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Tufi Piyufi

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Blog Entries posted by Tufi Piyufi

  1. Tufi Piyufi

    Hey, Hating-people

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    Hey. People who hate me. Yes, I know who you are. I've read the posts. No, no, not the ones here. The ones on all those elsewheres. Yeah. Those very public ones. So help me, sometimes I get bored and I scavenge for things to fuel my reading addiction.
     
    I know you hate me. I know who you are. I know just how you feel about me. And I don't care.
     
    If I was worried about hurting people's opinions of me by helping to maintain a forum, I'd have quit years ago. Fact is, it's totally worth having the infractees hate me if it means the general populace can let out their breath and go 'thank god that was taken care of'. You might go 'well, where are those people then, heh heh'. They're all around. They're quiet. It's in their nature. Moderates everywhere, of every kind, are quiet. Extremists are the loud, noticeable ones. The extremists take the silence for agreement. The moderates know better, but, for reasons constantly debated and hypothesized, don't speak up.
     
    Fact is, the people who hate me are people I never liked in the first place. Amazing how the universe sorts all that out.
     
    So, moderates. You know who you are. Don't let yourselves get dragged down. If someone claims to speak for you, you shut them right down. You're logical, reasonable people. You don't have to stand for this. You just gotta take that first step. Once you get moving, believe me, the rest comes naturally.
  2. Tufi Piyufi
    I think I need to clear up something on what I said half a year ago.
     
    When I said that Nuva shoulder armour just didn't work for breasts and I went over the reasons why, I did not say 'but oh, Rahkshi heads are just superb for the job'.
     
    They're even worse, folks. They're not even remotely the same shape as the real things. They're never positioned (and can't be) in a way that reflects the way the things really work (I'll give you a hint: Roodaka got it backwards). You're not doing a favour if you use them. I can say with the utmost confidence that no, they do not work on your MOC.
     
    Cripes, Roodaka really didn't do anyone any favours this way. Thanks a lot, Lego. From an actual female in charge of looking at what you've wrought, thanks a million. Hats off to you.
  3. Tufi Piyufi

    Upon Reflection, A Plea

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    As noted in the previous entry, I've been a BBC moderator for three years as of today. I've seen a lot of MOCs in that time. It'd be madness to try and work out how many (though it would be a fun rainy-day project). I've seen a lot of not-so-fantastic MOCs, but I haven't turned to the System-side philosophy that 'nothing good can come of Bionicle parts' in the least. I've seen an incredible number of generic humanoids-with-weapons of every quality, but I haven't given up on the imagination of the general building populace yet. Generally, I have remained as optimistic as I was three years ago.
     
    But, oh, there is one chord that drives me insane every time it's hit. Contest #30? Oh, oh, oh. And it hasn't healed since. It's only grown worse. Thus, the following plea:
     
    Please, please, please, use anything but Nuva shoulder armour for the breasts of female MOCs.
     
    This is not because they are shaped incorrectly. Indeed, if positioned at the right angle, and placed on a MOC of appropriate scale, they are possibly the best option in such a scenario.
     
    However.
     
    This hasn't happened yet.
     
    Instead, there's MOCs with Toa torsos (and the more custom torsos as well) of all makes with 'em mounted on there, in all sorts of ways. You've got 'em mounted like a big silver watermelon. You've got 'em with the flat tops pointing out and forward, which actually bears an ironic resemblance to male pecs. You've got 'em stuck on there like a Toa Nuva stood in front of her and folded their shoulders in to their chest by ninety degrees. Sometimes, in this last case, they may be tilted a bit.
     
    None of these work. None.
     
    All you get is a MOC who looks like she's patronized the fine med grads down in Beverly Hills on one (or more) occasions. They (or in the case of the watermelon, it) just sticks out like a pirate at a ninja convention. Unfortunately, this tends to prompt some rather inappropriate comments from the folks replying to the topic. Fortunately, neither I or the rest of the BBC staff are willing to put up with this. So, that's one thing we can directly deal with.
     
    (And I will freely admit that I have done this for some of my MOCs in the distant past; however, you couldn't pay me enough to do it on a non-joke MOC in the past two years or so. I learned. It's possible.)
     
    However, there still remains the issue of the shoulder armour. That isn't so easy. I can't exactly make it a rule: yeah, there might be a thing or two wrong with that. I can't go to each of your houses and pry the pieces away from you before you make such a placement. Really, the most I can do is ask you to seek out other options, and frankly, that's the only route I'd take, even if the others were open. This has to be a voluntary thing: you have to be willing to find other, better options.
     
    You don't have to have each and every point of the curve defined. You don't need to differentiate between left and right. Just build something that fits the MOC. In so many cases, that isn't Nuva armour. That isn't a mask for each one. It's something else. It's something smaller. I don't know about individual areas, but the D-cup isn't the average size.
     
