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Showing results for tags 'BZPower'.
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You read right -- the second S&T contest will be starting tommorrow, so I decided to give you guys some information in advance to get yall's psyches in contest mode, as it were. I'm not going to tell you the themes yet--and there are three closely defined ones, so you can't get started until you know what they are. But I will reveal this now: the contest will be a Short Story Contest. Members will have a chance to write a story that is required to fit with the official story, only using official characters (within the three themes), and once entries have been judged to be official-accurate, they will move onto a round of polls. ("Judges" will not be picking winners--that is done by poll.) The three winning entries will become considered part of the official storyline. Main concern with this idea is the time of those of us who are judging the accuracy of the entries--I will lead them, and at this point it looks like three of the RKs will help. We're trying not to take the burden completely off of Greg to help, except if he has extra time and feels like it--he's pretty busy right now--so that means any other help would be greatly appreciated. Stories will be posted as topics in S&T (and losing stories will later be moved to SS, where they can still work great as fanfics), so that means anybody and their brother can help comb through the stories to find innaccuracies. And their sister too. So any of you Fact Team members, BS01 Wiki Staff, or anyone who is knowledgeable in the story at all, I'd really appreciate it if you could make a commitment to helping with this judging. I am willing to officially designate more people as judges, so I'd like to hear from anyone willing to help with that. Entry period begins tommorrow whenever the contest topic is up (the 22nd), and goes to noon of the 30th; last day of June. Stories will be 400-4000 words long. And in case you worry about this -- judges can also enter, since they do not pick winners. No chance of bias that way really. Judges would be pointing out any errors in the story topics, and they would therefore have the authority to be authorizing the member to PM me with an edit so they can qualify. A judge must approve every entry before it can go to the polls (and preferably more than one judge, though that will depend on everybody's free time). Reason being no editing by the member is allowed to prevent cheating. Only I can edit changes in. And only changes allowed would be to fix typos and to fix accuracy problems. If this is unclear, feel free to ask any questions (might not be able to answer yet, but ask anyways!). Further details will be announced in S&T tommorrow. UPDATE: Well, there are now 17 judges, which is definately plenty, so for now, I don't need any more volunteers. Thanks a million to the 17 who answered the request so promptly--I expected more like three or four to join before the contest went up, but got about 12 right away. Thanksmuch! Well, hope yall will have fun with this! I look forward to reading your entries! (And no, the theme has nothing to do with submarines or Beatles.... ) Edit: Yeesh, the whole submarine theme turned out to be very fitting for this entry. See here.
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One...more...day...of...AC11...in...second...place... I've never been higher than third in an art contest before, so I'm really excited. I MIGHT ACTUALLY WIN THIS ONE! *twitches* I think I'm gonna die of stress. ~Nikira
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After nearly two entire months as Princess Peach, over 1,000 posts in hot pink with a wub smilie, and hundreds of PMs about it, I am finally back. To be honest, I only have a faint memory on how this whole ordeal even began. The prankee making a typo on the abbreviation “gj” inspired the whole prank idea. That formed my member title, and the avatar, banner, and custom rank image were also formed. A little while before me, one of my fellow FAs was also pranked -- Than. For a week or so, there was a chaotic topic on our pranks, which eventually was spammed up to a point where closure was necessary. Shortly after that, our Matoran of Faux Topic Closing and the Village People was changed back to the Angry Matoran (I’m sorry to report that the Faux Closings do still spring up at times, you have to watch out). However, the Princess still stood tall and proud, just as pink and pretty as ever. In between all this, another FA was pranked -- Redeemer. Unfortunately, he disregarded my warnings, and what I had left of his hair was thrown into the incinerator. Oh, and if you ever want an easy win at online golf, you know who to ask. Shortly after that, Omi was united with his favorite fanny packs. At least somebody is enjoying his prank. Oh, and speaking of Omi, it was all his fault that I had that disturbing banner. My apologies go out to anybody who received any injuries due to this image. I’m sure you might also be wondering about this “caress the server” thing, as it did also appear on the banner, but it’s an inside joke kinda thing that only Tufi and I will fully understand. Again, highly disturbing. Try and push the mental images out of your mind. For the last several weeks, the PMs I had been receiving about the prank also started changing. It went from people asking about the prank, to people asking if I really was PP, asking my gender, asking if I was ever going to be changed back, asking if Kex had died... I mean, all kinds of things. And now, alas, Kex is back. To a degree, you could say I “earned” it, but that’s nothing for you to worry about. Just be glad there isn’t a pink fool in the presence of your beloved BZPower. And remember, normalcy is overrated. -Kex
