Cept For Her

These two points kind of go hand in hand honestly. Growth is not going to happen so much by continuously doing in house events, and/or setting aside playing time with other community members on fun games. What that will do however, is keep people around as they will see fun activities happening on the regular that theyre welcome to participate in. Back in the 2019 era of Steam-Gamers when we were churning out community/server events left and right (we were running like 2-3 a week lol), the events were very populated and we were constantly getting new and old faces showing up to them. Black Rain had started the frequency of events by revitalizing the Events Team back then by asking everyone to shoot for making 2-3 events a month, when we had a team of about 4-6 people. Around the september portion of that year, some new EMs were appointed and we kinda went away from the mandated 2-3 events a month quota, which didn't hurt right away, as people were still pushing out events left and right, and it allowed people some time to set up some more high quality, or complicated events. Somewhere down the line, less and less events kept getting made, and by this point idk what the state of the team was like as I was a year or two out of the internal discussions, but if I had to guess, I would say people holding that rank were again not being held to making/pushing out events. I mean hell, the entire Events forum got removed, and the team was shot and buried after being turned into Expansion Committee. To finally get to my point of dredging up all this past shit, in order to bring players in the community together, and maintain new members, you need to have those 5+ people that are willing to run at least a single event per month, and you need the coordination to not plan them all on the same day/weekend. Events could be as simple as a monthly movie night, GTAV sumo, playing Town of Salem, Among Us, Jackbox, anything. Hell, you could even just make an event to hop on one of the servers for an hour. Currently you might not get much turnout doing this, but you can also see what events people are currently interested in by running them and also ASKING BEFORE taking all the time to plan and show up to coordinate such a timeline. The one thing you do need though is for someone to show up at the time you plan to do something. I saw too many times towards the end of the events era of SG that times were being planned upon, and then nobody, not even the coordinator, showed up. TLDR: Get people to make events (dont matter how), and make sure people show up for those events. Have a backup coordinator or designate 2 people able to run the shit in case someone can't make it. This will help to retain new members once you figure out how to get them to show up on discord/forums.

still waiting for the fanfic to come out

but... its not risk if you don't get targeted....

The issue with retakes is its never going to be a one server pull for bringing in new players. The whole idea behind retakes was to eventually expand it into multiple servers in order to promote SG towards a more FPS centered group. The same was being done with scrim and 1v1 Multi-Arena at the time of these servers coming around. I understand the idea behind removing these servers as they don't bring in regulars, and I applaud the outreach to the community on these concerns as it shows you realize there may be players within the community itself that enjoy these servers as a whole, and wish to keep them alive so they may continue enjoying them (similar to how our scrim server is private, but there for members to have fun amongst themselves). In case anyone is curious, my plans for retakes during my management of the server were as follows: Fine tune the weapon allocator plugin for use across multiple servers Fine tune spawns on each map to allow for the best recreation of retakes in mm, and decrease predictability of spawns Adjust the ranking system to provide incentivize and promote newer players to stay on our servers Create multiple servers (2 static maps like mirage and inferno, 2 rotational map cycles) Add a priority queue plugin for subscribers to incentivize promoting the community through the subscription services Possibly have ranking based whitelist servers in the event the servers got popular enough Have a point decay system, where players would lose X points per week of inactivity, thus promoting them to play on a semi-regular basis (in favor of just nuking their points after a month) Implement the server swap plugins to easily switch between different retakes servers, and promote higher populated servers Theres a lot that can be done for the server given someone has the drive and dedication to making it as successful as it can be, but it mostly stems from having a better system than the rest of the servers out there, which is something i believe our weapon allocator does well in separating us from the competition. Personally with retakes I wanted to hook into the official CSGO Retakes mode that is available now, making the loadout selection be of a couple custom loadouts you would be able to set yourself, adding more variability and customization into the mode, as well as accomplishing the fix to the spawn problems mentioned above.

