Why Did Tweaker Fake Retro Resignation?
Tristan Oliver | October 20, 2008
“Social Experiment” May Cue Deeper Community Rift
When Sonic Retro administrator Tweaker abruptly resigned his post at the beginning of the month, only to re-assume his post just hours later, it was widely speculated that the move was done in an effort to discredit this site, and this reporter. Officially, it should be noted that Tweaker’s official stance was that the move was “a social experiment,” as he said on this site and elsewhere.
But three weeks after, some veterans within the Sonic Retro forums remain scratching their heads as to why such a sequence of events had to occur in the first place, and why they were at the hand of such a respected community figure. When TSSZ News spoke to some of those who were taken back by Tweaker’s initial resignation–those who, evidently, didn’t get the joke–we found evidence of a split in those who believe in Tweaker’s leadership as a whole…even from those who know him personally.
“Tweaker’s got a lot of people who hate him on Sonic Retro. I mean, a lot of people,” community veteran Lostgame told TSSZ, while admitting in his comments that the administrator was one of his “first friends in the Sonic community and he’s a great guy.”
Upon initial murmurs of Tweaker’s resignation, a thread was setup on a special forum on Sonic Retro. Due to its semi-private nature we will not disclose the specific details of that forum. Speculation on that thread pointed to simple stress caused from other forum members and their posts contributing to the decision–simply that a cool off period may be needed. Several community members posted their support for Tweaker, to the point where the current five page thread hit the end of a third page, with speculation as to what a new administrator would bring, before Tweaker returned, and made known his “social experiment” that, in his words, “gave me the results I needed.”
One forum veteran even wrote a song dedicated to Tweaker.
TSSZ News recently E-Mailed several of those veterans who participated in the discussion to speak with us on the record about their feelings toward the resignation and re-assumption of Tweaker. They were not asked, directly or indirectly, for comment on Tweaker in general; they were only asked their feelings as to his quick step down and reassumption to power. Some declined comment or did not return our request for comment as of this time. But some did go on the record, and Lostgame was one of those community veterans. He told TSSZ News, in addition to the comments above, that Tweaker, on the whole, would have been missed due to his commitment to the Retro forum.
“I think it’s soon going to be time that we see even more people unappreciative of the work he does,” Lostgame said. What follows is his rationale as to why:
…while I think that he’s not nearly as bad as most people make him out to be, there are members of the community that would make far better leaders. Before Simon left, the forums basically moderated themselves. Sure, a lot’s changed since then, but I still think that sometimes Tweaker takes his actions too far and often trashes or locks topics without a real significant purpose. As far as his attention-whoring goes, I don’t think that helps/helped his standings with the community…
XCubed, another community veteran, also was confused as to what was happening until word spread of Tweaker’s initial resignation.
“I was really shocked because I saw him as a highly respected member on the board,” he told TSSZ News and continued:
It was somewhat depressing for me to see Tweaker around as a Tech Member, but either way I didn’t have a choice in the matter and respected his decision either way. However, one day suddenly he was back to where he was before the ordeal, telling us that it was just an experiment. I was shocked, but at the same time I understood most of his intentions on the matter….or at least I thought so. [....] believed that his intentions were to see what would happen if he had a sudden departure. I thought that he was curious to see if things would fall apart and who would stab him in the back. Even with his departure I’m sure that he realized that I was one of the few true friends he has on the board, even if we sometimes have our disagreements.
With that, XCubed also told TSSZ News about a situation that developed within the Retro community upon the cancellation of the Sonic 1 Megamix fan project, elborating on Tweaker’s strengths and possible weaknesses as an administrator:
Awhile ago during the Sonic Megamix fiasco, there were many negative generalizations about the board members. He made it sound as if we were all selfish idiots when I knew that was far from the truth. He just had to get out a little steam, but it was directed towards some of the wrong people. I actually felt insulted that I was being blasphemed and attached to the collective that would not ever have the pleasure in playing the latest official Megamix release. That truly made me angry and at that point I was willing to give up Retro for awhile because I’ve done it in the past (forcefully while the board had been down for some time, and I got an email that everything was back in working order). I told everyone in a post that I would see them again sometime in 2009. Tweaker sent me a message and asked me to stay. He told me that I was one of the ”cool ones” and was distraught to see me go. It didn’t take much for him to twist my arm. I figured if one of the most elite members of the Sonic community thinks I’m pretty cool and actually wants me to stick around, it was a worth while request that I would be more than happy to make. So I continued my time with the board. This was the reason I was so confused with his self-demotion and brief absence. I knew that something wasn’t right, but I respected his decision either way because I knew that it wouldn’t be possible to leave indefinitely. Without him, it felt like the board was starting to become chaotic, but mostly I think I felt more “safe” with him around. He always knows how to bring logic into discussions.
