An Appeal to The Syndicate

[Kurdanak]

rise and shine, @Prefonteen

15k+ characters or bust.

(I know he was coming back soon either way, lol)

Edited January 25, 2022 by Kurdanak
meant characters, not words, that'd be terrifying

[Mayor]

6 minutes ago, Vexz said:

I have worked as a mod for some time now in RON. I've not personally encountered any of the things you claim Krampus has done, maybe I missed it and all that you say is true. Why not take action on it, why not make the needed moves to make by your claims a very horrible person, get the well-deserved punishment for his poor behavior. You instead sit here and use the claims to one up someone else who made a valid statement in regard to Yang that even if your claims are true about Krampus, that insult said to Krampus offends more than just Krampus; so, don't come here making all these claims and trying to justify what Yang did. If HC is sincere about his calmer approach on trying to reach out to BW on their behavior he doesn't agree with, then you all as fellow alliance members should read what he said and not resort to racial slurs, nor justifying it because this idea of ridding away toxicity should be a collective effort and not just pin it on someone and ignore it yourself.

If Krampus stops his suppression of different viewpoints (especially concerning Armenia) and stops stealing DNN property then I would be fine with RON but until he publicly apologizes for his behavior I see no reason to be respectful to him. I am not the type of person to use moderation to get my way. I like and prefer to express myself emotionally and loudly.

Anyways Vexz I know it is difficult to confront friends when you think they are wrong or acting in bad faith, so thank you for your kind words.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

1 minute ago, Mayor said:

Your suppression of free speech in RON is well known. Many have been banned (including myself) for expressing support for Armenia and everyone knows about your feud with DNN and blatant theft of DNN intellectual property. Lie all you want but RON has been going downhill for ages and we all know why.

Also for my bud Jaden who always gets everything wrong, I never ask tS to stop "being toxic" as HC explained in his OP. I could not care less personally about what they say as an alliance I just think their are shit lately and have shit allies and have been very open and honest about this. What I think is truly pathetic is them abandoning their allies and giving up which is unprecedented. They should be called out for that trash imho. idgaf that their keyboard warriors tracking me down in DNN to talk to me but ofc others may have a problem with that.

Mayor, you are spinning in circles here so rapidly I'm afraid you're gonna start a tornado. Let's address a few things. Despite your accusations that we have abandoned our allies, as was explained to you last night in DNN, that is not the case in the slightest. There has been communication between various members of Blackwaters, explaining things that are being done and communicating on strategy. You were expressly told by Justin what was happening and why were doing it. You said then that we were giving up, and you were told by both Justin and myself that was not the case. You can continue to ignore what was said to you because it doesn't suit the agenda you are pursuing, but that doesn't make the accusations true.

We have neither given up, nor have we abandoned our allies. As the concept that keyboard warriors tracked you down in DNN to talk to you, that's also simply not true. You sat in DNN and said we were acting in a manner that was almost as bad as IQ did when it deleted, and you called the Syndicate pathetic. We did not hunt you down, people merely informed me in particular what was being said, and where it was being said, and so I joined, along with another member of the Syndicate's government to explain what was being done and why it was being done. You were not attacked, you were not belittled, you were not "hunted down by keyboard warriors." 

If you see people joining a server to answers questions you were asking and responding to comparisons to the Inquisition, a bloc that displayed an interest in forcing people to delete their nations and disband their alliances and wanted to kill the game as "being hunted down by keyboard warriors" then I am sorry you feel that way. You weren't hunted down or attacked.

[Eumirbago]

21 minutes ago, Jacob Knox said:

CoA > Aurora

 

38 minutes ago, Kan0601 said:

CoA > Aurora

As a protectorate/treaty partner, you guys were given terms on how things gotta go down. Things didn't go down as we liked, you were dropped. Simple. Both moved on since none saw eye to eye.

[Mayor]

2 minutes ago, Gaius Julius Caesar said:

Mayor, you are spinning in circles here so rapidly I'm afraid you're gonna start a tornado. Let's address a few things. Despite your accusations that we have abandoned our allies, as was explained to you last night in DNN, that is not the case in the slightest. There has been communication between various members of Blackwaters, explaining things that are being done and communicating on strategy. You were expressly told by Justin what was happening and why were doing it. You said then that we were giving up, and you were told by both Justin and myself that was not the case. You can continue to ignore what was said to you because it doesn't suit the agenda you are pursuing, but that doesn't make the accusations true.

We have neither given up, nor have we abandoned our allies. As the concept that keyboard warriors tracked you down in DNN to talk to you, that's also simply not true. You sat in DNN and said we were acting in a manner that was almost as bad as IQ did when it deleted, and you called the Syndicate pathetic. We did not hunt you down, people merely informed me in particular what was being said, and where it was being said, and so I joined, along with another member of the Syndicate's government to explain what was being done and why it was being done. You were not attacked, you were not belittled, you were not "hunted down by keyboard warriors." 

If you see people joining a server to answers questions you were asking and responding to comparisons to the Inquisition, a bloc that displayed an interest in forcing people to delete their nations and disband their alliances and wanted to kill the game as "being hunted down by keyboard warriors" then I am sorry you feel that way. You weren't hunted down or attacked.

