Heartfire

[jellykans]

WHO ARE WE?

(Banner links to homepage.)

We are a clan whose hearts are on fire, becoming who we always dreamed we could be, supporting each others' dreams to make them real. We support zOMG, the players, the game itself, and support a better Gaia, online and off.

This site is much-loved, with all its rich history which maps the move to online mode, a step every bit as large as the the invention of the printing press gave the option of literacy to more than a select few. That shifted a major portion of humanity from oral culture and history into literacy or at least having someone who could read in their circle.

So - are we world-savers? You betcha! We work, we play, we chase our chicken who escapes on occasion to find his ladyfriend. Henrietta is hopeless, she loves to stray and is quite the cougar of the coop; she's brought home two suitors in her travels.

Our members are quite a mixed group, but all have one trait in common; their hearts are on fire with purpose so large that they have fire in the belly. One member claims that she is boring, an Amazon who belly dances, plays seven instruments, and is a peer counselor in her college. That is how *giggle* boring we are. Our leader is known for her, ahem, twitchy sense of humor.

Each of us is special. We are committed to becoming fully human AND Gaian. And we have fun doing it.

[jellykans]

.

WHY DO WE HAVE A PUBLIC THREAD?

While our clan is public, it is unsearchable. I have no idea why. Unlike guilds, clans cannot assign tags, but some clans are searchable. There is an algorithm... No one seems to know or say what that is - numbers (members? post counts?), clan name, start date? So, since service brings us more members than we can serve, we have made affiliations with others who have more capacity and have common interests and goals to support zOMG, Booty Grab, and a better Gaia.

A BETTER GAIA, YOU SAY?

zOMG needs ongoing glitch repair. Future development must wait on a much more basic project. (And we will have to fight for dev even after, so we had best do our homework.) Nearly all of us without Porsche-grade computers are familiar with the Laaaag Monster! Of the daily users Gaia had 3 short years ago, a full 2/3 are gone (written in 2013). If they were here, lag would be...impossible.

Why? Gaia's temp files expire in (long) minutes. Newer temp files are coded to expire in seconds. Compare 20 minutes to 20 seconds. There is your source of lag.

People love Gaia, but the Lag Monster is strong. How do we survive, let alone revive the site? Many Booty Grabbers are older, not just over-21's, but parents who willingly spend cash on the site to support a healthy netspace for their children. Many were beta testers for zOMG. Many were among the 2/3 that left in the past 3 years, as policies shifted (again, written in 2013). Shadey Kitty wrote a History of Booty Grab thread. I wish someone would write a history of zOMG before rage-quitting, flaming, or simply folding to the Lag Monster.

We now have Lanzer and zOMG back - hurrah!

]

[jellykans]

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Support the game we know and love. Support new players in zOMG, newbies, site oldbies, players with old equipment who know more about lag than most any crackerjack DMS'er. Interest the crackerjacks in mentoring others. (Even DMS can get old, and new dev isn't even on the agenda unless we place it there.) No, I am NOT upset with DMS'ers or the visionaries who recall the original plans for expansion. Give credit where credit is due. Our DMS'ers are good, knowledgeable, players. They have skills, talent, and will. I am no oldbie to the site or the game, and I value every single player who does not break ToS and has a clue that zOMG is an excellent game that exhibits the highest values of the site when played as designed.

zOMG was never designed as a moneymaker, it was a vision of a better Gaia online and irl. zOMG was never credited with the income it DID bring in. I Am's are an incredible tool in the game. Equip one nakey, see what an edge you get. I Am's are popular in zOMG for a very good reason. Elaborate costumes are a signature in zOMG. Wearing one in a high level area indicates spending money and good equipment as well as honed skill. Do you see alchemized I Am's in zOMG? Probably a highly skilled player who is also a really skilled exchanger or independently wealthy, possibly both.

[jellykans]

WHAT IS A CLAN?

A clan is an extended network of kinship led by a chieftain and honored by every member. It is both a system of survival and of support - contentious, joyful, and united. A zOMG clan is united against the animated of Gaia and was intended to have the use of clan chat, which has never yet been as reliable as a drum.

