Insane Difficulty: Insane Difficulty Redux - Insane Difficulty

We aren't really trying to be hostile. Under it all, we're frustrated, upset, and scared of losing the place we care about. We're also not trying to force new admins on you, though we think someone somewhere between us, and you/archael would be a good idea in most cases.

Most of us, poor phrasing aside, are trying to be understanding.

Most of us also understand that you and Archael have a life. Sometimes that comes first. We're not trying to say that you have to do everything now. But we're desperate. If people were driven to try and create a new home for us, that should tell you how far that desperation has gone.

Regardless, I'm gonna back off this entire topic now, and just wait and see what happens. Everyone's tensions are running high here.

Honestly, if you can't tone it down and be productive about it instead of putting people on blast, you don't need to be posting in this thread. You have a point, yes, but there are ways to get it across without being hostile.

Trust me when I tell you that this shit is being worked on.

When someone who can solve a problem comes in here and tells you shit is getting handled, screaming at him is not a very productive thing to do. If he was doing damage control, don't you think he would have done it a long time ago?

I understand that tensions are running high, but that's no reason to haul off and start putting people on blast. If you wanna yell at someone, FFTA is not the one, because he's the mother fucker that's been fighting on this, not the one that's given a deaf ear.

Just because you, personally, do not hear from him does not mean he isn't listening.

I think a lot of the pent up anger stems from the fact this registration issue has been prevalent for several months and some people are fed up and want answers, no matter how toxic they feel they need to get in order to have their answers. If there's no sign of an admin saying things are getting fixed, it sends the wrong signals and there will be chairs flying everywhere.

So in short...everyone listen to Advent and settle down. There will be gumdrops, ice cream, and....



That guy coming to visit anyone that gets out of hand from here on out (Ok I'm half asleep as I type this up and this is the best funny thing I could think of saying right now, sue me!).

I'm happy to see this post, although at first I didn't feel very optimistic. After reading through everything I am feeling a lot better about the situation. I know it has already been echoed earlier but this isn't anything to go crazy and get angry about. Civil conversation is the best way for us to move forward.

Anyway, my thoughts on the site...obviously the best option is to keep the site and try to push forward as a community. If FFTA says he is on board I will support him in any way I can. My only real input here is that I hope that this time that there is a little more weight given to the community on the site's direction.

What I mean by that is when Arch started doing site revamps over time it seemed like he was only doing what he wanted to do with it which meant cutting features big and small. Of course it's his website so I understand and some little things were reverted but it was sad to see things like the arcade go. Not that I think it needs to come back...all I care about is my Elmdor heist badge

I would love to see a focus come back on articles and discussion on various gaming topics. Obviously this will take people's time to do...I know I enjoyed doing a couple write ups and hope to put some stuff together in the future.

I think we should designate some people for articles and figure out if there is anything different we want to do with the wiki. We shouldn't expect anyone to be obligated to something like this since it isn't a job but if we do have some community members that want to contribute it would be great to have them.

I stopped reading the thread after a while (though will go back and read when I have the effort).

Words will change nothing at this point. We need action.

FFTA, on 03 December 2016 - 06:17 PM, said:

No, please don't. If you must, bring it back up once general maintenance is back on track.

Advent, on 03 December 2016 - 08:50 PM, said:

Nobody should yell at anyone for anything. The problem is that administrators have not been around for general maintenance of the site. Frustration has built up, and the current atmosphere is a result of that. We need to do a whole lot better in the administrative department for this to work. How to go about that can not be done by site members, it has to be done by the current administrators. Who bears the title means little when things are not working and the community can't sense the presence of the administrators.

We can talk about our lives and hardships and who deserves respect from whom all we want when the site is back on track. Actually, we're pretty damn good at that part when we have a home with working doorknobs, it's just not what we should focus on right now.

There's not much to say outside of assuring that the community can actually register. I agree with BTB on his statements though, administrative problems need help otherwise nothing can happen.

Administration first. Fix that, and then after these problems are handled, the community might start growing itself again. That's way too ahead of ourselves talking about community activities when a community can't even be grown.

There are many level-headed and/or constructive replies in this thread, I commend everyone in it for expressing their thoughts and feelings on the matter.

Frustrations and other strong sentiments aside, I agree that the best solution is to work on fixing what is wrong before replacing it entirely. However, a site NEEDS active, engaged and present administrators to ensure that the site runs smoothly. It's just not possible for a community to thrive if the members don't have solid ground to stand on. They need to be able to trust that the site will remain accessible and maintained.

The registration issues and recent downtime, and the apparent absence of the administrators, really shook the community's trust in the site's resilience. Apart from the registration issues, that's mainly what needs addressing. Everyone here understands that time is limited and real life sometimes demands priority. That's why sharing responsibility among administrators is necessary. There just can't be one single point of failure in a community with so many members.

I have no doubt that the administrators are invested in this site or that they wish to care for it responsibly. That's why it's important that they are honest with themselves and the community about how much time and effort they are able to invest in the site. If the site demands more attention than they can currently offer, then they absolutely need to appoint a trusted co-administrator.

The Captcha has been removed as of right now. People are now able to log in.

We will be replacing this with a "first post" system where a users first post must be approved by a moderator.

Thanks for your patience!

I've read every single post in the thread before replying. I've basically had a very busy weekend, so I came late here. Now in order of appearance.

1. FFTA: Badges? Leaderboards? Tournaments? That's exactly what the site needs to basically make ID again (even I fell to make that reference - moving on). I'll be way glad to help in whatever I can to encourage the members to be more active - So that all have something to say "Hey, that's cool". Another thing to mention is Aura of the Dawn has been making achievements for some of the mods in retroachievements. You should check that out, we could actually use that as a reference in some way, at least for the supported platforms.

