Site Feedback Let's have a discussion about the site

I'm open to people's grievances at the moment.

Let me state that the site is not perfect, nor will it ever be perfect. It is not run
but a professional, and it shows. What the site is is a community, a community of
people who have been here a long time.

Currently there is a vocal group of users who are angry at the response to the site hack and the not so great recovery from it. That I understand.

I think the problem is the site has been around so long, it seems like a utility. It's expected
to run like the water and the lights, and very little consideration is given to there being a real person
running it. None of you care or know what goes on in my life, and you never will. I accept that
I am unloved and will never be loved, and my personal struggles are meaningless or ridiculed by
the users.

It's been a long journey, together.

I sat down today, put aside my current real life issues to contemplate the site itself.

What are the pros for me?

• Feeling that I am doing something good.
• Create an archive for the future of useful data.
• Create a place that has longevity, which is no small feat over the years.

What are the cons for me?

• Not liked by anyone on the site
• Consumes my time at the very worst of times
• Consumes more money than it ever raises
• Is focus of hackers
• Attracts imbalanced people and their wrath
• Attracts drama (we have seen much)
• Creates negative feelings / unrewarding experiences.

So overwhelmingly, the site is a negative experience for me.

I've endured this for ten plus years now, and it seems that the burden gets heavier and the
enthusiasm gets less and less.

I don't know what your views are, but those are mine.

I will try to persevere.

 

I think the worry is that you aren't always around, and the concern is what happens should something happen to you or at moments where you are otherwise unavailable.

We all recognize the importance that this site has, me perhaps at the top of the list now that I am doing game preservation full time no doubt because of the site, but the concerns are valid, which you admit. Demon doesn't always go about things the right way, which is something I've talked to him about so I don't think it's out of place to say it, but his concerns are legitimately felt by many people throughout the community.

We want to see the site grow and prosper, because it has been a beacon for game preservation for such a long time, but we don't always know if the site will even be here tomorrow. We recognize the hard work that you put in over years to grow the community, and to grow a collection of unique artifacts. But as we know, the site is a target, and things need to be active, and not just reactive after the fact.

I think it's easy to forget the importance the site holds, especially when you haven't been around much. But it's not out of hatred for you or the site that this anger spawns, at least not initially, but out of love for what it has done.

I can only speak for myself, but I do care about you, and I have reached out multiple times over the years just to see how you're doing, especially since we aren't as close as we once were, but I also care about the legacy that this site holds. It's important beyond you or I or any one member.

It's out of love of the community and of gaming that people still come here time and time again, but times do change, and it would be a shame if the site was a casualty to all of that.

 

It's great to have a place where people can gather to discuss video game prototypes, so your efforts to keep the lights on here are appreciated.

The reality is that there's a lot of toxicity on this forum, though. Almost by the very nature of the kinds of material being handled here there is a lot of secrecy and mistrust as people deal in gray areas of legality and ethics. Add in a lot of exceptionally big egos that frequent these forums, and it's clear to see why this place explodes into drama and bad blood so often. It's not altogether unavoidable, but it's going to need more active policing to moderate for sure.

At the same time, Kevin, if you're genuine in your desire to be better appreciated and have your work valued more, I would caution against painting yourself as the benevolent martyr who gives endlessly in the face of petulance and malcontent. You've done a lot for the community, but be honest with yourself about your shortcomings, and I think you'll have greater success and will find there to be less agitation among those who come here. You do go silent for large periods of times, you'll request money to fund the cause but then be famously opaque when it comes to discussing things like finances or hacks or downtime. You have a right to live your life and step away from this forum, but please acknowledge that this kind of operation demands certain amounts of communication, and at least part of the strife on this forum is due to an inability to reconcile what is required of your resources and what you're able or willing to provide.

At the end of the day, if you're not having fun anymore with this place or you feel like its run its course, you're free to step away or shut it down. Just consider that many would want to preserve the knowledge documented here and would ask that you pass that data onward to others who want to bear the torch.

 

Hey mate,
If you were to shut down the site no one would be able to buy great items from the marketplace, get help from others, get price checks etc. As we know on eBay they take a certain fee, you should do the same it's fair as people make bag loads of money even if it was as low as 2.5% people could still make profits and it would help keep this amazing forum alive

 

I'm just annoyed that sometimes the Moderation team abuse power which happened to me on 2-3 occasions, both which weren't my fault but I got sanctioned due to retaliation. Pathetic!!! I don't really come on here much now.

 

I have found this site to be one of the best archives of retro and modern gaming knowledge with some very knowledgeable electronics experts as members. It is not just a site but also a community. I'm not aware of the grievances surrounding the site nor do I pay much attention. None of us are perfect, in fact most of us in the gaming community are obscure by nature. It's easy to criticise but we sometimes forget to give praise for efforts and achievements. So well done to @assembler_EX and others involved in the development and running of this site.

