SFGHQ Forumer: “Forgive Me” Over English Gaffe
Tristan Oliver, Founder | October 6, 2008
Portuguese Forumer Responds on Board
The story we carried regarding a member policy of the Sonic Fan Games HQ to only speak English that caused so much controversy in the Sonic community has a small, albeit important update. We wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t bring you the follow-up.
Dragonsky00, the Portuguese SFGHQ forumer who took some heat from administrator Slingerland after asking in both Portuguese and English for comment on his fan game project, stopped just short of an apology early last week for the trouble. His post, unedited:
Excuse me if I was inconviniente with the double posts, I already picked out and about the only Sonic I prefer the style of Sonic S3 & K, and forgive me for not knowing English so well
Dragonsky00 edited his original posts and deleted anything not in English. Slingerland’s original comments remain.
TUESDAY AM UPDATE: After this article was originally published, Slingerland responded to Dragonsky00’s latest post to clarify his position:
It’s fine and actually, you type English rather well. There’s a difference between being able to understand you and completely broken English. We all know what you have been saying. It’s just silly to post the Portuguese translations on an English speaking forum. My comment was for the sake of neatness. I sent you a PM explaining the preceding statements when I said it.
You’re cool. You don’t have to ask for forgiveness, because you were never in trouble [...]
With that, we consider this story complete.
Many who commented on the original story were overwhelmingly in favor of the SFGHQ policy. If you wish, feel free to continue the discussion below.
Filed Under Sonic Fan Flash, Sonic Scene
Slow news day?
Nah…just following a story from start to finish.
Theoretically, I ought to be taking more criticism if I didn’t run this.
-T
Kindly remove the SFGHQ affiliation button from your website.
Thanks in advance;
=Smidge=
Didn’t we get over this “situation” already? Why did it need to be brought up again?
Um
There was an update to the story?
And quite honestly, given the context (and how I think it reaffirms the support of those who back the policy), I’d feel bad if I didn’t write an update.
I know there’s division over whether we should do these types of stories, but I strongly believe that we have a responsibility to cover the good, bad, and ugly of community affairs. It’s the only way to keep things fair. We’ve done it in years past, and on matters worse than this (or more farcical, depending on your train of thought) and no one seemed to take issue.
I think of it this way–the Sonic community as a whole, understandably, has taken an especially critical view of the mascot and the company that gained a reputation from him–sometimes to almost asinine levels. Why then, are we suddenly not allowed to apply that same critical eye to the community at large? That seems a bit…well, hypocritical.
I’ll continue to do these types of stories from beginning to end–and further, I’ll continue to allow the debate and discussion surrounding these types of stories, as I believe in freedom of speech and the civil exchange of ideas. I understand that no one likes their site or person being perceived as getting a negative portrayal, but remember–the only one forcing you to click that link, and read that story, is you. You’re beyond my help otherwise.
-T
Thing is, this isn’t good, bad, or ugly. Anyway, as far as the critical eye is concerned, I don’t see how horrendously bad video games compare to a forum asking people not to require an interpreter to be understood.
But thats enough. I’ve had about as much of this topic as I can stomach and I really doubt anyone gives a damn anyway.
I think someone should ban Tristan from our forums. He’s acting very childish.
“SFGHQ” Is not the Sonic Community at large. It’s been obvious from your recent stories you simply don’t have anything interesting to talk about.
So what? he apologized and accepted the rules of the forum he registered to (which ask that you understand the rules to begin with prior to registration)
-> That’s cause for a whole article being written about it?
I think you need to re-evaluate your definition of “what people care about”
this wasn’t a problem until you made it one and the fact that we’d be angry about no follow-up is ridiculous.
Huepow00 is right Tristan, you made such a big deal of all this and if you continue to write articles about small things like this you will just show that you really have nothing interesting to write about.
