Giantbomb(2011) on companies buying out smaller companies.

@Brodehouse said:

I knew something was weird as soon as Jeff said "CBS family of websites!" with a positive tone. Everything I've come to know about that guy in the last three and a half years says he hates the phrase 'family of websites'. It's like he was replaced by his corporate doppelgänger Geoff Gertzman.

I felt the same way. As a GiantBomb fan I don't really understand why 'CBS family' should appeal to me.

Well.. it's great until its not. WISDOM.

That's pretty funny.

I bet it's also not too hard to track down quotes along the lines of "We hate ads." "This site will always be about the community, not corporations." "We'll never sell out."

And funnily enough I was even listening to an old Bombcast recently where Jeff goes on a full rant about the idea of 'sponsored achievements', despite the fact we had a whole quest set on here sponsored by Best Buy. Let's face it, they have totally abandoned whatever morals they had at the start of GB. Still wish them all the best though.

@Dagbiker said:

the only way to tell them apart is by how much hair they have.

Future Jeff will have the most.

Here's a thought.

Not enough of the "fans" were supporting the site. Money was tight, and the crew had to pick between sticking to their old promises or surviving as a business. Eventually, fan-based income hit a plateau, and they had to look for a bigger financial backer. Jeff picked the best option he had, and I can guarantee you momos would bitch even harder if he picked someone else.

Now, if anyone knows what the fuck is going on in this industry, it's Jeff. Even if he is feigning all this excitement, I would put money on the fact he's doing his best to secure a future in which he and the crew continue doing what they love to do. I happen to also love what he and the crew do. Therefore, even if all this shit somehow happens to go down the toilet, I trust that the essence of Giant Bomb will always come back around in one form or another. As far as the community is concerned, I couldn't care less. Most of you people are scum.

Oh, and how exactly is "CBS family of websites" different from "Whiskey Media family of websites"?

Get the fuck out of here.

He said "sometimes" for a reason. He was talking about game companies, this is just a smaller website and to me they made a smart move. They will gain more financial stability and while also remaining the same in terms of the content they produce. I'm not worried about the people that are currently bitching about Giant Bombs transition and frankly if they choose to leave then I'll be glad of there being less idiots who turn this great event into "THE DEATH OF GIANT BOMB!!!".

@PrivateIronTFU said:

Nobody has ever made a statement in the past that conflicts with what's happening in the present. That's literally never happened before!

Oh come on now. There's a difference between digging up Dave saying "A true gamer will never like Dungeon Siege" from a million years ago and digging up material of you saying "Mergers are never good for anybody while everybody involved sure likes to pretend they are" from LESS THAN A YEAR before you were merged with another company and you said it's a good thing for everybody.

I'll mention that I am not against this change and I know it makes sense for them. This clip is still a pretty cool thing to listen to now.

OUCH!

@AyKay_47

What this guy said. It simply may be that there aren't enough people who love Giant Bomb (even if everyone gave money) to keep the operation running. I think Jeff's PR-speak sounding so sarcastic was on purpose. He doesn't like PR-speak. We all know this. Noone likes a merger, including the GB guys. But they have to keep the lights on somehow, and if CBS was willing to say "here's some money, please be a good site that hardcore gamers like, unlike our other brand, which has been dragged through the mud!", then that sounds good to me.

Plus, I get the sense that the GB guys hated leaving Gamespot, and never harbored the hate most of their fans do towards them.

@krazy_kyle said:

He said "sometimes" for a reason. He was talking about game companies, this is just a smaller website and to me they made a smart move. They will gain more financial stability and while also remaining the same in terms of the content they produce. I'm not worried about the people that are currently bitching about Giant Bombs transition and frankly if they choose to leave then I'll be glad of there being less idiots who turn this great event into "THE DEATH OF GIANT BOMB!!!".

Yeah they're talking about game developers not every company ever, the internet sure loves to go crazy over this kinda thing. From those first few videos in the new office I'm convinced nothings really gonna change except it getting better than it is now.

@NekuSakuraba said:

Past Jeff should have a fight with Present Jeff.

And then future Jeff should jump in with a lightsaber.

the only way to tell them apart is by how much hair they have.

It's alarming to see how many people don't realize that doe-eyed optimism always caves in to the biting reality. Promises get broken, but in most cases, they had to be.