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Well, the first round of polls for Art Contest 11 end in an hour and 22 minutes, and I'm leading my poll by about 110 votes. Now that I look over the other leading entries in handdrawn, I'm thinking that I have a slim chance of winning this AC. Curse me and my badly-done text! ~Nikira
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That's right. 4. 4 years on this site, and hasn't it been a blast. Just for nostalgic reasons, I went and checked out old topics in Artwork from back when I didn't even have the 1-year Vahi. Saw some old names now unknown to most, and some old names of members who are still around. I even found one of my topics about ficticious BZPower staff bands. Modsmack, Administration, AgainST... I'd forgotten all about how I worked together with Deadalus on those, how we made up (bad) lyrics for the songs, wrote up reviews and interviews... Fun stuff. I think that, at this point, I've been part of the staff for the larger part of those 4 years, as I joined the Support Team during my first year here, quickly moved on to the Moderating Team, took a six-month break (may have been shorter than that), returned to the Support Team, back to Moderating, and now part of the Forum Leader Team. And apparently, I'm still not tired of being a staff member. Partly because I'm quite motivated to keep my forums running, but mostly because after 4 years, I still enjoy the BZP atmosphere and company of kindred spirits, be they artists, MOCers, authors or just excentric. I've achieved a lot during those years: improved my art a great deal, improved my spelling (though not by much, this BioLog will see them as well), improved my knowledge of the English language (I'm Belgian, if you didn't know that yet), improved as an MOCer and writer (though not in the field of activity)... In any case, here's to Four More Years! (And in case you were wondering: yes, I have posted a celebration sketch.)
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Well, the AC11 entry period just ended 'bout a half-hour ago, and someting's still bugging me. What happened to Captain Schizo? ~Nikira
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I'm totally fed up with the Village People. Especially their leader. -Kex
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Some of you may have been wondering whether I would enter the current art contest (or perhaps hoping I wouldn't). As a matter of fact, I've had the general concept and composition in my head for a while, and even though I realize the composition has its downsides, I feel this is something I couldn't help but create. Not everyone may like the final version, but I will. The deadline is the 17th. Cutting it close, as I've only done one third of the sketching work (if time allows for it, even one sixth of the sketching work). And then I still have to CG everything. Luckily, I've experienced that working with my Graphire4 tablet allows me to work more smoothly and efficiently. Not much faster, but that may come in time. Yay for tablets! As soon as I've got the hang of working with it, I can finally start on the BBC contest 35 prize next week and actually deliver something good. I'm already looking forward to it, but the art contest comes first for the time being. Of course, my Finals aren't over yet - still four to go, but there's no exam tomorrow, so I'm hoping to make three more sketches in between cramming periods. That brings me a lot closer to the CGing process, which is good. The final exam on Monday is a portfolio discussion, so I can still get some work done on Saturday. And with those time zone differences, I've got more daylight time to spend on it. For once, time zone differences are an advantage. I'm quite excited about the sketches I've made today, and I hope the others will turn out to be as impressive (or even moreso). And that's my BioLog for today. Now I'm off to watch some Monty Python's Flying Circus on the telly. Yay for reruns, too!
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Come in, come in. Entry be granted, but wipe yer mucky boots b'fore stepping into me quarters. As this is my first entry, I'll just start by saying that I've never been much of a blogger. I used to update my DeviantArt blog from time to time (say, every six months or so), so it's not a new thing. However, this is the first time I'll be blogging for the BZPower community, and that's a first. It's different because I generally express myself solely through posts and PMs on internet communities. It's different because I can now express myself on subjects I generally wouldn't address in a forum post, or at least delve into these subjects more deeply. It's also different because I'm not one to talk much about myself or what goes on inside my head online, and when I do, I only do so with a few people. So why change that? Why crawl out of the rabbit hole? Well, yesterday I watched the Metallica 'documentary' Some Kind of Monster, and I realized that, by having been given insight into how the band dealt with bassist Jason Newstedt leaving and their own, reordered group dynamics, into how they came to create the St. Anger album, I found new meanings when listening to the record, different layers, different emotions. So I figured: if opening up to a wider group of people can bring that about, why don't I apply it myself? If anything, I can only hope to increase mutual understanding within this community in which I've now spent nearly four years. Which brings me and you both to this blog, or BioLog as I'll be calling it from now on. (Just because I don't like the sound of 'blog'. When hearing the word, I always get a mental image of finding a snail in my mug of coffee. With some luck, you will too from now on. ) So what will I be talking about? I've got my final exams, final final exams. I've got art I want to put on paper and from there onto your screen. I've got MOCs I've been waiting to build