Kaymyth

Heh. I printed and laminated a copy of my profile pic to stick to my table tent at panels. I will be passing out ribbons at con! Find me and I will give you one!

ALL THE HYPE!

Yep. The only reason we know about that rank at all is because of Rubix trolling you.

I am happy that my ridiculousness has managed to bring a spark of joy to at least one person.

Look what just arrived at my doorstep!

TWO WEEKS *flail*

I'm a little old for spring break, but I am currently spending all of my spare time sewing madly in preparation for JordanCon.

But are they delicious?

There once was a singer of old Who then broke away from the fold He won't give you up He won't let you down In a word you've been limerick-rolled

You've got that right, folks! Not one, not two, nor even three, but FOUR Shard staffers will be in attendance! Joooin ussssss.

Well. We certainly hadn't meant to kill the thread entirely. Very well, staff stalled it out, so staff is gonna give it an epinephrine shot. Wham. So, one of the discussion lines on the thread has been whether or not Adolin will revive Maya entirely. It's an interesting question, and one to which Brandon has laid out some breadcrumbs. There are several questions that need to be answered in order to come to a conclusion* on this. Is it possible? The answer to this question is without a doubt, most definitely, a resounding maybe. I kind of lean towards unlikely, just because of how difficult he's made it sound in the WoBs he's given on it. Sure, it might theoretically be possible, and it's certainly more probable than all of the molecules in my underclothes suddenly leaping three feet to the right of me, but it's difficult. There would have to be some truly heroic efforts on Adolin's part. I honestly think it's extremely unlikely that the answer to this question is a yes, but I'm not going to declare it with the solidity of it being etched in metal. Is Adolin even Edgedancer material? This has been debated back and forth quite a bit. I honestly don't think it's as important as the emotional effort people have put into this argument. Initial spren are attracted to people who embody their ideals. Once you know a Radiant, though, it becomes a lot easier to attract a spren's attention. Carrying around a dead Shardblade is functionally equivalent to hanging around a Radiant all the time (and hey, he's doing that, too), so all he really has to be is 1) not the antithesis of an Edgedancer, and 2) willing to commit to the Order's Ideals. And now, the question that I haven't seen asked yet (and this is where I get controversial): Is Adolin reviving Maya a narratively satisfying result? No, I do not believe that it is, for several reasons. 1. "But, Crazy Unicorn Lady!" I hear you cry. "Has not Brandon seeded the possibility within our hearts?" Well, yes. And he's been just cagey enough about his protests of its impossibility to stoke the fires of belief. And that's my first big objection - it's too obvious. We know the ways and whims of this man. When has he ever given us such a clear path to an answer and then followed it without turning it into a giant misdirect? When has his foreshadowing ever so lacked subtlety? When in the lives of his characters do such events line up to give us such a nice, neat conclusion wrapped up in a big red bow? 2. Adolin hasn't earned it. Our forum's most ardent (ha) Adolin fan (hi, @maxal!) has admitted her disappointment at the lack of attention to Adolin's character development thus far. I would posit that it's simply not time for it yet; Brandon has been focusing on other storylines, but I'm sure Adolin won't remain the same forever. He's not ready to power up without going through some crem. Combining these two points brings us to, 3. I don't see such a simple, linear progression for Adolin's character on the horizon. In fact, I'd be disappointed if it happened that way for precisely that reason. There's no dramatic tension if the readership can see the endgame from miles off, which tells me that there are more interesting things ahead for Adolin and Maya. Remember, Brandon is the man who breaks our hearts and leaves us begging for more. There are so many much more fascinating paths this can take. What if Adolin's continued bond with her wakes her up just enough to become much more cognizant of how much she's lost? What if Sja-anat decides to try to help with her corruption/enlightenment thing and breaks Maya even further? What if Adolin manages to go as far as he can with reviving her, only to bond a live spren of a different Order, and find himself compelled to give Maya up and leave her in an even worse state than she was in order to become a full Radiant himself? There are so many possibilities. Tons more, I'm sure, than even I've thought of, and all of them more interesting than binary question of, "Does Adolin revive Maya? Y/N" Here's to Brandon leaving all of our brains in the dust. *Conclusions may vary. Please consult your librarian before starting on a conclusion regimen of your own. Side effects may include theorizing, itchy rash, mad giggling, and persistent use of the Oxford comma. Not recommended for people who are allergic to fuzzy bunny rabbits. Restrictions may apply. Disclaimer not valid in Alaska.

For cats, at least, there's something called "whisker fatigue" that might affect some of them - their whiskers are so sensitive they get sore from getting dipped into a bowl all the time. It's not a thing with dogs, though, so clearly Leia just has a complex.

Man, this thread is giving me so many ideas on tropes to break.

