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ResetEra Ownership Update
- Thread starter Cerium
- Start date
- Status
disagree with step 5 and 2 but still we all contributed to this scam. Everyone thought its a free place. Sole ownership is bad to begin with. OP purchased shares from everyone when he is having hard time running the place. Mental pressure and all but he purchased every share. He clearly has major plan from start. Things like these cant be done by regular folks in short span of time. Also he is a famous author and knows crypto as well. He planned everything and earned 4.5 million. Meanwhile people like us had no idea whats happening in the background. I come from 3rd world country and i have little understanding how capitalism works but this is a grand example for me. I will change my office email id to gmail one after this. My account is sold to another firm without my knowledge. I thank mods for keeping the place civil but still this just feels like a scam to me.
Well I could've said I don't like likes either, because of the reason the user states. I get the irony though, considering I just wrote this xD
Pretty disappointing that the site is gone to a corporate network. Watching the death of the OG Gaf, coming to terms with a new site, and then having that site go through what I have seen with other sites, it's just marking the end of real community based forums. I've also gone through this with a different type of forum, that ripped apart a group of friends that started said forum, so it all just hits home a bit.
So going over this. Cerium hired this company to look for interesting parties. Looking at their site they list other successful Sell-Side projects, to the surprise of no-one this one is also listed there:
So now we know why M.O.B.A was the most fitting partner.
Like, where in history does this thread not enter cake meets face territory? Do we really believe the site will endure under some benevolent corporation seeking investment? Or do we expect memes in the future of this site's downfall?
Catching up
I had no idea what this salesera stuff was about, I missed that thread and haha wow what a shitstorm.
also again, I'll repeat, Cerium didn't lie to anyone (afaik). he was truthful about the ownership of the website, he never said this website would be transparent or leftist or split profits or be democratic or fair in any way. Now, was any discussion of those topics actively stamped out and were people encouraged to just make assumptions about the website even if they were wrong without correction? of course. but he never lied, as far as I can see.
also as far as "he bought out shares from the others" goes, we still don't seem to know who they are outside of a few usernames we're guessing are them. could've been literally anyone. could've been just one other person who only had 1%! could've been Mrs Cerium! hard to say!
but yeah you're absolutely wilding if you think this website won't change. the activision blizzard/riot supporting*, alt right encouraging, gambling pushing new owners who've said they're going to change the website... will likely change it. For people saying "why would they risk alternating their current userbase!?", well folks, Era's been on a downhill slope for a while now, a pretty dramatic one in the last year from looking at traffic websites (not super reliable but enough to get a decent gauge). they're looking to grow, the status quo is not growing.
*to clarify, I still play games from Riot and don't have a personally strong opinions on these companies, but I know many others do hence mentioning it
but yeah I asked about Cerium's full ownership two years ago, and got a non answer from an admin, people mostly ignored it and the thread (like so many others) got locked so yeah
I had no idea what this salesera stuff was about, I missed that thread and haha wow what a shitstorm.
also again, I'll repeat, Cerium didn't lie to anyone (afaik). he was truthful about the ownership of the website, he never said this website would be transparent or leftist or split profits or be democratic or fair in any way. Now, was any discussion of those topics actively stamped out and were people encouraged to just make assumptions about the website even if they were wrong without correction? of course. but he never lied, as far as I can see.
also as far as "he bought out shares from the others" goes, we still don't seem to know who they are outside of a few usernames we're guessing are them. could've been literally anyone. could've been just one other person who only had 1%! could've been Mrs Cerium! hard to say!
but yeah you're absolutely wilding if you think this website won't change. the activision blizzard/riot supporting*, alt right encouraging, gambling pushing new owners who've said they're going to change the website... will likely change it. For people saying "why would they risk alternating their current userbase!?", well folks, Era's been on a downhill slope for a while now, a pretty dramatic one in the last year from looking at traffic websites (not super reliable but enough to get a decent gauge). they're looking to grow, the status quo is not growing.
