This is the part of the job I hate. I hate Drama. But it comes with the territory (for some reason...).
We've recently had a falling out with one of our staff members Warez68. I believe in freedom of speech, even if I don't like what you're saying, so if you haven't read his account of what happened, please feel free to do so here: http://tinypaste.com/5f10c
I'll go through the post quickly and comment on the various remarks made.
First off, yes we do have a place for the team to communicate amongst themselves. Makes sense doesn't it? Employees in a workplace chat with one another, and we volunteers do the same. It helps make things a bit more fun. Uploading/Posting can be tedious and a lot of work, so we often joke around (occasionally about things that are so rediculous it's obvious it's only funny because we've had a lack of sleep). There's no harm in this. We are professional, but we foster a fun (volunteer) workplace. Google is a great example -- they're an extremely successful company, but you can play video games or take a nap at work, and the meeting locations are igloos, etc. Point being you can be professional and have fun, and we do. That's one thing that makes SinlessLinks a better alternative for posters to share their links at.
I personally, and we collectively as a team, respect and value each and every one of our contributors. Whether that be someone that has full admin access to the website, or some of our valued submitters such as Sofir. I've went to great lengths to make SinlessLinks a family friendly place where everyone has a voice and can give opinions and suggestions on how we can make the site better. Warez68 did a great job at this on many occassions. Much of the details of the way the TV-Series works is thanks to his great ideas. There are still things that I intend to implement in the future which were his ideas as well. I thanked him for those, and do so again now. Warez68 also did a great job of helping to do some quality control with images, etc. Just as he mentioned in his post. It was something he enjoyed doing for us.
Speaking for myself however, I never ignored Warez. We had some disagreements at times about how a particular site feature should function, but I always listened to his thoughts, and more often than not, tried out his ideas to see how they would work. I have a job and a family however, and therefore I am not always around. So when bugs on the website arise, I am the only person able to fix them, and I'm not always here to do so quickly. So yes, others may ignore error reports, because quite simply, they can't do anything about them, and they know I will take care of it as soon as I can. Everyone knows this.
In regards to the Whiterose incident. I will not comment on the issue other than to say that both parties acted childishly. Warez68's "accusations" were unfounded and the claim that reducing a file size gets a person more points... that isn't even possible. The way Rapidshare works prevents an account from generating more than x points an hour. As a result, making your filesizes smaller to elicit more points will yield you zero results. I insist that everyone on staff respect the other staff members and respect our visitors. Neither was showing this respect, and neither is here any longer.
Ribbitz is one of the three individuals that helped make this site a reality from the very beginning. Without him I would not have been able to keep it going when the site underwent some attacks last year.
Ribbitz has never once told me that he believes Whiterose's actions were justified. On the contrary he helped make the decision that Whiterose did not fit in here, and that while Warez68 was also out of line, he had contributed a lot and thus deserved a chance to show he had meant no ill will.
Ribbitz is a great guy, and Warez68 has portrayed him as some sort of evil young child. This is far from the truth. They didn't like eachother, and both you (the reader), and I can admit that we often believe our enemies are horribly vicious evil people, when in actuality they are more like us than we'd like to admit.
To address the comments Warez68 made attacking my own character and regarding the final conversation we had. Warez68 had been having some problems on a private torrent tracker. I was doing my best to offer some of what I've learned about them over the years, and laughing about how it seems the nature of many of them is to make money through underhanded means.
Please feel free to read the conversation for yourself here and make your own decision on the matter: http://tinypaste.com/7a6b5
I said some things at the end that I'm not proud of. My anger got the best of me. But I said them, and I live with that fact. I will not try to hide it, nor could I.
In short, he felt like I had been belittling him, when I was not. I pride myself on having a site that is very much an open and constructive place. So when someone accuses me of running a dictatorship, I do not take to it kindly. I always discuss everything through with the rest of the team members. It is true that I did not discuss it with anyone when it came to Warez68 quitting last night. It was a mutual parting. That's how I'd put it. He had angered me to the point that he was no longer welcome, and neither did he have any desire to continue to be around.
All of it is childish and rediculous looking back on it. I should have held my temper better, but alas, I'm a person who makes mistakes.
Warez68 claimed to directly quote Ribbitz saying that our visitors had no right to complain about items being posted slow. Ribbitz never said this that I can recall. We are here to serve our visitors... the site wouldn't exist without them!
I don't want "slaves" or anything of the sort, and I always very nice to Warez68, except after he cursed me and called me a dictator. Then ironically I acted like the dictator he thinks I am.
The rest of Warez68's comments are biased accounts of disagreements that transpired between him and Ribbitz. No one else was involved in these arguments.
One thing does need set straight however. RESPECT is demanded. That is our one steadfast rule. Ribbitz, Lufrebent, and myself (SinlessLinks) have worked hard to finance and program the website. Many others, including BigCal, Cheeks, Chopper, Warez68, and others, have worked hard to provide the content that our visitors love. Everyone works hard at what they do and deserves to be respected.
Ribbitz is a friend of mine and a valued part of the team. He's a great guy, who did not get along well with Warez68. That's what it comes down to in the end.
There's a full account, that probably does more harm than good, but at least there's been an official response, and those involved can now move on.
Warez68: I've always considered you a friend. I apologize for our latest disagreement, and for the harsh words I spoke at the end of it. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours.
