iSoaker.net :: Soaking the world!

by **RAK** on Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:47 am

As I am aware that a very minute amount of people still visit the Water Wars site, I am dropping the message here as well, so my intentions are known by everyone and that the whereabouts and motives behind Water Wars are not in question anymore. I wrote this up last night and it will stay on the main page of Water Wars until the hosting service expires. This is a long rant, you may want to skip this if you don't like heavy reading.

- RAK

"Water Wars represents my views, opinions, and styles associated with soakers. I may have a certain style for writing a page (hell, just look at this page), a certain opinion of a soaker, or maybe I view online soakerdom differently than some other sites, and so I'll shape the site accordingly. But when you get down to it, Water Wars is just my interpretation of Super Soakers. You could just as well get all this information at some other site that's 10 times bigger and 10 times more appealing, but what makes Water Wars so special is the fact that I'm writing up the site. With these styles, opinions, and all that stuff incorporated into Water Wars, that's a huge factor in why I'm willing to put my money, time, and effort into building this site so you guys, the visitors to the site, can enjoy it."
- Water Wars Mission Statement

Dear Water Wars Visitors,

As you may or may not know, in a few weeks, Water Wars' host is going to ask if I'd like to renew my subscription. It comes with great anxiety and regret that my reply to the host is no. Water Wars' subscription is going to expire soon and as a result, the site will no longer be online. It is now that I want to display my Mission Statement again, which can be viewed by clicking the above link or reading the excerpt on this page. I chose to display this message again because I want to remind my visitors that I did not make Water Wars so I can benefit from it. I became a webmaster because I felt that I had something to contribute to the online Super Soaker-enthusiast community. I felt that I had the time, effort, and money to donate to the community so that everyone and anyone can enjoy it. I put myself in a position where my opinions and more importantly, my actions can be viewed or even critically examined. I put myself in such a position where my personal information is more easily accessible to visitors. Not only my personal AIM screen name or my personal or "business" (I struggle to even call it that) email addresses, but even my home address and my telephone number. I was aware that this information can be found with simple searches, but I trusted that this information would not be exploited for someone's own malicious plots. I was proven wrong.
One member of this community, one that I donated an immense amount of efforts, money, and time to, decided that they would use this personal information to their advantage. I am sincerely appreciative that the more considerate members of this community saw this as an act of immaturity and immorality and ultimately removed this material. It still strikes me as sheer disrespect and ungratefulness to think that someone would commit such a civil wrong, especially when that information was made accessible given with trust. I have been able to trust this person in the past, as I have worked with this person in building a community that is now trying to make a come-back by giving monetary funds to be able to cover the hosting. This person has taken my trust and disregarded it.
Sadly, this is not the only incident where I feel like the community has been ungrateful. Throughout Water Wars' 2+ years on the web, I have tried desperately to reach a bond with my visitors that will allow us to share information not only by them being able to view my articles, but also by them being able to read some of their own peers' work that has been submitted. I have always strived to receive submissions and the like in an attempt to create or otherwise maintain this bond. I have struggled these past two and a half years to reach that state with the members, but unfortunately, I have not. Water Wars seemed to always be in a struggle with something or someone. It could be the members, myself, fellow webmasters, or even something as trivial as the web hosting, the content, a web-building obstacle, and so on. I have overcome many of these obstacles that have jeopardized Water Wars as a site and as an entity. It has seen a lot throughout the days; from a threatened legal lawsuit, to a near system crash, to more positive things like a complete overhaul of the appearance of the site and back-end and an ever-changing member base. I regret to say that there are still some obstacles that remain unable to be resolved. These obstacles are that which stand in my way from keeping Water Wars what it was meant to be in this Mission Statement that you see above this whole thing. That Mission Statement was my drive, my fuel, my motivation to overcome all of these obstacles and strive to give the visitors everything I can offer. I put my skills to the test and I pulled off a complex web of navigation, structure, and content that I wouldn't have believed to be my own work only a year ago, and which I still step back and look at and just say, "Wow... I made this." That is the self-appreciation that I get from Water Wars.
