Hangout 6/28

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Jun 26, 2012

Filed under: Notices 147 comments

The lack of posting lately is because I’m trying to write all the words. I’ve got more than a few of them together by this point, all lined up next to each other. Many of them are even spelled properly and in correct grammatical order. However, I have to stop writing those words for a few minutes so I can write these ones:

On Thursday 6/28, the Spoiler Warning crew will be doing another “Hangout”. It will start at 9PM on the East Cost. (For people converting to GMT, that means it will actually happen at 1AM on 6/29.) Josh is going to stream a little something or other while we tune in and chat.

I have been informed that people do not like the term “hangout”. This is a shame, since that’s pretty much my go-to word for “unstructured social gathering”. I suppose we can go with Play Date if that’s more your speed. Or perhaps you would prefer a Shin Dig? I’m sorry we’re stuck with the language tools we’ve got, but I’m not going to write posts titled, “Assembly of Internet Friends via Ventrilo While also Streaming a Videogame to Other, More Anonymous Attendees and Communicating via Text Chat, This Thursday”.

The plan for now:

  1. Play Dates will move around. Different days. Different times. The idea is that we can hopefully give people in different time zones and with different jobs a chance to participate.
  2. I think once a week might be overkill. Maybe twice monthly? Once a month? We’ll see.
  3. Not everyone from the cast will attend every Hangout. Everyone else has day jobs and commitments.

Other items:

When I talked about adding forums to the site last week, I wasn’t talking about changing the comment threads or the way we read posts. The main site would remain exactly the same, except there would be a link (somewhere) to the forums, where you could interact with other Twenty-Siders. Maybe even do a little RPG play-by-post. I might also have a section labeled, “Politics, Religion, And Console Platforms”, which will auto-delete everything posted to them. Just kidding. Sort of.

I might keep the forums very tightly regulated at first. Maybe play-by-post will be the only thing available, and I’ll gradually add more sections once I’m sure it won’t mess up the existing comment threads.

The Left 4 Dead Spoiler Warning will (according to Josh) go up tomorrow. Probably. We’ll see.

 


From The Archives:
 

147 thoughts on “Hangout 6/28

  1. McNutcase says:

    Has Josh sorted out his capacity issues, or is he hijacking Rutskarn’s stream again?

    Either way, I’m looking forward to hanging out in the chat, having civilised discussions. The whole unstructured rambling worked out pretty well, and I like that you consider it worth continuing.

    As for naming, “hangout” is only a problem for me because Google has a thing they call that. Maybe “get-together”?

    1. SleepingDragon says:

      Yeah, I honestly hope the Skarn will be streaming this one on account of no viewer limit. Could we get info, ideally with link, to the relevant streams? I only have Rutsharn’s and the 20 sided one bookmarked.

      1. Shamus says:

        Yes. I’ll put up links when the even is ready to go live.

  2. Tohron says:

    So is the ME3 playthrough scheduled to start next week then? I was thinking it would start today :(

    1. Shamus says:

      Josh is going to be travelling over the next week, and we didn’t want to start the new season, and then immediately put it on hiatus.

      1. McNutcase says:

        That’s fair enough. Much as I enjoy Spoiler Warning, it does suffer if abused, and I’d rather wait for good footage than get bad footage early.

      2. Sumanai says:

        http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/051115.html

        So I guess you don’t want to be like Syfy? Can’t blame ya.

  3. Artur CalDazar says:

    What a Same. I will be unable to watch this live.

    Wait, am I feeling bad that I will be in another city with friends where I won’t have internet and thus unable to sit at home and watch some people talk about things live?
    That’s probably not the best attitude to have.

  4. Syal says:

    I propose Cybermeld in place of hangouts.

    1. Neko says:

      You could shorten it to just “Cyber”. Come cyber with the Spoiler Warning crew!

      1. krellen says:

        Bad idea. Baaaaaad idea.

        1. anaphysik says:

          Krellen’s right. We don’t want to make it sound like we’re limited to technology. It’ll have to be something way more open, that simply indicates we’ll be engaging in an exchange of ideas, using words and speech. Something like an ‘oral intercourse.’
          Much better.

          1. Muspel says:

            Bad mental images!

