Text Copied from SND, in case they go down

by Moorgard on 2001-11-07

After all, we've been critical, and we've wondered why this company hired such well-known community figures. One would ask why a company with nothing to hide would ask for that kind of spin control.

Let's be frank, first off.

Do you think, honestly, for a second, that Mythic hired Tweety because she was the best possible woman for CS Representative, or that Lum was the best possible back end programmer for CS?

Absolutely bullshit. There are, I am certain, better, more experienced people for these positions, would these positions be advertised elsewhere. If Tweety is the best chick available for customer service out of everyone in the DC area, anyone who has really read her site where she lambastes companies and players alike in less than respectful or understandable terms, well, call me an idiot. Thinking this woman was an impartial person experienced in CS of any kind of online game was known to be flat out false. What was Tweety but an ex EQ Guide with an eloquent, yet significant complaint against her former employer? Hiring her was a coup in player relations of the worst kind. If you believe she was hired for her player skills and not because of her position, you underestimate Mark Jacobs.

Mythic never gave a shit about the players. Don't please head off and read Abashi's posts. In case you aren't up to date with the Mythic attitude and who they admire.

Now that we're beyond that.

Mark Jacobs tried to nail this site in the worst kind of way. Under the old guard, Mark Jacobs was the nice, reasonable guy. He answered questions and gave suggestions. After all, this site was run by his friends. What could he possibly have to fear? This site was about to give him a pass based on personal friendships.

He didn't like it so much when those friendships had passed, and we went back to being objective. Horror of horrors, but we resumed our original position of being suspicious of companies, and looking out for the player. He loathes us for it.

Do you want to know how much he and his company hates us? We'll tell you, though I bet you won't see our front page or boards come the end of the day, since they own it.

Our boards and back end are owned by Lum. While we had permission to use them, we had our problems in code, and that basically made us run to Scott to remedy them. We had done it more than once since he left for Mythic. Not a peep from him in complaint. In fact, for the past few weeks, since Pander banned the world, we've had no problems. You remember the banning of thee world, no? That was the last problem I ran to Scott for, in case you think I'm on top of the guy all the time, every minute, for every moment he's at Mythic. While I felt guilty for asking Lum for help, and realized it needed to change in the future, the situation continued. We had no recent problems, and had 3 weeks of relative peace. Thing is, Lum can nuke us in a heartbeat, and has threatened us so, even if we haven't run to him with probs

So, my explanation about needing Lum to fix our php? Valid, but full of bullshit. It's been awhile since I've asked him for help. Do you want to know how Lum asked for our back end pulling? One reason and one reason only: A poster called Coke. You must understand Coke to understand how it went down.

Here's a poster that annoyed everyone and lambasted Mythic. However, I felt being contrary wasn't enough to ban the guy. I will never accept the banning of a poster who has contrary opinions to a company. Some said he lied, by implying things about a response Tweety gave to a guild who loathed DAoC. I felt he was just giving his opinion. Thus, I would not allow him to be banned.

Lum, through various parties, heard that we would interview Coke and give him a voice on the front page, even though we had no intention of doing so. (This goes along with ex writers with admin board access telling Mythic exactly what we were saying amongst ourselves).

We had no intention of interviewing Coke. Yes, one writer brought up the possibility, but myself and almost everyone else went "Oh, hell no."

Lum messaged me. He said "Delete my board accounts." I asked why. He said "I can't post or respond to Coke's conspiracy theories, and he knows it."

I panicked. How could I lose the great Lum the Mad?! I was more than ready to ban a poster than to lose the great Lum. So, I was far more receptive to banning that poster, on principle alone. Then SoulFlame, chimed in. "If we ban Coke, where do we draw the line?" And I agreed. So, I reversed my own decision. I said "We cannot ban someone for having it out with a company. We haven't banned for disliking a company in the past. We won't do it now."

You know what happened? Lum pulled our front page. He got rid of our software. He told us "If you don't agree with me, you can't use a single thing!"

Wait, no, he didn't tell us. He just did it. And, right then, one our writers updated. And we thought that writer broke the front page. So, I loaded up a back up. I hit up the FTP, loaded the back up, and figured it was a glitch. I had no idea Lum pulled it all.

I learned later that day, that it was pulled because we refused to ban a user. I learned, hours later, Lum had gotten rid of it all. No one told me. No one warned me. We allowed a poster to criticize Mythic, and our back end was killed without any warning as a result.

I have traveled the high road. As much as I wanted to kill this company and their employee for actions taken against a contrary opinion, I have not done so.

Enough is enough, Mr, Jacobs. Your employee will kill this site for a contrary opinion. I don't expect the front page to be here after today. I don't expect the boards to be there. But this isn't about Lum or his site. This evil is begun by you. You can do it.

And should you kill our front page. Should our boards disappear? We'll know you gave the sign. And we'll know you've done it, no matter how you spin it.

We'll be objective. We'll criticize your game. But, we don't live in DC. We don't attend your parties. And we certainly won't buy into your plot to hire community leaders. You may have fooled a lot of peeps, and hired people who can spin, but you cannot spin us sir, no matter what your worshippers think of your money.

If you have a beef, you have my phone number. If you dare. I think you'd rather kill this site than face me one on one. But, I'm always open to personal debate, one on one, man to man. If you and your company dare. Prove me wrong.

I won't hold my breath.

Eldin