Some thoughts and memories from/for an almost 10 year Stratics Mod.

[kelmo]

I have about a week of Stratics as I know it now. No matter who wins the auction... change will come.

On that note. I am not a current Stratics staff member. My recollections, opinions and out right lies do not reflect the opinions of Stratics, Broadsword, UO, EA, EIEIO, or anyone living or replicated in any manner.

Where to start... Oh Mags! I have a cat named Magdalene. Just so you know.

Well... Like I said in that other post, Stratics scared me off the first time. Really rough crowd back then. Did the whole Ianstorm thing, we all shard hopped, then we came to Siege. This resulted in one pretty incredible player run area. I say we ran it... we chose to die there a lot. That is another story.

I had one of the most active and populous player run towns on Siege if only during that time. I pissed all that away. That is another story as well.

What I want to remember right now is my very first gentle warning from a Stratics Mod. I was all gung ho Siege back in those days. Very persistent and active. I was relatively new to Stratics, but I has found a voice and wanted to use it.

After a few weeks of beating my chest on Uhall... Magdelene sent me a PM. What was said is not allowed to be re posted as per Stratics RoC. *winks* I was convinced I was in error and changed my ways. Shortly after that I was drafted into duty for Stratics. That too is another story.

 

[kelmo]

I invite any other Stratics related memories. We have about a week.

 

[Zuckuss]

I remember when all of you left. It was very difficult for me, locking those threads ... yet it has inspired me to see it restored to it's former glory and to make Stratics great again. To keep it on the UO path. To restore the content side of things. To bring back as much of the history that was on "old Stratics" so that it can be enjoyed today. I wanted to see it become something that you all would be proud to come back to. I didn't want to see the world's oldest MMO community go down like that.

One day we are all going to be old, and we will occasionally get curious and remember UO. When we want to find the name of that old tavern that you guild from 98 used. When you want to find out that person's name that is a vague memory from a guild long forgotten. Or to see that news report again from that epic event you did. Chances are, those people are going to come here. I am proud to have been apart of it.

 

[Larisa]

I didn't know Stratics existed when I first started playing UO. I was in a mainly PvP guild on Origin called BTH, I'm sure many of you have heard of it. My siggy (Once I found out about Stratics) was an all-black background with LARISA- BTH Kill or Be Killed in bright red blood-dripping letters.

During the initial blackrock phase...when we had to kill the ??? (swirling tornado monster) down in Terra Keep...we had some issues. It was right before then that I had been asked (forced) to leave BTH and had joined a guild called D - Dynasty. There was NO way we were going to be able to kill the beast fel-side due to the sheer numbers BTH had...so, regrettably I gave the secret words to douse the flames to an old BTH member and friend....and they had it killed in less then half an hour. A struggle ensued to defeat it tram side....after 5 of us spent 4 hours killing it and having one particular person run off with the blackrock leaving us all to die at the end I wrote up a VERY long post about the experience.

A few days later, GhostWriter sent me a PM asking me if I'd ever thought about becoming a reporter.

Working with EL of LA and WatcherToo after GhostWriter took his leave, I was put in charge of posting G&C news and the FoF's.

I have seen Devs and Stratics members come and go, but one thing remains a constant....the community. No matter who is here..who has left...there is a sense of...family...here..albeit a dysfunctional one *smirks.*

I might not be as vocal as the rest of the senior staff here, but my passions are the same.

I remember global events..particularly the Inu Event Arc....rushing to UHall to get the latest updates....decipher the new runes, find out what to do next....holiday trading....

Yes there are other sites with this information...but that's all they are...information. Stratics is...so much more and I am very glad to have been a part of it for as long as I have...and hope to continue to devote what time I have to making it the very best place for this dysfunctional family to call home.

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

remember the days when every shard had a shard reporter? or 2, even 3 shard reporters? on sonoma one of our shard reporters, pluffina, was a professional writer in r/l. her stories were hilarious. unfortunately most of her posts were lost with the 2004 crash. back then the shard boards were just as busy as uhall is now. one of my fondest memories was reading the stories posted by pluffina.

 

[Beldin Brightaxe]

I remember Pluffy and her husband Bob McVarious ! Pluffy is the one who convinced me to actually start posting on the Sonoma forums way back then. Before that, I just used Stratics for the guides.

Just so you know, the human who played Pluffy is a published author. Here is her website:


http://www.joshilynjackson.com/jj/

 

[Jirel of Joiry]

Wow. When I started playing in 2001 I didn't know about Stratics, the Offical UO Forum, guilds or expansions. My then best friend introduced me UO, she was known as Krea Downey/Anthony Caxton on Legends. She was worse than I, she though LBR was a whole different UO game.

