Exit the Commish

Game of universal domination. New dice available free upon request.
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dustin
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Exit the Commish

Post by dustin » Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:08 pm

Dear Luxtopia,
It is my sad duty to inform you that as of today, Paranoiarodeo is no longer serving as the Lux Commissioner, or as a Lux Moderator.

Due to uncompleted milestones, erratic behaviour, and irreconcilable differences between him and I, I have taken this action and removed him from the mod squad.

I will be returning to a more active over-sight of online Lux during this transition. I look forward to seeing you online. Feel free to PM me or email me directly at dustin@sillysoft.net if you have anything to share.

Time will show us what the future holds. I wish Paranoiarodeo all the best in his return to a civilian life.

May the Lux be with us all.
Last edited by dustin on Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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paranoiarodeo
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by paranoiarodeo » Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:10 pm

∞ paranoiarodeo sips his scotch ∞

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Symbiosis
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Symbiosis » Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:11 pm

Thank you para, for your work to improve this game. I'm still holding out hope we'll see your ideas come to fruition one way or another.
dustin wrote:I will be returning to a more active over-sight of online Lux during this transition.
In fairness, "more active" is a fairly easy milestone for you to hit.

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Lantern
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Lantern » Wed Sep 09, 2015 9:30 pm

Best of luck para. Enjoy some down time.

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Bean
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Bean » Wed Sep 09, 2015 9:39 pm

I hope this will be like that Snow Phoenix scotch story Para.

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guillerme
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by guillerme » Wed Sep 09, 2015 10:35 pm

I will put some Mazza´s words...
I have great respect for the man as a player, and his views on lux etiquette, and even for his dull and dry, yet witty humor, yet can also understand how he can be misunderstood by so many (and yes, even hated or despised), or to be seen as a ranting, raving, and antagonistic fellow.... some geniuses are seen this way, and really, that is what he is to lux, a misunderstood genius.

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newbeslaya
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by newbeslaya » Wed Sep 09, 2015 11:21 pm

Symbiosis wrote:In fairness, "more active" is a fairly easy milestone for you to hit.
Where'd the sudden interest come from after all the years away?

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newbeslaya
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by newbeslaya » Wed Sep 09, 2015 11:37 pm

And actually planning on staying engaged this time?
∞ newbeslaya notes that lux's future is in jeopardy without para ∞

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paranoiarodeo
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by paranoiarodeo » Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:22 am

So, dustin, um, did you tell Bean, guillerme, Rhye, etc., that I'd been fired, and Aqua, Whirl, Schroberts, etc. had resigned as moderators too, or were you hoping that they wouldn't notice before they signed up to become newbie mods on your post-para crew, and thus too embarrassed to reconsider after they knew the truth? Surely, you wouldn't be so underhanded, no?

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Red Beard
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Red Beard » Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:40 am

paranoiarodeo wrote:So, dustin, um, did you tell Bean, guillerme, Rhye, etc., that I'd been fired, and Aqua, Whirl, Schroberts, etc. had resigned as moderators too, or were you hoping that they wouldn't notice before they signed up to become newbie mods on your post-para crew, and thus too embarrassed to reconsider after they knew the truth? Surely, you wouldn't be so underhanded, no?
I hope you don't intend to draw this out. It's not really worth it and this place has had enough toxicity in the past year.

And if you are going to go that road, at least do a larger "tell all", say your piece, and have done with it. It would probably do you and everyone else a lot more good that way. Otherwise, it's probably time to let it go. It's not worth it and there's not going to be anything to be gained one way or the other.

I wish you good luck para. I hope that you find better and brighter things beyond lux. I'm sure that just about any place else that you land would work out better than this.

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paranoiarodeo
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by paranoiarodeo » Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:42 am

I agree, Red Beard, but I'm not gonna get pushed outta here under false pretenses.

(dustin will own his deceit one way or another.)

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Red Beard
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Red Beard » Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:47 am

Hence the second paragraph. If you're going to do it and you have something to say, then think on it and say it right.

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paranoiarodeo
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by paranoiarodeo » Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:50 am

I have been thinking on it for a very long time, Red Beard.

No one else has given so much of themselves to Lux in the last twelve years as me.

Not even dustin. Especially him.

(Damn right, I've thought about it, and I have things to say.)

