Comic for Thursday, August 30th, 2018
Work has been endeavoring to consume my life like a feral beast. Fortunately we still have a buffer, but it is starting to take a hit. I had finally fixed their shit, and they came up with more shit. Hopefully this weekend will free, I have a couple of things I want to work on, and I’ve been meaning to transfer a bunch of information onto the wiki too. I’ll keep you guys updated on that if I get around to it. I am at least going to add a note of how to request an account on it.
We are back up to 30 patrons, which is pretty exciting. As always, appreciate the support! You guys are amazing, and always a source of inspiration for keeping mucking along with this 🙂
Sorry this is just a bit short and rambling. I am tired, which means my brain is unruly and keeps going off places and doing things that is not thinking about what to write here.
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I have to applaud Nick Otte on one thing. He at least seems to know what the winning play isn’t. At seems to be working on figuring out what is the winning play. I’m just not sure he HAS a winning play.
Damn Keplers.
Nick Otte is this guys son; this is Otte Sr. (his name is Nelson Otte). Nick Otte shows far less savvy than this one… this one has managed to survive as Arron Kepler’s enemy for quite awhile, and that’s a feat that requires knowing how to pick your fights… 😉
Ah. I’m starting to wonder if there might be too many names (or parts there of) repeated in this comic.
I don’t wonder about that… I know that to be true. I ignore pretty much all story telling best practices. That said, I don’t usually think its too important to have the right name for the character, the only reason I mention it here is that a lot of people go to the comments to determine who a character is, so I wanted to right answer to be there for people looking for it 🙂
I guess I view my own verisimilitude of the world over what makes for good story telling; the fact that lot of people call people by their last name is something I could just not do, but it makes more sense to me that they would do it; this is compounded by the fact that its fairly natural there are going to people with the same last name intertwined into the plot.
There is an add-on for mediawiki that can do Google reCAPTCHA. Details https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmEdit
Captchas are approximately useless.
Between the much improved character recognition software, and the fact that the majority of these bots are actually humans in low labor cost countries, yeah.
The primary value of captchas these days is to make corporate folk believe that magical security dust has been liberally sprinkled over a project.
I suppose captchas aren’t quite as bad as requiring 8 character passwords that have a capital, a lowercase, a number, a symbol, and a control character. But no white space! And are force changed once every three minutes.
White space is easy to guess. It is also difficult to store in a database, because of science. That’s why it isn’t allowed.
-G-
Yeah, as @Glider says, these are not actually “bots”, they are “human bots”; they actually go through the trouble of making accounts.
I think we’ll just leave it making the accounts by request for now – I don’t think that many people will be active Wiki contributors as is, so it’s not a big problem, it mostly just annoys me as I would like it to be free and open and what not, and they are getting so little value by spamming the wiki that it boggles my mind they bother.
If I get bored I may dig into some of these solutions, I am sure we could make a security quiz that would stump the spammers, but it may be more effort than it is worth in the short term, and I am not that mediawiki savvy, so digging into plug ins and the like would take me awhile.
I do appreciate the legwork in finding the add on though, as well as the ideas in general.
How about implementing Google reCAPTCHA? https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/display
“Attacked someone from Kor’s World with a shovel??”
I presume he immediately following this was given a medal for having the nerve to do that. And multiple for having survived such a stupid statement.
If you’re backed into a corner, or you’re trying to defend someone backed into a corner, your enemy will not reasonably negotiate or honor surrender, and the only weapons you have are a pistol that is out of ammo and a shovel, attacking the enemy with the shovel is not stupid. It’s desperate, of course. But stupid would be just giving up because of it being hopeless, when you actually have a very slim chance of survival.
Well, he wasn’t a colonel when he did that, so he’s made some progress up the ranks… though he wasn’t promoted for that particular incident, though pretty much everyone involved in that event got a medal… not that there were many survivors to give them to. Nelson, Ricci, and Arron all saw some tough times during the incursion.
It took me awhile to realize that Antar was probably talking about Arron not Peter when he says that Kepler seems to be missing. This is curious, it means that Arron is probably up to something as well during all of this.
I have to say, even if it is not perfect, this is really showing the gradual improvement of more featured faces – both of these characters are pretty distinctive ones that wouldn’t be confused with other characters.
