MetaTerminal

Right, okay. But the point still stands - while there were probably a bunch of local calendars based around their own small cultures, there hasn’t been an official one, so there’s been mass confusion. (Fittingly enough.) Someone comes up with a consistent calendar, and the Republic decrees it as the official city calendar in the start of Era 4. Explains both the recent guild months and the new adoption. Grr for artistic license and flavour, but it makes more sense this way. I’ll adjust the dates accordingly. (Unless we just want to delete the days without changing the original set dates.)

Right, okay. We’ll switch to that. People will still need to advance the timeline on their own - month-long timejumps between thread sections, things like that. Otherwise we’ll be on the 5th of Gildus forever I just tracked Real Time, since people tended to say, ‘this thread started 1 week ago, so this thread starts 1 week after that’. And if a location thread has been up for three months, then the location is generally assumed to be up for about that long. But I’ll ditch the idea since it’s no good. My mental justification is this - there was a different, unspecified calendar that was used before Era 4, and this was suggested as a replacement, a la Julian/Gregorian or the French Revolution. When it is replaced, past dates are revised to match it. Which is why the months include guilds from Eras 2 and 3. If you have suggestions for a non-Earth calendar that both fits previous timeskips and dates and is sensible and usable, then I would love to use that. But given the use of ‘6 months’ representing half a year in past discussions, we can assume that the past was measured in an Earthlike calendar. Also, I feel like being fairly similar to what we are used to will prevent confusion - also, the little imperfections make the calendar more flavourful. Also, Voidus may have based the planet on Earth. Possibly. I didn’t really explain it well, but this was my original thinking: when a thread is created/revived, it starts at the RTD (real-time date) - unless another start date is specified. Once the thread is started, Time does not advance unless explicitly stated - it doesn’t move along with RTD. This ensures the internal consistency of a thread while keeping the era ticking along and preventing it from stagnating chronologically. In practice, I feel the date would always be defined. But maybe we should track the RTD, even if it has no bearing on anything, so we can see if we’re lagging behind or ahead. I like this - especially the second one, that would be my preference. Maybe the era always ends after the latest thread. But that’s getting into case-by-case basis judgement. Do you think people would keep the old DA calendar after it has been forcefully overthrown? (See French Revolution).

Posts can happen before the latest date - that thread is still occurring on the 5th of Gildus. But the latest date is the 13th, judging from real-time passage. And if someone makes a thread set 1 month in the future, the latest date becomes 13th of Stinatus, though it’s still 5th of Gildus in the ACE thread. (We could also separate it into ‘latest thread’ and ‘real-time’, if that helps. Or individual threads, but that starts getting hard for me.) Obviously, contradictions can and will still occur - but they already happened. They’re just more obvious now. And we can fiddle with things on the fly so dates make sense. But, generally, this is how people tend to treat time in the Alleyverse, so I based the calendar around that. As for comprehensive and agreed-upon: I puport to be neither! We can maybe achieve the second. Actually, I like that division idea. Let’s say that whenever a thread or encounter is made/occurs, unless the time is explicitly stated, the time is Real-Time/Latest Date - and we track the main plots separately.

