Updates on current history

[solera]

I'd like to see these entered a bit later than they are.  It's got the same feel as reading about deaths on the clan board within the hour.  I'd prefer dissemination of information across the Known be left to city rumour boards and PC networks.
Does it bother anyone else?

[Cendell]

I suppose it might a little, if everything was up on there right after it happened, but I honestly doubt that would happen.

For events like the last couple, I can see them being major enough that most anyone would have heard talk of it from their cousin's friend in Random GMH who was there, and wayed them right after. I can see how it would be nice to learn (or not learn) in game, but it doesn't really bother me for world changing things that happen in the open.

Personal opinion, of course.

[Cutthroat]

I think it's important to put up such changes ASAP because it's an addition to what your new Tuluki PC would know. If staff waited too long to put up the last few events that are on the history page, there would be some jarring confusion lingering for a few months, at least.

[Nyr]

Cutthroat has the right of it at this point. 

How it worked in the past:
History page got updated whenever someone that had the access to ginka + HTML knowledge would go in and manually add something new.  This would frequently take months (if not years) to see updates.

How it works now:
We are working on some standards for what constitutes "world history" (in other words, what is important enough to be noteworthy?).  Once we establish that, we decide when it will go public.  In general, we do not put up history entries until they have time to percolate in the IC rumorsphere. 

As an example:
After the HRPT, the public knowledge available was different from what got put on the History page.  We waited a couple of weeks before putting up the History entry, which had more common knowledge from across the Known World.  If you had been in Tuluk, you wouldn't have had the same IC experience that someone in Allanak would have had, but you would have had the IC opportunity to learn the full story.  Even now, your Tuluki may not know the "full story" (or may know, but simply keeps quiet because it won't do any good to rock the boat).  Even after the Hlum were "disappeared", we waited several days after updating helpfiles necessary for new players before we addressed the History entry (honestly, it was a little tough to figure out how to spread a rumor about something that "didn't happen" or "didn't exist").

This latest addition occurred quickly for a couple of reasons.
1)  Tuluk just changed something that has been a standard for more years than many veterans have played the game.  Not only is it noteworthy, it has a lot of ramifications that have not yet been realized.  We've been planning this for quite some time and we're eager to move this forward.
2)  Due to the nature of #1, we figured enough people (and even staff!) would want to discuss it that it would leak out on the GDB inadvertently.
3)  People at the event experienced something that had differences from what was revealed on the history entry.  The people that were there know what really happened; some players may have better ideas than others about what exactly went on.

So...in general, if something noteworthy happens, it will go up as a rumor board post first not long after the IC event.  About a week or two later, it will hit the History page (giving PCs the time and the opportunity to learn it in-game).  This was an exception.

[Nyr]

Oh, also, we have a handy tool (thanks Ness) that any staffer can populate with history stuff.  Admin+ can approve it at any time.  It has a few little bugs still (you might notice that the latest history entry is in the wrong year--apparently it doesn't like putting stuff in the same year unless certain conditions are met) but on the whole, it's a big improvement!

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Also, remember, what you know out of character is different than what you know in character. Just like your new character doesn't know what's out in the desert but you as a player do, just keep what you know as a player separate from what you know as a character. I enjoy knowing what happened without knowing what happened.