Thaidakar the Ghostblood

Thaidakar. Was that his name? Drifting across the plane of the void, he thought about it. Yes... that had been his name. Somewhere behind him was the ruined city and the dragons still perhaps chasing him, though halfheartedly at this point. Somewhere was the clinic, and somewhere was her corpse. And... yet... he didn't care. He was in his dragon form once again, having left the archive. His wing was healed now. All of his friends were still alive. Friends. Yes, he had those. Memory filtered in like a warm light, chasing away the shadows. What had been there since day one was revealed, the dusty remnant of evil blown away. Thaidakar sensed an old friend. He'd hated her... "Lies," he whispered with a short laugh. A tear fell through the abyss, touching some unseen planet. Power rippled through him, threatening to take over and corrupt him entirely, like it nearly had at the city. Resolve grew in him. "I will find her." Many years passed and his friends would never see him again, yet they would, on occasion, hear of a mysterious traveler having visited someone in the clinic, asking for a drink or for bandages. Thaidakar never said hi, for he knew that this part of his life was over. Finally, after he had searched all over the universes and beyond, Thaidakar found the last bit of his old life. There was the old spren, sitting on a balcony, sightlessly looking over the city. There was no hope in that cryptic's pattern, it was slow and melancholy. Abandoned. A spike of guilt surged through him, but he suppressed it. He was doing good now. He sat beside the cryptic. The pattern grew faster, then slower as she noticed Thaidakar. Thaid took the cryptic's hand and said "I'm sorry for leaving you... I'm sorry for not listening." The cryptic was silent, sullenly looking down. "I'm sorry, old friend, I'm sorry for doing all those things to you, I'm sorry for breaking our oaths, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" When there was no response, Thaidakar continued, "I've been searching for you, for years. I need you. When I was in that heck hole of a room with that drink, you were still there for me. I have come because I want you to come with me, away from this place to the next adventure." Silence. "She's gone," His voice cracked, "It's time we both accept it. We need to move on. Come, let's go." He reached out his hand, standing. Hopelessness filled his mind as he started to turn. Perhaps he'd been wrong to come. A cold hand touched his. A voice, old, weary, dusty said, "Truth..."

A brief explanation of this. There were a lot of things that were gonna happen, but I accidentally deleted my outline, so we're getting this a lot sooner than I expected. TLT is the best. What happened next was neither recalled nor remembered, for something changed in TLT. Sitting on the ledge of the cliff, a creature without name and without purpose, smiled as the sun crawled down into its bed. It was done. Corpses lay behind him. Two stood near to him, chatting faster than the wind. A sword was in the creature's hand. A Plotblade, broken by what had done. And, with it, the Prophesies were gone. As the wind that had once been, never to be seen again. No-one could be controlled! No-one's fate could be altered by someone's foreknowledge! And, perhaps, on one rainy night, a father might be able to save his daughter when not restricted. Brighton was fading, and with him was the last memory of what had begun so long ago... Eof probably would know, but perhaps not. Finally, the two behind him ceased their arguments and one put a hand on Brighton's shoulder. Mythos found that his hand was rippling through misty shadows. Brighton turned, "This world is free. Free from what I have done, from what we all did. Thaidakar, Zara, prophecies.. they are gone. Balance is no more, Mythos. You will not become him." Mythos quivered, "I... I'm..." "You could've been," Brighton said with a smile. "Valerian, you were as a son to me. Goodbye." To Michael: "You are so similar to me. Stop yourself before it is too late." And he was gone. Michael left soon after, leaving TLT. And Mythos? Mythos found himself in the study of Thaidakar's old mansion, sitting in the old chair. A thought rippled across his mind and he regarded it with a smile. Giving it voice, Mythos said, "I own the future." "No," said an answering voice behind Mythos. There was a chuckle and a hand ruffling Mythos' hair. "Everyone (non personified) does now." One Week Later. Thaidakar stood and washed his eyes over the sun kissed landscape. It was done. It was finished. His computer sat on the ledge, the last few lines remaining to be written. Was this it? Was this the end? He had avoided telling the story, really telling it. Yet... yet this was the ending. He didn't want to end it. Didn't want to say goodbye. Didn't want to do the last page. The curtain was drawing to its close and all the players had their final moments. A motion from the conductor of the orchestra brought forth the final chords. Tension rose as the main actor, Thaidakar himself, raised his hands and sang his final ballad. A testament to his performance and what it had meant. "And now, the end is near And so I face the final curtain My friend, I'll say it clear I'll state my case, of which I'm certain I've lived a life that's full I traveled each and every highway And more, much more than this I did it my way Regrets, I've had a few But then again, too few to mention I did what I had to do And saw it through without exemption I planned each charted course Each careful step along the byway And more, much more than this I did it my way Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew When I bit off more than I could chew But through it all, when there was doubt I ate it up and spit it out I faced it all, and I stood tall And did it my way I've loved, I've laughed and cried I've had my fill, my share of losing And now, as tears subside I find it all so amusing To think I did all that And may I say, not in a shy way Oh, no, oh, no, not me I did it my way For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught To say the things he truly feels And not the words of one who kneels The record shows I took the blows And did it my way."

