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concerns
Sept 10, 2015 14:28:49 GMT
via mobile
Post by Rastanfarian on Sept 10, 2015 14:28:49 GMT
To be honest, I think Gordman was upset about the lack of support for a Mega Drive/Genesis section... I can't imagine it was due to the misunderstanding of the word "awful" in the context it was used. Marc was the first guy I traded with here and I hate to see him go. Hopefully everyone can forget their beef and move on.... Remember why we are all here...love of The SMS!
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db
Alis
Posts: 264
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Post by db on Sept 10, 2015 14:47:15 GMT
Yeah, flatapex told me the same thing. I'm glad it had nothing to do with me but it's still a shame he and marc felt the need to leave. I really didn't think it did have anything to do with me directly. I just thought perhaps I'd inadvertently contributed a straw to his camel's back somehow. You're absolutely right, rastanfarian! It's like this whole forum needs to drop E and go to a rave together, a rave with a bunch of SMS systems set up on the periphery of the dance floor
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Post by ShadowAngel on Sept 10, 2015 21:02:11 GMT
To be honest, I think Gordman was upset about the lack of support for a Mega Drive/Genesis section... I'm at his (and flatapex) forum after i got a personal invite from Gordman but yeah i guess that was reason and to be honest instead of opening a new message board in this day and age where message boards are dying it would've made a lot more sense for this website to add a couple subboards for the other Sega systems then starting a new board that will easily get drowned out by sega-16, who recently even added master system and game gear review section and forums amidst some controversy. After reading this topic and seeing people leaving all i can say is: Get a blinking grip for reality. Going crazy over video games or people selling games without noticing their neighbors cats is blinking insane. It's just video games and if games are the center of your life in a "i really need this cover variation or that upn sticker" then you're doing something wrong. I've been here since 2003, i was before here on the original board of Shinobiman (and in between of, i think it was Sinistral's message board), i collect games and consoles and even i can only shake my head about how childish some people behave about all this. Why do people take all this so blinking serious? Games are for fun, they're entertainment and nothing more. If they take over so much of your life that you care about slightly cover variants ("That cover has some darker blue colors than the majority of covers, i need it, take my money!") i don't even know what to say about that. Especially when it takes out to be a fake and the crying starts. For some people it really turned into an unhealthy obsession that alienates people and even friends.
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concerns
Sept 10, 2015 21:57:19 GMT
via mobile
Post by flatapex on Sept 10, 2015 21:57:19 GMT
Marco asked me to post this message from him:
Hey guys, just a little message from me! DB, I wasn´t angry about our misunderstanding. In fact, I felt ashamed for this. I was only wondering why ShadowAngel said nothing about this lol. It´s already forgotten dude, no worries. You´re a great guy. I´ve learned a lot during the last months. I had to fight against depressions for many years (the most difficult time was between 2010 and 2012) and now in 2015 I made the final steps to be the same guy as I was before that time. My friends helped me a lot when doctors failed. My game collecting hobby was very helpful as well and the games themselves even more. What I am going to say is that games are just for fun and to argue about them is just wrong - Thank you very much ShadowAngel. I was disappointed, because all my ideas were mostly refused (a Master System homebrew subboard and a Mega Drive subboard). I thought that this forum is half-dead and some new sub-sections would be helpful to breathe new life into it. I say it again, games are for fun. I changed my mind a lot - I don´t like Call of Duty but if people want to play it, I try to keep mum. Now I just buy the games I really want to play and I enjoy them a lot - This is what it´s all about. Now I am the co-owner of a little board and I am super happy over there and every member feels welcome without issues or anything. I missed that spirit over here for quite some time and that´s why I left. Live and let live.