The Offiical UO Forum came and went I never posted there, Like Kelmo said thats another story.

Krea and I stopped being friends in 2006, that is DEFINATELY another long, painful story. Krea also quit UO, for reasons known only to her.

I discoverd Stratics in 2004. I have had some fun times, some difficulties, and even a few "forced" vacations from the forum. (Oops can I mention that? too late already did ). You all have become a family and mean so much to me. LOL There was even a while that everyone thought my RL sister and I were one and the same. I'm glad we got that straightend out. Maybe someday We'll feel brave enough to post a picture of the two of us.

Just like a "real" family we disagree, fight, argue, but we eventully make up. We try to pick each other up when we're down. We celebrate together, like births, birthdays, and all of life's joys. We have cried together and support each other through change and the leaving of Dev team members. We have greived together each time death has claimed one of our UO family. We are Family!

None us know what the future holds, but my hope is we will face it together as a family.

 

[Gamer_Goblin]

I remember when you couldn't post in Uhall without it getting moved or modded until very few people wanted to post at all.

 

[Kirthag]

My first stint as reporter... I was under Pele and we would pick on him relentlessly... myself, Moo, Lady Mana and a few others. It got so at one point he was venting at us in game - and on Napa, well, we all took our role playing seriously. So in the midst of the Red Eye Tavern, he started screaming at us girls...
"FRENCH FRIED POTATO CHIPS AND FISH BASKET!!!"

We honestly didn't know what to do or say for a few moments. Then we all just starting lawling all over the place! This was before we got into any voice chat stuff - but I know the others were rolling off their chairs just like me! I couldn't type for well over 10 minutes I was just laughing so much.

Ever since... we would "tease" Pele - begging on the boards for our share of french fries.
Damn.... those were the days!
I think I was laughing so hard, I didn't care that the PKers were wiping us out during an event at the Red Eye.... was just so funny!

Just FYI - see that "Joined" date over there? I was one of the first batch of staffers to get "reinstated" after the crash... so much good stuff lost. I have been going through the WayBackMachine as well as my own saved archives to restore stuffs... will see how much of that project I can bring to light.

 

[TimberWolf]

I remember the crash....a sad time so much incredible stuff lost. I remember the empire builders. Mostly I remember that all history, even stratics' history, will constantly be rewritten by whatever new group is at the helm.

 

[Winker]

I just remember over bearing, heavy handed, power hungry, moderators who help destroy Stratics. I guess we will take away our own memories.

 

[kelmo]

Who are you calling power hungry?

 

[TimberWolf]

I just remember over bearing, heavy handed, power hungry, moderators who help destroy Stratcis. I guess we will take away our own memories.

I remember when Stratcis was spelled Stratics...lol

 

[cazador]

I remember when stratics was uostratics.com and everything that was UO was here. It's too bad it's gradually transformed into a bonafide forums. There's not much else to be here for. Uo guide is much easier to use, set up much better and is usually up to date. Unfortunately if stratics dies, it won't be that heartbreaking to like 80% of people. The nazi forum format killed it for that 80%. I just hope the lack of dev interaction and obtaining a cool video of a dev meeting was worth losing that 80% of people and basically killing the community..of course minus the 20% that still vent here :clown:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Nexus]

Who are you calling power hungry?

I don't know...

 

[Corwyn]

I started back in 2001 because a couple of friends of mine were playing. They had mentioned the Stratics site when I'd started, and I found it very useful. I joined the forums here and on UO.com, and I was hooked on both.

Most of my memories revolve around rather heated debates about gold sellers, scammers, PvP, etc. I found myself quickly taking sides and voicing my opinions... fervently.

Over the years, I've come here as the "go to" place for information, even though other sites possibly had more information. Even when I wasn't playing, I'd stop by, just to see what was going on. I didn't post. I'd just lurk.

 

[kelmo]

Stratics was still a pretty rough and tumble place when I first joined as a member. I think my first post was on Catskills as that was the shard I was playing. I think I said hello or some such and was told to GTFO! Many Stratics members were not happy with the influx of new folks when EA shut their UO forum down.

I tried Stratics again a couple of years later. While I was a wallflower on the EA forums, I found my "voice" at Ianstorm forums. This time I posted in Siege Perilous. *chuckles* Good times... The interwebs of 2003 was a very different place than the place we are now. Seems Stratics could not keep staff in place on Siege. Sarsmi and Asmodeus were the mods then I believe.

A PM here... there. A wink and a nod later I was a Siege Moderator. I was really excited to log into the Stratics Staff forum. Some of the Titans of Stratics still posted. This was gonna be cool!

The result of my first post on the staff forum was both of the other Siege Mods quit and wished me good luck. *smiles* True story.

