Board/site future

[begrimed]

The thread Silver_Skree made kinda got off on the wrong foot. A lot of this is stuff that's been brewing in the background for awhile. Tensions ran a little high on IRC, and it ended up bleeding onto the forums and catching some people off guard. And I made the mistake of going AFK when I should've been present. So, let's give this another try. Best to address specific points of interest first:

Custom message board:
PY was quick to explain how daunting as shit a custom message board would be to create. This hasn't completely deterred me from the idea; I do believe it's still possible to pull off since the board I have in mind will do little beyond the barest essentialls -- so, pretty much, only the stuff that you guys are using anyway. User registration, a few user groups (for stuff like moderators), threads, posts, avatars, text sigs, user titles, quoting and a couple other small things. If even that's still too overwhelming, then we can fall back on a better board host (I've got my eyes on PunBB if it comes to this) that's geared towards minimalism and fast load times, and make extensive modifications to that instead. Check out their message board to see what I mean. Less unneeded features sheered away = faster loading and a lot less bandwidth consumption, among other benefits.

Moving the site to a new host:
I know someone who'd be willing to cover whatever hosting package we needed for as long as needed. A relative of mine that I'm very close to, so I'm not just going out on a limb and putting trust in someone who might not pull through. FazeWire isn't a bad host, but if there's better options out there, why not? It'll take the financial burden off James, and we'll never need donations for any reason. The guy running site also being the guy who hosts it just makes more sense, maybe to just me.

Me being the new head admin:
Haha, anybody who hangs around IRC knows about this discussion by now. Let's face the facts here. James has a very busy life, and I'm the only one who updates the main site these days, however sloth-like. After the initial setup and everything, keeping the forum in check as an admin won't be needed very often if the staff keeps on top of things. But the admin's still gotta be around often and very in touch with everything that's going on. Simply put, I think I'm a good pick for the red coat right now, but don't let that stop anyone from saying otherwise if you think I'm crap, lol.

It's not as grandious as it sounds, and I didn't intend on going through with any of these big changes arbitrarily if nobody liked the idea. Sorry for those of you who suffered the shock of thinking we were getting wiped or that I was plotting to steal the site away from James and fire Zhs2. But bringing it out and addressing it directly is something I can't apologize for. And I'd totally still fire Zhs2. The community's getting by as it is right now, but recent happenings have made it kind of obvious that things are shakey. Me and Silver Skree kicked ideas around for awhile, I started a mock-up design for a custom board that would merge with the site itself, and it's been talked about on IRC quite a bit. Nobody's ardently rejected the idea altogether.

But seriously, think on it. Let this thread be where we discuss our FUTUUUUUURE.

[squishy_ichigo]

I don't see why we can't move the posts over :/

thats the only thing keeping me from not liking this

[Hiroshi Mishima]

All right, let's try my post again.

In regards to what Grime said, which is much friendlier and probably should have been the opening post instead of Silver's, clears up much of the misunderstanding. Like Crys I'm in agreement that we should try to take as much burden off James as possible, especially financially. Though I'm nowhere near as worse off as he, I know what it's like wondering if you'll have enough money to make ends meet, etc. It's part of the reason I don't offer more support for places besides this whole vocal support thingy I'm doing now. I can't say anything on Zeke, because this sounds like something stemming from IRC and I'm rarely there these days.

I do agree, though, in regards to wanting the Admin and Site Host to be around more often. A site where the person in charge for getting things done and updating the place in general isn't around much.. usually leads to problems such as stagnation. I know it hit Metroid Database years ago when TJ stopped liking Metroid and consequently stopped caring about the site.

My biggest concern (with the whole "takeover" scenario seemingly resolved) is making the transition smooth. Giving people plenty of time to get what they need from here before the site goes down, and so forth. I also hope that a new forum would at least be relatively smooth itself. If we're going to remove some of the functionality to make it simpler and bandwidth lighter, I just want to be sure that it isn't going to lead to unexpected complications. You know, like making the thing into a Black Box that stops working when you remove something seemingly unimportant.