            1. What’s so bad about “Come Cyber with the Spoiler Warning Crew and engage in some oral intercourse and satisfy your desire to exchange penetrative thoughts.” ?

              1. 4th Dimension says:

                It will be a blast!?

                1. X2Eliah says:

                  Well, you know, they could also refer to it as “Seriously Entertaining & Exciting Talking” which would, in short form, tunr out as SEXT-ing (exciting gets an X to separate it from entertaining, ofc).

                  So, yeah. Josh, Rutskarn, Mumbles, Chris and Shamus doing some Cybering / SEXTing? THERE’S NO WAY IT COULD FAIL.

                  1. Shamus says:

                    Laugh it up, guys. We’ll see how funny you think it is when I invent a way to burn down the internet.

                    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                      Exciting news:Shamus wants to make it hot with the internet.

                    2. Mathias says:

                      Shamus Young, internet arsonist.

                    3. anaphysik says:

                      when I invent a way to burn down the internet

                      With lemons, no doubt.

                    4. Jexter says:

                      This just in: Shamus to write an lemon so hot it will burn down the internet.

                    5. Irridium says:

                      So… when’s the orgy?

                  2. Mari says:

                    Can’t we just call it a hoedown? Or does that automatically imply that there will be banjo music? I’m not really up on hoedown etiquette or norms, but I like the word. Ooooh, or maybe a hootenanny! I think maybe there’s moonshine at those things, which would definitely improve the quality of the puns about 100000000%. Hootenanny at Shamus’s house! BYOBW (Bring Your Own Bathtub Whiskey).

                    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                      We cant have whiskey when theres a minor in the group.And if we exclude Rutskarn,who is going to pun around?

    2. SleepingDragon says:

      Bah, we should obviously just use an abbreviation: AOIFVVWASAVTOMAAACVTC this Thursday. See? Easy on the tongue and simple to remember.

  5. newdarkcloud says:

    I think you’re right. Monthly or bi-weekly will be enough in terms of these little hangout, shin digs, whatever we end up calling them. Just a little time with the cast to discuss whatever comes to mind without making it too much harder on you guys. (I hear scheduling is already a pain as it is.) I’ll be looking forward to it.

    That said I’m also looking forward to the Mass Effect 3 season. With the Extended Cut released today, it’s become topical again. Speaking of, will you be doing a post on the Extended Cut and your thought on it?

    1. Shamus says:

      I have a game with my war assets juuuust below the max. I’m standing on the bridge of the Normandy and the “Attack Cerberus Base” is the only quest left in my journal. I just need to play a round of multiplayer with somebody for maximum preparedness, and then push through the end game.

      We’ll see if I have anything to say about it once it’s over.

      1. Greg says:

        With the EC, you only need 3100 war assets to get the top endings now, unless you’ve already taken that into account.

      2. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Just watched the four of them.They are slightly improved.Covered some holes,opened a bunch more.But at least the endings are different now,so thats an improvement.However,I have to wonder,what was the point of you giving shepard a first name,if you arent going to see it even in the end,where everyone else has both first and last names on that board?

        And now that the endings have been (marginally) fixed,can we focus on how much the rest of the game sucks?That would be great.

        1. Klay F. says:

          IMO the endings added absolutely nothing except to confirm that the retcon of what happens when a Mass Relay is destroyed was intentional.

          And then there’s the Refusal Ending, which is just “Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies.” Though I found it pretty funny that the Starchild’s last line in that ending sounds like Harbinger.

          Its like Bioware is a shitty DM getting sick of players complaining about railroading in his magnum opus, so he just packs up his dice and goes home. Meanwhile, the players forget about him and play Battletech instead.

          1. krellen says:

            I’m cool with Battletech, but only if we do it Pre-Clans.

            1. Sumanai says:

              Aw, but I’ve got this really cool homebrew Clan.

              1. krellen says:

                Too much power creep, not enough politics.

        2. zob says:

          I’m ok with the 4th ending.

          1. newdarkcloud says:

            I agree with this. Who cares what it leads to!? I can finally tell god-child to FUCK. OFF.

