Former Staff Bio: Mar A1B4

Dear Cyberarmy Citizen,
You probably don’t know me, which is fine, hopefully you’ll learn a bit more about CA by my story, and if you have had the displeasure of actually being one of my acquaintances, then you probably know more about me than whats written, so you can just stop reading now ;-)
Where should I start? most stories start at the beginning, but I wont, the beginning doesn’t matter online (at least with CA imho), its always the end product that counts, so I’ll start somewhere in the middle…

I had BEGGED pengo(formerly overlord, and to most of us, nick) to give me a chance to be a cyberarmy marshal, god I would do anything, I had stormed my way up the levels, I had cheated, begged, bribed, I’d done it all, I NEEDED to get up one more rung. CA, I assume most people will agree, is so addictive that once you start actually making progress up the ranks, you just cant stop. You get to a point at kernel/general where you either drop it all together and be thankful of your time, or you push harder… To me, there was no option I had beaten the previous levels, and for fucks sake, if all it took was some simple social engineering then do it!

Well I was lucky, nick is a very easy going guy, he was more than happy to give me a chance (unlike most of the marshals of the time, (not an insult, I’ll get into that later)), he emailed me back one day saying: “Sure, we could use an extra guy around, as long as you don’t mind being a code slave”… Hah, code slave, I couldn’t even program (as later attributed to Chawmp’s rise to marshal, and the infamous kernelbot ;-) Either way, one day I logged on irc, and like 20 dialog pm’s came up, all saying congratulations. Chicosto (one of my best friends at the time was one of the pm’s I had received). I asked chicosto what I had done, he told me I had been promoted…
First thing I did, I hauled ASS to zebulun9/, holy shit, I was in, there was that famous old star wars midi, there was the marshal badge, there were all these new foreign options!!! I couldn’t believe it, my heart was beating through my chest, my palms were sweaty, I had done it, I was a cyberarmy marshal! Next thing I did, check the marshal board. First thread: started by nick, something along the lines of “should a1b4 be a marhsal”…. the responses: overwhelmingly no, most marshals felt there was no need for an extra one, there was no need for this ‘a1b4′ guy, simply because he hadn’t shown any real reason why he SHOULD be a marshal (which I agree with beyond a doubt). Either way, not my favorite post but the worst was to come:

I checked the main forum, there was a post by nick about the promotion of three new marshals, xenographic, trapper, and myself. Sure, there was the odd “congratulations [nt]” post, but once again, most of the posts were riddled with “a1b4, he doesn’t know shit”, “a1b4, he doesn’t deserve it, so and so does”, stuff like that, once again, I wasn’t really wanted.
The kernel board was even worse, most of those guys were looking to get the job I had, and it showed, they were going insane on the kernel board trashing me….
This was my first real lesson when it came to CA, something I have to learn over and over again whenever I go back. The higher you go, the more resistance you get. As a kernel, there wasn’t a worry in the world, except getting to marshal, as a marshal it was all about proving you had to be there, it wasn’t a very pleasant experience.
My first few days after my marshal promotion were not my best, I remember being hounded by one specific person, its stuck with me for a while. Well all I can say is this person was, very persistent. It kinda sucks that what were suppose to be my best times in CA ended up being my worst. There are always a number of people online who will always give you crap. I guess it’s something you have to live through. I promised myself this wouldn’t turn into a letter of pot shots towards people so I’ll stop.
Needless to say, this was one lesson I learn over and over again when it comes to CA, being behind a computer when you are online gives you a sense of superiority. You can’t really be harmed online, except if you care, don’t make that mistake, I cared a lot, and a lot of people ended up really hurting me.

Lastly I just want to point out something that often goes overlooked, something that always drops my jaw to the floor whenever I think about it (you can read about this in about.shtml as I recall). Cyberarmy started as a little portal, with a few links, on a FREE server, xoom. Fast forward 5-6 years later (god we all lose count after a while), look at it, it has 90,000+ members, it gets hundreds of thousands of hits a day, it has become an online community. (yes I know there are only a few thousand active members at best, I’m not that naive). I remember when I mentioned this in #starchamber once (I think aloud every once in a while), pengo just winked, that says it all. The guy is really modest, he created probably one of the biggest online community’s(obviously the slashdots, IRCnets…) from a free site on xoom, with virtually no content. It brings a smile to my face when I think about it.

There are tons of little story’s that I have dropped from this. If you want to know them, well come find me! I left out everything about my personal life, since you don’t care. God we could all write a book about CA, but I think the purpose of CA stories is how you got as far as you did, and the journey along the way, my journey started at the end, where did yours start? :-) p.s. Khris keep up the good work, this is one hell of a site.
Since I have taken a permanent leave of absence(we all know I’ll be back, but I am trying as hard as I can to stay away) I would like to mention one phrase that should bring a smile to those that know me………..
“FUCKEN PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Mar A1B4

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