Page 1 of 2 1 2 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 17

Thread: What now?

  1. #1
    Ultimate Member Bob The Great's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Location
    Bellingham, WA, United States
    Posts
    1,035

    What now?

    When I got that e-mail in my acount from fingers. My heart stopped beating. A cold sweat came over me. Was Sysopt gone? I quickly went over to it. It's still here. But what do I do now? Do I go to TechIMO, or stay at my home Sysopt...

    I'd like some indepth info on what happened so I can make an informed decision. No mouthing off to internet.com or whatever it's called. Just information. What happend, who was involvolved, why did it happen (I know several if not all administrators were fired), and what happends now? Who are the new admins, are the same morals going to be held i.e. no porn, no swearing, and very strict guide lines to posting which are the reasons I came (then I found out how knowledgable, fun, and caring everyone was)!

    I'd really like some answers. Maybe some from the new admins, or a spokes person for Internet.com

    Thanks
    Last edited by Bob The Great; 10-12-2001 at 09:06 PM.

  2. #2
    Ultimate Member Barney's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2000
    Location
    The Netherlands
    Posts
    1,323
    Read this: http://www.techimo.com/about.html

    <~~~~~~~~ I have made my decision, as well as over 400 other people so far.

  3. #3
    Senior Member Praetorian's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2001
    Posts
    704
    I like your avatar better barney. Mind if I steal it. Too late! Already did. Lets consider these avatars open source.
    This will all be over before you can say Cat in a Hat.

  4. #4
    Ultimate Member Bob The Great's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Location
    Bellingham, WA, United States
    Posts
    1,035
    I read that. I'm very sorry for Scott. Why were the other admins thrown out? I believe most of the others were voluntiering.

  5. #5
    Ultimate Member Barney's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2000
    Location
    The Netherlands
    Posts
    1,323
    Oh darn! I guess it's too late to say no now.

    I believe most of the others were voluntiering.
    Well, they were since internet.com fired them all back in January (!!!). That reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Kramer gets fired at a company he doesn't even work for.

    "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we are gonna have to let you go..."

    "But I don't even work here."

    "That's what makes this so difficult."
    Last edited by Barney; 10-12-2001 at 02:15 AM.

  6. #6
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Midvale Utah
    Posts
    13
    I think I can do some of it in a professional manner.

    Some of us such as Joel, Socalgal, and myself were fired/let go right after Christmas last year when Internet.com took over from earthweb. We chose to stay on at that time due to loyalty to Scott and the membership.

    Last month Internet.com choose to fire/let go Scott who has put forth his heart and soul into SysOpt. With no hint that he was going to be let go he went thru making the massive upgrades to this site.

    Internet.com made no comments to Myself or the other Admins/Mods about Scott's dismissal.

    Scott showed me his new site about a week ago when he and mark had just registed the name and didnt even have DNS avaliable for yet. Mark and He have been working night and Day to get it up and running.


    As for me..I'd been out of the loop for a few days as Over the weekend my wife had emergency surgery and I was unaware of the launch of TechIMO was coinsiding with my resignation as I have not had the time to devote to SysOpt as I had in the past due to my own sites and that I would be also helping out over at the new site.

    I made a Farewell post here in the SysOpt Community AFTER I had emailed my notification to Gus/Internet.com (And I had to go looking for Who to email it too as I had never even heard of Gus until then!) Saw serveral people/friends post to that thread wishing me well. Went to bed after bookmarking the thread as of course I want to see who would wish me well after spending YEARS here at SysOpt...Even LONG before we had the nice BB forums. (I think I started from scratch on post counts 3 times..maybe 4 I honestly cant remember)

    Well to make the story short...I woke up and hit my bookmark only to find that the thread was gone and my ACCOUNT..Not just my Admin Access had been killed. Many other members had noticed that and well...you can see the aftermath of it

    I told/asked Gus that I was reregistering my Name as I have used this name for YEARS and have the same name on all of the boards I visit...even many I dont visit as it truely has become my online Idenity. Gus agreed that I could keep my name and that I was welcome to continue to even post here. as I told him I'm sure that I would still visit when I have time as many friends I have will continue to post here as well as elsewhere and I dont want to loose those friendships. Heck he even offered me a paid position to stay...Why they never offered that to me before today I have no idea but I made my choice and I'm a big boy and will live by those choices.

