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This is my 5,000th post on Dakka, and as I've closed in on this artificial milestone, I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on a few things:

Membership & Personalities

One of the things I like about Dakka is that it has a very diverse membership, discussing a wide range of topics from a variety of viewpoints. There's a lot of disagreement inherent in that, and this is actually a good thing and contributes mightily to the vibrancy of the site. I think it would be a great thing if even more people joined the site, and participate in the discussions.

Obviously, this variety has a price, and that is seen in the occasional attempted mixing of oil and water. Or perhaps saltpeter with charcoal and sulfur might be a better analogy, due to the resultant flare-ups.

As a result of too much heat back and forth, I now generally "ignore" certain persons if only to keep the overall temperature down. I see this as a necessary evil to support "Rule 1", which I'm still trying to understand the subtleties of.


Moderation & Management

In general, I think that the Moderators generally do a good job here, and that Yakface has done a tremendous job in setting the tone and focus for the site.

My hat's off to them, especially considering how heavily they're outnumbered by the rabble. And especially us rabble-rousers.


Message & Tone

There seems to be a (mistaken) perception in some people's heads that I'm this really hostile guy who's out to get various people. Lately, that's appears to have changed to being "carefully worded", and I'm glad that at least some small change is noticed. Apologies to all - I'm really sorry that my message tone conveys so poorly. If it helps, please imagine that "In my personal opinion, ..." precedes most of my statements that are not obvious fact. I think that might help convey the tone that I actually intend.

I will share that over the past few months, I actually have been making efforts not to slap various people down willy-nilly. I will also share, that I still find it to be a rather novel and difficult excercise in self-control and self-listening, but I hope I'm getting better about it. As this seems to be helpful for the site, I intend to keep at it for the rest of the year as a non-gaming / non-modeling resolution.


Milestones

In a game in which we field up to 100 or so minis, costing a few hundred dollars, having an army value up to 2000 pts, something like 5,000 is a pretty big number. I can't imagine owning that many minis (though I will share I'm in the 4-digit range), and I certainly can imagine having spent that much on GW now that I've finished tapering down army varieties. But points-wise, I'm pretty sure I passed that mark in my first year of 40k...

I guess, in context, me hitting 5000 posts is something akin to winning an endurance contest for both myself and Dakka. Me, in the sense that I didn't get so fed up and walk away, and Dakka, in the sense that the admins showed enough tolerance to let me find a way to self-moderate my messages to the point where they're acceptable to the general population.


Moving Forward

As I was looking back over the weekend, I decide that perhaps I spend a bit too much time here, and my head is a bit too focused on 40k, when 40k isn't such a big part of my life. I guess I far too easily get caught up in the excitement of the thing that is Dakka - and this reflects well on Dakka. I need to rebalance into the way I spend my time, so, it'll likely take me longer to get the next 5k posts down. But it'll be fun to spend more time finishing a few things in modeling & painting my IG, Lego MOCs, SFF NAS, not to mention spending a little time with family & friends...


Thanks for listening, may your dice come up 6s...

Congratz on reaching 5k posts.

Grats on 5k, I think. Perhaps, as you say, its an indicator of spending too much time here.

I agree on what you say about most of the members here. Many outspoken personalities clash on dakka on a near daily basis. Makes for a great read while I'm stuck at work with nothing better to do.

On a personal note, I've never had a problem with anything you post and you seem like a decent guy. Perhaps I just haven't been around long though...

5,000 posts. Congrats!

Wow. You can spam a forum. Congratulations.

In the words of my WoW guildmates: Gratz man on the achievement.

Is it too early for an "In before lock!"?

gratz
im getting there slowly lol

Congratulations! I've been posting more lately too, so expect a fragtastic post memorial thread coming at you from the main man pretty soon.

warpcrafter wrote:Is it too early for an "In before lock!"?

I dunno - sometimes, it's hard to predict how threads will go.

For example, who would have guessed that the GW leak of the IG summary sheet would have turned into a discussion of donuts?
____

Hordini wrote:Congratulations! I've been posting more lately too, so expect a fragtastic post memorial thread coming at you from the main man pretty soon.

Fraggin' Frag, we do like us our Lobo!

5,000 messages of sound and fury

And all those posts sure did signify nothing John.

...

H.B.M.C. wrote:

5,000 messages of sound and fury

And all those posts sure did signify nothing John.

...

What, not BYE?

H.M.B.C. must have hacked H.B.M.C.'s account...

@Plat: I'm not surprised, nor do I much care.

Do you have any resolutions for posts 5001-10000 John? Better signal-to-noise ratio? Acknowledgement of opposing arguments? Less baiting of people, especially Dark Eldar players?

I've committed to less posting and acknowledged that my time in the sun as a 'Guard Guru' is over. What have you done?

BYE

Man, I love Dakka! Ib4tL!

Le Grognard wrote:Man, I love Dakka! Ib4tL!

I sigged that, but I deleted a couple of my older sig items. Is that a sign of maturity or what!

5,000 posts is nice going. Now give me a dang retro review of something (Might I suggest the Dark Eldar codex?)

We need to see more of HMBC. That avatar is munchy.

Don't worry John, I'm interested in your say, most of the time.

Also in the interests of not getting this Kilkrazied, I won't put "In Before the Lock" in here, thus not raising tempers.

And H.B.M.C., if you don't review the new codex thoroughly, your commissar-caped ass is grass. Here's a BYE, since you didn't seem able to find one for that other post:

BYE.

You know, IB4tL doesn't count if it's in your sig.

Just sayin'.

To bad it wasn't BOY, then we would know for sure it was a hacked account.

H.B.M.C. wrote:

5,000 messages of sound and fury

And all those posts sure did signify nothing John.

...

It's called irony, I think.

JohnnyHwang: Can HBMC actually see your posts?

chaplaingrabthar wrote:5,000 posts is nice going. Now give me a dang retro review of something (Might I suggest the Dark Eldar codex?)

OK, like this???

~~~ Dark Eldar ~~~

~ Codex ~
GW provides the Eldar with some interesting Allies for Apocalypse. Unlike the hyper-specialist Eldar and their Paths, the Dark Eldar forces are much more generalist in nature. And oddly enough, while they have Aspect stats, they're extremely fragile, like a Guardian. Or a Vyper. But they're dirt cheap and highly-tailorable, kind of like Eldar Conscripts.
- HQ has the standout Lord, which actually can take loads of interesting "Wargear", allowing for an extreme level of customization that is not available in any other Codex.
- Elites are uneven
- Troops are standout, with tremendous cheap weapons options and low cost for crappy saves
- Fast choices are good, as one would expect for Eldar
- Heavies are very fragile and won't stand up in a shooting match - hit-and-run or shoot-and-scoot seems to be the theme
Under 5E rules, cover saves are a real boon here, as these guys cost about twice as much as a Guardsman.

~ Fluff ~
Pointy-eared Emo cutters. 'Nuff said!

~ Models ~
Following the theme of fragility, these are some of the most fragile multi-pose plastics GW has ever produced. Snappy-snappy! It's nice that GW includes a female torso in the lot, but overall, the sculpting of the metals is mediocre at best. And mother of mercy, these things will have breakage issues, no matter how much you pamper them. Color-wise, it looks like some variation on Emo-black is the way to go, which fits their Fluff nicely.



____

grizgrin wrote:We need to see more of HMBC. That avatar is munchy.

True dat.
____

grizgrin wrote:JohnnyHwang: Can HBMC actually see your posts?

He replied here, so I'd assume so... Whether he actually reads them, I dunno.