View Topic

Only when I do anything like this, I don't think this way about what others do.

Just wanted to know what someone else might think about themselves though.

You didn't disappoint. That was movie-worthy quotable.

I strongly believe you have to have some aspect of life where you're following your dreams, and for me this is it.

Now let's hop on the Wintreath hype train. FIGHTING!

How did you learn how to create this website / where did you learn programming?

How did you create this website?

How did you learn how to create this website / where did you learn programming?

How did you create this website?

Just a quick partial response before Wintermoot answers, but the footer of the website says that Wintermoot built off of Simple Machines 2.0. Though that seems to be only for the forums, and not other parts of the website.

I took a C++ course in high school, then I went to college for computer science which included some C, Java, and Visual Basic stuff, but most of what I learned when it comes to web programming is actually self-taught.

Back in the olden days of 2005, I was involved with a game called Mystera Legends (which is where I met @Evelynx, incidently). The owner of the game decided to let players create their own server, and I was one of the admins for one of those initial servers. By this time I had already managed small forums for about three years, but I thought it'd be really cool for players on our server to see and manage their characters on a website, which involved being able to query the game server to get that information and then use it to display what their character looked like, their stats, and their inventory. That was my first foray into actual web programming, then over the years as I took on other projects I learned new things.

I still have the code for that project. According to the comments, I started on July 1st, 2005.

As for this specific website, the events that led up to my leaving Spiritus and Wintreath being a serious thing happened really quickly, so all of a sudden we needed a forum for a new region...we didn't have time for me to take a few weeks and create a whole new site, so I used the code/design for an Elvoria clan site I'd built a year earlier and modified it to fit our needs. As taulover pointed out, the forum is SMF, which I'd came to like for being free, having streamlined code, and being easy to modify and build off of. To some extent or another, the custom web pages tie into the Simple Machines API or directly access the database, which I've also customized and added new tables (for things like laws, donations, karma, etc.) into over the years.

The Original Elvoria clan site

Given the importance of this place, do you consider people here to be your close friends? If that's not too personal.

Given the importance of this place, do you consider people here to be your close friends? If that's not too personal.

Being a member here doesn't automatically make someone my friend or close friend, but it also doesn't prevent the possibility from happening...like anywhere, it depends on how often and how personally I come to interact with the person and whether we just click. There's been people on here I view as acquaintances, friends, close friends, and even more than that. I've fallen for people on here before, and in some cases have had relationships with them.

Being here helps insofar as it's a venue for people to meet and get to know people, but how close any individual relationship goes depends on the people involved in it.

Would you say your time here has been healthy and rewarding more times than not?

Would you say your time here has been healthy and rewarding more times than not?

Oh gosh yeah, I doubt I'd still be here if that wasn't the case.

There have been challenging times, and there have been things that have happened that left me feeling upset or sad, but thankfully those times have been few and far between, and not anything that's happened anytime recently. I think we're one of the most peaceful, open, and mature communities out there, and that's exactly what I always wanted in a community.

Would you say you've ever had rivals in the NS world, and would you say you've even had some in this region itself?

Would you say you've ever had rivals in the NS world, and would you say you've even had some in this region itself?

There's plenty of people that don't like me, either because I left Spiritus and started my own region, because I accepted Govindia into the region, because of the sexual element here, or because they're friends with people who don't like me for those reasons and don't know better but I'm not important enough in NS to have rivals. I don't think I've had any here either...there have been people who didn't like some decisions I made, and people who have made a stink over some things, but nothing that ever developed into the sort of dislike or hatred to become a rivalry.

Huh, interesting timing on that question and answer...

Okay, I have to check who this Govindia was, later.
Edit: Huh, "10. Possible Revocation of Govindia's Citizenship - 185 likes" shows up in a top ten most liked topics post. Seems like a strong hint...
Edit2: Harassing people? Instant dislike from me. Is it too late to symbolically add a vote to remove him? I think it's fair to say that I would not have gotten along with him very well.

