Alchemical Solutions [Worm/Exalted] Thread 9: Icon’s Idiosyncrasies Incite Irritating Inquisition

Considering the content of the posts you pulled up as examples of what is allowable and the content that got Grom banned, I can see how it would be hard to find the line on what is and isn't acceptable with a map, both hands and a local guide.
 
.IronSun. said:
Considering the content of the posts you pulled up as examples of what is allowable and the content that got Grom banned, I can see how it would be hard to find the line on what is and isn't acceptable with a map, both hands and a local guide.
No, it's really pretty easy.

Acceptable is whatever the moderator presiding decides it is.

You can get some intermediate judgements, but it's a good idea to just not post anything you wouldn't be comfortable showing a reasonably intellegent five year old.
 
Amorous Intent said:
Right, I'm going to stop you right there. One, the problem is with the presentation, not the events, as I detailed out in my :effortpost:. Two, "even approaching sexual content" is nowhere in the rule. The anti-pornography rule is as follows:
I was referring to the ruling which we're getting uh, third-hand (although I have seen Grom's original post on another forum about it, and yes I'm interested in clarification from the moderators -- I assume they're just busy given the recent stuff) quoted in this post at the top of the page you made your post on:
John At Dawn said:
Grom on QQ said:
Just received some clarification regarding my whole debacle. Since there will likely no longer be a public post in the Alchemical Solutions thread about the ban, nor a post about the new SB policy regarding Worm threads, I might as well try to get the word out:

All Worm-related threads on SpaceBattles are currently under a new policy regarding anything even approaching sexual content. There are no longer any warnings or 'slap-on-the-wrist' infractions. Should a post even come close to objectionable content, the policy now calls for an immediate ban: low-end of three days, high-end of several weeks.

Apparently this is the same policy that was enacted for the MLP threads some time back, and is thus referred to as the 'No More Pony Porn' policy.

It's unfortunate that this policy change was never publicly announced, but what's done is done - hopefully by spreading the word others can avoid a similar kerfuffle as my own.
So yeah. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
I assumed that, given you were posting on the same page, you were posting under that context.

The issue of "I don't view it as sexual" still applies to the written rules, because it's completely subjective. I don't consider it an "explicit textual description of sex" or "pornography". Obviously your view is different. I agree that ES's post is also neither of those, and my earlier post was based on a different context.

This is one of the problems with subjective rulings. In this case it's exacerbated by the decision not to hand out infractions or warnings so the first time someone finds out they're not toeing the line is when they're banned.
 
Jinnt said:
I kinda had a super paranoid thought the other night that fett was trying to drive Grom to SV since he's one of the biggest quest runners that stayed.
What.

No.

Grom was getting banned anyways, since no mod on the board thought it was acceptable content, and the Worm Crackdown had already begun (Because the fandom had rather clearly showed that they could not be trusted with anything at all). I implemented a shorter ban than recommended, in part because I felt that it may well contribute to the exodus to SV, and I felt it would be wrong to creatively interpret my moderatorial powers (Even in manners entirely in the rules!) in order to promote grow SV. (Also in part because he actually edited it when he realized what was going to happen, instead of the normal crock of shit you lot gave me when the hammer came down. So, hey, incentive to not be a prick about the incoming banhammer.)

Also, reading the responses to AI, I have a distinct feeling a lot of you don't actually deal with females very often. Seriously.
Vindictus said:
No, it's really pretty easy.

Acceptable is whatever the moderator presiding decides it is.

You can get some intermediate judgements, but it's a good idea to just not post anything you wouldn't be comfortable showing a reasonably intellegent five year old.
In this particular case, acceptable was what every involved moderator decided it was. The only real difference of opinion was in appropriate punishment. Indeed, there has been, like, one case of a dissenting opinion among the mods on this sort of thing in the last month, and as a result there was no infraction or ban.
Chandra Magic said:
Really, the only one that saw it as sexual was...you.

Now, you'll tell me that the mods obviously agreed with you, because Gromweld was banned. The fact of the matter is though, that he got caught in a blanket 'can't be even a possibility of it' banning of it, because Worm has been trouble for them, with idiots.
Indeed, I will tell you that the mods agreed with him.
Carrnage said:
It reminds me of "Gay Chicken" that we used to play in high-school.
...the entire point of that is that it's sexual as fuck.