        3. lurkey says:

          I don’t know about fixed. If you expand on something stupid, doesn’t that make it sound even stupider? I do like how Synthesis indeed look like a creepy dystopia, just as I extrapolated. >:-)

          1. newdarkcloud says:

            I wouldn’t call it fixed either, but the additions make the ending significantly less stupid in my opinion. It’s not perfect (the space magic and the Catalyst’s motives still suck), but it’s no longer the sheer cacophony of stupidity that it was before.

            1. Daemian Lucifer says:

              Less stupid,yes.But significantly?Ehhhhh….

              Honestly,the only real improvement is that each ending is now actually different,and not just recoloured.

        4. 4th Dimension says:

          I would like to change my official ending from Synthesis to CONTROL
          POWER so much POWER to MEEEEEEE

          1. newdarkcloud says:

            I personally went with Destroy as my canonical ending. I have philosophical problems with Synthesis and the Illusive Man isn’t allowed to be right.

            1. krellen says:

              I’m picking Reject. It’s the one that lets me ignore the most.

              1. zob says:

                verbal or just shoot the bastard?

                1. krellen says:

                  My Shepard was always a talky Shepard.

      3. Alex says:

        I would recommend the Extended Cut. Not because it will make anyone change their minds about all of the plot-holes and stupidity(it won’t). But because it makes the end-product feel closer to something whole. A Spoiler-Warning take on ME 3, without even mentioning what it did(or didn’t do) to fix a lot of the problems with the game and narrative would be a bit irresponsible.

        That, and it includes a nod to the Tasteful, Understated Nerd Rage video on the subject…

        1. Sumanai says:

          If you’re talking about what I’m thinking, it wasn’t done just by UNR and it’s more of a middle finger than a nod.

          1. newdarkcloud says:

            But at least you have the option. Admittedly, I’d like the fight to be determined by EMS and not simply a “You lose”, but I can screw god-child and go down my way.

            1. Sumanai says:

              That’s sort of like saying that at least you have the option of showing dissent towards the government & having the government actually respond when the news hit that they have decided to jail all dissenters.

              I don’t see it as progress is what I’m saying.

              1. newdarkcloud says:

                I get what you’re saying. I guess I’m just glad because my expectations going in were already quite low. I knew the real problems of Space Magic and stupid Reaper motivations weren’t going to be fixed. I also agree with criticisms that EMS should have factored in to the Reject ending to allow victory at a heavy loss to keep with the them of “victory through sacrifice”. But since I expected shit and received something that wasn’t bad, I’m happy.

      4. Deadfast says:

        Wait, you need to player multiplayer to get the best ending? What?

        1. Sumanai says:

          At least before the DLC you needed a bit more points in Galactic Not Having Your Thumb Up Your Assness than is provided by the single player. Well, some claimed you didn’t, that if you had a perfect run you’d have enough GNHYTUYA points, but if I remember correctly Shamus managed to get Miranda, and only Miranda, killed which I’m certain docks a good amount of points.

          1. anaphysik says:

            Losing Miranda only removes 25 points, IIRC. Same worth as other ME2 squadmates. (25 points = less than 0.5% Galactic Readiness rating, btw. Good job Bioware – to genocide or not genocide a race of sapient bugs (twice) = 1.4%.)
            (Independently managed Miranda-only-death playthrough long ago. See my posts elsewhere for details.)

            1. Sumanai says:

              So there’s snowballing that takes more points? That’s surprising simply because I would’ve figured that losing anyone in ME2 would’ve cost a good amount of points. Shows what I know.

              1. Sumanai says:

                “So there’s no snowballing that takes more points?” was what I meant to write.

      5. RTBones says:

        With the EC now out, the nerds are still raging on Bioware’s Social Network – but there are more people saying the endings are at least less sucky now. Please note I didnt say good – just less sucky.

        1. newdarkcloud says:

          To me, it went from absolute shit to being okay. Again, not good but okay and definitely not up to par with what Bioware was once known for. At least Bioware acknowledged that the ending was by editing it.

  6. ccesarano says:

    I don’t know if I’ll make this hangout, but I might finally be convinced to download and install Vent since this would be the second reason for me to have it.

    I’ve already voiced interest in forums before, so I won’t say nothing on the subject other than I think it would be fun.

