ResetEra Ownership Update

[Hazardous]

Tbh I'm not that concerned about this. One of the most desirable parts of this forum is that for the most part moderation is good. There are very few places on the internet that will action even basic toxicity so as long as ResetERA still fosters healthy, mature discussion I'll continue to stick around. If that ends up not being the case, I'll just go to wherever people migrate to next.

 

[The Albatross]

yeah, ya think? there are ads out the ass if you don't use an adblocker on desktop. There's apparently a New World skin, there are banner ads at the top and bottom of every page, there are ads mid-thread, and there's a giant fucking footer begging you to subscribe to the ad-free site.

Click to shrink...

"No way, this can't be right"

:: opens safari, goes to website ::

"Yeah, I'm right it's not nearly this ba...."

oooh shit

 

[Uzzy]

We will continue to have autonomy to run the site as we choose, which includes things like limiting the exposure of contentious games. Our plans for Hogwarts haven't been changed.

Click to shrink...

I wasn't concerned, but good to hear nonetheless.

 

[Mindwipe]

We will continue to have autonomy to run the site as we choose, which includes things like limiting the exposure of contentious games. Our plans for Hogwarts haven't been changed.

Click to shrink...

This is not really a compatible statement with Moba's release and what we know of this site's membership trajectory.

Unless Moba have signed something legally binding, this is no more true than Luckey's promises about Facebook and Oculus.

 

[Mifec]

Nope.

Click to shrink...

We will continue to have autonomy to run the site as we choose, which includes things like limiting the exposure of contentious games. Our plans for Hogwarts haven't been changed.

Click to shrink...

Hopefully it's the same as this in a year or two and you don't have to stress about it ever,

 

[StarStorm]

Also interested in an Era discord invite. *cough* *cough*

 

[Plinkerton]

Two of those scrubbed any association with the site and deleted their accounts without announcement in 2019 iirc.

Click to shrink...

Thats even more odd then. It feels weird to me that the site was built on transparency and yet there was this major change in senior management (and ownership?) early on that was just never talked about or communicated to the community.

 

[jett]

I give it a couple years and we'll all be migrating to somewhere new again.

Click to shrink...

Subcommunities have already largely migrated to discords, and some even to their own forums.

I have no idea why these Mobafire people bought this place to begin with, but I imagine they just looked at some figures and have no idea about the state and sustainability of this community.

It's funny looking at some of those other message boards they own and seeing how utterly dead they are. :P

 

[Easy_G]

Someone else fronted all of the costs/risks for this forum to exist, there should be no feeling of ownership or entitlement of this forum other than the damn person that paid to keep the lights on. You all drive me wild sometimes. Yes it doesn't exist without us but it was a zero risk/zero reward for us to be participants. We also have NO idea of how profitable it became and when. Era-Clear introduction could have still been during tough times when other people were selling their stakes (they had a reason to sell their stakes...).

re Community Re-settlers: did a great job but it wasn't THAT much work in the grand scheme of things to hand out invites in Discord channels. I understand it was a few sleepless nights, but that doesn't earn you a share of the forum.

re Mods: can you imagine the thread and the shit-show that would ensue if there was a post saying "Our mods are now being paid," I guarantee the forum would revolt due to recent incidents and start thinking mods were only going to do the bidding of the owner or the major advertisers

Ya'll can't have your cake and eat it too, sorry.

Click to shrink...

That last point is really good. Think of the conspiracies that mods got paid in a quota system for the number of bans they gave.

 

[fertygo]

What change that possibly made ERA bigger than currently is.

GAF has changed to Incel den since exodus and its just barely bigger than ERA splinter site.

Not rocking the boat prolly the best strat for MOBA.

 

[Igniz12]

Were any of the site policies put forward towards the MOBA guys, like, are they still happy with the sites choice to ban talk of the upcoming Harry Potter game for example?

I'm just wondering if there are guarantees that the sites mods still have final say over those kind of things or if management can overrule them

Click to shrink...

Their press statement only talks about all the potential fucking money they are gonna make but I gotta imagine they probably need to be careful how they move forward. 55 000 members aint worth shit if you do something to piss them off and make them leave on mass.

The people that are here are kinda different from your regular sub reddit/hobby forum, this place has a unique history that's tied to its posters. Hopefully the new guys dont wreck too much of it.

 

[Kyuuji]

Said it before but the staff staying is a solid barometer of whether elements held dear to the community and them are able to persist.

 

[rhandino]

I do think is extremely hilarious that they managed to sell a graveyard at such a premium price

 

[Deleted member 97514]

Those ads are insane lol I've never seen one on Era before because I use a blocker.

I would expect things to largely stay the same for now, they surely know it would be very destructive to make a lot of changes to an existing community right away, but if they don't see the growth on their investment they're expecting I can't see that lasting.

Click to shrink...

Totally agree.

 

[Lamptramp]

We will continue to have autonomy to run the site as we choose, which includes things like limiting the exposure of contentious games. Our plans for Hogwarts haven't been changed.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for that Nep, perhaps I was needlessly worried about it, and likely a bit stroppily vocal, but this came out of the blue and it came from a genuine fear that an actual large financial need for as much engagement as possible would be counter to such considerations.

