The 'Shroom:Issue LXX/Retro Feature

Retro Feature

by Tucayo (talk)

“And to those of you who have lost faith in The 'Shroom, I say the following: FAIL”

—Stooben Rooben, Director's Notes, Issue XXIII

Stooben Rooben
First article:	FTMV, Issue XI
Last article:	Interview/Christmas in the Key of 2012, Issue LXIX
Sections Written:	Main/Staff: 44 Fake News: 9 Music & Art: 1
Positions held:	Director, Sub-Director, Fake News Director, Affiliates Manager

HI, readers! I am… Well, at the moment of writing this I don't even know what I am. But anyway, welcome to this year's first installment of Retro Feature! The writers I had previously covered in this section had been either veteran writers who have been missing for years or "recent" writers who stopped writing in these past years. Can we have both qualities in just one writer? Of course we can! That writer is none other than Stooben Rooben (talk), who left his job as our interviewer last month and is one of the two users to whom I greatly owe my 'Shroom career.

If you were to tell the history of The 'Shroom, you wouldn't be able to do it without mentioning Stooben several times. Lemonface, as he was called at the time, joined the Super Mario Wiki on November 14th, 2007. A month after joining, Stooben signed up to write From the Mushroom Vaults and added a User of the Month section to the Sign-Up page. He was accepted as the FTMV writer and started on Issue XI, but his other section was declined by Wayoshi. Now, you probably remember from when I talked about 3Dejong the lack of writers the Fake News sub-team had, which caused there not be Fake News on Issues X and XI. After those two months, the Fake News sub-team had its largest issue so far, with the help of Stooben, who took over the Obituaries. One issue later, 3Dejong left Stooben in charge of the Fake News; and, after a rather quiet first month, Stoob managed to put the original sub-team back on track. Stoob directed Issues XIII to XVIII, but a hiatus made him leave his job as Fake News Director, leaving the team back in 3Dejong (talk)'s hands, who wouldn't release a single issue, due to him not receiving any sections. 3Dejong called it quits a few days before release, and Stoob was asked to return as Fake News Director in December, but no more Fake News were released that year. Since most of the writers in the team hadn't sent a section in months, Stooben proceeded to clear out most of them.

He would go on to write FTMV for 16 straight issues, making it – at the time – the section to appear on the most issues. After Glowsquid's term ended, the second Director Election took place. This election faced Stooben with then-Sub-Director, Marcelagus (talk); Fun Stuff writer, Tucayo (talk) (that's me!); and some random guy who decided to run. That election would eventually result in the election with the highest voter turnout, as well as the most lop-sided one. Stooben got 47 votes, easily defeating Marcelagus (who got 3 votes), lucas64bat (who got no votes), and myself (I got 5 votes).

Big changes came during Stooben's term. During his first month, he promoted the then-called Fun Section to the Fun Stuff Sub-Team we have now, appointing Z3r0 Tw0 (talk) as the first FS Director. Stooben had many plans for the newsletter, but Real Life stuff forced him to put them briefly on hold, as the first of the Stooben-Tucayo switches happened before Issue XXV. Stooben acted as Sub-Director for the next three issues, even writing Monthly Report for February and April, and then returned to the Director's office. While his second term only lasted one month, Stooben approved the Music & Art sub-team before switching positions with me again. The creation of the Core Staff, as proposed by Stooben, along with our underground board in the forums, greatly simplified planning and discussion. That, I believe, was one of the best contributions to the administrative side of the newsletter. For the rest of the year, Stooben stayed as Sub-Director, greatly helping plan and release our first Special Issue and our surprise Holiday Issue. But, most importantly, Stooben was the main driving force in the biggest overhaul The 'Shroom has ever had. This overhaul greatly helped The 'Shroom get back to the spotlight, and took care of most of the problems aggravating us. Section limits were established, our focus was shifted to Wiki News, entertainment sections were trimmed, higher standards were set, the Editor-in-Chief was reinstated, lateness was no longer tolerated, the Sign-Up page was massively rearranged and activity standards were set for the Core Staff.

“I will make sure that every writer's work is appreciated. Our writers do things out of the goodness of their heart — it's completely voluntary.”