*to clarify, I still play games from Riot and don't have a personally strong opinions on these companies, but I know many others do hence mentioning it
Cerium was an interesting case, it raised my eyebrow that so many people followed him over here. He wasn't actually a long time member over at GAF, he was actually a relatively new poster that just posted a whole lot in a short time span, was the kind of person to make a lot of threads, etc so I guess people mistook him for one. but yeah you were right, basically he'd make a ton of threads or burst in and out of conversations, very active but never anything of substance. then basically flipped that behavior over here. which was smart, nobody questioned Cerium because he never posted.
but yeah I asked about Cerium's full ownership two years ago, and got a non answer from an admin, people mostly ignored it and the thread (like so many others) got locked so yeah
I uh, my dude, literally all your posts about future games and developers lmao
You have said exactly what I feel about forums in general and this one in particular. There was always a lack of communication and debate, between staff and the community and between different sides of the community. I don't think the forum offered that good of a place for personal growth, because the minute you said anything that deviated from the norm you were shut off. I still think that, in general, this is the best group of people in a gaming forum and I hope that things calm down and we can still enjoy it in some capacity.
If I was a mod/admin, I'd be a mess after learning this news.
The thought that I was swindled and bamboozled would keep me up at night.
The thought that I was swindled and bamboozled would keep me up at night.
And yet if you read any response from any of the mods and admins here... none of them have said anything against Cerium. Rather, they said the opposite.
There was obviously a lot of money at play here, but for most people who volunteer to keep this a decent site, money was never the concern or the reason why they did it. They just wanted to make this a decent place but most people would rather plug their ears, close their eyes and go "LALALALA MODS WERE SWINDLED AND BAMBOOZLED! MODS SHOULD GET PAID!"
Mods just want people to understand that they care about this website, that they want people to be kinder to them and that they're not in it for ulterior motives, but at each and every turn they are ignored, even when people ask them to step forward and speak up on any subject, like on this very thread.
You are ignoring that they all spoke good things about Cerium and said they weren't upset about the sale. You are part of the problem.
We are terrible to the mods but what keeps them up at night isn't "losing out on money", it's dealing with this community's toxic behavior towards them.
If you want to show that you care for the mods' well-being, you can start by doing the bare minimum of listening to them.
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This is the thing. How were we, the non-staff community, supposed to know about this? A post in a thread with 4 posts that gets immediately locked? This is just more proof for the lack of transparency. And it was intentional.
Hell, I've learnt more about Era in this thread than in the past 4 years coming here daily.
Good for Cerium.
I don't really post that much anymore tbh. I mainly just do a scan of the thread titles if that. There was a time that I'd actually read comments especially on gaming side but something just feels dull about it nowadays. I guess you could say I enjoyed the absurdity that used to fly around early on and back at gaf. There's an air of cynicism that permeates this site and I'm not surprised to read that there's a stagnating population of users. I'm not gonna point at the mods because I generally don't encounter them doing any kind of visible moderating in the OTs I actually frequent. Speaking as a casual compared to how deep some are into this forum, I hope this thing lasts ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don't really post that much anymore tbh. I mainly just do a scan of the thread titles if that. There was a time that I'd actually read comments especially on gaming side but something just feels dull about it nowadays. I guess you could say I enjoyed the absurdity that used to fly around early on and back at gaf. There's an air of cynicism that permeates this site and I'm not surprised to read that there's a stagnating population of users. I'm not gonna point at the mods because I generally don't encounter them doing any kind of visible moderating in the OTs I actually frequent. Speaking as a casual compared to how deep some are into this forum, I hope this thing lasts ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Im just saying how I would feel. My bad if I said something wrong
Most mods have spoken on this matter and your personal opinion of how you'd feel is contradictory to what their thoughts on it are.
There's been 80+ pages of people attacking Cerium, feigning that they care for the mods and pretending to be upset that they didn't get paid and even when most of the mods and admins spoke up to say they weren't upset about the sale, they weren't in it for the money we still get responses like yours that try to override their own words.
While you're not to blame for all the previous pages of harassment, your post continues to fan the flames of that disingenuous narrative that people are upset at Cerium because "they care about the mods" when that simply isn't true and more-often-than-not, people aren't even reading what they say the few times they do speak up whether to give their own thoughts, and attack them when they try to give assurances.
There's simply no winning for them and quite frankly I'm sick of this general attitude the community has towards them.
Even if you don't mean anything bad, please read their own words before trying to guess what their feelings on any subject are.
If you don't, you're really just contributing to the problem, regardless of your intent.
