Faction membership

Flubber · June 11, 2003, 16:34

It appears that we have 11 members ( discounting googlie) of which 9 have been active ( posts somewhere on apolyton in June).

But we have two members

1. geminirai with 7 posts on poly ever and no posts since May 13

2. Iskander with ZERO posts ever

I was just curious what people think our policy should be on membership in the Pirate band. Does anyone know the story with Iskander or if GeminiRai is just away for a while ?

Personally I would propose cutting anyone that has been away for a month ( without warning). This way we would always have a good idea of our membership and we could be faster in our decisions . . . For example, if 5 members are in favor of something without a poll there is really no need to hold a poll if we know we have 9 members, but we should have a poll if we had say 15 members.

Also there is the whole spying issue. Dead membership obviously could be spies. I say if someone is a spy we should at least make sure they are somewhat active here ( have to work for your illicit knowledge)

Just a few thoughts.

johndmuller · June 11, 2003, 20:27

Cap'n Hercules has been handling the authorizations. I think most of the get acquainted stuff occurs in the Faction Sign Ups Thread on the main Demo forum, where I believe the good Cap'n Herc attemps to scope out the newcomers. Unfortunatelly, that thread was sort of the OT thread here for a while, so I'd hate to recommend it as good reading material; Someone recently ~~shanghaied~~ arrived, such as yourself would know better how he does the vetting.

In the case of GeminiRai, I believe the story was that he arrived and applied and was accepted (i.e. Cap'n Herc authorized him onto the Private forum), but when Cap'n Herc tried to send him the password to the game files the email bounced (I can confirm that his email bounced as it also happened when I sent out a turn to him). So, theoretically he doesn't have the PW, although I think someone else (whose initial email also was said to have bounced) later said that they got it (the PW and presumably the email too) the bounce message notwithstanding? Appaarently it is difficult or impossible to de-authorize someone on the private forums, as Cap'n H and others have tried to delist people (or find someone else to delist them) and AFAIK been unsuccessful.

I don't know the story about Iskander except that I think that Cap'n Hercules thought he might have known him from some time ago - i.e. a blast from the past - but that is all I know, except that the name seems (just a little) familiar to me too.

There was a false start in the play of the game after 1 or 2 years had been played. Due to the discovery of someone who had gotten themselves OK'd into at least 3 private forums (not including ours that we know of), there was a game restart and the game passwords were all changed. That may or may not ease your concerns about either or both of the people you mentioned, depending on when exactly they arrived on the scene. The forums were not changed, however, so these and maybe other people may still have access to the private forums. Hercules, and the Admirals from the other factions seemed to get more cautious after that, but I am sure not cautious enough to catch a sneaky enough person.

Personally, I've been giving everyone the benefit of the doubt on this one, and not worrying about it, since there isn't much to be done if one or more people are determined to lie/cheat/steal or whatever. Besides, those unsavory antisocial types would be our kind of people, so they would be the full fledged regular members in good standing of our band rather than lurkers.

Googlie · June 12, 2003, 09:49

And I have seen no evidence in any of the Private Forums that spy activity via DL's is going on (or any other method either)

Nor any evidence of playing ahead or retro-playing, so I'd say that so far the game has been hiccup-free (if one excludes the 27 polls on turn time, etc ......... )

G.

Hercules · June 12, 2003, 22:11

Hi maties re Above . I do try to check out new applicants polling history and I also ask them for their email address.

Some respond but don't really want to join. eg Dem-red or something and some didn't respond. Iskander is not a member and I haven't heard from him.. I haven't authorised him. I confused him with Sikander who would be a useful member to us if he wished to join.

Not sure what to do about new applicants while I'm away, except that Googlie may have authorisation powers. But would need some one or two people to check them out and get email.

GeminiRai slipped in at the start. AFAIK he/she doesn't know the password. But he/she can lurk in our forum if they want to. I send password by email.

Flubber · June 12, 2003, 22:47

I wasn't really that worried about the lurker element that much-- its kind of a minor factor. I just think it is most efficient to know how many members are active. While it would be nice to get some of the deadwood off our rolls ( can you revoke members ??), it appears that hercules has a very accurate account of who has what status anyway.

I could volunteer to accept new member applications if that role can be delegated. Otherwise people might just have to wait

Googlie · June 13, 2003, 02:37

Quote:

Originally posted by Hercules
Iskander is not a member and I haven't heard from him.. I haven't authorised him. I confused him with Sikander who would be a useful member to us if he wished to join.

Could this be Iskander Reza? A sometime player in several PBEMs (and fond of the Pirates in those games) - at ireza@maxis.net.my

Quote:

Not sure what to do about new applicants while I'm away, except that Googlie may have authorisation powers. But would need some one or two people to check them out and get email.