    Honestly. If you have any pointed questions you would like to ask of me...Please do so. either here or feel free to email me
    Mntsnow@digitalmntsnow.com

    Thank you for the opportunity to reply to your post.

  7. #7
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    www.techimo.com
    Posts
    1
    I might add that both socalgal's and my accounts were also deleted. I'm not certain, but I believe others' of the staff were as well.

    I'm estimating that between those of us whose accounts were toasted, over 15,000 posts were put up. Fifteen thousand.

    No, we aren't leaving by choice.

  8. #8
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Midvale Utah
    Posts
    13
    WOW...4 people posted while I was typing

  9. #9
    Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Location
    Winchester, England
    Posts
    35
    *

  10. #10
    Anime Otaku RobRich's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 1999
    Location
    Tampa, FL
    Posts
    3,574
    I choose to limit what I say about any of this, as I probably have the most information of anyone involved outside of Scott, as I was the last out in regards to the SysOpt staff. Have I been released? Well, INT Media has never litteraly said "your fired." However, when I inquired about possibly taking over the site in an attempt to preserve atleast a portion of the community for the interim, I was informed that no budget was available. Simple enough, I offered to administrate the site for nearly nothing. No response to date. I had hoped to keep positive relations with all involved: everyone from SysOpt, TechIMO, and even INT Media. Time has now passed, and it appears my involvement in this site's affairs have now been discontinued.

    Where am I at now? Well, I retain positive relations with Scott in hopes of near future for TechIMO, as Scott and I working on developing a new business relationship. I also plan to devote a significant portion of my writing efforts to other projects (such as www.romulus2.com and perhaps my own small site) as well, as I intend to move forward with my life.

    I've been relatively silent to this point, as I have seeked to offend none involved. However, it seems that some individuals from both sides of this argument have singled me out as a "black sheep" among the community. Why? I've spent countless hours acquiring review products, establishing corporate relations, developing articles, answering forum questions, and plenty of other "behind the scenes" tasks that most will honestly never know about, not even those among the former SysOpt staff, including Scott.

    Some individuals have expressed concerns over why I have not been overly vocal about this situation. My response? I have none really, as I've tried to handle this in a professional manner. Even Gus Venditto would have to recognize this fact. Most have no clue as to my profession, how I live, or even my real personality. Perhaps this is my fault, as I tended to opt for the professional approach towards SysOpt. Some probably believe I am an arrogant individual or have some type of "know-it-all" complex. Maybe I do, honestly I can't answer these acqusations. I've honestly tried to be friendly, positive, and professional as possible. If I offended or upset anyone along the way, I appologize. As to the SysOpt staff, I never really developed any working friendships outside of Scott and Socal, though I suppose it is my own fault in a way. I don't chat, rarely socialize, and have essentially been working independently during the past few months here at SysOpt.

    So what about my future? I have been released from INT Media more times than I wish to count. I was released during the INT acquisition of SysOpt. I was released from SharkyExtreme, HardwareCentral, and EarthWeb Hardware when INT dismissed Alex Ross and his staff. Certian current staff members involved in these projects made sure I was never to again be published on any of those sites, as I intimidated one of INT's coveted tech writers over how I publically pointed out a lack of research for one of his articles. And I have now been released yet again from SysOpt. Great fealing, that means I have been laid off by the .com industry no less than three times this year.

    Onto the future.... I plan to write for TechIMO as a community effort. This is not because of one person, or even the situation involved here. Companies need to realize that a sense of "community" is needed to sustain any real web presence these days. Look at Anand, Tom, Brian (AcesHardware) and even Kyle (HardOCP). While their community may not always agree with how they administer their sites, or even how the person actually thinks in regards to a particular subject, each of these people understand that the community makes the site, and that no community leads to no revenue. I believe TechIMO appears to understand this need.

