Conquer Club

Friends, Conquerclubbers, Cartography-men (and ladies),

It is with a strange sense of trepidation that I have decided to call time on my duties as Foundry Foreman and slip off the Blue Suede Shoes that I have been wearing for the best part of the last three years.

I have some great memories of working in the foundry and have had far too many late-night conversations with people who I have never met but will always regards as friends. Since my very first days in the foundry I have enjoyed taking part in shaping the maps of the Conquer Club future. I remember with great clarity my first contributions (to Dust Bowl and the British Isles revamp), and the thrill of seeing a suggestion come to life (the Sparkling Cherry on the Conquer Man Cake!). During my time as a foundry newb, my vision of the foundry was shaped by those who were active at the time. Seeing how these great mapmakers spurred each other on and helped each other along the way was the main thought behind the "I can do this" moment that triggered the Europe II (aka Europa) map. I remember how great my first draft was (ie not very), and the time and effort that ensued over the following 11 months. I felt honoured to have ever been considered for a cartographer role, and over the past three years I have always tried to remember that the foundry is the product of those who make their home here and made many great maps. There has been a lot of change since my early days on the team (when it was just gimil, oaktown and me)... some people say that the golden age of mapmaking has died (since the great mapmakers of my newbie days - RjBeals, oaktown, WidowMakers, mibi and qwert - are no longer making maps). However, while things have changed, we must realise that while things are different they're not necessarily worse... There are a number of great mapmakers within our midst (Kabanellas, shakeycat, cairnswk, Tisha, thenobodies80) and plenty of promising talent rising through the foundry. The future of the foundry remains bright!

While I would love to have seen more xml updates over the past couple of years, the foundry process has been clearly refined and I have had the privilege of bringing some excellent CAs onto the team to watch over things. The mapmaking contests have been a great way to encourage new people to take part - and I am delighted that a first-time mapmaker won the most recently completed contest. I'm glad to have played an active role in making limited edition maps a (semi)regular occurrence, and am most proud of having made supersize maps a reality!

I still have the ceremonial banana-crate of office, which I shall be passing on to thenobodies80. Over the past few years, nobodies has become a great friend. I know that he shares my passion for quality workmanship, and that he is always willing to listen and help people. I truly believe that the foundry will prosper under his care and guidance, and that the foundry will be in safe hands.

The new breed of Foundry Assistants (who nobodies will surely announce in due course) will help to bring some much-needed oversight to the Ideas and Drafting Room. It is an honour to unveil OliverFA as the newest member of the foundry team and formally acknowledge the work that he has started to do in the xml department.

My final act as Foundry Foreman (as the result of much discussion and with the agreement of the CA team) will be to merge the two foundry workshops together. Since we introduced the coloured topic icons, it is easy to differentiate between maps at different developmental phases - which was a major flaw of the previous single-foundry forum. Bringing the two workshops together should prevent feedback from being "inappropriate to the developmental phase", and will hopefully make it easier to keep maps alive!

Whilst without any official Foundry portfolio, I do not intend to just walk away from CC... I have made some great friends through this stupid game and cannot imagine life without the wife-annoying daily fix! I may even still have a map or two in me - but in the words of Forrest Gump, "You never know..."

This is MrBenn signing off duty.

Your hard work has not been unnoticed, and although I know that the foundry will be in very capable hands with Joe at the helm, you will be missed.

♥

-Jake

thank-you for your work so far.

Thank - You for your time and dedication to Conquer Club . Your hard work has definitly made my time here on this site more enjoyable.. Thanks df

You're a good man, sir. The foundry will miss your steady hand on the tiller.

Sorry to see you go MrBenn. You have made a huge impact on the foundry and your successor will have some big shoes to fill in.

Thank you for all the time and energy you have poured into us, the Map Foundry, and Conquer Club over the years. I hope to still see you around!

And congratulations to Nobodies for his new role!

There's a famous line from a quite modern movie, which i feel is very appropriate here...

" 'tenshun...there's an officer on deck !"

as long as you don't drop the baton it's fine right?

thanks for your work on the foundry and i'll probably see you around still.

