Premise of the Dark Risings Admin Blog

In the past, I've not thought there to be much of a reason to expand Dark Risings outside of itself; notes, ideas, histories, changes, and the OOC channel really seemed to cover all of the necessary bases. I didn't think there would be any reason for anyone to post thoughts or comments on anything mud-related anywhere else, and the short-lived, unofficial Dark Risings forums sort of exemplified that. After all, if someone had something to share with the rest of the players about the game, why wouldn't it get blurted out on the OOC channel (as what usually happens) or in a note?

Of course, I've become somewhat wizened over the years to the fact that there are gaps within our mud's channels-notes-helps communication fabric. There exist a wide range of thoughts and responses of mine which aren't important enough to warrant a note to everyone yet should reach more screens than just the people who have OOC turned on. Help files are meant to fill in that gap, but they tend not to be topical and tend not to be discovered until long after they are written. While I could just be more liberal on what I say over OOC or what notes I post to everyone, I'd rather give players the option to "opt in" to all of this less-important information. Thus, having some sort of blog where I can easily post information without forcing all players to wade through it all seems like a good idea.

While I cannot speak on behalf of the other admins, I do have an idea of what I would like to post here. One major motivation for me writing to this blog is that, as an admin, I have unique access to a tremendous amount of interesting game information that nobody else does. Although some of it should be kept secret in the spirit of fairness, a lot of it is information that isn't secret; it's just hard to get out there. Nobody seems to talk to me on instant messengers except my fellow admins, and most people seem to regard the helpfiles as completely unchanging, so I cannot rely on them as a medium for disseminating new information. This blogging business fills a nice gap, as it appeals to everyone's secret desire to spy on others over the internet and get insider info, yet people who want to contribute to the discussion are free to do so (using the comment feature which should appear at the bottom of this post). All of you readers can get topical, insider info at your leisure, and can participate to whatever extent (if any) you want.

There are also sometimes new and fun things which us admins get excited about but simply have nobody to share it with, and I hope to start venting some of that here as well. This Project Sacred Spork is a good example; I personally have been working on it full-time (in excess of at least eight hours a day) for a few days now, although it has been in the planning for months now. As it nears completion and we get to test it out to make sure it's all in working order, it's hard not to get excited about it--it's fun, it's fresh, and it's finally taking its final form before our eyes. It won't be long before you all get to use it, and I hope most of you will be as pumped about it as we have been once it hits the game.

Finally, I can also see this blog as being a potential place for us IMPs to let our voices be heard with regards to some of the gossip that we know floats around the instant messages. Although I'll not get into it now, one of the biggest frustrations associated with being an IMP is that we don't often have a way to share our side of things with people. For example, when we ban someone, that person is free to (and usually does) tell everyone who will listen how we banned them for shoddy reasons over instant messengers. I'd say 99% of the people who hear how the IMPs banned _____ for no reason just leave it at that, and never hear the other side of it. Although I don't envision this blog as being a "hall of shame" sort of setup, I certainly can see it as being an appropriate place for us to vent. And, since everyone is free to comment here on what we say, it's a bit fairer than just having us IMPs talk smack about people we banned on a place where they can't defend themselves.

So, for those of you too lazy to read the giant block of prose which preceded this, here is a summary:

• This blog will be a place for the Dark Risings admins to share our thoughts on current things happening on the game
• Everyone will be able to stalk us on the internet anonymously and get insider info without us IMPs explicitly knowing it
• This'll be a place for us to respond to good ideas or common misconceptions that keep cropping up but don't quite warrant a note to all or a help file
• We might vent here from time to time--but everyone will be allowed to post comments

I should also say that, for the time being, this blog is "unofficial." Despite being the DR Admin Blog, what I post here under my name are my thoughts alone. Unlike the notes I post to everyone on the game, what I post here has not been previewed and approved by the other admins, and my views here may differ from my "official" stance on the game. Don't expect to be able to hold anything I write here against me in the game.