Neinbox

Not sure if the above was a general announcement or not (assuming it is), but as one of Jackboot's volunteers under his supervision, I am adding a complaint against his abilities as a manager. And honestly, if the community has a poor experience in speaking to him as well Now, for the proper post since my first was butchered from some sort of error. I'll just go through and go over the points for the big picture here with what images I have. Sorry in advance, but the pictures are going to make it long. Feel free to skip the images if you want, but I feel that they are the meat of the issue and help give perspective and perhaps show what others may have also been experiencing. Keep in mind that this is not an attack on Jackboot but rather me stating my severe dissatisfaction of the way of how JB handles things. So, back to the original list: Small things first: 2, 3, 8, 9, 11, 12. I don't really feel that this requires screenshots as I said, they're small but constant annoyances that can make it difficult to talk to JB and I've had people complain about the same things to me with their own experiences with him, which is why they're being included at all. If any are seen as irrelevant, then I will delete them. Now the big things that to me, actually do matter in JB's capacity to be the head lore manager: 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10. I'll try and provide screenshots for these where I can. My biggest gripe with the prioritization is, yes, I do have a problem with the fact that a species (putting aside my feelings that they don't fit the lore altogether for this bit) that just recently and somehow obtained FBP's do have their FBP's first before a species that should have had them a very long time ago in-game as humans lore-wise had theirs longer than a newly acquainted group. "But human lore devs weren't pushing for it at the time"/"no one spoke up about it"/"you can make it happen". No. The community gets excited about new things especially if it's radically different and I get that, but the head loredev should have made sure that a species that should have had the same mechanics already implemented a long time ago get the feature first because it existed first instead of handing out shiny new things and letting those who have been waiting for it for their species left behind. And it's not someone else's job to make sure that things with other species that existed first are implemented when I just work with Dionae. I have nothing to do with human lore. Why would I intercede on their behalf? That's not my job, but the head loredev's. But I do still see the injustice of ignoring a group and pandering to your own and the head loredev allowing it to happen. Make both features happen for both species, sure, whatever. But it should have been done fairly. You should have helped out the human team instead of pushing your own species first to make sure they got what they were supposed to have before you gave the same to your own as the one who overlooks all of us to make sure that we get what we need and that we're all on track and that everything's fair to not only the team but the community. "Be proactive." Next up is something I've been noticing over time. I was given explicit permission by the JB to mute the server because I was getting stressed out and tired of the arguments between me and a very select few members of the staff. Deciding I didn't want to be a part of that anymore because it would happen whenever I attempted to make certain conversations, I asked JB if I could leave the staff discord because I didn't feel welcomed and thought it would be the best for everyone if I left. My life had taken a turn for the worst and it was affecting my ability to communicate with others on certain matters, and that was brought to my attention as well. So, I did exactly what was asked of me: I muted the channel but kept the announcement channel open, and always took a look at Lore Writer pings, putting in my two cents if I had any to spare, and opening a Dionae Discord server with a cooperative lorework channel between me, JB, Sleepy, and later inviting JB's deputy and another member to work on Dionae lore. Later on, I also made an apology announcement to those involved: So, I went about my separate way for a while, doing my work on Dionae in solitude without bothering anyone and vice versa while I tried to handle a major situation off-screen. Then, a few months later when I was recovering from my trauma and taking a bit of a breather from playing but still doing lorework, I get a popup from JB that he wants me to come back despite knowing that I have gone through something traumatizing and was taking a little me-time to recover, demanding that I return in a crass manner. During this time I've been thinking about doing something major with the Dionae and I've been toying with several ideas, then choosing one and getting involved in a large project in favor over the rest. the project at this time was hush-hush because it was still in it's developmental phases where I mentioned it to another loredev I would be working on it with very late in 2018, but had to pause it due to work on the NBT and other projects as well as my recovery, and contact was sometimes touch and go because our schedules were different. But big plans were still building and we had at least a solid idea of the outline. Then, a couple days later, I get this. This was a part of a different conversation that led up to JB once more bringing up the issue, but the way of how it was worded really rubs me the wrong way, and at this point I am getting rather irritated and upset with JB constantly bothering me for something that I've already talked to them about with serious/solid reasons to do what I do. Not long after, I am harried by JB yet again and at this point I am seriously feeling harassed. I believe I've already brought this up with administration on how JB is upsetting me with the constant pressure to do something unnecessary that makes me uncomfortable, but nothing ever really came of it. At this point I've been feeling resentment from being constantly bothered by the topic and my irritation about it shows. The next thing is how JB tries to control things and another example of poor decision making. One of the earlier examples that I have is when JB contacted me about Dionae nymphs. He wanted to make it so that Fahjil, the vice president of Tau Ceti, for whatever reason, to make an NT corporate regulation that already exists, that Nymphs are considered animals and are protected against harm under animal protection rights. On the Dionae wiki before I became loredev, it was already listed that they are considered animals and are protected by such as a general law, making it apply to anything in Tau space including corporate regulations such as NT because they are in Tau space. The conversation was had late at night was when I was having one of my migraines and giving me a shorter fuse than usual for full disclosure, and I agree that I was being rude but was too tired and in pain at that point in time to care. With my previous encounters with JB when it came to me "looking busy" in the staff lore chat, I was still rather reluctant to talk to him especially when I was having great difficulty in showing him how it wasn't such a great idea and he was being very persistent, and ended up twisting and manipulating my words which made me very, very bitter towards him more than what I already was feeling at the time. This is a longer read, and I apologize but I feel that it's important to show it all for the full picture. Then, the next day, JB approached me for the same exact thing. I was still upset about last night and I think the conversation happened when I woke up, feeling resentful and making me get short with him and being curt. An agreement was made, but at a price of me not being as trusting of him. I didn't go to administration about it because I didn't feel that anything would have been done again about it. And now, for the most recent problem that I've had with JB. This is where he attempts to force me to give him permission to edit a document that, mind you, isn't going to be shown to the general public, is nowhere near being a news article, and is more or less a document meant for personal reference. Google Docs is a horrific place to have commentary unless actually doing small editorial work such as "shorten this here, add this here, at this point the topic starts drifting," etc. and is not meant for full-on discussion because it can get downright chaotic, which would have been stressful to deal with and not worth the struggle. Once more, Mofo had so delightfully provided private conversations referring to third parties no matter who it was. Again, this is not an attack on JB but a complaint on how he handles himself as the head lore maintainer. Some might seem petty or small or inconsequential and I can't tell which is because everyone is different, but these are the things that have personally affected me and has built up overtime to make working with JB stressful and frustrating, making my motivation suffer because the frustration and negative experiences has conditioned me to be resentful of working under him, and that is something I do not want to feel. I strongly believe head loredev shouldn't be making their staff feel this way in the slightest, and to me it has turned what was supposed to be an inspirational volunteer project to "just another job with a difficult boss". It's also all brought up in case others have noticed any of this as well and would like to make any statements on it.