Even so, that still represents a small part of where I get my motivation. I love it when I get an email or a comment that says something like "great site, keep up the good work!" Anything that acknowledges the work that I put into this site and tells me that they're getting it and they're appreciating it. I love my visitors, I really, sincerely do. They are the ones that are submitting things and keeping the burden of this site low and easy to manage. The names are out there and I do not overlook them; [color=yellow]Mr. Bob, XZERO-89-CT, Ski200, aquaarmourydavid, Lt. Cyrax, sploosh92, Shui, iceman, ChrisReid, Veteran, Adrian, and belisaurius. All of those people, I thank you. These are the ones that more or less kept up "their end of the bargain" of visiting a web site. Take some and leave a little. In an environment where sites are spawning to benefit the ones visiting it, it is a selfless act that is shown to be appreciated when the visitors become authors as well and have their articles, tips, reviews, or opinions submitted to better the sites and better the community overall. This is what keeps the cycle going, folks. This is where I started out. I saw all of the great sites that spanned the community and I appreciated them. I got in contact with many of them through email, AIM, or most predominantly through message boards. I appreciated their work and I told them. But the "next generation" of enthusiasts came and now with myself as a webmaster and many of my mentor sites withering away, I seldom saw people like myself contact the webmaster and show appreciation. The ones who I did see, their names are displayed in yellow above. Many visitors come here and use the information provided and leave without a trace. In reality, this happens to most if not all sites. But it is dramatically apparent in this community. The fandom as a whole has degenerated, sadly to say. The mentality of "work without appreciation" has become a feeling felt from many people. It doesn't help when what little appreciation that is left is being fought over and competed for by the sites. Pulling out all the stops to be exactly what the fans want by inflating their site to be all the visitors ever wanted -- and then some, in a superficial manner that only gives false promises of a one-stop site. This site is not solely based around morals, but whatever Water Wars still had by the end of this whole mess was ignored as primitive. Such morals are what I stick to because they are the roots of Water Wars. They are one of the few things that can still be traced back to Water Wars' first days when I proudly displayed the slogan "Why? Because soaking kicks ass." It's the attitude that I stand by when I am forced with the decision to change my site such a fickle community.
I do change my site, which is very obvious, but I choose not to change certain things. Some take it as an offense when I choose to stand behind my nostalgic attitude and reject their suggestion to steer Water Wars in a direction that is off the map that I am willing to follow. Not many people understand this. It is only when they are in that position where they can attest to this mentality. It's hard to understand, yes, but realizing that I have this mentality shouldn't be. Working with someone who does have this mentality shouldn't be either. I want to work with my visitors, even those who are critical of the site. I want to work with the people who may not necessarily love the site but would like to see it improved. But unfortunately, their idea of what should be improved may not be what mine is. If they are a webmaster that is what their site is for. If they are just a visitor, then maybe Water Wars is not the site for them. But whatever the case, I should not be seen as a stickler for not wanting to conform to one person's or one group's ideas of what the majority of sites should look like. My protest to that notion is evident on this very page. Just look at the color scheme: white on black. I chose white on black not just because I think it looks cool, but it is also a protest to all the "slick" sites out there that think that black on white is the proper and only way to go. That layout and the webmasters who use it can shove it if they expect me to conform to that scheme. Still, gratuitous degradations aside, I am scrutinized for being anti-cliché. I cannot bear to be put in such situations.
If by this time you are still reading my rant, I appreciate the time you have put into reading this. Whether you agree, disagree, love, hate, or don’t care about these issues, Water Wars, myself, or the entire online fandom, the fact remains that I will stand by one last thought... I have had one hell of a time with Water Wars. I've seen glorious sites crumble, I've had flourishing forums fall out beneath my feet, I've created a respectable number of friends, and an even more respectable number of enemies, I've earned status, I've had that status stripped from me, I've created a niche in this community that I called home for a number of years that many people would call unreasonable. Yes, playing with Super Soakers and creating a fan-site for it is "just a hobby" but when the fit hits the shan, it is about much more than just soakers. As I have realized out of all of this, and what I hope you understand from my words here, our enthusiasm towards soakers brought us together, but what kept us firmly close was the life-learned lessons and morals that takes some people a lifetime to get. We all lived in this community that exemplified friendships, alliances, and more that are real-life lessons learned through much different circumstances. In this little bubble of a community, we went through the life cycle just as what goes on with the entire world; we entered as "noobs", we acculturated, we found our spot, we learned from eachother, and ultimately we drifted from the community and eventually died out of it. We coexisted with the intent to talk about soakers, but we got deeper than that. We made friends, and we made enemies. We made connections with what sects of the community we were going to associate with. Some sects were encountered with this... they realized that this was not about soakers any more, they called it "politics." It's not politics, it's passion. When we get together in a manner like this, we get passionate for it. Everyone wants what he or she thinks is best and they push for it. In the end, what is it any less than politics, sure, but who is to say that we cant live with a little politics in our lives. At that, I bid you all farewell. I hope my message here has been clear and that it is long-lasting enough to somehow enlighten some.
I leave you with the words of Mahatma Gandhi, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

