Hmm, so we're being srsfaes here? In that case I'll have to echo Lawd Gaelyn here. On an OoC level, the community was fairly fucked back then. Especially out of game. In-Game you had some cliques and different people hanging in different OoC channels with the OOC channel being the largest (and only) somewhat neutral ground.
Chatsubo was an acid bath with acid-breathing sharks with saltshakers for eyes swimming around in it, and there were enough grudges and hatreds around there (even though I'm sure 99% of those involved will claim never having thought about anything but unicorns and sunshine about their 'opponents') that it was an almost insurmountable obstacle for newbies in the community to overcome. The grudges and hatreds inevitably led to claims of moderator and administrator bias, along with several accusations that it was simply Star Fraction's Public Forums for all intents and purposes. The situation was untenable as it was... fortunately, some special people came along and performed the greatest feat I have seen in the Eve RP community.
Havohej, Silver, Scagga and some others joined together their resources, skills and ideas and managed to form what is now a staple of the RP community. Newbie friendly, oldie tolerant and even a place where bittervet elitists can hang with only a minimum of dunks into the catacombs. Hell, I had a front-row seat to the creation of this place and enjoyed the process immensely.
If Scagga would be amenable, it would be amusing to see some of the gnarlier threads from the creation forum be imported into this one for posterity. Some of them are definitely worth the read. Oh, and I'm sure I've thanked Scagga for hosting the brainstorming forum before, but I want to do so again. Thank you Scagga.
So, how did Backstage fare? Amazingly well. I knew it was going to be at least a moderate success. I had no idea what an amazing success it would turn out to be. At a time when the RPers of Eve were happily tearing each other's throats out through forums and channels, it introduced a tightly controlled and moderated place where you could still discuss almost anything.
The critics had various valid (and some ridiculous) concerns. Wouldn't this create a further schism of the RP community? Wouldn't this project fall flat on it's face when players couldn't piss all over each other with little to no provocation? There were as many concerns as there were critics and they weren't exactly few and far between. Hell, there were mentions of 'Police State', 'Censorship of those not involved in the 'blocs' and 'cliques' that created this place.' and so on. Hell, some even publicly stated they 'knew' they'd be banned by default.
... guess we showed them, huh? Well, those with the vision and guts to keep pushing this project did.
Within a week, there were such huge repositories of information about both Eve and RP here that it rivaled what had been set up on other community sites over the span of years. The number of users skyrocketed every single day, and within just a short time we had newbies to the community show up and staying.
I've had my share of complaints about Backstage. There's a hundred little things I could nag about... but the fact remains... This place is infinitely better than the alternatives we've had over the years.
To those who made this possible. Those who took the responsibility, the work, the money and time... and sacrificed it freely to make this happen. You have my endless gratitude. Most notably:
Havohej
Silver Night
Scagga
There's been many more contributors over the year this has been going on, but without those three... this place would never have seen the light of day. I'll still be bitching at you all on a variety of subjects, but never doubt that you have my respect and gratitude for what you've achieved.
Now for fuck's sake get on with creating the IC sections.
Lazy ass slackers.
[mod=Misan]Good post and all, but snipped the jab at our moderation team. If you have issues with any decisions you are welcome to discuss them in Moderation Discussion or bring them privately to one of us if you prefer.[/mod]
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Topic: Congrats to 1 year of Backstage! (Read 3075 times)