Haelbarde

Wait, you bear the title 'Webmaster'. As Master of the Web, and presumably head of the Elders of the Internet, does this not give you control over, and access to, all human knowledge anyway?
 
Oh, and I realized why telepathy would be such a great thing - you'd get to find out all the Cosmere things.
 
Edit:
Does the Award system work? Does anyone actually have any awards?
 
Some people petitioned here for @Kaymyth to get a Forum Mom award. And @TwiLyghtSansSparkles a 'Forum Crazy Big Sister Who Loves Pugs Too Much' Award

Which river, and why is it a lark?

So far, the votes are looking like this:

Jain (3) - Wyrmhero, Kasimir, Araris Valerian

Karlin (3) - little wilson, Seonid, Haelbarde

Wyrm (1) - Jain

Luckat (1) - twelthrootoftwo

I've taken to making Vote Tallies match the fact that Wilson is queen. Means there's 4 on Karlin.

@ChaosUse

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Oh, I know how to use spoilers (and it is on the toolbar - under the special bbcode thing).

 

What I meant was, you know how you have the spoiler box:

You have a thin box which expands out when you click the 'Show me' button.

 

What I thought I saw was a spoiler box, but there was text inside the box before you click the button. The text that was there said something like 'This contains spoilers for Stones Unhallowed', and was replaced with the actual spoiler text:

#22: The admins engage with the community!

4. Now that's a fantastic question! The power would be an extremely high level of telepathy, as powerful as I could get it. I want to be able to have a godlike level of telepathy. Imagine being able to read everyone's mind at once? You could have the sum of humanity's current knowledge at your fingertips! That's the power, hands down. I have books I plan to write on someone with this insane level of telepathy.

I'll have to think about the proper Epic name for that.

Suggestions: Mastermind, Big Brother. Would you have a secondary power, or a prime invincibility. That could flavour things. It'd raise some interesting questions regarding weaknesses...

 

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Questions:

- I have a memory of seeing a spoiler box which had text describing what the spoiler contained. But when I went looking for it, I couldn't find the post, and my attempts at replicating it have so far failed. Is this a feature that actually exists?

 

- Where/when/how did you learn your webadminy/server skills?

Eh, it makes it balance better.  1+1 is <3 doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

 

And it just occurred to me.  I doubt it's a truly original idea, but I think I thought of it spontaneously.

As in, 1+1<3 is more powerful/precise than 1+1=<3, though this is true. 'One plus One is equal or smaller than 3' is a true statement. But no, does not have the same ring at all. 

 

Maybe it isn't original, but it's the first time I've seen it, so upvotes for you.

When will you join a SE game?  Or are you too afraid of putting your life in our hands?

This needs to happen so much.

1+1=<3

 

There you go.  A mathematical equation for love.  And it's technically true!

What do you mean 'technically true'. This a mathematical truth. Though the equals is not necessary.

 

I've not seen that before. This amuses me.

Not so much a question so much as a comment - I don't believe there's any 'hell' or that people go to heaven even. So there's that.

 

Here's a question though: Can you do my Complex Analysis exam for me in two weeks?

 

EDIT: Oh, and a question I've actually been meaning to ask.

 

There have been whispers of an impending doomSite Update. Does that have an ETA beyond 'when it's done'? 

 

Will that affect MBI, or is that a completely different beast?

Oh, now that's fascinating. Has a Seon he kept hidden and has only used on seemingly one other person. Plus, he's been incredibly quiet in the thread, with each post of little-to-no substance. Yeah, my vote is on Karlin.

I must say, I do find that interesting. Curious to see if Karlin'll come by and tell us all about it. 

 

*The two of them can decide who gets the cool name and who gets the silly one.

Actually curiuos which name you think is the cool one. Kashero looks better, but Wyrmimir sounds awesome. 

 

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Gonna put a vote on Karlin. I'd like to hear from him about his Seon. I don't suppose anyone else has been contacted by Seon Teo?

 

a smart guy, had time to dig through the game enough to offer thoughts yet?

 

Oh, and hey there Silverblade o/ Greetings, and good luck.

