I’m Elliott, commonly known around the internet as “vipr” or “vypr.” I’m the co-founder (along with stupiddroid) of Christcord, although eventually was removed due to issues that have been resolved for some time. I’m 18 years of age. I specialize in programming, theological thought, and breathing. I’m also fairly decent at writing, you tell me. I run a blog over at http://vypr.xyz, and you can contact me through Discord, email (me@thevypr.com), or Twitter (@thevypr).
- -I hope to see server-wide progress, not only at an administrative level, but at the member level. I also hope to get people thinking and being self-aware of what they’re doing to themselves and others. I believe that the best way to truly do that is by outlining the problems and providing solutions. Whether or not I expect this “letter” of sorts to be effective, is a question for another day.
- -When I reference staff or the administration, this includes the “council,” as they are in a nearly equal position of power.
- -If I receive administrative punishment, leave the server. If I receive punishment for openly criticizing the server, then it’s best for everyone to not be involved, unless you want Stockholm syndrome.
- -Please provide responses and criticisms, if feeling ambitious. I’d prefer to create a discussion rather than not having one at all.
- -This letter is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ for more detail on what that means.
- -I believe in the past 2-3 months, there has been a great amount of degration among the server. This isn’t specific to any area, but the server as a whole. I not only speak for myself on this, as stupiddroid agrees, and I’m more than certain there’s a great number who can say that the server has been in decline. Fighting has increased significantly than it has ever before, people of importance and value have departed, bad decisions are being made, and progress overall has dropped.
- -I believe the responsibility lies primarily in the staff, however this is not to say that they are the only people responsible. I will cover the staff, but the members should take the time to learn about loving your neighbor. I believe that the staff haven’t been doing their job properly of maintaining order, and when they do so, they do it in a way that can be degrading to the server as a whole.
- -A good example of improper action would be the creation of rule 11, which came about after a transgender person was told that it was okay to be transgender, and that they should keep on doing so. Whether or not this story of origin is true, my statements still apply. While the premise of the rule was in hope of stopping sin’s influence on the server, this has created a route for censorship and oppression of viewpoints that are as equally valid as anyone else’s. The server has been around since last November, we have never needed such a rule.
- -I believe that this has contributed to the fighting because then there is a “de facto standard” of what is sin and what is not, and because the server has a stance, people may perceive those who disagree with their personal stance as someone who is wrong because the server agrees. Not only that, this provides a medium where staff can (on a case by case basis) say to one person that they’re breaking rule 11, and saying to another person that they aren’t for the same reason. The administration is Catholic and Protestant, definitions of sin will conflict and will be inconsistent.
- -Another reason to disagree with the rule is the sheer lack of use, why have a rule that isn’t enforced? If we have a rule defining not to promote sin, shouldn’t we be banning everyone because we clearly don’t have a problem with people not following the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? There are Muslims, Sikhs, atheists, and so on. By not converting them or showing (in great display) their error, aren’t we promoting their sinful behavior as a result of our inaction?
- -Thus, not only is this useless, this is not for a Discord server’s administration to define or deal with, but rather the server as a whole. Historically, when sinful things have came around, the server has dealt with them well, either by talking them through or dismissing them if unnecessary or just absurdly obvious (i.e. manipulative satanists).
- -Remove the rule, leave it to the members to sort out, only in very grave situations should the administration ever have to deal with it. The only time staff ever needed to intervene was when there was collective server-wide disagreement, and that the staff needed to remove the person so that the server would be back in order. This however, does not warrant a server rule, because it isn’t constant enough to be necessary.
- -The simple way of dealing with fighting is isolating who the roots of it are, and dealing with those individually. Force them to stop, one way or another. Then once that’s done, look to see how they can resolve it.
- -In these past few months, we have had more members with bad attitudes joining, creating fights, borderline trolling, or simply not keeping conversation thriving. This has been a significant problem, resulting in even moderators leaving because of it. The best way of dealing with this is by having more of a vetting system for new members or some sort of approval system.
- -Guests would either:
- -a) have very limited access (i.e. only access to #hangout)
-b) need to be interviewed to ensure that they are what we expect from a member
-c) be barred from entry until we are prepared and ready to do A or B
-A good example of this kind of system would be /r/socialism Discord’s interview system, to ensure quality, or /r/Islam’s application system. /r/Islam’s method would be good at the beginning, to deter those who really don’t have any care for participating, but the interview system would be the most effective.
