Sycmos

If you recall the circumstances in which I was commenting regarding the first several screenshots they involved a number of your friends brigading a discussion regarding a rather offensive depiction of a "religious extremist" that did not involve them and had been resolved between myself and the player. It was even acknowledged as much by Alb. Another one of the above screenshots was a circumstance in which you used to try and extricate an apology from me again, much like what you attempted in Nienna's screenshots, after I simply posted an sticker in response to a rather uncouth series of comments: Furthermore on this, Garn encouraged saying what you meant, even if it meant getting banned: Given that I was about as direct with my comments as is reasonably okay with server moderation, this complaint reads more like tone policing than any sincere issue with my conduct. Besides providing context, I feel that I do not need to explain myself any further.

Everything that I have said that has been posted in this thread was predicated on commentary by other community members that prompted a response deserving of my tone. I stand by everything that I've said, without reservation.

I am in universal, unshakeable support of reversing this PR. It's an absolutely terrible change that does nothing but harm player creativity. The fact that the only "feedback" thread we have for this PR was a discussion that did not allude to or have the attached PR, which has more than a dozen thumbs down and many comments against the change since its inception, tells me enough about how it was expected to be received that it should be reversed on principle. The absolute lack of transparency on merging this PR is offensive.

Hi Tzui. Thank you for applying for a synth whitelist. A few questions, to follow up with what our DLM and Dessy asked: How did Liu-su manage to be transferred to Zeng-Hu from Sekhmet, knowing that competition between corporations in Eridani is cutthroat? What function did they perform with Zeng-Hu in Eridani before being transferred to the SCCV Horizon? What is the nature of Liu-su's handler? Are they a private owner, or appointed by Zeng-Hu? If the latter and it implies they are corporate-owned, #1's answer is important here. What does Liu-su think of working with Zeng-Hu versus Sekhmet? How do their feelings about their coworkers in Sekhmet compare to their coworkers in Zeng-Hu? Do they have any aspirations in regards to their career with Zeng-Hu? Does Liu-su have any personal aspirations outside of their employment that they wish to seek out? Over the years, how have they changed? Take your time answering, there's no rush.

Hi, thank you for applying for a synthetic whitelist. Due to recent administrative actions we've decided to deny your application. You are free to reapply in a month from the day of your initial application.

I've had the following screenshots of in-game deadchat sent to me by a concerned player since I've made this complaint, indicating that actualbear's behavior is not contained to just Discord.

BYOND Key: Sycmos Game ID: N/A Player Byond Key/Character name: Discord name actualbear, ckey filthyfrankster Staff involved: Roostercat Reason for complaint: Over the course of nearly three months, on both the Aurora Relay and Main Discords, Aurora community member actual/filthyfrankster has been routinely posting sexist and racist rhetoric and "memes" under the thin pretense of "humor" by way of a character named "Measurehead", from Disco Elysium. For those uninitiated: "He is a Semenese supremacist who participates in "science"-anthropometry based racism, considering most races - particularly mixed individuals with a Semenese parent - to be beneath him. To Measurehead, the people of the Occident (whom he calls "Ham Sandwiches" or Occidental Haplogroup B4) have fallen from grace after giving the world eugenics, electricity, missiles, and aerostatics, on top of other scientific advances (like race theory). He considers the end of brutal subjugation of other cultures to be a sign of weakness and of things to come." Actualbear often makes several of these posts daily, some in rapid succession and others spread throughout the day. Dialogue screenshots from Disco Elysium promoting fascism, sexism and the utility of phrenology, a pseudoscience involving measurements of the skull that was once used to affirm European superiority over other races, are the most common behind images of Measurehead themselves (who they also use as their Discord profile picture). Remarks about the insignificance or annoyance of women on Aurora, requesting to measure players' skulls, and endorsement of racist behavior usually follow behind these screenshots. On one occasion a meme regarding the Israeli Mossad's capture of Otto Eichmann in Argentina in 1960 was posted. This kind of rhetoric going completely ignored by both players and moderation staff is completely unacceptable and a stain on the image of the community. Without the context of Disco Elysium, something that I would venture that most players are likely not privy to, it looks like the ramblings of a racist, sexist troll trying to bank on reactions by repeatedly making the same type of posts. With the context of Disco Elysium it is still incredibly tasteless, and an enormous show of immaturity to perpetuate this rhetoric for 'humor' for such a long period. It's offensive, unfunny and completely out of line for what we should be expecting of player conduct in our public spaces. Below I have compiled a rather comprehensive gallery of screenshots of actualbear's remarks. Did you attempt to adminhelp the issue at the time? If so, what was the known action taken by administration/moderation: Approximate Date/Time: 2/11/2023 6:49AM EST