As we reported upon first word of Tweaker’s resignation, he is no stranger to discourse with regard to his administrative capabilities. At the time, Tweaker’s public Sonic Retro profile outlined a 2006 dispute while head of the Sonic 2 Beta message boards, resulting in that board’s split. He would have a role the next year in merging the remnants of the S2B community with that of Sonic Retro.
We asked Tweaker to comment on this story before we went forward with it. Here are his words, unedited:
Do you want comment? My comment is that this is absolutely none of your business, and that you shouldn’t be making a story on it unless you’re trying to start trouble. This has gotten you into all kinds of trouble every single time you do it, so why do you continue to?
If you have any respect for Sonic Retro or any of its administration, then do not report our forum affairs on your website unless it is explicitly requested, please. I don’t want us torn into your little game. We’re not SFGHQ–we don’t exist to be your news scapegoat.
We also asked Sonic Retro webmaster Scarred Sun for comment. She has not returned our request for it as of this time.
Lostgame closed his comment to TSSZ News by saying that, while Tweaker is a friend and does his best, “I just don’t know if he’s the best administrator.”
Filed Under Sonic Fan Flash, Sonic Scene
It’s not news, it’s tssznews.com
You really need to change the site’s logo to this, Tristan.
http://rubbish.hapisan.com/itstssznews2.png
.. do images work in comments? [img]http://rubbish.hapisan.com/itstssznews2.png[/img]
If it doesn’t, just go to the url. :U
Really?
So…he faked his resignation?
I think an editorial “postscript” is necessary here.
This was a really, really tough story to publish, even with the amount of cooperation received with it, which was surprising. Certainly the amount of attention this site got with regard to our SFGHQ stories played a role in it, and as a result I had went back and forth with writing the article, and it became almost a two and a half week ordeal. I think that works to an advantage, however, because it allows for thoughtful comment and some added depth from those interviewed, and it allows me to be as fair as I can in these types of stories instead of “going with what I have.”
I’m sure there will be many people, as with the SFGHQ stories, who will chalk this up to “old news,” “slow news day,” it shouldn’t be published, it’s biased, etc etc. I’ve never been of the mentality that this is a means to relay personal attacks to thousands of people. I don’t have hatred for anyone in this community or anyone who reads these stories and disagrees with my writing them. I do take issue with those who will use fear as a means to direct our editorial away from these types of stories when it is warranted, but that is something I handle privately.
I sincerely hope that, in reading this story, you will find that I acted with as much fairness as possible, presenting as many sides to the story as I could, and that you will not classify this in any of the realms discussed above. Certainly, you’re entitled an opinion here, and we welcome those opinions. I just want to make sure this story is actually read before the responses pile up.
I also hope this is the last time I require such a postscript after a story of this nature.
-T
To be honest, this kind of story just tempers the fires rather than do anything useful. Who really gave two shits about this in the first place? The only people who do are those that hate Tweaker, really.
Whilst I normally agree with reporting things about a community, this just seems like flamebait to me.
.. and, also, although this is a media thing and privacy to you guys means nothing but another barrier to break down (:P), it might be nice of you to respect private matters some of the time, especially here on the Internets.
You are the biggest douche I have ever known. I can’t even fathom why you’d want to do this, but I hope you enjoy proving that you don’t respect our board, you don’t respect our administration, and that your website exists for no reason other than to slander others in a faux-professional manner.
