Humanity Lore Developer Application - Scheveningen

[Scheveningen]

Ckey/BYOND Username: Scheveningen
Position Being Applied For (Species Maintainer, Wiki Maintainer, Lore Developer, Deputy Lore developer): Human Lore Developer 
Past Experiences/Knowledge: At least 2 non-consecutive stints on the lore team. Once before Jackboot was Father Loremaster and once after. Tablespoon era of lore was interesting, I'll say that much.
Examples of Past Work: https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Timeline_of_Humanity#Pre-Second_Space_Age

The Pre-Second Space Age was my doing with the magnanimous support and advice of Jackboot. Previously, it wasn't particularly up to par since the initial references lent itself to nuclear catastrophe in the very beginning. The war that led to Earth being nuked was retconned during Tablespoon's era, (I think, memory of waaaay back then was fuzzy) and eventually replaced by some things that were ultimately unsatisfactory to me. I was the first humanity lore dev which was mostly unprecedented, but it led to a few changes under my reign. I eventually abdicated my throne and it was succeeded by Zundy, who proved a very capable if not better lore dev for the overarching scope of humanity. His work is greatly appreciated, in spite of my differences I had with him in the past which are largely resolved since some time ago.

Another thing I carried on was a somewhat distinct-from-Skull's-vision type vision for Epsilon Eridani. While much of the militarized elements remain, there were certain things I helped paved the way with in terms of it being a dystopic corporate police state enforced by an establishment of oligarchs. Essentially, "We're the Illuminati except we succeeded at total control of the state long ago and no longer need to hide it, and the people have no actual power in being able to speak out against it without major consequences." Zundy did a great (if not initially controversial) job.

Aaaaand I really wish I kept my other deepest lore manifestos on file. I'm terrible at filing resumes. Jackboot's going to kill me over not attaching a cover letter with quality on par to this and for that I apologize in advance because there's going to be a bloodbath over it.

Additional Comments: One thing I did mildly disagree with Zundy's doings with Eridani was the odd spread of human ethnicities. While certain individuals in the community voiced their concerns rather distastefully and on the spectrum of near-racism, I was, and still am essentially of the opinion that 400 years into the future where humanity has had an incredible amount of reproduction amounts with several generations backing it and only further speeding up those efforts of driving up the galactic human population, and with it, certain races would... pardon me for the distasteful reference, "bare only a vague resemblance [to the ethnicities] that they once were." This is part of a theory and an initial plan created by the Pan-European https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_von_Coudenhove-Kalergi . If you are not familiar, his entire page is worth a read, and then some.

Essentially it stipulates that it's a coinflip as to whom any individual is going to reproduce with. On one hand it could be another person of similar or near-exact ethnicity. Or it's the other side of the coin and it's of completely different ethnicity. We're seeing a lot of mixed folk nowadays, and essentially I believe for the sake of following population statistics, ethnostates would be next to impossible to form and be sustainable in the far-flung future our characters exist in. We have seen certain majorities of ethnicities rather than the cultural melting pots they usually would be. It's personally why I think listing human ethnicities separately as part of an overall planet's census is an ultimately nebulous endeavor, because realistically speaking it wouldn't ever be a thing unless it was heavily state-enforced, and people would eventually drift outside the definitions of "Caucasian" or "African" or "Arabic" descent, because everyone would be a mix.

Anyway, sorry, that's a lot of text for a small gripe. Despite that gripe I hold I may not actually do much about it if I am accepted back into the reins of Human Lore Dev.
Speaking of which, while there are some things I want to do, I want to put it out there that my second reign would be one of upholding the current status quo for the most part without significant, all-of-a-sudden "gotcha!" radical change. My first reign hinted at it with some certain characterizations to the human's end of the lore spectrum. This won't be the case for the most part, as I mostly wish to be an overseer for humanity lore and only establishing rare precedent on equally rare occasion. I wish to be in the position merely to be in a "Yes you can do that and maybe here's my advice on what you can do with it to go even further" position, or in the (hopefully) rarer occasion where "No" is the preferred answer but it is instead replaced with, "You know, we could make this work by changing it up a bit more" so as to foster a much more supportive and feedback-driven environment.

There is another thing which I expect will be brought up if I don't address it; my past behavior as a staff member, lore developer, player, and as a person. I will not make excuses, 80% of the time it was, and still is considered to be, bad. I say 80% because people tend to notice the loud parts, and judging it based off my volume at times and where I phrased my louder concerns. I was rude in many occasions and unbecoming for a staff member. I accept that I blew many of my chances to improve as a moderator and I accept if I will never be brought back on as a moderator. I will not issue apologies in this thread because one, it is not the place for it, and two, it will not have the same effect as when someone reaches out to me and calls me on on my past behavior, to which I can muster a proper discussion over and apologize if it comes around to it. I, and pretty much anyone I know, are better having those conversations when it is person-to-person, because when offense is caused between one person and another, it is a person-to-person issue, and not a person-to-crowd issue. Otherwise not much gets done since the jeering of the crowd makes it difficult to discern what to learn from the situation. I'll eat my words on that mark too because I've had plenty of occasions to be guilty of inciting a crowd over an issue, so to speak, and I can't say I've only done it when an issue couldn't be resolved person-to-person, because that would be a lie.

