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It looks from my reading of the chat logs like your position was that the screenshot should definitely be posted (with personal information removed) after you contacted July, regardless of what she said in that contact. Would you say that is a fair summary?

Also, can you clarify what you meant in this exchange:

Ekyl-Yesterday at 3:21 PM
And I don't want discussions of community standards and how to fix the problems we're having to turn into drumming people up to go after someone.
Aegis-Yesterday at 3:21 PM
In this case, though, the changes proposed in community standards pretty much state that we need to go after someone, so separating the two issues here is nuanced. (Emphasis mine.)

hS

PS: Also, a quick bit of trivia, since it came up in the logs: in most jurisdictions, people are not required to self-incriminate when charged with a criminal offence. :)

You stated directly in the Discord that your intent was to get around a (potential) ban imposed by the PPC community at large, and to show that it couldn't work. To me, that sounds like a direct attempt to break a rule of the PPC because you don't like it, which... I would call fairly malicious? So can you please clarify what you mean by 'malicious intent', and where (if anywhere) my understanding given above is incorrect.

hS

You say "I've apologised for the Brink incident in the past"; can you clarify when this took place? I've read over this post (made at the time), and the discussion in the chat log (from last month), and it feels to me like they're focussed on explaining why you weren't at fault, rather than being apologies as such. I see discussion in the chat log of you potentially posting an apology, but it doesn't look like you did. Are there other apologies which you're referring to, or do you mean the two that I've linked to?

Also: could you clarify what you mean by 'I don't plan to stand for it'?

hS

The seductive warp of hyperspace vanished from the viewscreen, leaving the more natural but no less beautiful image of a sun burning dead ahead. The Executive Officer leans back in her chair with a satisfied smile.

"Nicely done, as always, Helm," she says, nodding at the ensign manning that station. "Make sure the hyper generator is locked down, then take us-"

"XO!" The raw terror in the young Tactical Officer's voice snaps the XO's head round like a whip. "I've got hostile traces - multiple hostile ships surrounding our emergance point!"

The XO will never remember how she got from her chair to the tactical console. The two red icons of enemy ships pulse in the view, and a moment later one of them spouts a ruddy vector: she is already underway, heading obliquely towards the ship.

"Bring the wedge to full power," she says, amazed at the calm in her voice. "Bring the crew to battle stations." As the siren began to sound across the bridge, she leans closer to the Tactical Officer. "Can we hyper out in time to warn the convoy?" she asks in a low voice.

The TO's fingers dance over the controls, but the XO already knows the answer. The young officer's headshake just confirms it.

"Very well," she says, "then we'll have to keep them busy here. Comms - make sure the skipper's been notified. We've got a fight ahead of us.



Welcome, collective captain, to the burden of command! You've just entered the system with your single (gold) ship, and have discovered that it is in enemy (red) hands. Your number two priority is to make it back across the hyper limit (blue line) and jump to hyperspace, getting the word out.

Unfortunately, your number one priority is the unarmed and unarmoured convoy coming in behind you. They will arrive at your current location in five turns, which also happens to be the time it will take you to make it back over the limit and hyper out. You can't send a message to them while they're in hyperspace, so their only hope is if you can draw the enemy ships off and give them time to escape - another five turns after they cross the limit.

The hex grid is your tactical plot. It shows your ship (in gold), and your current vector - ie, where you will end up if you don't make any changes to your heading this turn. It also displays any other ships or missiles you can currently see - in this case, two enemy vessels. Your Tactical Officer has helpfully displayed the enemy's current vector, and the volume of space they could end their next turn in if they maneuver. The grid extends indefinitely in all directions, but nothing has been detected beyond the volume of space shown.

