Trenches comic: Tuesday January 3, 2011 - Narrative

Munkus Beaver · January 2012

Faith Restored. wrote:

We used to have someone who would buy cans of Coke bulk and keep them in the fridge, selling them and donating the proceeds to charity. It relied on the honor system to leave money for them, but over time, the money wasn’t matching the missing cans… by a significant margin.

People started to get into heated arguments about it, with accusations flying left and right and emails questioning “What kind of people work here?!”

Finally, after much discussion, a webcam was set up to keep an eye on it. Many thought it signaled the end of our company culture and an absolute loss of faith in who we thought were our friends and coworkers.

The next day we fired the cleaners for stealing the money and drinking the coke.

Dratatoo · January 2012

Regarding the Story: Even if I appear like a emotinless brick. IMO, a charity / honor based project, especially if money is involved, shouldn't be setup by the employees within a company . Its just asking for missunderstandings and soon or later the mood will turn sour because some people are silly geese if given the opportunity.

Tube · January 2012

There were some interesting studies done on the honour system in cases like this. Apparently even just drawing a picture of an eye on the card that tells you about the system increases the level of compliance.

Aldo · January 2012

Lewie P's Stepdad wrote:

There were some interesting studies done on the honour system in cases like this. Apparently even just drawing a picture of an eye on the card that tells you about the system increases the level of compliance.

Sauron knew what's what.

Gatsby · January 2012

Aldo wrote:

Lewie P's Stepdad wrote:

There were some interesting studies done on the honour system in cases like this. Apparently even just drawing a picture of an eye on the card that tells you about the system increases the level of compliance.

Sauron knew what's what.

Dude may have been an evil fucker, but he ran a tight ship.

Probably had company picnics to help support girl scouts as well, not a single orc left without a box of thin mints.

MalReynolds · January 2012

Gatsby wrote:

Aldo wrote:

Lewie P's Stepdad wrote:

There were some interesting studies done on the honour system in cases like this. Apparently even just drawing a picture of an eye on the card that tells you about the system increases the level of compliance.

Sauron knew what's what.

Dude may have been an evil fucker, but he ran a tight ship.

Probably had company picnics to help support girl scouts as well, not a single orc left without a box of thin mints.

Say what you will about him, but the trains ran on time with Sauron was an ethereal orb hovering over Middle Earth.

Syphyre · January 2012

I've seen that the majority of the time, as long as everyone involved is on board, the honor system works really well. We used to have a "donut fund" where someone would grab the pouch of cash and change, go out, buy donuts, and as people ate them the pouch got refilled.

The only time it ever got screwed up is when people from outside the system got in. (as in the cleaning people in the story)

Sticks · January 2012

When I was young and still attending, we had an honor system for soft drinks at our church. At some point, I came in to get a drink and found a big "THOU SHALT NOT STEAL" sign affixed to the front of the refrigerator.

Eventually, they had to buy an old vending machine so they could continue to provide beverages without the money getting stolen.

Tofystedeth · January 2012

Aldo wrote:

Lewie P's Stepdad wrote:

There were some interesting studies done on the honour system in cases like this. Apparently even just drawing a picture of an eye on the card that tells you about the system increases the level of compliance.

Sauron knew what's what.

Mirrors just above the product also seem to work.

Also reading the post just above this one with the sig included is great.

Warlock82 · January 2012

Ha, reminds me of when I put a 6 pack of those 24oz Pepsi bottles in the fridge at work, with my name on them, and then found a couple missing the next day -_- Last time I put stuff in that fridge.

Jasconius · January 2012

Any office fridge shared by more than 7 people is a path to ruin.

vsove · January 2012

Jasconius wrote:

Any office fridge shared by more than 7 people is a path to ruin.

To this day, I seek vengeance on the one who stole my Coke Zero during crunch. Their fate will be spoken of in hushed whispers.

Kozality · January 2012

Jasconius wrote:

Any office fridge shared by more than 7 people is a path to ruin.

There is a reason that this is the plot to many-a sitcom episodes. After reading this strip I thought about News Radio and Joe's gelato. Good Times.

Ori Klein · January 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOtNMp9GSoM

Munkus Beaver · January 2012

I ran into a similiar problem when I lived in church housing in undergrad. Some people had the idea that food/drinks in the fridge were 'community' and would take anything out of there that they pleased.

The psychology I learned before buying my own mini fridge was this: anyone will take your coke if there is another coke there. Nobody wants to take the last coke.

So I cooled one coke at a time.

jothki · January 2012

The trick is probably to put your own donation box on top of the fridge. That way, when people steal other people's food, there's a chance they'll give you money as well.

ThreeCubed · January 2012

This whole thread makes me want to go waste hours on http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com

Aurich · January 2012

When I worked at Walmart, I found that theft of employee stuffs in the lounge was totally, completely a non-issue. The number one cause of loss of fridge stuff was when they all got cleaned out cause no one ever took what wasn't theirs, even if it had been there unclaimed for weeks.

