Overlord's Orders - Forum 10th Anniversary Special

[Cornflower MM]

I do recall Russa asking me something about deleting threads from our storage... As well as asking how merge, lock, and pin topics in the same message. I had my hands full with the craziness in the RP boards from Scott's emoji posting and how that was breaking the forum as well as trying to stay on top of the rest of the RP board modding since Booklover messaged me and ordered me to take over everything in the RP boards (including running the magnificent and massive participation mandatory RP tournament three of us put together in your honor, Lord Overstrator) by myself, including scoring for said tournament, so I had NO idea what was going on with the announcements. I took the time to write out a very clear and detailed jow-to for Russa - including pictures! - so I don't have any idea how she messed up and merged the topics instead of deleting the one permanently.

[Matthias720]

OOC: I'm about 6 hours later on this than I wanted to be, but we'll manage. Here we go...


The Overstrator is typing...

"So there are some of you that think that making jokes at my expense is FUNNY!? That I am a JOKE of some kind? You would best keep in mind that I do NOT tolerate that sort of insubordination. But I also do not tolerate the dereliction of my staff, as I expect them to do their JOBS like responsible individuals. Captain Wortshire, for the past three staff meetings, you have plead ignorance due to your 'coincidental" unavailability, but your fellow staff have repeatedly insisted they saw you around the forum anyway. I do not know, nor do I care, if either they or you are telling me the truth, because here's the bigger truth you seem to have forgotten; I am in charge here, I make the rules, and I'm declaring that you have shirked your duty one too many times! I remove all of your staff privileges and sentence you to only post in Pig Latin molespeech for the space of two years! If HeadInAnotherGalaxy can post in Highlander Lizard for 10 years, you can manage this for a measly two. Now BEGONE!"

"As for the rest of you, I warn you now that I do not tolerate mockery of myself on this forum! Do not push me on this! In fact, I believe I may have been a little too lenient and permissive with all of you!"

The Overstrator is typing...

"There. I have removed your ability to change avatars, and I have changed every profile picture to match my own. Now that I have had to do YOUR JOBS, I think it is time for your next assignment. Maybe I should give you all something more suited towards your apparently nonexistent skill sets. I want you to each write three sentences on why this forum is the greatest. I will use these glowing reviews to advertise our presence to the wider internet and let the other fandoms weep at their inferiority! You have 84 hours to complete this task. Now go!"



"You know? I didn't like writing as a kid. It was slow and tedious, but I outgrew that lethargy. I suppose they same cannot be said for any of you! Three sentences! THREE! YOU WRITE MORE THAN THAT WHILE YOU ARGUE ABOUT WHICH OF YOU IS TO BLAME FOR YOUR LATEST FUMBLING MISTAKE!'

"..."

"I received only two submissions. I will not name names, but one said "This forum is pretty good I guess" and the other simply said "I like it. I like being a moderator". HOW IS THIS EVEN REMOTELY WHAT I ASKED FOR!? And I received NOTHING from the other four of you. What happened? WELL? SPEAK UP!!"



And with that, round 3 is over, and round 4 has begun! Sorry, Captain Wortshire, but repeatedly trying to duck out of responsibility doesn't remove you responsibility. You're still blameable for not being around. Next time, perhaps try limiting yourself to that trick once (maybe twice, in a pinch), because engaging in the narrative is really the most fun way to play Overlord's Orders. I hope you try again next time. Thanks for playing!

I have no overall advice to give this round. I hope the remaining players are enjoying themselves, and I hope that the audience is enjoying themselves as well. When the game is complete, I will open the topic to everyone, so the whole game can be discussed. Good luck to the remaining six players, and I hope you continue to have as much fun playing this game as I have writing it!

[lass of something much]

*Lass is typing*

"I was typing one, my Greatest, kindest, most handsome lord.. But I could not limit it to simply three sentences. Here! I'll even show you one!

Our forum- recently renamed The Great Mattias Forum- is the greatest, most wonderful forum ever made.
We have the most beautiful dark mode ever made, with stylish colours, and lovely combinations.
Our community is the greatest, most fair, and friendliest.
We have the most wonderful, and efficient Overstator.
Our rules are the most well thought out, fairest, greatest, and kindest rules ever written.
Surely no forum, old or new, past or future, could ever so much as compare to our Great Matthias Forum.
Nay, only this forum is worthy of the word "good"-

And I didn't know what to say next... There's so much!"

[Russa Nodrey]

*Russa is typing*
It was incredibly difficult for me to condense my thoughts on this forum into just three sentences, but I managed after several hours. I posted the following:

The greatest thing about The Great Matthias Forum is Great Matthias. He's always kind, good-looking, merciful, charitable, openhearted, considerate, and much more. Everyone who has the honor of knowing him feels the same way I do.

