People and Support
If you want to "do good" for ZOID and help others, or if you
enjoy public speaking, then People and Support is the
category for you. These jobs vary sharply in difficulty, and what is an easy job
for one person may be a hard job for another. As yet, there is no dusting guest books
at ZOID. Not all competitors have them though everyone has email. Also email
allows you to speak truthfully and allows replies.
Stimulate Conversation on the Mailing List
Write three letters to the zc2zc3 mailing list over the course of
a week.
Skills required: The ability to write and the courage required for
public speaking on a small list. Remember you will be in the spotlight.
For those unused to mailing lists, this is a difficult
assignment.
Time required Not all that much. It's the
thought and the interpersonal aspects that make this job tough.
Verification The letters act as verification.
Deep Exploration
Visit a site of a member who is in competition. Do more than
just look at the frontpage and sign the guestbook. Read about
that person. Look at several of the pages, take a poll or
survey, adopt a graphic creature, examine the links, or send a greeting card.
Find something good to say about that site and write a review of it on
the ZC2ZC3 mailing list.
Skills required:
The ability to write plus diplomacy and tact.
This assignment is a bit easier than stimulating the mailing
list because it has a bit more structure.
Verification: Write the review on the ZC2ZC3 mailing
list.
Link Hunting
Find the URL's of three pages that would make
great links for the portal project. Topics for links include but are
not limited to: hisory, popular culture, fantasy, science fiction,
nature/environment, sports, and HTML help.
Skills Required: The ability to surf the web.
Note: the ZOID City Community Portal
offers links for link hunters to
search engines and other sources of information that can
make this job easier. This job is an ideal entry level offering.
Verification: Send ZOIDRubashov or any other trustee the URLs for the
links.
Fraud Buster
When a virus warning, story warning others to beware, threat of something free
becoming paid, or story of a gang initiation appears as a forward sent
by a well meaning member, verify
this story using Alt. Folklore
Urban's Archive of Urban Legends, Snopes.com,
some other hoax
listing source. FRAUD HURTS and stopping it is one
of the best things you can do for our community.
Skills Required: A slightly cynical nature plus
persistence. Also you need to be unafraid to break someone's bubble.
Verification: Send the fraud busting email to the ZC2ZC3 mailing list.
IRC or Other Chat Host
Host a chat. Stay
and babysit the room the entire
time, even if it is empty, and show
up when the chat is scheduled. The
rest is up to you.
Skills Required: The time and patience to
babysit a sometimes empty room, and knowledge of IRC
or CGI based chat.
Verification: ZOIDRubashov or another trustee
will probably stop by.
Score the Competition
Use the raw vote total and the Excel or Works scoring template to figure percentile
range scores for the competition. Send these scores to ZOIDRubashov.
FRAUD HURTS, and by scoring along at
home and verifying ZOIDRubashov's scores, you help
keep ZOID CITY's competition scrupulously honest.
Skills Required: Ability to work with a spreadsheet,
punctuality, and the ability to be around every other evening during
competition weeks. Scores go up between 11pm-12am Eastern Time. Raw
vote totals are available in real time on the Exhibition Page.
Verification: Send ZOIDRubashov and any one else your scores.
Advertise ZOID CITY
Find three sites that
you would like to see as part of
ZOID CITY Community and write
to their owners inviting them to
join. This is thankless work, since
quite often, the owners will tell
you to jump in a lake or respond
with silence. This is sales, and
we are selling ourselves.
Skills Required: Courage, tact, perseverence and a very thick skin.
Sales invoves a high risk of rejection. That is why
this is one of the most brutal assignments on this board.
Verification: Bcc your sales letters back to ZOIDRubashov.
Initial Site Screener
Visit sites of those
who have applied for membership
and see if they fit the criteria laid
out in the initial screening of the
Approval Rules.
Skills Required:Ability to stomach offensive site, and the
ability to judge sites according to a
clearly defined set of rules without letting personal tastes and
prejudices get in the way. Also I prefer that you be at least
eighteen for legal reasons.
