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Friday, September 30, 2005
Survivor Addicts From My (And Everyone Else's) Mailbox
Back in February 2001, I created SurvivorAddicts.com with the help of Melanie, my partner. We owned and maintained the site until we sold it to Kris Karbon (Gabby) and Sam Shelley (Fuel) a couple of years ago. We had a working agreement where I would maintain the site for a small fee.
This was all working quite well until recently when the show ramped back up. I had had several personal things come up in real life and I was definitely behind in my responsibilities. I was approached by Gabby and tahitisweetie about this but I was never doubtful that I would be back on track and that we would have yet another successful fantasy season. Apparently, however, my delinquency was more than the new owners of SurvivorAddicts could bear and I was removed from my administrative duties on the site.
The really sad thing about this for me is not the loss of the community or my responsibilities towards it. The sad thing to me is that I was completely deceived by someone that I truly believed was my friend. Gabby and I have had our differences in the past. Hell, we met when I flamed her for stating her beliefs as truth. Through the years, however, I truly came to respect her as a good and decent person. I was absolutely flabbergasted to find out that this was just a ruse and she is actually not a good person at all.
Gabby and I were talking on Monday morning. She was again stating her concerns about what was going on with the site and the game. There was no questions of "How are you doing?" or "Is everything in real life all right?" No... it was all about the site and what Gabby and Fuel were or were not getting out of me. That wasn't the worst of it, though. Gabby continued to say to me that we needed to work out a resolution and get back on track. She kept telling me that Fuel was pushing for my removal and that she didn't know how to respond to it. She kept telling me that she didn't think that Fuel could run the boards, let alone the game and that she didn't want to lose me. It reminded me of the many times in the past when she and I discussed my continued involvement in the site. She would always say something like, "Please do not make me go to Texas Kelly and have to work with him."
I thought to myself that the whole thing seemed fishy so I went to the discussion boards. I had been stripped of my admin status and was just another board user. The site that I had created out of my own blood, sweat and tears was now just a place to visit for me.
I didn't handle this well but, in hindsight, I am glad that I reacted the way I did. My first instinct was to log in to the FTP server and completely remove my fantasy game from the site. Some of you may think this a vindictive move of revenge. It wasn't. Had I wanted, I could have logged in and deleted the discussion boards, entirely. No... I was protecting my intellectual property and the integrity of the game. It had become clear to me that integrity had been replaced at SA by insantiy (Fuel running the game?) and I did not want my work to be further damaged by the horrendous decision made by Gabby and Fuel.
I told Gabby at the time what I was doing. She begged me not to. It is only now that I have even more information do I understand why she didn't want it deleted. She had every intention of stealing my intellectual property and using it for her own gain. Again, I never imagined that this was the type of person that Kris is. I TRULY believed her to be a good and decent person. What a fool I have been.
The plan was to remove me and have Fuel run the game - despite the fact that Fuel is not a programmer, doesn't understand PHP or MySQL, and has emotional stability only due to the advances of modern medicine. There was to be no conversation. Gabby was either stalling me or trying to make the impending storm less severe. I am not sure which. I do know that it was another deception in what I now see was a long line of deceptions.
And so... the Fantasy game at SurvivorAddicts is no more. They have some plans to make a new game but I, for one, do not believe that it will ever live up to the old one. People said some very nice things about the game which you can read here: http://www.boards.survivoraddicts.com/showthread.php?t=15851
I was very vocal for the first 36 hours of my being de-adminned. As I am sure most people would be when they find themselves removed from a community of their own creation, I was livid. I have never been one for holding my tongue when the truth must be spoken and so I spoke the truth. Fuel is an incompetent buffoon who is just a forgotten pill away from a breakdown. Gabby is a dishonest, unethical person who thinks she is a good Christian.
Yeah... they didn't like my truth so I am now banned from the site that I created nearly 6 years ago. This was, of course, after I was promised by Gabby that I would not be banned... ever. Just another lie, it seems...
So... if I am ever in the mood for some Survivor discussion among people who are not unethical assholes, I will try one of these fine sites:
http://p085.ezboard.com/bsurvivorsucks - Survivor Sucks
http://www.survivorfever.net - Survivor Fever
http://www.realiiity.com - Realiiity.com
Yes... these are sites that I have badmouthed in the past. For the most part, they are run by lousy people who would sooner spit on you if you were on fire rather than actually help. And yet... I would recommend those sites over SurvivorAddicts, now. The mighty have fallen that far...