(just so noone's confused, I mean "no, I won't respond, I sense I've made a mistake of some kind.")

How dare how dare how dare how now dare how now brown cow how dare

Yeah, that makes sense. If you haven't been on in awhile, that's fine. I cackled when I saw the word "conservative" next to "Sharders giving reputation points" and kinda knew that you at least haven't been much involved with the Status Update culture.

Yes. 10/10. Fire.

Real.

Fair lol. I think it's a good idea in some ways, but also a bad idea in a lot of others. It has merits, but it has downsides. There are lots of ways an argument for it or against it could go. lol that's fair too. I like him, for a good lot of reasons that I won't go into rn.

I like this idea a lot.If we do keep reputation over all, add the other sorts of reactions, but implement this, then I would be more fine with reputation's existence. I really dislike how fundamental reputation has sort of been for the Shard experience. It should be very very very secondary and more ignorable than the majority of people I have in interacted with on the Shard have made it out to be. Climbing the social ladder? Perhaps, but what about the people who don't receive as much rep as the rest of us? What about the people who don't do the things that get you more rep? Are they not deserving of "climbing the social ladder"? I merely think that the idea of getting ranked higher than other people to be a little flawed of an idea in and of itself. The same exact issues that exist with a rep count exist with a clearly telegraphed ranking system. At least, my issues with a universal rep count still exist with a ranking system. However, if we do a new set of ranks that are closer together and are not brought together in an easily accessed list of what is higher than the other, then I am completely fine with it, I just really do not like the idea of anyone being able to say that they are inherently better than someone else because more people liked their thing. I made the mistake of saying something I didn't mean along those lines and I know that there will be more dumb people besides myself who come along. Conservative? bahaha. You clearly do not spend a lot of time in the status update section of the forum. Which isn't a bad thing, just wanna make that clear, but the way I and many others have given rep has been anything but conservative. When it comes to SUs, the thing that gets more rep is something that is either thoughtful, gives an interaction point or is about something important. As someone who posts a status update about every day or so, I can guarantee that it really doesn't matter what it is you say as it is about how you say it that gets you reputation points. I would still say what I say whether or not anyone gave reputation, but one does notice over awhile.

On the subject of terminology, I would, without stating my own opinion on it as it is in too unformed a state to be spoken of, ask what all of your thoughts on the idea of regarding, say, trans women and women as two separate genders? I heard it in a Ben Shapiro video once and thought it was an interesting idea that is, at the very least, worth some thought.

The main issue is the comparisons. Yes, it is a cultural thing, yes there will still come the level of engagement. However, will it be as bad as with rep? I think both yes and no. It ultimately comes to how the culture of the Shard rolls with it. I do believe that people will be forced to talk more if the whole of reputation is removed. However, I do think that a lot of the issues with reputation is removed when the counting of reputation (whether that be ranks, winning the day, leaderboards or whatever else) outside of individual posts is gone and the kind of reactions we can give are varied. Those are the things that I do really think at least need to be considered. Not every issue is gone with those things, but what it does do is very much minimize the issues with reputation points in particular. Yes, some of these issues are deeper, but we can't change a lot of those things. What we can do is lessen the effect of the Shard on those things, even if we cannot remove it entirely.

SUs are Status Updates. I use them as the major example because the way SUs are and the way they have been used are specifically in line with the issues I have with reputation points. There are tens of SUs posted every single day, which is not a bad thing, but it can turn into a sort of competition when it should never be that. I don't like the idea of it being based on days online. That could also turn into a similar thing to when someone posts merely to get reputation points. It turns it into a sort of game. Based on what people have been saying, I would revise my opinion to say that we should not remove reputation, but we should remove leaderboards, we should remove ranks, we should remove counting reputation outside of individual points and those reputation on the individual posts should not be restricted to a one size fits all format so as to give more of an actual interaction rather than an acknowledgement. My primary issue is when we are counting reputation/likes/whatever. The year idea was to make it where we still have the ranks, but they are not based upon anything that we can directly affect by farming. Days active can be manipulated, a set time frame is not. It could be based on months, perhaps even weeks at first, I don't give a crap about what timeframe is put upon when you move ranks. I am not thinking about how soon we can get these ranks, however, but I am thinking about when we get loads of more people, when the adaptations come and fans swoop in by the day. The Cosmere won't die anytime soon. We'll be getting those higher ranks at some point, if that's even important at all (I don't think it is).

