I don't agree with the notion that so many people wanted Tweaker out of the administrator's position - I for one didn't care one way or the other, and the people who I saw celebrating his "downfall" last night were all the people who left the community because of his position of power. That's hardly even close to being a majority, or even an amount of members worth making major changes over, I'm sorry guys. As much as I would love to see people like Quickman, Shade, Fiz, et al make a return, I don't want it at the cost of political drama and discord amongst the membership. What this really amounted to, and correct me if I'm wrong, was Qjimbo playing favoritism and helping a few of his buddies get their way so they would come back. That's what seemed so crooked about it in the very beginning.
Things are back to how they should be. Of course, I never believed the 'takeover' group would get far in the first place. And now life can resume as normal.
Actually, that's a fair point - any of the administration here willing to re-member all those who passed trial membership BEFORE this fiasco started? There was even a new member or two, if I remember right.
In that thread, I mentioned that I'd left unless/until Tweaker got unbanned, which happened. So, consider me back.
I know I said I wouldn't try to stir stuff up, everyone that complained about when I left and said I was retarded, this is your chance to shut up now, thanks. Why am I doing this? Simple, all the people that coughed up a storm about the people leaving when tweaker took control; then people, some who complained about people leaving when tweaker got control, complained and left when tweaker was, temporarily, removed. So in a sense last night showed us who were the true hypocrites. EDIT: Sorry, I really typed this quickly for some reason and left some lines out. Added them.
Ok, here's my perspective. I get a text msg while I'm at work yesterday. It's Nikki basically telling me that all hell's broken loose. I come home to find out that Jim had locked the ACP and, along with a cabal of others, was making demands of me. This was unacceptable. After a while of trying to regain my ACP access (which I set forth as my single term to begin talks), I was unsuccessful, as those involved in the takeover were worried that I would ban them en masse and readmin Tweaker, which he'd already stated he didn't want back. At that point, I decide that Jim will no longer be hosting the site - after all, would YOU make use of a host that's willing to take over your site because they don't like how you run it, or who you choose to help you? As Saz said, the site is now being hosted on CultNet. I haven't quite decided whether I plan on banning Jim or not, but he will no longer have any staff responsibilities here. It's my understanding that he's registered s2beta.org - yeah, good luck with your stolen ripoff site. Too bad we couldn't part ways amicably. Jim, if you even care enough to read this (or if anyone cares to relay it to him), I'd be most appreciative if you'd at least return to me a current SQL backup - I tried to take one last night but PHP ran out of memory. It would at least make me less pissed off at you. Also, I'm not planning on banning people en masse who were involved in the takeover - talking about such a takeover is free speech and thus I will not punish that. Jim's fired simply because he broke my trust.
Heres what I think happened here: Basically some, not all but some, people agree that since LocalH took over the reins for S2B, things have been...well...below what was expected from the previous board administration, however I can understand the stance that not everyone is 100% the same, that would just be boring. However the changes were enough to cause some to be either A. frustrated, or B. flat out disgusted. From what I've heared, and this is from the people who didn't like the way things are running here mind you, that the administration flat out didn't care about its users and would more then often try to shut them up rather than address the situation, having an administrator who blows up over the littlest complaint does not help this. How would you feel if you had an administrator who cared and tried to address the problems when he could then have him being replaced by someone who you feel completely ignores you? Yes this board is a dictatorship, but Simon's version of a dictatorship was in some eyes way better than the current crew. Those people, including QJimbo, decided enough was enough and decided to try to overthrow the administration which they feel had abandoned them and the spirit of the old board. The same happens in real life in dictatorships, eventually a bad dictator is going to get overthrown. As per usual I openly accept in counter-points to what I have just typed out here. Also, I tried to stay neutral while typing this, I failed. <_<
They were not attempting to overthrow LocalH and the like, it was an exercize executed for the sole reason of dethroning Tweaker.