You're a class act, MrBenn, and you will be missed.

As unfortunate as it is to see you leave, I bid you adieu with joy! Keep advancing in your paths, good luck, and sit and enjoy CC as well as before!

-rd

agree with oak. You are certainly a class act. I'm glad you're not walking away.

Thanks for all your hard work in both the foundry and the rest of CC

Many times I've wondered, how could it be possible to undertake such an enormous task like being involved in every map (or most of them ) that passes through the Foundry and still having time for RL issues, like work, family and all. I really think that for you Ben the day has 48 hours, or at least you make it look like so

The Foundry will surely miss your Blue Suede Shoes... Hope that you prolong your stay there, at least as a map maker.

Hmm... I thought this was eventually to come after you made nobodies Deputy.

Ha, I remember way back when (in other words, less than a year ago) I was a Foundry newb myself, though I still don't think I'd consider myself an expert now. I recall countless times when we were at odds, maybe (and unfortunately, if so) still. My early stages of map-commenting and map-making (with Pachisi) were just shy of horrendous, doing many things I see people doing now!...though I was probably even more asinine than today's newer foundry-goers. That, the "Foundry Concerns" thread, and finally my getting a 72 hour ban from you was more than enough to cause 'distaste' toward this old coot, and it seemed to worsen as I went from Foundry Reporter to Executive.

Regardless of what's happened over these months that I've been around, I've always had a high opinion of you, whether or not you got that vibe from me. You've done some fantastic volunteer work on CC, and I hope to see you in the Foundry still (hopefully as a mapmaker! ).

To nobodies, congrats! You have some big shoes to fill and a plethora of bananas to gorge on, but you have big feet and a large appetite

To OliverFA, also congrats! You present quality work with your articles, and your work here is no different.

Cheers with your future endeavors, dear former foreman.

Sad and Excited,
Sully

you spent much time for CC and often bring an order to foundry.

thank you and good luck Mr.Blue

MrBenn wrote:My final act as Foundry Foreman (as the result of much discussion and with the agreement of the CA team) will be to merge the two foundry workshops together. Since we introduced the coloured topic icons, it is easy to differentiate between maps at different developmental phases - which was a major flaw of the previous single-foundry forum. Bringing the two workshops together should prevent feedback from being "inappropriate to the developmental phase", and will hopefully make it easier to keep maps alive!

I leave my comment, Foundry still the same. I come back, and they're merged now! Omg!! It's the dawn of a new era...

-Sully

Farewell, MrBenn. You have done a splendid job for the past years! Hope you enjoy your new foundry-less position!

It's a pitty to see you go, MrBenn. I remember our first chats about Research & Conquer, and how helpful you were with this complicated map. But having worked so hard during those years, you also deserve to take a break, step down and enjoy the result of all your efforts.

thenobodies80 is a worthy successor. With his leadership, the Foundry will continue to improve building on the solid base that MrBenn has given to all of us as his legacy.

Many thanks, MrBenn, for all your work, and do enjoy whatever new (or old) pursuits take your time in the future.

Congratulations, thenobodies80! I expect you will bring your very best to the office of Foreman, and that should be very good indeed.

Good luck with all of your future endeavors, and thank you for all of your time and energy here.

To be fair when you first got your CA job I was pissed you got it and not me. Hindsight is 20/20, you did a marvelous job in keeping your section of the Foundry in tip-top shape even as your responsibility grew to greater heights. Sad to see you go, but hopefully we can carry the baton just as far.

Thanks Mr. Benne for helping make CC's maps feel like home to me. ! Good luck on your future.

Welcome aboard thenobodies80!

You are a great contributor to this site! God speed.

Wow, this is a real end of an era. I know that we've had creative differences at times but we always worked through them. At the heart of it you always had the maps best interest at heart. You did a damn good, bloody good, job and no one can take that away from you. It's just gonna kinda feel weird with out you on top. That being said I think that TheNobodies08 was an excellent choice, and he is sure to do well in his new position. Well done!