Community History: Name Users!

[Sullust]

I'd like to amend the record. I have never been a 'desper'.

[Slawbug]

Originally Posted By: Iffy

I see the need to limit the categories. However, the "anti-establishment" people and CalRef folk overlap, but they are not directly related. It is effectively like combining Aimhack and BoA would be.

No, it's like combining BoA and Shadow Vale, which I did. There were SVers who did little with BoA and BoAers who did little with SV, but the groups were still very similar. Similarly, there are CRFers who were not anti-anything, and anti-establishment folk who were not part of CRF, but the groups were similar.

With the major exception of Salmon, most of the anti-establishment folk from the 2007-2008 era either joined CRF (Nalyd, Nioca, Ackrovan, Jewels, Xelgion) or associated themselves with those who did (ET). There was definitely a correlation.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Lt. Sullust

I'd like to amend the record. I have never been a 'desper'.

it's true, he mostly poled on postaris

[Sullust]

I also don't believe I've done anything of particular importance. Other than sticking around entirely too long...

 

Now get off my lawn!

[Alorael at Large]

On the contrary. By voting too late, I became a mod instead of Morgan. That set off a cascade of changes in moderators leading directly to today's cast and policies. The very history of Spiderweb was changed!

 

—Alorael, who actually could file that under not doing something of particular significance. There's a fine but critical difference.

[The Mystic]

Interesting, how one small event can alter so much.

 

Also, @Lt. Sullust: Welcome back!

[Lauren CW]

Click to reveal..

[Randomizer]

Originally Posted By: Bureau of Individuality

On the contrary. By voting too late, I became a mod instead of Morgan. That set off a cascade of changes in moderators leading directly to today's cast and policies. The very history of Spiderweb was changed!

—Alorael, who actually could file that under not doing something of particular significance. There's a fine but critical difference.

Thanks for your confession. It makes it easier to assign blame for the sad state of the boards.

[Khoth]

I find this image offensive.

 

Click to reveal..

The artifacting is terrible. Can you not find a better-quality version?

[Alorael at Large]

Actually, now I have a confession. It should be "Because you voted too late, I became a mod instead of Morgan." I wasn't the one voting, but I am the one botching grammar now.

 

—Alorael, who believes he will now play judge, jury, and executioner, and condemned. He can throw in prosecution, defendant's counsel, and various other functionaries. He's never been a grammar court bailiff before.

[Rowen]

Originally Posted By: Bureau of Individuality

Actually, now I have a confession. It should be "Because you voted too late, I became a mod instead of Morgan." I wasn't the one voting, but I am the one botching grammar now.

Your winning was due to a grammar error in the voting process? It's recount time!

[Alorael at Large]

Done. You find the thread and I'll submit to the official recount.

 

—Alorael, who is willing to step down from Misc. and let Morgan take over. He will abide by the will of the people, including people who have been gone for years.

[Xaiya]

Originally Posted By: Khoth

I find this image offensive.

Click to reveal..

The artifacting is terrible. Can you not find a better-quality version?

Apologies for the poor quality. I hardly even noticed it until you pointed it out to me. I'm too used to poor quality.

I don't exactly possess quality, well, anything. I effectively just cropped that part of an image, forgetting that it would decrease the quality to most other people.

[Slawbug]

Oh. Oh. Uh oh. Uhm...

 

MISC. LIVES...!

[Slawbug]

Okay, wow. This is a real trove, so it's going to get a double post: sorry.

 

I've just discovered a cache of Misc. material, cryogenically frozen in time. I don't know the extent of it yet, but it's not too big. It has some interesting bits though.

 

Compiling this history, and talking about the impact of establishmentarian modding in particular, has made me a bit squeamish. I became a mod at the beginning of the New Era, and I've tended to be a CoC applier, one of the mods more likely to be seen locking a topic or issuing a warning. I've attracted my fair share of fair criticism at times, and although I've always endeavored to treat other users fairly, I've sometimes found myself accused of being an elitist or an authoritarian. Goodness, I wondered, looking at the history -- was I myself part of the reason the culture seems less fresh than it once did? Did I inadvertently contribute to an unwelcoming atmosphere?

 

Happily, today I can say the answer is no, I did not. First because these issues of elitism and authoritarianism have always existed. Here's Alec in 2002, during his brief tenure as a mod, launching an early complaint against establishmentarian modding:

 

"Unfortunately, what many of you are complaining about is the fact that I edit posts. Well, you've got one damn alternative, as far as I see it, and that's a Stareye/Schrodinger mod. Do we really need a dry, humorless, by the book moderator here? Do we? At a board called 'miscellaneous', where everything which isn't off-color under the sun goes?"

 

Second because maybe things aren't any less fresh. Around the same time Misc. received this lament: "Seeing that the 'Shotts' Era has brought a recession in intresting material in the Misc forum..." That was in early 2002, in the heyday of the beloved age of Misc. Maybe SoT was right after all.