I would say it’s unclear which Kepler he’s referring to. It could apply to Peter, Arron, or Kyle. Probably not Mari. If I’m remembering correctly, it’s unlikely that “Taki Kepler” was ever a name that applied to someone in this comic. (That is, I’m pretty sure that Miko’s mother is Arron and Kyle’s sister. Now, if I were in the position of marrying into something like the Kepler family, I personally would strongly push for taking my wife’s surname rather than having her take mine or do a combined name thing. However, I get the feeling the Keplers were not quite so prominent before the Incursion, and Miko’s mother probably got married at that time rather than later. And I also understand that other people would want to distance themselves from the notoriety.) Also, I don’t think that either Mari or Miko have risen to the attention of these people.
I agree on the artwork – it’s very nice. I had wondered briefly if this was an attempt at the director from Interlude 4 pages 1 and 2, but they are very distinctly different, despite the fact that they both have a liver spot on the right side of their bald head. It’s also interesting to see that Nelson is more distinct here than he was previously, but he’s still very clearly the same person. I did not wonder who he was even for a moment.
I’m pretty sure he is talking about Aaron, since Kyle is on a different planet and a politician (and so, by virtue of his position, cannot just disappear and still be an issue) and since Peter is not even hiding where he is at the Consoul’s office while talking about going to class publicly. The only people who know about Taki/Miko are Aaron himself and Peter’s group (and, even then, the revelation of Miko’s location was a shock to Aaron), so he can’t be talking about her. This means that Aaron is the only Kepler involved whom he could be talking about.
I think that Aaron said something about how he promised his sister he would look after Taki? Does anyone remember that? If so that that would suggest that Miko/Taki’s mother is the Kepler and not her father. Then again marrying into that family may be like marrying the British royal family, she may not /technically/ have the last name “Kepler” but she is still part of that family.
Kyle and Peter are directly referenced so they can’t both be pillars and being the one that is being held up. Nathan could possibly be it, but Kyle wouldn’t be a pillar supporting Nathan. Of the remaining power characters Aaron is the only one unaccounted for.
Yeah I’m in the Aaron group too. They’re talking about a Kepler, and he references Peter Kepler as a support. As funny as it would be to specifically name Peter being his own support against subterfuge as if he were unrelated, he’s also talking about other IDS directors as if they’re in the same fighting tier. (Whether or not he could be in that tier, it doesn’t sound like this Otte thinks he is.)
Yes, Aaron. I believe he is still on walk about, looking for a solution to his Atter arm.
Need to see Atterarm as an opportunity rather than a problem though. Nathan really wants to have some quality time with Atter, and even if the tracer can’t be tracked back to the reader, at some point Atter is going to home in on it to see why Aaron hasn’t moved in a bit…
Despite what most people think, shovels are pretty serviceable weapons. Provided that it’s been sharpened properly.
While probably true, I get the feeling the important part is that it was against one of Kor’s World’s soldiers, who seem to be generally unstoppable (Naomi was only able to minorly inconvenience with a metal I-beam if I recall correctly).
I do suspect that depends on how you apply it too. I imagine Ila accelerating one would require the rather surprised recipient getting a sufficiently good shield up in time…. she is bad enough with non-pointy projectiles.
That depends upon what you’re attacking with the shovel. If it’s a tank or Eidos construct, it’s not a very good weapon. But it’s certainly better than ones fist.
It was more of a feat of bravery (and distraction) than a particularly effective attack. Kor’s World soldiers are not typically effected by tank shells, let alone shovels.
Am I the only one who finds Scarface McBaldy to be asking a fairly reasonable question when he wants to know what the pillars are, what the plan is to deal with them, and what his superior needs him to do other than sit on his hands? He is, likely, a highly-valued asset whose time and destructive talents are not something to be idly kept from destroying. Being annoyed at being sent to an assignment and then told not to do anything, and not told any plan of action that requires him, is actually a fairly reasonable reaction.
Well yes, Mr Antar is asking a totally reasonable question for someone new to the story (I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen him before…). But of course for the rest of us, his question seems totally silly… oh wait, Kyle Kepler is enough of a bad-arse that trying to “remove” Kally is the best option on the table!?!
IMHO, his questions are not reasonable. He’s replacing someone who thought using a weapon of mass destruction to kill one person who was, at the time, in the same building as a head of state. While that wasn’t a head of state they were particularly fond of, it’s still a pretty extreme move. In order to be reasonable, he would need to have done a lot more homework before he started making suggested courses of action.
