skrell [Denied]Jade's Skrell Deputy Application

[MoondancerPony]

Ckey/BYOND Username: MoondancerPony

Position Being Applied For: Skrell Lore Deputy

Past Experiences/Knowledge: I’ve been a member of the lore team twice, as well as a developer twice. I’ve written a good bit of lore both while on the team and in cooperation with those who are when I’m not; examples of such are the Glorsh rework on the wiki as well as the work Pan and I have put in to rewrite it. On top of that I’ve done some smaller projects with other lore teams, like implementing some Tajara foods with my cooking rework and going over a wiki page with the Unathi team.

Examples of Past Work: I’ve recently done work with the Unathi lore team on both a WIP project that I will hopefully make into a lore canonisation app soon, as well as heavily revising the Unathi Honour page on the wiki. I also was heavily involved in the previous Glorsh rework as well as the current efforts to rewrite it and fix its issues. I've also made a number of code contributions recently, which can be seen on the Github.

Additional Comments: While ultimately it was a hard call, given that I really, really like Unathi lore as well, recent discussions in the Skrell general chat in the lore discord pushed me to make an application for this position rather than the soon-to-open Unathi deputy slot.

As I said in my last application, I’ve been working hard on developing mindfulness and self-awareness; in addition, in the time since that application I’ve taken both a public speaking class and a leadership class at my university. I hope that people in the Skrell lore chat can testify that when disagreements do crop up I try my best to resolve or defuse them, and regardless I’m always looking for ways to improve my handling of these things. I still have issues with kneejerk reactions to criticism, for example, like with my previous application: though I’d like to think I hid it well, I was absolutely terrified that everyone secretly hated me, and read far too much into innocuous comments that amounted to “try again later once you’ve been around a bit”. I’ve been working on fighting those kneejerk responses and, whenever that’s not possible, taking a break to cool off and approach it later with a clearer head. Thankfully, as I’ve gotten better at it, this has gone from “sleep on it” to “grab a glass of water and drink the whole thing”. I’m hoping that this pattern of improvement continues until my kneejerk responses to things go away entirely.

With that out of the way, I decided to write about the Federation’s authoritarianism, as well as the misconception that all Skrell support the Federation. The essay may appear long at first, but the individual sections are mostly standalone bits of lore that work together to paint a clear picture.

Spoiler

Alternate Skrell Perspectives

 From the outset of Skrell development, most of it has been focused on cultivating one specific subset of Skrell culture: mainline Jargon Federation loyalists. It is certain that Skrell who oppose the Jargon Federation have been played, but very little ground has been given to them outside of the realm of event arc characters and short mentions in Loow-era news articles. This has led to the mistaken impression by many that the Jargon Federation is a peaceful place to be as long as one avoids being too "subversive," owing in part due to Loow's insistence on subtextual rather than textual support of the Federation's authoritarianism.

This approach is flawed, however. It can be seen from the work on the previous Glorsh rework (which I participated heavily in) that implication and subtext aren't enough to get across complex themes like "Glorsh uses panem et circenses to make the Federation complacent, if not complicit, in its takeover." It is not a stretch to say that it would similarly not apply to "The Federation uses panem et circenses to make its non-'subversive' citizens both complacent and complicit in their often-violent authoritarian suppression of those deemed subversive elements."

To this end, it is clearly necessary to move the subtextual implication of the Federation's authoritarianism into the textual realm. The domain of Skrell lore must be extended to not only the Federation's Everyman, but also to their despised rebels, their repudiated exiles, their estranged expatriates. In order to truly understand the Federation, we must turn over and expose its rotten underbelly for what it truly is.

The Federation Everyman
The propaganda arm of the Jargon Federation is always active, and always affects you regardless of whether or not you realise it. The common perception of "the average Skrell" is, in fact, an artifact of this manipulation. The average Skrell, according to the Federation, is more accurately the Federation Everyman, being the most common archetype in Jargon as well as the public face that the Federation constantly tries to cultivate and promote. They often tend young, specifically towards those who grew up just prior to or during contact with humans; likewise, they also tend to be Receivers due how easily they join communities. It is much easier for Receivers to form or join a group than it is for Listeners, who often experience reluctance or a feeling of estrangement despite their best efforts.

Idols are a venerated form of Federation Everyman, and many lead lives that are almost entirely artificial, orchestrated by the Federation to promote a specific picture of Jargon (and therefore Skrell as a whole) to the rest of the Orion Spur. These, in turn, act as role models for other Federation citizens, who perpetuate the false premise of the Everyman in their own lives. Much of this is subconscious due to the large purchase the concept has found in the Nlom, but even non-psionic means reinforce the stereotype of the "average Skrell," like socialisation into the roles demanded by it, and ostracisation for those who fail to.

The Everyman, as presented by the Federation, is staunchly against artificial intelligence, hold anti-listener biases, and prefer working with corporations only when Jargon acts as an intermediary. They are more likely than other Skrell to hold strong opinions on various topics (when those opinions align with Jargon policy), but less likely to raise a fuss about them around those they disagree with; instead, they would likely raise related concerns that obfuscate their real issue. For example, instead of saying "I dislike Listeners," an Everyman may cite concerns about "psionic integrity" or, euphemistically, "unity"; an Everyman may also refer to a preference for "indirect oversight" rather than complaining about an AI watching them.

While it may seem so to outsiders, the Everyman is not representative of every Skrell in the Orion Spur, or even in the Federation. The Jargon Federation goes to great lengths to disguise this fact, but short of eliminating those who fail to fit the mould, it is inevitable that some would slip between the cracks—and a flourishing subculture has formed within those cracks, like flowers growing through pavement.