How is a clan different from a guild? For starters, a clan cannot have assigned tags like a guild. You must organize a clan in Barton to the left of Barton's South gate or on the left of guilds search, in the left column. If you are wise, you have the Power-user menubar gained from Gaia Labs in the drop-down menu on your MyGaia tab. Then you can locate clans on the drop-down menu two lines after guilds. Clan search may or may not be helpful, either place. You may need to find a linked banner to locate a specific clan. I keep one in the top left corner of my profile.

A guild must be purchased for 20K. (Clans are free.) Sub-forums are 2.5k each for either clan or guild (buyable at any time), and they are added to the bottom of the sub-forum list. A used guild may be a good value and often comes with a treasury or sub-forums - and a founding (original purchase) date. Other than these factors and perhaps needing to be cleaned, a used guild is the same as a new one. (Cleaning out a large guild is no small project.)

Guilds have been given the option to purchase a chat room. (Clans cannot, but they have clan chat, on the rare occasion.) Heartfire, in its early days, often used the Potter-inspired chat room designed by Panagrammic (later head of Gaia's systems analysis). That one was very cozy. The chat rooms introduced for purchase are totally bare but for even landscape. Very good for lag, but sort of a conversation-stopper.

You may join only one clan at a time. Joining two will glitch you, preventing you from joining or leaving any guild until you turn one clan loose, and you may have to leave both and rejoin one to undo the glitch. Joining multiple guilds is fine.

The treasury is odd for either one. Funds donated at bottom of homepage can only be used to purchase sub-forums and send announcements. An announcement costs 1g for each member plus around 20%, or close to that. A guild can use those funds to purchase a chat room. Otherwise, those funds sit there forever.

Announcements are limited to 1500 words: a descending word count feature would be very helpful. If your announcement is too long, you can take a screenie of text (links die) and use that img code. The picture will not be as clear. You can also link to a post for extra info.

Forums seem to work the same, although have differences from the newer style of page in the regular Forums. Differences have been reduced, but you cannot "tip" in clan or guild. Post Styles and Post Actions moved from under the reply box to the right side on the newer pages of public forums.

[jellykans]

HEARTFIRE IS A CLAN, NOT A GUILD - WHY?

Newbie

My first few days on Gaia were confusing. I recall meeting one person in Q & A (where i got bashed for reviving threads and not reading the stickies, which were totally confusing). After I was directed to Chatterbox and really got hassled, I generally stayed with Booty Grab, the small games, and the Marketplace for a long, long time. I began profile-hopping through the MP and had no idea that closed profiles or non-response were the usual "Do Not Disturb" signs. One of the lovely profiles I fell in love with, and I was soon invited to join the clan.

I loved the MP and my aquarium, got myself laid up in null crystal on 0-0-0 (vs. 100-100-100) by trying to stare down the animated in VG. (The tutorial wasn't working, I had no experience in Flash space, and I was near death when a friend began giving me lessons.) My clan meant everything to me, though I lay in null for a year. I lost my ISP for a year, and only spent about an hour a day online, at the library or a neighbor's home, tending my fish and my MP store.

Became a Clan Member

In March 2011, I got ISP again, the friend who loved zOMG gave me lessons, and I became active in my clan and, well, all over Gaia. I attended AtA's and Dev Meats weekly. A planned joint event ended up small due to misunderstandings and the gold nerf in zOMG, and the clan fell into inactivity.

After finally parting from my old clan, I began casting about for an affiliation to heal that loss. So many clans had gone inactive and many moved to guilds, as limits were fewer. But a clan was family and near family to me, a safe place to get oriented and ask or answer questions.

[jellykans]

CREATION OF HEARTFIRE

Heartfire began on 11-20-2011, an easy date to recall. Though I had, in effect, been Acting Captain in my old clan for a brief time, I had so much to learn. I talked about theory and vision, with no roadmap to get there.

Dedicated officers have been consistent and many, with only two brief errors. Just as consistent was my inability to give clear assignments.

In preparations for clan-wide training, I drew down membership to a manageable size from the usual 100-110 members to 85 by removing inactive members at the end of My 2012. At the same time, I tried expanding our weekly crew meat to four. Two big projects at the same time was too much.