Sincerely,
"General RAK"
Water Gun Enthusiast[/color]

by **isoaker** on Sun Oct 31, 2004 12:09 pm

Interesting, sad, I disagree with some of your thoughts above, but that's more or less irrelevant now so I won't go into which or why.

The choice to close or continue a site is up to the webmaster. Your choice is made and there is nothing anyone else can do regarding it. That said, if you visit here before your site expires, do you wish Water Wars to become just a part of the past or do you want some of the information you had created be maintained as an archive on another's site. I will not archive another's person's site without their permission, but if given the opportunity, perhaps some of the valuable information can be maintained for the future.

:soakon:

by **Iceman** on Sun Oct 31, 2004 12:45 pm

I agree the seeds of time are changing. I knew you had a little bit of pride there in your site. Unfortunatly many from generations passed have left, and this is the new online Soakerdom so to say. Its no problem, I visited Water Wars.com to help the community grow, not crumble. I told you over AIM, Id rather do something to help the community, and I must say this has been a hurricane/earthquake/tornado of events, and here I see Beautiful flowers blossoming.
This is a time for change, this is a new era in soakerdom. Although I don't know how I or anyone else will face it, I think to the future, to all the new guns and weaponry coming out. one stare at the new buzz Bee Toy guns screamed

"were raising the bar on power for the standard rifle".

to me thats almost everything I have wanted, more powerful weaponry available to others than our Elite selves, so they can carry the passion that we all share. All in all I cant wait to see what happens to our Community, we have been through the best and worst times. Lets start off better next year, lets see what we could do better to accomplish things for others.

by **Doom** on Mon Nov 01, 2004 1:11 pm

Sad that your site has to go RAK. I normally would save the entire site to my hard drive, but this time I'm making an exception, considering that I don't feel inclined to or even welcome to.

I still think your site could go on fine. Some sites just go unnoticed. Aqua Armoury is a good example. However, David didn't go and start pointing fingers about why his site was not popular and who he thinks did it. I emailed him about how much I liked his site, and it's back online now, and should be for some time to come. There's such things as free PHP hosting, you honestly could put Water Wars up somewhere else if you don't want to dedicate money.

If you want a reason why you should keep your site going, this quote from you should do:

My site is dead and I still have the courtesy to check my email. Just today I responded to a visitor wanting to make submissions within a DAY of their sent email.

Source: http://watergunwars.com/index.php?page=cft

It is awfully hypocritical that you RAK are still shutting down your site site considering the previous quote and the following one:

If the situation is like this by the winter-time, in November/December when the hosting service for this site runs out, it will not be renewed and Water Wars will fade from soakerdom.

Source: http://watergunwars.com/index.php?call=news

Looks to me as if the situation is improving... but then again you've already made your decision. His site, his decision.

Also, to reply to your thing about how I don't email you anymore, you are not telling the whole story. The last email I wrote to, with exception to the one where you said you'd pay Soakologist to work for you, I said I would no longer reply to you if you are going to be so argumentative. I check my email several times a day. I have tried to reply at your forums, but whenever I post I am logged out, so I have not replied to your rebuttal. I can't see how you can call me an attention whore when I haven't made a single front page item about the whole debate. If you took all the effort you used in this debate, you could have made your site twice what it is now.

Again, I don't think you should shut down your site. I feel I've given you reason enough not to, but ultimately that decision rests upon you and solely you.

