Urza says, "and there was much rejoicing." Brody claps Trispis says, "There's been some schedule changes for tonight." Brody listens Trispis says, "If you thought Vexon was gonna be here next, you'll be glad to know that he's not... er... I mean... if you wanted to see Vexon here, he's not gonna be. I'm finding out right now where he will be." Brody hehs! Urza says, "nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. :)" Trispis says, "Okay, since that information doesn't seem to be forthcoming, I'm gonna guess he'll be the last thing in RedHat Hall tonight." Trispis says, "Correction." Trispis says, "Vexon will not be giving his presentation, but will be hosting the Admin thing over in Red Hat on schedule." Trispis says, "Next up in this hall will be Urza." Brody grins. Trispis says, "He will be discussing Why MU*s Fail Early." Urza carefully walks up the narrow stairs to the stage. Brody claps Urza says, "Thank you." Cball cheers Trispis stops tinkering with the wiring, claps and dissipates into thin air. Urza says, "Before I begin, I would like to make it clear that I am having various computer and network problems at the moment. *baps windows* Because of this, I may be forced to reboot in the middle of my presentation. I apologize for any incovinence this may cause, and I'm just going to hope Bill Gates can put up with me for a while." Urza says, "Greetings to you all. My name is Matthew Martin, a.k.a. Urza of M*U*S*H. I have come before you today to discuss why many new MU*s fail in their first few months of operation, and ways to prevent those problems from occuring. Operators tend to become overly frustrated with all the problems and responsibilities that come with the god character." Urza says, "Before we begin, I would like to pose a question to you. Feel free to shout out any answer you think of..." Urza pauses for effect. Urza says, "Why do MUXxes fail?" Brody hrms. "Lack of interest - by players and admins." Urza says, "Good. Anything else?" Nymeria says, "lack of preparation before opening" Urza says, "Another very good answer." Daedra says, "Mostly not having enough players.. or not a clear theme." Urza says, "Those are all very good answers. I will try to hit some if not all of those topics." Urza says, "A MU* is like today's technology, ever flowing, ever changing, even to where I cannot keep up. In fact, just the other day, I was at the house of my friend and co-god of TwinkMUSH, with a few very confidential log documents. I pointed to the machine and asked him to help me operate it. She put the documents through the machine, and it shredded them beyond readability. She looked at me, and I said, "Thank you. Make me 5 copies please." :-)" Daedra laughs.. Urza says, "Often times, a MU* fails due to a lack of input by the administrators and builders. If you leave a MU* to players alone, it may be run properly, but in most cases, as Chaos Theory states, the environment will become somewhat of an uproar. A trusted staff is required for proper operation. Personally, I make use of a staff in somewhat of a pyramidal formation." Brody chuckles Brody nods, listening. Urza says, " God/CoGod -Wizard Characters, Local Administratrors, Building Staff/Hardcoders, Royalty Characters/Softcoders" Urza chuckles nervously. "Pardon the formatting problems. Urza says, "Obviously, the God and Co-God have supreme power. However, I do not give my god password out to anyone. I never even use the character, except to assign wizardly powers and carry out other god-only tasks. For day-to-day use, I have a wizard character, as does my co-god. Wizards are somewhat lower, but their word is still law. They generally deal with problems that arise in the MU* itself, such as buggy code, or improperly linked rooms. My local administrators hold a special place in my heart, as they manage all the RP aspects of the world for me. Building Staff do just that, and Hardcoders are responsible for the editing of the bare code and recompiling, because, try as I might, i simply do not comprehend Linux/Unix. Royalty and Softcoders are usually the MU*Code Gurus, who maintain the core softcoded systems, such as the bulletin board, @mail, and the comsys." Urza says, "Am I going at a good rate for everyone? Too fast? Too slow?" Brody nods. "Fine here." Urza says, "Ok good." Urza says, "Now, back to what I said about the pyramidal formation. I have less of the high ranking staff, such as the wizards, as less of them are