Mofo1995

+1 Coalf was an incredible deputy for the tajara lore team and make great wiki pages during his tenure.

Earlier in the thread Skull said Nursie could have been transitioned to another task. I think the filer of the complaint and possibly other people still have outstanding complaints with Jackboot they might not feel would be resolved by it, but surely we could at least agree on bringing Nursie back if she was interested? At least considering the extraordinary circumstances involved in her removal. I believe going this avenue is going to be the best way to at least right this wrong.

I dunno how I feel about this, really seems like it's more work to implement than it's worth. At least the detachable tails part. Seems like a lot of work for a really niche feature. Making them customizable would be pretty cool though, but at the same time I'm conflicted because it feels like a wrong step in the furry direction.

After much frustration, I made the transition to a google document, which can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f_E1HwVR21i9mbKyQgAKRR_3KBkOolos2judv0w-X0g/edit?usp=sharing

I still can't go back and edit my old posts, so now that I made the needed edits to Part 5 by making a new post! I made it to have more dialogue and character development for Nawrra and Yadirra, I had to make a whole new post to actually have it. I also have to be able to edit to continue writing part six. Considering how absolutely disoriented this thread it, especially following the forum transfer, I'm going to consider relocating to a google document and then just posting updates to the story in this thread. Now that the actual story is spread out across 4 different posts in this thread and with some sections being outdated with finished versions being in newer posts, it's an organizational mess. BUT the end to part 5 is much more emotionally gripping now as though the story is the brother's tsyrrkunov, the sisters are very much an important part of the story. Edit: It won't even let me edit the NEWEST post I just made now, but it let me edit the post it wouldn't let me edit before by adding "test" to it... and this post. There must be some jank going on involving older posts, or maybe editing posts with a lot of characters? I can't tell the rhyme or reason to when it will or will not let me edit.

Part Five: Messa's Tears: [WIP]Part Six: Winter in Khazan:

Interview: https://pastebin.com/08ruDsyd (Interview was on Saturday)

I just wanna be clear, from the moment I ascended to CCIABS, my game plan has been to select from among the agents someone who would replace me to step back down to agent so that I wouldn't be running one team and deputy running another team. I had an agent in mind, and told the other heads the agent I wanted as well, when this first started and by now that agent has been crystallized as who I will choose to be the next CCIABS. I have held onto head CCIA for as long as I have because I felt it was changing hands too often with Elliot's short tenure, and I wanted to return some stability to the bureau. I think one look at the IR forum shows, however, that I'm not as capable as my predecessors Whiterabit and Synnono, and that the task of CCIA and Lore at the same time is a bit too much for me to handle, as I often feel I'm being constantly bombarded with both lore concerns and bureau concerns at the same time and its difficult to balance. But also I am looking for some clarity, namely, am I also a subject of this complaint? Glancing through the thread, my name is brought up by Jackboot in majority of times it has appeared. Many big level decisions were run through me before implementation, such as the kicking people from lore writers temporarily when arguments get too fierce, implementing slow mode in lore writers, and hiring abo as deputy were approved by me. There are more but those three are the ones I remember. The kicking thing came at at time when lore writers felt like a war zone. I haven't done anything in the way of kicking others or enforcing it because I felt it was out of my line as just the deputy. I had high hopes for slowmode killing spaghetti posting, or at least, posts where people make a series of posts that are either one word or sentence at a time instead of one coherent post. And as I stated earlier in the thread, I had not remembered that there were already two skrell deputies, and was ecstatic about bringing abo on board. Of course, not all his decisions were done with my approval, such as removing Nursie. The new probation system is sort of a hybrid where he implemented it while I was asleep, and afterwards I woke up and told him I thought it was a good idea. There were also other decisions he did not proceed with because I advised against them though. I can't think of any time at the top of my head where he proceeded with something as loremaster that I told him not to during my tenure as deputy.