Verification: Work closely with and report back to Gothwalk, ZOIDRubashov,
or Josh on this one.
Teach a Course or Workshop
Teach a course on any
subject. Ideas for courses include
hand coding HTML, a book club or
reading club, a Bible study, or just
about anything else. If you've ever
wanted to teach others, this is your
golden opportunity.
Skills Required: Good organization, patience, punctuality, and a grasp of
your subject as well as the ability to handle IRC or CGI-based chat.
Verification: The trustees will hear from your disappointed
students if you no-show.
Create a Work Assignment
This is just what it sounds like.
If you look at this board and say "Ah...there's something missing"
and can suggest what it is and help implement it, you can create another
work assignment and you will receive credit for that, as well as the good
feeling that comes when creating something useful and good.
Skills Required: Creativity and often the ability to work with web
boards or HTML code.
Verification: Let ZOIDRubashov know
about your idea and then let them look at the finished product.
Note: I see this assignment mainly as board hunting and board
creation but it could be other things, notably specialized link hunts.
Back to the
Literature and Creative Writing
Creative writing assigments are among our most popular work offerings.
Note: many of the stories are graphicly violent and have liberal policies
as far as content is concerned. I would like to find an active G-rated
alternative for those who are more conservative. If anyone can find such
a story, please let me know. Meanwhile,
those who prefer a G-rated alternative should try ZOID's web
boards or
the Atlantic's Post and Riposte.
Gav and Peloso's Interactive Story
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/~gav/wayfarence
Write three episodes for Gav and Peloso. The way the
story works is that you must pick up on an existing thread, but
you may join in anywhere that the story is unfinished.
Gav and Peloso contains a lot of violence
and some of it is sexually explicit, though profanity
is minimal. If hard-hitting realistic fiction is not your thing,
than choose another assignment.
Skills Required: The ability to write creatively and think on
your feet.
Verification: Let ZOIDRubashov or Josh (who edits Gav and Peloso) know
you are writing at Gav and Peloso's. It is also a very good idea
to encourage others to tag your episodes by posting the three
letter codes to the zc2zc3 mailing list.
Bruno's Cafe at ZOID CITY
http://www.zc2zc3.addr.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi
Write three episodes
for Bruno's. You must pick up on
an existing thread, and there are
currently not as many to choose
from as at Gav and Peloso. Also
Bruno's includes violence and sexually explicit scenes. If gritty,
realistic fiction is not for you, neither is Bruno's.
Skills Required: The ability to write and "think on your
feet."
Verification: The episodes act as verification, but it is
also a good idea to post the chapter numbers to the zc2zc3 mailing list to allow
others to tag your work.
Hosehockey
http://www.firewriter.com/horsehockey
Write three
episodes for this new and somewhat
crazy interactive story. Follow an existing thread to
where it sits unfinished and then just pick up and start
writing. Note: Horsehockey has some scenes
that depict excrement, the graphic and bloody birth of a baby, and
probably a fair amount of explicit violence. If gritty and
realistic fiction is not for you, then neither is Horsehockey.
Skills Required: The ability to write and "think on your feet."
Verification: Let Josh or ZOIDRubashov know the numbers
of the episodes you have written. It is also a good idea to post
these numbers to the zc2zc3 mailing list to allow others to tag
your work.
The Blue Hand
http://web.tiscalinet.it/thebluehand/
There is an ongoing story on this site and a story that you can write based on
five words. It has to include the five words. This
site is rumored to permit profanity but I have not seen all that much of it. If
you need an absolutely G-rated environment, then the Blue Hand is not for you.
Skills Required: Creativity and the ability to think on your feet.
Veification: Let ZOIDRubashov or Josh know the name of the
episode or short story you have created. This site is created and
maintained by one of our own members. Thank you Carla!