Some will say I killed the Siege forums with a decade (almost) of iron fisted rule. That is a thing... Iron Fist. We used to joke about it on posts long lost. Good times.
Some will say I "civilized" the forum and made it safer folks to ask questions with out fear of ridicule. That was one hell of a ride though.

Most of the time I was Modding Siege was a busier forum than Uhall. Only No Holds Barred was busier. That is another story too.

 

[outcry]

You Kelmo and Petra have been my 2 favorite Mods over the year, always tough but always fair , never let personal feelings get in the way of how you handled things... Wish we could say the same of now but alas we cannot...Wait I forgot Podo for Catskills shard he was always the best and still is...

 

[Spock's Beard]

I'll just join the chorus pointing out that you and your contemporaries absolutely ran this place into the ground with heavyhanded overmoderation.

RIP Stratics: Nobody posted there anymore, but it was really civil.

 

[kelmo]

*smiles*

 

[HoneythornGump]

I'll just join the chorus pointing out that you and your contemporaries absolutely ran this place into the ground with heavyhanded overmoderation.

More than that they drove off a large part of the UO community. There were many UO Stratics members , some of our best and brightest,whom I thoroughly enjoyed listening to that no longer visit these boards as a result of the Nazi moderation that Kelmo was apart of.

It concerns me that with the change of ownership, old moderators will be returning, and we'll see a forum where players aren't allowed to speak freely and voice their opinions, however, unpopular they are.

 

[GarthGrey]

I invite any other Stratics related memories. We have about a week.

Well, there was that one time I got banned from Stratics, and I'm pretty sure you were the one that gave me a reprieve /end story

 

[whiterabbit]

I LUBED THE PLAYER INTERVIEWS
FERGET WHO DID THEM

 

[OREOGL]

I LUBED THE PLAYER INTERVIEWS
FERGET WHO DID THEM

Lady Lava used to do a good deal of these.

 

[OREOGL]

I shouldn't read this board....

What a self inflating load of crap this thread is. Oh how I fondly recall my moment in the sun, it was great and I do wish people would rub my back. Get bent.

No one is forcing you to read it or participate.

If your only intention is to be a dapper gentleman then you have succeeded.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I recall my brief time as a moderator of the Thief Forum. Getting the crates subdivided out of the forum and then shortly later getting kicked to the curb because crates had their feeling hurt...la

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I LUBED THE PLAYER...

TMI...la

 

[Picus at the office]

No one is forcing you to read it or participate.

If your only intention is to be a dapper gentleman then you have succeeded.

Thanks for the input, I shall add it to the helpful advise I keep stashed away.

 

[kelmo]

Best and brightest? *chuckles*

 

[Kolka]

TMI...la

I must be playing UO wrong, because I'm not getting nearly as much out of it as whiterabbit or the player.....

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I must be playing UO wrong, because I'm not getting nearly as much out of it as whiterabbit or the player.....

It sounds like whiterabbit is the giver ...la

 

[OREOGL]

I must be playing UO wrong, because I'm not getting nearly as much out of it as whiterabbit or the player.....

One could argue you must be playing it right.

Imagine the other guy.

 

[Aran]

I remember getting banned a lot.

 

[Uriah Heep]

I often wondered what kinda drugs you took Kelmo-to be able to do this as long as you did without imploding. Sure wish I had some I always admired the way you stood your ground, and didnt bite when people tried to bait you.

Stratics has a lot of good people on it's list of exes...Kelmo, Magdalene (altho I had little contact with here). Petra...a wealth of info and advice, Tazar, and Black Sun (wonder whatever happened to him?).

If Stratics survives it will need replacements as good as y'all, and will need to seriously work over the rest of the site instead of the forums. I can remember when coming to stratics meant finding info and tips, posting on the boards was a small part of it. Now it's all boards, if you are able to navigate thru and find some information from before, you are really lucky.

Good luck Stratics, but I agree, the run is over, and change is coming.

 

[kelmo]

*smiles* Thank you for the kind words Uriah Heep.

 

[Gamer_Goblin]

Best and brightest? *chuckles*

What gets me is that I've seen people moderated for exactly this kind of post. And then everyone given a "Well you didn't see what was discussed behind the scenes" answer. Like that even mattered at all. There's a post, there's a TOS, and then it's banned. It's right that you don't have to explain it to anyone, but the perception is that you're inept as a moderator.

I was never moderated by you, but I did see a lot of threads and posts that I thought were interesting while I was at work and came home to look them up later and they were moved/gone. Or Locked way too early.

Sometimes it was just because people were talking back and forth. No one was going against TOS. It was just a back and forth postings that got a little heated by not out of hand or against TOS. Locked...

