General talk:Fishy Stick

The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995
Jump to: navigation, search

Have a Fishy Stick[edit]

I was about to make this article about the popular Fishy Stick. Unfortunately, I can only find one reference, and I know that it's highly watered down. If anyone else knows any more about the fishy stick, or can show us some better references, I'd be most grateful. --Aristeo 13:12, 27 April 2006 (EDT)

The origins of the Fishy Stick can be read about here. --Jaga Telesin

Thanks! --Aristeo 15:51, 28 April 2006 (EDT)

Well, I did it. Of course, it definatly needs some work, but at least it's there! --Aristeo 15:51, 28 April 2006 (EDT)

I didn't get a fishy stick...[edit]

Well, i signed up to the forums recently (as Poopskin, my Alias on GTAforums...) and i didn't GET NO STEENKING FISHY STEEK! -m'aiq the liar 07:50, 10 May 2007 (EDT)

Forum advertisement[edit]

Is it ok to have blatant forum advertisements in articles like this? I mean, this "unofficial" fishy stick forum has nothing to do with the fishy stick at all, except for the name. And none of the original fishy stick people are in any shape or form involved with the forum. — Unsigned comment by 85.24.163.45 (talk) at 07:23 on 21 October 2007 (GMT)

I don't see why not. It's really there as a bit of historical information in case anybody is wondering what on earth a fishy stick is when they come across them in the games. --RpehTCE 02:27, 21 October 2007 (EDT)
Except that the forum doesn't have any historical value whatsoever. The fishy stick days were back in 2001 on the official TES forum by very different people, not some fan forum that was created a few months ago. And the information is already on the UESP page. I see this blatant advertisement in the same way as I do to spamming. It's just some desperate attempt to get attention, and in this case to join a forum instead of buying viagra. — Unsigned comment by 85.24.163.45 (talk) at 07:35 on 22 October 2007 (GMT)
Okay, it seems you're not the only person who thinks this so I've taken it off. --RpehTCE 03:29, 22 October 2007 (EDT)

Fishystick History from someone who was there[edit]

  • (The Fishystick was a byproduct of one of the first forum RP's, which while merging over from the official forums to actually Elder Scrolls game I understand is generally frowned upon, I'm not sure if this may be an exception because it had such an effect on the forums that it did come in form of Easter eggs.
  • This is why I decided to write the article as a discussion page rather than a proper article, so that the appropriateness of this as an article can be discussed, while not steeping on any toes.)

-Archie


Early History of the Fishystick


The ship that the pirate Captain Eldrad drove was none other than that which crashed on the shores of Illiac Bay, High Rock. Its name was the Stormrider and the RP was very Daggerfall lore based mixed with silliness.

At first, the Fishystick was given to anyone who seemed like they had read the FAQ/sticky thread (the one for the up-and-coming) Morrowind, had played Daggerfall, and looked like they were going to stick around for a while. Not everyone received fishysticks immediately; it used to be given to people who had been around at least a month or two. They were intended for people who looked like they were going to be a positive asset to the community.

They started to evolve and be given out like awards for people who asked good questions or created good threads, there was a golden fishystick, then a platinum fishystick and lastly the highly coveted plutonium fishystick. These sticks were covered in "sause"[sic]. (The Easter Egg, Capn's Guide to the Fishy Stick in Morrowind was made by Kathode when he was an intern. It has "sause" spelled incorrectly as "sauce".)

It was not disclosed at the time what these fishysticks were made of but it was known that they were not made from fish and highly toxic. Anyone who unknowingly ingested one had to be rushed immediately to the Hospital and some died.


The Peak of the Fishystick


The Captain Morgan base image became known as the "fishystick" rather than the fish stick in the original image itself. As he Fishystick evolved, anyone who wanted to could make them ad so there became a huge variety of sticks. Almost all were the 140 pixels wide by 230 pixels in height with the Captain poking through a broken paper and handing something out to the reader with “Have a ____” at the top in various embellished fonts. Making them was encouraged at the time, there was plenty of creativity and it helped to bring the early community and devs together.

The more people started making their own fishysticks and the more they started being handed around like memes. They were sort of the early forums official meme style, with the same base image of Captain Morgan ripping through the background and handing something to the reader. They started to be handing out to anyone and everyone for any little reason. Captain Eldrad didn’t like this and the Stormrider roleplaying thread died out. They started to be given out to any and all new accounts including people who arrived to cause trouble. The forums, which were still small at the time and had no official moderation, started to get trolled.