If it weren't for the limit placed on length, I would have gone on for many pages. Anyway, after posting the above, I went to put the finishing touches on a mural of our Overstrator I was painting on a blank wall in my kitchen. When I returned, I found my post had been deleted. I was shocked and confused. I reposted it, but only an hour later it was deleted again. I ended up reposting it twenty times, but always with the same upsetting result.

I noticed Dan was always the only one online when my post was deleted. I sent him a PM asking for an explanation, but he has yet to respond.

[Ally046]

*Ally is typing*

"I to, experienced a similar problem as Russa!

However, when I checked who was online, Flib, Dan, and Bookie were all online.

I noticed Russa hop on multiple time throughout the day, posting in a few threads, then leaving.

I cannot be sure who was deleting my posts..."

[Booklover]

*Booklover is typing*

I know nothing about anyone else, but I wrote an entire essay on why this forum is the best. However, my laptop crashed and my backups disappeared. By that point, I did not have time to come up with anything that even came near to describing the glorious majesty of our wonderful Overstrator and therefore did not end up submitting anything. I planned to send one in later, but I had to deal with the constant deletion of posts. As far as I can tell, somebody attempted to program a filter that would automatically remove posts with certain phrases in order to counter the spambots but it went horribly wrong and ended up deleting many innocent messages (unless Russa and Ally were saying rude, untrue, stupid things about the forum and Overstrator, but I will assume they didn't). I do not know who it was, however I too noticed Dan on a lot and I know he has the technical knowledge.

[DanielofRedwall]

So many accusations, so little context.

First thing's first, my submission was, 'I like it. I like being a moderator.' However, that was not what I originally intended to send in. This was my initial full submission:

I like it when our Great Overstator demonstrates his vast knowledge and experience and makes meaningful changes to the forum to improve the experience. I like being able to learn and grow as a moderator under his tutelage. I believe this forum serves a vital purpose in society in not only celebrating Redwall, but in celebrating Matthias720.

I wanted my submission to be perfect, so I asked Ally to give it a quick edit for me. Then, something pretty urgent came up IRL. I asked Ally to just submit it on my behalf after she gave it a quick look-over. I have now learnt I should not have trusted her, as she jeopardised me by editing it down to look bad.

Now, about those times I was online. Yes, I did indeed make the filter program responsible for deleting many of these posts. I created an artificial intelligence program which I named 'Jukka' for this purpose. As with any such program, I started it simple, teaching it to filter for certain bad words. Unfortunately, I could not have anticipated how quickly Jukka would learn, and it quickly got out of control. It deleted many, many posts, and for that I apologise. Jukka gave itself admin powers and wrecked havoc on the forum. It soon decided one forum wasn't enough, and wanted to spread to the entire Redwall Online Community. The Redwall Wiki will never be the same again, alas.

I spent hours in battle with Jukka, trying not only to paper over the damage but trying to defeat it once and for all. I apologise profusely for my oversight in bringing Jukka into the world, I should never have messed around with creating intelligent life beyond my powers. I am, however, proud to report that as of the time of me sending this message, Jukka has finally been defeated, and I am starting to do the hard yards undoing the damage Jukka caused by reposting many of the deleted messages.

That said, Russa's post will not be reinstated. She neglected to mention one key fact: the post not only contained the message of which she informed us, but also a secret link to a rival Forum where she planned a coup against you. Obviously, I cannot bring such awful messages into this community, so her post will not be returned to its original place.

[lass of something much]

*Lass is typing*


"All very well and good, but....One of your posts you brought back... I only just saw it now, as I was too busy drawing up the latest poster for the Great Matthias Feast I was planning.. But...It's a little NSFW, don't you think?.....I mean, admiring The Overstator's looks is one thing, but..."

[Russa Nodrey]

That said, Russa's post will not be reinstated. She neglected to mention one key fact: the post not only contained the message of which she informed us, but also a secret link to a rival Forum where she planned a coup against you. Obviously, I cannot bring such awful messages into this community, so her post will not be returned to its original place.

The forum I linked to was hardly a rival. It was almost entirely dead. Forums that are almost entirely dead make me sad. I knew that if our Overstrator was in charge of that forum, his charming personality and kindly demeanor would draw new members from far and wide. With this in mind, I contacted a friend of mine who was an admin there. I told him all about our Overstrator and he agreed to have Matthias immediately put in charge. The other unjust and neglectful mods would be ousted from their positions. So you see, it was a coup, but in favor of our beloved Overstrator.

I recall vaguely mentioning to Dan that I was planning a coup involving our Overstrator, so his confusion is quite understandable.

[Cornflower MM]

I'm afraid that my submission was probably the other one that fell short, Great Overstrator. "This forum is pretty good I guess." was NOT what I wanted to say. I had the most MARVELOUS eloquent three sentences that I wished to send in that I spent hours crafting. . .