In fact, my coworkers were some of the least trustworthy people I've ever met. Several of them were literally, dangerously, insane. That the honor system worked better with them than the church contexts above is... wild.

jothki · January 2012

Aurich wrote:

When I worked at Walmart, I found that theft of employee stuffs in the lounge was totally, completely a non-issue. The number one cause of loss of fridge stuff was when they all got cleaned out cause no one ever took what wasn't theirs, even if it had been there unclaimed for weeks.

In fact, my coworkers were some of the least trustworthy people I've ever met. Several of them were literally, dangerously, insane. That the honor system worked better with them than the church contexts above is... wild.

If you had a choice, would you rather steal from someone who goes to your church or someone who is dangerously insane?

AnteCantelope · January 2012

Where I work there are two fridges packed full of food, some communal and some not, plus charity boxes of chocolates. I've never heard of any trouble with it. Crappy as the work part of my job is, I'm glad I don't work in the sort of place where that would cause drama.

RoyceSraphim · January 2012

Anything I put in a company fridge will have been treated with my genitals or seasoned with african spices in such a way that it will be bearable only to me. This is in fact the reason for the British Empire, to find the fabled spices of workplace kitchens that will only allow the food to be consumed by those who prepared it, all others....DEATH!

Peccavi · January 2012

Re the comic: At least he won't have to sleep in his car for a bit. Although I do wonder why he tried to leave early in that one comic, rather than waiting with everyone else.

peacekeeper · January 2012

reading tycho talk about trenches behind the scenes was good as although im still finding the comic a bit boring i was afraid it was mainly a scott thing because it feels like reading pvp v2

Elbasunu · January 2012

peacekeeper wrote:

reading tycho talk about trenches behind the scenes was good as although im still finding the comic a bit boring i was afraid it was mainly a scott thing because it feels like reading pvp v2

I gotta disagree, this feels nothing like PVP to me. This truly feels like the love child of PA and PvP. Sometimes I think I'm drawing a comparison between a character in PvP and a character in the trenches, but then they just don't match up. It's pretty refreshing.

In any case, it's been enjoyable being on the ground floor.

phildini · January 2012

Elbasunu wrote:

peacekeeper wrote:

reading tycho talk about trenches behind the scenes was good as although im still finding the comic a bit boring i was afraid it was mainly a scott thing because it feels like reading pvp v2

I gotta disagree, this feels nothing like PVP to me. This truly feels like the love child of PA and PvP. Sometimes I think I'm drawing a comparison between a character in PvP and a character in the trenches, but then they just don't match up. It's pretty refreshing.

In any case, it's been enjoyable being on the ground floor.

I think he might be referring to the actual linear story in Trenches. PA is almost entirely one-offs, where PvP has been pretty story-driven from its start. I'm much more interested in Trenches than PvP, but that might just be the excitement at starting a new story. I used to really care about PvP too.

Gaslight · January 2012

phildini wrote:

Elbasunu wrote:

peacekeeper wrote:

reading tycho talk about trenches behind the scenes was good as although im still finding the comic a bit boring i was afraid it was mainly a scott thing because it feels like reading pvp v2

I gotta disagree, this feels nothing like PVP to me. This truly feels like the love child of PA and PvP. Sometimes I think I'm drawing a comparison between a character in PvP and a character in the trenches, but then they just don't match up. It's pretty refreshing.

In any case, it's been enjoyable being on the ground floor.

I think he might be referring to the actual linear story in Trenches. PA is almost entirely one-offs, where PvP has been pretty story-driven from its start. I'm much more interested in Trenches than PvP, but that might just be the excitement at starting a new story. I used to really care about PvP too.

Well, by that reasoning, any story-driven comic would "feel like PvP." But I have noticed something of a mild hostility towards or discomfort with story and continuity in webcomics among PA fans. At first I thought it was only the SE++ crowd when I used to lurk in the webcomic thread over there, and I thought Jerry was only joking when he would refer to "dreaded continuity" every time he and Mike undertake a week-long series, but since Trenches started I'm feeling like there may really be something to it. It's not universal, of course, but often it seems like the fact a comic has an ongoing continuity and story is an automatic "Strike one" against it in the minds of many people who post here.

Juc · January 2012

Gaslight wrote:

It's not universal, of course, but often it seems like the fact a comic has an ongoing continuity and story is an automatic "Strike one" against it in the minds of many people who post here.

The way I see it is that it's a barrier to entry.
To know why things are funny in the current strip, you usually need to know what happened in previous strips.
It's a pain in the butt if you were away from the internet for a few weeks, and sometimes an insurmountable obstacle for people who are new to the comic.

I don't really think too many people think about it consciously, they just have a threshold for how much effort they're willing to put in for entertainment and for a number of folks, continuity can exceed the threshold and cause them to get irritated or not read.

Evermourn · January 2012

Gaslight wrote:

It's not universal, of course, but often it seems like the fact a comic has an ongoing continuity and story is an automatic "Strike one" against it in the minds of many people who post here.

I think it might just be that PA one-off comics are generally better than their attempts at continuity. So every time continuity comes in, the fans feel robbed of potential funny. But I might be wrong.

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Trenches comic: Tuesday January 3, 2011 - Narrative

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