Round Table Weekly

[Kalah]

Anchor: "We go now, once again, to our reporter in the field. This time, he has managed to gain exclusive access to the holiest of all places – the Moderator Tower".
Reporter: "Welcome, everybody, to l'endroit sacré, the place where the moderators of the Heroes Round Table come to relax, discuss serious and not-so-serious business and of course, to try and drink one another under the table."
Mod: "Eyh! You!"
Reporter: *looking around*
Mod: "Yes, you there, with the big nose! What are you doing in here!?"
Reporter: "Er... I am doing a feature on the..."
Mod: "This is mods and admins only! Who..."
Reporter: "Oh, yes, I know – the admin gave me access temporarily so I could..."
Mod: "The admin? Which admin?"
Reporter: "Oh, I dunno his name. He was big and green and smelled like je ne sais quoi..."
Mod: "Oh, well that's all right then."
Reporter: "You believe me?"
Mod: "Yes, you have to have been granted access by the admins to even enter this place, so..."
Reporter: "How's that?"
Mod: "Well, have you ever noticed this subforum before?"
Reporter: "No... You mean this particular subforum is only visible and accessible to the mods?"
Mod: "And a few others, staff and such, yes."
Reporter: "So here you hatch plans on how to moderate the forums, deal with troublemakers..."
Mod: "That's correct. In fact, we have several separate threads set up on individual troublemakers – or potential ones – so we can scrutinize their behaviour and determine the appropriate response, if there is to be one at all."
Reporter: "So you mean that all decisions made by the mods are unanimous?
Mod: "Hah! Oh, that's a good one, heheheee..."
Reporter: "... or at least discussed?"
Mod: "Well, most of them, yes. Some actions are rather standard, so they're not discussed; more often they are simply mentioned by the moderator who performed them after the fact."
Reporter: "What kind of action would this be, could you give us an example?"
Mod: "Well, taking action against a spambot, for instance, or sending a member a polite PM if his/her signature has a banner or something..."
Reporter: "I see. And what kind of actions would be discussed more thoroughly?"
Mods: "The big actions. The important actions. The ones you wouldn't be able to understand because you're not a big man."
Reporter: "You mean banning members and such? Discussions on possible inflammable topics, whether the mods should take pre-emptive action or just sit back and enjoy the fight?"
Mod: "All right, you understood bits of it."
Reporter: "How about a tour, now that I have you here?"
Mod: "Sure. This here is the subforum. Lots of topics here, on lots of different things. Here's one where we come to discuss the traffic on the site and the load on the server and such..."
Reporter: "... the boring bit, you mean."
Mod: "Yup. And here's our 'moderation thread' – typically used to send word of small actions taken, and here's the 'spam' thread, a separate one dedicated to the discussion of spambots etc."
Reporter: "Hey, and here we are approaching the interesting bit, I see."
Mod: "You're thinking about the 'troublemakers' threads. Yes, as you can see, we have set up lots of different threads on various members who – for instance – have a tendency towards flaming... Those threads were really active during the StarForce days, I can tell you."
Reporter: "I didn't realize there were so many?"
Mod: "Well..."
Reporter: "And there's even... wow, I didn't realize he was under the scope?"
Mod: "Now, take it easy – it's not that serious. It's not like these threads are being set up ten minutes before we ban a person. The people discussed in here might get a thread on them just for participating in a debate a little too... enthusiastically. That's doesn't really mean they're in trouble."
Reporter: "Well, what about this one?"
Mod: "Oh, he really is in trouble.
Reporter: "But debating is good, isn't it?"
Mod: "Indeed it is, which is why we have threads like these – we discuss things too. A thread on a quarrelsome chap often turns into a discussion on how far we should let a debate go."