[edit] Spelling

Edited By Doom on 1099344749

by **Soakologist** on Mon Nov 01, 2004 4:30 pm

RAK wrote:I put myself in a position where my opinions and more importantly, my actions can be viewed or even critically examined. I put myself in such a position where my personal information is more easily accessible to visitors. Not only my personal AIM screen name or my personal or "business" (I struggle to even call it that) email addresses, but even my home address and my telephone number. I was aware that this information can be found with simple searches, but I trusted that this information would not be exploited for someone's own malicious plots. I was proven wrong.
One member of this community, one that I donated an immense amount of efforts, money, and time to, decided that they would use this personal information to their advantage. I am sincerely appreciative that the more considerate members of this community saw this as an act of immaturity and immorality and ultimately removed this material. It still strikes me as sheer disrespect and ungratefulness to think that someone would commit such a civil wrong, especially when that information was made accessible given with trust. I have been able to trust this person in the past, as I have worked with this person in building a community that is now trying to make a come-back by giving monetary funds to be able to cover the hosting. This person has taken my trust and disregarded it.

If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Now, not only have you sent me hatemail and deemed me profane words, you've also made one last desparate attempt to turn the community against me. Such a noble cause...

I really am sad to see your site go. I still like reading your assessment of the 2004 line and other things. You have a way with words, you are persuasive, and I am sure that you will go far in your life. I just wish you would be more agreeable.

Most likely you'll flame me for making this post, but keep in mind who called who the donkey. I still have yet to call Mr. Viscomi any profane words. I hate to pull the "he started it" talk, but if you're going to make a fallacious claim about persons, you ought to be ready to face a repercussion from those persons. (Ever heard of a phone book? It's nothing any one of you couldn't have gotten.)

In conclusion, how did my posting your phone number have anything to do with you shutting down WW?

o:

by **trekkie00** on Mon Nov 01, 2004 8:06 pm

I'm sorry to hear about your site.

If you could send me a copy of all the files, I can put them up on another site. I recently found a free hosting site, http://www.zap3x.com/, and can create a "stasis" version of your site.

Edited By trekkie00 on 1099353989

by **RAK** on Mon Nov 01, 2004 11:38 pm

few comments, i'll try to arrange them in order of who posted first:

isoaker: thanks very much for not turning this into a "i think you're wrong, here's why" thread. i'm simply posting that rant here because far more people visit these boards then they visit my site regularly. i acknowledge that i have a difference of opinion with many people here, and i appreciate that this is not an important factor in a simple discussion.

iceman: i like your optimism. i may not necessarily agree with it, but i definitely like and admire the kind of pro attitude you have towards these situations.

doom: reread my response to isoaker and please realize that everything i have to say to you is the exact opposite of what i told isoaker. that should save me a few extra keystrokes than just repeating the inverse of what i previously said.

cloud: "if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen." what do you think this thread is about? it's me "leaving the kitchen". even on my way out you act like a pain.
i'm not nearly trying to "turn the community against" you. i'm telling it as it happened. if what i wrote there is any different from the truth, please propose your side of the coin and i'll definitely consider your stance. as is, i think you're just overreacting.
as for my agreeability, most of the opinionated people in this world are also the most disliked. i take it with a grain of salt.
yes, anyone could open up a phone book. but should they post the comments in a malicious way at the tagline of a hate-thread? i dont think so. i didnt even post doom's full name, address, and phone number. i still hold some courtesies.
in response to your question regarding the flame/reasons for leaving pseudo-connection, i need to just explain one thing to you.. your action/s show me that at least one person in this community is someone i dont foresee getting along with and someone i wouldnt want to be around. i'm saving the both of us a hell of a lot of stress and efforts by adding that onto my list of why i'm wanting to get the hell out of here. some people i can deal with, other's i wouldnt even want to. consider yourself priviledged.
lastly: "I still have yet to call Mr. Viscomi any profane words". honestly... we're not dealing with politics, you dont have to bring up my last name. this is a friggen online forum, call me by my nick or at the very least my first name. is that cool with you, Mr. Molitor? secondly, whether you called me nasty words or not is not the issue, what the issue is is your disrespect towards me. in my book, calling someone an ass and dishonoring them are two completely different issues. if you're keeping a record book with every word you said to me, fine. but i'm moving onto more important issues like "life" in general. i think it's time we all just grew up and stopped making these issues life or death. cloud acting like he's running for president and he has to malign anyone who disagrees with him doesnt help things much. yes, i made a political connection because there's an election in less than 24 hours -- talk to my lawyer with your complaints. so whatever. cloud, you go ahead and be whatever you want to be and do whatever you want with such "personal" information of mine. but just remember that what goes around comes around and one day you'll find yourself in a situation where you will mess with the wrong person and you're in a whole new mess that you wouldnt know how to get out of. so watch what you say to people and watch what you do to them. i'm not trying to intimidate you, if anything i'm giving you advice.

