Coalf's Human Deputy Application

[Coalf]

Ckey/BYOND Username: Coalf/Coalf and Coalf
Position Being Applied For: Human Deputy
Past Experiences/Knowledge:
I've worked with the team for about 4 years in an, off/on relationship. I have been an admin, a forum mod, a head whitelister, a lore-deputy for the Tajara and now I am working as a wiki_developer and I quite enjoy it.
I have gained new experience with the wiki and how the formatting functions (thanks VT and Chada, not you Matt, never you).
I've played the game on/off for about 4 years.
I drew a few memes once.

Examples of Past Work:

I've worked extensively on Tajara and have rewriten, refurnished and dusted off everything regarding Tajara religious lore from adding Raskara to adding debth to the S'rrendar and Messa religion:

Spoiler

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Ma'ta'ke_Gods
https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=S'rendarr_and_Messa
https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Tajara_Fashion
https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Tajaran_Minor_Religions
https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=PRA_Orbital_Fleet_Structure
https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Notable_Tajara#Bloodstorm

I have helped in development of Scarabs/Offworlders, particurarly their basic history and synopsis alongside a few ships, including everyones favorite Mayfly:

Spoiler

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Scarabs#History
https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Scarabs#Mayfly

I have added through lore canonization both Mictlan and Trummer, the former of which I hope to rework to be more interesting as it isn't my best work:

Spoiler

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Mictlan
https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Sol_Alliance#Key_Colonies

 

Additional Comments:

Ye Olden Esaay, by Coalf

Elyria
 

Spoiler

Elyria is an interesting piece of nut. A relatively peaceful faction which has remained on the fringes of the first intestellar war has to re-militarize in a large fashion, due to being beset by first Unathi and then the Vaurca. only to then negotiate with, to them, essentially the aliens that brought Liidra to humanity? Now that's spicy.

However I don't much care about that, we got dime a dozen xenophobic factions that's not the part I am interested in. The part I am interested in is, what happens to a country that has had to militarize to an extreme degree over a very short period of time, now that the war is de-facto over?
I believe Elyra is a prime and juicy peach ready to be bitten into. Personally I would shift away from gigantic "hurr durr politics" and focus more on character tragedy. Veterans who are returning to homes that don't exist, millitary experts and soldiers for hire now for lack of work  rally to corporations, domestic groups on the rise as people are afraid of the next possible attack. That is what I think is at core of Elyra right now.

I wouldn't per-say plan to redo anything about Elyra, frankly I think it works perfectly fine and has a really tight idea of what it wants to be. But I believe there are more ways to involve them in station politics than "we got phoron too!". There a lot of character potential in veterans from the Vaurca wars, in Vaurca working at NT because They had to flee Elyra shortly after moving in. "Xenorealists" who choose to work with NT because They are in closer contact with Sol, or even researchers who worked on Black K'ois and wish to study the effects away from their home planet. There is a lot of juicy stories to tell here, plus a lot of culture left to explore.

Elyria has a very unique and distinct setting in our universe, with a bit of a bigger focus on domestic culture rather than a general overview I believe it could be just as popular as dominia or Mars. Personally I'd start at the regional level, distinguishing between urban/rural areas and the difference between those two environments which the like scarcly touches on. I'd also wish to write more about their celebrations, mythology and other cultural milestones such as art or music.

Lastly, I want to extrapolate on the relationship between Elyria and Nanotrasen, I don't wish to make them hostile as that would invalidate a lot of characters. But rather, I'd like to explore the idea of a goverment that seems friendly with NT and a populance that is distrustful and hateful towards them but perhaps a bit unsure after the aid provided by NT in the black K'ois outbreak.

 

[Pegasus]

Thank you for your application and your essay on Elyra. An additional question from me: What should be done to ensure consistency in human lore? It's passed through a lot of hands, and there are a lot of loose ends and now-mistakes present, and whoever is chosen as deputy will be a part of fixing this.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Is Elyra still going to have its sense of optimism?

[Zundy]

What kekers said. I'd like to see Elyra stay the "good guys" of the setting as it acts as a good foil. Well would act IF it was more in the spotlight with more fleshed out lore haha.

