ForumsArt, Music, and WritingThe Way of Moderation has ended (page 566)

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Cenere
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Jester

http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq1/Cerene_Cerine/hinthintnudgewinknudge.jpg

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70_70_70
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70_70_70
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Peasant

@Strop: hell yeah, I cant wait
but I have a small suggestion: u should make more funny pics instead of the text
for example, the chap 0 and some chap u added later, i mean after u made the chap 1, only have pics- and i prefer that style to reading soooo much text, it cost too much time lah XD

ah and tks to u, Strop the Mod, now I know the true art of Spamming lah, read mah bio to see the pics about how to spam a guys effectively, even the master of material art lah XD

@all: mah fav character is Klaus, how about u guys? XD
And if any1 know the profile of that "real" Klaus in AG, plz send it to me coz I rly wanna be a friend with him and learn how to play games by foot and head lah XD

Cenere
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Cenere
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Jester

u should make more funny pics instead of the text
for example, the chap 0 and some chap u added later, i mean after u made the chap 1, only have pics- and i prefer that style to reading soooo much text, it cost too much time lah XD

There is a fine reason for this not (currently?) being an entire picture based thing. Neither of us had or have the time for doing that. It honestly takes a long while to make a proper composition and line it up, even sketchingly, and have that show the action, rather than writing it out.
Some times it does it well, like during the introduction or the "suicide" scene or times where pictures really does say more than words, but in scenes like the above, it is just easier and done faster to write out the scene descriptively, than drawing twenty-five pages of Strop, Nemo and Zophia looking at a brain in a jar and making expressions.

So, from our perspective, text is faster and easier, and pictures might very well be a waste of time.

Not to mention the vast majority of the contestants have been writers rather than artists. So, the thing would have been broken up by writing every so often anyway.

As for Klaus, he was banned a good while back, so you will have to find him elsewhere.
70_70_70
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70_70_70
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Peasant

@Cenere: oh man, Klaus was banned permanently??? NO WAY!!!
I guessed that the characters in ur stories based the characters of real user in AG, so my guess was right after all XD
So what did Klaus do to get a permanent ban? Spamming too much? Harassing other user? Using too much swear word?
And about the ban, If a person, let s say Klaus was banned from AG, can I still find his profile in AG, with the "comment closed" or his whole profile was deleted completely without a trace left?

About writing vs drawing, u r rite about costing too much time for drawing pics than writing texts, but come on, if u and Strop wanna rewrite the WHOLE thing, y not make it easier for the reader by drawing more and writing less? XD
Imo, I can wait for a long time for the new ver of WOM, as long as the hilarious aspect (which I found more in the pics) will be maximized lah XD

Salvidian
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Salvidian
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Farmer

Perma-banned accounts are gone for good. The admins literally delete the account and page where the profile would be.

Cenere
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Jester

About writing vs drawing, u r rite about costing too much time for drawing pics than writing texts, but come on, if u and Strop wanna rewrite the WHOLE thing, y not make it easier for the reader by drawing more and writing less? XD

There is a difference between doing this now, with Strop almost freshly out of internship and still being wicked busy as a young doctor, and myself still taking an university level education while trying to make this flow, and then rewriting it sometime in who knows how many years, when we both actually have free time for silly things like that.
Besides, as Strop said, this is more of a rough draft than anything. If we had to make it as perfect as we both want it to be, it would take up a lot more time in planning and streamlining, and we would most likely not have gotten as far as we are now.
It took a rather long time to even negotiate to the current plotline with the contestants making their contribution, what was more easy at the time, what Strop would be fun at that moment (it always seemed like a good idea. Sai was one of said good ideas...), thinking up more awesome and epic scenes long after we actually have finished stuff and the fact that I have probably been redoing the same scene five or so times already, due to what I can only now consider an offending about of care for the consistency.

And in the long and the short, it is not a matter of making it easier on the reader. It's about making it easier on us while telling a good story and letting people participate as much as possible.
As the participation is largely over, we just have ourselves to take care of.

Imo, I can wait for a long time for the new ver of WOM, as long as the hilarious aspect (which I found more in the pics) will be maximized lah XD

We will see, we will see. It will depend on the story we decide to tell and who gets to draw the pictures, but as for the current plans, it will be even wilder and more engaging than this.
Which might be promising too much, but that's what we hope for.

I guessed that the characters in ur stories based the characters of real user in AG, so my guess was right after all XD
So what did Klaus do to get a permanent ban? Spamming too much? Harassing other user? Using too much swear word?