All most of us have been doing is consuming and bitching, never really taking part in the creation or maintenance. The lot of us should just go fuck ourselves.

I have to say, I feel really sorry for the next person who becomes part of the Giant Bomb team. Remember what Patrick (still) had to go through? Imagine that but 100 times worse with imagined corporate conspiracies all over it forever. What if there's a cool person at Gamespot that wants to work with the GB crew, and they want to work with him/her in return? You people will strangle their options with your hate. I feel bad for the future, not because of them, but because of you.

@AyKay_47 said:

Here's a thought.

Not enough of the "fans" were supporting the site. Money was tight, and the crew had to pick between sticking to their old promises or surviving as a business. Eventually, fan-based income hit a plateau, and they had to look for a bigger financial backer. Jeff picked the best option he had, and I can guarantee you momos would bitch even harder if he picked someone else.

Now, if anyone knows what the fuck is going on in this industry, it's Jeff. Even if he is feigning all this excitement, I would put money on the fact he's doing his best to secure a future in which he and the crew continue doing what they love to do. I happen to also love what he and the crew do. Therefore, even if all this shit somehow happens to go down the toilet, I trust that the essence of Giant Bomb will always come back around in one form or another. As far as the community is concerned, I couldn't care less. Most of you people are scum.

Oh, and how exactly is "CBS family of websites" different from "Whiskey Media family of websites"?

Get the fuck out of here.

I was with you all the way up to "Most of you people are scum." Way to undermine the rest of your post. :(

People love Giant Bomb so much they are scared to death it will change into something they no longer love. That speaks to the amazing work the Whiskey Media crew put into Giant Bomb over the last 4 years. It should be viewed as a compliment in it's own weird way. It's just one part of the internet being the internet. There are plenty of sane, rational people here to balance out the chorus...

It's alarming to see how many people don't realize that doe-eyed optimism always caves in to the biting reality. Promises get broken, but in most cases, they had to be.

All most of us have been doing is consuming and bitching, never really taking part in the creation or maintenance. The lot of us should just go fuck ourselves.

Yeah no it's gonna be fine

@Brendan said:

I have to say, I feel really sorry for the next person who becomes part of the Giant Bomb team. Remember what Patrick (still) had to go through? Imagine that but 100 times worse with imagined corporate conspiracies all over it forever. What if there's a cool person at Gamespot that wants to work with the GB crew, and they want to work with him/her in return? You people will strangle their options with your hate. I feel bad for the future, not because of them, but because of you.

They should solve that problem by hiring Matt Rorie. He'll have the street cred to make it through the hazing. :)

I have to say, I feel really sorry for the next person who becomes part of the Giant Bomb team. Remember what Patrick (still) had to go through? Imagine that but 100 times worse with imagined corporate conspiracies all over it forever. What if there's a cool person at Gamespot that wants to work with the GB crew, and they want to work with him/her in return? You people will strangle their options with your hate. I feel bad for the future, not because of them, but because of you.

I think we're all doing a lot of speculating. Some of it might be founded, some may be not. But I'm guessing there was a shit ton going on behind the scenes regarding the business of whiskey media that we didn't know about. Which makes the speculating sort of meaningless to certain degree.

Really, people, what would the best alternative have been? Being sold to BermanBraun with the majority of the Whiskey sites? Giant Bomb made this deal with CBS Interactive because it was in their best interest to do so. They have a good relationship with the people at GameSpot, the people that fucked Jeff over are no longer with the company, they have better funding and access to better equipment, and are retaining creative and content control of the site.

In short, they'll be fine.

How so many cynical people in this thread could feel betrayed by someone is hilarious. Troll(er)s gonna troll.

Their is a big difference between being bought out and bought, learn it.

As far as the community is concerned, I couldn't care less. Most of you people are scum.

Oh, and how exactly is "CBS family of websites" different from "Whiskey Media family of websites"?

Get the fuck out of here.

I just wanted to come in here and say, all you non subscribers, Fuck You. You're the reason this had to happen. You bItch the loudest and yet you did nothing to keep WM in its previous form alive. Always wanting to consume while never contributing to keep it going, well guess what? They had to find another way to keep the site alive. And now you're in an outrage over them having to sell out? Where was your money when GB needed it to stay independent? You shouldn't be upset with corporate Jeff. You should be upset with yourselves.