    Please, please, please give this a shot.
  5. Tufi Piyufi
    So you got yer fan-made groups of Toa, right. Doesn't have to be Toa, really, but that's what you're most likely to run into. And then, of course, there's the ever-so-delightful patterns Lego has set up. And then, because you're reading a Tufi blog entry, you know which one in particular I'm gonna mention next. It can range from two guys/one girl to five guys/one girl to seven guys/one girl or even six guys/two girls, if the creator is outrageously forward-thinking.
     
    But wait! There's more numbers! There are so many numbers yet to come! From the rest of the group (because guys can be distinct and girls are just, to kick off an entry of trope-dropping, The Chick), you've got the leader. Or you've got the self-insert. Sometimes they're the same guy. For the ease of writing, and because there's no real difference in how the two operate in this phenomenon, we're gonna suppose they are in fact the same guy. He can range anywhere from a straight-up personality port with the occasional superpower and Stuish tendencies to full-on raging Gary Stu. You will always know him when you see him. He isn't necessarily the creator's explicit self-insert, but you will always know him.
     
    Know also that there is a 94% chance the girl!Toa will be his girlfriend. 1% of the time, they'll be out-and-out married.
     
    Alright, I'm fudging the numbers a bit there. Sometimes there's just really heavy romantic tension. And I haven't actually seen any that are married. But that's fairly irrelevant: all I'd have to do to correct it is change 'girlfriend' to 'some kind of romantic thing going on'. And maybe add that one percent back. To say 95% of The Girl Ones exist for some kind of romantic deal with the Self Leader Guy is an overstatement of mere thousandths of percentage points.
     
    This is the Happy Funtimes List portion of the blog entry, and what I want you to do is take this with you next time you run across one of these My Bionicle Girlfriends. Take the list and a moderately-to-extremely caffeinated beverage of your choice. I do not, in fact, want you to incur liver damage.
     
    Take a sip every time one of these is true:

    She is romantically attracted to the Self Leader Guy She is his girlfriend It is even admitted she is based on a girlfriend or a girl the creator fancies Every single word used to describe her that means attractive Take additional sips at personal discretion if she is continually described as attractive throughout the given work/description/topic She's the 'emotional centre' of the group She's the wisest of the group She's always supportive of Self Leader Guy's leadership She's feisty, but never too spirited She's 'mysterious' and may as well be a different species from the rest of her (male) group She has a mask that serves no practical offensive purpose, barring the presence of mindblowing writing/mindrending writing Three if she has an elemental power along the lines of 'love' or 'light' or 'spirit': five in addition (for eight total) if, god help us, it is love She's got pink somewhere (most likely in non-MOC incarnations, naturally) Despite all logic, she is the only one for miles (which is how long it'll take to find another woman, and surprise surprise...) with any sort of hair or hair analogue Extra sip for a given point if it is described in terms that describe it as 'unlike the men' or 'better than the males' or other similar language Once finished the given item (or if out of pop: this is a very real threat), start the stopwatch. The final score is how long it takes for the world to stop shaking, measured in hours:minutes:seconds.
     
    Have I yet mentioned how incredibly likely it is she's gonna be Self Leader Guy's girlfriend? It is so very likely. Why, she might actually be based on his girlfriend in real life. But why stop there? Why not base her on who the creator would like for a girlfriend? There ain't no law. Might be kinda creepy, but ain't no law. You will know when the Bionicle relationship is not based on an actual relationship if the Bionicle relationship is utterly, crystal-perfectly idealized. Then there is the event horizon past which even an idolized crush has been raised to such a point in the work where she can only be said to be utterly fictional. It is as terrifying as it sounds. Lovecraft would have written about this, if it wasn't for his issues.
     
    And she's always pretty. Or beautiful. Sexy? Alluring? Take your pick. It's been used. The key point is how the narrative describes her. A character or two going on about her atrractiveness is one thing. When everyone, even the narration, can't shut up about how mesmerizing she is or something, you got a whole other ball of wax. Clearly, in the Bionicle universe, there is only one option for female characters: attractive. Unless there's old women or more bestial races, but don't expect them to be spared from the lookswash. Bonus points if she's called on to use her sexiness for some end. And god help us all if the word 'wiles' ever hits the screen. Actually, at that point, we're beyond divine intervention.
     
    Don't get your hopes up over any real subgroups of Bionicle Girlfriends: they're all basically the same character. Imagine, if you will, a control board. The biggest feature on this board is 'emotional sensitivity'. To the left is the label 'tough but with a chewy, care-y centre'. To the right is 'absolute pacifist who's more in touch with life and things than those barbarian men'. You quickly find that the left label is a sterling example of an informed attribute and, if a work goes on long enough, blatantly lying about the toughness. There are more things wrong with the right label than you wish to consider at the moment. Cringing a bit, you check out the rest of the board, whisking your gaze away like children in the wrong place.
     
    The 'wisdom' slider. You find quickly it will not go below a certain value of 'wise'. Squinting to read the words carefully, you see 'far more enlightened than the males of the group' at the top. You recoil a little bit, wondering if you didn't just leave behind the section on antiquated notions of gender. Maybe the one next to it is better?
     