I don't mean to start anymore drama than I already have, but I have griped about it (I think only with Coalf, I don't think I confided with others) in PMs. In discussions with you in the past, I had told you that Coalf was extremely valuable to me because I was too timid to raise concerns with you regarding tajara lore sometimes, and that he was my rock. He would often somehow psychically become immediately in-tune with issues I had, without any prior conversation, and then raise them. Albeit way too brashly. Aside from just being so perfectly in synchronous with my vision for tajara lore and having writing which was a perfect fit as a result, his other greatest asset to taj team was that he put winds in my sails and some firmness to my backbone whenever you and I had to sit down at the debate table. Do I mean to say JB is a micromanaging hack and must hang? No, even in my IRL job I work better with oversight. The creative process usually works like this between Jackboot and I, we usually come up with two opposing positions, make proposals and counter-proposals, and eventually reach an agreeable compromise. Does it always work out the way I would like it? No, I'm often lightly salted about Crevus, and what I often perceive as the neutering of Nated, the spaying of Haralala, and the nerfing of the DPRA. The latter three of which was going to become the far right faction of Adhomai with the PRA being the far left and the NKA being the moderate. Here's a diagram that describes my "ideal" situation. The chart was made before the NKA or DPRA (then just ALA) even had flags, which shows for how long I planned it. But was the PRA being stereotypical crony stalinists and the DPRA being a fascist state rising out of right wing religious radicals really the most compelling choice to take when the NKA is just propped up to look like an innocent lamb in all of this? No, and that's why a lot of people love the NKA and not the other two, and this is a situation where Jackboot was at least partially right even though I don't like it. It may have been WAY more fun to write about, but I don't have the proper perception to say if it would be more fun to read about, let alone play with in a role-play setting. I do often feel that he's courting taj team too much and that the other developers don't get the same level of attention that I do. Whereas I had objections to it in the past, tajara lore has really cool arcs going on right now, so ironically while I might complain about it- right about now is actually when I want that attention. So I guess what I mean to say, surmised in two statements is: "1. I work better with oversight" "2. Jackboot should generally spread his attention out more evenly so other writers don't feel neglected."

Tonight... You sleep with the fishes.

I want to highlight some inconsistencies with Elohi's contributions to this complaint. Namely how aspects of his complaint are directly contradictory to the original complaint, and I don't think it's fair to charge jackboot with two completely opposite accusations. This is a post from Paradox earlier in the thread. I'm not putting words in their mouth, but I draw a connection between this and the staff complaint thread which brings into question Elohi's activity as a developer. Consider that as a functional example which Paradox's proposal here may address. Now here's some relevant things Elohi has addressed as complaints against Jackboot. I can't help but feel this is in relation to a screenshot of a discussion Elohi and I had... and I do deeply apologize for posting screenshot logs of my conversation with Elohi, I'm really sorry, but I can't just let that go, it's not right for JB to be charged for not firing/demoting you and not firing VT in the exact same complaint when they're two contradictory demands. I really prefer to keep things like DMs between myself and others private, but this is too relevant. Please no one think less of Elohi for this, he was heated and we all say things we regret when we're angry. I really didn't want to post these, but it's not fair to Jackboot, and this is a thread about Jackboot's mistakes. He can't be guilty of not firing VT for posting a staff complaint about Elohi's activity and simultaneously guilty of not demoting or firing Elohi for inactivity. At the tail end here, I tried to open up conversation about how combative he was being with Jackboot over refusing to give him comment permissions on a google document, but when I saw how hostile it immediately became I took a step back. Jackboot eventually did get around to being more firm with him, which is what I suspect the accusation of bullying comes from... but... how else was he supposed to handle the following? Now this isn't a complaint about Elohi, this is a complaint about Jackboot, so please no one give Elohi any rough times. Jackboot is a friend of mine, as well as many on the lore team are. And I understand not all of my friends get along. Coalf and Jackboot for instance were two of my closest and they really didn't enjoy each other. Now I didn't come into this saying "Jackboot did nothing wrong, away with all of you" but on these subjects where I clearly know and can prove innocence, it would be outright wicked of me to not speak up. There's a lot of very legitimate and strong complaints about Jackboot in here, and I understand everyone's frustration. But he hasn't been playing favorites among lore developers, and he certainly hasn't been "bullying." Here's the discussion in Dionaea chat, spoiler free, of Jackboot getting more firm with Elohi: I cut off the logs at a specific spot, namely, the spot where Jackboot gave up on trying to get comment permissions for the google document and started providing feedback in the cooperative lore work discord as Elohi requested. Is that really bullying? In the end he accommodated Elohi's request. And this brings me back to accusing Jackboot of contradictory charges. How can we say he's too strong handed and too lenient at the same time? He can be one or neither, but it's unfair to call him both in the exact same complaint and expect both charges to stick. I apologize again for leaking logs, I agree completely that he mishandled the skrell deputy situation, but the following I outlined is unfair to him, and I believe strongly that he handled the VT-Elohi affair in a manner which was unbiased and proper. As the staff complaint against Elohi/Neinbox stated, Dionaea had only one character played only one time in an entire two week window, and firm resolute action to step in and take a more personal involvement in enforcing the generation of more Dionaea lore activity was absolutely necessary. I believe the charge of him being overbearing, while it might be true for others (I often feel he encroaches far too much on Tajara lore, but it keeps the gears turning in times where I'm going too slowly) is wrongly applied here, since direct loremaster intervention was absolutely required. So charges: I feel (specifically in Elohi's case, not dismissing it as a possibility for other devs and lore teams) are entirely justified as Jackboot's job to salvage what was months of lore draught and a dying playerbase for one of our races, and that he should not be punished for this case specifically. It would have been an entirely valid maneuver to remove Elohi from the lore team for his combative nature to other developers, especially in combination with his inactivity, and I can see the complaint about Jackboot's softness being totally valid here. But the opposite side, taking a direct approach to remedy what should be seen as a failing of a developer rather than loremaster, is not something that should be counted against him.

