Chat Thread 42: The Answer To Life, The Universe and Everyth

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Thu May 14, 2015 12:03 am

Last two times I tried to join up on a different board and a different chat, I was made to feel like one.

Seth · Post by **Seth** » Thu May 14, 2015 12:14 am

It's ok being an outsider is like underground or whatever.....

Dissension wrote:That section's historically caused a lot of unnecessary drama. Before the turn of the decade, some mods lobbied Rick to shut it down but Buck promised to fix things.

One time it got so bad they said seth could be a mod. Like who does he know here?

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Thu May 14, 2015 12:29 am

Amazee Dayzee wrote:Diss i wanna know more about the dramas! Please tell me! If you can't say anything here, PM please.

It was mostly just people pushing the ratings. That's all but gone now though.

Sleet wrote:It also kinda developed its own "culture" and I worry I'd be kinda like an outsider.

Nah, you wouldn't! Not these days, at least. I guess there is something of a hierarchy simply due to the nature of RPs as they favour more active posters and each RP is directed by one or two people. That said though, they're easy to get into and lots of fun if you're willing and able to put in the effort.

Amazee Dayzee wrote:Last two times I tried to join up on a different board and a different chat, I was made to feel like one.

If that ever happens here then please tell a mod straight away and we'll put a stop to it immediately. And if it's a mod causing issues then the globals will fix it and if it's a global then Diss and Rick will kick that person in the pants too. We don't tolerate hazing, harassment or hating here.

Seth wrote:One time it got so bad they said seth could be a mod. Like who does he know here?

Heh. Well, I'm a mod now. What does that tell you?

Seth · Post by **Seth** » Thu May 14, 2015 12:35 am

Hlaoroo wrote:
Seth wrote:One time it got so bad they said seth could be a mod. Like who does he know here?
Heh. Well, I'm a mod now. What does that tell you?

Standards have either gotten stricter, looser, or stayed the same.

Post by **Render** » Thu May 14, 2015 8:02 am

Seth wrote:
Hlaoroo wrote:
Seth wrote:One time it got so bad they said seth could be a mod. Like who does he know here?
Heh. Well, I'm a mod now. What does that tell you?
Standards have either gotten stricter, looser, or stayed the same.

Either it rains or not. xD

Post by **Sleet** » Thu May 14, 2015 2:15 pm

That reminds me of a shirt my friend got around election time:

"VOTE OR DON'T"

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Thu May 14, 2015 3:25 pm

I can tell who former mods are because for the most part, they are the only ones that have titles under their names.

If I had to venture a guess, I would say that valerio, Welshy, Keeshah, xhunterko, Roarin, Legotron123, Seth, ~~Karishad~~ Rockstar Raccoon, Captain Pea, 44R0NM10, Tha Housefox, Dylan and Buckdida were mods at some point.

I have no idea what is up with the ☆ rankings though.

Hukley, Stu, CHAOKO and Kouri are banner artists.

Karishad never logs into that account so I guess you could say he's a former mod also.

Post by **Obbl** » Thu May 14, 2015 4:16 pm

Well, "Game Master" titles are for GMs in the RP section. They don't have to do with modship. And not every former mod wanted a title, so some are more well hidden than others

The ☆'s are for forumites who support Rick on his Patreon.

Post by **Dissension** » Thu May 14, 2015 6:43 pm

Former staff members include (in order of promotion) Buckdida (global), Ebly (global), Dylan (global), ctcmjh (Roleplaying & Fanfiction [pre-split]), kyderra (The Comic, Fan Projects), Tha Housefox (Roleplaying), CaptainPea (Not the Comic), 44R0NM10 (Roleplaying), RockstarRaccoon (Roleplaying), D-Singer (Roleplaying), and Seth (Roleplaying).

Seth · Post by **Seth** » Fri May 15, 2015 6:35 am

So what you're saying in the rp board is the problem child

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Fri May 15, 2015 6:57 am

Obbl wrote:Well, "Game Master" titles are for GMs in the RP section. They don't have to do with modship.

Exactly. The GMs are the people who run the individual RPs. They have no moderator authority or permissions but they do a huge amount of work to keep the roleplaying section running so they have a special rank to thank them for that.

Obbl wrote:And not every former mod wanted a title, so some are more well hidden than others
The ☆'s are for forumites who support Rick on his Patreon.

Quite right, quite right.

Amazee Dayzee wrote:Karishad never logs into that account so I guess you could say he's a former mod also.

Well, no. Karishad was never a moderator. He's always held administrator status. You're right that he rarely logs on though. He acts more in an advisory capacity behind the scenes.

