Some important information you all should be in on

I already went over the name thing until blue in the face, so I won't speak on that point again, but...

By what (factual, not governmental) authority do you dictate how many of 'each person' of the major scene people are needed here? Many of them are unique in their capabilities, to the extent that, your 'wider net' idea, if successful, would not so much produce clones of these people but rather get us different people. That's all in good, but I think it's the wrong approach that we need more quantity of people to the extent it becomes the main focus above other things. This site and community has survived roughly eight years without you and your approach, and I believe it could continue on without it too. However, so far I haven't seen any damaging effects, so I will simply continue on with my point: let in whom you may (following the tests and stuff, of course) but unless they are truly eager to follow the rules and work within the time-honored ways, they probably won't get anywhere.

The problem is that this community, by definition, involves the hacking and reverse engineering of a series of games—a technically illegal activity. If it becomes too widespread, then companies like Sega may see it as a threat to their revenue. As it is, they have done nothing despite various Sega types hearing about the work done here, but one can never be too careful.

Therefore, if your idea truly hit it off and it went from a niche to a mainstream, said transition could spell legal doom for the entire aspect—something which I think would put quite a damper on even doing current levels of stuff.

I am not 100% up to date with the hacking aspect, but from what I know, ASM is where it's at because it can change the most stuff. You don't need to know ASM to contribute knowledge and such, but if you're in it for hacking, I'd think the best way to go without ASM knowledge would be to try to recruit aid of those who did know ASM. Similar to how today's video games have programmers, designers, etc.

The use of hacking applications is still valid, but limited. Hence why it (possibly unfairly) gets knocked in the scene.

Mainly, the problem is you merged an elitist hacking/scene group with some wider, all-encompassing idea. I try to accept it, but every time I read posts praising the merger or explaining why, it comes up as a massive amount of logical errors to me. Mainly, the ideals of a wider information database aspect clash with that of a guild-like community which holds its information close to itself. Similarly, members of the wider-area persuasion are likely to crash into those who still believe in the ways of S2B.

However, the merger is unlikely to create any real damage, as both sides stay separate, with only those interested in doing both going across to the other side. I'm just thinking that you have a lot of good ideas, that are being used at the wrong place. Just because many S2B members joined your forum didn't mean they all wanted to become your forum. It simply meant you needed to appeal to your 'wider audience' moreso than the 'closed audience' here with your forum, which with enough time and work could probably become the wide-ranging do-everything site. Free from some of the restrictions of S2B, it could flourish by filling in a niche which is, truly, empty: The wide-open hacking scene, as opposed to the many little closed ones.

In short, your ideas are valid and interesting, but they do not seem to coexist well with the ideas S2B at least until now held, which ran counter to it, as such:

* A closed, idiot-free forum to discuss hacking, Sonic, et al
* A tendency to discourage overly outlandish or bizarre ideas, but at the same time encouraging those which have evidence of being plausible or successful
* A devoted, small group of elite hackers/researches/etc which stay around for the long term, regardless of how 'popular' the place is
* General secrecy of ideas when they are first shared, over time appearing on the site and becoming open to the public
* The most technical hacking around, pushing the envelope with ASM hacking and such
* Focus around, thus, teaching people ASM and showing them how to do it
* A rank-and-file hierarchy of sorts, not explicit but it seems to pervade some areas
* Specialization in one topic or two above all others, with more broad ideas and topics usually being made narrow so as to be more effective

Many of these contradict your ideas and sayings. Some may bend or vanish to accomodate you, but it would take many months to erase the more basic prospects. While I only speak for myself, I just wanted you to know the gist of it. If it's old news, then just ignore it, but... ironically, I say this mainly because I want to help you avoid snags, not so much to prevent your ideas from working.

 

Then I shall cease speaking of it immediately.