To be fair, at least the stories just reported the issue and let people decide if it was a good policy or not. He didn’t go on a rant about it being unfair…he didn’t even editorialize it. As a reader of the site, I thought it was interesting. And I support people having to speak English on an English site, I feel that I’ve ran into German Sonic sites or deutch Sonic sites. Heck, I’d like to visit Sonic Channel but I can’t. That said, I’d never ask anyone else to include English so I shouldn’t have to read spanish.
But seriously, while the story might not seem like news…it was interesting and I didn’t see anything wrong with bringing it up to disscuss. If you’re right in your policy, than it seems like you’ve been backed up by what’s occured.
I tried really, really hard to make a coherent and logical argument about your methods and motives, Tristan. I really did. I probably read your comment two dozen times over the past half hour trying to figure out exactly what it is you’re thinking.
I’m sorry, but I just can’t do it any better than Slingerland already has: You’re just being a douchebag. The tone, context and lack of substance or even actual research of these “articles” puts you just above the average Digg commenter in terms of professional integrity.
I bet you’re sitting in front of your monitor right now with the biggest shit-eating grin on your face that human anatomy will allow. I’m happy for your successful trolling of the Sonic community.
On that note I respectfully ask that any member of SFGHQ forums refrain from making further comments on any of these “articles.” Of course I can’t force you, but please take it as a humble request for the well being of our community.
=Smidge=
That’s it. I’ve fucking had it. With all the misreporting on community happenings, I thought the Tweaker resigning article was the last straw. No, this one is.
Go to fucking hell, Tristan. Nobody would be angry if you didn’t post it, because everybody thought it was goddamn ridiculous. In fact, we had all finished discussing it LAST WEEK. It was over. Done. Finished.
To compare a bunch of hobbyist forums, where nerds jabber on and on in their free time, to the commerical and critical success of a video game franchise is absolutely ridiculous. It is preposterous that you draw a connection between those two completely different things. In fact, that’s why Sonic forums exist! To discuss Sonic! If he’s doing bad, then that’s what we’re going to do!
We create our own drama and you just manifested more for us. It wasn’t a problem. Ever. You made it a problem. My problem isn’t with “English Only” bullshit, it is with you. You are a slandering, muckraking shell of a man who has nothing else better to do than to meddle in the affairs of a forum many thought was dead. I don’t care that you’re talking about me, because you have and are still calling our community a bunch of racists. That’s just plain untrue.
I want an apology right now. I do NOT care about catching you in the act, exploiting your incorrectness to the world, but rather, getting some closure for the community that I appreciate so much. You have called them all something that they are not. By that same token, your “stories” and their negative perspective have probably deterred some people from joining SFGHQ. Great job, douchebag.
You are not a real journalist. Quit using TSSZ as a means of living that dream that you will never attain, because you falsify everything. As a result, your site is a joke. An absolute joke. Get bent, please. Have Paul and Andrew write news stories, because they don’t suck complete dick at it.
—
Attention: Ryan Bloom - Do you see what I mean now? Honestly? Is this shit really happening? Cut this shit out.
Well…
Do you (”you” being anyone here who’s an SFGHQ admin or mod) forgive him?
-T
Answering that question would only justify your bullshit non-story. DIAF.
=Smidge=
He was never in trouble to begin with, so there’s no need to forgive him.
http://www.sonicfangameshq.com/forum/showpost.php?p=99659&postcount=26
DIAF.
Hola. Soy un fangamer de México. Quisiera ensamblar el tablero de mensaje acústico de las jefaturas de Fangames. He tenido gusto siempre del erizo acústico y mucho gozaría el comenzar encima de un fangame acústico amistoso de habla hispana.
This just in! A member from SFGHQ has had mac and cheese for lunch.
Member stated that it was “too cheesy for his own good.” More to follow.
I can’t believe you actually brought this crap up again. It’s not relevant news. <_<
#RED BANNER OF ATTENTION#
————> Too Cheesy?<————
+Douchebag, Founder | Date Uninportant.
A New development today over SFGHQ member’s mac and cheese, as reported [earlier].