For now, people have had a problem with the sexual element here? That seems odd. In another region, someone was surprised that I didn't have a problem with it, after I admitted to having been beaten and raped to explain one of my posts there (here I just got it out of the way first to possibly explain future posts). But there was an important difference here. Nobody is objectifying anyone, either another forum member or anyone else. Everyone seems to understand consent, nobody is forcing anyone to do anything. I even used to be a 'check-behind-the-shower-curtain' person, and even I can say that they way this group talks about the subject is completely fine.
And now after typing that, I wonder, they wouldn't mean because it's pro-LGBT here right? Because one thing I don't get is how LGBT+ is inherently more sexual than the alternative. Based on the population level, I'm pretty sure straight people are doing it too. Just seems more acceptable for some reason.

Huh, interesting timing on that question and answer...

Okay, I have to check who this Govindia was, later.
Edit: Huh, "10. Possible Revocation of Govindia's Citizenship - 185 likes" shows up in a top ten most liked topics post. Seems like a strong hint...
Edit2: Harassing people? Instead dislike from me. Is it too late to symbolically add a vote to remove him? I think it's fair to say that I would not have gotten along with him very well.

For now, people have had a problem with the sexual element here? That seems odd. In another region, someone was surprised that I didn't have a problem with it, after I admitted to having been beaten and raped to explain one of my posts there (here I just got it out of the way first to possibly explain future posts). But there was an important difference here. Nobody is objectifying anyone, either another forum member or anyone else. Everyone seems to understand consent, nobody is forcing anyone to do anything. I even used to be a 'check-behind-the-shower-curtain' person, and even I can say that they way this group talks about the subject is completely fine.
And now after typing that, I wonder, they wouldn't mean because it's pro-LGBT here right? Because one thing I don't get is how LGBT+ is inherently more sexual than the alternative. Based on the population level, I'm pretty sure straight people are doing it too. Just seems more acceptable for some reason.

In fairness, most of the people who have that opinion have never actually been here or experienced the community, and at one time someone was spreading a rumour that Wintreath was founded as a sex region because I couldn't have sexy times in Spiritus (both claims untrue, lol). In the region itself, there have been discussions here about the sexual aspect of the region from time to time, but that was mostly people who objected to even being around it, back when IRC was more active and was much more sexual.

If LGBT communities are more sexual, I think it's because you have people who have spent a lot of time pondering sex as part of exploring their sexuality and are thus more open to discussing it, who may have had trouble finding other LGBT people to have sex with offline and don't in that community, and because sex is just something the community has in common. I don't have a problem with any of that...I like making friends and having fun times with them, in a way it brings us closer and it's something I cherish with the friends I've gone that far with. It's when people in communities care nothing about sex that I think it's a problem. That's when you open the door to the something that's shallow and exclusionary.

I'm sure I've seen the answer before but I forgot so I'll ask
How did you come up with the name Wintreath?


What was the inspiration behind the name Inric Kestar?

Have you ever thought about writing joke royal decrees?

Thanks for the questions!

I'm sure I've seen the answer before but I forgot so I'll ask
How did you come up with the name Wintreath?

A few weeks before Wintreath was founded, I had already planned on making a test region to try to convince Tim (the founder of Spiritus) of switching to a self-hosted forum where we could do a lot more than could be done using Zetaboards. Over the course of a few hours one afternoon, Leutheria/Insenjar and I shot out ideas to each other about a name for the test region, but nothing sounded right. At some point we pulled up a map of Skyrim and I honed in on Markarth, which became Winterarth because winter is my favourite season. Then we played around with it until it sounded right. Winterth, Wintreth, and finally Wintreath.

When shit happened and I left Spiritus, I needed a place to store my nations, so I went ahead and created the region with the name we had came up with.

What was the inspiration behind the name Inric Kestar?

Originally it was Inric Volkihar, back in my very early days in NS when I was focusing on developing my original nation, Idantir. I used some RP name generator with the first name, and pulled the second from Skyrim because I thought it was cool. Then I briefly became Inric Locksley when Cormac and later Tim adopted me, before the family changed it's name to Stark. It became Kestar after Wintreath was founded and my relationship with Tim was beginning to sour...basically, Leuth, who was my NS-wife at the time, came up with a list of potential names, and we picked Kestar as the one we liked best. We then announced it here.

Have you ever thought about writing joke royal decrees?

Not seriously, no. I'm way too serious-minded for that.

Thoughts on koalas?