The Subversive Rebel
Those who fail to fall into the Federation's model of the 'average citizen' yet still live in the Federation itself are often called "subversives," an abbreviation of the phrase "subversive elements." While the original self-ascribed term for this demographic was "rebel", the Federation has publicly repudiated the term, suggesting "subversive" as a supposedly-neutral alternative. Despite many rejecting it, it has recently been reclaimed by those it refers to, wearing the label "subversive" as a badge of honour; either way, there is no disputing that the term is anything but neutral towards them. The neutrality is referring specifically towards its attitude towards the Federation; namely, "rebel" is rejected due to the implied comparison of the Federation to Glorsh-Omega. This has led to a strong pushback in the form of rebels actively making and distributing propaganda comparing the two even more often.

Subversives tend to be Listeners, skewing young overall; they are the target of most of the Federation's internal propaganda, which has left them rather jaded. Due to lacking a strong connection to the Nlom and its cultural memory, they rely primarily on firsthand experience, meaning that subversive academics tend to be skeptics and empiricists. They lack the experience with Glorsh's reign others have, and thus many of the justifications for the Federation's authoritarianism fall on deaf ears. 

Growing up observing other governments and cultures, they are more critical of their own; they are likely to speak out against perceived injustice, but this is tempered by a desire to not be ostracised for anti-Federation sentiment. They tend to hold weaker opinions on AI, with many ambivalent due to lacking firsthand experience, but most of them are far more skeptical of those who create them rather than of the synthetics themselves.

They form the backbone of the Federation's counterculture, with some who fall between the Federation archetypes occasionally dabbling in said counterculture as a form of rebelliousness. Their primary means of expression tend to be through civil (and uncivil) disobedience and defacing of public property, whether physical, digital, or oneiric; they are just as likely to take down the extranet page of a small bureaucratic wing as they are to deface signage or the public dreamscape for an area. Due to the presence of the Sromkala, however, activity in the dreamscape is highly discouraged; it is often used as hazing or for bragging rights, often with disastrous results for those involved.

Despite their anti-Federation sentiment, however, most subversives still believe there is hope for a brighter Federation on the horizon. This often leads to criticism by others who dislike the Federation and its authoritarianism; many hold that subversives' actions are primarily to make themselves feel accomplished despite having achieved nothing. Their protests are ineffective at best and self-destructive at worst, either resulting in no change or in the capture of self-proclaimed rebels by the Federation regime. Others, however, have given up entirely on the Federation, both politically and physically, choosing exile elsewhere over suffering under the fist of the Federation.

The Disavowed Exiles
Unlike the subversive rebels, these exiled individuals reside outside the Federation and hold a negative view of the Federation as a whole. These individuals range from discredited academics, to disenchanted citizens, to Traverse independence supporters. These groups together make up the demographic of Federation exiles, ex-Federation citizens who live outside the Federation and are not in good standing with them.

Their motives, means, and goals vary significantly, but there are two constants: first, they all believe Jargon is beyond redemption, and second, they dislike many of the other exiles for various reasons. Were it not for this infighting, it is likely they could cause significant issues for the Jargon Federation, or at the very least make them have a very, very bad day. Unlike the rebels, they have given up on the Federation ever improving; many hold that the post-Glorsh Federation itself is rotten, not its policies or actions. (Some even claim that the concept of the Jargon Federation was always fatally flawed.) Thusly, they don't believe that changing its laws, its policy, or even the Grand Councillor xilself is capable of fixing the fundamental flaws with the Federation.

However, this is about where their similarities end. This demographic is defined not by a shared support for anything, but only by a shared disavowal of the Jargon Federation. Thus any cooperation between the different exile factions is tenuous at best or a front for a later betrayal at worst. Some of these groups would sell out other ones, or even their own compatriots, to the Federation to save their own skin or get ahead. There are those who still support the old Traverse independence movements which first began prior to Federation unification and cropped up once more under Glorsh's reign; there are those ex-rebels who have become so disenchanted with the Federation, and their own former comrades, that they leave the nation entirely; and there are academics whose work is considered dangerous or even made entirely illegal under the Federation, who seek safe harbour for both them and their work.

The Estranged Expatriates
Not all those whose work carries them out of the Federation, for practical or legal reasons, are so against the Federation. Following first contact with humans, the first alien species to have a known home system and claimed territory, many younger Skrellian academics left Jargon to settle elsewhere; some sought to find various research projects to join, while others wanted a change of scenery, or to learn more about this new alien culture by immersion rather than from a distance. Yet others sought freer control of their research under the various nations or corporations offered by the discovery of humans, where they could research restricted subjects without Federation intervention. This led to the creation of a substantial Skrell expatriate community in human territory.

These individuals, being primarily Receivers or young Listeners, are likely to have picked up on certain aspects of human culture from their time there: their perception of gender (the specifics of which vary according to the individual and, occasionally, the influence of the local Nlom), their diet, and even their attitudes on conformity are all affected by this. They are far more likely to speak bluntly or brusquely about displeasure or differences of opinion than their Federation counterparts, for example, but unlike the rebel subculture in the Federation they have a natural tendency towards community due to being primarily Receivers. Those who are not still tend to join these expatriate communities due to the practical benefits they offer, and younger Listeners will pick up on the same things as Receivers through non-psionic socialisation.

Many of these academics are simply in human territory to work for corporations or study human culture, but there is a specific subset of expatriates who are specifically evading Federation oversight of their work on restricted or outright forbidden topics. Many Skrellian AI scientists are part of the expatriate community, though they would likely keep the nature of their work under wraps; similarly, those who perform certain types of psionics research (often involving non-Skrell) find safe harbour in human nations.