Two in one: The majority of the named characters are the characters of the contestants and cameos. The list somewhere in the start (which might be found on Strop's profile as well) is all the contestants, which has the usernames of their players as well.
As for Klaus, I think the core issue, as with many other vets, was that AG changed while he didn't, which meant the usual shenanigans were no longer welcomed.
70_70_70
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70_70_70
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Peasant

@Cenere: between u and Strop, who focus more on drawing pics and who focus more on writing texts?

xXxDAPRO89xXx
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xXxDAPRO89xXx
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Baron

We actually plan to rewrite the whole thing once we've finished writing this version (which is 99.5% done). Think of this as the first draft, chaotic and bloated thing that it is. We'll be making it snappy and tight and thematically balanced and vetting the characters etc.


The WHOLE thing :O That's CRAZZYYY :P

But I think that we're gonna need a break before that happens. I have another novel I want to write.


:O Two books now! Whoa there Strop!
xXxDAPRO89xXx
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xXxDAPRO89xXx
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Baron

Okay. I took the great pleasure in reading it. Just this page though so i'm kinda confused... Here's whats in my mind:

MAIN CHARACTERS
Zophia (likes colors, dropped an F-Bomb? Dunno what that is...)
Strop (a horse, doctor, smarty-pants...)
Moe (Hmmmm... Really smart i'm assuming. Got hurt by something?)
Nemo (i dunno much about Nemo)

Next...

PLOT
As of this point i think it is that Strop, Zophia, and Nemo are in a hospital and are fiddling with some antidote to save people? The one that saved(?) Moe? I also understand that the antidote is Zophia's and is very important for healing matters or something...

IMPORTANT THINGS
So these are things i think are important (from what i read on this page only.)
-Zophia made an F-bomb (dunno what that is, the f word?)
-Moe is a brain? Or is in the form of a brain? Becaue what was that brain in the jar? And Moe was healed when Nemo dropped it in?

OTHER STUFF

So somethings i'm not sure on...
Why is Moe a brain? Did he used to be a person or something?
Where has this Ubertuna guy been lost at?
Why were Zophia, Strop, and Nemo in the hospital?

Also, why is Strop a horse? Are the other characters horses or animals also? :P

I hope someone (Strop or Cenere preferably) could clear this up for me... One page really isn't enough ^_^

Thanks
-Dapro
(My longest comment ever. Man it's long...)

Cenere
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Jester

Perhaps you should read the entire Story, instead of just a single chapter? It generally helps understanding stuff.

Why is Moe a brain? Did he used to be a person or something?

Because Moe's a brain. He might have been a person at some point, but that is well before even Strop came to Armor City.

Where has this Ubertuna guy been lost at?

He was tragically lost in the sewers/catacombs under Armor City after "helping" defend the city from the invaders. Something about a loan shark.

Why were Zophia, Strop, and Nemo in the hospital?

They are there to cure Moe from the f!bomb. Moe is in the hospital, so so must they be.

Also, why is Strop a horse? Are the other characters horses or animals also? :P

Because Strop's a horse.
A short list of whoever comes to mind, who isn't regular, normal human beings:
Everyone but Cen.

So, with that, it sure does help reading everything.
Check the archive, it's stickied in this section and has the entire thing without all the inbetween text like this. Or check Strop's profile, he has the chapters named and linked to, then you can read about the f!bomb. He has a picture of all the contestants as well, which does answer the 'who is also an athropomorphic or otherwise humanoid animal character'.

@Cenere: between u and Strop, who focus more on drawing pics and who focus more on writing texts?

Strop likes pictures more, and generally wants to include some in everything he writes (which he shouldn't), I just want this done and over with, so I rarely illustrate anything. But when I do, it's comic pages.
Hectichermit
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Hectichermit
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Bard

A short list of whoever comes to mind, who isn't regular, normal human beings: Everyone but Cen.


Hey I thought i was normal except for not being in there that much :P, ya i had some weird skills sets and was dirty but was still human :P idk if ya'll were talking bout main characters or what not
70_70_70
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70_70_70
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Peasant

@Cenere: talking about Nichodemus, he is also the creator of ur FC: CenereFanClub XD

In this club i found ur rules: "The more people in a group, the less the collective IQ will be"
Can u tell me more about the meaning of this law??? I cannot comprehensive it, coz more ppl should lead to more creative idea, but u said the opposite, how come? o_0

Cenere
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Cenere
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Jester

Hey I thought i was normal except for not being in there that much :P, ya i had some weird skills sets and was dirty but was still human :P idk if ya'll were talking bout main characters or what not

Not saying you weren't human. Saying you were neither regular nor normal.
Though, to be fair, I did forget Goumas, who was probably the most regular and normal human being that was included in the WoM, not to mention, he was probably the most normal anything around anyway.
Cenere
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Cenere
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Jester

Just to justify stuff:

As of this point i think it is that Strop, Zophia, and Nemo are in a hospital and are fiddling with some antidote to save people? The one that saved(?) Moe? I also understand that the antidote is Zophia's and is very important for healing matters or something...