In his favor, he did at least talk over his suggested course of action with someone who has been more involved.
And, yes, Kyle is absolutely enough of a bad-arse that Kally is the better option: screw up going after Kyle, and that’s the game, set, match, and the careers of everyone in Corporate Affairs, Situation Containment, and probably half the military.
Now, if Nelson was smart, he’d recognize something else: Peter isn’t a safer target than Kyle. Having gone along with Biana and Sophie as much as he has, he’s already basically gotten to the point where his career is toast if Peter should die. But so long as none of the Keplers have died, the Keplers prefer the struggle to the mess of telling the Assembly everything that’s happened, with a timed message to tell the rest of the people of Central a short amount of time later.
In Biana’s defense, her plan to use Skyhammer (along with her setting Atter loose) are the closest that anyone has come to stopping Peter. Typically, unless you get caught up in their schemes, the best way to stop someone skilled in subterfuge is the overly direct approach. You may not be able to move the chess pieces around as well, but, if you ignore your short term losses, you can usually remove a long term problem. The issue that led to failure was that she got caught in his schemes and worked to his easily controllable timetable.
And let me be clear, firing the kill sat (skyhammer) at a populated civilian area to kill Peter was not an issue with her taking losses. If it hadn’t been for Peter’s recording there would never have been any way for Malsa to pin the whole thing back on her. Neither was the act of sending out Atter without a leash, since Malsa already knew about skyhammer the ejection of the IDS was only a matter of time and keeping Atter quiet would only have hindered his abilities. These things may have been morally reprehensible, but they were not bad planning. At worst they were the result of a crunched timetable forcing her hand.
I doubt that Biana even knew about the issue that set this whole thing off (the attempted murder of Taki/Miko). If it wasn’t for Peter handing over the gate detection than Malsa could never have chosen to go without the IDS to protect from interdimentional threats and so couldn’t actually eject them. Malsa obviously knows about how much influence the IDS has over Arpon and so not ejecting the IDS first would have meant fighting a battle both at home and at the foreign front. Giving the Consoul an excuse to eject the IDS was the trigger that allowed them to move against Arpon. But the ones who actually attacked Miko were from the exiled families, who are currently residing in Arpon. Unfortunately Biana’s plan seems to depend on Arpon’s suppression of Malsa, and Peter/MIUM’s plan focuses on the elimination of Arpon. Not that Peter didn’t have enough reason to go after Biana, considering what she tried to do to Kalisto and Aaron, but before this it was political maneuvering that would likely have only tanked her career and endeared Malsa toward Aaron’s faction and not anything that would have gotten the whole of the IDS kicked out of the country.
“Twitch that way, and I’ll make sure everyone knows what happened.” Basically, he said he was recording it, and would have it replayed. She knew of his skill with computers. She knew of his reputation regarding making things happen. The only thing about how things actually went down that was different than what she could have reasonably expect was that the recording wasn’t so broadly distributed that IDS was shut down over it, and nobody actually died directly from the Skyhammer strike.
As far as the time line of events:
– The Malsan “princess” declared IDS could no longer carry out any operations within Malsa Chapter 9 page 12.
– Malsa learned of Atter Chapter 10, page 22.
– The Consul expels the IDS from Malsa, Chapter 10, page 23.
– Malsa learned of Skyhammer Chapter 11, Page 15.
Skyhammer was not a part of IDS getting kicked out of Malsa, because it had already been kicked out of Malsa before Skyhammer.
I doubt that Peter’s plan focuses on the elimination of Arpon. It feels more likely to me that he accepts the elimination of Arpon’s military and government as necessary so long as they continue to ally themselves with the IDS C.A. or allow themselves to be IDS C.A. pawns. The Consul’s plan, on the other hand, I think, focuses on the elimination of Arpon’s government and in the process of that, will be eliminating their military. Since Peter is supporting the Consul so long as she continues to provide him the most viable base of operations, it may seem like he has it in for them. But I think it’d be much more directly involved if he did. He seems to be wanting to have as little involvement with that as he can.
Someone even more odious than Biana?
I did not think that was possible.