Mob sprites for IPCs are a time-intensive endeavor to both sprite and code as they are 11 pieces for a full mob sprite for just one direction, meaning that 44 total images are required that need to be parallel to each other from each angle and have severed parts hidden by layering, along with overlays for lighting and monitor displays for TV heads. Our spriters are intensely busy as it is with several projects given that we only have a handful of them available spread thin across the Konyang arc and other quality of life updates, meaning that we do not have available resources to dedicate to such a task. If someone is willing and able to produce quality sprites for alternative IPC chassis then the synthetic team welcomes it, but as it stands this is not something that can simply be suggested be done from a forum thread.

Not only do I think that the relay needs to be merged with the other Discords, but I think that as a stopgap that relay OOC as an off-topic channel in the current iteration of the relay Discord needs to be either more heavily monitored or deleted altogether. Not anywhere else will you find players who are more confident in openly dragging the efforts of the lore team, providing unwanted and often rude commentary on community creations, posting offensive content and generally behaving in a way that is more befitting that of a high school classroom than a space for group-based roleplay. Since its inclusion I find myself using the Aurora admin bot to report behavior issues several times a week, often because the moderation team are either not able to catch it or it gets swept up in the momentum of conversation. Many of the attitudes and remarks that get made in the relay would not fly with the maincord, in-game OOC or LOOC and yet there is some innate passiveness towards how snide and abrasive players behave that it's simply normal to poison your words with sarcasm and irony. It's not conducive to healthy or friendly conversation, and in my opinion if we can't sculpt how players interact with each other with moderation then the vehicle in which it happens should be nuked.

While the synthetic team appreciates you reapplying we have decided after some deliberation to deny this application. The contents of your whitelist character background, and the underlying understanding of our lore presented through it, do not sufficiently meet what we are expecting in a realized, grounded whitelist character from a synthetic whitelist holder. You are free to reapply in a month's time from today.

Hi, thank you for reapplying. I have a few questions regarding your application: Could you further expand on your thoughts regarding how you feel portraying an IPC/synthetic may be different from playing an organic? Given the predominantly Unathi population of Ouerea, their spiritual predisposition of disliking synthetics, and the Nralakk Federation's stewardship over the planet during the Contact War, how can you reconcile BN's place in Ouerean society and their interaction with Skrell and Unathi? Knowing Hephaestus' relationship with the Unathi, why would they choose to send synthetic coworkers to potentially replace their organic workers? How would this history with Hephaestus lead to them being considered for work on the SCCV Horizon?

Thank you for reapplying, I'm glad to see that you gave it another shot. Upon my first impression of your second app I can say that it's a considerable improvement over the first, and hits all of the notes that I would be looking for in a successful application. From here I will defer to my seniors @The lancer and @The Stryker in regards to processing your application. Good luck!

They already have utility, and that's being a palate cleanser/morale boost for crew. They don't need any function beyond that, because that's not what pets are for. They're for companionship and making a living space feel more comfortable. If we gave them utilitarian function they would stop being pets and become working animals, which are not treated the same as pets in most places as their intended purpose is to serve a function first before being considered a pet. Working animals are bred and trained to fulfill a certain function first, and are pets second, which lays down ground rules for how people who are not trained to handle them are allowed to interact with them. Giving them any function beyond being therapy animals (which they tend to be treated as and is a relatively low-risk assumption) would likely lead to rules and guidelines with how they can be interacted with that defeats the purpose of them being shared with crew.

If we made rulings on whether to keep things based entirely on whether or not it was pragmatic for a "dystopian megacorp conglomerate" we would not have Patience, we would not have holodecks, we would not have a bar and the Horizon would resemble more of an office space than a long-range vessel. These are all choices that are made for quality of life for the betterment of staff morale where a majority of crew are expected to both live and work in the same place for long periods. The most immediate sci-fi franchise that features what is closest to a dystopian megacorporation has a cat as a crew member in the first film - Alien. Small concessions for the sake of personality are important for keeping the atmosphere from feeling dull. They make the setting feel lived in and real. The issue with Pun Pun is that, as Nienna mentioned, they are a leftover from memes that came from early SS13 culture. By comparison to the remainder of the pets on the deck they are neither mundane enough to feel normal nor unique enough to make sense for our lore - they're just a monkey in a costume with a reference name. A capybara would be far more unique and likely to garner positive attention, and less likely to be left in the backroom to be ignored.