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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Rhye » Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:53 am

I was warned of para's "departure", but of course the reasons were incredibly vague. I was not informed whatsoever of the "departure" of Schroberts, Whirlplaid, Aquaregia. Along the same vein, I was also not informed of the other prospect mods that were being [simultaneously?] recruited. I understand why sometimes mod resignations/retirements are often belatedly announced to the public (sometimes excessively belated), but I think potential mods should have this information on a need-to-know basis. That is all, for now.

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paranoiarodeo
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by paranoiarodeo » Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:54 am

∞ paranoiarodeo mhmms ∞

Llama LluxaLlot
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Llama LluxaLlot » Thu Sep 10, 2015 1:05 am

The Llustrious Order of the Lluminated LLama is very pleased that this has come to pass. We Lluminated Llamas have been giddy in observing sign after sign of the old prophesies coming true. We can hardly believe our Llittle Llama eyes! Oh yes, the stars and garters are lining up NOW, I tell you what! With ends come new beginnings....which the Order could not care less about. But the "inbetween times".....therein Lies the AMOK!

AMOK !!
AMOK!!!
AMOK!!!!

Personally, Being that I am Llux's Llama, I am deeply saddened for the wounded among you. Paranoiarodeo, sir, in honor of you this

:torch: :torch: :torch:

Shall be retired. It will forever be a symbol of my thinking enough of your leadership to assemble an angry mob. I shall from this day forth register my complaints with :jazz :spark :quasar which is all I can muster at this point.

May the great space coaster have mercy on us all.

-Llux Llama :llama

Llama LluxaLlot
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Llama LluxaLlot » Thu Sep 10, 2015 3:47 am


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The Silken Knot
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by The Silken Knot » Thu Sep 10, 2015 8:05 am

No one likes to be sacked, especially publicly.

That said, I suspect that paranoiarodeo will be just fine. The phrase "blessing in disguise" comes to mind. Whether Lux will also be fine remains to be seen.

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General K
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by General K » Thu Sep 10, 2015 9:55 am

I did reply in another thread:
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=25848&p=320191#p320191

I would like to add that everyone was looking forward to see improvements, changes and updates being implemented by para.
those improvements would have impacted positively the game experience, the community and the overall mood.

So sorry things ended up like that, I was so looking forward for a productive collaboration between the creator of the game and the passionate dedicated commissioner.

:(

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Micella
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Micella » Thu Sep 10, 2015 10:19 am

Well, poo. Seriously, that I've checked in for the first time in a couple of years .... to this?!?! Okay, well, I'm not going to pretend to have a complete understanding of what has been going on for the last couple of years, let alone the last few months. But, because of a) my history/love for this game/community and b) the mere fact that I am a woman, I'm going to put in my two cents.

Once upon a time, this game, the chat boxes, and these forums were highly entertaining, and an excellent way to engage with people from all over the world with varying backgrounds and interests and opinions and personalities. It was truly a little Lux Family, complete with mothers, fathers, little brothers, sisters, grandpas and grandmas, crazy aunts and uncles, and everything in between. There was enough activity with varied hosts, maps, and forums to keep everyone doing something competitive and engaging.

Then ... things just started to change. If everyone remembers correctly .... para started hosting primarily because we (the community) asked him too. There were tons of complaints about users hosting unfair rooms. People booting players for no reason, hosts restarting games before completion to protect RAW, etc etc. "Official" Sillysoft rooms were limited and unreliable. So we all goaded para into hosting the rooms we wanted, and he did.

I wasn't around during the time that dustin was around alot. I saw him here and there, and he posted to the technical forums once in a while about some update or bug fix, so, obviously, I can't speak to what type of "ship" he ran back when he started this place. When I started playing, he had some good mods that did their best to limit in-chat obnoxiousness, and enforce what little they knew of the "rules", but he didn't appear to be too publicly active. But one thing you could ALWAYS count on ... was that para would be somewhere within "earshot".

Of course, that wasn't always a "good" thing. para is opinionated, sarcastic, arrogant, and an utter pain in the ass most days. I have had very public arguments with him over the years that have made me want to take his icepick from him and shove it in places it didn't belong. Some people can take para with a grain of salt and appreciate his .... uhm ..... "communication style" for what it is .... and some people can't get passed his initial "rub" on them to actually want to dissect his particular brand of "I'm going to answer your question, and/or give an opinion, but I'm going to do it in a way that takes you a good 20 minutes to figure out ..... and plus, for my own amusement, I'm either going to insult the hell out of you, or give you a compliment that will take you another 20 minutes to interpret." Trust me, I know.

