Blógünder Schlock

I’ll lead this with a link: At long last, the CAR-PGa now has a public website, so if you find yourself needing to defend tabletop RPGs, you have a good starting point, and the knowledge that there is a group of people out there who want to help you.

And now, the full story: a while back I went looking for materials that promoted traditional pencil-and-paper Role-Playing Games. After quite a bit of digging I came up with only a small handful of sites. I publicized my quest, and received email from a few people in both camps — some insisting that Dungeons & Dragons and all games like it were evil, and others anxious to point out the benefits of those games, especially for kids in junior high and high school.

I also got email from M. Alan Thomas II, a regional director of the Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games (CAR-PGa). This organization had been around since the ’80s, but though they’d discussed it for years, they did not yet have a public website.

Mr. Thomas credits me as the impetus for finally getting the site off the ground. And so today you can find version 1.0 of the CAR-PGa website at www.CAR-PGa.org (though you’ve certainly already figured that out, what with all the linkage thus far in this post.)

If you play table-top RPGs, and you have a website or blog, you, too, should link to the CAR-PGa.

Why? Because when concerned citizens, parents, teachers, and others go searching for information on table-top RPGs, they need to be able to find something besides Jack Chick tracts and articles on Rocket Propelled Grenades.

The best kind of link is something that not only names the organization, but also says something about what it does. Like this: CAR-PGa: In Defense of Role-Playing Games.

You’ll see that link go live on my archive pages here in the next couple of days. I’m putting my money where my (big) mouth is.

If you’re really interested in advancing the cause, you could join the CAR-PGa and contribute to the materials on their site. This is especially true if you don’t think their offering is complete. The best kind of constructive criticism is the kind that is actually accompanied by materials and tools for further construction.

For the record: I play table-top role-playing games at least weekly, and usually five or six times per month. I’ve played with my kids, and will certainly continue to do so. In fact, I’ve got plans to launch a new campaign with them during 2008, and many of the figures I’ve been painting recently are geared towards just that. Most of you know me (from my blog entries, at any rate) as a devoted family man with an active imagination, and table-top RPGs fit that perfectly.

I got an email message from a “Wikinewsie” named Brian a few days ago in which he asked me if I would help with the current Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser. I declined, and stated that my non-contribution was the only tool left for protesting the manner in which a few Wikipedia editors and administrators treated dozens of articles about webcomics and the webcomic community.

As it turns out, this particular pot was ready for stirring. Brian abandoned his “help raise money” cause, and is now out to raise awareness of this particular problem. He is calling upon other Wikinews.org journalists to investigate, and he has asked me to round up webcartoonists who might be able to contribute to the discussion.

I’m unwilling to stop at webcartoonists. I believe that “notability purges” are being executed throughout Wikipedia by empire-building, wannabe tin-pot dictators masquerading as humble editors. They are the enemy. They are articulate, erudite, convinced of their moral and intellectual superiority, and need to have their proverbial pictures plastered on the walls of the proverbial post-office.

If you know of a case in which notability guidelines and/or heavy-handed editorial tactics were used to speedily delete useful articles, please help out by providing that information. You can post it in comments below, or you can (I think?) directly edit this Wikinews page.

The Wikimedia Foundation is holding a fund-raiser. That means this would be a perfect time to contact them and tell them why they can’t have your money.

I know, I know, they won’t notice. But I’m done doing business with them.

(Note: If you work for Qwest, please read on, and feel free to respond. After all, it only takes one person to completely destroy your company’s image. It’s possible, though only remotely, that one person can save or restore it.)

So… I’m hard at work trying to bang out the last two pages of Bonus Story for the next book. I have seven more rows to color, the flooding is done, and I’m painting. My music is blaring, the house is empty for the next three hours, I’m in my happy place…

And the phone rings. Number Unavailable. Private caller.

I pick up.

“Taylers’, this is Howard.”

“Are you Howard Tayler, of Blank Label Comics?”

Sounds like a salesperson, but he might have legitimate business with our little collective.
“I am.” I say, with that practiced inflection that says if you have legitimate business with me, now is the time to get to it.

“Has anybody from Qwest talked to you about lowering your small-business calling rates?”

“No, they haven’t. Please put me on your no-call list.”

And I hung up, cranked the tunes, and got back to work.

The phone rang again. Number Unavailable. Private Caller.

Ohhh-kay. This is either ILLEGAL (No-call means just that, and there are legal ramifications to calling in spite of it), or accidental, or it’s a coincidence.

“Hello?”

The same voice I spoke to before begins, as if we were old friends who had been cut off accidentally:
“Why would you want us not to call? We’re trying to lower your rates, not raise them.”

I let him have both barrels.
“You are quite possibly the rudest salesperson who has ever called me. When I-”

“I’m not a salesman,” he interrupted. “I’m trying to lower your rates, not-”

“And I said put me on your DO NOT CALL list.” (Note: I may have actually raised my voice at this point.)

“-lower them. And you’re the one being rude. Maybe we’ll raise your rates instead. How would you like that?”*

And then he hung up.

Had I the presence of mind to get his name (and had he lacked the presence of mind to refuse it) I would be on the phone with Qwest right now demanding an apology. Or maybe I’d be contacting an attorney, trying to find a way to sue these people for what has to be the most flagrant violation of “do not call” I’ve ever experienced.

Regardless, I don’t currently do business with Qwest. Our land-line is provided through my ISP, Comcast/AT&T. If this guy had my phone number, he also had the ability to look that information up, and could quite easily have determined that “lowering my rates” also required him to sell me something. In fact, I doubt he’s calling existing Qwest customers. He’s calling FORMER Qwest customers, trying to get back their business.

Hey, Qwest! At this point if you want to get my business back, you’ll beat AT&T’s best rate by 95% or more for a period of no less than two years no, wait… screw that. You want me as a customer? Fine. Free phone service for two years, no strings. If I’m satisfied come August of 2009, maybe I’ll decide not to switch back to the folks who are currently taking pretty fine care of me.

These folks, after all, are the ones who provided me with high-speed internet access back in 2001 when you said it couldn’t be done. You whined and made excuses about how the line between my house and the switching station was too long for DSL. AT&T came by and laid new cable — no excuses, just great service.

In fact, now that I think about it, I still have quite a bit of loyalty towards my current provider. Forget it, Qwest. You could offer me free phone service for life, and I’d tell you to offer it to one of my fixed-income neighbors who needs it. But I’d warn her that your salespeople are pushy, and should be hung up on at her earliest convenience.

(*Note: The conversations above were not transcribed real-time, nor do I have recordings. I’ve paraphrased as accurately as I can, but rest assured, I’ve made nothing up. This guy really did threaten to raise my rates.)

Just a quick reminder (and maybe an alert, since the blog wasn’t working right for the first announcement): The charity auction of Sketch Edition #293 will close at around 5:25pm Eastern Time today.

What’s the charity? We’re trying to make a dent in Paul Taylor’s medical expenses. He and his wife just brought home their first child, born prematurely, after a month in intensive care.

While it hasn’t been called out specifically in the auction, if the winning bid is over $200 I will include a piece of original marker-art of my choosing. If it’s over $300 I’ll take suggestions from the winning bidder as to what I’m going to draw (within reason - the picture must fit on a comic-book-sized “backer board” to ensure that it fits in the package with the book.)

I’ll be checking with Paul to see how big of a dent has been made by the various fund-raisers. We may put something else up on the auction block later.