, I'm 47 - that's one of those horrifically annoying kiddie fads to me.  It doesn't change the basic excellence of the craftsmanship of the graphics, and it doesn't lessen what I'm told is the technical excellence of the mod.  He made custom units, SE changes, and moded facilities and techs.  There's a lot more to it than than the weird little monsters that irritated us so in the early 90's.  I Have No Name thought it was very interesting and played it extensively, and not for the pokestuff.

[Buster's Uncle]

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=104

I just wanted to bring up how much we appreciate Earthmichael - this is far from the first thing he's uploaded.  ISTR that Davyboy has put a few things up, too.

Adding content to our Downloads section is one of those things that forum members tend not to think of, because they don't use the section that much - many of the files tend to have already been posted in someone's project thread, or where the converation that inspired them happened.  But the Downloads section is very often the first exposure to a forum random lurkers and googlers looking for goodies have.  It's how I first found the community - as bait, it does work.

So, this is yet another way to pitch in on our meta-project of building the SMAC(X) community; share useful files in Downloads.  Check out the section and grab yourself some goodies - much is old stuff from before AC2.  If you see any empty spots you can fill; it's not a lot of trouble to upload -remember to write up a nice description page, telling what the file is and why it's useful- and we end up with a treasure chest, inexhaustible and open to all, and everybody wins.

[Buster's Uncle]

Two members have mentioned recently that they'd avoided getting involved in the community in the past over concerns about moderator tendency to go all nerdbadge on people.  The very fact that most of you can figure out what I mean with the term 'go all nerdbadge' just supports the proposition that there really is a problem out there in the overall 4x community; something about 4x drawing very detail-oriented people, I think, so a lot of aspies with no sense of perspective end up moderating.  We are very glad to hear that our style has passed the smell test with some discriminating consumers.  So a few words about our managment philosophy are in order.

You're all adults, and my partner and I are adults, and we all act like adults, and we're going to keep acting like adults, and treat each other like adults.  If you're not an adult, you're going to act like one anyway at AC2.

It's really as simple as that.  That is the rules here, in a nutshell.  Be a Man.  (Or Woman, as the case may be.)

Now, adults get to joke and clown and woop it up - that's a lot of the purpose of this forum.  We're here to have a good time, and we're not crowding the saturation point for silliness yet.  Party on with your own bad self.  Just - be considerate, and always tease only those you respect.  The other members are my friends, and I have my friends' backs.  You, too, 'cause I'm your friend, too, and have your back.

Be man (or woman) enough to never hide behind your keyboard, and comport yourself like we can see you and know your real name and could punch you, if it came to that.  This has always been my credo online, because I am proud and I am not a coward.  Be proud.



I know a forum where acting like a yard-ape punk boy is virtually manditory.  I know a forum where you are guaranteed to be treated like a kid.  I know a forum with a very malicious person in charge, and it's dead.  I know one that was born trying to find a happy balance, but the owners are virtual absentee landlords and their favorites can troll without let or hinderance.  Allowing everything is no good, allowing nothing is only good for kids, which is what they get.  Running a forum as a private kingdom and to settle scores has kept one from living, and never acting except hypocritically will be the death of another soon enough.

sisko and I have seen it done wrong, and we learned.  Aside from moving posts occasionally, and sisko liking to put the right icon on a thread, we haven't had to moderate a human being at all yet - a trend we hope continues.  We know we're not better than you (or at least not because we have nerdbadges  ), and we hope that shows.  I want all of you to ignore that it says Adminstrator in my postbit when I'm talking to you, unless I make it clear I'm speaking officially.  This includes when I'm commenting on your posting behavior and/or manners.  I don't NEED such minute control of this enviroment that my every whim is law; I'd rather pursuade than give orders.  I expect you to be smart and mature and wise.  I expect those things of myself.

You can sass us to your heart's content under the same limitations you're under about anyone else; don't piss us off. 

We're here, we're active and on top of things, and we're pledged to try to make everyone happy and treat them with respect (including ourselves, as is only fair).  You can take that to the bank.