\
Back to the Graphics and Art
Graphics are always welcome at ZOID CITY. Even newbies can make them if
they wish.
Backgrounds
Use Paintshop Pro, LView, or other software to create three
original background tiles or bordered strips to add
to ZOID CITY
Sound and Vision.
Skills Required: Creativity and the ability to use the
graphics software of your choice.
Verification Send your background tiles to ZOIDRubashov
Bars or Buttons
Use Paintshop Pro, LView,
or other software to create three original bars or buttons to
add to the ZOID CITY Sound and
Vision.
Skills Required: Creativity
and the ability to use the graphics software of your
choice.
Verification: Send your bars or
buttons to ZOIDRubashov.
Link Back Banners
Use Paintshop Pro, LView, or
other software to create one original link back banner
for ZOID CITY. If you want to see banners on display, visit them
at the ZOID CITY Portal Page.
Skills RequiredCreativity and the ability to use the
grpahics software of your choice.
Verification: Send your banner to ZOIDRubashov.
Vilna Flats
Use Paintshop Proor other software
to create a 100*100jpg picture of anythying you wish. Multi jpg pictures
are good too. These pictures are for use as "flats" or
TV's on
Social Sciences
The social sciences include history and current
events as well as psychology, anthropology,
sociology etc... At ZOID, however, current events and history
make up the bulk of our social science work offerings.
If you are the kind of person who is interested in Medieval or
ancient times or who likes to follow the news or discuss issues
of the day, then these work assignments are for you.
Aca-Challenge Post Classical to PreModern
Find a fun and
interestnig link that teaches you something about life in the Middle
Ages and Renaissance. For the purposes of this work assignment,
the Middle Ages and Renaissance lasted from 300-1500 in Europe,
until 1861 in Japan, until 1910 in China, until 1500 in
the New World, and until the 19th Century in Africa.
Suggested topics for links include
what people ate in the Middle
Ages, Medieval clothing, Medieval life outside of Europe,
how the Middle Ages began, How the Middle Ages ended, Medieval Agriculture, the
fate of religious minorities in Europe, the Middle
Ages outside of Europe, exploration of the New World etc...
You can of course suggest your own topic, but remember truth
(and classic literature) is stranger and more exciting than popular
fiction. After you find your link, collect its
URL and write a one to five sentance description of it. This
link will become part of Portal Project though
you are also free to use it on your own site.
Skills Required: The persistance to hunt links.
There are Links for Link Hunters at
the ZOID CITY Community Portal. Also required:
an interest in hisotry.
Verification: Send your links to ZOIDRubashov.
Atlantic Post and Riposte
Atlantic
Post and Riposte
Post something to
the board. It helps if you read
articles in the Atlantic regularly. You
will also need to register... If you are
old enough to build a web page,
you are old enough to read and
enjoy at least some of the Atlantic.
The Atlantic is one of the US'
oldest magazines of high quality
reportage and fiction. Enjoy!
Skills Required: Fearlessness and
an interest in world events or arts
and literature, including older
popular music and film.
Verification: Let the ZC2ZC3 mailing list
know where
you posted. ZOIDRubashov frequently visits this board, and
you are likely to see an occasional post by her in Politics and Society
or Technology and Digital Culture.
Cafe Utne
http://cafe.utne.com
Post something to
one of Cafe Utne's Boards. Topics range from
left leaning politics to sexuality to Life Journey
where you can share events from your life. The system
requires individual registration and Life Journey requires
a second additional registration. Some
material on the Utne boards, may not be suitible for young children
and those preferring a G-rated environment. Also some Utne
boards are extremely sluggish.
Skills Required: Fearlessness and
an interest in world events, politics, human nature, or
the arts. Willingness to register
Verification: Let the ZC2ZC3 mailing list
know where
you posted. ZOIDRubashov sometimes visits this board, and
you are likely to see an occasional post by her at Life Journey.