No - I don't have authorization powers - or moderator powers - for any of the Private Forums

G.

johndmuller · June 13, 2003, 04:13

Re:

Quote:

Iskander is not a member . . .

He seems to be listed in our roster, doesn't that mean he is an authorized member.

Re:

Quote:

Not sure what to do about new applicants while I'm away . . .

Perhaps by contacting whomever was instrumental in gettin them set up (Maniac, TKG, ???); I think Markos did the actual setup, but I heard that he is not as available as usual due to some sabbatical or something. Someone must be able to do it. Anyway, Cap'n Hercules, it would be nice if you could get that ball rolling, but if you find yourself too busy to deal with it, I imagine we will work it out somehow.

Have a nice trip; give our regards to the Pirates Patron City (Shanghai).

Googlie · June 13, 2003, 15:14

FlameFlash · June 14, 2003, 21:51

Ah... the Pirates of the Caribbean... has that come out yet?

Hercules · July 9, 2003, 10:30

Testing posting ability. Something is wrong somewhere.

Hercules · July 9, 2003, 11:56

I appear to have difficulty opening new threads. Anybody else found this

Makahlua · July 9, 2003, 14:51

seems to be working for me Cap'n

Hercules · July 10, 2003, 13:16

Now I can hardly post. a longer post with comments on pirate whereabouts was refused.

johndmuller · July 10, 2003, 13:58

Sometimes I have to reboot to straighten out my browser, especially if it hasn't been rebooted for weeks or months, but the problems there seem to be more DNS related than your seeming connection related problem, but both TCP/IP (or TCP/IP configuration) type problems in all likelihood. I suppose you have probably tried that already, and in any case you probably had your computer off while you were away (unless someone in your household was visiting bad sites on the internet in your absense and picked up a gift from some hackers - like maybe unbeknownst to you, your computer is so busy spreading viruses, relaying spam or whathaveyou that it has no time left to operate correctly for you).

Goog's (or your's or whomever's) theory that it is your browser (or perhaps more specifically, its settings) seems more likely than anything else I can think of. Perhaps you could try reinstalling it or (I suppose if you are using Netscape, you won't be thrilled by this suggestion) loading IE, if I dare say it aloud to you.

Sounds tricky in any case, so good luck with it (and meanwhile stop sending out that spam with my email address as the sender).

Googlie · July 10, 2003, 16:48

Well, interestingly, I think something is amiss with 'Poly.

these last 3 days i can't navigate between pages in any website without triggering the infamous 'Poly "congrats you've found the missing webpage" page

I've started e-mailing them every time and am up over 100 e-mails now in 2 days.

It's even taken over my homepage - when I start IE although it says msn.com it's Poly that loads - the 'error logon" page, backed by an url that refers to a blahblah blahpopunderxxxxxnumbers etc

Oi e-mailed that to them as well, but no reply to date

could be something related to that (I've only had that problem since yesterday morning

(I even got a Poly page when clicking on a CGN subthread - that'll please Buster !!!)

G.

Googlie edit: even when typing this reply I got a "debugging error" report. Anyone know what this means:

// end hiding from non compliant browsers-->

embedded in a string of Poly commands that my editor replicated?

johndmuller · July 10, 2003, 18:44

I got a 'script error', I think it was, on another computer I use to browse less frequently (and which has different browser settings I think) which I blew off to no discernable effect. Otherwise, aside from the usual slowness, there has been no particular differences noticeable to me (if anything, fewer of those annoying popups than usual - please don't get me started on this - I use the 'ultra' style which supposedly limit the popups to 1 per day, but that would be a bald-faced lie, I've had to resort to leaving the 'Britney' popup open, it seems to limit the delays).

Once again, let me raise the possibility of our asking Buster to host our forum on CGN .

Googlie · July 11, 2003, 18:20

Hmm - I did get a lengthy reply from DanQ who gave me the URLs to a couple of utilities for getting spybots and activeX cookie implants identified and either deleted or quarantined

I downloaded and installed both, and so far they are working (having identified no less than 84 illegal "implants" in my system, which I deleted - although a handful must have been legal 'cos I was prompted for passwords in a couple of instances that used to be automatic entry)

Anyway, I'm happy enough now (and I thanked DanQ profusely) and funnily enough my whizzing around the net seems to be much faster now with all that junk removed

(If anyone is interested in using these progs send me an e-mail or PM and I'll give you the para DanQ sent with their URLs)

G.

Hercules · July 12, 2003, 03:57

Re DanQ information. I would be interested in trying the progs.

Googlie · July 12, 2003, 09:22

Quote:

Originally posted by Hercules
Re DanQ information. I would be interested in trying the progs.

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