This Isn't the Report You're Looking For
This is last month's report. The site went down shortly after this was posted the first time so here it is again.

Also, since the site was down for so long and the competition details for August weren't available for that time, I'm going to extend the August comps to September 30th. August's comps were on a short string as it was so this will give everyone plenty of time to finish what they were working on or start something for one of the others.

Identify Yourself
I can't count your submissions if I can't figure out who you are. I ask for a basic ID line on the document name you send in for various competitions because it makes sorting all the entries easier and faster. Despite this, if I can at least figure out who you are from a signature line in your email I will and still count it. Unfortunately, someone sent me an entry that looked like one of those lottery scams from the King of Nigeria that contained zero info for me to figure out whose it was so it wasn't counted.

Also, if you can remember to put [Fiction] in your subject line my filter will pick it up. Makes it hard to see otherwise. Just take a second and make sure you get credit for your work. I appreciate it everyone.

The Ninth Great Jedi War
The story for this is tightening up. I feel like a less-gifted Peter Jackson as I'm writing the remaining plot updates and GJW 9 story simultaneously. Additionally, with the shift in focus to characters we can control in order to tell a better story, I'm crafting detailed histories and biographies for the new NPCs we'll be using. I'll also be fleshing out some returning NPC bios as well as adding bios for NPCs we've met already through the recent updates. Might take one of you up on the kind offers of help for that though.

We're also hopefully going to have a new kind of event that we came up with for GJW 8 but didn't have time or resources to implement. Muzunculus is heading up this project and it a) will be cool, and b) is something we've never seen in this club before.

Plot Updates Update
Writing the third update. Half-done maybe. It has an interesting theme (I hope) and contains some sexy items that will play into the GJW 9 story and should melt the faces of at least two of you. If anyone cares, here's an excerpt:

Though environmentally controlled and sealed to the vacuum of space by a magcon field, the hangar stirred with an unnatural wind that rose to flush between the TIEs hanging above. Purple lightning arced wildly between the droids and gantries overhead. YVHs snapped and jerked as each was touched by the amethyst energy. Photoreceptors winked and skeletal digits reacted in spasm as dark power coursed through circuitry burning pathways to abilities never intended or imagined.

Before the maelstrom Muz did not stir. Still seated, the Prophet reacted only by slowly bringing his hands closer together. As the distance between his hands lessened, the storm engulfing the droids and the bay increased in intensity. The droids’ vocoders began to pop and scream under the strain in artificial protest as they were further charged with the dark side of the Force. A metallic cacophony rose to the ceiling as the YVHs jerked wildly with building fervor.*

*All subject to change of course.

Try not to blow up our star system again, Krath.

Volunteers
I'd like to thank those of you who have contacted me with offers of help. Though I don't take everyone up on them, they are appreciated. Most of what I do is a one-Sith job but occassionally it's necessary to be reinforced.

The Armed Forces project has been staring me in the face uncompleted for a while now which bothers the hell out of me. I had to shelve it for a time to get on the GJW and interim plot updates so we know what we're looking at for events, timeline, labor, etc. Special thanks to Oberst for volunteering time to help me get some more articles built and conduct research.

I'll be plugging away at what remains to fill-in for the ground forces here and there between working on the plot updates and GJW.

July Competition Results
DoaC seemed to be popular. Interesting. Hopefully people are enjoying these.



1st Place - Ronovi 9676, Tarentum
2nd Place - Impetus 5951, Scholae Palatinae
3rd Place - Ric 3160, Scholae Palatinae

Participation
Impetus 5951, Scholae Palatinae
Ric 3160, Scholae Palatinae
Kara 10057, Plagueis
Bal 10059, Plagueis
Ronovi 9676, Tarentum
Legorii 8893, Arcona
Halcyon 43, Taldryan
Alaric 91, Naga Sadow



1st Place - Troutrooper 7656, Tarentum
2nd Place - Alaric 91, Naga Sadow
3rd Place - Bal 10059, Plagueis

Participation
Legorii 8893, Arcona
Alaric 91, Naga Sadow
Bal 10059, Plagueis
Troutrooper 7656, Tarentum

August/September Competitions




The end-dates for these competitions are now all September 30th so ignore the September 1st deadline listed in the competition details.

Reading
Read The Force Unleashed novel the other day. It was alright. A strong script from Haden Blackman received a fair treatment by author Sean Williams. Williams writes the story in the style I call "vanilla" (also known as "young adult") which many authors seem to adopt when writing outside of their own copyright work. This style does the job and seems to be what Lucasfilm prefers in order to appeal to the most readers.

