James. Thank you for everything you do. You make the rest of us DCers look competent and put together by your sheer force of will in keeping our fancy ass database and website churning along.

I think it’s even more than that, and maybe something people don’t realize. You don’t just respond to requests (you do, and you do it well) - you are often able to anticipate needs we didn’t even have, due to your sheer understanding of how the DB works, and how the interplay works with the systems on the website.

For that, and 100,000 other things over the past decade, thank you.

I’ve known James for a long, long time. Indeed, I’ve had the chance of working with him as far back as 2003 when we joined forces to work on the first of what would be many ACC overhauls. We continued our partnership during our time in Arcona where I had the pleasure of serving under him as both a quaestor and proconsul. It sure seems like this all happened in another lifetime, doesn’t it? That’s why it was my absolute pleasure to renew that partnership when I was appointed Herald.

Always a class act, always helpful, never once bristling no matter what request I throw at him. It always amazes me how calm and composed he is, how humble he is despite the fact that the entire backbone of this club rests squarely on his shoulders. It can’t be an heavy burden to carry and yet by sheer force of character you make it look easy.

I have nothing but the utmost admiration for you, my friend, and I am constantly amazed by what you achieve month after month, year after year. It feels like an understatement to say that we all owe you a great deal.

It cannot be said enough, thank you.

Anything we say or award to James always feels lesser than what the man truly deserves. Despite a thousand moments where he could have, and maybe should have gone “y’all are crazy”, James continues to be the literal backbone of this club. Not once have I ever seen him be anything less than kind, thoughtful, and putting the rest of us to shame with his incredible work ethic, building insane dreams into a beautiful reality for every member to enjoy.

Always above and beyond, James puts us all to shame. Thank you for everything.

Here's where I'd put my rec for a super ultra exclusive James only award...IF WE HAD ONE!

Instead, we're throwing some of the good stuff at him, because quite literally none of this would be possible without him. James is the backbone of the Brotherhood's infrastructure and a lot of the implementation of the Council's "crazy ideas". I don't think we ever have a single conversation that doesn't have a "depends on what James says about it" thrown in. Why? Because if he says it can't be done, we're back to the drawing board. That's how important he is.

And, honestly, I respect the hell outta James. Thank you so much for the work you put in on keeping this website functioning and moving forward. Even if it can feel thankless sometimes, and we can only give you shiny internet credits. Take a shower in those credits, though. You deserve it!

I think if I met James in person I’d legit hug him. Nothing funny about it, just absolute mad respect for the legend that he is. A couple years ago I started delving into whether or not I could make a unique card game experience for the Brotherhood, evolving the Star Wars: Customizable Card Game (SW:CCG) code that was made public.

My first stop was with James to understand if he could support it on the site. I do not know how many times he has questioned his simple words of encouragement and support that it could be done. (I will not ask as I fear to know) but that moment set me on a path that let me realize a dream I’ve had since I was thirteen (before many of you were alive).

That would not have been possible without James and I will forever be indebted to him for giving me the opportunity. Here’s to the best of people that has enabled others to be better!

James is actually the cornerstone of this club. No exaggeration. He is the architect that maintains the figurative building that our club occupies. He’s the one that makes it all work. James is a consummate professional, toiling away on an ever-growing list of tasks that make our daily operation possible. A mere “Thank You” is inadequate measured against how vital James is to the Club’s operation.

The skills that he brings to the table are so far beyond my understanding, I can’t even begin to comprehend the full scope of his impact.

In my eyes, James is a powerful sorcerer that lives on top of a mountain and communes with the machine spirits. And we are fortunate to have his powers at our disposal. We require many goats to sacrifice to keep his favor upon us, but it is but a pittance against how he aids us.

With the utmost sincerity, James, Thank you for everything. Thank you for your understanding, patience, attentiveness, skill, and most importantly the time you have invested in the Club. We are truly indebted to you. Even a shadow of the vast impact you have had on this organization would be worthy of this award, you’ve earned this many times over. You are the best of all of us. Thank you, from the depth of my heart.

Everyone knows how much James has done for the club. "Praise be to James" isn't just a mantra—it has its own GIFs. The Brotherhood as we know it wouldn't exist without James' hard work.

There's another side to the story, though. There are secrets within the Seneschal's office. I've worked for James as his Magistrate for almost two years, and the things I've seen there almost aren't fit for public posting.