I love mathematics and science - I'm studying pure mathematics and physics at university at the moment. I love to understand how the world works. If I could study for the sake of it, I'd do further study, and do stuff like Biology, Psychology, and maybe Philosophy, 'cos I'd love to know more about how people work, and such like. I would agree you, Chaos, in that everything has a natural explanation. There are fundamental ways in which matter and energy interacts, and these govern everything we see around us. How I would see God affect the world would be through use of the natural world, perhaps manipulating chance and understanding human psychology. It might be affect the way certain events play out which could send the world in a particular direction. Does he necessarily do a lot at an individual level? Perhaps not.

 

What gives me confidence in a God is two things - The first is that I am satisfied that the Bible is a historically accurate text, and that what we have today is accurate to the source texts from 2000+ years ago, barring some minor transcription and translation errors. The second is the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. There are quite a number of prophecies that give specific timescales for particular events to continue for, until coming to an end. The way I understand it, Revelation has predicted events that have happened over the last 2000 years - the fall of the Roman empire to the various 'barbarian' tribes. The rise of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Catholic church. Napoleon, and then later the World Wars. Sometimes it includes some fairly particular details. I've not been very specific (this isn't the place for detail. Happy to have PM conversations if people wanted to discuss it more), but I'm satisfied that Revelation has accurately predicted world history for the last 2000 years. 

 

So for me, Bible prophecy provides sufficient evidence for me to believe in a God.

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Game Quicklinks

• Signups
• Day 1 - Fel/Mek Lynched.
• Night 1 - Orlok Killed, Zas converted.
• Day 2 - Spencer Lynched.
• Night 2 - Cultist and Gyorn targets protected by pendants. Phattemer allegedly Cultist target.
• Day 3 - Mailliw73 Lynched.
• Night 3 - Bort was poisoned, someone else saved from Cultists.
• Day 4 - Winter discovered to be a Cultist and Lynched. Wyrmhero and Emerald join the game.
• Night 4 - Phattemer killed, Meta probably poisoned.
• Day 5 - Honey Badger, a Citizen Pirate, was lynched. His hostage, Zas (a Cultist), died with him.
• Night 5 - Jindo Warrior prevents the Cultist killing, Alvron taken by Shaod, Bort returns from Elantris.
• Day 6 - Bort, the Cultist Prince, was lynched.
• Night 6 - Cultists get thwarted again
• Day 7 - Currently Active.

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Let me be first to welcome Meta back. Now we get his words straight from the source! \o/

(And it turns out turnover happened before a left. Yay!)

Had been hoping for a response from Lightsworn. Maybe I'll save thoughts for next cycle.
 
Anyway - I have a Quest for whoever decides to take it - I am not going to be around for turnover (well, unless it comes in super late). This means there may be a lapse in game quick links as the second post. So, if I'm not around I'm gonna put the code for the quick links here, so someone could do it this round.
 

[hr][b][u]Game Quicklinks[/u][/b]
[LIST]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/]Signups[/url][/*]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/?p=266040]Day 1[/url] - Fel/Mek Lynched.[/*]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/?p=267210]Night 1[/url] - Orlok Killed, Zas converted.[/*]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/?p=267929]Day 2[/url] - Spencer Lynched.[/*]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/?p=269512]Night 2[/url] - Cultist and Gyorn targets protected by pendants. Phattemer allegedly Cultist target.[/*]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/?p=270936]Day 3[/url] - Mailliw73 Lynched.[/*]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/?p=271870]Night 3[/url] - Bort was poisoned, someone else saved from Cultists.[/*]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/?p=272410]Day 4[/url] - Winter discovered to be a Cultist and Lynched. Wyrmhero and Emerald join the game.[/*]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/?p=273590]Night 4[/url] - Phattemer killed, Meta probably poisoned.[/*]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/?p=274107]Day 5[/url] - Honey Badger, a Citizen Pirate, was lynched. His hostage, Zas (a Cultist), died with him.[/*]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/?p=275117]Night 5[/url] - Jindo Warrior prevents the Cultist killing, Alvron taken by Shaod, Bort returns from Elantris.[/*]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/?p=275713]Day 6[/url] - Bort, the Cultist Prince, was lynched.[/*]
[*][url=http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/29102-lg12-shadows-of-elantris/?p=276772]Night 6[/url] - *Cultists did something*[/*]
[*][url=Night%206]Day 7[/url] - Currently Active.[/*]
[/LIST]
[hr] 

Or I guess I can just do it late. But it don't look as neat as when it's the first reply.