EDIT: Squishy is basically saying part of what I'm saying. I think a lot of people who have a lot of content (such as SMILE hackers and their long threads... *cough*IceMetal*cough*) will be more open to the idea of moving the forums and the site if they didn't have to back it all up and remake the threads, and such.

[Lunaria]

To be fair Hiroshi, I don't really give a shit if my topic is trashed as long as I have the option of making a new one. :P

Though, if we move to new host I would like to still retain a subdomain. *coughthisthingcough*

I would also be for opening new fora, such as one for gaming and such.
And I'm totally for using acmlm board software.

[zephyrtronium]

I don't like getting rid of Zhs2. MetConst would never have appeared if not for James, but it would never have gone anywhere without Zeke. Based on how much I bug him, I'd say he does more administrating than I think you realise. DarkSamus was nothing compared to the waves of bots he's caught, and even the weaknesses that situation exposed can be considered completely corrected. He's also probably the only one who would tolerate me as a staff member.

[Zhs2]

My biggest concern (with the whole "takeover" scenario seemingly resolved) is making the transition smooth.

Not really. If anything, I'd say this is only the beginning of something big.

But bringing it out and addressing it directly is something I can't apologize for. And I'd totally still fire Zhs2. The community's getting by as it is right now, but recent happenings have made it kind of obvious that things are shakey.

Shaky because it's not what you would have done had you been in the position? Quite frankly, I don't blame you much for thinking big, but how far are you going to get with a community that isn't something fresh from the Metroid 2002 handbooks where only the cool people reign supreme and everyone else is a noobfag, gtfo (you don't get a chance to sit around and show off your skills because you're just being a pain in the ass by existing anyway?) I suppose I won't have much choice but to sit back and be disappoint at the direction of the community as a whole if (and that would be a pretty big if) hosting gets transferred off of James' humble back, but until then, it's not going to be very nice going, is it?

[interdpth]

MetConst: The community filled with drama.

If there were a move, I believe Zeke and possibly James should be at least Global Moderators. They have done everything, and deserve respect.

Squishy, and Grime would be excellent Administrators imo.

But fazewire does suck a big one. Servers are pretty cheap these days, I wouldn't mind donating every month to keep up a new server.

It'd be cool if more people were able to have sub-domains specifically for their hacks.

And now I stop before the ramble.

[RealRed]

Alright! I'm not going to act like I know about ALL the irc drama. nor am I going to act like I give a shit. I'm just going to give you my opinion on this funny little situation from the narrow point of view I have been given from information I have heard from Zhs2, as well as quotations from Silver_Skree.

DarkSamus.

[11:49:37] <Silver_Skree> Phazar, PY: We were highly dissatisfied at the handling of DarkSamus and potential similar situations in the future, plus the general messiness of the forum

This is entertainment. No other retard showing up on the forum and getting themselves banned has been an excuse for taking apart the community. Another thing we can see in this quote is a growing sense of power in our buddy Silver_Skree's mind! Fun! Just as we can see in him posting his "hey guys I'm boss time to move everything" topic. Something that should not have been posted by anyone that wasn't Zhs2 or Kennon himself.
Now, this is fine. Moving up in the ranks so you can fuck with people you don't like is all good and fun. I know the feeling very well. The way this is all happening though, seems very, very fucked up.
While talking to James, he mentioned how it was really getting to him that the site he busted his ass to found was being taken away from him. Grime, it's lovely of you to move things to your site to save him money. It's just not-so-lovely, however, to badger him into doing what you want him to.

(12:30:10 AM) Zeke: James is doing alright so far, but how much pressure until he goes "Alright fine, have the keys to the front door"

Call me a hypocrite as I did the same damn thing to get squishy_ichigo promoted, I don't care. This is different. This site is obviously really important to James. if it wasn't, his broke ass wouldn't be trying to pay for it still.

Now.. getting rid of Zhs2. Over DarkSamus? this sounds utterly rediculous. Zhs2 is probably the best irc operator and administrator this community has. Maybe Silver_Skree was trolled by DarkSamus's stupidity, but why is that any different from others being trolled by samus-aran or hacker347's stupidity? Zhs2 does a good job at being fair to dip-shits, annoying cunts, cocksuckers, you name it. Demoting an administrator because someone didn't like how he didn't knock out a fuckhead quick enough for them makes absolutely no sense.

I had more to say on the subject but I've started drawing blanks. I'll finish later or something.

[squishy_ichigo]

I lol'd

but many good points where made, and  I pretty much agree with most of what you said.

also: <squishy_ichigo> as far as the discuusion goes, I like the layout Grime has in the works for a new forum, and I wouldn't mind leaving Fazewire in the dust, but a few of the details are.... problematic to say the least

[Quietus]

I think you'll find that a lot of people, myself included, have no interest in the politics / staffing issues of the site.  It's nice to have a community with similar interests - in this case hacking Metroid games.  As long as everything works, and people have somewhere to share their work / ideas, a lot of us probably aren't fussed about the rest.

For what it's worth, I wish you luck with whichever way it goes, and hope that nobody gets ostricised in the process.  Everybody has something to contribute, and it seems like IRC has, yet again, been the medium for disharmony and broken friendships. :mad:

[Crashtour99]

I think I'll chime in with my 2 cents and echo what some of the others have already said.

I think it'd be great to relieve some of the burden from James, the guy has enough goin on already.  However I think he and Zhs2 should still remain admins.  If Grime is going to be taking over hosting stuffs I could see him being a 3rd admin.  Is 3 admins too much?  LOL

I'd agree that maybe the Super Metroid and Engine Works boards could use a little cleaning up / reorganization, but is moving the forum really necessary?  If it is then I don't see why not, as long as the transition is smooth.

Crys:
To be fair Hiroshi, I don't really give a shit if my topic is trashed as long as I have the option of making a new one. :P

Ditto.

And why is the DarkSamus thing still being brought up?  I thought it was all taken care of.  C'mon people, wtf...

[begrimed]

I don't see why we can't move the posts over :/

thats the only thing keeping me from not liking this

I can't see much of a reason to carry -everything- over when the ratio of unrelated posts far outweigh the ones that are relevant to what this site is about. Keeping an archive of every post ever made is great for places that are purely social in nature. For this particular place, it just seems like the smarter choice to me for us to 'refresh' everything in times like this and only keep the good stuff by immortalizing it on the main site. Everything else is basically just interaction between members, which you can get live any time you want on IRC. Dead topics would be cleared out, and there's nothing stopping anyone from remaking ones that they particularely liked. Aside from being reading material for the occasional bored member, it's just a whole lot of data that I can't think of many benefits in keeping around.

My biggest concern (with the whole "takeover" scenario seemingly resolved) is making the transition smooth. Giving people plenty of time to get what they need from here before the site goes down, and so forth.

If/when the board switch happens, yeah, there'd be at least a few months of advance notice and time for people to grab whatever they wanted to preserve themselves. That, and I'd skim over the whole board and compile useful posts; stuff like questions people have asked that were given great answers, patches, and whatever other tidbits of hack info that are worth keeping. Then finally get around to making a central FAQ page using those posts + posts I gathered from m2k2's SMILE help thread + stuff from the MoonEdit FAQ.

I don't like getting rid of Zhs2. MetConst would never have appeared if not for James, but it would never have gone anywhere without Zeke.

MetCon would have happened without either of them, just under a different name and different circumstances. Not that it matters, but it probably would have been me. I appeared in #jzd right at about the time this place... appeared. The lack of a central HQ of sorts for SM hacking was one of the first things I noticed until links to MetCon started circulating around. So instead of striking out on my own, I decided to hop onboard with this one.

To be fair, you kinda said it yourself - you had to bug him to do stuff. And sniping bots was a reaction to an emerging problem, not something that went above and beyond the call of what any other admins should have done in the same situation. Just sayin'.

