Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

[Meikle641]

Pointing knives at people is usually considered rude.

Knife hands

[Ancient History]

http://fashionablygeek.com/handmade/legging-hooves/

[Prak]

Pointing knives at people is usually considered rude.

Knife hands

[Shrapnel]

Why do we not ban trolls like silva? Why do we have to wait so long for assholes like Psychic Robot and shadzar to get booted, and only after they've been allowed to go too far? Why not just stamp 'em out immediately?

Personally, I have a theory. The Den tolerates trolls because it wants them. More than that, it needs them, because we need someone that everyone, from Kaelik to Frank to me to Darth to Matt Lauer can all unanimously hate and attack. Otherwise, we'd all turn on each other and the whole forum would descend into madness and fire.

[Ancient History]

If everyone on the Den nodded their heads in unison, we'd be no better than Enworld or the RPG.net forums. Fuck that noise in the ear for a beer can I get a hallelujah?

[Count Arioch the 28th]

http://fashionablygeek.com/handmade/legging-hooves/

Showed that to one of my friends, she's totally into it...

Why do we not ban trolls like silva? Why do we have to wait so long for assholes like Psychic Robot and shadzar to get booted, and only after they've been allowed to go too far? Why not just stamp 'em out immediately?

Personally, I have a theory. The Den tolerates trolls because it wants them. More than that, it needs them, because we need someone that everyone, from Kaelik to Frank to me to Darth to Matt Lauer can all unanimously hate and attack. Otherwise, we'd all turn on each other and the whole forum would descend into madness and fire.

My theory is that nearly everyone here posts here because no other message board can stand us for whatever reason. As such, the worst thing that we're really going to do is say mean things about them. On the internet. My understanding was there has been people banned but you REALLY have to fuck up to get to that point.

[Ancient History]

It's all you, stud.

[RobbyPants]

Why do we have to wait so long for assholes like Psychic Robot and shadzar to get booted, and only after they've been allowed to go too far?

Wait. Was Shad actually banned? I know he sometimes vanishes for a while and then comes back. I just assumed he was bored of this place for the time being.

My understanding was there has been people banned but you REALLY have to fuck up to get to that point.

Yeah. My understanding is you can be a titanic dick so long as you don't start making death threats/death wish posts or post pictures of gore porn, or something.

[nockermensch]

Why do we not ban trolls like silva? Why do we have to wait so long for assholes like Psychic Robot and shadzar to get booted, and only after they've been allowed to go too far? Why not just stamp 'em out immediately?

Personally, I have a theory. The Den tolerates trolls because it wants them. More than that, it needs them, because we need someone that everyone, from Kaelik to Frank to me to Darth to Matt Lauer can all unanimously hate and attack. Otherwise, we'd all turn on each other and the whole forum would descend into madness and fire.

Free Speech. I'm here and not at other RPG sites because I cut my internet teeth at the USENET, where nobody could be banned and discussion had to happen under a constant rain of trolling and spam. Just as the Den, USENET clients all had an ignore list kill file (the lore back then even had a sound effect for ignoring somebody: *PLONK*) so the Den right now works exactly as it should, for me.

I'm okay with outright banning outright bigots and the such because if I learned something from 4chan is that if you allow this kind of discourse, you'll end as a haven for people who want to discuss nothing but this - the logic being that there are like a billion places online to discuss anime and videogames, but very few to things like racism and lolicon.

Wait. Was Shad actually banned? I know he sometimes vanishes for a while and then comes back. I just assumed he was bored of this place for the time being.

Shad was banned for racism, after getting some warnings from fbmf.

[Orion]

Because traffic on this board can get very, VERY slow. Trolls start threads and get people talking, and when a group of people this smart gets going, valuable insights happen.

If our trolls were pulling attention from ongoing, fruitful discussions among people of intellect and good faith, it would make sense to get right of them. But honestly, this board is dead. Trolls breathe some life into it.

[Shrapnel]

But honestly, this board is dead. Trolls breathe some life into it.

I absolutely refuse to believe that the only way the board can be interesting is to allow gits like silva to run wild. There has to be a better way. There must.

Hmm... What if we changed the board's color scheme? "Cubicle gray" isn't very exciting. How 'bout instead we do hot pink and bright neon green with gold highlights?

[nockermensch]

But honestly, this board is dead. Trolls breathe some life into it.

I absolutely refuse to believe that the only way the board can be interesting is to allow gits like silva to run wild. There has to be a better way. There must.

Hmm... What if we changed the board's color scheme? "Cubicle gray" isn't very exciting. How 'bout instead we do hot pink and bright neon green with gold highlights?

gr8 b8 m8.

