Was Giantbomb part of the CNET Sale?

Yeah, I don't bring it up much because I don't have the moderation logs, and I don't know which people voluntarily use the site less (for the reasons I gave) versus which people involuntarily use the site less (for the reason you gave: they got suspended/banned). Agreed that overzealous moderation seems to be a common complaint of years past, and whether it was true or not, is the reason some people cite that they now discuss the site elsewhere.

Jeff is like Nostradamus, he predicted months ago that they would never return to the office. He was right, just maybe not in the way he was expecting.

Wow, that entire interview is worth listening to from the beginning. His whole experience of being on that plane had me utterly transfixed.

Hope they'll be okay, I love this website and the people that made it awesome! And if it comes to all of them being fired, I'll support them wherever they go.

As long as I can keep listening to some sort of podcast with the "original crew" in the future I'll be happy. I don't remember exactly when the HotSpot started, but I've been listening to these guys run their mouths every week for around 15 years already and it would be weird to stop now.

@isomeri: I think the Hotspot started around summer of 2005. It's a real trip to realize I've been listening to these guys talk about video games on the internet for just over half my life.

2005 seemed about right to me too. I definitely remember hearing them talk about rumors for the 360, PS3 and "Nintendo Revolution".

Obviously hoping for the best but sites moving owner always make me uneasy. I remember when GB was acquired by CBS Interactive I was quite worried but it actually turned out quite well. I suppose the main concern might be the new owner would want to merge GameSpot and Giant Bomb together, when they've always been very different entities despite covering similar topics.

@landhawk: Came here to say this. RORIE!!!

Also, in general, I feel like GB is so personality-driven that even if the brand itself were to shut down, the crew could take their following elsewhere without much difficulty (unless there's some weird noncompete language in their contracts or something).

Wow, yeah, just heard about CNet sale this morning on the news. Waiting with bated breath for the next things to come.

Depending on where they are going and hoping they have an easy landing. I wonder if they will keep the 2 coasts or consolidate again?

Good Luck GB crew, just another thing to add to 2020 for being a strange year. I can't even imagine going through a sale with social distancing this year.

@temg99: Pretty sure part of the CBS deal with Whiskey was that Jeff maintains control of all Giant Bomb content, past and future. Jeff should be the owner of the archive.

@heghmohqib: Under CBS I've always wondered just how much of the site's creative control is internal, and how much gets dictated to them by brand managers or whatever. Of course it seems like CBS has had a fairly light touch, but it's one of those things we'll never know. It feels like, at least up until COVID up-ended the world, that GB's programming has tended to get a bit... less adventurous and experimental over the years (Dan stuff aside, who really pushed creative content out there quite often), but that could either be a symptom of 1.) the site taking its initial few years to find its footing and 2.) the group just kinda getting older and more static in general. Ryan's untimely passing probably also had an effect, he just seemed like a guy who was all about straight-up having a blast with everything he did.

I often look back at early GB stuff fondly because it had kind of a scrappy feel to it. While I don't really need to see that come back (for the sake of everyone's peace of mind re: job security, mainly), I would like to see if new owners maybe let the team feel empowered to *get weird* again in a good way.

The forums have been dead for almost a decade now

Also, the overzealousness of some of the moderation on here drove a lot of people away

A lot of effort has gone into ruining the community and driving people from the forum and wikis, from site design changes that killed off very popular features like quests to the methods and behavior and tone of moderation (glad to see I'm not the only one who sees that glaring issue via a few responses on here, and it has been a glaring issue for YEARS for the same reasons and nothing has ever been done about it). It's pretty sad.

Even though they seemed to be actively working against having a community and trying not to engage with it (post Ryan) it still soldiered on for years but what you see now is the result of years of atrophy and no one at GB caring about this stuff enough. It was squandered badly.

@sweetz: I agree with your points although they have made great strides in the past only 2-3 weeks when they finally said we have to get back to group content. I worry about the site in the same way though, so.

Glad this thread has slowly become the place where people passive aggressively complain about moderation and claim the site doesn't care about "having a community"(whatever that means). Having gone to the Giant Bomb reddit every once and a while, I'm thankful for some heavy handed moderation weeding out the clowns. Because when that subreddit sucks, it super sucks.

When the forums used to be populated with known people, it was amazing. You used to know individual people and it was a real sense of community. I could pick out ten names right now that I actively remember.

