Post by Akbar Le Grey on Jun 25, 2006 3:22:14 GMT -5
Editor-in-Chief: Akbar Le Grey.
Sub-editor: Linda, Robert.
Columnists: Une femme auteur anonyme, Jemima, Sixteen, Snicket*, Tess, Eoghann.
Published by 667er Publications, ltd.
A subsidiary of the 667er Group.
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The 667 Apprentice has finally come to its conclusion. Unfortunately, we won’t be telling you the winner until the very end of this report, so sit tight. All in all, the competition went off very well, even though there were some petty fights/arguments. Such things are expected, of course, so they didn’t ruin the whole thing. The suspense increased with each round, as week by week people dropped off. Finally, we rolled into this, the last week of this landmark competition. Who will be the new g-mod? Dupin or Libitina? Well, we’re not telling you *yet*. I have to create some suspense, y’know. Now, this report is divided into five sections: this, the introduction; a brief synopsis of each task by Sora; interviews with the two final contestants by me, Akbar; comments from Snicket; and, finally, a brief ending paragraph in which the winner will be announced. Enjoy! (:
Synopses[/u] [/size]
by Sora.
Task 1
This was the premiere task, and it definitely put the contestants to work. The teams had to create a complete FAQ of 667, encompassing pictures, diagrams and the like. The teams worked extraordinarily hard on the task, bringing things even I had never heard of. In the end Team Hexagons won the task, and Team Flaming Fedora member Amanda (who never actually joined) was fired.
Task 2
Task 2 involved a lot of digital paint and Photoshop with the teams designing a new banner for 667. The teams were to submit one final banner, but in the end each member made their own banner and voted on the best. The Hexagons won again, and with the smack down of a cobra, Deanna was fired.
Task 3
Task three involved this very newspaper with the task being to write an article on it. At this point, tensions were high between the teams, and this was a strong task. The article had to be based on a current event and both teams of course took it from the most active board, MM. Each member had to write their own paragraph, and the project manager edited it and prepared it for the almighty Akbar’s decision. The ultimate winner was, for the third time in a row, Team Hexagons. Snicket Face from Team Flaming Fedoras was fired.
Task 4
O, glorious MM. For task four, each team had to come up with an idea for a thread for this mighty board, a thread that would attract attention from everyone. Of course, the threads were ones that had been done a million times before, but heck people flocked to them. Top 8 members, and What are you like were thier themes, prompting limited, and, thus, simple responses. It was the closest task yet, but in the end Team Hexagons won for the fourth consecutive time. Setnick pretty much fired herself.
Task 5
Time for a shuffle. The teams finally got a big shuffle. Dupin and Libby were shuffled into Team Flaming Fedoras, and Tess, A and Linda moved into Team Hexagons. The new teams had to rush right into the task of designing an advertisement plan for the 667 Podcast, which was judged by Lauren. Team FF used the ominous news feeder, and this might have been the deciding factor as Team FF won their first task. The lovely A. was fired from Team Hexagons.
Task 6
The second to last task in our competition was to:
GET PEOPLE TO JOIN 667.
You’d think it’d be easy, but the trick was, they ACTUALLY had to make 10 posts. The most each team was able to manage was about 4 or 5, which says a lot about our member to poster ratio. It’s not good, people.
But anyway… Team Flaming Fedoras won once again. After a rather odd boardroom, (where Sora lost his brain a little bit.), Linda was fired.
Task 7
Well, you all know about this task by now: message boards. Orangey won this task, but who wins overall?
Interviews[/u][/size]
Note: The interview(s) were conducted BEFORE the final result was announced.
Libitina
Akbar:
Hi, Libitina. Thanks for giving me permission to do this interview. Now, my first question is, of course, how would you feel if you won?
Libitina:
Thanks for having me, sir. If I won, I'd be quite glad that my hard work has paid off. I've spent a great deal of time on all the tasks thus far, especially the latest one. I would be surprised, however, as George would make a wonderful global moderator.
Akbar:
Okay. Now, if you win, what changes would you like to make to the board? Are there any major issues you feel need to be sorted out?
Libitina:
Tragedy has mentioned projects that he hopes to have done by the temporary global moderator, so if I won, I would complete those. I would also be interested in getting rid of old accounts that aren't used, as this has often been discussed before. Finally, I'd look to help newer members by PMing them links to the rules, FAQ, and The 667er, among other things to help them feel welcome.