Reporter: "Like warez?"
Mod: "Well, yes, we don't debate that too much nowadays. The line's been drawn and we've decided to outlaw all warez/cracks discussions altogether."
Reporter: "Why? If a person has bought a game and wants to play it without the disc in the drive, shouldn't he be allowed to?"
Mod: "Well, perhaps. Certainly, there were people in favour of this, including myself. But where does one draw the line? CD cracks? File redistribution? DVD cloning? The fact is, this is a forum dedicated to the series, and we feel that by allowing nothing like this, we eliminate the grey areas. Much less work for us, and people know where they stand."
Reporter: "That's it? 'Less work for us'? That's your argument?"
Mod: "There is one other."
Reporter: "I'm all ears."
Mod: "As an independent fan site, we feel it would hinder us if we develop too close ties to either side of the spectrum. Thus we will not accept payment or reward from game producers etc. for any work that we do – as this would compromise our independence with regard to the fans, nor will we compromise our relationship with the gaming industry by tying bonds with people who (even just technically) are in violation of copyrights and such. In short, we are, in all respects, neutral."
Reporter: "But you left the StarForce discussion open?"
Mod: "Yes, we realized that the debate on the official forum was very near boiling point; threads were being cleaned regularly, people were being banned... yet we felt the discussion itself was so important that there should be a place for people to discuss it."
Reporter: "So you made an exception to the warez rule."
Mod: "Not really, no. The StarForce thread was more a debate on the philosophical issue of copyrights and free use. We decided to leave it open on the conditions that people play nice, talk about it in no other thread, and then we kept a close eye on it."
Reporter: "This is getting boring. Let's move on."
Mod: "Sure, here is an FAQ thread, another one asking for new moderator nominations..."
Reporter: "What about *whisper, whisper* ...?"
Mod: "Oh, he's been misbehaving – you see, *whisper, whisper* and then he *whisper* and we can't allow that."
Reporter: "So what are you going to do? A ban?"
Mod: "Well, a ban was discussed at one point, but then we thought that *whisper* was really a nice guy and he was just *whisper, whisper* so we're keeping an eye on him, for now."
Reporter: "Oh! And there's even a thread on *whisper, whisper* and both *whisper* and *whisper*..."
Mod: "Yes, like I said, not too serious, many of them. Would you like to proceed with the tour?"
Reporter: "Sure, who's that, sitting over there?"
Mod: "Kalah."
Reporter: "Really!? I mean, we're talking... the Kalah, here? That's really him?"
Mod: "Yup."
Reporter: "Wow... What's he doing?"
Mod: "Writing the next RTW, presumably – that's what I told him to do. I'll just go and check... Eyh! K, I told you to stay offline, dammit! Now, type!" *cracks a whip*
Kalah: "Waaah! I'm typing, I'm typing!"
Reporter: "Um... he doesn't have his... bat... around, does he?"
Mod: "No, we took that from him. It's locked in the cupboard."
Reporter: "Very reassuring."
Mod: "Now, here it is – 'The List'."
Reporter: "... of people allowed inside."
Mod: "Yes, there's Suleman, ByteBandit, the Equilibris team, the WoG team, and then there's the group of moderators. You can see some of them sitting by the fire over there – Gaidal Cain, Pol, Pitsu, Robenhagen, Kristo..."
Reporter: "How many?"
Mod: "Twelve mods, some more active than others, obviously."
Reporter: "And all told?"
Mod: "Let's see – all told there are... twenty-two people who have access to the Moderator Tower."
Reporter: "Um... was that my name I just saw vanishing from the sheet?"
Mod: "Yes, the access permit must have just expired. Time to go."
Reporter: "Thanks, I'll just mosey on, shall I..."
Mod: "I'd mosey a little faster, if I were you. The mods just caught a whiff of you, and I believe Kalah just broke into the cupboard..."
Reporter: "Bye." *runs for it*
Mods: "He's getting away! Get 'iim! Hahaaaarrr...!"

