Current Events > SBAllen really is a great admin

(+) Yeah! (+)

What other website can you contact the admin about a site issue and have it addressed within a few hours? Like when the search bar disappeared.

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Or when he pushes a buggy as fuck "feature update" out to the masses and says "it's a feature, not a bug".
AKA the Microsoft support
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Remember when GoatTeats posted hentai on like 3 huge boards for a full hour before he got banned

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The site has certainly evolved far more rapidly from a functionality standpoint under his tenure.

Recently the post functionality changed significantly as I was writing/previewing a post.

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TheMikh posted...

The site has certainly evolved far more rapidly from a functionality standpoint under his tenure.

Recently the post functionality changed significantly as I was writing/previewing a post.

I honestly think that's because of it being owned by an actual business.
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I remember when he would fix giphy embedding.
Still waiting.

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@TheMikh posted...

The site has certainly evolved far more rapidly from a functionality standpoint under his tenure.

Recently the post functionality changed significantly as I was writing/previewing a post.

The internet has evolved far more rapidly from a functionality standpoint in those same times.

I have found his tenure highly frustrating. Back when I joined gamefaqs in early 2017 I had some pet peeves that made me feel that the site hadn't changed much since inception:

1) Message character limits - not enough space!
2) Words can't be too long because browsers from 1995 can't handle long words! (so, you can't link to longer URLs)
3) If you copy & paste some URLs the gamefaqs engine will convert certain symbols to weird shit and the URL won't work
4) unpaid moderation staff with the professionalism of a 12 yr old AOL kid from 1995 running "real ultimate power"
5) Not enough post customization features (e.g. text colors)

In all, I felt the site was very 1995-like.

In all these years, me and others have been raising our concerns, and what has he done?

1) Made post limits SHORTER
2) Told us to fuck off and use tinyurl - which was at some point a TOS violation, but it was easier to change the TOS than to give us a 2000s solution
3) Nothing
4) Empowered certain mod who is now super rude to people and allowed said mod to empower certain users to be basically pseudo-mods and have a topic that operates over its own de-facto TOS, making Real Ultimate Power seem like the website of the National Academy of Sciences
5) Forced "innovations" on us that we didn't ask for and only backfire (e.g. users now harass others and remember it because they can tag a profile to remember it, they can also @ summon someone and then block him, then can block a user and then use alt accounts to mass mark, now you're FORCED to use the spoiler tag instead of just warning about the spoilers, etc)

Look at this "new posting engine" garbage, it sucks, and we still don't have features from say, 1999 such as the ability to post longer posts or paste longer URLs.

edit: Update - it looks I can no longer summon a user by putting a @ in front of his name in the cite. GREAT, another feature taken away from us. Now I will have to do this: @TheMikh

RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...

I honestly think that's because of it being owned by an actual business.

GameFAQs has been owned by CNET since like 2003, but the changes have been accelerating in the past several years.

Coastal_elite posted...

Some thoughts.

• Word limits were imposed, IIRC, because of an exploit breaking the page years ago.
• The moderation system does, and has always, left much to be desired.
• I'm not sure if custom CSS is possible, beyond the custom themes available.

I haven't paid much attention to the technicalities of how the ToU is used to enforce use of functionality, or how new functionality is abused though; I mostly operate along a strict 2009 interpretation of the terms, and seldom make use of new functionality.

@Username still works, I received a notification.

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TheMikh posted...

GameFAQs has been owned by CNET since like 2003, but the changes have been accelerating in the past several years.

CNET was fucking garbage, they're the reason we merged with Gamestop
CJayC left in 2007, CBS took over CNET in 2008
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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...

CNET was ****ing garbage, they're the reason we merged with Gamestop
CJayC left in 2007, CBS took over CNET in 2008

I'm not disagreeing, just offering a counterpoint to the suggestion that being owned by CNET/CBS was the catalyst for the accelerating changes. Something else seems to have prompted it, as we went many years without seeing real changes, even while being owned by other companies.

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TheMikh posted...

I'm not disagreeing, just offering a counterpoint to the suggestion that being owned by CNET/CBS was the catalyst for the accelerating changes. Something else seems to have prompted it, as we went many years without seeing real changes, even while being owned by other companies.

CBS was, it was what got the rules changed through their legal team. Gamespot is the real pusher though - GameFAQs is seen as secondary to them and always has been.
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an unprompted rod meltdown wow

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Havent we only had 2?
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andel posted...

an unprompted rod meltdown wow

Is ROD ever not melting down?

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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...

CBS was, it was what got the rules changed through their legal team. Gamespot is the real pusher though - GameFAQs is seen as secondary to them and always has been.

It's a shame, really. GameSpot's strength, I presume, lies in its multimedia. We've just got the culture, but culture isn't particularly profitable.

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He seems like a cool admin.

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Tmaster148 posted...

Is ROD ever not melting down?

good point

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TheMikh posted...

GameFAQs has been owned by CNET since like 2003, but the changes have been accelerating in the past several years.

Some thoughts.

* Word limits were imposed, IIRC, because of an exploit breaking the page years ago.
* The moderation system does, and has always, left much to be desired.
* I'm not sure if custom CSS is possible, beyond the custom themes available.

I haven't paid much attention to the technicalities of how the ToU is used to enforce use of functionality, or how new functionality is abused though; I mostly operate along a strict 2009 interpretation of the terms, and seldom make use of new functionality.

@Username still works, I received a notification.

very good points. :)

Yeah @ .username works... but I had to go back and add the edit, I think, not sure you'd have been notified by the first @username on top

andel posted...

an unprompted rod meltdown wow

Dude is just typing out PowerPoint presentations now.

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bump

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bump

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He was giddy like a school girl over emojis. Then everyone made eggplant and water drops emojis until he modded them and then after a week barely anyone used them to this date.

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he is

I liked CJayC, but he hated making changes to the site. He had the "if it isn't broke don't fix it" mentality.

Allen isn't afraid to make changes if it's needed.

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Lairen posted...

He was giddy like a school girl over emojis. Then everyone made eggplant and water drops emojis until he modded them and then after a week barely anyone used them to this date.

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