Post subject: An Update to Site Administration
adelikat
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Expert player, Site Developer, Site Owner (3580)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4736
Location: Tennessee
As of today, Nach will no longer be in the role of Site Admin. While this was not an easy decision, the staff and I agree that we have various irreconcilable differences with Nach in how we intend to operate the site in the future, and Nach's position as site administrator made it impossible to proceed with development in the site the way we want to. Under Nach's lead, progress on a lot of important aspects of the site is stalled in various ways. For example, HTTPS support has been an ongoing issue for many years, but it is Nach's insistence to take charge and arrange support with the current site code base, and that is one of the reasons why this is still an ongoing process after six years. This is just one of various examples where Nach's role in site administration conflicts with the rest of staff. The "GB movies in GBC mode" thread is an example where Nach came in conflict with various staff members over site rules. He attempted to override and revert rules that were set by staff multiple years prior, declaring them not legitimate just because he wasn't personally involved. This both demonstrated lack of awareness of what went on with staff and site rules, as well as demonstrated lack of faith in staff members. Added together, this creates a frustrating work environment in which it is hard to get work effectively done. There are other examples that led to this decision, but we do not want to take away from the overall message of this announcement. If there are any questions as to why we’ve made this decision, we are happy to answer them. Moving forward, I will continue to take charge as Site Admin. Working with the staff, our goal is to push the site forward with improvements to site technology, and expanding movie rules to be more inclusive to cool TAS projects that don't necessarily fit into our current framework.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Noxxa
They/Them
Expert player, Moderator (4131)
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4083
Location: The Netherlands
I understand that this is a very hard decision. I approve of this change. I've found it increasingly difficult over time to work with Nach as administrator, and had already voiced some of my complaints behind closed doors (mostly about HTTPS support being an increasingly growing issue, and shortcomings of the phpBB2-based codebase in general, and other security issues) but it's been very hard to get good or timely answers. At a certain point, it just became impossible to continue this way. Thank you for going ahead with this.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
I agree with all of the above. I have a lot of practical problems with how things have been functioning for the decade+ I've been here (as both user and staff), but I won't be listing them here. I attest that this is 100% a team decision, everyone on staff had a say and was heard out. This is a learning curve too, and we aim to be a staff team that is professional, and also humane. We want to embrace and lead interesting developments, not to shy away from them. And we want the community to be able to trust us as a team. We want this site to feel cosy and exciting. Because that's how best works are created.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Experienced player, Moderator, Senior Ambassador (897)
Joined: 9/14/2008
Posts: 1007
I also support this decision and can attest that everyone on staff was consulted in the process. I have been in the unenviable position of publicly defending why we don't have proper TLS support for the past 5 years and it's been increasingly difficult to defend the state of the site. I support the new site code that's been in development. I'd like to thank Nach for his past contributions while also acknowledging that this change was needed to keep the site vibrant. I'm excited for a future that stands to be brighter than it has been in a while.
I was laid off in May 2023 and could use support via Patreon or onetime donations as I work on TASBot Re: and TASBot HD. I'm dwangoAC, part of the senior staff of TASVideos as the Senior Ambassador and BDFL of the TASBot community; I post TAS content on YouTube.com/dwangoAC based on livestreams from Twitch.tv/dwangoAC.
Samsara
She/They
Expert player, Senior Judge, Site Admin (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
I also fully support this change, and as a non-senior level staff member I can confirm that all of the current staff were directly involved in making it happen. TASvideos has effectively been running with Nach as a single point of failure for the last decade. Site progress has been bottlenecked by him being increasingly harder to reach over the past several years, and bottlenecked even further not only by his insistence that he be involved in every major change and that we cater to his demands, but also by him simply disagreeing with nearly every change we proposed, often leading to complicated compromises that only served to make maintaining the site more difficult over time. The situation behind the scenes has been much less than ideal under him, to say the least. I acknowledge and respect that, without him, the site may not have continued nearly as long as it has, and I thank him for maintaining the site architecture for as long as he has as the only person with the technical knowledge to be able to do so. However, the age of that architecture has been showing for nearly as long as he's been maintaining it, and now we're finally at a point where we're on the verge of replacing it with something we can easily maintain and update ourselves. There's going to be a lot of positive change as a result of this decision, and I can't wait to make it happen.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
EZGames69
He/They
Expert player, Publisher, Reviewer (3941)
Joined: 5/29/2017
Posts: 2701
Location: Michigan
Someone in the admin position should be involved in the community. While I get that sometimes they can’t always find time, the fact that Nach was not aware of the GB/C rule change [after nearly 2 years] and insisted on reverting it because he wasn’t involved showed that he wasn’t taking his responsibilities seriously, and only selectively applying his authority. That being said, I look forward to the future of TASVideos, and I’m very excited for the changes we’ll be seeing.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Memory
She/Her
Site Admin, Skilled player (1514)
Joined: 3/20/2014
Posts: 1762
Location: Dumpster
I support this change in administration. I have dealt with a great many frustrations over the years, and numerous people asking me if it was even worth it. To that the answer is yes. Change is happening.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
fsvgm777
She/Her
Player, Senior Publisher (221)
Joined: 5/28/2009
Posts: 1180
Location: Luxembourg
I approve of the change in administration. It was getting really frustrating to work with him in any meaningful way, and I'm glad that we're finally undergoing positive changes for the site.