I understand entirely if my past attitude and myriad of aggressions would lead to a decisive "no" as an answer. I would accept that ultimately, but I would very much prefer if I were given this opportunity to do only good for the community for a change, rather than a mix of good and bad. I won't make additional promises beyond that because I know there are some people who already made up their mind about me years ago. To that I understand the reasons for it, but is it at all fair to totally exclude someone from the development of a server as punishment or enforced penance for someone's actions?

That's something I have to ask myself often so I'm going to steel myself in case I get called out as a hypocrite, and say "no" to that question.

Anyway, I've written enough. Tell me what you think and we can establish a line of conversation. Just keep in mind there are some things I'd rather discuss in DMs.
 

[Scheveningen]

Also my campaign promise is to delicately influence the administration to add a role for would-be lore fanatics, err, devout believers of lore, to be informed and pinged in lieu of any lore-diary update in the main aurora discord channel. Much like how subscribers are pinged for a new round.

Edited December 15, 2018 by Scheveningen

[Mofo1995]

There's a lot written in the application, but the general sense of lore development I get out of this is criticisms of Eridani and maintenance of the status quo. While I am a real conservative in the field of avoiding retcons or making large sweeping rewrites and changes, I do have to ask what lore developments you would like to see if you were to become a human developer. Any concrete modifications to any factions? Any additions? Any changes to interstellar diplomacy? How many deputies would you hire if any? Would you re-nuke Earth again? Any changes you would like to make between human relations and various species? Discussion on demographics, ethnostates, legacy work still in lore, and preemptive apologetics about staff team concerns aren't bad additions to your application, but I really want to get a firm grasp on what you would add or change.

[Scheveningen]

2 hours ago, Mofo1995 said:

Any concrete modifications to any factions?

Some of the factions are OK as-is. Others can be afforded to be changed marginally to suit their overarching defined theme a bit so that it's easier to follow their stories and the consistency pertaining to it. In terms of from the foundation-up, the existing factions won't be shaken up that much.

I think Mars and the Martian push for continued autonomy (and eventually independence) could afford a larger dedication of effort to itself. It should feel more important than it actually is.

2 hours ago, Mofo1995 said:

Any additions?

I received a bit of counsel from Paradox, and I'd personally love to make Venus known and liked for what it is. It's a cool idea for the most part.
https://pastebin.com/xQSVAC76
Pretty much all in the pastebin is his work, but I promise to see to it myself that it's tweaked appropriately without losing too much of its original purpose.

I would like to continue the previous arcs pertaining to Eridani, but more in line with succeeding what Zundy intended to do with it, rather than what I intended to do with it in a prior term past.
 

2 hours ago, Mofo1995 said:

Any changes to interstellar diplomacy?

Not immediately, as the community is notorious for not responding well to immediate shake-ups of the Auroraverse's story (though that is to be expected and accepted). If any changes to diplomacy will happen, it will be progressive and motivated as time goes on.

2 hours ago, Mofo1995 said:

How many deputies would you hire if any?

At most three at any given time, including the existing lore deputies. "At most three" sounds like a lot of deputies but I can be convinced to lower it to two maximum if staff bloat is a concern. Humanity's a rather large-scope project compared to the other races which are more healthily compartmentalized. Whipping the current state of the lore in shape in terms of the humanity compartment is a major concern of mine. I want to make it feel like as if the lore for the humanity-centric factions overall are changing and developing at the same relative rate as most of the other non-human factions.

 

2 hours ago, Mofo1995 said:

Any changes you would like to make between human relations and various species?

This is something worthy of discussion, and ultimately some of the current themes ongoing with ATLAS right now very much holds my attention. The current threat in the universe at the moment is Frost being elected into a position of political power in the Solarian Senate (it hasn't gotten there yet but it might do so soon). If he manages it, it'll cause a wave of dangerous sentiment of human supremacy, and existing attitudes will start to change and modify themselves appropriately. This is sort of an opportunity I'd personally love to expand upon and even work with JB with as he seems content to want to continue that arc to its finale, however it goes.

[Mofo1995]

Pegasus has been chosen as the human lore developer, however you may choose to leave this open as a deputy application.

[Scheveningen]

Works for me.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Hello,

My Deputy Loremaster Mofo was training for hiring people with these processes. Now that a maintainer was hired I'm coming back to handle these.

Your application is being denied due to consistent problematic OOC behavior.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Marlon Phoenix