- -These members are redundant and given the fact that the people are not choosing who these members are goes completely against the point of having the council in the first place. On top of that, this council should not be hidden or out of plain sight. People have a right to know how the main administrative area is doing their job, rather than waiting for documents that would explain what they did, which could lack detail, or be simply wrong.
- -If we as a server cannot hold our own administration accountable outside of a council, this creates an avenue for the council to thrive in corruption, forwarding their agenda. The simple fact that they have agreed universally on every issue they’ve received means that there isn’t enough diversity to have the alternative opinion hold value.
- -The solution to this is either:
- -Until these issues are addressed and given great consideration, I do not see the server thriving for long. Even if it did survive long enough, the place will be even worse than what it is now. Valuable members are leaving. If this continues, that number will increase. I will even have the nerve to assert that if nothing comes of this, I will found another Christian Discord server if that’s what needs to be done. I refuse to let Christians be confined to a server that is slowly killing itself due to ignorance.
- -As a lot of you already know, Oikonomia was deleted. This was not by Discord, as some might speculate, but rather myself personally. While the decision to delete was capricious, the feelings and environment necessary for me to do that were very much there. Allow me to explain.
- -Oikonomia was founded somewhere around February/March 2018. In its formation, it was intended to be a low-to-medium sized server for Orthodox, even more so for people who were Orthodox and likeminded with mimi_jean. It remained this way up until late August/early September 2018 when Mimi transferred ownership to me following the growth of traditionalist members on the server and the "schism" of sorts in the creation of Leitourgia. What you saw in Oikonomia the last week of its existence is very far from the original intention. Many, especially TheTiger0502 and Shiranui117, can attest to this.
- -I involved myself in Oikonomia's administration and development from the beginning. I had abandoned the already-dying Christcord Origin, handing it over to Tiger to focus on Oikonomia. I saw a great potential for the server and through my administration, I made sure that it would be realized. What I saw for Oikonomia was definitely not what Mimi saw for Oikonomia, which would result in many personal conflicts over positions of power. I saw Oikonomia as this community that had the potential to be a powerful force for Orthodoxy on the internet, Mimi wanted a group of likeminded individuals. As you can see in the end, I got my way. Mimi's departure from ownership gave me the perfect opportunity to force Oikonomia in this growth, but it did not come easily.
- -Since Mimi and I had differing goals for the server, the server up until September 2018 was a mix of these goals. The server had grown quite significantly and became a common name among Christian Discords, but with Mimi's intent for likemindedness, it had a significant amount of those who would lean theologically liberal. These two in combination allowed for Oikonomia to develop the reputation that it did. If you mentioned Oikonomia to someone around September 2018, most would have disdain for it and would have very reactionary viewpoints about it. Thus, when I became owner I had a lot of work on my hands, but that was alright.
- -Being this in-between of open to modern theological stances and traditionalism, I had no problem letting the growth of traditionalism occur in the server. In fact, I encouraged it not only in my words but in my administration of the server. Of course, this did not come without resistance. I was labeled a Nazi sympathizer by the modernists for the permittance of Nazis in the server, a modernist by the traditionalists for the forbiddance of using specific terms that were often targeted and thrown at the LGBT. I looked to please everyone and provide a more moderate server where respect for persons and viewpoints was given universally. Unfortunately, this would never occur during Oikonomia's lifetime.
- -Traditionalism had got to the point in the server where those who were traditional would purposefully instigate those who disagreed. Catholics, unless favoring Orthodoxy, didn't stand much of a chance, resulting in the departure of many members such as Jcfraven and vote4waifu. Rather than being a helping hand with Orthodoxy, the server had become a wall for those who were sliding away from it. You know who you are. I am very much complicit as well, as I allowed it to occur in order to please the majority. To anyone who Oikonomia has hurt, I pray that you can forgive me for allowing it.
- -Nearing the end, Oikonomia was starting to stagnate and further itself as an echochamber of the traditional. Tribalism was very much growing and there are only so little ways to fix that without kicking everyone out and starting from square one.
- -I loved Oikonomia, it was one of the few reasons why I woke up in the morning, and it's impacted my life in so many ways that I'm grateful for.