According to the member in question in response to our earlier claim, the cheese was infact Not to cheesy for his own good.
Moderator Slingerland acknowledged that the cheese was deceptivly thick looking at first glance - but upon further study showed to be nothing more than a compliation of numerous articles from TSSZ. In response the cheese was banned from SFGHQ until further notice. This again marks a time when we have focused on SFGHQ and its policies on cheese tolerance, despite there being various other Sonic forums and communities with which to obtain seemingly credible information.
As far the articles in question we are looking into the matter and will be sure to make a big deal about it once nobody cares anymore.
-D
Even though I don’t like the story’s brought over from the community, I wanted an ending to this. I as a reader, wanted an ending to this story.
Now that there is and end, PLEASE, don’t do it again. I liked it better before you started doing this.
Unless for some reason you like angering the members of these forums. than I plan to not come back here, because this will become a war zone.
“By that same token, your “stories” and their negative perspective have probably deterred some people from joining SFGHQ. Great job, douchebag.”
Tristan’s stories? Nah. Your responses to them? Yah.
I would say that we have already gone over this subject and its non importance, but I think that everyone above have already covered that. This trivial SFGHQ stuff is getting pretty old, you know?
Guess even slow news spreads quickly.
=D
No kidding its funny he’s finding all this shit on SFGHQ and not Sonic Stadium or SonicHQ or any other big sonic site. I think at this point anyone can discern that Tristan is being an ass on purpose. I say:
Ban Him we don’t need a shit faced guy liked that around SFGHQ.
It’s not news, it’s tssznews.com.
A lot of people in here seriously need to settle down. For a story people claim only gets posted on a “slow news day”, you people sure make a lot of commotion about it.
This one doesn’t even have anything negative in it. Some of you people aren’t even being logical anymore. In my personal opinion, the lot of you just need to get over it - if this isn’t “big news”, then stop making such a big deal about it. You’re just rubbing salt in your own wounds.
OOOOR…alternatively, Tristan could have just not run the story, since we all got over it last week.
I seriously cannot comprehend why you are defending him, Ryan. Do you understand the subtext in these articles? Do you not see the mountains made from mole hills?
What happened to you?
Do you forget that I’m also from SFGHQ? That means he’s “accusing” me, too. Do you see me spewing vitriol? Do you see me yelling and screaming over this?
Do you not understand that your simple policy has implications that reach beyond your initial scope of them? Yes, forum convenience is great and all, but there’s a lot of things that would be “convenient” that a lot of people would consider wrong. I mean, hey, I’ve got a convenient way to solve over population! You may not want to hear it, though…
I’ve said it in the past through PMs and the like - you’ve made good points. But so has Tristan. Don’t pretend like I’m suddenly on somebody’s side. But when a bunch of people come in here with their torches and their pitchforks on a story that isn’t even saying anything negative…
I mean, c’mon. Banning Tristan from SFGHQ? After that, are people going to be calling for me to get banned, too? That’s a voice of reason if I ever heard one. The comments on these articles quickly grow out of control and you don’t help matters any.
In reality, nothing happened to me. You, on the other hand, have had problems with this site long before this drama bomb ever detonated. Other people in these comments are claiming this shouldn’t be a big deal, and yet here they are, making it a big deal. You want to talk a mountain out of a mole hill? Take a look at some of these comments, here.
Yes, the rule was enacted to simplify your job (my job, too, as I am a moderator at SFGHQ and occasionally, do moderation), but I can see Tristan’s point here - there’s a bigger picture that this rule paints of the SFGHQ community.
There is no misreporting here. We are not fabricating the news. There are no stories being “made up”. Fluffed up, maybe, but citing the article about Tweaker leaving and then coming back - the news was reported with what information there was at the time. This article in itself contains what I see as no bias whatsoever; it contains a direct quote from the person itself and says nothing negative about SFGHQ, the person posting, or you yourself. It recaps the events up until now and provides an update on the situation. You really did give this Dragonskye guy “some heat” regarding his use of english on the forum. He apologized and removed all of his non-english comments.