@mythrol said:

I just wanted to come in here and say, all you non subscribers, Fuck You. You're the reason this had to happen. You bItch the loudest and yet you did nothing to keep WM in its previous form alive. Always wanting to consume while never contributing to keep it going, well guess what? They had to find another way to keep the site alive. And now you're in an outrage over them having to sell out? Where was your money when GB needed it to stay independent? You shouldn't be upset with corporate Jeff. You should be upset with yourselves.

Dude, come on. Whiskey Media was an Internet Stat-Up. This is exactly what happens in the business model of an Internet Stat-Up. Business guys provide the cash to let the talent build up a website, then after the website gets a steady following they sell it off for more than they invested into it.

This isn't anyone's fault. This is how this thing was always going to go down. It's completely unfair to blame the community for this.

@mythrol said:

I just wanted to come in here and say, all you non subscribers, Fuck You. You're the reason this had to happen. You bItch the loudest and yet you did nothing to keep WM in its previous form alive. Always wanting to consume while never contributing to keep it going, well guess what? They had to find another way to keep the site alive. And now you're in an outrage over them having to sell out? Where was your money when GB needed it to stay independent? You shouldn't be upset with corporate Jeff. You should be upset with yourselves.

You're generalizing all non-subscribers and being a complete asshole.

Then tell the community to stfu and roll with it. I don't have a problem because I realize people had to get paid. But all these people bitching and moaning about GB selling out, well guess what? They had the chance to keep them from needing to be bought. But they didn't do jack.

@mythrol said:

Then tell the community to stfu and roll with it. I don't have a problem because I realize people had to get paid. But all these people bitching and moaning about GB selling out, well guess what? They had the chance to keep them from needing to be bought. But they didn't do jack.

You know as well as anyone else it's just the internet being the internet. How many times have the Bombcast crew themselves brought this up lately? It's impossible for some section of the internet not to completely over react in any situation. GB will forge ahead and change their minds on it with regular content and doing what they do. Being a dick to people who are over reacting doesn't defuse the situation, it inflames it.

Please explain where I'm wrong? Being an asshole, yes. Because I have no attachment to anyone in the community I don't care who's feelings I hurt. But just because I'm an asshole doesn't mean I'm wrong. I might be saying something in a harsh way, but at the end of the day I'm right. The people who are bitching the most had a chance to keep GB independent for the price of a value meal a month. CBSi is more part of the community than any non sub because they ponied up the money needed to keep the site going. Without them, GB would not continue to exist and there would be no community.

@Octaslash said:

@mythrol said:

I just wanted to come in here and say, all you non subscribers, Fuck You. You're the reason this had to happen. You bItch the loudest and yet you did nothing to keep WM in its previous form alive. Always wanting to consume while never contributing to keep it going, well guess what? They had to find another way to keep the site alive. And now you're in an outrage over them having to sell out? Where was your money when GB needed it to stay independent? You shouldn't be upset with corporate Jeff. You should be upset with yourselves.

You're generalizing all non-subscribers and being a complete asshole.

Indeed.

Going to copy paste my youtube comment on the gamespot video, as that is all that I have to say about this: If giantbomb is allowed to be giantbomb, with all the absolute insanity that entails, without any corporate bullshit censoring, then this is just a positive thing that will lead to better content.

I'm positive this will all turn out okay, and this is coming from a day-one member, who has been supporting financially non-stop since it was first introduced, and added wikicontent. Non-subscribers are of course allowed to voice their concern, but any word on them "selling out" should be ban-worthy, especially from someone who never did anything but signing up.

@mythrol said:

Please explain where I'm wrong? Being an asshole, yes. Because I have no attachment to anyone in the community I don't care who's feelings I hurt. But just because I'm an asshole doesn't mean I'm wrong. I might be saying something in a harsh way, but at the end of the day I'm right. The people who are bitching the most had a chance to keep GB independent for the price of a value meal a month. CBSi is more part of the community than any non sub because they ponied up the money needed to keep the site going. Without them, GB would not continue to exist and there would be no community.

You are wrong in thinking that GB could have stayed independent indefinitely and that they only sold to CBSi because the community wasn't supporting them enough. You are placing blame on a group of people who don't deserve it, even if they have a misplaced sense of entitlement. I understand being annoyed with some of the people in this thread, but that doesn't justify placing blame on them.

