View and vote on the article here: Lets Talk: Interview with tulkas
Lets Talk: Interview with tulkas| Category | | | Summary | | This month I have the honour of interviewing Tr. tulkas, X/O of CyberArmy University and a member of CyberArmy since 1999. |
| | Body | Could you tell us more about your career in CyberArmy? What roles have you had in the past six years of activity?
Okay let's see, there have been several as one might assume. When I first started coming here Zebulun was "some new thing coming out soon". Eventually the brigades were introduced (which is the area I assume you are most interested in). That said, pretty much all the positions I have held are listed in my plan. I've been in several brigades, and CAIRC (now disbanded) still holds a special place for me. I started coming on IRC for the trivia and just never left. I followed several server hops until we got our own server and ended up joining the brigade a few months later at Dana's suggestion. I eventually hung around long enough that they made me a co-admin for chewy. Unfortunately it didn't last long because I was in a bad place personally and the actions of some of the staff in #matrix just kind of pushed me over the edge so I had Condor191 remove my access.
One of your most controversial aspects is your decision to keep the rank of Trooper and never accept a promotion. Reasons for this unique choice can be found on your public plan, but I was wondering if you could disclose any other reasons or elaborate further.
The bottom line is quite simple. We don't need ranks. That, plus the way the "new" system was implemented really sucked: it undermined completely the whole goal of the system itself they were trying to create. I've yet to hear one person give me a good reason as to why things are the way they are now and I'm not one to just do something because that's the way it's done, in particular when it doesn't make sense and has no value.
Personally, I respect your point of view, and I agree that ranks are not important when it comes to contributing to the community: getting promoted should not be the reason why people decide to join projects and spend time in CyberArmy. I feel that maybe some of the youngest members, especially of low rank, consider getting a promotion as their primary objective, but do you think this can happen even for higher ranks? i.e. do you think that there still are some people who see CyberArmy in that way?
Oh, there are definitely people in higher positions who are still "rank whores" (to put it delicately). Some of them have left, it's true, but they still exist. Some people may simply turn the other way, so long as they're active who cares? Well, I do. You can't say something represents X and just pretend when people are all about Y and you count them in X.
I accepted promotions myself, like (nearly) everybody here, and I personally think that ranks should be viewed as a sign of the hard work someone did for the community. I imagine you could say that if someone contributes for the community, other people should be able to notice that, without looking at his rank. Is that true?
That is indeed true. Take the High Ranking Staff Member [identity removed by editor]: I didn't even know he was a General for the longest time. You don't need a badge for people to know you're important. I won't say any names but someone was a Lieutenant for over a year and still managed to be productive and an asset to CA before - just recently - being promoted to Captain. I never heard this person complain about his rank, he just did what he was there to do. This is just great in my opinion and only helps to illustrate my stance that we simply don't need the ranks.
According to your public plan you were a Lieutenant Kernel. Could you tell us when and why you decided to ask for a demotion? Was this the case? Did you achieve your former rank through Zebulun challenges?
I'm actually going to answer these in reverse order. First yes, I did indeed get to LtKer through Zebulun. Now on to the fun part: one of the reasons I dislike the current "improved" rank system is because of how it was done. At an undisclosed date, without warning and basically for no reason, everyone who wasn't in a brigade was demoted to Trooper. Apparently some genius though this could be justified. I was lucky enough to be between brigades at the time and thus was caught in the mass demotion. I say "lucky enough" because I know people who tried to get a demotion afterwards, were denied, and had to create a second account. What nonsense when you consider that having a second account can get you banned.
On your public plan, you wrote that you were offered a position in the CyberArmy Staff provided that you ?accepted? a promotion, and you refused.
What if Staff decides to offer you a position in Staff without having to promote you, would you accept? Why?
It won't happen. I've been told by members of Staff that it just won't happen. I know for a fact I've been nominated as a trooper and I was turned down because of that. To be honest, I'm not sure if I would accept it if like... it was the 3rd blue moon on a leap year while two goats yodelled "Baby Got Back" and Staff somehow said they'd allow me on.
You?re the representative for CAU in the promotion council (yes, the irony), could you tell us something about this role and why you accepted it, it just seems weird.
Basically nobody else wanted the job and we had to have 2 representatives so I got stuck with it.
A lot of people came to CA and said something like CA should get rid of the ranks and the hierarchical, pseudo-military structure. What do you think of such comments? Do you think CyberArmy should totally drop ranks and its brigade structure?
I totally agree that ranks should be dropped, however the brigade structure is just fine. It's really not so military oriented - any good corporation needs some structure. There should be someone in charge, task groups should be organized it some manner to complete projects and so on.
Enough on ranks, could you tell use something about your real life? In a recent forum post, you announced that you got engaged. Could you tell us more about your soul mate or is it too personal? When will you marry her? Will you invite any CyberArmy member to the wedding?
Well it's been a long set of dating with several break-ups. A couple people on IRC pretty much know the whole story but they know better than to tell anyone. The date's been set for 11-08-07 (using the international date standard) and no, nobody from CA is invited, sorry.
What does CyberArmy represent for you? Do you have a personal goal, an objective to reach for yourself?
CA represents a lot of things, a lot of them bad, but there is still hope. CA should represent the free flow of information and the exchange of new ideas, innovation, etc.
Did you (honestly) ever regret something you did in the past?
Absolutely, who hasn't?
What would you do if for some weird reason (i.e. on the 3rd blue moon, etc.) you could become a staff member?
Obviously I'd be pushing for the abolishment of ranks foremost. Beyond that I'm not entirely sure. Yes, I do have some ideas but they're rudimentary at best and without the opportunity ever existing for me to make it to Staff (at least under current conditions) I haven't really taken the time to formalize them as I should have.
Do you have any suggestion for new CyberArmy recruits?
Look at the people; look at what we can do.
What?s your version of the future of CyberArmy? Any hope or fear?
That's something I've often wondered. I hope eventually it will get some credit. I would like to see CA really be important, you know? A lot of times I wonder if CA will just die but I don't think that will happen. It may come to pass that 30 years from now nobody currently in CA will still be around (save a few of us lamers that they just can't get rid of) but it'll probably still be here for... hell, generations. Of course it'll probably be some interactive holographic virtual realty thingy instead of what we now know as the Internet. (Think Snow Crash... sweet...)
Thank you, tulkas, for taking the time to answer these quesions.
You?re welcome.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and not necessarily those of the zZine Media Group, zZine.org or CyberArmy.net.
|
|
This article was imported from zZine. (original author: h3raLd)
There are no replies to this post yet.
|