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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Frustration and Contemplations
So, we all know how things will have me frustrated to no end. Recently, I cam across something on Facebook that really set me off. I mean, Jessye had to sit and hear me rant over just how stupid people are nowadays. I remember something in the Bible (don't ask me where, cause I don't know where) "Do not attempt to remove a speck from another's eye without removing the plank from your own eyes." I believe this with my entire being. Pretty much, stop being a freaking hypocrite. Unless I am reading that wrong. Which I strongly doubt.
I've been nice to people, and from the vine, I've received some sour grapes full of insults and such about me; about my friends; about the site staff. It disappoints me and I dare not repeat the things they say. It angers me so much that we, the site staff, spend a lot of our time making sure that the members get what they want. We stress ourselves out so that you members can have your HNZ. I have been to other sites, and their staff could careless about what the members and how they felt. HNZ is a heart-warming community, yet people try to take advantage of something. Then they blame it all on the 'cliques' just when they don't get what they want. Favoritism...another word that goes along with the cliques.
I want to point out that someone like me, someone who has a lot of honors, even I have been rejected with applications. Two, that I remember, and I rarely put in applications. I've have to tweak and work to get mine approved. Not because I am a Global Moderator, but because my applications are thorough, and because they aren't just thrown together from a show or something. They are original. I spend a lot of time on my applications, and well, sometimes, life just doesn't want to spoil me and give me everything I want. I see that rejection is what gotten a lot of people against the site staff. More importantly; Nick and Livvy. I wonder if those people who know that they were rejected....they can easily apply again with a more thorough application at a later time. It isn't that hard to do, and it isn't the end of the world when you see that your application has been denied. Come on, people, this isn't school. :tut:
As far as the 'cliques' go, I am not going to point out people. That would be just rude. However, people will band together, and RP with the other more than other people because they get along with someone better than the other. It is life. For example, I RP with Jessye a lot, that is no coincidence. We are best friends and very close. Yet, she is not the only RP with, and she RPs with others other than me. I love to RP, with about anyone so long as you don't go back on your word, and don't mess up anything, or leave me hanging. If you aren't interested in a plot with me, don't plan it out, and not reply. I get excited too, and thus, this affects my muse, and I come to think that my plots that smart and awesome because I allowed one person to affect me.
What does make me laugh though, is that people complain that they don't get anything. No rewards (prefect status, professor character, whatever). You know what makes me laugh? When that person has not done anything to receive that honor. They think they deserve it, but they don't. If you don't do anything, and if you don't RP and act nice to other members, you can't expect to get much. This applies to everyone in life. You only get what you deserve. No matter how long you have been on HNZ, for example, but you don't do much at all, you don't get anything special just because you've been around. You have to really commit. I guess this goes to jobs too. My brother has failed to realize this, and well, this may apply to those on HNZ, but I have no idea if it does or not.
What else makes me laugh, is when a group of people constantly know what another group is doing, and mocking it. I have realized this: this is obsession. That obsessive group follows the other group, watches what they do, what they say, all the time, and mocking it for their own enjoyment. I wonder if they realize that the other group doesn't care what they do, because the obsessive will just keep thinking about them, because it is eating them inside. That obsessive is doing nothing but wasting their time on following this other group that is well known and very friendly - more often than not - and the obsessive group doesn't do anything at all. This has happened to me - where I was being followed, being mocked, and all this jazz. You know what I did? I laughed. Nothing like that phases me, because I know that they are just trying to improve their lives, by attempting to make me and my friends feel like scum...but they fail.
That has happened so much at school and everywhere else, that I am usually the last one to know. Rumors about me about to beat up someone or something, I am always the last to know. Half the time, I am just confused and I burst into laughter.
Other than the fact that I am receiving amusement from the ignorance and stupidity of people, that has been on my mind. People judge another, and that happens. But they never judge themselves. If you think you deserve, but has not earned it, and you complain, you know that is only bringing down yourself. If you apply this to the career path, you will receive failure. I would know, for I have seen it happen to my brother. He blames everyone else for himself, says that the world is against him when he needs to just grow up and earn himself a place. My advise to you all, is if you think that you aren't getting everything you want because of favoritism, I want you to think twice. There is no proof of these happenings, and no proof of 'cliques'.
That seven letter word makes Nick weep. But what does make me? It makes me laugh. Generally, the people that say there are cliques, are technically in them themselves. If you think about it, cliques are bands of friends, that stick together, and possible ignore everyone else, and tease the other. That is freaking high school. HNZ is not a high school.
That has been on my mind a lot lately.
Thanks for reading!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Applications: What the heck is up and how are they processed?
Introduction
Applications are a very important part of HNZ. They moderate who can say their character is/does what, and helps keep the board from becoming rampant with Mary Sue type characters which would surely annoy most people on HNZ. They have become ingrained in the culture of the site, I believe, and when they cannot be processed as quickly as I would like, or you would like, it becomes a frustrating matter.
Yes, me.
What's this? Processed as quickly as I would like? Yes, me. I like applications to move quickly as well. I don't like holding on to them for ages - they clutter things.
Having them around for too long makes me go a little bit crazy.
So what's the hold up?
Right now, as many have noted, applications seem at a bit of a stand still. This is as frustrating to me as it is to you all, but likely even moreso to me. Why, you ask? Well, you're waiting on one or two applications. I see all twenty or so currently in queue. The hold up? As you should know, Livvy has been dealing with some large real-life problems and (as says what has effectively become the ancient statement of HNZ) 'Real life comes first'.
Real Life Comes First
I think it's humorous that when members are going away and leaving behind work for the Global Moderators or Administrators to catch up, for the sake of the site, we still say 'Real life comes first'. However, when it is an Admin who needs the time off, nobody seems to be able to have patience. At all. The song of 'real life comes first' fades away to a mob of angry villagers, pitchforks in hand, ready to go find the monster.
Trying to Catch Up
Nearly every application, however, does have a response from me. Some are even mid-discussion between Livvy and I. Unfortunately, it seems Livvy's life has taken her for another whirl and HNZ time has had to be cut. Livvy doesn't like to hold things up, but she loves administrating HNZ and definitely wants to be a part of the approval process. So, I trust she will catch up in a timely manner. If she knows she won't be able to catch back up in a timely manner, then she will ask me to process applications until she can catch back up. As much as 'real life comes first', there are still ways we can adhere to that without ensuring applications drown.
Mid-Discussion? Wait, so how do applications work - exactly?
I have a feeling, based on some of the results from the recent site poll that not everybody is aware of how applications are processed on HNZ. What we look at for them, and why it is that applications get denied - even when hard work has obviously been put in to them.
Every form that is sent in is given a topic in a hidden forum. There are plenty of these forums for every type of application, with approved and denied archives as well for future referencing. It's all very helpful, actually. When a new application comes in, Livvy and I read the topic then post our initial reactions. We discuss the application with each other if applicable, and either: Approve it, suggests tweaks to it and approve it when the tweaks are ironed out, or deny it.
So what is it, exactly, that we look for in applications? Here are some of the basic things:
Conclusion
In summary: Stop complaining. Don't be hypocritical. We take necessary time and thought for applications.
That is all.
~Nicolas
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Applications are a very important part of HNZ. They moderate who can say their character is/does what, and helps keep the board from becoming rampant with Mary Sue type characters which would surely annoy most people on HNZ. They have become ingrained in the culture of the site, I believe, and when they cannot be processed as quickly as I would like, or you would like, it becomes a frustrating matter.
Yes, me.
What's this? Processed as quickly as I would like? Yes, me. I like applications to move quickly as well. I don't like holding on to them for ages - they clutter things.
Having them around for too long makes me go a little bit crazy.So what's the hold up?
Right now, as many have noted, applications seem at a bit of a stand still. This is as frustrating to me as it is to you all, but likely even moreso to me. Why, you ask? Well, you're waiting on one or two applications. I see all twenty or so currently in queue. The hold up? As you should know, Livvy has been dealing with some large real-life problems and (as says what has effectively become the ancient statement of HNZ) 'Real life comes first'.
Real Life Comes First
I think it's humorous that when members are going away and leaving behind work for the Global Moderators or Administrators to catch up, for the sake of the site, we still say 'Real life comes first'. However, when it is an Admin who needs the time off, nobody seems to be able to have patience. At all. The song of 'real life comes first' fades away to a mob of angry villagers, pitchforks in hand, ready to go find the monster.
Trying to Catch Up
Nearly every application, however, does have a response from me. Some are even mid-discussion between Livvy and I. Unfortunately, it seems Livvy's life has taken her for another whirl and HNZ time has had to be cut. Livvy doesn't like to hold things up, but she loves administrating HNZ and definitely wants to be a part of the approval process. So, I trust she will catch up in a timely manner. If she knows she won't be able to catch back up in a timely manner, then she will ask me to process applications until she can catch back up. As much as 'real life comes first', there are still ways we can adhere to that without ensuring applications drown.
Mid-Discussion? Wait, so how do applications work - exactly?
I have a feeling, based on some of the results from the recent site poll that not everybody is aware of how applications are processed on HNZ. What we look at for them, and why it is that applications get denied - even when hard work has obviously been put in to them.
Every form that is sent in is given a topic in a hidden forum. There are plenty of these forums for every type of application, with approved and denied archives as well for future referencing. It's all very helpful, actually. When a new application comes in, Livvy and I read the topic then post our initial reactions. We discuss the application with each other if applicable, and either: Approve it, suggests tweaks to it and approve it when the tweaks are ironed out, or deny it.
So what is it, exactly, that we look for in applications? Here are some of the basic things:
- Is it canon?
If an application, in any way, breaks with our knowledge of the canon Harry Potter universe - it is denied. - Does it make sense?
We look over applications to ensure that what they say makes sense. If a person applies to be a Death Eater, for instance, but comes from a loving household, doesn't believe in any sort of blood supremacy, and has no reason to be a Death Eater - then such applications are denied. It may be funny, but if something doesn't make sense then it could really screw other things up. Making sense is very crucial. - What would the repercussions of this be?
For many applications, especially plot requests, things effect characters outside of the plot, too. Usually this is in minor ways, but sometimes it can be major. Take, for instance, a plot request where an unspeakable has found a cure for werewolves. It doesn't go against canon - nothing says there can't be a cure. It might make perfect sense, too. But the plot would effect everybody on the site and the future of the site as a whole. It would likely negatively influence many other character's developments as well. If that is the case, that the repercussions of a request would be largely negative and widespread - it is denied. - How common should it be?
For special ability applications especially this is considered. We only truly meet one metamorphmagi in the Harry Potter novels, through all seven books. This indicates how truly rare the ability is. We receive plenty of requests for this gift, however. So we must consider how common it should be and, if enough have already been approved for the time being, no more are accepted (even if they're all pretty good) unless the application just blows our minds.
- How many other special things does this roleplayer have?
This is something that must be considered in conjunction with How common should it be?. We don't want two roleplayers having a character with every possible special ability and nobody else on the site being able to have anything. We want to spread the wealth a little, so this must be considered. Has the person had many applications recently? How many special things does this person already have? Could we approve this for somebody else who does not have as many special approvals? - Is this user in good standing?
This is also something we must consider. Members who constantly break board rules, are rude to anybody and everybody, etc. shouldn't be given special allowances. It is a reward, almost, to have special plots approved, have characters with special abilities, etc. So why should a user who doesn't care about site rules be given plenty of extra awesome things while rule-abiding members might not? It's just one of the many prices of rule breaking. - Plenty More
There are several more considerations that are given to applications in that time that Livvy and I review them. It's not just a quick read and a rash response, thought is given to applications, and the most appropriate response given - even if it's not something the applicant wants to hear.
Conclusion
In summary: Stop complaining. Don't be hypocritical. We take necessary time and thought for applications.
That is all.
~Nicolas
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Monday, May 24, 2010
HNZ: My hopes, plans & ideas
So, normally I use HNZ to blog rant about whatever has been annoying me, on or off of the site. I've even considered writing a "how to blawg rant" sort of blog rant where I would analyze my own blog rantings to see what made them so humorous to some and offensive to others. This post, however, will be more blog and less rant. Surprising, I know.
So, without further ado, the blog itself:
Contrary to what it seems like, I do have a lot of ideas, hopes, and plans for HNZ. Some of them are a lot larger than others, and some of them are quite unrealistic, but nevertheless I have them and strive toward implementing them.