There are rumours that the Federation has implanted loyalists pretending to be AI or xenopsionics researchers in expatriate communities to keep tabs on these individuals, however, leading to a reputation of being paranoid and secretive. Much of their work is done under wraps, often with misleading or euphemistic titles; for example "extrasensory xenobiological interactions" for xenopsionics, and "automated systems research" for artificial intelligence. The terms used change constantly, however, in an attempt to evade the rumoured Federation spies; it's unclear if these efforts are successful, or if these spies even exist. Regardless, the fear of Federation intervention is very much alive and well in these enclaves of forbidden research.

As for the mainstream academics who have simply moved elsewhere, the Federation has a large repatriation program, supported by its propaganda wing. They offer a host of benefits for those expatriates who move back to Jargon, especially if they bring with them corporate or state research, documents, or other vital information, or if they're able to produce (or are raising) viable offspring. The core of the repatriation program is that it is vital that the next generation of Skrell be raised in the Federation, in order for them to become accustomed to the strong Nlom as well as Skrellian culture; a popular modern developmental theory is that a lack of exposure to a strong, rich Nlom field during development is responsible for weaker psionic reception and ability.

In addition, the acquisition of classified research and documents allows for the Federation to be on an equal playing field with the rest of the Orion Spur; given their reluctance to disclose their research into dangerous fields like AI research, xenopsionics, and Dionae titans, it is necessary that the Federation investigate all potential existential threats--by any means necessary, if those behind them are unwilling to offer it themselves.

Closing Remarks
Far from being a utopia with only the barest social controls necessary to maintain an orderly and prosperous society, the Federation is only a façade of such, masking state repression and the cultivation of a totalitarian surveillance state. Its common perception, both in and out of character, is a reflection of clumsy writing that failed to properly convey its intent to the reader, but this can easily be leveraged to intensify the themes intended by Skrell maintainers as far back as Loow. An authoritarian state that is publicly and commonly revealed as such is less powerful than an authoritarian state commonly believed to be altruistic; however, it is entirely necessary that the Federation's authoritarianism be textual rather than implied, to avoid out-of-character misinterpretation as a real utopia rather than just the appearance of such. By "saying the quiet part out loud," so to speak, we can ensure that this is easily and effectively done, while allowing the opportunity to expand the lesser-explored aspects of the Federation.

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by MoondancerPony
Mofo1995: Adjusted to reflect position being applied for.

[niennab]

The maintainer role, much more than the deputy role, has a lot of power and can dictate a lot about the way any given lore for a race shifts or changes. I could understand possibly giving you a chance as a deputy, but applying for a maintainer is too much given your history.

While acting as the synthetic deputy you were largely inactive, had no projects, wouldn't respond to pings and frequently got into arguments with the other developers. I spent a fair share of my time early on as the maintainer not doing maintainer duties, but reigning you in.

Given that skrell and synthetic teams often have to work together, I do not feel comfortable working with you.

[Chada1]

Well hello Jade, I'm going to be completely honest, from how I've seen you act in the past in the general Discord, I was going to post with negative feedback, because I felt you'd push away people on a dime who would come to you with questions/etc, but then you said you were working on increasing your daily mindfulness and self-awareness and having seen how absolutely effective mindfulness is (through reading tooons of studies and active practice of a religious nature) for curbing hate and hostileness first hand, I kinda can't really do that now since I think you can improve, and are practicing the techniques necessary to improve.

I guess not for me to decide, since you're genuinely trying, so I'll stay on the fence a little bit, and just ask you some questions to help speed your idea of Skrell along.

1. How do you see the Dionae's place in the Federation? How do they cope with the authoritarianism? Where do these changes land them? Are there any also residing in these disenfranchised groups?
2. What about the current Glorsh rework, there's a ton of feedback that hasn't yet been taken and applied on the feedback thread, what would you change about it, how would you apply the feedback?
3. Do you plan on expanding the Traverse and yet-to-be rejoined colonies around there? Where do these new factions come in around there, would the Traverse Skrell be like a home-made Estranged Expatriates? IIRC, it was kinda meant to be the Frontier but for Skrell, and mysterious. But never really made it to the fleshed out stage.
4. Where do you plan to take the Skrell narratively, would you see their Lore more relevant to the Skrell on Station? And if yes, how would you make it more relevant to them? Do you think it'd be a good idea to make it more relevant to characters of other species, too?

Thank you for reading and take care, hope these questions help your app some ?

Edited November 25, 2020 by Chada1

[MoondancerPony]

1 minute ago, Chada1 said:

Well hello Jade, I'm going to be completely honest, from how I've seen you act in the past in the general Discord, I was going to post with negative feedback, because I felt you'd push away people on a dime who would come to you with questions/etc,

At one point I feared it would be difficult for me to not do this, too (this was back when I was considering reapplying for deputy, while Snakebitten was still maintainer), but now that we've come forward with info about the rework and I've been helping Cael with their cuisine lore I think it's not as difficult as I thought. I really do enjoy answering good-faith questions, and it turns out that bad-faith questions are incredibly rare; the biggest arguments I've had that I can think of were probably with Stev, and we found out that was just over a miscommunication about the status of the rework and (to my knowledge) we've hashed it out, especially given the recent steps we've taken like releasing an outline of our changes.

Additionally, I'd like to genuinely thank you for going out on a limb and trying to help me out here. It's honestly pretty difficult to make a change for the better, especially when my actions in the past have made others (perhaps justifiably) reluctant to give me a second chance. This part of your post really touched me, because one of my biggest fears is that my past mistakes have created a divide too large to bridge; this reminds me that even if it's too wide for me to cross alone, someone reaching out to lend a hand could be enough to fix that.

3 minutes ago, Chada1 said:

How do you see the Dionae's place in the Federation? How do they cope with the authoritarianism? Where do these changes land them? Are there any also residing in these disenfranchised groups?