- -Unfortunately, it is not only Oikonomia itself that has led to this. My mental state is seemingly deteriorating by the day. That day when I started spamming and I changed my name and image, giving myself all roles. Your fears were correct, I was losing it. I managed to play the situation to where people wouldn't be alarmed or concerned because the last thing I needed was more pressure. What you saw that day was a cry for help.
- -My situation at home is only getting worse. My parents' frustration with my behavior is growing and I haven't felt more isolated from the world than I have now. Not mentioning the pressure of having only a year to figure out my life and avoid getting kicked out. I want to protest so badly against my family but without a single physical advocate here, I'm only digging the hole deeper by doing so. I'm stuck in a rock and a hard place and the future is uncertain. What I do know is that I'm not going anywhere and I will endure my sufferings, whether through sorrow or gladness. Kyrie, eleison.
- -As for what happens next, that is yet to be determined. Mimi has created a server with more of the original intent of Oikonomia represented, a small group of friends. As for myself, I would like to focus on creating a more privatized community with a narrower focus. A lot is still to be determined with what I will be doing, but if you guys are interested in being involved in what I'll eventually do, let me know.
- -I cannot recommend anyone create a clone of Oikonomia nor try to make a community in its stead and I have advised a majority of former staff to not endorse such as well. Oikonomia was destined to fall, either by implosion, through Discord deleting it for reasons which you guys would know about, or through my deletion of it. If I saw Oikonomia surviving, I would've handed it off to someone else, but I know no one who could put in the time and effort in Oikonomia than I could. Not to be boastful, but I found myself the only one fit to run it.
- -It brings me sorrow to create disappointment among you all, but I can only pray that you understand how it got to this point.
May you forgive me. I'll answer any questions on Discord DMs.
- Seraphim (vypr#0001)
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+hugo says hello!
+ + +:wq + +$ +``` + +Build the web site and then verify the results. + +``` +$ hugo --verbose +INFO: 2014/09/29 Using config file: /Users/quoha/Sites/zafta/config.toml +INFO: 2014/09/29 syncing from /Users/quoha/Sites/zafta/themes/zafta/static/ to /Users/quoha/Sites/zafta/public/ +INFO: 2014/09/29 syncing from /Users/quoha/Sites/zafta/static/ to /Users/quoha/Sites/zafta/public/ +WARN: 2014/09/29 Unable to locate layout: [404.html theme/404.html] +0 draft content +0 future content +0 pages created +0 tags created +0 categories created +in 2 ms + +$ find public -type f -name '*.html' | xargs ls -l +-rw-r--r-- 1 quoha staff 78 Sep 29 21:26 public/index.html + +$ cat public/index.html + + + +hugo says hello!
+ +``` + +#### Live Reload + +Note: If you're running the server with the `--watch` option, you'll see different content in the file: + +``` +$ cat public/index.html + + + +hugo says hello!
+ + +``` + +When you use `--watch`, the Live Reload script is added by Hugo. Look for live reload in the documentation to see what it does and how to disable it. + +### Build a "Dynamic" Home Page + +"Dynamic home page?" Hugo's a static web site generator, so this seems an odd thing to say. I mean let's have the home page automatically reflect the content in the site every time Hugo builds it. We'll use iteration in the template to do that. + +#### Create New Posts + +Now that we have the home page generating static content, let's add some content to the site. We'll display these posts as a list on the home page and on their own page, too. + +Hugo has a command to generate a skeleton post, just like it does for sites and themes. + +``` +$ hugo --verbose new post/first.md +INFO: 2014/09/29 Using config file: /Users/quoha/Sites/zafta/config.toml +INFO: 2014/09/29 attempting to create post/first.md of post +INFO: 2014/09/29 curpath: /Users/quoha/Sites/zafta/themes/zafta/archetypes/default.md +ERROR: 2014/09/29 Unable to Castmy first post
+ + + + +$ cat public/post/second/index.html + + + +my second post
+ + + +$ +``` + +Notice that the posts now have content. You can go to localhost:1313/post/first to verify. + +### Linking to Content + +The posts are on the home page. Let's add a link from there to the post. Since this is the home page, we'll update its template. + +``` +$ vi themes/zafta/layouts/index.html + + + + {{ range first 10 .Data.Pages }} +