Just because you have said "We didn't actually betray our allies" does not mean that it is the truth. And in fact I never said I believed you anyways I said I respected Justin for leading the GPA and him as a person (and I do). Even if your allies come forward and say that they were not betrayed that changes nothing. When I am fighting in wars I expect everyone to give it their all and not switch to soldier only strat which usually means your just going to stats, NPO used the strategy all the time for sure, to conserve resources for a long war but I doubt tS is going to do that. You guys are rich and competent, this screams like giving up to me. And if you give up while you still have allies fighting then you betrayed them.

About the Keyboard warriors, I really don't care, I was just using the term since HC said it and it might have upset other people in DNN. I personally don't care and appreciated the attempt to discuss with me about what I had said so no issue here. The issue others may have is that any simple "idea" about thinking tS is no longer the alliance it used to be or that they betrayed their allies gets vehemently opposed even in DNN discord server. That is probably why people got annoyed with it, and tbf only Justin was polite and talked to me really. To many it seems like tS always has to get its way everywhere, even Big Brother going on a page ago about how little he cares. So yeah people are going to be annoyed with that shit especially if you join others servers to challenge everyone.

And about the IQ claim, I think it is valid. NPO and IQ were petty and tried to get their members to mass quit the game out of spite, and it seems like tS give up on war and wants everyone else to give up as well. That is what I see and that reminds me of NPO. Claim NPO law or whatever you want but that is what I see. A once great alliance like tS giving up on a war within one day and trying to act like it is no big deal at all.

[JadenStar10]

22 minutes ago, Kurdanak said:

15k+ words or bust.

whats his longest WoT?

 

[zigbigadorlou]

16 hours ago, zigbigadorlou said:

Alright krampus isn't allowed to ask tl;dr, but as someone that can't read, this wall of text rant is nearly impenetrable. 

17 hours ago, Krampus said:

TLDR?

I paid 50 million for this. Yes I am that pathetic. @Horsecock feel free to add it to op if you'd like. 

[Eumirbago]

3 minutes ago, Mayor said:

Big Deal

It is no big deal at all. We do what we will do playboi

[Mayor]

1 minute ago, Vexz said:

I stated my relationship with Krampus off the bat... so thanks for reminding me? Either way, I didn't out right deny your comments about Krampus, rather stated my pov compared to yours. You made some serious claims with nothing more but your word. I was merely giving you the chance to prove I was wrong about Krampus but instead you just decide to still make big claims with nothing more but your word, so I'm confuse on what you're expecting to accomplish, while Jaden posted the literal log of Yang doing his act.

I, unlike Jaden, don't use moderation as a weapon. So I don't screen capture any little thing that I can use later down the line for political purposes. Krampus banned me for supporting Armenia, Isjaki called anyone supporting Armenia an idiot and other shit, and RON routinely steals work from DNN and claims it as their own. Instead of using screenshots I just won't associate with entities I view as bad like RON. Yang is upset like me about the actions of RON but maybe he got a bit carried away. I don't understand how what he said is so very bad but Krampus and RON suppressing any opinion about Armenia is totally fine and acceptable.

[Maleficent]

Guys, guys. I can't stress this enough, keep this IC, follow the forum rules, and stay on topic. We have a lot of people getting carried away here, take a breather and come back. We will take all necessary actions needed to handle people breaking the rules here, and if you see an issue report it. 

[NightKnight]

8 minutes ago, Mayor said:

I, unlike Jaden, don't use moderation as a weapon. So I don't screen capture any little thing that I can use later down the line for political purposes. Krampus banned me for supporting Armenia, Isjaki called anyone supporting Armenia an idiot and other shit, and RON routinely steals work from DNN and claims it as their own. Instead of using screenshots I just won't associate with entities I view as bad like RON. Yang is upset like me about the actions of RON but maybe he got a bit carried away. I don't understand how what he said is so very bad but Krampus and RON suppressing any opinion about Armenia is totally fine and acceptable.

I do not think you are being fair here. Even if you are right, that is how it works friend. If someone commits a crime and no one can prove it, it is hearsay by definition. If I break the law and get caught can I then say that's unfair? Even if the last 1000 people did not get caught and you did, hearsay is hearsay and your words hold no water without proof. How can you expect someone to make an impartial judgement on what Krampus may or may not have done with no evidence? Should we really just take you at your word? You tell me what you think is fair without being biased. It has nothing to do with using moderation as a weapon, it has to do with owning up to what was done. We all know the consequences of doing something wrong and has to be willing to take them. All we are saying is it is not good practice to say what he said in a post specifically for this purpose. Say what you will backstage, but when you take the stage be willing to accept the consequences of taking that stage. That is the real world.

[Jacob Knox]

15 minutes ago, Maleficent said:

Guys, guys. I can't stress this enough, keep this IC, follow the forum rules, and stay on topic. We have a lot of people getting carried away here, take a breather and come back. We will take all necessary actions needed to handle people breaking the rules here, and if you see an issue report it. 

Right? At this point, they should make their own WoT thread to debate that lol.

[Maleficent]

4 minutes ago, Jacob Knox said:

Right? At this point, they should make their own WoT thread to debate that lol.

I have to read every single one, but nevertheless I'll be kind and leave this post open seeing it started off with good intentions and got derailed, but if it continues to be OOC insults and constant derailing we will have to lock it. 

[Zed]

17 hours ago, Horsecock said:

Shortened For Forum Brevity

 

Greetings, friend!

I was told somehow that a post on the forums was intriguing. Being a bit elderly and occupied, it took me some time to write up a response. I also wanted to respond to other posts here, so I needed some more time. People wanted walls of text on forums! They will receive.

