Hello Chompers,
I'm @guy samus montag in COH I play Mayaofoasis, Embyron, and Westmonk on Virtue and also played a lot on Guardian as well where I moved Maya from. I'm just one of the crowd but an idea hit me. I live on the coast of BC Canada and I was out walking my dogs when it hit me. Thinking about what we been doing in AP 33.
Why not /em hold Torch the meat space edition I mean find some set up for an actual torch and get someone to take a picture of you with it somewhere you feel is suitable an idea to collect these image for further use in the effort to save COH by punting actual faces on our group showing we're not just people on the web. I'm not sure I have the skill to organize this but I wanted to get this idea out perhaps to other people here who might be better at this or could make use of this idea.
Thoughts suggestions I just want to do what I can and if this even helps a little it's something right?
Oh, you've got the skill to organize this. You came up with and shared this great idea!
You've done about 15% of it already. The next 25% will be simply picking a place to have them send the photos. I suggest you make an email account to collect them. Then you put them together in whatever format you think best (I suggest a collage of some sort, then saved as a unified .png or something).
A lot will be done simply by the heroes and villains here! I guarantee you that, if you get this collage done, /tg/ would love to have the image.
Actually, there's a thought: you start the thread on /tg/ yourself with a picture of you and any of your friends who want to participate. That should get the meme flowing VERY nicely.
Just remember to link the /tg/ thread here, so fellow Titan Network folks can participate easily!
/em holdtorch
...whattya mean I'm doing it wrong? That's the command, isn't it!? What, a REAL one? Dang it, pitch-soaked sticks don't just grow on trees!
IMPROVISE!
(This in no way suggests you should actually light burning brands, unless you're grown-up and responsible enough to do it safely. And for crying out loud, don't let the zombies or the mummies hold them!)
In the past, I've found some brown construction paper wrapped around a flashlight with some orange and yellow and red tissue paper fluffed properly on top of it is at least sufficient to be recognizable.
To create an inexpensive, safe, and effective few time use torch:
Get a good sized stick for your torch base.
Trim the bark/branchy bits off of the end you'll want to light on fire, then wrap that with foil tape (or securing aluminum foil down will work too). You'll want to go about 4-6 inches down.
Go to your local department store and buy a cheap cotton hand towel. No not, on any circumstances, use something that is a synthetic or a blend. It will end in tears- your tears because your hand is on fire and covered in molten plastic bits!
You can trim the towel down if you want, 1 hand towel could probably make 2 torches pretty easily.
Take your towel wrap it around the foil covered end, making sure to leave some of the foil exposed.
From here, wrap bailing wire or a similar strong metal wire around the towel to hold it in place. Alternatively if you did a neat wrapping job you can bore a screw through it and in to the wood.
To burn: soak the head of the torch (making sure to not go past the foil), in the fuel of your choice. I like ultra-pure parafin lamp oil, or white gas (coleman camp fuel).. although my favorite fuel is actually a blend of the two. For this purpose though, even cheapshit tiki oil will do fine.
To light: hold a lighter to the now oily soaked doom of cotton at the end. Lamp oil can take a few moments to light. White gas goes up instantly.
To extinguish: you can let it burn itself out, which is fine if you're only planning on using it once. I prefer to use a wet towel to smother it once most of the fuel is burned off.
Because you used cotton (you DID use cotton, right?), this 'wick' will last a few burns. I've seen people who used similarly ghetto rigged props for a fairly long time. Generally, I do not recommend ghetto rigging props like this, however for a torch that will be held fairly stationary and only used a few times it's a good option.
If you want to talk about putting together a really good one that will last many uses, PM me.
Now that I've told you how to make a fiery torch....
Do be careful as you try to organize this, or even if individuals do it and send pictures:
Many places have policies against open flames in public places. Here in Arizona if we got a whole group of people together with torches, we would probably need the fire department's permission... just do yourself a favor and check the regulations before you do it. Worst case scenario- private property is always safe.
(Now, just so you know I'm not talking out my ass:
I am a professional fire performer and forming a new troupe here in Tucson. I have to be familiar with the fire department's regulations, as well as general fire safety. In my day job, I actually manufacture fire performance equipment for Fire Mecca, one of the top 3 companies in the US)
Torches:
http://www.spirithalloween.com/product/Light-up-Liberty-Torch1/
The NYCC crowd will appreciate this ;)
Lawn torches have the same overall look and feel as our big, silly in game torches. :P
If I can get up the courage to post myself in meatspace holding one, i'll still need more information about where to send it.
Also, not a meme :P They aren't created, their born randomly, from the chaos of the deep web where no sane person should ever go. :P This would be a movement.
