The 'Shroom:Issue LXXXII/Tucky and SMB Discuss
Tucayo: HI, 'Shroom readers! I'm Tucayo, and I am here with none other than my partner-in-crime, Super Mario Bros., to bring you a very special joint section!
SMB: Hello everybody! I'm here with Tucayo. a!!
Tucayo: So, although this may seem like an interview, it is NOT. We will be casually discussing stuff about our history with the paper and more!
SMB: Yeah, just picture us sitting on those fancy couches wearing those robes and fez hats having a rousing discussion pertaining to ourselves!
SMB: We're not trying to steal Superchao's job here... Yet.
Tucayo: He won't know what hit him until we have him in our secret basement and we're the new interviewers!
Tucayo: Anyway. By the time this section is released, our term will have already ended - the third one for both of us. What could be our biggest takeaway from this past year?
SMB: That we both like the number three?
SMB: But seriously, I think that we both work really well together and we both really care for the paper. You can see it in the issues, in the time that we have put into the paper, and the people that we have surrounded ourselves with during our tenures (who, like us, have always cared about the project).
SMB: I think the biggest takeaway is that we have done the best that we could, that's all any person that cares can do anyway, right? And I think we've all done a pretty good job... You, me, the staff members and the writers... It's a big production, haha.
Tucayo: It's most definitely a big production! As we have said on several occasions before, there is so much to The 'Shroom than the two old men running the show! It's so great that we have both managed to work together for so long, and that we have had so many great people to work along us.
Tucayo: But my biggest takeaway from this year is the effort all people put into the paper. Because, as you can imagine, we all have a bunch of things going on in real life, and yet we all come together to give you, the readers, the best issues we can produce.
Tucayo: That I love the most.
Tucayo: On that note, I always find it amusing how we are now pretty much best friends when we actually met each other due to a disagreement on a proposal! The old days...
SMB: Yeah, haha. I remember that. I think I misunderstood something you had posted in my proposal, or vice versa... But I rose a huge fuss about it, and after we resolved it we ended up becoming friends.
SMB: I was sort of an odd person back then... Getting into random arguments for no reason. But hey, at least things worked out really well!
Tucayo: Really well! Since then we have gone on to be part of several teams across the community, many times working together.
Tucayo: That brings a question I had been thinking about. Is there any part of the community you wish you had been more involved in? A part of the community you wish you had brought your reign of terror upon??
Tucayo: A happy reign of terror, if I may add
SMB: Haha. Well, I've practically been involved in everything I could get involved with... The 'Shroom, Userpedia, chat, the wiki, the forum, the Poll Committee, the Mafia Hosts Guild, the Awards Committee...
Tucayo: Oh good Poochy
SMB: I sort of wish I had been more involved with the Awards Committee. Not as much directing it or anything, but attending more of the meetings. I fell short in that due to being busy on the days that everybody met. If I were to sign up for the committee this next year, my goal would be near-perfect attendance of the meetings.
Tucayo: The same thing has happened to me the years I have been in the AC. Only last year I managed to attend more meetings. Boy, they are fast-paced.
Tucayo: I wish I could have been more involved in the forum. It was always the place I had to stop frequenting when I got really busy in real life haha
Tucayo: And Userpedia, of course. I love the site and I regret not being able to help it more while I was active there.
SMB: I think you would have been great on all of those places, especially Userpedia. It was always fun working with everybody there, and I remember the times we would work together in some of the meetings there.
Tucayo: Heh, thanks! The cool thing about Userpedia is that, since it's a smaller community, it's more relaxed. Definitely a great team you have there.
SMB: Well, it's Hypnotoad's and Crash's team now, haha. I still administrate over there, but I haven't done much in a while.
SMB: But I've always thought it was pretty tight-nit over there too.
SMB: I actually remember you got a start in their administration because you helped clean up after some sort of huge attack on there involving account-accessing and NukeDPL?
Tucayo: That is right! They basically resorted to the people that were online in chat at the time. And, if I remember correctly, I hadn't been promoted to Sysop yet in the SMW, so that was my first Sysop experience! Although I could be wrong, the dates start to become a blur, haha.
Tucayo: If our budget covers fancy couches and robes we should have a fact checker too. New staff position, maybe? :P
SMB: Yeah, I remember that. I think it was you and Turboo, I forget who else had helped out except for the other admins online, but it all got cleaned up in no time.
SMB: And... we can probably make a position like that. We'd have to get the money from your pension, though.