Speaking of forums, it is my opinion that as of this time, among active FA leaders, the two sharpest and most dynamic are WANA and Keegoz, and they are ahead of the peloton. The short answer as to why is that the both of them are some of the few people who have a long enough history doing this, here and elsewhere, to remember a time before NPOLT. That is really some ancient history, mind you, but for many people in leadership now it is not that long ago. A time when things did get conduced on forums, and a time when, in-character at least, things were quite sharper.

This is no insult to someone like Ronny. Ronny is certainly sharp enough to know how things operate. I respect Ronny for this; Grumpy is one of the few foreign servers I will entertain being in. There is one difference here with them, however. I will post a few recent comments from the forums here.

 

 

Clock seems to indicate that they would be a bad matchup for the Grumpy/Guardian axis. The reasons are, more or less, for the same reasons outlined in the other post link. The mechanics of this game are such that dropping from above is usually the way to win at an easier rate, and it seems neither Clock nor Blackwater have the horses in the upper tiers where this matters. So what would Clock do in this 1v1 scenario? After all, the megawhale territory is on much more even ground among Clock and Hollywood.

I think you will find that t$ has been remarkably consistent on this point. But… why? Frankly, when you have accomplished what we have over the years, you too might run out of peaks to scale. The G/G axis is strong enough mechanically that they do not have to be experts to use it, but insulting them by using a sporting analogy in saying they “have no bag” is simply false. No one believes that G/G are unskilled bloat merchants. And perhaps, maybe now, we should just decide that we will give this line of work a rest.

I recall the goal of The Company, when it was founded, was to have a project that would rival Grumpy. It was to provide an alternative home for whales who wanted a different project and grouping. And it seems that The Company has grown. I think many of us in t$ were quite upset that such a project went off to do an independent thing. It is not the first time t$ has suffered a splinter of high-ranking nations that left us wondering how to regroup in those tiers. Despite the shifting fortunes of The Company and t$ relative to each other, and the differing positions we find ourselves in now, I still do not believe that we feel enough animosity towards you to have a conflict. It has been argued about good intentions regarding peace, and the bilaterally of that negotiation, all over these forums in the past few days. People may lament the state of CBs in this game. Sometimes I do. I do not know why we would have a reason to fight Clock at this time given that sentiment, and unless I am missing something do not see why you would want us either.

An astute reader will remember the comment about mini-spheres, and then wonder why I do not seem to have mentioned them all. In fact, I seem to be focusing on only two others besides the one I reside in. Are the other spheres irrelevant? Well if we have active mini-sphere politics, then no. But remember, I have mentioned three prominent FA voices here so far in this thread among active people. But only three. t$ may not have the greatest love affair with several alliances in that grouping, but I imagine we simply do not care at this point to make an effort to come to blows. Even with some of these alliances, notably Ampersand, I imagine we have even made amends over past conflicts.

I wish Rose and TFP well, but neither play this game in a fashion that seeks bloodlust, or to always be shaking the political game. This is fine; not everyone needs to do this, and both alliances have built communities in and around them that do put on some good behavior and friendly faces to others out there. If everyone did the same thing, people would feel like things were stale. But without this incessant drive, there just will not be a lot of political intrigue with t$ and those alliances. Again, this is fine in my opinion. Moreover, it really is not even warranted anyway. Yes, t$ has been generally alienated from much of the game between NPOLT and now. Yes, the narratives of the game seem to have not lived up to the hopes that many had following that conflict. What is new about that?

Occasionally in real life (oh no, OOC attack), I teach statistical research methods to undergraduate students. One of my favorite examples to refer to is to talk about the department of Geography at the University of North Carolina. Did you know that in the 1980s, geography majors at UNC had a vastly higher salary upon graduation than any other major? $250k in the 1980s! How in the world did this small major have such earnings? Well, the most famous student of the program was a man named Michael Jeffrey Jordan. MJ, for short, is a very well known and famous geographer. In fact, he is a household name - I bet everyone here has heard of him, unlike most geography majors. But there is a catch - Jordan is really the only member of his class to earn a very high salary approaching that average. No one else is close. I bet he discovered something really great in geography, and that is how he made his money! Well friend if you believe that, then you may call me George Strait, because I have oceanfront property in Arizona with a free golden gate if you will buy it (all of my exes do live in Texas though).

But when total nation counts say one thing, and the actual scores of those nations say another, basic statistical methods will lead one to some real truth of the matter. I do not need to go further, because the point was made above by others, and again, perhaps we ought to just let it go. t$ and Grumpy collaborate on Green Unity, and together have built the most economically stable color grouping in the game. It is a shame that there are other alliances which parasite off of the work that our alliances do to ensure this economic viability, without doing any of the work to keep and maintain that bonus.

Does Clockwater need to be a thing just to fight this G/G axis? It could, but like I mentioned before why bother? People do not seem to like endless repeating war cycles. Both Blackwater and Hollywood have publicly stated on these forums in the past few days they prefer not to fight each other. So let us say that we will take each other at our words. Do I trust Grumpy/Guardian, and TKR? Yes, yes I do. I believe, and will go on public record, that their leaders have integrity to do so. I trust most of this game, in fact.

Partisan has come and gone from our halls multiple times. Others have led, and often but not always (no names called out here!) done so capably. People will have different styles and approaches. As someone who has seen t$ nearly die multiple times, I have some perspective on things. WANA, Justin, Shiho, Adam, Theo, and others (I hope they do not hate me for omitting their names), have all done a remarkable job at helping us along. They all came to us with a different worldview, and a new set of talents. I have been very glad to see them all. Why would I not?