The story starts slow and at just over 300 pages could have stood a bit more room to tell it all. You'll see where Williams hurries to "Force-write" through things that could have been interesting areas to explore. I won't spoil anything, but I was expecting an ending with greater consequences. It wasn't bad though.

My main issue with the story, and I knew what I was in for, is that it reads too much like playing the game it's based on. Following the apprentice from world to world is like going from level to level in the game. It's an obvious thing, but I would have liked to have seen the author do something to separate the genres here a bit. Strict adherance to the script was probably dictated to him from on high, but some variation would have been nice.

A few other problems exist where the apprentice retraces his steps to several of the primary locations in the story which seems to be due more to the limited worlds available in the game than a crucial story mechanic. Also, some minor characters--namely Maris Brood--receive only cursory treatment, yet have a huge impact on the story. It would seem they are victims of the theoretical Star Wars novel page-count limit I suspect is out there and shrewdly enforced. We've only seen a few of the novels go over 400 pages and I think the longest was Star by Star at 600'ish.

Granted, and sadly, not much out there in Star Wars is deserving of Wheel of Time-like page-counts, but some of the stories could use a little more room to flesh-out things and TFU is one of them. All this said, I'd still recommend reading it, but wait for paperback. Though the writing wasn't at the level we occasionally get to see in Star Wars, the events themselves make it worthwhile. So if you can wait, you'll get most of the story from the game next month or you can check out the graphic novel.

As has been said, the demo for TFU is outstanding. The game looks and feels phenomenal and the story behind the game is a good one. Pray to your gods for a multi-player patch down the road.

___________________________________________

UPDATE: Clan leaders, it would also be of great help if you could update your sections on the Current events page.

Yay, I get to contribute to the flood of reports from the Dark Council/Summit members. There's quite a bit to report, so please read ahead.

Clan leaders, if you could please let me know which of your members is deserving (through your eyes) of DSSs for Wiki work, please let me know. I already have names from various Clans in my head. (Tarentum: I apologize a thousand times for being so slow with this.)

NEW WIKI POLICY:
Images may not be more than 700 KB, unless otherwise noted by the Wiki Tribune.

This is rather self-explanatory. I've resized/compressed the images that were way too big. (For PNG images: Use pngcrush or pngout for lossless compression. They are similar, but I've had more success with pngout.) The only images that are currently allowed to be exceptions are the galaxy maps: Map-28ABY.gif, Map-27ABY.gif, and Map-26ABY.gif. I did some research. MediaWiki gives a warning at 150 KB, but does not restrict the file from being uploaded unless it's 100 MB or more.

Obviously, 100 MB images would kill all the rabbits and blow up the sun simultaneously. Additionally, images should not be more than 800x600 pixels; having larger images (other than the galaxy maps) would just be silly to the max.

If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions about this policy, please contact me someway somehow.

FICTIONAL ROLE COMPETITION:
If I have already responded to you and said that I received your entry, then I received it.

Because the site went down the day after I made the announcement about the "Wiki Tribune - Fictional Role" competition, I am keeping it open to entries until August 31, 11:59 PM EST.

Competition Details

DELETE DELETE DELETE:
Yes, I like to delete things. Once you feel the power of the delete button, there's no going back.

This is just a reminder: If you would like something (article or image) to be deleted, please do ONE of two things: replace the content of the page with {{deletion}} OR email me. I or a Staff member will get to it right away!

If you want something (article or image) restored (a.k.a. "undeleted"), please email me or another Staff member immediately. If you don't tell us right away, the moon will explode and everyone will have to eat cheese for the rest of their lives.

If you need more clarification, please let me know.

MOVE MOVE MOVE:
The title of your character article should reflect the name on your dossier. It should not reflect a name that you want on your dossier. It should not reflect a name that you pulled out of a telephone that belonged to your grandmother who decided to eat toenails and storm clouds for eighty-five years and counting. It should not reflect a name that you submitted to the Master-at-Arms and is still pending.

When you move a page, the original page becomes a redirect. That redirect will be deleted if only 1-5 pages link to it.

This will be ratified into the "Editing Policies" page in the next few moments of my life.

If you need more clarification, please let me know.

WIKI PROJECTS:
1) Fairuse image audit. (Complete.)

2) User audit. (In progress...)

3) Clear the Dead-end pages list. (Complete.)

4) More competitions. (Waiting...)

5) Rejuvenate the staff. (Complete.)

6) Categories audit. (Waiting...)

7) Project: Realism. (Waiting...)

8) Tagged articles audit. (Waiting...)

9) DJBWiki basic information. (In progress...)

10) Advanced Wiki course. (In progress...)