Take care and... make sure to put real life first. It's WAY more important.
-Sam (Cygnus)
This was all working quite well until recently when the show ramped back up. I had had several personal things come up in real life and I was definitely behind in my responsibilities. I was approached by Gabby and tahitisweetie about this but I was never doubtful that I would be back on track and that we would have yet another successful fantasy season. Apparently, however, my delinquency was more than the new owners of SurvivorAddicts could bear and I was removed from my administrative duties on the site.
The really sad thing about this for me is not the loss of the community or my responsibilities towards it. The sad thing to me is that I was completely deceived by someone that I truly believed was my friend. Gabby and I have had our differences in the past. Hell, we met when I flamed her for stating her beliefs as truth. Through the years, however, I truly came to respect her as a good and decent person. I was absolutely flabbergasted to find out that this was just a ruse and she is actually not a good person at all.
Gabby and I were talking on Monday morning. She was again stating her concerns about what was going on with the site and the game. There was no questions of "How are you doing?" or "Is everything in real life all right?" No... it was all about the site and what Gabby and Fuel were or were not getting out of me. That wasn't the worst of it, though. Gabby continued to say to me that we needed to work out a resolution and get back on track. She kept telling me that Fuel was pushing for my removal and that she didn't know how to respond to it. She kept telling me that she didn't think that Fuel could run the boards, let alone the game and that she didn't want to lose me. It reminded me of the many times in the past when she and I discussed my continued involvement in the site. She would always say something like, "Please do not make me go to Texas Kelly and have to work with him."
I thought to myself that the whole thing seemed fishy so I went to the discussion boards. I had been stripped of my admin status and was just another board user. The site that I had created out of my own blood, sweat and tears was now just a place to visit for me.
I didn't handle this well but, in hindsight, I am glad that I reacted the way I did. My first instinct was to log in to the FTP server and completely remove my fantasy game from the site. Some of you may think this a vindictive move of revenge. It wasn't. Had I wanted, I could have logged in and deleted the discussion boards, entirely. No... I was protecting my intellectual property and the integrity of the game. It had become clear to me that integrity had been replaced at SA by insantiy (Fuel running the game?) and I did not want my work to be further damaged by the horrendous decision made by Gabby and Fuel.
I told Gabby at the time what I was doing. She begged me not to. It is only now that I have even more information do I understand why she didn't want it deleted. She had every intention of stealing my intellectual property and using it for her own gain. Again, I never imagined that this was the type of person that Kris is. I TRULY believed her to be a good and decent person. What a fool I have been.
The plan was to remove me and have Fuel run the game - despite the fact that Fuel is not a programmer, doesn't understand PHP or MySQL, and has emotional stability only due to the advances of modern medicine. There was to be no conversation. Gabby was either stalling me or trying to make the impending storm less severe. I am not sure which. I do know that it was another deception in what I now see was a long line of deceptions.
And so... the Fantasy game at SurvivorAddicts is no more. They have some plans to make a new game but I, for one, do not believe that it will ever live up to the old one. People said some very nice things about the game which you can read here: http://www.boards.survivoraddicts.com/showthread.php?t=15851
I was very vocal for the first 36 hours of my being de-adminned. As I am sure most people would be when they find themselves removed from a community of their own creation, I was livid. I have never been one for holding my tongue when the truth must be spoken and so I spoke the truth. Fuel is an incompetent buffoon who is just a forgotten pill away from a breakdown. Gabby is a dishonest, unethical person who thinks she is a good Christian.
Yeah... they didn't like my truth so I am now banned from the site that I created nearly 6 years ago. This was, of course, after I was promised by Gabby that I would not be banned... ever. Just another lie, it seems...
So... if I am ever in the mood for some Survivor discussion among people who are not unethical assholes, I will try one of these fine sites:
http://p085.ezboard.com/bsurvivorsucks - Survivor Sucks
http://www.survivorfever.net - Survivor Fever
http://www.realiiity.com - Realiiity.com
Yes... these are sites that I have badmouthed in the past. For the most part, they are run by lousy people who would sooner spit on you if you were on fire rather than actually help. And yet... I would recommend those sites over SurvivorAddicts, now. The mighty have fallen that far...
Take care and... make sure to put real life first. It's WAY more important.
-Sam (Cygnus)