 

Some other gems I can't resist posting for fun:

 

"I start to see an interesting streak of pedantry emerging in the rich tapestry which is the persona of Alorael. If this keeps up maybe Drakefyre will restart his pedant filter and we can start to engage in some jolly nitpicking wars!" — Saunders

 

"You may fool naive Saunders and idealistic Alec, but I have the power of not trusting people." — Drakefyre

 

Unfortunately, none of the Misc. election and voting threads are present, so Alorael will have to remain in a contested, bushlike state forever.

[VCH]

So where is the link to this time capsule of Misc?

[Balladeer]

So, right, names...

 

Started looking over the account profiles and found some names I recognize as 'seeming' important and some I don't recognize but who had a significant (~700+) post count.

 

Dragyn Bob

Fallen

Seletine

Milla

Arctic

Miriam

The Inquisitor

Rantallion

Frahhamn - made a number of BoE scenarios with his own graphics

Chaldrath

Reaper

antisocialdragon

mung - remember him as funny and respected

Princess_Ruth

Erik Westra - BoE author or graphic artist I think

Radiant

Undine

Boots

X - Not to be confused with Nalyd's old moniker -X-. He made over 2000 posts the last recorded in 2003 and seems to have concentrated in Nethergate and the Exile Trillogy forums.

Kakashi

Motrax - has a nice website and a handful of graphics for BoE.

Rupert

---

Slow going and I think I'll only go through era 2 but I'm in mid 2002 with that.

 

Then you may want to add Triest and Tim Farland to the artist list. Triest did a lot of everything and Tim did some great monsters for BoE

[Lilith]

Quote:

Dragyn Bob

Aceron era, active Arena member (notoriously bad at it)

Quote:

Seletine

generally helpful forums presence, BoA scenario designer (very bad at it), signed all his posts with his current post count

Quote:

Milla

Australian, Misc era, posted on Shadow Vale a bit I think?

Quote:

Arctic

Misc era, Finnish, pretty cool

Quote:

Rantallion

British, diabetic, fairly active Desper, also went by Bob the Impaler

Quote:

antisocialdragon

Desper, pretty cool

Quote:

Princess_Ruth

Desper, pretty cool, drunkard

Quote:

Erik Westra - BoE author or graphic artist I think

wrote a useful guide for BoA's scenario editor

Quote:

Radiant

made SubTerra

Quote:

Boots

Lyceum poster, wrote a bunch of insightful and wordy scenario reviews

Quote:

X - Not to be confused with Nalyd's old moniker -X-. He made over 2000 posts the last recorded in 2003 and seems to have concentrated in Nethergate and the Exile Trillogy forums.

old, pagan, pretty cool, disappeared suddenly, possibly dead?

Quote:

Kakashi

Misc era, Catholic, opinionated, also went by Gendo Ikari

Quote:

Rupert

Misc era, British?, irritating, also went by FatBatMonkey

[Alorael at Large]

Seletine was a mod as well. I think he had one of the more encyclopedic memories for answering game questions, especially for Exile, and posted very little otherwise.

 

Fallen was just a relatively long, unremarkable board presence. I think he was the first to hit a fairly low post count milestone in the very, very early days of the Ikonboard. I have no idea if he was around before that.

 

Arctic was one of the more vociferous, friendly voices of Misc.

 

Chaldrath ran an unsuccessful campaign, of sorts for a Misc. mod spot that eventually went to Alec. He then disappeared for a long time, and although he's posted a few times over the years he's never really been back.

 

Radiant made SubTerra, moderated the SubTerra board, and mostly stayed away from everything else. He's still making games, as far as I know, but they're all free now so he has no use for a publisher.

 

Undine is most memorable to me for having a signature that I didn't like (I vaguely recall clutter) and being male despite the implications of the name.

 

Kakashi was first known as King Micah, I believe. Another person who posted regularly and didn't make any big splashes that I can recall.

 

X, if I can elaborate a little on Lilith's terse summary, was open about being old. He disappeared suddenly. People have speculated on connecting the two and making his disappearance due to death, but plenty of people have disappeared without saying anything. It's all speculation.

 

There are many Motraxes from Spiderweb. The two notable ones are Motrax, who I'm not sure ever posted here and who's one of the early graphics hosters, and Sir Motrax of Exile, who made and hosted a small handful of graphics but mostly participated in Polaris. And trolled, intermittently.

 

—Alorael, who remembers having a definite opinion on mung. He just can't for the life of him remember what that opinion was. Memory is a funny thing like that.

[Erebus the Black]

Could someone please tell me who the heck took "avatar" as a user name?

