April 1st

[Archonsod]

If we just change names around, the admin status will remain the same as will the avatar and other profile stuff. Much better to have it look like the admins have been demoted and replaced by others and it won't be that much trouble.

I was thinking just copy & past avatar and sig links et al. Whichever you think is easier.

Thing is, with swapping profiles it means we can swap back, or swap with someone else. Could be fun if everyone is up in arms about Jerky's new admin status to 'demote' him and promote Scamp

 

[Narcissus]

So which would be best ... to switch with a member or 'demote' and 'vote'?

Narcissus

 

[Archonsod]

We could do both. Switch with members likely to cause an uproar. When the forum is nice and riled, offer to demote those members and allow them to vote for their replacements. Of course, if we can get some good actors for the switch this can be even more amusing. Plus, we can always be incompetent - demote someone then 'promote' the first person who asks to be admin, that kind of thing.
The best thing is, as this goes on more and more of the forum (assuming they don't guess based on the date) will be 'in' on the joke, which should allow for some interesting antics as the number of people not involved get fewer.

 

[Narcissus]

Nice.

Now we need one or two people that will play along, not 'spill the beans', and is smart enough to act semi-convincing ... then we need an admin or two to agree to 'demotion'.

LL wants to be one (obviously) ... anyone else?

Narcissus

 

[Archonsod]

I dunno which one we're going for yet?? The only problem I can see with mine is that retroactive changes occur, if I switch profiles to Jerky, then every post I've made will look like it came from Jerky. Might be Janus' idea is best after all.

Although, if we can set up a seperate group for the pseudo admins, presumably we can move people in and out of it as necessary?

 

[Narcissus]

Hrmmm.  Would it be simpler to have a secondary group that appears as a regular member but still retains admin status and just 'demote' and 'promote' that way?  An administrator group with regular member rights and the correct icon and such.

Narcissus

 

[Archonsod]

As far as I know, you could just replace the admin stuff (rank label and flag) with the standard member stuff. You can then create a pseudo admin group and give them the admin title and flag, but copy the normal member positions. We'd look like standard members, and anyone put in the pseudo admin group would look like an administrator.

 

[Narcissus]

Wouldn't that affect all the admins though?  Wouldn't we need two pseudo groups (one a fake admin and one a fake member) if we are only going to have a couple demotions?  Or do you think it would be best to do a full admin shift?

Narcissus

 

[Archonsod]

Not sure, we might be able to fake the other group. The other option would be to create two 'fake admin' groups, one for us with admin rights, one without for normal members. Those of us being 'demoted' can then simply switch to the second admin group.

If it's really not too much, and Janus thinks we can handle it, we could do a similar thing to the language moderators too. Could be fun - announce to the finnish forum that their new moderator is someone who can't actually speak finnish....

 

[Narcissus]

If it's really not too much, and Janus thinks we can handle it, we could do a similar thing to the language moderators too. Could be fun - announce to the finnish forum that their new moderator is someone who can't actually speak finnish....

Rich! 

Whatever is decided, let me know of any way I can help out. 

Narcissus

 

[Deus Ex]

Take note that Armagan has not posted anything in this thread...  you KNOW he has read it. 

DE

 

[Janus]

I've just added in the extra "Administrator" usergroup. It has only the privileges of a regular member, but reads "Administrator" and has the pennant.

For whichever of us supposedly lose our status, they can be switched to having no primary membergroup but still having the real Administrator group set as a secondary group. Done that way, they have all of the full privileges of Admin but don't show up as one.
Incidentally that's how Armagan and Ipek are set up, with "Developer" as their main group and "Administrator" as a secondary group. They therefore show up as "Developer".

 

[Archonsod]

When demoted, remember to cover you're tracks if you need to edit anything.

We need to select our new 'admins' too. Ideally someone controversial, with decent acting abilities. Oh, and trustworthy enough to keep quiet if they refuse.

 

[Janus]

Of course, if we pick more "respectable" members to go along with it, it will be that much more believable. If you saw that Jerky was made an Admin, would you believe it? OK, how about someone like Merentha? A lot more believable, right?

Whichever, we need to hurry it up to make April Fools (tomorrow). I'll go ahead and make the new Admin board so we can add posts to it in preparation.

EDIT: et voila:
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/board,78.0.html

Of course we'll probably also want to make it read-only when it becomes visible, so it doesn't get defaced with people saying "Hah, April Fools!"

EDIT 3: perhaps we could even move a couple of very innocuous threads from the real Admin board here over there to make it look more authentic? Not much would be good for that, maybe just 2-5 threads or so. We could move them back afterwards when we delete the fake admin board.

 

[Archonsod]

Sounds good to me

 

[Janus]

OK, I've moved over a few threads which I considered innocuous enough. If any of you think one or all should be moved back, feel free.

So, my vote for fake new admin goes to Merentha (though if we end up needing a new admin, Merentha might have my vote then too). What about the rest of you?

 

[Narcissus]

Merentha would be great for a fake admin (but I would worry for a real one due to temper).  Very smart and I'm sure would be willing to help and easily able to pull it off.  Got my vote.

What about Ingo as well?

Narcissus

 

[Lost-Lamb]

Both are perfect, even better would be getting a hold of Rando somehow and admin him or maybe Kniggit or Jstrange

 

[Narcissus]

Just thought of this:  The best way of handling the fake admin board would be to have one of the new admins 'slip' and make it public. 

Narcissus

 

[Janus]

Hah, yeah, that would be perfect.
So are we agreed on Merentha and Ingolifs then? If so we can let them in on it and I can set them up where they can see the fake admin board. Might be best to not have them post to it until we want their "Admin" status to be publicly seen with the tag visible. Just a further detail to try to convince people.

Hey, another thought, people might not believe it if they don't see them using their powers. I can foresee people putting them to the test and saying "if you're an admin, prove it and edit my post." So, perhaps we could give them temporary Global Moderator status along with fake admin status with the stipulation that they only use those abilities in a limited fashion to keep up the charade if people question their powers?