On meme v. movement: fair enough.
I still think it'd be best served by using /tg/ for this. Page after page of pictures of people holding torches IRL would be quite persuasive, and I know there are programs for scraping all the images out of 4chan threads and archiving them. This would allow whoever wanted to to try to make that collage (which, of course, could then be posted to /tg/)!
This is a great idea! As others have noted, there needs to be somewhere to send the images, but until then, twitpic would work for those using the Twitter powerset with the pic tweeted with the #SaveCOH hashtag of course. Oh, and probably also need a hashtag for this movement/meme/rose/whatever. Maybe #COHholdtorchIRL or something? If this takes off, some industrious blogger could cull the feed for the photos and post them in one place.
COHers who don't want their happy smiling faces splashed all over the internet may want to modify their photo, maybe stick a big torch in their front yard and snap a shot. Obviously, the area around the torch can be decorated with whatever seems pointed and appropriate (a sign, for instance, with SaveCOH on it, or masks and capes suspended from wire, or heck, whatever players dream up---obviously no offensive signs or rude comments about NCsoft, etc.). Okay, I'm getting kind of excited about this and am brainstorming my own /em holdtorch pic . . .
The IRL aspect of this is the key, not necessarily the faces, per se. Conveying that we are real people who are really invested in our game is what matters here (though the putting faces on the toons is a good idea, it can be carried out by heroes and villains who wish to remain anonymous-ish).
Just ideaing . . .
I will continue to advocate that the OP or somebody else start a /tg/ thread with their own picture in this vein. (I am a bit hypocritical in this, since I am not a 4channer, myself. But I think it a good place to get lots of visibility.)
Not that it's probably going to make a difference to me, but I hate it when I read things I can't parse properly...
What's "/tg/"?
Ohthankgod. I thought I was the only one drawing a blank ;D
Quote from: eabrace on October 02, 2012, 07:58:19 PM
Not that it's probably going to make a difference to me, but I hate it when I read things I can't parse properly...
What's "/tg/"?
My apologies.
4chan is an image board. If you've heard of "anonymous," they are a bunch of rather...hyperactive...people who frequent 4chan's /b/ board. I do not suggest looking at that one.
/tg/ is 4chan's "traditional games" board, and is one of the more civil areas thereof.
4chan IS a raucous internet pit, in general, but it is also very, very active and very, very visible.
Thinking more on it, /tg/ might be the wrong board. I can't check from work (and like I said, I'm not a 4channer, myself; I just am aware of it from being on the periphery), but it might be /v/ that we want (I think that's their "videogames" board).
WARNING: Do not visit 4chan from work! Even its "work safe" boards are sometimes questionable! This is not a quest for the faint of heart. But despite the warnings I give, 4chan is also a place with some really good people and capable of some interestingly successful positive PR efforts. Thus, I strongly recommend those who know nothing of it check google to see what they can learn. I would be shocked if 4chan didn't have a wikipedia article.
I am very sorry for assuming everybody on the internet knew of it. I should have known better. :-[
Whatever you do, should you visit it, don't view boards with a red background. Blue backgrounds are...generally safe. PG-13 at most. The red ones permit adult content. (Again, sorry for the rambling; I'm only now remembering the warnings because I don't visit it often, and my friends who do generally stick to the blue-background boards to go image-surfing.)
Quote from: Segev on October 02, 2012, 08:59:40 PM
I am very sorry for assuming everybody on the internet knew of it. I should have known better. :-[
That's fine. I know enough about 4chan to know why I don't visit it unless I've been given a specific link to follow (and never from work.) :)
I appreciate the explanation.
This is an idea to hold on the back burner until we hear more, but in light of the most recent news, we might want to consider 4chan for another reason:
Who here is familiar with the force of chaos known as "Anonymous?"
We don't want to even TRY asking Them for help if we don't mean it, but if we DO mean it...
Quote from: Segev on October 02, 2012, 09:43:14 PM
This is an idea to hold on the back burner until we hear more, but in light of the most recent news, we might want to consider 4chan for another reason:
Who here is familiar with the force of chaos known as "Anonymous?"
We don't want to even TRY asking Them for help if we don't mean it, but if we DO mean it...
WHOA WHOA WHOA, hold up. Do NOT let that Genie out of the bottle just yet. One it's out, it can't go back in, and that's a very "Red Side" action.
Let's save "Red Side" until we hear from TonyV, VV, and Brian that Plan A is, in fact, dead in the water.
