idlepurge, bite my shiny metal donkey! ;P
Feb. 17th, 2006 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceagleOnce Upon A Time...
When Hard Drives were 5 megabytes, maybe even 20, yes, megabytes, ....it might have meant something to do muck idlepurges.
Nowadays, what does it accomplish:
1) saves all of maybe 20 k or so for the database character toading ...
2) even more if there was a lot of stuff that they built, at the expense of cohesion in the muck layout
3) the disappointment of a person who returns to find all the hours they spent investing time and energy there, trashed.
So what does it accomplish any more...? It is no more than an archaic technicality, a mere protocol of a bygone day when it mattered. And the result of this unpondered remnant (not unlike a bureaucratic stamp at the department of motor vehicles) ... is a lose-lose situation all around.
I humbly submit... that idle purges may now officially become a thing of the past.
When Hard Drives were 5 megabytes, maybe even 20, yes, megabytes, ....it might have meant something to do muck idlepurges.
Nowadays, what does it accomplish:
1) saves all of maybe 20 k or so for the database character toading ...
2) even more if there was a lot of stuff that they built, at the expense of cohesion in the muck layout
3) the disappointment of a person who returns to find all the hours they spent investing time and energy there, trashed.
So what does it accomplish any more...? It is no more than an archaic technicality, a mere protocol of a bygone day when it mattered. And the result of this unpondered remnant (not unlike a bureaucratic stamp at the department of motor vehicles) ... is a lose-lose situation all around.
I humbly submit... that idle purges may now officially become a thing of the past.
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Date: 2006-02-17 01:12 pm (UTC)http://c-eagle.livejournal.com/797.html?nc=10
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Date: 2006-02-17 01:58 pm (UTC)*points*
He's a witch! Burn him! The sun revolves around the earth, this man speaketh heresy!
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Date: 2006-02-17 01:59 pm (UTC)someone was reading my mind :>
Date: 2006-02-17 01:58 pm (UTC)(posted on a muck by a wizard there, apparently a few months back, and I found it after I posted the above message... apparently the wave is already in motion) *wags*
"Good day, all!
Despite the message which appeared in this space up until just now (about imminent idlepurges), there
will be no idlepurge performed.
Henceforth, characters will be subject to being purged on request for (that) name if the character has been idle for a year or more, if the character is not marked as having requested protection from idlepurge, and if the character is not a MUF programmer of level M2 or higher.
This change has been made because at this time our database size permits it.
If at some time in the future this were to change, the policy could change as well once again.
Have a great day, everyone... heck, have several!
Shelley
MUFwiz
Posted by Shelley at 08/16/05"
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Date: 2006-02-17 03:26 pm (UTC)Well, on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
spindizzy_muck idle-purges are the only way we remove characters; it's a way of avoiding people who Quite Dramatically Decide They'll Never See Us Again And You'll All Be Sorry You Weren't Nicer To Us, and then ask for new characters. We got more of that than we wanted to bother with.
Plus it provides a chance to advertise the muck in a way nobody really objects to -- we've gotten several new characters that way -- and it finds people who had lost their passwords or who had, what with the press of time, forgotten to log in. Idle purge warnings have made some people remember they wanted to be with us.
Honestly I think we should do it a bit more regularly, but the big work of every purge makes putting it off all the better, until it turns out to be a big task again.
hiya coati!
Date: 2006-02-18 06:43 am (UTC)...O' course I'm super sorry to hear that the management there (you among them) has to deal with that negativity, and if ya'll has chosen to respond to it thatta way, at's yer choice ah guess. I personally don't see how it's effective, because if as you say they are just getting new characters, nothing really has been accomplished, and so methinx there must be some other way to combat that issue without affecting others. *hugs, sorry to hear of the icky woeful stuff*...
I'll totally agree that it does remind people to login, being that you post the info around and also send emails out. :> You do mention that it's big work and a big task though, and noting that (for both admins AND characters), it just seems that the cycle time could be extended (see below) or eliminated, but at least extended, to reduce the annoyance factor for admins and participants too.
*chirp!*
Re: hiya coati!