Some of the ideas you've already seen thrown in to action with little to no consultation with the site, some of the ideas I've heard as suggestions and am just waiting for the right form to execute them in, others are ongoing as I type and many, many, others are just little inklings of thought in the back of my mind.
So, where does Nick see HNZ going? What big plans and hopes do I have for the site? I'll share a few with you now. ^_^
Right, so first I'll start with some of my more minor ideas - easy to implement, but I mostly want feedback on or need the help of members to do.
Of course, I also have some much larger plans than those - many of which are just pipe dreams, but thoughts I've had nonetheless.
That's about all the plans/hopes/ideas/dreams I think I want to share right now.
I would like to comment that in the past week, maybe two weeks, I have thoroughly enjoyed the air about the community on HNZ. A lot of negativity and animosity seems to have been taken away somehow, and I'm very optimistic for the future. ^_^
Thank you all for making HNZ so awesome, and I welcome you to share any feedback on these hopes/plans/ideas of mine. ^_^
~Nick
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So, without further ado, the blog itself:
Contrary to what it seems like, I do have a lot of ideas, hopes, and plans for HNZ. Some of them are a lot larger than others, and some of them are quite unrealistic, but nevertheless I have them and strive toward implementing them.
Some of the ideas you've already seen thrown in to action with little to no consultation with the site, some of the ideas I've heard as suggestions and am just waiting for the right form to execute them in, others are ongoing as I type and many, many, others are just little inklings of thought in the back of my mind.
So, where does Nick see HNZ going? What big plans and hopes do I have for the site? I'll share a few with you now. ^_^
Right, so first I'll start with some of my more minor ideas - easy to implement, but I mostly want feedback on or need the help of members to do.
- Twitter Profile Field
The Twitter profile field was added to HNZ, but I've been thinking about updating its coding just a little such that if the user has inserted a link to their twitter account it becomes clickable. It's a small thing, and easy to do, but I'm not sure it's worth the extra three lines of code on the site. - Constant Feedback (Through the proper channels)
Recently the giant suggestions topic disappeared and in its place came the Suggestions & Feedback forum. This was in an effort to invite users to openly post their own suggestions or feedback about the site, then facilitate discussion on the topic instead of just having one response and things moving on. You'll notice, however, that the forum is no longer just 'Suggestions'. It is 'Feedback' as well. This means we want to hear what you think, not just grumblings over MSN and whatever spam topic is open. An excellent example of this is Interactive Lessons. Recently a discussion has been opened about them where users were invited to share their ideas and opinions. Now, interactive lessons began several months ago and I've heard grumblings about it on and off since then. What stopped those users from posting feedback, constructive criticism, and their own ideas? Nothing on my end, I should hope - but I don't know. - A better understanding that Livvy & I work as a team
This has become difficult as of late, because often it is only one of us that warns any given user, or one of us that replies stating an application has been denied. Often, when it is the same admin and the same user over time, the user develops animosity toward the one admin and favours the other, somehow thinking that our opinions differ, when this is very seldom true. Hopefully I've taken a step toward mending that, where one of us takes all the heat, in the most recent update to the applications system - but we'll have to wait to see. - All (or most all) Applications on Webpages
Right now we seem to be caught between two systems. The older, 'copy/paste this form to apply' system (still used for Hogwarts Staff, Professors, Shopkeepers, and Ministry Officials) and the newer webpage/mostly automated application system (as seen with Purebloods, Plot Requests, Special Abilities etc.).
The trouble with updating is many-fold. First, making the webpages is time consuming. This is not a large concern of mine, but it is one to consider in conjunction with the others.
Next, for Professors - applications are only open when we are specifically hiring for a post. Otherwise, the form is moot. How, then, are we to indicate when/if we're hiring - and would we have to update the form every time we need a new professor?
The final trouble is the shopkeeper application. Shopkeepers can open their own shop (note: that is currently on hold) or fill a vacant shop. If they are trying to fill a vacant shop, the same trouble as professors pops up.
Of course, I also have some much larger plans than those - many of which are just pipe dreams, but thoughts I've had nonetheless.
- Member Run: Aurors & Death Eaters
This is something I, personally, would like to see in the future some time. A few trusted members taking on Aurors and Death Eaters, keeping Admin in the loop, and ensuring things stay active and exciting. Livvy and I have tonnes on our plates, we're trying to organize and encourage DE/Auror activity while still monitoring it/tempering it so it doesn't get out of hand. In the past, Death Eaters have been self-run, and I think both groups could do so with OOC leaders from the member base. Maybe just not yet. - Ministry of Magic: Election(s)?
This is something that is likely happening, and soon. Possibly starting in Y10, if I can get some things together for it.
Gellert Coote has been Minister for Magic for at least eight years. That's a fair length of office term, and it's time he retired. So who is next to lead the Magical Community of New Zealand and its Ministry in to the future? Well, I'd like that to be up to the residents of New Zealand themselves. I think it'd be a grand way for members to get involved in the site. Create characters to run in the campaign (or, better yet, use existing ones) have speeches, slogans, buttons and banners, make election promises nobody can keep, expose skeletons in each other's closets... and then... voting day! New Zealand elects its newest leader.
Of course, some OOC strings would need to be attached too - as having such an important character for the whole site makes things a bit complicated. The roleplayer of that account would need to talk to Admin frequently and keep us in the loop on things - but I think that's something fun to look forward to that could add so juice to the Ministry-aspect of HNZ. ^_^ - A New Custom Theme?
HNZ has been using the same amazing theme made by Athene Perthro for nearly two years now. It's excellent, I love it, it means "HNZ" to me - but sometimes change is nice. Something fresher and newer could likely entice visitors to join the board and I'm always one to see what new things might work.
This is something I've pursued to some degree previously, but unfortunately it hasn't come through, so it's something I keep in my mind. If we were to have a new theme designed for HNZ - or even coded for it (though I could do that myself, really) - it would be a nice way to liven up some aspects of the board (though I always intend to keep Athene's skin in the theme chooser). - Web Hosting for HNZ
This is one of the larger dreams really that I have for the site. I say dream because of how unlikely it is to happen, but it could be quite awesome if it ever did.
What would web hosting mean? Well, it would mean that we would be able to integrate some PHP to the forum and host many things ourselves - such as the galleons script which, currently, is being graciously provided and hosted by my friend Scott (Slayer766) on his web host. This would also mean that HNZ could be given a front page of sorts before accessing the forums, which would contain quick links, information, announcements, a login system of sorts etc. which could all be tied directly back to the board with ZetaBoard's upcoming API.
Now, why is this unlikely to happen? The simple fact of web hosting costing money. The most basic plan with the company I buy HNZ's domain from is $72.24(CAD) for a year of hosting. I already pay ~$25(CAD) a year for the domain and my privacy protection on the domain - so that would be nearly $100 a year spent on the site. Not too terribly much, when given that it's a whole year - but it's a fair amount when I don't have a credit card to pay through (so I buy stupid prepaid ones) and my job isn't that great. Plus, I'm going in to University and will therefore be in debt the rest of my life, the way it's looking. I also never want to put up a paypal link asking members to donate to HNZ, nor do I want to start a project that costs money without personally having the means to back that project for an extended period of time. It would suck if I paid for a year, then couldn't pay for the next year and somehow no members came through with donations, and we lost whatever we'd become so used to/dependant on.
That's about all the plans/hopes/ideas/dreams I think I want to share right now.
I would like to comment that in the past week, maybe two weeks, I have thoroughly enjoyed the air about the community on HNZ. A lot of negativity and animosity seems to have been taken away somehow, and I'm very optimistic for the future. ^_^
Thank you all for making HNZ so awesome, and I welcome you to share any feedback on these hopes/plans/ideas of mine. ^_^
~Nick
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My Greatest Disappearing Act Evar!
Okay, so maybe not. xD If I were a magician, I would have been fired already. Or my pet rabbits and doves would've revolted and become meat eaters. All that'd be left of me would be my silk handkerchief and my spiffy black and white shoes. No repeat performances. haha!
The truth in a nutshell is that life has gotten out of hand for me as of late. I'm a newly single parent to a wonderful boy, who has Asperger's Syndrome. Which basically just means he has a harder time socializing with his peers and conducting strong communication. He's very smart, always ahead of his class academically. lol. He just has to have speech and occupational therapy. As it's approaching summertime, I've had to take a lot of time getting him into not only a summer school style program (through my new job thank the Lord!) but also securing him a spot in a new therapy place not far from home. So that he won't regress. He's made a lot of progress just in a year's time, which means that everyday I have to put my time/energy forward too, to make sure I'm setting him up for success and not for failure. Our goal is that by the time he's 10 years old, no one will ever know that he has Asperger's. :) Which means that he will be able to function in society appropriately and live an awesome life full of adventures. :)
Another thing that's taken my time from HNZ is my new job. I love my new job. The hours are great, I love what I do and it's a lot of fun. Not only that, my little boy gets to come with me and be in a wonderful woman's class this summer. So I'll know exactly how he's doing every single day. ^^
We moved back in February and our new place was closed up for quite a while. It's beside family, which is wonderful. But it needs a lot, and I do mean a lot, of TLC. I've thus far got to paint my living room and the bathroom. The other 3 rooms that need painted have to have the wall paper taken down, walls sanded, some fixed, then primed and painted. No way am I doing all that! So thus begins my search for reliable, affordable painters in my area. haha.
I was supposed to start school the 18th, but am unable to until the fall now. It's just one of those things, a lot was happening with my son so I chose to hold it off until his routine was more stable and he and I could cope with everything that's happening.
I've been playing catch up on HNZ. If I've not responded to your PM, please be patient as I will get to you this week. :) Also with applications. I apologize for the length of time it's taken me to respond to them. Please do not get snarky with Nick or blame him, as he has had to wait on me too. Sales receipts will be caught up by this week as well. Any RPs I am participating will be replied to asap too. ^_^
I just wanted to take a moment to let you all know what was going on and to ask for your patience, prayers and understanding. There's a lot I didn't/couldn't type out as it's too personal that's going on as well.
Thank you again,
Your friendly neighborhood Admin,
~Livvy
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The truth in a nutshell is that life has gotten out of hand for me as of late. I'm a newly single parent to a wonderful boy, who has Asperger's Syndrome. Which basically just means he has a harder time socializing with his peers and conducting strong communication. He's very smart, always ahead of his class academically. lol. He just has to have speech and occupational therapy. As it's approaching summertime, I've had to take a lot of time getting him into not only a summer school style program (through my new job thank the Lord!) but also securing him a spot in a new therapy place not far from home. So that he won't regress. He's made a lot of progress just in a year's time, which means that everyday I have to put my time/energy forward too, to make sure I'm setting him up for success and not for failure. Our goal is that by the time he's 10 years old, no one will ever know that he has Asperger's. :) Which means that he will be able to function in society appropriately and live an awesome life full of adventures. :)
Another thing that's taken my time from HNZ is my new job. I love my new job. The hours are great, I love what I do and it's a lot of fun. Not only that, my little boy gets to come with me and be in a wonderful woman's class this summer. So I'll know exactly how he's doing every single day. ^^
We moved back in February and our new place was closed up for quite a while. It's beside family, which is wonderful. But it needs a lot, and I do mean a lot, of TLC. I've thus far got to paint my living room and the bathroom. The other 3 rooms that need painted have to have the wall paper taken down, walls sanded, some fixed, then primed and painted. No way am I doing all that! So thus begins my search for reliable, affordable painters in my area. haha.
I was supposed to start school the 18th, but am unable to until the fall now. It's just one of those things, a lot was happening with my son so I chose to hold it off until his routine was more stable and he and I could cope with everything that's happening.
I've been playing catch up on HNZ. If I've not responded to your PM, please be patient as I will get to you this week. :) Also with applications. I apologize for the length of time it's taken me to respond to them. Please do not get snarky with Nick or blame him, as he has had to wait on me too. Sales receipts will be caught up by this week as well. Any RPs I am participating will be replied to asap too. ^_^
I just wanted to take a moment to let you all know what was going on and to ask for your patience, prayers and understanding. There's a lot I didn't/couldn't type out as it's too personal that's going on as well.
Thank you again,
Your friendly neighborhood Admin,
~Livvy
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Thursday, May 20, 2010
Summertime is here!!!
