Certification : Social Structure at the Diner
Here's the lowdown: before you can create new Entrees and articles, you have to be a color. It doesn't matter what color you are, just so long as it's not gray. If you're color blind, you can check your person page to see if you've been certified at some level. If you're completely blind, you can use a speech synthesizer.
The idea is that you certify people you know, based on some sort of universal standard, and in that way, we build up this trust matrix. In reality, people certify each other based more or less on how much they like that person, or how much they want that person to like them. Here at the diner, we prefer to simply certify each other based on how invested that person is in the community. Use certification to nod approval in the direction of your fellow diners -- but don't just cert everyone as a Fixture, or else certs become essentially meaningless -- and especially don't feel bad if you don't get certified as a Fixture right away, or if you feel like a Fixture but people keep calling you a Regular. It's all good. And nobody wants to break your heart, sugar. If you're that into it, it's probably only a matter of time.
To certify someone, make sure you're logged in, then go to the person's page and use the pulldown form. You can choose from the following options:
Staff
So, Staff are the people who run the joint. Maybe the cook, or the
middle age waitress who talks to you more like a bar buddy than as
a customer. Certify someone as Staff if you think they should have that
designation, or if you're George and you're certifying 'Ellen. Staff
can pretty much certify people as whatever they want, since they're
the top of the greasy food chain.
Fixture
This certification level is for people who basically have their own
seat in the diner. The kind of people who have credit, or that George
has given free food to more than once. Fixtures have probably had, or
at least seen
George's homemade wine. Basically, we're talking
about the kind
of people that you worry about if they don't come in at least once
while you're sitting there, even if only for a cup of coffee or a John
Phillips' "How's it goin'?"
Regular
A regular is someone who's not quite grown into the decor yet and
somehow manages to not always smell like the diner. Regulars are good
folks because they change up the scenery for the Fixtures. Regulars like
this position because they get to come by a lot and see their friends,
but they don't have to pry themselves out of their seats nearly as
often. The downside is, that George is much less likely to let a mere
regular sign for their checks.
Tourist
Tourists are basically people that haven't been certified as anything.
Maybe they just got in to town for the first time, or maybe they just
poked their head in to look around. The thing is, at a place like The
Tastytronic Diner, there's no social level inbetween a passerby and a
regular. You just are, or you aren't. And it's ok if you aren't, but
that's just the way it is. Tourists can't reply to Specials or Entrees,
but they can add to their diaries, and if Regulars or Fixtures feel
like the Tourists have something good to say, they should certify them.