Era is already in decline in the last 3 months, which means absolutely nothing until few days ago.
Regardless people's opinions about this site, whatever future conflict may arise members may come and go but I always though era would always be there, the same in the next 10 years.
Weird that this is the first time I have to wonder about era in the next month, the next year.
Yeah I read their thoughts on it. I never posted about how they should feel. I just said how I would feel in that situation. My bad
Well you know, they literally have their own world now to post to their hearts' content in whatever manner they desire.
Step 1: Buy the shares from the Tech staff.
Step 2: Get rid of the old Mods/Top members
Step 3: Sell the site.
🤑🤑🤑
Era is already in decline in the last 3 months, which means absolutely nothing until few days ago.
Regardless people's opinions about this site, whatever future conflict may arise members may come and go but I always though era would always be there, the same in the next 10 years.
Weird that this is the first time I have to wonder about era in the next month, the next year.
I'm surprised this didn't happen a lot sooner.
Look at any thread that's older than 6 months and you see post after post of people nuking their own accounts.
This forum needs a renewed focus and influx of new members, but I don't see where they would come from.
There's going to be a cap. Forums are niche. And honestly while many like the stringent moderation, especially compared to other places online, that will always create a lid on growth.
Probably a combination of A and B.
Era is already in decline in the last 3 months, which means absolutely nothing until few days ago.
Regardless people's opinions about this site, whatever future conflict may arise members may come and go but I always though era would always be there, the same in the next 10 years.
Weird that this is the first time I have to wonder about era in the next month, the next year.
These were my initial thoughts on the matter. I checked alexa ranks but would like to have seen data from 2017 (locked behind subscription I think?). As others have noticed, voting threads and a lot of other threads have seemingly had decreased activity year over year.
It makes sense to jump ship when you have a silent shadow owner and a dwindling and increasingly hostile forum environment.
Everyone knows where the new members will come from. Mods can say that nothing will change all they want.
Cerium sold the site below evaluation for a reason, and the new owners aren't gonna sit idly while they see the site hemorrhaging users.
Strangely it feel like the way of modern malls.
People still visits popular places like foodcourt and cinema, but looks around most of small kiosks are closed.
I'd like to say I'm a bit of an old codger, but it's hard to say what constitutes seniority around these parts, but some 15-20 years ago, being a moderator on a message board was, indeed, voluntary, and I see very little has changed in that regard. It was really the admins that got any kind of compensation, because without them, there is no host, and there is no forum. I just consider it an evolution of the times that the userbase would prefer to see the people who are nothing more than a message board's cleanup crew get any kind of paycheck for what is, essentially, community service.
I've been a voluntary moderator on a few insulated forums in my day. I'm seen my share of shit, and had it thrown directly at me once in a while. That's the life. Mods are basically the NARCs stamping out your fun, and that's the reputation they will always carry with them, regardless of who sits in the chair, and regardless of the connection they have with the community.
Members can work with them, or against them. As a user, you can backseat mod to your heart's content, or just admit you have no further time to absorb a forum's complex TOS, and eat shit when you break a rule or two. I've had it happen at this very place. I've gotten slapped here because I said things I feel strongly about, and will continue to do so because... that's what having an opinion is about. Remember what those are?
As a person who's seen beloved gaming boards go corporate in the past, I can say from experience what makes places like this kick ass is the discussion, and not necessarily the decorum. At the end of the day, the populace makes the city, and the city officials break their back to accommodate the needs of their constituents, sometimes thanklessly. And if you as a citizen feel wronged at the new boss, and don't feel like you necessarily fit in to the new scheme, then chin up. Walk away. You'll land on your feet if you look hard enough. Just keep the venting at a minimum. Remember. It's the internet. Don't lose sleep over it.
I mean, I don't agree with the direction this place went. Snuffing out the companies and franchises themselves just because of some heinous press. Making me feel like a horrible uncaring monster just because I support what, and which, brings me life. I'm losing the love of my hobby the longer I swim in these waters. The only thing that has me tethered to a place like this is that it covers news and happenings at a volume that a news column or a Twitter can't match. That's the nature of message boards, and I hope that never goes the way of the BBS user groups of the forgotten past.
And as long as there's a cash flow to maintain it, they won't. Congrats to you, Cerium, on the finest payout since Gamespot to CBS (this is a drop in the bucket compared to THAT deal! That was back in the day money, too.)
I've been a voluntary moderator on a few insulated forums in my day. I'm seen my share of shit, and had it thrown directly at me once in a while. That's the life. Mods are basically the NARCs stamping out your fun, and that's the reputation they will always carry with them, regardless of who sits in the chair, and regardless of the connection they have with the community.
Members can work with them, or against them. As a user, you can backseat mod to your heart's content, or just admit you have no further time to absorb a forum's complex TOS, and eat shit when you break a rule or two. I've had it happen at this very place. I've gotten slapped here because I said things I feel strongly about, and will continue to do so because... that's what having an opinion is about. Remember what those are?
As a person who's seen beloved gaming boards go corporate in the past, I can say from experience what makes places like this kick ass is the discussion, and not necessarily the decorum. At the end of the day, the populace makes the city, and the city officials break their back to accommodate the needs of their constituents, sometimes thanklessly. And if you as a citizen feel wronged at the new boss, and don't feel like you necessarily fit in to the new scheme, then chin up. Walk away. You'll land on your feet if you look hard enough. Just keep the venting at a minimum. Remember. It's the internet. Don't lose sleep over it.
I mean, I don't agree with the direction this place went. Snuffing out the companies and franchises themselves just because of some heinous press. Making me feel like a horrible uncaring monster just because I support what, and which, brings me life. I'm losing the love of my hobby the longer I swim in these waters. The only thing that has me tethered to a place like this is that it covers news and happenings at a volume that a news column or a Twitter can't match. That's the nature of message boards, and I hope that never goes the way of the BBS user groups of the forgotten past.
And as long as there's a cash flow to maintain it, they won't. Congrats to you, Cerium, on the finest payout since Gamespot to CBS (this is a drop in the bucket compared to THAT deal! That was back in the day money, too.)
Yeah I think a small-ish community and strict mods (though I think they can be too strict at times) is the trade-off for having a left-leaning fourm. Its easy to point to people that leave and communities announce their departure but when those same folks demand that others be banned and opinions be outlawed then its like....uh, of course ResetEra will decline in userbase.
This is all coming from someone that thinks ResetEra is one of the better fourms and I do appreciate this style of modding over others so idk know what the perfect solution is to "making ERA great again". Discord gives you a like-minded hidey hole but is by design small. Reddit/Twitter/Facebook gives you a large site but it's a "both sides" fest that's ripe for harassment/doxxing/downvote campagins. 4chan has a sorta hands-off moderation policy but allows weirdos that run amok. I have no idea what fantasy site that does all of that regardless of what site users/communities exile themselves to for the nth time
I'd imagine that using 2020 numbers alone for the valuation is misleading. This place probably had a larger-than-average pandemic bump.
Era is already in decline in the last 3 months, which means absolutely nothing until few days ago.
Regardless people's opinions about this site, whatever future conflict may arise members may come and go but I always though era would always be there, the same in the next 10 years.
Weird that this is the first time I have to wonder about era in the next month, the next year.
This place is a community made up of many smaller communities and individual posters of varying post quality/quantity.
Continuously alienating those, banning them for sometimes spurious reasons, and just chasing them away in general — pretending like they're utterly expendable to the greater community — is only going to lead in one growth direction: downward.
With fewer communities, there's less activity. With the loss of crucial posters who maintain communities, they die or go elsewhere. With fewer community safe spaces and fewer posters in general, discussion dwindles and becomes stagnant.
Look at any given thread from a year or more ago and it's a graveyard of bannings. Not all of those people were bigoted or doing things that actually warranted swift and final removal; indeed, most probably weren't, from my observations of how frivolously bans can be handed out despite an ostensible council approach.
The internet in general has become more negative, it's true, in no small part to do massive disinformation campaigns, political upheaval, and rise in hate that have embittered and divided so many. But that started before Era's founding, and for a period of months, Era was actually a rather positive place with thriving communities. Then its policies and staff began shifting for various reasons, and that atmosphere slowly began to change, with easily avoidable fiasco after easily avoidable fiasco toxifying the relationship between community and staff — something that has fault on both ends, but which only one end has the actual power over policy to change, as the other side is a powerless non-monolith who can only adjust their individual behavior.
And now we're still at a place where the community has little trust in the staff because of bad behavior, and the staff is embittered toward the community because of bad behavior — an ouroboros of negativity and a downward spiral, with seemingly little willingness or energy to effect change that might reverse that and rekindle mutual trust. There's really no where to go from here unless those things manifest, but at a certain point with off-shoot forums being created and people being content with their discords, the full community becomes an unsalvageable memory.
Oh well. Don't know why I wrote this except that the whole situation continues to be needless, frustrating, and sad, and I wish this place could be repaired.
They will merge the accounts databases from the other sites so anyone who creates an account there is automatically an ERA member.
Then they will create several subforums, one for each website, and any news posted there will automatically create a new thread here and any comment made on the news will actually be a post here that is just shown on the other website.
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comparing ResetERA to Facebook and portraying health issues as "a bit of stress" is off-base here.
another way you can demonstrate you care about the business is realizing that you're in no shape to run it, so you sell it to an entity that can.
Probably a combination of A and B.
Ah, I now see where the misunderstanding occurred here.
Era is already in decline in the last 3 months, which means absolutely nothing until few days ago.
Regardless people's opinions about this site, whatever future conflict may arise members may come and go but I always though era would always be there, the same in the next 10 years.
Weird that this is the first time I have to wonder about era in the next month, the next year.
Cerium took the money and ran due to his health, alright. His financial health, that is.
The pressure was just too much, you see. And by pressure I mean the pressure to sell before the site was worth peanuts.
Which is why I think the school/work/ISP e-mail requirement to sign-up here is one of the first things that's going to go. I'd be shocked if that requirement remains in place 6 months from now.
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This is a really good post that I think encapsulates a lot of the issues
So, after looking around at some of the other sites in the moba network I think there's probably a few changes to the user experience that we can maybe look forward to:
This seems the most obvious considering they're on all of the network sites footers and the company themselves stated their desire to "grow traffic flows" and "extract synergies" between sites. Bjorn also spent much of his career in the SEO field so I'm sure setting up backlinks will be an early priority.
Given the problematic nature of many of these sites this creates a number of issues and a conflict with many of the communities ideals. It would be strange to impose a news or discussion boycott on Hogwarts Legacy for example while every page contains a link to MMO-Champion which considers any discussion of trans identity as a "forbidden topic". Similarly many of these sister sites are dedicated fan forums for Activision Blizzard properties.
Even using adblock doesn't entirely fix the problem as the advert space which has to be manually clicked to remove on each page load will just hold the empty unremovable bar obstructing the page view if blocked.
More members means more posts for ads to exist on and more potential subscriptions being sold. They are a business after all.
- Affiliate links on the bottom of every page
This seems the most obvious considering they're on all of the network sites footers and the company themselves stated their desire to "grow traffic flows" and "extract synergies" between sites. Bjorn also spent much of his career in the SEO field so I'm sure setting up backlinks will be an early priority.
Given the problematic nature of many of these sites this creates a number of issues and a conflict with many of the communities ideals. It would be strange to impose a news or discussion boycott on Hogwarts Legacy for example while every page contains a link to MMO-Champion which considers any discussion of trans identity as a "forbidden topic". Similarly many of these sister sites are dedicated fan forums for Activision Blizzard properties.
- More obtrusive and aggressive advertising
Even using adblock doesn't entirely fix the problem as the advert space which has to be manually clicked to remove on each page load will just hold the empty unremovable bar obstructing the page view if blocked.
- Era Clear being pushed harder
- Easier registration
More members means more posts for ads to exist on and more potential subscriptions being sold. They are a business after all.
Agreed, that requirement will be gone fast.
I can't help but feel like some of the mod posts earlier are pretty naive about what MOBA is going to do. They don't need to "fire all the mods" to fundamentally change (and ruin) the forum. You get rid of the email requirement, cause a big influx of new users, many of whom will be bad actors (and can easily sign up a new account when banned), and you'll overwhelm the mod team, who will start quitting due to burn out. Then you replace them with your people, and now Era looks like some of those other hell sites that were linked in this thread.
I'd also put money on them charging for customization features like special names and animated avs, but that's more annoying than disastrous.
If I bagged 4.5 million I would never post on the internet again.
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