[Coalf]

6 hours ago, Pegasus said:

Thank you for your application and your essay on Elyra. An additional question from me: What should be done to ensure consistency in human lore? It's passed through a lot of hands, and there are a lot of loose ends and now-mistakes present, and whoever is chosen as deputy will be a part of fixing this.

I don't believe total consistency is achievable, well not if you want to keep the department like actually desirable. But an ideological and aesthetical consistency, is.

The fact is human lore is human-gous, it's big, swollen to the brim due to the fact that most players we have are human. Thus most lore canonization applications, criticism, requests, developers and deputies focus on human lore. Hell other species constantly bounce off of human lore to faciliate their own.
Total consistency is unachievable, unless literally every single piece of content was not only checked personally by you, but also archived in some kind of a very easy to read document that 

On the other hand, aesthetic and thematical consistency is easily achievable, and that is via an informational funnel.
Species benefit from this. Even if right now Alberyk died due to a mysterious disease of two bullets to the back of his head, the next Tajara developer would most likely not actually change that much. Simply because in order to become a Tajara player, you need to read at least part of the lore and understand or aknowledge at least, the "idea" and general "theme" and "aesthetic".

Plenty of humans factions have started benefiting from this:
Dominia, Elyra, Eridani, Scarabs - They have a distinct type of person coming from them, you can see someones behaviour and look and go "Yes, that man is from X faction".
Meanwhile things like Sol, Tau Ceti, Alliance or billion other colonies have, well nothing. If you stood a Solarian, a Tau Cetian and a general Alliance member next to each other, nobody would know what is the difference until you place a Tajara next to them and saw if They kill, exploit or ignore him.

In this way, lore can be preserved. Yes there will be loose ends, and yes I believe that cannot be prevetend, it can only be remedied, things get forgotten constantly. But ultimately if people know what the "theme" or "idea" behind a faction is. They will follow it and understand not to deviate from it. Right now if you and VT were to be, I don't know involved in an accident with snipped car breaks, I would know how to continue Eridani, Elyra, Dominia and Scarabs easily, because there is a thematic and aesthetical consistency.
 

5 hours ago, Marlon Phoenix said:

Is Elyra still going to have its sense of optimism?

While the thematical subject is going to change course into more domestic issues and less invader issues, I have no reason to change the way the articles have been writen in terms of galactic scale up to this point.

I want to keep the general feeling of optimism, but also highlight that a LOT of shit has happened to Elyra and that it can't just be brushed past. Instead of introducing a "new threat", I want to také the results of the previous threats, the Unathi incursion, Liidra incursion and Mushroom incursion and have THOSE be the dramatic foil of the day, not another "This just in, aliens are kicking our favorite friend! Again!.

1 hour ago, Zundy said:

What kekers said. I'd like to see Elyra stay the "good guys" of the setting as it acts as a good foil. Well would act IF it was more in the spotlight with more fleshed out lore haha.

Galactically yes, I want to keep Elyria as a moraly interesting foil to the general degenerative and depressing themes of NT and Sol. But domestically, I want to see how a nation this quickly militarized, strongarmed into a deal by NT due to mushrooms and having the rural areas be more split than the urban areas, would deal with such issues and struggles. Ultimately, 
The final goal is to provide players with more backgrounds than "war survivor" or "war veteran".

For example, someone who became a doctor and wants to help NT after They gave humanitarian aid for mushroom coughs, a staunch conservative who is sick of the infighting in the rural areas and thought changing systems would help, a fresh soldier who is now without a job due to wark ending and so he bums to NT for security work since They love hiring Private Sec Companies. A supporter of aliens who had to run away after his family grew to resent them due to all the invasions and decided to reach Tau Ceti as a liberal beacon. etc. etc.

 

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Thats good. 

[VUX]

OK, so as someone who had a paranoid rant written about them (and who does not accept the shitty apology from the wikidev application that I didn't see until 45 seconds ago), I think Coalf returning in any capacity, including the wiki dev they apparently already got, is indicative of the same secret club nonsense that led to Bay becoming what it is. I'd have brought this up earlier if I knew anything about the wikidev application, but I certainly won't accept working with someone prone to this sort of behavior because there's no assurance they won't just do it again.