[Shrapnel]

C'mon, who doesn't like eye-searing colors?

Doesn't Frank wear like really bright orange all the time?

[Occluded Sun]

Alas, I'm old enough to remember when 'troll' actually meant something - as in posting something inflammatory but completely non-contributory merely to get a rise.

Nowadays you crazy kids use it to refer to anyone who persists in posting content you don't like.

[Fwib]

Alas, I'm old enough to remember when 'troll' actually meant something - as in posting something inflammatory but completely non-contributory merely to get a rise.

Nowadays you crazy kids use it to refer to anyone who persists in posting content you don't like.

Every time the media completely mis-uses a word or phrase from the internet and makes the mis-use common parlance, I die a little inside.

[Shady314]

Here's the thing. When someone posts something unbelievably dumb and mockable you can get banned for rightfully telling them what a stupid little bitch they are. But calling someone a troll or claiming their post is so dumb they must be trolling is allowed on almost every board I've been on. I know because that's how I would have to resort to calling them dumb. IE "I can only assume from your post you are trolling." Translation: What you wrote is so fucking dumb I refuse to believe you actually think that. But if I actually said the translation they can report me to mods.

It was inevitable the word would have to morph to cover every inflammatory idiot on the internet.

[Kaelik]

Which is why hugboxintheplayground made it an offense to call someone a troll, or even to say that they failed to read your post, or even that they failed to correctly read your post.

FUCKTHOSEMODS.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Here's a random questions that's come to mind. I don't know if this is because TV isn't a good gauge of reality or my experiences have been so far from the norm that I don't know any different.

Anyway, to all of the Den folks in long-term relationships (or have been in them in the past), does the fabled "Make-up sex" actually exist? I wonder because every time I've been in a fight with someone I was with I either got dumped immediately afterwards or I'd be cut off for the next couple weeks to a month.

[Kaelik]

Here's a random questions that's come to mind. I don't know if this is because TV isn't a good gauge of reality or my experiences have been so far from the norm that I don't know any different.

Anyway, to all of the Den folks in long-term relationships (or have been in them in the past), does the fabled "Make-up sex" actually exist? I wonder because every time I've been in a fight with someone I was with I either got dumped immediately afterwards or I'd be cut off for the next couple weeks to a month.

Depends on the relationship, and why both people are in it. Back in college I had a girlfriend and we literally actually broke up 14 times, and on at least 8 of those times we got back together because sexed. I've never had even a single other relationship in which make up sex was a thing, presumably because my other relationships were based on something besides intense unthinking devotion to sexual desire no matter how bad an idea it was.

[Maj]

Only speaking for myself... No. It doesn't exist. I can't even imagine it working. If I'm having a fight with Ess, it's because I have something to say. Trying to sex in that atmosphere just makes me feel ignored and like what I'm saying isn't important. And, of course, if we jumped in the sack to end the fight, the problem wouldn't actually be resolved... Which could be extremely problematic.

[Josh_Kablack]

Anyway, to all of the Den folks in long-term relationships (or have been in them in the past), does the fabled "Make-up sex" actually exist?

Yes it exists.

Is it anything like how TV/Movies/Cheap Romance Novels portray it? No.

It's more of, "we have a disagreement, but still have a physical attraction to each other, and the argument seems less important after some nookie and a night's sleep"

[Shady314]

Yes it is real but if youre going to get it that'll depend on the severity/importance of the fight, your partner and you.

Generally in my experience if I screw up make up sex isn't happening. But if she screwed up then I can make it happen. Or if the fight was dumb and we know it was dumb.

Breaking up because of one fight or getting cut off for weeks/months! is generally really unhealthy. How could a relationship ever last if you cant weather a fight once in awhile?

[Kaelik]

Yes it is real but if youre going to get it that'll depend on the severity/importance of the fight, your partner and you.

Generally in my experience if I screw up make up sex isn't happening. But if she screwed up then I can make it happen. Or if the fight was dumb and we know it was dumb.

Breaking up because of one fight or getting cut off for weeks/months! is generally really unhealthy. How could a relationship ever last if you cant weather a fight once in awhile?

To be fair, at least one person has been dysfunctional in all of the relationships Count has described having. Whether that is him or the person he is describing might require more information, but at least one of them for sure.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

To be fair, at least one person has been dysfunctional in all of the relationships Count has described having. Whether that is him or the person he is describing might require more information, but at least one of them for sure.

Typically that's been both people, speaking from personal experience.

[Orion]

I absolutely refuse to believe that the only way the board can be interesting is to allow gits like silva to run wild. There has to be a better way. There must.