The idea that Whiskey Media tried to keep it real but had to sell out because they didn't make enough money is just a fictional narrative. As I said before, this was always an Internet Stat-Up. It was always going to get blown-up and sold off. More subscribers might have held that off for a little longer, but not forever - probably not even through the end of the summer.

@Ragdrazi said:

@Brendan said:

I have to say, I feel really sorry for the next person who becomes part of the Giant Bomb team. Remember what Patrick (still) had to go through? Imagine that but 100 times worse with imagined corporate conspiracies all over it forever. What if there's a cool person at Gamespot that wants to work with the GB crew, and they want to work with him/her in return? You people will strangle their options with your hate. I feel bad for the future, not because of them, but because of you.

That is pure bullshit. Patrick is an odd duck, and he wrote some strange articles right at first. People took him to task for that. But all anyone from GS has to do to jump over to GB is be genuine. Patrick is that in spades, and I fail to see how he was not accepted by the community as you insinuate.

You clearly haven't been paying to anything if you haven't noticed the large and vocal opposition to Patrick in the comments of videos he's in, podcasts he's in, his articles, and even some content he's not in.

Turn and face the strain! Ch-ch-ch-changes!

@rm082e said:

@mythrol said:

I just wanted to come in here and say, all you non subscribers, Fuck You. You're the reason this had to happen. You bItch the loudest and yet you did nothing to keep WM in its previous form alive. Always wanting to consume while never contributing to keep it going, well guess what? They had to find another way to keep the site alive. And now you're in an outrage over them having to sell out? Where was your money when GB needed it to stay independent? You shouldn't be upset with corporate Jeff. You should be upset with yourselves.

Dude, come on. Whiskey Media was an Internet Stat-Up. This is exactly what happens in the business model of an Internet Stat-Up. Business guys provide the cash to let the talent build up a website, then after the website gets a steady following they sell it off for more than they invested into it.

This isn't anyone's fault. This is how this thing was always going to go down. It's completely unfair to blame the community for this.

I wish that was their pitch to us when they started asking for subscriptions. When they said "we want to build a better internet" and "we'd like to go into business with you, you support us and we'll support you" myself and others bought in. I wish they had actually said "if you subscribe, we'll have a nice metric and monetized audience to get a lot of money back when we sell it to the awful corporation we left".

@Ragdrazi said:

How exactly is the CBS family of websites different from the Whiskey Media family of websites? The Whiskey Media family didn't have shareholders. There wasn't the legally binding obligation to not only turn in a profit, but to turn in an ever increasingly large amount of profit. Like it or not, the driving point of this website is no longer crazy videos and insightful game reviews. It is first the monetization of its audience, and second the increasing monetization of its audience.

This is plainly inaccurate.

The driving point of CBS is to turn in a profit. The driving point of Giant Bomb is "crazy videos and insightful game reviews" amongst other things. CBSi purchased Giant Bomb with the belief that GB's driving point will conveniently assist in their own driving point. In other words, the flaw in your logic is that Giant Bomb has not become CBSi, they have become an arm of CBSi, and it is CBS's job to turn that into a profit, not Giant Bomb's.

Does this mean that some suits at CBSi (or Gamespot or whoever calls the shots it doesn't really matter) could eventually start demanding Giant Bomb do some shady shit to their customers in the unending pursuit of more profits? Absolutely! Do the guys at Giant Bomb have to go along with it? Well, if they want to stay employed there, I suppose they do. If only the poor, weak-willed, easily-manipulated members of the Giant Bomb staff had some kind of history of getting the fuck out of Dodge when shady shit started going down.

Also what is this about "monetized audience" anyway? How is that new? EVERY MEMBER OF THIS SITE, SUBSCRIBER OR NOT, HAS ALWAYS BEEN A "MONETIZED AUDIENCE". Giant Bomb was never a charity, it has always been a commercial website and its hosting costs and staff can't just pay for themselves. A site making money off its readership doesn't mean the readership stops being a vital part of it in any way, shape or form. If it did, no community website could ever exist!

@James_Giant_Peach said:

I bet it's also not too hard to track down quotes along the lines of "We hate ads." "This site will always be about the community, not corporations." "We'll never sell out."

