I am going to sticky this thread to avoid me having to hunt everything down again and post in new threads. 
The listing of past Stratics Volunteers on the Stratics Team Page (
http://stratics.com/team) is a way of acknowledging and appreciating the hard work and dedication by the hundreds of people who have together made Stratics what it is today. It is only by the whim of the corporate entity owning Stratics and the willingness of the current staff that these names appear on the site. There is no "requirement" for acknowledge. Consider the lists as an homage to those who have given their heart to a community and game they love from those who feel the same who strive to continue the legacy.
If a past Stratics Volunteer does not appear in these lists at this time, it may be due to the fact that gathering the information supportive of an individual's contribution is not always that simple. Records are, at best, scattered. The best way to ensure a particular individual was, indeed, a Stratics Volunteer... is to hunt down and scour through almost 18 years worth of internet archives. This is no small task.
There are two lists on the Stratics Team page dedicated to the past volunteers:
- Administration (Seniors, Administrators, Managers, Executives, etc.)
- Staff (Moderators, Editors who were not Managers, Reporters, Staff Writers, other non-Managerial positions, etc.).
For the sake of clarity and to avoid really jumbling the lists to the point of never being read, the listing of past volunteers will be compiled as such:
- All volunteers will have only their Stratics nik-name listed a single time in one of three lists on the page
- The only lists that will display on the Stratics Team page are...
- Current Staff
- Past Administration
- Past Staff
- No real names of any Stratics volunteer will be used
- Only Stratics nik-names that display on a previously published Stratics Staff Page in archives dating back to December, 1998 will be listed
- All volunteers will be listed in Alphabetical order with the exception of Current Staff, who may be displayed by section of responsibility
- If a past volunteer started as a Reporter, but was eventually "promoted" to a Managing Editor position, they will find their name moved from the Past Staff tab and moved to the Past Administration tab
- This applies to all other "promotions" of volunteers. See list item #1
- Positions past volunteers served as will not be listed, as many past volunteers wore several hats and helped in many ways that go over and beyond their "official title" within the Stratics structure
- As the Stratics structure has changed several times over the years, the only people who will show any "official title" will be currently active volunteers
The only way I am able to confirm who is past staff is by going over the oldest archives and only if that staffer was listed on a
static page as staff. Most data-fed archives are eternally lost as the databases behind them are utterly gone. I've started working from the oldest archives (in 1998) and am still going through them. As of this post I just started to get into the Y2k archives.
This process will take time until finished.
A quote about the restoration process from another thread:
It is my goal to restore as much of the oldest Stratics and UOSS content as feasible. However, it is time consuming and sometimes nerve wracking, particularly when working to stabilize and manage a robust, living website as we have here. I might follow a series of links, only to be presented with a 404 message, meaning whatever it is I might be tracking down is, utterly, gone.
There are some rules we have to follow in this process...
- Anything restored will be restored AS IS. There is no editing of the content that gets restored, including old (and sometimes inflammatory) posts if found.
- Post count from these archives will NOT apply to present accounts. There is just no way to know with 100% certainty who a person was. Even I suffered a couple of dopplegangers around 2003.
- Anything restored will be presented in a static format, meaning it will not be contained within the forum, but a special part of Stratics that with some tenderness might be searchable.
- All content associated to the Stratics website(s) is, indeed, copyrighted and owned (now) by Bazaaro Community, Inc. which can be reproduced in any format so designated. We make all attempts to ensure the accuracy of restored content, linking to sources if/when available.
That is how I am getting all of the past staffer's (Stratics) names.
To clarify, the content being restored will be prioritized:
- Ultima Online content has higher priority over any other game ever supported by Stratics
- Archived forums that can be converted to Guides
- Archived forums that relate to Player Events and Activities
- General Archived forums
There are other categories, but that is my current priority list.
~~~~~~
If a Stratics Volunteer appears on any of the Stratics Team lists and wishes to be
removed, we will honor a PM'd request to myself
@Kirthag and/or
@Ron Bron
We will not remove a by-line on previously published materials or change authorship for those who have changed names.
Articles written by past staff has their by-line, as should be. We are also combing through 17 years worth of archives to compile a list of past staffers and displaying it. If they do not wish to be recognized on the boards or on the Past Staff lists, that is their perogative - but their by-lines are added in by programming and are not being removed. That is a publishing standard.
If anyone has any general questions about the Stratics Team page and the listings that are general, feel free to post here.