Maybe the pressure could be relieved if a team of moderators are developed to maintain upkeep of the site. Taking all the weight on your own will eventually lead to burn out if not already. Your own health is number one priority.

 

I don't condone what Demon did or necessarily what he said, but quite frankly, you've brought this shitstorm upon yourself. I get it, we are all human. Shit happens and takes us away from the things we love. But I know that the biggest problem is that you act as the sole keeper of this community. You are not anymore; this community has grown far beyond what one person can reasonably expect to control. You cannot be the only thing holding this community together because it's actually pulling it apart.

You are the single point of failure for this site, which happens to be the nexus of the community. I don't know your personal life and I don't need to if you don't want to share it. However, when you disappeared for literally months under suspicious circumstances (i.e. after a major fundraiser), you caused an amount of damage here that we haven't had to deal with before. This site may never recover from that. The volume and quality of posts here isn't even remotely close to where it was before the hack.

And let's be clear: the site was hacked. It wasn't just the hardware failing or software being corrupted. And no, it wasn't Demon hacking it. He was trying to help behind the scenes to get the site back up and running, along with retro and others. The problem is, they couldn't. They needed you to do even the most basic things for a server restoration.

I think that you do actually care about this community. Yes, this is your website, but you have to let go. I'm not talking about stepping down or any other drastic measure. I'm talking about having contingency plans for when a bus lands on your head. Other, trusted people need to have the full rights and access privileges to maintain this site. Don't think of it as giving up control though. Doing so should help alleviate your stress dealing with the site. Quite frankly, most days it feels like you want nothing to do with it and I would guess that dealing with complaints is one of the main reasons.

 

i got nothing but love for the creator of ag just wish you was around more and replied back more as i tried to talk to aboit things many times before

overall though 10 plus years of a site of this magnitude holds great praise and respect also hope when shit comes together with me more maybe i can messsge u again and we can chat alil assembler

and with mairsil said you need to be able to trust others like retro with the responsibility of ag to help the community grow as i couldn't imagine trying to keep ag running all by myself

 

Same here, at least one time that I'm certain of.

+1

 

I elaborated in pm, but I wanted to say this here.

There's a phenomenon in any organisation where the feedback is always negative, especially if it is a voluntary feedback. People content with a free service won't reach out "en masse" to congratulate you, while people mildly annoyed will burn you at the stake. This is human nature really, you've got to keep this in mind when contemplating criticism.

So here to tip the scale a bit: I like you about be deeply redirect your work Kevin!

 

i like you

the angry few, for the most part don't really have a say, this is a free to use forum. (not that the forum doesn't cost money)

 

Please just put some non intrusive ads on the site to help costs.
Heck there probably is a way to hide them for members over 100 posts!
I'm sure a lot of traffic is non-logged in leeches, they most likely don't donate, so pushing ads to non-logged in and posters under 100 seems fair

 

First of all i'm sorry for my very prolonged absence from here and my duties here. I'm ashamed. Real life can be a real burden. I have mines as all have theirs. For some people they are big for others smaller, but anyone that is "adult" understands what this means.

I honestly envy all you have managed here mate. You created a place-to-go for all of us and be well aware that most of those knowing you or your health issues do understand what weight is over your shoulders. I have attempted a lot of projects VG related, all failed no matter how much effort and time i poured into them. So do not forget what you have achieved.

Concerning critics and bad blood you received so far, along the years, and in future, remember that it's mostly from envious people, or shallow users that are here only for the marketplace and borderline stuff. Those that are here since years and that did contribuite in any way to ythe forum are those you need to listen to.

Certainly there were problems and questionable times. The downtime was honestly unreasonably long. Communication was bad. We didn't had much ways to keep in touch between users and us mods even... It was pure chance i managed to contact yakumo and other through outside ways.

What i think that is giving you this kind of unfullfillement feeling is that the forum users used to be more pro-active, posting news, developments, researches etc etc. You have a great potential here that is way more inexpressed than it was years ago.

The fault may be due to the new social medias and younger audience joining up. Our twitter may be of better use highlighting some interesting forum threads for example... Having a frontpage or a webpage like tha roarvgm times would make things more focused too.

The fire it's not spent here, just need some project to rekindle it. Something to work for together.

many here have connections with game devs... we could start some interviews in here for example.

Keep things up kev. We need little to get the old srint back to us. If you want to trust this old member here, let's get back the frontpage and let's put some posts, researches, highlights easily accessible to all.

A forum only page like our is a bit stuck in the '90s. I mean the forum is and will always be the pulsing core of the community, but having a front in "eurogamer" style with retro/obscure/reviews/interesting stuff would help massively the page.

Hats off. Well said Borman.