    'Assertiveness'. Yes. Here we go. You feel hope once again. On the one side, 'totally passive'. On the other side... 'Sometimes She Says And Does Some Things, But This Is Not To Be Mistaken For Actual Independence Or Spirit Or Any Of Those Uncomfortable Things'. The board does not survive its encounter with the trendy brick wall. It became all-too-apparent that the Bionicle Girlfriend occupies a neat little role as 'accessory'. 'Sidekick'. Not quite on equal footing with Self Leader Guy. We need to maintain those gender roles, you know. It also becomes all-too-apparent you picked the wrong day to stop playing caffeine drinking games.
     
    Speaking of, here's a bonus round for artwork. Extra sip if she's portrayed all snuggly or fawn-y with Self Leader Guy. It's hardly mandatory: inclusion in the game proper is probably going to push you to dangerous levels and/or tax your drink reserves. And in that same vein, be ever-wary of toa!Huki/Maku art. Ever wary.
     
    And then, Narrator preserve us, there's the little issue of her powers. It is where you cry 'what kind of a lame power is heart, anyway', but never conclude that 'heart is an awesome power'. There's her mask, typically something mental in nature. The telekinesis is never used to awesome ends. Or sometimes she's saddled with the just plain useless ones. It's never anything offensive: apparently, the shapes of those aren't nearly as 'feminine' enough as the fandom might like. And oh, the things I could go on about there.
     
    But what about her element? But what, indeed. Usually, it's something from the scant handful of 'female' elements. Sometimes, someone has the guts to stand up to canon (I like to think my being Empress means canon will never rule in BBC) and give her another one of the standard elements. There is a third option, though, and it is far more common. Apparently, having people tell you 'but fire is for boys' is far more dreadful than freaking spirit or 'light' or love sweet Jason people make love an element with a straight face.
     
    Ahem. Never forget the old gods. That said, the third option is woe-inducing. It's always something so blandly, sterotypically 'feminine.' Like 'spirit'. Or 'light'- but not the normal light tribe. Oh no. It's usually more angelic in nature, because blah blah purity (another one!) blah blah too good for this wicked planet blah blah angels. And then we get to the unspeakable horror that is Toa of love, and I just puked in my mouth a little. I'd like to think that says it all. Please. Please tell me that says it all.
     
    All these things and more (so, so much more) combine to make Bionicle Girlfriends. And they're everywhere. There's no escape. Even the rare 'second girl' has a 70% chance of falling into this category, though generally with another character. While maybe not fitting the classic definitions of Relationship Sues, there's no mistaking what they are in form and intention. So yes, guys, we did in fact see what you did there. And you can't see it through the Internet, but we're cringing.
     
    Or you could, you know, not do this and just make good characters that happen to be female. That's always been an option.
  6. Tufi Piyufi
    There's a word people love to throw around when it comes to MOCs, artwork, and sets. But not just any examples, oh no. It only really pops up when the subjects are female.
     
    You don't get to be surprised that's what this blog entry in this blog is about.
     
    I've seen some great female MOCs get posted in BBC. Streamlined yet well-armoured, minus the woefully out-of-place ponytail, and in footwear you can actually fight in. I often regret not publically recognizing them as they come up for just plain getting it. Something always comes up and before I know it, I've lost the chance. And believe me, it is regret. It is a deep regret that I never manage to post in these topics and applaud the builders. I can't tell you how much I regret not offering a voice counter to what's heard instead.
     
    These MOCs are great, you see. Maybe some general technical and/or aesthetic qualms, but you'd be hard-pressed to find any MOC without them. But that's rarely the problem. Instead, I see people talk about how these MOCs are 'great, but not very feminine'. These MOCs, with silhouettes and lines of movement that have captured je ne sais quoi in a jar and put it on a shelf. These MOCs, already a step ahead of the general crowd. These MOCs, that for once, are actually feminine.
     
    And then it dawns on me like a smoggy sunrise.
     
    These MOCs also tend to avoid the trend of putting two things on her chest just 'cause girls have two things on their chests. And believe me, they're things. They're not breasts. They bear no resemblance. Sometimes they're round? But that and the numbers are the only resemblances. They stick out terribly. Did I ever mention in this or any other entry that they always stick out? There is no room for anything less than a D-cup in Bionicle, it seems. Even that's on the small end of things.
     
    And then, the MOCs with spine-shattering chest tumours are the ones deemed 'feminine'. Really. Never mind that they could have shoulders that'd be out of place on Onua. Never mind that they could have the hips of an especially elfin 10-year-old Matoran boy. Never mind they could have all the grace of a herd of half-tranquilized gorillas. I guarantee you, the vast majority of posts in topics like these will praise the 'femininity' of the featured MOC.
     
    So near as I can tell, according to the Bionicle fandom at large, 'femininity' isn't a set of subtle qualities that work together to convey a general aesthetic sense. To be 'feminine', all you need is huge round things on your chest. That is the definition I have determined from countless posts and topics. That's the definition that seems to be on the books.
     
    That is an absolutely terrible definition.
  7. Tufi Piyufi
    In order to break this horrific block of inactivity, I know I have to post some manner of entry. Thing is, I have no clue what to write about. This does not help things.
     