I half a very large inclination to ban you from Sonic Retro, but I think I’ll leave that decision to Scarred Sun. It’s quite clear, however, that all you do on our forums is collect information so you can stir up Sonic community drama. You are the single most counter-productive force in this community, and I’m willing to bet you’re proud of that. That’s fine, though. You can continue to live knowing you have absolutely no honor, absolutely no shame, and absolutely no ethics. You’re a perfect journalist. I can only wish you luck as you use this experience to get yourself a journalist position in the real world–you’d do brilliant at it, you know.
As for this community, though… well, hahaha. All you’ve done is dig your own hole. Mine is literally unscathed. Was it worth it?
I started reading it until then remembered I did not care. Tweakers a good guy in my book though I’ve only had a few conversations with him.
Are you done trolling everyone? Seriously man, what is up with this nonsense?
So much for being a respectable Sonic news source (it’s not an oxymoron I say!). Do you REALLY have nothing better to do than to stir up copious amounts of E-Drama?
Actually, I should ask if this is a serious Sonic news site, or something along the lines of Encyclopedia Dramatica. It makes all the difference really.
im glad some1 is exposing tweaker 2 be the miserable pile of shit he is. he bans ppl that r right but let ppl like wetflame rule the roost
Wow.. Sonic tabloids
Seriously, Tristan.. this place has gone pretty far downhill lately. You need to listen more carefully to many of the comments you’ve been getting, because they’re right on. This isn’t real news. Some of this crap is largely over in about a day, and bringing it up again and putting your own spin on it isn’t helping anyone in the least. I don’t see how that constitutes being “fair” in the least, especially when you track down people that you probably know still want to make an issue about it just to publish what they think they have to say about it. The sheer volume of people who apparently DON’T want to talk about it should probably tell you more than anyone who thinks it’s still worth mentioning can say
also tweaker is very mean. he is powerhungry. u see how he tried 2 ban u because u reported him
I KNOW WHATS GOING ON HERE
Tweaker pretended to resign to generate attention so that you could post up this news article then hed get angry so that it would stir up controversy so now the site gets that much more traffic and then Tweaker can act all righteous indignated and all like that yeah
IM ONTO YOU PEOPLE
Wow, Sonic tabloids..
Seriously, Tristan, this place has gone way downhill lately. You should really listen to most of the comments you’ve been getting, they’re right on. This isn’t real news. Most of this crap is largely over within a day. Taking small parts of other people’s old business, blowing it up to a couple hundred times it’s size, and putting your own spin on it isn’t helping anyone. I don’t see how that’s “fair” at all, especially when you go and track down people that you probably KNOW just want to stir up trouble and start posting what they think they have to say. The sheer volume of people who apparently didn’t think it was worth commenting on anymore should tell you far more than any two people who can’t let go of a grudge could ever say.
Srsly, dude
(EDIT – Hate speech…I’ll tolerate the f-bomb here but not the other one. -T)
I mean srsly who deadmins themselves for attention god
I wish Glowing Bridge would’ve succeeded
Wow, Sonic tabloids..
Seriously, Tristan, this place has gone way downhill lately. You should really listen to most of the comments you’ve been getting, they’re right on. This isn’t real news. Most of this crap is largely over within a day. Taking small parts of other people’s old business, blowing it up to a couple hundred times it’s size, and putting your own spin on it isn’t helping anyone. I don’t see how that’s “fair” at all, especially when you go and track down people that you probably KNOW just want to stir up trouble and start posting what they think they have to say. The sheer volume of people who apparently didn’t think it was worth commenting on anymore should tell you far more than any two people who can’t let go of a grudge could ever say.
By the way, this will be about the fifth time I’ve ATTEMPTED to post this
Stealth–you were a new poster so I had to approve your comment beforehand.
-T
FINALLY TWEAKER IS BEING EXPOSED 2 THE PUBLIC!!!!!! IM TIRED OF HIM STARTING DRAMA AND KEEPING WETFLAME AROUND!!!! HOPEFULLY WETFLAME WILL BE BANNED AND TWEAKER FIRED!!!
GO TRISTIAN! ILL SUPPORT U NO MATTER WHAT. FUCK THESE RETROIDS! I WILL NEVER GIVE U UP OR LET U DOWN TRISTIAN. WE CAN TAKE THESE STUPID RETROIDS ON!
