EoFF Lifetime Achievement Ciddies

[Queen Award, First of Her Name]

The Lifetime Achievement Ciddies are late. Like, about a month or so. So they weren't ready at the time the Ciddies ended and after a thread by Shorty got brought up in the Events Committee Forum, BoB got in touch with me and told me to get online and do one more thing. So I've been able to find the time to head back to his place and here I am. Hey everyone!

For those of you that don't know, the Lifetime Achievement Ciddies are awards that can be won only once per member. They recognise people who have contributed to EoFF for a very significant length of time. Much, much longer than the six months that any Ciddies event covers (well, any Ciddies event but the Final Fantasy Ciddies!). These are not common awards and they are not handed out lightly. The word 'lifetime' is obviously not referring to dozens upon dozens of years, nor does it suggest that their time is up. It's more of an emphasis on how, in EoFF terms, they have been working on the place longer than most regular members stick around.

Now, with all that out of the way, I would like to present the winners of the awards. But not without some commentary on them by some vaguely respectable members of Eyes on Final Fantasy staff, I won't!

I don't think this community ever has or will have anyone else like Baloki. You have serious hard content and coding work which he is certainly underappreciated for, but then you also have Baloki the person. The man is an utter loon, but he has been so devoted to this place. He'll pop up now and then with a staff parody thread, or he'll come up with some widget or doo-da like the unban countdown clock or his advent calendar. He'll play a big role in community events like elections or scream abuse at anyone who gives him a Ciddie. He'll go to great trouble and lengths to arrange meet ups while waging a very active and long war against Final Fantasy X. Yup, nobody quite like our 'loki.

I think you can make a lot of comments about Proto's recent activities for EoFF such as the Deviant Art Group and showcase, the Screen Name Tournament, and the Family Feud. All of them great for EoFF, all of them widely enjoyed. But as this is a lifetime achievement award, I am going to share some Proto memories! He used to be a fine Cid's Knight - I remember back in the day when I was a no good spammer punk and Mr. Proto shut down the love of my life, my crowning glory, the MAPS thread. But he didn't ban me for it! He was tough, but fair that day. I kind of had a mental image of him being a revered old gentleman, strolling into a thread with a top hat and closing it effectively.

I think it is a shame he and I never served on staff together, I like to think the two of us would make a great comedy duo. See, that's the thing about Proto. You can have a laugh and play the fool at him (remember that time we voted his Package for Sexiest Male? That was great!) and although he'll grumble, Proto has the great characteristic of being able to brush it off, know that people are just joking, and carry on giving his all for EoFF instead of taking it personally, and I really admire that. He is also a man of principle. It was a very long time ago now, but I will always remember the way he stood up for PeTeRL90 during the infamous Snow Penis Incident, and that earned a lot of admiration from me which endures to this day. Here's to you, pr33t.

I wouldn't trust Proto with my sister, but as a member he is all around one of the best. I don't compliment freely so I say with all sincerity, that EoFF wouldn't be the same without him. Over the years he's provided such loyalty to the site as well as commimenent and consistency in events year after year. He even has his own EoFF meme, so cram this achievement up your pooter, Proto.

Even during my periods of EoFF inactivity, Proto was always my friend elsewhere, on Livejournal, Twitter, or wherever. He's a great person and we're so lucky to have him here with us

Baloki is rather quirky, but that's a large part of his charm! He is always fun to chat to in the forums and in #eoff. In the many years that he was staff, he really wanted EoFF to succeed and he put a lot of hard work into things that nobody else probably wanted to do. It's a dirty job, but Baloki's gotta do it. ...don't take that last bit out of context, please.

Agent Proto has been a part of Eyes on Final Fantasy since I can remember. He was a long time Cid's Knight, in which I distinctly remember that one time when he banned a bunch of spam bots and saved the day. He's also run several events for the forums, including the very popular screen name tournaments and video game babe tournament. I'll never forget that time I went up against Del Snizz and he blew me. As a poster he's been well...just that ace. He's well liked and well respected throughout the community as shown by his continued dominance of the Best Recognized Member/Former Staff Ciddie. He's also not afraid to speak his mind when it comes to feedback, whether it be a rando idea or suggesting that some of the staff like having sticks in their butts. Congratulations Proto on your lifetime achievement!

These two have been contributing towards EoFF for years now - in Proto's case, when I joined in 2000 he made a name for himself much faster than I did and has been pumping out random events ever since, spent a long time on the forums staff and now is still working hard on the Events Committee and with art stuff, including managing our DA community. He's great. Long may his events continue, and long may his time at EoFF continue.

Baloki was the main man when it came to EoFF site staff for years upon years and helped watch over numerous redesigns of EoFF, spearheaded the CSS push, set up tutorials and whatnot so anyone and everyone could help, managed the Site Contributions forum for years, coded content (hundreds of pages, I'm thinking), uploaded content, etc. He always had this vision of a combined staff at EoFF and clearly was thinking ahead of the rest of us as we've finally got it and it's been a fantastic, wonderful thing for us ever since it went ahead.

Baloki was a great help to Eyes on Final Fantasy. I don't know many people that would work on site design and coding as diligently as he did. I know that he truly cares about this place as he manages to continue his presence even after all of these years.

Proto's enthusiasm for the community is unmatched by most and his contributions with growing the EoFF Deviantart community have been outstanding. His running of Screen Name Tournaments, smaller events like The Pumpkin Contest and even helping out with big name events like The Ciddies help bring the surges in activity that EoFF needs to flourish. The humor, character and overall life he brings to the forums have helped make it a better place.

I regret to say that I wasn't staffed with Baloki for long, but that to my knowledge he was a heavy workhorse and pulled much more than his own weight when it came to maintaining the front site. Baloki's contributions and methods with helping to run the front site will resonate with our current editorial team, even with his recent departure.

There are times people come into your life and you're not quite sure how or why, but you know that if it weren't for them there'd be a lot less confusion but that'd it also be much less interesting. Baloki serves as a prime example of this force in my EoFF-life. Working in an aspect that I would reference as "behind the scenes" I have a vague understanding that EoFF in its current form would simply not exist without the work this lovely man. While our memories and friendships create and perpetuate the EoFF experience for all of us, one could successfully argue that Baloki is instrumental in "making" EoFF (BAD PUN AHOY) what it is today.

There's more to Baloki than just an expert ability to do things that make this talky box work good, though. He's a kind soul, he's loving in his way and has a sense of humor to boot. He sends great Christmas cards and while I do appreciate the sweet sentiment, honey I still don't get your foa/Chuck Norris signature (current at this time of writing!)

So to the man who is truly more to us than many understand, thanks for all you've done, BakaPhillllllllllllllll

Congratulations to the two Lifetime Achievement Ciddies winners...

Agent Proto
&
Baloki