Tucayo: And I actually had a lot of fun doing that! Restoring attacks is indeed painful and tiresome, but it's also fun in a weird way I can't quite explain.
Tucayo: Well, that will be a problem, especially since your staffers continuously take my money D: Kids nowadays have no respect for their elders' money
SMB: I get what you mean. A lot of my recent edits on the Super Mario Wiki (or, well, the few edits I've made in the past few months, haha) have been reverting some vandalism from anonymous editors and new accounts.
SMB: It is not good that we get those sorts of bad edits, but it feels satisfying to get rid of it when it does happen.
SMB: Speaking of which, isn't that one of the main reasons you got promoted to Patroller on the MarioWiki a long time ago in 2009? The first time, that is.
Tucayo: It was! My first period as a Servant of Darkness. At the time we were getting a lot of vandalism from Maria, and so Nerdy Guy and myself were promoted to patrollers. Oh man, now that you say "a long time ago in 2009" it strikes me that '09 was five years ago. Damn.
Tucayo: It was short-lived, but it helped me be considered for a second tenure. And I really liked that second time, since it's when I got to better know several of my friends!
SMB: Yeah, it's crazy... Half a decade! to think that five and six years ago, we were the new guys on the block.
Tucayo: And now we're seen as the old people telling kids to stay off our lawns!
SMB: And yeah, I definitely remember your second time as Patroller. You were a workhorse, and that was really the time that you and I had been in the staff together.
SMB: The other times we were kind of in-and-out at different times, haha.
Tucayo: Oh man, around that time we were a pretty close group, I loved those days. I loved this last tenure as well, but they were undoubtedly different.
Tucayo: Talking about returns, you just recently returned to Global Moderator on the forums! How's the life of a mod? Is it really entertaining to have private conversations in locked topics?
SMB: Being a moderator is good! I'll have more time to do stuff after the end of The 'Shroom term, so I think it'll only get better.
SMB: But I've always found the forum moderating to be fun, the tools are straightforward and it isn't too difficult, so it's really enjoyable for me.
Tucayo: Yes, I have seen that from my short experience as a local mod. It should be a fun thing.
Tucayo: Now that you mentioned the end of The 'Shroom term, by the time we post this section the election will have ended. And I suppose we are both qualified to discuss elections, seeing as - adding up - we have ran a whooping amount of eight times. Do you have a favorite election, or one that you found more interesting than the others?
SMB: It's quite a lot of times! I really like the elections because they allow for competition of ideas-- if somebody runs and you think you have better ideas, you run. Or perhaps you just have a friendly rivalry going on too, haha.
Tucayo: I can say that last sentence is particularly true!
SMB: Either way, I think last year was pretty amazing. Never could I face a more formidable competitor than you, and I think that was showcased last time around.
Tucayo: Thank you, the same goes out to you! The good thing about having you as a competitor was that I knew The 'Shroom would end up in good hands. Last year's was fantastic, our closest election of any kind yet!
Tucayo: But if I had to pick a favorite I would go with the 2011-2012 election, between the two of us and MG1. That one had it all! Excitement, great ideas, and three friends in a friendly rivalry!
SMB: Yeah, I've always felt the same way too. I would have been fine with you winning too, because I know you know what you're doing and you've always held The 'Shroom in a special place in your heart.
SMB: One of the reasons they call you Mr. 'Shroom, haha.
SMB: I remember those elections too, with Marioguy1. It was honestly really fun having multiple people run (as in, more than two). He had a lot of good ideas too, like the Activities Manager (which proved to be a very useful position in the end).
Tucayo: And let's not forget the 2009-2010 election with Stoob! That was a fun one too.
Tucayo: My favorite part about the last election was undoubtedly the debates between you and me, I feel those debates helped us come up with great ideas and plans.
SMB: Yeah, all of those were fun moments. I definitely like when we came up with the ideas-- those are what really count in the end. And although we had some differences, we also had some similarities, and I think that was important because it helped us try different things while retaining a sort-of "core plan," you know?
Tucayo: Exactly! And I feel that has worked stupendously, I'm confident enough to say The 'Shroom has grown a lot in the past years. And of course part of that is some of the events we have had throughout the years. Do you have any favorite event from the past 4-5 years?
SMB: Ooooh, that one is definitely a tough one. One of the first, and one of my favorite, was Ralphfan's Ultimate Character Tournament. He had a really great idea with that, and from what I understand it was actually one of the first "events" that The 'Shroom had. The planning meetings were fun and it attracted attention for the paper, so it was great.