for ages. I've got many other interests beside Bionicle, interests I feel just as passionate about. Perhaps I'll even cross the bridge of talking about my real life experiences, who knows. But right now, step one for me is to talk about my duties as a Forum Leader. Now, this is by no means a justification. I don't feel the need to justify myself, because I'm doing a job, and word has it I'm doing it well enough. Consider this a clarification. Over the years, I've had quite a few conversations with members who've suddenly found themselves confronted with a proto energy drain. I don't think I need to explain that the reactions to this are many and varied, from all-out cursing to endless whining, sometimes even messages from parents (both fake and genuine). No matter what the reaction, my explanations usually boil down to the same. I thought it would be a good idea to start off my BioLog by creating a public version of them. Proto deductions are always a result of one breaking this site's guidelines. For a lot of people, the first reaction goes somewhat along these lines: "I didn't know that rule, so it's not really my fault for breaking it." Not always that exact phrase, but it usually boils down to it. BZPower is a Bionicle fan site, and thus caters to a young and constantly renewing demographic. Children and young teenagers sign on, hang around and in most cases, lose interest somewhere along the line, even when they stated a year before to never lose interest, ever. That's just the way things go, and there's no need to worry about it when it happens or even feel guilty about it. But that does mean that the larger part of our community has a high influx and exit rate. Every day, kids sign on who are new to the forum experience, and every day we lose experience members wise in the ways of the forum. Not only that, but there are many of us as well. This creates an extremely active and laden atmosphere, in which one post can trigger an avalanche of reactions that bring chaos to BZPower's order. An atmosphere, sadly, in which it's increasingly difficult to look at each case individually. Coaching each and every new member is simply impossible. The result is an increased workload for the BZPower staff. We need to draw the line and inforce the rules. And inforce them strictly, because the larger the member base, the greater the need for sending a clear message. Now, of course we try to be lenient towards new members. We were all new ourselves, and despite our age at the join date, we can all remember at least one occasion where we broke a rule, simply because we were new. Chances are, the younger you are, the less attention you'll pay to the "boring" rules. So we give new members a few chances, tell them how things work around here, and hope they'll catch on, which in most cases, they do. Sadly enough, in some cases, they don't. That's usually the point where PE is taken. Even then, there are those who wise up and improve their posting behaviour or general attitude. Others, sadly, go about it the wrong way. Sending in two or three reports, hoping to earn back the lost point that way. Pleading for days on end or even swearing to the point where the disciplining staff member has no other option but to block the offender from PMing them. Or just plain rushing ahead, regardless of rules or merely giving them a quick glance. It's a sad occasion when we realize our attempts are in vain. We realize the weight of this on a younger member's experience of the site, each and every time, but we cannot allow it to burden us to the point where we can no longer function as staff members because of guilt. As I've said, BZPower's demographic is young, very young compared to other message boards out there. We know children will start their BZPower carreer by posting: "Cool! That rocks!" When you've been here for a while, this sets your spam sense a-tingling Spiderman-style, but for most kids, this is no different from how they express themselves in real life. At that age, any achievement above the usual is greeted with such exclamations, and that's okay, because you're among age peers. On a site like ours, despite LEGO targeting 8-12-year-olds, we get Bionicle fans as young as 6 and as old as 40 (or older, don't quote me on that). With such a mixed audience, we try to raise the bar a little, so everyone can enjoy BZPower, feel at home and get in nice. And after all, that is what BZPower is about: news, reference and discussion. Not news, reference and praise. Not news, reference and one-word messages. News, reference and discussion. We all learn how to have discussions during our youth. We don't expect young members to join us and go from spam to intelligent, in-depth, well-argumented contributions in one week. Heck, not even in one month or even one year. But we do expect an effort, because learning is simply a part of life, and you can learn online as well as anywhere else. Sadly enough, there are those who do not feel that a decent effort is needed. Sadly enough, there are those who do not apply common sense when posting. It's normal, and nothing new to us. But we must still step forward and react, or we will lose what we've strived for these (almost) past five years. And that is to provide a disciplined, child-friendly service paired with quality discussion. Sometimes the former will affect the latter, sometimes the latter will influence the former. Yet we must always retain that balance, because otherwise... it just wouldn't be BZPower anymore. I realize this entry is quite serious for the likes of me, but I hope that I've been able to bring my point across based on my own experiences (both as a staff member and the child I once was - and sometimes still am) and insights. For now, I must bid you guys to step lively and get out of here. The Captain has other things to attend to, and will see you on the forums. Arr, see ya very well, indeed.