Statpadding is not what wins coalition wars. Brilliant solo performances are not what win coalition wars. t$ has survived a great many challenges before, and I hope that as long as this game is still worth my time that it will continue to do so. Besides, despite claimed leaks to the contrary, I doubt you will see t$ sue for peace in fewer than ten days because we have not the will to fight a worthy opponent.

I do not feel like I need to reiterate, again for those who live under a rock, why malal and t$ do not have the most sterling opinion of each other. I do not feel like I need to point out some of the undefendable things that have emerged from this thread either by some posting here; any reasonably neutral party will see them and call them out for what they are.

 

 

16 hours ago, Thalmor said:

The Syndicate is insolvent, folks! The Judge already said 'no' to a Chapter 7, and a Chapter 13 might not even be enough to bail them out! Will the local DA press federal charges?????

 

Will the Court of Thalmor give us as entertaining of a trial as Peoples Court?

Video unrelated - clearly not a representation of me:

 

6 hours ago, Prefontaine said:

Shortened For Forum Brevity

 

As someone who has been in t$ for awhile, it is my firm (no pun intended) opinion that some of the most recent executives to come through our halls are among the best we have ever had. Shiho and Jess are both superlative military commanders at the height of anything this game has ever seen. Theo and Justin both made major economic victories in this alliance to rival anything from previous eras. WANA is an original founder of t$ who has come back. Greatness still exists here, even by our standards.

As for Adam, he unfortunately suffered from the same fate as myself, Chaunce, and Sisyphus (and even Manthrax to some extent) - someone naturally from an IA or adjacent department being pressed into FA work. This is, in part, why we like to joke about Lucas being our next FA Executive; the other part is because we find it amusing to consider the possibility. Even then, Adam was a fine IA executive relative to our standards, and I think he is too hard on himself regarding foreign affairs. After all, I do not think he really did any worse overall than I did during my near year in charge.

Obsidian Order, a collaboration between two of our children, was something I took for granted as a stable thing when I came into power doing FA. I had absolutely zero idea that things were as bad as they were over there before their split. It was not good. They made a major drive to the narrative by joining Pacifica to form IQ. I tried to sign VE to ease world tensions, but that was hijacked and eventually we got quite a war. But I noticed that the peace negotiations from that war, at the time, seemed to be a bit nastier than normal. There was some real bad blood. I was told years later that Curu following that had a real hatred for me and t$, because of how that war turned out. I really wish I knew why.

I noticed that in the state the game was in at the time, things had become extremely calcified. IQ and their other friends were not going to break apart. The grouping of EMC was also hardened in their resolve. Almost everyone was aligned on one side or another. KT was out in the third space, as were our splinter children Hogwarts and Church of Spaceology, but they did not have the numbers to really pull things apart. I felt personally responsible to do something to try and break this, but I did not have the foggiest idea about what that was.

So I decided, with the blessing of Chaunce and Jess, to extract us out. We would be the largest alliance to go paperless in quite some time. Our friends in EMC were pretty shocked at this turn of events. I do not remember what IQ thought, but we never had any real serious dialogue in the time we were paperless, and they never really sought us out. I talked to the other unaligned nations, but nothing really progressed too far and I kept some distance there.

That move did the very short-term thing I intended. The sauna that was world politics at the time cooled significantly. Success! But I did not do more about it. I had no idea what I could do! I did not want to look like I was turning my back on EMC, like others did. I did not want to fight IQ again, and I do not have to explain that. What would have happened if I joined a “third sphere”? Well there was a risk there, but I did not take it.

I say all this because I believe that much of the perception of t$ now is based on those years as the point of genesis. I believe that I may not have explicitly failed in my time as FA Executive, but I left an impression of an era that felt hollow. When I read the opinions of people here, this is the furthest era they cite as to how they perceive us. That era was under my watch, and it does not appear that the overall perception is very healthy.

It is not based on a year like 2015 when we mostly fought defensive undermanned wars. People like to talk about how we only fight “dogpiles”, and forget that much of our old mentality is forged from having to be under the gun for that long. It is part of the shock that haunted me from Git Gud Friday and wanting any way out of the madness. It is not also a perception based on the creation of Treasure Island, Ground Zero, or surviving an 8v1 throw the kitchen sink hit during Git Gud Friday. And even then, Partisan took Hogwarts away from us. Manthrax took Church of Spaceology away from us. Jess nearly led another group away, and I even considered a breakaway; either of those would have probably killed t$ at the time. Theo led The Company away years later, and there have been other splinters still. People have left, and so sometimes have ideas.

I outlined earlier that t$ has crested many mountains. Alliances reinvent themselves constantly if they want to survive for years. Guardian is a prime example of an alliance that has done this. t$ has done the same, and repeatedly. We are still doing it to this day. t$ would not be here today without the new ideas and people from the KT/TGH exodus. I also outlined that there is a seeming dearth of narratives in the game currently. From our perspective, both are true. t$ took a major chance with signing Pacifica. We found out that was a bad chance. But what other real chance is there to take right now? This is an alliance that has a particular pride in being innovative and groundbreaking, and we have done that many times over the years.

By our standards, I look around the world now and see something relatively flat. If I am being honest, the way things stand now, I see exactly one real powerplay move we could do - maybe a second, but that is a lot harder for me to think about people accepting. Such a move is not my decision to make, as I am not in charge.