Hi there, and welcome to my very first blog as a GM on HNZ :D Something that I still can't believe happened. I was so shocked when I was first asked about joining the Site Staff, I really couldn't believe it. But that's in the past now and I've stopped staring at my pretty name....much :r
And now on to the blawg. I'm not exactly what to write here, there is a reason I don't blog much because when I do it's basically an update about what I've been upto since my last blog and that's pretty boring for people to read I suppose lol. So this will probably just be a ramble about some of the random things that have been happening in my life recently and what I have to look forward too.
Even though this is the first blog on here I have my own personal one on HNZ and the last one on there was on St. Paddy's Day, so I suppose I can pick up from what happened since then. Well firstly I turned 19 (the next day actually lol). That's not really a big thing to some but it's so weird thinking I'm 19 now and I joined HNZ when I was 17 and I don't feel like I've changed at all. After that the biggest thing that happened me was during Easter. I had a few weeks break from Uni during Easter so I took a wee break. Even though I had it planned since January/Febuary time I was sooo excited about. This was the first time I went away by myself, I've only ever been out of NI twice when I went to London for my 8th birthday with mum and dad and a few years ago when I went to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to visit Chris when he went to Uni there, with mum and dad - again. So this was a big deal for me and mum was more nervous that I was, silly woman but I suppose it was understandable - but when she rang me 15 times a day, then I got annoyed <_<
But anyway yes, back to my trip. Well this trip wasn't just any ordinary trip, no it had a purpose. So I left from Belfast and went to Edinburgh, and when I was in Edinburgh I met my very first HNZ member :o Yep, I met Emmi (Lemina Troque). She nearly choked me after a literal running glomp xD Yes I met Emmi and it was epic, we had been talking about it for so long and I have to say I had the best time EVAR! I enjoyed myself so much, especially singing Christmas songs at the top of our voices in a park whilst recording ourselves lol. So many random things but I wouldn't have changed any of it, so much fun. Then after our (near tearful ;( ) farewell I headed off to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Oh yeah, this trip had a few stops and I only stayed a day wherever I went. Newcastle was good, I didn't meet anyone there but I really love that city. After that came my next HNZ member (yes I met more than one :D) Anywho I took a wee train ride to see Toneh! Again, another epic day, even if we did just say in his flat on HNZ and watch a movie :P Then after Toneh, came Stephy ^_^ OMG I had so much fun there aswell, again we jsut stayed in but had many laughs ^_^ After that I took my last trip to London. Now here was just a stop over because I was flying out of there and unfortunately I couldn't do anything there because I had to drag a suitcase around with me <_< But the best part of London was stepping out of the train station and seeing the Apollo Victoria Theater and seeing nothing else but WICKED!!! I was nearly in tears, it was so close and yet so far :( But I promised myself that I will not see Wicked until I go to America and see it with our very own Elphaba and Glinda :D Anywho that was my trip of epic proportions, I had such a great time and it was something I needed.
Well that brought me into April and boy did that month fly in. With essays to be done at Uni and being busy will all that jazz I didn't see May arrive 0.o The last thing I remember about April was a formal for my department at Uni done by the second years, ahhh such a good night, and even better it was the last day of Uni :o. And then two days after I was away to a concert by one of my favourite boy bands who were on a break for the past year so this was their first concert in two years and OMG it was epic. I never screamed/squeeled/sang so much in my life. This is evident as I ended up getting laryngitis and tonsillitis after it >.< Oh yes, not just one but two, just my luck really lol Was put on a course of antibiotics and other tablets which I stopped taking :r But I need to finish now as my throat is starting to get really sore again.
Well since then I've been somewhat sparce on my RPs and I apologise for that and even though I was on HNZ as much as I usually am I felt so guilty for being on because well for the past two weeks I've been doing exams. Oh how I dispise those things <_< songs ="))">.< Nose is blocked up something shocking :( But it'll be over soon...hopefully and I'm not going to let it ruin my summer :P
It's so hard to believe though. I'm officially finished my first year of Uni! AHhhhhhh! It's such a scary thought, this time next year I'll be finished second year and getting ready to go to America for a year and a lot of people knows what that means for me and other HNZers :r ^_^ This year has flown in and despite the work been as hard as hell half the time I've enjoyed Uni so much and I can't wait until I go back, as a second year :o Even though it's not for another 5 months. Such a long break but I will be busy-ish for some of it basically:
Anyway that's not for a while yet so soak up all of me that you can get before then :r As for now I have a list of RPs that are starting to pile up >.< Hopefully I can get replied to them and start the other pile that I have to start. To everyone that that involves, be patient with me :(
And with that, thanks for reading the biggest pile of randomness ever xD
- Pattycakes! xx
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And now on to the blawg. I'm not exactly what to write here, there is a reason I don't blog much because when I do it's basically an update about what I've been upto since my last blog and that's pretty boring for people to read I suppose lol. So this will probably just be a ramble about some of the random things that have been happening in my life recently and what I have to look forward too.
Even though this is the first blog on here I have my own personal one on HNZ and the last one on there was on St. Paddy's Day, so I suppose I can pick up from what happened since then. Well firstly I turned 19 (the next day actually lol). That's not really a big thing to some but it's so weird thinking I'm 19 now and I joined HNZ when I was 17 and I don't feel like I've changed at all. After that the biggest thing that happened me was during Easter. I had a few weeks break from Uni during Easter so I took a wee break. Even though I had it planned since January/Febuary time I was sooo excited about. This was the first time I went away by myself, I've only ever been out of NI twice when I went to London for my 8th birthday with mum and dad and a few years ago when I went to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to visit Chris when he went to Uni there, with mum and dad - again. So this was a big deal for me and mum was more nervous that I was, silly woman but I suppose it was understandable - but when she rang me 15 times a day, then I got annoyed <_<
But anyway yes, back to my trip. Well this trip wasn't just any ordinary trip, no it had a purpose. So I left from Belfast and went to Edinburgh, and when I was in Edinburgh I met my very first HNZ member :o Yep, I met Emmi (Lemina Troque). She nearly choked me after a literal running glomp xD Yes I met Emmi and it was epic, we had been talking about it for so long and I have to say I had the best time EVAR! I enjoyed myself so much, especially singing Christmas songs at the top of our voices in a park whilst recording ourselves lol. So many random things but I wouldn't have changed any of it, so much fun. Then after our (near tearful ;( ) farewell I headed off to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Oh yeah, this trip had a few stops and I only stayed a day wherever I went. Newcastle was good, I didn't meet anyone there but I really love that city. After that came my next HNZ member (yes I met more than one :D) Anywho I took a wee train ride to see Toneh! Again, another epic day, even if we did just say in his flat on HNZ and watch a movie :P Then after Toneh, came Stephy ^_^ OMG I had so much fun there aswell, again we jsut stayed in but had many laughs ^_^ After that I took my last trip to London. Now here was just a stop over because I was flying out of there and unfortunately I couldn't do anything there because I had to drag a suitcase around with me <_< But the best part of London was stepping out of the train station and seeing the Apollo Victoria Theater and seeing nothing else but WICKED!!! I was nearly in tears, it was so close and yet so far :( But I promised myself that I will not see Wicked until I go to America and see it with our very own Elphaba and Glinda :D Anywho that was my trip of epic proportions, I had such a great time and it was something I needed.
Well that brought me into April and boy did that month fly in. With essays to be done at Uni and being busy will all that jazz I didn't see May arrive 0.o The last thing I remember about April was a formal for my department at Uni done by the second years, ahhh such a good night, and even better it was the last day of Uni :o. And then two days after I was away to a concert by one of my favourite boy bands who were on a break for the past year so this was their first concert in two years and OMG it was epic. I never screamed/squeeled/sang so much in my life. This is evident as I ended up getting laryngitis and tonsillitis after it >.< Oh yes, not just one but two, just my luck really lol Was put on a course of antibiotics and other tablets which I stopped taking :r But I need to finish now as my throat is starting to get really sore again.
Well since then I've been somewhat sparce on my RPs and I apologise for that and even though I was on HNZ as much as I usually am I felt so guilty for being on because well for the past two weeks I've been doing exams. Oh how I dispise those things <_< songs ="))">.< Nose is blocked up something shocking :( But it'll be over soon...hopefully and I'm not going to let it ruin my summer :P
It's so hard to believe though. I'm officially finished my first year of Uni! AHhhhhhh! It's such a scary thought, this time next year I'll be finished second year and getting ready to go to America for a year and a lot of people knows what that means for me and other HNZers :r ^_^ This year has flown in and despite the work been as hard as hell half the time I've enjoyed Uni so much and I can't wait until I go back, as a second year :o Even though it's not for another 5 months. Such a long break but I will be busy-ish for some of it basically:
- Going out on Saturday with the same bestie from yesterday in an attempt to cheer her up as she got dumped at the weekend, via text <_<
- Moving out of the flat I've been living in for the past year on Sunday
- May 28th: I'm having a Charity Line Dancng Disco to help raise money from my trip in Boston *read further*
- June 5th: I'm going to Croke Parkto see Westlife (the same boy band as the one at the beginning of May with the same person xD
- July 3rd & 7th: Working in the summer scheme at Youth Club
- July 9-25th(-ish): This is going out of bullets as it's fairly big ^_^
Anyway that's not for a while yet so soak up all of me that you can get before then :r As for now I have a list of RPs that are starting to pile up >.< Hopefully I can get replied to them and start the other pile that I have to start. To everyone that that involves, be patient with me :(
And with that, thanks for reading the biggest pile of randomness ever xD
- Pattycakes! xx
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Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Sending a PM: The importance of your title.
A minor annoyance of mine is this:
People who send me personal messages on the board but title them whatever they'd like, or like they'd title a roleplay - perhaps with nothing to do with the contents of the PM or with very little to do with it, at any rate.
Often, I'd even prefer no subject at all ( a simple in the PM title field will make the title a single space ) to the subjects some people give me. When I sign on my PM inbox might look like this (as it did today, nearly):
Open Full Image in New Window
Only one of those message titles is even helpful to me. One or more of them makes me think the user is annoyed with me (which they were not) and the others... lolwut?
I do two things when I have PMs:
I think that PMs are quite different than topics on the board. PM titles should give a glimpse of what is inside of the PM before the user opens it.
That's my opinion, anyway.
What's yours?
~Nick
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People who send me personal messages on the board but title them whatever they'd like, or like they'd title a roleplay - perhaps with nothing to do with the contents of the PM or with very little to do with it, at any rate.
Often, I'd even prefer no subject at all ( a simple in the PM title field will make the title a single space ) to the subjects some people give me. When I sign on my PM inbox might look like this (as it did today, nearly):
Open Full Image in New Window
I do two things when I have PMs:
- Try to reply in order of importance
- Give consideration to the length of time a PM has gone without reply
I think that PMs are quite different than topics on the board. PM titles should give a glimpse of what is inside of the PM before the user opens it.
That's my opinion, anyway.
What's yours?
~Nick
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Thursday, May 6, 2010
Warning: This is a Typical Abby Post
I don't mean to steal the thunder from Linda's very first blog post ever, (as an avid blogger who once wrote an article titled "To Those About to Blog, I Salute You" for a high school newspaper, I salute you Linda ;) ) but I figured it was about time for a post from me. I'd been pretty much AWOL around HNZ for a long while, something which still upsets me, and it was always for different reasons each time; and I apologize for never really posting an absence post, I mostly only tell the staff that I'll be missing for a while. The most recent reason was that it was now March and I still had no idea what I was going to do for school exactly. Those of you who know me well/personally, know that school is really important to me and I'm very bitter about the subject of college, or university, as they call it in other places. But for all I know, I'm just a "grass is greener on the other side" type of person who just longs to be in school, but once I actually attend, I'd hate it just as much as most of my friends do.
Anyway, I had an emotional breakdown after having a conversation with my younger sister about her future plans and saw that hers actually seemed to be in motion, or at least seemed like they were tangible. Now I love my sister to death, but school and rules and the like have never been her strong point, ever. And since she had a baby last year I expected her to be even further behind on getting her life together as I assume lots of teen moms are, (no offense to any out there! :x). So when afterward I sat there crying, asking myself what I was doing with myself and why I was letting myself waste time, this wasn't like me at all. If I wanted something I worked hard for it until I got it (such a Slytherin ;) ). I had applied to St. John's a while earlier, but because the acceptance process was so long, the deadline for Housing had past, and since I wasn't an admitted student yet, I wasn't allowed to pay any deposits, just in case I was rejected it wouldn't be money down the drain. Since I live in Texas, living on campus was the absolute most important thing to me, since even the cheapest apartment in New York is completely out of my family's price range; so since I had missed the deadline for Housing, I considered the option of St. John's gone, thus creating more hysteria about what I was to do.
