Earlier this week, we set up some new user accounts for people. We did this for a variety of reasons, but the main ones are that people have asked for accounts, and we wanted to try something new. Now, for another variety of reasons, we have shut down some of those accounts.
I was never entirely comfortable with the concept of giving away a bunch of admin accounts on the site, but we had received many requests, and one person in particular accused us of being “elitist,” and suggested that the site would never grow if it remained just the three of us. After talking with Steve about it for awhile, we decided to give accounts to a few people and see how it went.
This is where we got pretty nervous. We were basically giving up editorial control on the site, and we weren’t sure how it would go. To be honest, we didn’t like the way we saw the content level of the site was headed. The more we talked about it, the more I realized how unhappy I was that we had given out so many accounts. We finally came to the conclusion that a smaller number of accounts would be best, and so we left three accounts in place and shut down the rest.
I apologize to any of you who are put off by this decision, but it’s not going to change. This site is not now, nor was it ever intended to be, a large-scale community forum. We feel that retaining these three accounts will provide a nice counter-balance to us, while still maintaining a high level of quality in the posts.
One final thing I would like to point out is that this site is not a democracy. This decision is not open for debate. This is my site. I own the domain. If you don’t like the way I run my site, that’s too bad. I will do what I like with it. The reason I refer to “us” making decisions on the site is that I value Steve and Miles’ opinions, but the final decision on any matter on this site is mine.
I was absolutely stunned that some people felt it was acceptable to criticize the way we run this site, insult us personally and then demand a user account! I don’t owe any of you anything. If you like the way we run this site, that’s great. If you don’t, that’s just too goddamn bad. It’s my site and I’ll run it the way I want to.
I'm a 30-year-old 
Scott, I agree with your decision :~) Good idea, I’ll keep visiting the site!
April 28th, 2001 at 6:58 pm
I’d be surprised if anyone was terribly upset about this (go to kuro5hin, metababy or heck, peons if you want an outlet).Countering the dearth of content with new accounts seemed a little strange though. After all, the content most of us want (from this site) is whatever scott, steve & miles feel like talking about.Keep up the good work!
April 28th, 2001 at 7:24 pm
It’s your site to do with as you wish. I won’t comment on or insult you about that.Which doesn’t stop me from feeling free to zing you about "dearth". See, there’s this book called a dictionary ….. <vbg>I love the Macintosh skin … how about putting that on the E-Burg page?
April 28th, 2001 at 9:05 pm
I got axed. :-/Gee…
April 28th, 2001 at 10:03 pm
Kinda sounds like you manufactured your own problem. Get Questioned.Respond with a bunch of accounts.Decide you don’t like what people are saying (though from the 3 or so extraneous posts i saw, it wasn’t really any different than anything you guys say anyway).Remove bunch of accounts sans three, and redeclare dictatorial rights, while not really changing anything; there are more accounts than before….ummm …ergh?Whatever… my first name will continue to be ‘reply’ !–Alex
April 28th, 2001 at 10:13 pm
best.. decision.. ever!
April 28th, 2001 at 10:47 pm
oof.. "serenity now!"Peer pressure is never a fun thing to deal with. Now that the site’s back to some degree of normalcy, there’s not much point dwelling on it.
April 29th, 2001 at 12:50 am
I’m sorry. I didn’t…..and I’m not even anybody’s girlfriend. *shrugs* Go figure.
April 29th, 2001 at 12:56 pm
That’s right. Of course the site is elitist. We ARE a goddamned elite. Does nobody read all our FOJAR IS POWER / OBEY FOJAR / FOJAR: NOBODY IS BENEATH CONTEMPT rhetoric? Doesn’t the mere existence of "peons.killingmachines.org" provide enough of a hint that we are uncaring, egotistical bastards? Scott, steve, gang, we obviously need to direct more sadism towards our audience.
April 30th, 2001 at 1:16 pm
I agree. As a loyal Peon, I regret to inform you that I simply feel too much freedom to wriggle around under your iron boot heels.To this end, I suggest immediately changing the name of "peons.killingmachines.org" to "thegravelpits.killingmachines.org", in order to institute the proper amount of repression and weight upon our downtrodden shoulders.
April 30th, 2001 at 1:23 pm
We like the macintosh skin, too, but the clock is all messed up on our computer. It doesn’t show the right time, and it’s slowing down our download speed.Mayhap Miles could tweak his code a little bit.
April 30th, 2001 at 1:25 pm
The mac skin is fixed! Hooray! I finally worked out the table bugs by rewriting all the table code from scratch, and Miles solved the irritating little problem where the clock showed an hour fast on PC IE. As for download speed, well, that’s a tradeoff you make. A page with lots of graphics (even small graphics like these ones) takes longer than a page with no graphics. Nothing I can do about that except suggest you get a broadband connection. ;)
April 30th, 2001 at 2:16 pm
I partially fixed the download delay by making it preload the clock images. Next I’ll make it show the date on mouseover. Geekism is mine!
April 30th, 2001 at 6:06 pm
Y’know, it occured to me just now that I could’ve asked for an account when I had the chance. But then I wondered, WHY would I have? I’m READILY willing to admit I’m obscure, and I suck unbelievably when compared to Steve and Miles. That’s why I post here only once in every two blue moons only to be shouted down; Because I’m about as worthy as a gnat compared to ‘em, and it’s not my territory in ANY event. Instead, be glad for what you’ve got, and that you don’t have LESS. You would-be powermongers could be morons enough that the Reply feature is disabled! Shit. Respect and the Golden Rule seem to be getting increasingly "out-of-fashion" lately. Try to remember that this is where it gets you…
May 1st, 2001 at 5:31 pm
hey, emegas!! feel free to post more often!
May 1st, 2001 at 8:31 pm
Eh? Just now you notice? =)
May 2nd, 2001 at 11:28 am