[Civitate] Diocle (Patron: PikeStance)

[PikeStance]

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Diocle



Presented as an

I first meant Diocle working as a Librarian years ago. I was looking for potential items to include in the Scriptorium when I noticed some of his writings. I PM'ed him because I was interested if there was anything more. I have been friends with Diocle ever since occasionally having an exchange on various forums. Diocle will later write what is hailed has a masterpiece, House of Ancanthus. Below I have shared some of the "glowing" comments to Diocle writing.

Diocle your writing conveys a multitude of impressions and emotions -
you captured the mediterreanian atmosphere very well, i almost felt as if i was back on my last vacation (that was at the Adria but hey...), you describe the persons very well, and you manage to keep them uniquely different - there's no generic character there, no clichee.
As for the Quinta & the Acanthus thematic...well... you know how much i like that one
Excellent reading so far!

Oh my lord... what a huge piece of writing you have already crafted here! I'm so far behind on this and have so little time to read people's work
It looks very well written and it's obvious you've thought this through withalot of preparation etc. Keep up the good work and I hope I can catch up soon

Diocle, I am stunned and in awe of your work. This is exactly the prose that I adore reading and would expect to find this in a book eagerly ordered and picked up from my local bookshop - or found by chance (Fate?) in a Second-Hand Bookstore. Your command of narrative is inspiring and kept me reading without let. You play with the characters - the Langboard, the Gardener, the absent Chiara, the Architect of the Anglican Church, and so on, with ease and delight. And while English is not your First Language, you write phrases and images which rise above your limitations as if they are not there.
Many, many, wonderful phrases and images! - The old attics, are magical places, are like beaches after a shipwreck, on which aground the wrecks of time. - for example, to cite but one of many.
I am nonplussed that this work is referencing my own and very humbled by it - and you also. Despite the length of this update, I read it not wanting it to end and time passed by like sand on the wind, fleeting and yet endless . . .
And the coup of that diary page! Bravo!
Please update soon, I insist!

Very good update! I felt like I was in that attic too looking at that diary. Goodness I wish I had yours (and a few others) skill with prose but I guess that comes with practice. And did u make that diary page yourself? Even if you didn't excellent idea in putting it in. + rep

Right lads, its official now, I'm giving up on writing.
It was fun, thanks for all the fish and all that, but when a non-native English speaker comes along like this and writes such magnificent and moving prose such as this in a way I cannot even dream of equalling - in my own language! - I'm afraid its time to concede defeat and put my hat down.

Seriously Diocle, aside from echoing the words of SBH, I also have to ask - as a previous poster did - where the hell have you been all my life, and WHY haven't we heard of this before? I would ask where your AAR's are (or when will they be coming!) but this alone is such a tour de force that no follow ups are necessary. Seriously, the manner in which you write is very, very vivid. As you said yourself, the thing is real because it is part fiction and part RL, and I think the two mingle together very very convincingly. You have such an evocative command of the language and the scenes you are describing; the people, the locations, the smells and even mood of the characters, its all just perfect. What I also love is the sense of mystery and mystique, the slight antique feel to it, the psychology behind it and your innovative and thoughtful use of images and source material. You're a bright, colourful and intriguing character and I think this shines through very well in this tale!
I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing where this is going. + rep

Still following, still reading, still enjoying and nothing more to add really

Absolutely amazing ! I began reading yesterday at nigth and I couldn't stop reading. Your story is captivating ! You have truly a gift in writting !
+ rep well derserved !

The images you use do a great job in assisting the reader paint mental pictures. Berly started reading this but it's getting late. I must sleep! Keep up the good work Diocle!

Diocle, I'm sorry I haven't been able to comment as often as I would like. But it is great to see you aren't short of readers.
As many have said, I too love the pictures you included - they really bring and already lively tale to life. Your writing is how everyone else has said, so I'll just let you read through them again.
+rep and great work mate.

"I never understood, let alone shared the Fascist attack on Greece, Greece for me is like a second spiritual home, our civilization would not exist without the Greece, it’s a deeply flawed choice bring war in Hellas"
Well, that was the most moving thing i read on TWC. Thank you, Diocle.

Impressive stuff Diocle! Very engaging story.

Every word of yours is a gem to be treasured. Guys how does he do this? A simple post into postery (Poetry)
Hello SBH

I've just finished reading this great update, I'm not sure how the men of the fifth have survived - but I hope it will be explained! Something mystical and fantastic as a reasoning I hope
This was a joy to read Diocle, I could just imagine the aviator struggling to cope with the absurdity of it all, the chance to talk to a man of the legions, or the chance he had lost his mind - Poor Ottavio
Rep+

As you can see by looking at the work and the comments made that Diocle has a wonderful piece of literature that he has decided to share with us all on TWC. It can be argued that this work alone warrants citizenship. However, Diocle does not stop there. He is contributed in the Pictures of the week competition. Please have a look at a small sample: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
It should be noted that Diocle was awarded a Gold medal for winning the Picture of the Week Award 15 or more time. I participated in several and I never won once.