Yep

Click to shrink...

Thanks for this too, with this newws I am not comfortable keeping a work email attached. Can I assume such a change would scrub any "memory" of the old address?

 

[Deleted member 12028]

I just recently went through a buyout at my old job and we heard the same things mentioned in the announcement post.

Nothing will change, blah-blah, etc.

Things changed, some was for the better, some wasn't.

I'm going to wait and see what happens before making a decision on if I leave or not.

Click to shrink...

seriously, they always say nothing will change. In 2007, part of the company I was in was bought by another for billions. Before they said nothing would change. The day of the change ppl were getting phone calls at 4 am telling them they were let go, and in the end 90% of the people lost their job. This place is done.

 

[ZeoVGM]

1. Cancel Tyler.
2. Create a site full of his site's members.
3. Go even woker.
4. Sell all your assets and member information to a toxic MOBA Community investor.
5. Profit.

It's really pretty smart. Enjoy the shitty site everyone!

LET'S GO BRANDON!

Click to shrink...

Some of you guys getting real transparent.

 

[lt519]

It's funny looking at some of those other message boards they own and seeing how utterly dead they are. :P

Click to shrink...

While they aren't buying personal data, they are buying the sites data, traffic information, and posts made. I wonder if there is any inherent value in there as well?

Their press statement only talks about all the potential fucking money they are gonna make but I gotta imagine they probably need to be careful how they move forward. 55 000 members aint worth shit if you do something to piss them off and make them leave on mass.

Click to shrink...

Member count isn't the only metric here, there are a lot of lurkers due to account sign-up requirements.

 

[clay_ghost]

The GAF to Era migration was a one time thing. You can't do migrations like that and retain community.
So it's not gonna happen, not unless the new owners really change things up to a degree that the site becomes unrecognisable.

Click to shrink...

Communities (outside of Sony afaik) were already split with a lot of posters leaving to their individual new forums / discords over the past years.

A new site to replace ERA won't happen/succeed , communities all over the place won't join just another new site when they are contented where they are.

I do think is extremely hilarious that they managed to sell a graveyard at such a premium price

Click to shrink...

You need to update teh graveyard lol.

 

[Apath]

We will continue to have autonomy to run the site as we choose, which includes things like limiting the exposure of contentious games. Our plans for Hogwarts haven't been changed.

Click to shrink...

You cannot promise this.

Article with quotes from the acquiring company:

"We are very excited and proud to welcome Reseteracom -- one of the world's largest gaming forum and community brands -- to our growing number of brands. Resetera.com has great growth potential, and we see significant opportunities to develop Resetera.com, continue to grow traffic flows, improve the sales development and extract synergies within the MOBA Group.

Click to shrink...

MOBA Network saying it wants to look into ways to "increase advertising revenue through a higher share of direct sales, implementation of new ad formats, and a long-term product development strategy."

Click to shrink...

New ownership is under absolutely no obligation to keep anything from the previous regime. They are purchasing this site for the business potential and are looking to grow revenue.

 

[ZeroX]

The GAF to Era migration was a one time thing. You can't do migrations like that and retain community.

Click to shrink...

Uhhhhhh it was the second time it happened, NeoGAF wasn't the first lol

 

[Timeaisis]

Hey everyone remember me. I haven't logged in in like 2 years but some people in this community I still think are cool. You can find me on twitter at @timeachris

Hope y'all have an awesome day and to the management team of this site please kindly fuck off you grifting bastards.

Peace out.

 

[AwShucks]

Subcommunities have already largely migrated to discords, and some even to their own forums

Click to shrink...

I guess eventually I need to install discord...haven't had a good reason to yet.

 

[Deleted member 15311]

Tbh I'm not that concerned about this. One of the most desirable parts of this forum is that for the most part moderation is good. There are very few places on the internet that will action even basic toxicity so as long as ResetERA still fosters healthy, mature discussion I'll continue to stick around. If that ends up not being the case, I'll just go to wherever people migrate to next.

Click to shrink...

 

[Uzzy]

Said it before but the staff staying is a solid barometer of whether elements held dear to the community and them are able to persist.

Click to shrink...

Yup. Till the staff say otherwise I don't see any reason to not trust them that ERA remains ERA. If/when changes come I'll look again.

 

[refusi0n1]

how does one get into the era discord?

 

[KalEl814]

Discord is a terrible forum substitute if a community reaches even a moderate size, it's like trying to mince garlic with a broadsword.

 

[UraMallas]

We can change that email if you want. Paid emails are pretty much only for sign up. As long as you don't have like five posts and all of them somehow got warnings/bans, I'm happy to change it.

Click to shrink...

How do I go about requesting this? Is there a thread somewhere?

 

[oni-link]

Said it before but the staff staying is a solid barometer of whether elements held dear to the community and them are able to persist.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, when GAF blew up you could tell it was over the soon as all the mods stepped down

 

[Arcia]

Wow this has me worried. I don't post very often, but now I'm not sure I want too if I have to worry about all of this too. Vibe killed.