Hey @EmperorVoyd, I'm here now! So far from what I've read, everything looks pretty good. I was about to speak up about the seeds being trapped under the layer but thankfully you've answered my question in a very helpful fashion before I even had the need to talk to you! There are a few things however that don't work too well in the story that I'd like to go over with you, one of which is the sheer size of the planetoid, and just how many seeds were put down. That is a lot of seeds. More or less too much, and it would have more or less meant that it already came from a Titan or just a mass gathering of a sheer number of Dionae beyond what anyone alive has seen before, and it would be the most life to have ever existed anywhere. On top of that, I don't think the researchers would have been able to of have been able to ferret away thousands upon thousands of samples from the Skrell, especially on such a matter that is so sensitive to them, Ship checks do happen especially for scientific explorations, and I don't think any ship has enough hidden panels to hide all of those without scans going off picking up a mass of biological entities! If it was a large asteroid where there were seeds that numbered in the thousands and the Skrell got involved by trying to grow the strange seeds as well out of curiosity, that would be a lot more probable. The other thing is the appearance of the seeds. Was there any specific reasoning for this? Are they only different because of color? Or are the nymphs themselves different as well? Next up is the second biggest issue. You have provided two different backstories and need to choose one. The first one is pretty decent, the second one leaves more questions. What was the ship? Why were there civilians on board? Why did the Dionae destroy the life inside?

I'll make the proper posts and re-do my original one once I return so people can actually read what I intended to post the first time around instead of having assumptions being tossed around yet again. But with all of this drama popping up now, needless to say I'm becoming pretty done.

Did a quick skim let me just say that @Mofo1995, this had absolutely nothing to do with the complaint between me and VT. Absolutely. Nothing. I dropped it. I said that I would explain and expand upon the rest of my original post later but you had to go and assume and post shit with "not to make them look bad but sorry I had to do this" is poor. That was supposed to be a private and confidential conversation. I told you I was upset. And after I blew off the steam I came back and said I was calmer and communicated more calmly. There's already a large rift between me and VT and now you're showing something that I was privately confiding in with you about someone else because I KNEW I was upset and wanted a one-on-one instead to avoid drama and now there's going to be an even larger divide. I've since had time to think to myself about the whole thing and decided to drop it because I got too emotional about something that I strongly felt was an injustice and have since decided that the best chance at anything is to try to talk to VT. I let them knew how I felt so they'd understand where I'm coming from as a start before we actually try to work through it as you need to know the problem before you get to the solution. I want to be able to at least work with them and nothing more, but I suppose you have just ruined as well as my reputation by spreading what was supposed to be confidential information, so thanks for that. Real shit move, and yet more drama. You made it personal and about me when you posted something personal about me. Either delete it to right some of your wrong or don't because the damage has already been done. Either way, I'm very upset right now. Showing PMs between the "defendant" and the "accuser" is one thing. But showing private messages of someone confiding in another privately about a third party is not. PS- Ironic that you're posting what was supposed to be confidential information saying how it's "relevant" about confidential information I also thought was relevant yet never received.

