| Transitions... -SilkMonkey - Feb 09 01:00am | |
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Thanks go to SilkMonkey for this weeks article. He joined the Academy at about the same time I did, and has been 'round the corner a couple times. -Sared I don’t know exactly how to go into this, but I have some thoughts and reflections that come from me reaching the various staff positions, how perspective changes and then retiring and coming back as a student and how that looks/feels when you get back and are on the other side. So I broke everything down into a couple main points. 1) Student to Knight. You can go to Motrec’s awesome Knight Class if you want to know how to run things on a server. But no one can really teach you how to communicate with the others on forums and IRC to report things. No one can really teach you how to TEACH a class or to be a leader or role model. Its not that people come up to knight without these skills, but if you don’t have them…you’ll develop them fast. One of the other things is that you’ll find yourself being called to do trials a fair amount. At this level, you also get called to 4 hour staff meetings on IRC…something that has to be attended to understand the boredom of it. 2) Knight to Student. If this is as far as you reach, you’ll retain the Knight-style thinking. This is basically being a role model and helping people. But it can also go as far as helping to police the servers to the best of your ability. Because you start evaluating people for Knighthood once you attain it, you’ll always be looking out for people. In my case, I made friends with people I knew were destined for it so that they would let me win later. (Isn’t that right Leif?) The main thing here is that you are still expected to behave like a knight and be a role model, even if you don’t have the tag. The standards are higher for you than other students. 3) Knight to Trainer. You are reaching the upper echelon of the academy. The views you already had on how things work are going to be expanded. As a trainer you are expected to maintain classes at least once per week. Policy and other important things are often given to you for feedback and commenting. You will be asked to spawn things now (NPC access), and it’s up to you to help make sure it’s used responsibly. I brought down the JK3 home server a couple times through rampant NPC use (although the mod didn’t help things at the time). If you hadn’t gotten mobbed by requests from people to take you on as a Padawan as a Knight, you’ll probably get some here. 4) Trainer to Student. This was the hardest transition for me. I found myself still trying to teleport back to the matrix rooms after being owned by people. It was also strange because if I wanted to show someone something, they were generally less receptive because I didn’t have a K or a T in my tag. If you find yourself going from trainer to student, I would imagine that you would still probably try to be involved in the community. Finding out what is going on; showing people a new move or two, doing all the things you would be doing anyway. I hope some of this shows what kinds of changes one undergoes at each stage. If you liked this article, tell your friends. If you didn’t like it, tell your enemies (or Orion). May the force be with all of you. -SilkMonkey Student – March 2003 – July 2003, May 2004 – Present Jedi Academy Knight – July 2003 – December 2003 Jedi Academy Trainer – January 2004 – April 2004 |
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| Comments |
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Hitokiri - Student 
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*tells Orion* JK mate, Great article.  _______________ Ph34r m1 1337 5k1llz! |
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Damon C. Belouve - Student 
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Great Article, Silky! You are a great Jedi. Later, Damon  _______________ One of the original Belouves. Padawan to the Mighty Tido and brother to Dane and Delvin! Proud Member of the Killer D's AKA the 3 D's of Tidoness. |
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ozzcoz - Cosplay Nerd 
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I can do that right here: Students who never make JAK, but may have had an actual shot at it feel content. These students are happy to be here just to learn and have fun. They participate in activities such as the aurochs tryouts and tournaments. And even though they may not be listed on the "About Us" page with a link to their profile, the people who really matter to them know who they are. It's true that most students desire to become a knight at some point in their JA life, but it's not something you can directly control. So just hang around, keep the place as great as it always is, theres plenty of people to meet and and things to do without all the responsibilities of being a JAK. That's just my personal feelings anyway. It's not that I wouldn't ever want to be a knight, but it's just not something worth beating yourself up over. Nice article Silky babe, I think that personal experience like that can enlighten the masses in a way unlike empty descriptions.  _______________ A wizard did it. This comment was edited by ozzcoz on Feb 12 2005 06:47pm. |
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tarpman - The Tarped Avenger 
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And Gradius here is just another number on my 'recently pwned' list.  Nice article, Silk. Now someone should write an article on how people feel who never even make JAK. (just kidding btw) _______________ Saving the world, one kilobyte at a time. |
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Gradius - Ex-Student 
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No Thom, you're just a number. Everyone else is a real person, but you, you're a statistic. _______________ - Proud padawan of Kueller. - We really are at the beginning of it all. The trick, of course, is to make sure we never find the end. - Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything - <gen-e-sis-happy> Liek, you can train, liek, a n00b, but he'll just be a trained n00b... --> Wise words! - "daer SOE me likes your a company i am having your some money for letting me do stuff cos mes the best amd i do it all meself" - Slider |
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Thomasooo - Student 
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Not having any experience on the whole being a knight thing, I'm sort of having problems relating to this article. But it's good nevertheless. And Fizz, you're not just a number. I'd say that no one is. Every single member of the Academy - active or inactive - is a real person. And I for one find it pretty amazing that we have almost 9000 different personalities in this place.  _______________ In the navy and LOVING it!
Recipient of comment no. 1000 and heart-warming words from Ataris!
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Fizz of Belouve - Student 
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nice 1. yeah I guess its true, that ppl with a K or T in their tag earn a lot more reputation, but also perception and attention. But i for one, wouldnt miss it. its nice being "just a number"  - Fizz Belouve _______________ One of the Belouve boys, founder of the mighty FiZZsters Midbie council #20 - Fizz - #1933 - Jan '03 - Aug '04 "Renfield, you idiot!" |
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Gradius - Ex-Student 
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Yeah, you can only imagine how happy...err...sad we all were.... _______________ - Proud padawan of Kueller. - We really are at the beginning of it all. The trick, of course, is to make sure we never find the end. - Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything - <gen-e-sis-happy> Liek, you can train, liek, a n00b, but he'll just be a trained n00b... --> Wise words! - "daer SOE me likes your a company i am having your some money for letting me do stuff cos mes the best amd i do it all meself" - Slider |
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SilkMonkey - Distributor of Cold Ones 
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Heh, I never managed it Aratan. But I have a pretty good idea of what it's like. _______________ |-HK-47 -SilkMonkey: You are receiving a warning for being_too_sexy. If you do not stop, action will be taken against you.|| (11:13:43) � Virtue dances for Silk ||Smiling owner of Smilykrazy's 6000th comment =) ||Odan Wei's Proud Big Brother|| Janus is my official TaruTaru Cuddly Animal Type Person. ||(@Virtue) Or you could just be a man and set fire to your genitals.....you won't fall asleep for days after that.......trust me.||Thomas Skywalker er for sexy for sitt eget beste!!!!| Not changing sig until the JA loosens up. (Started: Aug 31, 2005) |
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Jacen Aratan - Student |
Stepping down from JAT to JAK is awesome! So much less responsibility! |
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Rinzler - Student 
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some things only a few of us will experience but a good article nevertheless. _______________ I fite for teh usars!1 |
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SaberWeildinKow - Student 
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Good article, interesting perspective. |
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