Phins

2 minutes ago, the tall guy said:

Imagine how bad it would've felt if you were an active member and tried your damnedest to do something when something actually had a slim chance of being done?

 

Yeah, sucks but I'm beyond over it.  NA was the people, the people are here and we have a staff and owner that gives a shit.  The rest is just screaming to scream, it's been done to death already.

I'm far more for looking forward and enjoying that there's still a community.  I don't care who trolls over at NA/GC, but don't expect any cool kid points for doing it.

maybe you did it to death already but I'll take a turn too, s'only fair

And to be fair I did most of my ranting without knowing how much of a community had been able to transfer over here, I had just assumed NA's community vanished into the ether when I got there and my blood pressure started raising, it was only after more reading and went back hours later did I see what was going on

2 minutes ago, B.A. said:

You missed the point of my post, and it's that your anger is misplaced. 

They are a comic collecting price guide site that wants to get into video games.  What they have to gain is all of the data about variants, rarity, the database. Any of that type if stuff that would help a company that is aspiring to create a price guide and collecting tool. 

They don't give a shit about the forum, never did and never will.  In their mind they bought a wealth of data and to their dismay it came with a community.  

I mean sure, you can get mad that a company bought the site and didn't do with it what you liked, I get it.  I think they suck too.  I'm not surprised though, and again they weren't the ones with ties to the community.   

I'm just struggling with depression that I have to keep watching this happen everywhere over and over again, to places I cherished

It never gets easier having people pull the rug out from under you, at least not for me

Eventually none of the places I value will be left and everything will be gone

8 minutes ago, Richardhead said:

Not gonna lie, I’ve gone to posting more on Instagram than here

Fuck Instagram! Fuck anything owned by Zuckerberg or any of the other corporate parasites, they're literally not figuratively robbing us of our cultural history, and it's made me struggle severely with depression

Not an indictment of you but an indictment of them, of course

I take it all very seriously, this all means a lot to me

10 minutes ago, B.A. said:

GoCollect owes us nothing.  Would I have liked they do things differently, or not gotten into games at all?  Absolutely. They bought the site to data mine though, and they squeezed out what they could, that's life.   They weren't the one's who had an actual place in the community and completely abandoned it, decided to sell to a group only concerned with the bottom line.  

1 minute ago, Tulpa said:

I don't mean to be pessimistic, but good luck with that.

Not that they do or don't have a conscience, but that in their mind, they're doing what they set out to do, mine NA for data for use in collecting and trading video games as a commodity. To them, it's pure business. Dain was the one who sold it to them.

I miss when money was far from people's minds when it came to the internet, it's hard to remember but it was that way once

Not to be mean BA, I respect you, I recognize you from NA, but it feels like you're saying "they bought the forest to turn it into a Walmart parking lot, that's life"

What even is the point of all that data? What exactly does it help them accomplish? I didn't consent to having my data sold, maybe I did through the TOS but on an ethical basis, I did not consent

I am tired of being spied upon, by everybody, I'm tired of people watching me, I'm tired of people trying to collate data on me so then can psychoanalyze me, it's tantamount to being physically violated, it's an attack on our sovereignty, on our bodies, on our minds, on our hearts

These companies are brainless packrat rodents collecting shiny objects to bring back to their nest, they don't deserve the internet

The internet has become a soulless, all-consuming machine existing primarily just to pad people's bank accounts and egos and it wasn't meant to be this way, we are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine and the machine is bleeding to death

The internet of the 2020s is just going to be nothing but stripminers taking away things from us that are important and I for one dread it with every passing day

Ultimately we can conclude the internet was a mistake and it wants more and more to drive people like me and you out with every passing day

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

I need to make some IRL friends lol

I feel as if this whole debacle is just indicative of a growing trend, which is to say, the consolidation and gentrification of the internet, the "use your real name"ification of the internet i.e. the destruction of pseudonymity, and forcing flight to those who wish to keep carrying on the kinds of community structures that we had last decade, before social media and the corporate profit motives started stamping it all out

It's hard not to feel mad when you see pictures like this, look below for a visualization

The internet used to be a fun vacation destination full of hundreds of thousands to millions of unique, distinct websites to visit that people poured their heart and soul into it solely to benefit like-minded hobbyists, like NA, like DigitPress, like NESworld, and so on

Now it's just a consolidation of a couple too-big-to-fail megasites like Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter, an extension of real life destroying people's face-to-face communications, that force everybody else into their draconian, division-manufacturing sterilized walled garden ecosystems, at the cost of the collaborative, doing it for the love of the game attitude the 2000s internet was oriented around

