11 Years

[Sean P Kelly]

Originally Posted by TanookiBlues

Jay, when I was a teenager your website made me laff a lot. Good stuff mang, but we all grow up and need to do other stuff besides make sprite comics about Mario characters. Not dissing dude, I'm still trying to grow up myself. Good luck etc., you guys rock.

To keep the site active, I try to update SMBHQ at least once a week, however to suggest that the site is all that I do is insulting.

Personally, I keep working on SMBHQ as a way to exercise my web design skills. Some of the casual viewers would probably not know that I actually learned some of my more advanced skills (such as PHP) in college.

I do have a life away from SMBHQ and if you don't like an experienced 26 year old running the site, than don't visit it anymore.

[Metal Man]

Originally Posted by Sean P Kelly

To keep the site active, I try to update SMBHQ at least once a week, however to suggest that the site is all that I do is insulting.

Personally, I keep working on SMBHQ as a way to exercise my web design skills. Some of the casual viewers would probably not know that I actually learned some of my more advanced skills (such as PHP) in college.

I do have a life away from SMBHQ and if you don't like an experienced 26 year old running the site, than don't visit it anymore.

This is clearly the attitude the site needs. "I am too busy to update the site, screw you if you have an opinion. SMBHQ is my personal place to experiment on, stop bugging me."

Oops. I just mentioned something negative about Sean. Watch him close this thread. Just like every other thread.

But it isn't about winning or power. It's just an honest comment. The site has no one to update it left besides the SSS people, me, and that great guy who does news all the time. Jay himself has brought up how SMBHQ needs to update.

I was once a whiny jerk who did nothing but complain and didn't back it up. Well, guess what? Now I'm going to back it up. I'm going to update NC more and more, if that's what it takes to show people that SMBHQ isn't dead.

Merely that Sean needs to get off his high horse and let someone update the site.

Of course, you'll tell me, "but it can be updated!" Sure, but Sean has his personal, mazelike setup which has no real focus anywhere and more importantly is a b!#ch to code through. I say that as a self-admitted mazelike code maker. If it's hard for me, it'll cripple anyone who has half a life.

But unlike my roleplay sites, SMBHQ is supposed to be a team job. There's no Sean in team, and there's no Metal in there either. For SMBHQ to truly prosper, it needs to grow beyond petty feuds over spaghetti-coded HTML. It needs a cleanly documented, easily usable, flexible code setup. Sean as a PHP programmer at a college should hopefully better than I even what this is.

The spirit which got SMBHQ going was Kyle's willingness to share his space. He had limited time too. So he made a great space for people like me, Jay, Codiekitty, Wolfman, et al to do our thing.

Today, however, the aging, dilapidated fragments of Kyle's old work have been chopped into tiny bits and stuck inside crusty containers which discourages anyone from actually volunteering. I've quit and then stopped myself half a dozen times, and I'm stubborn as a mule. How well does the fresh-eyed newcomer fare at being allowed to update SMBHQ even by comparison to me?

They don't fare, because Sean won't give them the time of day, taking personal baggage into an impersonal fight. Even when he isn't angry, he's impersonal and detached, giving this appearance that I myself sometimes give of 'you're not worth my time.'

The point is that if we don't want SMBHQ to become like the dead blog templates hosted by VGF, it needs to change.

And I figure if I have to get every topic in this forum locked by Sean to demonstrate that something's wrong with how the main part of SMBHQ is being run, then so be it; I'm not actually violating VGF's rules, and I've been here long enough to know that everywhere else on VGF but this forum, you're allowed to post a civil opinion.

Ball's in your court, Sean. Are you willing to discuss? Have some idea?

I'm not even going to mention the things you've done before. This is a clean slate, yours to do with what you want. If you don't lock this I'll pretend you've never locked a thread like this, never told me to shut up over a legitimate issue, and never attacked fans of SMBHQ for having opinions.

[Sean P Kelly]

Why, why, why, why, why MetalMan must you always pick a fight with me? (and I seriously thought our disagreements were behind us)

I am not going to argue with you.

I just want to say that I try my best to update regularly. Kyle trusts that I will update and that's all that counts.

It hurts my feelings that you would take the time and rant that I am purposely holding back SMBHQ's development, when in truth that I am held back by a busy school schedule (YOU try commuting three hours a day and then updating a website).

Truth be told, maybe I'm growing a little too old for the site. I don't see myself continuing to be webmaster for more than another one or two years.