Dionae are the closest thing to a modern existential threat the Federation has, what with rumoured colossus/titanic gestalts that rival the sizes of planets, if not entire stars. Due to being completely outside of the Receiver-Listener spectrum (not binary, though it's often presented as such), they don't really fall into any of the groups; frankly it would make sense for them to simply be second-class citizens, maybe akin to AI in some parts of human society (though, in all likelihood, probably treated slightly better; they're not synthetics, and normal-sized gestalts aren't exactly existential threats on their own). That said, the dionae religion that claims their destiny is to consume/absorb all knowledge in the universe would probably be cracked down on pretty hard, given that it's literally admitting to being an existential threat.

10 minutes ago, Chada1 said:

What about the current Glorsh rework, there's a ton of feedback that hasn't yet been taken and applied on the feedback thread, what would you change about it, how would you apply the feedback?

Glad you asked! Pan and I have actually completed an entire rewrite of the rework, as of November 6, which is currently in the internal review stages. A preliminary outline has been made public in the Skrell chat on the lore discord as of a few days ago. From those who I've had preview the entire rewrite (mainly those who had strong criticism of the initial Glorsh rework), it's been very well-received, and the outline also was met with generally positive feedback. I even hung around in the skrell general channel to answer questions and preview some other stuff.

14 minutes ago, Chada1 said:

Do you plan on expanding the Traverse and yet-to-be rejoined colonies around there? Where do these new factions come in around there, would the Traverse Skrell be like a home-made Estranged Expatriates? IIRC, it was kinda meant to be the Frontier but for Skrell, and mysterious. But never really made it to the fleshed out stage.

The Traverse Skrell are actually what I had in mind with the Disavowed Exiles; I believe I even mentioned Traverse secessionists in there. It's touched on more in parts of the Glorsh/history rewrite, but essentially the Traverse has a storied history of exploitation and repression under both the old Federation and Glorsh, and as evidenced by some articles from when Loow was maintainer, they've had their fair share of both under the new Federation as well. In my mind, there is a rich and flourishing group of Traverse subcultures that the Federation is trying to stamp out and replace with their own cultural hegemony, and a large portion of the Disavowed Exiles are those taking part in passive or active resistance against this.

Also, I'd like to note that the factions and their names are mostly for OOC convenience and probably wouldn't be referred to in-character, unless you're playing a sociologist character or something.

17 minutes ago, Chada1 said:

Where do you plan to take the Skrell narratively, would you see their Lore more relevant to the Skrell on Station? And if yes, how would you make it more relevant to them? Do you think it'd be a good idea to make it more relevant to characters of other species, too?

I have a number of things in mind for both background narrative arcs as well as those that affect the station more! The Federation, as has been shown in the past, is no stranger to meddling in interstellar affairs, whether it be covertly or overtly. Even toning this back a bit (I dislike the campy elements of things like threatening the entire station with a nuke, even if the core concept of Jargon interferes in the activities of a Federation expatriated/exiled AI researcher in a sovereign territory is pretty good), it's pretty easy to give Federation representatives tasks of obtaining, say, photos of secured areas in order to reflect the espionage aspect of their repatriation program in-game. The Federation doesn't overtly meddle in what non-Skrell non-Federation citizens do, but they do interfere in the actions of Skrell across the Spur; I mainly wrote these factions in order to set up lore/narrative/arc hooks in the future, such as a mole sending AI research teams down rabbitholes with red herrings and spurious data, or Jargon representatives keeping tabs on various Skrell in order to find reasons to include them in the repatriation program (or what benefits they could offer to sway them into joining the program).

23 minutes ago, niennab said:

The maintainer role, much more than the deputy role, has a lot of power and can dictate a lot about the way any given lore for a race shifts or changes. I could understand possibly giving you a chance as a deputy, but applying for a maintainer is too much given your history.

While acting as the synthetic deputy you were largely inactive, had no projects, wouldn't respond to pings and frequently got into arguments with the other developers. I spent a fair share of my time early on as the maintainer not doing maintainer duties, but reigning you in.

Given that skrell and synthetic teams often have to work together, I do not feel comfortable working with you.

I'd like to start by saying I value your opinion very much, and I really took your suggestion to be more active in the community, in terms of both PRs, lore, and general community interaction, to heart. I was initially worried that the suggestion was an attempt to simply extract as much usable work from me as possible before tossing me aside, but despite some people accidentally (and others deliberately) feeding into that worry I quickly set that aside and decided I had nothing to lose from being more active.

As I'm sure you know, my reasons (or at least, what I've come to believe are my reasons; I can't say I have perfect clarity on my actions in hindsight, especially those clouded by emotion and bad judgment) for my inactivity and vitriol when I was synth deputy were because I felt I had been cut out of discussions on my Glorsh rework despite both Resi and Snakebitten expressing a desire to work on it with me. I essentially felt like I mentioned before, that I had been used for my work and set aside, and despite the conflict being entirely between me and Resi I dragged others into it and blamed them for not backing me up, which soured my opinion of the loreteam as a whole.

Particularly, I was very bitter towards you during that argument because I thought, as a maintainer, you would back me up in it, but in retrospect there was honestly no reason to drag you into what was effectively a petty squabble. Frankly, the argument over the "theft" of the rework seems scarily close to the intellectual property argument surrounding Vaurca lore a while back, which I think spurned my desire to prevent further conflicts like that in the future.

Regardless, both Resi and I have long since made amends, and while the subject of that period does still touch a nerve a bit, I know that no one on the loreteam was responsible for either of our actions but ourselves. For what it's worth, I'm sorry for my part in that conflict and for my attempts in dragging you into it, as well as the burden it put on synthlore as a whole.