It all makes me deeply upset

Websites like this contain the natives of the internet, the people it truly belongs to, and people like Mark Zuckerberg, people like the staff of GoCollect, are barging into our communities and driving us from our homes, destroying our sacred idols, buying us out of our own homes just so they can turn them into Airbnbs, and I'd be lying if I said I'm not angry about it every day, that internet raised me, it's meaningful to me

3 minutes ago, Richardhead said:

@Phins I still go back to the disaster that’s is NA/GoCollect once a day to read new posts. I have logged out and won’t sign in. I read your post and got a good laugh out of it for sure. I understand your anger 100%. Ask anyone around here that knows me, I’m an angry fucking guy. The NA community helped me through some really tough times in life and I’ve made some really great friends there. I was bitter about the whole buyout from the very beginning. Hell, I started a “death of NA” thread that eventually got locked. I felt like nobody gave two shits about what was happening. In the end, I was welcomed back to NA for the very end and the people that started this new forum welcomed me here, as well as the Discord. They didn’t have to do any of that. I was a dick and still am, just slightly less now. Anyways man, be angry, post what you feel. My only problem is that because I’d that negativity over at the old forum has dissuaded a few people I’ve befriended and done great deals with, won’t come over here because of how hostile some of us were “on the way out”.  I do think your post over there was pretty good though. Get through it how you feel suited and enjoy your time here. It’s not quiet the same, but it is fun. 
Also, screw you @SuperJimtendo I will never get over NA. Take that garbage somewhere else and good luck at your convention tomorrow Maybe instead of telling us to get over losing our internet home you could make a thread with the cool shit you draw and sell at said conventions. 

I think it was them who decided to go scorched earth asleep at the wheel with NA, and anybody being hostile on the way out is just responding in kind to how they were treated IMO

Thank you for the kind words, NA had deep sentimental and historical value to me as it does to all of you

You're kidding me

Spider-Man 4? What? Excuse me?

I guess based off that title screen it was gonna be about Vulture, huh

I always thought The Lizard would end up coming into play in the actual Raimi Spider-Man 4 movie as well, maybe bonded with a symbiote for good measure

25 minutes ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

Give it to @Phins so he can do some voodoo on it

I'll take it lmao, stare daggers into it and then the GoCollect staff will telepathically feel my seething resentment (btw im a girl)

2 hours ago, Tulpa said:

Okay, I just saw you say " we can't allow these things to keep happening", and not sure what we could do in this case. GoCollect bought NA, and there wasn't much we could do except try to rebuild the community here and save whatever knowledge we could.

GoCollect's main income is in their auctions and comic book rarity database, so there's little we can do to hit them in the pocketbook.

An attack on their conscience is all you can do, show them that they're taking away things from people that meant something meaningful to them

Also if user Quaze from "gocollect" is reading this nice job using autism as a slur, autistics are the indigenous people of the internet and I will not tolerate your wanton disrespect for them

and they're talking as if nobody recognizes me, I know for sure at least some of the people in this topic not only recognize me but have done business with me before

Grimalkin Games for life bitches (she's dead now btw)

3 hours ago, Gloves said:

One thing I'll say @Phins, is that you're clearly passionate about this, and I respect that completely; I would love if in time you can come to bring that same passion to helping us make VGS better. For the time being though I understand if you want a place to vent, and hey man we can be that too when you need it.

I'm on the same page as you

I would love to help, somebody has to put in good in the world and create when people like this are putting in bad and destroying

I literally put dozens of hours into manicuring my collection tracker and adding new games to the database for stuff like my homebrew/repro set, I'm nothing if not dedicated, I just get fired up probably because a lot of you are in your 30s and I'm likely a good ten years younger than some, I say NA was my childhood home because I was literally spending hours on NA when I was an actual child, you were likely all adults when you started so there's a difference of circumstance, it just ain't right

It's easy to say oh it's just the internet but I've seen it happen time and time and time again and not just to you folks

2 minutes ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

This is the best attitude. There's plenty of energy to make everything even better here than it was before. 

Just wait for me to cycle through the stages of grief and I'll be with you

One day, when we actually place proper value on our history, people are going to look at people who destroyed over a decade's worth of history and discussion the same way we do people who destroy statues in the middle east

This is an extremely critical period for digital preservation

Just now, Tulpa said:

I'm not sure what you're wanting us to do. We can't exactly force them to reinstate the forum.

Most we can do is go into the archives there and harvest whatever we can that might be relevant. Beyond that...

