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Insomnia will become subscription-based once again...

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Insomnia will become subscription-based once again...

Unread postby icycalm » 28 May 2015 02:18

...when all the books have been published.

The reason is simple. The vast majority of the users who registered for free in the past few months either never contributed anything, or ended up being stupid, ignorant and even malicious asshats who had to be forcibly removed from the forum so as to stop shitting it up with their malignant bullshit. Simply put, the free model of publication and registration attracts low quality users. After 3+ years on the subscription model I had forgotten how bad things are in this respect, so I came into this with high hopes, but they were all crushed pretty quickly, and I don't see any positives anymore and long to go back to the quieter and more efficient way things used to be.

Nevertheless, it was an interesting experiment for me, because I was at one point considering opening up the Orgy forum too. In fact the only person who's gotten in there for free -- lobote -- ended up spamming us with retarded conspiracy theories and I had to yell at him to stop doing it. So I am glad I didn't jump the gun and open that forum up too.

I also hated how many regulars "disappeared" after the site went free. They still browse the forum all the time, but they don't log in because they think I can't see them (I can see everything in the Joomla control panel) and won't be able to demand from them to contribute.

Detestable behavior all around, and the only way to get around all of it and force everyone to act decently is by demanding from them money.

I won't make any sudden changes here. Insomnia will remain free to read and to post in for the foreseeable future. But I will ramp up my efforts to complete my books, and once they are done they'll all go up for free and all the rest of the site will be locked and viewable only to subscribers. It is the same publication philosophy I have settled on for Orgy, and it seems to me, after a decade in online publishing, to be the optimal for my needs: the mission statement available for free, and all the rest via subscription.
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icycalm
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Unread postby icycalm » 02 Jun 2015 22:43

Due to what happened recently in the League of Legends and Blazblue threads, I have decided to return to the subscription model immediately for the sake of my mental tranquility, without which it is impossible for me to finish my books and continue my work on the site. It's all well and good when I CHOOSE to visit another site and attack some retard in an article or forum post, but it is another thing altogether when random retards sign up here and FORCE me to reply to them by filling up my threads with bullshit. I simply CANNOT allow the tranquility of each day of my life to be based on whether or not some retard has decided to vomit his inane verbiage on me that day.

Currently registered users can still see everything, but in the next few days I will be reviewing each account in turn to see who still has time left on his subscription and who doesn't. So if your account becomes deactivated in the next few days, you will know why. You are free to resubscribe at any time, including if you've been banned. Banned users will simply not be able to post in the forum, but they'll be able to see everything. In short, everything will work the same way it did before. The only exception is Videogame Culture essays and Videogame Art reviews, all of which will be publicly viewable.
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Unread postby icycalm » 02 Jun 2015 23:13

Haha the moment I lock everything, all the lurkers come out of the woodwork. And why had they been lurking instead of logging in with their accounts? To avoid contributing a single miserable piece of news a week to the News forum... while visiting 10 times a day and reading everyone else's contributions...

What ungrateful little wretches all you guys are. Thank god for the subscription model. If you can't bring yourself to act like decent human beings, I will either force you to or kick you the fuck out.

What I will not do is allow ungrateful wretches to enjoy the benefits of this site without giving anything back.
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Unread postby icycalm » 03 Jun 2015 12:05

I didn't know where to put this epilogue to the bickering with quash (from the Blazblue thread), so I am putting it here. Via email:

quash wrote:You have set a new low yet again with your overreacting. Why is it you have to throw a tantrum like a goddamn child every time someone does anything besides cower and give in to your demands? Didn't you once say you didn't want a forum of yes-men? Newsflash: none of your so-called staff is contributing anything worth a damn. If you think your behavior hasn't played a big role in that, you are sorely mistaken.

I'll keep this short and to the point: feel free to use anything I post on my blog, I have no problem with that. Your website, which I still fully support, desperately needs the kind of insight and analysis I'll be providing. If I get around to writing any reviews for you, I'll e-mail them. I don't care if you never open up the forum to guests again or never lift my ban, since communicating with you by any means other than this gets old fast. You couldn't even graciously admit that my article kicked ass because you had to save face for your audience, which is quite sad, honestly. I expected a beatdown because I knew that you wanted to deal one. It may be reactive thinking, but it's also the result of witnessing your behavior follow the same pattern for years. You can't blame anyone for being conditioned to it because you are practically a self parody at this point.

Take this for what you will, since I guess my opinion only matters when you want it to. I will still be doing my thing, which I'm convinced nobody else can do at this point, if not for the lack of intellect, the lack of balls. I'm sure you will continue to do your thing, which I still think is much needed. I just won't have the pleasure of posting on your forum anymore, which is fine by me.

Take care.


I wrote:Without the staff the site would look like shit and be missing tons of good content like the Recap translations and dozens of awesome reviews. We have a hidden Staff forum where they post their contributions before they go on the frontpage, you retard. Literally 30% of the content on the site is by regular staff members. Just because you don't SEE what they contribute and are too dumb to infer it doesn't mean the contributions are not there. And I didn't overreact to anything. You are again too blinded by your stupidity to see that it was coming -- I even SAID that it was coming several days ago in the Welcome forum: I clearly said that we are going back to the subscription model long before you shat up my Blazblue thread. You just helped me realize that the sooner I did it the better, so I did it sooner. And for that, if for nothing else, I thank you.

And your article is shit compared to mine. I was being kind in the thread because you were nice enough to make it. Borderline pointless meandering for pages and pages without even touching on the issue. You did not even answer the question that you posed in the title! So many years of thinking since Seth published his article, and you STILL have not managed to find the answer!

The only reason I will post the article is because I will be trashing it in my Power Stone review, and I would like to have it handy. I've done this before (with Sullla's metagame article, for example, which was entirely wrong from the first sentence to the last, but which still got posted on my frontpage), and I am sure I will be doing it again.

As for my site "desperately needing" your insight lol. Have you even READ any of my theory essays? Once again zero understanding and appreciation for whom you are talking to. You are leagues below hundreds of other forum members, which is why you've been repeatedly banned, and will stay banned forever from now on. Good riddance.


I will write an email with an explanation for the move back to the subscription model and send it to every Insomnia reader whose email I have (i.e. the 1000 or so people who have signed up to the forum over the years), so wait for that if you are interested in my full reasoning for this move. I am already feeling much better for having made it.
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