Not really. If anything, I'd say this is only the beginning of something big.

Wouldn't be so sure about that. If nobody else really backs the idea, then it's not worth pursing any further.

Shaky because it's not what you would have done had you been in the position? Quite frankly, I don't blame you much for thinking big, but how far are you going to get with a community that isn't something fresh from the Metroid 2002 handbooks where only the cool people reign supreme and everyone else is a noobfag, gtfo (you don't get a chance to sit around and show off your skills because you're just being a pain in the ass by existing anyway?) I suppose I won't have much choice but to sit back and be disappoint at the direction of the community as a whole if (and that would be a pretty big if) hosting gets transferred off of James' humble back, but until then, it's not going to be very nice going, is it?

I know I'm bad about run-ons sometimes, but holy shit. Anyway, nah. I could have worded that a lot better than I did, but by shakEy, I was referring to several things. Long history of staff dissent in general, numerous outright terrible calls made about certain things, having to practically wring James' neck to make the recent staff changes happen. I don't feel like picking my brain for every little thing that I simply think is wrong and splitting hairs, but we should always just assume that I'm right anyway.

Not sure what you're getting at with the M2K2 cool-people-reigning-supreme thing and this apparent interpretation that I only want the best of the best SM hackers posting while excluding everyone else. I know that not everybody who registers is going to kick as much ass as I do at everything, but sometimes you just gotta know when it's somebody's time to gtfo, yes. There's enough material on the site by itself that anybody who genuinely wants to make a hack, can make a hack. They can read the forums and learn from that, too - they don't need us putting up with them for the sake of their hack, and we don't need to put up with them. If somebody's getting multiple complaints from established members every time they post because they're morons (whether or not they're directly breaking any forum rules), why keep them around? If they really want to make a hack, they will do it with or without us.

So I guess if by 'cool people only' you mean people that don't make you cringe every time they press enter, then I guess you're right after all.

If there were a move, I believe Zeke and possibly James should be at least Global Moderators. They have done everything, and deserve respect.

Everything you say? :P Sorry, sorry. I just needed to make at least one pointless observation in this reply. We coo'.

Alright! I'm not going to act like I know about ALL the irc drama. nor am I going to act like I give a shit.

[16 more lines of not giving a shit]

Nnnno, this isn't just about DarkSamus. Or Samus-Aran. Or hacker3437. Or gumpert. Or Zozo. Or anybody else who should be/should have been kicked out much sooner than they were. At least you recognize how ill-informed you are about the whole mess, so I won't exhaust this response too much. Just would like to point out that Zhs2 being 'the best' operator/admin (out of 2) that the community has isn't really saying much. It's not really about how good someone is at running the place. It's how good the place they're running becomes on its own.

Zhs2's like a manager who was transferred in to fill the gap and perform basic maintenance duties. I'm like someone trying to start a new business from the ground up that can run itself and keep its conditions ideal for everyone involved. To clear up any confusion, that means I'm not in it for the status or for one-upping your brother because we don't like each other. I do that well enough with words alone. I can just see the potential that this place has compared to where it's at right now.

=====

All that being said, I might as well enunciate on what seems to be the biggest point of contempt in all of this - 'stealing' the site from James. While he very well was the one who got the gears turning, this is bigger than one person's decision. I welcome anyone to tell me otherwise, but I can't help but feel that James' reluctance stems from the novelty in simply being the owner. His baby, I suppose. And I can't blame him if that's the case. That's fine, but it's holding us back at the same time. If you're okay with things as they are right now, then by all means, mediocrity is a passing grade. Just don't let me go thinking that I'm the only one who loves Super Metroid enough to want to give it the best hacking community possible.

[Lunaria]

I don't like getting rid of Zhs2. MetConst would never have appeared if not for James, but it would never have gone anywhere without Zeke.