Personally, I could never catch Tweaker on power abuse in here. He was doing a good job. I guess this is the work of some "Tweaker haters" but I don't want to get involved in such kind of shit. Let's hope things will calm down, now that they got what they want...
Why stop? He's right, isn't he? Or do you mean to tell me that what went down last night still would have occurred if everyone had been completely happy with and in favor of Tweaker being an administrator?
O RLY? You're back? Well that's good to know. Anyways I agree, good luck Saz. Bring this place into a new age.
My perspective is simple. Once upon a time I was perfectly neutral, doing my thing (mostly the occasional commenting) on stuff. As I did years ago, and still do even though I now have been polarized. I'd been fine with the current administration. Some people yelled at me (and other oldbies) for not having to retake the test, but in all reality, I had just taken the test a few months prior and succeeded—the next one wouldn't have been too difficult for me either. I've taken harder ones before. Then I'm doing my thing and suddenly this big screen pops up saying the site has been hacked. I first go "This is BS", then I go "Whoever is behind this asinine nonsense must PAY", and then I find out Tweaker has left. As for S2B concerns we are neutral, however I am at least somewhat his friend outside of S2B. Okay. Whether or not he was really going nuts and quit over hacking, I won't spare my idea that Tweaker wasn't cut out for the position, because he couldn't take personal attacks. You must be made of steel, like me, or others, and take that and smash people who disturb the peace. So then all these people who were banned appear and begin disrupting everything and insulting my other friends. People who I had previously argued with, people who had no care for research, people who loved to fill my screen with disgusting garbage. And then I discovered the hackjob was so these people who disrupted the peaceful community could come in and prevent intelligent discussion? People who then advocated overturning things Simon (and Pelord as well, and LocalH) had worked so hard to build? To be honest, I don't know how I kept myself from making a massive, angry, horrible post. I am neutral in terms of whether S2B rises or falls, but I have a very strong conscience, and a very strong feeling for justice. AND THIS WAS WRONG. I checked, then; maybe I was the 1%? Maybe this was for the benefit of the community? ...No. I saw fellow oldbies fighting these people, I saw fellow members scared off, I saw Tweaker's emotional state torn apart for political gain, I saw LocalH's trust abused for evil. The day these people were allowed to trample things, was the day I stopped being neutral in these asinine politics. I don't agree with any one side 100%, but so far LocalH's has been at the forefront of trying to uphold the old principles, while the other side shouts 'SHADE IS AMAZING' and loots and burns everything. And it is just great this place is back, because I don't know what I would have done had such injustice been allowed to prevail. That is my perspective. I am not saying any of this is right or wrong, in fact I acknowledge it is probably biased. My experiences are unique, and so are everyone else's. But doesn't it seem wrong to steal a website you didn't create for the purposes of changing it beyond its current form and destroying what was there previous?
New leadership approach or not, should we be reminded of how major splits like this have ended up in the past? If you want the place back to the way it was in the Simon era, either refuse to read any post made after he left, or study his posts and learn from them. If you want a new Simon, act like Simon. Don't be pissed that your overthrow failed and make a new board in retaliation. I'm not saying that this can't work out, but rather that Qjimbo shouldn't have tried a forceful overthrow in the first place. Dictatorship or not, the administration (along with perhaps the moderators) should have simply discussed the problem and worked it out from there. As we've seen, Tweaker could have stepped down if he saw it was causing problems. Hopefully both sides can still work this out, and perhaps eventually rejoin the two parts of the fractured site. The last thing we need to have the perfect community everyone seems to picture is a split. Have both sides of leadership (plus Tweaker, since animosity against him was the reason for the split) sit down and talk about the fiasco. As much as you guys may hate each other right now, the only way to rebuild is by working this thing out.
I actually do have a backup of the importiant posts in the old topic 9093, but the attachment system doesn't seem to be working at the moment. I'll post it to the public as soon as I can. If you're really dying to read it, PM me.