After getting myself together, I started writing the essay for an application to another school, and before I knew it, I had submitted my application even though the deadline had long passed. I don't know why I still decided to submit my application even though the deadline had passed, but I just decided "Oh well, at least they'll have my application on file," and literally the next week I got a call from the school. That's never happened before, a school taking an interest in me personally! We talked on the phone about what else I needed to submit before being officially accepted and I asked about my priority, Housing, and said it was nowhere near close to deadline. This was music to my ears, I cried, out of joy this time, because I felt that I was finally making progress. The only downside was that it wasn't in New York, and it wasn't St. John's, my dream school. Oh well, I could live with that. At least it was anywhere but Texas! (And Ohio isn't that far from New York). I'd go there for one year and transfer to St. John's the next, this was just getting my foot in the door, I could live with that! I soon began getting really excited at the fact that I might be going to school again, and the thought of it being in a small town in Ohio (a place I've always wanted to visit for some reason) was making me giddy! I had convinced myself that this school was going to be awesome and St. John's could suck it for not taking an interest in me personally and thought "That's their loss!"
Then came the mass emails from St. John's. I had officially been accepted so now they were just going through their routine mass emails to newly accepted students - Come visit the campus! - -Don't forget to register at our website! - - Want to study abroad? You can with STJ! - the usual. This was my fourth time being accepted to St. John's so I knew the routine. I was going to delete the emails, I had too many of the same ones from previous times anyway; it felt like a bad break up where I was trying to get rid of old love letters or something. But even with old love letters, I can't help but open them and read them, which is always a bad idea because old feelings come flooding back and then the waterworks start, or at least that's the way it is with me. I learned though that the longer it had been between a break up, the less it hurt and the easier it got to throwing away the love letters (or deleting in this modern age). It wasn't like that with St. John's; I couldn't bring myself to delete the emails, and there I was, reading every single email and then going a step further with my pain by visiting their website and I couldn't take it. I reminded myself what I thought earlier "This is my FOURTH time being accepted to St. John's", was I really going to reject them for a fourth time?! Granted they weren't as invested into the relationship as I was, but really? Four times? That got me into thinking why I kept putting off St. John's and then it hit me. I had always refrained from admitting it but the reason I kept putting if off was because I was scared of the heartache. I was scared of getting so attached to St. John's the way I had that very first time I was supposed to go, 2 years ago, that I distanced myself and I called things off before they could, to save me the pain.
So St. John's was officially back in the running. Even though I had no idea if I could still live on campus or if it was too late for me to accept my place, enough was enough, no more putting it off and living in fear; no more wondering "What if?" I chose St. John's. Even though Ohio was the safest choice for me, it never stood a chance against my dream school. I paid all my deposits the very next morning even though the Housing deadline had passed, and this time things were different, I started getting new emails from them that I'd never read before. It was the new post-acceptance emails, and this time it felt real. The emails were more personal (still mass-sent emails) but more towards students who had made the commitment to St. John's rather than the old "You're accepted, now confirm you wanna come here!" emails.
Things changed from then on. I had chats with Admissions workers and called them frequently for information (who cares if I kept getting transferred to 5 different departments within 10 seconds each time!) And then came the chat with all the Deans. After that chat session with the Deans of St. John's, I can honestly (and very arrogantly) say I made quite an impression on them, I even got asked to please visit their office when I went to campus in the fall. :D And now the emails I get aren't the mass-sent emails but the personal one-on-one emails regarding my enrollment status directly. The chat sessions aren't private since students can just pop in whenever they want, so I know that these invitations and requests for my email address aren't normal, seeing as they didn't ask any other student who joined the chat. /boasting They not only helped me with the usual FAQ's incoming freshman have, but they helped me decide what I should study. Journalism was always going to be my major, but lately I had become interested in Politics, which they gushed was excellent to study alongside Journalism, so I wasn't sure whether to take that as well, or Business. In the end we decided on a double major in Journalism and Politics, with a minor in Business - and if that proves to be too much for me, then the Politics can just become a minor too. :) BEST OF ALL? They pretty much guaranteed I'd have a dorm since I'm a freshman! You have NO idea how ecstatic I was when I heard that!
So it's official, I'M GOING TO ST. JOHN'S!!! Registration for classes doesn't start until June, and they won't start sending out Housing notices until then either, so all I have left to do is wait. I got my financial aid and I still have to apply for a few loans and save up money to go, but I don't care, I'M GOING TO ST. JOHN'S! I can't believe it's actually happening. I said it before, and I'll say it again, this is my year, I can feel it! In a few months' time, I'll be living in the best place in the world, going to my dream school that is so utterly perfect for me. <3 And hopefully in a year's time I'll be getting ready to meet Pattycakes and Galinda for the first time too and we'll all go see Wicked. :D And what this means for HNZ? Well as I said, all there's left to do is wait until June, and now my sister's out of high school so expect me to be on more often, finally! :D
Finally, a happy update from me! :D
~Elphaba
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Anyway, I had an emotional breakdown after having a conversation with my younger sister about her future plans and saw that hers actually seemed to be in motion, or at least seemed like they were tangible. Now I love my sister to death, but school and rules and the like have never been her strong point, ever. And since she had a baby last year I expected her to be even further behind on getting her life together as I assume lots of teen moms are, (no offense to any out there! :x). So when afterward I sat there crying, asking myself what I was doing with myself and why I was letting myself waste time, this wasn't like me at all. If I wanted something I worked hard for it until I got it (such a Slytherin ;) ). I had applied to St. John's a while earlier, but because the acceptance process was so long, the deadline for Housing had past, and since I wasn't an admitted student yet, I wasn't allowed to pay any deposits, just in case I was rejected it wouldn't be money down the drain. Since I live in Texas, living on campus was the absolute most important thing to me, since even the cheapest apartment in New York is completely out of my family's price range; so since I had missed the deadline for Housing, I considered the option of St. John's gone, thus creating more hysteria about what I was to do.
After getting myself together, I started writing the essay for an application to another school, and before I knew it, I had submitted my application even though the deadline had long passed. I don't know why I still decided to submit my application even though the deadline had passed, but I just decided "Oh well, at least they'll have my application on file," and literally the next week I got a call from the school. That's never happened before, a school taking an interest in me personally! We talked on the phone about what else I needed to submit before being officially accepted and I asked about my priority, Housing, and said it was nowhere near close to deadline. This was music to my ears, I cried, out of joy this time, because I felt that I was finally making progress. The only downside was that it wasn't in New York, and it wasn't St. John's, my dream school. Oh well, I could live with that. At least it was anywhere but Texas! (And Ohio isn't that far from New York). I'd go there for one year and transfer to St. John's the next, this was just getting my foot in the door, I could live with that! I soon began getting really excited at the fact that I might be going to school again, and the thought of it being in a small town in Ohio (a place I've always wanted to visit for some reason) was making me giddy! I had convinced myself that this school was going to be awesome and St. John's could suck it for not taking an interest in me personally and thought "That's their loss!"
Then came the mass emails from St. John's. I had officially been accepted so now they were just going through their routine mass emails to newly accepted students - Come visit the campus! - -Don't forget to register at our website! - - Want to study abroad? You can with STJ! - the usual. This was my fourth time being accepted to St. John's so I knew the routine. I was going to delete the emails, I had too many of the same ones from previous times anyway; it felt like a bad break up where I was trying to get rid of old love letters or something. But even with old love letters, I can't help but open them and read them, which is always a bad idea because old feelings come flooding back and then the waterworks start, or at least that's the way it is with me. I learned though that the longer it had been between a break up, the less it hurt and the easier it got to throwing away the love letters (or deleting in this modern age). It wasn't like that with St. John's; I couldn't bring myself to delete the emails, and there I was, reading every single email and then going a step further with my pain by visiting their website and I couldn't take it. I reminded myself what I thought earlier "This is my FOURTH time being accepted to St. John's", was I really going to reject them for a fourth time?! Granted they weren't as invested into the relationship as I was, but really? Four times? That got me into thinking why I kept putting off St. John's and then it hit me. I had always refrained from admitting it but the reason I kept putting if off was because I was scared of the heartache. I was scared of getting so attached to St. John's the way I had that very first time I was supposed to go, 2 years ago, that I distanced myself and I called things off before they could, to save me the pain.
So St. John's was officially back in the running. Even though I had no idea if I could still live on campus or if it was too late for me to accept my place, enough was enough, no more putting it off and living in fear; no more wondering "What if?" I chose St. John's. Even though Ohio was the safest choice for me, it never stood a chance against my dream school. I paid all my deposits the very next morning even though the Housing deadline had passed, and this time things were different, I started getting new emails from them that I'd never read before. It was the new post-acceptance emails, and this time it felt real. The emails were more personal (still mass-sent emails) but more towards students who had made the commitment to St. John's rather than the old "You're accepted, now confirm you wanna come here!" emails.
Things changed from then on. I had chats with Admissions workers and called them frequently for information (who cares if I kept getting transferred to 5 different departments within 10 seconds each time!) And then came the chat with all the Deans. After that chat session with the Deans of St. John's, I can honestly (and very arrogantly) say I made quite an impression on them, I even got asked to please visit their office when I went to campus in the fall. :D And now the emails I get aren't the mass-sent emails but the personal one-on-one emails regarding my enrollment status directly. The chat sessions aren't private since students can just pop in whenever they want, so I know that these invitations and requests for my email address aren't normal, seeing as they didn't ask any other student who joined the chat. /boasting They not only helped me with the usual FAQ's incoming freshman have, but they helped me decide what I should study. Journalism was always going to be my major, but lately I had become interested in Politics, which they gushed was excellent to study alongside Journalism, so I wasn't sure whether to take that as well, or Business. In the end we decided on a double major in Journalism and Politics, with a minor in Business - and if that proves to be too much for me, then the Politics can just become a minor too. :) BEST OF ALL? They pretty much guaranteed I'd have a dorm since I'm a freshman! You have NO idea how ecstatic I was when I heard that!
So it's official, I'M GOING TO ST. JOHN'S!!! Registration for classes doesn't start until June, and they won't start sending out Housing notices until then either, so all I have left to do is wait. I got my financial aid and I still have to apply for a few loans and save up money to go, but I don't care, I'M GOING TO ST. JOHN'S! I can't believe it's actually happening. I said it before, and I'll say it again, this is my year, I can feel it! In a few months' time, I'll be living in the best place in the world, going to my dream school that is so utterly perfect for me. <3 And hopefully in a year's time I'll be getting ready to meet Pattycakes and Galinda for the first time too and we'll all go see Wicked. :D And what this means for HNZ? Well as I said, all there's left to do is wait until June, and now my sister's out of high school so expect me to be on more often, finally! :D
Finally, a happy update from me! :D
~Elphaba
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Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Leg Hurts - Brain Dead - Life Goes On
So basically this is my first post to the blawg and I feel utterly ashamed of it. Unlike others I don't get the whole blog experience, never thrilled me in the slightest. But if I must I must, so here goes my own rant if that be the word for it. The past few weeks in my own life has been crazy to the extent that my time on HNZ has been minimal at best. I have tried to keep on top of my rp's of course but it does seem unfair to those who wait on me to end up doing simply a post a day. I feel as if even my GM duties have taken a considerable nose dive and I know Nick will say otherwise but I seriously prefer to be doing more. Especially with our Livvy not back in admin mode completely yet and Nickles taking on everything.
We do get lists of course and this was on one of them xD not a bad thing to swipe from the list to do but as I'm not a blogger usually writing as if I'm doing my journal but for all to see is daunting. Who will I upset? Who would I leave out? Lessons are finishing soon enough and then we have exams, the graduating class of Year 9 - must do up Aries speech xD - grading and tons of other things going on as per usual. In my chaotic real life of course I do nothing by halves and now I sport a beautiful black ankle brace, my brain feels fried from the meds I am taking but hey, the pain in my ankle is gone lol.
My blawg seems so unstructured and disorganised, I'm sure Nick will pop along later and correct it somehow xD I keed of course.The birthday celebrations seemed to have gone well, can't believe the site is five years running. How amazing are we!! Yes I stress the We ;) I am so loving the banner that won and the memories that people have posted are brilliant. Would love to post my own but I backed nothing up with post-it's and those that know me best, know I have the worst memory imaginable and post-it everything regularly. xD But if I do remember anything other than how awesome I think you all are, I will be sure to post up there. I did the *five list* and cheated a little by grouping some but no one has complained yet ;) Why are there no emoticons in blawg world? I love emoticons... is there anyone I can complain too about this oversight? Anyhows before I go off on another tangent altogether, I will leave you all be and let you all cross your fingers that I won't be doing another one of these. Hahaha
We do get lists of course and this was on one of them xD not a bad thing to swipe from the list to do but as I'm not a blogger usually writing as if I'm doing my journal but for all to see is daunting. Who will I upset? Who would I leave out? Lessons are finishing soon enough and then we have exams, the graduating class of Year 9 - must do up Aries speech xD - grading and tons of other things going on as per usual. In my chaotic real life of course I do nothing by halves and now I sport a beautiful black ankle brace, my brain feels fried from the meds I am taking but hey, the pain in my ankle is gone lol.
My blawg seems so unstructured and disorganised, I'm sure Nick will pop along later and correct it somehow xD I keed of course.The birthday celebrations seemed to have gone well, can't believe the site is five years running. How amazing are we!! Yes I stress the We ;) I am so loving the banner that won and the memories that people have posted are brilliant. Would love to post my own but I backed nothing up with post-it's and those that know me best, know I have the worst memory imaginable and post-it everything regularly. xD But if I do remember anything other than how awesome I think you all are, I will be sure to post up there. I did the *five list* and cheated a little by grouping some but no one has complained yet ;) Why are there no emoticons in blawg world? I love emoticons... is there anyone I can complain too about this oversight? Anyhows before I go off on another tangent altogether, I will leave you all be and let you all cross your fingers that I won't be doing another one of these. Hahaha
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Posi-Blawg: A little bit of a positive rant
I try to blog monthly now, though for a while I was attempting once a day (long, long ago), and I recently noticed that, by the time I'm ready to blog again - something has come up that really irks me, warrants a rant, and may come off negative-sounding. I tend to try to put a positive spin on things (like in the Cliques Blog, where I asserted that HNZ obviously has groups of close friends, but the site as a whole is one community). So, never having been one to always like to focus on the negative, I have taken it upon myself to rant, or at least list things off, about how awesome HNZ is, and perhaps even my life in general. ^_^
It is with this sentiment and explanation that I hereby begin... THE Posi-Blawg:
As you can tell from the above, most of the reasons I can be positive, and most of the reasons HNZ is awesome, for me, are because of you guys. You're all overly amazing and awesome and st00f. Without you HNZ wouldn't be around, and I certainly wouldn't enjoy it at all without all of the above positive aspects of the board, and our community.
I know this blawg wasn't as amusing, perhaps, as others - but I think it was necessary.
So, thank you all, and see you on the board!
~Nick
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It is with this sentiment and explanation that I hereby begin... THE Posi-Blawg:
- People are appreciative & understanding:
It kind of sucks how one person, or a few people, ruin so much greatness - but that's what the people on HNZ are: great. For as many people that really grind my gears there are ten who see my point of view and try to help me in whatever situation I'm in. Sometimes after blog rants (as it is often after people read them that they become most understanding and appreciative - just human nature, I suppose) I get messages from people stating how much they appreciate me, the work I do on HNZ, the staff, the site itself, etc. These messages often come from people who I never would have thought to care that much at all, and they tend to make me smile. Without those kinds of messages, I think I would have left HNZ a long time ago - so you all are truly that awesomely amazing. There are very few people I can honestly say I've met on HNZ and disliked, and those people are gone for the most part. (I suppose if you can't stand an admin, you don't tend to linger on the board long.)
People are also always willing to help out. Sometimes it takes being approached, sure, but I think I'd rather be approached about helping than volunteer sometimes, too. It lets people know that you value their assistance and likely makes them feel special. Whenever help is truly needed around the board, however, I know I can always ask somebody and if they're able to, they will help - because they know if somebody wasn't necessary I wouldn't ask, and they care about HNZ that much. There are two pages of slaves to the Nicktator members who I figure would all be willing to help out with HNZ things if I asked them. I think that's amazing. - Everybody on HNZ is there for the same sort of reasons
We all like Harry Potter, and eventually we all become acquainted with/like roleplaying. There have been very few members who don't, and they don't last long. So how is this positive? Easy. There aren't huge feuds and wars and flaming and such. Things are, for the most part, pretty civil and enjoyable. I think being on a board where at least two common interests are shared between members aids in this process a lot. - I'm always learning, improving, and there's always something to do.
If nothing else, HNZ keeps me busy, and has caused me to learn about a lot of things that I could have otherwise cared less about. Through HNZ I have learned HTML, CSS, and some JavaScript/a lot of jQuery. It is through this knowledge that HNZ's InvisionFree skin was converted to a ZetaBoards theme, that many of HNZ's minor codes have appeared, and that the custom webpages (from webpages defining seasonal temperatures to ones for submitting applications) have all appeared. This knowledge has benefited me off of HNZ, too, and now I am much less of an interwebz n00b because of it.
Aside from that there are all sorts of things which I regularly get ideas for on HNZ, most of which I forget, and so many ways I plan to/hope to improve the board. I think it's great that I get to experience putting little tweaks in to a board here and there, knowing members will take them/accept them as I fiddle with things (unfortunately, live testing has become a habit of mine), and give me feedback as I require it. This is especially true as I see so many boards where admin have good ideas and no chances to implement them as their board dies - or the board thrives, there is a lack of ideas, and then the board dies - or the worse of all possible situations, the ideas presented cause the board to wither away. In that regard, I'm eternally grateful for HNZ and its community. - People are super-talented on HNZ
I notice this more and more as time goes on, likely because people are just getting better and better, but whether it be graphics, writing, both, or something else entirely - HNZ has some awesomely talented people who, very thankfully, share their talents with us all and I've oft' smiled because of it.talented people.
- People are nice... and welcoming.
It's quite amazing how nice, helpful, and welcoming HNZ is considering its size (and how cliquey some people like to pretend it is... sorry... I had to slip a negative comment in here somewhere. ;) Too much positivity is just uncharacteristic). I've visited at least one forum, roughly ten times the size of HNZ in members and over 10 times its size for activity - and I posted a welcome topic. That topic got a grand total of 0 replied until I complained about it being ignored in their feedback forum several days later. On HNZ, I've heard countless times from newer members that they felt overwhelmingly welcomed and knew we were willing to help them with anything. Normally new members get their first welcome to the board on the day they introduce themselves, and soon enough they'll have five or more 'welcomes' to add. We can always improve, of course, but I think we're doing great.
Advertisement
Visit HNZ's Fifth Birthday Portal Page in order to see current celebration topics, information about the birthday, and register your gift from HNZ!As you can tell from the above, most of the reasons I can be positive, and most of the reasons HNZ is awesome, for me, are because of you guys. You're all overly amazing and awesome and st00f. Without you HNZ wouldn't be around, and I certainly wouldn't enjoy it at all without all of the above positive aspects of the board, and our community.
I know this blawg wasn't as amusing, perhaps, as others - but I think it was necessary.
So, thank you all, and see you on the board!
~Nick
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Friday, April 23, 2010
Cliques, Clicks... Wait! Who started this?
Over the past several months I've heard too much about this topic, mostly people complaining to each other, some random discussions over IM, and a few PMs sent to me. It seems to me that there seems to be a deluded sense that HNZ is either "one big clique" or just divided in to a whole bunch of cliques, with no real community.
Define: Clique
- an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn- A clique (, in American English also ) is an exclusive group of people who share interests, views, purposes, patterns of behavior, or ethnicity. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clique
Those are the definitions I will work with for the sake of this blog rant, since I feel a well defined definition is better to work with than some vague one different people conjure up in their minds.
Is HNZ a clique?
No is the simple answer. We are a group of people who share interests (Harry Potter, Roleplaying), patterns of behaviour (signing on to the board), but we are not exclusive. Registration is open to everybody and we're quite welcoming to anybody who looks for help or introduces themselves (I, for instance, encourage new members to PM me and subscribe to the Welcome Forum so that I can say hello to everybody who takes the time to say hi to us). I know that plenty of people who have joined HNZ have felt overwhelmingly welcomed, and this helped dispel some of the overwhelmingness HNZ can hold for people knew to RPing.
So while the site as a whole has some characteristics of a 'clique', because it is not exclusive to only a set group of people, it is not one.
Are there cliques on HNZ?
This one is slightly more difficult to answer. I suppose to some it may appear that there are. There are certainly groups on the board who interact with each other more than others, who have developed a strong relationship off of the board as well and that's great! It's also human nature. Unfortunately, or perhaps even fortunately, we don't like everybody equally. We can't relate to every single person on this planet in the same way, and that's definitely a blessing. So the simple fact that I am close friends with person X, Y, and Zed doesn't mean I refuse to speak to, or help, anybody else - and I trust that is true of most people on HNZ.
I wish I could stop this blog post there, but I can't. I wish things were that simple, but they're not. Not only are some willing to go so far as to say their are cliques and exclusive groups on HNZ - but that unless you are in a certain clique, a certain 'in-crowd' you won't get anything on the board. Your applications will be denied, your characters will never be given major roles, you'll never be asked to help out, you'll be entirely ignored by others, etc.
When I first heard that... it hurt... a lot. I spend a decent amount of time on HNZ. I try pretty hard to interact with as many people as I can, get to know people, and with all that I obviously try to be as fair as possible with things like applications. I'm sure when people say things like that, they don't think of who might read them, and who it reflects upon or hurts directly, but I rather think they should start. I was in shock completely and wondered how many people thought that of me, of Livvy and I, and if I should even bother continuing to try with things on HNZ.
It's kind of ironic, too - because the people who I've seen say things like that are the same ones that rave about HNZ being their home, and how much they enjoy the site, and how they like everybody in it - but then they got a few applications denied and obviously it was because Livvy and myself don't like them (not because they didn't put much thought in to the application or its effects on other areas of the board). Or their character didn't become prefect/headboy/headgirl and it's obviously because the head-of-house/admin are just choosing their friends (it's quite clearly not even conceivable that things like that are largely in-character, where lesson attendance and character behaviour actually matters).
Livvy and I take great care to deal with applications on their own, but we don't just consider the application, we also consider:
- Past Requests
- Warning history of the user (if you've caused trouble on HNZ recently, it makes sense for you not to get superb privileges
- Quantity of requests coming in (if 50 pureblood requests come in one week, it's likely that most of them will be denied, even if they're all excellent).
In fact, when Livvy makes a request for a plot I treat it, or try to treat it, just like I would anybody else's request (the difference being that she can see my post, my exact response, and reply to it). I also know that were I to make any sort of request, Livvy would handle mine the same way. It frustrates me to know end, knowing personally the efforts I go to in order to ensure I'm not seen as ignoring any one person or their 'group', I talk to as many people as possible, will just quote any random person's post in a 'spam' topic and work with it, try to be almost super-human in how I look at and handle applications - then I feel like people just look at it all and slap me in the face by saying that the site staff/admin are just as biased/clique-based as could be.
I'd like to give a concluding example of how wrong this assumption on the part of some users is. Six months ago, I barely talked to Kaitlyn. I mean, I talked to her in GD, I had already given her her nickname of Sir Kaitlyn, but I thought she rather disliked me/was pretty mean to me at times, and barely considered her to be a GM. Other members of the site staff who did know her vouched for her, and brought to light some excellent points (how well she knew the board rules, how often she reported topics, etc. All things which would be useful in a GM). So I trusted the opinions of the others and Kaitlyn was made a GM in January. Before her promotion many of her applications had been approved (though I was rather neutral on her as a person, again, thinking she didn't like me much) and after her promotion some of her applications have been amended/tweaked/denied - just like anybody else. Since her promotion I have gotten to know her quite well, and see her very differently then I did before - I'd even go so far as to say she and I are pretty good friends now. I think that's a fairly good example of how un-cliquey I myself am, and how un-cliquey I see most of HNZ to be.
As I admitted before, it is human nature to group off, find people you're close to, and talk to them the most - but to think that HNZ has an 'in-crowd' where if you're not a part of it you don't get anything from anybody is simply absurd, and, quite frankly, insulting.
I present to you, once more, our community signature:
No sign of cliques there for me. Just a bunch of people who are enjoying HNZ and how great it is, hoping that it will last out another five years. Am I missing something that you see there, somehow?
~Nick
P.S: Additional plug... HNZ's birthday is awesome and ongoing! Be sure to check it outtttt!
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Saturday, March 13, 2010
Stressed out and Slavery
As a lot of you have witnessed in my letter, which can be read here, I have been having trouble with my mom. Guess what, guys, it just went from bad to total hell. I am a strong person, and this is a good trait of mine, that I am strong enough to even go through a funeral of my second-mother without crying. But right now, it appears that I have broken, and I have to write about it. Mom and I got into it, yet again. This was so bad, I am not joking. It got me to the point of crying, and just had to keep my hands busy which resulted in me doing my laundry and cleaning up my bathroom.
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I don't have much time, because I have to be at Walmart soon. But this is how the fight went:
I was preparing a delicious meal with a smile on my face and I was joking around. Typical, I was in a great mood. Then, mom came in and took over the stove, saying that hers wouldn't take long. I was like, "Okay, I hardly eat as is, and you are delaying it?" But I shrugged and said I would wait. Then, she took her time to issue me with taking out the trash, picking up all the trash around the house. Okay, I didn't take it out yesterday because I wasn't very fond of having my butt struck by lightning. Yeah, I find that excuse reasonable. She started going on about how this house is always in a mess.
Jee, I wonder why. I am always in my room, eating and drinking in here and cleaning up my mess. So, I wonder whose trash I had to pick up, whose dishes I had to wash. (I know I am not being grammatically correct, but I could careless at this point). After I got all that done, mom and I got into a little spat about whether or not the trash was ready to go out. I don't like to waste, so I was like, "Mom, look, you can still put stuff in there." But no, she wanted it out. I told her I would take it out when it was full.
Then, the big fight came. I had only poured water into the pot to start my pasta. After having to do all that, having to witness mom blaming her crap on me, who would want to eat after that? I told her that I lost my appetite, and she told me to fix it anyway. It would have been a waste, so I told her that I would fix it when I was hungry again. She started yelling at me, telling me to put my things away, which I did, and then, she did the worst thing she could have ever done. She compared me to my brother. My brother gave her no respect, he did not give a crap about her, he cussed her out and treated her like dirt. I was silent, speechless. I haven't been giving her an attitude. I really haven't.
I have been stressed, this week is really hard on me. It is getting to the point where I just want to give up in life. What is the point of doing anything for someone when their foot is hurting or whatever, or just out of kindness, when you are not even treated like a human? I am graduating! Exams are flying at me! Calculus is getting about impossible. I have taken her crap for so many years, not even realizing that she was treating me so low. I am a smart girl, talented, and I have been scarred permanently by her and my ex-step-dad to thinking that I am only useful around the house, and not smart, not good looking. I want to be confident, but it is wasted down the drain.
After having to deal with this crap for most of my life, I have opened my eyes. (Which are now full of tears, and I can barely see, haha.) I don't know what to do, but I have to get away. I can't handle being treated like this. I am about to crack, and really, I don't have the heart to do anything. I can't tell her what's wrong. I can't... I have suffered for mom's financial issues, and I have gone almost three months without contacts. I have them now, thank the good Lord. I am in need of serious medicine for my Endometriosis. I need to go to the doctor for my constant pains. Yet, there is no way to pay for it, there is no way to get there without a car, because she hasn't tried to do anything.
She spends all day on the phone, on Facebook, and makes me do all these little things, and those things pile up. They have for the past almost two decades. I apologize guys for having you all read this, but I had to get it out somewhere. That is just a little of what I go through each day. That is not as bad as my past as been, granted I even know what being homeless is like. So, if I am slow on things, I am sorry. I can't RP or do anything in this state of mind. It should return somewhat to normal...within a few hours or weeks. Thanks for taking the time for even reading this.
~ Kaitlyn
PS: Had to add this part it. She topped the day with the big cherry of confidence. She accuses me of being on drugs. Okay, I didn't know I had the symptoms (weight loss, change of attitude so she says) but what the hell? Would I not be doing bad in school and going out to do the drugs? Sheesh. No wonder I am such a meanie. I am on drugs. *rolls eyes* If her actions were drugs, man, take me away! >_<
I am not my brother. Sure, he might be clean now, so he says, but ew! Okay, so when I blew up when you asked that question might not have been a smart thing on my part, but hey, doing something as low as that? No way! I will pass that drug test with a negative (whichever means that you don't have drugs in your system) with ease. Do it. Lovely to see how she really thinks of me. An honors druggie who is also a slave.
Such a confidence booster right there. /sarcasm
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Sunday, March 7, 2010
"Mr. Owl, how many blog rants does it take to get to the brain-centre of a thick-skulled brain-holder?"
That is the question I pose to myself a lot. (As opposed to the traditional "Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?")
I don't have very original blog rants lately. Mostly the same thing over and over. Members need to be more patient. Recognize they are not the only person needing help/approval/a reply/whatever. But still, I get members who want to "remind" me that the application they submitted three hours prior needs approving. Well gee, thanks guys. You're right. I'd forgotten.
I can understand every member making that mistake once - or that some people might not read these blog rants... but it's the members who do it over and over that bother me. Or the ones who recently got in hot water for breaking board rules (yes, sometimes even with regard to the application they are submitting) and then still have the audacity to "remind" me of things. I have a queue, people, and if you're at the back: you're at the back. If you're at the back and you "remind" me: Well gee! You're so nice! Letting all those other applications slip in front of yours!
This week has been crazier than ever for me. Why? Well, it goes like this:
In short: ARRRGGHHHHH
~Nick
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I don't have very original blog rants lately. Mostly the same thing over and over. Members need to be more patient. Recognize they are not the only person needing help/approval/a reply/whatever. But still, I get members who want to "remind" me that the application they submitted three hours prior needs approving. Well gee, thanks guys. You're right. I'd forgotten.
I can understand every member making that mistake once - or that some people might not read these blog rants... but it's the members who do it over and over that bother me. Or the ones who recently got in hot water for breaking board rules (yes, sometimes even with regard to the application they are submitting) and then still have the audacity to "remind" me of things. I have a queue, people, and if you're at the back: you're at the back. If you're at the back and you "remind" me: Well gee! You're so nice! Letting all those other applications slip in front of yours!
This week has been crazier than ever for me. Why? Well, it goes like this:
- University Acceptances Received
- Which program do I accept?
- Which will most assist me in my future aspirations?
- Scolarship information came in
- University open house -> Convinced me I should likely double major for my undergrad
- Chemistry Final Summative Evaluation. Over 12 hours of work over the past two days. Plus about 14 hours for sleep, and then time allotted for Church, Bible Study, and Family - o00ooo0 look, a full weekend!
- Memorizing my script for my drama scene study
- The TriWizard Tournament
In short: ARRRGGHHHHH
~Nick
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Friday, February 19, 2010
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"
Disclaimer: This is Nick venting. If you have no interest in reading Nick venting or you get upset/take offence easily then I advise you stop reading at this point. If you enjoy sarcasm, humour, and Nick at his wit's end: read on, brave knight!
This is a three part blog rant. Each part will build off of the last mentioned part. We'll start off slow, with the obvious, then work our way up to my deepest frustration. Then I might cool things down a bit with a few funny remarks, positive comments, or hints about the direction which I hope to see HNZ heading near the end. But be warned: this road is rocky before it is smooth (narrow before wide, uphill before downhill, take your pick).
So, as promised, the most obvious point:
I post updates/information on HNZ for my own good health.
It's true and don't let anybody tell you it isn't! Myself and the rest of the site staff really don't want to keep members in the loop at all. In fact, we hate not having to answer a thousand redundant questions because people have read the Weekly Update and global announcements, or read tweets or clicked rule topics. It annoys us and shakes us to the very core of our being when our hard work is actually used. It's quite absurd, really. We simply post endless announcements (in the simplest and shortest terms possible) for our own health. It's to benefit us and solely us. So I encourage ignoring all updates made by myself or others because really - it's irrelevant to you and you should know that by now.
Note: The above was sarcasm.
Next up to bat:
The Halloween Feast
Part of this may be Déjà vu for many of you, especially if you read my first ever blog post on HNZ - but it continues to persist despite my begging, pleasing, and obvious hatred of this: Members are still using the actual image of something to be their character in costume.
Sure, they're witches and wizards and therefore some leeway is allowed with regard to how amazing their costumes should look. However, let's be reasonable.
Nicolas King as a Banana
That is not Nicolas King as a banana! It's a banana! Sheesh! >_<;
My next point of contention with the Halloween Feast is it has largely been left unroleplayed in.
There have been 30 some-odd entries to the costume contest - and at the time of my typing this, nowhere near to even 30 some-odd posts for roleplaying in the feast. That doesn't seem very right to you, does it? HNZ is still and RPG first and foremost, correct? I'm tempted to not consider any costume contest entrants that are not roleplayed in the feast. Something for me to consider, I suppose, as right now it's not really fair to those who are taking the time to have their characters be there.
Finally, the grandest rant of them all:
Site Wide Plots
Since the Dawn of HNZ (or very nearly thereabouts) people have requested, nay, demanded site wide plots. For what reasons, I am still unsure. They take a large amount of planning and dedication and often they do not allow for as great individual development of character as everybody doing, for the most part, their own thing and mid-sized plots involving handfuls of people popping up now and then.
So, Livvy and I and the site staff at the time (so not Kaitlyn), after New Years, made a resolution for HNZ: Larger plots. More focus on roleplays. More awesomeness.
Simple enough, right? Well, I thought so too.
The fact of the matter is, however, that it is now nearly the end of February and we've held up our end of the deal. Despite Livvy's absence, despite Abby's computer problems, despite all the usual busy-ness (and extra busy-ness) of the rest of our site staff... yes, despite all those things we have held up our end of the deal. We have provided, so far, the makings of an excellent TriWizard Tournament which every member of HNZ can take part in in some way, or some form. We have expanded Ministry/Auror and Death Eater plots. It's currently only one large one, with a few key players, but there are more in the works. Sure, you might not be the one pulling the strings of the plot (Members never are in site wide plots) but it's your job to play it up with your characters! Have them react to the plot! Have it effect their lives somehow! What has it done for the most part? Nothing. What have members of HNZ done with it, for the most part? Nothing.
Even regular things that effect only most of the site don't get the attention they should. Case and point? The Halloween Feast.
Why is this? Maybe people aren't reading announcements that are posted? Maybe people are lazy? Maybe people just don't want site-wide plots as much as they think they do? I don't know. Maybe you should tell me.
With all this extra effort on the part of myself and the site staff, I find it amazing that some members still have the absolute audacity to request/suggest "site wide plots". Applications for various things with the field(s) about site improvement often get a classic line about site wide plots. Alright. OK. We got it! We acted on it! We've started to implement it. Small things at first (though, by my calculations, the TriWizard Tournament is not small) and large things later. But what is to be our motivations for those larger things when these things that we have now are completely ignored and/or used very minimally? I don't see any reason to keep on trying with it. People that are still suggesting site wide plots need to open their eyes and try to take part in the ones that are sitting right in front of them. They only work if everybody is in them, and right now - everybody is not in them. Heck, it's the people who I very rarely hear wanting these types of plots taking the most part in them. Does that seem wrong to you?
Otherwise, I think HNZ is doing quite well.
It's active almost all the time. (Yes, during the day it's slow because of school, but it's never really dead. It's not like many boards where a day goes by with only two posts or a week goes by with no member log ins.) It's exciting, and a lot is happening. I enjoy getting the positive feedback I receive, and I also enjoy taking constructive criticism, talking to people about it, and molding HNZ to become better as a result. I really do love HNZ and I think all you members are awesome. I think, however, that a lot of members do need to pay more attention to what does go on - and not complain unless they know what they're talking about. Ignorance is my chief grief with regards to the site right now.
I caught up on a lot of HNZ things today, and will have more to catch up on tomorrow. I think I'm doing fairly well as short handed as I am - but I'm quite anxious for Livvy's return and the site staff being in full force once more (once Abby gets her internet back up and if/when Linda's busy-ness decreases). I thank every member who has offered to help me over the past several weeks, and especially those who have. I also thank all of you who have listened to me vent and just dealt with it (I know I can be super annoying sometimes ).
~Nick
P.S: I hope you find the title to this blog post as poetic as I think it is, given all I've mentioned.