    Therefore, I'm gonna have to do one of those sorts of entries.
     
    You heard me. What you do is ask me questions, and what I do is answer them. Or not answer them, if it's something I'd really rather not discuss. Or smite inappropriate stuff.
     
    So? Go for it.
  8. Tufi Piyufi

    Just A Little Thing

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    So.
     
    New serial update, I see.
     
    'First' canon instance of romance, I hear.
     
    Sahmad's got a lady in his life? Wait, no, had. She's dead. Long dead before we ever got to her. Dead, nameless, and seemingly only around to provide angst for her living, named guyfriend.
     
    She needs a name.
     
    I propose we call her 'Fridgey'.
  9. Tufi Piyufi

    Curiosity

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    I moderate GD. As such, I often wind up reading the topics contained within that forum. Funny how that works out.
     
    While reading that topic in particular, I noticed something. The phrase 'haven't entered any (since) because there's no theme that interests me (yet)' or a variation thereof comes up a fair bit. I can't help it: as BBC Contest host, I tend to be interested in these sorts of things.
     
    So tell me, folks, off the record: what would be an interesting theme?
  10. Tufi Piyufi
    So I've been modding BBC for almost five whole years, right? You see a lot of things in that time. I'd like to think I've learned a lot just by proximity. And there's this one thing that, I dunno how long it's been sitting there in my mind, kinda seems like it shouldn't take five years to hit everyone else. So, I shall share it. Brace yourselves.
     
    When you're building, think for your own selves.
     
    Winding yourselves in 'rules' and 'guidelines' is a horrid way to go through the creative process! Before long, you start worrying about those little details, rather than if your MOC is actually interesting. You treat the 'guidelines' as the only things that matter, forgetting that examining how real-world people, creatures, and things will do you far more good than someone telling you 'these colours should never be used together' ever will. You get so caught up in these meaningless little things, you start measuring yourself by how well you follow those 'rules' and you get more and more fixated on them and you think you're better and better for it and you wonder why those 'tasteless kids' here at BZP never post in your topics don't they know that you're one of if not the best builder around and and and...
     
    Well, is it any wonder, when you're so caught up in the inane and in yourself?
     
    I can't stress this enough. The BZP populace is way smarter than it's given credit for. People who go on about how they never get posts in their MOC or art topics? They rarely, if ever, stop to consider 'is this actually that interesting?'. Let's just ignore the attitudes towards the general populace that seem to accompany these guestions for now: those are for another day. It doesn't matter how 'technically perfect' your guy-with-weapon is. It's a guy with a weapon. It's been done thousands of times before. Is he really that different, that interesting? Chances are high that 'no, no he is not.' I rarely ever see 'make it interesting' or 'make it fresh' in these lists of 'tips'. It's a bit unnerving to me.
     
    Never mind the entitlement complex inherent in 'oh, nobody ever posts in my topics, even though my works are so good'. The posting population of BZP doesn't owe you anything for posting a picture of some pieces or some pixels. They're really not that interested in how good you say and think you are. They really, really aren't. They want something they can actually say something about. That 'horrid' piece done in Paint that's getting way more posts than you? Might have something to do with its artist taking a chance and trying to draw a Toa in a rough-and-tumble action scene. They probably aren't thinking about 'how great' they are when they make things like that: they're just drawing a picture of one of the heroes being awesome and doing their thing.
     
    And, oh, the horrid fascination around buzzwords we seem to have. Every time I see 'needs more custom ahahaha look at this joke and how funny and not-tired it is', I get this inescapable urge to shoot something. Okay, it's actually rather escapable, by reminding myself not to let its mindlessness get to me. This whole 'custom' 'debate'? You all look horribly silly. Knock it off. Same goes for other words people like to bandy around to try and look like they 'know things, man.' Fusion is one of them. Knock it off. Lego is Lego is Lego. Start thinking that way and you'll find things get a lot easier than when you tried to make it bigger than it should be. All those other words and phrases that escape me at the moment? Knock it off.
     
    Yes, you absolutely should read and accept the comments and critiques you get. I'm not telliing you to ignore those. I figured I should mention that, because people have a habit of taking something I say and claiming I said the exact opposite (still not sure why people think I'm 'anti-breast', but hey). I just want you to cut yourselves out of the unimportant things, is all.
  11. Tufi Piyufi
    Bionicle's rules about elements and what genders they can be are like the racing spoiler on a Honda Civic.
     
    At some point, you thought "what my car really needs is a racing spoiler." So you went out, bought the spoiler, and installed it on your car. They're not exactly naturally-occuring things: you kinda had to take the initiative on this one. Point is, you stuck a racing spoiler on your Civic.
     
    Why? Because it gives a great performance boost, that's why! It reduces drag and increases speed or something like that! If you didn't have it, you'd struggle to drive. It's absolutely critical to the operation of your car, and you simply won't hear otherwise.
     
    And it just makes it look cool. It's totally one of the high points of your car. By simply adding your spoiler to your car, you've given it a life and depth that you simply could not get otherwise. It just... it just adds something. Nobody likes Civics without racing spoilers! Everybody knows this!
     