[Slawbug]

Originally Posted By: Jewels in Black

Started looking over the account profiles and found some names I recognize as 'seeming' important and some I don't recognize but who had a significant (~700+) post count.

I can easily get a list of all members sorted by post count so that part isn't useful. The list of names you thought were significant would be useful, but since you combined the lists, unfortunately, I don't have that one. (There are many hundreds of users with 700 posts, so that isn't a good litmus test anyway.)

EDIT: Well, Lilith and Alorael commenting takes care of that anyway. But please don't feel the need to slog through profiles. I'm more interested in what simply comes to mind.

[Aran]

Quote:

Quote:

Milla

Australian, Misc era, posted on Shadow Vale a bit I think?

She was on Polaris (for pretty much all its recorded history, 2004-2008). I can't find her on the SV archive, but it's notoriously hard to search so I'm not sure. The only posts I found attributed to her there are actually guest-posted scenario reviews copied from the Lyceum.

Edit: this member list states there was no SV account starting with "Milla".

Quote:

Quote:

Rupert

Misc era, British?, irritating, also went by FatBatMonkey

Wow, I know FBM, but I didn't know he went by Rupert. Amusingly, I confused Ephesos for him for a while early on in the MoS RP.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S

Originally Posted By: Jewels in Black

Started looking over the account profiles and found some names I recognize as 'seeming' important and some I don't recognize but who had a significant (~700+) post count.

I can easily get a list of all members sorted by post count so that part isn't useful. The list of names you thought were significant would be useful, but since you combined the lists, unfortunately, I don't have that one. (There are many hundreds of users with 700 posts, so that isn't a good litmus test anyway.)

I still think it'd be pretty cool to see a list of the top one or two hundred posters so I could get more reliable data than just the top ten + the few active people with high postcounts that haven't made the cut.

[Slawbug]

Currently, there are 125 accounts with at least 1000 posts to their name.

 

There are 172 accounts with at least 700 posts.

 

There are 216 accounts with at least 500 posts.

 

And there are 300 accounts with at least 300 posts.

 

Dantius, you are currently #20.

 

The actual number of users may be off by a small amount (< 10) due to account deletions (Saunders and MM) or multiple accounts of one user being counted (Zxquez, Alec, Tyran).

[keira]

oh oh oh oh slarty!

 

what number am i?

[Tyranicus]

61. Interesting factoid: Of the 61 users with the highest posts, (Trenton is #62) Dantius is the only member who joined after the 2008 UBB upgrade.

[Aran]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

I still think it'd be pretty cool to see a list of the top one or two hundred posters so I could get more reliable data than just the top ten + the few active people with high postcounts that haven't made the cut.

Easy enough. Endeavor's down (and years out of date anyway) but the new one is integrated into PPP5 and the prototype works. Here's a dump of the top 200.

(Edit: No, I'm not starting the monthly rankings again; don't look at me like that. )

[Actaeon]

But Aran, they were so productive!

 

(How does Tyran have an alternate account four years older than his primary?)

[nikki.]

Originally Posted By: Actaeon

How does Tyran have an alternate account four years older than his primary?

Way back when, accounts were traded for cheesecake, and/or favours to the administration. Tyran has one of Marlenny's accounts, for instance.

[Tyranicus]

Originally Posted By: nikki.

Originally Posted By: Actaeon

How does Tyran have an alternate account four years older than his primary?

Way back when, accounts were traded for cheesecake, and/or favours to the administration. Tyran has one of Marlenny's accounts, for instance.

It was originally Imban's. That account is very promiscuous.

[nikki.]

Originally Posted By: Tyranicus

It was originally Imban's. That account is very promiscuous.

All accounts were Imban's.

I guess they still are.

[Rowen]

I like how my name makes such a hash of things when upside down. uÇÊoɹ is rather catchy.

[Aran]

Originally Posted By: uǝʍoɹ

I like how my name makes such a hash of things when upside down. uǝʍoɹ is rather catchy.

Unless the file broke in transit, that's the fault of your browser, because I specifically made sure your and Øther's name are properly encoded to UTF-8 in the text file.

(By now I think I've spent more time on getting character encoding right than any other part of the PPP. UBB handles it awfully. In fact I was just wrestling with the apostrophes in #4475's signature, which are converted to garbage by my parser. Your name is another test case, but an easier one because it consists of character entities.)

Edit: Ironically enough, my troubles with member #4475 appear to be caused by my own browser. Windows-1252 codepoint 0x92 (’) is correctly transliterated to Unicode codepoint U+2019 in my UTF-8 conversion (which, by the way, only works because I ignore UBB's assurance that it serves charset ISO-8859-1 and read it as Windows-1252 in the first place), or 0xe28099 in UTF-8 code (the template is 1110....10......10...... for codepoints between U+0800 and U+FFFF). I see the result as gibberish only because my browser uses the wrong charset.