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This is a three part blog rant. Each part will build off of the last mentioned part. We'll start off slow, with the obvious, then work our way up to my deepest frustration. Then I might cool things down a bit with a few funny remarks, positive comments, or hints about the direction which I hope to see HNZ heading near the end. But be warned: this road is rocky before it is smooth (narrow before wide, uphill before downhill, take your pick).
So, as promised, the most obvious point:
I post updates/information on HNZ for my own good health.
It's true and don't let anybody tell you it isn't! Myself and the rest of the site staff really don't want to keep members in the loop at all. In fact, we hate not having to answer a thousand redundant questions because people have read the Weekly Update and global announcements, or read tweets or clicked rule topics. It annoys us and shakes us to the very core of our being when our hard work is actually used. It's quite absurd, really. We simply post endless announcements (in the simplest and shortest terms possible) for our own health. It's to benefit us and solely us. So I encourage ignoring all updates made by myself or others because really - it's irrelevant to you and you should know that by now.
Note: The above was sarcasm.
Next up to bat:
The Halloween Feast
Part of this may be Déjà vu for many of you, especially if you read my first ever blog post on HNZ - but it continues to persist despite my begging, pleasing, and obvious hatred of this: Members are still using the actual image of something to be their character in costume.
Sure, they're witches and wizards and therefore some leeway is allowed with regard to how amazing their costumes should look. However, let's be reasonable.
Nicolas King as a Banana
That is not Nicolas King as a banana! It's a banana! Sheesh! >_<;
My next point of contention with the Halloween Feast is it has largely been left unroleplayed in.
There have been 30 some-odd entries to the costume contest - and at the time of my typing this, nowhere near to even 30 some-odd posts for roleplaying in the feast. That doesn't seem very right to you, does it? HNZ is still and RPG first and foremost, correct? I'm tempted to not consider any costume contest entrants that are not roleplayed in the feast. Something for me to consider, I suppose, as right now it's not really fair to those who are taking the time to have their characters be there.
Finally, the grandest rant of them all:
Site Wide Plots
Since the Dawn of HNZ (or very nearly thereabouts) people have requested, nay, demanded site wide plots. For what reasons, I am still unsure. They take a large amount of planning and dedication and often they do not allow for as great individual development of character as everybody doing, for the most part, their own thing and mid-sized plots involving handfuls of people popping up now and then.
So, Livvy and I and the site staff at the time (so not Kaitlyn), after New Years, made a resolution for HNZ: Larger plots. More focus on roleplays. More awesomeness.
Simple enough, right? Well, I thought so too.
The fact of the matter is, however, that it is now nearly the end of February and we've held up our end of the deal. Despite Livvy's absence, despite Abby's computer problems, despite all the usual busy-ness (and extra busy-ness) of the rest of our site staff... yes, despite all those things we have held up our end of the deal. We have provided, so far, the makings of an excellent TriWizard Tournament which every member of HNZ can take part in in some way, or some form. We have expanded Ministry/Auror and Death Eater plots. It's currently only one large one, with a few key players, but there are more in the works. Sure, you might not be the one pulling the strings of the plot (Members never are in site wide plots) but it's your job to play it up with your characters! Have them react to the plot! Have it effect their lives somehow! What has it done for the most part? Nothing. What have members of HNZ done with it, for the most part? Nothing.
Even regular things that effect only most of the site don't get the attention they should. Case and point? The Halloween Feast.
Why is this? Maybe people aren't reading announcements that are posted? Maybe people are lazy? Maybe people just don't want site-wide plots as much as they think they do? I don't know. Maybe you should tell me.
With all this extra effort on the part of myself and the site staff, I find it amazing that some members still have the absolute audacity to request/suggest "site wide plots". Applications for various things with the field(s) about site improvement often get a classic line about site wide plots. Alright. OK. We got it! We acted on it! We've started to implement it. Small things at first (though, by my calculations, the TriWizard Tournament is not small) and large things later. But what is to be our motivations for those larger things when these things that we have now are completely ignored and/or used very minimally? I don't see any reason to keep on trying with it. People that are still suggesting site wide plots need to open their eyes and try to take part in the ones that are sitting right in front of them. They only work if everybody is in them, and right now - everybody is not in them. Heck, it's the people who I very rarely hear wanting these types of plots taking the most part in them. Does that seem wrong to you?
Otherwise, I think HNZ is doing quite well.
It's active almost all the time. (Yes, during the day it's slow because of school, but it's never really dead. It's not like many boards where a day goes by with only two posts or a week goes by with no member log ins.) It's exciting, and a lot is happening. I enjoy getting the positive feedback I receive, and I also enjoy taking constructive criticism, talking to people about it, and molding HNZ to become better as a result. I really do love HNZ and I think all you members are awesome. I think, however, that a lot of members do need to pay more attention to what does go on - and not complain unless they know what they're talking about. Ignorance is my chief grief with regards to the site right now.I caught up on a lot of HNZ things today, and will have more to catch up on tomorrow. I think I'm doing fairly well as short handed as I am - but I'm quite anxious for Livvy's return and the site staff being in full force once more (once Abby gets her internet back up and if/when Linda's busy-ness decreases). I thank every member who has offered to help me over the past several weeks, and especially those who have. I also thank all of you who have listened to me vent and just dealt with it (I know I can be super annoying sometimes
).~Nick
P.S: I hope you find the title to this blog post as poetic as I think it is, given all I've mentioned.
------------------------
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Snow and more snow!
Yes, this blog is mostly about snow. It is white, it sparkles in the sun, and very cold. Sound like a Twilight vampire? Maybe that is why it is an epic fail! All snow does here is cut out of school, which means less HNZ time in the spring for I will be busting my ass in Calculus. Guess what? We have much more today than we ever had this winter. Even though I really hate going to school, it still sucks that we have to stay in during the summer. I might be eighteen when I actually graduate. Which will be in August. School until August. I will go ape-wild.
They salted my roads. That is a plus. Maybe this time we won't have to go without water. I can only hope. I love my showers. So much, you don't even know. I can shower all day if the hot water was on forever. But it runs out too quickly. It makes me sad.
What else makes me sad is knowing that we have no car. Yet. God will provide though! My mom prayed, this is actually ironic, for snow so she could get out of work. She has been having a rough time at work. And... We have so much snow, it is ridiculous. She was like, "Not this much!"
Some people get on my nerves, and I don't show it. If something is changed, there is a good reason. Don't complain over it, please. It just adds more stress. The single set of smileys is perfect. Toki works soo hard on them. They look so cute! My favorite out of them all has to be the lol one. I just love it! Mine is adorable too. I love the black hat!
I am managing lessons very well with the characters needed. I am really sad about Niccy and Kalif. They are soo cute! Why must they both be so stubborn, realize they love each other and make many, many babies! I can't wait for Hades and Pat to step in. Oh how much fun it will be getting the parents back together! It is strange how we have everything planned out, and we get so mad about characters but know it is just going to end up all right. That is the best part about RPing. I just adore it.
Anyways, enough for now.
A promise is a promise, Nickles.
~ Kaitlyn
------------------------
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They salted my roads. That is a plus. Maybe this time we won't have to go without water. I can only hope. I love my showers. So much, you don't even know. I can shower all day if the hot water was on forever. But it runs out too quickly. It makes me sad.
What else makes me sad is knowing that we have no car. Yet. God will provide though! My mom prayed, this is actually ironic, for snow so she could get out of work. She has been having a rough time at work. And... We have so much snow, it is ridiculous. She was like, "Not this much!"
Some people get on my nerves, and I don't show it. If something is changed, there is a good reason. Don't complain over it, please. It just adds more stress. The single set of smileys is perfect. Toki works soo hard on them. They look so cute! My favorite out of them all has to be the lol one. I just love it! Mine is adorable too. I love the black hat!
I am managing lessons very well with the characters needed. I am really sad about Niccy and Kalif. They are soo cute! Why must they both be so stubborn, realize they love each other and make many, many babies! I can't wait for Hades and Pat to step in. Oh how much fun it will be getting the parents back together! It is strange how we have everything planned out, and we get so mad about characters but know it is just going to end up all right. That is the best part about RPing. I just adore it.
Anyways, enough for now.
A promise is a promise, Nickles.
~ Kaitlyn
------------------------
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The Problem of Change
Change in life is inevitable. This is true of any life form, as adaption/reactions to environment are one of the key factors in determining if something is living, or not. How can an organism react or adapt to a stagnant environment? It cannot. It is obvious, therefore, that environments and circumstances change and that living things must change with them.
This is true, also, in the life of a forum and a forum community. Change on a forum, and in a community, is not possible to avoid. In fact, avoiding change often will become the death of a forum and its community. As circumstances change on the board and for the people who make up the site - HNZ must change as well.
Now for the most part change has been, and will always be, extremely welcomed on HNZ. On InvisionFree we changed from the InvisionFree default theme to a theme custom designed by Athene. This, a major change, was accepted for the most part quite easily. (There are always those who complain, but they were fairly quiet in their protest) Next, we had a series of new forums open (Character Development, Plotline Development, Guide to roleplaying). These too, for the most part, were welcomed with enthusiasm and are now an integral part of the forum today. Soon enough a domain was purchased for HNZ by Athene and after much frustration with trying to set it up, the domain simply forwarded and masked to HNZ. While this instance of change was not a complete success, the point of my mentioning it is that the members were entirely supportive and patient while things were fiddled about to get everything operational.
In fall of 2008 HNZ converted to ZetaBoards, with the support of most of the community. Then followed easily six months of transition in to the brand new forum software - trying out the codes that would best suit the board, removing them, about as much as you can imagine. Still, members were patient and supportive. Also in fall of 2008, HNZ was set up to its present domain of http://hogwartsnewzealand.com . This, too, took some time to set up properly but guess what? The site was still supportive and patient - this time it paid off and the board is still using its custom domain name.
The list goes on and on. Of large changes which were worked in to the board and generally accepted with ease. New lessons policies. New forums. Seasons being corrected to match those of New Zealand. Board codes being added. Different styles of updates, competitions, and events being tried over time. Still the board allowed it all.
There have been times when change was considered, opened to site vote, and then shot down. One instance of this that comes to mind, for instance, is the possible use of the ZetaBoards AIO (All in One) code which could have been the money system on the forum, because of its incompatibility with Internet Explorer. That had been my uneasiness with the code at the time, so I understood and respected the site's decision. (Note, too, that that code has since been made Internet Explorer compatible but has not been re-propositioned to HNZ because I do respect the first decision made by the board and there are still other negatives to trying to install it.)
With all this in mind, at how exceedingly open the community of HNZ has always been to change, even if that change didn't work out as well as we'd hoped, one might imagine that changing smaller things on the board would be welcomed evenly more openly/widely, or even just not noticed/commented on at all. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
As some of you have read in my blog "That Which We Call a Rose", the recent change in name from "General Discussions" back to "Spam" in our random chatter-type topics was met with not insignificant opposition. I fear that opposition to such seemingly insignificant change has come up once more.
This evening a goal I have had for several months came in to effect: HNZ is now using only one set of emoticons. For quite a while, HNZ had been using three sets. I managed to reduce this to two. Then, Tony (out of the awesomeness of his heart) made a custom set for HNZ. This were all added to the board, but some of the other sets remained behind. We had three sets again. So, slowly but surely, I phased out emoticons of the other sets. Asking Tony to create replacements for the emotion being represented each time to ensure that nobody would be unable to express a meaning in their post with the selection of emoticons. This afternoon the final two emoticons were replaced: Console and Frantics.
The new emoticons for console (
) and frantics (
) are extremely awesome and (dare I say it? yes.) cute, I think. However, they are:
Here's to hoping people understand and we're able to enjoy Tony's awesome creations together,
~Nick
(Also: Tony gave us an extra emote this time!
)
------------------------
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This is true, also, in the life of a forum and a forum community. Change on a forum, and in a community, is not possible to avoid. In fact, avoiding change often will become the death of a forum and its community. As circumstances change on the board and for the people who make up the site - HNZ must change as well.
Now for the most part change has been, and will always be, extremely welcomed on HNZ. On InvisionFree we changed from the InvisionFree default theme to a theme custom designed by Athene. This, a major change, was accepted for the most part quite easily. (There are always those who complain, but they were fairly quiet in their protest) Next, we had a series of new forums open (Character Development, Plotline Development, Guide to roleplaying). These too, for the most part, were welcomed with enthusiasm and are now an integral part of the forum today. Soon enough a domain was purchased for HNZ by Athene and after much frustration with trying to set it up, the domain simply forwarded and masked to HNZ. While this instance of change was not a complete success, the point of my mentioning it is that the members were entirely supportive and patient while things were fiddled about to get everything operational.