However, until than, I am still going to try my best, I am not going to let people like you bring down my spirits.

Originally Posted by Metal Man

Of course, you'll tell me, "but it can be updated!" Sure, but Sean has his personal, mazelike setup which has no real focus anywhere and more importantly is a b!#ch to code through. I say that as a self-admitted mazelike code maker. If it's hard for me, it'll cripple anyone who has half a life.

But unlike my roleplay sites, SMBHQ is supposed to be a team job. There's no Sean in team, and there's no Metal in there either. For SMBHQ to truly prosper, it needs to grow beyond petty feuds over spaghetti-coded HTML. It needs a cleanly documented, easily usable, flexible code setup. Sean as a PHP programmer at a college should hopefully better than I even what this is.

I am insulted that you think I "spaghetti code." I have been using SSI for years and the main page and most other pages are made up of many separate files that are updated separately.

If you only bothered to look.

[Metal Man]

Yeah, well, I'm older now too, and I know better than to let you ignore my argument under the pretext of 'Kyle trusts me.' He trusted you, then you nearly quit, then you sorta came back and now it's all about you.

This one's for keeps, Seany boy. I'm not going to back down anymore.

You insist your code is not spaghetti code. Very well, allow me to demonstrate.

First thing, on the main page, the sidebar is longer than the rest of the page and requires copious scrolling to see all of it. Doubly, triply so in the code. This is made worse by the fact the Blog and News overlap, the Updates page has a bizarre format which denies access to a month if it has no content without telling you which months have update content, and, oh, the most important part so far: there's no real shared page layout, but a constantly morphing amorphous sea of links, headers, and <p>s.

Now I'll give you that no one could convert all of it by hand by now, but just a small sampling shows a lot of half-empty pages which don't even have any Mario related information.

Oh... but now... the Era pages.I'm gonna pretend I'm joe newbie. Lessee... the old layout, last seen near that ancient April Fools thing, had nice visible buttons. Today? We got some half-visible, buried links. Okay, let's say I find it. *CLICK* I'm looking at Wii Revolution.

I am greeted by:
* An unnecessary repetition of 'SMBHQ' with its own grand picture
* An image to show that I actually went where I wanted to ("Wii Revolution")
* The archived old sections, which don't even have any Wii Revolution-relevant stuff
* And now a list of stuff.

I won't even check if it's recent or not, all I'll be looking for now is, like any website viewer, is content. So I click on Mario Hoops 3 on 3.

I am greeted by a layout which takes up about 1/5th of my screen size with small text on it that is right now suggesting I go and buy the game. Okay... what's the game about? Lessee... instruction manual is good... screenshots... etc.

The only problem is that the layout crushes it all down to nearly nothing size-wise, making it awkward and weird to look at things with. Not to mention each subsection is its own html page. Oh, and at this time I should mention that, for the billionth time, the layout and coding style keeps changing from page to page.

Which is the exact problem I'm talking about. The Mario Eras are a labyrinthine complex built to warehouse what could be displayed on one, maybe two full size pages tops. Furthermore, if we wanted to be serious about Mario information, we'd use a database, so that staff members could just add it in--yes I know about the whole 'no SQL' thing. We'd just use a text-file based database instead. Or something. Anything that would simply display more than one 5th of the information miiight attract more people to this forum than the old diehards and me.

See, the secret is that all these separate files are fine to a certain point, but there becomes what is known as a sort of bottleneck: split something up into too many fragments, too many file pieces, and then it becomes a complex game to match them all up.

It may all make sense to you, but to the viewer they've just had to go through a maze (with dead ends peppered about) to find about 1/2 of the information they'd get elsewhere.

It's not about me trying to break your spirit. That would have been an entirely different course of dialogue. I'm trying to get you to see where things have gone wrong and help fix them. You have the capability to fix these problems, but you stubbornly ignore help of any kind and refuse to be wrong.

So I figure it's only best for SMBHQ I drive you to examine the flaws in the SMBHQ layout rather than ignore them, for if you simply applied your knowledge appropriately we wouldn't be having this discussion.

[Mallow-teh-Marshmellow]

..So far, I have no idea what the hell both of you are talking about. However, I'm just gonna try to sum it all up:

Sean most likely bashed a user here for stating a simple opinion. Sean got *mad* and sharply replied in a "I'll give you 3 seconds to leave me alone" attitude. MetalMan *kinda* Stood up for the guy, saying Sean should lighten up and let us have a fair say. Sean dropped the "kyle trusted me" bomb, and Metal here began ranting about the code of the Main Page.