Heartfire revived on 2/15/13. Affiliations were easy and obvious. A Dream came true when kangit agreed to affiliate Were-Animals Clan and Guild. We have a natural connection, and our purpose limits our size. What serious zOMG'er can ignore I Am's? And now we are affiliated with Hive Survivors, a natural affiliate for Heartfire as a training ground for lean, mean zOMG players who are serious about zOMG, activists with Heartfire who support the game to its fullest capability.

Look out! We will work for a better Gaia, have projects to support ourselves, zOMG active dev once basecode is rewritten, our affiliates, other players, and Gaia online itself. Look for the loudmouth at meetings, and you will see jelly or jelly exploding. Or an emote. Sometimes, silence is golden.

[jellykans]

PURPOSE

As well as loving zOMG, we love Gaia and want her to be a thriving success. To that end, we work with affiliates for a strong Gaia. The most popular games throughout Gaia's history have been zOMG and Booty Grab. zOMG and Booty Grab were the flagship games during Gaia's highest numbers of daily users. They characterize the cooperative networking required by internet usage that now is restructuring society irl.

Booty Grab

Booty Grab is easily served. Uncouple glow notices from those for other games. Glow notices are necessary to running a good tank. Invitations are not essential to game-play, should include a link to allow a decline response, and belong in Friends' Feeds where they can be dialed up or dialed down. (Go to the Account gearwheel on far right in MyGaia toolbar, then see Feeds, My Feed Settings, set the slide, and click Save All Changes.) Currently, that ALSO nerfs the glow notices.

Booty Grab was a generous place with many older Gaians who brought their own kids and spent money on gaiaonline.com to support safe space for their kids. Let that resume. Many of these folks left with the advent of fish [Lite] rather than the return of full-fledged Memphis. Would people buy as many at a higher price? No. But they would buy plenty. Memphis is pretty, still sells for a high price compared to her gold ability - why pay a premium for Memphis [Lite]? Because she is beautiful, and she's a stone flirt, winks if you click on her.

[jellykans]

zOMG

zOMG is a good bit more complicated. No further development at all is scheduled for the game. Gaia needs games that bring income and zOMG just wasn't 1) designed for it and 2) equip-able items bought for zOMG have never been counted as income from zOMG. When Gaia looked for income from players to cover initial dev, they didn't find it. I believe they undervalued the game as a product.

zOMG must develop the ability to reach out to newbies and oldbies, support players and continuing glitch repairs. No more neglect! zOMG must also plan for new dev - which must wait on extensive rewrite of basecode. THEN the projects and research will be set forward for zOMG to resume, once Gaia's battle with the true enemy of all Gaians is battled into submission, the mad demon Lag Monster! This is a storyline that can be used to clue in all users to the improvements currently under weigh. While zOMG is not the money-maker it was never intended to be, a great deal of money has been invested into its dev, and that should not be wasted. We can show that zOMG contributes far more than it was ever credited with if we all pull together!

(Hasn't anyone told you yet that jelly is flat out crazy, grandiose beyond belief, wants to save the world, irl and on Gaia, and have fun doing it?)

Oh, so you haven't met jelly? You have now. And, just so you know, nearly every Heartfire member is hand-picked by jelly. The few others have proven themselves. !

[jellykans]

Thank You's!

Thank you to all the officers, members, and friends of the clan.
Thank you to the teamwork of the committee who contributed to the making of this thread.

Our affiliates are also committed to a better Gaia.

[jellykans]

We are companions of the Heartfire,
pledged to protect the game, the users,
and the supporters of zOMG
from all forms of the animated
other that those we have summoned
and who do our bidding.

Come and join your weapons
to our cause, be they blade, arrow,
bullet, shuriken, pen or paint,
or the written word!



Rules of the Clan:

Show up.
Be literate.
Observe ToS.
Find joy in what you do.
Learn and share that, too!
3 Basic Rules - Show up, Have fun, and Support zOMG!

Read and follow through: Orientation
We are GLBTQHIA-friendly

Public thread:

[jellykans]

Reserved

[jellykans]

Reserved

[jellykans]

heart

[III_of_Wands]

Saw your clan through someone else's invite. Looked good. Joined up, but I'm looking at the requisite questions now. XD

[jellykans]

heart