Quote from: DrakeGrimm on October 02, 2012, 09:44:53 PM
WHOA WHOA WHOA, hold up. Do NOT let that Genie out of the bottle just yet. One it's out, it can't go back in, and that's a very "Red Side" action.
Let's save "Red Side" until we hear from TonyV, VV, and Brian that Plan A is, in fact, dead in the water.
I am going to have to agree. That's retributive in the extreme and probably won't get us very far anyway. Let's at least wait until we know more before talking about it much more.
Oh, absolutely. I mention it now only to let it be mentioned. Note that I said to hold it on the back burner.
(And the one merciful thing about that group is...they do eventually get bored.)
This is an action to take iff NCSoft digs in and proves determined to make its most recent declaration true.
Quote from: Segev on October 02, 2012, 09:43:14 PM
Who here is familiar with the force of chaos known as "Anonymous?"
We don't want to even TRY asking Them for help if we don't mean it, but if we DO mean it...
Even if this whole effort ends up going red, even if it's after Nov. 30, I don't want - no, scratch that - I
can't be associated with anything that group is part of.
Quote from: eabrace on October 02, 2012, 09:55:56 PM
Even if this whole effort ends up going red, even if it's after Nov. 30, I don't want - no, scratch that - I can't be associated with anything that group is part of.
Even if the whole movement does go Red, we'd need to separate from Titan anyway. I, at least, won't tarnish Titan's reputation like that.
Fair enough. They are...messy...and that's the nicest way of putting it.
(I've mercifully never had to work with anything they're involved in. I generally find their antics range from "amusing" to "distasteful." The fact that there IS no central organization makes them a fascinating study from a professional standpoint, as a Swarm Intelligence model, but really, they're a strange evolution of the mob mentality. Which is, itself, an interesting case study of swarming behavior.)
</nerding out>
Sorry I brought it up. I have a bad habit of opening all options to awareness, if only because one cannot say one has exhausted all options until one has at least acknowledged which ones one will not condone.
Quote from: eabrace on October 02, 2012, 09:55:56 PM
Even if this whole effort ends up going red, even if it's after Nov. 30, I don't want - no, scratch that - I can't be associated with anything that group is part of.
/this
So, now that's out of the way, what about the RL torch idea? I think it's a great one, and if people started taking their torch photos--either personally holding one or creating something great with a torch as the focus, that would be a great way to show the real people behind the in-game torch holding rallies.
It would be naive to think that Anonymous is not watching this.
It would be unfair to ask those of us who count themselves amongst Them to reveal it.
Leaving Anonymous aside, I do think 4chan's /v/ or /tg/ would be a good place to show some of these, if only because a lot of the internet goes there and it will get attention.
Quote from: dwturducken on October 03, 2012, 02:53:37 AM
It would be naive to think that Anonymous is not watching this.
I understand that, but there are no kidding legal ramifications that some people might have to consider should they suddenly become associated with such a group. The sort of legal ramifications that would lead to them being blackballed in their industry.
They can watch all they like. But the minute they so much as hint at becoming involved, I would need to immediately end my association with the #SaveCOH campaign.
Do they normally act in the name of someone else? My impression is they pretty much take whatever credit is covered by anonymity. You're saying that, should Anonymous take some action against NCSoft, no matter the motivation, you would be out? Isn't that like swearing off airline travel because a plane crashes?
Quote from: dwturducken on October 03, 2012, 03:43:50 AM
Do they normally act in the name of someone else? My impression is they pretty much take whatever credit is covered by anonymity. You're saying that, should Anonymous take some action against NCSoft, no matter the motivation, you would be out? Isn't that like swearing off airline travel because a plane crashes?
That'd be like swearing off piloting airplanes because some terrorists highjacked one and flew it into a skyscraper. (Sidenote: people switching from flying to driving for a while after 9/11 caused about as many deaths from car crashes as died in that horrific event itself. Or maybe it was more, I forget specifics. Flying is still safer than driving.)
Guys, lay off him. It's likely that he's got RL issues that mean he'd be in legal trouble of his own - I'm guessing due to his RL employment - should any hint of him being associated with an..."organization" for lack of a better word...like Anonymous crop up. It is his decision to make, and frankly, I will assume They will stay out of it for the time being if we don't encourage Them. So we won't. Because eabrace is a cool guy and we value his participation.
Sorry. I forgot the smiley. I was just teasing and meant no offense.
I'm wondering what kind of job would react so badly to being in the same neighborhood of anonymous when they do something and in no way responsible for causing the actions of an internet force of nature. Politics?
That's all I can think of. They'll slam someone for someone's neighbor's uncle's dog biting a mailman or something.
Politics is one. Government jobs could be another. But I'm betting private company that does government contracting.
So uh, yeah, this topic was supposed to be about torches wasn't it?
I like this idea. Hero/villain cosplay optional.
Quote from: P51mus on October 03, 2012, 05:11:00 AM
So uh, yeah, this topic was supposed to be about torches wasn't it?
I like this idea. Hero/villain cosplay optional.
Yes, fire. Fire good.
If we get much of this, I will try to get one. I'll probably just use my breathing torch, even though it doesn't look all fancy and wooden and stuff.
Absolutely. I sincerely apologize for any distraction I provided from that important topic. The OP contains a brilliant idea!
Get your pictures of yourselves and friends, in or out of cosplay, holding aloft things-that-look-like-torches, and put them up in any image forum (facebook, 4chan, whatever you can think of) you care to!
Sorry about the delay I had a lot of work to do for my job yesterday. First of it's all right your forgiven but yes those options are so red they make my flinch I'd rather not get into that. So after thinking about things a bit more. We need to do the following if I'm to head this.
I have no talent with image editing I'll need someone to be willing to aid on making the combined collage of all the photos we get from this. Second off I'll need to make a drop email addy for all the photos this should be easy enough. Second off do not use an actual torch if there's any safety a flash light made up to look like one will work well enough for the message that's going to be sent. Also I want to keep this entirely blue side we have to keep it good or well we'll hurt ourselves in the long run. I need to do a bit more thinking but ya. If you can cos play awesome if you can't that's fine it's about putting we're not just faceless blobs of text on the internet.
Quote from: Jetfire99 on October 03, 2012, 10:33:52 PM
Second off do not use an actual torch if there's any safety a flash light made up to look like one will work well enough for the message that's going to be sent. Also I want to keep this entirely blue side
If you are on private property where you have permission to do so, real flame is completely, 100% legal.
If this goes forward and anyone in AZ wants to do it, I can see if I can arrange a location for a shoot, and some torches for people to borrow.
Quote from: Zolgar on October 04, 2012, 01:38:22 AM
If you are on private property where you have permission to do so, real flame is completely, 100% legal.
If this goes forward and anyone in AZ wants to do it, I can see if I can arrange a location for a shoot, and some torches for people to borrow.
Oh i totally agree if possible but I there's a fire warning round where I live right now the only safe place for me would be the beach out on a sandbar at low tide. :)
Quote from: Jetfire99 on October 04, 2012, 03:09:56 AM
Oh i totally agree if possible but I there's a fire warning round where I live right now the only safe place for me would be the beach out on a sandbar at low tide. :)
Fire on the beach is awesome.
Get a group together with torches, get a good shot of all of them, overlooking the ocean.. even better if you're westcoast and it's just enough after sunset that the glow of the sun is still visible on the horizon... >.>
I just wanna bring this back up to the forefront.
Whether it's a real torch or a costume one.
Whether it's 1 person or 50.
Whether you're in street clothes or a hero costume.
Whether it's in your front yard, or at a convention.
This is worth doing!
When I have the time, I will be trying to get one or two of myself standing with a torch..
And maybe one of me blasting off the torch, just for shits and giggles ;)
Has somebody come forward to volunteer to receive/collect all these images? I do strongly suggest people at LEAST post their pictures in this thread, but also find image boards to distribute them on. It's the same purpose as the /em holdtorch vigils with the afk messages pointing to "Save CoH."
Meanwhile, whoever takes this on to gather them up can put together more organized distribution campaigns. I have my hands full with the Media Day event, which is going to eat most of my free time for the next 12 days. But if somebody will take charge of this and gather the images up, and we can put together any sort of poster/collage to have available for Media Day and the other things going on on Oct. 20, this would have a big impact, I think.
Don't Organize it. Don't Think about it. Just Do IT.
Buy a torch, tell your friends, then stand in front of any appropriate govenment building and have them take a picture of you to share with us here on the internet. Worse case, people think you are crazy. Better case, you attract the attention of the press, who think you are crazy, but it at least get the word out among the general public. BEST case, it catches on, other people join you and when you need to rest the torch can be past. That is how Vigils are made.
The largest fire starts with the smallest spark.
I will be attending New York City Comic Con this Friday. My wife is helping by putting together a Statesman Costume. However, I was not able to buy a ticket Sat and must be home for Sunday. I certainly hope others will join me so I to can pass my torch when the time comes.
And Remember: The Future is NEVER Set in Stone,
Graphite
Also, to those who've already done it, those who are going to do it, or those who are waiting to do it...
post your pictures in this thread!
Showing it has started will help get it moving.