Date: 2006-02-19 04:58 pm (UTC)Well, the policy of idle-purges only did wonders to eliminate the ability of people to play drama queen with their exits. You can give the storming-off speech, but if if you can't avoid the temptation to log in again for the next few months, it doesn't do you any ultimate good. You just come out looking silly. Happily, this very well deflated the worst offenders; if they have the discipline to stay away for four months the moment they depart altogether isn't noticed.
Mostly the hard part of the task is that I don't like going through the characters who haven't logged in, for whom we can't find reasons to keep around. This tends to narrow it down to the people with the least sentimental attraction to the place -- folks who'd logged in once or twice and then never again, very often -- but for the good it does in bringing attention to the place to others who might have forgotten, it is something of a benefit.
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Date: 2006-02-18 06:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 07:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-19 05:03 pm (UTC)Oh, thank you. We do try to make the place as friendly and accessible as possible, and that seems to lend naturally to a cheery and fun place.
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Date: 2006-02-19 05:06 pm (UTC)You are indeed still on Spindizzy -- muck.spindizzy.org port 7072. If you need a password reset just say so; they're easy to do and generally quickly acted on. We'd be quite glad to have you over.
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Date: 2006-02-17 03:47 pm (UTC)But seriously, if you haven't logged a character in for a YEAR... you're probably not gonna. And dangit, somebody's got my name on some muck, hasn't logged it in but twice, and I want it! :p
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Date: 2006-02-18 06:55 am (UTC)Also agreed that people who login that seldom are probably not that concerned with being there, for the most part, but I'm sure there are exceptions... some who just get a bit busy for a while yet still want to maintain some connection with friends there (although many mucks accept that and can mark people for retention in those cases), and some people who may have just lost the software or links.
Sorry to hear about the lockup of your desired name... eeeep!... Maybe a wiz can help move that along for ya by contacting the squatter!
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Date: 2006-02-20 02:38 am (UTC)Someone took the "Rannoch" name on taps, which annoyed me quite a bit. Especially since he was some kind of babyfur lion or something scary. Was idle for like one year and 350 days... and then logged in. Sigh. :) But that's okay, for as often as I'm over there, it doesn't make much difference anyway, heh. Especially these days, in a relationship. Because I'm all altar-boyish.
No comments from the peanut gallery, please. :P
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Date: 2006-02-17 06:16 pm (UTC)Idle purges are just plain hostile =O
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Date: 2006-02-18 07:20 am (UTC)But it's probably more the result of a bureaucratic automaton that makes old habits die hard. Once in a while a little reconsideration of methodology with time is a good thing... :> *hugpats*
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Date: 2006-02-18 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 11:07 pm (UTC)And even a dead muck is not necessarily dead. I'm imagining that someday there will be an AI program that can read all the descriptions and build a 3D graphical version of any text muck. New virtual worlds will arise from old. Maybe not soon, but eventually you know it will be possible. This is not the time to be throwing away design work: good, bad or otherwise. Especially, when there's a lot of history in some mucks.
And I can see people returning even after years of absence. Getting back to their "roots". The classics always seem to have a way of making a comeback. :)
hear hear!
Date: 2006-02-18 07:23 am (UTC)True, very true... even a muck labeled quiet isn't necessarily gone, as may know who go back to touch base with friends casually, explore.. and even on occasion there can be a resurgence and discovery by totally new crowds....as you say, in a comeback! *flufffles ya huggingly*
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Date: 2006-02-18 12:14 am (UTC)Hey, people'd keep themselves current a LOT more often! ^_^
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Date: 2006-02-18 07:26 am (UTC)As a kitty who (like me) sometimes finds themselves a few months behind on a muck here and there, I think we could all do better with remembering to connect more, lest they sic the guillotines on us! *ulp* ;9
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Date: 2006-02-18 01:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 07:31 am (UTC)I think most of them have the @ARCHIVE program, which allows one to do a textual output of their character, which some telnet applications can Upload as a file, and thus restore most attributes (if not all) in one fell swoop.
As for backups of other things, as far as I know that is only available to server admins.
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Date: 2006-02-19 04:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-20 02:34 am (UTC)