    Sure, some of your friends totally dig the spoiler. They totally nod along and talk about how important the addition of the spoiler is. And then there's all the rest of your friends, who just ain't having it.
     
    They really don't know why you had to go and stick a racing spoiler on your Civic. They really don't see the point. Remember when your engineer friend had to excuse himself that one time you were talking about air resistance or something like that? He had to go clear out a hastily-arrested spittake. His drink went up his nose, you made so little sense. Not in, like 'guys who put spoilers on their Civics-sense', but more 'sane people-sense'.
     
    You know how you have a harder time seeing out your back window? That's the only effect your spoiler has on your Civic. A hinderance.
     
    And it's a heck of a lot less attractive than you think. Why do you think hardly anyone ever wants to go with you in your car? They're worried you'll get pulled over for going through yet another stop sign, and the cop's gonna see them, sitting in the backseat of a Civic with a racing spoiler. "Officer, I promise, I try to pretend that thing doesn't exist." They'd really, really rather go with Ted. You know, guy who bought a Civic but didn't put a racing spoiler on it, Ted. Ted with a beard.
     
    And yet, you just won't hear of any talk of removing the blasted thing. It's a part of your car! They're just looking for things to hate on! They're really in the minority! Why should you remove it?
     
    Because the beyond-arbitrary rules behind elements and genders are pointless, hindering, and so very much not a selling point of Bionicle. Even a racing spoiler on a Honda Civic has more point.
  12. Tufi Piyufi
    Once upon a time, I drew this.
     
    It was a couple of years ago. The forum refused to show any signs of life. I was bored. I still had Photo-Paint. I believe there was some ridiculous-female nonsense in some forum or other at the time. There were no blogs, and I wasn't about to go posting it in the Artwork forum. At the time, however, there wasn't really anywhere else to put it. Oh, the dark days before blogs.
     
    I wasn't going to post a topic for it because I'm not so fussed on the pictures themselves. The point, yeah. The loose idea behind the pictures, yeah. But the execution... eh, I could do better. I might do a new one once I get everything back together.
     
    Anyhow, the point behind it. Note how the breasts on the left Nokama are angled out, not perfect circles, and actually look like they're subject to gravity. No, they aren't huge and obvious. No, there isn't any cleavage. You don't really get that naturally. They're kinda like a couple of same-polarity magnets that way. They sorta go out 45 degrees from the centre line, if you'd like that note.
     
    As for the one on the right... I hate to say that she's only a slight exaggeration of some figures/drawings I've seen. There is even a small group of people who would love nothing more than to see all females drawn/built this way. Please ignore them.
     
    So yeah. More learning from proper anatomy books, less 'studying' Liefeld and company. It isn't a case of 'go big or go home'. Sink and separate. Take off the hormone-coloured glasses first. All that stuff.
  13. Tufi Piyufi

    Hee Hee

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    It is getting beeeeeeetter...
     
    You doubt me. You doubt me! But not even the whining over #50 can get me down right now. Oh no.
     
    Sunshine and kitties, folks. Sunshine and kitties.
  14. Tufi Piyufi
    Hi. I made the BBC Contest #46 prelim polls. I'd like to talk to you for a second.
     
    If it were up to me, there would be a program that could take a posted entry list and turn it into perfectly random polls with but a press of a button. This would be simply marvellous. I even know all the things it would have to do: I'm just not a codemonkey in the least. Until then, it's all gotta be done by hand. And believe me, it's all hands. Copying, cutting, pasting, creating thumbnail URLs... There's not a lot of room for higher thought in there. Just about all the thinking involved is 'wait wait wait the URL didn't copy' or 'no, no, numbers are too close, numbers are too close...'. Coming up with a group of poll names is difficult because I have to switch my brain from repetitive task mode to higher thought mode.
     
    Also, you heard correctly in that last paragraph. Numbers. It's the entry numbers that affect what poll you go in, and nothing more. It's a matter of spacing entries out best as I can get them (though the fact that the entries never divide up evenly always makes for fun at the end of this stage). I remember when polls were 'the first ten entries, then the next ten entries, then the next ten...'. People would purposely avoid entering near entries they feared. This system was changed long before I ever became a host, and if it should ever come to that, I will rise from my grave to kill the host of the future who brings that system back.
     
    I make them as random as a human who wants to get the polls up within the month can make them. And you know what? There's always people who deem them 'rigged'.
     
    Not that the 'r' word itself has come up this contest, mind you, but the accompanying attitudes are still there. 'Random' apparently means 'not sharing a poll with an entry other people might think is better than yours'. Guess what? That mindless program would still wind up creating polls people think are 'rigged'. It doesn't know who's popular or who's really good or what have you. It just sees data.
     
    You know what would be rigging the polls? Arranging them so that no two 'good' (as deemed by the loudest crowd, of course) entries are in the same poll, so that they all go on to the semis. That would be rigging. And, sadly, that seems to be what some would rather have.
     