In regards to not feeling comfortable working with me, I'm sorry I've made you uncomfortable in the past. Since my last application, I've made an effort to reach out to a number of people in the community (primarily lore developers) on various things to work with them on, such as:

• For Tajara, adding Tajaran foods and their recipes to the game during my cooking rework. I think one of my first sprite contributions after returning (and maybe in general, to Aurora) was the Earthenroot kebab, in addition to the stove and pot/pan sprites.
• The initial Glorsh rework with Pan and Snakebitten (and subsequent re-reworking alongside Pan), Jargon plants, and Skrellian cuisine, with the latter two written mostly by Nursiekitty/Witchbells with some creative liberties taken by me when I implemented them into the game.
• Rewriting parts of the Unathi honour page with Haydizzle's help, as well as working on an in-progress colony that will hopefully serve as a good hook for future developments; this will also hopefully include a lot more Wastelander food, as most current Unathi foods are just variations on breakfast foods
• I can't say I've done much with the Diona team but they've been pretty pleasant to work with; I've helped review/proofread Cael's Skrell Cuisine lore.
• I've talked a bit with Biohazard about the Lii'dra, and tried to talk with Jam about both Lii'dra lore earlier this year and tachyon weapons recently, though neither went anywhere for various reasons. I still need to fix implants for Vaurca if Alb or others haven't already gotten around to it.
• I attempted to reach out to you at least once during the Glorsh rewrite, asking for your feedback on both the preliminary second rewrite outline as well as the first finished section of the second rewrite; once it got to the internal lore review portion it was essentially out of my hands, so I don't know of anything that happened after that point.

I appreciate the feedback regardless, thank you for being so honest with me. I don't want people to walk on eggshells around me, so if people have felt uncomfortable around me I want to know so I can improve.

[MattAtlas]

There is this vicious cycle with your applications. You get a staff position. You reach the point where you're about to get kicked out. You retire. You go inactive. You come back 6 months later, or whatever, you make another app and you promise "I've changed", and in fact, you have not changed. This happened word for word when you retired as a developer, then came back as a synth lore deputy, then left and then tried to apply for some other deputy slot (skrell?).

You have issues with being passive aggressive towards people. I still see the same problems in you that I pointed out when you tried to apply for synthetic lore deputy and the way you broke my trust then gives me very little confidence in you today.

[Pratepresidenten]

I cant really say I see much of this improved self-awareness considering how you reacted to a response ping of mine some months back, where you pretty much criticized me for not knowing what time it was in whichever timezone you live in.

Considering how this went down, I really wonder how you'll even manage to be a maintainer for a species in a team where people all have varying timezones, work hours and sleep schedules.

I dont know if this was a one-off, or if you just dont like me, but regardless, it wasnt really pleasant.

[MoondancerPony]

4 hours ago, MattAtlas said:

There is this vicious cycle with your applications. You get a staff position. You reach the point where you're about to get kicked out. You retire. You go inactive. You come back 6 months later, or whatever, you make another app and you promise "I've changed", and in fact, you have not changed. This happened word for word when you retired as a developer, then came back as a synth lore deputy, then left and then tried to apply for some other deputy slot (skrell?).

I understand concerns about my activity, but I've been working on a lot of Skrell lore or another pretty much constantly since March. Even after the first disastrous history rework was released, I basically dove headfirst into proofreading it, with us slashing entire swathes of dry, overly-redundant academic text for just the important bits, followed by a total ground-up rewrite of the Glorsh section alongside Pan. Even after my last application I never stopped working, and I think being encouraged to be more active in the community in the feedback on that application just furthered my drive to work on it.

4 hours ago, MattAtlas said:

You have issues with being passive aggressive towards people. I still see the same problems in you that I pointed out when you tried to apply for synthetic lore deputy and the way you broke my trust then gives me very little confidence in you today.

I'm sorry if I've been passive-aggressive to you recently; sometimes things I say come across that way when I don't intend for them to, and other times (though not as much recently) I do get a bit snippy for brief moments. That said, I don't think I've had a long, protracted passive-aggressive (or just plain aggressive) argument like back when Tunnel Runners were removed since, well... when Tunnel Runners were removed. That was probably my worst moment, I think, next to the conflict with Resi over my original plans for a Glorsh rework. I hope that in light of this I can regain your trust, if not now, then at some point in the future. I really do value your opinion as a community member, dev, and admin, and I want to mend our fences together; I just hope my recent behaviour gives enough of a reason for you to try and help bridge that divide.

If you can provide any examples of times you saw I was being passive-aggressive, I'd like to see them so that I can improve. While I am working on self-awareness, I can't improve on that if I don't know what it is I'm still failing to catch.

16 minutes ago, Pratepresidenten said:

I cant really say I see much of this improved self-awareness considering how you reacted to a response ping of mine some months back, where you pretty much criticized me for not knowing what time it was in whichever timezone you live in.

Considering how this went down, I really wonder how you'll even manage to be a maintainer for a species in a team where people all have varying timezones, work hours and sleep schedules.

I dont know if this was a one-off, or if you just dont like me, but regardless, it wasnt really pleasant.

Hi, thank you for your feedback. First off I'd like to apologise for my tone in that conversation; looking back on it, it appears I was woken up either from sleep or from the verge of it, so I wasn't exactly a happy camper. However, I would like to point out that this was in late July, and (to my knowledge) we haven't had any negative interactions since. Additionally, there is a difference between being woken up at 2am with a ping about an offhanded comment earlier in the day, and being woken up with a ping/message at 2am to work on lore; I'm far more open to the latter, and I don't think I would be too opposed to the former now anyway. I'm sorry that my part in that interaction rubbed you the wrong way, but I do hope it's clear that I've made (and am making) an effort not to repeat it.

[CrimsonFig]

On 25/11/2020 at 10:02, MoondancerPony said:

looking back on it, it appears I was woken up either from sleep or from the verge of it, so I wasn't exactly a happy camper. However, I would like to point out that this was in late July, and (to my knowledge) we haven't had any negative interactions since. Additionally, there is a difference between being woken up at 2am with a ping about an offhanded comment earlier in the day, and being woken up with a ping/message at 2am to work on lore; I'm far more open to the latter, and I don't think I would be too opposed to the former now anyway.