[Buster's Uncle]

One night while sisko was afk asleep, I was thinking about the state of our multiplayer section -it could have been running better-  and realized we had a second CMN, who had recently expressed/demonstrated interest in doing what he could to help build our community.  Now, MP is sisko's territory/responsiblity, but the nature of forum business is that everything tends to need to have happened yesterday, so I took executive action.  The PM below (what I sent - don't go divulging what people sent you without their consent) is quoted verbatim, save a censored vulgarity and one comma added for clarity.  There is much about leadership therein.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To:  t_ras

Subject: Building MP: Your mission, should you accept it

I'm willing to help.
I don't have much time, but I try to help bsing CMN where needed.

You are a good man, sir.  I don't think anyone has told you how grateful the players, sisko and I are for you stepping up like you did on We'll meet soon, but everyone is.

So you went and said the quoted stuff in Building a Community, and as I said at various places in the thread, what's needed isn't everyone doing everything; each needs to do what he can, where he can.  For you, that's as the only other CMN we have besides my overworked partner.

MP needs Leadership - it not only needs games set-up in a timely fashion, it needs on-going encouragement and judicious prodding.  I don't mind working with new guys a little to make them feel welcome and get them started, but I'm not an MPer, and I'm a little embarrassed to try to tell anyone established what to do.  But somebody needs to be agressive about addressing anytime something stalls and generally work on keeping morale up and things running smoothly. 

sisko has been in an awful bind juggling RL demands on his time; since he came back, he's been spending more time here than he can afford to.  Running a forum has horribly complex behind-the-scenes technical demands that are beyond me, and a great deal of what he does for AC2 is invisible even to me, because he doesn't have time to tell me what he's doing, or even that he's doing it or did it.  He thinks I don't know that.  He's so busy lately that he doesn't have time to read half of the forum business stuff I post at him in the staff room, which I imagine pisses him off as much as it does me.

SO, I feel [like a tool] for stomping into his baliwick, MP, and doing this, but I figure it's my duty to AC2 and him to take action.  I'm 'hiring' you as sisko's deputy for MP.

I don't remember if you were around in the earliest days of WPC when vyeh was running MP, but he did a fantastic job - things happened on time and promptly, morale seemed to be great, and the games kept moving along.  There was leadership.  I don't think it's necessary for CMNs to take themselves and everything MP -especially thread discipline- nearly so seriously as he did, but agressive leadership about addressing problems like stalled games and a lot of cheerleading to keep up morale works.  Period.  MP was really humming along in those days.

In one sense, the job description is very simple:  Make Everyone Happy, Keep Everyone Happy.  The rest is details about how you do it. 

You and sisko are going to want to put your heads together about this, but what I envision is: you do what you can to make sure everything that needs doing gets done, and see that nothing falls between the cracks.  You're sisko's guy, and you encourage him, and you post a lot to encourage the other MPers (that's the leadership, in a nutshell).  I'm making a private CMN subfolder as soon as I send this, so you two can skip the PMs - he doesn't really like them - and efficiently discuss who does what and why and whatever.



None of this makes you better than anyone else or gives you much real power, but if you act like a leader, encouraging instead of ordering, and leading your people where they want to go, they WILL follow.  You will be overworked and underappreciated, but this is like that line in The Postman about leadership: "If I don't do it, who will?" 


I am personally rather astonished to find myself now a leader in the SMAC(X) community - I'm a misanthrope who's terrible at getting along with people, and was a general in the NerdWars^tm.  I just thought healing was needed, started a thread, made a speech or two trying to talk anyone else into taking point, found out I got listened to and taken a lot more seriously as a moderator, no one else was willing to take over, but several were willing to pitch in, including you, and I've kept stepping in and doing what I thought needed doing that I could and persuading others to do what I couldn't - and I guess, like the reluctant protagonist of The Postman, I find myself a leader, even though I feel like a fraud.  I just wanted more people to talk to.


I encourage you to look at it the same way - you want MP to run better - this is how.



Thank you in advance for doing whatever you can do to help.  This PM wil not destruct in five seconds.

[t_ras]

Gentelmen! I see many posters here who are not multiplaying 
C'mon and prove your self! 
Just each one peeks one game and I'm sure you'll keep playing.

Think you'r good - GET IN THE RING!

[JarlWolf]

I might try out Multiplayer but, I have never played multiplayer for email on this game before and im not aware of how it works. And IP playing was extremely buggy for me, and LAN is out of the question as I doubt anyone lives near me for us to meet up. So, what I might do instead is a AAR that is run entirely on the decisions of players. Its the closest to "multiplayer" I can get.

[t_ras]

Email is prity easy, just try it.
I suggest you try this
alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2438.new#new