2. If anyone scrolled through BTB's posts, I'd suggest taking a second read through them. He's right in every single word.

3.

FFTA, on 03 December 2016 - 01:55 PM, said:

FFTA, on 03 December 2016 - 01:55 PM, said:

That's one thing I agree. However, I don't think people want / claim to have more people accessing the FTP. I feel like a lot of the problems we had (excepting of course things like registration) would have been solved in time if the regulator job had access to *all* of the GUI options, main problem being updating / adding subforums. I mean, there's a small group of regulators: Advent (at least until today), Kaffe, Stann, (you and Arch), and me. I know for a fact that none of use would abuse the rest of the GUI options that we're not getting access (This of course is assuming that those features are actually with a GUI like the one we have as regulators. If there isn't, then this paragraph should be disregarded).


And now for a rather complicated, yet important part.

4.

FFTA, on 03 December 2016 - 06:17 PM, said:

FFTA, there's something that should be noted, and emphasized here: ID has been 80%, maybe 85% Discord chat for more than half a year already. The registration part was the culmination, or rather a very sensible manifestation of a gradual shift to the chat because the site was not well maintained. You're now here, and we will all be supportive, and I don't mean to talk about the past more than what's already been said, because that leads us to nowhere, where you're actually coming here with the best intentions and attitude.

My only point here is that you can't know how much one member or the other has contributed to the community in the past half year, because the community has been in the Discord chat, which you were not frequenting. If you want to know more about what ID has been about in most of 2016, spend more time in the Discord chat and see, for example, why I was so convinced about the shift of our community towards mods wiht good design instead of mods with difficulty for its own sake.

5. Arcenierin's post was, indeed, not something that we want to see around here. And so he gets a deserved call out. However, it should be noted that his post is simply a manifestation of how the community has been feeling after months of lack of communication, basically. For the record, let it be clear that I do not support such type of approaches in our community, for we are known for having actual conversations and analysis instead of raw agressiveness like that. FFTA has come here with everything we've been hoping it'd happen - Hell, I'm sure some of us thought it was a really long shot that this would happen - But it has. And that connects to my next point.

6. A big, and rather huge part of this has also been about poor communication. From my end, I sent a PM outside of ID to the two admins we had - FFTA and Arch. On the one hand, Arch didn't reply - Think what you will about it. And on the other, FFTA didn't either, but he was already working on figuring out the code. Now FFTA, what can we say about it? You've actually been giving a damn about the site, trying to reach Archael, trying to decipher the hieroglyphic'ing code, but let me say with all due respect, that a handwave would have been great. Not even a long post, simply contacting any of us, via Discord, or anywhere. This is meant to be constructed criticism, because as I said, you're here with the best attitude and I'm trying to be part of the solution, and not the problem.

AuraOfTheDawn, on 03 December 2016 - 06:16 PM, said:

Easily the best post from Aura since he joined the site. And he's also a regular in the chat, hence my point number 4.

Last thing to everyone reading.
7.

Advent, on 03 December 2016 - 08:50 PM, said:

This is all true, as I've been talking to both Advent and FFTA. Please be supportive from now on. We've got this.

auraplatonic, on 03 December 2016 - 10:54 PM, said:

BTW, I thought you knew this. You're never getting that badge.

Through his actions, FFTA has demonstrated that he is deeply committed to the continued evolution of ID. He has taken time to address every concern I brought up, and has been a class act about doing so. I gauged him wrong, and want to publicly apologize for being rather rude to him with the tone I took yesterday. I misjudged him, and hope to have the opportunity to get to know him better in the future. FFTA has displayed an enormous willingness to take critique and feedback and to turn them into action; I intend to see that any such commentary I afford him in the future is constructive in nature.

Quote

I conflated FFTA and Archael. FFTA proceeded to demonstrate why the community holds him in high regard; in the process, I now find myself holding FFTA in similar regard.

Hart-Hunt, on 04 December 2016 - 06:13 PM, said:

I only made one (So far) for X Hardtype, and someone else did another (For Armageddon). There was a request for one for Darkness Within, but I have yet to sit down and work on it. Worst part is finding ideas. Some of these I have no idea what to do with. I do invite anyone with thoughts on any of the (finished) hacks here to chime in to me with ideas.

arcenierin, on 04 December 2016 - 06:24 PM, said:

Thank you for this. I wasn't able to reply to you directly yesterday but I did get to read the PM on my phone. It meant a lot, to say the least.

No hard feelings, I understand I walked into ID at a time where people were not so happy, and did expect some blow back.

As someone that hasn't been around the longest and hasn't really interacted with either FFTA or Arch, My frustrations were more directed toward Administration in general. I had lumped all of you together regardless of fairness. I apologize if I've come across as rude or disrespectful as I, when I was reading the thread and making my response, was under the impression that you were trying to downplay the issues with communication and avoid the subject that was of biggest concern (registration).

Because of that, I apologize if I came across as if I was attacking YOU specifically or making it sound like it's your full time job to run the site. Neither of those are true. I was meaning to point out the many issues we were having in a "This is why we're mad, don't downplay it" manner. It came across poorly.

That being said, I'm glad that registration is functional again and hope that work can continue toward making these forums as great as possible.

I apologize for nothing.

Glad you're back, FFTA.

Hart-Hunt, on 04 December 2016 - 06:16 PM, said:

auraplatonic, on 05 December 2016 - 03:08 PM, said:

Well if it makes you feel better, you made me think of an idea for badges. A "Discovery" badge for certain hacks. That Breath of Fire hack looks cool.