I have remained fairly silent over here, not just on this topic but in general, I appreciate. However, I felt that I have to say something now.
Firstly, I haven't really been on the forums for years, partly because I haven't had my Neo stuff out in a while and partly because back when I did, I felt a little intimidated by some users. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you all sucked lol, but I'm sure you can appreciate that the Neo Geo can be a console for the wealthy, which in itself is quite intimidating to a pauper like me!
In some discussions, there may have been a slightly unwelcoming vibe, so I guess I didn't visit the site as much as I used to. Don't get me wrong, I met some great people here - I helped Jeff Kurtz with his component mod way back when, and he helped me. And of course, I've always respected the likes of Tonk and their amazing collections! Even if I don't participate much, when I do visit I at least glean some interesting information and see some crazy shit!
I appreciate that many of you have a grudge against Dion, I really do. For years, I believed NGF to be evil and all that, perhaps fuelled by these very boards. When he appeared on ASSEMblergames, I was somewhat hesitant. Still, I gave him a second chance and, whilst he still has a huge ego, he seemed only to be interested in having rational conversation with us. He wasn't there to sell stuff or rip us off. And he seemed friendly enough, and willing to share his knowledge.
Of course, several people noticed him, mentioned it here, and either came over or were already members and started bashing him. OK, I can appreciate that you might want to warn people of his former exploits. However, do it, let people make their own minds up, and let it drop. Constantly posting wherever he posts is a bit excessive.
However, the thing that disgusts me most is how some of your members over here have treated Legit. Like those who came to ASSEMblergames, he came over to discuss the matter, and also to learn some more about your side. As a moderator, he also wanted to explain why some members were banned.
Now, Legit is a friend of mine. Sure, he can be a brash arsehole sometimes, but I think that his condition does account for at least some of that. When he mentioned it in passing, at least one member here ridiculed him for it, despite having a disabled mother. I'm sorry, I forget that member's name, but let me ask you - how would you like it if people ridiculed your mother for having a disability?
The ridicule turned into abuse, which was disgusting and completely unacceptable behaviour. I do not care if the person was joking, that is not something you joke about. Again, how would you like it if I made jokes about your mother? I believe Legit had valid reason to take offence to what was said, but he didn't.
Some of you may have issue with Legit's moderation style, but at least he moderates. I believe he is quite fair, and yes he's even put me in my place on occasion! Where are the moderators on Neo-Geo.com forums? The abuse hurled at Legit is completely unacceptable, yet no member of staff appeared to step in and deal with it. That is quite saddening.
I am sure that it is a minority of users here that have been involved in these attacks on Dion, Chris and Legit - indeed, someone mentioned that less than 200 members posted in this thread - a small fraction of the near 6,000 member count. And I know some of you have taken offence to people at ASSEMblergames.com talking of the attitude at Neo-Geo.com. I'm really sorry that people have said that, but you have to appreciate that when even a few people start such petty vulgarity, it reflects badly on the entire community. I certainly don't want to see any kind of board wars between ASSEMblergames.com and Neo-Geo.com - I like both sites and respect many members on both, so hope that the two can live peacefully together and share information, jokes and whathaveyou. So - Shawn, is this how you want your site to be seen by other people? And to have it used as a platform to hurl abuse at disabled people? I hope that it isn't, and that you (and all of us) may be able to employ some damage control here.
Whilst I appreciate you have a higher tolerance of swearing and flaming here, I feel that this was too far. I notice this in your new member guide:
-Please try not to flame or troll. If you have a concern with a member that you fell you HAVE to flame him publicly for, there's the War Room for that.
As this topic isn't in the War Room, aren't such comments rather too much?
I don't expect people to suddenly like Dion, but I would hope that we can get rid of the petty squabbling on both forums.
A brief couple of points on the legal matters.....
- The document linked was only one of several documents regarding the cases (I believe there was more than one case ID).
- The statement from SNK/Playmore that Dion and Chris were allowed to sell games with English corrections appeared on the SNK page. Here is an archive of the page:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050208171535/http://www.snkplaymore.jp/information/en_press15.html
Note:
As a limited exception to the Permanent Injunction, the video games on the list below, and only those video games, were purchased from SNK Corporation Japan, and were sold by Neogeo Freaks/NGF USA with the permission of SNK Corporation Japan. These games were sold by Neogeo Freaks/NGF USA with the corrected English AES inserts with the permission of SNK Corporation Japan.
I am surprised that more people over here didn't notice that this was, in fact, an exception to the injunction and permitted NGF to use corrected inserts and sell the games that way!
It is a shame that SNK / Playmore didn't take more care and effort in ensuring that the company they authorized to sell their games were selling products to a quality standard equal to their Japanese products, granted. Shouldn't we be criticizing Playmore for that, though? It's not the first time when an electronic product has been repackaged with shoddy materials, and won't be the last.
Also, it seems there is some misunderstanding over the term "fictitious business".
If you see "Joe Bloggs and John Smith, doing business as Dodgygeezers", then Dodgygeezers is a fictitious business. It doesn't necessarily mean anything bad, just that it's an assumed business name of an individual. In the UK, we would say they are a sole trader (as opposed to a Limited company) trading as whatever business name they choose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doing_business_as
Hope that clears up a couple of points!
