First Anniversary of the GLORIOUS PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION!

[Jenna]

We should to make a special category for that: "FAILSAUCE" or some such thing.

[caffeinated.joy]

Insimenator Group Projects? We can do a sticky post for any sims/clothes/whatever people make to commemorate this special day and link to it in the first post of this thread. What do you think?

[Jenna]

Ooh, not a bad idea. Hmm, but what shall we name it? The Glorious Revolution Project?

...or, hell, I can think of a thousand different names for it.

[caffeinated.joy]

The Glorious Revolution Project sounds good to me! Or even "The Glorious People's Revolution Project"

[caffeinated.joy]

Well, if I can get my computer running properly again (yes, again), I might be able to do a couple of t-shirt recolours to contribute to the project, but I can't promise anything right now. My laptop does not do the sims at all.

[Stinkerbella]

If I may add a few words. Can't believe its been a year now. I wish I had saved some screencaps myself. He really got under my skin with the whole mother thing too. I would like to help with the shirts. I can't make good sim to save my life, but a shirt shouldn't be too hard for me to handle. LoL. If anyone has ideas they want me to try, I will. I also will make it so everyone may get it with no trouble.

[Paden]

Somewhere I still have a screenie of my resignation and I must say, I had a lot of fun writing that thing out. Oh, and Pes? You are unimportant, you just haven't figured it out yet, you old turd.

[Jenna]

Actually, I have a copy of it I think...let me go digging. *grabs her shovel*

ETA:
Here it is, in all it's lulzy glory. Stumbled upon it when I was putting together a similar thread on ISA.

[mrranger]

ooh i didn't know insim imploded about a year ago. i am still fairly new to the site and havent been on for a awhile.

[DaSpecial1]

Ok He's uploaded, go nuts.  Viva la revolution!

( Grab him above: 5 posts before this one, mmkay ?)

[Jenna]

To DaSi, I moved your Walt Sim to our brand new section just for the Anniversary!

The Glorious People's Revolution Project - located in the 'Insimenator Group Projects' section - is now open for your uploading enjoyment.

Glorious People's Revolution Project:
http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/board,782.0.html

[Skye]

Okay so I know I'm late getting in on this, but I do have some postings on about that time. I had copied "Walt's Q and A" section, and I do have it on my woohoosims2. Here is the link for that.

http://woohoosims2.darkbb.com/gossip-area-real-life-and-sims-2-stuff-to-share-f8/insimenator-walt-s-q-and-a-t145.htm?sid=23b1a134affbab5920991eee192dfc42

I do apologize. I have been away for some time here. Still in newlywed zone/mode/whatever and just haven't been around.  We also have dialup here, so another excuse/note for ya there!

I will probably add to this message, the other links. Some of the photo thingys I saved to my photobucket, cos I noticed a lot of pics disappearing.

Here's when someone 'wanked':
http://woohoosims2.darkbb.com/gossip-area-real-life-and-sims-2-stuff-to-share-f8/wanked-t148.htm?sid=23b1a134affbab5920991eee192dfc42

[caffeinated.joy]

We have to register and sign in to see them, Skye. Would you mind posting them here for people who don't want to do that?

[Skye]

Sound good--give me a sec OK? LOL (slow pc)
Okay, so I myself was able to get in on the site for a short time. I am going to copy and paste part of what I found here, so you can see Walt's plans for this site. Since no one has been able to get into the site, I have brought the info to you all here!
Dude thinks he should make money off of this site! (Gee, where was OUR paycheck for all OUR hard work? I never saw a dime, never even Asked for a dime, for all that I did for that site! And that's just the creative end-what about all those who have to help run the site with all it's tech parts?!!!

This posting is so you would see what the questions and the answers were, not so to poke fun at those who asked, okay? These are questions we all had, and it's very hard to be diplomatic about it...

This is the link this posting came from. http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=100208 And if I could stay online long enough, I would request ALL my work be removed from that site too!!!!


Q&A about the future of the InSIM websites
Walt
Gothplague made an excellent suggestion that I start a dialogue with the moderators, super-moderators, and admins about the current crisis to give each of you the chance to ask questions, share your views, etc.

Let me start by saying that I'm well-aware of the chaos that has been created and am sincerely interested in doing what I can to help calm things. Gothplague felt that if I made myself available to this group to try to answer your questions and concerns, it could give you the tools you need to do what you can to help calm the community's fears.

I also want to let everyone know that I am working on a statement that I plan to release to the community tomorrow, although I'm not yet ready to discuss all that I'm planning to put into that statement. I'm hoping to use that statement to calm some fears.

Please feel free to post your concerns, and I'll be checking back periodically throughout the day.
Walt is online now

gothplague
thankyou for setting this up walt
Walt
You're quite welcome.

gothplague
well i'll get the ball rolling;
* the server issues are needing to be fixed
* the staff both here and on the adult forum are very worried about the future of the sites and their staff posions. takeovers almost always include staff turnovers and that has us concerned.
* the future of the site as a free site is very much a concern too.
* will the staff be able to continue to moderate the forum, will you be a silent owner or do we have to ask for many tasks to be done.

these are but a few of our worries.
you see, this forum has been a growing community for many years and many people have invested alot of their time and energy here. it is like a second home. and we are very passionate as to what may happen to our 'home'
Walt

Quote:
Originally Posted by gothplague View Post
well i'll get the ball rolling;
* the server issues are needing to be fixed
* the staff both here and on the adult forum are very worried about the future of the sites and their staff posions. takeovers almost always include staff turnovers and that has us concerned.
* the future of the site as a free site is very much a concern too.
* will the staff be able to continue to moderate the forum, will you be a silent owner or do we have to ask for many tasks to be done.

these are but a few of our worries.
you see, this forum has been a growing community for many years and many people have invested alot of their time and energy here. it is like a second home. and we are very passionate as to what may happen to our 'home'
Very understandable. Let me try to put your minds at ease as much as I can.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gothplague View Post
* the server issues are needing to be fixed
I've got a professional server team looking at the server issues. I'm also preparing to order a new, larger server because the current server is under-powered. Because of all the concerns that users have raised in their comments, the server will only be four processors rather than eight processors, but it still should remove most (hopefully all) of the issues.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gothplague View Post
well i'll get the ball rolling;
* the staff both here and on the adult forum are very worried about the future of the sites and their staff posions. takeovers almost always include staff turnovers and that has us concerned.
My intention is to keep the current staff in place. I have no plans to replace anyone. My sincerest desire is to keep the site on the same overall track it has always been on, and I'm hoping that the staff will all want to stay. Rest assured...I do not want to replace you if I don't have to!

Quote:
Originally Posted by gothplague View Post
well i'll get the ball rolling;
* the future of the site as a free site is very much a concern too.
I fully intend to keep the site a free site. I regret the way I presented and explained my plans earlier, because it caused so much confusion and consternation. Let me see if I can make those plans plain, and you can let me know if I've confused the issue in any way.

Really, I'm not planning any changes in the way the site's forums, downloads, etc. are offered. The only proposal I was trying to make was to go from a donation-drive approach to fundraising toward a monthly donation approach via PayPal's automated subscription system. I'm pretty sure the big problem this idea has caused in the minds of so many is the word "subscription." This is actually PayPal's term, and I was just using their term. A "subscription" as they mean it is nothing more or less than any regularly scheduled transfer of funds. Thus, if someone wants to make a donation on a regular basis, it could be scheduled as a donation subscription that automatically draws from their PayPal account and sends the funds once each month.

Now, let me clarify the other side of the picture that seems to be causing so much frustration, consternation, etc. By "subscription" I do NOT mean that people will have to pay a monthly fee in order to access some select part of the website. Regrettably, in my original email to the super-mods in which I announced the change in management, I posed the idea of possibly doing some sort of subscription-based access for the insimadult site. This idea was never intended for the insimenator site, and it was only a floating of an idea. My hope was to get feedback from super-mods about it, because I wasn't sure how it would be received by the users. What happened instead is that the word got out to the user base and all hell broke loose.

Therefore, I have since backed off that idea entirely. Not even insimadult is going to get such a system. Neither site is. I'm not sure how much more clear I can make this, but if it isn't clear, please let me know. Mandatory subscriptions of any kind for any purpose are now off the drawing board, permanently.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gothplague View Post
* will the staff be able to continue to moderate the forum, will you be a silent owner or do we have to ask for many tasks to be done.
Absolutely yes, the staff will continue to moderate the forum. That's precisely what I want to happen. I want YOU GUYS to be in control of the day to day functioning of the boards. In fact, I'm counting on you all to exercise your good judgment at all times in this regard. I get the impression that Kathy was rather heavy-handed in the way she handled the staff. I'm quite the opposite. I want to delegate as much power and authority as I possibly can to you, the staff.

The only time I would step in to overrule in some case is if it was brought to my attention that a particular moderator's decisions were causing problems for the site or if the staff were requesting a new overall rule of some kind. My sense is that this site is well-enough developed that you guys already have all the necessary rules and principles in place and that I don't need to interfere in any way.

Let me see if I can summarize all this in a helpful way. I really don't want to change the site's essential nature. After this crisis is weathered, I want (from time to time) to propose to you the mods and super-mods (and through you to the users) additional features that can be added to enhance the site. In other words, I want to make the site even more attractive than it already is to users, to keep them coming back more often. My purpose was never to take away what makes the site so successful in the first place.

I also want to take a moment to apologize to you, the mods and super-mods, for not taking more time to clue you guys in on what was happening. I was left adrift by the fact that Kathy and Eric had said nothing to anyone, so I was trying to feel my way through. I made the mistake of only giving the super-mods one day to get back to me about the message I had sent, and I didn't even include the regular moderators at all. Big mistake on my part! So please accept my apologies to all of you. You deserve better communications from me than that.

[Skye]

caffeinated.joy
OK, Walt, here goes. I tried posting earlier, but the database error had it for breakfast. First off, I apologize if this comes off as abrasive, but I'm frustrated. I've been trying to put a positive spin on this to no avail. The first thing I did the day you made your first public post was suggest you come in here and talk to the staff so you could get to know us and open a dialogue about the issues at hand. I suggested it again when you asked for my advice. I even emailed you practically begging you to do it, in the hopes of salvaging any sort of good relationship with the site staff. No one likes to feel ignored.

Maybe now that Gothplague is echoing a lot of what I've been trying to tell you, you'll take it seriously. This place is more than just a site where people with a common interest meet. Sure that's what first brought us here, but it was the sense of community and friendship that kept us here.

We've just been asking for you to be honest with us. What's your motive here? Are you looking to make the site profit or are you hoping to make a profit for yourself. The previous owners assured us all money raised went to the upkeep of the domain and server costs, but now we're seeing numbers that refute that. If people are suspcious, it's because they've been burned badly. I'm among the group of people who thinks if you're going to be relying on our donations to keep this place going, then we have a right to know how it's being spent. Think of the donating member as your investors, if that helps. I work in an industry that relies on investor financing to run. If any one of those investors asked to see our Annual budget or MD&A we couldn't say 'none of your business' or we'd risk losing their funding. It's the same thing here.

One of the reasons some people are so concerned is because they make, for free, items for the sims game based on another franchise (star wars or marvel comics, for eg). Because they offer them for free and no one makes a profit off their work, they're fine to upload them, but the moment someone starts making money off their work, directly or indirectly, there are legal issues.

Before you release this statement, are you going to discuss it with the staff first? We've been the ones keeping this site up to date and running for the past year and some months. We have a vested interest in what happens here and the way you, Kathy and Eric have been excluding us is the crux of the matter. If we're going to be helping you here, we need to be informed.

J00wish
Hi Walt! I am really glad that you posted this. I also requested it and think that working with the mods and admins is your best bet. Right now InSIM's name is being tossed around with very negative things. It's hard to defend something when you don't know what's happening. I don't put the blame squarely on you. Kathy and Eric should have given us notice, either together with you or separately. Coulda, shoulda woulda, right? That's done with and the general consensus is that it's a one man show and we're just floating. It's good to hear that you plan on including us in the discussions.

*Profit. I agree with those above. People gave to InSIM because it was a NON profit site. People offered their creations freely and explicitly to InSIM. There are many members who are anti paysites. This is one reason why you are seeing a mass exodus. My advice? Get to know people. People freely donated money and clicked on the ads because they genuinely cared for Kathy and Eric. InSIM was their home and they wanted to keep it running. Now it's being compared to paysites and I have people screaming on both sides to have their creations removed.

*Let people rant about the situation. This is really a grieving process. Many people, myself included, spoke to Kathy on almost a daily basis. We shared many personal things and felt a connection. Now people are learning about profit, a site being sold that was a home and an introduction that was less than calming. Saying 'get over it' hurt so many people. We've got kids, disabled adults and your general population all coming together to be a family. That statement alone cut to the bone for many people. A little kindness goes a long way. When they rant, it's not all at you directly. It's about the whole situation. They don't expect you to make it better. They just want you to listen and understand where they are coming from. I don't know if you've ever been a part of a community online but this is a tight knit group of people. Please keep that in mind.

*I'm glad that you apologized for your first introduction. I wasn't able to respond (I was shocked) and then you posted the email on the board before I could gather my thoughts. Again, it's best if these sort of things are discussed in this section. Like any place the 'customers' don't need to know the inner workings, just a feeling that it's working.

*As Joy (and others) have said... knowing about where the money goes has always been important. This is where I find the biggest issue. You bought this site for profit. The site was created on the belief that it was NON profit. People gave to keep it going, not make Kathy and Eric money. Other sites will have a meter and if they get money over the amount needed it is listed as being for the next month. THIS is the mentality you are going to have to work with.

*Again, I think Joy has the right idea. If you are going to put something out for the general public it might be a good idea to post it here so we can give some input. It would seem that so far your statements were geared towards those who openly helped to make Kathy and Eric a profit. I hope now that you see that is incorrect.

I look forward to hearing more and hopefully working to give the members InSIM a better impression than they have been given so far.

Odessa