    Hey, folks? Sometimes life just ain't fair. It's a contest for building with children's toys, for god's sake. Stop acting like I killed your puppy.
  15. Tufi Piyufi

    The Empire Grows

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    Lookie here, I got myself a new minion this week. Yes.
     
    Maybe this one'll be different. Maybe she won't try to usurp me. Maybe she won't 'mingle' with any of my other minions. Maybe I won't get so much backtalk from her. I'm still holding out hope.
     
    In any case, I've got myself a genuine princess now. That means she's got a much, much bigger chance of becoming Empress should I ever kick off. Yeah, that's right, guys. You just moved down The List. Bigtime. No, Kex, getting yourself pranked won't help you now. Just before you ask, yeah?
     
    Ah, this is delightful indeed.
  16. Tufi Piyufi

    Reassure Me

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    Tell me I'm not the only one who feels this way.
     
    Remind me I'm not the only one more miffed by the person flaming the spammer than the spammer themselves.
     
    Show me that people still see the value in using the report button.
     
    Let me know that someone out there sees that it's more use to the novice creative mind to kindly help them improve than to tear them down for thinking they're better than they really are.
     
    Reassure me of these things.
     
    I know you guys are out there. I know you're still out there. Sometimes, though, you get these feelings of doubt when you're looking at the opposite all the time. Just gimme a little poke and reminder, eh?
  17. Tufi Piyufi
    So I've been staff for... cripes, almost three years now?... And I've seen more than my fair share of spam in that time. I've been BBC staff for about two and a half years, and I had a fair stretch of time in Artwork the Whole too. As such, I've seen just about every way possible that people can spam. I wouldn't go so far as to say I've seen 'em all: one has never seen it all, and can never hope to. All the same, I've seen a lot of that sort of thing, and I may as well go on about some of 'em.
     
    Generic Posts
     
    These are possibly the most frustrating to deal with, as not only are they so easy to do(and thus pop up very, very frequently), but to the poster's eyes, they can appear as perfectly legitimate posts, and are thus reposted (often in almost identical form) after deletion, even though this is not something you are to do. Deletion occurs for a reason: we don't just ride into topics and lop off posts at random for the thrill of it. The thing is, they're also some of the easiest for the poster to correct: all you have to do is take a look at the MOC, pick out something you like, and talk about that. Though, this does somewhat lead into my next point:
     
    'Nice design' does not count as a specific comment
     
    Oh, if I had a buck for every time I've seen this. It's akin to saying 'nice MOC', it's that generic. At the very least, 'nice legs' or 'like the weapon' narrows it down a bit(though it is still very, very borderline, and I'd highly recommend that you add more to such a post), but 'nice design' really says nothing at all. So, if that's all I see, bye bye post.
     
    'Reporting...'/'That's spam!'
     
    You don't need to tell the whole board you're reporting a topic/post. You really don't. Likewise, you don't need to post just to tell somebody that they're spamming. All we ask is that you just report the post/topic quietly. We'll take care of it from there. That's what we're here for, after all.
     
    'She's hot! *insert drooling*'
     
    Not technically spam, but it fits quite snugly into the category of 'things I've seen too much of.' After all, I was a host for Contest #30 and I was still in Artwork(I think, my memory might be a bit blurred since I still spend a fair bit of time in there anyways) when the explosion of 'borderline' art hit. Now I'm going to say something about it.
     
    Yes, there are numerous young males on this forum that are around 'that age.' That is still no excuse to let the forum descend into an inferno of hormones. We still expect a certain amount of maturity and decency from our members: topics for a female MOC or art piece that turn into little more than a discussion of her 'attractiveness' fall below these standards. Sometimes, this starts with the opening post itself. I've closed several topics for this very reason. In some cases, I- and other staff members of the forum in question- have posted warnings beforehand, but we still wind up having to close them anyways. We shouldn't have to. We really shouldn't. A MOC/art piece being female shouldn't be an unspoken invitation to scrutinize her 'attractiveness.' It's not a necessary component in reviewing female MOCs/art pieces. I could go into BBC or Artwork and do the same with every male MOC/art piece, but would I? No.
     
    Besides, you wouldn't stand a chance with her anyways- you best just move on from that.
     
    And there we go. Some notes on what not to do. For your reading and reference.
  18. Tufi Piyufi
    I've done a bit of counting, folks. I managed to finish this particular count very quickly. Did you know that we've only got one female set this year?
     
    Now you do. Remember this: it is an important part of the entry.
     
    One female set. One. That means we only really have one female character in all the story this year. Yeah, yeah, so there might be those 'book-exclusive' characters. Honestly, folks, does that really make much of a difference? Not everyone's going to know what goes on in the books (and chances are, you're gonna have to ask 'well, what exactly does she do?': it's not exactly going to be big or meaningful or vaguely memorable). Yeah, sure, and you can also claim there's more back in the village. Like that hasn't been used before. "You've got a whole village out of six: isn't that enough?"
     
    Apparently, 'boys don't want to play with 'girl sets''. Apparently, the current belief is that boys will develop cooties sores and die or something if they're exposed to more than a bare minimum of femininity. Apparently, you have to market toys to one gender or the other, but certainly not both. Oh no. Boys and girls liking the same things? That'd be like cats and dogs playing together!
     