Your ship has several critical systems you should familiarise yourself with:

a) Your gravitic wedge is both your drive and your shielding. While it is raised, your ship has an acceleration of two. That means that in each turn, you can change the endpoint of your gold vector by up to two hexes. This shift can be forwards (accelerating), backwards (decelerating), or to the side (turning); your Tactical Officer has helpfully displayed the area you can reach on your plot. Your ship will follow the arrow as it exists after you maneuver, and that will be its new vector next turn. The enemy ships, and the convoy, have the same two-unit acceleration; the ring around your ship's icon indicates a raised wedge.

At the end of each turn, you may choose to lower the wedge, or raise it if it is already down. This takes effect immediately.

c) Your sensors detect gravitic wedges. A raised wedge can be detected at any distance, in real-time. A lowered wedge is invisible at long range - you can only detect it three hexes away. The enemy, and the convoy, have weaker sensors than you - they can only spot a lowered wedge at two hexes. So lowering your wedge lets you enter 'stealth mode' - but means you can't use it to maneuver, and you lose its protection against attacks.

c) Your thrusters are used for maneuvering when the wedge is lowered. They are very weak - they grant you an acceleration of one, but you can only use this on alternate turns. They are non-gravitic, so cannot be seen on sensors; that means that you (or the enemy) can never know precisely where a ship is once its wedge is down. The enemy, and the convoy, have the same thrusters as you.

d) Your weapons come in two kinds. Lasers are the simplest: they're instantaneous weapons which can hit any hex directly adjacent to your ship. You can fire one laser per turn. Your missiles are essentially tiny starships: they have an onboard acceleration capacity of ten, which they can split up however they like: they can spend it all in a single massive burst, spread it out to maneuver over twelve turns, or anything in between. You can fire one missile per turn.

Enemy lasers are identical to your own. Their missiles only have an acceleration capacity of eight. The convoy is unarmed. Needless to say, firing missiles with their drives online reveals your exact location even with your wedge lowered, though not your vector.

If a missile or laser shot enters a hex containing a ship, it has a chance to do damage. We'll cover that if/when it comes up.

All rules apply to all ships on the field - the enemy are flying under the same conditions as you. Their communications are also slow enough that they have to maneuver before they know what their colleagues are doing - they can't rely on someone else catching you. Turns are simultaneous (meaning in practice that I've already plotted the enemy's first move).

The order of actions on your turn are:

1. Launch missiles and/or fire lasers. These will move simultaneously with you, at the end of the turn.
1b. Adjust the acceleration of your previously-fired missiles.
2. Use your wedge or thrusters to accelerate, or choose to repair a system instead. If you start your turn outside the hyper limit (blue line), you may hyper out.
3. Decide whether to raise or lower the wedge.
4. Commit. All ships will fire weapons, and laser hits will be resolved. All ships and weapons will move. All missile hits will be resolved. Then wedge raise/lower commands will be resolved.

Anyone can take the captain's role for each turn; please don't hog it, but let other people have a turn if they want it! Feel free to write a snippet of narrative to go with your orders; I've deliberately left the bridge crew (and ship) unnamed and undefined to let you fill in the details. Probably the easiest way to describe your actions is to draw arrows on the tactical plot - you can upload to Imgur without an account, as an example, and I'm sure there's others.

And remember: priority 1 is giving the convoy ten turns to get in and escape again. Priority 2 is getting out alive.

hS

(The setting is adapted from David Weber's Honor Harrington books. The game design is modified from Triplanetary. Ask if I haven't made sense.)

The Courtauld has an excellent tea room which caters to all, including nerds. =]

Part of the reason I asked is that I have no idea what the general consensus was when (as you put it) "Matt Cipher pursued JulyFlame for an explanation". My memories of that incident are mostly from emails, so I don't recall what happened on the Board (and don't know what was said on the Discord).

As I've just said to Iximaz, I think Bramandin is seriously in the wrong here. I'm not sure what they should be required to do, since in the previous incident, JulyFlame specifically and emphatically didn't want to hear anything from Matt Cipher, including apologies - so the instinctive "Bramandin needs to apologise now!" reaction may be a misfire.