I want to say, for my side, that I did completely forget about the discussion on deputy caps. When he asked me about skrell deputy applications and I provided an overwhelming approval for Abo based on my own interactions and even citing old conversations with Loow, where Loow said he hoped Abo would become skrell developer after he was gone, I did not remember the conversation about 2 deputy maximums. Among other things that I forgot in this conversation was that when Sleepy stopped being the species maintainer, she had stepped down to deputy. For some reason I did not realize Sleepy was still on the team. I was very enthusiastic about my approval and wanting to bring Abo on board in discussions with Jackboot, though I had suggested we wait a few days and strongly consider all applicants before moving forward to prevent nepotism, advice which he agreed with, but from what I can gather, VT already knew who she wanted. Which is fine and fair! Not putting VT down for that. If anyone has any questions for me related to this complaint, I'll be happy to answer them here, but as deputy loremaster I can't help but feel that I am involved and should post in here for how I am related to the complaint.

At first I was a little apprehensive because it seemed like your character was "too special." But it didn't seem to amount to terribly much, it's not like your character was a chosen one or a prophet or anything ridiculous. It properly reflected the superstitious nature of the tajaran people. While the war isn't directly involved, I can't help but feel warmly about Jajii. For one, clergy characters are rare and this is the first one to extensively use the late Coalf's (rest in peace) religion lore. Jajii has heart, and I can tell you're enthusiastic about playing her and have a very positive outlook. It's a criminally unexplored area of Tajara lore, and I'm very pleased to welcome you in. Application accepted!

Hello! I will be getting back to you on this application tomorrow after work.

I've decided to deny this application, as it would need a complete rewrite in order to incorporate more of the lore to demonstrate understanding.

I'm gonna take another day to think about this. I think one thing that sticks out to me is that I can really feel your enthusiasm coming through the application, and I believe when you say you've read the lore pages because of that enthusiasm, but I need a demonstration of some of that lore in your application to make sure you really understand it. One of the most important parts of whitelist applications for aliens is to demonstrate your lore knowledge through your character's story.

