A blast from the past.

[The Wraith]

Actually, it was co-led by a Former Marine and a current Marine. And, there were 2 other Marines participating.

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

Are they still around????
I take it you were still on active duty at the time???

[The Wraith]

I spoke to HackKilla (the Former Marine assisting with the venture) via ICQ just a few weeks ago. Yes, I was still active duty at the time - was in Cherry Point. The other Marines who participated were "KingHen" and "Blues", two Corporals from the G6 ISMO who also played I76.

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

Does any of them play tribes????

[the wolffman]

Originally posted by [AK?]Hylander
Wolffman,

For the purpose that it serves, PostNuke and other PHP based CMS programs do the job very well and I do not agree with you that they "suck". I employ Post Nuke for my personal webpage and for that purpose it does perfectly fine. These programs that "suck" may not be for hardcore e-commerce solutions (Security issues, organization, etc), but they work for sites like slashdot and such. Database driven sites can be coded in numerous ways to make the actual administration much less time consuming.

i don't like pre-made systems like PostNuke and PHPNuke since the majority of users that use those systems don't use anything unique, design and programming wise. to me, this shows the too-common trait of human nature to just settle for whatever works. i consider myself a perfectionist (you can ask slaughter, i constantly rant on his favorite bands), so i always try to bring something unique, different, and original to anything i publish on the world wide web. perhaps, in other words, i just like to take the scenic route rather than the highway.

[Slaughter]

Hehe.. *rolls eyes* to put it lightly.. Wolff just thinks he knows everything.. lol j/k

[Zorro]

Regardless of your pedantic "artistic" feelings, there should be no question whatsoever regarding the usefulness and value of CMS systems on high-traffic, high-delta web sites.

[[AK]Hylander]

Wolf...

Oh, so you are one of THOSE people. The ones who put content and navigation second to working so hard on fancy graphics, Flash, Shockwave, and cool interface consoles that takes the average 56K 10 minutes to download.

[The Wraith]

Yes, they both played tribes. Blues still plays. He's the guy in the #8-) chat room who goes by "Blue Baron".

[the wolffman]

i don't use flash or shockwave. simply overused by too many websites.

yes, i like to make fancy graphics and cool interfaces, but i do put content and navigation as a top priority. no, my sites don't take 10 minutes to load, as i check them on a friend's 28.8k. average time for loading was about 45 seconds for the main page (containing frames of sliced graphics), then the pages only took 15.

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

Wraith, I gather you are a member of that tribe???
What is it's name and do they have a website???

[The Wraith]

The name of the "8-)" tribe is The Smurfs. I "joined" the Smurfs about 8 months ago because at the peak of Tribes 2 activity, they had over 600 members. The Smurfs are a "tribe" you can participate with having no strings attached, if you just want to scrim, etc. There aren't any requirements, anyone can be a member. It's one of those "for fun" tribes, havens to relax with when you're stressed with your "real" tribe.

I joined them because I was a TMOD, Tribal Moderator, and a tribe with 600 people SURELY needs moderation If you're not aware, TMODs were the group who were responsible for forum administration. Sierra sent out a news post asking for volunteers, and resumes, and I sent my information in. I was apparently their first pick of 17 chosen and was placed in charge of the other TMODs. Qix was who we reported to. We later reported to EAST after Qix left Sierra. EAST and I shared duties on an equal level.

When your community forum post was moved, deleted, or you heard of someone being banned from the community...that was me.

Anyhow, I joined the Smurfs because we were receiving a number of complaints about abuse; harrassment, threats, basic stupidity. So, I grabbed my whipping stick and proceeded to thin out their numbers. The #8-) chat room used to average more than the official (white) rooms. Finding children who needed attitude adjustments didn't take any effort at all.

Well, as times changed, so did the Papa Smurf. (Leader) The Smurfs went through many bad bouts of poor leadership. Then, a day came where my worst fears came true...

Some on-the-way-out Papa Smurf chose me as his successor. So, now I'm frickin' Papa Smurf. Yay for me. *sigh* I will probably be resigning soon, as I lack the interest to babysit 450 members (at last count, few days ago). Also, very few Smurfs are receptive to my style of leadership....as you can imagine. Stop by teh #8-) chat sometime and you're sure to see me quoting the 14 Leadership Principals of the Corps.

=)

[[AK]The Beast]

We played a match against them in the very early days of our run on the 12-man CTF ladder. We won, IIRC.

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

LOL... I can actually see that... you wacking them over the head with the leadership principals.....
I have no doubt you have the experience and the motivation to keep it going.....

I had no idea Sierra had moderators out there like that, keeping things in check.....

You think any of those 450 smurfs are AK material????

[The Wraith]

"We played a match against them in the very early days of our run on the 12-man CTF ladder. We won, IIRC"

- Beast, I represented on a Smurf Scrim team many moons ago where we beat AK... You sure you're remembering correctly? There was much talk because a bunch of unorganized grab-asses who never practice together were able to win 2,1.

"I had no idea Sierra had moderators out there like that, keeping things in check..."

- The don't, anymore. When the in-game community forums closed we were no longer held to any level of responsibility. The Moderators existed between 4-02-01 to 8-12-01 (if memory serves). I still have EAST's home phone number, I've threatended to hand it out unless he crowns me 'Grand Poo-Bah'. I'm joking, of course. I'd settle for Assistant Poo-Bah.

"You think any of those 450 smurfs are AK material?"

- Perhaps, however, most Smurfs already have a dedicated Tribe they belong to. The don their Smurf tag when they're stressed out from mandatory practices, meetings, etc. You might find some recruits within the Smurfs. Several people have joined just to get some scrim experience then go apply to the CDL, and various other Tribe names which are escaping my memory.

We don't generally allow recruiting in the Smurf chat room - the whole purpose is to kick back and relax. The only recruiting that takes place in Smurf chat are assimilating people into the Smurf Forest.