STEALTH THINKS HE CAN GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING BECAUSE HE IS A ESTEEMED HACKER. TWEAKER OR STEALTH OR NO ONE SHOULD GET AWAY WITH SHIT BECAUSE THEY R PPL 2!!!! THEY USE THEIR HACKER POSITIONS TO GET WHAT THEY WANT!
Interesting.. Wouldn’t have been the first time I’ve lost text to browser or script error, though. I’ve never used WordPress
I’d love to hear what either of the two of us are actually trying to “get away with”. The last time either of us did anything not directly related to our actual accomplishment in game development, we weren’t the ones who brought those things up. Jealous, much?
I love Stealth. Go listen to him, because he’s right.
Well, since TSSZNews seems to be dying to hear my opinion on this, despite censoring my opinion on the matter earlier:
http://www.sonicretro.org/2008/10/21/an-open-letter-to-tssznews/
There we go. I believe my position on this is crystal clear.
I liked that you were trying to keep this as unbiased as possable. But WTH? I mean, common. I can’t understand why you post this stuff on your news site. I respect Tweaker and I don’t care what he does – he must have a good reason for it. Besides, you need to get permission to fill a story about someone FROM THEM. I don’t care who responds, if the person the Article is about says no or doesint say anything, it means NO. N. O.
SCARREDSUN NEEDS 2 QUIT DEFENDING TWEAKER AND 2 FIRE HIM AND BAN WETFLAME!!!!! OPEN LETTERS ARE NOT AWESOME!!!! FACE IT SCARRED SUN U R BEING EXPOSED FOR WHAT RETRO REALLY IS!!!!
Peter, I love you.
Wow, the Sonic tabloids are more serious than the ones in real life, haha! Tweaker, perhaps you must say the same thing you said to Tristan about yourself. I have respect for you, but why would you do such a thing as faking your resignation? There just isn’t much sense in doing such an act.
There’s plenty of sense in it, actually, and Scarred Sun even explained the whole situation in the story she linked above.
The idea is to see how certain members of the community react to the absence of what is considered the prominent staff member on the forums. Without Tweaker around, how will these people act? The experiment is something I consider to be a success, but hell… I expected that people has enough sense to cause drama of this magnitude over it.
I guess you know what they say, though–assuming makes an ass out of u!
Oh man, I’m terrible.
TWEAKER WE DO NOT NEED A SAVIOR!!!! U R NOT RETROS JESUS. U R FULL OF URSELF.
STEALTH U R FULL OF IT. U CANT CALL THE MEMBERS HE INTERVIEWED AS DRAMAWHORES THEY ARE TELLING THE HONEST TRUTH AND EXPOSING THE REAL SOUL OF RETRO.
(EDIT – Inflammatory -T)
REALLY U HACKER GUYS BULLY OTHER MEMBERS THAT CANNOT HACK. TWEAKER MUST GO! HE IS NOT OUR JESUS. THE ONLY JESUS THAT THE SONIC COMMUNITY HAS IS Sazipamon
As a first time reader all I have to say is this article is nothing more than a cheap attack against Retro. Your article asks about a recent event, then you go and try to dig up crap from the past in what can only be described as a piss-poor attempt at trying to start some kind of flamewar/fight and to pander to the crowd that constantly obsesses with cutting down Tweaker and/or Sonic Retro. If site staff is reading this, I highly recommend Tristian’s status as a contributor be reviewed, there has been enough drama and the last thing we need is another asshole throwing gas on the fire.
Why did Tristan post an unconfirmed and unverified article about the nature of Retro that casts the admins in a bad light?
We here at the whatever the hell unlisted site we’re at would like to put forth the unverified and unconfirmed story that in fact the reason for this is that Tristan, the article’s writer, merely wanted to get himself banned through angering the admins.
Retro frequenter muteKi had this to say on the matter:
“What the fuck is going on here? How did you get my contact information?”
Admin ScarredSun submitted this comment:
“IT IS ON”
Did Tristan want to report on the goings-on of some mostly-insignificant site about a fast blue hedgehog, or did he want to get hit hard by the banhammer?
YOU DECIDE!
TRISTIAN GO! U CAN TAKE ON THOSE EVIL RETROIDS!