And then I tried to actually send those in. Dear Overstrator, I, like Ally and Russa, got caught up in the mess of Daniel's Jukka bot but quickly figured out that something was going on that was deleting my posts. I wasn't about to let that stop me, however! I went to message you my sentences but to my horror something was wrong with my messages! The only person I could PM without all my messages getting scrambled into gobbedegook was Lass! I sent her a quick message explaining what was going on and asking if she could send mine in with hers. All the words in what was submitted were pulled from my sentences, but that wasn't what I said AT ALL. And curiously enough, I can send messages again now. . . . Part of me almost wonders if Lass took advantage of the Jukka Chaos and did it on purpose, but of course I know better.

[lass of something much]

*Lass is typing*

"Didn't you get my DM on discord? I couldn't send PMs to anyone...Still can't. I asked Daniel to send it to the
great overstator, but sadly he was too busy fixing the Jukka problem.. I can only assume what happened.."

[Cornflower MM]

No, I never got any Discord DMs from you about this. Weeeeeiiiiiird. I wonder what happened to the PM system - Has anyone been messing with it lately?

[Ally046]

*Ally is typing*

I wanted my submission to be perfect, so I asked Ally to give it a quick edit for me. Then, something pretty urgent came up IRL. I asked Ally to just submit it on my behalf after she gave it a quick look-over. I have now learnt I should not have trusted her, as she jeopardised me by editing it down to look bad.

"Awfully vague on the urgent irl incident, Dan...

I never received a request of that nature from you?  Was it here, or on discord?  My PMs here are down, every time I try to open them, it goes to '404 page not found' or, just closes the search engine.

The only request I received from you was on discord:

Hey, I'm having trouble accessing the forum at the moment, could you get on quick and edit my submission post to blank?  I just was thinking, and my post seems a bit long and tedious. I dont want my current post to be counted as my final input.  Thanks!🙂😉😄

I had the thought that the emojis were a bit over the top for Dan, but agreed anyway, as I've never gotten any private messages from him before, so I can't really know that he doesn't use emojis like that.

Later, It said that you were online, and editing your post.  I was interested on what edits you would make, as your original post was nice, so I clicked the link, and waited for you to finish.  I had nothing better to do after all.  However, I got quite the shock when you updated the edit, and saw the aforementioned measly post.

I'm deeply sowwry for any inconvenience I may have somehow caused you."

[Matthias720]

OOC: Quick update. I'm experiencing a bit of a heat wave locally, and it must have melted my brain because I completely forgot to wrap up this round last night. Give me a couple hours and I'll get that taken care of. Sorry!

[Matthias720]

"I believe I have heard enough. While I find most of your groveling quite flattering, it doesn't convey a depth of sincerety that truly resonates with me.  I am reading quite a bit about what you intended to do and very little about what you actually did right. Most of all, I find it distressing that one of my staff is willing to tamper with methods that are beyond their means to control. DanielofRedwall! I will not have an untested AI wreaking havoc on my forum! Your actions, no matter how well meaning, have cost me dearly! I will be spending the next several days undoing the damage you caused! I hereby revoke all your staff privileges and role, and I sentence you to be shackled to your own creation! For the next year, whenever you post, "Jukka" will be automatically and randomly removing whatever words or phrases it deems unacceptable. The word filter will change daily, and it could be ANYTHING! Take this year to reconsider what you have done, and then perhaps I MIGHT think about listening to an apology. Now go!"

"As for the rest of you, while I am cleaning up Daniel's mess, I want the five of you to put together an announcement explaining what went wrong and why the forum isn't fully operational. Time is limited, so you only have 48 hours to put this together. I will be online, but unavailable, while I fix Daniel's...ill-conceived experiment. Dismissed!"



"Well, compared to the last several assignments I've handed out, this wasn't a complete failure. I see an announcement post, with full, coherent sentences, that convey exactly what the members need to know. But for some UNEXPLAINED reason, there are also excerpts from the PRIVATE staff chat logs included! WHY ARE THOSE LOGS THERE!? WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR COMPROMISING THE SANCTITY OF OUR PRIVATE CHAT MEETINGS!? Start talking! NOW!!!"



OOC: Once again, apologies this took so long to get out. And sorry Dan for having to remove you from the game; I know this is one of your forum favorites. Your writing was excellent, but it didn't do enough to convince me that the fault wasn't still on your shoulders. And I have to say I LOVED the Jukka as an AI bit! Hilarious! Literally laughed out loud. I hope you enjoyed playing and thank you very much for participating!

As a side note, I have somehow inadvertently been removing players in the order they signed up to play. This is weirding me out, and I am not doing it intentionally. I will say that Booklover, please help me! I don't want to feel cursed by the sign-up order! So please do your best in the upcoming round.

Round 5 will last until June 29th. Good luck everyone!