Ok guys, after waiting not so patiently for the number of months it has taken the Staff to work things out, the merge is basically complete. Shattered/Soon should be posting very soon after I do, to explain most of the remainder of the merge process (read: rules, new Staff positions, etc.). I, however, have an announcement of my own to make. In order to understand this announcement, I'm going to tell a little story, one which will be familiar to a few of you and unfamiliar to most. To those who would be familiar, I would suggest you not skip ahead, because I'm sure you'll find many details you did not know about before.

So this story starts... I actually not entirely sure when it starts, but it was after the initial merge stuff happened and Sparkbomb started being active again. I began to prod Shattered to demote Zen to Mod. I had a good number of reasons, I debated with him about it off and on, and although it seemed fairly obvious to me that Shattered wasn't going to demote Zen, I kept at it because I felt an obligation to see the best SMod in the SMod position (and I felt that Zen wasn't him). Now, after a while, Zen caught wind of these discussions (which I pretty much figured he would and didn't really care that he did). I'm not sure when he heard about it, but sometime in the second half of my Werewolf game, he decided to initiate a campaign (aimed towards Shattered) to get me removed from my Admin position.

Now, I would have known nothing about this, had Zen not leaked his conversations with Shattered and his reasons for removing me, but he did and they got around to me. Now, once I had read all the relevant material and thought about the whole thing for a while, I realized something. What was important was not how the outcome related to me, but how the outcome related to Sparkbomb. A Staff battle was definitely not what Sparkbomb needed (as pretty much everyone who was around for the War would know). So I made a simple decision. I decided that if Shattered asked for my resignation, I would resign. Otherwise, I'd continue on as normal.

I thought this would be a quick and easy solution to the problem that would avoid any messes. Well, it did avoid messes, but quick and easy it was not. Now, I'm not entirely sure what was said between Shattered or Soon, but all I know is that work on merger issues basically ground to a halt and this issue came to the forefront. It stretched on for six to eight weeks, basically becoming a wall that we had to scale before being able to complete the merge.

Well, I'm here to tell you that the wall has finally been scaled. I don't really know the arguments that were used for me or against me (I do know of Zen's original arguments, but Shattered has indicated to me that they were irrelevant in the end). I do know the outcome, however. After all, this is my announcement to make. As of today, I hereby resign from the position of Administrator on the Sparkbomb Werewolf Forums. I will resume my old position of Super Moderator within moments after this has been posted. Please understand that this is a resignation. I'm not being fired or kicked off Admin. I'm simply moving myself down to the position of SMod where I'll be more helpful in the Sparkbomb Staff.

(As a final note, I'm also given to understand that Zen will be moved from S-Mod down to normal Mod. Apparently I was the best person for the S-Mod position. )

It seems there’s quite a bit to go over today.

I’d like to first and foremost give a special thanks to Rex. He was the one that got me back into the Sparkbomb mindset while I was active at X-Evolution, and his assistance was invaluable in helping me to persuade the X-Evoers to choose to merge with us instead of going off on their own.

To touch briefly on the situation that held up the merge, I’d like to explain the reasons it was not revealed publicly until this time. The first is that we didn’t originally expect it to take so long to resolve. However, Rex’s position in the merger process brought up unique complications. It wasn’t a situation that could be resolved overnight (and apparently not in a month). The second is that the normal member base of Sparkbomb tends to polarize their opinions whenever Zen is involved. Soon and I both needed to keep our heads clear while the decision was made. The third is that Staff selection (which this subject falls into) is a decision to be made by the Staff, not the normal members (though a few of you were perceptive enough to guess who we’d choose).


Now then, let’s get to the real meat of this announcement: the merging is (mostly) complete.

I’d like you to give a warm welcome to your Staff team. For those of you that know me, I am Shattered Rift and need no introduction. For those of you that do not know me: I am Shattered Rift. Running the forum beside me is my fellow administrator, Soon. Behind the scenes, to be forgotten by all, is Coaster. He’s playing no part in administrative decisions beyond that of a normal member, and he’s simply paying for the site.

Rex and R/C are our new Super Moderators.

Stratus, Firefly, Zen, and Clucky are our new normal Moderators.


We officially have a revised set of rules. I’d like to encourage all of you to read through them fully to refresh your memories. The significant change is that swearing, used sparingly, is now allowed on Sparkbomb. Several common and inoffensive words are now unfiltered, but a few remain. Do not abuse the privilege to swear, do not use swears against your fellow members, and do not bypass the existing filters. Your new rules can be found here: http://sparkbomb.com/index.php?showtopic=1010

Another significant adjustment to the rules is that 10% of your warning meter will be lowered for each week of active rule behaving. Previously, we waited three weeks before lowering a person’s warn level. Current warn levels are still in effect, and the one-week period will apply from today instead of the time the warns were issued.


There is one significant loose end still in the air: Soon and I have not yet decided whether the name of the community will be changed from or remain as Sparkbomb. We are not sure when this debate will be concluded. While we’ve both been able to wrap up everything concerning the merge except this final piece, both of our schedules will be suffering in the immediate future. We hope that what we have given you (a stable site, rules, a Staff to enforce these rules, and a Store to play around with) will suffice.


With no further ado, let’s crack open the Spark Juice! ::.Realizes that he hasn’t recoded Spark Juice yet.::

Only thing that disappoints me is the new swearing rules, but I knew that would happen anyway.

I don't know if I should say "Great job!" or "It's about time..." so I'll just say this:
Yoshi wants fireworks now!