Akbar:
Sounds good. What are your feelings about the contest in general, from beginning to end? Were there any large disputes or problems, or you do think it all went off pretty well?
Libitina:
I felt that there were some problems with biases in the competition which should have been addressed, but weren't. There were also some problems with communication, such as the fact that the members who were supposed to be global moderators for the message boards for the final task were not informed that they were supposed to be global moderators.
Other than that, I think the competition ran rather smoothly.
Akbar:
Oh, really? I hadn't heard about that latter issue you mentioned. I do, however, know that twistedbrain and George had a small tiff over her decision to take a g-modship position on your board. Libitina:
Libitina:
She didn't decide to be a g-mod on my board, she was assigned the position by Sora. Therefore, I think it was unreasonable that George should ask for her complete support. The real problem, however, was that some members who were supposed to be g-mods did not know that.
Akbar:
Oh, I see. I didn't know that. Well, are there any final remarks you'd like to make, prior to hearing who the winner is?
Libitina:
I had a lot of fun during The 667 Apprentice, and I'm quite glad that I decided to sign up. Everyone worked very hard, and it was nice to work as a team and get to know other members better. I think that George and I are both worthy winners and that we can both help the forum become a better place for everyone.
Akbar:
Thanks very much, Libby, it's been nice talking to you. (:
Libitina:
Thanks, you too.
George Dupin
George did not come online so we could not interview him.
Snicket’s Comments[/u][/size]
By Snicket.
Sora and I started this long ago, and after getting a handful of contestants, all competing for a chance to be a new Global Moderator, we have narrowed it down to one. We started out with many contestants, all going through the largest job interview on 667.
We started out with A, Dupin, Linda, twistedbrain, Orangey, Setnick, SnicketFace, Deanna, and Amanda. Finally, by the end, we are down to Dupin and Orangey.
Dupin and Orangey have both survived every single task so far.
So, who won?
Dupin and Orangey both created a forum as the final task. Whoever got the most members and the most posts would win. The winner of that task was Orangey.
However, we later created a poll to see who 667ers preferred better. Dupin came out on top in the polls.
So, it was down to the final decision. Who would win?
In the end, we thought that Dupin would have more experience to do this job, however, Orangey would be perfect to be a Moderator. Sora and I would like to thank all the contestants who participated. We would like to thank Jemima and Gigi for helping us to create the boards. We would also like to thank Akbar and Lauren for sponsoring certain tasks.Everybody on the team did a great job and helped us out a lot. Without them, we would not be able to finally get this done.
Thanks everybody, and I hope you had a great time and enjoyed the competition. Coming up is the new season of The 667 Big Brother. Good luck, Dupin. We hope you surprise us again with the new installment of The 667 Big Brother.
AND THE WINNER IS…[/u][/size]
The winner of The 667 Apprentice is:
GEORGE DUPIN!
CONGRATULATIONS, GEORGE!!!
I just know he’ll do a great job. I felt it was pretty balanced at the end, what with Orangey winning the final task and George winning the opinion polls, but it turns out that polls are actually right for once. Congratulations to both of you for a game well played!
-Akbar Le Grey, Snicket & Sora.
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THE USUAL SUSPECTS, AND A FEW UNUSUAL ONES
I was going to write something about a new project of Edwin's--something called The Daily Post, which consisted of him making a post every day about site events. Like my kind editor's various media ventures, only lame-- and if the title was supposed to be a pun on newspapers calling themselves "The Whatever Post", it wasn't funny. It got deleted, though. And Edwin's apparently quite disgusting outside of the forum, if Dupin (a generally quite honest member)is to be believed. Edwin apparently used the classic "my brother was impersonating me" ruse to swear and insult Dupin a lot on AIMSNEIEIO or whatever instant-messager you kiddies are using. His signature, randomly generated, attests to what most sensible members think of him:
Klaus19 wonders why she's mentioned so much in the newspaper if we all hate her--well, she should note that all mentions of her are in a hateful context. Or in the context of me saying I don't wish to comment on her, like now. At any rate, she really seems to have snapped; she started accusing members of racism(or Raceism) because they dislike her for refusing to even acknowledge the existence of spell-checkers. She claims to have an unusually high reading level, which tempts me to make a joke about it being unusually high for a two-year-old, but I won't. Tragedy disabled Klaus19's account, anyway--apparently at the request of the rather quiet Antenora. Now what shall I write about? Perhaps more will be revealed of this sneaky mod's behind-the-scenes activity, which should make for some interesting journalism.