trekkie: i dont honestly feel like the amount of work to transfer the site file by file is the least bit necessary for myself to commit to. as far as i'm concerned, it is everyone's for the taking if they want it. any archivers out there (hey, even you too, doom) can take what you want from the site (or the site in its entirety) to archive. i will clean it up a bit as it has turned into more of an image host in the past months since i wouldnt want to see the GBs of empty space go to more of a waste than they already are. maybe i will turn on Anonymous FTP access if i can figure out that end of the CPanel so anyone can access the site in its last dying days. i say "last days" because i expect someone to go in there and accidentally/maliciously mess something up. the last days are when i wouldnt really care about what happens, everything that needed to be seem must have already been seen at that point.

i always saw Water Wars as a site in the public domain. not just because it's on the internet, but because the content was made for the visitors. theoretically, one could say that the content belongs to the visitors, but in the day of property disputes i'll just say that the content is mine by authorization (by being the author of the work) but is the communities by inherited authorization. think of it this way, in case of death, Water Wars will be inherited by the heirs; the community. what becomes of Water Wars is at the community's disposal.

DAMNIT! i knew this would turn into a "you're wrong, i'm right" thread. as a footer to this post, i would just like everyone to try to steer this back onto the topic, whatever that initially was. if you'd like to pick this up and continue to harass other members, i urge you to take it to the Water Wars message board -- http://board.watergunwars.com . after all, all of this is over little ol' me and well, that's where my Complaint Department is located. so drop me a note and i'll be glad to deal with everything there. i dont think that isoaker deserves to have another controversy at his forums. the cats dragged in some stuff before that i wouldnt want isoaker to have to clean up later. so everyone, i ask you to please respect the fact that this isnt WWN anymore, this is isoaker's own personal forum designed mainly for the sake of his site, not for teenagers to whine about their problems with eachother. it's bad enough he dealt with it on the public forum, let alone what he's going through with us doing it here at his own personal forum.

sigh... i cant keep doing these things.....

by **Doom** on Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:26 am

any archivers out there (hey, even you too, doom) can take what you want from the site (or the site in its entirety) to archive.

It would be long and hard to manually rebuild the entire site from it's current URL structure. Especially considering the number of pages. If you could, zip the entire site after downloading it with an FTP program and then upload it and email me the URL, I likely could put it up for at least a while after we switch hosts.

Or, would you prefer, if I took a few select articles and reviews to make a sort of "greatest hits" type site? That would be easier, but which are your greatest documents is open to debate.

Basically, I can archive your entire site if you would like for it to be up. I can't promise it will be up for all time or even very long.

by **RAK** on Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:06 pm

i'll see what i can do as the deadline draws nearer, but water wars' place in my list of priorities is still shadey. whatever your prospect of archiving is -- partial/full, you can take what you want from the site. of course, always note who the original author was. you can definitely take an article or a review that you like and put it on your website, but ALWAYS denote the source, which would be water wars. for added safety, you can always send me an email for permission to use information. and to clarify a bit, i'm speaking to anyone who is looking to use water wars' information in any way. not just archivers, but if anyone wants to take a picture from the site or something like that-- a statistic, a single page, whatever. just keep in mind the source, that's all.

by **Adrian** on Wed Nov 03, 2004 10:00 am

Well, I'm sorry to see Watergunwars.com go. I thoroughly enjoyed browsing there, and still do. I hope you'll continue to visit the community on what seems like a semi-active basis, and not drop out entirely, which would really be too bad.

Good luck with whatever you do in the future.

Adrian

by **Soakologist** on Wed Nov 03, 2004 7:20 pm

...what the issue is is your disrespect towards me.

Funny, I didn't think there was any one particular issue. Who said I could only bring certain stuff up?

in my book, calling someone an ass and dishonoring them are two completely different issues.