Probably not hard no, though I doubt anyone ever said anything as dumb and pat as "we'll never sell out". It's nice, then that not one of those things are lies, at least not yet. One can "hate ads" and still have to utilize them when the alternate prospect is to cease being. Already covered the second one. And "selling out" (ugh, fuck that term) doesn't just mean "making a deal to have more capital and/or to continue to exist", it more importantly represents "changing or compromising one's ideals or voice to placate the buyer". So far there is not a single shred of evidence this is even remotely the case.

Binary Domain Quicklook said:

Shit. Shit. Shiiiiiit. Fuck. FuuuuuUUUuuuuCK. BIG BOOOOOO.

Anyway, as for the original point of this thread: I don't really see a lot of relevance to this situation, honestly, beyond the basic connection of "acquistions". Yeah, acquisitions often tend to work out shitty for the company being swallowed up. This is particularly true of game companies, as it is extremely easy for some short-sighted or ill-informed guys at the top to see an acquired company as simply a brand name to be exploited and completely disregard that it is the uniquely talented and creative people in the company that made it successful enough to be worth acquiring in the first place. Indeed, the same thing happened at Gamespot. But Giant Bomb is a very different case, as virtually its entire value is based on the personalities that run it; a fact that can't be missed by even the most out-of-touch executive who takes even a minute to examine it.

So to summarize: could CBSi eventually fuck up Giant Bomb? Certainly. Would it be a foolish and insane destruction of their investment? Definitely. Could Giant Bomb have continued to exist at all without this deal? Unknown, but from the way the crew talked about the various deals they've discussed in the past few years and how subscribers had "kept them going", it seems somewhat doubtful. I'm a pessimist at heart too here, people, and I'm sure everything good and right in the world will eventually go down in a ball of fucking flames sooner rather than later.

Until then, since none of us can really do a goddamn thing about when or if it happens with this site, how about we enjoy it until it does and show a tiny bit of respect and trust in the people who have made it the great site it is to keep it going in the right direction? Or I guess we could all just bite down on our cyanide capsules now since we'll all be rotting bits of flesh, bone, ash, or C.H.U.D. excrement someday.

@AyKay_47 said:

Here's a thought.

Not enough of the "fans" were supporting the site. Money was tight, and the crew had to pick between sticking to their old promises or surviving as a business. Eventually, fan-based income hit a plateau, and they had to look for a bigger financial backer. Jeff picked the best option he had, and I can guarantee you momos would bitch even harder if he picked someone else.

Now, if anyone knows what the fuck is going on in this industry, it's Jeff. Even if he is feigning all this excitement, I would put money on the fact he's doing his best to secure a future in which he and the crew continue doing what they love to do. I happen to also love what he and the crew do. Therefore, even if all this shit somehow happens to go down the toilet, I trust that the essence of Giant Bomb will always come back around in one form or another. As far as the community is concerned, I couldn't care less. Most of you people are scum.

Oh, and how exactly is "CBS family of websites" different from "Whiskey Media family of websites"?

Get the fuck out of here.

Way to prove your case pal. Conjecture, assumptions, and speculation that is supposed to be considered as a well thought out answer based around "fact". Followed up by belittling others and ending with a good old fashion swear word. Bravo good sir. Bravo.

well...theres always plan poop flinging if stuff goes wrong

@Brodehouse said:

@rm082e said:

@mythrol said:

I just wanted to come in here and say, all you non subscribers, Fuck You. You're the reason this had to happen. You bItch the loudest and yet you did nothing to keep WM in its previous form alive. Always wanting to consume while never contributing to keep it going, well guess what? They had to find another way to keep the site alive. And now you're in an outrage over them having to sell out? Where was your money when GB needed it to stay independent? You shouldn't be upset with corporate Jeff. You should be upset with yourselves.

Dude, come on. Whiskey Media was an Internet Stat-Up. This is exactly what happens in the business model of an Internet Stat-Up. Business guys provide the cash to let the talent build up a website, then after the website gets a steady following they sell it off for more than they invested into it.

This isn't anyone's fault. This is how this thing was always going to go down. It's completely unfair to blame the community for this.

I wish that was their pitch to us when they started asking for subscriptions. When they said "we want to build a better internet" and "we'd like to go into business with you, you support us and we'll support you" myself and others bought in. I wish they had actually said "if you subscribe, we'll have a nice metric and monetized audience to get a lot of money back when we sell it to the awful corporation we left".

