Holy shit this is a long post.

I will be leaving TEST shortly to go play with some RL and EVE friends in Thera and connected systems. This really does sadden me as I’ve made friends here and invested a lot of time and effort to do my bit for the team.

However, the majority of this post will be my opinion of the appointment of TEST’s newest head diplomat, so keep reading for what might turn out to be the lamest :popcorn: moment ever in TEST history. Kang, this is my coup. To everyone else in this alliance that I love, I believe it’s in your best interests to see what your new head diplomat is up to.

So long story short, I’ve felt TEST has been too accepting of the useful shitter for a long time. We like to collectively shit on the Ken Mortons, but the truth of the matter is that if you are too useful you get to do whatever you feel like. Meritocracy in TEST leadership, at least the parts I had the ability to see, is dead.

[spoiler]

To date I have quit being a diplomat three times, with the first two resulting in being talked back into it after a period of absence. I signed up to be a diplomat as I saw it as my chance to effect the change I wanted to see in TEST (less old-guard circlejerk, more meritocracy) only to be worn down over time. When Migui left the diplomat team citing (in private, no leakerino here sorry) every single reason I did for quitting the first two times, I had a little crisis of conscience.

In his last post as head diplomat Migui appointed a successor; Dugarmatic. He also had a second choice (me! :D) but with the correct assumption that I would burn out before long without help, be that people, tools or other things.

Shortly after, a discussion was had with the available diplomats at the time (Dran, Tiberian and myself) hosted by Sapporo Jones where we were each asked what we feel is wrong in TEST and how we would propose to change it. Almost universally, we agreed on the direction we’d like TEST to take, although we had slightly differing but overlapping views on how to achieve that. The discussion goes on for a little while, and we go our separate ways.

A day passes. Then two days. A week passes with no appointed head of department and lots of questions and PM’s unanswered. The team was effectively headless and we worked amongst ourselves to take on the things Migui had started, change focus where we felt we needed to and of course keep doing the day-to-day stuff.

During that period of silence, I received a PM from Dr Kang asking me to support him as head diplomat. Until this point, I was happy to do so as Kang was the most experienced of us all and the de-facto second in command. However during that conversation some remarks were made about a member of the team who has earned my trust and friendship. After some consideration, I returned to Dr Kang with my decision that as a result of those remarks that I could not support him as a head diplomat. These aren’t complete logs as I’m not a completely awful human being and prior to this we discussed personal IRL shit:

[spoiler]

(10:36:51) drkang@pleaseignore.com: you ready to do a thing?

(10:37:24) vanflyheight13@pleaseignore.com/87176a24-20f3-4f02-a8de-33195072ed9b: I am indeed

(10:38:23) drkang@pleaseignore.com: long game. In or out?

(10:38:30) vanflyheight13@pleaseignore.com/87176a24-20f3-4f02-a8de-33195072ed9b: In

(10:40:27) drkang@pleaseignore.com: Here it is. Time to move things for our own benefit.

Realpolitik assesment as why there isnt a head diplo yet how we're going to fix things

[b](10:41:18) drkang@pleaseignore.com: first off Dran isnt popular and I took care of him, the entitled little shit he is

(10:41:28) drkang@pleaseignore.com: that one was for fun [/b]

(10:41:44) drkang@pleaseignore.com: so theres you and me

(10:41:59) drkang@pleaseignore.com: heres the plan

(10:52:33) drkang@pleaseignore.com: Im going to be head diplo. And youre going to help me.

You rally me to the cause. And its worth your while

And it has to be YOU.

You explain to Sappo as to why I should be head diplo. Experience, the diplos will back me, test as fuck & etc whatever

SELL IT

[b]Why? I make you the #2-the on the floor ground level diplo. I had this job. Youre going to handle all the day to day shit

Three months from now Im either going to fuck off to have a real life and the big job is yours OR I double down and you and I rule the universe.[/b]

[/spoiler]

[spoiler]

(23:40:56) vanflyheight13@pleaseignore.com/3841dc23-c770-4b87-8992-11beb9367b07: Yo boss

(23:41:01) vanflyheight13@pleaseignore.com/3841dc23-c770-4b87-8992-11beb9367b07: mind if I ask a quick q?

(23:41:59) drkang@pleaseignore.com: hit me

(23:42:18) vanflyheight13@pleaseignore.com/3841dc23-c770-4b87-8992-11beb9367b07: I was wondering what you meant earlier about taking care of Dran?

(23:42:27) vanflyheight13@pleaseignore.com/3841dc23-c770-4b87-8992-11beb9367b07: Is he not going to be part of the team?

(23:44:20) drkang@pleaseignore.com: of course he is. He's an active and productive member of the diplomatic team :sun:

(23:45:26) vanflyheight13@pleaseignore.com/3841dc23-c770-4b87-8992-11beb9367b07: http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/19b0fbqwkq919jpg/original.jpg

(23:46:25) vanflyheight13@pleaseignore.com/3841dc23-c770-4b87-8992-11beb9367b07: So what did you mean earlier?

