Arcetos

22 minutes ago, AonEne said:

If you’re interested, then I’m definitely allowed to explain it to you.  Assuming you’re talking about cookies not being allowed here anymore... 

There once was a time some years ago, before the shadowdays of inactivity, when a group was formed around the thread People you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. This group eventually became known as the Dark Alley, and they performed many experiments in the name of science. One hallmark that they became known for was adding Hemalurgic spikes to baked goods (most notably cookies) and giving them to newcomers. This led to the rise and fall of various groups over the years trying to stop them or offering food items without Hemalurgic materials in them. One of these was TUBA, The Underground Bakers’ Association, which I call home. 

Since newcomers to the Shard were an easy recruiting or attribute-stealing target for the DA, they gave away cookies mostly in the intro threads, with a cheerful “Welcome, have a cookie!” TUBA (originally undercover as the Light Alley to hide the identities of the spies we had placed in the DA’s ranks, but that’s another story) also gave away cookies in the intro threads, usually with the warning of “Be careful about which cookies you eat, the Dark Alley’s have spikes in them.”

Still more people caught on to the tradition and warned against cookies from one guild or the other, or from all guilds, or just in general. It became a standard way of welcoming people to the Shard, and if someone’s thread didn’t already mention cookies, you could be sure somebody would bring them up. These times were known as the cookie wars - and although the name might imply enmity, don’t worry. It was all in fun, and no offense was meant by any involved. During this time, the guilds began to formalize into the roleplay that is named after the universe it’s set in - the Alleyverse. 

However, there were some people who took it a bit too far with their recruiting. Introduction threads are a place to suggest things a new Sharder might be interested in; you’ll see that up above, I mentioned we have games and RPs, which is something that often gets said. Back in the days of the cookie wars, this type of thing was more prominent, and people were likely then and are likely now to suggest specific subforums or threads where you could hang out. Offering a cookie and tacking on “by the way, there’s this fun RP called the Alleyverse, come join us if you want” was something a lot of people did, and a lot of those people included some variation of “if you do join, be sure to join THIS GUILD!” 

The Alleyverse grew larger and larger, and we’re all proud of the fun community it is today. This is due in part to the recruitment that happened in the intro threads. But certain people took this too far, and threads were sometimes completely taken over by Homeless (the name for someone who writes in the Alleyverse) talking about their guilds. This could be a bad or overwhelming experience for others, especially people who’d just joined the website, and so the admin/mod team asked the Homeless to tone it down. Most did. A few didn’t, and the rules were made stricter. 

Now no one is allowed to give cookies to new Sharders; at least not in their intro threads, as it is considered too likely to get out of hand, throw the thread off topic, or overwhelm newcomers. And thus the cookie wars ended. 

Wow, I didn’t expect to write so much! I hope that explanation answered your questions. If you still have some, please feel free to ask me, I’d love to help out. Though I may not be able to write a mini history story again. That just sorta kinda happened. 

Holy jesus buddy! I loved every single word! Thanks for such wide, detailed and beatiful explanation  

I definetly need to get into that dark alley and take a look. I've seen that you're TUBA. I'm a bit lost now, but I hope to get to know how to find all the info and guilds and fun stories that the Alleyverse has to offer. I'm about to read the new player's guide and .

But I'm afraid I wont be able to write prose decently. I can do it in spanish and catalan, but I never did it in english.

Thanks again! That was a magnificent explanation