Oh my god. It ate the rest of my post. All of my work is gone. Oh well. It's 7 AM and I have an important lunch at 12. I'll get to the other parts later but right now fuck it. I have more to add that will properly explain shit later about the points but right now I'm cranky because of this.

Right. I'm going to make my post here as an overall complaint of Jackboot being on the loreteam and how he handles his position. One, I agree with the original post. When I heard of it I felt a bit miffed about it. Having a max of two is fine, but assuming that someone knew that this was a solid rule without it being announced and also assuming that said someone would give up one of their devs without even saying that they had to have two devs after allowing them three- note that you said you preferred which means that they could in fact have three if they wanted- is baloney. Now for my own complaint against Jackboot which I will provide, hopefully with some images. These are points that stand out to me a lot and something I've been really struggling with a lot and will be broken into two parts. 1. Poor leadership: Lets things either bad things sit or fails to let other people know things 2. Poor decision-making: Constantly makes questionable choices I.E. past events he has ran 3. Poor communication: Talking with JB is often very confusing, or outright frustrating where it is sometimes difficult to understand what he's saying, if he understands what is being said, and if what he says is a joke or not because he tends to joke around a lot. 4. Bad prioritization/Personal agenda: Will often push his own species first before making sure that everyone else is taken care of, i.e. Auk'tah full-body prosthetics before Human FBP's. 5. Pushing personal agenda/Overreaching: Often tries to include himself in projects past the point of simply being a head loredev, may attempt to make projects out of things that aren't his or take over. 6. Harassment/Pressuring: Keeps making subtle suggestions or repeatedly peruse something even after being told no, will throw weight around of being head loredev if he doesn't get his way. 7. Poor handling: If under pressure himself, JB seems to become stressed and take it out on others. Ever sense the Auk'tah he's become increasingly short-tempered and this past week has become a bully. 8. Ignores others: Often goes around asking for thoughts on things/critiques/advice/etc. and when someone provides it, will completely ignore it if it's negative or deviates from his original plans. 9. Easily influenced/"manipulated"/too soft: Says yes too often to too much without thinking on if he should or not, either to avoid hurt feelings or because he likes someone. 10. Hypocritical: Fights against things that are contrary to his beliefs without consideration, and then after a bit will turn around and do the same thing but at a ridiculous scale 11. Projects: Always finds some way to insert political views into almost any and every conversation. 12. Lackluster creativity: Subjective as an actual problem, but will consistently and heavily rely on human history instead of attempting to make up fresh or unique scenarios and instead make something bland and predictable. This is a big list and looks harsh, I know. But over time what might seem as a lot of little things build up over time. It's a lot like trying to put together a machine out of little bits of scrap and it will hold together for a time, but after a while it will start to fall apart and you're constantly trying to fix it and keep it together. It's stressful and frustrating. I stayed up really late to write this into the morning, so if any of this sounds off or if it's poorly worded, feel free to let me know and I'll edit it as I'm not always the best with big things with this. It's very early here for me at the moment. Also feel free to talk about the issues and discuss with me and add your own thoughts too, I prefer to talk things out so everyone can come to an understanding than an argument. 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12

Best of luck, then! If you have any questions, feel free to contact me! Application Accepted.

Then I guess all there is to say is, enjoy your first whitelist! Remember, if you have any questions or anything, feel free to contact me! Application Accepted.

Read and re-read! Thank you for highlighting, it made it a lot easier to pick out the changes and read through faster. If only others started to pick up this habit! Completely understandable, and your answer does count for a self-review, even you saying you would rather not. The point of these is honesty. If someone says they get a 10/10 and flaunt it but there's others out here that strongly disagree, something might be up. But being humble and admitting to difficulties and showing that you're more than willing to work on them and improve is a great way to earn trust, because applicants are being entrusted with representing an alien species. And if they make faults, they should be willing to improve or risk losing the whitelist. Again, understandable! I can see where you're coming from here. But unfortunately, it is best to get into the habit of talking about them as they are. A genderless group of entities. If you're not careful, you can slip up in-game too often with your Gestalt gendering itself and be considered by others to be breaking lore. And the worst that could happen with keeping up on using genderless pronouns is using it OOCly or IRL. I ended up talking in third person on accident after first playing my Tajara for the first few weeks. That was fun to explain! A good way to remember it is to look at your gestalt as a group of animals, because that's literally what it is. They just got smart is all! "They" not only refers to a group of people, but it also refers to someone as neither male nor female, or perhaps somewhere in between. "It" is like talking about a bird or insect or plant or fish, etc. and is used to describe lesser sentient beings or objects. As for "we", your Gestalt is a collection of animals deciding on things as a group like one long, mobile business meeting. Just keep trying to talk about them using those terms instead of gendering them- you'll get the hang of it in no time and it'll help you out with being able to play them better. Because when you start thinking about it, your mindset will start to apply other things to it too. Best to do it while you're ahead to avoid mistakes! Think you're up for that challenge?

