The Great Belt Hunt

Cirrial · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:32 am Post subject: The Great Belt Hunt

Well, unfortunately, the missing belts aren't a little technical issue.

I decided to see if I could solve and hopefully cure one of the symptoms of bit rot this poor forum's showing. I can finally say I know why several of the user rank images aren't showing. There's nothing to show.

They've mysteriously disappeared from the server altogether. The pictures just aren't there. Specifically, the entire subdirectories for all the belt-style images are just gone. This explains why some of the older ranks are still displaying, but the RP-styles and most newer belts have up and vanished. (Speaking of the newer belts, as the creator of the Power Apathy Party belt, I've already fixed that one.)

Now, I happen to be crazy-prepared in the event of a certain module failure - I've got all the item images backed up on my MacBook and my external harddrive, including the ones I had no part in making, in case my meddling made the entire module explode and take all the resources it used with it. Unfortunately, I wasn't so crazy-prepared to think to back up any of the images for belts or medals, the latter of which I've now hastily backed-up to my own computer, just in case they end up vanishing too.

So, basically, this is somewhat of a call for help. If anyone can get any of the missing rank images, I'd dearly like to get in contact with you to attempt to repair this damage.

In fact, to increase interest in this Great Belt Hunt, I'm going to offer a bounty of 100 Yen

for each image you can retrieve. First come, first served. It's been a while since we've had any sort of jobs for the masses of Blackstar, anyway.

The List

Green Owl (Admin)
Green Fox Belt
Green Owl Belt
Green Spider Belt
Black Chameleon Belt
Blue Chameleon Belt
Blue Fox Belt
Blue Chameleon (Admin)
Green Chameleon (Mod)
Green Chameleon (Admin)
Black Chameleon (Admin)
Brown Chameleon
Brown Chameleon (Mod)
Brown Chameleon (Admin)
Green Fox (Mod)
Green Fox (Admin)
Blue Fox (Mod)
Blue Fox (Admin)
Brown Fox
Brown Fox (Mod)
Brown Fox (Admin)
Black Fox
Black Fox (Admin)
Green Tiger (Mod)
Green Tiger (Admin)
Blue Tiger
Blue Tiger (Mod)
Blue Tiger (Admin)
Brown Tiger
Brown Tiger (Admin)
Brown Tiger (Mod)
Black Tiger
Black Tiger (Mod)
Blue Mantis
Blue Mantis (Mod)
Brown Mantis
Brown Mantis (Mod)
Brown Mantis (Admin)
Black Mantis
Black Mantis (Admin)
Green Spider (Admin)
Blue Spider
Blue Spider (Mod)
Blue Spider (Admin)
Brown Spider
Brown Spider (Mod)
Brown Spider (Admin)
Black Spider
Black Spider (Mod)
Black Spider (Admin)
Green Monkey (Admin)
Blue Monkey
Blue Monkey (Mod)
Brown Monkey
Brown Monkey (Mod)
Brown Monkey (Admin)
Black Monkey
Black Monkey (Admin)
Green Owl (Mod)
Blue Owl
Blue Owl (Mod)
Blue Owl (Admin)
Brown Owl
Brown Owl (Mod)
Brown Owl (Admin)
Black Owl
Black Owl (Mod)
Black Owl (Admin)

If I've missed any, let me know.

3kul · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:14 am Post subject:

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang.

Well there's no belts on the BSwiki, so I have no idea where to find them.

Just to put it out there though, this could be a great opportunity for us to either completely ditch or reform the belt system. It really doesn't serve the current Blackstar, and half of the sensei aren't even active here anymore. Back when the Dojo was a thriving hub of RP activity it was great, but nowadays the belt system is a little excessive and overly complex for the small and loyal active membership that still enjoy Blackstar.

At the very least, if we can't find the old belts coming up with a new system would surely beat having to make the 100 or so replacements for those that were lost.

Coolpikaaa · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:28 pm Post subject:

Hmm.

I might be able to pull some strings. No promises though.

Also in terms of bounty, I would just like to throw out that the only items anyone can currently use yen for is Alcohol.

Basically, find the belts, and the beer is on Cirrial!

-CP

Cirrial · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 3:20 am Post subject:

Coolpikaaa · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:36 am Post subject:

I like those odds Cirr Very Happy

-Coolpikaaa

drlupinmario · Guest

3kul · Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 8:34 am Post subject:

Cirrial · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 1:22 pm Post subject:

Well, given the lack of response, I'm pretty sure the belts are lost.

I am but one Cirr. One Cirr starting his second year of uni within the next few weeks. While settling back into uni, I'll still have time to contribute to the board as a user, but as an admin I'm going to be strapped for time to do _anything_.

Also, I really do not want to do anything drastic while DP's not around and without some sort of general consensus within those still actually using these boards. I don't feel it's right to be going around making drastic changes when in the past there would have been some sort of conferring among admins. Especially when the changes desired will probably end up being at least semi-destructive in nature, with regards to removing old systems and subforums.

So, while I'm waiting for a more opportune time/for DP to become more active/for some sort of divine signal, I think it'd be beneficial if I had all your opinions on the state of the forum and steps to take to make it more streamlined and less broken.

Rather then drive this thread off topic any more, I'm going to open up a general discussion for members of the forum in a new thread, in the Suggestion Box, so that all members of the forum can have their input. If there's any pressing concerns you have or any thing about the boards you think could be changed and improved, please do me a huge, huge favour and talk about it there. I'd much rather have all the views in one big topic than the sentiments spread around bug reports and announcements.

This thread has served its purpose, but it's clear there's a lot more than belts that needs to be ideally sorted out. For any discussion, please follow this link.

Cirrial · Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 2:40 am Post subject:

Unlocked, because stop the presses! Belts have been found!

The list has been updated accordingly with the found belts removed.

Our lucky winner DLM, for his return of 16 belts through a method I'm still kicking myself for not even remotely considering, gets a prize of 1600 Yen

.

Now that it seems less pessimistic and futile I've reopened the belt hunt to the masses once more.

Serve your forums well! Very Happy