Well, that's the cynical way to look at it. I don't regret showing my support of the site by becoming a subscriber. They've provided more than enough quality content for me to consider it worth my while. Beyond that, the specifics of the sale are hazy. As someone that wasn't in these meetings, we don't know how long Shelby had been looking to sell Whiskey Media, but it couldn't have been a coincidence that the sale coincided with same day that Giant Bomb and Comic Vine were purchased by CBS. If Giant Bomb hadn't authorized the deal, whose to say that they wouldn't have been part of the package with Tested, Screened, and Anime Vice?

In any event, of course they're looking to make money. That much was evident from the start. The start-up capital from angel investments only goes so far. Giant Bomb went a surprisingly long time without a regular stream of ad support, and they didn't start the subscription model until 2009, well after a year the site started operation, but that's not to say that they didn't spend any of that time looking for a way to become financially viable. In order for Giant Bomb to sustain operation the way that Jeff, Ryan and the others desire for it in the long term, they needed a greater bed of financial security with the promise of retaining control over the site's content. Shelby, the owner of Whiskey Media, sold the company's non-Giant Bomb and non-Comic Vine assets to BermanBraun so that he could recoup his investment because he's a businessman. Jeff is also a businessman, but he has much closer ties to the website and to its users. He's not looking at this as some sort of get rich quick cash grab. He's looking at this as a way to keep Giant Bomb the way it is as much as he can while also facing the realities of the business world.

it's important to point out that they didn't get bought, they got sold. big difference. hence everyone sticking around and hoping for the best.

my initial reaction was that gb and comic vine got the short end of the stick. big corporation, slowly lose control, etc. but so far everything is as good as its been. its difficult to not be worried, but i trust them.

look what happened to tested, and they went to the small independent company.

cbs has the money to spend to let giant bomb keep doing what they're doing.

bermanbraun bought wm for the technology. tested, av, and screened were just bonuses.

I have no fear for Giant Bomb. Jeff has already said that they were very picky about just who they wanted to work with, and even if things don't pan out, they've still left us with years worth of incredible content.

@rm082e said:

@mythrol said:

I just wanted to come in here and say, all you non subscribers, Fuck You. You're the reason this had to happen. You bItch the loudest and yet you did nothing to keep WM in its previous form alive. Always wanting to consume while never contributing to keep it going, well guess what? They had to find another way to keep the site alive. And now you're in an outrage over them having to sell out? Where was your money when GB needed it to stay independent? You shouldn't be upset with corporate Jeff. You should be upset with yourselves.

Dude, come on. Whiskey Media was an Internet Stat-Up. This is exactly what happens in the business model of an Internet Stat-Up. Business guys provide the cash to let the talent build up a website, then after the website gets a steady following they sell it off for more than they invested into it.

This isn't anyone's fault. This is how this thing was always going to go down. It's completely unfair to blame the community for this.

I wish that was their pitch to us when they started asking for subscriptions. When they said "we want to build a better internet" and "we'd like to go into business with you, you support us and we'll support you" myself and others bought in. I wish they had actually said "if you subscribe, we'll have a nice metric and monetized audience to get a lot of money back when we sell it to the awful corporation we left".

FUUUUUUU... You guys are just making me sad now.

@NegativeCero: Boooo!

@JasonR86: You seem to have missed the point of my post. I wasn't trying to answer a question, prove a point, or bring up "facts". I had hoped the "Here's a thought" part would make that clear. How exactly is my combination of conjecture, assumption, and speculation different from everyone else yelling bloody murder about the site dying?

@Ragdrazi: A couple other people already brought up several of the points I would have made to you, so I'll address the personal stuff. Yeah, I am a pretty big scumbag, and what's wrong with me is I once again stooped down to the point of trying to yell at the internet.

@rm082e: I have to say you are incorrect in your assumption that there are plenty of sane, rational people to balance out the scum. A sane and rational person doesn't get into these kinds of banal arguments. You should go read through the comments for the Nolan North interview. Ninety percent of voiced opinions are negative. That is a made up statistic. It is still true.

The GB crew provides us with nothing but entertainment and information, and asks for very little in return. Discussions like this do nothing but shit all over them.

I'm the bad guy for saying this community is fucked up? Oh, OK.

Edit:

@Lunar_Aura said:

All most of us have been doing is consuming and bitching, never really taking part in the creation or maintenance. The lot of us should just go fuck ourselves.

