There's no one else like Arch. He didn't invent Discord RP, but his unrivaled focus and determination turned it from a niche, unsupported activity into a powerhouse of the modern DB. While he was molding the new position of Exarch and everything that goes with it, he also served with distinction as both RHoJ and LHoJ and as M:RGT. For the last year and half, he's been one of our most thoughtful and communicative HMs, regularly publishing tomesreports full of new courses, changes, and musings on data. As I noted in my recommendation for his most recent Ruby Scepter, he also took it upon himself to prepare extremely detailed reports and analysis for each of our clans. Much of the work manipulating raw data into useable reports has now been automated (thanks Erin!) but the secret sauce has always been Arch's incisive analysis. Having done a much less impressive form of the same thing for a couple of years, I appreciate how much work he puts into it and I'm sure the CONs do as well--even when they don't necessarily like it. He also argues a lot and is sometimes correct.

He's done more for this club than I think most people realize. For all of that, I'm happy to promote him to EL2.

Lord Dacien Victae, 2024-04-03 12:54:41 UTC

Migratory birds will often fly in formations where the entire flock will benefit aerodynamically from the work of the lead bird. Arch is, in many ways, a lead bird in the council and the club making the burden lighter for all those who follow in his wake. Whether something is “his job” or not just about anything he touches is improved through his professionalism, passion for members and data-driven insight. Just about every half-baked idea or initiative I have carried out as Fist has benefited directly from Arch’s formal and informal input. Arch brings a calm and rational perspective to every situation and almost always has the data to back up his positions.

Arch sets the bar for excellence high in every club role he has taken on, big or small. Historically the higher tiers of elder were those who made an impact on the club. Arch is more than worthy to stand among the legends of past leaders. Tortured bird metaphors aside, I’m thankful to have Arch as a fellow councilor and as a friend. I do not exaggerate when I say the club is a better place because you are in it.

Councillor Turel Sorenn, 2024-04-02 17:58:45 UTC

Arch is a flurry of knowledge and memes. He took me under his wing when he came Headmaster and while I’ve moved into the nest next door, I’m still benefitting from his guidance. He taught me a lot of the site’s internal systems, across multiple occasions of streaming his screen for me, allowing me to be far more independent in my duties and I know he’s done this with others as well. Arch also inadvertently encouraged me to learn video editing, as well as being fully supportive in both DB and non-DB related things. This is from reading position applications to groaning about real life bureaucracy with me. To do this day I still pop into his dms for advice and know that I’ll receive a level-headed and thought out response. He works to ensure that everyone gets the best experience out of this club as they possibly can. Working in the SA is a huge workload but Arch’s leadership made it doable. Even if he can’t seem to stop adding to the workload, it never felt like it was impossible. Even if we had 3 different methods of tracking it all… Don’t think too hard about it.

I’m grateful to have gotten my time as Arch’s Praetor and am even happier to get to help kick him up a step on the ladder of old people. This is a more than well-deserved promotion, with his impact on individual members that he oversees being phenomenal even long after they take flight away. It's people like Arch that make the club what it is. Enjoy the extra points Arch!

Envoy Zuza Lottson, 2024-04-02 20:30:29 UTC

Hey look, a snowy owl!

Now that I've distracted Arch, let me say some embarrassing things about him. Arch is the guy I can always count on to talk data to me. That is to say, he is going to give me a very in-depth analysis of any topic he finds himself invested in or I've asked him to look into and woe be unto me if I don't listen attentively because if I blink at the wrong moment I'll be gone. Which is so impossibly valuable to have.

I really do trust Arch to always tell me his opinion and throw a wall of data at me, even (and especially) when it doesn't align with my own. That's how we get to the right answers. Or, at least, as close as we can get to them. In the same ball park, even. All this while he is the kind of guy to hold himself to the highest of standards, including self-imposed timelines that I don't even have to enforce, because he'll do it for me and be harder on himself than I ever could be.

So, now that you realized the owl isn't real and I have your attention back, thank you for being yourself Arch. You bring value and progress to anything you put your mind to and this entire club is benefitting from it.

Atra, 2024-04-03 00:10:08 UTC

Hey Duet, Bard Gemni, everyone else is making bird puns, can you give me a good one?

Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field!

I can work with that. That's actually a great place for me to start with enlightening you, prospective readers, to things you might or might not know or realize about the work Arch does day in and day out for this club. I’m sure other people will cover all the cool stuff they do as HM, so I’ll just focus on the things that we overlap with in our rolls as Exarch and HM, and then as friends who don’t always agree on the “how” but always agree on the fact that something needs to be done or changed.

First, let's talk about RP. You know, that hot new platform that's become one of the most popular activities in the Brotherhood. That little platform that generated 2,005,394 words of fiction, which translates to 4,010 Clusters of Ice? Yeah, none of that would be a thing right now without Arch. And while they already technically was awarded for his time as Exarch, I wanted to just shine some light on the fact that my proposal I sent to the GMs back in 2021 with our crazy idea of coding RP wouldn't have been a thing if it were not for Arch's confidence/belief in the idea, and then helping pave the way for me to even exist as Exarch.

I mention all of this to remind everyone how impactful Arch's mere presence, willingness to listen to ideas, and to translate ideas into actionable reality displays a level of emotional intelligence that is not just rare, but nearly non-existent in this club. The ability to listen, to really process feedback and figure out how we could possibly make something like that work.

Next, since numbers are important and stuff, let's talk about data, since I just did math. That's Arch's fault, because they encourages me by being a fellow data-nerd with the intent of using that information to make improvements. Arch's reports are some of the most detailed and informative reports I've ever read in my 15 years in this club. It's not just random numbers or endless scrolling spreadsheets, either. It's a thoughtful analysis of the behavior of our members, their activity, and trends in the data. They’ve been looking at this for years, and only recently were finally given the platform they deserved.

This isn’t what a leader in the Brotherhood does. It’s what someone who sees the bigger picture of what makes our little club on the internet tick, and tirelessly brainstorms, mounts a soap box, yells over the other people yelling, and tries no matter how much resistant or pushback there is to make the club a better place. And that, at its core, is why Arch is such a special birb member. They never stop trying to make improvements.

Speaking of improvements. Anyone else get spammed recently in their email by the Wiki notifications? Probably not just me. I have filters set up for every kind of notice, but not Wiki. You know why? I honestly get them so sparingly, it never seemed worth it. But today, I got a wave of them. Routine file maintenance and cleanup. Seems unimportant, probably, to most people. But when you consider that the Wiki is one of our two main knowledge bases, that houses our clubs literal Covenant, policies, and procedures for how we function, our very history, you might start to realize why it should be probably unkempt a bit better. It’s also where story ideas, creative worldbuilding and the tenants of our writing activities get a platform to live. Sure everyone says “we should really update the wiki”, but how many members, leaders, actually have stepped up to do so?

Surprise. Arch has. And I’ve been fortunate enough to get to see the work that’s happened at a rapid rate. It’s been years in the waiting, and just adds to Arch’s track record of getting things done.

Lastly, when we discuss the ranks of Elders, there’s a lot being figured out right now. I don’t have an answer, and, if I’m being honest, it’s easy for me to get frustrated with how other members or leaders have made their way to their respective Elder rank. But the one member I have no reservations about? That is doing it quicker than I did? That will now become only the second 5 digit [pin] Elder 2 in club history? The one member I think has easily earned this elevation in earnest?

Arch.

Congratulations my friend. I don’t know if myself, or this club as a whole, would be the same without your daily impact. Especially considering I still to this day double check my bullet point lists for continuous punctuation.

-W

Legend Wally, 2024-04-03 03:07:12 UTC