needed to maintain order. TwinkMUSH contains 2 gods, myself and my most trusted friend, 5 wizards, all of whom I trust explicitly, 10 LAs, who i feel are best suited to RP matters, and I am very free with respect to the other positions. I have never had a problem with players acting unruly. Never in my history have I had to @nuke, @boot, or @toad, and hope I will never have to use any of those commands." Urza says, "Now, I would like to break for a moment, to see if there are any questions up until now. Any questions?" Trispis has a question. Urza says, "Then ask away." (MISSING SOMETHING?) (WHERE'D MY QUESTION GO? I think I asked, "Would it be okay if we referred some of our players to TwinkMUSH?" and glanced through the WHO with sarcastic glee.) Urza says, "Of course! However, TwinkMUSH is down for renovations at the moment, and will be for about a month, but if you give me the email addresses or ICQ #s of these players, I will be glad to keep in touch with them regarding the status of TwinkMUSH." Urza says, "Any other questions?" Brody nods. "One." Urza says, "Fire away." Brody says, "How have you managed to avoid using @nuke and @boot :)?" Urza says, "I never needed them. I've never had a problem with players to the extent where i felt they were necessary. I prefer to gag and/or restrict player's ability to interact with the world rather than @boot or @nuke. I have had to set a few people NO_CONNECT until they settled down, however." Brody nods. "Thanks." Urza says, "No problem. Any more questions?" Aurora raises a hand. Urza says, "Yes Aurora?" Aurora says, "Is your mush invite-only, or open-registration? Curious, as 'I've never had to @boot or @nuke' is a bold statement :)" Urza says, "Well, it is open registration, with a 1 month probation period for newbies. It hasnt been up that long, which is probably why I have not had any big problems of the sort. Most of the new players are referred by existing players, which somewhat eliminates that problem as well." Urza says, "Any more questions?" Aurora nods. Urza says, "Hmm? You have another quesiton? Go right ahead." Aurora shakes her head, "Oh, no. Sorry. Lagged, was nodding to your last answer." Urza says, "Oh ok." Urza says, "Alrighty then. Moving right along, a MU* can also become unstable and collapse if there is corruption in the staff ranks. Because of this, you must make sure that your staff are trustworthy people. You MUST, i repeat MUST not hand a wizard flag to just anyone. I recommend a somewhat rigorous screening process to find people who you trust. People you have known for a great time and get along with well are good, as well as people who have either ran other MU*s or have excellent referrals and references. Once more, i re-iterate, you MUST be sure to trust your staff explicitly." Urza says, "One more reason that the world may fail is because your various staff members simply do not get along. If your staff is constantly fighting, nothing will get done. You must take any steps necessary to resolve disputes among staff. If your wizards are belittling your LAs or coders, it is YOUR job to put the wizards in their proper place. Same thing if your royalty or builders are getting a bit too big for their britches, as it were. If problems cannot be resolved, you may just have to let one of your staff members go, or demote them to a regular player. It is not fun to do this, but often it must be done for the greater good of the MU*." Urza says, "Now, on a closing note, I would like to add that these are not the only reasons that a world may fail. Other reasons include a lack of effort by the staff, or players who simply do not want to cooperate. It comes back down to, usually, that "one bad apple spoils the bushel". If all else fails, you may be forced to turn these proverbial bad apples into bad toads. Such is the responsibility of MU* leadership." Urza pauses for effect. Urza says, "Once again, I ask, are there any questions, in light of this new information?" Urza says, "Alright then. If there are no questions, I am through. I will be around, watching other speeches. Feel free to page me with any questions you might have." Urza goes down the few steps to the seating area. Urza comes down the few steps from the stage. Trispis carefully walks up the narrow stairs to the stage. Trispis claps for Urza. Trispis goes down the few steps to the seating area. Trispis comes down the few steps from the stage. Trispis turns the lights off.