im guessing this is just giving access to the supporter role that you can pay $3/month for. basically this just gives you access to private channels, supporter chat, and images/gifs, right? (be cool to list on initial post just so peoples know). overall its probably nothing but a net benefit for you guys as you get more advertisement, even if it does just encourage locked private channels and gif spamming in general chat

Praise Liam, our lord and savior of SG. May you return one day, we shall be waiting here for you. In all seriousness, no one post could amount up to the actual legend this guy is. Hope life goes well for you, and that you can find the time to pop in every now and again for the odd shoutbox appearance. Good luck!

gentoo lg when? congrats also @Acercongrats on the SoTM. you've always been a solid worker and done quality shit, keep it up bud!

Just want to throw in another note thats not directly related to this "rule", although I will state that I laughed at it the second it was posted because it was literally just a rule saying to not break the rules lol. Anyway, The point I want to bring up, which has actually been an ongoing problem for the duration of my time at SG, is the communication of these global warnings, and posts like caution made that are meant to apply to every single person in the community. If I'm just some random regular browsing the forums, I'm not going to be look at some random dudes ban appeal, so I'm going to miss that big warning since there was no official thread or announcement made about it. I've had this occur in the past, where some sort of warning or position was given in a ban appeal, and a lot of people missed it or skipped over it, because that thread should not have applied to them. TLDR: Dont make community wide warnings/clarifications in random threads, make an official post stating the community's position on the matter. If its a reply to a ban appeal, it should only apply to the person appealing. If you want to warn a specific group about one rule theyre close to getting banned for, you have DMs to handle that in.

This is literally just server specific admins lol

Truly a sad time. Hopefully one day, it may return in a new form for all to enjoy. My thanks goes out to all the amazing people that made the server the fun it was back when i joined (looking at you guys @Wesker @Leon Mordecai) These boys along with all the amazingly fun people to play the server with. We truly brought ze back from the dead in 2018 by just having fun playing every day on it. My thanks to @diryathing @TheCharizard @Venom™ @Drakanen, and all the fun people i met along the way that helped teach me the real fun isnt the games youre playing, but the people youre playing with. And for all you true OGs during that golden era of ZE, ** Nothing of Value was Lost **

This system can work well, as long as you communicate with the people being given chances. Odds are that if they're not getting a talking to, or warned, they probably think that they're doing fine. Even if they know they aren't doing a good enough job, giving them that kick in the ass with a talking to or a warning would give you a decent amount of people putting in some more effort than they were. If they are apathetic towards their role in the community, the warnings aren't going to make any difference in what they're doing, and the board will easily be able to see that through their channel discussions, responses to forum posts, and general plan for the server. Hell, I recall back during my time as AM we were pushing from moving away from meetings, not because of the time waste, but more for the ability to individualize the manager's roles for their servers. You can tell a lot about how much someone cares on their server by their ability to explain the happenings and plans moving forward. I'm sure if I pulled Dominic into a VC right now, he'd be able to outline 80% of his visions for bringing Jailbreak back, and that's the sort of commitment the community needs from AOs if yall are gonna pull the servers back from the brink of death. Obviously this all extends to more than AOs, but getting rid of the shit AOs will lead you to finding the CAs and SAs behind the work, and also expose all the yessirs. Bit of a rant lol, TLDR: Focus should be on finding and maintaining staff that have a coherent plan, and axe the ones that are clearly just sitting in ranks (ie. not making any changes, or just doing something dumb like a map change every 3 months). This all, and actually talking to people if they're acting up on the IA/public side of things can help maintain quality helpers that will only help grow the community into what it can be.

tfw no pizzatime this is like an easy 2 hours for each map assuming youre actually trying to win. have fun with the six hour event on a wednesday!

