What will you guys do if SouthPerry dies?

Probably find another forum to lurk around in a lot and rarely post. I don't know. :/

Lurk on basilfail.

Say "and nothing of value was lost" and go on with my other online activities.

I'd be relieved, really. I'd rather have this forum die with Fiel than watch it slowly crumble with the new owner.

Which it probably will. We've already lost some great members from the bad news alone.

Alright, time to be straight with you.

What's been happening here over the past year with a massive influx of culture was not due to anything that I did or caused. It was the community that created culture here. All of you decided that Southperry was something worth caring about, and you all posted here to help shape what Southperry is today. The cultural impact has had a huge influence on administration of the site as well as helped Southperry be a prominent forum for people to visit. So I didn't do this. I didn't create this, and I didn't determine the eventual twists and spins some of the culture would take. I think part of what transpired last year was because SP was exciting, fresh, and new. KoC brought a huge influx of members to the site while the culture of the site was being developed by influential forum members. These two waves collided into the Southperry that you remember. Many members with lots of culture. Of course, some part of the culture was created by me (chinchillas, fruit censors, exploding airplanes), but for the most part it was all you guys.

Another area which has greatly changed over the past year is the R&R. Because there was so much drama and such on the forums, it was a constant step up month to month as these rules had to be changed time and time again. Each reiteration brought more stability to the forums until we have this today - a very stable forum board with respectable rules (though I'm sure there are those who will disagree with that). One side effect of stability is that there's very little craziness. And due to little amounts of craziness or drama, there's not much culture. Most big names become smaller and less infamous, and so forth. So did the rules kill the culture of SP? No, I think it rooted out a lot of the drama, but not the culture. The culture is still here, but less prominent.

Another thing that has changed a lot over the past year is the amount of information and extractions. As of last year about this time, I started doing GMS extractions again. I was able to improve my extraction abilities in the past year to give out more information than ever before. However, a side effect of releasing more information is that it causes users to be passive. Consider places with lots of information like MapleTip and Hidden Street, and you'll see that the large majority of the members that visit the site do not contribute. After all, why should they contribute when the main contributors to the database already do so much? Any contribution anyone else could make would pale in comparison to the original, so there's little contribution. So since I've focused more on information, perhaps that has made users more passive. To prove my point further, in the past year we've also accumulated many more regularly visiting guests but not a whole lot more forum members. This is to be expected.

In the end, I believe there are three parts to a forum --> Administration, Content, and Culture. Too much of any one of these three things will drown out the other two. Last year we had a lot of culture, smaller content, and smaller administration. Now we have a moderate amount of culture, larger amount of content, and moderate amount of administration. All I've done is rebalanced the equation.

If there's anything I would worry about if I were you, it's not the new administration, it's all the doom and gloomers that have been around recently since my announcement. Yeah, it's bad news. But people that just predict doom and gloom do nothing to help the site and destroy it more than any new administration could. This is why I'm not giving out any more dates or timelines for people to latch on to as it would only increase the doom and gloom as time marches onward toward the date. I can't have that, and I don't want it. If you want to kill the culture of Southperry, tell all your friends about the impending doom. Tell them that Southperry sucks and will never live up to how it did this last year. Tell them that all of the "good members" no longer post on the site. Make sure to tell them about the admin's announcement and how bad the new administration will be. All of these things will kill everything. Do it.

Or, if you want to see Southperry continue to succeed, continue posting and keep having a good time here. Let the good times roll and stay chinchillin'. No one wants to be around a place that sucks, and no one wants to be in a forum that's dying omg!

unce unce unce

I understand what you're saying and it makes plenty of sense, but you can't expect us to think positively when you've already made it clear that the website will either be sold or shut down (Having no idea which of these two will occur doesn't help either). It's like having a President that everybody loves. He made peace with Al Qaeda, fixed the economy, and cured cancer. Then, one day he says "Sorry guys, I'm too busy these days to be your leader." How are we supposed to take that? As far as we're all concerned, that guy was the ideal President for this country and there's no hope in anyone else running it as well as he did, and there's no reason for us to think otherwise until we see otherwise. For many of us this place is our home and I can't imagine a change like this being handled any other way. The only people that will look at this situation as positively as you want all of us to are those who dislike you as an administrator and can't wait for you to step down.

You're not really giving yourself enough credit, Fiel. We wouldn't have created a culture around here if you didn't give us a reason to stick around.