—Stooben Rooben, 2009 Director Election

That turned out to be a major turning point for The 'Shroom. Stooben also established the basis for the End-of-Year awards, 'Shroom Awards, the various events, the current Poll system and the application process, all of which are key elements of the newsletter nowadays. After all those changes, the 2009 Director Election came, this time Stooben was facing then-Director, Tucayo; and then Pipe Plaza Director, Super Mario Bros. (talk). With 21 votes, Stooben also won this election, and so he returned to the Director's chair. 2010 was basically a continuation of the changes that started in 2009, making The 'Shroom grow more than ever. During the course of the year, Stooben wrote his first Interview, section he last wrote on our previous issue. For the most part of his term, Stoob held the record for most Main Team sections, always writing high-quality sections, which makes my job of choosing one article to show you much more difficult. 2010 ended, and with that came another election, but Stooben decided not to run again, taking a short break from the newsletter. In May 2012, Stooben returned as the first Affiliates Manager, and held the position for the rest of the term. A month after that, he returned to the Interview section, winning a SOTM Award on his first month. He would write 8 more interviews before resigning from the position.

I could go on for days detailing Stoob's career on the SMW Community, but this section has to end eventually. So, without further ado, here is Stooben's FTMV from Issue XVI, where he gave readers tips on the various RPG's of the Marioverse. Enjoy!

From the Mushroom Vaults by — Stooben Rooben Prepare to play for hours on end! It's RPG Month! Tips, Secrets, Hints, and Cheats for Mario's games! Cheats: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES) The start of Mario RPGs was released in 1996; it was very popular, lots of people liked it, it's being released on the Virtual Console in Japan, blah blah blah... Okay, let's just cut right to the chase and skip the boring history lesson. I'm going to tell you how to get an infinite amount of coins. When you are heading towards Rosa town, enter the area where there's a load of Shy Guys by treasure boxes. Go to the bottom-right exit. Hit the box next to the door to receive many coins, but do not completely empty it. Go back through the exit, and reenter the exit once more; keep hitting the box as I mentioned before, without draining it of coins. Repeat and rinse until you have all the coins you want! Tips: Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA) I've only recently bought this game, and already it's one of my favorite games. This game is also notable for revolutionizing the style of game sprites. Okay, now that I've bragged with how epicly awesome this game is, I'll tell you today's tip. So, you're fighting Cackletta for the first time and you're having trouble grilling her cheese, right? Then, it must be when she splits into three different entities. Right? RIGHT?! HAH! I though so... anyway, when she's cloned herself to have two duplicates, it's actually quite easy to tell the real Cackletta apart from the bologna cronies. When she attacks, one clone will raise her right arm, another will lift her left arm, and the third will lift both arms. Attack the Cackletta that raises both hands to damage her. Then, just keep doing so until the old hag disintegrates! Hints: Super Paper Mario (Wii) Did you know that you can infinitely stay in a 3D flip? Well, all you have to do is get Mario's catch card from the bottom of Flopside's Pit of 100 Trials. Good luck beating Shadoo though... Secrets: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GC) There's not one thing that sucks about this game, in my opinion. It's one of the greatest Mario games ever. The graphics are also pretty awesome. Wait, what am I talking about? This isn't the Review section! Well, as you may or may not know, this game is jam-packed with Easter Eggs. Having played the game almost thirty times, I've probably found close to everything hidden in the game. One of my favorite secrets of the game is the NES reference in the game. This can only be performed only once in the entire game. When in the X-Naut Fortress, head for the ventilator shaft. Drop through the vents into the dressing room (where you played as Peach earlier). When you open the curtain... ...HOLY CRAP! You're in 8-bit! :O It doesn't last when you leave the room though, so be sure to get the best out of it while you can. Well, I hope you enjoyed RPG Month!

In Closing

As you can see, most of what you see now was influenced by Stooben Rooben in one way or another. Except for the staff's submarine, I bought that one on my own. So I believe it's perfectly safe to say this: The 'Shroom wouldn't be where it is now without Stoob. Actually, many aspects of the Super Mario Wiki community wouldn't be where they are now if it weren't for him. Thanks, Stooby.

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