Personally, I don’t know that Antor or Nelson would qualify as more odious than Biana. Antor might be more inclined to violence, but odious? That’s a market that Biana has cornered, even she might say so… though she’d probably choose her terms slightly different (like… “ruthlessly proactive” or “efficiently pragmatic”).
A thug who’s an even bigger thug than Otte Sr? Impressive! 🙂
As thugs go, Antor is scores pretty high. He’s got the thug down across looks, attitude, and abilities. He’s just a high class well paid premium top shelf thug.
hey, I like the comic page. why don’t you get some shuteye? you needed it.
Quiet brain, or I’ll poke you with a Q-Tip
As for wiki accounts… dumb question: a simple anti-bot measure like “Which character is this?” with 3 options to choose from (with a few characters on the roster so the question does change). (I think I saw it on topwebcomics). Is this a potential option? It means work at the front end to create code to support it (surely someone has already coded it?), but then (fingers crossed), bots defeated.
1. At best, this would stop only 2/3 of the spammers.
2. Realistically, it would merely slow them down slightly. Miss the first one? Try again. And now it’s only blocked 4/9ths of the spammers, then 13/27ths, then 40/81sts. Assuming 0 intelligence on the part of spammers, you’ve only blocked half of them.
3. Apply a simple test taking strategy: when the same picture comes up, and only one of the options is the same as before, it’s that one. You’ve now blocked none of the spammers.
4. Assuming the character list is long enough to pose any challenge longer term, the average reader who is inclined to try to update the wiki will be daunted before they make the first attempt. Ambassador Kokato? Who is that?
5. It’s not hard to request an account. It’s just not something that spammers do.
Rather than just poo-poo your idea, however, I’ll toss out a suggestion of my own:
Extension:Moderation. This mediawiki extension basically hides untrusted user updates from everyone but the source who made the update and users flagged as moderators. Anyone flagged as a moderator can throw away all changes from a source or approve it. I have only read about this extension, not actually used it, but I think I would be OK with being a moderator. Since the other updates are not visible to non-moderators other than the person who made the update, it’s not as time critical to approve or reject changes.
One thing I like about this module is by default, it does not give moderators the ability to change the submitted changes. The docs explicitly state it’s intended to be used as an anti-spam, anti-vandalism mechanism.
The “which of three” web site you mention is poorly implemented. The correct answer is embedded in the html, which is why that site continues to reflect large bot contributions. It doesn’t stop 2/3. Any decently designed bot voting script will succeed on 3 out of 3 tries.
The biggest issue with moderating ANY unregistered content is that you quickly degrade to the situation where you are looking for the 1 / 1000 that is good content. A moderators time would be better spent generating content than searching for content.
The “which of three” web site you mention is poorly implemented. The correct answer is embedded in the html, which is why that site continues to reflect large bot contributions. It doesn’t stop 2/3. Any decently designed bot voting script will succeed on 3 out of 3 tries.
The biggest issue with moderating ANY unregistered content is that you quickly degrade to the situation where you are looking for the 1 / 1000 that is good content. A moderators time would be better spent generating content than searching for content.
If we are talking about TWC, last I checked it was not exceedingly hard to bot… part of why I don’t do voting pushes anymore. I appreciate votes, but I’m not going to try out get my readers to try and outvote bots… before they removed the IP address display it was really obvious it was bot voting predominately.
Yes, TWC. I glanced at the html the other day, and the correct answer is in one of the form fields as I recall it. Drop dead trivial to script.
Maybe they limit it to one vote per IP per day, in which case I just need a /24 or two.
Well, back in the day I knew at least one person that ran a botting script on it, and would add your comic to their botting script, basically all the comics on it were auto-boosted to the top 100.
That was sort of the point when I lost all interest. I mean, to be honest, I did consider making my own bot for at least an instant, but then realized that this is one of those points where I need to reflect on what I care about in life, and that wasn’t it.
While there is a little lizard brain part of my brain that likes the comic being “popular”, at the end of the day, I’m just happy anyone reads it and enjoys it, and I should try not to feel too entitled to that. Things like traffic numbers and patreon numbers and TWC votes… I need to just like… chill, and let those bother me less when they go down. It is hard for the little lizard part of the brain sometimes, but I’m not really here to make a popular comic. Print! was more popular than TFSoU, but ultimately I realized that traffic numbers != happiness back then, so, I just need to keep that in mind.