MetCon would have happened without either of them, just under a different name and different circumstances. Not that it matters, but it probably would have been me. I appeared in #jzd right at about the time this place... appeared. The lack of a central HQ of sorts for SM hacking was one of the first things I noticed until links to MetCon started circulating around. So instead of striking out on my own, I decided to hop onboard with this one.

To be fair, the idea of starting a hacking board had been going on in my head befor we even got the hacking fora over on m2k2. The only reason I did not do it was that I lacked the financial part (kinda funny though as james have it a hell lot worse then me) back then. Which is why I jumped ship over to this place as soon as it was started.

Just wanted to throw that out there.

[personitis]

A site move/makeover. This I've been through multiple times and I've seen the community fall through it and also rise through it. So here, I'll tell you a story about a gaming community I was (and still am) part of. I assure you there are quite a few points I can make that relate between there and the idea proposed here so listen up.

[spoiler=I suggest you read (wall-o-text)]At first, I joined the site and forums like any normal person. The flow of the community was fine due to the fact that it was fairly new but activity slowed down after some six months or so. Posts per day lowered by 30 every month it seemed and after a year and a half, everyone had pretty much abandoned the place. Within  this time frame, many of things had happened. We had started with 4 admins, and 2 or 3 mods/gmods. After a while, we ended up promoting to many people to a higher authority... not the smartest thing around. We ended up with a whopping 6 admins and 5 mods/gmods compared to our 20-30 active members at that point. We eventually realized how this was a problem and I remember very vividly how. One member had gotten mod status on chat (for the sake of not naming anyone, we'll call him Bee). Bee wasn't one to use power improperly, but wasn't a person to take toward jokes very well so he acted with his powers more out of rage. This resulted in him losing all of his powers and be demoted back to a regular member. With this, he left and was able to convince others about the unfairness that we had to offer.

A week after what can be considered the site's death and we have only maybe 2 active admins and 1 or 2 active mods. Then we come across this great guy who is a friend of the site's owner. He offers to build us a new community and help bring people he knows over to help with activity. This goes well for the first two weeks then falls under as no body is willing to break the ice and everyone working with admins and mods they may not know along with authority not knowing each other, the site falls under again and we're back to what we were: inactive.

Here we are, round three, and we're starting to making a come back, getting some more active members and old members coming back we decide to try the new site things again this time taking attention completely away from the site and focusing it on another one which still to this day hasn't gone far.... Months later (present time), even less people are active back at the site this time with maybe only 2 active staff members doing anything for the 10 active members we have. Someone completely out of the blue comes along and says (shortened of course), "Hey guys, I can see somethings you're doing wrong. *lists them* Maybe if you corrected yourself, things would look better. Just trying to help." I took a look at them being part of the staff and was able to say that they were important and very useful. But who would look at something of a site as old as our current dating back to 06? We'd have to attempt what we've previously failed at. We'd have to deal with who gets staff positions. Myself, the new guy, and the site's OLD (until now the guy was hardly active) owner stepped up to try our hand once more at something new.

It took months of planning, a handful of informative topics, and a massive need of support from our members to separate with what they were use to in order to accomplish the task of producing what is finally once again (and has been for 4 months now) an active, fruitful community in which everyone is happy.[/spoiler]

What the story implies is to be careful what you want to do with a community. Member's gain position and feel more empowered to do stuff just because they can. People leave because they feel there is nothing left for them there. Sites seem dead because of age and time which determines when people leave and activity slumps. If we're going to have a change as big as site moving, staff revamping, and site remaking, I personally suggest that you make sure everything is taken one step at a time and that you are careful with the decisions you make. Remember that your active community (read: members) are the most fragile part of the site and if they leave, what do you have left?

Last note: I'm not relating anything or anyone to anything or anyone but just found it funny how I could use this true story to explain my points and thoughts on the OP.

[squishy_ichigo]

Not to get too far off topic, but out of simple curiosity, what was the community created around?

[personitis]

Online gaming clan on the DS and Wii.

[Parabox]

Thread was tl;dr all of it. Imo if we move, move most important topics that people really want moved. Then, on the new forum, give us, the users, an option to vote for staff. A little democracy never hurt anyone imo. That's just my 2 bucks.