  7. TheJeremy says:

    This sounds like an excellent idea! I absolutely support the bi-monthly or once a month schedule so as to prevent burnout in both the community and the hosts.

    The possibility of a forum is definitely exciting; I only recently discovered this website and while the comments are generally well-mannered and well-written, the commenting system is often very obtuse.

    If the forums are going to work, however, you’re going to have to ease off on the moderation, Shamus – it’s hard to contribute meaningful content with someone looking over your shoulder.

    Josh’s capacity issue is going to have to be fixed if he’s the only one streaming, though…

    1. Dave B says:

      I think the main way for people to contribute meaningful content to a forum is to be honest and civil. We already have that here, so I am inclined to believe that no changes to Shamus’s moderation style are needed. He would probably not be able to devote as much attention to that task as to moderating this blog, but delegation is the obvious solution to that.

    2. krellen says:

      Why does everyone have this nonsensical idea that forums need to be unregulated cess pools in order to exist? Most comments get placed in the blog just fine without being moderated, and when a problem does come up, Shamus (or other moderators) can pretty easily lock it down. Why would forums need to be different?

      1. Klay F. says:

        Because the only forums I’ve ever seen that have decent people in them are all dying slow deaths due to slowly dwindling traffic. A growing forum will inevitably attract (excuse the term) undesirables. Ban them all and your growing forum will die a slow, uneventful death.

        If you must have a forum, I suggest having someone else other than Shamus set one up, and then we all decide to gather there. In other words keep it as far away and unaffiliated with Shamus and his blog as possible.

        1. krellen says:

          So why do the blog comments work and a forum wouldn’t?

          1. Retsam says:

            From the perspective of debates (excuse me, “occasionally slightly heated internet discussions on controversial topics”), I like the current system. Blog comments sort of have a natural time-out to them, since most people stop checking back to older posts after awhile. So, even if a discussion thread gets a little heated, it’ll be forgotten (or at least abandoned, even if all the participants are stuck doing this) with in a few days or a week or two at most. On the other hand, in any forum that allows debates, you end up with massive hundred page threads discussing the same few hot-button issues.
            And in my opinion, that’s just not productive. I think getting into intelligent arguments on the internet is interesting and healthy, but not particularly useful, and it ceases to be useful once it becomes the size of small novel. (Long before, really)

            1. krellen says:

              So threads get a lifetime. Problem solved.

            2. Daemian Lucifer says:

              So you dont like forums because you think discussing stuff on the web is not productive,and therefore should be limited for everyone,even if they enjoy wasting time by debating (in civil manner) something thats not productive?

            3. Klay F. says:

              You touch on another subject that I forgot about dealing with forums.

              Eventually, threads will start repeating. Its an inevitability, and gets worse the longer lived a forum is.

              You have your:

              1. “Am I the only one who X?” threads.
              2. “Name your favorite X.” thread.
              3. “Why is X so popular/unpopular?” threads.

              There are more that I won’t bother to name. Eventually, with the exception of current event threads, these will be the only threads that people make. I’ve seen it happen in every forum I’ve ever participated in, especially popular ones like the Escapist. That shit is annoying as hell and once this happens, as it inevitably will, the only cure is to put the forum out of its misery.

              1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                That is already happening here.For example,the forums thing has been repeated a bunch of times on various posts.However,unlike with a forum,here I cannot ignore posts like that when I want to read what new popped up while I was gone.There is no title to inform me if what someone wrote will interest me or not.

              2. krellen says:

                I have never seen this happen to forums I actually participate in.

        2. Bubble181 says:

          In that case, HEY SHAMUS, maybe we can hitch it up with a forum that’s a) already composed of intelligent and mostly interesting people and b) open to having sub-fora dedicated to webcomics/blogs, with little or no interaction (as requested/agreed upon)?

          I’ll just throw out that halforums.com is a pretty neat place and that they have thef orums for a couple of webcomics up as well. Co-mingling is obviously possible but not necessary.

        3. lasslisa says:

          You could just as well argue that the problem is poor moderation allowing the undesirables to drive everyone out. In fact, that’s the argument I’ve almost always heard before. Plus, if the only way to have a good forum is to give it over to assholes, then you’re saying it’s not possible to have a good forum.