Eh, I can't complain, the demotions I was hoping for went through. I think there's a touch too many mods but, unlike having too many admins, I doubt it'll create issues that'll spawn a three month backlog.

No overly joyous reaction here, 'cause we've just been waiting too damned long. Now it's more of a 'finaaaaaaaaally' with a sigh of relief.

Ha! I can say damn now!

I'm a bit disheartened by the "No Sex" Rule...

But I'll live. The swearing-allowance sorta've bothers me too.

I do like the increased rate of reduced warn.

We've always had a, "no sex," rule. As I recall, it originated back in the days when the lone female on the forum was curious about male underwear.

Liz? Liz was not the ONLY female on the boards... or was she?

Im pretty sure other females were here. Like Yum Yum.

Both of those combine maybe constitutes as one women, so Rift's statement still stands.

Watch the insults, Zen. And let's get this back on topic.

Congrats to the new Mods!

And yeah, even though the moment is finaaaally here, I don't feel much excitement. It's more like "Sigh. Blah. All that waiting for this?"...

Yeah, Chloe, I can relate.

And Rift has told me that he hasn't even coded the Paintball Competition. That was supposedly supposed to be out for next month...

I have to echo what Chloe and Red had said. Nonetheless, congratulations for the accomplishment, Admins! And congratulations to the new Moderators! So many colors... *_*

I'm still hoping the name of the site doesn't change. Just putting it out there. ^_^

I've already stated numerous times that it was being pushed back to July. ::.Points to the Store forum.::

Yes, congratulations to the Admins for pulling through and proving to us they can get things organised and ready if given a bit of time.
A big thanks to them, as well - after all they're dedicating their own spare time to help keep this site ticking over.

*shrugs* - To be honest, now that I've been here for some time I've kinda got used to the current name. It ...fits. And I'm willing to bet that a lot of members wouldn't be too bothered if we just stuck with what we have where the name is concerned. But I guess it's best to wait and see what plans are afoot before jumping to conclusions, me thinks...

Congratulations to all of those who have received their new positions. I hope you all fulfill your duties to the best that you can do.

Congratulations guys!
I don't mind the lack of excitement since most of us can say with a smile that most of this is over and better times are ahead.

I'm actually quite glad the cursing policy is less strict. I can finally say damn without worrying about being chased down by SparkPolice Dogs(SPD).

Oh come on. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard him say. (intended as a compliment)

Only problem I'm having right now with all this is what is honestly occupying Soon's time so much. I don't know anyone who has as little free time as him, and to press further what sign do we have that we'll have him as an active Admin any time /soon/.

I was thinking about this, actually, and then I realize that I'm not sure it realllyyy matters? I mean, aside from modding/store stuff, what else would really need to be done?

And Soon, are you usually always so busy?

With the merge complete, I have a question.

When will Data Race be startin?

I'm not quite happy with the demotions, and the seemingly arbitrary introduction of new mods, but I suppose if it's for the sake of making everything "equal" it makes sense.

It just seems like the communities already merged months ago, the only things that really changed that I can see, as of this announcement is that I can say damn now, and there are new mods.

Hey, congrats to new staff members. I wish you guys would tell us more about what prompted these decisions but I guess it really doesn't matter...

Hey, since these things are all done, I'm looking forward to soon's data race.

Rex explained our side of things. Clucky asked to remain on staff and was granted that request. As far as the X-Evo side goes, R/C seems to be very intelligent and I welcome him. Same can be said about Stratusnova. As for Firefly he's a somewhat friend of mine since we have got along since he showed up here, and from what Rift has said about him back on X-Evo he gets things done. All in all, they are good choices for staff members on the X-Evo front. From what i understand however is any future staff decisions will not be made on a 1:1 basis from X-Evo to Sparkbombers, since we are all Sparkbombers now that the Merge is in it's last stage.

Oh, they'll still chase you down. They'll just mawl you a bit... less now.

Anyways, thanks for all the congrats. I'm going to try and fill the shoes of a Super Mod to the best of my ability... which means most of my silliness on Sparkbomb is going to start to erode away. DX

But seriously, Ima put my best foot forward. If you have any probs then please, contact me... and I'll try and help you resolve them, or point you in the direction of someone who can.

Hmm. Have they posted exactly what words are allowed and not allowed? What words get filtered and not...? I'd like to know o.o

Well, I think it can be assumed that we can use most words as long as we use them with... thought.

However, sex-related terms are out. At least that's what I've ascertained from the rules and talking to Rift. I'm disappointed.

Yes, sex related terms are out. I've already caught someone using Innuendo, which I plan on being more strict on since there is only a 1 week Warn backlog before you go down. Just a heads up.

Under the old ruleset, you could IM Rift or the like and get a full list of words you shouldn't use. But the way I've had it explained to me now is that if you use a banned word, it'll just show up as hash marks, which... are fine to leave in on their own, if you don't violate any other rules with it. Like, if I were flaming someone, and my primary swear got hashed out, I'd still get warned for flaming. But if I was just saying something, and a swear got hashed out, as long as I didn't try to evade the filters after I'd be OK.

At least, this is a condensed version of the explanation Rift gave me after I was very, very confused. So the list of banned words isn't quite as important. (It's worth noting that in old SB, even having the hashmarks appear was considered a very bad thing).

Your silliness was the whole reason we hired you. It'd better not go away!

(My sarcasm should be very apparent to anyone paying attention. That said, R/C does need to have the occasional 'bout of silliness. He just wouldn't be R/C without it.)


^All of this, provided that someone isn't going overboard with the swearing.

You'll all be able to figure out which words are or aren't allowed on your own. There's no real need for us to point out which ones will make it through.