Why are these people gods?

[germs]

1.Why is Os a god?
2.Why is Grolantor a god?
3.What happened to "lotus"?
4.Will you be turning your newbie builders into gods when their crappy areas get released?

[Dentin]

The general policy has been that once you become a god, the requirements for you to continue existing are pretty lax.  In general, 1) show up every now and again, 2) don't break anything major, and 3) don't cause problems when you do log in.  Os and Grolantor both adhere to this, while Lotus did not (he was inactive for far too long, in spite of having an active mortal.)

[It should be noted that this is not a great policy in general, but at the same time I'm working with volunteers here.  I can't exactly fire people for not showing up on time.]

Os and Grolantor both became gods after internal discussions in the pantheon.  There have been times when I have created new gods without discussion, but that did not happen in either of these two cases.

I may be turning the newbie builders into gods, depending on the areas and other factors.  I haven't started evaluating them to that end yet.

[germs]

I understand that you had a "discussion" with some of your other gods before you made Os and Grolantor gods but i am still a tad unclear on what exactly their qualifications were. I think everyone is.

When you have discussions within your "pantheon" present day, is Os given a say equal to that of Draak or Void? Does he have more influence on your decision making than say a mortal? 

If Lotus hadn't been inactive would he have remained a god and would you have set him up with followers just like your other gods?

[Dentin]

The qualifications at the time were along the lines of, "these guys aren't idiots, and we think they will build something without causing problems".  So far that's been true, though neither of them have built much.

Different people have different amounts of say, based on what their competencies are.  I do not treat all voices equally on all topics.  There are mortals with substantially greater pull than Os for example; but not in all topics.  That said, high level gods (105 and higher) generally (but not always) do have more say than mortals.  This is because people who make it to 105 are usually very knowledgeable about the game and the game dynamics.  High level builders also tend to bring up issues that mortals do not, as mortals are often biased against making changes that would weaken their characters.

If Lotus had remained more active, the pfile cleaner wouldn't have eaten him.  He probably would have gotten followers by default at some point even without a priest, since that's possible to do now.  I also might have let him set up a priest; that's not generally a big deal.