When we first see someone, say at the first day of work, the first thing we do is take stock of their appearance. Are they dressed extravagantly (if out of uniform), are they tall or fat, how attractive are they? Then we notice their voice. Are they as weasel-like as Ken Livingstone, or as menacing as Darth Vader? After this we come to what they say, and their personality.
However, the nature of the internet means that we communicate mostly through typing, which is utterly standardised (although open to manipulation the change of a font from black to blue is as nothing compared to the variety of voices people possess). Of course we may exchange photos, but this tends (in my experience) to happen after a few weeks or months, if ever.
So, rather than personality being the third thing to be noticed as in reality, it is the first in most net-based relationships. (I take relationships here to mean friendships generally, but this could of course be expanded to more intimate relatinships.) The anonymity of the internet means that we all start from a level-playing field.
Now, if you're shy, or grotesquely ugly or smell, this can be a good thing. If you wear a purple v-neck latex top, male users may pay you less attention than they would in reality (unless you share photos, of course). Very handsome men may find themselves paid less heed than usual as well.
In this way, a net-based relationship can be seen in a rather odd way to be purer than a real one. You know it's a lot less likely for someone to pretend to like you for who you are whilst they secretly just want to get into your pants online than in reality. People listen to what you say, whether you're tall and handsome or short and have amusingly thick glasses.
But...there lies a foul problem with these relationships that can exist in reality. How do you know I'm really who I say I am? I claim to be a 20 year old student from England. I could be Osama Bin Laden. I could be a lapdancer from Manchester, or a morris dancer from Kettering. I could spend my time on 4K to debate and spend the rest of my time grooming 12 year old girls.
Today I was ogling a rather magnificent visage in a lecture, and I can guarantee that the oglee is not a morris dancer from Kettering, or a man at all, or older than she says she is. Anyone you know online and have not met could be lying.
Of course, we take things on trust. Why would I lie about being a student? There's not much gain or motive for me to do it, and I have made only slight efforts to meet anyone else in real-life. It can be a lot easier to socialise and open up online than in reality. If someone judges you just click the x and they disappear. If only we could that in real-life occasionally it would be a lot simpler.
Socialising online can be a lot quicker and easier, and less image-based than reality. But there's always the trust issue lurking there. Many people who wouldn't socialise as much make more contact with people online, but we mustn't forget that for all its convenience, the internet is not a direct substitute, in my opinion, for good relationships in reality.
Travel: Sydney, Australia - Red Maiden
Australia: The Land of Horrible Beers, Muggy Summer Days, and Multiculturalism.
To get a true feel for Australianism, I had the idea of writing this article in two versions. One being in normal spelling, and the other being in phonetic Australian accent spelling. By the time I wrote the article though, I realised it was too long for me to be arsed doing what still seems like a favourable idea. My most humble apologies though!
Australia (Sydney in particular) is what I imagine any other place on earth would be like. It has pollution problems, some shoddy roads, red necks, a high sporting pride and a bad history with the natives. But it also has some truly unique attributes which makes me love my country, and feel so proud (well during the Olympics at least).
I won’t go into all the wiggly details, but I’ll give you a rough idea of Australian history.
James Cook, Captain of the Endeavour, discovered Australia and declared it “Terra Nullius” (meaning uninhabited land), despite it being populated with thousands of Aborigines. He stuck a British flag in the coast of Botany Bay (I think) and declared it British property.
Since Australia was so far away from everything, and at the time in the UK there was a high rate of crime (poverty does these things you know, there was a potato famine in Ireland and general poverty throughout the land. People would steel food and get really high jail sentences for it.). So Australia was used as a penal colony, seeing as all the jails in Britain were becoming quite full.
In 1788 the first fleet of British prisoners arrived on Australian shores to serve their sentences. Upon completion of their sentencing they were given the option of sailing back to Britain, or staying in Australia.
That’s a really short version of it all, I could go on for hours about the treatment of Aborigines, gold rushes etc… But this isn’t a history article.
