From my blog (http://www.xanga.com/RPGpundit), it sums up my feelings about this site:

The Last Best Hope of the RPG Community Online is Called What?!

I never thought I'd see the day. Its been a few weeks now, and every time I get on a certain forum, I find it more and more interesting. The topics are flowing in at a quick rate now, in some of the fora its not unusual for the whole page to be filled with "active threads" with just a couple of hour's overlap, the kind of momentum one needs if a site is going to turn into a high-volume center of discussion.

The membership has tripled in just a couple of weeks too, as more and more people start to hear of it. Right now, its still nascent, at under 300 members, but if it keeps growing at this rate, it won't be very long before it turns into a serious contender. Its already got more than twice the total members that Animalball has.

And unlike Animalball, which is a cool forum, its not tied into a specific commercial enterprise. This is a site dedicated to the promotion of the hobby with no vested interest. It is neither overtly a commercial site, which Animalball at the end of the day is; nor is it a site that pretends to act like a non-profit charity (asking people for donations and such) but is in reality a business with commercial ends like Skotos-owned RPG.net.

This all bodes very well.

But best of all, it has an open policy on free speech. You can say "asshole" on it. You can debate freely, without fear of persecution.
RPG.net has just finished posting their new rules. Essentially, those rules say that the mods have the right to shut down any speech at any time, and they can and will do so at any time they wish, and can essentially ban anyone for any reason they want, and (most importantly) can choose to NOT ban someone who does something equally or more "criminal" than the other guy, as they wish. Behind their flowery language, they have admitted that they are the thought police, and corrupt hypocritical thought police at that. Their friends can say what they want (as long as it doesn't reach a point where it blatantly shows the hypocrisy, so as long as they skirt the edges of total offensiveness), while their enemies will have the slightest word turned into an excuse to eliminate them.

How different, then, is this other site; where their very first rule proudly declares: "Speak your mind here, without fear"! People who seek to consistently cause trouble AND contribute nothing to the community can be moderated, but the mods there are not in the business of censoring what other people have to say.

Only a little while ago, someone asked me, for the umpteenth time, why I keep bothering to fight this battle against RPG.net, to tilt at that windmill. My answer was because I dream of a better way; because the concept of having a place where gamers can converge in large numbers and talk about the games they love and the ones they don't, what's good and bad about the industry and how to make it better, and exchange ideas that can lead to better gaming and maybe even better games, this is a very good concept. Its not just good, its terrifically important. And it burns me to my very loins that a gang of rat bastard Swine with an agenda that is fundamentally based on reducing the RPG hobby into a nearly dead incestuous ego-game have hijacked what in another world could have been this incredible resource, and turned it instead into a corrupt haven for this culture of idiocy that would destroy gaming as we know it.

So I have held out hope. And now, maybe, I see a little trickle of possibility. The promise that a site might emerge that will be able to do in the online world what had already happened years ago in the real world. D20 took back the gaming industry and the RPG hobby from the hands of the Swine. D20 demonstrated that most gamers really and truly despised the Swine's kind of games and wanted to have an alternative and would respond in droves if an alternative would only present itself. And so now, in the real world, the Swine and Story-based gaming have been reduced to virtual extinction, and actual total irrelevance.

Yet online, its as though this had never happened. Could this new forum, which seems to me to have every ingredient necessary to dethrone the Kingdom of Pus that RPG.net has become, do online what D20 did in the real world?
I think it can. But it will need good people running it, people who won't let themselves be manipulated into compromising that bold statement that they have placed as their first rule (a statement so, so different from the "we can ban anyone at anytime" which is the first rule of RPG.net). People who will not let themselves be compromised or corrupted.

And it will need good people joining it as regular posters, participating in it, and being vigilant and vocal to make sure that the Politically Correct and the cliqueish poseurs don't manage to hijack it, as they will surely attempt to.  It will need us, to be its watchmen.

But what I never, ever expected was that this new site's name would be Nutkinland.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Bruken Arborea Billiard + Ashton Type 1

Out of curiosity, did you ever hang out at the original Nutkinland (and its various incarnations) and/or its offspring Nothingland?

I'm afraid I didn't. I came here when this was "therpgsite". So I'm not well versed at all with the historical precedents of this site, besides knowing that these precedents exist. My hopeful statements are all based on what I have seen of this site as it is at this time.

Why do you ask?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditWhy do you ask?

As I said, pure curiosity. I didn't recognize your posting style.

The history of Nutkinland stretches back to the very beginning of the d20 movement. Oddly enough, many of those who first made up Nutkinland weren't fans of d20 at all, including, and most especially, Squirrel Nutkin himself. If you know your Norse mythology, you might recognize him around here...

Thank you very much!  

I'd blush if a squirrel could actually blush.  Just out of curiosity, how much traffic does your blog get?

And Pharao dreamt of a man from Brazil. That man was insane.

I know I read his blog. I *think* RPGPundit is nisarg from EnWorld, whom I recall Nutkinland once tried to install as ENnie judge. I *know* he's not only smoking what he says he is, though, but i definitely enjoy his "no holds barred style", as no matter whether I agree or disagree, I know it's always interesting reading his thoughts. It's hyperbole as it was meant to be.

I think he fits here well.