It's an antidote to negate the effects of the f!bomb, which Moe is the last known victim of. Saving him is more a matter of saving him from the state that kicked him into a hormonal coma.
Zophia and Ubertuna made it through the time between the f!bomb's other victims being cured and until all hell broke lose a few chapters ago, when AG got invaded. Ubertuna helped because he wanted Nemo (at that time Nill, the female version of Nemo, which is what the f!bomb does) to get back to normal, and Nemo was thus, in the previous update, ambushed by Zophia and Strop in (her) bath so (s)he would turn back to normal. And patly because they didn't know if it worked anyway, and everything is better with nudity anyway.
As such, the antidote is not particularly important in healing people, as much as correcting a few issues that happened a lot earlier in the WoM.

Zophia (likes colors, dropped an F-Bomb? Dunno what that is...)
Strop (a horse, doctor, smarty-pants...)
Moe (Hmmmm... Really smart i'm assuming. Got hurt by something?)
Nemo (i dunno much about Nemo)

Zophia's a dryohr, she hasn't been very involved in anything but shenanigangs and doing her duty as a mod in the invasion. Like shiny things and pretty colours, will get overly childish when exposed to enough water to swim in, was the mastermind behind the f!bomb, which was hilarious, has a paintbrush as a ban weapon.
Strop is a ninja horse, training at this time to become a doctor, isn't really doing a great job at it. The actual main character of the WoM, if it ever had one, was the indirect reason the invasion occurred, has no sense of organisation, does not do well with being reminded he isn't good at organisation nor that he might not know anything about his field of work (which is kinda hard to deal with, when he is being stressed and confused). Probably feels more than a little guilty that Moe is in a coma, all things considered, and is thus being a little on edge over these things.
Moe, resident mod in jar, somehow got hut by the f!bomb, who knows how, and this was not found out until much later in the WoM, because, well, he's a brain in a jar. It's not particularly easy to differentiate between genders on a brain.
Nemo, formerly Nill when affected by the f!bomb, there to save the day by annoying Strop, because Strop kinda ruined his life a little when he turned him back. Wears a wolfskin and once banned himself when dropping his banstaff on his toe.

I hope that brings some clarity to it all, but reading the entire story (or finding the summaries) would probably be better for you, since it's a pretty long story, and what is happening isn't very related (nor quite important) to the overall plot.
--

Might be worth taking non-WoM conversation to my thread instead:

In this club i found ur rules: "The more people in a group, the less the collective IQ will be"
Can u tell me more about the meaning of this law??? I cannot comprehensive it, coz more ppl should lead to more creative idea, but u said the opposite, how come? o_0

Because people are idiots and more people are more idiotic.

btw, i heard that u was a Mod in AG like Strop, so did u give up that title bcoz u was too busy with ur study?

More or less. Had a thing up explaining it, can't be bothered to find it.

Anything else should redirect to somewhere else.
Strop
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Bard

btw, i heard that u was a Mod in AG like Strop, so did u give up that title bcoz u was too busy with ur study?


Technically I should, uh, have retired a long time ago myself, but Cen beat me to it (after I delayed for 2 years lol).

Right, since there's only been 2 significant updates and they were 2 months apart each (blame my neurology job, that was horrendously busy), I think we would do well with a miniature bare-bones update. Some of this you'll find on page 504. It'll be by no means complete but it'll help ground everybody on what happened, and if you want to read the archive, this may help you understand what's going on more quickly.

Summary

The Way of Moderation is part of a project to fictionalise the Armor Games community into a physical world. That is to say imagine the forums is like a city, the users are citizens, and there are walls and houses and shops and an actual tavern, and of course a castle which symbolises the Administration, because technically, nobody can get in except the Admins and the Mods. And of course, an economy, a loose metaphor for the way we deal with Armor Points.