        4. Jexter says:

          The natural state of a forum is 4-chan. Even if it means limiting the potential growth of it, I think moderating a forum is preferable to not moderating it. Jerks frequenting a forum actually tend to actively drive away civil people, so while the base number of users may go up, the amount of worthwhile discussion goes down.

          I think you’re exaggerating how draconian the moderation would need to be. How often do you see moderation invoked here? When people are expected to behave well, they tend to.

      2. X2Eliah says:

        Because reality has shown it to be the way things go in nearly all cases. Either that, or the forum locks into a self-congratulating, constantly dwindling circle of “courtesy elitists” that scare off new folks by constantly speaking about how courteous everyone is – often while throwing around veiled internal references and insults that logically don’t cross the line set by rules, but their implications do. (Random example of just such a place – Egosoft forums, especially the off-topic section [which logistically would be exactly what a Shamusforum would be as well].)

        And that’s assuming there are no trolls preying on the forum, which is also a rare thing.

        1. Even says:

          I believe that all depends on what sort of forum it is and ultimately how they’re administrated. I was part of a forum once that completely prohibited any sort of politics/religion related talk and it all worked for the better. There was a forum section opened for it briefly as an experiment, but it got nuked down eventually since it hardly lead to anywhere good. Even with that restriction, it was still a pretty healthy community with a nice atmosphere. One thing that worked in its favor though was revolving around a niche genre of gaming, which I believe filtered a lot of the undesirables. But I think it was also a huge difference that the leaders-at-be were mostly the down-to-earth type and participated actively in the community. The community eventually split and dwindled mostly because of shifting focuses of interest in different games, but the legacy of it still lives on. It went on for almost a good half a decade before the eventual split.

          Essentially it boils down to what Shamus and ultimately the community would want to see there. You could always just try starting small and see how it goes from there, gather some feedback and develop the forum along with the community over time.

          I’m still not sure whether we really need it. I wouldn’t mind if we had one, but I can still live without it.

  8. Cody211282 says:

    Sweet, I’ll be sure to be there.

  9. evileeyore says:

    Dude Shamus, it’s totally a Let’s PlayDate!

  10. RJJ says:

    Being from the north of England its a pity that the shin dig is at 1AM on a Friday so i wont be able to attend, but im very much looking forward to to the next season of spoiler warning.

    Having not played Mass effect 3 it will be the first season ive seen without completing the game, very much looking forward to it.

    Plus can’t wait to see how Josh breaks the game

  11. Grampy_Bone says:

    I vote you should call it the “Spoiler Warning Box Social.”

    1. Deadfast says:

      Spoiled Signal!

  12. JPH says:

    I’ll be working on that day, so if I show up it’d be a few hours late.

    Having said that, if I do show up and it’s still going, would any of you spoiler warning peoples mind if I hopped onto vent too? I still have the server info from our failed attempts at baldurgating.

  13. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Why not call it BiMonSWCon?Unless you are going to do them more/less often then twice a month.In which case it could be XMonSWCon.

    Thats early friday for me,so I think I can get up then.Or stay late.Havent decided yet.

    1. JPH says:

      SP? As in Spoiler Parning?

    2. Klay F. says:

      A Spoiler Warning Con? Sir, I implore you to cease and desist invading my thoughts. THANK YOU AND GOOD DAY!

  14. Aldowyn says:

    Should definitely be able to show up for this one. I’ll have to set a reminder, since I just totally forgot about the last stream…

  15. Amstrad says:

    I’m actually excited about the idea of maybe some play-by-post roleplaying with people from the Twenty Sided community, though I might counter-offer and suggest live games using the very awesome roll20.net

  16. PSJ says:

    Curse you, work!

    But in all seriousness, I’m very excited about all the ways you’re expanding the site, Shamus.

    Best of luck!

  17. Attercap says:

    Shindig? I prefer a hootenanny, myself.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      What about brouhaha?

      1. Gruhunchously says:

        What about Brujah-ha, with a bit of anarchy to spice things up.

        1. Attercap says:

          A Brujah-ha? Is that what happens when Troile turns The Joker?