People in this game are still in a shell from NPOLT regarding behavior. If I made some statement like, t$ has a valid cause to Eternal ZI those people wanting us to disband forever in NPOLT that are still playing, and specifically singling us out compared to many others, well people now would be extremely upset. I remember a bygone era where such an action would have been no problem to levy, and no one would have thought twice about any seeming hypocrisy on our end. But times have changed. I will clarify that t$ does not have intent to do this, but I wanted to put out some rather extreme normative behavior from earlier generations as a hypothetical to talk about community mores. Things have been worse before.

I am glad to see that things did improve, at least a bit, in two years. I would like to continue that. If the rest of this community, writ large, would like to have some normalization of relations with t$ for supposed unnormative behavior, I believe that would be welcomed by us.

 

4 hours ago, namukara said:

I feel an important point has been lost here.

Another way in which T$ can be compared to the NPO is in regard to the utter contempt it shows for its allies. I know that in the vast majority of spheres there is a group of people that are driving matters forward, who make the majority of leadership decisions. Of course there are: nobody disputes that giving every member of a 300+ member sphere equal voice is going to lead to unworkable arguing further down the line. What I'm seeing from T$ however is that not only are they happy to drag people who apparently respect them and their sphere into conflicts, they're apparently willing to leave them high and dry in said conflicts by refusing to fight to the best of their ability. Attempting to throw a major war isn't just damaging to the health of the game, it's an utter slap in the face to those who fight alongside you and it's quite probably the most disgraceful way I've seen allies treated.

 

Just wondering, would Hollywood consider a white peace for the numerous smaller alliances that T$ has led into this mess? I can't think of a ship that's worth going down with less than this one at the moment.

 

Nexus of late has had a chance to make moves on their own accord, and not always moves we would steer them towards if we truly drove their policy. TKR has already stated on their own that we did not treat them with disdain; I hope that was true during Quack and I can tell you from firsthand experience it was true in an earlier era. I was thrilled to see BK not take their own advice to disband and join Bee Kay when they had a cleaning out, and was glad to have them back as allies. This statement is just patently untrue.

The only real time I can remember that we had major problems with an ally was NPO. I do not need to elaborate on that one.

 

4 hours ago, Emperor Adam said:

 "Adam u quit stop being a loser and checking forums"

Quoted post edited to reflect my true and factual opinion.

On a more serious note, Hilmes was an utter and catastrophic failure as our FA Executive. Your tenure was not anywhere in the area of such a disaster, and I personally admire your service to our alliance.

[alyster]

ITT

 

1. Horsecock: Getting tired of t$ sending an army of ex gov out every war to whitewash everything on OWF to their narrative.

2. t$: Someone on OWF critised us, send out the the army of ex gov to whitewash everything.

 

🤦‍♂️

[Denison]

Can we stop arguing about RON and DNN, Armenia and Turkey for just once? We all know how Krampus is, there's no point demeaning a trash character anymore than he has done it himself(deleting all his infra). Turkish is not a race it's a culture stop miss-using the term to spin the topic away from t$. This is all pointless dribble used to construe the point of the original poster, please stay on topic and behave accordingly. That means everyone. 

[Jacob Knox]

17 minutes ago, Zed said:

Shortened for brevity

I will say that this is a very thorough, obviously well-thought out, and mature response to everything that has been said here. I don't know about others, but I greatly appreciate your input and insight.

[Zed]

5 minutes ago, alyster said:

2. t$: Someone on OWF critised us, send out the the army of ex gov to whitewash everything.

 

 

The people have spoken. The content god demands content. Walls of text have been demanded. People do not want radio silence!

Just doing my part, friend.

[Mayor]

5 minutes ago, Zed said:

The people have spoken. The content god demands content. Walls of text have been demanded. People do not want radio silence!

Just doing my part, friend.

Did you max out your character limit? It was quite an extensive post.

[Cooper_]

33 minutes ago, Zed said:

Quoted post edited to reflect my true and factual opinion.

On a more serious note, Hilmes was an utter and catastrophic failure as our FA Executive. Your tenure was not anywhere in the area of such a disaster, and I personally admire your service to our alliance.

Yeah, Kayser was your bad after his shenanigans in TKR.  Can't say there wasn't warning there : P 

 

Also, the length of that post was glorious.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Cooper_

[Canbec]

28 minutes ago, Cooper_ said:

Yeah, Kayser was your bad after his shenanigans in TKR.  Can't say there wasn't warning there : P 

 

Also, the length of that post was glorious.

Ngl I saw the length of the post and just assumed it was Cooper.

[Vemek]

57 minutes ago, Denison said:

Can we stop arguing about RON and DNN, Armenia and Turkey for just once? We all know how Krampus is, there's no point demeaning a trash character anymore than he has done it himself(deleting all his infra). Turkish is not a race it's a culture stop miss-using the term to spin the topic away from t$. This is all pointless dribble used to construe the point of the original poster, please stay on topic and behave accordingly. That means everyone. 

I’m not going to sit here and say there is no merit to some things lined out in the post but its telling when you’re more concerned about denouncing the political implications of something rather than someone saying “can’t say Turks have much of a backbone or moral integrity”. 

The point being made was that HC was using retired gov members combatting a narrative in discord servers to push the idea of us supposedly being rife of toxicity. The parallels are clear to see when his gov not only posts toxic responses like this but also then double down on it. How are you preaching to others about toxicity whilst various gov and members from your alliance are doing worse. (lol as if Turkish being a culture excuses this) 

57 minutes ago, Denison said:

This is all pointless dribble used to construe the point of the original poster, please stay on topic and behave accordingly. That means everyone. 