@mythrol: Hey, guess what. This acquisition would've happened if GB got 100 subscribers or 1,000,000 subscribers (and if they got anywhere near the million I bet you this acquisition would've happened even faster, to put it in perspective for you), so fuck you.

@AyKay_47:

'Here's a thought' is not exactly the most obvious qualifier that would explain away the absolutes, which are usually stated based around fact, which followed this apparent qualifier. 'Here's a thought' was followed by;

"Not enough of the "fans" were supporting the site. Money was tight, and the crew had to pick between sticking to their old promises or surviving as a business. Eventually, fan-based income hit a plateau, and they had to look for a bigger financial backer. Jeff picked the best option he had..."

Thus you were actively taking a stance in the overall conversation regarding GB's situation which is what this thread is loosely about. Your 'qualifier' was not clear and it made it appear as if you assumed what you spoke was absolute truth. If that wasn't the case then I suggest wording your responses more clearly.

As for why you're response stood out among the rest was the absolute disrespect you showed the rest of the people responding to this thread and the entire GB community at large. You sounded like an asshole. So, yes, you're response certainly stood out compared to the others. Not because it was full of more speculation, conjecture, or assumptions. But because you sounded like a bully because people were saying things that you disagree with. If this is your normal response to disagreements with others, I suggest not coming back on these forums because, I promise, you will likely disagree with more people sooner rather than later and few will be as patient with your bullshit as I have been.

This thread is full of first world problems and angry man-childs. Good luck.

@JasonR86: Two things.

First, if you didn't get that "Here's a thought" meant that the following statements are meant to paint a hypothetical situation, then I am of the opinion that the fault lies with you. Should I have prefaced every sentence with "Maybe"? I was actively taking a stance against the condemnation of this site to death based on a couple of broken promises, and tried to explain why those promises were broken. Only a sith deals in absolutes.

Second, absolute disrespect and sounding like an asshole. You seem to forget that the people who run this site are, indeed, people. These threads are far more disrespectful to them than I am to this "community", as they are personal attacks on their character. All I did was say most of the people here are scum. I didn't say everyone, so if you thought I was talking about you (anyone reading this) then maybe there's a reason for that. When someone talks shit about anyone I respect or whose opinion I trust, I will most definitely chirp up and call them out on all their bullshit, and if you think this community is full of angels and saints, then maybe you're part of the problem.

@Brodehouse said:

@rm082e said:

@mythrol said:

I just wanted to come in here and say, all you non subscribers, Fuck You. You're the reason this had to happen. You bItch the loudest and yet you did nothing to keep WM in its previous form alive. Always wanting to consume while never contributing to keep it going, well guess what? They had to find another way to keep the site alive. And now you're in an outrage over them having to sell out? Where was your money when GB needed it to stay independent? You shouldn't be upset with corporate Jeff. You should be upset with yourselves.

Dude, come on. Whiskey Media was an Internet Stat-Up. This is exactly what happens in the business model of an Internet Stat-Up. Business guys provide the cash to let the talent build up a website, then after the website gets a steady following they sell it off for more than they invested into it.

This isn't anyone's fault. This is how this thing was always going to go down. It's completely unfair to blame the community for this.

I wish that was their pitch to us when they started asking for subscriptions. When they said "we want to build a better internet" and "we'd like to go into business with you, you support us and we'll support you" myself and others bought in. I wish they had actually said "if you subscribe, we'll have a nice metric and monetized audience to get a lot of money back when we sell it to the awful corporation we left".

I've listed to that podcast more than a few times. Ryan, Jeff and Dave were very clear in saying the subscriber program would help them pay the bills, not completely pay them. It was obvious to me from day one that this was a way for them to supplement their income in a way that was good for the user experience, rather than bad. I'm sorry you didn't fully understand what this whole thing has been about, but they did not misrepresent anything. We've gotten a kick ass website with kick ass content, no ads, and a free shirt each year for less than $5 a month. No matter how I look at that, I don't see a down side...

Man, this idiocy will never end.

I'm sure we all would have loved to see GB go down the shitter without Whiskey Media, being run out of Dave's house until he couldn't stand it any more, then moving to Jeff's garage all the while content getting slower and worse and the guys selling their belongings to pay for the site. Then hey, someone might have thrown them a lifeline by offering to "buy" them and people would still bitch about THE CORPORATIONS, MAAAAAAAAAN.