I feel that your response here misses the intended mark that Prate likely was going for based on my interpretation of what they said. I believe this remark shows that you haven't quite admitted how your critique itself was innapropriate (even if fueled by grumpiness) given how pings are a valid way to ensure people can locate a discord message later on when they are awake and abled. Instead, this feels like a minor deflection of the issue, brushing it off as mere sleepy-grumpiness instead of acknowledging how any similar response to pings from both lore work and lore questions and further minor pings can enforce a reputation as unapproachable - a fatal reputation for someone directly working as lore staff and fields queries from a community of players.

If my assessment on this is accurate and rings true, then I hope this coming to your attention helps you in gaining more self awareness and improving overall. 

[MoondancerPony]

7 hours ago, CrimsonFig said:

I feel that your response here misses the intended mark that Prate likely was going for based on my interpretation of what they said. I believe this remark shows that you haven't quite admitted how your critique itself was innapropriate (even if fueled by grumpiness) given how pings are a valid way to ensure people can locate a discord message later on when they are awake and abled. Instead, this feels like a minor deflection of the issue, brushing it off as mere sleepy-grumpiness instead of acknowledging how any similar response to pings from both lore work and lore questions and further minor pings can enforce a reputation as unapproachable - a fatal reputation for someone directly working as lore staff and fields queries from a community of players.

If my assessment on this is accurate and rings true, then I hope this coming to your attention helps you in gaining more self awareness and improving overall. 

Ah, thank you, I hadn't considered it that way. My main intent was to say that it was largely a one-off incident and I would be fine with being pinged like that now, but I figure I should have said that explicitly. Thinking back on things I've since (not long after that incident, I think) had my own issues with others reacting badly to pings, and I can safely say that it's not fun for anyone involved and tends to create a lasting wariness to ping someone, even on important topics--I'd like to avoid that going forward. I don't think I can necessarily undo any of the bad interactions I've had with people, but I hope that moving forward I can build a better rapport with people despite that.

Thank you for giving me this feedback, it's much-appreciated.

[Mofo1995]

Another applicant has been selected, but I appreciate your contributions. Thanks for your interest!

Edited December 14, 2020 by Mofo1995

[Mofo1995]

At applicant's request, application moved back to dev applications to be reused as a skrell lore deputy application.

[Alberyk]

Are you sure that you can avoid what happened in the previous times?

Are you willing to change your vision/what you wrote for glorsh, when we consider that the skrell history changes were largely unpopular?

But, while I am not a big fan of you using the wiki to propose stuff, I guess that you are contributing more than the last time you were the synth deputy.

[MoondancerPony]

19 minutes ago, Alberyk said:

Are you sure that you can avoid what happened in the previous times?

Are you willing to change your vision/what you wrote for glorsh, when you consider that the skrell history changes were largely unpopular?

But, while I am not a big fan of you using the wiki to propose stuff, I guess that you are contributing more than the last time you were the synth deputy.

To clarify, I haven't been using the wiki to propose stuff, except for my sandbox page which is an upcoming Unathi lore application. The changes that I have submitted on the wiki are proofreading suggestions and a few minor content revisions, things I feel would improve the lore and that were approved by Cael, not original lore submissions.

I do believe I can avoid the activity issue I had last time, since I've been consistently working on Skrell lore for almost a year now. In terms of working with others, I've been working on monitoring my tone and avoiding kneejerk responses or, as someone put it, "firing from the hip". I still have room to improve, but I'm always trying to be more mindful of times when I'm about to speak or act without thinking things through. I've also been trying to reach out to others to collaborate more often and demonstrate that I've improved and am willing to rebuild the personal and professional relationships that my prior behaviour damaged.

I'm currently working on improving what was written for Glorsh, as well as the history changes, alongside Pan, Caelphon, and hopefully Nienna soon as well. These changes have been in the works for a while now, and are based on the conclusions drawn from the feedback thread on Snakebitten's history rework. From my discussions with players in the lore discord it seems a lot of the issues with the history rework were because we, as writers, had difficulty properly translating our intended themes, tones, and ideas into writing; oftentimes we lost track of the real goal and chased rabbits that made the lore dry, meandering, and uninteresting—or even just outright irrelevant and bad in some parts.

The history rework (and the Glorsh segment of it) was overall tonally and thematically inconsistent, which was a large departure from our initial plans for the rework. To fix this I started the current revision off by creating an outline in order to ensure it remained consistent throughout the entire writing process. Additionally, Pan and I have been more involved and thorough with our review process this time, although currently I'm a bit hands-off as it's in internal review.

I've come to realise that it's not necessarily about outright changing my vision, but about allowing my vision room to evolve past my original expectations for it. Oftentimes when I work with others on projects, my vision will naturally be pulled towards a version that everyone involved is happier with overall.

[Caelphon]

Hi there, thanks for applying.

I am interested in your take of the Exiles you've mentioned, and would like for you expand on them in this application. Roughly, just expanding on their Culture, Daily Life and why would a player choose it to make a character from? 

[MoondancerPony]

On 26/12/2020 at 01:26, Caelphon said:

Hi there, thanks for applying.

I am interested in your take of the Exiles you've mentioned, and would like for you expand on them in this application. Roughly, just expanding on their Culture, Daily Life and why would a player choose it to make a character from? 

    This was a tricky question to answer, especially without going against the core ideas I had in mind for the Exiles, but I think I've got something down now:

    As exiles share no specific origin save for no longer being Jargon Federation citizens, they have no shared culture. However, I'll instead provide several examples of exiles that can shed light on what a Federation exile character might be like. These examples are non-exhaustive but give a decent overview of typical backgrounds.

