Insim under new management!

[Souvenirs]

Like I said in the GOS thread, I think that Kathy and Eric may have hoodwinked Walt. Honestly, a site that is forever begging for money is an investment?

Ya but here's my thing, guys like this are by profession looking for profit and besides that, he writes like someone with a reasonable amount of intelligence, so I'm assuming he's educated. He would of course want to see financial reports, membership info, traffic data, server costs, etc. So if he was hoodwinked by Kathy and Eric either they a: fabricated data or b: were in fact making a profit and led him to believe there was more to be found (paysite). Who knows.

I don't think they were making a profit (at least I hope they weren't), but I can see how a web developer would look at InSIM as a good investment.  Sure, it's in the hole now, but it's also a big site with a big community.  I bet Walt thought it would be a lot easier to "rescue" InSIM than build his own site from scratch.  Of course, he knew little about the srs bsns that is the Sims community.  

I've tried not to think poorly of Kathy and Eric over the past few months, even with the whole Beos fiasco, because I believe they have a son in Iraq among other real life issues that should definitely be more important than a Sims 2 site, but I'm not sure if I can help it now.   Would it have been so hard to make some sort of announcement, at least to the mods?  Urgh.

I agree with crunk--I don't think that InSIM will come out of this for the better, no matter what.  I don't frequent InSIM anymore, but I have a lot of memories of people there helping me when I was a wee n00b downloading game-borking files from the exchange, so I'd definitely be sad to see it go.  It's one of the few big free sites in the community as well; it would be a big loss.

[kenmtl]

Souvenirs heads up, I slightly edited my post you just quoted but it doesn't really affect your response.

[neriana]

Oh, I meant what I said - I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, after all, investment -can- mean more than cold hard cash.  There are other sorts of payoffs - the pride of a job well done, experience with running a large website and the like.

That is really, really, really stretching it. It's one thing to think the best of people, but it can be taken too far. He said he wants to make the website more profitable. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for a non-gamer to take over a site like Insim unless he thinks he can make money from it.

My opinion of Kathy and Eric wasn't exactly stratospheric before, so I'm not having trouble believing they'd sell to someone like this .

[SoggyFox]

Well, yes I know its highly unlikely - but until he does prove folks right, it doesn't hurt to hope he won't, you know.

I am a tolerant person - less stressful to take the high road, and the disappointments are outweighed by the times I'm right, even if they happen more often.

I also make like a duck and let stuff roll off of me alot.  So, if he does turn it into a paysite, then oh well - my stuff will get yoinked and I won't have anything to do with it.  If he doesn't, then that's fine too.

[wannacracker]

Even as someone who is not a member of Insim, this concerns me greatly. I wonder about the details of the transaction--not just how much it was sold for, but more importantly, what was sold. Did "Walt" just buy the site, or also it's content? Does he think that he owns the creations submitted by the two communities? It's pretty presumptuous (among other things), to buy the sites, and immediately threaten to start charging money for content created by members of the community, and posted freely for all to enjoy, with no intention of it being SOLD.  I hope that everyone will have no hassle with removing their creations if it becomes necessary.

[heartless]

Even as someone who is not a member of Insim, this concerns me greatly. I wonder about the details of the transaction--not just how much it was sold for, but more importantly, what was sold. Did "Walt" just buy the site, or also it's content? Does he think that he owns the creations submitted by the two communities? It's pretty presumptuous (among other things), to buy the sites, and immediately threaten to start charging money for content created by members of the community, and posted freely for all to enjoy, with no intention of it being SOLD.   I hope that everyone will have no hassle with removing their creations if it becomes necessary.

Yeah, I am already considering taking down everything I uploaded. Better safe than sorry. Most of the pages are pretty old, so I don't think anyone will notice them. If anyone asks me about wanting them again I can always upload them elsewhere and put a link to them in my signature.

[Yaardarm Monkey II]

Twice a year Kathy & Eric would suddenly appear, do a 'we have no monies, so cough up 750 bucks in 2 weeks or the site is finished'.  And they would get the money.  Then disappear until they asked for more money, been sooo busy, you got 2 weeks...

If they presented the regular monthly donations plus the twice yearly "mystery" amounts raised to this Walt guy, he just might think he can raise a shitload of dough.  After all, he did mention about the number of members being 400,000 or something...plus even 1% of the people donating on a monthy basis = 4,000 people.   

