Sigma's current avatar.
| The Bungie.net user featured in this article is a former Forum Ninja. |
Sigma's avatar as a Forum Ninja.
Sigma was a former Forum Ninja on Bungie.net, who seemingly vanished from the community less than a year after gaining the status.
In Life
- Name: Stephen
- Age: (Approximated) Early 20s.
- Location: Atlanta, Georgia
- Work/Education: Student at Georgia Tech, major or concentration unknown
Bungie.net Beginnings
Sigma joined Bungie.net on January 29, 2003, only being sighted once in Bungie's extensive community before, at a fledgling and juvenile Halo 1 Easter Egg search forum (founded by a user "Heliocentric") weeks before his arrival onto Bungie.net. Early in his time, Sigma assisted in the founding of, among other smaller chapters, Mr. Smiley's Xbox Lounge, which grew quickly, soon becoming a frequented page by many popular Bungie.net personalities. He also had a roll in the launch of the Halobabies comic site (also by MrSmiley and artist Gruntsbane) later that year in July, where he moderated the forums.
As time passed, Sigma slowly grew to moderate prominence by frequenting large chapters, moderating many others (including SketchFactor's chapter Gamers Anonymous, where he was occasionally chastised by SketchFactor for answering questions in the "Ask SketchFactor" database in inane ways), and posting frequently on The Underground and The Septagon (though Sigma did not found a chapter, he was a member of the Chapter Founders chapter).
Activity and Jokes
- The Honey Mustard, Barbecue Debate - Shortly after the arrival of the New Hotness, Sigma began moderating SketchFactor's Gamers Anonymous chapter, which was outfitted with the "Revolution" theme (one which was composed highly of yellow and red), which was said to look as though it was "designed to make your chapter look a like steak sauce". While the complete origin of the debate is unknown, the eventual outcome was a friendly "war" between Gamers Anonymous and Mr. Smiley's Xbox lounge, with the majority of GA being advocates of Barbecue Sauce, and the majority of MSXL being advocates of Honey Mustard Sauce. Sigma was once quoted saying that "A runner up to the hippo (avatar) was a big old bottle of honey mustard, just to annoy Sketch(Factor)."
- Noob Articles - In Mr. Smiley Xbox Lounge's infancy, Sigma frequently utilized the "Articles" database to complain about different aspects of attempting to play Halo: CE over XboxConnect (as did others in the chapter). Many of these articles entries were geared toward the type of players that he encountered online, and their different idiosyncrasies and bad habits. Eventually, the collection of articles from him and other MSXL members began to pile up, and was once described as MSXL's "Noob Articles". Some of the articles survive today at MSXL, though their formatting has been altered due to the transfer to the New Hotness.
- Song and Dance - When he first joined Bungie.net, Sigma's signature read "A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down my pants," and he refused to explain why.
- The Name - Sigma also refused to admit the reason for his choice of name, but eventually at the Halobabies forums, it became accepted (though it was never admitted to) that his name was in homage to the MegaMan video game series.
As A Ninja
Shortly before the arrival of the New Hotness, Sigma applied to become a moderator in the Septagon, a request process then moderated by Yoozel. At the time, Sigma was told a moderator was not explicitly needed, but if it were in the future, he may get the position. Shortly after the move to the New Hotness, Sigma was granted Mod-ship, and joined the HFCS. Sigma was once quoted in saying that he didn't "know how my name came up in the discussion of who to make a mod. Perhaps my name was drawn from a Soffish bowl," as if to express surprise at his promotion.
As a ninja, Sigma acted similarly to how he had in times before his new position: critical of off topic or pointless posts, a flagrant advocate of grammar in the forums, and often bitterly sarcastic; however, only months after his promotion, a decrease in his activity had already become apparent. For a while, it was postulated that he simply did not post on the forums frequently, only moderating them, but as time passed it became clear that he did not frequent the community nearly as often as he had before.
Vanishing
While Sigma had always been a ninja who was able to do "less posting than moderating," his activity dwindled as time passed, prompting concerns from some forum frequenters. His activity also dwindled in other forums he was a moderator for and frequented, including Mr. Smiley's Xbox Lounge, the Halo Babies forum, and other chapters.
It is estimated that Sigma's account was autodeleted about a year and four months after the launch of the New Hotness, meaning that his last activity was less than a year after its launch. The reasons for his disappearance were never entirely given, though he was sited at Halobabies months later apologizing for his vanishing and citing work, school, and "burn-outtedness".
Early in 2009, a new user named "Amgis" (Sigma backward, of course) registered on Bungie.net and sent messages to many of the personalities that Sigma had been in close contact with during his active time at Bungie.net, though it is unknown whether or not this user's identity was that of Sigma himself. Still, it is rumored that Sigma is still active on Bnet, under a different alias.