I found the dynamics of internet forums fascinating, so I wanted to loosely relate the story of the history and the people of AG. The WoM attempts to explore some of the major themes and preoccupations of the AG forum community, as well as reference the events from the point in time AG's population exploded from the hundreds of thousands to the millions, and the challenges that go with it. Namely, an administration that struggled to adjust to the demands of a growing population, a team of moderators that struggled to do their jobs for lack of manpower and versatile tools, contrasted with a population fascinated with the ambition of gaining power and authority.

The main plot of the WoM is fictional: a tournament held to try and simultaneously entertain people as well as discern candidates for a new moderator. But such a fictional plot served as a good vehicle to explore the themes of teamwork (and lack of it) and the conflicting ideologies among the people involved in communities. At least that is what we'll be aiming to focus on in the rewrite. As it is, you'll see a series of madcap crazy misadventures, lots of explosions, things breaking, snappy one-liners and a lot of disjointed satirical pieces in which I take a potshot at every contemporary issue from drugs to gender politics to global current affairs.

Plot

The Wheel of Moderation, official moderator selection device, has broken! Devoidless allegedly broke it by getting excited and spinning it too hard. But this is a time when Armor City needs a new moderator more than ever, for the population grows, and grows restless. Queen Carlie holds a secret meeting in which the moderators discuss their quandrary, and so it is that the duty falls to Strop, with the help (and hindrance) of his colleagues, Dank, Devoidless, Moe, Nemo, Ubertuna and Zophia, to address this problem in the form of a tournament: the Way of Moderation tournament. Strop decides to drag his good friend, Cen, along for the ride because he wants to make a man out of him, and because he needs somebody to file his paperwork.

The tournament is initially wildly successful, capturing the attention and imagination of Armor City. Many candidates sign up, and Strop goes to town thinking up challenges that will "test their ability", such as dodging balls he throws at them. Cenere silently disapproved of the wanton destruction that resulted, particularly when a runin with regular troublemaker Klaus resulted in Armor Castle itself being temporarily destroyed... but thanks to the delay when Flippo the Hippo's bakery was blown up by Dudeguy, it was rebuilt in time for the next trial, in which the remaining candidates had to navigate an obstacle course built by the imposing brain-in-a-jar, Moegreche! At the same time, both the candidates and Strop had to contend with the nefarious trio of moderators, Nemo, Voidy and the fishy keeper of the moat, Ubertuna, who had joined forces to oppose the existence of the tournament. This time around, it resulted in the hospitalisation of everybody present, and just when the dust was clearing, Klaus returned from an imposed trip and went too far, earning himself a permaban at the hands of administrator Carlie.

Just when Strop thought it was back under control, Zophia showed up to commemorate a Halloween prank with an upgraded version, turning Strop, and everybody else present, into females. As it turned out, even Nemo, who was attempting to murder Strop, and Moe, who was spying on Strop to make sure things didn't get too out of hand again, were affected. Only Cen, somehow, managed to escape the fate. Horrified at the change, many of the remaining contestants collapsed under the mental strain and confusion, whereas others took it in their stride. Strop, as Strip, freed from her responsibilities as a moderator, proceeded to cause trouble in the ancient motherland of Newgrounds, and only came to her senses when she realised the loss of her powers, which would come back to haunt the other moderators later in the story.

Following this, Strop had intended to test the dozen remaining candidates on their eloquence, but a doublebooking resulted in the Community Hall being turned into a rap arena, in which Strop, having ingested some suspiciously narcotic substances sold by a certain herbalist, passed out, and the prank hatched by the most nefarious of candidates, Leon McAcid, resulted in Strop being charged with the attempted murder of the youngest candidate, Chill, Grandmaster of George. Daunted but not defeated at the mounting challenges, Strop interviewed the candidates and found he had to disallow the elderly Kingryan from continuing purely on the basis of his health. Thus came the round of eight, in which Thoad narrowly defeated Manta in a mindbending duel, Frank took down Pixel in an aerial battle turned mudfight, Crimson gritted his way past Chill's trickery, and the Bullman was bested by Leon, and his own code of honorable conduct. This finally being a round that seemed to go without a major hitch, Strop decided to push his luck and held the tag-team two-on-two in the hall of the castle itself. Seeing as Carlie wasn't around as she was on a 'secret trip'. What resulted was the most severe carnage of the tournament thus far that left Crimson and Leon victorious, but only Leon relatively unscathed, underscoring the real danger that lurked beneath the chaotic entertainment the tournament provided. Strop had one other serious bit of business to attend to, that being the court hearing in which an unusually affected Moe erratically runs Strop through the wringer before the prosecution's case descends into farce, Leon confesses his guilt in his typical roundabout fashion, and absconds before any consequence is meted.