Steam Community page - Cohost profile Oh, I'm just a concerned observer.
Masterjun
He/Him
Site Developer, Skilled player (1968)
Joined: 10/12/2010
Posts: 1179
Location: Germany
I approve. Now I'm not a staff member, but I experienced several instances where I requested a simple thing, or suggested a fix, or even made a poll about an issue. When they got to Nach it was always either a "make a thread about it" and then an answer saying the whole system needs to be reworked for it. But it usually never got to Nach in the first place. Frustrating is the correct term. That was 7 years ago, and it seems like the behavior hasn't changed. So I'm glad changes happen. Things are worth discussing again.
Warning: Might glitch to credits I will finish this ACE soon as possible (or will I?)
Judge, Skilled player (1274)
Joined: 9/12/2016
Posts: 1645
Location: Italy
I support this decision. I'm also not a staff member, but I used to be one for 3 years, until the begin of 2021. I wasn't involved in the discussion about this change, but from what I did see until I was inside the staff, I could already figure that this was going to happen, sooner or later, and I understand the reasons behind this decision. It's painful, but necessary. Thank you to Nach for the work done until now, and please don't worry about the future of the site. There are a lot of changes happening, but I'm sure they will bring improvements. By working together with the staff, I could experience myself how good-intentioned and competent are the people that compose it, so I have trust in them. Edit: I also have some complaints myself, but I don't want to talk about it, because I consider it unnecessary. I'll just say that I also think that Nach lacked faith towards the rest of the staff. Edit 2: I had to say it after all. Click here to read more about what I mean.
my personal page - my YouTube channel - my GitHub - my Discord: thunderaxe31 <Masterjun> if you look at the "NES" in a weird angle, it actually clearly says "GBA"
TiKevin83
He/Him
Ambassador, Moderator, Player, Site Developer (119)
Joined: 3/17/2018
Posts: 348
Location: Holland, MI
I'm also in support of this change in direction for similar reasons to dwangoAC. In addition my significant efforts toward aiding the site rewrite and explanations backing its improvements have felt brushed off, while simultaneously gatekeeping has been limiting contribution to the old site code. I am in agreement that we vastly appreciate helping keep TASVideos going to where it is, but we need this change in direction to keep moving it forward at this point.
xxezrabxxx
He/Him
Joined: 7/15/2017
Posts: 199
Location: Kentucky
I understood that Nach seemed to have halted development and progress of this website for a very long time. I am also in support of this change in order to see the site progress and move away from the old and outdated way of doing things to the new way.
I like to comment on submissions and look around the site. You have probably seen me before (if you have been around for a while) either on the site, Discord, or any other social media. I recently took up making temporary encodes for new submissions. Also, I never forget to greet Tompa wherever I find him! "when resyncing stuff sucks it's called Resuccing" - EZGames69 “If an emulator stops being accepted to the site it should be called an emuLAMEr” - EZGames69 "oh no discord, everything I say will now be logged forever, sdfsdf, time to hide" - Masterjun "just had to give therapy to a taxi with daddy issues" - psx Current Projects: Mother 3 (75% complete)
Joined: 11/2/2021
Posts: 5
Location: France
Can we get Nach's side of the story and point of view on this?
Emulator Coder, Experienced player, Judge (593)
Joined: 2/26/2020
Posts: 691
Location: California
Aardvark64 wrote:
Can we get Nach's side of the story and point of view on this?