Now my post is longer than expected, sorry for that. Thanks for reading and good luck guys, there was a time when I was glad to be a member on here. Cheers, Gordman
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db
Alis
Posts: 264
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Post by db on Sept 10, 2015 22:53:41 GMT
To Gordman: No need for shame but I'm glad we're ok all the same. I've struggled with similar issues in my life too and I know how tough it can be and how important being able to get away from thinking about your problems through whatever means is. I'm sorry to hear you're at odds with the mods here. I really don't understand why they wouldn't be willing to delegate that authority to members who were willing to do the grunt work to make it happen but I suppose it's none of my business. It's just too bad the community feels fragmented over it. This is a cool forum with a really decent and knowledgeable community. Sometimes it even reminds me of the good old BBS days. Alright, now I'm gonna start misting up in nostalgia so I'll end it here. Good luck with your new board. I hope you're able to recapture that spirit you're looking for there.
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Post by ian on Sept 11, 2015 9:36:11 GMT
I can't say I share the concerns of the OP. This community is on the whole, mature, knowledgeable and civil. I certainly don't agree with any claims of bullying.
People come and go all the time, that's just how it is. I know it's been fairly quiet for a long time but there's several reasons for that. I think in general, message boards and forums are a dying breed. Most people communicate through social media, blogs and videos now. Plus this message board has been about for 12 years, there isn't much that hasn't been discussed!
Could more be done to increase activity? Perhaps, but I'm not sure it's worth putting in the time and effort for a 30-year old games console. I know there were a couple of ideas from Gordman but they were democratically voted against. There will always be the dedicated members around forming the core of the community and that's good enough for me.
There will always be topics that cause contention but it's healthy debate. As long as people express their opinions maturely and aren't overly-sensitive to disagreement, it's all good. I'm slightly disappointed this has been made into a big thing but it seems we've all agreed to move on and work together. Peace, love and Sega Master System.
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db
Alis
Posts: 264
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Post by db on Sept 11, 2015 11:11:47 GMT
You may be and probably are right about the reasons for inactivity here. It could be the train's just headed that way and there's nothing we can do now. However, I think there's something else to consider. Pertaining to my last reply, BBSes were replaced by webpages that could fulfill the same basic functions but something was lost in the process too. Theoretically, the internet just provided a bigger room than dial up BBSes. The thing that would escape most people until they'd lived with it for awhile is that you can't really hang out with a billion people at once. Things just get a little too diffuse to be effective or meaningful anymore. In the days of BBSes you were dialing into to someone's personal system and so you had to communicate with at least one person to get anywhere. While there were good and bad points to that, for the most part there just seemed to be a more active and vigorous community then. Webpages watered all that down a bit and now "social media" continues to dilute it even more. It seems to me that rather than creating community social media creates little media ego bubbles for us; and sure, you can check on others ego bubbles but we spend most of our time with our faces buried in our smartphones, checking on our own status. Perhaps message boards like these are a dying breed. I'll mourn their death though.
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Post by Maxim on Sept 12, 2015 16:12:31 GMT
Message boards are both dying and just fine. There are a lot of potential participants who are wasting their time in Facebook and YouTube, but they are perhaps not going to bring us much anyway. The peak time for Master System kids to be earning money but still single/no kids enough to spend time on the hobby has probably passed, but we don't need hundreds of people to have a worthwhile community. The visitors we have - many of which are just lurkers or not regular - maybe need some more things to engage with, but we can only repeat "what's your favourite game" so many times. But more deep questions, like discussing parts of particular games or doing things that require some participation like high score contests, demand more from the participants too. So the answer seems to be to be friendly, don't expect too much, and don't worry when things are quiet. Maybe everyone else is just busy.
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db
Alis
Posts: 264
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Post by db on Sept 12, 2015 21:20:46 GMT
With all due respect, the refrain I'm hearing from some established members here is essentially: We've already had most conversations therefore this is/should be a message board for advanced users with deeper, more advanced questions. Yet, I've asked a bunch of noob questions and proposed favorite game topics that both older and newer members seem to have participated in. Since no one forced them to I can only assume they actually wanted to. Perhaps you're underestimating the interest here because, as you've said, you've already seen and done it all and are just projecting your own perspective into this situation. This stance seems to be denying the fact that someone might become an SMS fan at any point in their life and may want other fans to talk to. If this is only a board for people who owned an SMS as a kid in it's time then it's pretty much over already. I don't fit into that demographic anyway so I guess it's not for me. You might as well just turn this into an SMS database if it's time as a message board is spent.