At the very least, they need to commit to not talking to Iximaz.

hS

I should've said that before asking this follow-up question; I'm sorry for not doing so, and hope that the order I said things in hasn't given you the wrong impression.

hS

Thanks for extending me the opportunity to clarify.

In this case, it's the fact that Matt Cipher's post was a general message, which, to me—and I think to Iximaz, though obviously I can't speak for her—is an important distinction.

I didn't see Matt Cipher as specifically addressing JulyFlame, but as addressing the females of the PPC, of which JulyFlame is a member.

I'd like to think that if a similar situation occurred, wherein Bramandin made a post similar to Matt Cipher's which included Iximaz's, we'd have had the same conversation with Ix if she'd decided to take the issue personally.

In this case, Bramandin demanded an explanation from Iximaz despite repeated requests from Iximaz not to do so.

I thought it was wrong when Matt Cipher pursued JulyFlame for an explanation. The confusion, I think, arises from the fact that I also thought JulyFlame was wrong for taking an expression of goodwill that happened to include her as a personal attack.

In this case, Bramandin isn't extending goodwill toward anyone of the gender Ix is a member of, but— however unintentionally —hounding Ix for an explanation of a perceived negative opinion, real or imagined, and in the face of very clear requests to stop. To go back to the example of JulyFlame and Matt Cipher, Bramandin is doing something very similar to Iximaz, and the prevailing opinion was that it was wrong then. I think it still is.

--Aegis, hoping that cleared things up slightly more than it muddied them.

At least Matt didn't turn immediately hostile after he was told to apologize.

And for the record, this was Bram's follow-up.


Iximaz Ø - Today at 2:37 AM
You have been blocked and I am taking this to the Board.
Also, @Moderator.
1 BLOCKED MESSAGE
Bram - Today at 2:39 AM
It is your bad behavior.

I'm going to bed now. Probably won't be on the Board or Discord for a few days.

What's the difference between this and Matt Cipher's attempt to be inclusive of JulyFlame, which both you and Iximaz supported? Is it that less time has passed since whatever incident/s led to Iximaz not wanting to talk to Bramandin? Or that this was Bramandin specifically addressing Iximaz, rather than a general message? Or something else?

This is a serious question, not a veiled attack of any kind. I am trying to understand all the context, including the broader mindsets of the people involved.

hS

She spoke a few times in the unquoted hours, but the quotes weren't relevant to her harassing Ix for an explanation.

... I wasn't a) saying that not talking to people is connected to the Discord, b) saying that not talking to people is something that shouldn't happen, or c) saying that outright telling someone you don't want to talk to them is against the rules.

Can someone clarify the timeline here? There's a half-hour gap between Bramandin's first comment and Iximaz's reply; was there other (unrelated) conversation in there, or just a silent Discord? And did Bramandin do or say anything in the 11-odd hours you jump over at the end of the transcript? I'd really like to know what they posted the quote of me in response to, if anything, because I can't make head nor tail of why it came up.

hS

This happened, without significant other context- Bram showed up and dove into this conversation as logged.

Bram, I said this on the Discord and I'll say it here too: your continuing attempts to engage Iximaz in conversation are rapidly turning into harassment, and are very definitely Not Cool. I've offered to mediate, please respect that process (or talk with me about a different mediation process, if you dislike it) and talk with me rather than continuing to chase Ix.

Bram - Yesterday at 2:54 PM
Hey Iximaz. Can I talk to you?
Iximaz Ø - Yesterday at 3:34 PM
I'd rather you not.

Bram - Yesterday at 3:36 PM
I get the feeling that you hate me.
Delta Juliette - Yesterday at 3:38 PM
Bram, please respect the "no" you just received.


Bram - Yesterday at 3:40 PM
I find it a bit rude to snub me without reason.
Delta Juliette - Yesterday at 3:40 PM
They do not want to talk to you. Trying to shame them into changing their mind is not a good thing.