    If this post is deleted, then so be it. If my account is deleted, that is fine as well. I've attempted to retain positive relations with Gus, but it appears to be a one-sided effort at this time. Perhaps my emails were just overlooked, as I habor no ill will towards INT Media. The .com industry is severely depressed right now, thus this tragic scenario is playing out at many sites across the web. Whatever if is, Gus, you have my contact info, use it instead of posting here if you want to talk about this situation with me.

    In addition to staffers listed recently in other posts, I believe we as a community also owe respect to Patrick Kennedy, Scott Maheny, Phil, Scott Madison, Brandon White, and anyone else that I may have forgotten (I appologize to any writers not listed) that has worked closely on developing SysOpt content over the past years. Also, SysOpt would have never been possible without the support of this great forum and all the members that I have grown to know over the years.

    I also need to address a most important issue. Sadly, one person that was not mentioned by anyone is Heidi Monson. She was SysOpt's former hardware and formating editor. She taught me much about writing and the editorial process. Sad to say, I feel as if I have lost a close friend in her because of past events with EarthWeb and INT. I have been reluctant to even contact her over the past months, as my re-hiring to the SysOpt payrolled staff earlier this year forced a hasty closure on a plan to open a joint site with her after the INT acquisition. Unknown to most at the time, the knowledge of this event will now likely single me out for either hatred or contempt from certain people, but I feel I seriously need to extend my deepest appologies to her and the others involved in that project. I failed not only myself, but several other people as well. Being a college student on a budget, I had to go where the money was, but I should have had more foresight than to dissolve meaningful relationships due to my monetary gain. I am deeply sorrowful for my actions towards her.

    Good-bye SysOpt,
    Robert Richmond
    Last edited by RobRich; 10-12-2001 at 03:41 PM.

  11. #11
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Posts
    12
    I have tried to answer a lot of the questions but generally when I do, spammers come in and so some of the comments i have made are getting buried underneath these long spam replies.

    what happened is this -- i learned yesterday morning that a number of moderators were working on a site that is competitive to this one. it came as a total surprise and I was pretty disappointed to learn about it this way. so i reacted badly, deleted a thread, deleted accounts and censored the name of their new site (techimo). it's not that a modeator would have to be exclusive to one site or another, but from what i was seeing, some of the activities were pretty blatantly trying to steal the audience.

    it was true back then there was no budget, Robert, but there is now, so if your interest is still there, let me know.

    as to the deleted posts, that's over. it isn't happening any more.

    right now, we're leaning in the other direction by leaving everything up. i'ts clear there is spamming going on here and we are leaving it up to make a point -- i want people to see we are not censoring and to understand what i was seeing when i made those first post deletions.

    we will get this under control within a few days. i'm sorry to those who think i've handled it badly.

    - Gus Venditto
    editor-in-chief, internet.com

  12. #12
    Ultimate Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2000
    Location
    The Netherlands
    Posts
    1,711
    Well,

    I've made my decision too.

    The way I see it, is that Sysopt was the way it was because of the people that made it, being Scott and all the others, and by the people that visit here.

    And now that the builders and keepers of Sysopt are gone to another site, due to circumstances, I will gladly join them on their new site.

    Ultima

  13. #13
    Ultimate Member Bob The Great's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Location
    Bellingham, WA, United States
    Posts
    1,035
    Thank you all for your posts. I've loved sysopt...Or to be more specific the people here. It's come to be my home away from home.

    Sysopt is the people! Thats what in my view made Sysopt the BEST forum on the web. I'm not sure where I'm headed now. The web is a big place. Maybe I'll find another good forum (maybe techIMO), I don't know yet which one.

  14. #14
    Member
    Join Date
    Jul 1999
    Location
    Portland, ME
    Posts
    357

    Well

    Gus,
    I give you credit for admitting you were wrong/reacted in the heat of the moment. It's not easy to do that, especially in public.

    I don't think it will change things much, though, but it's a step in the right direction.

  15. #15
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Location
    Dallas, TX USA
    Posts
    627
    Rob you didn't fail anyone - it was I who failed.


    I was selfless and inconsiderate when I beat down the post flaming - because they were right -I didn't think about who my real friends were. I was fighting against what was right! I am so sorry and I hope dearly that I didn't cause any problems in my wake.


    God I don't know what to do. I just want to apologize - to everyone.


    Michael

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •