FnordCon 2

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by RobW

Is there any record of the convention available for those who weren't invited?

Everyone was invited! One had to follow the discord links at the right time (registration was open, then closed for a bit, then opened again on convention day), but anyone could attend if they desired.

The discord invite is expired and apparently there might have been some Q&A around TFT I'd be interested in.

I'll let others comment here; I know some folks tried to do audio recordings, but not sure if they were good quality (sometimes they aren't) or if permissions from those speaking needs to be sought, or whatever.

[(E)]

Permission was sought for one section at least, Steve Jackson was asked to tell a specific GM to get back to GMing.

I attended about 1/2 of the con and enjoyed it immensely.

[Andrew Hackard]

Originally Posted by (E)

Permission was sought for one section at least, Steve Jackson was asked to tell a specific GM to get back to GMing.

That wasn't permission for the entire panel, though; that was a single specific request that Steve granted. I'm being very clear about this because we did not ask our speakers for permission to record ahead of time and I don't want anyone getting the idea that one 30-second joke was anything more than that.

We are discussing the recording situation. Until there's an announcement, please keep any recordings you may have made private.

[Tom H.]

Originally Posted by RobW

Is there any record of the convention available for those who weren't invited?
The discord invite is expired and apparently there might have been some Q&A around TFT I'd be interested in.

I got an answer to a question I asked that was partly motivated by your article "Indefensible Behavior, or, What Do You Mean I Can’t Defend Now?" from Hexagram 3.

My question:
There has been some confusion on the forums regarding changing your option. There are options for engaged figures and options for disengaged figures. Must you commit to one of those categories when your turn to move comes, or can you wait until your action to see if you are engaged at that point or not?

The consensus answer including Steve Jackson's opinion (my paraphrase):
You really can wait to make changes at anytime so long as you didn't already do something that would invalidate the consistency of your final action or option.

Steve had really thought that he had but that issue to rest already.

Now, I had already suspected this to be the case mainly from some people on the forums (especially Skarg).

However, when I read your article from Hexagram 3, it put some doubt back into my mind.

Here is a quote from your article:

The options available depend upon the figure’s engagement status at the time the figure’s turn comes to move [emphasis in the original – 3 times!].

But if I understand you correctly, this doesn't seem to be true. The answer I received seemed to indicate you can even change your option later regardless of engagement if it doesn't break the option.

By the way, thanks for contributing your article to the zine.

~~~

There were several other TFT questions about upcoming products and plans but most of that can already be gleaned from The Fantasy Trip News.

[Aleph]

If you attended the Virtual FnordCon, you probably dealt with, or at least saw, the PanelMod bot that I wrote to help manage questions. Some of you asked if I could post the code for this. I may throw up a github link later, once the many non-working commented-out bits are removed or implemented, but I can post the main script itself in text here for now. Keep in mind that there are better ways to do some of this, and if you're going to try to duplicate this in the wild, you should definitely sanitize your inputs. This is just what I could get running in a short time while learning the language. No warranties given, etc, etc.

There are steps involved of setting up a Discord bot and Node.js development that are readily found via your favorite search engine. Do those first.

There is also a config file referenced here that you don't upload to your code repository, because it has your identifying key for the Discord Bot integration. That file also has a string that you can set to be the prefix the bot looks for to know it should read the line as a command. For us, it was set to 'qq', so the commands were qqask and qqanswer, etc.

config.json

{
"prefix": "qq",
"token": "---REMOVED---"
}

index.js

// SETUP //

// require the filesystem module from Node
const fs = require('fs');

// require the discord.js module
const Discord = require('discord.js');

// get config options from config.js - Don't put the config file in repos!
const {prefix, token} = require('./config.json');

// create a new Discord client
const client = new Discord.Client();

// create Maps for the question queues
const queue = new Array();
//const approved = new MAP();
	var activeChannel = '';

// when the client is ready, run this code
// this event will only trigger one time after logging in
client.once('ready', () => {
	console.log('Ready!');
});

// dynamic command loader
client.on('message', message => {
	if (!message.content.startsWith(prefix) || message.author.bot) return;

	const args = message.content.slice(prefix.length).split(/ +/);
	const commandName = args.shift().toLowerCase();

	if (commandName === 'ping') {  //Test command
		message.channel.send('Pong.');

	} else if (commandName === 'ask') {  // ADD QUESTION TO QUEUE
		if (!(activeChannel)) { //Don't queue questions when a panel hasnt been started
			message.author.send('There is not currently a panel running to ask questions for.');
			return;
		}
    else if (message.channel.type !== 'dm') { //Only accept questions when DMed
			message.author.send('You need to ask questions in private message. Try again here. It\'s qqask *your question*');
			return;
		}
    const asktext = args.join(' ');
    const question = `<@${message.author.id}> asks: **${asktext}**`;
    queue.push(question);
		message.author.send('Question queued.  Moderators will send it to the channel when they are ready.');

  } else if (commandName ==='answer') { // PRINT QUESTION TO CHANNEL -- Moderator Only
		if (!(message.member.roles.cache.some(r=>["VIP", "Speakers", "Convention Staff", "Coding"].includes(r.name))))
		 {return "Not a moderator"};
		if ((activeChannel) && (message.channel !== activeChannel)) {  //Only answer in active channel
			message.channel.send(`I am still running a question queue in ${activeChannel.name}.`);
			return;
		}
		var answ = queue.shift();
		if (!answ) {answ = '**No questions queued.**'};
		activeChannel.send(`${answ}`);

	} else if (commandName ==='start') { // START PANEL -- Moderator Only
			if (!(message.member.roles.cache.some(r=>["VIP", "Speakers", "Convention Staff", "Coding"].includes(r.name))))
			 {return "Not a moderator"};
			if ((activeChannel) && (message.channel !== activeChannel)) {  //Don't start a queue if already active
				message.channel.send(`I am still running a question queue in ${activeChannel.name}.`);
				return;
			}
		  activeChannel = message.channel;
			console.log(`${message.author.username} is starting a panel in ${activeChannel.name}`);
			activeChannel.send(`Active Channel being set to ${activeChannel}`);
			qcounter = setInterval(() => {
				activeChannel.send(`There are ${queue.length} questions in the queue.`);
			},5*60*1000);
			activeChannel.send(`If you would like to ask a question in the panel, please send a direct message to <@${client.user.id}> that starts with: "qqask " (without the quotes).  It will queue your question.`);

	} else if (commandName ==='stop') { // STOP PANEL -- Moderator Only
			if (!(message.member.roles.cache.some(r=>["VIP", "Speakers", "Convention Staff", "Coding"].includes(r.name))))
			 {return "Not a moderator"};
			if ((activeChannel) && (message.channel !== activeChannel)) {  //Dont allow stop from a non-active channel
				message.channel.send(`I am still running a question queue in ${activeChannel.name}.`);
				return;
			}
			console.log(`${message.author.username} is ending the panel in ${activeChannel.name}`);
			activeChannel.send(`Ending panel.  The queue is being emptied of questions.`);
			queue.length = 0;
			clearInterval(qcounter);
			activeChannel = null;
	};
});


// Log API errors / unhandled rejections
process.on('unhandledRejection', error => {
	console.error('Unhandled promise rejection:', error);
});

// login to Discord with your app's token
client.login(token);

[Andrew Hackard]

In case y'all missed the latest announcement, FnordCon 2.3, the hotter, more autumnal digital convention will be held October 10 on Discord, just like the April version . . . but with different guests and maybe new events! Head to the FnordCon web page for more information (when it gets posted, soon I hope -- keep checking!).

[slocum]

Is the discord server only around for FnordCon or is it around for general SJG mayhem?

[Aleph]

Originally Posted by slocum

Is the discord server only around for FnordCon or is it around for general SJG mayhem?

At this time, we only make the channels on the server available to the public during our events.

[slocum]

Originally Posted by Aleph

At this time, we only make the channels on the server available to the public during our events.

Okay, thanks.