Haven't played much recently so I won't weigh in on maps that populate vs depopulate the server. Mostly just here to throw out the idea that a popular map can kill the population once its time cycle is up, and a less popular map is elected in its place. Obviously you want some fan favorites, but imo its something to keep in mind that sometimes an overly popular map can only serve to spike the population for that map. That said, less is more for getting population in terms of map selection, Ive always personally been a fan of a bit of variety (hate playing razer/vip 5 times in a row), but Im sure theres still the crazy playerbase that loves those repetitive map cycles. Oh and one last point is that having too many good maps can lead to burnout of those maps. Can't have good without bad. Only real remedy I could think of is a semi-consistent mapcycle edit where you change out less popular maps (bi-weekly or monthly basis?)

I believe it was just a time-limited event for Valentine's Day for like 1 or 2 years, so it was removed after that as it had some extra features that were slightly disruptive to normal gameplay (such as TPing to your partner). I like the ideas behind the T rank and CT rank systems, and introducing a CT team rank system of sorts I see no downside in, as it would only help to promote creating a social bond between players. Will outline my ideas below now Prisoner Ranks Gain points for killing Guards (maybe depending on weapon used or a simple 1 kill = 1 point type deal) Lose points for dying to a guard? (freekills may become more of a problem) Gang system remains in effect BUT is fully implemented with the normal Prisoner Ranks Solo Leaderboard and Gang Leaderboard You are not required to be in a Gang Gangs get cool special perks depending on their ranking?(some sort of cosmetic probably) Top Player / Gang at the end of the month get a special model (different models for solo vs gang) Guard Ranks Gain points for playtime on CT 2 points per every X seconds or minute alive Maybe half points for being dead as CT as long as you started the round alive as CT, and died to a Prisoner Still gives points to Guards targeted early on in the round Encourages AFKing on CT CT Ban removes points (either all or a specific amount like 50) Guard Team system becomes implemented and is integrated with normal Guard ranks Name something cool like Squads or something Solo and Team leaderboard Special perks depending on team ranking? (some sort of cosmetic probably) Earn double points for having 2+ members of your Squad playing Guard at the same time (probably a team specific point bonus, rather than boosting solo points) Top Player / Team at the end of the month get a special model (different for solo vs team)

Bold move cotton Although i tend to disagree on the whole idea of IA and SM combined, I see that its a move to simply just dumb down the rank structure of the community. My main reasons for disagreeing is that some people don't want to have to deal with IA shit and some dont want SM shit, but to be completely honest, they should at least understand and be able to handle both sides of that coin due to the position they are in. Taking this as a simple "If we have the right person for the position, it will get filled, depending on the effectiveness of the current system". Personally I believe having an AM isn't really there to babysit the AOs, but more just someone there with knowledge and experience to help out with SM related shit when problems arise (I get theres the TAs, but a lot of the stuff people can't figure out is sometimes just simple .cfg files). As for having an AM for IA related stuff and to watch over the SMs, really not too needed, as the BDs will always have more say in those IA related matters. One question I do have with the rank change is that since AOs are now allowed to handle ban appeals once more, does this mean that they will also be handling/weighing in on "permanent' ban appeals, or is that being solely left to the BDs similar to a couple of years ago? Overall, just glad there's acknowledgement of a problem, and some effort being put in to save the community.

Now this, this is a man that knows what he wants No checkpoints either

See you in a couple months rain!! for real though, if you want more COD moments or any other games just @ me in discord. Favorite BD gone again, the one that made me apply for staff in the first place for ze xD. Good luck with what you got going on in life!!! Pop by for the events at least so we can make greg mad (especially at mini golf lol).

All seem like good changes that will help simplify the community and help push it back to focusing on growth through interaction between members. Glad you guys decided to cut back the teams, and even JA. Wasn't expecting the recognition ranks or supporter rank changes, but a lower price point, and less bias is always a step in the right direction for creating more trust between members and higher staff. Looking forward to seeing what other changes may come to the rank structures in the near future!

