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Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/07/2022 in all areas

  1. 91st Street Ryders: 91st Street Ryders is a relatively small group located on Jamestown Street, the group is comprised of small-time trappers and taggers, ranging from early teens to very early twenties. Having been created by a group of local kids as a form of unity after a string of robberies and attacks in their neighborhood as a result of the predatory gang culture that infests South Central. Despite being created in an attempt to protect themselves from gang aggression in South Central, 91st Street Ryders have all the makings of being an actual gang. It's believed that some members of this group have ties to the organized criminal entities that plague the streets of Los Santos. Some of the members within this group can be seen sporting both the Toronto Blue Jays and Huston Rockets, signifying Jamestown Street and their link to the Rancho area as a whole. This group is relatively young and mostly partake in criminal mischief, robbery, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, and in some cases murder. OOC Information: As this is a relatively new concept, this thread will be constantly updated to depict in character events as they transpire within the group. Even though the 91st Street Ryders is a fictional concept, we strive to portray a realistic depiction of a section on the south side that will be starting as a group of young trappers and taggers. Every member of this faction prioritizes character development and faction development over anything. All content that's posted on this thread will showcase said character development that pertains to the faction. The 91st Street Ryder's leadership retains the right to character kill anybody aspiring to be involved with this faction. If you are interested in joining and need guidance when it comes to portraying your character, feel free to contact @Dustyboi with any questions or concerns.
    12 points
  2. As a counter to the rigid tradition permeating through the illegal world, The Windfall Connection’s hope is to set aside differences and focus on the one thing that is diluted by held prejudices: making money. Men and women of all races and backgrounds are accepted here, as long as they embody the lifestyle. Due to the founders being based out of New Chinatown, Mission Row, the Connection takes on Chinese paraphernalia. It is not a gang, nor is it wholly or majorly criminal. There is a balance between the legal and illegal, creating a mutual partnership. Business owners work hand-in-hand with those more steeped in the illegal world, letting them run themselves as siloed, autonomous groups. The business owners cover illegal expenses and fund criminal projects for these groups, and in turn, these groups dedicate their ruthless individuals to protecting the business sites that they are allowed to base their operations out of. Windfall Wealth (偏财) is an unexpected form of income. It’s a fitting way to describe those who take advantage of the system. This, along with the connected nature of the legal and illegal campaigns, is how the Connection finds its name. Chinese artists have long used five bats to represent the five blessings: health, long life, prosperity, love of virtue, and a tranquil, natural death. The bats often are bright red—the color of joy—but the Windfall does not find solace in embodying happiness. Our mark is instead a jet black. The Chinese word for black is "hei," which stands for bad luck, irregularity, and illegality. We take on the very last interpretation of the word, reminding ourselves of how we're viewed by the world at large. The five bats encircle a stylized caligraph known as the prosperity symbol. Among the Five Gods of Wealth within Chinese mythology, Zhong Kui stands as the Windfall God of Wealth, and as such, he is idolized by The Windfall Connection. He is a vanquisher of ghosts and a fighter of demons, but to fight is not always to kill. The practice of The Windfall Connection is to unify groups that would otherwise be without structure and without home, and so we look to the painting of Zhong Kui where the demon bows to him, for he realizes his life and his prosperity is greater when working alongside Zhong Kui. Zhong Kui is oft affiliated with the Five Bats of Prosperity, and this too is why the mark of The Windfall Connection was chosen. While steeped in Chinese mythology and ancestral knowledge, The Windfall Connection is modernized and corporate-esque in architecture and hierarchy. Leaders of the autonomous groups sit beside the heads of business, not beneath them, creating an unnamed council of proven men and women that seek to maintain their lifestyles and build the community that cultivated their own ascension. Discourse and cooperation are the glue, and anyone who chooses to neglect these basic principles will be replaced by the greater whole. Fly with us, or be cut down and replaced by another with larger, healthier wings. Founded on Chinese teachings within New Chinatown, Mission Row in Los Santos, San Andreas, The Windfall Connection will always prioritize those in need within the the community. To join us and to embody our ideology is to set upon the goal of uplifting one's self to a new lifestyle, but that does not mean only those born of Chinese blood, or Asian blood, are accepted. Diligence, intellect, skill, and amiability will take you far. NOTE: These ranks will not be used, or referenced, IC. They are simply meant to represent OOC development and how the characters in game organize their work and advancement up to the council. Intrigued 好奇 — Curious about The Windfall Connection, but have yet to be involved or have yet to involve themselves in the lifestyle. They've had discussions about unsavory work but have yet to run with something to