SMB: Other than that, I also liked the mafia games that we had and The 'Shroom Awards and End-of-the-Year Awards are fantastic too.
SMB: How about you, though? Like, I know there were other ones that you were more involved with than I was (like the Mafias, I think you and Marioguy1 were more involved in their planning and execution than I was).
Tucayo: It's most definitely a tough question! Between EoY Awards, our own Awards, the Ultimate Character Tournament, the Scavenger Hunts, the Mafias, the Special Elections... Oh boy! But yes, as you mentioned I was more involved in certain events, and maybe that's why our first 'Shroom Mafia stands out to me.
Tucayo: It was one of the biggest mafia games at the time, so it was most definitely a success! I had a lot of fun in the UCT as well because I followed along the entire process, and I feel users loved it.
Tucayo: But man, I'm so glad that was a hard question, that means we have had several quality events over the years! And I bet there are many more to come!
Tucayo: The EoY Awards are surely the hardest to plan, but the result is so satisfying. I like them because it's the part where we acknowledge those who make us what we are.
SMB: Definitely, I think The 'Shroom has a bright future ahead. One thing that I kind of wish we did in the last year was another Mafia game, since they were great, but I suppose that will be up to the staff next year, right?
SMB: The EoY awards are definitely hard to plan, but seeing everything come together is amazing. It feels great to honor everybody that has helped out.
Tucayo: Now, before we finish, also by the time we release this section, there will be a new Director and with it some new Core Staff members. I thought it would be nice to give them some advice, what do you think?
SMB: Advice to the next staff? Sure. Whenever you run low on funds, try to take it out on Tucayo's pension. There's not much left, but surely you can squeeze some pennies here and there if things get really bad.
Tucayo: One would think after years of work I'd have money in my funds. Well, I don't!
SMB: Well, we almost let you keep the parking space, but I think we gave it to Mario4Ever or something a while back. So there's not much left we can take...
Tucayo: I still have my office. Well, not for long, but there's that.
SMB: Well, we were going to turn that into the Tucayo Hall of Fame, but we decided to sell all of your belongings to continue paying the bills for that large mansion I boug- ...erm, I mean, continue funding The 'Shroom!
Tucayo: And kids, that's why you lie to everyone about your possessions! Errr, I mean, anything to help the newsletter!
SMB: Hey, c'mon, it's not "lying"... It's "reassuring reader confidence" in the paper. ;)
Tucayo: That sounds about right!
SMB: But really, my advice to the next staff team? Generally, to keep calm yet vigilant, trying to keep things efficient and running smoothly, and to keep things up-to-date when they need to be.
SMB: And some specific things, it would be nice to see the archives gone through and maintained, images preserved so we don't lose them to other image hosts.
SMB: That's one thing I really wanted to accomplish, but never had the time to organize a consistent effort and finish the job.
SMB: If the next staff team does that, they can brag about how they accomplished something I could only dream of. ;)
Tucayo: My advice for them would be too plan ahead of time. Some projects take more time than you think, so it is important to know when you will work on them. Also, keep readers engaged as much as possible, it's always good to have a connection between us and our readers. And, as SMB said, to keep calm; things sometimes won't go as planned, but never panic.
Tucayo: And, as more of a wish than a piece of advice, keep reaching out to newer audiences, that is always good.
SMB: I definitely agree there.
SMB: Other than that, the last thing I have to say is just another "thank you" to our readers and writers once more. We can never really thank them enough, and they are what kept us going and are what will keep the next team going. They are our target, we aim to please them and make sure they enjoy our content every month.
SMB: They are amazing.
Tucayo: Definitely. It's thanks to you we manage to do this every month, because we get nothing out of this other than the satisfaction of knowing we gave our best to keep our readers happy.
Tucayo: So that is all for this special joint section by my friend SMB and myself. Thanks so much for taking part in this, SMB.
SMB: And thank you, Tucayo. It was an honor having this discussion with you, working with you on The 'Shroom and the other projects and, most importantly, knowing you for all this time and becoming such close friends with you. I hope you have a lot of fun abroad and that you come back to visit us from time to time here... We're going to miss you lots!
Tucayo: Thank you for being such a big part of my 'Shroom run and my overall stay in the community, I know I have learned so much from you. I'm going to miss you, my good friend!
Tucayo: Thank you all for reading this section. BYE!
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