Nowadays I don't think I know a single notable forum name

jeff speaks

Anonymous asked:

We all have our radios tuned to the Jeff Zone looking for a transmission from our glorious leader.

You probably know just about as much as I do at this point, I mean I just woke up to a bunch of meeting invites, some of which I’m going to have to miss because I’m out for most of this week handling family things.

Anyway, we’re part of the sale, in case there was any question around that. I’m tentatively excited, I guess I’d say? There’s potential in the site that’s never been realized and I think some new owners might be able to help with that.

My only real concerns are that we probably aren’t going to remain under the same roof as Garfield and hopefully we’ll have a less-restrictive mobile device policy so I can more easily check emails on my phone.

https://jeff.zone/post/629248131375169536/we-all-have-our-radios-tuned-to-the-jeff-zone

@sombre: That is weird, because I recognize a bunch of site regulars in this thread alone. I get it the appeal of a fun community/group. There was a 2 year time period of Team Liquid's Dota site where we had thing called the disaster stack where a rotating group of very good players and true dead weight all played Dota 2. The games were hysterically terrible, but with some of the highest highs when a very bad player managed a stunning play.

I love that time I spent with Dota 2 and my friends at Team Liquid, but I can't recreate it. Some folks blamed Valve for "changing the game" but the reality is that 2 years is a long time and are in difference places. I'm married and own a house now. A bunch of them have real people jobs. Dota 2 is still the trash fire it always has been. It just no longer fit in our lives.

Maybe I just remember the forums when it was people like Claude, Sweep, Hamz, AgentJ, Bruce. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the userbase has diluted so much now with random people that it's hard to know anyone on the forums anymore

My understanding is that all of the Game Tapes stuff was owned by Gamespot and Jeff and crew were just raiding their back catalog for fun.

But if you mean GB content itself? Completely depends on the specific language of the original GB sale. For example, Jeff may have complete editorial control, but CNET actually owns the copyright to any content he produces.

I think one of the clearest signs of them in negotiation for any back catalog stuff would be GB Infinite temporarily going dark while they work out the details.

I just want to know, having some understanding whats been going on with Viacom specifically VicomCBS online content. They have been switching things up and selling lots of properties and licensing much of their content out as well. I get the feeling they are selling off these companies as, they just have no interest in them and want to give them to companies that can do something better with the content these companies offer, as it doesn't fit there online strategy. I am concerned sure, but this could really give Giant Bomb a better opportunity here than CBS Interactive ever did.

@temg99: I wouldn’t be too sure about that. There will be a lot of things in flux when the big move begins in both offices.

@sombre: and Biff! RIP to all the other-mother fuckers.

@tonal: I haven't heard this interview, but i've heard the content before. I am NOT speaking for the company at all. I cant do that, but ill just drop how i personally take that. The whole 'go to zero' thing seems to me to just be a realization that he knows there are more important things to life than just pure profit.

Its almost like that 'work hard play hard' bullshit you see at other companies, except we dont do that. Its more 'when you're in the office, give it 110 percent, then kindly fuck off and live your life when you're not here please'.

I had a 1:1 with Ric a few months ago. First question? How was my team's mental health holding up w/ Rona + Police Brutality stuff. We talked about a bunch of personal stuff, and then he told me he didn't think i was taking enough time off and chided me for it.

Maybe its all some sort of real good reverse psychology and im a chump, but it made me happy. Again, i know corporations arent our friends. I don't think Mr. Elias is some sort of magical superhuman guru of business, he just seems like a REALLY GOOD businessman who gives a shit about his kids and family too. I assume the hudson crash has a lot to do with that, but i see enough day to day action from him to not think its a front.

I should probably just go back to lurking the forums and chat. My post from before has now made the rounds on the internet and gotten posted all over the place. Im not in trouble but i do wish my company hadn't seen such an expletive laden post. Its a bit awk.

Hope it all works out for everyone, bye yall.

@squigiliwams: Hey, thanks a lot for sharing your experiences and thoughts on this. You didn't have to it and it's nice that you did. Hope there's no backlash.

@squigiliwams: Good luck my man and hope everyone takes the post in stride. And if anyone ask why GB fans is so concerned about the purchase, tell them about the last buyout of a company that had a video game website: the G/O media purchase, their clown show CEO, Jim Spanfeller and how he killed Deadspin. There is nothing like the entire writing staff of a highly profitable and beloved website resigning the same day in protest to show how bad people think it could go.