        2. X2Eliah says:

          I’m more partial to a Jamboree. Rutskarn could even bake cookies for everyone and stuff.

          1. rayen says:

            well if we’re gonna do cookies we might as well get some icecream and have internet ice cream social.

  18. ClearWater says:

    How about “WAN party” instead of Hangout?

  19. Annie Moose says:

    A forum where anything political, religious, or involving technology controversies (which is, after all, by far the worst kind of controversy) was autodeleted just might be the best forum ever, of all time.

    Just sayin’.

  20. Daemian Lucifer says:

    By the way,why dont people like “hangout”?Whats so wrong about the word?

    1. MikeShikle says:

      Personally I thought shindig was awesome, it had a distinctly firefly feel to it! For it’ll be more like a “1am Oh My God why am I still up” Idiocy!

    2. BeardedDork says:

      It’s the word used by Google+ for this sort of thing.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Ah,so google+ is the new facebook when it comes to this.

  21. Alex says:

    …What would be the benefit of having separate forums?

    I mean, not to spoil anyone’s fun, I’m just not sure why people want them so badly. I don’t know what you’d get there that would necessitate their existence.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Easier discussions.When an interesting topic springs up,it becomes progressively harder to track new additions to it.

      Also,if we get separate forums,I can finally say “We shall end this like gentlemen.Ill be waiting you by the forums at noon.”

    2. Zukhramm says:

      Talking directly to other visitors about things not necessarily part of the subject of a current blog post.

  22. ENC says:

    Thank you, now it’s at 11AM on a Friday and I can actually watch!

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Well you can watch the last one as well.Its mostly still there.You only wont be able to participate in the discussions that were in the chat.

  23. sab says:

    Why with the thursdays?! :(

  24. Jarenth says:

    Wait, 1 AM GMT? Josh informed me that this was going to take place at about 3 AM GMT.

    Why would he make a mistake like that and then fail to inform me about it afterwards? With the information I was given, I would’ve shown up to the stream about two… hours…

    Oh. Oh, I see what’s going on.

    1. Shamus says:

      Best to check your pockets for grenades, too.

      1. crossbrainedfool says:

        Or mines. Might want to check around for the ‘invisible’ shish-kabab as well.

    2. Mathias says:

      This isn’t even correct if Josh was suggesting GMT+1 (I don’t remember if the Netherlands are in the GMT+1 zone or not.)

      1. Aanok says:

        Holland is in +1, as all western continental Europe (with the exception of Portugal, I guess?). And then… daylight savings, everyone. Daylight savings.

        1. 4th Dimension says:

          GMT is allready +1 in relation to UTC.

          1. Deadfast says:

            No, it isn’t. GMT effectively is UTC. You’re thinking of BST (British Summer Time).

      2. Deadfast says:

        It is 100% correct if Josh was referring the the time Netherlands is currently observing. Which is the Central European Summer Time (CEST), UTC+2. Because we totally need to conserve that coal.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Ugh,why are we still having daylight savings?This practice needs to die.Preferably in a nuclear blaze.

          1. Deadfast says:

            As I said, coal needs to be saved. Also, a New Zealander needed darkness to hunt bugs and an Englishman was sick of his golf runs being cut short by the said darkness. Somebody please pinch me, I think I found something to rival Mass Effect 3’s ending.

            1. Sumanai says:

              Since I don’t know how much of Deadfast’s comment is sarcasm and just in case someone is reading this and doesn’t know:

              There’s no proven positive effect of Daylight Savings Time on energy spending. Or anything for that matter. In fact there are signs, though untested, that it might cost more than not having it at all.

              There’s even a possibility of it starting as a joke, but it could be unrelated.

              1. 4th Dimension says:

                DST was born in age when factories used skylights and sunlight for lighting. So an additional workhour by starting earlier (because sun would rise earlier) could net them more productivity.

                1. Sumanai says:

                  That makes a lot more sense than the story I’ve heard, so thanks.

                  But what bothers me is that you could get the same result in a more sensible way by just changing the work hours for summer from, say, 7:00 AM to 6:00 AM. I don’t know if it wasn’t possible to adjust alarms or whatever in such a way back then, but it still feels like trying to solve something ass-backwards.