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concerns
Sept 13, 2015 10:47:33 GMT
via mobile
Post by Maxim on Sept 13, 2015 10:47:33 GMT
That's not what I was going for. There's a balance to be made between chit chat, which is part of the community building and social aspects to a message board, and there's original content, information and discussion, which is more historically useful. There's a continuum between them and all parts have their place.
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Post by ShadowAngel on Sept 13, 2015 19:42:29 GMT
Plus this message board has been about for 12 years, there isn't much that hasn't been discussed! Shouldn't that mean that thinking about expansion wouldn't be a bad idea? That maybe we need to think about new ideas? I mean, let's imagine i'm a gamer casually interested in retro-gaming, which means i don't give a crap about cover variants, stickers or what shade of black the cartridge is (and if Micronesia got a version of a game that is a little bit blacker) and i stumble into here, my first thought would be "There's not a lot of game-related discussion going on", i'd look around and wonder "why are there 2 auction forums?" and think "Why is there no general gaming forum for all other games? or at least a section for the other Sega consoles". This forum has it's focus way too hard on the hardcore Master System Fan who goes hunting for cover variants and is more interested in discussing technical aspects right down to the cartridge label color which is off-putting to casual people who just want to talk about the games and maybe also talk about other games. It should be a lot more looking like the forum of Sega-16 and a lot less like SMSPower, also because that site and forum already exist for the hardcore fans.
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db
Alis
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Post by db on Sept 13, 2015 23:16:44 GMT
I'll just say that it's been my experience that if someone's a fan of the master system they're usually a fan of Sega in general. The SMS is my favorite Sega console but I also have a Dreamcast and would get a Saturn if they hadn't gotten so damned expensive; and while the Genesis is still my least favorite Sega system, I've gained more appreciation for it from talking to folks here and finding some of the hidden gems to play. If people want to talk about other Sega consoles why not just have some subsections for that? The main focus could still be with mighty master system.
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Post by Stan on Dec 18, 2015 12:44:06 GMT
Boy glad I just saw this? Not. Honestly, not even sure what you're talking about. The old guarde has never ripped anyone off, and the people you're talking about are very likely one, new to collecting in general, two, young. Always happens when groups get bigger, unfortunately, and unless posts are REPORTED there's very little admins can do. You realize there's that feature, right? I still checked this site once every 2-3 months, I just wasn't posting, and I only saw about 3 reported posts in the past year, so if you have a problem, report it. I, nor any other mod/admin, can scan every single thread to find whiny in-fighting over nothingness. Scamming, yeah, that's a problem, but we need to know about it instead of reading a "you don't do anything" thread after the fact. REPORT, or contact one of us if there's a problem. Pretty simple. We're not all-seeing-eyes around here, jeez.
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Post by flatapex on Dec 18, 2015 23:34:12 GMT
Erm.... Stan I think you have misunderstood my original point, I have NEVER accused any of the old guard of ripping anyone of, if I had then I would be massively out of order. The people involved are actually people I have come across a few times since, I don't need to name names, the 2013 secret santa I believe it was speaks for itself. If the guilty party has owned master systems for a week or 25 years does not matter, neither does their age, I am trustworthy because of my principles and conscience, same goes for every other trustworthy person.
I am quite aware of the ability to report posts, I have about 10 years experience as a site admin (2 sites and a facebook group currently), I don't exactly broadcast this fact so I don't expect people to know.
Anyway, lets get onto more interesting and fun matters, the last 6 months have seen me go through a cancer scare, a lifelong health problem diagnosed, an enforced career change after 17 years and my sister's sudden death, I come on here for a bit of light hearted fun and escapism. It is far from ideal that one of my closest friends (Marco) decided to leave the site and I am first to admit I would have been online more if he still was on, but thats how things go.
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Post by Rastanfarian on Dec 19, 2015 1:10:30 GMT
flatapex, I am sorry to hear about your sister and your health in general. I know you have been battling some health issues for a while, cancer surely takes a health scare to next level. Stay strong brother!
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