Six years o_O
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 2:06 pm
edit:
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this thread are entirely those of the poster and are inherently biased as a result. If you feel it's not accurate..well...that's the nature of the beast. This is "How I saw it" not necessarily quite "how it happened".
Rork
Has it really been that long?
Yes, I've been a member of this site for six years. Which I reckon is pretty damn impressive (Granted, a few other 2002ers still post, some who joined before me).
Let's have a little trip down memory lane...
In the beginning
CHAOS DWARFS! Yes, that's why I'm here, or at least how I got here. As a Chaos Dwarf player whose last book (Not even a proper one) was released in 1994 I was not exactly impressed with the Dark Elf community's call for their book to be redone.
There was a queue, after all.
Originally my (alongside a DE player I knew) distaste for a new DE book was displayed in the raging flame wars against Pierre on the now defunct Games Workshop forums. Pierre was the sort of guy who couldn't see two sides of an argument - you could try to be reasonable and he would still have an argument with you. Opinionated just didn't cover his attitude.
Pierre was a moderator here, later known as Furion. The revision movement became a frequent topic of conversation, so instead of fighting in a sea of drivel at GW, I brought my...'concerns' to this place.
Pierre pointed out to me on the GW forums that he was a moderator here and would be watching me and what I said...
There were many terse words exchanged between me and the great and the good (DA, langmann et al) over the necessity of any such revision and its impact on everyone else waiting for an army book (since this was 6th and Ravening Hordes was still fairly necessary) and would set a potentially dangerous precedent (Cheeky lizardmen players tried, and failed, to do the same). Great tomes of DE wisdom were wrote while I warred with them all - Apparently some of the writers were good players .
I never saw the need for a complete rewrite - and of course that's not what happened. The changes made in the revision were sensible - the book did have some big flaws.
The biggest irony of it all? Pierre eventually managed to get himself banned and I (some years later) rose to the position of admin.
The Chat - The Madness Years
Dot
One evening (in early 2003, I think) I was bored. So I logged on to the chat to see what that was all about.
And lo, I was introduced to the multi-coloured swap shop of wonderment. It was (and is) the 'speak easy' of D.net. The rules were a bit looser and the topics of conversation wider.
The likes of Silas, Auric Stormcloud, calapine, ADRIAN!!! (whose username escapes me), DP and I were part of the Late Night Chat and all that entailed. Nothing, bar creepy netstalking, was off-limits. Was it hours of fun? Yesss.
The Great Crash of 2003
Kitrik, being the nice guy he is, went to do some missionary work in Europe during the last half of 2003.
The only problem? The D.net server crashed while he was away and no one was around to fix it. Many D.netters sought refuge in the light airy place they called asur.org.
They had an IRC chatroom. A place of calm and simplicity, dedicated to the finer art of playing Warhammer.
Until the D.net chatters turned up en masse. You know the sort of film where a bunch of leather-clad bikers turn up and start performing doughnuts on a pristine lawn to the horror of the mild-mannered owner? It was just like that.
Poor Ricold tried to stop us a few times, but we just ignored him. Power to the people, eh? Originally the chat was called #warhammerfantasy, but fearing that GW might hunt him down, it was changed to #endanal.
Do you know what innuendo is? D.net chatters do.
Schism part 1
Eventually Kitrik returned and the site was restored, a pale shadow of what it once was (Activity was quite low). The only thing sucking up the bandwidth were the attempts to restore the old chat system.
It was by this point I became a moderator of WHD and later, 40k. Jokingly to myself I thought "Black Guard in six months".
I was, of course, wrong. I was an admin in 9.
But I digress, I was privy to the stuff going on behind the scenes. The chatters were pushed too far and broke away from #endanal and after much discussion between the mods (many of whom were chatters) #dnetchat came into being with me in charge of it.
Schism part 2
The Chat War wasn't over. Some wanted a chat to unite all the race-specific sites on the web, and #albion was created to replace #endanal to serve that purpose.
The call to merge, even from some who had supported D.net independence, became louder. The mods and ini leaders discussed it at length with no final solution, so as a compromise I suggested a vote by the chatters in #dnetchat to decide the matter.
I was against a merger, feeling that if it didn't work before, it was only going to go wrong again...and was having a choice that bad?
24 hours of voting commenced one evening to settle it. Whatever the result was, I was prepared to abide by it.
The result? 12 voted to stay separate, 12 abstained and none wished to merge.
Edit: Due to the 'debate' I looked up the numbers. It was in fact 12-6-6.
Le Grande Fromage
Big changes were coming...One January evening I received a pm...offering me something big.
To be an admin.
Of course, we all know I must have said yes . But this was the time when it all changed - in the background Kitrik was stepping down and Langmann and Kala (a fellow mod at the time) were to become the webmasters. Linda, formerly a Black Guard and I became the roving admins dealing with all the problems and issues that cropped up from day to day.
We greased the wheels of the sticky RPG and we kept mods and posters who stepped out of line on their toes. My ban count (excluding bots) really has dropped off in these past few years...
And beyond that is what you see now. Postin', sortin', sayin'.
This is how I got here. Many other things went on within the site that I've largely glossed over (The quarterly, the monthly/herald, the coining of 'MSU'). So don't feel too put out if I've missed out a bit of rich tactical history .