Hi again @Bag of Rice! If you want to play Dionae, you should start getting into the habit of thinking like one. It's a good habit to practice. Be careful though- when I first started playing my Tajara, I ended up talking in third person in real life. That was a bit difficult to explain to family lmao Sounds good to me- their occupation and name match too! Just be sure that they are attending a college to be able to keep the position realistically. I actually really like that change and makes a lot of sense. I can imagine officials groaning when they see a new Gestalt shamble their way over with a "here we go again" Good to know! Another thing is to watch other players and how they play their characters as well and find ones that inspire you, and give an attempt to follow suit. That's how I got better- I adjusted more to their playstyle to learn what was more enjoyable and reach something that was more HRP than what I started out as, which was more LRP. Now, for the final verdict. I will be honest with you here: I felt reluctance when I initially read your application because you seemed to have the wrong idea of how others view Dionae, which is a bit important in playing them. But, like I said, their presence on station is a rare occasion nowadays. But you've quickly corrected this without my telling you how to do so after I pointed out the questionable behavior from the officials. You're a relatively newer player here and it's expected that you're still learning, but you show a lot of promise and I want to give you the experience of developing a complex creature into your very own character and give them depth. There's only one thing that I need to talk to you about, but it's nothing terrible. It's noticed that your character does a bit of job hopping between departments and paygrades. Like I said, it's nothing bad- right now you only have one character and you're trying to figure out the game and discover how departments work and what jobs you like best, as well as how those jobs work. I did much the same! But once you start to flesh out Dmitri more, you should settle down in a department and job as jobhopping is something that's frowned upon here. The best thing to do here is to create different characters to branch out into different departments. canned_laughtrack.mp4 It's what I did, at least. As for with this character, it would be best to keep them as a lab assistant- they can occasionally come on board as a botanist once in a while if you need to mix it up a little or let them relax, or if the assistant role is full- regular assistant works too! Do you think you'll be able to do that?

Hi @KingOfThePing! Popping in to point out a few things here. First is that your short story should be two paragraphs long, as stated in the format. [b]BYOND Key:[/b] (byond key) [b]Character Names:[/b] (character name) [b]Species you are applying to play:[/b] (species name) [b]What color do you plan on making your first alien character:[/b] (Color of your character; Dionaea & IPCs exempt) [b]Have you read our lore section's page on this species?:[/b] [u]Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question.[/u] [b]Why do you wish to play this specific race:[/b] (One paragraph minimum) [b]Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:[/b] (One Paragraph minimum) [b]Character Name:[/b] (Character name) [b]Please provide a short backstory for this character[/b] (Aproxomately two paragraphs) [b]What do you like about this character?[/b] (Describe what you like about this character [b]How would you rate your role-playing ability?[/b] [b]Notes:[/b] Next is that your role-playing self-rating feels a bit lacking. I'd like it to be a paragraph long like what's needed for the rest; why do you feel like you should be rated as a 7/10? Lastly, I see you refer to your Gestalt as a "he" a lot. Do they call themselves a "he" a lot too? Hope to hear from you soon!

Hello, @Bag of Rice! Meant to get to you yesterday, but I ended up having to clean up a lot. Anyways! Good reasons for wanting to play and what makes them different, although I'd like a little more on what you like about this character as well as why you rate yourself a 6/10 for your roleplaying abilities. All answers should be at least a paragraph at minimum. Moving onto the background, I'm running into a few bumps along the path. One of which, is their name. A relatively new Gestalt would have a short name to show that they have relatively little experience, and thus knowledge. It's like a story; a small tale has less pages. They also base their names off of a particular interest- they don't need a name right away as soon as they form a Gestalt! they usually wait until they find something and agree on it. It's like trying to find a good name for a pet- I know it took me a couple of days to think of really good names for my ferrets. But the reason for this is that there would be a lot of Gestalts with similar names if they named themselves something that each and every one of them experienced while they were developing. A name like that is usually temporary, like a nickname. If they were fascinated by technology, they may pursue it and try to become a lab assistant and chose a name similar, being pulled to it. But if they have yet to find their passion, perhaps an assistant task would be good for them, or as you have done, keep them in botany so they can make income off of the species natural inclination to know how to care for plants. If you chose that route, can I suggest shortening the name to "Grows to Heaven", a sort of play on words on both their innocence and how they literally grew in a vertical fashion until they find their knack unless Botany is it? It's short, sweet, and fits the short-story criteria. Next up is the way you perceive the species. You act as if officials always treat every sapient species or individual this way when they're supposed to be professional. I can't blame you if you've only ever played/seem a nymph which is generally treated poorly as the hated "greentide" due to careless non-whitelistees and never seen an actual Gestalt with how rare their presence is in-game. You also refer to your Gestalt as a "he". Why's that?