Dissent for the sake of voicing dissent

I'm not wanting you to do anything I'm just acting in accordance with my values

Maybe if they have any shred of empathy my message will make them realize that their actions have hurt real people and taken away their collective history

Probably not though

I'll be back later to reply to messages I gotta go

Trying to say anybody at GoCollect is a good person is like trying to say somebody who sets fire to a library is a good person

We can't just let profit motives condition us into thinking this kind of shit is normal or acceptable because it isn't, it's sociopathic behavior

12 minutes ago, empire said:

Cant say I don't agree with you Phins. 

I just don't think its worth harboring so much anger towards, this site is awesome and that's what matters. It is pretty hilarious those messages have been up all day and no one from the site has intervened.

https://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Why_Back_Up%3F

I think it's worth harboring so much anger towards and you and me can agree to disagree, I respect your opinion but it's my view of reality that we can't allow these things to keep happening

Future digital historians are going to look down upon us with shame for not fighting harder for our collective history and I refuse to be one of the people looked down upon by them, not while I can help it

It's not just blind rage, I have good philosophical thought-through reasoning for why I feel this way and why I pick up the sword to fight for preservation whenever I can, because I feel like it's my social responsibility

2 minutes ago, spacepup said:

There are different ways of fighting Phins. 

The staff and others over at NA, tried very hard to prevent this from happening and trust me, we tried everything.  After realizing it wasn't going to happen, rather than just sitting around and taking it, we put a lot of time and energy into creating VGS, giving people a place to go and continue the community, maintaining some continuity.  We could have just gone to GC and complained, hopelessly harassing them for change, but it would literally accomplish nothing.  Instead, we put that effort into VGS. 

It's ok to be disappointed, and even frustrated and angry, but harboring anger like empire said, or going around saying hateful and disgusting things, is not going to accomplish much.  As I said before, I just encourage people to continue hanging out with friends here and making new ones, and let's make VGS the best it can be.

 

Nothing I said was hateful and/or disgusting it's entirely reasonable

I don't expect you all to join me but being this angry about preservation is very on-brand for me and it's my cause celebre so to speak so I'm understandably livid

Doing this sort of thing is antithetical to being a "good person"

You mean everyone you worked with was good at putting on the appearances of a good person, of being "nice", which is entirely self-serving, instead of being kind, which is altruistic and empathetic

This is a no empathy move and anybody lacking that level of empathy is by definition not good people, not now, not ever

5 minutes ago, Gloves said:

To be clear, Jim is just the messenger. He's the head of PR for GoCollect. 

In fact I'd say Jim's actually a pretty good guy, I worked with him while I was doing work for GoCollect and everyone I worked with was good people. 

Where things fell apart for me personally was really just the direction they want to take video games. It became pretty clear that it was really just a business, and I'm not interested in treating gaming that way.

If he's the head of PR he should be fired because he's terrible at his job

I hope the messenger decides to carry the scroll back to his bosses

2 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

I must be the only one but I could not CARE LESS about what happens.  I think its funny but I can't get wrapped up in this nonsense.  Im glad this is here and thats that.

good for you not caring about people burning down your things but there has to be people to fight back against this kind of thing, even anemically, otherwise we're going to keep having stuff like this happening, we're going to keep having companies like Yahoo destroying entire ecosystems like Geocities, things people poured significant parts of their lives into, burned to ash time and time again, our history robbed from us, our books burned

You may not feel this way because it's all recent history and you're like a gen Xer or something but the tales we forge online and the information we share IS history as its being made and we have a social responsibility to meet this sort of thing with extreme vehemency, extreme loathing, extreme disgust, to at the very least discourage it

I've always felt this way and I'm never going to stop feeling this way

8 minutes ago, spacepup said:

I was a member on NA since 2010 and I put a lot of time and effort, particularly in recent years as a mod, to trying to work on things and help to foster a positive community.  I dealt with the frustrating exchange first-hand along with the other staff and many others.  And yes, there were many frustrations and disappointments.

HOWEVER.  I "got over" the NA exchange issue long ago and I encourage others to as well.  The tweet, while entertaining perhaps, is unnecessarily crass, and hating on GoCollect all over the internetz does nothing constructive.  I hope to see that energy channeled into positive engagement here on VGS.

Used NA since 2008 and I plan to take every opportunity to tell GoCollect_Jim to fuck himself until the heat death of the universe

I literally just found out lmao

17 minutes ago, RH said:

Poor guy.  Someone was having a bad mourning.