It should be added that Diocle contributes all over the forum. These includes The Political Mudpit, Political Academy, Ethos,..., VV, INVASIO BARBARORVM (IB), Warhammer 40K, Rome II Technical Discussion, etc.
It should be noted that Diocle has been a member of this site since 2008 and has accumulated over 10,000 posts. He engages in a wide range of topics.
Small Sampling: INVASIO BARBARORVM (IB) [1], [2] [3] | Politics [1] [2] [3] | Warhammer 40K [1] | VV [1] | General TW Discussion [1]

Diocle is a very creative and thoughtful individual and this is evident in his post and creative writing and artistic endeavors on TWC. He has a good disposition and represents a sort of person we would associate with citizenship. You may not agree with his perspective, but you cannot deny him those points.

Please do peruse his contribution in both latest posts and threads started link on Diocle's profile.

First of all, I must say that I'm an architect and I work on Architectural graphics for design, but I also come from classic studies and my seven years of Latin studies and my five years of ancient Greek, forged my mind, my fantasy and my imagination, so, being also an old miniature wargamer, I've reached the shores of TWC when I firstly discovered on an Italian gaming magazine the link for the wonderful RTR Mod for RTW, from that moment TWC has been a permanent link on my machine. Then I decided to sign up on the site when, after the publication of RTW Barbarian Invasion, I discovered the wonderful Mod series IBFD (Ivasio Barbarorum Flagellum Dei), in particular,, I was attracted by incredible quality of the staff working on the sub-Mod about the Last Pagan Roman Emperor, Flavius Claudius Julianus, the Forum was for me an incredible source of links, readings, and historical passion for the age of history I prefer: the Late Antiquity. So I decided to sign up, and from there my history on TWC has begun. I've written that The Fall of Rome, or better, the Late Antiquity is my most beloved historical age, because I think that we live in a particular historical moment, in which, from our present we can understand for the first time what actually happened in that past, and, from that past, we have the chance of getting a better understanding of our present day, and also a deep inside view on our future. So, here the link to a thread I've created to discuss a weird issue about the death of Julianus at Samarra, what happened there? In particular, why on the Net we can find the only translation of the passage of the work of Ammianus Marcellinus, direct witness of the scene, describing the death of Julian, (in which the weird behavior of his personal lifeguards, which were dispersed in terror among the Persians in route, instead of doing what was their duty staying close to their emperor), is actually falsified? Doing this, I've started a neverending struggle to show that, even today, history stuff must be faced with great caution, it's necessary to take a critical approach to the sources because now and then, those who write of history have their own ideology and faith and not always their ideology and their faith walks in the same direction of historical truth; so, I also translated into English, a whole Oration by Libanius, it's called 'About Julian's revenge' and for some weird reason it was not translated in English (at least in those years), in the text Libanius asks to Theodosius (Libanius was a naive man!) to shed some light on the reasons why the men which can be considered the perpetrators of the death of the Emperor were at the top of the Imperial Administration! Why those Candidates shamefully "dispersed in terror" at Samarra, were now at the top of the new imperial administration? http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...porary-sources Then, a new page about .. Latin. Is it the Old King of the Languages still alive? I think Latin is still alive and kicking, the Old King, in fact, lives today in the mouth of millions of human beings in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Romania, South America, Africa and Asia, it's no more the written elegant language of Cicero and Tacitus, but it's the spoken tongue of the people which generation after generation has kept alive the Romance sounds of the Roman civilization. I think we, Romance people, must be proud of our language, it is part of ourselves, if it's true that the way in which we describe the world is fundamental part of our understanding of it, if it's true that the words are the world, then, the Spoken Latin, The Old King, is still part of our identity of human being, and I think that, especially today, identity plays a very, very, very important role in defining our humanity: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...tion-of-Aetius I like reading Roman military manuals, they are few, they are relevant, and they are precious, so, when I discovered on the Italian translation of the Stategikon of Maurikios a complete list of Latin military commands and that this list was not present online in English, I started a thread and I translated them all into English: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...Latin-Commands Now we come to the most arrogant and pretentious effort, seen the infamous quality of my English, I've started on TWC: a novel! I can't describe it, I can't say what it's about, I need to keep this message short and the story is complex and it's at the same time a science fiction text set in the present day and in the historical context of WW2 and about a Legion, about Julianus, his failed Persian expedition and about a WONDERFUL novel written by that great writer that is Francis Hagan, known on TWC as SBH! I stop here, if you want, read it, it received a lot of good reviews, it's not finished and one day perhaps I'll complete it. I write (pretty well) in Italian and I must translate my thought and my words into English which is not (and never will be) my tongue! A nightmare! A nightmare I've decided to face for love: love for Late Antiquity, love for Francis Hagan's work, love for this community: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...te-8-June-2013 Finally my gallery. I've decided to put there all the works inspired by my presence on TWC and by the wonderful games to which the site is devoted, there are screenshots, avatars, and hand made drawings, it's an open work and there I'll add all the new stuff with to be shown to the public of TWC. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post14202323 If you need some more example of my political posts, I'll search for them but, believe me: a lot of people already know and hate them, the question is: why do I write them? The answer is easy: because I don't like what's happening here. I don't like to see a bunch of leftist brainwashing hundreds (or perhaps thousands) teens, came on TWC to find games and history and literally co-opted into the laughable Red Army of the international left, thanks to the propaganda work of a few. I leave you for now with a small example of my activity in that wonderful place that once was The Tavern, now, lost, closed, killed, dead, kaputt! http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...Tavern/page495 About the reasons why I ask for citizenship, what can I say? I don't know exactly but what I know is that I'm already feeling a citizen here for so many years now that I've forgotten when I firstly wrote my first post on this site. What I know is that TWC is on my machine and it won't ever leave it, I come here almost every day from 2008 and I won't leave this place in the future, even though in the past the site was a better place. In any case, TWC is one of the most astonishing places on the Net and is now part of my electronic life. This is what I know.