    Apparently, a whole half of an age cohort doesn't count as a potential market in any way, shape or form.
     
    There's more, gentle readers. One of the reasons given for making only one element female (and it's barely even a hard-and-fast rule anymore) is that 'it makes them special'. Speaking as an actual female, let me say that this isn't exactly a compliment. We're not 'special' just because our chromosomes landed a certain way. Being female just means we're female. We've got some crazies. We've got some geniuses. We've got some morons. We've got a lot of folks that, regardless of gender, you would describe as 'normal'. You know, regular people. Making femininity something 'special' sort of makes masculinity 'normal' by default, and I'm not exactly fond of that. We're talking about beings that are partly mechanical. The 'normal' should be the indeterminate.
     
    We only get one or two female sets a year. Last year, two: this year, one. We just might get another one next year. Wow. I don't care for the whole 'it's a boy's line' excuse: do you honestly mean to tell me that young boys/girls (because 'girl's lines' suffer this same problem, I assure you) should be kept away from a proportion of female/male heroes that reflects the population they see every day?
     
    I don't know what to say if you do.
  19. Tufi Piyufi

    Just Some Notion

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    In the first contest voting forum (the one set aside for the BBC contest), there are twenty-nine polls for two hundred and eighty-four entries. 284. That's a pretty big number. It pushes the boundaries of the English alphabet, in fact. This was the least of my problems today, but hey. So, I came up with a solution, and moved on to the more pressing things.
     
    Polls Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. They've got a certain ring to them, don't they? I certainly like the sound.
     
    Maybe I should do a full set of polls that way one time. Perhaps not this time, but maybe for #42. Eh? Whaddya think?
  21. Tufi Piyufi

    Top Ten Tunes

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    On UltraPuffinPod. A fairly fresh list: the data's only had a month or so to build up.
     
    The concept is simple: a childhood with a noticeable lack of opportunities to listen to the songs I do love so has resulted in a young woman who finds the best feature of any music player to be the 'repeat song forever' option. Thus, highly skewed song play stats! Listed in order from most played to least. Gaze and be amused.
     
    I Can't Decide - oh, Master.
     
    The Way - old people ambling off to die. I'm a total sucker for that sort of stuff. Plus, the tune adds like thirty plays by itself. These two are somewhere around 130-140 plays; the next highest playcount is 40. Yeah.
     
    King of King's Song - ah, there's my Katamari tunes. This is the song sung by the King himself during the credits level of We
     
    Mesaze Pokemon Master 2002 - but one of many versions of the first Japanese themesong. While the others lean more towards rock, what with the guitars and the riffs and all, this one's a bit dancier. It's enough to squeak it ahead, anyway.
     
    It's the End of the World As We Know It - see note about childhood song scarcity. Did you know that, in the 90's, Animorphs fan pages were all about the little 'jukeboxes' of MIDIs? Those were the awesomest things at the time. Those and Realplayer. I think those are why we're looking at this song in this position.
     
    So Long, Marianne - it's non-gravelly Leonard Cohen! And he can still write songs! Such a thing was possible. Such, such a pretty song.
     
    Crazy - radio keeps me anxious no more. Also, Sheogorath is the bestest and this is the perfect song for a romp in the Isles.
     
    All Good Things (Come to an End) - my, but Nelly Furtado has a lovely voice.
     
    Katamari Dancing - my favourite Katamari theme, the one for the game I'll probably be waiting a good while longer to ever play. Made all the more horrible by the number of songs on the Beautiful Katamari soundtrack I love to pieces. Ah!
     
    Katamari Tea - like here. Were people really complaining about the sound of this game? Ye gods. And here I am, shot down fiercely. I hope you guys appreciate what you have. Appreciate!
  22. Tufi Piyufi

    In All The Worlds

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    the list of one Ms. L. Piyufi's
    Favouritest Fictional Characters In The Whole Wide Worlds
    an assuredly-incomplete catalogue

    Milo Bloom
    Princess Elizabeth (The Paper Bag Princess)
    Chihiro
    Mike Warner
    Samus Aran
    GLaDOS
    Lyra
    The Ellimist
    Sheogorath
    Emily the Strange
    Nocturn (done properly)
    Blanche Hunt
    Rufus
    Bob 'That Guy' Smith
    Every Red Version Narrator Ever
    Cybersix
    James
    Jessie
    Viola
    Optimus Prime
    Princess Leia
    Daisy
    Neo Cortex
    Frank Costanza
    Alyosha (as written by Mr. Durang, thank ye)
    Samantha Carter
    The Brain
    Pinky
    Rodney McKay
    Jay Sherman

    I'm gonna cut it off there for now.

    The above is a list of the many characters I have encountered over the years who I simply love to bits. Seriously, something bringing all these guys into one place would be beyond awesome. You might never see me again. I'd likely die happy. This list contains a mix of characters I'd love to have as friends, characters I'd love to have as family, characters I wouldn't mind snuggling up with, characters I can look at and go 'that's me!', and characters who are just plain awesome.