Edit: Now my parser breaks on the "uǝʍoɹ". You broke my Unicode handling by complaining about my Unicode handling.

Edit2: I have now learned way more than I care to about Unicode, UTF-8, Windows-1252, iconv, and the very sophisticated way UBB ensures charset validity.

(It doesn't.)

[keira]

Heh. Sometimes (all the time) I wish everyone would just use UTF-8 already. I dinked up a little script to help archive old CR RP posts on the RPwiki, and the combination of the database having had to deal with three different charsets and seven different hosts, resulted in anything resembling a quote or non-ASCII to be turned into garbage. It didn't help that certain people wrote their RP posts in Word and copy-pasted it in...

 

Instead of doing it the right way, I ended up with a 30-line wall of str_replace functions. Thankfully MediaWiki seems to handle UTF-8 really well, unlike SMF, so the posts should be safe there.

[Tyranicus]

Originally Posted By: Arancaytar

Unless the file broke in transit, that's the fault of your browser, because I specifically made sure your and Øther's name are properly encoded to UTF-8 in the text file.

It doesn't work for me using the latest versions of Safari, Firefox, Chrome, or Opera.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Eldest Wit

Kakashi was first known as King Micah, I believe. Another person who posted regularly and didn't make any big splashes that I can recall.

he made a huge angry goodbye topic after somebody criticised mother teresa. that's about the most memorable thing he did.

[Mysterious Man]

Looking back, I find it fairly amusing that I was one of the first moderators of these forums at the ripe old age of... 12.

 

Thank you to the few that remembered me.

[Callie]

I find it unnerving how high I am up that list. I clearly don't remember the last time I had any sanity.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Mysterious Man

Looking back, I find it fairly amusing that I was one of the first moderators of these forums at the ripe old age of... 12.

Thank you to the few that remembered me.

drakey was like 13 when he was appointed admin. he didn't exactly lie about his age as far as i know but he kept quiet about it

[Mysterious Man]

Drakey was like a 49 year old trapped in a preteen boy's body though... That's not fair.

[nikki.]

...he's no longer seven?

[Randomizer]

Once they leave Neverland they grow up.

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: Mysterious Man

Thank you to the few that remembered me.

You're welcome, even though I haven't mentioned I remembered you before now.

Also, welcome back!

EDIT: It appears we may have started a small reunion, thanks to this thread. Pardon me while I wax nostalgic for a moment.

[Balladeer]

Originally Posted By: Mysterious Man

Thank you to the few that remembered me.

Hey, thanks for heeding that itching ear and coming back to grace us with your presence once again. I thought I had remembered your account being #5 but I had forgotten about the UBB upgrade change. Went to profile #5 and found TM.. made me think for a minute 'cuz I was so sure. I was all like, 'Was MM an alt account for TM??' but then I went to profile #6 and found you and was all like, 'Phew!'

[Mysterious Man]

Oh... my. I'm almost insulted. But not too horribly so. There could be worse things than being Terror's Martyr... albeit, what these things could be are escaping me at the moment. What's become of TM? Is he dead yet? Wasn't he notorious for drunk posting? Which makes this post mildly ironic and amusing, as I believe this is the first time I've perused these forums while in a state of intoxication. Sad, really, considering my track record in the old days.

[Slawbug]

He is not dead, although there have been some rumours to that effect.

[Aran]

We were in touch on Facebook some years back, but I think he deleted his profile.

 

Looking back, he's way more intelligent than I understood back when he was posting here. If that happened to him a lot, I can understand his issues; it can drive someone crazy.

[JadeWolf]

[/lurk]

 

Heh, I make it in to the top 200. Now would you look at that.

 

[lurk]

[Xaiya]

Originally Posted By: JadeWolf

[/lurk]

Heh, I make it in to the top 200. Now would you look at that.

[lurk]

Oh hey JadeWolf. It's been a while!

[Slawbug]

 

Maybe this will give a better idea of what I am trying to accomplish.

 

I'm using the era 2 graphic because it is the most complete. As you can see, the graphical touches are not polished yet, but it will look something like this.

 

There are a few problems unique to era 2. In particular, as I don't have Ikonboard user lists, I assumed that anyone who joined within a month or two of the UBB was a 2001 person. (And "2001" really does mean "Ikonboard" here, before Alorael nitpicks his placement.) Also, there are a few users who were around in 2001 or earlier but didn't come to SW till later: hi, Thurilith. I marked these folks by their SW date (era 1 will show them as active, anyway), which is a bit inconsistent with the Lyceum folks, some of whom never posted on SW enough to show up on the chart, without their Lyceum activity. But oh well.

 

CORRECTIONS: Welcome.

SUGGESTIONS: Welcome.

IDEAS FOR SPLITTING UP THE HUGE GREY CATEGORY: Very welcome.