Site Feedback Let's have a discussion about the site

Well, there were plans even before the downtime to add more staff, try to make things easier for them and several ideas for new features for the site... including probably not being just a forum once again.

When I was doing what I could with the server during the downtime, Kev was very ill. Communication between us became slow, naturally. During moments he could be more focused in between hospital visits, he kept expressing that it was paramount that we give the users something new, something better to return to when we're back up and running. Perhaps, at times, he was even more concerned about what will come than getting it back up. Eventually, though, it was a case of "we just need to get it back up, people are getting antsy". So no new plans happened. And, of course, he's concerned about adding new things when they could potentially be another exploitable area. I am sure we will get round to implementing some new features at some point, though. Maybe by next decade?

As for staff, they have no incentive to moderate. They're no doubt taking shit from people here and elsewhere, too. It's not their fault, or problem. I don't blame them if they're demotivated. I know I am! We need to look at ways of spreading the load and dealing with that.

You forgot the throne of PlayStations!

 

I personally think a sale would be a terrible move for the community. I'll respect Kevin's decision no matter what it is, but I think very few people could run this site beside him. I know I couldn't.

The legal threats and the hosting situations are complex with this kind of community, and while his reactivity as a webmaster can be called into question, his actions to protect the site from legal threats and deal with hosting are on point, as is his insight in the community.

 

Yeah. I don't feel a sale is necessary... I believe Assembler (Kevin?) can hold a center role here if we get more staff. And imo someone should be in charge.

 

To be clear, he is called Kevin. It's not a secret or anything either.

Obviously, I agree with you that he should not sell, but alleviate his burden a bit. Maybe with a tech team.

 

Kevin could be the old chief. Then a next of kin admin aka the new admin, with three sub admins, a set of maybe 20 mods just to make sure that if half is stuck in traffic all day every day it's plenty to go around. That's me just babbling tho. I have no idea if that's realistic...
But Kevin could be involved whenever he can, and if there's something major.

 

Hmm...i rewrote a response like 10 times to the owner's message and yet still shocked. Im not in the owner's shoes but i can understand having created something for people to enjoy and then told you are managing it wrong or dont know what u doing. As much as i hope the site doesnt find a buyer and the community here finds a solution to this issue soon. Because as a someone who used look at this site as a library of gaming history and now a user hoping to due my part in some way. This site means alot but without the people who created it then its just a random set of words and urls that mean nothing. So lastly we as users or just me speaking get the hardship or are trying to understand and at the end of the day we all human.

 

If I had contributed that much to the site, I would have kept my own local copies of all my work so that it would not be lost in the event of the site's closure, and then I could post it again on whatever site rose in its place, if any. Communities should not depend too heavily on a single point of failure, as that puts the entire community in a precarious position. I'm not defending whatever questionable actions the admin(s) took during the downtime; I'm saying that all content creators must assume responsibility for the preservation of their own work. It's the only reliable way to make sure your efforts won't be lost.

 

I hope ASSEMBLERgames doesn't fall into bad hands. This is a great site and it has inspired me to search for stuff that people don't even bother to look for, such as the Atari Jaguar & Sega 32X for example. I do feel bad for assembler_EX, as i've been through a similar situation in my life.

 

Kevin, do not let yourself think that people don't care about you. I know how the human mind can be, sometimes you are your own worst enemy. It's clear in this thread that there are many people out there who do actually care about you. You've done a lot over the years maintaining a home for people who like preserving gaming history, while doing what you've done to preserve what you have. You definitely seem like a solid guy to me.

 

I haven't read everyone else's responses, but I'll just respond to your original post. If you think that no one likes you or cares about you, you're wrong. I, and many other people here, like you and appreciate all of the work that you've done to create and maintain this site. If people don't tell you that often, maybe it's just because they assume it goes without saying.

Like other people suggested, it sounds like you're dealing with depression. I understand that; I have depression too. I know you've dealt with some very difficult things in your life, and being depressed is a pretty natural response to that. I'm dealing with a medical issue currently, and this definitely has a negative impact on my mood - and I wasn't doing too well even prior to that. But I haven't given up on all of it, even though things seem difficult now. The thing is, depression can give you an inaccurate view of things sometimes - like thinking that no one cares about you, when clearly they do. My point is, you can't blame yourself for being depressed; but you shouldn't allow it to blind you to the fact that people care about you. I assure you, I, and a lot of other people, do care about you.