This board's fortunes basically rose and fell based on what Frank Trollman was up to. I started here, as did many others, when Frank was writing up 3.5 material in book form. I came over from the WotC boards back when Frank was allowed to post there and also they existed to post on. The books dried up and he got banned, but he kept writing lots of 3.5 material for a while yet. This era was huge for traffic because 3.5 was an absurdly popular game, and because audience participation is easy. 3.5 had a lot of problems, but because it's actually a finished system almost anyone can hack out a plausible fix for any given issue. (Well, almost anyone here) (Well, a few people here) It also lets you shovelware new content easily. Frank stopped writing much 3.5 content, and then 3.5 died. Nobody on this board writes Pathfinder content, and I don't think many of us have active 3.5 games. Those who do have, I assume, pretty much figured out a rule set they like and the back list of community content is deep enough that there's little demand for more classes. Throughout this period and into the next few, Frank was also writing a lot of essays about game design. They were useful, and they elicited a lot of feedback and discussion. This doesn't happen so much any more because most of those discussions have already happened. There's new posters who weren't there and might benefit from or have comments on the old discussions, but Frank's not going to spontaneously write a bunch of new essays on old topics. It doesn't help that K is mostly gone. Back in the day you could count on him to disagree with everything Frank said, and generally present a viable alternative perspective. Phone_Lobster also used to be interesting before he descended into madness.

After 3.5, Frank moved on to projects that were doable or should have been doable. After Sundown is a pretty good game. It genuinely incorporated a lot of community input and is the closest thing there is to a functional product produced by "The Den." (Incidentally, I've always felt that I got short-changed in the credits. I put more work in on that game than most people who aren't Frank, including convincing him to rearrange entire disciplines and revise some mechanics, plus some text cleanup that went beyond proofreading. I wish I were credited as a developer) His Shadowrun fixes turned into basically a full supplement, and while he wrote them on his own, they stimulated a lot of activity. Finally, before 4E came out, he proposed that we collectively bang out our own edition of D&D. That really seemed like it should have worked, and in any event a lot of people got excited about it. It didn't work out because it turns out that we are assholes who can't work together. Also, Frank quickly became more interested in thinking about radically new paradigms in game design than in finishing a product. He proposed multiple unheard-of new systems that were both very controversial, and so unfamiliar no one else really knew how to write for them.

When 4E dropped, that produced a lot of activity and a bunch more discussions of design principles, plus an interesting attempt at a superhero 4E hack. 4E was shit, but we were invested in D&D as a thing, so it still held our attention. However, this was a paradigm shift for the Den. We used to talk about games we actually play (3.5; Shadowrun 4; After Sundown), but then we shifted to talking about games we don't. That just doesn't have the same juice. Around this time, a bunch of our right-wing posters flamed out and got banned, but not before they harassed some of our left-wingers into quitting, so we lost a half-dozen prolific posters. Over the past few years, Frank has proposed a half-dozen projects which are all basically impossible or unbelievably labor intensive, and also niche in appeal. Supposedly some of them are being written in secret, but they're so incredibly impractical that he basically hasn't produced a single shareable mechanics post for Doubt, Cyberpunk Heartbreaker, or TNE/Sumeru/Fantasy Heartbreaker. Furthermore, whenever anyone else proposes a game, he comes in with a ranting about how the game will be crap if it doesn't tilt at those same windmills. People here respect him enough that most people try to run with his proposals and then founder on the same reefs that he himself has failed to navigate since the fall of 4E.

Meanwhile, the RPG industry self-destructed. Nobody here cares about D&D 5, or Shadowrun 5, or World of Darkness 3 (although actually some of the new books are pretty interesting), so the only vaguely interesting releases are weird art games that a few people like and most people hate. Bear World threads have actually generated some of the best design debates in 2015. With current games uninteresting, that basically leaves theory and reviews. Theory is basically mined out unless new blood revives it. I've been arguing theory with Frank and Phone_Lobster and Prak for literally 12 years; we simply don't have much left to say to each other outside the context of an actual project. The best thing left on these boards are Frank and AH's reviews, but those come out slowly and Silva certainly isn't holding them back. So that's what this board has devolved to. A bunch of people who've been friends for a decade snarking half-heartedly about new games, chatting about politics, and occasionally posting sweet essays about the history of RPGs. There are a few scenarios that could revive this board. A major company releasing a good game, Frank Trollman starting a viable project or suddenly unveiling a miraculously functional draft of one of his WIPs, an equally prolific and talented designer falling out of the sky, a dozen smart newbies interested in theory falling out of the sky, or me getting my life together enough to actually write a game. Unless and until something like that happens, why not smack around Silva a little?