Regards.
Diocle (Carlo)

Interesting and fascinating writer and person. Please do share your feelings both good and bad.

On behalf of Diocle and myself, we thank you for your kind attention!

[b0Gia de Bodemloze]

Take my biggest support i gave since i joined Curia, i kept this for a special case and this is this citizen application. Well done Pike for bringing us this citizen application.

[Lifthrasir]

Strongly opposed
His attitude/behaviour among some of the forums is far under the level we expect from Citizen. Just see his paragraph above:

I don't like to see a bunch of leftist dickheads brainwashing hundreds (or perhaps thousands) teens, came on TWC to find games and history and literally co-opted into the laughable Red Army of the international left, thanks to the propaganda work of few bastards.

This is just a small example of my meaning. He has posted worse.
He's not the kind of Citizen I'd like to see.

[PikeStance]

Strongly opposed
His attitude/behaviour among some of the forums is far under the level we expect from Citizen. Just see his paragraph above:

This is just a small example of my meaning. He has posted worse.
He's not the kind of Citizen I'd like to see.

Oops, I was supposed to edit that out. I do not have a problem with a debater having strong feelings. I know right and leftist people have very strong views. It is the nature of the beast.
I have read through his posts for over a month and I have noticed the exact opposite which is why I chose to patronize him.

[Lifthrasir]

Strong feelings is one thing, respect of the other members, no matter their opinions, is another. From my opinion Diocle does not have the second one. And I have a problem with that.

[SoulGamesInc]

I do not have a problem with a debater having strong feelings.

I wouldn't exactly call the use of 'dickheads' and 'bastards' a debate nor excuse strong views as an excuse, but I'll take a look at his writing if I get the time as that 'area' does interest me.

[PikeStance]

Strong feelings is one thing, respect of the other members, no matter their opinions, is another. From my opinion Diocle does not have the second one. And I have a problem with that.

I haven't see anything that you are referring to....
Sample Discussion [1] [2] [3] [4]
In each sample discussion above, I didn't see Diocle attack indirectly, implicitly, or infer anything negative regarding anyone with a opinion that differs with him. This is what I have noticed is the norm for Diocle. We shouldn't cherry- pick posts is hail them as atypical when the overwhelming evidence suggest otherwise.

I wouldn't exactly call the use of 'dickheads' and 'bastards' a debate nor excuse strong views as an excuse, but I'll take a look at his writing if I get the time as that 'area' does interest me.

It was sent to me in a PM. I made an error. My computer was acting up this afternoon. I had all sorts of formatting nightmares. I think when you look further that you will see that how I describe Diocle is correct. You may not like his politics (Heck I disagree 100% with him), but you cannot deny he is solid contributor who does not sneak in (ToS friendly) ad homs as if it is a game.

[Ludicus]

. It is the nature of the beast..

From an improbable friend: I approve.

I have read through his posts for over a month...

In fact,the tone of his speech was quite moderate in the last month. I believe that the citizenship will have a positive effect. Diocle is a very cultivated man, and when he is not talking about politics,I really enjoy his posts.
You are welcome by a leftist dickhead, Diocle

[Halie Satanus]

Strongly opposed
His attitude/behaviour among some of the forums is far under the level we expect from Citizen. Just see his paragraph above:

This is just a small example of my meaning. He has posted worse.
He's not the kind of Citizen I'd like to see.