KnowPost
http://www.knowpost.com
Knowpost is a question and answer bulletin board covering
every conceivable topic. You can ask a question
or answer one. Topics range from sexuality to
taxes, and yes the Knowpost needs a pets section
and a gardening section badly.
Skills Required: A willingness to register and the courage
required to speak your mind in a public place. Also the Knowpost
is a bit slow.
Verification: Let the ZC2ZC3 mailing list or ZOIDRubashov know that
you posted to KnowPost.
School Tales
http://216.35.120.23/Indices/72476.html
Post to the board where people recount their educational triumphs. The
world of academia is a fun exciting place and this board proves it.
Skills Required: Have a positive attitude about school and
the courage to speak your mind in public.
Verification: Let ZOIDRubashov or the ZC2ZC3 mailing list know
that you posted to this board.
Back to the Natural and Environmental Science
Yes, I was a biology major in college, but many of you
love animals and raise plants. The natural sciences are
just plain fun or at least a basis for many fun activities.
Circle of Seasons -- ZOID CITY's Journey North Board
http://www.vestris.com/cgi-agnes/three/agnes?CseasonAgnes+CseasonAgnesHTML
Circle of Seasons is where you can report your observations
of seasonal change in nature. Report bird and insect migrations, the first
frost or first frost free night, leaf-out, flowers coming up etc....
Post to Circle of Seasons and obtain work credit. I take
the posts every week or two and put them in the
Journey North Database.
Skills Required: You have to get away from your machine and
spend some time out of doors. You also have to be willing to
give partial geographic information and to have the nerve to
speak in public.
Verification: Let your House Manager or ZOIDRubashov know
that you posted.
Aca Challenge - Domestic Animals
Find a fun and
interestnig link that teaches you
something about any domestic
animal. Topics for links include:
spay/neuter, animal care, animal
physiology, animal breeds and
fancy, animals in agriculture, animal
training, and animal myths and
legends. Petz and Neopets do not fit this assignment. You can
reate a Petz or Neopets based assignment but this offering
is not for that.
Real animals and learning about them is exciting and
interesting. This link will become
part of Portal Project though
you are also free to use it on your own
site. This assignment is active, thanks to Amy H.!
Skills Required: Love for and interest in animals. Patience
and perseverence in finding links. Stop by for
link hunting links.
Verification: Send your links to ZOIDRubashov.
Back to the
Computers, Coding, and HTML
If you want to learn more about web pages, computers,
and coding, at least some of these assignments are for you.
There are assignments for beginners, those who know a bit of
HTML, and for those with advanced skills. Many of these assignments
can be brutal but the end product is a better web page and
improved knowledge, so if you have the time, they are definitely worth your while.
Submit to Peer Reivew
Select a reviewer and
request the "critique from the infernal regions." You
will then receive what you ask for and
attempt to make changes on your site. Beware, you may receive a
lot of criticism, but you will also learn a lot. Currently Gothwalk and ZOIDRubashov are
the only ones doing reviews from the infernal regions.
Skills Required: Lots of time and a very thick skin.
You will need the time to make changes to your site. You
must also be willing to learn enough hand coding in HTML
to tweak your site.
Verification: A changed and upgraded site proves
you have completed the assignment.
Beginners' Hand Coding Special
This
assignment is open only to those who have
created their sites using the
Expage editor, Geobuilder,
Frontpage, Homestead Drag and Drop, Composer, Claris, or
any other WYSIWYG editor. Salvage one of your pages, by cutting
and pasting text to one file and downloading graphics to other files. Most
wysiwig code is too bloated and messy to tweak. You are better off starting
from scratch. Then
obtain a tutorial. There are several at the Portal
Page. Finally, recode the page. For those of you on Expage, this means finding a
new full-service provider. Homestead users will need to use absolute
addresses for all links, and for those on Homestead, it will
mean creating your page offline and importing it.
Skills Required: Perseverence and a willingness to learn
the text editing language, HTML. Do not be afraid to ask for help.