Folks, this man works even harder than you think.

For every feature request that hits our task list, there's at least one completely separate project that James has thought of and decided to do of his own accord. He fights ongoing battles with bot swarms and AI scrapers to make sure the site is performing well for our members. He finds time to give thoughtful and detailed answers to his sometimes-bumbling assistant (it's me, hi). I wouldn't have been able to code the new ACC judging system last summer without his guidance.

James' influence also shapes the way the Brotherhood's leaders thinks about projects before he even starts coding. His reminders to "figure out what you actually want"—the club leadership's equivalent of Howie's "put it in an email"—help keep our ideas grounded enough to be achievable. James also is happy to help us explore alternatives if our preferred plans don't work out.

In World War 2, there was a saying that "fighter pilots make headlines, bomber pilots make history". James' work isn't as flashy as other Brotherhood leaders, but his work is foundational to the Brotherhood as we know it. I'm proud to have worked alongside him, and to add my recommendation to this award.

Congratulations, James!

There’s very few people without whom the Brotherhood could not exist. James is the first that springs to mind. Not just for his incredible skill at coding, but for the sheer length of his service. He’s been wrenching behind the scenes on our site through various positions since 2002, and has been the Seneschal since I hired him in 2012. That’s the longest term for a Seneschal ever, and likely for any dark council position. And through it all, he’s been patient with us Grand Masters as we try (and often fail in our excitement) to keep projects from creeping up in scope. He’s been responsive to members as bugs and unintended interactions happen on the site. He’s been a skilled hand at continually increasing the automation that the site does, from Promotheus through to Possessions and auto-awarding processes. Frankly, without James, much of what our members take for granted these days would not have ever been possible.

It’s been a constant process in mind, when I was on the hotseat, and after as I continue to annoy the hotseat with my ideas and projects, to minimize coder hours, to try to lessen the burden on James so that he can do the things he needs to do to keep us working. James is but one man, doing the work of several, and all out of love for our club. And that labor of love deserves to be noticed, deserves to be rewarded despite how little limelight he seeks.

I wrote the recc for his first Golden Lightsaber in 2013, and I’m happy to induct James into the very limited club of those who have two of them today – and the only one of us that has not already served as Grand Master. From a grateful club and from myself, thank you, James. Things would not be the same without you.

GM Muz Ashen The Lion of Tarthos

There’s very few people without whom the Brotherhood could not exist. James is the first that springs to mind. Not just for his incredible skill at coding, but for the sheer length of his service. He’s been wrenching behind the scenes on our site through various positions since 2002, and has been the Seneschal since I hired him in 2012. That’s the longest term for a Seneschal ever, and likely for any dark council position. And through it all, he’s been patient with us Grand Masters as we try (and often fail in our excitement) to keep projects from creeping up in scope. He’s been responsive to members as bugs and unintended interactions happen on the site. He’s been a skilled hand at continually increasing the automation that the site does, from Promotheus through to Possessions and auto-awarding processes. Frankly, without James, much of what our members take for granted these days would not have ever been possible.

It’s been a constant process in mind, when I was on the hotseat, and after as I continue to annoy the hotseat with my ideas and projects, to minimize coder hours, to try to lessen the burden on James so that he can do the things he needs to do to keep us working. James is but one man, doing the work of several, and all out of love for our club. And that labor of love deserves to be noticed, deserves to be rewarded despite how little limelight he seeks.

I wrote the recc for his first Golden Lightsaber in 2013, and I’m happy to induct James into the very limited club of those who have two of them today – and the only one of us that has not already served as Grand Master. From a grateful club and from myself, thank you, James. Things would not be the same without you.

GM Muz Ashen
The Lion of Tarthos

James, where would we be without you? The stone age. That's where. For those uninitiated for any terrible reason, or maybe they're just new, James is the driving force behind, well, everything we do. Changes and updates to the website's code, keeping it secure from attacks, our resident Construct the all-powerful dbb0t and its Discord integration, the million things every Council staff at some point dumps on him? James does it all. He doesn't complain. He isn't afraid to tell us when something can't be done or it's just too complex to implement.

We have given this man literally every reward possible. We even created a new Elder rank for him. It still isn't enough recognition for the amount of stuff James does, or the things he puts up with, and we will be forever sad when the day finally does come that he steps down. We have an amazing infrastructure unprecedented for a Star Wars club on the internet, and we should be grateful every single day to the man that keeps the ship afloat.