    One is already given to you. Bet you can't figure out where the rest are from.
  23. Tufi Piyufi

    Oh, Makaru

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    (No, not dead. Just metaphorically narcoleptic.)
     
    I do hope you enjoy that sig and avatar. I know I do. That's why I made it. And you had to love it too, didn't you? That's fine. I won't be parting with this fine Willis work for a while, so you've got plenty of time to enjoy it for yourself. Don't get too attached, though: remember you are but a borrower.
     
    Which is why that sig is wired to explode should you refuse to relinquish it when the time comes. Actually, no. It's the avatar. I've had to fiddle around with that sig too much to get the wiring hooked up. I was all 'finally, triumph' when the text didn't look atrocious.
     
    Though I suppose you change sigs often enough that this won't be a problem. And I guess it wouldn't be too scandalous if we had the same banner. Still. Just in case of something else...
  24. Tufi Piyufi

    This Is The Issue

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    I've been a BBC moderator for over four years now. That's four years of having my eye trained on the place. Four years of watching the Western Bionicle building community. That stretch of time includes the Rahkshi, Metru Nui, the Hordika, the Piraka, and the Barraki, among the other sets released over the years. There's quite a shift to be found in there. We went from the Nuva with incredibly limited articulation, to the Rahkshi with their knees and working necks, to the Metru with just about everything except for torso articulations and full shoulder movement. That's a massive shift in three years.
     
    That's the sets side of things. However, I'm not a Sets moderator anymore. The days of my attachment to Sets have worn off for a long, long time. Besides, everyone and their dog is blogging about sets these days. This is about the more MOC-ish side of things, and the folks who favour showforum=6 over showforum=2.
     
    If I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned 'the declining state of MOCing' during this time, I'd have enough money to bother suing myself for using an overworn cliche and be able to live in luxury for the rest of my days. Those who summon this phrase often go on to elaborate why they think it's that way, typically citing something along the lines of 'too many bad builders'. Too much new, inexperienced blood muddying up the pool.
     
    No. No no no no no no no no no oh for no.
     
    There is an issue, yes. It has nothing to do with the quality of appearance of MOCs. It is so far removed from that, it's not even funny. It's the typical Internet boogeyman: blame it all on the 'noobs' so you don't have to look at yourself and maybe see that there's something up with you and the other established members. As much as I could go on and on about that in general, tonight I speak about how it manifests itself in the building community.
     
    It's all the bloody humanoids.
     
    They're the only thing a vast majority of people build. So much time is spent banging at the typewriter, trying to find the magical combination of parts that is the best. They're the only things a lot of people know how to review. Heck, there are people who, when thinking about a MOC to build, will only think in terms of humanoid. That is, 'what should I do for the head, arms, weapon, torso, etc.'. To so many people, that's what a MOC is.
     
    And you know what? It's even worse than the boogeyman. The whole spectrum of building skill is plagued by this, right up to the ends. It's a death of imagination. Creativity. It might be a bit hard to see at first, but you have to look past the new pieces of each year. Once you do, it becomes more and more apparent that you're looking at the same bloody thing. The pieces are pure distraction. It's a blur. It's all one big blur.
     
    Now that those contests are long over, I can tell you that I was just ecstatic when Roa's wreath won contest #39 and Shan's stone-Mata Nui won contest #40. It was proof that the public doesn't actually hate different concepts like those. They won't shun you for trying something new and different. They're not the obstacle here.
     
    Speaking of contests, why do you think we had #41 and #42? Rahi contests. Because even Rahi are so scarce. Heck, the typical vertebrate configuration, when you lay it out, is pretty dang close to the humanoid. It's just build and postured differently from animal to animal. Even this deviation seems to be too much. #41 and #42 were the biggest contests we've ever had, but good luck finding a Rahi from May on. Or before March.
     
    I already know what #46 is. It's not a question. The responses gathered by my 'Curiosity' entry only reaffirmed this and told me that no, I wasn't so crazy for thinking it up. Just so you all have a warning.
     
    The concept of 'fusion' is a big one. Mixing System parts in with Bionicle MOCs is regarded as one of the higher-end skills. It ends at the parts, though. It takes the parts and leaves behind everything else that is Lego. It leaves behind the very creative soul of Lego. Remember how you'd build all those ships and robots and animals and forts and what-have-you from your System when you were young, building the wildest things you could dream up, and you loved every minute of it?
     
    Go back and pick that up.
  25. Tufi Piyufi

    What Have I Done

    By Tufi Piyufi,

    [twitter=3]tufipiyufi[/twitter]
     
    See above.
     
    This alone puts me where I would not expect to be. But this was not enough! No. I just had to rush out and nab an appropriate app for the iTouch. This puts me in some very high ranks of... well, I'm still trying to figure out what happened. You will be the only app of the sort I use. Yes. I swear to cat.
     
    Dear god, next I'm going to be updating the thing from inside a Starbucks. How does this happen? Please keep me away from the hipsters.
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