I'm not on any Resetera community discords, so if anyone has some suggestions I'm all ears.

 

[Roz]

Congrats Cerium on the $4.5m W
Commiserations to the mods and anyone else who has put any effort into this forum especially if you are feeling a little bit exploited

 

[fertygo]

How do I go about requesting this? Is there a thread somewhere?

Click to shrink...

The ticket page on sidebar.

 

[Crumrin]

$4.55 million for a bunch of opinionated nerds? I would sell it without looking back...

No, but seriously, looking at these figures and thinking this place is moderated by unpaid staff makes me uncomfortable, I sincerely hope they manage to negotiate some kind of remuneration with the new owner, it's only fair.

 

[Xavi]

I do think is extremely hilarious that they managed to sell a graveyard at such a premium price

Click to shrink...

Gotta add NintendoERA now

 

[Hecht]

How do I go about requesting this? Is there a thread somewhere?

Click to shrink...

Submit a ticket

 

[SFLUFAN]

it's like trying to mince garlic with a broadsword.

Click to shrink...

Don't knock that until you've attempted it!

 

[StarStorm]

Yeah, when GAF blew up you could tell it was over the soon as all the mods stepped down

Click to shrink...

Oh yeah. One mod banned himself and multiple mods stepped down when the issue never got address. It was a clusterfuck.

 

[Muffin]

I do think is extremely hilarious that they managed to sell a graveyard at such a premium price

Click to shrink...

Only a matter of time until the next fuckup causes another community to leave, it is tradition at this point.

Owners wont care though as long as the numbers stay up. Not sure how the number of active members has developed after all that.

 

[wenis]

Lol a company that does business with larger publishers and studios doesn't buy out a large-ish site for 4.5 mill and not expect to exert control over flow of information. First moment a partner isn't happy with how discussion and news generated to larger public outlets (because Era is often cited in news reports enough (this helped bolster a much larger buyout payment) you'll see a tighter leash exerted over discussion.

but hey maybe someone will finally get paid for generating those overly designed and surprisingly not paid for OT's. Someone should get paid for all that design work finally.

 

[Zomba13]

Yup. Till the staff say otherwise I don't see any reason to not trust them that ERA remains ERA. If/when changes come I'll look again.

Click to shrink...

My views on this too. I'm not jumping ship at some perceived boogey man in the distance. If and when the new owners fuck up or make bad changes that affect the users and discourse then I'll think about it but no reason to leave when at least for now nothing will change as far as we can tell. It's not like Cerium was a super active poster popping into threads all the time and has now been forced out or anything.

 

[Spinluck]

It's not like the mods change around or have to deal with any kind of accountability or repercussions to their actions. They would be just fine

Click to shrink...

You sound like you'd be a great mod my guy.

Keep it up 👍🏿

Pay the mods.

Click to shrink...

.

 

[Quinton]

Oh yeah. One mod banned himself and multiple mods stepped down when the issue never got address. It was a clusterfuck.

Click to shrink...

Aye, folks are free to think whatever they like about all of this of course but comparing the GAF situation to this... I don't know. I just really do not see it. That was pure mayhem.

 

[FliX]

How do I go about requesting this? Is there a thread somewhere?

Click to shrink...

Create a ticket on the left hand side of the screen.

 

[Teeth]

To the people that think that mods getting paid and getting "training and guidance" will end up with results that you desire....you should be careful what you wish for.

 

[Deleted member 4461]

So let me get this right. A dude who set up a forum and has done very little of the actual work on the site gets a huge payday while the mods who actually keep the place running get nothing.

How very capitalistic.

Click to shrink...

ERA tends to do this with a lot of leadership, but you can acknowledge someone works hard while also thinking that the people below them should be paid fairly for their own contributions.

Based on the mod posts and how vague they're being on certain things, the one thing they're *clear* about is that Cerium did work hard.

 

[Hazardous]

Click to shrink...

I'm not a part of very many sub-communities here so maybe I'm not knowledgeable about some disputes that have happened, but yes I do seriously mean that. If anything I think they overcorrect some things that they maybe didn't need to go so hard on, but I can't think of another large forum that functions as well as ResetERA does largely in part due to its moderation team.

 

[modoversus]

What a great business model. The content is generated by users, moderated by volunteers.

And they say forums are dead because of Discord.

Anyway, pay the mods.

 

[Dave.]

I'm really impressed to read that the site generated $700,000 USD in ad revenue/year..... That's much higher than I was expecting. I was always expecting a sort of break-even on costs, and not knowing how much the developers are paid that might not be very much, but it's more than I was expecting.

Click to shrink...

We know from the PR there was 80% margin on that $700k, so maybe there is (was) 1 full time paid web dev on staff?

 

[Metanoia Prime]

Welp, it's probably time to keep an eye out for other forums in case this goes sideways. Thanks for the transparency, I guess.

 

[TaterTots]

Eh, I don't see the big deal. What are we going to do? Pack up and go to another forum? If that one turns out moderately successful it would be sold as well.