We've had someone with a grotesquely misspelled character name(violletb2, namely, to distinguish them from the countless others of that description) join and make a few posts. In MMisc, which most of our newbies don't usually enter at first visit. I strongly suspected them of being a gag account, but I've said that of so many others and probably been proven wrong, wearing away at my faith in humanity. Anyway, they used the same avatar Twistedbrain once used(an exploding Ron Weasley puppet, if you must know), and that makes me wonder. Akbar called Ms Poorly-Spelled Violet the new "really cool member Queen", but she was rapidly exposed as... well, Tragedy didn't say, but he said he knew. But I'm sure it was a prominent member who is now very, very guilty. Shame on you, prominent member! I suspect everyone knows who you are, so I don't have to make wild guesses.
Inhabitants of MMisc have seemingly become obsessed with counting their posts, making threads to do so. I am not sure who started this, now, but some fairly popular members have been perpetuating it, as well as Klaus19, whom I thought would surely doom the fad. While I do not post, I should note that this is my 19th column, and that's surely worth something.
Mr Poe has returned, unless of course it's someone just pretending to be him. He destroyed any possibility of making a fresh start with an unbanned account by not only loudly proclaiming who he was, but bumping the old thread linking to his poorly-formatted 667-rip-off board and containing lots of poorly typed legal threats. Then not much happened surrounding him after this, but I'm still keeping what I wrote about him.
So the forum anniversary festivities have officially begun. They look amusing enough, and certainly do contain a lot of preliminary work and rules threads. My one gripe is that they seem to be targeted at members who actually post, but that's perfectly fine.
I understand that the 667 Apprentice is now in its final round, which involves the making of Proboards. Dupin and Libitina have squared off, inviting others to their boards to make as many posts as possible. From what I've seen, someone called "theperson" tried to test the moderation forces of Dupin's with a bit of "ar teh SoUE bookz rael" trolling. The moderation forces--consisting at that time of an equally anonymous "667 lurker"--struck her down. I'm pretty sure everyone on this board knows who both of these people are, and I've simply overlooked the obvious clues... Anyhow, by the time you read this, dear reader, the outcome of this massive contest will probably be widely known, as it's slated to be mentioned in the 667er. Unless my kind editor decided to place it below my column.
Extra Special Bonus Word-Count-Padding Extra Section
(may be harmful if swallowed)
667's Satanic Influences, Part 2
Continued from last week, I present further carefully concieved proof of our forum's allegiance to the Prince of Darkness.
Take the banner, now:
Correctly interpreted, it is a nice tableau of the Apocalypse! No doubt those legs kicking in the air represent the rich and prideful falling headfirst into Hell. As does the girl sliding down the bannister of Heaven's staircase, rejected from God's Glory! That salmon-looking waiter no doubt represents the beast Leviathan rising from the sea to bring havoc! This banner represents Satan's plans for dominion over the Earth, and capturing lost souls on Judgement Day!
Finally, the name used to refer to our forum contains a sinister significance itself. The number 667--note its closeness to the number of the Beast! Though it is one higher than that vilest of numbers, consider that in the hierarchy of evil all order is inverted! Therefore, this proclaims the forum's subservience to the Lord of Evil! Furthermore, what can "Dark Avenue" mean but the Left-Hand Path, the road to Hell that leads through darkness and despair to eternal suffering! The forum's very name encourages innocent members to follow the path of darkness to become servants of Satan himself!
And don't even get me started on the names of those moderators!
Not to be continued.
- Une femme auteur anonyme.
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EMERGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT!
Triangle Eyes would like to remind everyone that 667ers have been kidnapped by Olaf and are in grave danger. To help get them back safely, find the clues scattered across the forum and bid on the items that will set them free. For more information on the clues see the In-Auction Rules, here.
Happy searching and bidding everyone!
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Interview Of The Week.[/u]
An Interview with:
((Due to legal advice from his attorney, Isadore Kobolos would not consent to this interview’; in a statement, he simply wrote "I have put that place behind me, I have no comment", in his place we spoke to his human, Matthew.))
Linda: What is your real name? Is it Matthew, or is my memory playing tricks on me again?
From the words of the Bard, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." I was born as Matthew and I've picked up a few other monikers and aliases along the way. For this interview you may refer to me as "The great and Powerful Banana King."
Linda: And how did you come up with the username Kobolos (or any of your other creative usernames)?