Responsibility and Focus Changes by Cept IA The same responsibilities except for some shared roles with other teams More focus on internal staff issues, and better communication with staff members who are doing things they should not be (ie. give them a warning or have a talk with them, regardless of their rank) SM Ability to handle ban appeals for their servers (they manage the servers, meaning they should know the rules the best, and be able to judge a ban as being just or not. Appeal can go to IA if its more on the no evidence side) **MAYBE** Perm requests. At the least should have the ability to weigh in on them, and should be consulted in the form of problem people to a specific server (although lets be real, the latter should go for every admin) CA Basically mini IA/SM. Focus should be more on external/community member relations, and relay problems/concerns to the proper team, be it IA or SM Media/Marketing/Modding Axe them all. As @Dominicsaid, the requests can be made public, and as such, can promote more community discussion and revival. Marketing can return to BDs with conference to IA/SM/CA on situations that concern them (ie. Server Adverts / Community Relations) Media is the only real issue with having artwork for special events, but as dominic said, you dont need insane banners for that stuff, considering the community isnt doing very well anyway. Oftentimes waiting for banners or other artwork can delay a great event from being pushed out. Stream Team Get rid of the team, and instead promote streamers on the website/discord through a "partner" program of sorts. You can allow trusted higher ups / members to stream on the official SG twitch for official events, but lets be real, its not going anywhere anytime soon without some major management and planning Events Team You guys keep doing you, focusing on bringing community members together and giving a good time to everyone. A lot of people stick around/return for some of these events, and they should not be overlooked as a way to help revitalize the community, whether the events be on the server or not

Steering back to the topic at hand which is really about legislature on abortions being returned to state-legislature. Lets say the federal government did pass legislature to constitutionalize abortions as a given right to any citizen of the United States. The real question becomes, what sort of limiting factors are in place in that instance? Who decides the timeline for abortions to be allowed (3 weeks?, 3 months? a couple weeks before birth?)? The same arguments still arise of deciding when a life takes effect, and who gets to decide that. States were still allowed to determine when an abortion should be allowed even during Roe V Wade's ruling (After a certain timeframe, believe the official number changed over the years). The main difference with the appeal of Roe V Wade is that the states are now allowed to outright ban abortions, and those that do are essentially arguing that life starts at contraception. Essentially, the argument comes down to state legislature determining when a life exists, and whether or not that life is protected under the state's legislature. From a legal viewpoint, charging a person for double homicide due to the murdering of a pregnant woman or charging one for homicide due to the loss of a pregnant woman's child, is the state legally determining the start of life, and protective rights thereof. This determination of life differs in many states, but the argument remains that if someone is to be charged for the death of an unborn, should the mother not be held legally responsible for ending her child's life?

dont forget to highlight the important part, that overruling erroneous decisions does not mean that there is not a constitutional protection of those rights.

not sure if this is a joke, but i just want to make sure you know that abortions aren't banned with the overturn of row v wade. it is just no longer a federally protected "right", it is just up to the state's to decide what the parameters for getting an abortion are. if anything, this just gives people more of a reason to be involved in their local legislature.

I mean if you murder a pregnant woman and get charged with double homicide, that's pretty much the law saying that the child is alive, so that's pretty much the established bar for most states. What timeline that goes into i dont really know, nor do i care enough to look it up and argue.

Guess this weak stuff is what you meant? Guess the justices learned to read this time around, and left it up to the states to make legislature

I don't think much needs to be written here, just that this needs to be seen. Source: https://nypost.com/2022/06/23/a-very-specific-cheat-sheet-reminds-biden-how-to-act/ Apparently not the first time he's shows his cheat sheet as he did a similar thing back at the end of March. (source: https://nypost.com/2022/03/28/biden-used-cheat-sheet-while-doubling-down-on-message-to-oust-putin/) Honestly its just sad how the President needs a sheet with bolded YOU in order to know what to do. (not to mention they have to remind him to take his own seat!!! LOL)