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this thread are entirely those of the poster and are inherently biased as a result. If you feel it's not accurate..well...that's the nature of the beast. This is "How I saw it" not necessarily quite "how it happened".
Rork
Has it really been that long?
Yes, I've been a member of this site for six years. Which I reckon is pretty damn impressive (Granted, a few other 2002ers still post, some who joined before me).
Let's have a little trip down memory lane...
In the beginning
CHAOS DWARFS! Yes, that's why I'm here, or at least how I got here. As a Chaos Dwarf player whose last book (Not even a proper one) was released in 1994 I was not exactly impressed with the Dark Elf community's call for their book to be redone.
There was a queue, after all.
Originally my (alongside a DE player I knew) distaste for a new DE book was displayed in the raging flame wars against Pierre on the now defunct Games Workshop forums. Pierre was the sort of guy who couldn't see two sides of an argument - you could try to be reasonable and he would still have an argument with you. Opinionated just didn't cover his attitude.
Pierre was a moderator here, later known as Furion. The revision movement became a frequent topic of conversation, so instead of fighting in a sea of drivel at GW, I brought my...'concerns' to this place.
Pierre pointed out to me on the GW forums that he was a moderator here and would be watching me and what I said...
There were many terse words exchanged between me and the great and the good (DA, langmann et al) over the necessity of any such revision and its impact on everyone else waiting for an army book (since this was 6th and Ravening Hordes was still fairly necessary) and would set a potentially dangerous precedent (Cheeky lizardmen players tried, and failed, to do the same). Great tomes of DE wisdom were wrote while I warred with them all - Apparently some of the writers were good players .
I never saw the need for a complete rewrite - and of course that's not what happened. The changes made in the revision were sensible - the book did have some big flaws.
The biggest irony of it all? Pierre eventually managed to get himself banned and I (some years later) rose to the position of admin.
The Chat - The Madness Years
Dot
One evening (in early 2003, I think) I was bored. So I logged on to the chat to see what that was all about.
And lo, I was introduced to the multi-coloured swap shop of wonderment. It was (and is) the 'speak easy' of D.net. The rules were a bit looser and the topics of conversation wider.
The likes of Silas, Auric Stormcloud, calapine, ADRIAN!!! (whose username escapes me), DP and I were part of the Late Night Chat and all that entailed. Nothing, bar creepy netstalking, was off-limits. Was it hours of fun? Yesss.
The Great Crash of 2003
Kitrik, being the nice guy he is, went to do some missionary work in Europe during the last half of 2003.
The only problem? The D.net server crashed while he was away and no one was around to fix it. Many D.netters sought refuge in the light airy place they called asur.org.
They had an IRC chatroom. A place of calm and simplicity, dedicated to the finer art of playing Warhammer.
Until the D.net chatters turned up en masse. You know the sort of film where a bunch of leather-clad bikers turn up and start performing doughnuts on a pristine lawn to the horror of the mild-mannered owner? It was just like that.
Poor Ricold tried to stop us a few times, but we just ignored him. Power to the people, eh? Originally the chat was called #warhammerfantasy, but fearing that GW might hunt him down, it was changed to #endanal.
Do you know what innuendo is? D.net chatters do.
Schism part 1
Eventually Kitrik returned and the site was restored, a pale shadow of what it once was (Activity was quite low). The only thing sucking up the bandwidth were the attempts to restore the old chat system.
It was by this point I became a moderator of WHD and later, 40k. Jokingly to myself I thought "Black Guard in six months".
I was, of course, wrong. I was an admin in 9.
But I digress, I was privy to the stuff going on behind the scenes. The chatters were pushed too far and broke away from #endanal and after much discussion between the mods (many of whom were chatters) #dnetchat came into being with me in charge of it.
Schism part 2
The Chat War wasn't over. Some wanted a chat to unite all the race-specific sites on the web, and #albion was created to replace #endanal to serve that purpose.
The call to merge, even from some who had supported D.net independence, became louder. The mods and ini leaders discussed it at length with no final solution, so as a compromise I suggested a vote by the chatters in #dnetchat to decide the matter.
I was against a merger, feeling that if it didn't work before, it was only going to go wrong again...and was having a choice that bad?
24 hours of voting commenced one evening to settle it. Whatever the result was, I was prepared to abide by it.
The result? 12 voted to stay separate, 12 abstained and none wished to merge.
Edit: Due to the 'debate' I looked up the numbers. It was in fact 12-6-6.
Le Grande Fromage
Big changes were coming...One January evening I received a pm...offering me something big.
To be an admin.
Of course, we all know I must have said yes . But this was the time when it all changed - in the background Kitrik was stepping down and Langmann and Kala (a fellow mod at the time) were to become the webmasters. Linda, formerly a Black Guard and I became the roving admins dealing with all the problems and issues that cropped up from day to day.
We greased the wheels of the sticky RPG and we kept mods and posters who stepped out of line on their toes. My ban count (excluding bots) really has dropped off in these past few years...
And beyond that is what you see now. Postin', sortin', sayin'.
This is how I got here. Many other things went on within the site that I've largely glossed over (The quarterly, the monthly/herald, the coining of 'MSU'). So don't feel too put out if I've missed out a bit of rich tactical history .