All right, the agents and I did a lot of talking about it. Here's a logic exercise. Walk into your workplace, and without any provocation, call any african american coworkers you have the "n" word. What will the result be? Will it be a temporary reprimand and a small fine? Or would it be just about immediate job termination? The bureau isn't going around terminating contracts for racism as it is, every case of racism that comes our way just usually ends with a slap on the wrist. That's ALREADY a huge discriminatory policy. Absolutely no one has ever been fired for saying catbeast or lizard, or whatever. No one has been fired for denying service to aliens or anything. Do they usually wind up with temporary fines and a theoretical sensitivity training that happens in their char background? Yes. But what modern corporation gives anyone that kind of dramatic leeway? And there's people who would argue our current corporations are already discriminatory as they are. Hard baked into the system is already discrimination, if you're afraid of weak reprimands and small fines, then fine, just don't play a belligerent openly racist character. Most racists I've known IRL were not shouting slurs into peoples faces unprovoked like already happens on station. They usually chatted about it in privacy. If you wanna be bold, you gotta man up, be bold, and face the consequences. I'm not about to hand out a free N-word pass, because honestly, it's draining to be playing a tajara and just called catbeast, rat, or furry by belligerent drunk assistant #5781, over and over and over again. Not even like with any escalation like an argument breaks out, or after some conversation they just decide they don't like me, or in some way we're even minorly at odds, but just "I saw a tajara so I'm gonna call them a cat lol i'm so funny." Every once in awhile? Sure, I'm down for some racial tensions. But when people are just crude brash and completely lacking any tact about it in addition to being just constant, it's more disenfranchising than fun. Calling random people you've never met before racial slurs just for the sake of doing it is bad roleplay. On the other hand, the bureau really does not have the time to be tying up agents and time investigating every single report of "lol he called me a catbeast" just to end it with warnings and small fines. It's way too time consuming for how minor the punishment is just gonna be in the end every single time. Most of these instances should never have even made it to the IR forum because they're petty and should've been handled by command staff and security during the round where it happened. Recognizing that none of the regulations provided a clear cut violation, with harassment only really working for sustained insults and slander only working for, well, slander, we've decided we're going to be updating the slander regulation. We're going to change slander to "Slander or Verbal Abuse," so that way you can get some instant gratification for your slap on the wrist right there on station without us having to waste all the time and resources to do it for you. The punishment times and fines will remain the same as slander currently is, it's just going to be added so that we can automate this so it stops getting escalated to IR level and gets handled at the ground level. As far as discriminatory practices in IRs, I'm really not willing to escalate or deescalate punishments based on race. The laxness for how NT corp handles racism in the workplace is already plenty as far as I'm concerned. I'm really not willing to add an extra step to every single IR by saying "Oh, well, I was gonna give this guy a 500 credit find and two month temp reprimand... but he's a tajara, so I'm gonna make it a 700 credit fine and perma reprimand." I'm not looking to sit down and have to consider all the races involved for every single IR, and arbitrarily determine a higher and lower punishment based on the relative social standings of everyone's race involved. It's too much extra work, this cake already takes way too long to bake, basic icing will just have to do.

End Of Spaceport Lease To Sol Alliance Leads To Dispute 29.04.2461 Bras’njarr spaceport has been a regular home for around 300 humans in our home system’s fringe asteroid belt. The facility was leased to the Sol Alliance since 2453, and it has regularly been used by the Sol Alliance navy for their operations here, such as helping defend Adhomai from the pirates that plague all civilized peoples. But this time has now come to an end. A representative of the People’s Navy has said that the original 3 year lease will not be renewed. “This one extends on behalf of all Tajara a deep thanks to our Alliance friends for their assistance in building up our naval forces to face the challenges of a modern star nation. We feel that we are now able to stand on our own, and that the People’s Navy will be able to exceed at utilizing Bras’njarr station for our own naval objectives.” The notice of the leases termination was sent to both the human Colonel Sam Lee overseeing the base and Admiral Ming Yan, who oversees the Sol Alliance activities in the region from his flagship cruiser Halberd docked in the station. Unusually, both of these human officials contradicted one another. Colonel Lee told the arriving representative that he would make arrangements to move the servicemen and their families off the base within the week, but an hour later Ming Yan released a statement thanking the People’s Republic for renewing the lease. “The Sol Alliance has strategic interests in this region of space. We are glad to continue this mission on for the next 3 years. I have overseen the transfer of the required down payment of credits for the next 3 years, per the agreement of the lease. ” This unusual move caused the government to contact the Sol Alliance embassy in orbit of Adhomai. A spokesman for Comrade Hadii’s government gave a statement on the situation. “We have lodged a formal complaint with the Sol Alliance embassy. We do not want the credits. The lease for the base is terminated, and we will be having it returned as is our legal right to do so. The Alliance will be evicted from the base like an unhappy tenant, if necessary.” Article written by Jackboot.

Woah, it's been 19 days since you posted this, I'm so sorry it totally slid under my radar! I will be getting to this either today or tomorrow.