11) Past Featured Articles awarding. (Complete.)

12) Redirects audit. (In progress...) I've already gone through and deleted many, many useless talk page and other redirects, but there are still hundreds left that need inspection.

THE WIKI STAFF:
3491 Krath Pontifex RevengeX Palpatine

6381 Grand Master Sarin
153 Dark Jedi Master Astronicus Aurelius Sadow
2706 Obelisk Primarch Benevolent Taldrya Whiner
3944 Sith Warlord Robert Atema Sadow
5951 Krath Epis Impetus Korin-M'Nar Palpatine
7941 Krath Priest Vladek
9426 Obelisk Templar Alaris Jinn
7699 Jedi Hunter Kyra Starfire

CONCLUSION:
- Jac and co.'s my hero. Kaek/Sklib's all right... I guess.
- I recently resigned from my position as Quaestor of House Acclivis Draco, of Clan Scholae Palatinae, so that I concentrate my energy as your Wiki Tribune.
- 2,099 articles. 1,996 images uploaded. 641 registered users.

Top Ten Wiki Reminders
# Use the Show Preview button as many times as you need
# Use the Save Page button once per session
# Put in a category - whether for an image or the article, and make sure it exists, don't make something up.
# If you upload an image, use it right away, otherwise it will be deleted if found in the Unused File bin.
# Don't double redirect. That is, if you change your name, change it everywhere it's listed instead of having a number of redirects.
# Read the Guidelines
# Read and use Getting Started
# Don't remove Maintenance tags - only Wiki staff are permitted
# Don't make links for articles that don't exist (red links) - make the article first then add the link to other pages.
# Take the Wiki Basics course at the Shadow Academy

Have a great week!

-RevengeX

--
KPN RevengeX Palpatine (Krath)/EP-T:W-M:SCL/Acclivis Draco of Scholae Palatinae [ACC: JUD]
  SB / GC-PoDP / SC-SoH / AC-ToSL / DC-GP / GN-BL / SN / BN-BL / Cr-1D-4R-15A-23S-25E-12T-10Q / PoB-AuL / CF-SpF / DSS-AuL / SI-BL / SoF-AuL / SoL-TC / LS-EL / S:-4Al-9C-17D-6Do-6Dk-17Rm-17P
  {SA: MVN - DML - DMP - SVT}

27 August 2008
Headmaster Report #14

This report was suppose to be released earlier, but the website attack pushed it back, as it did a lot of things. Anyways, it's just a short update really, so on with it. I saw Star Wars, being faithful, and... well... ugh. You'll love it if you are six years old, otherwise it was just average. The series is definitely geared towards younger generations, that's obvious, but there were cool moments, and it got better towards the end. I can't understand the animation style, but the soundtrack was awesome. Here are some of my favorite lines from the movies, that I can remember:

Pineapple Express: "What's down there? A rancor?"
Tropic Thunder: Tom Cruise's scene, too vulgar to type out
Star Wars: Ziro the Hutt, funniest part of the movie




News

--I'm sure I don't have to outline the recent attack of the DB website, that apparently occured through the Shadow Academy grading site. Anyways, on the SA side of things, the damage wasn't too bad. Thanks to our wonderful EPs and Dacien, we were able to catch the problem early, and cut off grading. As such, nothing was lost except seven exams, which have already been put back into the database. The EPs have started grading again, though they may have a little bit to catch up on.

--Oberst's summer edition of his in-depth writing course recently concluded with two graduates. Both Taigikori and Zandro both passed the course and earned Dark Sages of Writing, congrats guys!

--September 7th, at 4 PM London time, which is 11 AM EST, Kalak will be hosting a trial version of SA IRC Trivia in #shadowacademy. Legions of Scholars up for grabs, so if you're not busy come on by and try out your trivial skills. Depending on the crowd, we may continue this on a bi-weekly basis. This is basically a test run.




Projects

--Obviously, the website attack pushed the SA audit back, but we are working on uploading all the changes. Pretty much all of the audits have been submitted, so Dacien and I will get on those soon. This coming weekend is Labor Day weekend, so I'll catch up on a lot of things then.

--Again, we meant to release a new course this weekend, but then fiends decided to ruin our plans. As such, we will push the release of the new course back to early to mid-September, whenever a report falls. Other than that, most things are in the development stages. We're working on a few coding changes and additions to the SA site, but nothing that will debut immediately.




Featured Course of the Report

Due to all of the attack stuff and how busy I am reading through the clan feud run-ons, there is no featured course this report. Just go take one you haven't, they are all there for a reason.