This standard would not apply to most other people; if I quit in a huff, wrote a bizarre manifesto slamming literally everyone in the team, and then relented in a month or two and decided to come back, y'all wouldn't give me the time of day. Under no conditions will I ever support this.

[Coalf]

8 minutes ago, VUX said:

OK, so as someone who had a paranoid rant written about them (and who does not accept the shitty apology from the wikidev application that I didn't see until 45 seconds ago), I think Coalf returning in any capacity, including the wiki dev they apparently already got, is indicative of the same secret club nonsense that led to Bay becoming what it is. I'd have brought this up earlier if I knew anything about the wikidev application, but I certainly won't accept working with someone prone to this sort of behavior because there's no assurance they won't just do it again.

This standard would not apply to most other people; if I quit in a huff, wrote a bizarre manifesto slamming literally everyone in the team, and then relented in a month or two and decided to come back, y'all wouldn't give me the time of day. Under no conditions will I ever support this.

I have been doing my best to fix it. I can't really send gift baskets with a "Sorry for shitting on you tee hee ;p" because I don't know your addresses, but I've been doing my best to offer council, respond to people in a civil fashion and keep my work and my private opinions seperated. If you have a guide on a non-shitty apology I will heartily give it to you. But right now, I am genuinly sorry, is all that I can offer you in regards to what I wrote about you and others.

Also "apperantly got", I've been on the team for nearly two months, hell I pinged you last Sunday about the Aut'akh images that were unsourced.
You can dislike me all you want, after all I am not entitled to forgiveness but it is unfair to label my addittion to the team as "secret club behaviour", mainly towards Chada and others.
Everyone who judged my first application, which was rejected, judged my second application which was accepted. This gives me hope that I have actually improved, I don't believe it is their fault you did not notice me being a staff member for nearly two months now.

Lastly, anyone on Aurora will tell you that literally everyone gets a second chance. There is plenty of people both on/off staff who have been banned, or even permabanned for their actions and/or behaviour. Some of them are lore developers that work with you every day.

All in all, yes you are fully entitled to not accept me, to reject my application or to block and ignore me. I accept that, I made a mistake.
I will continue working as a wiki developer regardless of the decision and I will continue to make future applications, again regardless of the decision.
 

 

 

[Chada1]

Hello! Chada, I think wiki manager commenting here from technical, forces vacation. @VUX Coalfs acceptance onto the Staff team didn't come without constraints, he can absolutely never join the moderation team again, and he was required to accept a 'thin line' agreement, wherein if he caused problems among Staff he could immediates be fired; and if he leaves another 'manifesto' he would be permanentally banned from Aurora with no chance of appeal, as stated straight from a head admins mouth. Edit: Also yes he improved, and all of the same people did judge it. Even Marlon moved from entirely opposed to abstaining, after his apologies and me confiding in him privately of if he was okay with it and my intentions, and I gave ample time for anyone else (24hrs) to raise objections, noone did. This is not Bay, yes people get second chances here, even you. I'd have given you the same chance to strive for forgiveness and redeem yourself as I did Coalf, assuming the same situations otherwise.

Edited September 1, 2019 by Chada1
Expanded from a personal point of view.

[VTCobaltblood]

Assuming that there is a shadow cabal behind Coalf being accepted or even allowed to apply is silly. Coalf's first wikimaint application was declined (though I personally strongly disagree with the manner in which it was done). And it's not like his second application was accepted on a whim either.

[Skull132]

The claim towards the existence of a shadow cabal is facetious, unless you consider your direct superiors to be said shadow cabal. Ultimately all team leaders here are given a good amount of leeway towards putting together their own team. This has seen the hiring of a good few questionable individuals, into various teams. A lot of those decisions have been made of Good Faith, sometimes with calculated (not to say brazen) disregard for the known past of the individual being hired. And in a good few cases, in disregard of the strong recommendations presented by other leaders within the community. Freedom such as this isn't indicative of a cabal, since as said, multiple of such hires have had clear negative feedback from the rest of the management. Instead, it is indicative of freedom allotted to leaders within this community to make decisions, to execute their own vision, and to fail while doing so.

