Board 8 > SBAllen has resigned as Admin.

(+) Yeah! (+)

STElNER posted...

Imagine.

If only such a good place existed

Cavedweller2000 posted...

Unfortunately got a bad relationship with Discord. Signed up a couple of years ago to join the B8 server. Then a couple of hours later it got hacked and all passwords got exposed so I said fuck that and have never bothered with it since

2FA is OP get on it.

As much as us old timers think of CJayC, the reality is that SBAllen was "admin-ing GameFAQs at a 2:1 rate".

GTM posted...

I get gamefaqs contests changing to board 8, but why this

I guess they didn't want to make new game boards so they just replaced secret boards with them.

I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't come here every day. Seriously.

o7

Seanchan posted...

As much as us old timers think of CJayC, the reality is that SBAllen was "admin-ing GameFAQs at a 2:1 rate".

CJayC was adminning Allen was basically ignoring while having the title of site administrator is the difference.

Lopen posted...

Allen was basically ignoring while having the title of site administrator

???

Lopen doing Lopen things.

mnk posted...

What boards have been getting renamed?

Movies: At the Theater was changed to Movies: New and Upcoming Releases
Movies: Home Media was changed to Movies: Older Releases and Classics

Mainly due to streaming becoming more prevalent, I believe.

Well then I'm surprised Television: Cable & Satellite hasn't been renamed yet.

NBIceman posted...

Lopen doing Lopen things.

The site is dying because it hasn't changed in anything resembling a meaningful good way in over 15 years. It's just changed hands and gotten progressively more obnoxious ads

This topic is a bunch of people thanking the caretaker who was looking after your mother who is dying of sepsis when proper identification and care of the wound that caused the infection instead of allowing it to fester for 15 years could have allowed her to live

CJayC was a site admin. SBAllen was just here to coast off what CJayC built and sell to people who give us increasingly more ads and annoyance.

If Lopen doing Lopen things is telling an ugly truth you find unpleasant to read then sure that's what I'm doing

foolm0r0n posted...

Imagine if gfaqs evolved to use wikis, so we could be spared of all the ad-ridden cancer of fandom and wikia sites. The good timeline.

Didn't the site actually try this? Or something similar. It was like a community-based fusion of wikis and FAQs (the idea being that it was an FAQ that was crowdsourced I think) but AFAIK it basically got zero traction and got scrapped as a feature a few years ago.

Like I'm sure he's a nice guy

But he killed the website by not developing it.

So no I'm not thanking him for riding a site I liked into a slow death. Unless he lost money running this site he's been more than well compensated by resting on long stale laurels at this point. He doesn't need nor deserve thanks from us.

This just sounds like you haven't paid attention to site developments in the past 20 years and are clueless to what he actually did in his time here.

Yeah you're right trophies and friends lists and game screenshots and all the other meaningless features were totally something someone who was trying to evolve the site would make

I am using the same site I was in 2004. If you disagree you're basically a shill.

Lopen posted...

CJayC was a site admin. SBAllen was just here to coast off what CJayC built and sell to people who give us increasingly more ads and annoyance.

CJayC is the one who owned the site and sold it. SBAllen's only run it for other corporations.

Lopen posted...

I am using the same site I was in 2004.

Yeah, that's the problem, everyone else here is using the more modern version.

Although I shouldn't have even bothered responding now that the "s-word" has been thrown out. My fault for engaging.

Yeah it feels like you're framing this as if Allen had an equity stake in GameFAQs or something. He was an employee. For all we know, he pitched other ideas over the years that were shut down. It's not like an employee can do much apart from their job, and "having foresight to completely change the site to keep it relevant for three decades" is not a reasonable part of any employee's job description. Which 90s websites are still relevant in general? Even the juggernauts like IGN and GameSpot are shrunken husks of their former selves.

Also, it would be pretty revisionist to ignore the fact that back in the day, we as a community would lose our shit whenever the tiniest change *was* implemented around here.

MacArrowny posted...

CJayC is the one who owned the site and sold it. SBAllen's only run it for other corporations.

OK

So then yeah SBAllen did basically nothing to make the site better because he was phoning it in for his corporate overlords

Again not someone we should thank, was probably grossly overpaid for doing next to nothing over the years. Point stands, just framing changes.

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

Yeah, that's the problem, everyone else here is using the more modern version.

The funny thing is everyone basically agrees with me that the site should have evolved. Where people disagree with me is me saying SBAllen doesn't deserve thanks for it. (And he doesn't whether it was his fault or not nothing changed)

But I guess you're easily entertained and think this site is wildly different than it was 15 years ago.

Nobody is asking you to thank him, so if you don't want to, then don't. If other people want to, then that's fine, too.

I guess since I can't know for sure if he put any effort in and was simply overruled by his corporate overlords I will keep further disdain to myself.

But I will personally finish by saying "good riddance" and that I wouldn't be shocked to see the site actually get better if it doesn't die in the coming years.

why are you upset by this

Get better? Under Fandom?

Wow, now you're saying SBAllen is worse than Fandom.

Is Lopen ok?

I'm upset because a site admin was in charge while a website I like slowly died and everyone is saying what a great admin he was because hey at least he's not fandom

UltimaterializerX posted...

Lopen still big mad Allen called him out personally during the Undertale rally.

Not really. He called me out because I was already calling out his inability to catch cheating at that point.

I got him big mad then by calling him out for not doing anything just like I am calling him out for it again.

It's easy to say "just keep your website relevant for nearly three decades amidst an ever-changing and often capricious internet" but how many sites and site admins actually pull it off? The alternative to a slow death might have just been a fast death. Hard to know for sure.

There's only so many thanks you can give so you have to be very selective

Kenri posted...

but how many sites and site admins actually pull it off? The alternative to a slow death might have just been a fast death. Hard to know for sure.

I just know this website had a lot more going for it than "fast death" sites. 2007 should have been a huge deal-- people were actually talking about L-Block. Like, non Internet people. I had multiple life friends from multiple circles who I never talked to GameFAQs about mention it. For all the crap I gave Allen about Draven and Undertale I never once said L-Block cheated, because it felt as big as the vote totals (and had completely different vote trends at that). And it was squandered.

It's easy to just wring your wrists and say "well it's hopeless the site was doomed to failure when the internet moved away from text based mediums" but you don't actually know that if you literally never try anything.

GTM posted...

There's only so many thanks you can give so you have to be very selective

Because you can thank everyone at no limit you're right.

Thanks for running a thing I liked into the ground, SBAllen.

Everyone says that GameFAQs is old-fashioned, but that's *always* been the case. At the height of its popularity in the late 2000's it was considered old-fashioned, so I don't think that's entirely the reason things cratered.

I've always been a big proponent of the theory that not purging the boards prevented a lot of conversation and community engagement, and I while I still think that's a factor, it was many different things. Looking back on it, the big drop off started in mid-2010, which is exactly the time that smartphones took off. Would a GameFAQS app have helped? Maybe.

I also think that the rise of open-world games hurt some too. I know that in theory it seems like games with so much content should be a boon to a help site, but I think there was an inherent conflict between the linear nature of a walkthrough, and the nonlinear nature of these games. Sure we could have had wikis or videos, but complaining about that kind of seems like complaining that a classical music label doesn't put out any hip hop. It's not what the site was set up to do. Not everything is set up to do everything.

Lopen posted...

I just know this website had a lot more going for it than "fast death" sites. 2007 should have been a huge deal-- people were actually talking about L-Block. Like, non Internet people. I had multiple life friends from multiple circles who I never talked to GameFAQs about mention it. For all the crap I gave Allen about Draven and Undertale I never once said L-Block cheated, because it felt as big as the vote totals (and had completely different vote trends at that). And it was squandered.

It's easy to just wring your wrists and say "well it's hopeless the site was doomed to failure when the internet moved away from text based mediums" but you don't actually know that if you literally never try anything.

I don't think L-Block moves the needle at all tbh, stuff like that was a dime a dozen in 2007.

Anyway it seems to me that the big problem was that they actually did try lots of stuff but nobody really wanted to be an early adopter of it or make free, high quality content for it.

Anyway it seems to me that the big problem was that they actually did try lots of stuff but nobody really wanted to be an early adopter of it or make free, high quality content for it.

This is a good point too. The rise of crowdsourcing has done a lot of good, but I think it led to people taking it for granted that these kind of resources would just be created organically, and there wasn't as much urgency for some to take up the reins and write a walkthrough or game guide by themselves.

I vote we put Lopen in charge of the site and Allen in charge of mercs 5

Yearly contests with gimmicks like most powerful character and best looking character and who would win a volleyball match character

Also wiki discord YouTube hybrid guides 5 years too late but we'll make it work darn it

My greatest regret is that we'll never see Darth Maul vs. Jane Eyre.

Leonhart4 posted...

My greatest regret is that we'll never see Darth Maul vs. Jane Eyre.

The winner gets to face off against the winner of Super Mario Bros. Vs. Halo.

There are multiple youtube accounts that have no commentary and it's just someone playing through a brand new game in its entirety, with millions of subscribers. Maybe this could have been a hub for that. One of them even used to post here...

I won't name him because he's a shithead that spoils everything in the thumbnail, but clearly there was demand for it. This site didn't do enough to chase natural evolution trends, despite having the brand/market advantage when it mattered.

When achievements were at the height of their popularity, GameFAQs added them to the Cheats section with no room to integrate guides, tips, comments etc.

Does that seem like a real focused effort, knowing this was something that was popular enough to cause Sony and Valve to incorporate their own infrastructure? The communities fostered around them are still healthy and probably won't ever go away.

Right now, trueachievements has 3800 users logged in, whereas this site struggles to maintain 1000 on the boards. PSNProfiles has 900 browsing their forums. Sure these numbers aren't massive, but they could've had most of these people consolidated on here.

It's been too late for a long time, but it wasn't some impossible venture to make. It's like we're the Sears of gaming.

Yesmar_ posted...

The winner gets to face off against the winner of Super Mario Bros. Vs. Halo.

Winner of that faces Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Remarstered posted...

I won't name him because he's a s***head that spoils everything in the thumbnail, but clearly there was demand for it. This site didn't do enough to chase natural evolution trends, despite having the brand/market advantage when it mattered.

Well you've gotta name him now.

Kenri posted...

Winner of that faces Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Only if Sonic 3 & Knuckles beats Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan first.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles vs. Mario vs. Sonic the Hedgehog

FoolFantastic posted...

Get better? Under Fandom?

Yeah fandom was fucking doom.

i'm down for allen running the next mercs

Allen added sigs that are shared across posts, quoting posts, and deleting posts actually deleted them

Sure all that should've taken like 1 month of development max, but CJayC never did it