But one thing I think we can all agree on is that para was present. Every since I can remember, para has been pretty vocal about changes he thinks should be made, improvements that could be implemented, tweaks that could be done, etc etc, Now it appears that he might have been given the chance to do some of those things, and just simply didn't? I don't know what to think about that. I sort of don't buy it. I know that back in the day, whenever any type of issue arose that required actions beyond the capabilities of dustin's mods that we (the community) got a lot of frusterated mod posts explaining that "things had been discussed in private in the mod lounge and that they were waiting on dustin's input/action." And alot of, "we KNOW, but that is something for dustin to decide/do and we are waiting to hear from him"

Obviously, I don't know what goes on behind the curtain of this once wonderful place ... but I will say this: If dustin hired para to implement change around here and then didn't give him the resources he needed to complete the task(s), then shame on dustin. And if para finally got his clearance to implement all the things he teased us with and simply didn't .... then shame on para.

Of course, true to form, we (the community) may never know. The lack of transparency around here is notorious. Everything is always ... "y'all don't know the whole story, so shut up" but no one ever bothers to give it to us. But one thing is for sure, for this place to be successful, someone is going to have to find a way to balance the social aspect with the competitive aspect in a meaningful way. And someone is going to have to be around to listen to feedback from the people who are actually playing/socializing around here. And someone is going to have to actually be empowered to implement changes.

PS ..... I missed all y'all crazy fools !!!!!!!!!!!

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Naraku
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Naraku » Thu Sep 10, 2015 10:55 am

Luxtopian Informer reporters are eagerly awaiting the enlightening details if anyone cares to share any juicy tidbits preferably facts and truth about Herr Kommisargate & Mod squad shakeup? Anyone? Just send your invisible ink coded messages or carrier pigeons to the inbox of the Luxtopian Informer Editors desk!


ps not sure how fast I'd be able to crank one out at the moment but I'd do my utmost to make it as timely as always

:catrun

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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by AquaRegia » Thu Sep 10, 2015 11:15 am

Micella wrote:If dustin hired para to implement change around here and then didn't give him the resources he needed to complete the task(s), then shame on dustin. And if para finally got his clearance to implement all the things he teased us with and simply didn't .... then shame on para.

Of course, true to form, we (the community) may never know. The lack of transparency around here is notorious.
Nail hit squarely on head right there. We will certainly never know the "real" story, as neither dustin nor para is willing OR capable of explaining it to us... and even if they both tried, it's simply "he said/he said" with no way for us to know what's true. We ALL wanted para's promises to be fulfilled, but they weren't. The Mod Squad has spent the past 4 months trying to get some clear answers, with no success. That's the main reason for my re-retirement. I feel I did my best, but I never really had any control over the parties who could make things happen, and I'm tired of trying. Not angry, just sad.

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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Schroberts » Thu Sep 10, 2015 11:40 am

I second what Aqua has said, and what several others have eluded to here and elsewhere. Communication has obviously been a big issue recently, and for a long time. We could go into the details (or lack thereof), and all the he-said-she-saids, but it gets us nowhere, and I seriously doubt that it would help clear up any confusion or hurt feelings or disappointments.

I am very sad to see para's role in Lux end up like this, regardless of the reasons. He has contributed far far more to this game and community that most of us ever will and will ever be aware of. Many of us may not have agreed with the way he went about things at certain times, and I know that I personally have been disappointed in the way things have been handled in the last couple of months, but none of that takes away what he has done for this game essentially for free when Dustin has not been around or seemed to even care.
paranoiarodeo wrote:So, dustin, um, did you tell Bean, guillerme, Rhye, etc., that I'd been fired, and Aqua, Whirl, Schroberts, etc. had resigned as moderators too, or were you hoping that they wouldn't notice before they signed up to become newbie mods on your post-para crew, and thus too embarrassed to reconsider after they knew the truth? Surely, you wouldn't be so underhanded, no?
I had decided to retire from the mod squad earlier this week, when I finally allowed myself to come to the sad conclusion that I just didn't have the energy/heart to check in and perform as frequently/actively as I believed a mod owed to the community. My real life free time has dwindled, my heart has been saddened by the disappointments on all fronts over the months, and I just couldn't find the mental energy anymore to devote my little free time to all the anger/hurt/frustration/disappointment/name-calling/etc/etc/etc around here as of late. Perhaps none of these things are that recent, but my lack of energy and heart to deal with them has been more recent.