    One distinctive background an exile may have is being a Traverse independence supporter. Whether they willingly renounce their Federation citizenship or have it revoked due to 'inflammatory activity' or 'incendiary rhetoric', these individuals still nominally live under the Federation, and the Federation still profits from their labour. Even Traverse colonies with a large independence movement or non-citizen population still ship resources back to the core Federation worlds, due to careful management and design forcing individual colonies to rely on the Federation's logistics network for many of their needs. This traces its origins back to Glorsh's reign, though the complex web of interdependencies ensuring true independence is out of reach has been expanded substantially ever since.

    A Traverse exile may not be too different than a Traverse citizen on the surface, possessing many of the same positions and privileges afforded to others in their colony; however, they lack official government recognition and the benefits that come with it. Oftentimes colonies with many exiles are touted as being the most productive per-citizen, and have very close Jargon oversight due to this.

    Outside of the Traverse, two additional demographics come to mind. Many former anti-Federation rebels end up exiled (or worse) due to their activities; oftentimes this is because a former comrade of theirs sold them out. Due to this, exiled ex-rebels tend to have little to no faith in Skrell society remaining. Many are loners who leverage their skills to get by, while others work with small (typically non-Skrellian) political groups in hopes of finding a way to rekindle that sense of purpose they had as a rebel. The rebels who wind up exiled are often the middle of the pack, as they managed to get the attention of Jargon, but are exiled rather than imprisoned or 'reeducated'. Their crimes are not so grievous to justify spending resources on their imprisonment, while their skills and abilities are not useful enough for them to be made into a pawn of the state.

    The other prominent demographic, at least in my mind, are academics and researchers who seek to work without Federation oversight or have been poached by any number of state or corporate interests. Save for Zeng-Hu, most megacorps employ disgraced Federation academics rather liberally, as they tend to have fewer strings attached than Federation citizens; even Zeng-Hu likely does the same, albeit less overtly. While this demographic overlaps with expatriates, many of them who openly work in fields that the Federation is opposed to (including but not limited to xenopsionics, AI research, and research on Dionae titans) inevitably find themselves exiled. Thusly, exiles have much more freedom in their activities than expatriates, in large part due to the Repatriation Program's extensive oversight of Federation citizens living abroad.

    However, these are not exhaustive examples, nor are they representative of every Skrell exiled from the Federation. Instead, they should be taken as examples of variations on the core concept of exiles: a Skrell who is estranged, either willingly or not, from the Federation, lacking its restrictions as well as its numerous privileges. There are no doubt a multitude of ways this concept could be taken by players, who (as other factions have shown) often tend to enjoy playing characters that subvert aspects of the lore, but it is the responsibility of those writing the lore to provide a good basis so that players can be responsible in how they deviate from the norm.

    As to why players would enjoy playing an Exile (or any of the other subversive factions): Players enjoy taking the lore and running with it; it's up to us to give them pointers so that the end result is in line with what we want to accomplish. Far from detracting from the rest of the species' themes, both the primary faction(s) and their opposition should instead bolster each other. If a theme is driven by a central conflict (tradition vs modernity, authoritarian control vs lawless freedom, corporations versus nations) it would be a disservice to provide only one side of that conflict. As an example, adding other megacorporations, as well as diplomatic representatives, to the station via corporate liaisons and diplomatic consuls placed the reins in the players' hands and allowed the conflicts between these factions to come to life.

    This is something I think Tajara lore does well: all three of those themes are examined in the central conflict of the PRA, NKA, and DPRA. The NKA values tradition and nationalism, while the PRA falls into the same issues pre-Revolution society had due to their desperate desire to modernise at all costs (an example is the mistreatment of Zhan-Khazan in the PRA) while simultaneously courting and reviling the influence of megacorporations. The PRA is authoritarian but provides security to those who fall in line, while the ALA are a bunch of warlords federated into a military junta; on the macro level they're not as exacting and strict as the PRA, but on the smaller this lends itself to a trend of 'might makes right' that may turn some away—or drive them out.

    I would love to create rich lore like this, to provide scaffolding for players to build on; I've seen many Tajara players run with headcanons for small things like villages, culture, cuisine, and so on, and almost none of it has seemed out of place. By creating a world with sufficient depth and ease of access, I feel that players can be immersed enough in Skrell lore to do similar things. While a Federation supporter is still the easiest character to write out of the gate, playing an Exile—or Expatriate, or even a Rebel—is still a viable option for those players daring and creative enough to look outside the protective bubble of the Federation.

[Caelphon]

Thank you for answering my question! I very much believe that a conflict would be a good idea - hypothetically, let's say you're given free reigns to the Traverse and the resistance within, how would you use them? 

[MoondancerPony]

On 31/12/2020 at 13:50, Caelphon said:

Thank you for answering my question! I very much believe that a conflict would be a good idea - hypothetically, let's say you're given free reigns to the Traverse and the resistance within, how would you use them? 

While the exact specifics of the implementation are still up in the air, I'd like to accomplish a few things:

First, I would like to introduce a geopolitical conflict to Skrell lore. A lot of old lore, even in Loow's era, hints at conflict between the colonial government of the Jargon Federation and the local government of the Traverse. Many formerly independent colonies have been annexed in the decade since the last election, and as it draws nearer tension in the Traverse is reaching a boiling point. They—and the Federation as a whole—are polarised on which candidate to support; the two frontrunners are Weashbi Jrugl, the incumbent Grand Councillor who has a hardline assimilationist stance on Traverse issues, and Qalvau Na'noli, a challenger from the Inner Traverse who is a supporter of the "doctrine of peaceful coexistence".