That is what happened and that is what the article says. Where’s the problem? Furthermore, did you magically grow internet ears so you can infer tone of voice simply from text? Need I remind you how your comments on my Shadow the Hedgehog review made me feel - even though that was not your intention?
Regardless of who is right or wrong (or if there can even be a “right side” and a “wrong side”), cooler heads need to prevail or else this is just going to get more sore.
Internet: Serious Business.
“Fluffed up, maybe, but citing the article about Tweaker leaving and then coming back - the news was reported with what information there was at the time.”
The problem here is that the “news”… wasn’t news-worthy. The problem is that there are being articles made on affairs that, quite frankly, are none of this websites’ business. As such, it appears extremely disrespectful and irritating for Tristan to continue reporting these stories despite people clearly stating this. The fact of the matter is, Tristan is feeding off the attention his website is getting from this, even though it’s negative. Publicity is publicity, no matter the light it’s shone under. That’s the whole problem.
TSSZ was popular enough before it started stirring up drama with other websites. Why does contained and isolated forum drama need to be brought to the attention of a bunch of people that, quite frankly, it doesn’t concern? I think this whole situation is dumb as shit, but you don’t see me making news articles on Retro about it. God knows that TSSZ pulling this bullshit is a hell of a lot more worthy of public attention than a forum moderator doing their job.
All these factors strung together make it quite obvious, despite how much you deny it, that you have a very clear bias against, if not SFGHQ as a whole, Slingerland as a person. I can gather this pretty simply because he bashed your “report first, ask questions later” style of journalism in the past (quite publicly, I might add). I consider the reports on Sonic Retro a simple warning–”Pull the same shit, and you might be next!” sort of deal. You can call it paranoia all you want, but I certainly have enough of a reasonable basis to adopt that viewpoint…
You can consider forum affairs worthy of attention when attention is drawn to them on their specific forums. If I make an announcement saying I resigned from my admin position, then it becomes appropriate to make a story about it. If Slingerland posts an announcement with full intentions for it to be seen by the public at large (like on the main SFGHQ website) and the desire for the news to be spread at large, then it becomes appropriate to make a news story. But never is it appropriate to go brown nosing in other communities and report what you arbitrarily consider “news-worthy” just so you can get a few extra page views during the day. That’s some shady crap if I’ve ever seen it.
If TSSZ wishes to be seen as a respectable news source, then it should act like one. It was doing a pretty good job at that before this whole situation started.
“The problem here is that the “news”… wasn’t news-worthy. The problem is that there are being articles made on affairs that, quite frankly, are none of this websites’ business. As such, it appears extremely disrespectful and irritating for Tristan to continue reporting these stories despite people clearly stating this. The fact of the matter is, Tristan is feeding off the attention his website is getting from this, even though it’s negative. Publicity is publicity, no matter the light it’s shone under. That’s the whole problem.”
As much as I’d like to just agree with you, this is the same thing I told Overbound when he demanded TSSZ take down the review for Sonic: Time Twisted. People all over the world do things they’d rather not see news outlets pick up on. But when they do… well, that’s just the way news works. Nowhere is it written that just because you don’t like it, that means it cannot be printed. That is how this stuff works, I’m afraid.
As for “Brown nosing”, what he got was visible in a public forum, wasn’t it? If it wasn’t… well, I’m sure Tristan feels differently, but I don’t know if I would’ve reported on that. Speaking personally, the last thing I want to happen to the Sonic community at large is for people to start being afraid of doing things or posting things for fear it will become a TSSZ headline.
Regardless, however, I haven’t ever really seen any bias in any of these articles. Again, I constantly go back to how you can’t really understand tone of voice over the internet and I think certain people are inferring negative context where there isn’t any.
My two cents: People won’t care about an act of discipline at some forum. I honestly don’t see how a miniscule (resolved, I may add) situation at a forum counts as noteworthy news.
This is a pretty good site - I visit everyday. TSSZ was the first to shed light on Nintendo Power’s Sonic Chronicles review. This is a worthy source for Sonic news. Don’t ruin that with unnecessary news that really had no noteworthy importance, including some little thing from a forum.
lol Sonic fans
“I mean, c’mon. Banning Tristan from SFGHQ? After that, are people going to be calling for me to get banned, too? That’s a voice of reason if I ever heard one. The comments on these articles quickly grow out of control and you don’t help matters any.”
Nobody was ever going to do that. Ever. Nobody can get banned for doing something outside the forum, unless it is trying to sell fangames on eBay or some shit like that (which has actually happened). If I banned you and him from SFGHQ for this trash, it would…end up on this trash site as a “controversial ban omg.”
Basically, this all boils down to page hits. Tristan is fucking rolling in hits at the expense of the reputation of another forum and the clear heads of all of us. You want to go out and call this whole situation childish, Ryan, be my guest. However, let’s look at the fact that we all got over it last week (I never e-mailed Tristan to shut the fuck up) and now it is back with a vengeance. I’ve never seen such a dick move pulled on the internet. Digging up an argument that his since past and LOST by TSSZ. The reporting in forums has been met with RESOUNDING numbers in opposition. Hell, I’d say that you are the sole supporter of anything this douchebag posts.
Smidge removed our affiliation. The entire SFGHQ community (sans you) hates this place. People of OTHER communities now hate this place. Dreadknux front paged Tristan’s bogus actions (even though we have a policy of not encouraging inter-site drama on the TSS front page, which this site should SERIOUSLY adopt by the way, it became too strong to not at least acknowledge that it continues to happen).
Don’t report on little tiffs we have at the forum. Especially when they don’t MEAN ANYTHING (aka right now). I’ve said it 100 times already: it wasn’t a problem until Tristan MADE it a problem. It’s in our forum rules. They should read them. You of all people, Ryan, should know from my modding the past 2.5 years that I am incredibly blunt. Two things people already know isn’t news.
Oh, it’s funny that you bring your Shadow review up. Funny how I actually apologized for that. Using your review as a way to stab at Tristan’s bullshit was uncalled for and you already read that in a PM. You know who else should apologize? Tristan. That’d be a novel idea, seeing is how nobody here is agreeing with the article’s publication.
In summation, Tristan: apologize, get the fuck out of our communities unless you have something constructive to say, and DIAF. D…I…A…F.
Did I mention DIAF?
wow.
Tristan has so totally trolled the hell out of you lot. I don’t know what’s funnier, the articles, or the totally tl;dr responses!
TL;DR: lol Sonic fans
Fuck off, Aquaslash.
I really want to be on your side, Slingerland, but you’re making this increasingly difficult for me.
Go ahead and assume whatever you want, kick up as much dirt as you can, stomp around and beat your chest. You come over here and you keep saying, “oh this is a mountain out of a mole hill”. What are YOU making it? You come in here and take a story that was probably already blown out of proportion and you blow it even further out of proportion. If it’s not a problem, don’t let it be a problem - and ESPECIALLY don’t just go make the problem worse.
If you’re so worried about your reputation, why don’t you do something about it instead of throwing a temper tantrum? If you honestly think Tristan is slinging mud (which, hey, guess what! You don’t actually know the guy), where does it get you if you just end up slinging mud back? I’d say you’re doing more to damage your reputation by handling this unprofessionally with all this “TRISTAN IS A DOUCHE BAG” and “DIE IN A FIRE” stuff.
Get a grip and stop being such a drama queen.
Incidentally, I would like to clarify, that I know you, personally, Slingerland, did not mention banning Tristan. Overbound did. However, Overbound is, as I recall, a friend of yours, he is fighting for your side, and what he is saying is representing how out of control this is getting.
I figured I better get that cleared up.