Thus brings us to the most recent round, round Ten. The day of the Grand Finals, where a barely healed Crimson secretly carries the hopes of preserving good order, against a rampant Leon, the maniacal unknown quantity. Yet as they are about to fight, the round is interrupted first by the appearance of Strop's antagonists, which serves as the catalyst for a monumental argument between Cen and Strop which results in Cen suddenly leaving Strop to fend for himself. Worse, just after he leaves, Dank rushes in bearing the news of a raid- the fire born from embers of trouble stirring from many months earlier. Turns out that Klaus, bitter at being rejected as a moderator, manipulated the flammable crowd at Newgrounds into raiding Armorgames with intent to completely destroy it and its fundaments. Unprepared and still shortstaffed, the moderators are overwhelmed by the rapidity and totality of the raid, and the city rapidly and progressively falls. The nuking of the Free Market triggers a fight between Strop and Klaus. Strop defeats Klaus in an effort to save the Bank and thus AG's economy, but Klaus pulls a last-minute sacrifice move and the Bank falls. Strop is flattened, but saved by Dank, who attempts to defend his beloved Academy. Meanwhile, Strop goes on to reunite with old veterans and ex-moderators Asherlee and Dragonmistress, who agree to help him out while he quests to gather all the mods. However, in the process, Strop witnesses the destruction of most of the city at the hands of mega mutant trolls. Spaminator Flipski sacrifices himself in an effort to block their progress to the Castle and to save Moe, who is distraught. Asherlee and DM try to take the bank back with Crimson but they are heavily beaten and retreat, and it is only thanks to the last-minute arrival of Zophia and Ubertuna, who were trying to return Nemo to his male state that the lot of them were not caught up in the detonation of the Academy. Worse yet, while Ubertuna lead the remnants through the sewers, his ongoing problems with sharks trying to evict him from his home at sea finally caught up with him, and he was taken by a loan shark.

With their morale at an all time low, the remaining moderators must dig deep and somehow organise to ensure the safety of the users, as well as find a way to resolve the ongoing conflict. Through a series of high risk plans they manage to secure vital points and send a distress signal, as well as redirect the citizens who stayed behind to the one safe place left in the land of Armor Games: the park, a haven free from economic consequence. At first, they planned to shoulder the responsibility of saving the community on their own, but it was at this crucial time that some of the users, like Nill (formerly Nemo), and many of the finalists from the tournament, including Manta, Thoad, Kingryan, and Crimson, independently came up with their own plans to galvanise their fellow citizens and make a stand. Everything came to a head in a last desperate defense of Armor Castle itself, when Cen puts his life on the line for the sake of a few precious seconds, and even the seemingly villainous Leon plays a pivotal role in holding the castle, while Chill and his magical colleagues rush to the aid of Dank, who, with Moe, hatch a plan to counter the largest threats of them all, the revived super Mutant Trolls that feed on hate and adversity, that not even Flipski's sacrifice could put down. Staring down the face of defeat, Strop finally sacrifices himself and drinks coffee. Everything comes together in one final clash, all the little plans and contributions of everybody from average citizen to moderator pitted against the hostile forces in one grand showdown, until a giant thunderstorm signalling the return of the Administration puts a halt to the battle.

Once the dust settles, the extent of the damage becomes clearer. So too does the extent of the irresponsibility of Strop, and the degree to which the tournament and its consequences raged out of control. Queen Carlie explains her absence by announcing her forthcoming wedding to one of the developers, John. The founder and leader of AG himself, Dan McNeely, announces an overhaul of the administration to reflect the evident needs of the community, as well as an inquest to clarify the events of the past several months. Strop resolves to accept responsibility and realises that his time as a moderator is coming to a close. But before he retires he resolves to tie up loose ends, including treating the wounded from the battle, apologising to Cen for his conduct and for ignoring Cen's reasonable warnings, helping everybody relocate and repair AG while it awaits a complete overhaul by the Administration, restoring Nill and Moe back to their normal status by reversing the persisting effects of the F-bomb. Most importantly he has to see the tournament to a close, and of course, the question of sourcing another moderator has still gone unanswered...
daleks
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daleks
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Chamberlain

(blame my neurology job, that was horrendously busy)

Or I could just blame all the people that have problems with their nervous system. Without them you would not have to be busy. Or have a job I guess, but that is besides the point.
More or less. Had a thing up explaining it, can't be bothered to find it.

Lazy.
I tried looking in the WayBackMachine but it doesn't have a shot of when you retired. Anyway I think it had something with you not having enough time and some other stuff.
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