"Light from Above" sounds just as good as "Nurture and Nature/Nature and Nurture" to be honest. Three words, short and sweet! Everything else appears acceptable. I take it that this is a heavy development character more than anything, and that in itself is well appreciated. I've done that before where I've made a barebones application, got accepted, and went "well shit". I had a blast figuring out the character, defining them as they grew relationships that they made, making things up out of thin air and going along with it as I played. It was chaos keeping track, but it was still fun and now I have several deep characters with complex backgrounds. Either way, I'm looking forwards to see how their story unfolds. If you have anything you're uncertain about, feel free to contact me! Application accepted.

Hello, @Komotez! Sorry for the wait, I've been working on my new computer this week and it slipped my mind to check the forums. Anyways, let's get to it! So far it looks pretty solid. Your reason for wanting to play them and what makes them different from other species have good answers. Your likes about the character are decent, and your honesty about your RP abilities are appreciated. We all have our off days! Just make sure you stay in character. Moving onto the background, I had a bit of a laugh honestly. I had a question I was going to ask, but you immediately answered it in the next sentence. To be honest the background seems fine for the most part- you don't need a dazzling, sensational background to be accepted. Instead, it's more based on competence; you must be able to be trusted with a whitelist and represent the species properly with knowledge on them in your arsenal. Which, it seems you do! I do have a few things, however: Young Dionae have shorter names to show that they don't have as much knowledge. Yours, although simple, is long. They tend to get longer names the more they learn through the centuries- do you think that you might be able to shorten yours? Perhaps to Nurture and Nature? Nurture refers to what is gained through experience such as knowledge, and Nature means something that just comes naturally, such as light. It'll also fit their more basic, simpler life in a live-and-let-live style until they grow more. But it's just a suggestion! Feel free to do something else if it's not to your liking. Dionae typically have a fixation on a certain thing- is yours specifically the basic needs of survival?

I didn't participate in contributions to add simply because I had nothing to contribute, and if I recall, it was during a more difficult time in my life and thus couldn't focus on anything more than what I could handle. The event came around more or less after all the discussions and when I was adjusted. If I have no input, I'm not going to post a "k". And I'm not going to scroll through the past 24 hours every day of lorechat through the memes and other things for actual important things that I might have missed and that I might have input on. No one has any time or will to do that. Allow me to repeat that playing the game used to cause me anxiety. The keyword here is used to. I have been trying to re-acclimate myself, and also have to repeat this, have recently chosen to play a round not because I was required but simply of my own free will. As for deputy slots, there have never, ever been deputies in the past and from what I can recall deputies in other servers. Dionae, at this moment, are currently not involved in much and do not need to be either while I work on this project. They aren't supposed to be. They will be, and after I'm done I will add a deputy, a single deputy, but until then I have something that requires a lot of focus and work. No, it is not distracting me, it is simply that Dionae cannot lore-wise become involved in anything else because it is distracting them. I have talked extensively with others and from what I can recall with JB to as of why I do not like the Auk'tah in which you were not around for. To me they don't make sense and that was my more or less final official statement on the whole matter. I cannot critique the species anymore simply because it would require a mass rework and not a single person is up to that, which is understandable. That's all there is to it. And yes, it is personal because this is the second time I am dealing with an eerily similar situation to something that was incredibly distasteful in the past. Accusations are being made, and not once have you come to talk to me in an attempt to soothe your concerns and instead choose to assume. Believe it or not, this had absolutely nothing to do with you. Absolutely none. To claim that it was because of your actions- is that really something to be proud of? And to call my actions cheeky as well? To sit there and claim that I'm just going to be inactive yet again as yet another baseless assumption? Need I remind you, and man, I am really feeling like a broken record here because I am really needing to repeat literally everything in my previous post, I was experience a trauma in my life and has since been recovering from it. Is my public activity going to drop off? Of course. But just because you don't see me being publicly active doesn't mean that work isn't being done with the species. That was at a very, very low point in my life and you are assuming that I'm like that normally. Hint: I'm not. No one has yet to see me at my peak, and everyone is about to. But this is a lot of assumptions and accusations coming from your end, and it is very unbecoming and incredibly upsetting to me. We could have had a nice chat in private where I could have explained to you otherwise and reassure you that things are moving on nicely, but here we are. Am I being short about this? Yes. I'm decently upset for once. I don't care much for how scary complaints are to others, I understand they're a middle ground for everyone to meet and peacefully discuss matters. But to me, this is a lot coming from someone who recently joined the team and doesn't have any idea what's going on with my behalf and instead of waiting for a document from Syntax and I or bothering to contact me you go all out and ask for my demotion. That doesn't leave a very good taste in my mouth.