It has come to my attention recently that the timeline in the Alleyverse is a little fuzzy. For too long have we squinted into the past, wondering how long ago this or that came into occurrence. For too long have we failed to coordinate with our friends for a meeting time, and are thus unable to consume Hemalurgic or non-Hemalurgic baked items together. No longer. For I have a proposal for a calendar: a simple calendar that charts the course of the Alleyverse, from the start of the RP to today. The system is thus: a 360-day year, with 12 months in a year. No leap days. Each month is named after a guild, and each month has 30 days. Newcagus (Newcago Court) Alla (Dark Alley) Cantony (Canton of Combat) Liebrus (Liebrary) Phantus (the Ghostbloods) Gildus (the Ghostbloods - I went with the alternate name, the Gilded Rose, since it made a better name) Stinatus (Sticknaughts) Tubarus (TUBA) Kepery (the Keepers) Sentinalia (the Sentinels) Diagrama (the Diagramists) Witrosa (Church of the White Rose) Scholus (Scholar’s Guild) The first solid date that cannot be altered is the reveal of TUBA’s identity - thus, this is the first day of the new calendar. The first of Newcagus, 1 ATR (after TUBA reveal) is the day TUBA was officially revealed. Eras are either as long as their real-time duration, or longer (when taking into account timeskips). Theoretically, we could also have an era that everyone agrees ahead of time is shorter than the real-time duration. Other Dates: Rules of Warfare created: 26th of Scholus, 1 BTR (26/12/-1) Calm Before The Storm begins: 13th of Newcagus, 1 ATR (13/1/1) SDW starts: 5th of Cantony, 1 ATR (5/3/1) SDW ends: 12th of Cantony, 1 ATR (12/3/1) 16YP ends: 12th of Cantony, 17 ATR (12/3/17) Ghostblood Acquisition: 1st of Liebrus, 17 ATR (1/4/17) Great Game begins: 1st of Sentinalia, 17 ATR (1/9/17) Voidus Released: 17th of Cantony, 18 ATR (17/3/18) One-Year Interval Ends: 17th of Cantony, 19 ATR (17/3/19) Church of Whiterose Attacked: 7th of Phantus, 19 ATR (7/4/19) A Shadowed Dawn Begins: 17th of Phantus, 19 ATR (19/3/19) Era 3 Ends: 18th of Phantus, 19 ATR (30/10/19) E3-E4 Timeskip Ends: 18th of Witrosa, 19 ATR (18/11/19) Into the Dark Begins: 23rd of Witrosa, 19 ATR (23/11/19) I also propose that the end of each era (12th of Cantony, 17th of Cantony, 18th of Phantus, and the 26th of Scholus) be public holidays. It gives the world a sense of history and we could get some cool parties and threads out of them. Hopefully, when people start event threads, they can note which day the thread begins, which will help to make timelines more sense. Below are the dates of the main threads and RT - I will update it every day. INTO THE DARK DATE: 24th of Witrosa, 19 ATR. City Scenes: 12th of Scholus, 19 ATR. What do people think of this proposal?

Ping! I’m still busy, though I may be able to do a few small articles here and there. But with the completion of Era 3, now would be a great time for some summaries! Even if you’d like to include pieces for Era 4 events, if that’s what you’re most familiar with, that would still be extremely helpful.

Ah, you’ve redecorated! I don’t like it.

Of course; but much like how we decided to stop using Aon Tia cards, we can decide to limit certain aspects of the RP if everyone agrees. (Or not, as we decided with the DA. We’ll see.) The fact that it keeps coming up means that there is still contention around it. There’s no reason to artificially restrict conversation just because we talked about it last time.

I vaguely remember something like this, but I would appreciate a link regardless.

Argh. Out of time. My schedule has not improved in the slightest, unfortunately, and shows no signs of doing so. As in, I have no free time to work on this. I thought I would be able to, but that turned out not to be the case... Is it possible to forfeit? I know that’s not really in the spirit of things, but unless I put out something spectacularly sub-par based on the few brief notes I have then I don’t see anything good being produced. If I am allowed to forfeit, Snip might be saved from this round and having to put out something quickly. (Though of course they are free to do so.)

Wow, that timing was and is really unfortunate for me. Could I get another day or so? I don’t mind if Snip gets extra time as well.

Chime in. Chime in as much as possible. My toes are step-proof. Anything helps.

@RayOfSunshine @Grey Knight @Invocation If you’ve promised to do something, make sure to get onto it! I understand everyone is busy (I am, too) but we were making good progress and I’d like to see that continue.

Would you rather read a book with one long extended chapter, or about twenty shorter ones? A show with one eight-hour episode, or eight hour-long ones? Separating things out allows for time jumps, marked changes, advances in the plot. We can more easily divide our stories and our attention to them. We can scan down the thread list and say, ‘I have a general understanding of the progression of the plot.’ With one long thread, everything gets... muddled. I wouldn’t want to read The Longest Thread all the way through, but I might read all the threads in here, one by one. It’s the same amount, more or less, but because it’s divided up, it’s easier to understand. (I also don’t quite understand how Zinc found it confusing - could you elaborate on that?) We shouldn’t mess with old threads, I agree.