I know I should stay out of this, but for anyone who has no damn idea what this is about, I think I summed it up good enough...

[Metal Man]

Yes, that is the other issue. Much of the technical details are irrelevant. I shall stick to defending the users from now on, so I reiterate--

Why don't you let the users of SMBHQ have a fair say in things, Sean? The site's meant for them to see. Not just you. Did Kyle tell you to make the site pleasing to you and not, say, him and/or the rest of SMBHQ's viewers?

[Sean P Kelly]

First off MetalMan, I want to make it clear that I am interpreting your constant complaints about the format of the site as "Sean is a god awful webmaster and I would have done an kick-ass job at running the site. However, Sean had to ruin all my plans by coming back one day after he supposedly resigned."

I also want to reiterate that I am in constant contact with Kyle via AIM. Very rarely do I add something new to the site without getting his feedback. As such, I believe it is very bold of you to suggest that I do not care what he or others think.

I believe that you are disgruntled that you never got to implement your plans for SMBHQ and that you are insulted that someone like me (who you believe to be inferior) is still in charge of the site.

I created the suggestion topic for serious suggestions about the site to help me out, but once you had the chance to talk about how much you were planning on updating NC, you couldn't shut up about that, while at the same time throwing towards me for not updating.

The only person, whose opinion I don't care about listening to is YOU. I am going to admit now that I DO NOT like you. It seems apparent now that you hold a grudge against me for apparently ruining your chances of being webmaster of SMBHQ and as such I will no longer pay attention to anything else you say.

Enjoy NC.

[Metal Man]

Your constant behavior of taking everything for meaning the worst speaks for itself, Sean. I believe it is self evident what you care about in your outburst.

This isn't about me. If I wanted to overwrite ever single file on SMBHQ I could, but I don't, because I want to help SMBHQ. And I'm not going to even be stopped by you ignoring me this time. No way, Jose. You do what you want, but I'll find a way to help SMBHQ and listen to its viewers, even as you lock yourself in your office and play loud music (or the internet equivalent thereof.)

I have a grudge against anyone who, from the appearance of it, takes a website which was one of the top Mario websites, demands responsibility for the whole of it, then, much like my father, lets it fall apart and ignores practically all suggestions relevant to it.

You might talk to Kyle every day, but I for one know the only discussion which ever mattered, the one in which you came back merely because your Mom told you to, and you spoke about how you just needed the money from SMBHQ.

I don't give a f#$% about what you think about me, Sean. You can put away that tired old card. Get with reality, man; the site's an ad-infested dead zone. And you know all that screaming and anger you get? If I was telling lies you'd just laugh 'em off, going 'SMBHQ's just great, man. What're you smoking?'

But instead, your extreme reaction shows a problem you've been repressing all this time.

I'm not here to judge or criticisize; I wish to help. It seems you'd rather I hate you than help, but I'm not going to fall for that one again.

But if you're going to ignore me, so be it. I will continue working to help SMBHQ without your sanction or sight, and if anyone asks, I can safely say you didn't want to see it.

[Gabriel]

This, to me, feels like the NC Elections all over again...sigh.

Oh, and the reason he doesn't like you is because you keep talking him down. With no visible support, I might add.

From what I've heard and seen, Kyle was a great guy. If he trusts Sean and keeps contact with him, that should be enough for you.

In your defense, though, it sounds like the site is a jumbled mess of coding. If Sean has the capability, then maybe he should do something about it, but that kind of thing takes time.

[Metal Man]

I've been talking about this thing for years. This hasn't changed since eons ago, sans my position.

My support, ironically, comes down to the same thing which got me elected, and the sword which cuts through the gordion knot--as Jay once told me, it doesn't really matter who's right or who's wrong as long as the site's being updated. I suppose trying to talk a stubborn guy like Sean into doing it was wrong since it's all about me hating him to him but what can you say? If I didn't care I'd haven't had revisited this.

Rather than clutter more threads I'll put my work where my mouth is and make some things and let the viewers be the judge of it. After all, what is Kyle/Sean gonna say? "No! Stop improving the site! I don't want more people viewing ads and contributing!"

[Sean P Kelly]

MetalMan I can ignore you if I want to because, quite frankly there are worse things in this world to worry about than what you think of me.

It will be a pleasure NOT knowing you.

(and this topic is closed)