Erfworld Thread X: A Series of Unfortunate Cliffhangers

[Lethologica]

The point of the contract with the gems was to remove the assets from GK control so they wouldn't be automagically forked over to Charlie before the net returns kicked in. For the same reason, CC taking those assets isn't harming GK under the contract.

[Anteros]

I have absolutely no interest in reading fictional contract law. Especially when it's formatted and written in such a hard to read way. I think I'm just going to hope that this is one of the many updates that ends up being completely superfluous to the actual story.

[deuterio12]

"Yoh gawd we heard you like rules so we put some rules in your rules so you can rule while you rule."

[tomaO2]

Skipsign.

Anyone else think it's really weird that Rob is constantly announcing that he's not updating? He has made it a point to never do this, and people wouldn't even question him as to why he was late anymore. Why, after all these years, is NOW the time where he's being so consistent about it? Even to the point that if he can't do it, he gets someone else to do so. The man made a post saying that skips will happen, but he will not be telling us when, back in October, and then reaffirmed it in December.

He did a big deal about the whole thing. http://www.erfworld.com/blog/view/57533/on-skips

He talked about how he had a major family crisis (which had NOTHING do with with the cancer), and he ended on this note.

That said, announcing every skip is still not going to happen. This is not coming from a lack of respect for the readers. I respect the hell out of you guys. Not posting a subpar update just to take your pledge money is how you know that. My writing news posts 20 times a year to say we're skipping will not say "I care about your feelings" any better than just giving this story everything I've got. But it would take up a substantial amount of my Category 2 time, and leave us with a front page full of repetitive bad news instead of comics and community things.

He never announced another skip again, this was an extremely hard position Rob took on the subject, and he clearly feels that there is no point in announcing when there will be a skip. None.

I have a theory about this...

EDIT: WELP! I was wrong. I thought Rob had some plan for announcing skips from this point onward, but we are right back to the information blackout that I am so familiar with.

[Aquillion]

I seriously doubt he needs to (I mean, it's just a scheduled donation every X day of the week.)

More likely the issue is that the issues surrounding his wife's diagnosis are resulting in far more skips, and he feels that he needs to acknowledge them so people know what's going on, rather than just going silent for long periods of time. The old skip system was different (because there was only X skips a month, and everyone knew they were coming, if not exactly when; and they were spaced out to avoid long periods of silence.) But now things are different.

Also, these recent skip announcements all link back to or mention the announcement of his wife's diagnosis, so people who missed that can find out what's happening rather than thinking that he's suddenly started skipping a whole lot more for no reason.

[DigoDragon]

I dunno, I kinda like that he's now announcing Skip days. This keeps me from waiting on something that isn't coming up.

[Elanasaurus]

I dunno, I kinda like that he's now announcing Skip days. This keeps me from waiting on something that isn't coming up.

Yup. If they didn't announce the skip, I would keep hoping for a few more hours that maybe they would do a late update like that one time.

[tomaO2]

It's not like I'm complaining about it, it's been annoying as hell to have Rob say that he updates twice a week, and then have him miss his schedule without giving a heads up.

That said, keep in mind that this is something that people have been asking about since the first skipped update, which was within a month or two after he started Erfworld. Rob has done countless skips over the last decade, left fans in the dark for months at a time, heck, this isn't even the first family medical emergency that has disrupted his schedule, and NOW he suddenly cares so much about telling the readers? He has had a very strong tendency to keep a lid on all this stuff before, and now it's a 180.

It's not like he's even skipping all that much. Two skips this month, certainly within the average. It's weird.

EDIT: Nope! He's back to normal.

[Seerow]

Simpler suggestion: people here have acknowledged they check the site less when skips are announced. When there were ads on the page, people checking constantly made Rob money. Now that ads are gone, it loses him money. It is in his financial best interest to minimize people wasting bandwidth refreshing a hundred times in a day waiting on the new update.

[DigoDragon]

That said, keep in mind that this is something that people have been asking about since the first skipped update, which was within a month or two after he started Erfworld. Rob has done countless skips over the last decade, left fans in the dark for months at a time, heck, this isn't even the first family medical emergency that has disrupted his schedule, and NOW he suddenly cares so much about telling the readers? He has had a very strong tendency to keep a lid on all this stuff before, and now it's a 180.

It's not like he's even skipping all that much. Two skips this month, certainly within the average. It's weird.

But the idea that this is happening because he suddenly realized how much his fans would appreciate a heads up? I'd give him a big thank you too if that was honestly the case, but do not believe it. I've watched the guy for too many years. He has NEVER been half as considerate about giving us these heads up before.

I don't disagree. It is odd. I dunno why he changed the way he runs things, but I guess this is where the idiom "Better late than never" gets tested and you find out which side you're on. I'd almost say "Now if only he to constructive criticism well" but maybe I'm asking too much.

Simpler suggestion: people here have acknowledged they check the site less when skips are announced. When there were ads on the page, people checking constantly made Rob money. Now that ads are gone, it loses him money. It is in his financial best interest to minimize people wasting bandwidth refreshing a hundred times in a day waiting on the new update.

Okay that makes some amount of sense. I could buy that.

[Aquillion]

I seriously doubt he put that much thought into it. Honestly, I think it's just that now that there's a concrete reason for the skips that he can point to, he actually has something meaningful to say (especially since, again, not everyone would have seen it.)

