ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Maffy's last post sounded to me like he was being too hard on himself. I thought he did a pretty decent job as webmaster, and I wish he could continue. Well, everybody clap for Matt O'Leary, who filled some deep shoes for a while.

Some people may have noticed that DROD.net looks slightly different. In fact, it looks like somebody made everything slightly less cool, removing pictures and articles here and there. What's the meaning of this? Did DROD.net get hacked by some mildly malicious l337 d00d? Did gangstas from a neighboring website pull a drive-by downgrade? Did lawyers slap restraining orders on our HTML? Did I make drastic changes to the site, rebuilding it from the ground up using a new content management system?

Actually, um... yeah, that last one is what happened.

I won't go into technical details, but I converted the site so that it could be used with a new piece of software called "CityDesk". I did this to make the site easier to manage, because I wanted the new webmaster to not get bogged down in editing HTML, fixing broken links, remembering which files got updated on the server, etc. Eyes glazing over? Okay, just know that there are solid reasons for the annoying fluxuations you see on the site.

So who is this new webmaster guy? I've got it written down somewhere... His name is-- no, I will let him introduce himself. It's more suspenseful that way.

But here are two hints:
1. Title of this message is somehow connected to the country in which he lives.
2. Holy Whack-a-Mole! Do we really want three of them?

-Erik

[Edited by ErikH2000 on 08-21-2003 at 12:17 AM]

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Well, Who Can It Be Now is a Men at Work song, so it must be an Australian. I'm not sure about the second clue though.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Malarame
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 220
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Well, Mattcrampy is from Australia, and his name is Matt. That would make three Matts...me, him, and Schik, whose real name is Matt. Could that be it?

____________________________
Matt O'Leary
Webb Institute
Class of 2007

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception."
-Groucho Marx

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Damn, I almost guessed that, but I couldn't think of the third Matt...

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Malarame wrote:
Well, Mattcrampy is from Australia, and his name is Matt. That would make three Matts...me, him, and Schik, whose real name is Matt. Could that be it?

Mayyybe...

Okay, okay--it is him. I make these things too easy.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Wow, if Mattcrampy can get his fairy-tale dreams to come true, maybe I should ask to be a moderator or something too! I'm on the forums often enough, after all, and I almost have more posts than Wesley now...

Oh, wait, I forgot about grad school and getting my Ph.D. Hmm, that does put a damper on things. :buh Curse you, doctorate! And your little dog Toto, too!

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Oneiromancer wrote:
Wow, if Mattcrampy can get his fairy-tale dreams to come true, maybe I should ask to be a moderator or something too! I'm on the forums often enough, after all, and I almost have more posts than Wesley now...

I know you're being light here, but I will use you to springboard into my own ponderings...

Making these decisions is kind of a funny thing. I could say, "Hey everybody, the spot is open! Who wants to do it?" And not to flatter myself, but I'm pretty sure we'd get at least two or three people, and I'd then have a problem of picking someone. How to choose? I don't like to compare one person to another and say to those involved, "hey sorry, this guy over here looks like a better candidate than you." It just seems rude when people are kind enough to offer their help for free. Things get sad when there is someone who is very enthusiastic, but doesn't have the best skills to do the job. I'd rather use the shoulder-tapping system, even if it relies on my imperfect knowledge of people.

Matt was singled out on this round because he wrote the forum FAQ recently, and I like its quality and style. My main goal in recruiting was finding someone who could write in an interesting way. I'm trying to make technical skill less important for a webmaster to have with the recent changes to the site. (Not to say Mr. Cramp doesn't have technical skill.)

Also, I'd like to point out that just because we have a webmaster, doesn't mean he'll end up doing everything related to the site. I would love to have some more stories and articles from DROD fans. (We're sitting on two submissions right now, because they should be timed with hold releases.) If anyone can draw cartoons or jockey pixels, help on the visual side of the site would be splendid. Matt is going to be the guy to coordinate any creative contributions and get it up onto the site.

I also hope the other Matt (Schikore, to be precise) will keep on making these fantastic improvements to the forum. At this point, I would say he's our Chief Engineer of DROD.net.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

bdcribbs
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 390
Registered: 04-08-2003
IP: Logged

ErikH2000 wrote:
But here are two hints:

There were actually three... when I first read this post (before it had been guessed who the new webmaster was, the top of the forum said "moderated by mattcrampy".
I remember noticing it, but somehow I didn't make the connection at the time.

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

On the subject of moderators, there are lots of forums that have several of the biggest fans be the moderators for the main discussion forums...on the reasoning that they are there the most anyway, so they will be the quickest to handle anything that comes up. Since DROD's forum is still pretty small, there is no reason to do that, but if it ever does get really, really popular (like after the AE release) it might be useful to have more moderators.

