RRWP
From Charas Project
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RRWP was one of the great members of Charas' past, known for his ability to criticize. Though hated and cast out of Charas during his stay, opinion of him has changed over the years, and he ultimately remains a tragic (but important) figure in the history of Charas.
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Background
To understand RRWP, you need to understand what Charas was like at this point in time. The general atmosphere was one of optimism and encouragement - literally, not a disparaging word could be seen anywhere on the forum. Every change of any kind was greeted with cheering and enthusiasm, and projects in the Games forum were almost always greeted with posts such as "This is awesome!" or "I hope you finish this!". This state of naivety had been the norm since the founding of the forums.
Then came RRWP.
The Person
RRWP was a talented spriter and game maker that had come to Charas to share resources, a similar goal as almost everyone else active on the forums at this point. The difference between him and most other people was that RRWP was a critic; if he thought something was poorly done, he said so. Unlike most troll-like critics on the Internet, however, he was very constructive in his criticism, pointing out what he didn't like and telling them how to improve it. Likewise, if he thought something was good, he said so. Though any other forum would have embraced a guy like this, many members of Charas were displeased that he would say anything negative at all - literally, his posts threw Charas into turmoil.
The War
The forum at large was disgusted by RRWP’s criticisms, of which he gave out often. He was branded a troll, and his reputation on the forums plummeted. Midnight had a small fight with him, including one point where he joked about hentai involving her avatar. Many battles of words were conducted through AIM buddy chats, most of which were generally immature in nature. Gary, a well respected moderator that had been at the forum since almost the beginning, got into a larger fight with him, the details of which are also lost. Though he was nearly universally disliked, he did have one supporter - SaiKar, a respected spriter in the community. Despite this, the forum wasn't totally on Gary's side either; he was being rather dirty in the fight.
The culmination of these smaller battles happened when Alex created a “RRWP vs Gary Kertopermono, Welcome in the arena!!!” thread and them promptly went on vacation. In the thread Alex encouraged people to “vote” on who was better, RRWP or Gary, in sort of a tongue-and-cheek manner. Long story short, all hell broke lose. Both RRWP and Gary fought dirty, and most of the other community members didn’t help much. However, Sai did make a conscious effort to defend RRWP and end the fighting, which, although not helping much, was noted by Alex when he returned.
In the aftermath, RRWP left the forums, saying (rightly so) that the immaturity was appalling. To show this, he deleted all of his posts, leaving no evidence that he was ever really here. Gary was demoted to a regular member, and Alex appointed several new mods in his place.
Changes to the Forum
New Moderators
The new moderators were announced on February 29th, 2004, a leap day (Sai believes that it's somehow symbolic). The appointment thread was deleted from All of All at some point, but as follows are Alex’s appointments from the Private forum. Note that the comments are Alex's original words, unless otherwise noted.
- Because he demonstrates good feeling with many users, really active on the forum and wise in calming down "riots" when needed.
- It's his Team, and he is an old user of Charas (he knows how the forum works)
- It's his Team, he's an active member, often good also in difficult discussions.
Smokey Locs or Midnight - Net Hunters Team
- Again, it's his team. (Midnight was also considered for the position, but Alex wanted only one moderator per team, and both decided that Smo would take the position.)
- It's his Team, he never left it. Plus he's the only one who really takes care of it, I think it should be better if he can manage it.
FFL2and3rocks - Resources and Gallery
- Old user, incredible "recolorer" and huge BMP hunter. I think he can helps a lot with new users and their first "graphics experiences" on these boards.
Rowan - Tutorials
- Active member, plus the tutorial section was an idea of him. Mainly here he can check the goodness of posted things and add eventual add-ons.
Forums
Things generally calmed down, though RRWP’s legacy became permanent. Gone were the days of absolute optimism and a total focus on the generators, and replacing them was the rise of All of All and off-topic discussion as the main focus of Charas’ forums. Some were bitter to see the old days go, but on the upside the non-RPG Maker focus drew a lot of oddball people that would have probably found the forum too boring to hang around otherwise.
Now
Despite his vow to never return, he has occasionally been seen on Charas, as evidenced by his post count. However, he has not been seen for a long time, it can be assumed that he has finally rid himself of Charas.
Trivia
- RRWP stands for "Real Robots Wear Pants".
