It's a blog.
In which... a thing
Posted 07-05-2012 at 09:11 PM by LuigiMan
The elephant in the room here is, obviously, the big changes that have been happening since Brent showed up. I admit I haven't read all the blogs that people have been posting on this subject, because apparently you guys have quite a lot to say, and it's kinda hard to keep up. :p It's a shame that it's such a divisive topic, since it's the first legitimate activity the blog section has had in a while.
One of the major points of criticism towards Brent seems to be that since his arrival, the forum has been going in a monetized direction: Suddenly, VIP doesn't last as long. Suddenly, the site has ads. Suddenly, everything is about money and the site is losing its charm. Nothing will be the same again, right? Except for one thing: this has happened before.
As my join date would indicate, I've been here for a long time. Not quite since the beginning, but I got a taste of the early speculation period when Mario Kart Wii wasn't released yet and we were just a small, tight-knit group who were looking forward to the new Mario game. The main admin was the founder of the site, Bowdeni, and he didn't make a dime off this place until the VIP system was set in place in Spring of 2008. It was just an optional, one-off fee to cover the costs of the site.
That summer, mariokartwii.com was bought by Rex. We started seeing "contests" and other moneymaking schemes, and the tone of the site shifted. The other mods at the time and I were eager to impress and put on happy faces for the whole thing, but we learned that Rex had a different style. The site was no longer looked after by its owner, but was neglected. Rex was here for one purpose, and we knew it wasn't to talk about Mario Kart. The man only showed up when activity was showing signs of slowing, so he could promote someone or install a new feature. Things felt different on the forum, but after a while, something happened.
We got over it.
After a series of catastrophic promotions by Rex that he made so someone could look after the site for him, things eventually calmed down. We stopped caring that someone was making money off of our community. Rex may have been an outsider, but he wasn't evil. Life went on, and we functioned without him or Bowdeni actively taking care of things. We would occasionally need him so we could update the forum or promote a new community admin, but he and his activities for the most part fell into the background.
Mariokartwii.com has ads now. There's an annoying sidebar, and Members and VIPs are hurling mud at each other (or so I've heard.) It's easy to hate this newcomer who came along and ♥♥♥♥ed up our site, to blame him for all of our troubles, but maybe we should look at ourselves first. We're getting angry over a sidebar. If we don't learn from our mistakes, history is doomed to repeat itself. Whether you like the changes or not, don't think that this is the end of the forum as we know it. It's just another thing that's happening. Everyone will stop caring eventually, but it's up to you guys to make that happen sooner rather than later.
One of the major points of criticism towards Brent seems to be that since his arrival, the forum has been going in a monetized direction: Suddenly, VIP doesn't last as long. Suddenly, the site has ads. Suddenly, everything is about money and the site is losing its charm. Nothing will be the same again, right? Except for one thing: this has happened before.
As my join date would indicate, I've been here for a long time. Not quite since the beginning, but I got a taste of the early speculation period when Mario Kart Wii wasn't released yet and we were just a small, tight-knit group who were looking forward to the new Mario game. The main admin was the founder of the site, Bowdeni, and he didn't make a dime off this place until the VIP system was set in place in Spring of 2008. It was just an optional, one-off fee to cover the costs of the site.
That summer, mariokartwii.com was bought by Rex. We started seeing "contests" and other moneymaking schemes, and the tone of the site shifted. The other mods at the time and I were eager to impress and put on happy faces for the whole thing, but we learned that Rex had a different style. The site was no longer looked after by its owner, but was neglected. Rex was here for one purpose, and we knew it wasn't to talk about Mario Kart. The man only showed up when activity was showing signs of slowing, so he could promote someone or install a new feature. Things felt different on the forum, but after a while, something happened.
We got over it.
After a series of catastrophic promotions by Rex that he made so someone could look after the site for him, things eventually calmed down. We stopped caring that someone was making money off of our community. Rex may have been an outsider, but he wasn't evil. Life went on, and we functioned without him or Bowdeni actively taking care of things. We would occasionally need him so we could update the forum or promote a new community admin, but he and his activities for the most part fell into the background.
Mariokartwii.com has ads now. There's an annoying sidebar, and Members and VIPs are hurling mud at each other (or so I've heard.) It's easy to hate this newcomer who came along and ♥♥♥♥ed up our site, to blame him for all of our troubles, but maybe we should look at ourselves first. We're getting angry over a sidebar. If we don't learn from our mistakes, history is doomed to repeat itself. Whether you like the changes or not, don't think that this is the end of the forum as we know it. It's just another thing that's happening. Everyone will stop caring eventually, but it's up to you guys to make that happen sooner rather than later.
Total Comments 7
Comments
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You have a way with words that makes it hard not to believe you, LM, you really do.Posted 07-05-2012 at 09:31 PM by Cookeh
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Thanks.
Posted 07-05-2012 at 09:43 PM by LuigiMan
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Yep, I've been on enough forums to know that nothing ever stays the same on forums. It's an impossibility with new technology, activity, and so on. Everyone will probably get used to it, or leave..
I know on one site in 2009, they had a new system/skin, and they polled members, and it was like a 100:1 ratio against it. However, they still implemented it, most members left, and people gradually got adjusted that remained, then this year, another major overhaul was brought without any poll, no input from members, another bunch of people left, but people still stayed and got adjusted like last time, now things are pretty dead there besides some tight knit boards on it. So with that, I agree.
I still add constructive criticism for this site to improve some things. But it's true that people will adapt.Posted 07-05-2012 at 10:28 PM by Quasar
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Yes, constructive criticism is still very much necessary, "constructive" being the key word. Unfortunately, a great deal of the criticism being made lately has been decidedly nonconstructive.Posted 07-06-2012 at 12:29 AM by LuigiMan
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Exactly. People don't understand that this has happened before. I gotta agree 110% with everything you've said that.Posted 07-06-2012 at 05:39 AM by Lag
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Oh, those days with Bowdeni....simpler times.Posted 07-06-2012 at 10:50 AM by Pikadoodles
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B/c I bet a majority of the members now weren't around back then. You can't expect for them to simply know this stuff has happened before.QUOTE:People don't understand that this has happened before.Posted 07-06-2012 at 01:24 PM by inviso