Seth wrote:So what you're saying in the rp board is the problem child

Hmm... More like the unruly dog that just needed the right coercion to behave.

Once we got some firm leadership things got cleaned up though. Not to say any of the former mods did anything wrong. They're all great people and for the most part they did great jobs. They just had different styles of leadership, and besides that the entire forums was very different in those days.

Post by **Dissension** » Fri May 15, 2015 4:40 pm

Hlaoroo wrote:
Amazee Dayzee wrote:Karishad never logs into that account so I guess you could say he's a former mod also.
Well, no. Karishad was never a moderator. He's always held administrator status. You're right that he rarely logs on though. He acts more in an advisory capacity behind the scenes.

Karishad was originally going to be the forum moderator, but technical and health issues precluded it. He's got special status for a variety of reasons, but he's administrator 'cause something came up that needed an admin to deal with when I was away. The situation was easily resolved, but isn't something we'll discuss.

Hlaoroo wrote:Hmm... More like the unruly dog that just needed the right coercion to behave. :P Once we got some firm leadership things got cleaned up though. Not to say any of the former mods did anything wrong. They're all great people and for the most part they did great jobs. They just had different styles of leadership, and besides that the entire forums was very different in those days.

Well, six of the former moderators were from Roleplaying or Roleplaying and Fanfiction and two of the ex-global moderators were heavily involved in that set of forums. I wouldn't say it's a result of lacking firm leadership - all of the former moderators were great folks who weren't afraid to act when necessary. Historically, the users of that section have been more likely to push ratings and rules than those who primarily frequent other sections. However, none of the moderators left because they couldn't handle the position. Most became active in offline activities that required sacrificing time here. A few had personality conflicts with users or other staff members. One or two, unfortunately, became inactive and were replaced. (In one instance, a moderator hadn't logged on for a period of one year or posted in excess of two.)

Douglas Collier · Post by **Douglas Collier** » Sat May 16, 2015 11:37 pm

I think Diss really would have fit in at BLFC this year - the theme is Compliance.

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Sun May 17, 2015 1:32 am

So most of my keyboard short-circuited so now I have to figure out a way to get used to using Windows again. Especially since its Windows 8.1. So I might be a bit clumsy.

JeffCvt · Post by **JeffCvt** » Sun May 17, 2015 7:40 am

Why does everyone hate on Windows 8 so much? I'll admit I've never used it, but it seems to be the tile interface that most people have a problem with. Not like it's Vista which had (or maybe still has) actual problems.

Douglas Collier · Post by **Douglas Collier** » Sun May 17, 2015 9:18 am

The interface is hard to get used to. Sure there's a regular version of the desktop, but it lacks an easy-to-use and familiar start menu. I had to download one. Also, when you've come expect a semi-professional desktop medium from Microsoft, it's a little disconcerting when they decide to emulate gaming or Apple mobile systems.

Deske · Post by **Deske** » Sun May 17, 2015 9:43 am

I don't like windows 8 because it seems like a rather useless update. All the surface features don't serve a purpose on something that isn't a touchscreen. Desktops are simple and clean, but 10 pages of tiles is apparently better. It just seems useless, like they could've continued to build Windows 7 into the next Windows XP or something, where it lasted for years and years.

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Sun May 17, 2015 10:00 am

Huh. I never knew Kari was intended to be a mod. There you go.

Seems I was mistaken about the RP section though. I got a few things Diss told me mixed up. The past RP mods are all great people and have always done their best and done a good job of modding. What happened was that due to various reasons, as Diss said, basically every mod on the forums became inactive so that the NTC section was the only one being moderated, and then, as the saying goes, when the cats are away the mice will play. With a change of staff and Diss' promotion we got a more active team of staff and the forums were brought back under control. Still, the mice were so bad in that time that, to continue the metaphor, Rick considered bringing in the exterminator. So, my sincere apologies to anyone I may have offended with my previous erroneous statement.

JeffCvt wrote:Why does everyone hate on Windows 8 so much? I'll admit I've never used it, but it seems to be the tile interface that most people have a problem with. Not like it's Vista which had (or maybe still has) actual problems.

Windows 8 does take some getting used to but once you've figured it out it's not so bad. There's definitely a few quirks but you can learn to live with them and none of them are actual problems like in Vista. They're just different ways of doing things. I think it's definitely better on a tablet than it is on a PC but I have a touch-screen laptop so I kind of have the best of both worlds. I do prefer the old style start menu from the older Windowses but I haven't installed it on my computer. I didn't even know that was possible.