Important Links

--SA Website

--SA Degree Requirements

--SA Forums




Summary

• ATTACKED! The Jac Strikes Back! Reports indicate damage to the Arcanum was limited, and the Academy is already up and running again.
  
• IRC Trivia September 7th, 11 AM EST
  
• New course pushed back to mid-September
  

Sith Warlord Aabsdu di Plagia Dupar
Headmaster of the Brotherhood

Report time.

So yeah, unless you were on LOA for the last few weeks, you'll have seen that the DB got hit with an SQL injection attack. It took some time, but the Jac restored the site from a backup and him and the staff managed to seal off the vulnerabilities so that it can't happen again.

We're starting to work on the stuff for the next War. Last time, we didn't really have a whole lot of time to build up to things, and kinda dropkicked everything into place. It worked out pretty well. But this time is going to be far better, I think. Pay attention to the fictional updates that Raken is putting up. There's good plot stuff in there. And yes, there's some seriously face-melting stuff that we're going to be doing for this war that will trump what we have been doing in the past. And there's stuff that we'll be able to do this time that we wanted to last time but couldn't manage due to time and whatnot. We're sure that you'll like it.

Muz projects: still plodding along on the faces stuff. Arion is working on finagling the code for this monster. still grinding away on other stuff for more secret projects.

Shut up. It's a preliminary sketch.

Mejas Doto has stepped down as Consul of Arcona after a tenure of almost a year. In his absence, a vaccuum has formed in that clan. As a result, Sarin and I are asking for applications for the position of Consul. Requirements. Shoot your apps to Sarin, Raken and I.

So, SoulcaliberIV came out and had the secret apprentice in it. Quite a cool player character in that...but it did not prepare me for the total waste-s**t fest that is the Force Unleashed demo. Just whoa. If you have a PS3 or an xbox 360, go and download it asap. It's killer. Also, the graphic novel is pretty wicked, too.

The clone wars movie was good, but it was decidedly geared toward a kid audience. Hopefully this will mean that Lucas will make the live-action show he's working on more dark. He's already been quoted as saying that the live-action franchise will be more like BSG and firefly. That just makes me more anxious to see what they have in store.

Congrats and thanks go to: Jac, Orv, Sil, and all the other people who've helped to bail the site out of trouble.
Kaek and sklib for reloading and manually processing all the missing data needed.
Mejas for his work as consul. Well done, all around.

And that's all for this time. If you guys have any questions, or need any help, shoot me an email, or PM me on IRC. Have fun!

This isn’t a real report so much as me placing up notices that were lost during the database downtime for permanent consumption. There will be a 2-week extension on the family census starting today. That means the family census ends on September 8th. DO NOT FORGET TO DO THIS!!!!!!1111oneoneeleven

Family and Clan Name Census 08
Posted by: DA Syn Kaek (Sith) - 8/11/2008 6:58:34 PM

Here it is: the moment you’ve all been waiting for! The infamous Family and Clan Name Census of 2008!

Before I begin with instructions on how to report to me, let me first take this opportunity to clarify some of the policies that have been in effect and make a few changes. Firstly, a significant change to #3 of the family policies: families are defined as a group of 3 or more individuals who share the same last name. Groups of two are not defined as a family though they are still required to report to the Master At Arms. There are no restrictions on two members with the same last name. Additionally, the required family history/information must be at least 10 pages long. We found that the 4-5 page requirement is not conducive to producing a thorough well-developed fictional background for families and therefore, we decided to up the requirement.

Secondly, a clarification on clan names: if you have a clan title and go rogue, you retain that name unless your clan specifies otherwise or you go to a different clan when you return from rogue.

I hope those are clear. Now, here is what I require of all families and Consuls. First, the easy part: Consuls, if you would be so good as to send me an updated list of all the current clan title holders. All I need a list of who has the name. That’s it. Thanks.

For families, I need your family leader or your family representative to contact me within 2 weeks with an updated roster of members and whatever fictional history you currently have. If you’re in a family and you’re unsure whether or not your leader/representative is going to do this, check with them. If you get no response, feel free to contact me. All I need is at least one member of the family (preferably the leader or representative) to contact me with an updated roster and history within 2 weeks.

Families that do not respond within 2 weeks will be put on probation (no new members will be allowed) until they do respond. If there is no response after a significant time from any family members, the family will be officially dissolved.

If you share a last name with two other individuals, please be sure to register even if you do not meet the requirements to form an official family. I still classify you as ‘attempting’ to make a family and you are therefore still subject to the regulations.

There will be no ‘grandfathering’ this time around. The goal is to bring all families into compliance with the regulations. If a family lacks a DA+ member, they will not be allowed to have new members until they do. If a family lacks a 10 page history, they will not be allowed to have new members until they do. With regard to the history, there will be at least a one month grace-period for families to put together something to submit to myself and the Herald before they are unable to recruit.

Lastly, if you share a last name with only one other member, please report to me as well. You’ve done nothing wrong and you’re not in violation of any rules but I want to keep a record of who you are so that I don’t have people complaining to me about you trying to form families.

If you have any questions, just let me know. Complaints should NOT be placed in the comments but should instead be emailed to me. Thanks

DA Syn Kaek
Master At Arms

Family Reminder and Clarification
Posted by: DA Syn Kaek (Sith) - 8/14/2008 7:05:39 PM

Just a reminder to all families to register with me for the census. This includes any group of 3 or more people who all share the same last name. I don’t care if you currently do not meet the requirements to form a family - you still need to register with me.

Also, if you share your last name with only one other person, you also need to register with me.

Thanks!

DA Syn Kaek
Master At Arms

Consuls and other members of the Dark Summit,

Though I planned to mention this in my next report, I wanted to go ahead and pass this on to you and your Clans before A.) I forget, and B.) People ask me about it again. Please forward this to your Clan mailing list.

I want to clarify the current policy on dossier removals and deactivation. Currently, most members are not aware of the options available to them in terms of how their dossiers will be handled in the event that they wish to leave the Brotherhood. In order to minimize my workload and to help members make more responsible choices, I present to you the options that are available.

Transfer to the Rogues: In the event that a member doesn't have time for the Brotherhood or wants to take a break, they can request a transfer to the rogues. Rogue transfers for real life purposes are almost always approved rather quickly and this is the ideal way for a member to proceed in those instances. Even if a member is no longer interested in the Brotherhood at all, I would suggest only a transfer to the rogues and nothing more. In the event that a member realizes they want to come back, it's a simple matter of transferring back to their previous Clan quickly. Members who have been gone for a substantial amount of time are, of course, welcome to transfer to any Clan they like when they return but the practice of Clan hopping (going rogue and then transferring from rogue to another Clan in order to avoid the hassles of an inter-Clan transfer) is not allowed. So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE: always consider going rogue before any other option.

Inactive Dossier: If a member wants a little bit more finality to the termination of their Brotherhood career or wants to make it very clear to people recruiting from the rogues that they are not interested in being an active member of the Brotherhood, they can request to have their dossier marked as inactive. In that event, I will move the member to the rogues and then mark the dossier as inactive. Information on the dossier will not show up (it will display as "This dossier is inactive") though the dossier itself will still show up in searches.

Invisible Dossier: If a member wants their dossier not to appear at all in the database but still wants to keep it there in case they decide to return, I can make their dossier completely invisible except to a few of us with high enough database access. If a member makes this request, I will move them to the rogues, set their dossier to inactive and make it invisible. In cases where someone wants to be 'deleted,' I would recommend you consider making your dossier invisible first.

Permanent Deletion: If you absolutely are 100% sure that you do not want to be in the Brotherhood and you do not want to ever return, you have the option of requesting permanent deletion. In this instance, I will erase your name, email address, rank, medals, personal data, history, etc. Your dossier will be moved to the rogues, marked inactive and invisible and then marked as deleted. Once your dossier is deleted, it is gone. I will NOT restore it. It cannot be recovered. It is unequivocally destroyed. I will not negotiate with you. I will not oblige you. I will not help you. If you make the choice to have your dossier deleted, it's gone and it's not coming back. If you change your mind and want to return, you'll have to start from scratch. Needless to say, this is not an option that should be considered lightly.

I'm drawing the line here on permanent deletion because it costs us (read, Jac) money to have to pull up database backups from the host so we can restore your dossier. I don't think it's fair that we should make someone who has selflessly dedicated so much time to the Brotherhood pay for people being indecisive/childish/irresponsible/insert-derisive-Kaek-adjective-here. Also, manually restoring dossiers is a huge pain in the ass. So seriously...if you want to be deleted, make sure you really want it. Because I'm not going to restore your dossier. Consider one of the lesser options first as those are easy for me to implement and easy for me to restore: I have absolutely no problem making someone invisible and then making them visible again if they change their mind.

Pursuant to the new implementation of these policies, I will be recording the name and PIN of everyone who requests to be made inactive/invisible or have their dossier deleted for reference purposes. No other information will be kept.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email. Obviously, I can't implement any changes to dossier status until after the database is restored so if you want to take any of these actions, please be patient. I'll be re-posting this in my next report once the database is back up. Thank you again

DA Syn Kaek
Master At Arms