So now you know how Australia started out. I’m quite ashamed of the history we have in regards to the Aborigines, but on another hand, I feel sort of happy being linked to Britain. (Please note that I’d vote “no” on the referendum on whether we’re to become our own country and cut off ties to the monarchy. I like having a queen.
So yeah, as you can see we have ties to Britain and I think you can still see a lot of British culture about the place through our sense of humour, our strong “beer” culture, and by the way we talk. Not just linguistically, but idiomically (is that even a word? I’m sure Bouchie can figure it out for me). Note from Bouchie: No I don’t think that is a word, but I like it so I left it in!
Along with a British culture, we have all kinds of cultures here! As a result of an effort to populate our country after WW1, the prime minister at the time encouraged people from all over the world to “start afresh” in Australia. We somehow gave the impression that a prosperous life could be had in this “land of opportunities”. My own family came here from Lebanon in the 50s and 60s, and while they had a rough time settling in (my mum especially, she was only young when she came over, and at her school, there was only one other ethnic girl there, an Italian. They were both ostracised because of their ethnicity. Society hadn’t adjusted to the concept of multiculturalism at that point, there were a lot of racist people.) They still, without a doubt, will say that Australia is the perfect country. We have freedom of speech, a democracy, and a laid back attitude.
Sydney:
As much as I will always rat on Sydney being ridden with air pollution (that’s only really in the city and out west) and a dodgy bunch of roads (Sydney just kind of happened, there were no town planners involved (or if there were, they ought to be ashamed of themselves!), they just stuck things where they felt like it), I really love this city. Given I will always wish my family settled down in Melbourne (they have trams! And, like, a strong fine-arts culture…) Sydney is beautiful. With natural oasis’s like the Botanical Gardens (watch MI2 to get a look), Hyde Park (it’s breath taking! And right in the middle of the city too!), and the Blue Mountains. These are all places I’d strongly recommend you all check out if you were ever to come to Sydney.
Of course we have our landmarks too, such as the Harbour Bridge, The opera House, and Centre Point Tower, these are just some symbols as to the creativity and uniqueness of Sydney.
You know one thing I will never forget, is the day that two whales started mating in Sydney Harbour. So many people left work to watch this act of nature that was baffling to most. Not because of the odd location the whales chose, but that the water was actually clean enough for them to prefer it. (Perhaps they figured they couldn’t be fussy, after all it would be kind of hard to find a dark corner when you’re a huge whale).
So today, probably isn’t the best day to describe. I feel a lot of moisture in the air, and while it’s quite warm, there are dark clouds hanging low in the sky. It will most likely rain, which is both good and bad. We’re currently in the longest drought in the history of Australia, so rain is always welcome. But I can tell it’s going to be nasty, humid rain. My hair will curl up now for sure! Hehe…
Last night was a top night however. Around 1am I went out to my backyard for a smoke and while I’ve never found my backyard to be particularly aesthetic at all, last night it looked absolutely fantastic! The sky was pretty light, I’m guessing it was a full moon, and it had that hazy, white look to it. The neighbourhood was so still, and the only sound was this one little bird chirping now and then. It was great!? My neighbourhood isn’t really so busy at all. I live in a suburban area, but we get a lot of through-fare on the road…not to mention screaming children and psycho dogs barking because they just ate a bee….ok well that was only one dog in particular, but yeah, dogs…
? So enough about Australia, what about you? What do you like about Australia?
Har har har…
Red Maiden.
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Status System Comments, by Worker Bee
There has always been quite a bit of speculation about many of the segments of this site... And I rather like speculating about them. Anyhow, somehow it got suggested that I write an article on the status system.
So by status system, I mean the way that everyone has a status... Currently those statuses would be Serf, then Commoner, then Bard. Eventually there will be levels above Bard, but Four has not created them yet.