Even when the original poster is publicly endorsing people as his gov whom are doing exactly what he is critiquing others for?

This was not brought up by us, if you are able to criticize others for it you should also be able to deal with it internally in your own alliance and the way you have responded indicates the opposite. Thus far the response from HoF has ranged from indifference to outright supporting what was said. We are pointing out the discrepancy between the attitude from all of you and HCs message. I don’t know why you are trying to spin this into us moving away from the topic when it is a valid critique of your argument.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Vemek

[Sweeeeet Ronny D]

This was a mighty wall of text, and i would like to comment on some of it.

36 minutes ago, Zed said:

t$ and Grumpy collaborate on Green Unity

Green Pride forever!

Ok this wall of text is so long i can no longer find the stuff I was looking for.  But you had referenced something like tS has been the innovators and leaders of change.  I think if you talk to anyone in this game that is not part of tS or in its sphere of influence they will tell you, that you have been resistant and a roadblock to change since the end of IQ.  TS not seeing this is a reason people dont really like you guys, or like dealing with you guys.

You speak of stagnation and the same wars happening over and over again.  That is on you, not on us.  Since the end of IQ, Blocs Grumpy as been a part of have fought Swamp, Delta, Quack, Rose, Oasis, Mystery, BW, Rose again, and now BW again.  We have fought just about everyone in the game, so if you are feeling like you fight the same people over and over, take some time and look inside, we are not struggling to find different people to war with. 

In terms of bloc stagnation, since the end of IQ, Grumpy has been a small bloc with around 350 members, we have been the biggest bloc for a bit, we have been a middle of the road bloc, and now we might be the best current bloc (i mean i always think we are the best bloc, but that is a different conversation).  tS has been a part of either the largest, or second largest bloc for the last few years, until a few weeks ago.  Until 2-3 days ago there was an argument to be made that you could have still been the strongest bloc, and may still be one of the top two strongest blocs.

As for further stagnation perpetuated by tS, wars with tS generally always last the longest, with the exception of the swamp war last month, that lasted a week. (which I heard you guys were pissed about, but I admittedly dont know if that is true or not)  You always push for crazy long naps which besides for tS everyone seems to agree are terrible for the game.  Looking at the wars we have fought, Swamp lasted 10 days, Delta I think was like 2 weeks, Quack would have been around a month or less, but you guys demanded a 6 month nap which dragged it out, GnR was around 3-4 weeks if i remember correctly.  We fought you again, and you dragged out a curbstomp for over a month.  Rose and Clock just fought for what 3 weeks again. 

When most of the game is pushing for more evenly matched wars, tS continues to engage in multiple dog piles.

This is what the world sees when they look at tS, this is why you get Horsecock of all people writing giant political walls of text about you.  

The other thing that really pisses me off about tS is the victimhood they claim about the IQ war, hey boys, I dont know if you remember we were fighting and getting crushed for months before you showed up, so for you to act like you are the big victims in that war is ridiculous, you get points for joining in on a losing war, but the victim hood claimed afterwards is not appreciated by any of us that were stuck in that war for 9 months.

I really wanted to stay out of this thread, but it looks like I ended up with my own smaller wall of text. sorry guys!

[Jacob Knox]

40 minutes ago, Sweeeeet Ronny D said:

A Grumpy Old WoT

I don't feel like there's any need for you to apologize for writing your own WoT here as you contributed meaningfully to the grander conversation and expanded upon genuine grievances against tS. I appreciate your contribution and always love reading more about the history of the game from those who have been here much longer than I have.

[Charles Bolivar]

2 hours ago, Zed said:

 

Greetings, friend!

I was told somehow that a post on the forums was intriguing. Being a bit elderly and occupied, it took me some time to write up a response. I also wanted to respond to other posts here, so I needed some more time. People wanted walls of text on forums! They will receive.

Speaking of forums, it is my opinion that as of this time, among active FA leaders, the two sharpest and most dynamic are WANA and Keegoz, and they are ahead of the peloton. The short answer as to why is that the both of them are some of the few people who have a long enough history doing this, here and elsewhere, to remember a time before NPOLT. That is really some ancient history, mind you, but for many people in leadership now it is not that long ago. A time when things did get conduced on forums, and a time when, in-character at least, things were quite sharper.

This is no insult to someone like Ronny. Ronny is certainly sharp enough to know how things operate. I respect Ronny for this; Grumpy is one of the few foreign servers I will entertain being in. There is one difference here with them, however. I will post a few recent comments from the forums here.

 

 

Clock seems to indicate that they would be a bad matchup for the Grumpy/Guardian axis. The reasons are, more or less, for the same reasons outlined in the other post link. The mechanics of this game are such that dropping from above is usually the way to win at an easier rate, and it seems neither Clock nor Blackwater have the horses in the upper tiers where this matters. So what would Clock do in this 1v1 scenario? After all, the megawhale territory is on much more even ground among Clock and Hollywood.

I think you will find that t$ has been remarkably consistent on this point. But… why? Frankly, when you have accomplished what we have over the years, you too might run out of peaks to scale. The G/G axis is strong enough mechanically that they do not have to be experts to use it, but insulting them by using a sporting analogy in saying they “have no bag” is simply false. No one believes that G/G are unskilled bloat merchants. And perhaps, maybe now, we should just decide that we will give this line of work a rest.

