The Elites Club

From XgenWiki

The Elites Club is an exclusive User Group of the XGen Studios Forums, and is invisible to normal members. It is not open to new membership and is very selective about new admissions to the group.

Contents 1 History 1.1 The Friars Club 1.2 The Elites Forum 1.3 Elite's Club Ver. 2.0 1.3.1 History 1.3.2 Benefits of Membership 1.3.3 Pranks 2 Controversy 3 Current Members 4 References

History

The Elites Club has taken several forms in its time on the forum. Each form has had different members, goals, and methods of activity.

The Friars Club

The first incarnation of a group solely for more experienced members of the forum was perhaps the Friars Club. It was created August 13th, 2003 by Skye as a place for the more experienced members of XGen to discuss the forum and how it could be improved ^[1]. The club became inactive in late 2004 and the last post was on April 23rd, 2005 ^[2]. During its activity, the Club would host monthly roasts, where they would make jokes at the expense of respected members of the forum, as well as donate XCash to the member being roasted ^[3]. The Friars also created art contests and trivia games with XCash prizes for the forum ^[4].

Notable members of the Friars Club included eatmorchikin6464, Solean, TOP HAT McBABS, Rambo, Kerry, Vagrant, and jason. ^[5]

The Elites Forum

Table of Denominators and Their Corresponding Ranks
Members of the Elites Forum		High Elites		Master Elites
25 - 30	Minor	50 - 55	Whiz	75 - 80	Icon
30 - 35	Junior	55 - 60	Master	80 - 85	Idol
35 - 40	Regular	60 - 65	Genius	85 - 90	Prophet
40 - 45	Pro	65 - 70	Star	90 - 95	Guru
45 - 50	Veteran	70 - 75	Legend	95 - 100	Deity
				> 100	Ha><or

A second group concerned with improving the forum was the Elites Forum, created in April 2004 by Darcsideproductions. The group's purpose was to better the forums through making membership to the Elites Forum an incentive for good forum behavior. After Darcsideproductions lapsed into inactivity, Kerry took over running the club briefly.

A point system to reward positive posting behavior on the forum was introduced in June 2004, called "Denominators". Posts that were funny, informative, intelligent, creative, and grammatically correct were worth one Denominator. Posts that were stupid, uninformative, spam, useless, or had terrible grammar were worth negative one Denominator.

Elite's Club Ver. 2.0

A second version of the club was founded in February 2006 by Ripht|CoC, entitled "Elite's Club Ver. 2.0". It was created to simulate the benefits of a smaller forum without sacrificing the existing userbase of the forum. ^[6] From the start, members were largely against making the inner workings of the club public information, and ideas of badges of membership were rejected in favor of secrecy. Common threads are forum games or link shares, with relaxed standards and rules aiding more natural conversation. This iteration is currently active, although it has no mission to better the forums or encourage better posting. The current Elites Club is very exclusive and does not accept new members easily or with any regularity. It consists mainly of members of the forum with join dates from 2003 to 2005.

History

• On June 27th, 2006, c00lryguy left the Elites Club voluntarily over alleged discrimination against non-elite members, however he is presently active again.
• Once Ripht|CoC began spending less time on the forums, the Elites leadership passed to ehntoo on August 3rd, 2006 ^[7].
• On November 6th, 2007, forum moderator ManUpstairs suggested that the Elites refrain from pranks, to which forum moderator Vagrant and XGen staff member Jacob agreed with. ^[8]
• On January 8th, 2008, theryman proposed disbanding the Elites due to increased animosity from normal members. This was rejected in favor of continuing to lay low on the regular forum. ^[9]

Benefits of Membership

• While XCash was still implemented, Elites received a 25% discount at the XCash store.
• On February 23, 2006, Chejrw and Vagrant accepted requests for making Elites titles unique, bolded, or in custom colors. ^[10]
• On October 10, 2006, Chejrw made it possible for elites to change their own title through the User CP, however the ability to bold or change the color was lost. ^[11]

Pranks

As early as April 2006, the Elites have been concerned with the dullness of the forum and ways that activity could be created and interest generated. One way they went about creating interest was through pranks on the forum.

• On June 10th, Chejrw created a group called the "super elites club" to see who would join it. ^[12]
• On August 21, 2007, a fake beta version of Pillage the Village was 'leaked' to the Pillage the Village forum hours before the real release. Play the Fake Beta Version
• On November 4th, 2007, Naborr proposed all Elites begin using avatars featuring "Big Brother", a theme from George Orwell's novel 1984, as well as signatures featuring the Party's slogans, "Freedom is Slavery", "War is Peace", and "Ignorance is Strength." ^[13]
• On November 26th, 2007, Denacioust proposed that Elites begin to brag about beta testing Stick Arena: Ballistic , and soon the November 21st News Thread was filled with claims of Beta testing and others claiming otherwise. ^[14]
• On February 21st, 2010, Naborr proposed all Elites begin using titles with word play including the word "bro". Soon after, MushroomMammoth proposed matching avatars with sunglasses. Both were enacted with glorious success.

Controversy

The name "Elites" is controversial on the forums, as it is seen as putting some members into a higher class than others. This controversy motivated some original members to consider changing the name of the first Elites Club.

I suggested [a name change] because the name doesn't describe what the club has *always* been about: Improving the XGen forums. If we changed the club to fit the name, we'd end up with a status club so people could put on airs above the users who weren't members. That's *not* what this club is about, and never has been.

Animosity between the current Elites Club and non-members has resulted in the term "Prole" being used in a derogatory sense to indicate a non-Elite, taken from the novel 1984 which depicted the "Elites" as the top of the social chain, the "Proles" at the bottom, and "Big Brother", the overall ruler.

Current Members

XGen Forum Join Year
2003	Afterburner Bodadem c00lryguy Chronic crusty Danielle Darc^2	denacioust Doh ehntoo Freddy h00pla Hand of the Castle HungryMonkey	Hypersolidsnake jason Jonanin Kerry Leperkawn Liokae Morwin t3h Banninator	Namhet Posh Jibbons Rambo ripht|CoC Solean The Brown Cow theryman	ToKillAnATTICUS TOP HAT McBABS Uncle Sam Eagle Vagrant Vince Wurmy
2004	Blixinator Coheed DarkReality Doug05257 game-bot Helios ʕÎnsąnitÿʔ	JoeyG Justin Mime moonm325 ˙•٠•●Motherloader●•٠•˙ noobpwner1 np v2.0	Popolop Sperry ssgtGrimreaper supernerden ¿CRAZYØ¿
2005	Aaedien Chimpy Destructive eyebrow Guybrush Threepwood Hex	Ice Punk Kevim Marty mattz1010 Mod#4 Naborr	Shadow Crest StickAvalancheman Syrito Tanktunker Woolfenstien
2006	Alice Cooper fruitycaker1 Logic magcius Mara Mike Holiday	Scornic Screech
2007	LIME! MushroomMammoth
2008
2009	Rawrx3Katie

List last updated on March 1st, 2010.

References