During this time, image hosting was still welcomed on the forums, so people would make a fishystick for just about anything and everything (I have managed to archive 60 of them- maybe I could put a few up as examples?). Some were referential to the game, for example there was one that had “Have a Morrowind” with the Scourge’s head in place of the Captain’s face, and one with Have a Fork written at the top. Many were silly and random, with My Little Pony, Barnie the Dinosaur, and simply “Have a fish”. There were some drinks too, alcoholic or non alcoholic drinks, toxic or nontoxic.

Unfortunately some users would use them for sarcasm or to embarrass or bully, for example if a new person joined and asked a question that was in the Morrowind FAQ there was a "Have a FAQ" fishystick. There was a “Have some Spam” one for spammers. There was one made by the people who were sticklers for grammar that said “Have a Grammar Book” and the Captain holding out an “English Grammar for Dummies” book. For those who hadn’t read the stickies there was the sardonic “Have a F*cking Release Date” with the captain holding out the words “Spring 2002”* written in them. The fishysticks were becoming bitter. There was one intended to stop people from getting carried away with “Just Cool It” at the top and the Captain blue and frozen.

Even more unfortunately some used them to troll, with an image of the Captain showing his middle finger with “Have a Little Birdy!” written at the top. Even worse, someone made a gun with “Have some Lead” at the top. This was about the time where they started to lose all meaning and making them went out of favor. For a while.

Sometime later, the lore fan page, TIL (short for The Imperial Library) made an entry about fishysticks and they made a burlap-backed fishystick to match their page style. People started once again handing out fishysticks, but this time it was the TIL burlap background one. The originator of the fishystick was misattributed to a young user who was happy to take the credit. Of course that caused an annoyance with the older users who had fond memories of the actual history and they were discouraged by them. They began to be seen as nothing but spam since the context was lost. People who had no idea about the real history started fabricating new stories, they were being eaten (and were clearly not real fishysticks because few, if any, new members died, proving that these were not real fishysticks at all).

Some time later, just following the time of the release of Tribunal, Captain Eldrad revealed that the primary ingredient of fishysticks was, in fact, Ordinators.

And that, as I recall, is the real story of the Fishystick.

-Archie, Second Mate Protochicken of the Stormrider and Crow's Nest Watch

(Dedicated to Captain Eldrad and Soursha and all who sails the seas on the Great Pirate Ship, the Stormrider)

(*Spring 2002 also got a life of its own because of so many people just asking when the release date was. It became an in joke, and prior to the release of Oblivion, if someone asked what the release date for TESIV was going to be, they would be often given the perplexing answer of “Spring 2002”.

A little more extensive history would be an improvement on this article, but this explanation may go a little too far. Some of it isn't necessary to the subject of the article, and it goes back and forth from describing the fishystick as a digital image handed out to forum-goers, to portraying it as an actual physical item ("and were clearly not real fishysticks because few, if any, new members died, proving that these were not real fishysticks at all"). While this is amusing and interesting, if we decide to elaborate on this article based on this entry, things like that would have to be trimmed out. --GKtalk2me 01:08, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Use of [sic]?[edit]

Perhaps I am mis-remembering my schooling, but [sic] is used to denote a misspelling or other grammatical error in a quote. While not accepted standard English, "fishy" in its noun usage is child-talk in the same sense as "doggy" or "kitty". Since dropping the "y" and adding "ies" is the proper way of making such a word plural, "fishies" would be the correct spelling and not require [sic]. Justathot. Marstinson 00:44, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

I believe that the [sic] is more about the grammar that the spelling. There have been edits to correct the improper grammar, which of course was copied directly from game. --DKong27 Talk Cont 00:28, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Fishstick dance[edit]

I removed the following from the page:

This might instead a reference to the Fishstick, a "minimalist dance" described by the alternative comedy podcast You Look Nice Today in the episode Sacks-Minnelli Disease.

Yes, it is a dance, hence I'm doing the fishstick, but that doesn't make it automatically a reference to the dance. The point of this page is to describe the influence of a forum joke to the game. We don't add that the Morrowind version is a reference to the food fish stick either. --Alfwyn 17:58, 16 January 2012 (UTC)