Jalapeno Bootyhole Posted:

The idea of girth and so on has been floated, and maybe down the road it could be revisited.

But I have to say, I’m often surprised at how conservative Flamebate posters claim to be when it comes to issues like this.

Yes, we’re thinking of standardizing it to what you’re calling an “arbitrary” range. Yet it’s more accurate to say that the current range is completely arbitrary, in that almost no thought went into the current numerical scheme.

Well, I don’t think conservative is bad in this context, for one. But, to refocus on arbitrary: The current total isn’t arbitrary. It’s determined by a very specific principle – the sum of all available peens as they are added. It’s variable, and will be altered as peens are added. It is a decision that requires no further re-definition to maintain its integrity, and I think it’s a fine decision in that light.

The choice to let e-peens be unbounded is arbitrary. There’s no particular necessity to operate with bounded or unbounded peens. However, having made the arbitrary decision to put bounds on peen length, there is a second, arbitrary decision on the bounds. That makes it a double-fine-upstanding-member-of-society sort of decision. Likewise, having rebounded it for a more “realistic” length, you’ll either have to go back to peen-shrinkage days to maintain that number, or else end up where we currently are anyway as more peens are added.

So, a “re-weighting” of peens now either leads back where we started, or to “whoops, a new peen was added: yours shrank!” bumhurt, or to having to re-evaluate peens at arbitrary times, with all the attendant bumhurt from the community.

Jalapeno Bootyhole Posted:

Wouldn’t you rather be a part of a game and community that makes considered decisions about the aesthetics of such things, rather than cavalierly saying, “This is the way things are now, I enjoy this specific number for some reason, changing things is bad”?

Yes – and that’s why I’m considering this decision, and giving reasons why I feel it is a bad decision. People can disagree with you and still have reasons for their choices beyond kneejerk conservatism. Some people might be “cavalierly” going with the current system as you describe. Some could just as “cavalierly” like change for its own sake.

Jalapeno Bootyhole Posted:

... Think about it.

I have. I just also disagree with you.