Bram - Yesterday at 3:42 PM
I still find it rude.
Delta Juliette - Yesterday at 3:43 PM
Bram, if you want to continue this conversation in private, we can, but I'd appreciate it if you stopped saying so here.
Because it still reads a lot like you're taking shots at Ix, either intentionally or no.


Bram - Yesterday at 3:50 PM
I am hurt that Iximaz doesn't want to talk to me.
Delta Juliette - Yesterday at 3:51 PM
Bram, please stop.
This is not the appropriate venue for this conversation, as I am explaining in private.
Matt Cipher - Yesterday at 3:52 PM
Put yourself in a reversed situation, mate: If you were offended by somebody (which you previously did, in Iximaz's opinion and that's how she views it now), would you be willing to talk to your offender as if nothing happened betwen the two of you? I don't think so. So please, zip it, and accept the fact that you're not on Iximaz's good list.

Bram - Yesterday at 3:55 PM
I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong and make amends. It's not good to hold a grudge. I welcome people who want to talk about how they offended me.
Matt Cipher - Yesterday at 3:56 PM
But by doing so, you're pushing yourself onto Iximaz, which only deepens the dislike. It sounds very hypocritical coming from me of all people, but sometimes you can't do anything.
Delta Juliette - Yesterday at 3:56 PM
Bram, this is a Warning. Stop.
Iximaz Ø - Yesterday at 3:57 PM
I did not want to talk to you before and I want to talk to you even less after your insistence on it. Stop.


Bram - Today at 2:33 AM
There are also several Discord-specific punishments which I don't know the details of, and general social consequences of bad behaviour (eg, people not willingly talking to you). The latter is not usually explicitly stated.

hS
Ix refused to talk to me earlier.


Iximaz Ø - Today at 2:37 AM
You have been blocked and I am taking this to the Board.

Well. Maybe reminders, technically speaking. But that's irrelevant.

First on the titular list would be the apologies. I am sorry for abandoning the Board temporarily at a reasonably critical juncture, but I've been busy this past week. During the only opportunities I've had to actually respond, my thoughts and level of productivity have been about constructive as a moldy, damp towel. So while I do have thoughts on all of this, phrasing them at the moment is beyond my capabilities. I have no energy whatsoever, and I really don't know when that's coming back.

Secondly, as I have been pinged off-Board and had this pointed out to me, I feel it's important for me to offer my reasons for my actions in the JulyFlame incident, to do with as you will.

I believe the only thing I'm guilty of is failing to call for the deletion of the screenshot. I assumed it would be taken down, given that it was actually met with some opposition (Novastorme and Matt Cipher stick out in my memory), and, just like every other assumption I've ever made, I regret making it. They're a bad habit, and I need to stop.

I don't regret asking for access to July's side of the story, because I believe in collecting evidence, and I still believe that's all I was doing. At the time I genuinely thought that we'd be looking into the accusations of harassment of PPCers. However, there were obviously mitigating factors that made that investigation impractical at best—not least among said factors, the withdrawal of charges.

In summary (provided largely because I'm convinced this post couldn't be mistaken for cogent by a man with an astigmatism squinting from thirty yards away):

1.) I'm sorry I haven't been around, I've been alternating between frenetic real-life stuff and doldrums that'd make a sloth's moss-ridden hair curl, and

B.), or 2.), or II. if you're feeling fancy, I don't think I exacerbated the alleged witch hunt against JulyFlame, though I do regret my failure to actually say "Take down that screenshot." I admit, I thought I really wouldn't need to.

"Make sure to let your PPC friends know we'll be counting on them to show us some good, non-touristy places to eat in London!"

I was a complete idiot. It was a bad idea, if not, if you'll pardon my saying so, done with malicious intent. It was a stupid decision on top of several other stupid decisions I had made beforehand. I'm sorry.