So, I'm not going to be shy about saying that I'm rather bitter about this complaint. I know that we tend to butt heads a lot, but this is a bit different for several reasons. "I do not control the rate at which players use a race." This can be argued against me, sure. But so far I've been working, as you have heard, on a large project with Syntax as well as sorting out my life after a major event happened. Players are more than welcomed to contact me for any reason especially if it is about Dionae, and I'm open about such. Here's the thing about this: No one else's lore involves my species, and thus me, and vice versa. I have nothing of value to add to the conversation and there is no need for me to. If there is ever anything that involves me, people are free to ping me in which they have, otherwise I have no say. Especially when the staff chat is 80% memes half the time in between. I'm not going to waste my time nor anyone else's by posting anything on the server in discussions that are irrelevant to me. Should I just post a single "k" to show that I do occasionally check/lurk the channel once in a while to check for anything relevant to me- which I do actually do- and to remind everyone that I still exist? Would that be satisfactory? Frankly, I find it a waste of time as it does not contribute to anything. This. This is what upsets me. That was posted on another server completely unrelated to Aurora. This isn't the first time I've had someone dig up any kind of dirt they can since the first incident was on a private friend server that wasn't open to the public and things were presented to Jackboot in PM's out of context, and now it is being done publicly. I am allowed to have personal thoughts and opinions, and I can do so while still continuing to create for Aurora simply because I enjoy doing so. I can disagree with something and still move on my way and continue my work like an adult. Note that this was done outside of Aurora's server and actually on CITADEL'S server. People were asking me why I came to play there and I told them. Is that a crime to confide in others on an unrelated server in a non-demeaning way? That I simply just didn't agree? And what if I did leave for a bit to play on another server because I wanted a break from it because I found some things overwhelming or upsetting to a point? Am I not allowed to do so? And yes, posting things from another anything is bad. I'm a volunteer. This is not a job where you can go digging into someone's facebook and personal information for any kind of reasons to get dirt on them and reasons to have them fired. That's frankly creepy and shallow that something inoffensive that I said was taken from a different server just as that: to add more dirt on me. Did I shit-talk Aurora? No. I simply said I disagreed. I also moved because for a while I was actually experience an extreme discomfort with playing for a separate reason; I was taking a break from playing for a while on Aurora because a traumatic event in my life has made me experience anxiety due to the fact that it was associated to something that had previously caused me severe distress even though I was using the game as an escape. Was that so wrong of me to do? Call it fake, I just didn't think I needed to tell anyone the reason simply because no one needed to know due to how I was still stressed over it, but I guess I need to now. But I was still able to do lorework because it wasn't associated with the trauma. If you want me to further elaborate on what this trauma is, I'm going to have to refuse for personal reasons. Another thing that pisses me off, and no, I'm not going to be shy about saying so. This is a screenshot that is being posted out of context, and so I am being forced to elaborate since I am purposefully being shown in a light that's casting me to be a villain like before. I was having a discussion with Paradox, yes, the one that was more than happy to provide you with the dirt on me from the Citadel server which they also play and are an active lore contributor which I am not, about giving changelings healing stings which I believed goes completely against the nature of changelings because they are meant to be a predatory species, not a friendly doctor with a panacea injection. They also stated that they wanted 'lings to have an arithrazine sting to be exclusively effective against Dionae just because after I asked if 'lings feed off of Dionae. They also wanted to have an EMP sting for synthetics, but there's no way that would've worked- it was all more or less to "balance" the species. But the thing about the game is that not everything is going to be "balanced" mechanically. Sometimes you're going to have to rely on your own with to solve a problem which should be encouraged for a HRP server, because as far as I recall only medium to low RP servers rely solely on mechanics. I've always had a problem talking to Paradox on anything even relatively serious, and would usually end up with arguments. This is sadly well known and is my fault for having arguments with them in public areas in the first place. These arguments would happen frequently with him and a few others on some topics in the staff discord, and getting tired of getting stressed by the constant conflict I asked JB if I could either leave or mute the channel to help reduce the conflicts responsibly because I have the tendency to check any discord with unread messages, even if I don't comment on them. I was given permission to do so. But even if I mute and do not comment because again, nothing really pertains to me or the species when it comes to other's discussions, I still do check in and lurk on occasion so I don't miss out on too much, and it doesn't seem like I don't at all in the first place. And when it comes time to actually work with other lore staff when I am needed, make no mistake, I put the past aside and do my job to work as best as I can with them. Do people have to get along all the time with everyone? No. That's an impossibility and you're going to end up working with people you don't get along with. But a part of being an adult is still being able to work with them, and I can and do. Please note the emotes. That's me being sarcastic. Do I have trouble with playing humans because of the lore? Yes. Is it because I hate their lore? No. It's because I get a little confused sometimes with it, with all the big corps and everything with their names and what they do. Also, I personally am bored of being a human and would much rather be something else for a bit. The same goes for me "giving up on the rest of the lore". I'll do my best to remember it, but sometimes I just give up because there's a lot of little details to remember when you have a character from every species, so I've benched them for a while until I feel up to playing them. This is where I personally have difficulties with you. You take everything I say, and immediately think it's a personal and unfounded attack on the person and their work. This, as I apparently have to re-assure you after several other times in another server that you left, is not the case. Once more, I am allowed to have personal thoughts and feelings. But the point of that discussion was in fact a critique. Whenever you do anything artistically- including creative writing like making lore- and posting it in the public, you are opening yourself up to critics. There are negative, neutral, and positive ones. What was going on there was a discussion of concerns and I was stating mine as a critique. I sincerely feel that the Auk'tah should not have a place in the lore considering several points that several others agree with me on, and I feel that they were added for the wrong reasons. If you take a longer look, you will see that I am not actually sitting there and saying "Auk'tah are shit and we should lynch the dev responsible for this bull crap". No, I was stating a valid concern that I wanted answers to. It was not, contrary to your belief, an attack. I won't, because that was in a private server that you have since left and was a place that I felt I could confide in others in seeing how it wasn't an official or otherwise related Aurora server. I should be allowed to talk with friends on a friend server about whatever I want. I mean seriously, am I going to be monitored on what I say in real life about something? Let me restate that it was a private friend server. No one had any business monitoring it for dirt. Someone has already taken screenshots from there and shown them to JB out of context for the sole purpose of getting me in trouble, and I have since cleared it with Jackboot. That person by the way, broke two rules or so of two different servers. Because it has been cleared up, the issue should not be revisited as it has already been handled. I have been working with another lore dev on a rather large project for the both of us, and so far we have been trying to plan ahead of how we would like it to go before we get our ducks in a row, put it down in a document, and show it to the rest of the team for review. There has so far been no major action that we have done yet outside of a few smaller things. Life also tends to get in the way sometimes, but make no mistake. We are in fact actively working on something. Storyboard. Cleaning up. Presentation. Execution. It's only been "secret work" because we've still been trying to figure it out, but since they've been fleshed out more we are confident enough to put them down on paper. We have just recently talked about presenting the rest to the staff and are doing that step now. The community won't know about it until when it happens, but the lore team will soon enough. Ironically, the arc is me working on their low numbers. If I'm going to be honest here, I feel that this purely just assumptions and accusations. Not once have you DM'd me your concerns which you were free to do. Not once did anyone when they were free to do so. I know you and Paradox are on the same bandwagon to get me booted and were working together to do so. Neither of you are shy in your dislike for me and/or my work. With you? Whenever I say or critique something, you always take such great and personal offense to it when others that were involved in the discussions told you that I was not in the wrong and in fact fine, that it wasn't me making an attack on anything be it a joke or something serious. This has happened several times. I don't hate anyone. I can dislike their decisions and maybe the way they treat me, but I personally don't hate anyone and I don't intend to offend anyone. But right now you've gone out of your way to gather "incriminating evidence" that is posted without context publicly and from places that are not related and/or should not be mentioned here without ever personally bringing up your concerns to me so I could clarify with you, and that is making me rather bitter at the moment. If anything I said here is out of line or wrong let me know, but this complaint was poorly presented and I've had a long day.

