BlueGoku

Just a quick word about the Council in regards to Animate Dreams (incorrect) statement: I've been on it for a few years now and I have nothing bad to say about it. We've been able to get some pretty positive changes made, such as the addition of more billing ops (which I'll probably have to bring up for discussion again) and structure changes, the addition of banG ops and development of a proper ban dispute system, among others. Can't speak for everyone else, but based on our discussions and based on our in game chat, no one currently on the Council is there against his better judgment. I think the last Council member that didn't think too positively of the Council was Ekted, and he retired from it a while back. Furthermore, from what I can tell he was mostly frustrated with Priitk as opposed to the Council itself.

Like I said on the last page, I'll put up a summary of non-sensitive information every once in a while in the general forum. I think this is a good compromise. You guys are right about the guests not being able to view the forum issue though, I initially set it so guests needed to register because it works well for the HZ forum, but for something like the SSC forum I suppose that's a bit of overkill since there's a larger amount of possible readers. I'll change that back to allow guest viewing. Regardless, -every- forum has a private forum for the administrators/staff/sysops to post in. This is no different. The only real difference between this and your zone's staff forum is it's not just one zone's staff, but EVERY SSC zone. As well, here it is once more, the entire reason behind the board since some people are still unsure: The SSC forum was created so that sysops all across Continuum can better communicate with eachother and with the SSC. At one point there was a highly useful sysop chat that SSC ops used (it could still be there, I have no chat room tho =p) and this is just a better version of that. Information can be shared in complete trust across all SSC zones between all SSC zone operators. This forum is NOT competing with SSForum. If you want to discuss Continuum, this is the place.

Some if not most of the issues discussed on the forum will be more on the administrative end and will not really have an impact on players. As well, since it's a private forum we're not going to prove ourselves every time someone asks. This probably wasn't your intention, but your post made it sound as if this whole process was tedious and involved more than Ace and I putting it together and getting the right people to join. Regardless of whether progress is made, the forum is now there to be used accordingly. Though the forum IS working, I can tell you that much. However, every once in a while I can do a quick summary of non-sensitive info for the public forum, but it's only been a few days, give it some time. As for access - it's not based on population statistics. An outline has already been posted in this thread.

Isn't Hybrid the robot core?

Ghost has his own opinions, of course, but I've yet to see when one outright conflicts with the views and wishes of the Council. I've been on the Council for a few years now and I've yet to see a decision that we've made overturned by Ghost because he disagreed. There are a number of smart and level headed people on the Council and since all of our decisions require almost unanimous support, we've always been able to tailor them to suit everyone, including Ghost. I'd say Ghost goes along with the wishes of the Council 100% of the time, at least since I've been on it. Decisions that we make may not all be implemented instantly, but that's to be expected when some of them require Priitk's access. The only times we've really been denied something is when asking for new game functionality/features from Priitk, but we learned long ago to not do that =p. As for the forum itself, it's in no way an authoritative body. Having access to it isn't going to magically give you billing powers or lv0 banG. The mailing list will continue to be used as it has been in the past, only now we have a very important tool at our disposal: a centralized forum where we can get opinions from high ranking zone officials. As well, this tool isn't just going to be used by the Council, but by every SSC zone op out there. Cerium: "How do you think a community of unstable !@#$%^&*heads is going to react when they're basically being told that they are just now being deemed worthy enough to speak to the almighty SSC members by joining their super-leet off-site board? !@#$%^&*, even the most dense of the community is going to pick up on this at!@#$%^&*ude with the amount of times it's revisited in this thread." People were mad at us when we DIDN'T have the forum and now people are seemingly mad because we -just- now have the forum. You can't have it both ways. Yes, it took a while to get set up, but I'd be hard-pressed to find a good reason to complain about this forum. So again: this forum is NOT going to be used for decision making in any way. It's a place where zone operators can freely share information.

People aren't being left out because we want to create a clique or whatever, but because sensitive information is being shared and discussed there. The public forum was set up so that non-staffers can still take part by asking questions or making comments, and should serve as a pretty good place to post SSC access requests, for example. To gain access to the private forum you need to be a sysop though, which I don't think is very unreasonable considering the entire point behind this forum was a place where all the zone sysops can get together and discuss issues, as opposed to just Council members. I don't think Ace is trying to show off or anything, I just think he's taken a defensive position which is making him sound like it. As well, I don't look at it as a split considering the SSC forum has an entirely different purpose than SSForum. I still read SSForum, I don't see why anyone else that's on the SSC forum (that read ssforum before) wouldn't.

We're not trying to create a gated or elitist community. The forum was set up as a tool that every SSC zone would be able to use to corroborate on certain issues. For example, we can post banG lists there for cross-checking purposes. The public forum can be used, for example, by someone like Resol to state his case about why his zone should be given SSC access. He'd be able to communicate directly with council members. In theory this would be much more productive than me just forwarding his request in the mailing list. I 100% fail to see why people are getting all up in arms about a tool that was created to HELP SSC zones out. Though in hindsight this topic probably shouldn't have been made, as we were doing just fine privately letting sysops know about it.

