User:Trar/retrospective
Part of TKF's Uncyclopedia Retrospective series
I'm thrilled to hear your perspective. From what I recall, you were kind of a Uncyclopedia:Games guru, which is a piece of the site's history that's been mostly covered with dust. But especially in the early years, from Zork to Grueslayer (your own creation), the Games were a driving force of the site, and were even more popular than Why or HowTo.
I'm surprised and kind of flattered to know that I and the Game space had that much clout. I DID like the games, and from what I've seen digging through my past (and from what I can remember, which isn't a perfect source) I guess I was a guru of sorts. I didn't make a terribly good one, because I was a pre-teen, but damn it I gave it all I could.
But enough of this spieling. That's just my memory, and from what you're saying in IRC, even that is off the mark. So I wanna know what you have to say. Here are the preliminary questions:
1. What was your username?
Trar. I also had an earlier account named M0000ARG11S, if you can believe it.
2. Who are you beyond the site? You can answer this with as much or as little detail as you want.
I'm my own man now.
3. How long had you been on Uncyclopedia? When did you join, and what drew you to stay once you discovered it?
I first registered in the fall of 2006 with the M0000ARG11S account. Didn't do much with it, and I remember being banned by Famine for a couple of days because he was kind of an asshole and I was literally 10 years old and also an asshole. I registered another account after that in the winter for some reason, with the name of Trar.
What kept me on the site must have been the games, and finding articles I liked, but I'll be damned if I remember any in particular. I was that sort of kid, I guess.
4. Define "Uncyclopedia".
“Uncycylopedia [sic] ([...] is online encyclopidia like wikiped) [...]”
5. Who were your favorite members in the community when you joined, and why? Least favorite?
The guys I met in the Uncyclopedian Forces gaming group that I still hang out with to this day could count as my favorites, even if we've effectively left the site. I don't remember any unfavorites, although I guess Famine might count. I don't hate him, I've never really hated him, and I could see his rationale for his behavior, but he was just really an asshole who needed to chill. And I'm glad he did. I also got into spats with HighGenGrue sometimes, but that was more due to us being ignorant kids.
5a. Who have been Uncyclopedia's most "influential" users, for better or worst, in your eyes?
I never really paid much attention to the state of the site when I was active making Grueslayer and stuff, usually related to other games. I don't think I can answer this on a site-wide level, but I do remember interacting over the years with Sophia, Zombiebaron, Hinoa, Jocke Pirat, maybe Codeine. I'm most likely missing some names, but those are mostly off the top of my head. I didn't pay attention to what they were doing influence-wise because I was a myopic kid like that. Famine banned me again for a month in mid-2007 because I admitted to vandalizing Wikipedia, and for making a 'shitty game'. Olipro unbanned me the next day, which I still find rather funny.
Zork Implementor L was very influential in getting Grueslayer off the ground, for what that's worth. Some of the more active developers were Emmzee (until he left), Pongo, Naughty Budgie (who I still know), HighGenGrue (who I also still know and am on good terms with now), Uncyclopedian, Conniving (who I still sort of know), and BlueYonder who was kinda good when the whole thing was beginning to lose steam and I wish he was still around.
5b. In your heyday, where do you think you stood in the Uncyclopedia community?
Looking back, I would place myself squarely in the muck of the Game space. I never bothered writing any actual articles or striving for modship partly due to my own insecurity and perceived inadequacy. I never bothered to actually improve myself and make good games either. I was a neurotic, lazy, schoolwork-bound kid like that. At least I have rollback now.
I remember watching and wanting to make YouTube Poops (during the golden age of YTP no less) at around the same time I was active on Uncyclopedia but I never got around to learning how, and still haven't. Probably the same sort of situation there.
6. What was your first edit?
With M0000ARG11S, I uploaded an image to the site named Leroy.gif, made an avant-garde art userpage without knowing it and my first edit to an actual article was something inconsequential to Muffins. With Trar, I fucked with my userpage for a while before making a very small edit to Future. Damn if I remember what it was, I just looked at my contribs. I'm wishing I had the chops to pull off something like Pond Whales, BENSON'S magnum opus, but I didn't.
