Hey folks,

Well, this started out as a news post and carefully morphed into a report. Let me see what I can inform you of. Sorry for the lack of any fancy graphics: a shiny for someone that makes some for me and shows me how to use them :P

The Word

This week is a particularly busy one for me and the next few will be only slightly less so. So I'm just giving all of you fair warning that I will be slower than usual the next 3 weeks. Your day to day requests will still be processed - probably within 24 hours; but requests that require special attention will take longer.

There shouldn't be a huge amount of promotions or medals in the queue - everyone is in the middle of a Feud and ** it is generally advisable that you do not reward people until the end of your Feud. ** I'm not saying you can't, but if you request a Steel Cross for a member and get it approved don't be surprised if I deny the Steel Cross you request for them a week later. :P

Additionally, I know a few of you have very special requests for me including dossier restorations. You're going to have to wait until the weekend for these - sorry, but it's not imperative that your dossier be restored immediately: you can wait. If I get some spare time in the next few days, I'll see what I can do.

The Will

Feuds are underway. Yay. That means: Novae and Crescents and Clusters etc. etc. Feud medals have already been approved (as in, the type of medal to be awarded).

Huge amount of projects underway. More than you can shake a stick at. I'll briefly list a few of'em:

1.) EHDB Transfer Policy Proposal <

this has actually already been completed but it needs to be put in a nice format. Props go to Kaiann for writing the original proposal on his own initiative.

2.) Petition Reform Project <

this is to establish a policy on people forwarding along mass petitions for medals and promotions. A more exact procedure will be worked out but currently, send any petitions up the chain of command. Makes sense right? Well apparently not. If you really don't want to deal with the chain of command for reasons that are all your own (and completely inexplicable to me), you can send it to me. Don't send it to Jac. Yeah that's right: don't send it to Jac. Jac will merely bump it back down to me and the poor guy gets enough email as it is. Oh, also be aware that if I receive something, it goes back down the chain of command as part of the standard MAA process. So maybe you should just use the chain of command in the first place? Hehe. Regardless, an exact policy on this will eventually be made and posted.

3.) MAA Office Site <

this is on hold for a little bit. Thank you to my two Magistrates for being patient with me.

4.) Mystical Uber-MAA Reform Projects <

What it says.

In the classic Madisonian Amendment IX style, I will say that the enumeration in this report of certain projects shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the MAA.

The Way

I will eventually be conducting some pretty statistical analysis here of medals and such. I would be doing it this time except it's...amazingly hard to keep track of everything that I process. A lot harder than I thought. And our good friend CoFo no longer has his nifty little script for tracking that stuff. Ack! So this space will be empty until someone cough Jac/Magistrates cough can give me the ability to track everything that I process.

The Wrath

This week's rant is about the good ol' days. Stick with me here: I think CoFo and other old school people will enjoy this. Today, we have the database and for all its flaws and bugs, it's pretty good at what it does. I've learned to navigate the maze of drop-down menus, buttons and inevitable error messages that constitute it as have my predecessors. I can pretty much process requests within one or two days - longer if they require more thought or more information. Those that come to me through email are also done pretty quickly. So what's the point? Is the database good? Is Kaek really saying he _ likes _ the database?

Hell no.

The database sucks. I want a new one. I hate this freakin thing. But I'll tell you one thing: it sure as hell beats having to do this entire thing by hand. And that's what we had to do way back in the day. Imagine the entire Brotherhood roster being done by hand. It used to take a lot longer to get things processed. Tons and tons of emails to wade through; no end to the changes to be made; no limit to the amount of medals sitting in a neverending queue.

So the point is this: appreciate the database for what it is. Yeah, it sucks - but it's better than a large .doc file being passed around. And if I take a day or two to process your request, be patient. A few years ago and you'd have to wait much longer. Now granted, if I take a week to process a simple transfer request: you can be worried...but give me - and the database - a break now and then. No pun intended.

The ?

I couldn't think of a W word here for what I wanted, so henceforth it will be a question mark. I'll throw in random congratulations and comments here. Props this week go to the people who put together the Feuds. Many of you are aware of how I had been complaining about the need for a Feud or some other lesser (lesser than a GJW) vendetta. My prayers were answered. Thanks to all of you.

And with that... I'm out

Sith Warlord Syn Kaek

Master At Arms

SWL Xu Long (Sith)/MAA-EP/Dark Council [ACC: JUD]

AK/GC-S-GS/SC-SoI/StA-QL/DC-KC-O-CS-D

Cr-6A-2S-2E-4T-3Q/CF-BlF-RF-GF/LSB/DSS/SI-SoW-SoL

SoL-TC/S:-9M-3R-1C

Note the nifty ID-line layout. <3 to Goat.