Thanks for everything, James. We can't thank you enough.

Zxyl Bes'uliik (Noobi)
Regent of the Brotherhood

I sure hope James doesn’t get tired of the hero worship he has around here. Certainly he deserves every ounce of it, as without him this club would be massively dead.

But not only is James a master coder and problem solver, he is just a plain good guy. Any time I’ve run into issues and bugs he has always quickly found, diagnosed and fixed, often faster than it took me to describe it. All with a friendly :) on his face. And despite everyone finding new and creative ways to add to his pile of work, he still hasn’t tried to kill us all yet.

So congrats James on the 100 Dark Crosses or you know, the real thing you are getting, which is a lot nicer, and still falls very short of what you really deserve.

There are few people that I feel words utterly fail to encapsulate who they are and what they've accomplished. When I met James he was already a legend and after spending the last three years working with him that perception has only grown.

So much of what we do is via the site and coming from the origins of AOL Chat rooms and .txt files being shared with rosters and individuals having to keep track of their own medals where people nick-picked your ID Line by way of audits - this is like living in a Jetson era future!

But, the site is just the surface of what James does. This year he took the final leap of my decades long dream of making custom SW:CCG cards and playing them with people into a reality. This was easily a three year knowledge leap forward for me and I love that he didn't say "no" he said "let me add it to the list."

Which, if you know James, is pretty much a guarantee it's going to get done and probably in ways better than you imagined.

So, whether it's a 100 DCs (which I really hope it is) or something far more impressive, you've earned it a million times over and I thank you for all you've done for me personally and for the club as a whole!

Kamjin "Maverick" Lap'lamiz
Justicar of the Brotherhood

To say James is irreplaceable would be an understatement. From squashing discord bot bugs to implementing half-baked ideas like platform caps on cluster races, James is the proverbial man behind the curtain making it all happen. We could invent new ranks and awards for him and it would never be enough. Thank you for everything you do.

If I had never joined, the Brotherhood would still be here. Maybe a little worse for not having me, I like to think, but it would still be here. And I think that's true of very nearly every individual member, including most GMs and highly decorated elders. But would we have a club in 2023 without James? Well, it's possible. We have other programmers around. Similar clubs have limped along without a James-equivalent. But essentially everything we offer our members besides chat is based on James' work.

Take my own work as an example. I built systems for chat RP. Well, actually James built the logging. And then he built a different, better logging. The bot commands? James did those, not just implementing but honestly a lot of the design as well. The idea of doing sessions through threads? James. Integrating snapshots into sessions? James. And so on. The SA systems, data analysis, that ACC tournament, it's James all the way down.

I think most members are aware of how much work James does but that's only part of it. Anyone who's worked with developers professionally and also worked with James will tell you how special this guy is. He's friendlier, more proactive, faster, and more creative in an unpaid club job than most devs are in the full-time job that puts food on their table. James will sometimes explain that some idea would be bad to implement in practice, but you can hit him with whatever stupid, inane feature request you want and he'll handle it with grace. It's inhuman. We couldn't get better support than James if we paid $150,000 a year for it, I know, I've worked with what that gets you and they're not on his level.

So if he wants a Silver Sash, or a GLS, or a new rank, or a holiday named after him, just give it to him. Does he want my blood? Sure, how much does he need?

Alethia Archenksova
Headmistress

There are no praises that haven't been said about James before and yet, we can't stop saying them again and again because he deserves to hear them again and again. Without James, this place would by far not be the same place as it is right now nor will it be able to evolve in the way it is. James from someone who has literally no clue of what you do to keep this place running please keep it up. You rock!

Our systems are quite literally held together by the lynchpin known as James. Nothing we do is possible without his care and attention. In fact, the fact that I'm writing this in a modal window designed to append this very rec to his award is only possible because of him.

That's why it's not an understatement to say, all is possible due to James. I can't really say anything else. He codes, makes it look easy, and adheres to the whims of fanciful idea types. That's not to say he'll blindly do everything you ask. No, James will be the first to say "well, that seems a silly way of doing it" and then offers solutions based on things he's already built into the systems.

For his perspective, presence, and coding wizardry, I offer my thanks and congratulations.

Thank you for everything.