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Sun May 17, 2015 2:41 pm

Still getting used to it. It is annoying when I accidentally swipe the screen and bring a menu up. Plus I actually have to right-click on the track pad, where as on my Mac, all I had to do was what hold down the control button.

I also haven't used Windows on a laptop in a REAL long time. :/

Post by **Obbl** » Sun May 17, 2015 5:02 pm

Windows 8 tries way to hard to make your experience like their tablet version. The desktop is an app (which makes a lot of computer sense actually, so that's fine), but then they want all the other programs you use to be apps instead of desktop run programs and heavily optimize the functionality and layout with that in mind. Now, I want to run the computer as if it is a desktop, meaning the only "app" I run is the desktop app and every other program is run as a desktop program, but Windows is not optimized to do it like that. However, not being on a tablet, running my desktop programs as apps feels more unwieldy. For example I am used to being able to see all my currently running programs on the bottom toolbar, but with apps it is set up differently and, given I'm not using a tablet, unintuitively. The way to circumvent all the app nonsense is to download the "desktop" version of my programs. However, Windows 8 is not optimized for those, so once downloaded the arrangement of my desktop programs on the app page is hard to navigate and full of bizarre extra cruft (like documentation and licenses), unless I were to pin them to the main "start" app page where I can arrange them as I like. But why would I want to do that for every program I instal?
I think the big issue is just all the little hoops you as the user feel you have to jump through just to use your computer as a desktop. It probably could have been really good if they had made some modifications to make a desktop version of Windows 8 that felt like the standard desktop computer, but they really felt like Windows 8 should run exactly the same on all devices so that people could easily move from device to device with no adjustments. It just doesn't work quite as well on a desktop or laptop.

Another interesting note. I like to set my keyboard to Japanese and turn off the English keyboard because Japanese has Latin letters, Hiragana input, and Katakana input, and while I know the shortcuts for navigating between those three, I don't know a handy shortcut for switching keyboard language outright. Interestingly, on Windows 8, you cannot simply set your main keyboard to a different language. Oh, no. You must set your language preferences. Thus my Windows 8 is set for Japanese language, and all the apps that come standard with Windows 8 are in Japanese (fortunately I do not use these). It also means that the signup page for my Microsoft account (another "feature" I'm not so pleased I was forced to make for one particular program) was all in Japanese. ...I'm only so fluent in Japanese... Had to look up the "legalese" type words

Post by **Dissension** » Sun May 17, 2015 5:09 pm

If you type what you're looking for on the start screen, it searches. I've never had a problem navigating Windows 8 or 8.1.

Post by **Obbl** » Sun May 17, 2015 5:28 pm

Thank you, Diss
That is the single most important feature I have been made aware of

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Sun May 17, 2015 6:48 pm

Obbl wrote: It also means that the signup page for my Microsoft account (another "feature" I'm not so pleased I was forced to make for one particular program) was all in Japanese.

That's something I loathe about Windows 8.1. It makes you use your Microsoft/hotmail/windows live email address as your computer username and your email password as your computer password and you can't set it to do otherwise.

Dissension wrote:If you type what you're looking for on the start screen, it searches. I've never had a problem navigating Windows 8 or 8.1.

That's true but you could do that with the start menu in every other version of windows too and I actually find that that search function is really laggy on my version of Windows 8.1. Plus it actually won't find a program unless it's pinned to the start menu. Any other file, yes, sure, but not programs. It's stupid.

The Win 8 start menu is badly organised too. In previous versions things were just in alphabetical order but in Win 8 they're sorted into type of app and then alphabetical order and then programs in alphabetical order. So you have to work out whether the thing you want to use is designated as an app or a program and then make sure it hasn't been filed under the type of program instead of just in order. That's why the search function is so handy.

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Sun May 17, 2015 7:27 pm

Well I will try to deal with it. At least I have a computer so that is good. I'm getting it fixed on Thursday.

GreatKitsune · Post by **GreatKitsune** » Mon May 18, 2015 2:21 pm

Douglas Collier wrote:The interface is hard to get used to. Sure there's a regular version of the desktop, but it lacks an easy-to-use and familiar start menu. I had to download one. Also, when you've come expect a semi-professional desktop medium from Microsoft, it's a little disconcerting when they decide to emulate gaming or Apple mobile systems.

It was actually based loosely on XBOX's OS.

Amazee Dayzee wrote:Still getting used to it. It is annoying when I accidentally swipe the screen and bring a menu up. Plus I actually have to right-click on the track pad, where as on my Mac, all I had to do was what hold down the control button.