[Ethric]

Revealing family secrets, oh dear... it'll be a ride to the country when the Don sees this.

[DaemianLucifer]

Mod: "I'd mosey a little faster, if I were you. The mods just caught a whiff of you, and I believe Kalah just broke into the cupboard..."

I wonder if Im in the spambot or the troublemakers area

[Mytical]

Obviously I am in that 'watched' thread :Devil: I am such a little trouble maker .

[gravyluvr]

Funny there was no mention of the Seven Clouds of the Celestial Heaven as long as you were discussing the moderators... I know that all seven of the clouds were brought over from ForumPlanet with only two being replaced so the former clouds could become full fledged moderators.

Though I have not seen Cloud Six since the promotion. Any idea on six's whereabouts? Also, have there been any more discussions about adding the eighth cloud yet? I think she might be a good addition.

[Sir William S Titan]

Mod: "I'd mosey a little faster, if I were you. The mods just caught a whiff of you, and I believe Kalah just broke into the cupboard..."

I wonder if Im in the spambot or the troublemakers area

Maybe you're in more than one.

[ThunderTitan]

Well that was a midly disturbing look into the mods onlifes...

Of course, this begs the question: Who has more threads "dedicated" to him, me or DL?!

[theLuckyDragon]

Why would you need two threads? DL did possess you so you're practically the same person...

@gravyluvr
Could you tell us non-Old-RT-veterans who those Clouds are?

[ThunderTitan]

Why would you need two threads? DL did possess you so you're practically the same person...

But WE have the ego of 10 persons.

[DaemianLucifer]

Why would you need two threads? DL did possess you so you're practically the same person...

But WE have the ego of 10 persons each.

Corrected

[asandir]

DL, i think you are in every section .... thou maybe just maybe i have cracked a mention somewhere as well - maybe

[Kalah]

Anchor: "Our guest this week is Stefan.Urlus, a busy aussie who likes tennis, boating and being watched by giddy kangaroos while floating around in his pool."
Stefan: "G'day."
Anchor: "Oh, no, you didn't."
Stefan: "Schure I *hic* did."
Anchor: "Shudduup."
Stefan: "You schudduup."
Anchor: "In case any of you *hic* are wondering why we carry on like this, it's because Stefan brought with him a great deal of Syrah, and because of certain customs regulations he couldn't bring it with him and we had to *hic* get rid of it. Not wanting to pour it all out, we opted to pour most of it down *hup* instead – excuse me."
Stefan: "The reschult being that we're both scheriouschly pisched."
Anchor: "I hope *hic* you had a pleasant flight?"
Stefan: "Very nithe – a bit long, schome schixteen hours. But the view wasch grrreat."
Anchor: "So you left yesterday and spent all day on the road?"
Stefan: "Naah, I had to leave early for the airport, scho technically (can I have schmore wine, pleathe) I've been traveling for two daysch."
Anchor: "But you *hic* flew westwards so that means you left... tomorrow?"
Stefan: "Um...
Anchor: "Anyway, so *hic* Stefan, what was it you came here to talk about?"
Stefan: "I thought you called me."
Anchor: "Did I? Can't remember... *hic* oh, well, it was nice meeting you. Have a good trip back."
Stefan: "Schure."
Anchor: "Schtefan.Urlus, everybody – applausce! *falls off the chair*

Studio Commentary: "We're very sorry for this unscheduled pause in transmission. As our interviewer is currently in no condition to continue, we'll send this recording instead."

