Sunday, December 17th, 2006
Issue: 1   Editor: Nobody


Not every three letter acronym ends in L TrojanCube
It seems, much to my dismay, that the Bootleggers community has become as of late, overrun with people who have no ascertation of rules and authority. Now, generally speaking, the Moderators and Administrators of this community are fairly laid back in their enforcement (much to the disbelief of most, but we won't talk about that), however there are a few things here that they are very adamant about seeing applied. One of these is the usage of the forums.

Mainly, the absence of — in the minds of the general Bootlegger — the Off Topic Forum.

Now I admit, I am most likely the strictest Help Desk Operator, perhaps equated by Melabo. However, I am not strict because I have a power trip, I am because people can't seem to understand the simple aspect of how to use the forums properly; namely the Game Forum and Off Topic Forum, in transition. I bring up my strict nature to point out a simple number: thirty. I move, on average, thirty posts per day from the Game Forum to the Off Topic Forum. Of those thirty I move, about twenty of their authors will then bootmail me with "I'm just tryin' to have fun... don't be such a party pooper." I'm not being a party pooper, I am simply enforcing the rules laid out clear as day, in a sticky topic for all to see.

I understand, yes, I actually understand, that the Off Topic Forum sucks. Most of it's posts are pretty stupid, and are in all honesty things I would never bother engaging in conversation in. This is the general notion laid out by the Bootlegger. That, and since none of the people who we want to see our posts ever bothers to click on the Off Topic Forum in the first place, (due to said idiocy,) they post in the Game Forum under the premis of "No one will read it in the OTF."

It's a vicious cycle, yes, but one that can be remedied. The Off Topic Forum doesn't have to suck. Quite frankly, we're lucky that we have an Off Topic Forum at all, given that Bootleggers was in it's originality supposed to be a role playing simulator.

Whether you're trying to defy authority, or trying to avoid the "morons" posting in your "decent" topic, (which, I really hate to tell you, nine times out of ten aren't all that decent. I, nor anyone else, truly will not care what your best friend said to you on MSN.) the Off Topic Forum is there for a reason — to be used. So start using it.

If we all pitch in and actually start talking to eachother like civilized people, and we use the appropriate forum for it, maybe people wouldn't be so uptight. Maybe.

Quite frankly, the Bootleggers community has declined in and of itself when a mafia role playing simulator's biggest controversy is over it's forums. Bootleggers was designed to be a game of action, suspense, drama, and rivalry. Yes, a social circle, but a social circle in it's intended fashon. There are a great many people who sign onto Bootleggers, spend two hours on the forums and do nothing else, then sign off.

It's these people who I honestly wind up moving the most posts from.

The true nature of Bootleggers however, is for another tale, at another time.