Ping him on IRC and assuming he doesn't shrug you off immediately since you aren't senior staff he might respond. Good luck even trying to get that anyways. He can respond here if he wants to, but I doubt he even will lol
Joined: 11/2/2021
Posts: 5
Location: France
CasualPokePlayer wrote:
Aardvark64 wrote:
Can we get Nach's side of the story and point of view on this?
Ping him on IRC and assuming he doesn't shrug you off immediately since you aren't senior staff he might respond. Good luck even trying to get that anyways. He can respond here if he wants to, but I doubt he even will lol
I must say I find this character assassination a bit strange, unbecoming, and unprofessional.
EZGames69
He/They
Expert player, Publisher, Reviewer (3941)
Joined: 5/29/2017
Posts: 2701
Location: Michigan
What are you talking about? Did you not see how he was described in the OP? That literally what he does, and it’s why we couldn’t work with him.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Samsara
She/They
Expert player, Senior Judge, Site Admin (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Aardvark64 wrote:
I must say I find this character assassination a bit strange, unbecoming, and unprofessional.
Nach created, maintained, and vehemently defended a "parody" of WW2-era Nazi Germany. This page actively caused people to leave the site. If you want professionalism from TASvideos staff, then you should be happy Nach is no longer part of it.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Joined: 11/2/2021
Posts: 5
Location: France
What's with this hostile attitude? What did I do? I don't understand.
Noxxa
They/Them
Expert player, Moderator (4131)
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4083
Location: The Netherlands
Aardvark64 wrote:
Can we get Nach's side of the story and point of view on this?
Nothing is stopping him from posting his side.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Judge, Skilled player (1274)
Joined: 9/12/2016
Posts: 1645
Location: Italy
Aardvark64 wrote:
What's with this hostile attitude? What did I do? I don't understand.
No one talked about you here, only about Nach. Why are you feeling attacked?
my personal page - my YouTube channel - my GitHub - my Discord: thunderaxe31 <Masterjun> if you look at the "NES" in a weird angle, it actually clearly says "GBA"
Player (5)
Joined: 8/30/2020
Posts: 42
Location: United Kingdom
Aardvark64 wrote:
What's with this hostile attitude? What did I do? I don't understand.
I wouldn’t call it a hostile attitude. Rather, it’s simply educating you on how this is nothing close to character assassination, especially with the example from Samsara. CasualPokePlayer is also not wrong. A reply is very unlikely, both here and on IRC lol
Player (79)
Joined: 8/5/2007
Posts: 865
Samsara wrote:
Aardvark64 wrote:
I must say I find this character assassination a bit strange, unbecoming, and unprofessional.
Nach created, maintained, and vehemently defended a "parody" of WW2-era Nazi Germany. This page actively caused people to leave the site. If you want professionalism from TASvideos staff, then you should be happy Nach is no longer part of it.
Ha! I'm a little late getting the news but with this development, I'm back, baby! I guess I'd like to praise others' diplomacy in talking about Nach's history here, albeit not pulling punches with regards to how awful he's been for the site. I have a few choice words of my own, but I think using them would only reflect poorly on me, so just use your imagination. Good to be back in some capacity.
Judge, Skilled player (1274)
Joined: 9/12/2016
Posts: 1645
Location: Italy
There is one little thing that I think I should add. Back in 2020-07-21, I've send a request to Nach to update the site for supporting the timing of SubGBHawk movies, but he didn't even open the message, as denoted by the fact that it's still present in the Outbox space today, instead than the Sentbox.
my personal page - my YouTube channel - my GitHub - my Discord: thunderaxe31 <Masterjun> if you look at the "NES" in a weird angle, it actually clearly says "GBA"
adelikat
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Expert player, Site Developer, Site Owner (3580)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4736
Location: Tennessee
Today, I am making an organizational change, involving myself. I've changed my role to Site Owner and promoting Memory and feos into the Site Admin role. I'm not exactly stepping down from the site. As the role describes, I will ensure that the domain exists, and ensure the site is running and operational, and properly staffed indefinitely. But I will leave the decision making, direction of the site, and leadership in the capable hands of the new Site Admins. I trust these two, and the rest of the staff, and I am excited about the direction and leadership they bring to the community. In addition, I will continue my site developer duties, as I do very much enjoy working on the site code and the value it brings to a community I love.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Memory
She/Her
Site Admin, Skilled player (1514)
Joined: 3/20/2014
Posts: 1762
Location: Dumpster
Thank you very much for the opportunity, I hope to do yall proud!
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero