reset all squad names

[wO!]

Any person trying to start a squad knows what i'm saying. It's pretty much impossible to start one these days since there's no names available. No squad names = no squads = SS's death. It's lame as hell people take every name they can and trade them, even worse buy/sell them. Obviously don't reset current or past squads, but names just going unused, why not? shit, even reset all player names with say < 100 hours of usage.

 

Who agrees?

Edited September 2, 2010 by wO!

[»gallitin]

I agree, but won't happen.

[Stabwound]

I'd totally agree. Really, it would be nice if any particular username could own only 1 squad at a time.

[Hakaku]

Player names do happen to get reset in time, but squad names don't. At this point, there's pretty much no way squad names would ever get mass-reset without an overhaul in our current system and billing server.

[L.C.]

Why not purge squads whose members (at least ONE) have not logged in over a certain period of time?

[»gallitin]

Why not purge squads whose members (at least ONE) have not logged in over a certain period of time?

 

You would need to query that in the database and I bet the only person that has database access is Prittk or at least the permissions to issue a mass delete statement.

Edited September 2, 2010 by Gallitin

[PoLiX]

Squad Names do reset when a name resets. Unless a squad has members, then it goes onto *UNKNOWN*. Priit has reset the squads on *UNKNOWN* before.

 

There is a seperate program that runs on the billing server's server that handles name reseting. It actually crashed back in Feb/March (forget when that downtime was) and took the biller down, and reset some names by accident (boy that was fun clean up of squads that went to *UNKNOWN*, etc.).

 

I remember for years squads had special characters in them all the time. Lots of major old squads in TW and EG had all sorts of chars. Same with usernames for quite some time. So honestly don't get the issue with this.

[No_Remorse]

It's not the name that makes the squad, it's the players. I wouldn't worry about it, there are much more important things in life to worry about.

[X_PennyWise]

The first real squad I joined was called }{TREME (hence the X_ in front of my name), and that was back in '99ish. Even then we had to be creative with squadnames, so this isn't really a new issue.

 

Plus, I have a few of my squad names where the owner is an alias of mine that I don't use frequently, and I'd be PISSED if I found out my squad was given out due to activeness.

Edited September 4, 2010 by X_PennyWise

[wO!]

It's not the name that makes the squad, it's the players. I wouldn't worry about it, there are much more important things in life to worry about.

 

I disagree. First impressions are important. No one will join a squad if the name is stupid or consists of a bunch of symbols. People just expect more these days, especially in the zone I play (DSB) where all the squad names are pretty good. Yeah its silly, and I agree, its not important at all. All the more reason to be in favour of it.

 

The first real squad I joined was called }{TREME (hence the X_ in front of my name), and that was back in '99ish. Even then we had to be creative with squadnames, so this isn't really a new issue.

 

Plus, I have a few of my squad names where the owner is an alias of mine that I don't use frequently, and I'd be PISSED if I found out my squad was given out due to activeness.

 

Exactly what I'm talking about. It's not a new issue, but it shouldn't be an issue at all. It should be easy to start a squad with a decent name. Also what's the point of owning a squad name and not doing anything with it? This kind of shit is bad for SS.

[»Maverick]

Squad names do get reset but not fast enough. Especially with all the nametraders and people just registering loads of squads, creating a good squad name can be a hassle.

Nonetheless, I still believe that if you play the game long enough, you'll come up with an original and untaken squad name.

[Dav]

I think one thing we need to do as a whole is take the attitude that names/squad names that are kept as trophies are fair game for a reset. Would make things a lot easier.

[Dr Brain]

You can argue and plead all you want, but no one has any access to the database, so it can't happen.

[Yupa]

Just use a different biller. One of many reasons to not use SSC.

[L.C.]

mm, Isometry.

[Hakaku]

Well, sure you can switch billers, but you can also enjoy the loneliness. Reality is, Priit hosts most major zones. And I'm certainly not keen on switching to a second biller maintained by someone who practices the exact same philosophy as the first.

[Yupa]

Right, so switch to one that doesn't practice the same philosophy. You could even make a biller where most decisions were made by direct democracy, if you really wanted to. These major zones are dying though; they can't hold long time players because they've compromised too much for short-term players, and because they're afraid the end is near; they can't hold short-term players because they get creamed, because amusing ships are removed (looks at TW), because populations are too low because the long-term players left.

[L.C.]

The you will not find a billing network that is suitable.

 

Unless you run your own, of course, but then your credibility is at question.

 

The best billing network is the one where it has a healthy, trusted, and interconnected group of leaders to form a healthy ring of leadership. If one of the leaders in that ring of leadership is not synchronized with the health of the group, the whole chain of command and foundation of the system will be or is broken, and will fall in the form of the Domino Effect.

 

One person can't be trusted because then everyone exclaims, "Dictator!" and questions the reliability.

Two or more persons can't be trusted because of disagreements and inconsistencies amongst the group of leaders; if they are not in sync, one person or more persons are bound to abuse and utilize the system out of their own greed/selfishness/agenda/self-gain/power/ego.

 

It's either one way or the other. You can't have it both ways. Based on the impression I am getting of what "you guys are looking for," you won't find what you're looking for, guaranteed.

Edited September 12, 2010 by L.C.

[Hakaku]

Actually L.C., you're quite off the mark. I actually have no problems with a single person running the biller. But I do have a problem when that person will and has already repeated the exact same thing Priit did, which was basically dev for a bit, acquire as much power as they could in a short time, and then run off leaving everything unmaintainable and inaccessible. This is basically the exact same principle which has haunted Continuum for years now.

[L.C.]

>.< Was just playing devil's advocate, sorry.

[Cheese]

solution:

 

modular open source client connects to modular open source zone attached to modular open source biller

 

 

 

 

 

guess what, we already have 1/3

[»Purge]

A little over 2/3, actually...

[No_Remorse]

@ wO!

 

I remember back in the day the squads used to have all sorts of random symbols in them and still manage to be the top squad in the zone, and EVERYBODY wanted to join those squads.

 

O R I O N.. obviously not as good as ORION but people still would lick nutsack to join. Jedi^Force, again with the random symbols. Half the squads I can even remember were not "top of the line" squad names. And most of those squads were the ones that dominated to begin with. Only obsessive compulsive players who need an ego boost would even care about something like that. Not that we all haven't indulged in a little bit of ego boosting from time to time.

 

I'm comforted by the fact that no one is in the position to even attempt a name reset. I haven't logged in a year because I'm po(I couldn't afford the 'or'). I would be absolutely livid if I logged in and found out that any of my 2 alias' got reset -- the same alias' I waited like 10 years to get in the first place. the end.