                  1. 4th Dimension says:

                    Maybe they didn’t go with that route because changign your work hours every 6 month is a pain in the a$$. Also other things would have to be rescheduled like transportation and so on. And people are STUPID. It might take them time to get used to come to work at 7 instead of 8.

                    Much simpler is to bribe couple of MPs or whathaveya and force it down everyone throat.

                    PS.
                    What do you know. It seems a New Zealander was first to prose it, because he wanted more time to atch bugs in the afternoon. Thanks New Zealand. Thanks a lot.

                2. Deadfast says:

                  Sun doesn’t rise earlier during DST, it actually rises later because you have forwarded the clock by one hour. Daylight saving is used to give you more sun during the evening, not the morning.

                  1. Sumanai says:

                    You’re giving me a headache.

                    In the summer the sun rises earlier. My wall clock doesn’t affect that, only how I perceive it. Adjusting the clock to be one hour ahead in the summer is an attempt to manipulate people into getting up earlier.

                    A stupid, pointless, expensive attempt that ignores the fact that it’s only useful in a small band on the globe, since in the equator it’s not needed at all and you go north or south enough it’s so sunny over the whole day that you’re not “saving” any daylight, and where was I going with this?

                    Anyway, time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.

                3. Daemian Lucifer says:

                  Yes,but that time is long gone,yet the practice still continues for some reason.The question is why do we need it now?

                  1. Sumanai says:

                    I think he was just giving an explanation for why it started, since I hinted at the urban legend, not actually defending it.

                  2. 4th Dimension says:

                    Probably usual traditionalist inertia. It worked for the last 100 years, so why change it now. And first couple years would be VERRY problematic untill all people accept the new standards. AND you would need to drag this through EVERY SINGLE PARLIAMENT/(or similar) ON EARTH.

                    Do you know how much bribe would that take?

                    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                      “And first couple years would be VERRY problematic untill all people accept the new standards”

                      Oh yes,people will rebel to get their bi yearly clock movement back.

                    2. Deadfast says:

                      Just do it the day after switching to DST. Everybody will be too sleep deprived to complain.

                    3. Mike says:

                      From one who experienced such change first-hand in the last year (Russia switched away from DST), here’s some xp points:

                      a) No pain or confusion for people in general!
                      In fact, neither me nor anyone I know seemed to really remember that we had to switch some days (until reading about it on the net), while in DST days lots of people were forgetting to switch (making 1h mistakes) or had problems with schedule otherwise.
                      “People” part is easy.

                      b) Some large-scale reconfiguration of less-smart electronics was necessary. For example, most electricity meters here have dual-tariff accounting built into them, and they all had to be patched.

                      c) Migration of “smart” systems away from DST took some effort.
                      If updating timezone files on some very old unix systems was pain, generic “posix/Etc/GMT-6” definitions could be easily used.
                      Most pain came from the fact that lot of software had to be restarted to have tzinfo updated, because it’s cached in libc or taken from some specific config file, or worse yet, compiled into the software.
                      If timestamps were stored in the databases in some plain “YY-MM-DD HH:MM” format, it’d be wrongly read without *proper* timezone update (not Etc/GMT-6) and interpretation, which is embarassingly common in older software.

                      d) Time on the net will probably be off by an hour on lots of sites for quite a while.
                      No one in general gives a damn about timezone update in some non-US country, so if I specify my “Asia/Yekaterinburg” timezone on some site/forum, time will be displayed one-hour-off in winter, most likely for years.
                      Not much of a problem, but good luck updating settings of every site you’ve ever registered on ;)

                      It’s just off the top of my mind, but the point I want to make is that it’s not really the people that have major problems here.

  25. Peter H. Coffin says:

    Timezones are hard. (Well, if you’re not used to doing them a lot, I suppose. One of the fringe “benefits” of working for a multinational is pretty close to what any scheduled meeting time is in Sao Paulo, Yokohama, Mumbai, Sydney, Atlanta or London.)

    Scheduling for this kind of thing really works best whenever a couple of people have a real itch to do it. Doesn’t even have to be all of them. And quit or skip a few months when you don’t feel like it anymore. It’s kind of funny that for recreational live things, regular and reliable scheduling of events is a bigger killer of attendance than a long hiatus. “Oh, I can catch it next week…” is an attitude to avoid instilling..

