I once was heavily involved in several aspects of this site. I enjoy watching and creating TASes, and I also contributed as an editor to several trick pages, adding movie descriptions, screenshots, and being an active poster on many subjects.
Recent events have caused me to realize that although I genuinely believed I was helping the site with my contributions, there are those who believe the opposite. Other members, editors, and administrators of the site have expressed this to me in various ways, and I have concluded that others’ vision of where the site should be headed does not coincide with mine.
This is a common phenomenon, and the common resolution consists of various members giving their input and discussing the possible outcomes. I once believed this process existed on this site, but I have now lost that hope. Actions have been taken that I simply do not understand the reasons for, and cannot figure out how the site is made better as a result.
Here are some main problems I see within this community:
Favoritism: I have always felt an amount of an “in-crowd” at this site, which I never wanted to be a part of. I lack “seniority”. I don’t like Mega Man. I don’t care about AVIs or bitrates. I can see it being very easy to feel looked down upon for some of these opinions, though I tend to ignore these vibes. Additionally, things that I first believed made the site more robust actually serve to divide its members – things like starred movies, forum rank, and player status[1].
Ego: People who favor one author over another in any circumstance have no place in the internal affairs of this site. It is absolutely ridiculous and ultimately destructive to the goal of creating better and better TASes. It is unfortunate that there are several people in influential positions here who have this attitude.
Publication: Submissions here do not become “official” in the eyes of the site until they are converted to an AVI. This is a problem with obsoletions – a publication is not obsoleted when a new movie is submitted, but rather, when that submission is published. This sometimes takes several months, or the submission may even be rejected, making the current publication, which is clearly obsolete, not displayed as such.
My views do not reflect the majority at this site. Nevertheless, I will no longer be contributing to the site via editing[2] (with the exception of my userpage), and I will be greatly reducing my presence on the forum, as I feel others believe the site will be better as whole[3]. Though there are many things about the site I dislike, I still wish it to thrive as those involved see fit because I still enjoy the concept. I also will still create and submit TASes here, as I still feel that my submissions help to improve the site (as long as they are good submissions).
If anyone wishes to contact me or has any questions that require a response from me, feel free to send me a private message through the website. Thanks for reading.
Here I will add revisions as time passes:
4-25-07
[1]: Some of this phenomena has been regressing - player ranks are set to be revamped to an automatic assignment based on concrete values. However, favoritism still exists, and it probably always will in some form. From my perspective, I've noticed it both for me and against me in different scenarios. I dislike both directions - toward me more than against me, because if it's against me, at least I can fight it.
[2]: I am back to editing the site on occasion, specifically because Phil's editing privileges were revoked. This is why I stopped in the first place.
[3]: This is partially true. I go through spells where I post often, and some where I don't post much at all. Are the forums better off with me or without me? I can't give a definite answer. I have felt both ways at different times.