I think that for helping with that Kev could talk about his own life and issues and get a lot of milder response, but certain things are most time better kept to few ones.

I would dare say that he's not a benevolent Martyr facing malcontent as you stated, but one in love with what has grown from his hands. It's not easy when beside your chances and wish things start to drift away from your control.

Maybe delegating a bit more to a few trusted ones may be of help, but kev is certainly what makes it all a whole. The others like us mods can only apply a patch for some time.

Both a bliss and a curse, isn't it?

YTour attitude doesn't seem the better just from this post, but i'll ask anyway. What are you referring about?

 

Personally, the site has been a treasure trove of knowledge to me. It brought me to a site that wasnt shit with like minded users. With one exception to my 3 (homing in on 4 next year) years on this site I have only had good experiences.
Since the site was down I still patiently waited for it to return as I did when the big facelift happened (even though I wasn't as active then). I had personally spoken to some of those that were rather disgruntled about the site downtime. As you said, a lot didn't care. Some did however, most notably users that have been here for some time close to my stay here or greater.
The site is like you said it is, a place for discussion. Other sites that do this exist (like the assemblergames reddit) or similar forum sites.

One thing that is strikingly different about this one is the quality. Unlike most sites this one actually has a backbone. Similar ones I've seen have really shitty users, navigation, layout, theme, ads fucking everywhere, and more. Assemblergames doesn't have that bundle of issues. You care about the site and what you do for it and that's usually the last thing on people's minds. Most people forget that someone needs to run this place and if you go then the site goes. It's fueled by the community funding to which I've personally contributed (even though both times it was a small amount). The content here is vast and special and certainly should this ever go down for good you'd end with a huge gaping hole in the internet.

To me this site isn't a tool. It's a platform and social site with different types of people sharing different types of knowledge. It's a place where I can learn and socialize at the same time. I'd call it my home since I'm usually only on this site as it is but that might be pushing it.

I care about your health enough to not let site downtime bug me. If health and quality comes first then it comes first. You've made an effort to run this site 10 years, and still you care enough about the user experience to keep improving it. The recent hack was a pain in the ass to everyone, especially for you.

As I type this, I've been seeing the main page change in a few ways. Checking twitter led me to this as well.
I'd prefer to not see you leave, but this is your site and yours to do with it as you please. For the ones who do offer to buy the site, I hope you leave it with someone who cares as much as you do.

 

OK.

 

Good on the geezer he should make some money and lift off all the stress hopefully the next owner will be as good as assembler

 

You need more administrators and actually let them administrate.

This is all it boils down to. People have offered to help (I have on countless times), the frustrations are likely due to you being offered plenty of help, but not accepting it.

 

Someone permanently ban my account.

 

Here's what we don't want to do: we don't want to ignore the greviences people have. Many are legitimate , even if not all of them are. People have had questions for years about things that happened, why things are how they are, and concerns about site security, along others. We do the site an injustice by ignoring the issues that do exist just because we don't like how someone said something.

We can use this as a stepping point to creating something great, or we can let this be the spark that destroys a decades long legacy for good.

 

I am sure more people care about you than you know, Kev. I've known you longer than many people I've seen face-to-face more often, and consider you a friend. People are quick to moan, but often won't praise. It happens with products all the time... and, likewise, for unpaid "jobs" that most people don't even contemplate how involved they are.

Oh, don't make me laugh. You bumped a thread that was ONE YEAR OLD to say it was fake. What was the point? Just let it lie. Or mention it... ONCE. You then reported the posts (in fact, your dumb arse reported YOUR OWN post) and then moaned that staff hadn't done anything about it an hour later. And you had the audacity when a staff member told you to stop to argue with them. ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS.

Reality check - this is an UNPAID position and WE ALL HAVE LIVES TO LIVE. We will get to reports when we get to them.

You even admitted that you were stalking this guy on other forums and were nearly banned for going over the top. Why the witchhunt? Why hurl abuse at staff when they don't take the actions YOU want? Grow the fuck up.

HERE IS THE EVIDENCE

You were then banned because, after flaming a price check thread and accusing the seller of being a scammer (instead of reporting any concerns to staff to deal with), you once again argued with staff despite a public warning to cease. About petty semantics. That's after having an argument with the OP in his price check thread, derailing it. What the hell does it matter who he is if he's merely asking for a price? You can't sell in a price check.

EVIDENCE

Sorry, the rules are clear, in black-and-white and you broke them.

Seriously, take a good, hard look at how you respond to people. It's not smart, it's not nice. If someone tells you to back off who is in charge of a website, listen to them. You don't have to agree with them, but listen. If you don't, of course you're going to receive a reprimand. We have jobs, we have lives to lead... we don't have time for your petty squabbles and spitting your dummy every time something doesn't go your way.