Regardless, I made this decision before Dustin informed us that he was going to officially force para out. This all leaves me feeling very uncertain of how I should personally proceed. I have tried hard in the past to remain optimistic about the possibility of improvements for the community, and those optimisms have been crushed over and over again (we could easily blame para, and certainly he has played his role, but the fault lies equally with others, Dustin is not blameless here either, nor are any of us in our own way). All of that aside, I admit that at this point I am quite pessimistic about where Lux can/will go from here. I want the best for Lux. I don't want this community to die. I want to have as much fun here playing games and connecting with interesting personalities from across the world as I once did. At this point, I have my doubts as to whether or not that will ever happen. But I still want it to, desperately. And maybe I should just let go, but I'm still holding on just a little to that hope.

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dollabillz
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by dollabillz » Thu Sep 10, 2015 1:00 pm

No one should be optimistic about Lux.

Lux reached its peak playership a long time ago. Remember when RAW floors were a thing? That came from having more people playing competitively than the game's infrastructure could handle. The conflict between "RAW whores" and casual players came from the same problem: bad game design. The game was never capable of handling more than a few hundred active players. It couldn't have ever been what we wanted it to be.

I think TSK is right that this is probably a blessing in disguise. I hope Lux finally dies for real. I had fun playing games with you all but para has been propping this place up for way too long. I hope that he or someone else makes a better game that figures out how to let people play RISK without needing an army of volunteer mods to plug its crappy design holes.

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dollabillz
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by dollabillz » Thu Sep 10, 2015 1:01 pm

para irl:

Image

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Big Will E Style
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Big Will E Style » Fri Sep 11, 2015 2:14 am

I think Para is the greatest Luxer around. He mastered the game and he knew how to win a week. He's done more for the game play of lux than anyone else since I've been here.

However, Para is a bully and he's manipulative and he had no place in a leadership role here.

I'm not sure what everyone thinks Dustin did to Para. There is talk he hid code...code to what? The RAW?

Dustin gave ALL luxers the ability to create their own ranking system. Para could've done this and we all would've held it as the standard.

There has been no transparency, very little action and only incremental improvements to Lux. And Para held it over all of our heads as if we owe him something. As if Dustin owes him something. Why should Dustin pay Para for something Para volunteers for and that he has no responsibility towards?

This game has not changed that much in the 9 years I've been here. Sure new features, maps and people...but it's still the same game we all come here to play. I'm not sure why everyone feels bad right now. This game would have survived without Para. He did not keep it alive. He made improvements, but over years and years of holding the carrot in front of us and even having us donate our own money to him to make improvements which later turned into backtaxes we all owed him for keeping lux alive.

I think at heart Para is probably a good man, but at Lux, he is a a martyr and a bully. I hope he sticks around as a player but I feel Dustin made the right choice.

Dustin - you allowed this to happen and I hope you actually come around more this time, though I doubt you will considering the history.

If you want to reach out to your customers, open up more dialogue on feature requests. There have been a lot over the years.

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Symbiosis
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Symbiosis » Fri Sep 11, 2015 10:53 am

dollabillz wrote:No one should be optimistic about Lux... I hope that he or someone else makes a better game that figures out how to let people play RISK without needing an army of volunteer mods to plug its crappy design holes.
Probably the most lucid and concise take on this whole fiasco.

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Deep Blue
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Deep Blue » Fri Sep 11, 2015 2:01 pm

In my eyes para was a good mod and i wish him all the best.

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Dangerous Beans
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Dangerous Beans » Fri Sep 11, 2015 3:39 pm

∞ Dangerous Beans pours para a scotch ∞

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Lantern
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Re: Exit the Commish

Post by Lantern » Fri Sep 11, 2015 8:54 pm

Maybe for transparency for everyone's sake certain topics from the mod lounge should be made public.

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