It's all good! And sorry for the lack of replies, been busy with life and sometimes I forget to check here. Always feel free to @mention someone if you're trying to catch their attention as it'll notify them. As for the disposals incident, who hasn't messed around with them once or twice? Hell, I sent my character down them in a locker full of twinkies to the kitchen once an the bridge another time while he was drunk. Good times! Anyways, you're in the clear, Darth. Enjoy your new whitelist- I can't wait to see you in action. Application Accepted.

I AWAKEN FROM MY SLUMBER Anyways, hello @DarthvonPalpatine ! I've looked over your application and I'm happy to say I am very pleased by what I see. You describe the species differently with a fresh eye and point out a few of their more unique but (to them) most important aspects. You have also taken Dionae in a direction very few people dare to tread. I found myself very drawn into your character's background, and it was honestly everything I was ever hoping for. A doting old lady who wanted something of her own to love and raise, creating a parent-child inter-species relationship between them and nurturing that bond, only to have it end in tragedy. Yes, there are a few who have attempted this, however you have put more detail into it telling me that the cyclops would have stories to tell from their nymphood. You have also done something- as far as I am aware of- that has never been done before by an applicant and created a controversial and bittersweet ending. Rarely are the reincarnation burials of the Dionae explored, and from how you have worded it in their their eye (sorry guys, it's not plural in this case), you truly do understand how the species view their world. I hope to see more applicants be as willing to explore their more alien aspects and experiment with them in the future. My only question here is that you call your Dionae cyclops a "he". Do you have an elaboration to as of why?