I know you've gotten some negative feedback because of the site going down. However, I'd guess that the majority of that is from people who are fairly new to the site and don't know much about you or the community you've created. I think most people who have been here for a long time appreciate what you've done and understand that you're only human, and you have reasons for not being able to restore the site instantaneously.

As far as maintaining the site itself, I think you should do whatever you feel capable of doing, and allow other people to do anything else that needs to be done. I think there are multiple people here who would be willing to help. I would help, but I'm not sure how much use I'd be, since I know nothing about managing a forum. I do know a little about web design though, so I could help with that. I would say that no matter what you do, please don't let the site disappear, or turn into something shittier. I've been using this site for about 11 years now, and the reason for that is because it's a community that I'm a part of. Being on this site, and even browsing through the old roarvgm site, has taught me a lot about gaming that I probably wouldn't have ever known about otherwise. I've been on other gaming forums; for me, there's no other site exactly like ASSEMblergames, and I don't think anything could ever replace it. You should be proud that you've accomplished this.

On a more boring note, my only problems with the site since it being back online are the lack of a chatbox and lack of alternate themes. These are pretty minor issues.

I'll finish by reiterating that I care about you and very much appreciate everything you've done for the site; and I hope for the best for you, regardless of what happens to the site. ASSEMblergames is a cool place - thank you for creating it.

 

The chatbox was always annoying trash and it's actually the weak point that brought the site down.
If you want a forum, visit the site. If you want IRC, get on IRC.

Otherwise, I have no problems with anything.

 

I don't know where you're getting that from, the chatbox was always very active and useful.

 

Can I ask if there is no new owner of the site, how long more before this site closes for good?

 

About 5 minutes.

 

I have absolutely no idea what is going on here but Im seeing parts of this discussion leaning towards shutting down the site. I know I'm not a long time member but I have been a long time lurker reading threads and so on and so fourth ever since I can remember. This site symbolizes everything that I enjoy about video games....hell I don't hardly even care for games on their own.....it's the console(s) and the way they work that intrigue me, the great minds behind the hacking and development of devices and bios files region free moding. The true inner workings of these media machines that have been released by the masses across the globe is what attracts me. I myself post here with random thoughts or ideas or the basic mod questions or sometimes about things I have no idea about and people kindly explain things to me and how they work or where to locate things. This place contains any and everything that I had ever needed in the past in 1 location, it is an amazing archive of a lot of the missing or scattered information across the Internet that either must be pieced together or simply is no longer available any more. I have a hard time finding a place like this where I kind of fit in or where there are such a large and widely spread number of intelligent individuals who are willing to share what they know with me or even perform services such as extremely fine soldering or flash chips for me......this site has become something I turn to kn a regular basis and something that I regularly post my thoughts and thought process at.....and more so a place where I'm with like minded people.....I haven't made any enemies here tho I'm sure eventually I may run across someone I won't get along with......but that's human nature and life......there is a lot here for me as well as the rest of the world and people like me.....it's already hard to try to talk about something like what a .xbe file is or anything of importance about anything game related to anyone in the real world because no one thinks like I do....no one accept my fellow members at places like assembler......so with me expressing the importance of the site to myself and I'm certain others as well I hope all the best for you sir and I want you to know that this site does a lot of good for me. Anyone that has created a place like assembler where I can discuss things among like minded people I will support and help in any way possible because it's not easy for people like me and I'm sure other members to fit in just anywhere

 

Sounds like you're emotionally in rock bottom Kev...

Before saying the site is a burden on you. Should attempt to see a councillor and get some thinking strategies.

However, your life is yours. What makes you feel better, do it.
There's very much a few members here I think should own the site if you were to pass it to someone else.

 

Eh, my only qualm is that sometimes things would be discussed on the chatbox that I would have liked to revisit again, so chatbox stuff would eventually get "lost forever". That being said, a lot of garbage would also be in there and that never warranted an actual thread. I think it goes both ways. I guess I'd rather it be around than not as long as there aren't any actual repercussions for its existence.

 

I don't really know the ins and outs of all the drama and negativity, but for me the site has only ever been a positive thing. Thank you for creating and maintaining this place that many of us hold so dear. Others have mentioned any of the ideas I would propose so I don't really have anything to add there, just do whatever is right for you.

 

If the site is for sale, I am genuinely interested.

You can even stay as an admin too, lot of respect for what had been made here.

It's not the forum admin role that retro has that is the issue. It's the ability to administrate the server itself outside of the forum. I understand you were burned in the past, but not everyone is the same as that guy. If it takes selling the site then I'm potentially up for it.

 

Let this guy buy it ^