"Transition 2006": Executive Changes

[DaveV]

Thanks, Markos, for all your work over the years. Best of luck to the new owners; thanks for keeping the best Civ site on the internet going strong.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar


The image looks like something Bush might put out if he ever gets around to invalidating the Constitution.
"The National Military Salvation Council has taken control....Please remain calm...."

And Locutus and Mark are real people, whilst Ming and Rah are mysterious Ming Rah entities.

[Lancer]

This reminds me. Just before the whole stinking mess goes down the toilet in Lancer's crapper there's alot of splashing and swirling which I refer to as 'Transition '06', just to add a little spin to the swirl. As the years change just update. It makes the whole toilet going experience more exciting.

I see nothing here that will grow Poly, quite the opposite, but the excitement! Wow! A Royal Flush!

[Solver]

Yes Lancer, we can all only bow to you in amazement as to how much you've done recently to make this a better site

[Winston]

Wowsers.

Thanks to Markos for your great part in establishing, developing and maintaining the site. I hope your continued presence here and "mark" on things is not in doubt despite the changes.

Speaking of changes. Don't change anything. Keep things going the way they are. It's what works, generally speaking. If it's not broken, don't try to fix it is my motto.

Congrats to everyone involved. I hope everybody were happy at the end of it.

[demon59]

Thanks to Markos for all the years of serving the community! Good luck in your future endeavors.
Congrats and good luck to Dan, Locutus, Ming, and rah.

[Lancer]

Yes, thank you Solver! But really, you are too kind...I don't deserve that.

Actually I've warned them for years and been abused for my efforts. Why try? Why not just enjoy the show? I can't think of a good reason not to have a bit of fun with this.

Originally posted by Solver
Yes Lancer, we can all only bow to you in amazement as to how much you've done recently to make this a better site

[germanos]

Can Ming get his 'Chief Minion' back? "Co-Owner/Administrator" just doesn't cut it

[Zoid]

Markos

The new administration

[Will9]

I've been having trouble dealing with the fact that half of Poly is owned by a Canadian. Now that half is the largest portion, I'm having nightmares.

Why is it that only Locutus has been givin an Admin status?

[Lancer]

"Why is it that only Locutus has been givin an Admin status?"

Huh?

[Hercules]

I know it's nothing new but

Best of luck to the new owners; thanks for keeping the best Civ site on the internet going strong.

.

I agree totally with this view.

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Will9
Why is it that only Locutus has been givin an Admin status?

Hmmmm... was just an issue with Ming's badge (Locutus has fixed it). His account is already in the Administrator category given his standing status in the forums. rah previously had Administrator status as well for similar capacity.

Originally posted by germanos
Can Ming get his 'Chief Minion' back? "Co-Owner/Administrator" just doesn't cut it

Sorry, but no -- administrator titles in particular must be succinct and (relatively) clear of the holder's upper-most title. I'm sure Ming wouldn't object to keeping the "Chief Minion" title as well even though it isn't so exclusive anymore (i.e. there are now seemingly three "Chief Minion"s...)

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have expressed their words of gratitude and support since my last such acknowledgment.

---------
Dan; Apolyton CS

[Locutus]

Thanks for all the compliments and votes of confidence...

Originally posted by Winston
Speaking of changes. Don't change anything. Keep things going the way they are. It's what works, generally speaking. If it's not broken, don't try to fix it is my motto.

The problem is a lot of stuff *is* broken.

(Some of) the changes that have been made since Ming, rah and I have been appointed:

- A new Civ4 Content Editor appointed
- Old Contact Page restored (increasing our ability to answer feedback faster)
- Some cleaning up of the forum headers and footers (more of that will follow a little further down the line)
- Various forum bugs fixed: PM Indicator Bug, Scrollbar Bug 1, Scrollbar Bug 2, Ignore List Bug, Very-Old-Threads/PMs-Not-Appearing Bug (not previously announced but should fix any remaining PM bugs that have been reported), etc.
- Anti-bot registration field introduced (not a Captcha but so far just as effective: we went from ~2 spambots a day to 3 in total since the system was introduced almost 6 weeks ago)
- Our email anti-spam software updated and made enormously more effective, which I *think* benefits all PLUS email accounts (but at the very least all Staff accounts, which has actually made email a viable means of communication for us again -- for me anyway)

That's only the stuff I can talk about, there's a lot more going on behind the scenes, some of which you'll find out about soon enough (and some of which you'll never find out about because they affect back-end systems, but suffice to say they make the site easier to run and more secure) -- but certainly in the first weeks any further changes we'll implement/announce will probably be more of this type of stuff.

Surely you're not opposed to these kinds of changes?

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Locutus
- Various forum bugs fixed: PM Indicator Bug, Scrollbar Bug 1, Scrollbar Bug 2, Ignore List Bug, Very-Old-Threads/PMs-Not-Appearing Bug (not previously announced but should fix any remaining PM bugs that have been reported), etc.

Is the Buddy List Bug next?

[Ming]

Originally posted by Lancer
This reminds me. Just before the whole stinking mess goes down the toilet in Lancer's crapper there's alot of splashing and swirling which I refer to as 'Transition '06', just to add a little spin to the swirl. As the years change just update. It makes the whole toilet going experience more exciting.