The main focus would be on the electoral campaign of both candidates, complicated by the involvement of a secessionist movement in the Traverse leading to a strong crackdown on pro-Traverse/anti-Federation sentiments by Jrugl, which will no doubt lead to their victory if gone unchecked. While the initial attack by the secessionist movement is quickly dealt with, its effects on the political landscape of the Federation—and on Skrell elsewhere in the Spur—would not fade so fast, especially as they become a repeated nuisance to the Federation. In the wake of accusations of sympathies to these “anti-Federation terrorists”, Na'noli seeks refuge in Tau Ceti while continuing to campaign—both for their own candidacy and against the anti-Traverse crackdown in the Federation, imploring sapient rights advocates around the Spur to publicly repudiate or place sanctions on the Federation.

This effectively creates a three-way conflict in the Federation regarding the Traverse:

• First, Jrugl represents the status quo: an authoritarian regime that provides numerous boons to those who support it, but which chews up its own citizens in its tangled web of bureaucracy if they step out of line.

• Second, Na'noli represents reform: while they still support the Federation and want the Traverse to remain a part of it, they seek to reach a middle ground that gives the Traverse more freedom overall, while not losing out on the benefits the Federation gains from controlling them. However, they are caught between a rock and a hard place with regards to anti-authoritarianism in the Federation: they are banking on anti-authoritarianism as their ticket into office (and back into the Federation), while needing to maintain the power of the Councillor in order to accomplish their goals.

• Third, the secessionist movement represents revolution: they seek complete independence of the Traverse regardless of the difficulties in maintaining it or the cost it takes to get there. While they are largely anti-authoritarian, infighting in the movement means certain factions in it are attempting to form coalitions to centralise their power.

Skrell players are caught in the middle of this: some may be from the Traverse and harbour pro-secession sentiments, while others may have closer ties to the Federation and its government and don't want to jeopardise the benefits they reap from it. Yet others still may be influenced primarily by the moderate egalitarianism of the Republic of Biesel, swayed by the similarly moderate platform of Na'noli but lured by the bread and circuses of Jrugl's authoritarian Federation. I've seen a number of players (even those without Skrell whitelists) echo these sentiments out of character, and so giving them an outlet for it in-character with the potential to impact the narrative would likely drive interest in the species' lore.

Some other things I would like to do in this arc:

• Reference/tie in older lore as much as possible, both for Skrell and non-Skrell. I want the arc to feel like a natural occurrence in the universe that seamlessly ties into past events. For example:

  • Na'noli flees to Tau Ceti for asylum; however, Tau Ceti has been under international scrutiny before for harbouring those accused of terrible things, e.g. blood cultists, murderers, war criminals, literally all Guwan ever, etc. This could easily be used in propaganda against Na'noli.

  • The events of the Warbling, despite the substantial issues of the arc, could be brought up as a reason for Tau Ceti to refuse extradition of Na'noli back to the Federation, as well as a reason for non-Skrell in the Republic of Biesel to oppose Jrugl's re-election.

  • The SLF's rescue of President Dorn could be used as propaganda to present Biesel as a supporter/proponent of international terrorism, which would be especially revolting for moderate Skrell sitting on the fence; an association with the SLF, however tangential, would be extremely offputting.

• Provide an incentive for Skrell players to be active, and for non-Skrell players to apply for and start playing Skrell characters.

  • I'm considering doing something involving statistics/playtime, like allowing people to vote once per Skrell character with a minimum amount of playtime during the arc. This will incentivise people to play Skrell more, as well as create more character concepts using the new lore this arc would provide.

  • I'd also like to provide an incentive to write characters outside of the standard background, though I'm less certain on how to accomplish this. Perhaps a loadout item to signify membership in a certain movement, as this was incredibly effective during the original Sol invasion arc.

• Create an immersive and intriguing political conflict with ramifications for characters on-station.

  • I don't want to have Jrugl and Na'noli duke it out in a cooking contest at a barbecue on-station; instead, I'd rather them battle in the court of public opinion through propaganda, news appearances, public statements and covert actions.

  • I want the arc to be a constant presence, but not overbearing: people could bring posters for or against candidates to work, attempt to recruit their coworkers to their causes, and likewise deal with the consequences of doing so in the workplace.

  • I'm not a fan of manually-created events for this, or special antagonist stuff; instead I'd prefer to give players the tools to create their own moments of conflict, by giving them reasons to be invested in the various sides of the conflict.

• I want to give factions a larger impact on the station in general.

  • I want to give Federation consuls more to do on the station during the arc. Attempting to leverage members of Security into persecuting supporters of their political opponents, or bribing them to turn a blind eye to their allies—it allows these roles to become embroiled in the political drama of the Federation, but in an organic way that depends on what the players involved are willing to do to.

  • I also want to give consuls in general the ability to provide boons and maluses to departments if they do/don't comply with their demands; things like putting a discount or upcharge on certain goods from Cargo, unlocking faction-specific goods to buy (either via something like a Consul-specific merchant console, or by unlocking it in Cargo), etc. They are representatives of governments or corporations with an interest in the station, and this should be reflected in their responsibilities, actions, and treatment.

  • I would also like for consuls' objectives to provide tangible rewards if achieved; stuff like Federation consuls providing a temporary boon to R&D but a temporary malus to Robotics if they get enough unique signatures on a petition, Tajara providing a bonus to Robotics (such as a crate of roundstart prosthetics provided to Medical), and in the future Unathi could provide bonuses to overmap ships or tweak the chances of certain encounters due to their naval (and naval engineering) influence.

  • Overall, I want representatives of factions (who have command and often species whitelists and are held to a high standard) to be able to wield that power responsibly in a way that influences the station and demonstrates the influence these groups have on both the station (or ship in the NBT) as well as on society as a whole.

[Caelphon]

I love this! Awesome stuff. 

[Caelphon]

You're application is wonderful, and you genuinely are a fantastic writer. I have decided upon another applicant, but I'd love for the Skrell Team to continue working on the Traverse with your ideas.