Before you join HP please read about what/who we are:
Thanks to Silverlock for creating this overview of HP
HP - The Servers
Fearless Jack has ultimate responsibility and thus say,
since he took all of the initiative to start and maintain them,
they're rented in his name, and he's forked over much of the $$$ to
keep them going. The servers would be nowhere however without the
donations of others... some donating VERY sizable sums. Jack is
assisted in the operation of the servers by Dr.No, Stinky and myself
who have access to them, their files, logs, etc.
The servers are administered by the the members of the
Boards of Directors (expanded upon in The
Membership section) of each division. Mostly we administer the
servers of the Board we're on but we all have the ability to admin
all the servers.
HP - The Membership
It was primarily Jack who founded the HP membership, built the
website, wrote the Namemaker program, started the discussion forum,
etc. and so if we have a leader he most certainly is it. However,
Jack created a Board of Directors to oversee the voting in of
members and other ancillery functions, pertaining to membership
(and administering the servers). As HP grew to include more
games, so did the need to create more Boards of Directors. The
current Boards are listed here:
We do not view this as a hierarchy or chain of command. The board's
main duties are the voting on memberships and administering of the
servers. We also discuss and act on current and ongoing issues that
may arrise, i.e.: how to deal with tk'ers, recruiters, members who
are being assholes, creating new admins, AND applications for Gold
status. All issues are voted on, with each member having an equal
vote, including Jack. In reality, there is an unwritten philosophy
of "less is more" when dealing with issues... meaning, we really try
NOT to control things but let them run themselves, this includes the
servers and the membership. We only intervene when absolutely
necessary.
Just a little note about membership. Remember, we are
NOT a clan. The membership was started by people who
loved playing on the Happy Penguin server so much they wanted to
wear the initials of the server next to their name. They did not set
out to create a competative gaming group, just a bunch of fun, good
natured, usually fairly capable, players. To this day the main
criteria the Boards use to judge applications are, " does he/she
play here A LOT? How well do we know this person? "
We also ask ourselves, "Are they decent people (ie... not
assholes, spammers, cheaters, etc)? Are they members of a clan?"
There are three tag levels:
Honorary tag:
Anyone can wear this, clanned or not. Just a way of
saying... "hey, I like HP servers"
Red tag:
Regular membership - majority vote by the BoD to get
accepted
Gold tag:
Elite membership - unanimous vote by the BoD to get
accepted. There is a list of criteria somewhere on our website but I
don't think it's linked right now. Perhaps someone can post the
link. Not all Gold's are admins but most admins and all BoD are
Golds. Again, they are not "higher" than Red in terms of a chain of
command (we do NOT have one of those... that would be very
un-HP!). In general, Gold means you have been a member a long time,
are a good ambassador for HP, helpful, skillful, personable.... that
sort of thing.
In the end though, we would be nowhere without the unceasing energy,
the incredible amount of time, and the love that Fearless Jack
devotes to HP. I don't think he really realizes how much of a debt
we all owe him and (on a personal level) how much I admire,
respect, and am humbled by what he has created. - Silverlock
I have read the overview and
still want to join