@squigiliwams: I imagine that's why the staff are so hesitant to engage directly with the community in an official capacity (EDIT: I mean it sucks being held accountable for an employer's every action when you're just trying to make ends meet). Thanks for being honest, I guess.

Funny how I was a subscriber at the last purchase as well and that seemed more bleak (Jeff selling out to the MAN haha) so I canceled my subscription.

Geek speculation follows:

Much respect to the developers/engineers/designers updating the site but it kind of seems that CBS-I put the site on a back burner as the unwanted stepchild (technology wise) of Gamespot for a few years after the rewrite to PHP in circa 2014. I would hope there might be a more future-proof plan to migrate to a reactive framework for the frontend if they get the resources this time? Having the backend game encyclopedia API that Twitch uses has to mean something right? Even if it means charging Amazon for requests (which I guess they already do)?

Anyways, good luck staff. I hope it works out if we survive 2020. If anything we might see interns again, right?

The Giant Bomb forum has followed the trajectory of every ten-year-old forum on the internet in 2020. Its activity should not be assumed to be a good metric of the business' success or failure. This finger-pointing at overactive moderation by the self-identified 'power users', lamentations for the loss of the personalities that once populated the forum, and concerns about the waning interest by ownership in the forum itself is the same narrative I've experienced on every forum I've ever been on since 1998. This is not a marker of the community's cultural evolution or decline, it's just intrinsic to forums themselves.

There isn't a BB-style forum in existence that is more active now than it was ten years ago, and the rate of a forum's activity decay will only increase as socialization on the internet continues to evolve.

@thesquarepear: That made me think, what if they went and sold giant bomb to twitch/amazon? That's a scary thought or could be cool?

Yup. I agree 100%. It has nothing to do with moderation.

Heck, I've been on forums (and BBS) since '91 (technically earlier, but didn't really get into them regularly until '91). This trending has been around since the earliest days of dialup. The only things keeping forums back then was a massive and continual influx of new users, which just does not happen. Now? Every forum is dying because of social media.

@squigiliwams: Thanks for the reply and insider context! Hope all ends up well for you. Though I do want to say the contents of your posts do not warranty any type of retaliation at all from what I remember reading at least, so I would sincerely hope your company or anyone with in it wouldn't have any problems with it. If they do it would bother me personally if I was in your shoes.

I'm just voicing my concern. In the end we will find out what's up with how everything gets handled when it come to GB and CNET sale.

It doesn't help that it feels as though the staff have an active disdain for the users in the forum/reddit nowadays.

Obviously forums aren't what they were 10 years ago. But they clearly made a lot of choices over time, and it's always been kind of set up by the above sentiment. It's not just general forum decline.

Yeah that's true. The forums suffered when they started burying them on the website. The forums/wiki/quests used to have pride of place on the main site, now it's some bloated carousel of random videos

If you've ever read GB reddit, you shouldn't be wondering why staff members don't post much on GB reddit.

@sombre: I personally disagree there.

All I ask is you step back and look hard if it is true disdain, or tiredness due to age, stress, personal life, and doing this for more than two decades. To recognize that they have worked through a literal generational change in users (the oldest of their fans have kids who are getting into being fans). That many of the same arguments come up again and again and again... and that can be damn tiring to deal with on a regular basis.

But really this is all off-topic for this post.

Bringing it back to the sale: I am happy for them. It sounded like under CBSi they were suffering for a budget. My hope is that after they get through whatever mergers happen they can move forward with new ideas and new opportunities to try new things. My guess is they will be doing it from home. but I have faith they will dream up new ways to still stay connected.

Going out on a limb to suggest there probably won't be any major changes to the staff.

The mod team, however...

The hamburger has a face and it looks happy. 100% on the Great Place to Work Survey is guaranteed.

My only real concerns are that we probably aren’t going to remain under the same roof as Garfield

https://jeff.zone/post/629248131375169536/we-all-have-our-radios-tuned-to-the-jeff-zone

@frytup: The few times I went to visit a lot of the threads..?.. topics there seemed to be incredibly positive to an alarming degree? Which I guess is better than other places that skew so negatively it is comical to read.

@sombre: I can recommend Fourthline as an interesting figure on the forums to follow. Tends to create some interesting thought excersizes on the forums and his thread on Ray-tracing even made Brad chime in.

He is the new Hitmanagent47

@thesquarepear: twitch doesn't use giant bomb anymore...