I don’t see how a comment from Overbound, someone who obviously has no administrative place in SFGHQ, suddenly makes us a bunch of ban happy people, or shows any sign of anyone out of control. Its not in our control in the first place to monitor what he says here. Its you guys and your comment moderation.
My opinion is that if Tristan is acting this bad on his own website something he probably has some pride in imagine how he could start acting in the forums I was thinking of nipping this in the bud. Plus if he was banned he couldn’t read all the forum posts without going to a lot of trouble.
But that’s just my two cents and its not representative of SFGHQ as a whole.
Wow. If anyone wants to know why I don’t hang around much anymore, see this thread.
This requires no different a response than kids calling you names on the playground. Ignore it, and it’ll go away. People pay attention to what you do, not what you say or what is said about you. Do you think I became known for my talk?
Hey Overbound, its called guest viewing. Banning just prevents people from posting. You can stop now.
Since tssz seems to be the home of plurality and its free of prejudice and discrimination, i will make my comment in Spanish, my beloved mother tongue.
Pobrecito ese tal DragonSky00, que clase de monstruo horrible puede obligarlo a hablar inglés, ¡EN UN FORO EN INGLÉS! (nótese el tono sarcástico)
Por favor, todo esta situación es completamente absurda y ridícula. Como bien expresó DimensionWarped en un post anterior, el tema de “forzar” el uso del idioma anglosajón es simplemente una cuestión de comunicación, ya que nos guste o no, el inglés es reconocido como Lingua Franca mundial. Además de el hecho de que existen muchos otros foros de la misma temática en otros idiomas, y la obviedad de que formar parte de SFGHQ es un privilegio, no un derecho.
Tristan, deja de postear estupideces, solo quedas como un tonto
Hey ila you can stop now.
Don’t be rude to me you have no control over me here, I have done nothing wrong in stating my opinion. At any rate you can turn off guest viewing. I was not aware whether it was on or off on SFGHQ because I’m usually always logged in and do not pay attention to such things.
Internet - Serious business…
“Internet - Serious business…”
How many people does it take to realize that that jokes already been used (ironically, by myself.) Just stop already.
Hey Tristan,
I’ve been annoyed by two different SFGHQ’ers on this subject and it’s getting on my nerves. Stop your stupid trivial reportings on SFGHQ. If I hear another complaint and see more bullshit I’m just going to run this place down with traffic for so long Dreamhost will drop you like a bad habit. There’s no more warnings after this.
(EDIT)
Jesus Christ, I’ve only been here for a day, and already I can tell that the owner is a massive —-.
Tristian, go to school for journalism or something, you sir suck major wanguses with your pitiful attempts at creating news stories.
(EDIT: We do not tolerate inflammatory hate speech or words that suggest such speech here. -T)
I know if I said anything here it’d be echoing what many others have said, so I’ll just say one thing…
LONG LIVE TOASTMAN
No, no, you got it wrong. Long live the Toast King!
In reply to Bloom and his notion that anything is news worthy, no matter if the source wants it posted or not;
News fits into two categories:
Things people need to know, or things people want to know.
Science, politics, celebrity life styles, a newly announced ideo game, they ALL fit into this category. But a private forum matter? Really?
It fits into neither category. It’s not a matter of whether the source “wants the news posted or not”. TSS has defied SEGA a couple of times in this regard, before it went to a more conversational blog format.
I don’t know enough about this situation to agree with either side on a lot of the issues discussed here, but there is one thing I can say with absolute certainty: This news isn’t even worthy of being tabloid fluff. Any website the desires to deliver interesting, comprehensive news wouldn’t even consider posting such BS.
I don’t plan on coming back here. It’s a shame, because I actually envy the writing style in this article. Regrettably, the news wasn’t even worthy of being fluff, and completely innappropriate for a website like this. I hope CNN doesn’t begin reporting about my administration policies on SEGA.com….
[...] one of the SFGHQ administrators, quickly nipped the possibility in the bud in a comment on this site two weeks ago: Nobody was ever going to do that. Ever. Nobody can get banned for doing something [...]