For most of my Internet youth I was known as "Goest" which was a derivative of "Ghost" and "Goethe", but I became enchanted with Kobolos after finding the Kobalos in the dictionary which is Greek for "Goblin" and thus we have the first strands of a larger web.
As for the goblin, he began on 667 with this picture:
Everything evolved from this base image...he just sort of took a life of his own.
Linda: Where exactly are you from?
I was born in East Tennessee, in a small town at the base of the Cumberland Plateau. I also visited Florida in my misspent youth. In 1998 I moved to the first city in Nebraska near the mouth of the Platte river where I have lived since.
Linda: What sorts of things do you enjoy doing?
Boring as it may be: I enjoy reading, tending to my collection of odd things and generally being thrifty. (I'm the real-life Mr. Crab my son likes to say.)
Linda: I think I heard something about you doing art.
Art is a suggestive word, I am by no means an "artiste" however It's paid the bills before, but I don't have the temperament to do it full time...I don't handle deadlines well in regards to my creativity. Inspire me and I'll work days without sleep. If I'm not feeling it? Forget it.
Linda:What mediums do you use?
When I was a young lad I would paint shirts for extra cash, black source with white paint, it is my favorite way to paint as essentially I am a lazy lazy person and the black hides all the stuff I would have to paint/ink otherwise.
If it has color these days, I've done it digitally because it's the only way to go. My son really likes watercolors and I've dabbled in them again, when I get old I'm going to sit outside and paint pictures of my yard and use oils exclusively. I've also been known to use toys as actors in my Kobuki Theatre.
Linda: This sounds pretty straightforward, but it's really not, due to the sheer amount of accounts and account deletions you've had in the past. How long have you been a member of 667?
The first post I made was in August 2003. I have in essence 5723 posts under my belt with all the accounts combined....but often I will delete an account when it gets too many posts just to stick it to the Man.
Linda: Is there a particular reason for all the multiple accounts?
I used to post everything under one account, then it became harder and harder to post as the goblin and then make "serious" posts as Matthew. The worst insult someone can give a clever post is "oh that was Kobolos posting as the Marquis De Sade, I can see his real username." So if I needed to post as someone new it was only right that they had their own account...I mean they were more productive members than Lil'Cutie.
Linda: What sections of 667 do you most prefer to visit?
I am unable to keep up with the theory hounds, so I prefer Menacing Miscellaneous foremost....Disturbing Discussions was slightly necessitated by some of my threads, and was outright suggested by me if I remember correctly, though I'm certain I was not the only one who came up with the idea. Chaotic Creativity is where all my other stuff went and on occasion I'd go to the Movie section just to make fun of Mr. Wonderful74.
Linda: With all the long periods of absence, sometimes it appear that you have left us permanently, yet you always come back. What keeps you coming back to 667?
I never really "leave", I take holidays away when business and moods strike me. Most of the time I'll search "Kobolos" and reply to any matters that specifically need my attention or Swans will need me to make something. You'll notice a direct correlation between us...when she's around I'm usually around, she drags me back as my friend and as my foil.
Linda: You started The 667 Reporter, the predecessor to The 667er, didn’t you? What gave you the idea to start it?
The 667 Reporter was just an exercise in boredom, I'd make a cover as a "snapshot" of the 667 goings on and the initial point was people did not need content as they could read the very same content on the board. I thought it was a ludicrous idea to make a newspaper recapping a forum. Obviously I was mistaken as the first Newspaper fad began and ended. It became the Official 667 Reporter to mock someone who was calling their paper the OFFICIAL 667 somethinganother. Later I made a full 10 page edition, posting two pages a day starting Monday and ending Friday. That lasted two full editions.
Linda: Why did it stop?
It was simply too much work. Not to mention Todd went off to join the Gathering, where a stroke of a sword will take their head and with it their power...in the end there can be only one, may it be Todd F'n Rodham, the 667 Reporter.
Linda: Do you approve of the current 667er as a worthy replacement of the old 667 Reporter?
I think that would be an insult to both entities. You take a very silly idea and try to be serious about it. I simply did it for the jokes.
Linda: Is there anything else you'd like to say?
667 is and will always be a fun place to visit, I hope that even after "The End" comes that it remains just as relevant as it has always been. We've had a few laughs, shed a few tears in the process, but I've made some lasting friends here. Even though I am not always with you, I shall always return. Like a bad rash.
-Linda.
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