I see nothing here that will grow Poly, quite the opposite, but the excitement! Wow! A Royal Flush!

You are welcome to your opinion...

But we are welcome to ours as well. Some of us are working really hard to improve an already great site. Some of us care about the community and just want to make it stronger and better.

[techumseh]

I do appreciate it, as do hundreds of others

[Lancer]

Originally posted by Ming


You are welcome to your opinion...

But we are welcome to ours as well. Some of us are working really hard to improve an already great site. Some of us care about the community and just want to make it stronger and better.

Good luck with that.

[Harry Tuttle]

Thank you to MarkG and DanQ and all the others for keeping such a wonderful site going strong all these years. Many more to come.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Locutus
- Our email anti-spam software updated and made enormously more effective, which I *think* benefits all PLUS email accounts (but at the very least all Staff accounts, which has actually made email a viable means of communication for us again -- for me anyway)

You mean to tell me that when I had 3 free month's of Poly PLUS (Apolyton Sage No. 10 ) That I had an e-mail account also?

ACK!

[vovan]

Originally posted by DrSpike
And Locutus and Mark are real people, whilst Ming and Rah are mysterious Ming Rah entities.

Obviously, these Ming and rah characters are just Mark's DLs. He could not longer maintain three accounts with top post counts, due to real life time constraints, and hence one of them got phased out.

Does this mean that the babe thread rules will change?

That alone would make me an avid supporter of this "transition".

Any way: good luck, Markos, with those sites you link in your sig.

And Dan and the new co-owner trio - keep up the good work.

[Dis]

just found out aboutt his from a thread in civ4. For some reason I tend to ignore all topped threads and announcements.

I especially look forward to the new civ4 guy. We need to keep that really up to date seeing as that is still a new game, and I feel it's been way too neglected. If we are going to attract new people to the site (who will stay) we have to have new content on the new games.

so big props to the civ4 changes.

Now, about getting post counts back in off topic...

[Dis]

and I'm still available to be off topic moderator.

[Lancer]

I offered myself up to DQ as a substitute to Ming a while back. Said I'd bring in a couple folks to help. Would have looked to you Dis, and Zkribbler. Most likely Zkrib would have had the sense to turn me down. Still, it would have put 'the people' back on top. People who really care about the community rather than just having a bit of fun at others expense. Now things are worse. Still, alot better than when I was 17 and facing a real threat to a real community. This is relatively meaningless.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Lancer
Still, it would have put 'the people' back on top. People who really care about the community rather than just having a bit of fun at others expense. Now things are worse.

Hmmm... I guess volunteering a ton of our free time over the years to make this a better site doesn't count as caring about the community

[Beta]

Originally posted by Ming

Some of us are working really hard to improve an already great site. Some of us care about the community and just want to make it stronger and better.

Right on, Ming!

Just want to reiterate what most folks have said with a big thanks to Mark, and all the best with future endeavours.

And to Dan and crew, congrats and best wishes with the changes. Having managed large corporate changes before, I appreciate that transition is often a time of personal and professional stress. You have the support of the membership.

Apolyton is a great place; and will only get better under your leadership. Rock on! Love live Poly!

[Sava]

Originally posted by Ming


Hmmm... I guess volunteering a ton of our free time over the years to make this a better site doesn't count as caring about the community

No.

You could just be one of those people that likes spending time with retarded children.




If that's the case, this would be an entirely selfish endeavor on your part. You would just be satisfying your own needs, feeding the care-giver aspects of your personality

Is a love for Civ what keeps you active here? I think it's probably much more complicated than that Ming. It's okay. You can let it all out. Don't worry, I've got some tissue.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Sava
No.

Your opinion... But I must ask, how much have you given to the civ community.

You could just be one of those people that likes spending time with retarded children.

Are you implying that people like you and lancer plus other members of this site are retarted children?

I came to this site to discuss civ. And I still do. Unlike some of the posters, I'm still an active player of both Civ 2 and 4. I give my time freely to help this site since it is my home on internet.... not because I like spending time with retarded children

Is a love for Civ what keeps you active here? I think it's probably much more complicated than that Ming. It's okay. You can let it all out. Don't worry, I've got some tissue.

As I stated, I still love Civ. I play it, talk it, and enjoy the civ community. What is your reason for being active here... do you still play civ?

My reasons for being active here are very clear... are yours or Lancers?

[rah]

Originally posted by Sava
No.

You could just be one of those people that likes spending time with retarded children.

........MUST resist obvious joke.
Ming has spent time with you?

I've contributed my time to pay back the community for providing me with thousands of hours of enjoyment on MP games and chatting on the site with other gamers.
We've invited them into our homes (much to our wife's chagrin) We've met them for drinks, food, games and parties. It's ALL about the people.

I have now stupidly agreed to contribute additional time.


Anyone that thinks it's all about power truely doesn't understand.

You really have to enjoy the community to put up with the crap that we do. (him more than me )

[Harovan]

Has the new crew of owners the same prudish attitude as the old one had, or will finally babe threads and pr0n attachments be allowed? With other words, is this braindead "family site" concept still alive?