This assignment is probably a time sink, but web page work is a
labor of love.
Verification: Give Gothwalk or
ZOIDRubashov the URL of your hand coded page.
Coding HTML
Code the portal pages, additional help pages, and
other pages... Prepare the code offline and send it with any background
and graphics you wish to include to ZOIDRubashov.
Skills Required: You must be able to code HTML without the use of
an editor. Hand code is easier to fix, change, and move. It works with most browsers
including older versions. If you want to code for ZOID CITY, or if
you want any position of leadership, learn to handle raw HTML. This does
not mean knowing
how to handle every bell and whistle. The basics work admirably.
Verification: Send your code to ZOIDRubashov or
your House Manager, depending on what you have coded. Note:
Tasia has done some coding for ZOID already. For beginner coders,
we offer two other assignments.
CGI/Perl Coding/hosting
ZOID Community Competition currently needs a voting booth
that tracks IP's on a daily basis and calculates percentile-range scores.
ZOID City Community and Community Competition also needs a prettier
clock (one with graphic digits that are not just green LED on a black background).
We can also use our own calendar and games. Suggest a project of your own. CGI stands
for Common Gateway Interface and it makes web
pages interactive. You have probably experienced this when
you posted to a board or did CGI based chat such as TGChat
. There are people who can write
this code and mount existing scripts. If you're one of them, we can use your talent badly.
Skills Required:
The ability to create CGI/Perl scripts and mount them or provide
reasonable directions for mounting them so that
a novice can do it.
Verification: When Gothwalk or Josh receives the
script and it works, you have completed this assignment.
Back to the
MUCKs, MOOs, and Active Worlds
MUCKs, MOOs, and their kin are real time interactive worlds where you
can chat, build, and walk around. Most of the older worlds are text
based and rely on a command language for building and movement.
This makes the MUCK offerings, the most challenging assignments on this
board. Active Worlds is a
graphic MU**. It is challenging because you need to work within a set
repetoire of pieces to build what you want. Without text or with only
limited text it is hard to give your creations the meaning that they
have in a text based environment. With either sort of world, you will
need to download software for access. For the text based worlds,
the software is Pueblo. Proceed
to the Chaco.com web site and download the Pueblo 2.1 executable.
Active Worlds has its own software,
really a browser of sorts, available at its own web site.
If
you are under eighteen or using your parents' machine or any shared machine,
make sure you have your parents' blessing before downloading any
software. If you have never downloaded software before, have an
experienced user with you the first time you do it.
In addition,
these worlds are all small and/or somewhat empty. The first few
times you log on, I (ZOIDRubashov) will be glad to go with you. Please let me know
when you plan to MU**. The current MU**ing assignments are for raw
newbies. As you become more experienced, I will add offerings for
more experienced MU**ers.
With the exception of Active Worlds and Aiden,
most of these MU**'s existed well before there was a web. I have
been MU**ing since 1992, and my stinging critique of the Site Fights
was the result of having spent time in MU**'s . They are among
the BEST social environments on the web. Much of
ZOID's cultural ethos comes out of the MUCKs.
HoloMUCK
Pueblo Settings: Address: holo.rodents.montreal.qc.ca Port: 5757
Log on to Holo, register, get a user name and password and
claim an apartment. Build in this apartment by changing its description
and adding as many bells and whistles as you can. OR
if you have done this already, you may work on getting
your first level builder bit. The Wizards on Holo will give you
this bit after you build to standards. It is basicly passing a fairly exacting
test. The Wizards are nice people but their first job
is maintaining the database that is HoloMuck. They will, thus, show you
no mercy. You can do either the first or first and second part of this assignment.
Skills Required: A willingness to master a command-driven language.
There are online help files but learning to move and the rudiments
of building code take time. This is another time sink.
Verification: I(ZOIDRubashov) plan to be online with anybody who
wants to do this assignment but if by some fluke I am not, let me
know who you are on Holo and where you reside.