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I guess another title could be "There's Something About Topics." Ah, so you want to be a staff member of BZPower because you think it's all about fun, games, and closing topics? Well, it probably is that and more, but there are downsides; since Tufi's covered spam, and Schizo's covered Proto: things which are out of my jurisdiction, I'll just talk a bit about the things I do know: closing topics and taking reports. Closing Topics: Love It or Leave It Being staff of COT (one of the busiest/most chaotic forums), there are so many topics that if I had the choice, I would close in a heartbeat. (I won't say what because that's not important.) But like all staff members, save the Admin groupings, I have certain rules to follow. Just because I don't like something about a topic, I can't just close it; that's just not how it works. First off, it wouldn't be fair to those that do like the subject, and unless the topic becomes too unstable (like a certain former COT topic) or is flat against BZP rules, its fate is not sealed. Besides, I might one day become interested in that particular subject: tastes change, after all. Second off, if I can't control myself from closing topics just because I'm not interested in the subject matter, where would I stop? With a topic made by someone I disagree with? Who knows. Only when a topic has served its purpose or lived its usefulness will someone generally close a topic (ie., topics based on timely events). If there is something against BZP rules, then it's closed as soon as possible. If it's an official topic, it stays open as long as it is official... I won't go into official topics, as that would best be something said by a Forum Leader or higher. Reports: Sometimes You Can't Do Anything As a Forum Assistant, I do get the same post reports that the Forum Leaders of my respective forums get, so any given report (with the new forum, some are exact duplicates) will be seen by at least three people, if the report didn't get lost in the shuffle; alas, some of the reports I can do nothing about, much as I would like to. If it has to do with a particular post, I can neither edit nor delete, but I digress and will let someone with that ability cover it, if s/he so chooses. Anyway, that brings me to what I would like to address: the post report button is meant for just that: reporting posts/topics. If you have a signature report, please send a PM with a link and name of the profile and the offense: It will be easier to investigate and deal with it that way. If you report a post for a signature violation, someone else might report the same post for spam, flame, etc., and a Forum Leader might delete the post before noticing it had a signature violation. In which case, the link in the report won't take anyone to the right post, and whoever tries to follow the report will reach a dead end. In the case of deleted posts, the link will generally lead to the opening post of the topic. So please, if you feel that a signature or avatar violates the rules, feel free to drop a PM to any Forum Assistant (not that I'm hinting or anything). ©1984-2006 Toaraga EAM
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I did stuff for my (and your) fun on my blog. I made a "funny quote of the month" content block, with a real life and a BIONICLE quote for viewers to laugh at, and a "question of the month", where I try to stump you and you use your logic! (PM your answers). Enjoy! -Canama
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Ok, why does EVERYTHING happen when I'm gone for a month? Dr. B's a FA, the Art Contest finally came up, and since WHEN did BZPower have blogs? Ack. >< ~*~ Well, I'm finally done with school. I finished a 10-page research paper on George Lucas yesterday (got an A-), thus ending my 10th grade year! Whoo! Now, with school out of the way, I can concentrate on my AC11 entry, which is now almost halfway done (I need to finish inking it). The category is not a favorite for me, but I'm crossing my fingers and hoping I'll get above 3rd place in handdrawn this year. Oh, and SC...yeah, I'm still not done with..ah...your request....eh-heh... *runs for life* ~Nikira
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I'll be taking a break from BLOGGED for a little while. I'll post again when I'll be back. (This is only BLOGGED, NOT BZPower alltogether) StF
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As you may have noticed, I'm back. I will continue putting entries up. -Canama
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Yes, another day passes by without any replies. While everyone else has a million . Guys, I NEED replies to the CAVES II name thing! Are you guys really going to make me do it by myself? *BZPers: Yes!* Well fine . I don't see what makes everyone not want to reply. . . ah well.
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Most of the people who will be reading this are most likely good, honest members who never would consider making a dupe account. So maybe you'll find this interesting. As the Administrator that handles all the Awaiting Authorization members, you'd be amazed at how many people there are that try to make duplicate accounts. I won't tell you how we find them, but we do, and they usually stick out like a sore thumb. Then there are the ones that blatantly try to bypass our language policy. And the ones with fake e-mail addresses so they can register multiple accounts. I probably go through at least five to ten of them each day, every day. It's kind of sad really. They just never learn... And there you have it, a little behind the scenes peek of part of what goes on in BZPower.
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If you're wondering about the constant changes a few moments ago, that was me messing with the content blocks. I might change it up more. -Canama
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Released: Ask the Toa Inika! (My brother is my co-author, he is yet to post) Coming soon: Double C and Hau comics! (Will be by Canama and Cookieo) and maybe an epic (will be by me).
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I should make the next chapter of my comedy within the next week. Look for it! -Canama
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Highlight for spoilers about the next part of Ask the Toa Inika Highlight --> Axxon takes over for the Inika while they're on vacation. They go to Galveston, TX. -Canama
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I like the Blogs because I like being able to post all this stuff in the same place. It was real nice of the Admins to do this. My faveorite part is being able to post without getting replys. -Canama
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Well, this is my blog! I'll fill this up with reviews and stuff about my life. -Canama