Sometimes things were locked after you posted your thoughts, which was the biggest slap in the face. LOL

I just sincerely hope you don't ever get that back.

My real favorite memory of Stratics is the player written Carpentry Lumberjacking guide we had a while ago I can't find anymore. About someone walking through the woods chopping wood. It was just well written and I think about it a lot whenever the guides come to mind.

 

[kelmo]

I was never moderated by you

but the perception is that you're inept as a moderator.

Maybe you have a point.

 

[Gamer_Goblin]

Maybe you have a point.

LOL That was hilarious. Props for that one though for sure.

 

[kelmo]

*chuckles* I always loved the sparring back and forth with good natured and thick skinned folks. Some could take a hit.

I do not feel it would be productive to discuss the methods, doctrines and policies of a Stratics Staff of the past. Heck, only a few are still actively posting here.

If a couple of ass wagons have issues... *shrugs* I do have my team's back and will say we did what we thought was right. We had a great run and good traffic.

Stratics will change in the very near future. That is a fact.

 

[petemage]

Stratics will change in the very near future. That is a fact.

To be fair, it was changing all the time at least since I joined in 2013. Lot of good people left, Developers mostly left, owner changed, ... but somehow the sky has still not fallen

 

[Spock's Beard]

I remember getting banned a lot.

They're just lucky it's so easy to evade their bans or there would be almost nobody here.

 

[Athelas]

If a couple of ass wagons have issues...

Nuthin like a couple of ass wagons...

 

[Spock's Beard]

If anyone posted a line like that during his administration they'd be banned.

 

[Zuckuss]

Let's try to keep this conversation civil and on topic.

 

[Picus at the office]

When you see a spade....nothing new here just another horn getting blown.

 

[Aran]

I often wondered what kinda drugs you took Kelmo-to be able to do this as long as you did without imploding. Sure wish I had some I always admired the way you stood your ground, and didnt bite when people tried to bait you.

What? Kelmo takes almost every piece of bait, almost every time.

They're just lucky it's so easy to evade their bans or there would be almost nobody here.

I have no idea what you're talking about and would have no idea to do whatever it is you're referring to.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Don't hold it in folks, let the poison out lol

 

[Capt. Lucky]

My first stint as reporter... I was under Pele and we would pick on him relentlessly... myself, Moo, Lady Mana and a few others. It got so at one point he was venting at us in game - and on Napa, well, we all took our role playing seriously. So in the midst of the Red Eye Tavern, he started screaming at us girls...
"FRENCH FRIED POTATO CHIPS AND FISH BASKET!!!"

We honestly didn't know what to do or say for a few moments. Then we all just starting lawling all over the place! This was before we got into any voice chat stuff - but I know the others were rolling off their chairs just like me! I couldn't type for well over 10 minutes I was just laughing so much.

Ever since... we would "tease" Pele - begging on the boards for our share of french fries.
Damn.... those were the days!
I think I was laughing so hard, I didn't care that the PKers were wiping us out during an event at the Red Eye.... was just so funny!

Just FYI - see that "Joined" date over there? I was one of the first batch of staffers to get "reinstated" after the crash... so much good stuff lost. I have been going through the WayBackMachine as well as my own saved archives to restore stuffs... will see how much of that project I can bring to light.

I miss the old RP taverns. On GL's we had the Sandalwood Box. A particular red guild camped it for about a month solid one time. It was getting old. One of the GMs stopped in and knew what was going on. He got sick of it and went out and wasted every red around one night, lol. Well they cried about it and got him fired, was kinda a bummer. But they were having fun ganking solitary people as they recalled in. But it was glorious watching a pissed off GM on a roll, lol.

 

[MalagAste]

I miss the old RP taverns. On GL's we had the Sandalwood Box. A particular red guild camped it for about a month solid one time. It was getting old. One of the GMs stopped in and knew what was going on. He got sick of it and went out and wasted every red around one night, lol. Well they cried about it and got him fired, was kinda a bummer. But they were having fun ganking solitary people as they recalled in. But it was glorious watching a pissed off GM on a roll, lol.

Had Kazola's Treetop Tavern as well.

 

[HoneythornGump]

Let's try to keep this conversation civil and on topic.

In other words keep your opinions to yourself...why come to a forum, if your told time and time again, to "keep your mouth shut".

It's contrary to the whole idea of a forum..

I don't see anything that warrants a moderater intervention in this thread. Zuckuss your doing exactly what Kelmo/Petra old mods would do, which is exactly what the gripes are about under the old forums ownership which drove people away from the boards. Please show me the post # that's uncivil.

Is this going to turn into another forum where players can't express their opinions?

People come to forums to express their thoughts & opinions, not be told to "shut the hell up" just because their comments aren't positive or popular.