I think Aceflyer has already posted what the guidelines to getting access are. It's an operators forum, so like he posted, if you fall under those categories you are automatically given access. The case by case basis is for people who do NOT qualify. Personally the only time I see this coming into effect is when you have a sysop that happens to be netbanned from SSC, like CRE's case. Generally speaking, if you're a sysop in an SSC zone and NOT a cheater, you're going to be given access.

It'll happen. You're right in that it IS a huge thing to take on for just one person, but I plan on bringing a few more people into the fold to help me out.

The original intention was to get it set up here, but that didn't pan out. Regardless, it's probably better to have it up on sscouncil.com for reasons already posted. Furthermore, it's not in compe!@#$%^&*ion with ssforum in any way, the only public part of the forum is for SSC related questions. Don't have any? Then you don't need to visit the forum. The forum came about to supplement the already existing sysop chat, and even though it's only been up for a couple of days, it's already proven to be quite useful. As well, we're not deciding who should and shouldn't have access, but as a rule of thumb if you're banned from SSC, you're most likely not going to get access to it. It has the potential to house sensitive information and considering you've already violated SSC rules, it doesn't really matter much that one zone decided to banfree you and give you sysop. I can tell you right now that if someone who is netbanned decides to start his own zone and asks for SSC, he's not going to get it. Why should it be different just because the zone is ALREADY on SSC?

Like FM said, GS is already aware. I sent Priit an e-mail this morning as well, so it's out of our hands now. Just gotta be patient, hopefully he's not on vacation or something.

A few years ago priitk enabled use of that command for a short period of time. Theoretically it was supposed to be enabled for a short period of time every couple years, but that didn't end up happening. The SSCouncil has been lobbying for it to be re-enabled permanently for a while now, but I doubt it ever will be. In my opinion if it was enabled it would actually cut down on name-trading, since it would ultimately mean that once you give someone your name, you aren't going to have any way of getting it back.

Spore was gonna do that too? I know M!@#$%^&* Effect for PC was gonna authenticate itself every few days but they changed their minds.

PC only, yes. The requirements, they've said, aren't too demanding. You'll probably be able to scale it down. I have a gaming laptop so I'm not too worried. As for what the actual game is about, it's from Maxis, the guys that made all the Sim games. You start off as a single celled organism and then gradually evolve into a creature. You then keep on evolving until you become a space faring civilization, at which point you can travel to other planets and you can destroy or colonize them (or abduct creatures and bring them back to your planet). While the game does not have an online mode, it's linked up to the maxis servers at all times, so most (or probably all) of the planets you come across will actually have creatures that other people have created. The reason they didn't just make it fully online is because they didn't want people to be jerks and just destroy other people's hard work. That's just a rough description, I'm sure there's tons I missed. Read up on it on www.spore.com

The creature creator is coming out next month. Here's a long and in depth preview from IGN: http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/735340/spore..._tool_demo.html I can't wait 'till the full game comes in in September, it looks insanely good.

All depends on what you like. If you're a fan of RPG's, M!@#$%^&* Effect is a must have. If you're a fan of video games in general, GTA4 is a must have. COD4 for FPS games (Halo is alright too, I wouldn't say it's a must have tho). Orange Box if you don't have a good PC.

You can try changing the port. However, I have a suspicion that the SSC firewall doesn't just block IP's but ports as well, so if you're trying to use a port that priit hasn't unblocked specifically for your zone, then you won't have billing access. Also, ya, he's the only person with remote access to the SSC billing server, and the SSCX/SSCU server.

But don't expect a reply for a while. GS and I have been trying to contact him since mid December and neither of us have heard anything back. Pointman's been trying too I think.

Sad to see ya go. You were there when HZ needed a temporary server and really bailed us out, so you definitely have my thanks, Confess.

With only about 500, if even, active netbans (meaning the others are expired).

I think like any other game, SS is just going through the regular life cycle. It's not any one thing, as has been mentioned. For example, some of you have mentioned SSC being strict with zones we allow on the billing. While it's true that we're firm believers in the "better safe than sorry" ideology, I have yet to see anyone quit SS in general because of this. One of the major reasons SS has survived this long, is the chat system. It's unlike any other game chat system. People have built up friendships in the 12 years they've been playing this game. With that said, development is the most important factor in keeping SS's current population as well as building on it. I'm glad to see so many people are actively brainstorming and working on new clients, and ASSS of course has been extremely awesome. HZ has pretty much hooked any player that has come into the zone and seen a replay in a league game. As for banning being a reason we're losing population: the type of players that are netbanned are players you wouldn't want playing in your zone anyway. Undeserving bans are always removed when they're brought to the banG admin's attention, and players that are wrongfully caught under someone else's ban can easily fill out a form and get banfree'd. The netban message is pretty straight forward.

My new years resolution coincides with my sales quotas for my new job.

Never even so much as silenced or kicked.

That looks bad, bro. Glad you're okay.