But people that just predict doom and gloom do nothing to help the site and destroy it more than any new administration could.

Negativity generally doesn't help in any sitaution, but I wouldn't go that far.

In conclusion, shut up Greg. And screw this thread.
[IMGspoiler]http://imgur.com/ztWFh.jpg[/IMGspoiler]

(Having no idea which of these two will occur doesn't help either)

Luckily, I have found another party that is willing to buy the site and fully meets my qualifications. For privacy sake, I will not identify who the other party is. However, negotiations are going very well. We already agree on much of what the future site should look like. We have proceeded far enough with negotiations that now it's just a matter of writing up a contract between the two of us. The chances of SP going down for good appears slim - very slim - at this point.

So, your argument is "Uncertainty breeds negativity. You created uncertainty, therefore negativity comes." It's a simple argument. I like it. But I think it's flawed.

Look in the past of Southperry. If I am so loved, then why is it assumed that the next administration will be poor? A loved person in a place of leadership usually makes good decisions for his people. Yet it's assumed that the next administration will be terrible for Southperry. So you're either saying that I will make a poor decision for Southperry since the new leadership will be bad or I'm a loved administrator. Which is it?

Now why would I want to harm SP? I've already received exceedingly good offers for the site from Flo and Yotsuba and I turned those down. I could really, really use the money now (got a car to fix), but I'm more interested in what's best for SP than what's best for me. If I were all out for myself, I'd have sold to Flo in a heartbeat and I'd have been gone in a week. But I'm still here! So am I really a loved person who wants the best for the site or am I a bad person who will choose poorly? Or is it both?

We wouldn't have created a culture around here if you didn't give us a reason to stick around.

And what made you want to stick around? What brought you to the site? Was it me? Was it the extractions? Was it the chinchillas - the memes?

In my mind, the reason why people stick around and the glue that holds us together is part culture and part extractions.

Now why would I want to harm SP? I've already received exceedingly good offers for the site from Flo and Yotsuba and I turned those down. I could really, really use the money now (got a car to fix), but I'm more interested in what's best for SP than what's best for me. If I were all out for myself, I'd have sold to Flo in a heartbeat and I'd have been gone in a week. But I'm still here! So am I really a loved person who wants the best for the site or am I a bad person who will choose poorly? Or is it both?

It doesn't have to be one or the other; it falls within the unsettling feeling of uncertainty like everything else. I know you want what's best for this place, and I know that you aren't greedy, but none of that matters. You don't know what'll happen, and neither does whoever you plan on selling to. What if you go out of your way to find who you believe would be the perfect replacement only to see, six months later, that he realized he isn't as interested in the job as he was when he purchased the site? Now Southperry's up for sale again. You probably plan on having the buyer agree to keep the site intact for a certain amount of time before he can make his own decisions on what to do with it, but do you understand what I'm saying? Of course you want what's best, we all do, but the tired "anything can go wrong" concept is so easy to apply that it's difficult to ignore.

And what made you want to stick around? What brought you to the site? Was it me? Was it the extractions? Was it the chinchillas - the memes?

Because this place has turned into a routine for me and I'm still not tired of it. I don't care about Maple Story, half of the userbase is like 12, almost all of my friends from last year's Southperry don't even browse this place anymore; why am I here? Maybe I have a crush on you, Fiel. I don't know.

In conclusion, shut up Greg. And screw this thread.

Your post is rude.

Weeeellll.... i have the asiasoft forums/facebook/spadow. But then my typical morning/everytime i on da interwbz would be like,

"Alright internets, here i come!"
*clicks on google chrome*
*tries to find southperry on the grid bookmarks*
"oh wait... :<"
*dies a little inside everytime this happens*

What makes me comeback - Everything, bee cannon, sarah, greg, bacon, maspan, extractions, southperry being the most updated because of the strong connection with kms players, the smaller community which makes it have less douchebags unlike sleepywood, memes, funhouse, lloyd korn, shut up mars, hypperhopper.

I definitely don't have as strong of a positive feeling towards SP as Greg and some other users do but I'm with Greg on this one, Fiel.

cut myself then jump off a bridge

[color="#000080"]

cut myself then jump off a bridge

Makes sense. [/color]

I definitely don't have as strong of a positive feeling towards SP as Greg and some other users do but I'm with Greg on this one, Fiel.

Agree'd.

People are afraid of change. It's human nature. I think that Fiel is really doing his best here and trying to keep everyone's best interest at heart. Him wanting to move forward with his life shouldn't make anyone feel like they're being left behind. We should be happy for him and have faith in his decisions and confidence that whoever takes over the site will continue to keep Southperry as wonderful as it's always been. <3

I'm not hating or anything, but I think we should be thankfull Fiel is generous enough to run a lax forum. Compaired to Basilmarket, if you even make a peep there you could get instant banned for 5 days.

SP won't really die, for where theres maple, theres extractions, and where theres extractions, theres foreign forum mods looking to post a sticky.

[COLOR="Magenta"]Unfortunately I'd just find a new place to find extractions.
I'd feel sad that Southperry would die, but eventually everything dies.[/COLOR]

I think part of what transpired last year was because SP was exciting, fresh, and new. KoC brought a huge influx of members to the site while the culture of the site was being developed by influential forum members. These two waves collided into the Southperry that you remember.

Fiel, I’ve only been involved with the social section of this forum board since its inception, so you can take this with a grain of salt. I feel that the community has been shaped and supported by the 2008 userbase. Most of the 2009 and the 2010 users, excluding notable individuals like BombsAway (and maybe Tobias), have not really supported Southperry and have stashed themselves away in the Funhouse. Granted, I am oblivious to contributions such as Maple Story guides and other logs which you and a couple of other users such as Takebacker have contributed. It is more than likely that Southperry wouldn’t have a social board if it wasn’t for the hard work of the Maple Story players who gave back to the community. Yet when it comes to shaping an actual entity, the swear filter was implemented by administration back in June or July of 2008 and users such as ClawofBeta who was one of the first members to join was the person who attempted to put together the pieces and introduce catch-phrases for the community. If you choose to refer to this as "culture," then it was really shaped by the old guard. The new members didn't really add much and just supported something that was already a part of the forum board.

Another area which has greatly changed over the past year is the R&R. Because there was so much drama and such on the forums, it was a constant step up month to month as these rules had to be changed time and time again. Each reiteration brought more stability to the forums until we have this today - a very stable forum board with respectable rules (though I'm sure there are those who will disagree with that). One side effect of stability is that there's very little craziness. And due to little amounts of craziness or drama, there's not much culture. Most big names become smaller and less infamous, and so forth. So did the rules kill the culture of SP? No, I think it rooted out a lot of the drama, but not the culture. The culture is still here, but less prominent.

I believe that the rules do have a factor in serving as a deterrent for erratic behavior, but I don’t believe that it is the reason why the forum board has become subdued. Most of the people who were opinionated or contributed have left or stopped posting and the new users that have replaced them simply don’t bring anything new or ingenuitive to the table. Perhaps the greatest collective interest has been in transformice which of course was posted in the Funhouse. Yet transformice is hardly a game that is unique to Southperry and was posted in almost every other forum board that I frequent from time to time. The reason that Southperry simply isn’t as fascinating as it was in the past is because the new users don’t attempt to really redefine or object when interesting things occur on the forum board. Using this thread alone, look at the responses. They don’t really assert a sentimental feeling or an earnest emotion for anything on this board. Do you really believe new rules could really kill a community to this extent?

If there's anything I would worry about if I were you, it's not the new administration, it's all the doom and gloomers that have been around recently since my announcement. Yeah, it's bad news. But people that just predict doom and gloom do nothing to help the site and destroy it more than any new administration could. This is why I'm not giving out any more dates or timelines for people to latch on to as it would only increase the doom and gloom as time marches onward toward the date. I can't have that, and I don't want it. If you want to kill the culture of Southperry, tell all your friends about the impending doom. Tell them that Southperry sucks and will never live up to how it did this last year. Tell them that all of the "good members" no longer post on the site. Make sure to tell them about the admin's announcement and how bad the new administration will be. All of these things will kill everything. Do it.

Fiel, “doom and gloomers” wouldn’t matter if people knew they wanted to remain a member on this community. The fact that the site could possibly close down is just a catalyst that acts on base feelings of regret that have been there long before news of the site possibly going down half a month ago. No one wants to contribute something to a forum board that will be gone next week or make friends with people that they will never see again. It is simply illogical to make social small talk and pretend that things are going to be fine when there is a chance that it won’t work out for the better. Southperry always sucked, but still remained better than other forum boards.