Good points Rocky. If things had been handled better then maybe this entire thing wouldn't have happened, but there are some deep issues, and they have been present for a long time, and they just can't be covered up any longer.
The thing is this isn't the first time it's happened. I know everyone uses the NS example, as the be all, and end all, but the truth is there's been more than a few "minor" episodes.
They didn't handle the arstocrat situation well at all. I told them about him a week before it happened, I even made a effort and posted right in their staff thread to tell them. I got the typical response, which was fine, but they still took 2 days to do something about it AFTER it happened (and that was pretty clear cut with the rules) and only after I posted again to try and give them a bit of a nudge. 2 days is very good for them, but it was still 2 days longer than it needed to be.
The thing is, I don't do that, I only ever mentioned something like that, or even made a effort like that only once before, and that was Nicky BTW.
Its a small example, but seems quite appropriate, as it shows that even the smallest problem isn't handled very well. That's the key, not just knowing when to handle things, it's knowing how to handle things.
That's the problem, things are not handled there properly, and I know Bob is gonna perk up his ears as soon as I say this, but VPF is committee run, because that's why they do the things they do. I just shake my head, most of the time they just talk about it, maybe hoping that the problem will go away by itself. Most problems don't. All those indians, no chiefs, because they don't want to step on each others toes.
Those threads at VPF are showing that people are getting very fustrated, even though they won't actually state what they are really wanting publically. The fact that a lot of other issues are being mentioned in that thread as well pretty much shows that. The place is a mess, it's been a mess for years, and people are fustrated because this is not what they wanted, and it's something that should have been fixed a long time ago.
I do feel a tiny bit sorry for them, but then they continued to support the site as well, over anything else, and if someone actually mentioned a problem, those people got shouted down.
But now too many people are saying the same thing. And you can tell it's a lot more than just shockman,shadow and the numerous people before them. The community put all their eggs in one basket, they decided that themselves, they decided to heavily support the site beyond anything else for "the good of the community", ignored all the problems as just pissing and moaning (sorry Leo, it's early and I got woken up at 6 this morning) shouted down the people that warned them, spent a large amount of time and money as a investment, and now they are starting to think that those people that warned them were actually right after all.
The thing is, they put their eggs in the wrong basket, and they know it. No one likes to admit they were wrong, and no one likes to admit they made a foolish mistake either, but that's exactly what has happened. We put our trust into something that we shouldn't have. Everyone did, including me especially.
You can accuse me of a lot of things, that's fine actually, but VPF is a cesspool, and I take my stand not because I have a site and a "grudge", no matter how entitled I am to have it (and I am entitled BTW, more than anyone else) but the thing is that I also know that my site shouldn't be the end all and be all of the community. It worked in the early years, but won't work now, and I've known that for years.
I don't want to become that, because I don't want to become another VPF. I speak up because I still care enough about the community to do so, and because I don't want my time or my contributions wasted, which is exactly what I feel has happened.
If you look at it this way, I am listed as the largest contributor to VPF as a supporting member. I look at what I got back in return, and it wasn't worth it. The reason I get so mad is because I knew it wasn't worth it years ago, but I still did it. I even jumped to AJ's defense several times, but I'm just the first of a long list of people who did that, and I know that was a mistake.
I put my trust, my work, and my passion in the hands of someone else. We all did, and we all feel let down, and some of us continued to do so even after years of this. I look at VPF, and I see not what it is now, but what it could, and should have been. I think that's the reason people are now starting to come out of the woodwork, they are seeing the same thing that they wanted, but not there, but at the other sites instead.
ldman
