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Howard Beale's epic rant
cool "kinetic typing" video, opens in new window
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Dateline: Thursday July 1 (Day 954)
Location: Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Reporter: George Armstrong "F-Bomb" Custer
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Boy, there's a ton of news this week.
No way it's all gonna get into this issue of the paper.
Y'all read the papers... I probably won't talk about anything you haven't read in a few other places already, all I can do is offer my perspective on things and maybe that'll be worth the click that brought you here.
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Citizens view damage to private property on the morning after the riot.

Civil Disobedience, Riot, or Sabotage?
It's not news that Presidential candidate, USCongress Speaker of the House and S.E.E.S. Party official Necros Xioban (Glorious Failure in a previous eRep incarnation) performed a "rage quit" the likes of which we have not seen before. "GF" was a "player-mod", meaning he worked without pay for eRepublik as a moderator, responding to players' support tickets and having the power to access player accounts to take official administrative action.

While some players who leave the game do so quietly, and others might write an article explaining their feelings and distribute their goods among friends.. sometimes... the game has just made ya so mad you just gotta let loose.. and people do. And so we enter the realm of Rage Quitting.

The classic rage quit is a newspaper article, loaded with inflammatory language-- cussing, accusations, colorful sarcasm, direct criticism of the eRepublik game management generally lumped together and referred to as Admins. We've seen quite a number of these in past months, some more entertaining than others... like watching a man do a soft shoe on a high ledge before jumping off, we are sick spectators giving points for style in the dance and the high dive of a raving suicidal family member.

GF's grand exit was different, though... no major announcement, no newspaper article, not even a lot of rage in the statement he made.. as he.. posted on a public forum.. his special access passwords and information, as a game Admin.. for any and all to use freely, to log in as an Admin and do as they please.
"This game sucks, people bug me, here's the keys to everything!"


Fantastic... absolutely incredible.
Or was it?
An irresponsible violation of trust, of about as high a magnitude as there is here in eRepublik.

And when the keys were thrown out, made available for anyone to use... how did people act?
The overwhelming majority of spectators gasped in amazement and stepped back, shocked, not even reaching for the keys.

A few did reach, and picked up, and used those keys.. sharing in the violation of trust.. now these players became a vigilante force, dispensing justice or just having fun being destructive.. they violated our trust and caused widespread damage.

And us... what did we do?
We.. including myself.. cheered as this self appointed wrecking crew went about banning our enemies and their newspapers and their banks and their tanks.
We still thought it was amusing as they moved on to banning our allies, and our own political leaders, social and military leaders, and our own newspapers and banks.
I cheered when they banned me... I felt special, that I was privileged to have come into their radar.

Congress acted immediately to propose a National Holiday, GF Day, to commemorate this glorious action against the eRep Admins. I approved the Proposal to go to a vote, this morning I voted Yes.

I knew there was no real harm in it... at least.. as I was not aware of the extent of their actions, I knew a handful of obviously improper bans would be overturned.. the only question was whether the Admins would do it quickly or get around to it in a few weeks, maybe.
In a few hours I was un-banned... by morning my Friends list was restored.. I had to hire back in at my employer, my Hard Worker streak is broken.. I had to rejoin my Party, then ask the ranking member who inherited my Party Presidency when I got banned to resign to default it back to me (THANKS, Vincenzo!)..
Ya kinda have to figure.. all the affected players and Orgs and Companies.. everyone will get back all they've lost..

So.. all in all, no harm done, right?
Boy, we sure won that round! We sure sent the Admins a message, loud and clear!
"We're as mad as hell, and we're not going to take it any more!"

Let's be self righteous, let's say "we didn't do it, those other guys did" and feel secure in knowing they'll be punished. The Admins will track down the IP addys of everyone who logged into that Admin account, and perma-ban them. Bad guys, punish them... bad, bad guys.
But we watched.. we not only watched but we cheered.
I know I did.


Recommended Reading:
A Visit from St Necrosis
The best article on the topic-- bar none, including my own work
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Oh, my... already tl;dr and there are still a couple topics I wanted to cover.
My colleagues in Congress have already put me on notice for my wordiness.
Okay... let's do some Readers Digest Headline News for the Short Attention Spanners
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Congress:
I've read a ton of stuff, have kept up with and contributed to discussions and debates, and have approved measures to go to vote and I have voted. Some things are only available on the Congress>>Public pages of the eUSForum, others go to the Proposals page everyone can see.
I promised I'd be active and make an impact, I'm doing that.
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Presidential Elections:
As Party President of the American Military Party I am endorsing Sir Valaro Volcrum for POTUS in July 2010. I have come to know SVV through Facebook and other off-game interacting, and find him to be a young man of outstanding personal character. In game he has a resume longer and fuller than most anyone I know. Read more at his newspaper, Hell Jumper and watch this space for a full endorsement later this week.
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The United States Cavalry
The USArmy was split in two a while ago, becoming Army Group East and Army Group West. In the ensuing months, each of these independent branches has developed their own style, or brand if you will, each under excellent leadership.
As of today the AGE will be known as The United States Cavalry.
I wish you would all go to their new newspaper, The Saber and wish them well. And if you qualify and think you have the guts for it, sign up.
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George Armstrong "F-Bomb" Custer
USArmy Major General, retired
Australian Drop Bear, retired
US National Guardsman, active
Party President, American Military Party
USCongressman, Oklahoma
(got a resume longer than your friggin' arm!)


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