Anchor: "In today's interview, we have brought in a member who entered the Campfire and actually contributed with something other than talk about the weather – Mytical, welcome."
Mytical: "Hiya."
Anchor: "So, one of the first things you did when you got here was open up a new RPG game in the Campfire... What dirty deeds did you have to perform to get the game nazi to agree to that?"
Mytical: "Well, if you must know, I took his pants off and...
Anchor: "Whoa!"
Mytical: "... helped him get a wine stain out..."
Anchor: "Ah."
Mytical: "Why, what'd you think I did?"
Anchor: "Never mind. Just my sordid imagination playing tricks on me."
Mytical: "Actually, I think he allowed it because I'm an order freak."
Anchor: "Oh, really?"
Mytical: "Oh, yes – I opened up a signup thread first, closed that down when the game was ready, opened up a seperate thread for comments and questions not related to the story line itself..."
Anchor: "In other words, you appeal to his 'nazi' self?"
Mytical: "Maybe."
Anchor: "So, what's the game about, then?"
Mytical: It's called 'Twilight of Peace: A time of War', and..."
Anchor: "Yawn! Bored already. Tell me about the other stuff."
Mytical: "Other stuff?"
Anchor: "Yeah, you're posting stuff like a crazy person; what about that dimensions crap?"
Mytical: "You mean ' Lady Mystical's tales of the Dimensions'?"
Anchor: "Sounds about right."
Mytical: "Well, they're simply stories told by Mystical Stormcrow, a 650 year old half-elf. I post one a week and..."
Anchor: "Trying to rival the Summoner's RTW, are we?"
Mytical: "The what?"
Anchor: "Head shot. He won't like that."
Mytical: "Who? Summoner of wha..."
Anchor: "We'd better stop there, before somebody else realizes there are people who have never heard of the RTW out there. It's our network's biggest cash cow, you know..."
Mytical: "... all right... I guess."
Anchor: "Tell me about that cleavage."
Mytical: "Nice, ain't it?"
Anchor: "Yes, very nice – perhaps you noticed that pond of drool by the doorman as you came in... You say you live somewhere 'west of sanity' – does that mean you're insane?"
Mytical: "No, outsane, it's a little known condition."
Anchor: "And it means?"
Mytical: "That you get up every day, write lots and lots of things on the internet – regardless whether it makes any sense or not – and then..."
Anchor: "You mean like DaemianLucifer and ThunderTitan?"
Mytical: "No, they really are insane."
Anchor: "I see. How about some tea?"
Mytical: "Got some biscuits?"
Anchor: "Of course."
Mytical: "Then yes."
Anchor: "Here's a straw."
Mytical: "A u-tube, how nice."
Anchor: "Don't say that, you'll kill the server of those poor guys selling pipes. Last question: your Random Thoughts topic – it's just there for anyone who thinks of something they can't keep to themselves, is it?"
Mytical: "Yes."
Anchor: "Kinda makes all other threads obsolete, doesn't it..."
Mytical: "Uh-huh."
Anchor: "How long, do you think, before the admins find this out and decide to either shut the thread down or to shut everything else down?"
Mytical: "Well, I have a friend who did the maths for me, and he says... well, right about now, actually."

*beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*

[theLuckyDragon]

Mytical: "No, outsane, it's a little known condition."

This has got to be one of the best ones! Thanks, Kalah!

[DaemianLucifer]

Anchor: "Our guest this week is Stefan.Urlus, a busy aussie who likes tennis, boating and being watched by giddy kangaroos while floating around in his pool."

Anchor: "You mean like DaemianLucifer and ThunderTitan?"
Mytical: "No, they really are insane."

We are?

Two in one again,eh Kalah?Good stuff

[ThunderTitan]

"]
Anchor: "You mean like DaemianLucifer and ThunderTitan?"
Mytical: "No, they really are insane."

We are?

I think there's an extra S in there.

[DaemianLucifer]

Ah,yess,adding that extra s iss ssuch a common typo thesse dayss :deviouss:

[Mytical]

..oh I new about the round table, just didn't associate it with the initials RTW..guess I had a ditz moment. As always great work..just scary how accurate it was.. anyhow as I've said before in this thread...more we must have more!

[asandir]

Well I cracked a mention in the mighty RTW, now I truly feel like this is a second home

nice work Kalah .... and the Syrah was very nice

[Mytical]

Hmm wonder if Kalah would let me turn the tables...:thinks devious thoughts:...

[asandir]

just do it .... and see what happens