I mean, considering that I'm pretty sure one of them is Aeo, who is a major reason why any of this post exists, I think they can be at least a little bit forgiven.

Reputation is bad for the culture of the Shard. If we continue with the current system, we will be continually shying away from the purpose of the Shard. I admit I am a part of this and have encouraged a lot of it unconsciously, but this is where I say that I change. (Before I get into the main body of this, I would just like to acknowledge that the moment I understood this all truly and actually had any of these ideas was when I had a conversation with @Aeoryi. Without Aeo, I probably wouldn't have seen any of this and wouldn't be writing this post rn.) The purpose of the Shard is to talk to one another about books, to roleplay, to chat with people with similar interests. Rep replaces any of the discussion, rep, in my experience, has been simply a hollow way of saying that you acknowledge something without truly giving any real indication. Rep is there to say that we like something. But what if you do not have as much rep? But what if you post something and it only gets one or two reputation and no-one responds? Think about it. It would be a billion times more meaningful if those were genuine responses. What do we gain from merely an upvote? It is better to have a response that is merely "Hey, I like this idea" rather than a voiceless heart and notification. It is typically a fact that if there are responses to an SU, then more people will take notice and look into it. Actually discussing things rather than simply acknowledging the post's existence. In my time on the Shard, I have noticed that people, and even myself, have put stock in reputation points. The idea that we get ranked higher because we are more "popular" hits wrong to me and has for several others. I, more than a lot of people, do like to watch a number go up, but if that number is based on just general popularity of your posts, then is that really doing more help than harm? If you are a sharder who makes such posts that don't garner responses or rep, then is it really good if you go and see that the other guy got, say, six rep for one sentence. If reputation means something to people, then is ranking someone who has higher rep a good idea? Really? If we put stock in rep, then we seek it whether we like it or not. If there is rep on a status update, people will read it more likely. Reputation sets posts aside for special interest above other posts. In a big algorithmic place like YouTube, this works really well. The Shard is not YouTube. There is no real point to the rep system beyond saying that x post is better than y post. In a community where we want to be accepting of all people, where we want to have a diversity of opinion, whether that opinion is "popular" or not (I know, my fellow conservatives, I used the d word. Relax), do we really want to do that? It should not matter how many likes a post has for people to look at it, this sets a precedent that what matters more is how many people saw it and liked it rather than the actual merits of the post itself. Winning the day becomes a reward, winning the day becomes a competition. Does reputation bring some fun? Sure, yeah, but the bad far outweighs the good. Do we honestly need to fight to win a day with how supposedly popular we are? That's pitting us against each other for gaining popularity in a way that has not been fully exploited by people to the extent that it could, but could certainly be more consciously if things continue where we're going. People get a lot o rep because they like to say stuff, namely in status updates. I am one of those people. But here is the thing, the point of those SUs is not to gain rep, it's to chat with similar people! I'm saying all this because I never want it to turn into something else, which is more likely to happen over time with the influx of people that will come whenever we get an adaptation, or as Brandon's popularity gains speed. My vision for the Shard is that we eliminate reputation points, we eliminate the ranking system, we eliminate the idea of posts with those markers that you get for having a certain amount of rep. Instead, the only mark of a post being "liked" is by the replies, by the people quoting the post in a topic, by people genuinely talking to each other and engaging in conversation. What are we here on the Shard to do, after all, if not to talk to eachother about things we are passionate about? Building a reputation around how many likes you get will not get you anywhere, but building a reputation on discussion, being genuine and building other people up will take you farther than any road can take you. My name is Thaidakar the Ghostblood, and thank you for coming to my ted talk. One last note: I know this seems like a lot, but can you see where I am coming from? This may seem overboard. I know. I went over this a lot of times and this seems to be the very best way to solve it. An alternative, so that we can keep the idea of different ranks, what if for the amount of years we've been on, we get a different rank? I was going to say posts, but that also has the potential of going into the same thing I'm trying to avoid by suggesting this. Say, the first six months we get the rank of Doug. For a full year, we get the rank of spren. For two whole years, it could be misting. For three, it could be cognitive shadow. For four, it could be Elantrian. And it could go on and on and on till we get to Adonalsium or God Beyond or anything else. We can keep all the same ranks, even edit them to be a little more rewarding and fun for the people on the Shard, but doing it merely by the amount of time you're on the Shard is far more fair, far more fun for everyone and is not farmable in any way beyond just existing.

... storm you.

ehem. *dumps photography* My favorite is the 9th or 13th one.

Finishing outlining character arcs for my trilogy

accurate.

Gets a block of crackers. Inserts a rectangle of cheese.

Gets a headache. Inserts a slice of cheese.