Grass Roots
Pueblo Settings: Address: moo.enabling.org
Port:8888
Log on to GrassRoots, register, get a user name and a home. This is not
as easy as it looks OR if you have done
this already, you can build a room. GrassRoots gives out
builder bits like candy. It tends to be active mainly
in the day time in the Eastern Time Zone. It is also as close
to a G-rated MOO as there is. If you are looking for a world
without content restirctions, choose a different assignment.
Skills Required: A willingness to master a command-driven
language. There are online help files but learning to move
and the rudiments of building code take time. MOO code differs a
bit from MUCK code. I think it is harder. This is a time sink.
Verification: I(ZOIDRubashov) plan to be online with anybody who wants to do
this assignment but if by some fluke I am not, let me know who you are
on Grass Roots and where you reside.
Legacy
Pueblo Settings: Address:legacy.muq.org Port:9999
Log on to Legacy, register, get a user name and password and
a railroad stop. I will set up some @chownable property, so that you do not
get stuck building a floater and end up begging people to @link
you in. Build something by changing the description and adding as
many bells and whistles as you can. OR if you
have done this already, work on building something more
extensive. Legacy is a MUQ, and the code is a
bit different than MUCK code. There is no building test
and you can get quota, the stuff you use to build, fairly easily.
Skills Required: A willingness to master a command
-driven language. There are online help files but learning to
move and the rudiments of building code take time. This is a time sink.
Verification: I(ZOIDRubahsov) plan to be online with anybody who
wants to do this assignment but if by some fluke I
am not, let me know who you are on Legacy and
where you reside.
Active Worlds -- Vilna
Software Requirements: Active Worlds requires its own browser, that
will not be fully functional unless you pay $20 and become a citizen. If
enough people, and probably that means only one, take up
this assignment, I will set up a chat channel for noncitizens so
you are able to work around the browser's insufficiencies.
Log on to Active Worlds, and proceed to Vilna (Alpha World 912n 5080e). Vilna
is a town I set up on Active Worlds that offers plenty of seed
area for building. You do not have to mimic my building style, but I do
ask you to build within walking distance of the roads at Vilna.
Once at Vilna set up a small house or other dwelling somewhere along the
roads or build your own road to connect your property to the main roads
OR if you are already an Active Worlds
citizen or have been on Active Worlds before, we can work out
something more complicated.
Skills Required: Patience and focus. You need to be patient to
learn to build in a graphical environment. You need focus
to create objects that have meaning and are not just sculptures of pieces. Active
Worlds has a high attrition rate due to the fact that many builders
are only left with sterile pretty dwellings. In addition, a knowledge of
html helps you both in embellishing your objects and in providing some
interactivity for them.
Verification: I(ZOIDRubashov) hope to be online with you the first
few times, but if by some fluke you go it alone on Active Worlds,
please let me know who you are, whether you have paid to
become a citizen, and where you
reside (Active Worlds uses coordinates rather than named
addresses).
Back to the
Home and Family
If you've been reading through this page and saying
"what really interests me in my life is my home and children (or grandchildren)
," these are the work offerings for you!
Aca Challenge -- Doing Good Things for Kids
Find an enjoyable and interestnig link that teaches you
something about improving the
lives of children. Suggested topics
for links include: playground design,
family camping, teaching children to cook, sharing stories with
children, homework help, pen-pal sites for kids etc... Pregnancy and
childbirth links are also welcome. The emphasis of
this project is on solutions rather than problems, so no missing children,
dying children, or dead children please. The links must also lead to sites
that are more than someone's baby pictures. This link will
become part of Portal Project, though
you are also free to use it on your own site.
Skills Required: Curiosity about what you can do to make children's
lives easier, more enjoyable, and what can stimulate their intellects.
The Links for Link Hunters available at
the Portal Page can be a great help in starting this work.
Verification: Send the URL's for your links to ZOIDRubashov.
p> ZOID Intergen
