One of the great things about flying with Goonfleet is not having to work in the mornings.
By which I mean that I get into work, fire up the pc, and get to read compelling stories authored collaboratively by scores of people on the GF forums.
Of course, there is rarely a single, cohesive post anywhere that tells the story of what has happened. You can cheat, and skip to the end of whatever ALL CAPITALS IMPORTANT FLEET OP thread has grown to 10 pages and 500 posts overnight, but even that will only give an insight into the mood at the thread's conclusion. Actually deciphering what happened is a different matter: forum threads, especially those which grow so rapidly, see substantial assumptions about contextual knowledge made by those who are collaborating in the events described in real time.
So the story has to be read start to finish, from page one, skimming the brief flame-wars and nerd-rage between acrimonious neighbours and browsing past the detours and cul-de-sacs of off-topic diversions. The narrative is built jointly, rarely more than a paragraph at a time, by those participating in the events, and this happens in real-time. Some posts are aimed at fellow participants. Some posts are aimed at observers: the "at work crew", most often, furiously F5ing as they read and begging for updates when the postrate slows. Occasionally, most often in a moment of extreme triumph, a post will be explicitly aimed at the other: those spies who read our forums to report to their masters amongst our enemies. The result is a curious mixture of description and conversation
Like any historical record made up of primary sources, care needs to be taken when reading the narrative. Much of what is written is speculative or precipitate, and turns out to be incorrect. Some authors are notably trustworthy; some are notoriously not so. Some people are not there, but are repeating as fact what they have misunderstood from participants. This is goonfleet, so some will be downright lying for comedic value, and the wording of those trolls- which would seem indistinguishable from actual, factual claims to the inexperienced reader - are the keys to knowing they are intended humourously: at least three times last night posters claimed that the enemy leader Shrike was tackled in his titan (an uber-boat that we kill when bored). Each of these reports was clearly intended to give the message "you should get here quickly" while not intending to convey the meaning "Shrike is actually tackled".
The overall shape and mood of the story is the primary indicator of current success or failure, shaped by occasional, blessed reports from high-value posters. Then, sometimes, will come silence.
If you notice that posts suddenly stop for half an hour or more, then something big is happening. Usually, it means something big and good is happening. If we are getting slaughtered, some people will usually not reinforce their failure, but will come to the boards to say "welp". If something wonderful happens, then even those who die jump back into ships and get right back out there, and don't have time to post about what happens. This happened last night at about 12:50 GMT, and I read on eagerly, quickly reaching the mass ululations of delight posted an hour later as we discussed our victory. Note that I say "we": these tales build our group identity. It is the "we" of Goonfleet who killed Shrike, defended Detorid, cleansed 9-9, reclaimed Tenerifis and are siezing Omist and Feythabolis, even if no single Goon was there for all of these acts. It is not surprising that one of the posts on the GF site is an adaption of Beowulf: stories and history make up a lot of the alliance wiki, and what better than the epic tradition?
NOW Sesfan Qu'Lah bode in the system of the Goons,
leader beloved, and long he ruled
in fame with all goonfolk, since his father had gone
away from the world, till awoke an heir,
haughty Remedial, who held through life,
sage and sturdy, the Goons glad.
IMPORTANT ADDENDUM THING
You may think I am exaggerating when I say that some GF posters are unreliable or hard to read. Perhaps you think that you've read enough forums to be able to effortlessly discard the chaff. Well, allow me to quote Arghy, who it so happens is the single best poster in Goonfleet. Imagine you are trying to piece together an engagement and you come across this, without even a hint of a clue what provoked it:
Hate to tell you this man BUT DINOSAURS ARE FAKE!! well not really but i do f***ing hate the idiots who speculate any further then 10000 years then say i cant make up my own story when its got just as much proof(guess who dident get along with the dino man at the museum?). I love f***ing with guys who believe science is an absolute haha shoulda seen how flustered i had this astronomer, he f***ing strongly believed that blackholes exsisted when i told him they dident because we have never seen one beyond some darkspot on a blurry camera.
How about the guys who think they know how big the universe is? HAHAHA man what the f*** is at the edge of it dude? you cant even f***ing FATHOM THE DIAMETERS YOUR TALKING ABOUT SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE MR PROFESSOR! I can tell you how old the earth is because i measured the radiation released from this thing! what did the radiation thing come from? what?! thats not important!
I suspect that you see what I mean a bit better, now?