This is not fucking news. Jesus. You should be ashamed of yourself.
lol drama.
But yeah, lemme know when something’s up with Unleashed, I could honestly care less about this shit.
Thanks.
It’s not news – it’s TSSZ News
http://rubbish.hapisan.com/itstssznews2.png
THERE ARE TWO EVIL MASTER RETROIDS. SCARRED SUN AND DR TWEAKER. WETFLAME MAN IS ONE OF THEIR PAWNS. U MUST DESTROY THEM ALL 2 BANISH RETRO!!!!!!!
This article is absurd and pointless. First off, please report actual news: THIS does not constitute “news”. I know that reporting actual news is difficult when you limit the pool of categories to a single series of games (and one that has q mild-to-lukewarm amount of releases at that). Second of all, it really is none of your damn business. Not mine, and not yours. I know, I know “THE NEWS MUST BE REPORTED!!”, but we can VIEW RETRO FORUMS to see what occured. To report on their daily activities is pathetic and boring. I can go to the forum and find out what happened. Go to the site itself and find out what happened. ASK TWEAKER IF I ACTUALLY CARE AT ALL and find out what happened. Not go to a gaming news site and read about it as the main featured article. This is a drama bomb, and hell, it half-worked for a moment. So please, if you truly consider yourself a decent journalist, remove this article. I may not be speaking for others, but if you have any respect for these various communities you’ll issue an apology and remove all of this. This is all.
BTCE CANT U SEE THAT TRISTAN IS DOING US A SERVICE? U DONT REALIZE HOW TWEAKER HAS BRAINWASHED THE RETRO USERBASE. HE CONSIDERS HIMSELF RETROS JESUS BECAUSE OF HIS SOCIAL EXPERIMENT. HE IS A DRAMAWHORE. TWEAKER MUST BE REMOVED AND LOCALH MUST RECONSIDER THE MISTAKE HE HAS MADE. FIRE SCARRED SUN. FIRE TWEAKER. READMIN LOCAL H. KEEP SHOBIZ. KEEP HIVEBRAIN. LOCAL H IS OUR TRUE LORD AND SAVIOR
ALLAH IS GREAT
Upon seeing this news post, I was going to come down here and rant like hell, but it seems people have already done it for me. =P
So yeah, I’m agreement with the general population of commenters here.
I really don’t see the problem here. Tweaker’s resignation thing was definitely weird and Tristan is following up with community reaction.
“Social experiment” or whatever, it was random and unpredictable and certainly appeared to be newsworthy at first. If somebody major steps down like that, Tristan has every right to report on it as soon as possible.
It’s not Tristan’s fault that Tweaker was apparently faking it.
GOOOO BLAZZZZE HEDGEHOG! NEVER GIVING US UP AND LETTING US DOWN! NEVER RIDING AROUND OR DESERTING US!
Ryan, you lose here. Lose hard.
Everybody, go re-read Stealth and BtCE’s posts. They hit the nail on the head. Then, we can all get some apologies!
NO TRISTIAN MUST NOT APOLOGISE. U EVIL RETROIDS!
.. is it just me or is Peter’s sattire on the situation here getting old very quickly? ( If it is sattire, that is. If it isn’t, then.. D: )
WHAT IS A SATTIRES?
XD oh god I love every bit of it
In response to Ryan Bloom: Whether or not Tweaker “faked it” isn’t the issue I’m arguing, it’s that this article doesn’t even deserve to be categorized as news. This is not journalism. This is not professional writing. This is not unbiased. This is underhanded libel about a website administrator that few people would even care about, because they have no idea what SonicRetro even is. Those of us that do care only feel as such because this is a very obvious attempt at drama. SonicRetro can handle SonicRetro – TSSZ should apologize, let this all die, and report Sonic News, not random Sonic community fun facts and speculation.
No, but seriously. If Tristan would be willing to own up to his mistakes in this whole chain of events and remove the offending articles (starting with the SFGHQ article), then I would be absolutely glad to forgive him and re-establish good terms between Sonic Retro and this website.