My ridiculous dog, let me tell you of her. So, I have a 16-year-old long-haired dachshund named Leia. She's always been kind of a neurotic little thing, and it's just gotten odder as she's grown older. She's never been terribly food-motivated, sometimes known to not eat all of her dinner or skip it entirely. The vet has said not to worry about it, that it's okay for a dachshund to be a little lean because it's easier on them than being overweight. But y'know, sometimes, when your fuzzy baby is on her fifth night of refusing to eat her proper food (she gets medication in braunschweiger and some other regular treats, so she wasn't starving, but she definitely wasn't eating enough), you go to extremes to make sure she gets some proper nutrients. So the other night, I tried hand-feeding her. She gobbled it out of my hands like she was really hungry, yet when I offered her the bowl she turned her head away. She continued to eat out of my hand, though, until her dinner was gone. I looked at the husband and said, "What if she hates her food bowl?" Two nights in a row now, we've fed her from a plate. Two nights in a row and she's scarfed down her food enthusiastically. My silly dachshund hates eating her food out of a bowl.

JordanCon is in one month!!! And I'm taking this Friday off of work for some extra sewing time. So much work to do!

People at work declaring our current time zone to be "Central Standard Time." No. We are currently in Central Daylight Time. There is a difference. *wanders off singing the word "pedant" over and over to the Pink Panther theme*

@ callouts are used specifically to get people's attention; we get notifications for them. They aren't necessary for attribution. Please only use them if you're replying to someone without quoting or need someone specific to respond to a post. Specifically, when mods start getting PMs and Discord comments in regards to a particular thread along the lines of, "I am actually really interested in this topic, but after reading through it (or posting once or twice) I felt that the tone of many posters in the thread was very aggressive, and I didn't feel safe/comfortable posting there." This happened with the ASK thread, over and over, from multiple people over the course of many weeks. It's very difficult to ignore a message when a multitude of people send it to you over an extended period of time. And yes, while we got pushback for closing the thread, it was not nearly as strong as the very negative feelings that were expressed to us about the tone of the thread during the course of its life. But the point that Chaos and Rubix have been making about walking away/taking a breath/having a cup of tea is this: you can disagree with each other without being rude to each other. Our job as moderators isn't to make sure every side is "even" or to try to set debate parameters or issue grade points on each argument like a college composition professor - our job is to make sure that people here are polite to each other. Nice would be preferable, but polite will do. If you* cannot express your opinion without being snarky, insulting, or otherwise rude, you need to take a break. Step away for a bit, have a cup of tea, eat a chocolate bar, go for a walk, beat on a video game boss. Settle yourself until you are calm enough to be polite, and then respond. It's what I try to do when someone gets my dander up. *General "you" not directed at any specific person. Just in case that needs to be stated.

April is coming... And with April (20-22) comes JordanCon. This year, Dragonsteel will be putting in a strong showing, including the attendance of Brandon himself! Obviously, it will be a while before recordings start rolling in, but congoers, please feel free to use this thread to coordinate meetups, ride buddies, and whatever else might serve your convention socialization needs. My plane is scheduled to come into Atlanta on Thursday, April 19 at 2:50pm. Anyone who's also coming in around that time is welcome to meet up with me at the airport and travel together to the hotel via MARTA. I'm more than happy to guide folks unfamiliar with the area and its public transit!

Note that in PMs, the filter doesn't kick in on what goes out to your email; you need to read the PM on the site to see what gets filtered. (Don't ask me how I know this.)

It's always 3am somewhere! *goes to summon a demon at high noon local time just to annoy it*

Sell. Somebody would have to have The Talk with Nightblood first, and you know Vasher didn't do it. More Stormlight shipping: Syl and Pattern will marry to heal the rift between Honorspren and Cryptics, forging an alliance of kingdoms that will stand the test of time. And...and...um...that's all. Yep. Just that. There's not a single other thought I had about that. I will not make inapprorpiate jokes on the forum. I will not make inapprorpiate jokes on the forum. I will not make inapprorpiate jokes on the forum. I will not make inapprorpiate jokes on the forum....

Buy. I mean, why not? It makes about as much sense as anything else we've seen yet in canon. *ahem* The Adolin/Shallan/Kaladin love triangle isn't over yet. Soon, Adolin and Kaladin will admit the truth of their deep, romantic feelings for each other. The tearful confessions that result will lead to a realization that, in fact, all three of each other are woefully in love with each other, and finally the entire thing will resolve into a perfect polyamorous triad and all three of them will live happily ever after. (Also, there's a scene where Adolin and Kaladin interlace their fingers together around Shallan's safehand, but that's far too naughty to recount in detail here.)

I find it very interesting (...odd?) that so many people have expressed that they feel that character discussion is looked down upon and discouraged. Historically, I've been much more active on the Mistborn boards. (A lot less so these days since my focus has shifted more over to the Shard Discord.) When I started on the Shard, I lived and breathed Mistborn. And there's been a ton of character discussion in that section. The Steris Appreciation Thread. An entire thread debating whose fault it most is that Bleeder got so messed up in the head. Heck, we even managed to weather a thread that hated on Wayne without the kind of contention I've seen in the reports that have come through the last few months. Some people were upset and we kept an eye on it, but for the most part people were very good about policing their own reactions and made a concerted effort to express their feelings in a constructive way.

This has been addressed before, but I would like to reiterate - the biggest problem with the ASK thread is that it was too general. It was a mishmash of a ton of different things, and it got extremely intimidating very quickly. Over the past several months, we've had numerous reports, PMs, and comments over Discord about it. I personally have seen several people say, "I really want to talk about this stuff, but that thread scares me." When you have a multitude of people stating that they're afraid of a thread, then we have to take a hard look and consider taking action. We encourage you all to open up new discussion threads on a tighter focus. Please. We don't want to shut down discussion, but find ways to make it more accessible to everyone. Of course, if someone starts an actual shipping thread, then I'm going to have to start spouting my nonsense somewhere other than Discord. Imagine, the entire Shard rolling their eyes at the crazy unicorn lady whose solution to every love triangle is to throw polyamory at it. Yessss, my darlings, LOVE IS EVERYWHERE! Who are you, and what have you done with maxal?

Hi, another mod weighing in. I haven’t really been involved much in the threads that got contentious, but I have observed a good bit. So, one of the social phenomena that I’ve seen repeat itself over and over through various threads (and life) is the Escalatory Circle That Spirals Into Doom And Destruction. It goes something like this: · Person 1 states opinion. · Person 2 states rebuttal. · Person 1 gets a bit shirty. · Person 2 thinks, “Hey, that was a bit rude.” Snarks off in response. · Person 1 gets massively offended at the snark and says something rude. · Person 2 gets massively offended at the rudeness and calls them out/reports to staff/tells the teacher/storms off in a huff. It’s all predicated on the idea that if someone is rude to us, we are somehow allowed to be rude right back and because the other person started it, that’s okay. But it’s not. Retaliatory rudeness is still rude. The part that makes it really hard to parse out is that it usually starts small and slowly escalates up until the people involved are outright attacking each other. So how do you drill down and find out where it started? Whose fault is it? The answer can range from “everybody” to “storms if I know” and everywhere in between. Or around. Or above, or under. I had an incident that I dealt with along these lines in a real life situation earlier this week. A friend of mine shared a document to a group. One of the group posted a critique that was snarky and shaded into rude. I spoke with my friend before he made his response and advised him to try to keep it polite. Then I went into a movie. Then I came out of the movie, and I read his response, and went, “Oh, crud monkeys.” Because it was rude. It was extremely snarky. It had a lot of facts in it, and on the factual side it was good, but the tone made me want to cry because it was just that bad. I spent the rest of the evening in damage control, had a long talk with my friend, and between my feedback and another response from someone in the group about their disappointment in the level of discourse, my friend realized that he was, in fact, terribly wrong. And he posted a long, thorough apology on the matter. And you know what? Solving problems like this is emotionally exhausting. We, as staff, cannot possibly manage to police every single post’s tone, or thoroughly research the lead-up to every single report of, “So-and-so was mean to me!” We look at the offending post, maybe a bit of the thread history, but in the end we do the best we can with the emotional energy we’ve got. Could we do better at creating some kind of consistent response? Probably. The forum population has exploded in the last 6 months, and we’re dealing with a large sea change in the Shard’s dynamics of moving from a small forum to a pretty good-sized one. Things that used to work just...aren't anymore. It's tough to adapt, but we're trying. But honestly? I don’t think it’s too much to have a general expectation that everyone stay polite and refrain from sniping at each other. You can deal with someone being rude and snarky without dropping to their level. I’ve had plenty of occasions here on the Shard where someone said something snippy to me. I take a moment, work the emotional response out of my system, and come up with a de-escalatory response that addresses their concerns without raising the tension level of the thread. And you know what? Every time, it’s worked. I’ve often even got unsolicited apologies from said person for having been short. It’s not that hard, and it serves to heighten the tone of the Shard as a whole. I know perfectly well that even all of us staff aren’t always perfect here – keeping from sliding into the trap is hard, I just happen to be a lot more neurotic than baseline so I catch myself a bit more easily than most. I’m sure most of you can post examples of when a staffer has slid into retaliatory snark. We’re not perfect. We have bad days. We’re all going to screw up sometimes, and when we do, we take ownership, apologize, and move on. That’s what we expect from everyone – when you make a mistake, take ownership, apologize, remove offending remarks if need be, and move on. We do it ourselves. Heck, before I became staff, I’d been subject to moderation myself. Yep, I screwed up, I panicked like a ridiculous little loon for about 90 seconds, then I fixed it, apologized, and I moved on. As to the sentiment that has been expressed that the staff team shouldn’t be expressing opinions – I’m sorry, but I find that patently ridiculous. If you’re worried about a perceived bias situation, the last thing you want to do is make any potential staff bias less transparent. Creating staff/non-staff alt accounts won't help that need for transparency, either. Not posting opinions won’t keep us from having them, and if we’re going to have them, it’s a lot better to keep them out there where you can see them.