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curiosity++
Very, very sad really. A.o used to be like a second home to me. Now it seems to be rapidly subsiding
Why do I even care any more?
- Thread starter Wayne
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Well I'm Greek not Scottish so I'm not Franko. Tedd and I both live in the Chicago area so he is not Franko either. I have had more pressing matters to attend to so have not been on Amiga.org as much as I would have liked, sorry about that. Life gets in the way of Amiga stuff sometimes. Franko has promised to behave now so let's hope that he does. Everyone does not get the Scottish humor, that's for sure. I don't recommend getting on Franko's bad side.
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Totally fair point, but there are other mods who could have taken care of the issue.
But he's not. He's behaving exactly how he was before.
That's not really the point. Lots of people have been annoyed by his constant derailment of threads, and offended by his language and attitude.
And yet he's allowed to continue posting on a.o?!
Yup, and how many are there that REALLY deserve to be binned (yes, bInned)?
They banned me at AmigaWorld.Net for another, let's see,
http://amigaworld.net/userinfo.php?uid=10020
currently 9577 days :-( and it's now.... Oh so peaceful and serene? IS IT????
It's AMIGA.org, and should have STAYED that way (C=64 talk is fine too, for me). That's what wrecked it (necessitating AmigaWorld.Net, and then later Amigans.Net), aros, morphos and all others like C=USA wasting our time.... WHEN they wanted to talk about those things, they SHOULD have gone to OTHER forums, like say WrongPla.Net. and Moo (others).
I always found it funny (and strange) that Wayne would allow people to keep posting on Amiga.Org after some of the things said about him and Amiga.Org over on Moo and ANN.Lu. Same goes for AmigaWorld.Net later on.
Wayne, I've not donated anything to Amiga.Org before, and I should have (I have donated to Amigans.Net). Thank you for the years (and years and years) of effort and stress and perspiration you've put in over there. I appreciate it very, very much. As I've said, someone would have done it but it was you spearheading it (with the help of many, many others; hi Karlos) and also the internet and you were instrumental in AMIGA coming back!
So, I don't understand why it is that Amiga isn't in your interests anymore? The "majority" seem drawn to the ipad "appliance" that it is, but I feel that much is lost over such a polished product. Sure it's slick, but at the same time it's just a "thing", like my TV remote control or a calculator. I use them because I have to, not because I want to. Hmmm, not sure that makes sense but I'm sticking to it for now.
The NatAmi is a game changer, that is for certain. Hope you can consider getting one when it becomes available possibly sometime from Sep. 2011 to Mar. 2012.
It's a revival that most true Amigans could stand by.
P.S. I could apologize for bringing "the religion" in here, but honestly, could you really expect otherwise of a comment from me?
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Nothing to be curious about really. I've gotten my feelings stomped on over the whole situation and both simultaneously furious and crushed as I am, I'm just trying to keep my emotions (and my comments) in check as much as possible.
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Everything you said is both true, and greatly appreciated. As for my interests, it's rather like, well.. um... analogies seem to fail me at the moment.
You didn't ask for a novel, but here goes. (I know this is long, but if you want to understand my perspective, please take a few moments to snooze through it)
Chapter 1: History of the World as I knew it.
When I was a kid (ie 20's), I was living, breathing, and existing off of learning about computers. Anything I could absorb, and 25 years ago, the Amiga was King.. I was very proud to be involved at the forefront of what I saw as the future of computing, just as Apple guys must feel now with the iPad.
As I grew older, life got in the way. Marriage, job, divorce, pain, etc. It does this for everyone who buys off on "the plan for living your life as expected by others", but I digress. Somewhere along the way, I lost my life-long interest in living, breathing, and existing on learning about computers. The Amiga -- which I had hailed as King -- was (to me) dead.
All I had left was supporting the community, and I truly truly loved doing exactly that. Unfortunately my blind, driving desire to support the community, and my over-enthusiasm for doing so (read: emotions) led to several bad choices, including selling out to Genesi.
I guess at that point, I was sincerely wishing that all my work and effort to support the community would get "paid off" by being officially recognized by whoever I saw as having the best chance at the time.
As a result, I ended up being used by both sides in a limited way or another.
Then, about that time (2002/03),I had a sequence of events happen that truly crushed me. Lost my mom to cancer (Dec 08/2003). Lost my job (Genesi) 12 days later after being accused of using my mom's death to neglect the job, got ripped off for 10k by Bill Buck at Christmas time that year leaving me and Melissa pretty much underwater, lost my wife to my best friend (which I'll openly admit now was probably 60% my own fault) 8 months later, and so forth.
My focus on the Amiga, and the Amiga community was gone.
After all that, when even the Amiga shows died off, the next 6 years just went by with me pretty much doing what I had to in order to keep the site running. Not much else really got to me.
It was me. Alone. In survival mode. Job, house, pets. Those drove my life.
Chapter 2: Walking away, or at least trying to
One day, about two years ago now, I woke up with a choice ringing loudly in my head. Either
- shut down Amiga.org and walk away, without warning.
- turn it into a Spanish Lesbian porn site,
- find someone who I thought could honestly devote the time and care that AO needs to thrive.
Of course, there was the money aspect, but that was more of a need and a feeling that after 15 years, I should at least have SOMETHING to show for it all than giving it to a random group and walking away.