I recall the goal of The Company, when it was founded, was to have a project that would rival Grumpy. It was to provide an alternative home for whales who wanted a different project and grouping. And it seems that The Company has grown. I think many of us in t$ were quite upset that such a project went off to do an independent thing. It is not the first time t$ has suffered a splinter of high-ranking nations that left us wondering how to regroup in those tiers. Despite the shifting fortunes of The Company and t$ relative to each other, and the differing positions we find ourselves in now, I still do not believe that we feel enough animosity towards you to have a conflict. It has been argued about good intentions regarding peace, and the bilaterally of that negotiation, all over these forums in the past few days. People may lament the state of CBs in this game. Sometimes I do. I do not know why we would have a reason to fight Clock at this time given that sentiment, and unless I am missing something do not see why you would want us either.

An astute reader will remember the comment about mini-spheres, and then wonder why I do not seem to have mentioned them all. In fact, I seem to be focusing on only two others besides the one I reside in. Are the other spheres irrelevant? Well if we have active mini-sphere politics, then no. But remember, I have mentioned three prominent FA voices here so far in this thread among active people. But only three. t$ may not have the greatest love affair with several alliances in that grouping, but I imagine we simply do not care at this point to make an effort to come to blows. Even with some of these alliances, notably Ampersand, I imagine we have even made amends over past conflicts.

I wish Rose and TFP well, but neither play this game in a fashion that seeks bloodlust, or to always be shaking the political game. This is fine; not everyone needs to do this, and both alliances have built communities in and around them that do put on some good behavior and friendly faces to others out there. If everyone did the same thing, people would feel like things were stale. But without this incessant drive, there just will not be a lot of political intrigue with t$ and those alliances. Again, this is fine in my opinion. Moreover, it really is not even warranted anyway. Yes, t$ has been generally alienated from much of the game between NPOLT and now. Yes, the narratives of the game seem to have not lived up to the hopes that many had following that conflict. What is new about that?

Occasionally in real life (oh no, OOC attack), I teach statistical research methods to undergraduate students. One of my favorite examples to refer to is to talk about the department of Geography at the University of North Carolina. Did you know that in the 1980s, geography majors at UNC had a vastly higher salary upon graduation than any other major? $250k in the 1980s! How in the world did this small major have such earnings? Well, the most famous student of the program was a man named Michael Jeffrey Jordan. MJ, for short, is a very well known and famous geographer. In fact, he is a household name - I bet everyone here has heard of him, unlike most geography majors. But there is a catch - Jordan is really the only member of his class to earn a very high salary approaching that average. No one else is close. I bet he discovered something really great in geography, and that is how he made his money! Well friend if you believe that, then you may call me George Strait, because I have oceanfront property in Arizona with a free golden gate if you will buy it (all of my exes do live in Texas though).

But when total nation counts say one thing, and the actual scores of those nations say another, basic statistical methods will lead one to some real truth of the matter. I do not need to go further, because the point was made above by others, and again, perhaps we ought to just let it go. t$ and Grumpy collaborate on Green Unity, and together have built the most economically stable color grouping in the game. It is a shame that there are other alliances which parasite off of the work that our alliances do to ensure this economic viability, without doing any of the work to keep and maintain that bonus.

Does Clockwater need to be a thing just to fight this G/G axis? It could, but like I mentioned before why bother? People do not seem to like endless repeating war cycles. Both Blackwater and Hollywood have publicly stated on these forums in the past few days they prefer not to fight each other. So let us say that we will take each other at our words. Do I trust Grumpy/Guardian, and TKR? Yes, yes I do. I believe, and will go on public record, that their leaders have integrity to do so. I trust most of this game, in fact.

Partisan has come and gone from our halls multiple times. Others have led, and often but not always (no names called out here!) done so capably. People will have different styles and approaches. As someone who has seen t$ nearly die multiple times, I have some perspective on things. WANA, Justin, Shiho, Adam, Theo, and others (I hope they do not hate me for omitting their names), have all done a remarkable job at helping us along. They all came to us with a different worldview, and a new set of talents. I have been very glad to see them all. Why would I not?

Statpadding is not what wins coalition wars. Brilliant solo performances are not what win coalition wars. t$ has survived a great many challenges before, and I hope that as long as this game is still worth my time that it will continue to do so. Besides, despite claimed leaks to the contrary, I doubt you will see t$ sue for peace in fewer than ten days because we have not the will to fight a worthy opponent.

I do not feel like I need to reiterate, again for those who live under a rock, why malal and t$ do not have the most sterling opinion of each other. I do not feel like I need to point out some of the undefendable things that have emerged from this thread either by some posting here; any reasonably neutral party will see them and call them out for what they are.

 

 

 

Will the Court of Thalmor give us as entertaining of a trial as Peoples Court?

Video unrelated - clearly not a representation of me:

 

 

As someone who has been in t$ for awhile, it is my firm (no pun intended) opinion that some of the most recent executives to come through our halls are among the best we have ever had. Shiho and Jess are both superlative military commanders at the height of anything this game has ever seen. Theo and Justin both made major economic victories in this alliance to rival anything from previous eras. WANA is an original founder of t$ who has come back. Greatness still exists here, even by our standards.