Reason #I'lllcountthemeventually^[1]: A thread about why the 17th shard is so awesome is so awesome that it inspires the admins to make the site more awesome.

 

[1]: Turns out it's about #18

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Edit since no ones responded yet:

 

A LIST^TM OF REASONS WHY THE 17TH SHARD IS SO AWESOME

1. We can talk about religion without arguments starting. In fact, we can have intelligent conversation on religion.
2. Age doesn't matter. Ideas and comments are judged solely on their merit, and not dismissed because the person posting is too young or too old to understand what they're talking about.
3. We have mods that are truly interested in the community.
4. We all have fantastic taste in books
5. We have a fan base which doesn't prejudice or insult others for things they are interested in, whether that video games, movies, fantasy, science fiction, anime, books, roleplaying, superheroes or even My Little Pony.
6. We have people willing and with the talent to write odes to 17th Shard.
7. People actually like [LarkoftheRiver] to an extent on here, or at least tolerate [them]
8. We can discuss anything that would start arguments in five minutes on other forums without having the fights ourselves.
9. There's a downvote system but it's never used.
10. Its the only place where [we] can haphazardly throw around Sanderson references and people actually understand.
11. People are capable of derailling threads with passionate 5 pages long battles between pet theories and in the end everyone agrees that the other has valid points, even if they are not convinced. 
12. Everyone is respectful of [our] opinion, whether they disagree or not. Everyone is supportive of ideas, theories and jokes.
13. This forum is the only place where [king of nowhere has] found people who are strongly religious but also accepting of others who are not.
14. This is the only place where [you] can find people who are even more nerds than [us[, so [we] don't feel like the weird one.
15. There are no trolls here, there is only understanding and companionship. This is a true community of like-minded individuals.
16. The fact that [we] can [talk about our beliefs/worldview] on this forum and know that no one will attack [us] for our beliefs... And this goes beyond religion to any topic.
17. On almost any other site, the Oregon RP would've gotten more raised eyebrows than requests to join
18. A thread about why the 17th shard is so awesome is so awesome that it inspires the admins to make the site more awesome.

Here's the replies I would've gotten on most other sites:

"Caribou? Why caribou? Wouldn't polar bears be more of a threat? And by does Khione care so much about oil if she can just power everything by wind?"

"A cloak made out of a polar bear? That is so cruel! I can't believe you'd put that in a story, especially one praising a woman for being so mean to animals!"

"Uh...okay, that was weird."

On this site?

"That was so awesome I upvoted another post of yours too!"

"You're the George R. R. Martin of zombie caribou stories."

I honestly don't know why that is--why some people would find a story like that odd. Maybe reading Sanderson changes your perspective of what is and isn't "normal" storytelling.

Out of context, it probably is odd. But here, you are a respected member of a community with a plethora of followers. Also, zombie caribou are totally plausible in the reckonerverse!

All of you lovely folks have expressed my reasons for loving the Shard better than I could, so I'll just add one:

On almost any other site, the Oregon RP would've gotten more raised eyebrows than requests to join. Here? Everyone embraces the insanity and adds to it. Case in point: I wrote a scene where a stampede of zombie caribou got sucked into a tornado, and I received upvotes and praise instead of questions about my sanity.

I love this place.

Well, I can't say I don't question the sanity of it, but I started to sign up and it's exactly the sort of thing my sister would love, so I'm not sure what that says about me.

But I guess, what is 'normal'? What makes something 'normal' as opposed to different/odd/weird? Isn't being different to everyone else 'normal'?

I think I can live without poems, but that honorific: you can definitely keep that coming.

That is a relief. I did not think my poetry worthy for the Brightness Ascendant, but I was not sure if Her Majesty approved though. She did not respond to the banner commissioned in her honor.

It reminds me of an important question I'm struggling to answer too, which is a variation of Euthyphro's Dilemma. Fundamentally, I'm asking myself: what is a good reason to worship God? Why should I do so? God may be the fundamental and ultimate source of goodness, omnipotent, all-powerful. But why should I worship Him? (Atheists, grant me this assumption for now, in order to investigate the issue.) It seems to me to be slightly related to what you're asking: is there any intrinsic value/reason why, despite the fallibility--we subscribe to a religion?