This is, in fact, the core of Gay Chicken.
 
Chandra Magic said:
I do, yes. However, I know for a fact that scene was not for fanservice. Or for sexual shenanigans. How? I was there when he wrote it. That was a natural progression for Aisha to go and, while most of the after school specials lie about what goes on at, say, a slumber party, girls do, actually, at times, touch and grope each other for nonsexual reasons. It is rather rare that it does, but in the rare cases, like the scene we're talking about, that was a perfect example of, a yes, joke grope/touch. With no sexual meaning of it.

Really, the only one that saw it as sexual was...you.
And guys pull their dicks out all the time with no sexual meaning. If you write something detailing someone's dick, though, you're gonna get banned. Turns out that the sexual meaning of a scene doesn't always relate to whether the characters see it as sexual.
 
Which is completely acceptable and SB's choice. I'm more interested in clarified rules (which is a difficult situation because then you have people trying to loophole them and use them against you) or at least useful examples, to reduce the number of missteps. In that respect the tightened restrictions are easier to understand, but will reduce the number of stories that can be told here. And perhaps that's necessary because of the amount of work the mods have to put in to police the Worm fandom, so those stories simply have to be told elsewhere.

I only spoke up because I considered AI's earlier examples to be unworkable and misleading given the adjusted policy.
 
Slamu said:
So, in the interests of moving on to brighter topics, what do we expect to find in our new destination? Will we finally be given our own Tinker workshop? Will we need to patrol the streets in search of the criminal element, or will we be allowed to lurk in the base preparing nefarious devices tools for the equipment of Endbringer response teams? Maybe powered armor for everyone, since we can maintain it while we're sleeping?

I don't see Glen Chambers wanting Weaver wandering the streets while she's in full Robocop mode. (Speaking of which, only one dot in Bureaucracy? How will we know if laws are being broken if we don't know the fair price for a used yacht on the open market?)
Well, we're one interval away from being able to purchase the 2nd dot in Bureaucracy. As for Glenn, by the time our group gets to Philly and settles in, our Clarity will hopefully be in the 0-2 range (0, preferably) so that we'll be acting like our normal self again. We'd likely switch between doing some tinkering and doing patrols. Power Armor for the BB group at first, followed by any Philly heroes who want one. A medium term project all told.
 
I'm uncertain whether we'll be asked to patrol. Our Thinker powers and PR value might make the PRT decide that it's inefficient for us to.
 
Slamu said:
So, in the interests of moving on to brighter topics, what do we expect to find in our new destination?
EXCITEMENT and ADVENTURE. And, possibly, a home that won't spontaneously combust in two to three months time.
Will we finally be given our own Tinker workshop?
Finally? We had one in BB. Sadly, it caught fire and is now a radioactive puddle at the bottom of the bay due to unforeseen circumstances.
Will we need to patrol the streets in search of the criminal element, or will we be allowed to lurk in the base preparing nefarious devices tools for the equipment of Endbringer response teams?
If we have to patrol that means we need to punch whoever is in charge of (para)human resources for general incompetence.
Maybe powered armor for everyone, since we can maintain it while we're sleeping?
That's been my plan since, like, Thread One. We keep on getting distracted by things such as getting shot in the face or having our workshop exploded by the monster of the week month. It's very annoying.

Hopefully we won't have the same fight over why it's a good idea to get powered armor with flight like we did when I first proposed we get it for Taylor.
I don't see Glen Chambers wanting Weaver wandering the streets while she's in full Robocop mode.
Probably not. Unless he has some devious PR rollout in mind. He's a crafty one, that Glenn Chambers.
(Speaking of which, only one dot in Bureaucracy? How will we know if laws are being broken if we don't know the fair price for a used yacht on the open market?)
We're pretty good about buying useful ability dots as they pop up, but getting people to invest training time in abilities that don't have immediate combat benefit is like pulling teeth.
 
FunkyEntropy said:
We're pretty good about buying useful ability dots as they pop up, but getting people to invest training time in abilities that don't have immediate combat benefit is like pulling teeth.
One more interval for the second dot. I'd imagine there's some paperwork that needs to be done to settle in once we get to Philly.
 