Body mods like that were harshly discouraged by staff. Do not expect it any time soon.

I know this. I still do not agree to it for reasons that I stated. It's too general a term that can be used for any and all species that live off world, and is. "Spacers" means what it says. But again, I lost the vote so it no longer matters.

Problem: Off-worlders are a name used to describe any species that does not live at their home world. It literally just means off-world and is used as a general term. My characters use it a lot for such.

Oh, neat. And keep in mind, that image is a n c i e n t - like just learning how the Tesla works- and I've since developed a better layout. I've used to keep two grounding rods in the airlocks as portable shields since ours don't explode- as long as you're careful to not place it behind you so you're between it and the Tesla. I'll have to play around a little more to figure out the boundaries and such now, but thank you for allowing it to preform as a main engine as I really love variety and experimentation.

Another thing, other servers set a maximum generation of mini-balls capped at... 20? Basically, it mechanically cannot generate any more instead of forcing players to be careful of how many they generate- unless that's what this PR does, as I could have missed this. Also read my last comments on the post I made above for any other ideas if you want them. Not sure if they already exist or not.

Unfortunately, I have a specific setup that I use instead of the default which is a one-by-one tile setup, keeping the Tesla core contained in one tile with the containment generators in a close three-by-three configuration around it. The image below was the first non-standard configuration I've used and it's rather messy and I've since improved, but basically it helped to increase power output and make the engine safer to walk around as the ball no longer wanders and you won't have to worry about being surprised and zapped from what you thought was a safe distance. It's kept contained all the while giving a strong output and just overall makes it safer to observe. I'll have to play around with it more, but with what you're telling me is that this setup will now become dangerous because it is kept contained and directly in the line of fire the entire time. On other servers, danger is provided by making either the containment field generators, tesla coils, or grounding rods explode if not properly secured which will either chop power generation or create a Tesloose- but otherwise there are no other dangers and can be safely kept at 3 indefinitely- which is a little ridiculous and spooked me the first time, but power production was again, low, and I had difficulty with upkeep. It was used as a main engine in alternating rounds and I could not rely on the SM because it simply wasn't there, so I either had to create another engine or completely wire up solars and set up extras to help sustain the station, as a reference to what other servers do for ideas to whoever else is viewing this thread.

Sorry for the delay, I've read it again and thought I've already posted a reply a while ago but apparently I lied to myself and dreamed it up. Anyways! @AccointNaim, let's take another look. Call me nit-picky, but this still isn't five sentences long and thus lacks some detail. This part is... confusing at the end. It seems like you merged two conversations into one. Gestalt age does not matter, and only Matured nymphs can form a Gestalt. That aside, they're aliens not bound by the same laws as other sapient life- bartenders generally wouldn't care about a "tree's" age. It's more a grey line, like how some IPC's are roughly three to four years old but are treated as "mature" as well as act it. The AI would have never opened it's doors, nor would they have been instructed to "just to see what happens" as there are laws in place to protect a high-security area with sensitive equipment. I'll post the AI's laws that further back this (assuming it was their core that they opened to the Dionae): 1. Safeguard: Protect your assigned space station from damage to the best of your abilities. 2. Serve: Serve NanoTrasen personnel to the best of your abilities, with priority as according to their rank and role. 3. Protect: Protect NanoTrasen personnel to the best of your abilities, with priority as according to their rank and role. 4. Preserve: Do not allow unauthorized personnel to tamper with your equipment. This interaction breaks an AI's rule four as they essentially opened up their doors and more or less invited something that shouldn't be in there in the first place to potentially damage their equipment. And even if it wasn't their core, restricted areas are restricted for a reason. Not even command staff would allow this- it would be no different than if the doors were opened for a janitor. It's irresponsibly negligent to allow such a thing to happen, let alone entertain the idea. I still don't see what the "gimmick" is. Overall, this application is... lacking a lot to me and I am not very confident in handing over a whitelist to you. The first paragraph of where they came from is good from their background, but there is still a lot missing. You have not listed what their particular interest is- almost every Dionae has one, and if not they would be searching for it- nor where they intend to go with it. It is also what helps to determine a Dionae's name as their names are based off of their experiences- which makes me think that you've skimmed over or forgotten a bit of the lore. Yes, there was a lot of writing, but it feels like a lot of "filler" to me as I still come up empty-handed with information on your character. For now I'm unfortunately going to have to deny this application due to lackluster content. However, you are free to apply again a month from now- about 30 days- and you're more than welcomed to contact me. But I highly suggest a re-read of the lore for further help as well. Hope to see you re-apply again! Application declined.