As for Adam, he unfortunately suffered from the same fate as myself, Chaunce, and Sisyphus (and even Manthrax to some extent) - someone naturally from an IA or adjacent department being pressed into FA work. This is, in part, why we like to joke about Lucas being our next FA Executive; the other part is because we find it amusing to consider the possibility. Even then, Adam was a fine IA executive relative to our standards, and I think he is too hard on himself regarding foreign affairs. After all, I do not think he really did any worse overall than I did during my near year in charge.

Obsidian Order, a collaboration between two of our children, was something I took for granted as a stable thing when I came into power doing FA. I had absolutely zero idea that things were as bad as they were over there before their split. It was not good. They made a major drive to the narrative by joining Pacifica to form IQ. I tried to sign VE to ease world tensions, but that was hijacked and eventually we got quite a war. But I noticed that the peace negotiations from that war, at the time, seemed to be a bit nastier than normal. There was some real bad blood. I was told years later that Curu following that had a real hatred for me and t$, because of how that war turned out. I really wish I knew why.

I noticed that in the state the game was in at the time, things had become extremely calcified. IQ and their other friends were not going to break apart. The grouping of EMC was also hardened in their resolve. Almost everyone was aligned on one side or another. KT was out in the third space, as were our splinter children Hogwarts and Church of Spaceology, but they did not have the numbers to really pull things apart. I felt personally responsible to do something to try and break this, but I did not have the foggiest idea about what that was.

So I decided, with the blessing of Chaunce and Jess, to extract us out. We would be the largest alliance to go paperless in quite some time. Our friends in EMC were pretty shocked at this turn of events. I do not remember what IQ thought, but we never had any real serious dialogue in the time we were paperless, and they never really sought us out. I talked to the other unaligned nations, but nothing really progressed too far and I kept some distance there.

That move did the very short-term thing I intended. The sauna that was world politics at the time cooled significantly. Success! But I did not do more about it. I had no idea what I could do! I did not want to look like I was turning my back on EMC, like others did. I did not want to fight IQ again, and I do not have to explain that. What would have happened if I joined a “third sphere”? Well there was a risk there, but I did not take it.

I say all this because I believe that much of the perception of t$ now is based on those years as the point of genesis. I believe that I may not have explicitly failed in my time as FA Executive, but I left an impression of an era that felt hollow. When I read the opinions of people here, this is the furthest era they cite as to how they perceive us. That era was under my watch, and it does not appear that the overall perception is very healthy.

It is not based on a year like 2015 when we mostly fought defensive undermanned wars. People like to talk about how we only fight “dogpiles”, and forget that much of our old mentality is forged from having to be under the gun for that long. It is part of the shock that haunted me from Git Gud Friday and wanting any way out of the madness. It is not also a perception based on the creation of Treasure Island, Ground Zero, or surviving an 8v1 throw the kitchen sink hit during Git Gud Friday. And even then, Partisan took Hogwarts away from us. Manthrax took Church of Spaceology away from us. Jess nearly led another group away, and I even considered a breakaway; either of those would have probably killed t$ at the time. Theo led The Company away years later, and there have been other splinters still. People have left, and so sometimes have ideas.

I outlined earlier that t$ has crested many mountains. Alliances reinvent themselves constantly if they want to survive for years. Guardian is a prime example of an alliance that has done this. t$ has done the same, and repeatedly. We are still doing it to this day. t$ would not be here today without the new ideas and people from the KT/TGH exodus. I also outlined that there is a seeming dearth of narratives in the game currently. From our perspective, both are true. t$ took a major chance with signing Pacifica. We found out that was a bad chance. But what other real chance is there to take right now? This is an alliance that has a particular pride in being innovative and groundbreaking, and we have done that many times over the years.

By our standards, I look around the world now and see something relatively flat. If I am being honest, the way things stand now, I see exactly one real powerplay move we could do - maybe a second, but that is a lot harder for me to think about people accepting. Such a move is not my decision to make, as I am not in charge.

People in this game are still in a shell from NPOLT regarding behavior. If I made some statement like, t$ has a valid cause to Eternal ZI those people wanting us to disband forever in NPOLT that are still playing, and specifically singling us out compared to many others, well people now would be extremely upset. I remember a bygone era where such an action would have been no problem to levy, and no one would have thought twice about any seeming hypocrisy on our end. But times have changed. I will clarify that t$ does not have intent to do this, but I wanted to put out some rather extreme normative behavior from earlier generations as a hypothetical to talk about community mores. Things have been worse before.

I am glad to see that things did improve, at least a bit, in two years. I would like to continue that. If the rest of this community, writ large, would like to have some normalization of relations with t$ for supposed unnormative behavior, I believe that would be welcomed by us.

 

 

Nexus of late has had a chance to make moves on their own accord, and not always moves we would steer them towards if we truly drove their policy. TKR has already stated on their own that we did not treat them with disdain; I hope that was true during Quack and I can tell you from firsthand experience it was true in an earlier era. I was thrilled to see BK not take their own advice to disband and join Bee Kay when they had a cleaning out, and was glad to have them back as allies. This statement is just patently untrue.

The only real time I can remember that we had major problems with an ally was NPO. I do not need to elaborate on that one.

 

Quoted post edited to reflect my true and factual opinion.

On a more serious note, Hilmes was an utter and catastrophic failure as our FA Executive. Your tenure was not anywhere in the area of such a disaster, and I personally admire your service to our alliance.

I read that entire wall of text and did not find the answer to the real question lingering at the back of my mind.

Do you have a ute yet? 🤣

 

 

Edited January 25, 2022 by Charles Bolivar