[deuterio12]

I seriously doubt he put that much thought into it. Honestly, I think it's just that now that there's a concrete reason for the skips that he can point to, he actually has something meaningful to say (especially since, again, not everyone would have seen it.)

Hmmm, "Skipping update because need to take care of wife with cancer" does sound a lot more meaningful than "Skipping update because I procrastinated/got distracted/getting into bitcoin".

[Whispri]

Looks like we have SKIPsign I'm afraid.

[tomaO2]

WHAT? Damn. Well, I guess there goes that uncharitable theory of mine.

I was just so positive that he would be sure to announce when it it happened from now on. I guess I spoke too soon, and I feel a bit stupid now. I figured 3 times was enough to see the pattern, but I guess it was just a temporary thing until we got into the new groove. I'm honestly a little disappointed. I mean, yea, I was being critical here but I still prefered him doing it as opposed to not, regardless of the reason. I was just trying to figure out what that reason was.

It just makes a lot of sense to me to do it, especially when you are really banking on their good will. If I was him, and people were PAYING me to not update, I would definitely be doing it, or, at least telling my lacky, Red, to do it for me, and the point of people using up bandwidth by refreshing the screen was a good one that I hadn't thought of.

I think I'm just going to erase that whole post then. No point speculating on something that isn't happening anymore. I guess it was just a temporary thing as people got used to the new normal.

[JavaScribe]

The latest.

[Welf]

The latest.

Basically SKIP sign but more words.

[Anteros]

Basically SKIP sign but more words.

To be fair that's most updates.

[DigoDragon]

What annoys me is that TV's tower has it's own foreign lingo to name everything. It was cute when Jed did it, and eventually I learned the lingo and could follow the context, but a second time? Now it's just annoying.

[guttering flame]

What annoys me is that TV's tower has it's own foreign lingo to name everything. It was cute when Jed did it, and eventually I learned the lingo and could follow the context, but a second time? Now it's just annoying.

would it be ok if her added translations in foot/side-notes?

[DigoDragon]

would it be ok if her added translations in foot/side-notes?

Well, it would be okay; speeds up the process of translating, but the magic of Jed's uniqueness is already gone. That's probably the bigger part of my disappointment.

[Razade]

I feel like being pedantic but the word for cocoa beans in Nahuatl is xocolātl. Cacahautl is specifically used to refer to a drink made from cocoa beans and water and isn't a Nahuatl word, it was used by and invented by the Spanish. Ye olde hot chocolate, more or less. Cacahautl isn't a word that could be ground up and drank because it's already a drink. Xocolātl can be ground up and drunk.

Itzam Cacahautl wouldn't translate to what Rob is saying it would translate to either since Itzam also is...a fairly ambigious word with no real clear definition. Modern scholars of Nahuatl think it means something along the line of Shaman, Diviner or Sorcerer but that is, again, Modern. An older translation of the world is Iguana. So Itzam Cacahautl would be...Bean Water Iguana.

Which I think everyone here can agree, for the first time ever maybe, is a better way to identify a character in Erfworld.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Do you think the temple is giving people names the way it was is because it's been in contact with Jed since it came alive? Like Jed may be having a significant influence on it, perhaps? Doesn't invalidate your feelings of making Jed less unique, tbh, just might explain why.

[Fyraltari]

What annoys me is that TV's tower has it's own foreign lingo to name everything. It was cute when Jed did it, and eventually I learned the lingo and could follow the context, but a second time? Now it's just annoying.

I think he uses the same one as Jed, no? Have we seen them give different names to the same person?

Maybe it's Shirley that's weird because of the Arkendish?

[Aquillion]

I think he uses the same one as Jed, no? Have we seen them give different names to the same person?

Maybe it's Shirley that's weird because of the Arkendish?

No, Jed code-switches into Hawaiian; Huehue code-switches into Nahuatl.

(Technically Jed should be speaking Rapa Nui, I suppose, but they probably figured that Hawaiian would be more familiar to readers. I mean, when he started out it was mostly just calling Stanley kahuna, which is a word that entered English slang a bit.)

[super dark33]

Jed's sognamancy isnt specifically Spooky Easter Island Statue, its Cheap Tacky Hawaii Holiday Resort.

[JavaScribe]

The latest.

Spoiler

Show

The Arkenpliers are sapient now.

[Otomodachi]

The latest.

Spoiler

Show

The Arkenpliers are sapient now.

Oh good, I was just thinking we needed a new POV character.

[guttering flame]

This page sounded rather personal (wife is sick and probably dying)

[Lizard Lord]

Spoiler

Show

Does that mean the disk and hammer can also become sapient? If so would we find out how Stanley attuned to the hammer?

[Welf]

Oh good, I was just thinking we needed a new POV character.

In recent times I learn a lot about bad writing from Erfworld. There are too many POVs, too many styles of writing. It seems Rob can't advance the story with ever more of those. GRR Martin fell into the same trap. It think that is partly because the story was originally a comic. In a comic format you can advance multiple scenes on one page; in theory you could have 9 panels with 9 different settings and use text and image to convey progress. With the POV format this gets too bloated. I think using side characters can work. But it needs to be more disciplined. Use 3 or 4 main character POVs, then maybe 2 or 3 additional characters of medium importance with a character arc each for a story arc and at the end remove them. Of course that does not work with the current story and its many, many settings. The lessons is that you can't change the medium for a story easily.

This page sounded rather personal (wife is sick and probably dying)

I didn't notice while reading, but sounds likely.