[b](23:52:07) drkang@pleaseignore.com: What, you want a schematic? The possibility of the gentleman getting in the way of our own aspirations has been nullified in such a way it wont hinder his ability to be a useful ally in the future.[/b]

(23:55:01) vanflyheight13@pleaseignore.com/3841dc23-c770-4b87-8992-11beb9367b07: Well, yes - after what we discussed this morning I did some thinging and I'm sorry. Dran is a friend of mine and I value both his input and his effort. If his sights are set the same as mine then so be it, but I can't support you if you're willing to shoot him down for our benefit.

[b](00:02:01) drkang@pleaseignore.com: Dran shot himself down. Lets say youre at work. A Co-worker goes into the boss's offices and starts waving a gun around. You talk the co-worker off the ledge, and he puts the gun away. A couple months down the road a promotion becomes available, and you remind your co-worker and the bosses that a horrible tragedy was avoided not long ago.[/b]

[/spoiler]

Now I must apologise to Dr Kang for my actions here, but I spoke to the other diplomats and shared the contents of that conversation with them. Kang’s admission that he’d put a limit

More time passes, and during this time I have a discussion about the contents of that conversation with Sapporo Jones, I did not go in to detail but I made it clear that I would not support Kang as head diplomat as a result.

Much to my disagreement, later that night the ping went out that Dr Kang had been appointed head diplomat. In the discussion thread, I publicly posted my opinion of this. I was somewhat pleased to see some of you felt the same way I did about the appointment of a head diplomat who rarely logs in.

I was on Xabber on my tablet for a whils that night, and another conversation occurred between Kang and myself. Logs are hard with Xabber, and the default background is aids.

[IMG] http://puu.sh/juchT/b1ad4c6811.png[/IMG]

[IMG] http://puu.sh/jucjB/0d084d7b27.png[/IMG]

[IMG] http://puu.sh/juckT/ef8a0ccb37.png[/IMG]

The “and you my friend, are up to me” set off alarm bells in my head.

As luck would have it, jabber did not immediately pick up group membership changes and when I turned my computer on in the morning I had the pleasure to see our new head diplomat and Durr discussing my decision to leave as well as confirming the contents of our earlier private convo.

For me this was the straw that broke the camel’s back, I resigned (again lol) and applied to DROWI to safeguard my own assets in my own alliance’s space whilst I considered my options.

[spoiler]

(02/08/2015 07:12:50) drkang: says a man upset his coup didnt work out

(02/08/2015 07:16:23) Sapporo Jones: jesus christ

(02/08/2015 07:16:25) Sapporo Jones: you quit again

(02/08/2015 07:16:30) Sapporo Jones: ffs van

(02/08/2015 07:36:28) durrhurrdurr: Dran let's be real though

(02/08/2015 07:36:31) durrhurrdurr: You're not popular

(02/08/2015 07:36:35) durrhurrdurr: and you're an entitled little shit

(02/08/2015 07:36:36) durrhurrdurr: #rekt

(02/08/2015 07:36:38) Dran Arcana: lol

(02/08/2015 07:36:41) Dran Arcana: did I object?

(02/08/2015 07:36:44) durrhurrdurr: kek

(02/08/2015 07:36:45) durrhurrdurr: >2015

(02/08/2015 07:36:50) durrhurrdurr: >taking shit-talk in TEST seriously

(02/08/2015 07:36:52) durrhurrdurr: fucking van

(02/08/2015 07:37:40) drkang: and yet no one listens to me

(02/08/2015 07:38:03) durrhurrdurr: lol

(02/08/2015 08:02:27) durrhurrdurr: Dran Arcana: also I forgot

(02/08/2015 08:02:29) durrhurrdurr: you're gay as shit too

[/spoiler]

[/spoiler]

Firstly I’d like to say a big thank you to Lezari for taking me in when I no longer felt safe in Ascendent. Lezari, you are a good a person and I’d like to suggest that you think about running this place one day. Every interaction I’ve had with you have been 100% pleasant even when it was about spacework. I sincerely apologise for shitposting under the DROWI banner.

To the community, I’d like to suggest you at least ease up on the toxicity towards one another and the pitchforking of the good people who put time in to this alliance so that you can continue to fly under the TEST ticker or you will collectively be the end of this place. Other than that, keep on doing what you’re doing. The bonds you make with each other and the enjoyment you get from doing things together is the single most important part of what you’re doing here. Don’t let that get out of your reach for any reason.

To everyone in TEST leadership who were asking the difficult questions about ourselves where prudent, who were doing the heavy lifting and sacrificing time to keep things ticking over for the benefit of everyone else, you are all superheroes in my eyes. Thank you to each of you who put their faith in me to be head diplomat and encouraged me to pursue it. You guys and girls are everything that’s right with this place. Your attitudes and willingness to help for the benefit of the team are greatly appreciated by those around you.

If you feel like coming by our new home in Thera to say hi or to shoot me in my stupid face, I look forward to seeing you again.

PS: The diplomat team is not the group restricting your fun per hour. We were conducting an exercise where we plotted the standings of every sov holder in the regions around us, and this is how far I got with my diagram:

[img]http://puu.sh/jgmzs/7521c335f8.png[/img]