I also haven't used Windows on a laptop in a REAL long time. :/

You can also tap with two fingers.

Seth · Post by **Seth** » Tue May 19, 2015 5:58 pm

So, being home for the summer I've used windows 8 some because my parents desktop computer has it and I think I can see what it's going for but as of right now it just seems needlessly complicated. Maybe in a while I'll be used to it and it'll be more convenient but I don't know if it's user friendly enough for people to put in the effort to get over the initial frustration and get used to it.

Post by **Sleet** » Wed May 20, 2015 10:12 pm

My mom got a laptop with Windows 8 and it's super frustrating to help her operate her computer when I don't even think it makes sense. <.<

Also, Firefox had been dragging so much for me, that I have, regrettably, tried Chrome out. I don't think I like it as much, but at least my computer can run it effectively...

The-J-Man · Post by **The-J-Man** » Wed May 20, 2015 10:30 pm

Sleet wrote:My mom got a laptop with Windows 8 and it's super frustrating to help her operate her computer when I don't even think it makes sense. <.<

Also, Firefox had been dragging so much for me, that I have, regrettably, tried Chrome out. I don't think I like it as much, but at least my computer can run it effectively...

if you ever need help with Windows 8, you can talk to me. i've been using it and 8.1 for years.

Wed May 20, 2015 10:44 pm

Sleet wrote:Also, Firefox had been dragging so much for me, that I have, regrettably, tried Chrome out. I don't think I like it as much, but at least my computer can run it effectively...

my dad, brother, and I all had the same problem sometime in Winter. we've all been using Chrome since.

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Wed May 20, 2015 11:43 pm

I only use Firefox 30% of the time. I actually like how Safari works.

JeffCvt · Post by **JeffCvt** » Wed May 20, 2015 11:44 pm

Sleet wrote: tried Chrome out.

RandomGeekNamedBrent wrote: we've all been using Chrome since.

Being the local Chrome-maniac, I approve of this.

Seth · Post by **Seth** » Thu May 21, 2015 9:46 am

Chrome is kind of the best. Even if it is skynet.

Douglas Collier · Post by **Douglas Collier** » Thu May 21, 2015 10:30 am

Meh, Chrome takes too long to load for me. Even IE is faster.

Cesco · Post by **Cesco** » Thu May 21, 2015 2:50 pm

Always used Firefox in years on my PC, and have never got bad troubles except very few crashes. Chrome is crashing too much times on my brother's PC, instead.

Douglas Collier wrote:Meh, Chrome takes too long to load for me. Even IE is faster.

The same is with me on my brother's PC. Firefox's loading time is between them, and there are plugins in it. Chrome and Firefox tend to occupy lot of RAM memory.

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Thu May 21, 2015 3:15 pm

On my other computer however, I used Internet Explorer so I technically only use Firefox as a backup so I really just stick to IE and Safari. If I had to choose between them I would choose Safari.

JeffCvt · Post by **JeffCvt** » Thu May 21, 2015 3:29 pm

Douglas Collier wrote:Meh, Chrome takes too long to load for me. Even IE is faster.

Not safer though. At least, not older versions of it. I can't speak for the past 2 years.
It was actually IE that let a bunch of stuff on my computer back when it had Windows. I was literally running quick scans of my computer every week and would find like, a dozen issues every time. After I switched to Chrome, I went an entire month without running any scans then ran a FULL scan (difference being a quick scan was 10 minuets and full was an hour) and found nothing. I have no doubt that whatever crippled my computer's ability to use an antivirus was let on when I was using IE.

(For those who don't know, I use Ubuntu [Linux]. This is because my copy of Windows got a virus that prevented me not from using an antivirus, but from downloading one. This became a problem when Norton went through a MAJOR update that made it more or less re-install itself, and of course it was unable to install. I'm sure I could have fixed it, but I just used it as an excuse to buy a new hard drive and use Linux.)

Douglas Collier · Post by **Douglas Collier** » Thu May 21, 2015 4:17 pm

Diss's name is showing up orange for me. Has he been promoted to demigod?

Post by **Dissension** » Thu May 21, 2015 4:21 pm

Should be goldish more than orange. I couldn't remember what my unique rank color was, it was either this or electric blue.

I can't really be promoted any higher than what I currently am.

Civilization · Post by **Civilization** » Thu May 21, 2015 4:22 pm

What made you want to change the color?

Douglas Collier · Post by **Douglas Collier** » Thu May 21, 2015 4:23 pm

Ok, gold. Maybe orangish gold.