7. What was your first article about?
I have never written a single published article for Uncyclopedia. Grueslayer soaked up most of my effort. The underlying plot through the revisions was that it was the sort-of sequel to Abyss (a masterpiece of a game) and you played the Grueslayer from Zork mythology. You had this sword, also called the Grueslayer, that you had to slay grues with. We never wrote in much actual grue slaying.
8. Fondest memory? Strangest memory? Lowest moments-- both for the wiki, and as a user?
Good questions, all of these. My time working on Grueslayer was alternatively something I felt fond of and something I felt low about, at differing points both while it was in development and now thinking back on it. It had high and low points.
I don't recall anything sufficiently strange, but I did say PENISPENISPENIS in the chat once to some reaction and then years later bumped it up to the top of the upvote list in the first chirpy archive.
My lowest moments in retrospect would have to be every time I started some of the drama that Grueslayer development was mired in. I was an inept leader and kind of a powermonger, damn the Creator seat for all eternity. My highest would probably be during early development, when we were making progress and actually working on it.
Outside Grueslayer? I took getting banned pretty hard, because I was a naive kid like that. I took pleasure in arranging and editing my userpages and userboxes, and playing the other games, because I was a fastidious gamer kid like that.
9. A lot of drama has struck the community in its time, at some points completely defining it. What was the most notable, to you?
I can't recall much off the top of my head because again, I didn't pay terribly much attention to site-wide goings-on. I remember observing that some of my friends and Grueslayer co-developers were involved with The Young and the Uncyclopedians, which resulted in the giant Grueslayer PvP mode fight starring the entire cast of the third season that was the key to unlocking the first of several planned secret tiers of PvP, culminating in a fight with Conniving who came up with most of the idea. I eventually axed it after some debate.
There was a lot of drama in Grueslayer development as I said before. You can observe it for yourself in the talk page archives.
I remember Famine leaving, BENSON coming back to tell us he was leaving (I never really appreciated him until he left) and faintly observing the whole Nintendorulez thing. Still don't know what that was about exactly. I was also a rank-and-file member of the Grue Army and part of the opposition group to UNSOC.
I kind of wish I was around and in a position to exert more influence over the Game space discussions in 2010 and 2012. I can't blame them for what they did and I'm ultimately glad they did what they did, because it kind of needed it. Same thing for what they did to Grueslayer. Damn beast had more than 1,400 pages, and most of it that wasn't IP/newb cruft still wasn't that great.
9a. What makes the perfect Uncyclopedia article?
That would be subjective.
10. Do you still write? (On the site or off the site.)
Off-site, definitely. On-site, I've done nothing but maintenance edits and pleas to salvage Grueslayer from 2010 to now, and that's pretty much finished now.
11. Do you still edit the site at all? And if not, why?
When I was forced by circumstance to leave the internet entirely for a little while from fall 2009 to fall 2010, I had my hands too full to really do anything on the site. To be frank? I'm still not too interested in editing now, because I have other stuff going on and now that I actually pay attention to the community I'm not enthused about the place. There's too much drama and stupid internet crap that I don't want to deal with here, and I'm glad you apparently feel the same way.
I'm probably going to leave Grueslayer archived on my userspace for historical posterity and go away again to do whatever. Grueslayer I think was never that great, at least the current revision isn't. I do hope to do it justice some day, but I'm thinking it won't be on Uncyclopedia.
11a. What makes a good Uncyclopedia admin?
A good sense of humor.
12. Uncyclopedia.wikia.com or Uncyclopedia.co? Why?
.co because it's the one that's actually still being used and written for and maintained.
13. Would you say Uncyc has been going downhill? If so, when did that "downhill"ness start?
It's always been going downhill. Well, okay, maybe not, but it's definitely been getting smaller over the course of time. I don't know if it will turn into even more of an insular community or get a second wind, and I don't care enough to stay and find out as opposed to checking in every once in a great while, if I even do.
14. Cool Story Bro Time: Tell me a cool story, bro. (i.e. like the time RAHB ran into NXWave at a Dairy Queen).
I don't have any good stories to tell right off hand. Try the Grueslayer talk archives.
15. Would you say that Uncyc has "changed" you?
A little bit. I'm going to do something with Grueslayer eventually, and I did meet my best friends via the site. I also learned how not to lead a project.
Now, if you excuse me, this is where I get off.
--Trar (talk|contribs|grueslayer) 
05:57, 19 August 2014 (UTC)