But whatever the fuck anyone ever does, don't let it destroy the fucking community. That shit's too much over a little wishful thinking.

[Phazar]

I myself am actually beginning to wonder: Is a new forum necessary?  Could we just promote Grime to admin here and be done with it?  Because in my eyes, starting fresh really doesn't solve many of the bigger problems, with the exception of hosting payments(which, now that I consider it, Grime could always take care of for James).  I'm just still not sure what my complete position on this is.  For the most part, as I have said in the past via IRC, I'm fine with any changes that are made for the good as all, as long as what made MetConst MetConst stays(I'm still not big on this rumored "name change").

[snarfblam]

I think that a lot of this discussion is unnecessary. I'm sure everybody is interested in the future of the site, but it might be best to take things one day at a time, so to say. It's not that it's not important, but the future is uncertain and all this kind of discussion seems to do is create concern and unhappiness. These things aren't good for the community. A little discretion isn't a bad thing. It would be best to avoid the sort of discussion that can create animosity, factions, uncertainty, so on.

As for the future of the site, just remember to act in the interest of the community, not the site. That doesn't mean I support moving the site (or that I don't). What it means is that if you do anything that makes users feel as if you are forcing their hand (be careful about how you present a new site), or if you abandon things they consider important (many expressed concern over old posts), or if you violate their sense of community (i.e. concern over demoting old-timers), even if it is good for the site in theory, it hurts the community.

[squishy_ichigo]

This is gonna be my "list of things that I've heard are planned/need changed to get my approval" post
This is not made to bash on anyone in particular, rather to get my thoughts out on the table about all of this.

1) Grime takes over for James for site costs, in turn getting us new hosting - If its just this, I see no problem at all. Fazewire is a bitch, and the bandwidth limitations is gay. But, I'm hearing things like "well, he's not gonna be in charge anymore, since he's not the owner anymore" and this starts a few problems. I understand where Grime is coming from (especially since the creation of this topic and the controversy surrounding it is not the first I've heard on this, but we'll not get into that) but alot of people are gonna ragedance about this subject... this brings up the problem of a split community, which none of us want.  Also, sprouting from this particular topic, comes a rumor of "a new name" for the community. I personally love the name metconst, and changing it really serves no purpose, other than causing confusion for people, and making a fresh start. But do we really need a fresh start in THAT regard? We already have a community, we already have all of this stuff set up. If its just an ego thing, well then.... you should know how thats gonna end. :P

2) New forum design, but its starting over..... again - For those not in the know, this is what Grime has so far on the forum design. It matches the main site design, and I really like it. I would love to move over to this design, but I really don't want to leave behind all of what we have so far.  The main counter-argument to this being that "pretty much everything is clumping up the forums, why would we keep that?" Well, this is how it is: even if you do start over with no former post history, its only gonna happen again. People like to post about stuff, it happens. You could be like "ok, well, to make sure people don't clog up the NEW forums, we'll just be really strict on what people are allowed to post about" But putting limits on this starts to cause problems, mainly due with free speech and what not. People aren't gonna like that at all. My point being, that not moving the existing posts over really serves no purpose, other then to piss people off that care about the posts.  Wither you like it or not, this place is a social outlet. Think about it.

3) Staff members, lolololol - This seems to be another hot topic, and for good reason. I know that Grime doesn't much care for the Mario Bros (Zhs2 and Bloodsonic) as staff members, and I've known this for some time.  (see point 1 on James as staff)   I'm not gonna take sides either way on the staff members themselves, but in the end, it really comes down to one thing, and thats putting the people who are best for the job in the position.  I don't fucking care about personal shit, this isn't a popularity contest. People that can control the community, and make sure it runs smoothly is very important.  What are important qualities a staff member should have? Ask yourselves these questions before you continue this argument. Now, this brings up another hot topic: DarkSamus.  He was not handled correctly imho.  This brings up debate wither or not current staff has the abilities to keep the community running smoothly. Zhs2 has his points, James his, and Grime his.

tl;dr version: We don't want to split the community because of hasty decisions or personal grudges. In the end, it will only hurt the community. I really hope we can all come up with a compromise.

edit: snarf gets in about 10 secs before I did. :P He makes alot of the same points I do, with less text.