So to teal deer this. Whatever decisions gets made will be made by Kyres and Mofo, unless the head admins and head devs feel concerned enough to step in and overrule. There's no cabal, just your direct superiors that may or may not see things from your point of view.

[Mofo1995]

If by secret club nonsense, Mofo1995 is meant, then yes I exist. It's a lonely secret club, but I make do.

Let's get to brass tacks with a classic human resources "sandwhich." I'm gonna start with the good, put some mystery meat in the middle, and end with some more good.

The apology in the wiki maintenance application was genuine and I have never believed otherwise. Coalf is a close friend of mine and I know he's the kind of lad who plays his cards straight and is a bluntly honest person. If he didn't mean to sincerely apologize, he just simply would not have. His conduct since returning to staff has been consistently well within acceptable tolerances and so far has been completely without scandal. If there has been a scandal of some kind, no one has told me in any capacity. And believe me, there's been an abundance of scandals, so considering none have come from him, it seems to me that he's been doing well above average compared to our current roster of writers.

But lore development is, by it's very nature, more controversial [but I would argue is not less important] than wiki maintenance. I don't think anyone is going to spring into a heated passionate fight about the formatting and guides of wiki pages as they might about themes, ideas, and the direction of our setting's lore. Because we have such a passionate team who care so much about what we do, arguments happen and people disagree. It's a product of our love and a testament to our dedication. It's because the team as we currently have it are so involved, and not apathetic and uncaring. But this environment, as it were, is one that we're currently seeking to stabilize. While Coalf's conduct has been good and his work consistent, he is currently in a lower risk position. The scandal surrounding the resignation manifesto is still lingering and a lot of people on the team have voiced to me that their trust has not been restored. I've already given generous amounts of leeway in taking on controversial people to mixed results, and at the moment I think we're at capacity. Right now I'm not really in the position to roll more dice or take on more risks, it's important to remember I'm still technically the interim lore master until one of my superiors says otherwise, and so my position is pretty tenuous. Though even if I weren't, I don't think the climate is proper right now.

I know for a fact Coalf is a superb writer with a wonderful talent to bring his creative ideas to life in writing. Much of his Tajara lore was wildly popular and propagated with relative ease throughout the community, and it was the impact of his culture lore which lead me, upon coming into position as lore master, to believe that cultural lore as opposed to political lore is the way forward. His resignation from the tajara team is something I often wish never happened. But the manifesto scandal is still too recent in memory, and his tenure as wiki maintainer is too short lived to make a full assessment of how he might act upon rejoining the lore team. If this application was a couple months in the future when the scandal was farther behind us and we had a clearer picture of what the Coalf of today would be like on the lore team, I would support this application wholeheartedly. For now though, I'm not gonna support this application, but encourage you bide your time and apply again for any openings that might catch your eye in a few months time when we can make absolutely sure your conduct is amicable to our team.

[Coalf]

10 hours ago, Mofo1995 said:

Look at all those chickens.

I know my own intentions and feelings and I'd like to disagree with your assesment as they're not, in any way geared towards controversy.
HOWEVER, I cannot.

In the past I have spoken out against hiring of controversial developers and while I do really want to be a developer, I still hold that sentiment and I recognize my own controversiality.
Thus, I couldn't disagree with your assesment Mofo without labeling myself as a hypocrite, essentially proving that I have not changed at all.

Thank you for the overall feedback and support.

tl;dr

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by Coalf

[Bygonehero]

Coalf is a writer that likes to challenge preconceptions and the ideas  many people take for granted. This makes them a great person to bounce ideas off of. They are the only person I have ever went to in the past to proof my own work prior to publication.  I have never been so mixed about another developer, but I am aware that most of the time, if criticisms make you laugh, they are wrong, but if they make you mad, they are right. 

Coalf is an excellent writer, and from my many projects with them I have no doubt in their ability or their passion for the job. In the past,  we may  have argued consistently, but  in that arrangement we make each other better. I have no doubt they will contribute meaningfully to any team they decide to be a part of.

Edited September 4, 2019 by Bygonehero

[Coalf]

hewwo, mistew awowa wiw you awchiwe me? <:3c

[Skull132]

it ded now.