Quote from: Technicolor DreamcoatI *think* RPGPundit is nisarg from EnWorld

I know RPGpundit went by Nisarg on RPGnet, so yeah, I imagine it would be the same guy (never spent much time on ENworld myself, so I suppose I could be wrong).

And once you've been exposed to the Pundit, it's hard to mistake him for anyone else.

Quote from: Technicolor DreamcoatAnd Pharao dreamt of a man from Brazil. That man was insane.

I know I read his blog. I *think* RPGPundit is nisarg from EnWorld, whom I recall Nutkinland once tried to install as ENnie judge. I *know* he's not only smoking what he says he is, though, but i definitely enjoy his "no holds barred style", as no matter whether I agree or disagree, I know it's always interesting reading his thoughts. It's hyperbole as it was meant to be.

I think he fits here well.

That is indeed me.. and was there seriously a movement in the old Nutkinland to make me an ennies judge?

wow, I'd never even heard of that. Are there archives of that anywhere?

Anyways, to answer Hreidmar's question, my blog is at this point more read than any other non-company blog about gaming that I know of. Look at the amount of comments and "eprops" it receives to get an idea. the only gaming blog I can think of offhand that is even a contender is Gareth Skarka's and that's only since his blog got highlited on Fark. But he seems to be falling behind again now that his 15 minutes of fark-fame have passed.

RPGPundit

My question is this - How long until the Pundit is banned from here, too?

What?  I only ask because it's funny (it is too).

Seriously, I enjoy reading the blog (I haven't had a reason to comment yet) and while I don't always agree with you, the blog is very entertaining and I don't have to search for hidden meanings in your posts.

Keep up the opinionated work...

Quote from: KnightskyI know RPGpundit went by Nisarg on RPGnet, so yeah, I imagine it would be the same guy (never spent much time on ENworld myself, so I suppose I could be wrong).

enworld didn't appreciate his political leanings much.  

which, i might mention if you haven't found them already Pundit, we have our very own sister forums where political discussions of any sort are allowed: Nothingland.  

not that politics are verboten here, but they are usually off-topic and thus better reserved for Nothingland, or NTL, which is mostly non-gaming off-topic chat (and has a huge overlap of users from this site, so really it's just like stepping into the next room).


Edit: i say this without having re-joined NTL myself. :ponder:  i must make a point of it to do that sometime this week...

Quote from: RPGPunditAnd it burns me to my very loins that a gang of rat bastard Swine

You use "Swine" as if it was code for something specific... mind letting us (or at least me) in on exactly what?

pigs?  

Quote from: ColonelHardissonAs I said, pure curiosity. I didn't recognize your posting style.

The history of Nutkinland stretches back to the very beginning of the d20 movement. Oddly enough, many of those who first made up Nutkinland weren't fans of d20 at all, including, and most especially, Squirrel Nutkin himself. If you know your Norse mythology, you might recognize him around here...

I know who he is.  Ironically, I'm probably one of the RPGnet swine he rails at. :deviousgrin:  But then, maybe not.  I've long been in the face of various people there, and I've played within their overbloated rulebook long enough that the only reason the mods could give to turf me is because they didn't like me.  And they have yet to turf me. :heh:

Be that as it may, RPGpundit is welcome to be here.  So long as he doesn't spend his time trying to pick fights and shit with people, then he can say what he likes.

Speaking as a Proxy without access to the actual post (damn inconsistent filters!), the "Swine" are those people who are destroying our hobby from the inside out. One example are the "stereotypical" nerds (300 pound, 30 year-old virgin living in his mom's basement, the guy who walks around in all black complaining about sunlight) that have no social skills and ability to operate in regular society. They generate an incredibly negative image for the hobby, and since no one says they have to clean up their act before they play, more join, just denigrating RPGs even more. Other examples include White Wolf, as it is responsible for many Swine joining the hobby, because of their so-called "story" based gaming that enabled them to actually dominate a social heirarchy (by the transitive property, lots of White Wolf players are swine). Just to list off a few more types of people included in the Swine- The Forge, the creators of Blue Rose (although not necessarily True20), RPG.net mods tend to be swine, etc. Sorry I can't link to the actual post where he explains who exactly falls in the category, but you get the idea.

-Talgian

Quote from: TalgianSpeaking as a Proxy without access to the actual post (damn inconsistent filters!), the "Swine" are those people who are destroying our hobby from the inside out. One example are the "stereotypical" nerds (300 pound, 30 year-old virgin living in his mom's basement, the guy who walks around in all black complaining about sunlight) that have no social skills and ability to operate in regular society. They generate an incredibly negative image for the hobby, and since no one says they have to clean up their act before they play, more join, just denigrating RPGs even more. Other examples include White Wolf, as it is responsible for many Swine joining the hobby, because of their so-called "story" based gaming that enabled them to actually dominate a social heirarchy (by the transitive property, lots of White Wolf players are swine). Just to list off a few more types of people included in the Swine- The Forge, the creators of Blue Rose (although not necessarily True20), RPG.net mods tend to be swine, etc. Sorry I can't link to the actual post where he explains who exactly falls in the category, but you get the idea.

-Talgian

Shit, how did you know it was me?!!:eek: I told the press specifically: NO CAMERAS!!!:melodramatic: