Ancient History is getting pretty close to 10 000 posts! I think this is a milestone that we should all celebrate (mostly because any excuse for a celebration is a good one). How can we reward the Ancient One when he achieves that magic 10 000th post? How can we all share in it, living vicariously off of his prestige? Let's hear suggestions, people!

we'll just have to roll the odometer back over to 1....

Now that's funny! +1

Isn't 10,000 posts when the Myans said the Earth was going to end?!? I thought I read that somewhere.....

That's tampering, and it's illegal. I hope you weren't planning on trying to sell him off as a fresh author after that.

Only if we could find an air freshener with the new author smell.

I was going to celebrate with a pint of Guinness and maybe a Car Bomb or two. Ooo! We could do Machine Guns! I wonder what AH's favorite shot is.

I'm a teetotaler, but don't let that stop you.

Yay! I'm not the only one!

I think when he breaks 10k, we should build a digital monument to him.

Awww, now that's a pity. And it won't stop me -- being in Iraq, on the other hand, will, but that's neither here nor there. Oh, and since I've got you on the line (so to speak), I also wanted to say thanks for the Ancient Files. The IE/Dragon listing is helping immensely now that my gaming group has badgered me into running an Earthdawn Campaign, too. You sir, win.

De nada.

What I found amusing, is that Caine said the odometer should roll over at 10k, and then I looked at his post count.

Posts: 2,001,093

Does not count, he set it there himself, the old cheat ^^
Now Uncle Ani, that is real dedication . . or a serious lack of a real life . .
I chose to go with dedication, seeing how my own count is above 7000 <.<;,
What CAN we do for him though? His Ancient files are as big a monument to him and his work as it can get allready after all O.o

Yeah, but Caine is allowed to do that... being an Admin and all...

I'm new to the game, but I really appreciate all the information he has posted (even if I've only skimmed the amount of data available on Shadowrun).

So how many times has he cracked his meter and turned it back to 1?

What about a strawberry smoothie? My wife has been on a kick for those as of late.

Now I'm wanting an admin to play with my post count and just change it to random numbers whenever they feel like it. Imagine, one day, I post at 11, the next day is 20,347. Next day, down to two hundred. *shrugs*

@AH: What is one of your favorite characters? if a prime runner, let me know a name, and maybe a book reference. If a character of your own, pm me a description. :3

Thank him for all his hard work, give him a pat on the pack and then send him back into the fray? Give him a cheap pocket watch and tell him his services aren't needed anymore ? I'm more in favour of the former than the later since I've used his references on many occasions (especially when I don't want to wade through the books to find it myself ) and I'd rather see that work continue. I see Adrian is going to go with an actual gift which is nice too.

I was gonna say hasn't Fortune raped the 10k mark some time ago but, yeah Caine kinda wins the internet cookie already.

Naw, it should totally be random every time it does a database lookup (eg. every post says you have a different number of posts).

That would be awesome, and far more entertaining. Wonder if it'd be possible to do that on here...

Technically it would be pretty easy to do.

First you create a statement in the php where the post count is displayed, if its not a number, drop into a switch statement checking for various strings (if it is a number, just display it).

By using a switch statement you can have a number of things it can display, such as putting in "random()" making it call a random number. Or putting in "blank" and it doesn't display. And its easily extensible: you just add more cases. If it doesn't match, display the string (default case) so you could have "ERROR IN POST COUNT" and it would print that string.

Then, as long as you have direct access to the database, you can just change the relevant user-row field.

Adding an interface through the forum control settings would be more difficult, but not impossible.

We'll have to sacrifice a virgin.

That depends. Traditionally, those sort of sacrifices were female...and those are a lot harder to find, ah, "unspoiled," on the gamer circuit.

Got one in my gamer crew. Though not sure she'd take well to being offered up as a sacrifice. How about just a kidney? She's got 3 so could spare one.

Well that would mean she's either a mutant or an organlegger. I wouldn't mess with her in either case.

What?

Did she, like, kill someone and implant theirs, or what?

Hereditary anomaly apparently. 3 kidneys and dual urinary tracts. She found out when she had her gall bladder removed.

Actually, I wouldn't even futz with the database lookup. The php already has a variable to output the post count, which does its own lookup, so all you'd do is put an IF statement in at the point of display and IF the user = xyz, display a random number, ELSE display the normal post count variable. You could get more complicated and make the logic based on an array and therefore add/remove users for the list to get a random number.

Either way, I'd just leave the database alone and let it continue to increment normally and just override the call to display the count.

Are you sure it's not just two people standing next to each other?

Seriously though... that must make drinking games interesting.

Great, now you mentioned it Redjack will probably write a script for Fisty to read post+dropbear... plus futz up a few of the others of us for fun

Maybe that could be the thing DSF does for those with over 10,000 post count?

Now I have a new purpose in posting! A drop bear script

I prefer to continue to have no purpose to posting.

How bout a golden commlink ? Isn't that traditionally what the mega corps hand out ?
Although he's not retiring so .. .. ..
Wait ! Tell me he's not retiring !

he allready did, i am afraid . .
maybe he will come back if CGL loses shadowrun, but i don't think anything else might persuade him to do that . .

I don't think he could go back even if some completely different company owned the license. He yanked his stuff just as two books were going to print and singlehandedly set their release date back by a few months as the company scrambled to cover. Whatever disagreements he had at the time with the company, how would a company be sure that he wouldn't suddenly bug off the next time something offended him? He didn't just hurt the head company guys that he was trying to hurt with that, he hurt everyone associated with the project and everyone else at the company.

To be fair, he was part of the group that wasn't being paid, or paid on time for several months if not longer. He wasn't the only one to pull or withhold contracts. Any company that doesn't look at it in context doesn't deserve his talents.

It's been covered before, but if he really wanted to hurt the company he could have refused payment and forced them to pulp the whole run. After they shipped it.

*cough*bullshit*cough*

I don't want to get into this - again - but what I did I did within the terms of my contract, and frankly neither the SR line developer or anyone else at CGL ever asked me to hold off. There were some exceptional circumstances in and around the events in question, and everyone knew damn well what they were getting into. As it was, they had to have been at least half-expecting what my reaction to getting shit-canned would be, and they still felt it necessary to go through with it. Considering how late the project was already, and the fact that even after I left it didn't receive any additional proofing or editorial work - then no, I don't think I unduly hurt any of the other freelancers, and the SR line dev had plenty of time to make a better product and chose not to do it.

Early on, I had hoped CGL would fold quickly and I cold sell my drafts to the next company, in which case the delay for the book as a whole would have been a positive thing. That didn't happen as I hoped. So, here we are.

How about a virtual cake?

The cake is a lie.



<_<



>_>



<_<














Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Would that make the virtual cake a virtual lie?

So if it's a virtual lie, is it a real truth?

Is it a fruit cake?
There are canon fruit cakes from/for dragons after all . .

Perhaps if you put it in front of two mirrors on a 90 degree angle to each other you could make it a real truth (Sorry, couldn't resist either)