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State of the Academy Address!!! -doobie - Apr 03 05:22pm |
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Get comfortable, this could take a while... Yes, it's that time again, time for a state of the Academy address from yours truly. It has been a crazy couple months around here and there are some things that desperately need addressing, so let's get started: Respect. It's what this place is all about. If you read the rules, it states, "These rules all boil down to respect. If you don't have respect for your fellow players, you have no place in the Academy!" Lately there has been a HUGE amount of disrespect amongst everyone, students and staff alike (by staff I mean JAK, JAT and JA staff for the rest of this post). I'll start with the most disappointing source of disrespect, and that's the staff. We have gotten far too many complaints from students and fellow staff members about people who have been given ranked positions. Let me remind you, in no uncertain terms, THE RULES THAT APPLY TO STUDENTS ALSO APPLY TO YOU. We've talked to you about this before both in meetings and in your forums. You are not setting anywhere near a good example for the rest of the students to follow. You badmouth people, you treat your classes like party sessions, and you general disgust me with how you abuse your position. I understand that not all of you do this, and those of you who behave properly know who you are, and I commend you for it. But to the rest of you... Don't think that once you get your promotion that you can't be demoted or even kicked. We've already shown that if you violate the rules, even if you're at the very highest level of the Academy, we have no problems getting rid of you and replacing you with someone who deserves to be there. We hold you all to a higher standard, and as such, we will come down harsher on you should you break the rules. We don't WANT to ban or demote, in fact we hate it, but if it's something we have to do then it will be done. This is your final warning, for the whole Academy to see. Shape up or we'll ship you out. To the rest of you, what I just said also applies. We have rules, you must follow them. In fact, go read them again. Now. Ok, good. The rules aren't there for us to be dictators, they're there to make sure EVERYONE has a fun, enjoyable experience here. If you don't want to follow them, please leave and save us the trouble of getting rid of you ourselves. If you want to attend a class, attend it with the goal of learning, not of just having fun. Classes are fun, but they're also an education, so if you want to just screw around, don't waste your time or the time of the teacher and other students by going to class. In IRC, you must always remember that there are possibly young children. This means you need to keep the channel clean and family friendly. No inappropriate language, no sexual jokes OR HARASSMENT, no cruelly disrespecting someone (even Aratan), nothing that you wouldn't want your kids exposed to if you were a parent. The same rules apply for the servers and the forums. If you have any doubts about whether it's appropriate, either ask a ranked member or just keep it to yourself. Also, a big concern is password leaking. If you leak a password to a server and are caught, you will be banned. That may seem harsh, but it happens too frequently. Password leak = ban. It's that simple. Recently, the council has made some decisions regarding promotions, demotions, and bannings that some of you may have had a problem with. While we encourage debate about issues, we also ask that you remember that the Council doesn't do anything rashly. Anything major has to be approved by all 5 members of the Council after discussing the issues, and anything minor usually has at least 2 or 3 if not all of the Council members involved in the decision. In almost any case that I could imagine, the Council has more information than you do, even if you think you know everything about a particular issue. The decisions we make are intended to improve the Academy and keep it fun and civil for all of its members. Now, for a quick reminder of what exactly each rank can do. It's explained in detail here, but a quick summary: JAKs (Knights), can assist classes, take official padawans, kick people from servers and IRC (as well as ban on IRC), mediate arguments, and assist JATs and JACs in anyway. They cannot ban, they cannot vote on promotions, they cannot trial without a JAT or JAC present, and they cannot declare Academy policy. JATs (Trainers) do everything JAKS can plus teach alone, kick or ban on both IRC and servers, spawn NPCs FOR TRAINING PURPOSES ONLY on servers, trial JAKs and JATs, and vote on promotions. They also cannot declare Academy policy. Staff can do anything the Council gives them the power to do, and the Council can of course do anything it needs to do. I mention this because sometimes we all forget what each rank is allowed to do, and we've received some complaints from both students and staff about people abusing their power. This should serve as a reminder to the staff about what powers they have and don't have, and a reminder to the students about who to talk to about problems. Ok, now for the positives. First and foremost, I'd like to announce to those of you that didn't hear the news that Luke Skywalker, won the JAK+ tournament. He defeated orion in the finals 4-1 in the finals. The tournament was a rousing success, with the biggest shocks being the fact that I defeated two council members (DJ and JACen Solo) to make it to round three, where I was waxed by orion. But yeah, congrats to Luke, and good luck to everyone in Smily's April tournament! Second, I'd like to congratulate FaDed on his promotion to Lead Trainer and Exar Kun on his promotion to Lead Knight, along with congratulating again all of the recent promotions we've had to refill the Knight ranks. You guys are doing a great job so far, just don't forget why we picked you! Unfortunately, we've had some retirements recently (Eclipse, our oldest Jedi Master, Nightcrawler, and the not-really-so-retired Monty), but we've always got fresh talent coming up the ranks, so if you keep obeying the rules, setting a good example, and being a model student, maybe you one day will become a Knight as well! Finally, I personally feel that we have a great community, one of the best on the 'net. Outside of a few setbacks and mishaps, the Academy has been a success beyond the wildest dreams of DJ and I. I especially would like to thank everyone for the kind words that were expressed both immediately after Vladarion's death and in the article that was recently posted. As tragic as his death is, it has shown how strong our community bonds are and will always be. We never would have imagined that we would be approaching our second anniversary. Thank you all for making this place so incredible and for helping us to make it this long, with no end in sight. VIVA LA ACADEMIA!!!! |
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CuZzA - Student 
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THANKS SHANNON! _______________ - Even if Carlsberg made "w*nkers", Christiano Ronaldo would still be the biggest "w*nker" in the world |
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Shannon -SC- - Student 