    Maybe it’s time to buy Josh that copy of Farming Simulator 2011. Then there’s not a whole lot to miss in the stream.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Are you kidding?That game is awesome!

    2. krellen says:

      Time zones are easy. Just grow up in the Mountain Time Zone; you get lots of practice then.

  26. Deadfast says:

    Because time zones are annoying and daylight saving is even more so, here be a link to make the pain go away:

    Spoiler Warning Not-A-Hangout across time zones

  27. Even says:

    I’m still confused with the way you applied DST. Last time, living in the GMT +2 zone, the timing would have been 01.00 Am for me, but the streams went live only at 02.00, which would make the original time of 00.00 GMT the actual correct one. Even the link to the time calculating website showed it at 00.00 and 02.00 respectively between timezones.

    The only time the “fixed” time would have made sense (in Finland at the very least) would be during the winter, when we turn the clocks one hour backwards for the pretense of getting more daylight hours per work day. Come spring it gets changed back, reverting to the “normal” time.

    Does the DST work somehow differently over there or what? Or is there some time conversion issue here I’m not aware of?

    1. Deadfast says:

      Last time the event was supposed to start at 19:00 EDT (Eastern Daylight saving). Shamus forgot about DST and used conversion for 19:00 EST (Eastern Standard). Then technical difficulties arose so the actual thing started at 20:00 EDT anyway. This time it’s will start at 21:00 EDT.

      Also, if you live in Finland you are currently UTC+3 (Eastern European Summer Time, EEST).

      1. Even says:

        Well, you see with those times it makes sense and I can even apply my mental note of 7 hours of difference to the US East coast. GMT just always translates as 2 hour difference and it’s pretty much the personal standard to use for me. Call it a developed habit since you don’t really see the rest used as much. The thing is, the original time was always the correct GMT time for the real start. The applied DTS’d time wasn’t (and as I checked, it’s still listed as 11.00 GMT). I actually tuned in at 01.00 EEST only to meet others who were just as confused by the timing.

    2. Sumanai says:

      “…during the winter, when we turn the clocks one hour backwards for the pretense of getting more daylight hours per work day”

      I think you’ve got it backwards. When it gets adjusted for winter it gets adjusted back from the spring adjustment forward, which is the one for “getting more daylight hours per work day”. The winter time is the “normal” time.

      1. Even says:

        Ehh…well guess that’s what you get going on from hearsay. I thought saving daylight in the winter would make more sense and somehow justify the system due to there being barely any light to be had.. Summer daylight saving seems about the most useless thing for very dubious benefits. I think I’ll just shut up now and disappear from the internet for a few hours.

  28. Dante says:

    If its a shindig, does it mean I have to dress all fancy like?

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Bonnets are mandatory.

      1. newdarkcloud says:

        But, due to one of Shamus’s new policies, all Incinerators must be checked at the door. No exceptions.

  29. Littlefinger says:

    I take it Josh is on Valve time again? Seeing there’s no post yet?

    Mumbles, stop Pyro-ing Josh so he can post the video.

    1. krellen says:

      I suspect Josh is actually on “I have a job and cannot devote all my time to Spoiler Warning” time, but that may just be my grumpy cynic speaking.

      1. Littlefinger says:

        A “Job”? Pfft, what an outdated concept. I’m surprised anyone remembers the concept.

        bitter? Why would I be bitter? Pfft. As long as I still have scotch in this bottle I’m happy.

  30. Freebooter says:

    Why do these things ALWAYS happen on days when I have to work the day after?
    Shakes Fist
    Curse you Time Zones!

  31. Johan says:

    I like the term hang out, but I feel miffed that its verb is hanging out and not outhanging

  32. Museli says:

    I booked Friday off a few weeks ago, so I’m free to fill myself with coffee and prepare for the 2AM (local) start. I have no idea why I booked the day off though – my best guess is that Josh has some sort of psychic suggestion powers that ignore the flow of time.

  33. Mike says:

    Stuff is happening on Chris’ livestream already, right now.

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