If that one post is an example of typical behaviour this would be a short 'no.' However, one post doesn't hold as 'typical.' I suspect moderation would have more evidence if this was the case, is there any?

[Lifthrasir]

I haven't see anything that you are referring to....
Sample Discussion [1] [2] [3] [4]
In each sample discussion above, I didn't see Diocle attack indirectly, implicitly, or infer anything negative regarding anyone with a opinion that differs with him. This is what I have noticed is the norm for Diocle. We shouldn't cherry- pick posts is hail them as atypical when the overwhelming evidence suggest otherwise.

I can't do that for 2 reasons:
1. the posts I referred to have been edited/deleted by Moderation due to their nature.
2. being a Moderator myself, I'm tied by a non-disclosure clause.

The quote I've posted above should be sufficient to reflect the candidate's personnality. I can not support such candidate.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

I've known Diocle for a long time, in fact he was one of the first members that I interacted with when I made my account here. We would spend long amounts of time in the VV discussing military history and the Napoleonic era and he demonstrated that he was very knowledgeable. We didn't exactly agree on a whole lot though but never the less he always made interesting points and showed his knowledge on many historical subjects. He is also very passionate about Italian history. Frankly I always wondered why he wasn't a Citizen.
Approve!

[IronBrig4]

He does express some disturbing sympathies towards far-right paramilitaries, and has grown worse over the past couple of months. I would suggest observing how he behaves over the next few weeks. Then we can revisit it. For now I'm on the fence.

[Copperknickers II]

Diocle posted recently the following:

"I like very much a man who listens to different opinions and is able to change his mind when he decides that it is the right thing to do; this attitude denote an open and fine mind, intellectual honesty and good predisposition towards other people! "

I can only assume that such a sentiment arose from the natural human tendency towards 'opposites attract', because I can't think of many posters on TWC who have less of a good disposition towards those he disagrees with and who is so profoundly averse to considering other people's opinions open-mindedly in a calm and reasonable manner, at least in the realm of the Mudpit and EMM where I mostly see him. His contributions to the site are all well and good but they don't excuse some of the things he has said, most notably calling Muslims 'animals' and pronouncing 'I am an Islamophobe'. Being passionate about what you believe in is not a crime, even to the extent of having the odd run in with the mods (I'd be hypocritical if I said otherwise). But some of the stuff I've seen from him in the Mudpit of late is far, far beyond the Pale. Opposed.

[Veteraan]

Hmm, this is a difficult one. The content/contribution seems to be there, although I have to admit that I visit the mudpit not very often. When I do, it's usually because I am a Censor at that time and many cases are about posts made in that place.

So while it certainly looks like Diocle qualifies for Citizen in one regard, there is indeed the "standard of behaviour" expected of (future) Citizens to take in account. Now that is something that's not defined anywhere, but IMO it includes at least a certain basic standard of civility in the way we interact with others on this site, including the mudpit. In this regard, I share the worries others stated before.

I take it there has been no Moderation warning issued to Diocle in the past 6 months?

[Ludicus]

His contributions....they don't excuse some of the things he has said, most notably calling Muslims 'animals' and pronouncing 'I am an Islamophobe'.

Popper wrote, "If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them".
BUT,
may be he can change his behaviour. As I said before, I'm ready to give him the benefit of the doubt.

[Halie Satanus]

Opposed, at least until he learns to play within the rules.

[HannibalExMachina]

Opposed, same reason. I admit ive been out of line myself, but thats why i try to limit my exposure to certain parts of TWC. If he learns to handle those parts, im all for it.

[Tango12345]

Opposed, at least until he learns to play within the rules.

This sums up my thoughts on the matter very succinctly. For the longer version, see Copperknicker's post.

In terms of moderation he has not had an infraction within the last six months, however:

If that one post is an example of typical behaviour this would be a short 'no.' However, one post doesn't hold as 'typical.' I suspect moderation would have more evidence if this was the case, is there any?

I know this doesn't really answer the question,but it isn't standard procedure to make such things public if the poster doesn't wish to. I will say that diocle is no stranger to moderation and leave it there.

[Parafix]

Opposed, as one who uses a certain form of language that makes mod's scratch their heads, their are ways of expressing your views navigating around the Terms of Service while still getting your point across. I personally dislike the profanity rules and strictness of what constitutes insulting someone. However, i follow it because i must, rewarding such behavior and hoping it all goes well is not what the standard for citizenship should be.

[Halie Satanus]

I know this doesn't really answer the question,but it isn't standard procedure to make such things public if the poster doesn't wish to. I will say that diocle is no stranger to moderation and leave it there.

To paraphrase Westlife, 'you say it best, when you say nothing at all, but strongly infer there were issues.'

1. the posts I referred to have been edited/deleted by Moderation due to their nature.