4,000 x  $5 monthly fee = 20,000 bucks a month

THAT.......Imho......is the "investment" Walt is looking at;
an established site, dedicated fans, and all he has to do is convince only ONE PERCENT of those fans to cough up 5 clams a month.

ah yes, here is the quote:

"The potential for InSIMenators.net is very great. Over 400,000 people have become site members in the past 3.5 years.
That's a sizeable pool, and it seems reasonable to me that we can get at least some of them to become subscribers.
If only 1% of that 400,000 became monthly subscribers, it would provide sufficient financing..."

[Sherry]

Even as someone who is not a member of Insim, this concerns me greatly.

Ditto.  For me it's because a place like insim shouldn't be sold.  I can appreciate the time and effort they put into insim and the forum but insim is a community.  They sold a community.  You have mods, and creators and loyal members and friendships possibly made and held by the forum and frankly there shouldn't be a market for that. 

It's like having a local coffee shop bought out by Starbucks.  So maybe the coffee is the same price, but now instead of using local suppliers they ship in their corporate stuff.  Instead of paying their employees more, it a minimum wage job.  It simply doesn't give back to the community the same way and frankly is a little soleless. 

Who benefits from this?  No one but Kathy and Eric and possibly Walt.  They brought in someone who sells ads and by his own admission just wants to turn a profit.  That is clearly the goal.  Is the how you see the communities you love and respect?  I don't.  They are labors of love.  Not revenue making machines.  I can understand making ends meet, but I don't see it here. Sorry.  I won't feel the same about donating there, and if I was a mod I wouldn't feel the same way about volunteering my time knowing that the new owner doesn't have the passion for the game.

Maybe Kathy and Eric are completely within there right to have done this (their forum and program) just like the owners of that local coffee shop, but it still feel a bit hollow now that it's said and done. 

I hope that he'll cut his losses by selling the forum to Delphy. 

[Yaardarm Monkey II]

Well, there is nothing on the main page of InsimAdult about a new owner.

Just an month old post asking for money (and nothing about selling the site...remeber Walt said he had been in contact with them for WEEKS about selling the place):

Oct 19, 2008 - 3:15 AM - by Eric 
Hi Everyone,

As everyone knows this site is completely free for everyone, to download, to upload, to socialize. All we ask for are donations to keep the sites running.

While last month we met our server costs, this months bills are due again by the 25th and we are $650 short for the servers alone.

You can donate by making a payment through PayPal here or you can mail in a donation via the information found below in post #2.

Also, we have monthly subscriptions for those who wish to donate on a monthly basis.

For those who missed the announcement, Kathy has also finished upgrading the software on both sites. Some of the features include personal photo albums, customized profiles and more. You can check the thread out here.

Thank you for your support.

[Markus]

[Sherry]

Maybe it's because I am tired but one of his front teeth looks more yellow in comparison to the others and it's all I can focus on now. 

[BoogerNabbingCrust]

It's yellow, trust me.

[Paden]

Must be a replacement tooth, or he missed it with the bleach.

[Corinne]

I'm a bit pissed off, enough so that I won't give him a chance to make people pay for my stuff. Needless to say, I'll be pulling it (but it'll be available elsewhere; I'm not a total asshole).

I find it both disheartening and amusing that Kathy not only went against her word ("I'll never sell the site"), but she sold it to a complete asshat. It's almost laughable. Almost.

I had plans to e-mail Kathy and ask her why, but upon further consideration, I've decided to let her fester in her (and Eric's) own decisions.

Rot on, InSim.

[neriana]

Well, yes I know its highly unlikely - but until he does prove folks right, it doesn't hurt to hope he won't, you know.

It has nothing to do with "hope" and everything to do with logic and simple truth. The guy said he was making an investment, and what he wants it obvious. Twisting things is twisting things, whether you're trying to make them look prettier or uglier than they really are.

Kathy and Eric did a rotten thing here. It's far worse than selling a neighborhood coffee shop, because the owners of the coffee shop are running a business and they unquestionably own it and have the right to sell it. Also, I can't imagine any business owners not informing their employees that they'd be working for someone else soon. Just how much money did Kathy and Eric make in those donation drives, anyway? And just how much time does it take to write a couple sentences about where the hell you are, on a forum you own, in a community where you set yourself up as a leader? (Largely by screaming at people on a semi-regular basis, in Kathy's case.)

I don't know anything about Walt, except that he obviously expected that his ideas for making money with the site wouldn't be greeted with anger and trepidation. He may have been a victim in this.