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Hoah! Even though I am retired this is still the frist page any of my browsers loads. I met many friends here and this is by far the greatest and best comunity I ever found in all my years in the net. You guys rock! _______________ Falling from heaven is not as painfull, as surviving the impact. |
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SS/ph00d - Student 
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Well put massa _______________ -ShadowSith: CTF/gunner specialist. |
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Ulic |retired| - Student 
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/me cheers _______________ Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam |
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Steinin - Student 
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I have... they're very well hidden into the natural behaviour. _______________ 362 Ohi on! |
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<Z>ImmortalRabbitWT - Ex-Student 
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OK, I dont know if im blind or ignorant but I havnt noticed anything worth all these anounements and such about discipline. Maybe I'm one of the bad ones I dunno but I dont see any reason to make things so stinkin formal. I wish the academy could just be more fun. _______________ The jedi formerly known as EEE EEEcenter55@hotmail.com WT-BABY!!! "ITS WOOKIE TIME" |
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tarpman - The Tarped Avenger 
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It's about time. One thing I'd like to mention: the joke threads in the Crazy forum. Jokes are fun, but I personally think some of them need to be toned down a bit in accordance with Academy rules. Remember, there ARE some very small kids who play here, and they don't need to be exposed to the types of jokes etc that 16-30 year old males generally thrive on. Case in point: the "crazy facts" thread, where someone (I'm too lazy to check who) posted that deaths due to experimenting with masturbation techniques are rising. And I'm not even going to mention Battlin' Billy's joke thread... except that I just did. Believe it or not, there ARE some jokes out there that don't use sex or discrimination, and it would be great to see a few more of them floating around. Like the trunk monkey ads. Great speech, Doobie. VIVA LA (E-rated) ACADEMIA!!  _______________ Saving the world, one kilobyte at a time. This comment was edited by tarpman on Apr 03 2004 08:24pm. |
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CuZzA - Student 
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boooring! haha j/k dood, that was a great post, u really let out your feelings (yes, hookers DO have feelings) good job -cuz _______________ - Even if Carlsberg made "w*nkers", Christiano Ronaldo would still be the biggest "w*nker" in the world |
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Smilykrazy - Retired 
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w00t!!! Well said Doobie!!!! VIVA LA ACADEMIA!!!! _______________ RIP MOM 06/29/58-07/31/08 Married to Koyi Donita 4/30/11 |
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Thea Rakys - Ex-Student |
Some things never change, eh? _______________ I dont like long signatures with lots of smileys and stuff. |
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monkai - Student |
Amen Nice one Doobie |
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Doppelgänger - Student 
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Truly the best Academy address I’ve seen you do Doobie! Man it’s great to be back! _______________ "Look not back in anger, nor forward in fear But around you in awareness." Ross Hersey |
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Master Lew - Student 
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Well Said.... _______________ Brick Assassin for Hire Here, have a brick! 
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_cmad_ - Ex-Student 
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Viva La Academia OMG doobs ain't you bored to write such a long post? _______________ Your friends of today, are your enemies of tomorrow. |
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Lian Del Rey - Student 
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ViVa La AcAdEmIa! _______________ slorp |
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Katan - Student 
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VIVA LA ACADEMIA! _______________ |
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Aron - Retired 
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VIVA LA ACADEMIA! |
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Demon - Student 
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Listen to doobie, he may m00 too much, but it certainly doesn't clog up his mind. Viva La Academia _______________ Quote: Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength. Through strength I gain power. Through power I gain victory. Through victory my chains are broken. The Force will free me. -The Code of The Sith
This comment was edited by Demon on Apr 03 2004 06:31pm. |
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Janus - Retired 
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*raises a nice Stein to you* This one's for you Doobie, good remarks, 3 cheers!!!  _______________ Be honorable, be friendly, be trustworthy. Show respect to all whom you meet. Don't forget you learn when you win AND when you lose. Be the first to admit mistake AND the first to correct it. Be the shoulder for someone to lean on. Always remember those that sacrificed time to help you. Thank you Odan Wei, Vladarion, 3th, Moridin, n00b, Motrec, Faded, Leif, and Tido, you will not be forgotten as the ones to make you remember, it's all about fun... |
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D@RtHM@UL - Student 
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Nice words doobie, VIVA LA ACADEMIA! |
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Sared - Retired 
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BELOUVE ON!!! errr... VIVA LA ACADEMIA!!!! _______________ I'm crazy, not stupid. |
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SaberWeildinKow - Student 
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Same day as General Conference hehe... Nice work. |
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Orion - Retired 
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nicely said doobs! _______________ When a Man lies he murder's some part of the world. These are the pale deaths which men misscall there lives. All this I cannot bear to witness any longer. Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home? -Cliff Burton Owner of Smily's 1900th comment | <Lady_Catherine> i love your sexy white socks! | (Lady_Catherine) i adore u! | (Lady_Catherine) onion (Lady_Catherine) i lub u |
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Jacen Aratan - Student |
If only I wasn't an illiterate.  Nice speech, boss. |
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Badger Hat - Student 
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/me claps Good job _______________ RL bro to HawkJedi Chuck Norris pwns!(duh) Proud member of Yeah, it's a hat. |
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