XeNTaX

Well, I don't think I need to discuss semantics. The intent is quite clear.

I do notice there are some rules for this new forum of yours as well. It will be interesting to see how these rules can be enforced without a single edit to a post, or other intervention by moderation. All big forums have moderators to ensure things go the way they need to be. This has been so for decades since the early bulletin boards. And for a good reason as well. Nothing new there.

This is anarchy, it's chaos. All that we've built and love is in jeopardy. I beseech you all, please, think of the children.

Part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary is free forum access. For less than two days now already. Over 130 new "members"

And guess what, Aluigi, the first spammers have already entered the building. And yes, anti-spam control is in place, these are humans.
viewtopic.php?f=40&t=11765

I also got messages from members that hope that we restrict access to this forum as it was, so only serious members get in. Well, we'll see.

For now it's a free forum as stated.

but wow, people are so salty

I personally see no reason why these people are being "made fun of" for having a different opinion on what was done. And personally I agree with those people. I was someone that refused to ever pay to be part of this site because to me I found it criminal what was being done. You literally stole public information for personal gain by locking it behind a required donation. The forum was free and open to the public for years, where people posted and shared public information, then you decide to lock it behind a paywall.

Did you get written permission from every public contributor before you moved to a paywall asking if they were ok with you profiting off their work? No, I really doubt that. Regardless if you want to state it was for costs or for profit, the fact of the matter is what was done is basically illegal, and on some ways could be considered extortion. Having new information going forward be locked and old information still public would have been a better way to handle the choice of going paid vs. free.

Mr.Mouse wrote:because we were getting notifications of this or that breach on a monthly basis, and believe me when I say I do not have the time for this bullshit each and everytime)

If you don't have time to be a host of a website then pass it to someone else. Dealing with things like that are part of the job.

Mr.Mouse wrote:This is not the way forward. The forum is here and still in place. We don't need another one.

And just like everyone you made fun of, the same can be done for you here. You disagree with what someone did as a result of your actions, but it's ok for you to make the site paid and expect everyone to be ok with it?
Seems kind of hypocritical.

Mr.Mouse wrote:I was on the brink of closing this forum altogether but decided not to (yet).

Again, if you can't handle being the host, pass it to someone else. Holding other peoples work and efforts hostage is literally doing you nothing but problems as you are putting it. Based on your posts in this thread, you don't give people much of a reason to trust this site will be free or even online the next day.

Mr.Mouse wrote:I spent 11 years on this forum since I started it, dedicated a hell of a lot of time to it that has been a waste if it will have to stop.

And the same can be said by every contributor of this forum. To have an admin that may just randomly enforce payments or even just randomly shut down the forum because of his own ego makes people uneasy and upset. From your responses in this thread, you don't give people much reason to want to stay on this forum or continue contributing to it. On one hand you seem dedicated to keeping the site around, then on the other you seem quick to blame the community and want to just shut it down and run.

I see nothing wrong with people feeling uneasy, and wanting to open alternatives in case the site does shutdown without warning.

Mr.Mouse wrote:Yes, we're all very mature. Apparently. How it looks is: you post a message in a forum that's been around since 2003 and say: everybody! Come here instead!

I find that odd, perhaps even impertinent. At any other forum, if I did something like that, I'd probably be banned straightaway. Surely you agree. But after some consideration, I have returned the link for your personal benefit.

I see nothing wrong with what aluigi did. He gave people a free alternative to post their public and free information in the event this site decides to start charging again or disappear altogether. There is no law stating he can't host a site similar to the purpose of this one. If anything it just seems more like you are butthurt that someone else is doing the same thing as you so you no longer have an easy ability to make this site paid for again in the future because they have somewhere else to go now.

I posted several things here, shared my time and work to help others while gaining nothing back but a simple thanks. I include a donation link with most of my work if people feel inclined to send a thanks back that way, but rarely ever does that happen. Sure it sucks that not many people want to offer anything for my time and efforts, but to have a site take my public and free work/information and start charging for it is definitely the worse of the two. I would rather not post here at all anymore and have all my posts removed than to see a paywall go back up and have my personal work locked behind a required payment that someone else is pocketing. If you want to charge people for your personal work, posts, and programs go for it. But to charge them for other peoples contributions, work, and programs is a totally shit thing to do.

atom0s wrote:I personally see no reason why these people are being "made fun of" for having a different opinion on what was done. And personally I agree with those people. I was someone that refused to ever pay to be part of this site because to me I found it criminal what was being done. You literally stole public information for personal gain by locking it behind a required donation. The forum was free and open to the public for years, where people posted and shared public information, then you decide to lock it behind a paywall.

I'm really sorry to hear, that you feel the people who have contested the forum Admin's decision to accept donations in-order to have an account, are being made fun of. I would like to assure you that this thread is clearly nothing more than bringing awareness to the situation and gain more feedback from forum users. I do feel that you are slightly mis-informed. Nobody has "stole" information, anyone who is logged out has access to everything standard users do except viewing attatchments and posting thus there is no information that has been "stolen". It may seem like an irrational reason to make the said change but the justification provided in the first post is more than enough to understand why this route had been taken.

atom0s wrote: Did you get written permission from every public contributor before you moved to a paywall asking if they were ok with you profiting off their work? No, I really doubt that. Regardless if you want to state it was for costs or for profit, the fact of the matter is what was done is basically illegal, and on some ways could be considered extortion. Having new information going forward be locked and old information still public would have been a better way to handle the choice of going paid vs. free.

When everyone joined this forum they were made aware of Xentax Forum's terms of use agreement. To quote "As a user you agree to any information you have entered to being stored in a database." Thus no permission is required. The decision was nothing to do with making profit from other people's work. This is cleared up in the first post of this thread.

atom0s wrote: And just like everyone you made fun of, the same can be done for you here. You disagree with what someone did as a result of your actions, but it's ok for you to make the site paid and expect everyone to be ok with it?
Seems kind of hypocritical.

Not hypocritical, this thread's purpose is to bring the situation to light so that everyone understands why said decisions were made. You are in your rights to disagree with anything you wish, it's unfortunate your post so far contests the system yet a lot of the reasoning behind actions have been cleared up and you don't acknowledge this to help move the discussion forward.

atom0s wrote: Again, if you can't handle being the host, pass it to someone else. Holding other peoples work and efforts hostage is literally doing you nothing but problems as you are putting it. Based on your posts in this thread, you don't give people much of a reason to trust this site will be free or even online the next day.

I don't understand why this is now being twisted into something else. Nobody's work is being held hostage, if you sign out you will clearly see everyone who is signed out has access to the same information as those who are signed in.

atom0s wrote: I see nothing wrong with what aluigi did. He gave people a free alternative to post their public and free information in the event this site decides to start charging again or disappear altogether. There is no law stating he can't host a site similar to the purpose of this one. If anything it just seems more like you are butthurt that someone else is doing the same thing as you so you no longer have an easy ability to make this site paid for again in the future because they have somewhere else to go now.

Aluigi is fine to make his own forum, but he can't just post the link here. It's advertising which affects the site's traffic and community quite drastically. Due to the similar nature of that forum, it could also be considered a clone/impersonation of this forum. We cannot be held accountable for something that happens off-site because a user clicked that link and ended up in trouble thinking it's the same website when it's not. We value our community and wish to ensure everyone remains safe at the cost of certain measures being put in place. I am tempted to flat out delete that link but unfortunately I cannot override the Admin's decision to reinstate it.

Nobody has suggested that Aluigi cannot create a similar website. It's not against the law as you said, that is right. However, understand that XeNTaX staff reserve the right to remove content off this forum at their own discretion as stated in the terms of use agreement.

atom0s wrote: I posted several things here, shared my time and work to help others while gaining nothing back but a simple thanks. I include a donation link with most of my work if people feel inclined to send a thanks back that way, but rarely ever does that happen. Sure it sucks that not many people want to offer anything for my time and efforts, but to have a site take my public and free work/information and start charging for it is definitely the worse of the two. I would rather not post here at all anymore and have all my posts removed than to see a paywall go back up and have my personal work locked behind a required payment that someone else is pocketing. If you want to charge people for your personal work, posts, and programs go for it. But to charge them for other peoples contributions, work, and programs is a totally shit thing to do.

The problem boiled down to Google Ads no longer supporting this website. As a result, the donation system is the only current solution (from what I am understanding) to ensure the website stays up. This is not about profiting from other people's work but simply to have an account here.

After reading through your post it is quite possible you are being defamatory towards XeNTaX forums. I say this because a lot of what you posted is based off assumptions, already cleared up or flat out wrong/made up to make the site seem like it has sinister motives when it's not the case. I would like to remind you that hostility towards XeNTaX members or staff is not permitted and stirring up nonsense in an attempt to defame the forum isn't either. Please be careful as future instances may result in warnings or suspensions applied to your account.

I understand your frustration but please also respect the forum rules. Frustration is not going to help move things forward, discussing things in a respectful manner is what we expect of this community and try our hardest to enforce.

Cheers.

Mr.Mouse wrote:

Pretty much the kind of response I expected from you.

atom0s wrote: Pretty much the kind of response I expected from you.

Indeed? Then you must be a troll, responding to a discussion that was more than 3 years old.
That's what anyone would call a necropost. And that is a sin, as you too must know.

Also, you don't seem to have your facts straight:
1. This forum is free for anyone since that particular discussion above, so for years up until this day. Also, it has been free for anyone a decade before that discussion. Your necropost just doesn't make any sense, unless it is to create confusion. Which would be pretty dumb, but then... trolls usually are.
2. As Gh0stblade pointed out to you as well, nothing - no information - is held hostage. The site only requires registration to post and download stuff, but registration is free to do, and has a very valid reason, besides the ones mention by Gh0stblade: stop spammers. We want this forum clean of spammers and leechers.
3. Aluigi and I have been in contact since the above discussion and we have cleared the air on this already years ago. We bear eachother no grudges, we're totally fine.
4. However, you seem to have a grudge, I just suggest you don't hold that grudge on Aluigi's behalf. Since he has none. It wouldn't be fair to him and I'm sure he would disagree with you.

As to point 4, it is clear you bear us ill will, based on your post history and the editing that you have done. Here's an example attached below.
You urge people to go to YOUR site as well, besides Aluigi's. Funny that. Dragging Aluigi in your personal vendetta.
Anyhow, necroposters are usually bad company. Your posts tell us more about you than anything else.