I’d like to argue in favour of split threads, actually. This is mostly for reading up on old threads, I have yet to participate in main plot - but I find it far easier to read through four or so 30-page threads than a 100 or 120+ page thread. Similarly, it’s easier to mark the passage of time - you can say, ‘I got here around SDW or WoD or ALQ.’ Not, ‘oh, around 80 pages into the thread.’ How do you even measure that? It’s helpful to divide stories into stages. You can say, ‘in this one there was just some small squabbling in the city. The second part was this off-world conflict, the third led up to the final battle, and then the final battle happened.’ And a new thread can be used to mark a monumentous occasion (eg Voidus is about to be released, y’all!) One thing we could do is merge the different plot threads into one locked one after the fact (ie when people stop posting well and truly in the old threads, maybe after a week), and link in the OP to which page has which section. So if you know you have to read over Rivers of Blood, you know where that begins and ends. That cleans up the thread count a little. (We could also do that with old plotlines as well, possibly. But I’d be concerned if that... disrupts things.)

Zinc, you know what you have to do. Egads! The hide function has started to [redacted]!

I’d just make a category of ‘non-canon’ things. That includes AU threads and things like that. I’ve noticed participation for this has begun to flag, so make sure to pitch in and help out!

Signups for New Event Melbourne University is running a new puzzlehunt, for the first time in two years! The competition is about the same size as Galactic, though less intensive - perfect to introduce new people. If you found what was here interesting, and want to sign up - (and we'd love new members of any skill level, we're a little short on people actually) then visit here: A Short Summary of What Happened in Potluck Spoilers follow. Our team of myself, @RShara, @Babilarian Darkeyes, @MistCLOAKed Mountains, @DoomStick, @Moonrise, and @Exalted Dungeon Master worked together on a series of 9 puzzles, all themed around the detective games of Herschel Layton. We cracked puzzles about groups of items, masks in Majora's Mask, Pokemon Monopoly, and an extremely complicated game of Duck Duck Goose. (I feel the need to vent about the bowling ball puzzle.) Over the course of three days, we completed all but one of the puzzles, leaving only the cryptic crossword where some of the clues were wrong. It was when we began to work on the meta that we realised the secret theme; that the whole process was actually a game of Clue, with various suspects (fictional villains with associated colors) and locations (the puzzle names). Once we made the connection, we began to unravel a long and layered metapuzzle determining the what, where, who and how of the murder. In a final twist, the killer, Mr Brown, revealed that he was the author Dan Brown, and that he had not performed the murder with a SWORD, but instead had written out the fictional encounter with a QUILL - a far more dangerous and mighty weapon. Herschel Layton realises he is a fictional character, but Dan Brown assures him that "they may be works of fiction, but the feeling you get when you immerse yourself in these fantastical worlds - that's real." After we completed the hunt, we went back to polish off the puzzle we hadn't finished, leaving us with an entirely completed hunt. 17th Shard was the 82nd team to complete the meta. If all this craziness sounds right up your alley, be sure to sign up for the new competition!

Posting to bring to the top of the board: signups for the Shard team for MUMS are open! Sign up if you're interested! We'd love new members of any skill level.

@AonEne

What’s your opinion of the album?

Well, no, but actually yes. It is inconsistently dead. Sig strats! The poll’s been posted before, so no. Ene, you still need to do the groups for voting.

Stephen Leeds and Company Presents: A Roast, In Three Parts! This wasn't the best time for me, but I enjoyed putting this together. Hopefully it's up to scratch. @Kidpen, you've only got a few hours left, I believe!

If you liked Celeste, you might love the Celeste TAS runs. It's amazing just how much a computer can break the game through frame-perfect inputs (like jumping off of spikes, dashing through spikes, moving so fast the screen can't keep up, long chains of strawberries.) SGDQ's run in 2018 is here (though it's quite slow compared to today's standards ).

I saw, thanks! I don’t know much about the Other Side of the World, and how much that applies to Alleystorm, or if you’ve already put that in. TENT looks good.

Okay, that works.