User blog:Ludicrine/Lovely School Situation

This blog post will be updated with information about my schedule or school situation, among other smalltalky things.

[NOVEMBER 23] WEEKDAY SCHEDULE (EST (Sorry)): On most weekdays I may be on from anytime after 4:30 PM to around 10:00 PM. On Saturdays I may check chat at random intervals but rarely will edit unless prompted. Sunday scheduling is completely random, but it would not be advised to wait for me at early hours in the day. During 9:40-10:25, I will usually be available on any of the documents that you should be familiar with: The Tropedoc, Clubbing Seals, and Thirdoc are available for use. Fan-Ball is currently blocked at my school and attempts to access it are generally futile. Archive.org does work as a bypass, but chat is not an option and editing is incredibly taxing and time-consuming, so I'll see if you do dumb shet and I won't be pleased when I get back. So, y'know, don't do dumb shet. Don't expect much editing around the holiday seasons as well, as internet may or may not be a thing.

20:24, November 16, 2014 (UTC): [Edit 22:55, November 23, 2014 (UTC): No more skin-switching. Superiorityyyyy.] [Edit 22:38, December 16, 2014 (UTC): Keeping here because still relevant.]

Anyhow, I'll just dump my thoughts here since, as I said, editing is not a fun time:
 * Breeding Center "Special Combinations" needs to be reworked. They were really cool but people are kinda just shoving two pets in a room and expecting to have a sensible outcome. It's too difficult to catalogue and it's getting to be a lengthy and laggy-to-edit section on the page. I'd do away with it or limit what the supposed "test breeds" can actually do, because it's getting to be a bit much.

22:38, December 16, 2014 (UTC):

Alright, so this is the message nobody wanted to read but I apparently have to type anyway.

This site is my home and its users are my family. You as a community have helped and supported me in your own ways and I, though in feeble, non-comparing units, try my hand at what I can to give back. It's an experience that I unfortunately assume that I cannot produce for many of the rest of the users but attempt to replicate anyway.

Beginning even before the start of the wiki chat this site has had an issue with user abuse and control. The silliness and ignorance of powers by administration is an issue I've apologized for in the past and I'm sure others have as well, but is another issue altogether. We stumble and fall and attempt to learn from our errors and, while we have not always been, we have entered a stage in which we are attempting to accept criticism and open commentary from users to, again, continue spreading a sense of safeness to the community which has given back to us so much more. Communication has been a big issue on site. It always has been, from sockpuppet mishaps and arguments gone wrong, users lost and users gained. It is my hope that all users, regardless of past situations or present, can become more comfortable with taking their issues to each other rather than in scheming and plotting against one another. This is not new and has been done, and it is how we lose users and fall apart as a community.

So while we're on the subject of things that aren't new, let's talk about the not-so latest and greatest poison here.

Multiple users have in the past chosen to "pick on the new guy", though not so much with new-ness as much as with age. The community has seemed to have an issue with targeting, whether intentionally or not, younger members of the site in hateful, manipulative, or otherwise improper conduct. This is nothing new and certainly not beating around the bush in any sense- I'm guilty of it myself, and a plethora of past users have been guilty of it as well. Heck, even Speddos got his notorious name from it. It has driven away users, broken trust, and created a perpetual cycle of moving up theoretical notches on a totem-pole, or perhaps a downwards-spiral of mutual hatred in some cases.

And by this point if you're going to say something along the lines of "but x got to do it to y and xe didn't get in trouble!" I'm going to stop you right there and have you analyze that sentence over and over until you understand what you've just typed. It is not a rite of passage to harass users. Regardless of age, beliefs, identities, or anything else, our job is to create a comfortable environment in the chat that should not suddenly and inexplicably exclude long-running members ingrained in the community over personal vendettas. It is not an issue of senseless power abuse in which it takes longer for cases involving higher-ups to be targeted and brought down. It is a poison, and the continued use of it needs to end. If you honestly think that you rightfully deserve to inflict such emotional damage upon a user just because it's your turn, you need to reconsider. These are people. Young people absorbing what they can and choosing to spend their time here. They are not commodities or easy-outs as emotional venting.

"X got away with this and you're playing favorites."

And it was addressed and it stopped. Do you see it happening? I sure don't. And if you do, you should be taking that up with me.

"You're doing the same thing."

Unless you are explicitly manipulating people on-site I am here to listen. I've heard every excuse and every story and so long as I know that you haven't been pulling strings and dibbing about with those I care about deeply, you can come up to me anytime and I'll listen. Yes, even if I storm out of chat cussing and kicking. That's happened many times and nobody's done anything like that. It's a thing you can do. Trust me.

"This is about x and you're beating around the bush."

This was inspired by the recent ban and is still an issue. It has not stopped being an issue, and I am quite sure that it will not stop being an issue unless it is explicitly addressed, which is what I chose to do. I'm in particular looking at three users on this site that will remain unlisted, which remains an open invitation for everyone here to watch their actions just a little bit more carefully.

This is not the end of joking, horsing around, or our otherwise unorthodox dibbing in chat. I've been incredibly comfortable in my experience on this site and my hope is to extend that level of comfort to the existing community here, which comes by broadening my own boundaries and stifling those aspects that may render other users insecure. Forcing my own ideals of what is comfortable down someone else's throat is in no way to share this comfort and merely ends up perpetuating the cycle I address now. That's no way to run a site by any viewpoint and I work to change it.

As of the posting of this remark I will be editing the official chat rules for further clarification of what is allowed and not allowed in chat. Yes, we'll have to be a bit more stingy with certain things, no, it won't afflict you to a massive degree, yes, they're all things that we can all do without.

Love y'all.

00:47, December 27, 2014 (UTC): This may be a complete surprise to everyone but I get incredibly moody, especially around any sort of holiday. I apologize for my inability to work during this time and I promise that I will have gifts and abounding workmanship to give upon my true time back. I will certainly be around at times, whether in chat or on other sites or games or whatnot, but I will not be in any proper mood or status to do any sort of decent editing, and I would appreciate it if such would not be placed upon me until around January 3rd of 2015. I apologize for the untimely inconvenience and wish the rest of you well on your passage to next year.