At this point in time, most people that will read this article will either be a Commoner or a Bard, because it is now set up that people become a Commoner within somewhere between 6 and 14 sign-ins... You know, when someone gets full access to all of the boards.
The point of this article isn't to explain what the statuses are though, because at this point there really isn't a difference between Commoner and Bard... And the difference between Serf and Commoner is quite obvious, it is difficult to miss going from approximately 5 boards to hm, I think over 40.
So if the point of the article isn't to describe the different statuses... Then what is the point? The point is to speculate on the different factors that influence where we status.
First off, the status system is completely automated. Nobody looks at a person and says "This person! They are now supreme king of the world!" or even "This person is cool, let's upgrade them." Nope. It is completely automated, done by a secret formula. The result that comes out of the formula is someone's status (serf/commoner/bard) and... Though only premium members can see it, where they rank exactly compared to everyone else on the site.
So the goal to figuring out what raises ones status is to figure out what the variables in the formula are... And how much the various variables are weighted.
And it should seem that... EVERYTHING is a variable. Just some thing more than others. And everybody has their own separate theory. It should seem though, that there are probably a few major things... And many minor things.
And this is all speculation. To the best of my knowledge, Four has never granted any interviews on the status system... And therefore we don't know if things are right or wrong. It is of my opinion, that the things that are of the most importance are the things that are most important to forming a good community. But yeah, I have no way of knowing.
Major things:
Be Signed In! Obviously if no-one is ever online, it isn't going to be much of a community...
Write Posts! Once again, this is an integral part of having a community... Things need to be said. Whether it is starting a new topic, or responding to other people, it wouldn't really be a community if nobody ever said anything.
Read Posts! What would the purpose be for people to write posts...? Whether chatty or long and thought out, if they thought nobody was going to read them... Not very many people would post.
I think that most people with relatively high statuses do spend quite a bit of time signed in... And I think most of them either read or write quite a few posts (And some do both). I know you don't need to both read and write though... Because I have a fairly high status, and I probably make fewer posts than any other active member. Maybe 10 a week at most. But they are all just variables... Having one variable that is low won't hurt you, if you are good at other things.
Then of course, there are many more minor and trivial things (Any of them might actually be more major, I really have no way of knowing. to me they seem less important though).
I think these would include...:
Getting decent ratings on posts
Rating other peoples posts
Buying/Selling things
PM'ing people
Getting PM's
Probably anything else you could think of.
The point of this article isn't to help people trick the system though, I would be fairly sad if people used this to trick the system. Fortunately, I probably don't even have the system right, so it would be hard to trick. But beyond that... A good portion of these things really aren't fake-able I think.
And why should people really bother to think about it all that much anyways... Just be a good member, and your status shall reflect that fact. It isn't always flawless... Some people became Bards much earlier than people that many felt were better qualified. But overall, it is a pretty good system.
And yeah, at the moment none of it even matters... Though I suppose it shall matter a bit in the future, as soon as we have more things beyond Bard really... For beyond Bard, the path shall break into three sections... Merchant, Wizard, and Noble. People will get to choose which section they want to go into... And each section will have its own advantages and disadvantages... But since they don't exist yet, nobody really knows.
So yeah.
Just be yourself.
And realize how silly it is that a) I wrote an article about the status system, and b) that you actually read it.
Because this site is just for fun, and knowing how the system works really would do nothing except raise the possibility for people to cheat it. And that wouldn't be fun at all.
But for now, we can know at least that most of what we do is valued and counted and reflected into a status that means nothing at all.
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Status Information
Merchant Class:
Apprentice
Peddler
Craftsman/Craftswoman
Artisan
Merchant
Baron/Baronness
Wizard Class:
Apothecary
Conjurer
Enchanter/Enchantress
Mage
Wizard
Sorcerer/Sorceress
Noble Class:
Scribe
Squire
Knight
Nobleman/Noblewoman
Lord/Lady
Prince/Princess
Stay tuned to the 4K Boards - Comments/Updates channel as this story continues to develop under a multitude of threads.
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