[personitis]

Changing hosts is perfectly fine and if posts can't be transfered then maybe it might cause a problem, but if not I don't see why we shouldn't. As for a new design, it looks sexy as hell. I think I've seen it before as well. The name change just sounds like a downright bad idea unless the current one sounds that bad. Staff members, like I implied earlier, need to be chosen with care and knowledge. It seems, at least to me, the more we talk about the topic the more controversy we'll make. I'll leave that with no father explanation due to my personal beliefs which could easily start flame wars n' crap... Other than that, we could try it and if it doesn't work just revert.

[zephyrtronium]

The new forum design that is based on the current site design could just as easily be a forum theme for this forum, and it'd be much easier to do that than write a whole new forum software.

[Lunaria]

Not to mention how insecure new forum software tends to be during the first few years. :/

[Phazar]

Not to mention how insecure new forum software tends to be during the first few years. :/

I might have to agree, new hosting may solve other MetConst problems, but the bot problem could possibly get worse than it was here.

[Hiroshi Mishima]

After having read the rest of the thread since my last post and seeing some more of the ugly "behind the scenes" shit that's been going on.. I have to say one thing: I think some of what's going on (or rather the reasons behind what's going on) is utter bullshit. It sounds like some of it is stemming simply from "I don't like person X" and "person Y is better" crap. That sort of stuff is NOT a good way to be handling things, and it certainly isn't the best way to be coming up with new ideas. Now, if it was damn near the entire community against "person x" or if "person y" genuinely was capable of making it better, then it wouldn't be such a big deal. But this sounds more personal than all that. That doesn't sit well with me.

I'm reminded of my own personal experiences with Metroid Database, and how I've come to despise what it has become... with certain people who will remain nameless leading the users through brute force, fear of punishment, and "following trends". A man can't so much as voice simple concerns over something the site is based upon anymore, it seemed to me. Especially when you make a thread asking for "opinions and impressions" on something coming up, and then getting pissy when someone decides to be the fucking voice of gods-damned reason that is attempting to bring some people back down to the ground instead of letting them stick their heads in the sky like idiots.

..sorry, I just have bad memories of that place now, and it's long since drowned out the pleasant ones. I do NOT want to see Metroid Construction (and I do not want a name change, thank you) become what that forum became. That place definitely is headed the direction Metroid 2002 went with the "cool kids only" mantra blaring.


I know a lot of you guys, perhaps not as well as I'd like or maybe not as well as I think. But that is besides the point, really. What matters is, as has been said, we do things for the COMMUNITY. Not for only a couple people. I'm more than for helping get some of the financial pressure off of James' back. The man did a wonderful thing by getting this place going and whether of some the people here like it or not, I respect the guy. And as has also already been said, this place'd be a hell of a lot worse if it wasn't for what Zeke's done for it. I don't care if they aren't always around or have to be prodded to get stuff done. I for one am not the most responsive person in the world when it comes to finishing stuff or doing anything at all, but that doesn't make me any less of a decent person or even someone with merits. I help in my way, they've helped in theirs.

I'll be damned if I'm gonna wanna stick around if this place becomes the new "Elite Headquarters of Whatever We Feel Like". I may very well be blowing things out of proportion, but I want to make sure I'm heard. Regardless of how hard it is for me to make simple points without going off on tangents. I'm aware of that problem, thank you very much. My clan in an online game is also talking about restructuring, and some of the same issues are being brought up (at least about trying to solve inactivity) and all this is really leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth. The thought of starting fresh has been done before many times (for me, that is) and it is never an easy start. If possible, I always prefer to start with what came before and work up from there. Not all foundations are solid when they're first placed...