If I had "given it" to "the community", Amiga.org would have torn itself apart by now fighting over who was in charge. Enter Bill Panagouleas and the person you all now know is Tedd Gallion. What is it with guys named Bill and the Amiga community???
Anyway, after posting about my desire to sell the site, Bill stepped up, offering to buy the site in partnership with Tedd (maybe I just like saying "Bill and Tedd"), and frankly, I could not think of a better person left in the community to run things.
Bill was still both involved in, and had a vivid interest in the Amiga community, so I was thinking very much "win/win" here. Amiga.org could seemingly continue with someone passionate at the helm, and I could walk away with some much needed cash and a clear conscience (for not shutting it all down like part of me wanted to).
Chapter 3: The Curse
As of late though -- and I say this with all humility and support -- Bill has seemingly been hit with "the Amiga Curse", as I was. He has not been able to focus on things like I wish he could, and there's still a learning curve about running a large, fractured community that I do understand he's trying to climb (sorry to talk about you like you're not reading this Bill, but third-party counts).. I tried to step in and help, but since I was literally no longer in charge, you see where that got us.
Chapter 3: paragraph 2: Franko (because a paragraph seems about all he ranks)
As the site's patriarch, even if AO has "grown up and moved on", Franko, to me, represents a strong danger to the site. I know people think he's funny, and some times I almost get that, but at the same time, I really, really don't.
He's crude, childish, attacks site members at will, and evokes the absolute worst in normally rational people.
When he joined, he was nice, civil, helpful, and fun. The perfect user who could have literally become a moderator if he had ever asked. Somewhere along the way, he went all mental and shit and now he acts like a wounded 5-year-old, calling out names, attacking site members, using profanity, and continually using both racial and homophobic slurs.
How this is funny in any way, I have no idea.
About a month ago now (I guess. As I get older, time goes by quicker), Franko ended up being banned by Argo. Three hours later, (presumably) Tedd removed the ban without so much as consulting a single moderator or anyone else involved.
While most were already gone by this point anyway because of the sale and an apathetic lack of direction from the new owners, almost every single moderator except for Karl and Chris (Argo) simply washed their hands of Amiga.org and walked away. This included my best friend Lee (ltstanfo -- who was already disinterested because I left), Alex Bartonek (TheMagicM) and everyone else who had rallied to help support the site in the past.
Chapter 4: No matter where you go...
So that brings us from 1994 to where we are today. Me, emotionally warring it out with a troll who -- as it turns out -- has not only the backing, but support of the site's new owner (Tedd). I've never met Tedd. Never spoken to him, never received a single e-mail from him to the best of memory -- except about 3 days ago strangely asking for a job reference.
Tedd supports trolls because he thinks they're funny, and he truly doesn't understand the long-term deadly impact that having an asshat like Franko on the site will have on the Amiga community. By the instantaneous reinstatement of Franko, combined with Franko's continued and uncontrolled posting / trolling, as well as his verbal abuse towards me on a very personal level, I've proverbially had my nose rubbed in it.
As such, you have to take what I say with a grain of salt, because I'm both furious, and humiliated over the situation. That I sold the site to a guy (Tedd) who neither knows, nor cares about the Amiga community, and that a blatant troll like Franko is openly supported over ANYONE else is just too much for me to emotionally bear.
Some of this lies at Bill's feet, but I do understand where Bill is at in his life right now. Having spent 6 out of the last 12 months unemployed, I get it, and I know where he's coming from, but my problem is that -- despite my recommendation that he build a new team of moderators, firmly establish the rules and expectations, and then work with his team to clean things up, nothing seems to be moving forward at all.
People are begging to help, if he could just take a moment to recognize it, but most of it comes at the price of ridding the site of trolls like Franko which -- as we now see -- is never going to happen.
As such, considering the Franko incident, Bill's situation (understandable) and the fact that I'm still far too emotionally involved, my only available response for the sake of the community and my own sanity is this;
I'm out.
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I already have and the posts have been moderated. As I said to Transition, hopefully you can now see that he is behaving the same as before. As for being "tame", I disagree. I am still seeing disruptive, homophobic and rude postsbeing made by Franko. To be fair, others are responding in kind but it always seems to focus on Franko.
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@Wayne
Clearly you are very upset about the whole situation, and that's totally understandable. I guess all we can do is wait and hope the new owners see sense.
Clearly you are very upset about the whole situation, and that's totally understandable. I guess all we can do is wait and hope the new owners see sense.
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Guys.. Let me be 100% clear here. By posting all this, it has never been my intention to draw you away from AO or anywhere else. You all know how I like to talk when I'm frustrated, and that's all this is.
Wayne
Wayne
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Wayne, my opinion of a.o is entirely my own. I don't feel drawn away at all.
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Contrary to exaggerated claims (made there, not here) in response to my first post in this thread, I'm just taking a break. I'm still an active Amiga user and I can't just turn my back on my favourite amiga site after all these years. However, it seems it's going through a bit of a phase were I barely recognise it and moreover, a good many of my old friends seem to be here.
Meanwhile, I gather the hosting issues are being sorted out and I'm still prepared to help out in any technical capacity required.
Meanwhile, I gather the hosting issues are being sorted out and I'm still prepared to help out in any technical capacity required.