completion. Vetted 审查 — Have expanded upon their curiosity and have been given minor tasks or busy work by a Connected, Winged, or Champion. They are still in the process of being tested, to see how they carry themselves and how successful they can be when provided minimal information or direction. Associated 联系 — Have stood out among their Vetted peers by proving their ability to take initiative and carry out their minor tasks without any setbacks tied to their own shortcomings. They are not yet Connected, but are privileged with a higher level of trust, and thus are given more meaningful, lucrative, and dangerous work. Connected 连接的 — Having proven themselves and carried out Associate level work to the satisfaction of those on the council, they have been uplifted and now officially belong to the Connection. They answer directly to a Winged or Champion; work is delegated down through them to the Associated and Vetted. They are the utmost trusted of the Windfall outside the council and are given work that requires a delicate hand, a thoughtful mind, and a keen eye. Winged 有翼的 — Finding your wings is no easy endeavor, for it is a test of skill, loyalty, resolve, and leadership. They have proven time and time again that not only can they drive their own success in the illegal realm, but the success of others beneath them, securing themselves a seat on the council. They often lead their own criminal groups, or are the next in line to lead a group once numbers permit. To be named a Winged is no mistake, but once someone grows their wings, they are expected to keep them in flight. Should they falter and refuse to let another find their wings, others among the council will make that decision for them. Champion 状元 — Bearing the original Zhuangyuan title of Zhong Kui, Champions are beacons of capital and governors of legal affairs among the Windfall, having earned their place on the council. They are self-sufficient, funding the projects and schemes of the Winged, and in turn, are provided protection and able hands from the Winged and their subordinates. This isn't to say that they never dabble in the illegal side of the coin, but their movements are cautious and obscured. Should a Champion's wealth wane, it is a show of their ineptitude and inability to contribute to the Windfall and the community as a whole. In this scenario, if they do not willingly step down, the council is entrusted to make that decision for them. Illegal activity we are attempting to portray and cultivate are crimes typically expected of, but not limited to, Asian Organized Crime. These include the production and sales of narcotics, car theft, automobile exportation, chop shop operations, crimes involving electronics, money laundering, illegal gambling, lottery scams, skimming, and possibly prostitution. The Windfall Connection does commit violent crimes such as robbery and murder, but on a much more seldom basis as to keep the organization's true nature under wraps. Since we are attempting to portray a secret society in West Coast America in the 2020s, a lot of violent crime will be well thought out and properly weighted for its worth. Asian Organized Crime Groups focus on generating money undisturbed. Violent crime, especially in a city like Los Santos, will garner unwarranted attention, even more so with the various other Asian groups in the city. Law Enforcement has proven they'll use a broad stroke to crackdown on all Asian criminals in Los Santos and the disruption of other groups' cash flow is something the Connection wants to avoid at all costs. The Windfall Connection is meant to be a story heavy group that focuses on characterization, human behavior, and emotional development. Your writing in game should reflect your character as a human being, first and foremost, who happens to be a criminal or head of business. The opposite circumstance should not be practiced — a criminal or business owner whose characterization comes second. If your primary focus is shooting or robotically working deals while barely interacting with the group IC, this is not the group for you. There should always be a balance and our roleplayers should try their best to give their character realistic depth. Those who belong to this group should try their very best to separate OOC and IC interactions. Narrative drives all, and as a show of good faith, I am personally embodying this ideal by making it clear up front that OOC management of the group is a responsibility kept completely separate from IC dealings. If my own character falls from grace through roleplay, I will not allow OOC privileges to provide me an unfair advantage. I will still help with upkeep for the group, or hand off the responsibilities to someone I know will handle them properly. I value story above all else and when it is skewed by OOC scenarios, the enjoyment of the entire experience is diluted. I want to try and avoid that at all costs, and I hope everyone who is interested in this group joins me in trying to uphold that ideal. If this group ever becomes an official faction, CK rights will not be carried out like other factions. Winged 有翼的 will have full autonomy to acquire CK rights for those that belong to their particular group / cell. However, no CK rights will be held across groups and no Champion 状元 or Winged 有翼的 will hold CK rights over another. This enforces the council mentality and breeds trust and respect among our members from the very start. Lastly, we personally do not tolerate any kind of disrespect, bullying, or toxicity to any of our members. We want this to be a friendly, open-minded community that focuses on writing and having fun. We do not care where you stand IC; if your OOC behavior is appalling, you will be removed from this community and the council will decide on a way to move the narrative forward without you in the most realistic and seamless way possible.
    9 points
  3. I'll answer the main questions you bolded at the bottom; Is it a matter of what rule is broken? (Like, Common Courtesy takes priority over DM or PG?) (Question) For some admins, I imagine yes. As we are all human, some of us naturally get a bit more anxiety handling massive reports where five hundred players are staring at you because they want you to make a precedent that is rule changing and RP changing for everyone. Generally speaking however, most admins don't care what report they take or not. (Answer from Pillsbury) Is it a matter of what report looks easier to handle? (In terms of how lengthy they are?) (Question) As I said above, for some? Probably. I refuse to sit here and breath down admins necks however when this is not a *job* and we are all volunteers here helping the community. I work forty+ hours a week and so does a lot of our admins. Some work from home, some don't come home for three/four days at a time. Some want to help out, but also don't have a weeks worth of time to focus on the report. I know that's somewhat of a half answer, but it's the truth of it. I assure you I'm not the first nor last to say after a long day of work, I don't want to sit here and be raged at by a bunch of people who don't know how to be civil or just accept taking an L at times. For a lot of admins it feels like a second job when the first one? They are sitting being raged at by a bunch of angry customers, and then they come here, login game, get spammed with reports, and goto sleep and repeat. (Answer from Pillsbury) Is it a matter of who is the reporting / reported party? (In terms of, maybe faction leaders or something getting priority?) (Question) This is 99% of the time the issue with most reports. We have a very lengthy & strict policy about bias/what reports certain admins can take if they have a potential for bias. And this isn't *all* on the admin team. A Manager just the other day was told he was bias because he was in the faction of another party, but yet ruled with the person saying he was bias (shocker that the Manager wasn't biased). For example, a member of the 102nd 54th West Street East Ave Killas Gang who is an admin, cannot take that report until a certain amount of time has passed. And even then, when and if they decide to accept the report? They have a very strict procedure they have to follow in regards of what actions they may take. This is why a lot of PD/SD reports take a while. A lot of our admins are PD/SD frankly, and we have no plan anytime soon telling them to leave a faction to be an admin. If need be and if this isn't a good enough answer, I can get snippets of the admin policy. (Answer from Pillsbury) Is it a matter of what ranks admins need to handle certain stuff? (Maybe only X admin rank can handle X situations?) (Question) Yes and no. Some admins can't take certain refund requests/asset transfers as only Senior Admins can handle certain requests. Only Level Two Admins for example, can handle most refund/asset requests in general. Level One's cannot (TA+L1 have the same rank in-game for reference). Trial Admins for example, cannot take any RP reports alone (or player v player reports) and can only take "simple" admin reports. (Answer from Pillsbury) Are there any guidelines in the admin team for that? Or just admins pick and choose reports as they want? It would be amazing to know more! Thank you. (Question) Not at the moment. If you want my honesty? We are working on getting more procedures up about reports. It's not only you that is frustrated overall. Forum Reports have always been an issue that you pointed out and we are trying to fix it, same with in-game reports. However when I was first given the position first of Head of Admins, my main "duties" at the time? Was generally Staff Reports. Staff Management in all has only been "opened" for a year. We are a very new subteam that use to be only privately led by two higher ups (at the time). In January-April of 2021, Management at the time hired the first three "general staff management" which was Odin, Fenrir & Myself. Fenrir ended up resigning, we hired Wally and then Jonesy. Only until mid-late 2021 did we actually "open" Staff Management for Administrators to apply for.. In which we got our hands on CXN (for like two days, then he went to Head of LFM), Pepper (who stayed), Bjork (who stayed), Groz (who returned). We then opened again and received Adv, Zani & Sharvit recently. In all reality, Staff Management has within the past six months, fully staffed ourselves when previously we were only a "tight knit" team of three. The three of us at the time (Odin, Wally & Myself) were really only stuck on doing Staff Reports/Reviews. We simply had no time until the past few months to actually "spread our wings" and help make the Staff Team strive. So our generalized priorities have changed significantly over the past six to eight months. Once we brought in Pepper, I had him more or less focus on making a "family" out of the Staff Team. When I took over, the Staff Team was divided for a bit honestly. It wasn't for a decently long time that we had such a switchup in Management. It was actually extremely rare, and still is, that a new Manager gets promoted and one leaves. We are usually here for a few years. My first priority when gaining the position of Head of Admins/Staff (as a Manager) and after having Pepper/Bjork be brought in, was to fundamentally make the Staff Team "whole" and to assure that from the second you are hired, until the day you retire, that you felt welcomed, and felt like this wasn't a "job". Our Staff Team is no good and won't function without having our Staff feeling morally good. And that goes with any job or any position anywhere in the world. If you have a lack of motivation or morale, a workplace will simply not function. We can talk about reports not being done all we want, but if the Staff aren't motivated are feeling good when doing these? They will never get done. Simply put, I believe we did a good job with bringing motivation back to a key point in the Staff Team, things are actually becoming much smoother in regards to reports being handled then they ever were before (to stay on topic). Yes, it is noticeable that we lack in certain areas, but if we go back a year ago, we didn't have the mass load of players, reports or guidelines we do now that keep things in check. Within the past five months, Odin, Wally, Pepper, Bjork & Myself have made it our goals to continue to press down on activity standards, create new guidelines, create new motivation techniques, and make sure reports are being handled on a timely & efficient manner. Currently standing, we don't have any guidelines that specifically state "You have to do this report first" - however, I won't lie and say we haven't drafted ideas to see what our Developers could do to help with these issues. Our Forum Reports for example for the past month have moved at a constant and steady pace. Admins are dealing with their Forum Reports and they are being handled in a timely manner. How did we fix that? We sat and listened to both players & Admins about how none of us want to read five pages of reports. We took the advice, we made policy on it, and before you know it? There is a Forum Report being taken & concluded on a daily basis. I hope you understand that I cannot give you a "direct answer" to all of this. As I honestly don't know the answer to all the questions. Every admin is different and has their own thought process. I assure you though, I'm not trying to cut edges and bushes to give you a half assed answer with respect. Management, Staff Management & the Staff Team in a whole all care about reports being handled, however, we have to take one step at a time to make sure all the work we have all done in the past year does not goto waste, no matter the team or position you are in. We are always looking for more Staff, we hire almost every month for a reason. We have a lot of players who love to crap on Staff for not doing things in a "timely" manner, but yet they haven't put a Staff App in once nor care to actually help out the cause (not saying that's OP's problem, it's a general statement to everyone that reads this). But yet, love to twist and try to critique every Staff Member that we have in "what they would do would be better" or "these admins don't know what they are doing" (well here's the hint, join the team then and be apart of the solution because screaming does nothing - had to be a bit blunt here to get my point across, it's simply impossible with fancy words). We only have like.. forty something Admins? With a community that's a bit over two hundred thousand total.. So yeah.. The majority of us all have jobs and lives outside of this game as-well. I personally work forty+ hours a week and then come here and try to keep the Staff Team progressively moving. We need active staff that are willing to grind on the game and assist in doing reports. With respect, Pillsbury @Kappaurel
    9 points
  4. 7 points
  5. Sending my love from 4pacc. keep doing y'all thing. From what I seen, y'all been solid. GS
    7 points
  6. As the title suggests, there needs to be a concrete ruling on knuckledusters and their status as "nonlethal" or lethal. The fact of the matter is, there are many people who think a set of brass knuckles are not a weapon or are not capable of being lethal when that is simply not the case. When employing brass knuckles, you are hitting someone in the face with anywhere from a few ounce to a pound and a half chunk of metal. This can not only open head wounds, it can crack bone, fracture orbitals, and even potentially kill someone with a single strike landed to the temple. The current take is that they are not considered weapons so any fight involving them is simply regarded as "a fistfight", but last I checked, a fistfight involved fists, not weaponry. With that same take, I can pick up a brick and punch someone with it in my hand, and it's still a fistfight. There needs to be a concrete ruling on this because right now it's being left up to admin discretion and that opens up plenty of room for very heated disagreements over the utility of what are, absolutely, lethal weapons. They were originally conceived as a fist weapon hundreds of years ago and have been adopted since into things such as the US Mk. I Trench Knife in WWII, which is where they gained their popularity in the civilian space. There is a reason knuckle dusters are illegal in most of the US, Hong Kong, Belgium, Canada, Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, Finland, Russia, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Malaysia, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Turkey, Spain, Singapore, The United Kingdom, and Taiwan. They cause horrific and life-altering facial injuries and have a very real possibility of killing whoever they're employed on. https://www.findlaw.com/injury/product-liability/brass-knuckles-and-the-law.html This alone classifies them as a deadly weapon. They are not fists, and are more likely to kill than fists. Brass knuckles have no utility as a tool like a knife does, and no utility for sport or enthusiasts like guns do. They are a weapon designed to hurt and kill. https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/crime/2017/08/18/cauthorne-rivera-hernandez-camden-manslaughter/580509001/ https://www.emirates247.com/offbeat/crazy-world/filipino-kid-beaten-to-death-with-brass-knuckles-by-school-mates-2013-04-17-1.502920 Below are enclosed images of victims of brass knuckle attacks. These are very graphic, view at your own risk.
    6 points
  7. ☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️😡😡😡😡😡💯💯💯💯💯💯💪💪💪💪💪💪 FAIM FAIM FAIM AFIM
    6 points
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