Yanslana said:
Just found this story/quest today and spent the morning reading the story, going to re-read it again now, but just had a quick thought:

What's up with Coil and his new "ability"? The chances that the events that happened will be rewinded? I recall somewhere that said he was splitting timelines for a month then not taking either choice or something of the sort.
Coil's power is a type of precognition. He doesn't realize it, and thinks he's seeing both timelines as they happen. Instead, his power runs two hyper advanced simulations, decides which one to go with based, and then moves Coil through that timeline. However, Taylor caused his shard to go haywire and forced it to try and adapt. Now he knows it's precognition, and can use it multiple times. So he can try to attack a person twice at once, and if both tries fail, that's ok, because all he did was sit still for a second.
 
Slamu said:
What would it take to make a mass-produced version of powered armor that works best in conjunction with similar units? Would encouraging Tinkers to get posted near Taylor to take advantage of the drastic reduction in maintenance and increase in productivity be something worth pursueing?
Dragon and Masamune would be very important for true mass production, I think.
 
We've been over this so many times, there is no Tinkertech specialty. It's not a specific field, it's literally every single field imaginable including some that modern science doesn't even know exist yet. We could have a specialty in something that makes making and understanding a specific kind of tinkertech easier, but no general tinkertech specialty is possible.

We'd maybe be able to get reverse engineering as specialty, but I doubt Grom would offer it.
 
FirstAndForsaken said:
Keep in mind that exceptional mortals may already have Lore and/or Craft 5 (or even 6, with the Prodigy perk), yet these folks haven't been able to figure out Tinker tech. Having Abilities and/or Attributes at 5 represents mastery at or near the upper bounds of mundane human aptitude. A deep understanding of Tinker tech, however, appears to require superhuman technological know-how ordinarily provided by a parahuman Shard (i.e. a space monster in your brain). We might be able to reach this level of proficiency with fantastic dice pools (e.g. from Excellencies), but it's also possible that figuring out Tinker tech on a deep level would require specialized (non-Excellency) charms.

The lesson here applies more generally: we shouldn't overestimate the power of our base Attribute + Ability pools. At best, our base dicepools are on par with a what specialized heroic mortals could manage. The very best mortal specialists may have dicepools of up to 13-15 in their areas of expertise (Attribute 5-6, Ability 5-6, Specialty 3), and can stunt for extra dice just like we can (maybe... stunts might be exclusive to folks running on motonic physics). If a task is outright impossible for mundane humans, it'll probably be impossible for us too until we have applicable charms that let us either add tons of dice, or break normal rules. Simply put: we can't perform truly superhuman feats unless we have charms that let us do so. This is a great reason to focus on getting Vats access, so that we can requisition new charms.
This is true, except we have a specialized charm for this purpose. Technomorphic Integration Engine lets us understand everything we store in our hammerspace and gives us substantial bonuses to duplicating it.
 
Yanslana said:
So why did he want to kill her? I thought he was happy to find that use for his power.
Because Essence is inherently unpredictable. He can run simulations with her in them, only for her to act completely differently when he actually executes the plan, thus invalding his prediction. It's the same way Taylor messed with all other Thinkers. Their powers are litterally going does not compute.
 
Alchemical Solutions returns May 1st.

Planning on daily updates for all of May, so get your Quest Pants/Skirts/Kilts ready.
 
Gromweld said:
Alchemical Solutions returns May 1st.

Planning on daily updates for all of May, so get your Quest Pants/Skirts/Kilts ready.
That sounds like the perfect setup for burnout Gromweld. Not to mention the likely shortened voting periods will lead to less refined and detailed stunting. Are you sure about this?
 
NotAlwaysFanfic said:
Because Essence is inherently unpredictable. He can run simulations with her in them, only for her to act completely differently when he actually executes the plan, thus invalding his prediction. It's the same way Taylor messed with all other Thinkers. Their powers are litterally going does not compute.
Essence isn't inherently unpredictable. There are Exalted charms (including Alchemical ones) that can predict it perfectly.

It's of course an open question whether a shard can duplicate that feat (hopefully not).
 
Gromweld said:
Alchemical Solutions returns May 1st.

Planning on daily updates for all of May, so get your Quest Pants/Skirts/Kilts ready.
Just a thought but have you considered making an offsite archive/backup just in case? I've heard stuff about how the huge influx of summer posters will seriously strain the server and might actually cause it to die for good this year.
 
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