Writes out a whole bunch of stuff, then rereads your post, and decides to restart my reply. (And then does it again. Take 3. And then I reread it again and see that there's actually two questions. Take 4. Scratch that, Take 5... Take 6)

Hadn't seen that Dilemma before. Guess my view on it would be that the Bible/God defines 'morally good' as 'what pleases Him'. In which case, the two statements are equivalent, and then no more dilemma.

'Why worship God?' (opperating under the assumption that He exists, and that he is the source of goodness, is omnipotent, etc)

My answer would be 'What reward has He offered? What is the personal cost? Are you willing to pay it? (This assumes that the cost is serving Him)'

'Is there any reason to subscribe to religion when there is obvious fallibility'. (Hopefully that's about right. That's how I see the question anyway).

I could talk about fallibility for ages if I wanted to (most of my different attempts of writing this related to that). Think it boils down to personal belief. A persons should understand what their faith, and believe it by their own choice, rather than just believe what they are told. Should you then join a religion? If it helps you to serve your God how you understand He wishes to be served, then sure, for as long as that religion is aligned with the way you want to walk.

(Edit: Hmm, me this that this might be drifting off the topic of the spread of religions across Sharders. And again, if I've stepped over a line, do PM me, and I'll fix things)

 Edit: The M'Hael and Kipper meant nothing to me. You are everything. This I swear.

 

Your royal highness, Lady Kiireon, the Brightness Ascendant. With my fate no longer bound with that of Kaian, I can now reaffirm complete fealty to your service. Do you still require poems of a novice poet?

If you've read other Brandon Sanderson stuff, the nice thing about the Stormlight Archive is that it starts to weave the Cosmere more directly into the story. While all the other books hint at something else, and we can use information from one book to inform a theory from another, the Stormlight Archive starts to reference things in more meaningful ways. 

 

In regards to length, yeah it can be long. I personally didn't find Shallan's story line in The Way of Kings engaging, but the others were real page-turners. In some ways, you could almost skip the Shallan stuff (apart from the fact it helps inform the reader about some major things) in the first book. It's more in Words of Radiance that Shallan starts to be become truly relevant (in my opinion).

 

I will say this - if you've ever attempted to read The Eye of the World (first book of the Wheel of Time series), got a half a dozen chapters in, and then put it down (my first attempt was exactly that), then you have nothing to fear from Way of Kings.

First of all, thank you all for being able to talk calmly about this. Can I just say, I would be afraid to post this virtually anywhere else on the internet. You guys are awesome!

This is a sentiment I would agree with!

 

Second of all, I have added a "Christian-Other" choice in the poll, pending some peoples concerns. I probably should have thought of that before, but never mind. Kudos to you, Comatose.

Shifted my vote to that.

 

Kaymuth raised an interesting point as well when he mentioned how much the perception of Egyptian mythology has changed. I couldn't help wondering, how much has the Christian religion changed? Certainly, a few hundred years ago, they were putting people under house arrest for saying that the earth orbited the sun (something which, by the way, it took them until 1992 to admit they were wrong about in any official capacity).

 

So, if the Bible were absolutely correct, why are they changing their stance on these issues (including women's rights, astronomy, and everything else they changed their stance on). And if they're wrong, then why should we believe in it?

 

I know I've focused on Catholicism a lot here, and not a lot on the other religions. But I guess my last argument can be carried over to most religions I am aware of.

Treading carefully, I know that I would tend to agree with you (and I know we'd also point to scripture (Revelation) as saying such things would happen). I guess this is where everyone believes they have the whole truth (really, if you are going to identify with a religion, it's in some ways necessary).

 

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Because these things can be sensitive, I will say this: if you feel I've stepped over a line, PM me and I'll remove stuff, and will be happy to continue a conversation there if that is what you wanted.

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Game Quicklinks

• Signups
• Day 1 - Fel/Mek Lynched.
• Night 1 - Orlok Killed, Zas converted.
• Day 2 - Spencer Lynched.
• Night 2 - Cultist and Gyorn targets protected by pendants. Phattemer allegedly Cultist target.
• Day 3 - Mailliw73 Lynched.
• Night 3 - Bort was poisoned, someone else saved from Cultists.
• Day 4 - Winter discovered to be a Cultist and Lynched. Wyrmhero and Emerald join the game.
• Night 4 - Phattemer killed, Meta probably poisoned.
• Day 5 - Honey Badger, a Citizen Pirate, was lynched. His hostage, Zas (a Cultist), died with him.
• Night 5 - Jindo Warrior prevents the Cultist killing, Alvron taken by Shaod, Bort returns from Elantris.
• Day 6 - Bort, the Cultist Prince, was lynched.
• Night 6 - Currently Active.