The problem is, based on an email contact with one our administrators, he has made it quite clear that he has no intentions of backing down. So, until he does, TSSZ News Representative Tristan Oliver is hereby server banned from Sonic Retro, its forums, and anything even remotely related to Sonic Retro. If Tristan refuses to cooperatively refrain from making stories based on our website, then we will have to impose forceful measures to make sure that there is no more chance of a situation like this happening again.
The amount of drama and slander we have received as a result of this website far outweigh any significant positive attention we’ve received, and as far as I’m concerned, we’re not at any significant loss by losing any potential coverage by TSSZ. I sincerely hope other TSSZ representatives will choose to honor our wishes and not post anything related to our forum affairs,
Amen.
I second Tweaker’s latest response, but replace the words “Sonic Retro” with “SFGHQ.”
‘K.
Yeah, I wanted to know why Tweaker “faked resignation” too. But it was clearly explained – a social experiment. As far as I’m concerned, what goes on between Tweaker and the members of Sonic Retro should stay there, it’s their business, not mine. And whatever DID go on concerning this matter, was most definitely not what this article is making it out to be, I’m sure. When I read it I almost thought I was reading some exposition of a government conspiracy.
I take Nomad’s point of view. While I do like to know that Tweaker isn’t resigning – I don’t really care about whatever “drama” went on surrounding his experiment. Give me another review of some Sonic game instead.
TWEAKERS SOCIAL EXPERIMENT WAS TO STIR UP DRAMA. THIS DESERVED 2 BE COVERED. WHY DONT U GUYS SEE THAT?????????
I wanted to make a longass rant about how much this “story” fails, but I can’t. I really can’t. This fails too hard; it’d take me too long to explain everything in detail, and I’m in a hurry, so I’ll just leave it with this: What the fuck is this bullshit?
Since Retro members are obviously not happy, why circle through the same complaints? Just ignore this website from here on out. Bashings comments from all sides just fuel the fire. Simple as this: If Tristan apologizes and pulls the article, he’s allowed back at Retro and all of forgiven. If not, he stays banned. There really isn’t anymore to this. This senseless bitching isn’t going to get anything done.
“Clearly explain as a social experiment”… clearly explained as what, why, for what purpose? Looking at it from my perspective people seem more angry that Tristan picked up on it. Just saying ‘social experiment’ to explain’ isn’t enough. So Tweaker stepped down to see what happened. Someone noticed and posted a story about it on a website, that’s what happened.
I’ve not gotten involved in this before but now it’s annoying me.
I kind of got the Sonic fan games story…it stirs up conversation and is a reasonable debate. I see a lot of sites that are hard to post on because of people that don’t know the launguage, but it could be seen as unfair. I didn’t feel it was perjorative.
This, though…I doubt anyone outside of Sonic Retro gives a crap. I reguarly lurk at Retro but never really post. That said, this is just…not worth it. I’ve had net drama before on sites I was a member of. It’s bad enough when people would rant about it on there, but it is awkward as heck to do it on a news site. I think it would have been better to report it as news and throw in some comments that it was an experiment…and move on. If I was Tweaker, I’d feel really analyzed, and I don’t see why.
Either way, nobody knows me from adam…so why am I commenting? Oh yeah, I’m a journalist.lol
I guess “moving on” won’t work? Oh well. -goes to finish Kirby super star ultra-
Tweaker did something deliberately confusing and Tristan has every right to wonder what’s up.
That’s all there is to it.
Th1s Just 1n – 4n0th3r SL0W N3WS D4Y!
T14D h4s th3 l4t3st Sc00p
http://tristanisadouche.webs.com/blog.htm
[...] did not take long for Sonic Retro administrators to craft an unprecedented response to our story asking Retro forum veterans about the ramifications of Tweaker’s hours-long resignation at [...]
How the fuck is this “news”?
I just like the speculation that Tweaker stepped down to make Tristan write a story. Was good for a chuckle.
Really, these stories are just making this site a whole load of fail, in fact, you’d be better going to some shitty fancharacter forum on Invisionfree. To be honest, Tristan is just being a stalker in terms of these stories, which probably started with that SFGHQ English Only story. If you can’t do decent stories on the community, just fucking don’t.
(EDIT – Inflammatory – T)
………………….. 0.o
……OH WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE??!! Anyone mind summing up ALL of this very shortly/easily? Much appreciated!
Fail