In fall of 2008 HNZ converted to ZetaBoards, with the support of most of the community. Then followed easily six months of transition in to the brand new forum software - trying out the codes that would best suit the board, removing them, about as much as you can imagine. Still, members were patient and supportive. Also in fall of 2008, HNZ was set up to its present domain of http://hogwartsnewzealand.com . This, too, took some time to set up properly but guess what? The site was still supportive and patient - this time it paid off and the board is still using its custom domain name.
The list goes on and on. Of large changes which were worked in to the board and generally accepted with ease. New lessons policies. New forums. Seasons being corrected to match those of New Zealand. Board codes being added. Different styles of updates, competitions, and events being tried over time. Still the board allowed it all.
There have been times when change was considered, opened to site vote, and then shot down. One instance of this that comes to mind, for instance, is the possible use of the ZetaBoards AIO (All in One) code which could have been the money system on the forum, because of its incompatibility with Internet Explorer. That had been my uneasiness with the code at the time, so I understood and respected the site's decision. (Note, too, that that code has since been made Internet Explorer compatible but has not been re-propositioned to HNZ because I do respect the first decision made by the board and there are still other negatives to trying to install it.)
With all this in mind, at how exceedingly open the community of HNZ has always been to change, even if that change didn't work out as well as we'd hoped, one might imagine that changing smaller things on the board would be welcomed evenly more openly/widely, or even just not noticed/commented on at all. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
As some of you have read in my blog "That Which We Call a Rose", the recent change in name from "General Discussions" back to "Spam" in our random chatter-type topics was met with not insignificant opposition. I fear that opposition to such seemingly insignificant change has come up once more.
This evening a goal I have had for several months came in to effect: HNZ is now using only one set of emoticons. For quite a while, HNZ had been using three sets. I managed to reduce this to two. Then, Tony (out of the awesomeness of his heart) made a custom set for HNZ. This were all added to the board, but some of the other sets remained behind. We had three sets again. So, slowly but surely, I phased out emoticons of the other sets. Asking Tony to create replacements for the emotion being represented each time to ensure that nobody would be unable to express a meaning in their post with the selection of emoticons. This afternoon the final two emoticons were replaced: Console and Frantics.
The new emoticons for console (
) and frantics () are extremely awesome and (dare I say it? yes.) cute, I think. However, they are:- No longer animated and
- No longer the exact same yellow emoticons
Here's to hoping people understand and we're able to enjoy Tony's awesome creations together,
~Nick
(Also: Tony gave us an extra emote this time!
)------------------------
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Sunday, February 7, 2010
Admin..ing Solo
So, as most of you should know, Livvy (Cecily Zdablooptybloop) has been absent since about the 20th of January. That means that I have been administrating HNZ on my own for over two weeks at this point, and Livvy intends to be gone likely until things resettle for her at the end of February or beginning of March.
I knew, when she told me how long she'd likely be gone, that this would be tough and her being away would be uber suckage - but I don't think I truly realized how different things would be. I knew, for instance, that I would have to process all sales receipts on my own, and fill in for everything else Livvy does on HNZ so frequently. Those things in themselves make it quite difficult for me to play both our roles on HNZ - but I hadn't realized (although I did within the first week of her absence) just how much I relied on Livvy for things other than handling her sections of the site. For instance, I loved running ideas by her, discussing things I had just thought up and would likely mull over on my own for another month before putting them in to action (yes, that's something we do fairly often), or bouncing random ideas off her, commenting on certain member's behaviour and discussing how best to deal with certain situations. She was also normally the one to keep me up to date on what was happening in character on the board (as, generally, I'm so involved with running the actual board, and the technical side of things, that I am quite clueless). We really do have quite the partner dynamic to running the board and that simply disappeared as soon as she left.
All of a sudden not only were all the routine tasks on my shoulders, but all the special plans we had for the coming months fell solely on me as well, and I was suddenly no longer able to bounce ideas off of somebody constantly. It was likely this last bit that has been the toughest for me. I can do sales receipts, I can even figure out how we would deal with most applications on my own - but I can't bounce ideas off of myself. I can't get Livvy's perspective on things just from my own mind (of course, she and I agree ninety nine and a quarter percent of the time (yes, a fraction with a percent. Love me, math people. ;) ) ) and I certainly hate implementing things that I'm not sure she'll support upon her return.
Assuming I ignore the relationship in running the board that I cannot have when Livvy is gone, the tasks themselves simply pile up and make it impossible for me to do very much of what I'd like to do on HNZ. There are the normal tasks that have always and will always exist:
Then, there's the awesome timing of Livvy's hiatus (through no fault of her own, obviously). She left and sorting was still happening. No big deal, I normally handle most of sorting. I took it on myself to even deal with every transfer application on my own to not pester her as she prepared to leave - despite that being something we traditionally do together. The real kicker is that this is to be a TriWizard Tournament year on HNZ. A lot of the planning was still only rough outlines, no formal posts had been written yet, and it had been Livvy and my intentions to run it together. That, obviously, has not panned out. I have been running it largely on my own and I hope it should go well.
The TriWizard tournament is a substantial amount of extra work: from planning, to posting, to organizing, to prodding champions to get off their bum-bums to telling the SUPER HELPFUL ( ^_^ ) volunteers how they're supposed to do what they need to do. =D
I also believe HNZ's TWT is cursed. The last time we did this Alicia had to leave and we sort of strategically killed the plot line at task two. Now this time, Livvy has had to leave us for a month and we have no intention of it dying... unless the champions don't start posting (Can you tell I'm bitter about TWT activity? No? Not obvious yet? Hmmm. I'll work on that.)
Needless to say, I have been getting tonnes of help and support from our awesome Global Moderators. They're all super busy right now, too, but they've stepped it up quite a bit for me, and for Livvy. We're working on keeping things as active as we can and up to date as we can. I think, without the global moderating team, I would have collapsed by now. I wub dem guys. ^_^ (They're even letting me bounce ideas off them once in a while! They're not as good as Livvy ... (no offence, guys) but still - it's nice enough =D )
With Livvy gone, though, I have noticed some other things about the site:
I am, obviously, quite anxious for Livvy's return and have quite a bit of February left to go before that will be a reality.
Any support from the members of HNZ in this time would be greatly appreciated. I've kept it up for over two weeks now, and I'm wearing down a bit. I can keep it up, but I need to know that
Thanks for reading this, guys, and be sure to keep Livvy in your thoughts/prayers over the coming weeks - she needs it. As much as it sucks that she's gone, her absence is necessary for her and the easier this time is, the quicker she comes back. ^_^ So ya - keep her in your thoughts. =)
~Nick
------------------------
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I knew, when she told me how long she'd likely be gone, that this would be tough and her being away would be uber suckage - but I don't think I truly realized how different things would be. I knew, for instance, that I would have to process all sales receipts on my own, and fill in for everything else Livvy does on HNZ so frequently. Those things in themselves make it quite difficult for me to play both our roles on HNZ - but I hadn't realized (although I did within the first week of her absence) just how much I relied on Livvy for things other than handling her sections of the site. For instance, I loved running ideas by her, discussing things I had just thought up and would likely mull over on my own for another month before putting them in to action (yes, that's something we do fairly often), or bouncing random ideas off her, commenting on certain member's behaviour and discussing how best to deal with certain situations. She was also normally the one to keep me up to date on what was happening in character on the board (as, generally, I'm so involved with running the actual board, and the technical side of things, that I am quite clueless). We really do have quite the partner dynamic to running the board and that simply disappeared as soon as she left.
All of a sudden not only were all the routine tasks on my shoulders, but all the special plans we had for the coming months fell solely on me as well, and I was suddenly no longer able to bounce ideas off of somebody constantly. It was likely this last bit that has been the toughest for me. I can do sales receipts, I can even figure out how we would deal with most applications on my own - but I can't bounce ideas off of myself. I can't get Livvy's perspective on things just from my own mind (of course, she and I agree ninety nine and a quarter percent of the time (yes, a fraction with a percent. Love me, math people. ;) ) ) and I certainly hate implementing things that I'm not sure she'll support upon her return.
Assuming I ignore the relationship in running the board that I cannot have when Livvy is gone, the tasks themselves simply pile up and make it impossible for me to do very much of what I'd like to do on HNZ. There are the normal tasks that have always and will always exist:
- Member group changes (Normally split between us)
- Applications for everything (about ten a week) Discussed by both of us
- Warnings/Member Disputes (Discussed between us and sometimes Global Moderators - member is contacted by either Livvy or myself, we split this)
- Answering FAQs(Normally split between us)
- Posting announcements (Normally split between us)
- Sales Receipts (Normally Livvy)
- Updating Site Documentation as things change (Normally me, sometimes pawned off on Livvy)
- Replying to suggestions. (Normally me, sometimes pawned off on Livvy)
Then, there's the awesome timing of Livvy's hiatus (through no fault of her own, obviously). She left and sorting was still happening. No big deal, I normally handle most of sorting. I took it on myself to even deal with every transfer application on my own to not pester her as she prepared to leave - despite that being something we traditionally do together. The real kicker is that this is to be a TriWizard Tournament year on HNZ. A lot of the planning was still only rough outlines, no formal posts had been written yet, and it had been Livvy and my intentions to run it together. That, obviously, has not panned out. I have been running it largely on my own and I hope it should go well.
Advertisement
TriWizard Tournament?!
Yes! The TriWizard Tournament is ongoing and chances are you aren't doing your part! *sad face* Check it out and post here!
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TriWizard Tournament?!
Yes! The TriWizard Tournament is ongoing and chances are you aren't doing your part! *sad face* Check it out and post here!
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The TriWizard tournament is a substantial amount of extra work: from planning, to posting, to organizing, to prodding champions to get off their bum-bums to telling the SUPER HELPFUL ( ^_^ ) volunteers how they're supposed to do what they need to do. =D
I also believe HNZ's TWT is cursed. The last time we did this Alicia had to leave and we sort of strategically killed the plot line at task two. Now this time, Livvy has had to leave us for a month and we have no intention of it dying... unless the champions don't start posting (Can you tell I'm bitter about TWT activity? No? Not obvious yet? Hmmm. I'll work on that.)
Needless to say, I have been getting tonnes of help and support from our awesome Global Moderators. They're all super busy right now, too, but they've stepped it up quite a bit for me, and for Livvy. We're working on keeping things as active as we can and up to date as we can. I think, without the global moderating team, I would have collapsed by now. I wub dem guys. ^_^ (They're even letting me bounce ideas off them once in a while! They're not as good as Livvy ... (no offence, guys) but still - it's nice enough =D )
With Livvy gone, though, I have noticed some other things about the site:
- Some members are mean no matter what. Ignore them. Don't let them get to you. If you do, you'll hate HNZ and not want to do anything at all.
I was very close to just going on my own break at one point because of member comments and gossip in the past week - No matter how much you do, people don't have to thank you for it if they don't want to.
True story. - No matter how fast you work, people want you to work faster.
Also a true story. I've been clearing out applications about once a week. It's the most I can do, seeings how I'm running most aspects of the site for now. However this is still not quick enough for some members. I still get PMs 'reminding' me to process things that I know about, and I still get very frustrated by that. ;) - Nice people should be glomped. All. The. Time. If you don't, they'll forget you wubbles them. They forget soo0o0o quickly. =(
Unfortunately, I have learned this in the past week. I fear I have hurt somebody's feelings, not by my words (though they passed it off as by my words, I think... my words were simply the unrefined truth about something on the site), but by my lack of words. Words which I had assumed to be understood.
I am, obviously, quite anxious for Livvy's return and have quite a bit of February left to go before that will be a reality.
Any support from the members of HNZ in this time would be greatly appreciated. I've kept it up for over two weeks now, and I'm wearing down a bit. I can keep it up, but I need to know that
- The site is behind me and
- The site is patient with me and
- I'm not going to hear mean things about me through the grape vine when everything I'm doing on HNZ is for the members. I get very little out of being an admin, and I think it's the site that truly profits. I guess that's just one man's opinion, though.
Thanks for reading this, guys, and be sure to keep Livvy in your thoughts/prayers over the coming weeks - she needs it. As much as it sucks that she's gone, her absence is necessary for her and the easier this time is, the quicker she comes back. ^_^ So ya - keep her in your thoughts. =)
~Nick
------------------------
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