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Vote Tally:
Bort{11*}: Seonid, Wilson*, Emerald, Clanky, Haelbarde, Wyrm, Twelfth, Mckeedee, Dowanx, a smart guy
Wyrm{1}: Kasimir
Ostrich{1}: Bort
Wilson{0**}: Kipper**
Claincy{1**}: (Kipper)**
 

Vote Tally (with history):
Bort{11*}: Seonid, Haelbarde<1>, Wilson*, Emerald, Clanky, Haelbarde<3>, Wyrm<2>, Twelfth, Mckeedee, Dowanx, a smart guy
Clanky{0}: Araris<1>
Wyrm{1}: Kasimir
Ostrich{1}: Wyrm<1>, Bort, Haelbarde <2>
Wilson{0**}: Kipper**
Claincy{1**}: (Kipper)**

 
Everything seems to be as we were expecting.

3. I'd like to tentatively add two more names to the list of confirmed non-Gyorns:

 

12. Seonid** --Here's my reasoning. Seonid was absent for Cycle 1. Yet we know the Gyorn was active on Night 1, having sent in an order. I suggest this might give us reason to tentatively rule out Seonid.

13. Piff/Em** --Similar reasoning. Piff was inactive for two cycles and then got replaced by Emerald. If this was not a request for replacement, like Wonko's/Aonar's (which is why I am being a bit tentative about this line of reasoning), then we once again have a picture of his activity that is incompatible with ongoing Gyorn activity.

 

Hence, the current suspect pool:

Gyorn suspect pool: M’Hael, Jain, Clanky, Dow, Araris, Claincy, Ostrich, Karlin, Aonar/Wyrm, Wonko/Sart.

 

Adding those two for those reasons certainly seems fair enough. I guess it would be worth keeping note of the fact that we can't necessarily verify either of them, but that the likelihood of them being Gyorn is less than the others in the pool.

If that was pointed at me, feel free to disregard my thought. That was more an exercise in getting my brain actually working in this game (I'd been struggling to really come up with anything), and I posted it cos I'd written it. I had wonderred, and I had an idea I thought might work. Can't remember if I said this, but I think Seonid commented about how Winter's comment successfully shut down the discussion, preventing fellow cultist from getting involved. That satisfies what I had regarded as odd in how Winter reacted to being called out. So I don't even have doubts as to Meta's priestness now. No raging objections from me.

I went with 'Other', and even if there was a 'Christian' option, I'm not sure if I'd change. Certainly wouldn't be Christian by a Catholic definition (understanding that all Catholic's might not have the same definition - that to believe the Trinity is necessary to be 'Christian').

 

Christadelphian is what I am, if anyone has heard of them. One of biggest doctrines is what we call 'God Manifestation' - that what made Jesus God-like while on earth was his character aligned with God's, and put aside his own will in favor of God's. Because he lived a sinless life, he was resurrected and then given immortality. So, the only difference between us and him was that his father was God. We also view references to Satan/the Devil as just referring to human nature - our own tendency to do the wrong thing. While I could have worded that better, those two things I feel would differentiate us from quite a number of other Christian denominations. Adult full immersion baptism would also be another thing (though at least someone has already mentioned that).

 

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Though I suspect 'hymn' means something different to me than some of you (our hymns are (for the most part) 4-part harmonies that are classical (used as a catchall for older, less modern music, rather than exclusively the musical period), sung to a piano or organ accompaniment) I would say I love singing them.

 

See, as far as music goes for me, I rarely pay attention to lyrics. I find lyrics hard to listen to (I get them wrong) and whenever anyone links music to me saying the lyrics are great, that's usually irrelevant to me. The music behind the lyrics are much more important. However, if I'm actually singing something like "Jesus is my savior," that's just... I can't. It's a lie, and I figure that if there were divinities, they'd like me to be honest about my beliefs at least

That makes sense. In our hymn books there are some hymns which I would not agree with the content, and I'd just not sing them if they came up. But no, having a think through the various hymns we have, a lot would say things not relevant to a non-believer (though I don't see that as an issue necessarily - believers who want to worship through song are going to want words relevant to their beliefs (not that you're saying they shouldn't)).