So, I was being somewhat light in my remarks, but in all honesty I would be honored to moderate a forum, as long as I wasn't the only one--one of three or four, for example. I'm not really offering, but in all modesty the moderators should come from at least the top ten list of posters, and most of those people already have other jobs around DROD and drod.net.

Anyway, just my 2 cents.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Oneiromancer wrote:
Since DROD's forum is still pretty small, there is no reason to do that, but if it ever does get really, really popular (like after the AE release) it might be useful to have more moderators.

Well, like you say, we are still pretty small. Also we seem to have a very civilized set of game players here. So far nothing has really came up that needed moderating. That might change in the near future.

This reminds me... I read a really interesting article about online communities getting overrun by bad users: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy by Clay Shirky

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Clay Shirky wrote:
You're sitting at a party, you decide "I don't like this; I don't want to be here." And then you don't leave. That kind of social stickiness is what Bion is talking about.

That is totally not me. When I am bored at a party (which is most parties I have been to) I leave pretty damn fast. But I know I am not an average person.

I will have to read that more thoroughly in the future, looks interesting.

Anyway, I am basing my comments on a game community I used to be a part of, that of an RPG called Demise. The forum moved a lot over the years, unfortunately, and in its most recent incarnation I only had about 60 posts, but a few hundred before that. In any case, there were never more than 500 registered users, but the problem was, people would pop in and post exploits in the game, or how to get to the super-duper-secret "tea room", which it was a point of pride for people to be able to find on their own, and so a moderator would be there to edit their posts. For some reason that game got a lot of griefers, but the people that were heavy posters were just as nice as everyone here, although the ages varied much more widely (from 15 to 50 or so, averaging in the late 20's). Anyway, like I said, the heavy posters became moderators because they were the best at quickly reacting to the griefers.

Hopefully there will never be a need for that here.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Oneiromancer wrote:
That is totally not me. When I am bored at a party (which is most parties I have been to) I leave pretty damn fast. But I know I am not an average person.

Well, it depends a lot on the style of the party and what your ties are to the host. There's parties that are created just by calling up some buddies in the afternoon to come over for beers. There's parties where invitations are sent out, food is prepared, ladies jump out of cakes...

If I go to some trouble to host a party, I feel like a big lame-o loser if everybody decides to take off early. On the flipside, if you go someplace and it sucks, but you have some empathy for the host, you'll bide your time and wait for a graceful escape. Whoever leaves first kind of signals that the moment to go has arrived, or at least that if you leave after him, you won't be the worst guest. Also, if a party has more than say... 30 people, then this whole effect doesn't really come into play. People slip out unnoticed, and without guilt, because plenty of other folks are still around to keep the party alive.

Brittany and I had an "Amsterdam"-themed party earlier this year. The dilemma is that when you try to do more things to make the party cool, it puts more pressure on that the party should be a success. You don't want to be the fool that ordered five kegs and five people showed up--it's sad and embarrasing. So people came with one foot out the door, saying stuff like "Oh, I'm just dropping by for a bit. Feeling tired and I got to get up early." I mean they made pre-excuses as soon as they arrived, the bastards! But they ended up staying, so I know they were just hedging. There were a few points where that group decision thing Shirky is talking about almost happened. I think we stopped it by launching into party events ("Pin the Euro on the hooker" ) when people started clearing their throats and looking at their watches. Well, it wasn't quite that desperate, and after we got past a couple lulls, the party carried itself, nobody left early, and I didn't feel like a big lame-o loser.

-Erik




____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Mattcrampy
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2388
Registered: 05-29-2003
IP: Logged

I'm sure it doesn't need to be said, anymore, but yeah, I be running the show. I'll post up a fuller description and acceptance speech later once my head is purged of army men rappelling out of a Seahawk helicopter.

To celebrate, I've updated the webpage a teensy bit. Cross fingers hope it works.

EDIT: In case you're wondering, a) I broke it. I trust the Preview button lots more now; b) Seeing as the server is in France, the information I receive is in French. I need to learn French.

Matt, thy lord and master

[Edited by Mattcrampy on 08-23-2003 at 09:47 AM]

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5383
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

ErikH2000 wrote:
I also hope the other Matt (Schikore, to be precise) will keep on making these fantastic improvements to the forum. At this point, I would say he's our Chief Engineer of DROD.net.

I keep fighting with myself about this - I really like working on DROD itself, but Mike's so darn good at it, that I could be more useful spending time on the forum.

But if I'm the Chief Engineer here... gosh... I better get back to work on the forum.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi