Insim under new management!

[calalily]

I may capitulate to your wild speculation later, but now, I just don't see it.  What I do see is a lot of dodgy guys thinking that they can make free money with the internet wheeling and dealing - and they do things like put their own mesmorisingly stupid videos on Youtube, with crap backgrounds and wholly awful selling techniques, thinking they're a guru to internet plebs.  They all try to sell you an ideology, but that only works with a select few.

While he may have been more than willing to ditch the mods, I'm sure that he didn't want to ditch the donators - and I doubt donators are not foolish enough to go to an old site without freshly updated content (for example, Reyn pulls her stuff from Insim - even if he restores it, she'll still be faster than him at publishing it all - in particular the new stuff) no one is going to pay for something they already downloaded for free yesterday.  

Nor would it be sensible to have a giant shitstorm of a forum for a couple of days, with many the screenshot being taken.  TSR thought that screenshots wouldn't affect their business, and they were wrong. Walt has given us all the opportunity to show what went on - screenshots of him wanting to bleed everyone he can dry - not smart.

As far as him holding the content with any success - EA has stepped in at TSR in the past - and they have called them "partners" - so Walt has a snowballs chance in hell at pulling that one off.

Not to mention that it's not just about restoring it - if he has to choose from the existing member pool for moderators, or pay new ones, they're not going to be as up to speed as others, or they will not be cheap.  Regardless, he'll have diddly chance keeping ex-members and such out who quickly post a message about where the new Insim, and get banned.  Then the other members will promptly leave, leaving even less of a pool of members from which to take money - that's if the clueless younger member *has* money to give.

[jssimone]

Walt has been slammed throughout the community. Even with a backup, the staff & people that made the site great already got burned, they're not going back. With the Sims 3 right around the corner, Walt's going to have to start all over regardless of what he backed up. Except now he gets to start over with an awful reputation, no staff & a significant lack of creators.  

[Paleoanth]

If he is playing with us, give EA a poke. Let's see what they think of a non-player selling what is basically their code.

If they are not bothered by TSR they are not going to be bothered by this Walt character, especially if he continues the site with just ads or donations.  Even if he didn't EA doesn't seem to give a flying fuck what anyone does.     There are plenty of people being scammed and EA does nothing.  If people want to donate and continue on there, we can't do much either. 

Now if Walt comes back up, and doesn't remove other creators downloads as per their wishes then we need to attack.  The way I figure Walt apparently has other things to do than to just babysit a forum night and day, and there are several of us, and he has lost most of his staff so I think we can make a significant impact and hope he gets really tired of continuous drama and banning. 

Depends.  EA doesn't like Insim anyway as they made sim porn really easy.  They might just step in because of that.

[dollface]

Even if Walt did have the sense to back up the database and subscribe to a new host (or whatever exactly happened, I fail at technical talk), would the events of the last few days not at least be some food for thought to him? I understand this is assuming the man has any sense at all - but if I were idiotic enough to attempt to buy a community with the sole intention to profit from it, I would still be at least a little disturbed at all the opposition occurring. Said opposition could very well bombard the new site, right? I understand that he wouldn't have the same admins/mods, but I still think a wave of indignant and pissed off creators/members would definitely have some effect. I also think that if he attempted to sell or even simply host user-created content against the will of the creators, he would encounter a hell of a lot of outrage and protest.

Is all of this really worth it? If he's competent enough to know about TSR, surely he's capable enough to realize that InSIM is just not the same ... since it has never been pay (aside from the near mandatory donation drives), people won't accept it being made a pay site, especially with free artists' content. I just don't think the money to be made in this situation is incentive enough to combat all of the opposition ... but I guess this is just my own skewed view of it.

ETA: Ninja'd by Calalily, who said everything much better than I did.

[Jojoba]

Even if Walt did have the sense to

I'll just stop you right there Dollface  It is a possibility that Walt may have backed up the site. However, as seen by his dire attempts to hide private sections, delete threads, remove Pescado's post from the main page and etc, its pretty clear that he does not know at all how to use the forum software - if he failed at those, surely he would fail at the backsups, even if he did have the sense to try.

[itslikethis]

I think he's hoping a few hundred protestors aren't going to make a significant dent in his plans, considering there are a few hundred thousand members (even though most of those aren't active).

Has it occurred to anyone he may have already sold it to someone else?  There could have been a taker, you never know.

[gayle_afcb]

I think he's hoping a few hundred protestors aren't going to make a significant dent in his plans, considering there are a few hundred thousand members (even though most of those aren't active).

Has it occurred to anyone he may have already sold it to someone else?  There could have been a taker, you never know.

I would think any prospective buyers would have run for the hills had they visited in the past week!

[dollface]

Even if Walt did have the sense to

I'll just stop you right there Dollface  It is a possibility that Walt may have backed up the site. However, as seen by his dire attempts to hide private sections, delete threads, remove Pescado's post from the main page and etc, its pretty clear that he does not know at all how to use the forum software - if he failed at those, surely he would fail at the backsups, even if he did have the sense to try.

  I agree with you. That was sort of my line of reasoning, too. And even if he (momentarily subscribing to conspiracies here) was handed the backup, I doubt he'd have the knowledge as to how to implement it on a new host - although I suppose his 'professional server team' might stand a chance, assuming they weren't the ones who royally messed up the viewing permissions of the current InSIM forum.

[Marhis]

Dunno, the conspiracy makes sense, ok, but it doesn't fit well, at last, in too many details.

If Walt is a real businessman (a smart one), then the could have reached the same goal with no need of this convolute behavior. Businessmen don't like to reach a target following the most bizarre and twisted plot; they don't enjoy this way, engineers do. Walt can or can't be a businessman, but certainly is NOT an engineer.

[itslikethis]

I think he's hoping a few hundred protestors aren't going to make a significant dent in his plans, considering there are a few hundred thousand members (even though most of those aren't active).

Has it occurred to anyone he may have already sold it to someone else?  There could have been a taker, you never know.

I would think any prospective buyers would have run for the hills had they visited in the past week!

Maybe he found a buyer who, like him, doesn't research before they invest, lol.

Or...some Simmer with money to burn...lol (crazier things have happened!)

Gah, all speculation. Considering the sites been almost completely down for the past 24 hours, he either borked it into oblivion, or it's offline until the new server setup.... then we shall see.

[HystericalParoxysm]

Has it occurred to anyone he may have already sold it to someone else?  There could have been a taker, you never know.

Someone ELSE stupid enough to pay several thousands for that site?  I know there's a sucker born every minute and all, but they don't tend to clump up quite that much, do they?  Delphy offered him $2500 and he turned it down... and I don't really think it was worth that before all the kerfuffle.

[Piratey]

Walt has been slammed throughout the community. Even with a backup, the staff & people that made the site great already got burned, they're not going back. With the Sims 3 right around the corner, Walt's going to have to start all over regardless of what he backed up. Except now he gets to start over with an awful reputation, no staff & a significant lack of creators.  

The whole point of The Sims 3 is to attract a new group of oblivious sheeple. Soon, a new community will form and they will flock to Walt; if Walt is still around by then.

But didn't Pescado say that there was no evident backup? If there was, then Jojoba's point rings true. He'd screw it up. He doesn't even know how to use the Admin panel, let alone mastermind a complex backup exploitation scheme.

[itslikethis]

Has it occurred to anyone he may have already sold it to someone else?  There could have been a taker, you never know.

Someone ELSE stupid enough to pay several thousands for that site?  I know there's a sucker born every minute and all, but they don't tend to clump up quite that much, do they?  Delphy offered him $2500 and he turned it down... and I don't really think it was worth that before all the kerfuffle.

There are plenty of Walt's out there, he's not unique. 

*just adding my op/ed to the speculation pot*

.

Even if he does have a backup, it's not that big a deal, unless I'm missing something.  Seeing him bumble through dealing with irate creators yanking their creations off the site would be priceless.  Then again, considering he only made what...12?....posts before he went MIA again, he doesn't seem capable of being a hands-on Admin.  Sims forums die without an active Admin. 

So if insim miraculously reopens, intact....just give him enough rope and watch him hang himself.

[Jojoba]

I think he's hoping a few hundred protestors aren't going to make a significant dent in his plans, considering there are a few hundred thousand members (even though most of those aren't active).

He would be rather silly to hope that it does not create a dent. The staff have gone. He needs people who play the sims to be able to moderate as they need to be able to assist with help questions, wcif issues, CC policies, uploading, etc. It just does not work having a gaming forum where the staff know nothing about the game. He does not know any players so is going to have to magically conquer up some new staff out of somewhere, sounds like fail to me. Same goes with creators. The creators who Insim are known for have gone (Kavar, Kere, Marvine as a few examples), so there is not much to attract many new people in.

But didn't Pescado say that there was no evident backup? If there was, then Jojoba's point rings true. He'd screw it up. He doesn't even know how to use the Admin panel, let alone mastermind a complex backup exploitation scheme.

Unsure what Pescado said about it, but if Walt did try a backup then he likely did not do it correctly. I doubt he would have the sense or knowledge to attempt to though. He seems clueless..I mean, what kind of an eejit sets a hidden forum which contains people's stuff, old drama and private discussion to be public?!

[Quorneater]

what kind of an eejit sets a hidden forum which contains people's IPs, old drama and private discussion to be public?!

On who thinks "right, you shat on me, here's trouble back at you"?

Actually, why were there IPs being discussed in a forum?