That's quite a peculiar assessment there.
Just curious, what would constitute "dishonoring" someone?

by **RAK** on Wed Nov 03, 2004 8:55 pm

thanks adrian. not only for the encouraging words you gave, but also for your review submissions. for those who dont know, adrian contacted me a few days ago and told me that he is willing to contribute a dozen or so reviews. two have been sent over and are already viewable on the water wars site, just check the News page for exact URLs. the rest of the reviews seemed to have gotten eaten up in a floppy disc, but the intent behind the submissions is all i really care about. thanks again, adrian.

to cloud: you still persist in this "argument". i specifically said that isoaker's boards SHOULD NOT be used as a battleground for petty disputes. if you're going to respect anyone, at least lend that favor to isoaker and keep the bickering to another forum. i gave you a URL to follow if you wanted to continue this, which i am glad to do, but you choose to maintain this forum as the site for arguing. i will not.

by **Soakologist** on Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm

I asked a question, I didn't dispute anything you said. Someone sounds a little angry...

Edited By Soakologist on 1099530159

by **RAK** on Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:06 pm

quoting it and dragging the issue on with more questions is close enough. drop it. everyone else has, and as the third time i've had to spell this out for you, you should too. i'm in the process of creating a thread at the Water Wars Board for this to be continued, and the exact URL for it will be edited in when it is done. i'm not angry at all, i just feel like i'm explaining something to a child.

EDIT: the page is as follows:

Cloud v. RAK

Edited By RAK on 1099531089

by **Soakologist** on Wed Nov 03, 2004 10:07 pm

a) I'm not going to argue with you on your own site. That would really be hypocritical and would also give you the opportunity to change what I've said (phpBB doesn't publically display who's edited and when).

b) I'm not going to have an argument where you are going to insult me. I'm not going to risk that, seeing as you're already teetering around that line (you've already called me ignorant).

c) You're really not worth arguing with.

by **RAK** on Wed Nov 03, 2004 11:35 pm

cloud... you're horrible. i wont even begin to criticize how wrong you are. god....

EDIT: maybe not here i wont, but at the message board, yes. czech it out: http://board.watergunwars.com

Edited By RAK on 1099541141

by **Soakologist** on Thu Nov 04, 2004 8:48 am

Your yelling on your forum is most persuasive.

Edited By Soakologist on 1099599053

by **Belisaurius** on Thu Nov 04, 2004 9:39 am

Oh dear.

Hear we are, about 2 years after the end of Aquatica, and we're still fighting over everything. I really shouldn't have excpect the community to change. The loss of Water Wars is a personal loss to me, because I do not feel that we as soakists take good enough care of each other. We're small enough as it is, without going and bashing down each other's sites. We've lost Rak, and it's not his fault that soakage has become repulsive. I can understand why there is so much friction between webmasters.

Why aren't we watching out for each other? We know what websites are focusing on what, but we make problems by developing our own sites to cover that area as well. I personally feel that between drugs and paintball we're going to loose too many people in the community as it is.

I am going to miss Water Wars. I'm going to miss the 2 years of relative quiet that we have experienced. This is not going to be the last site to close.

I don't know what has changed, but I remember a time when doom wasn't so omnipresent, and Rak was one of the community members I looked to for guidance. I still look, even if he's out of guidance to give.

So, who's going to shoot at me now? I've declared my position. Fire away! Afterall, who gives a damn. We're only destroying the network. We're only destroying 2 years of productive development.

I regret to announce that in protest Hydrotactics will be temporarily closed.

**EDIT** I just tried to block all of you from all pages other than the main one, but I can't do that without deleting everything. Know, however, that I am extremely unhappy.

Edited By Belisaurius on 1099576343

by **isoaker** on Thu Nov 04, 2004 10:06 am

^ um... not to make the current friction look any less than it is, sad thing is these types of problems first noticably appeared (in my eyes) about 1 year after Aquatica was founded. The first year of Aquatica was blissful and despite the loss of MiB's founder's activity, there pretty much was never any friction between MiB and Aquatica and things just seemed to evolve naturally. We had open discussions with Dominion32 from MiB and as he found himself having less and less time to properly support MiB activities, he ended up joining Aquatica and even handing over control of the MiB forums to Aquatica. He, of course, asked us never to close those forums as if that were to ever happen, he should be the one to do it. That is something we fully understood and respected.

However, somehow, something changed with how business in Soakerdom ran online. Instead of community building, there seemed to be ever increasing amounts of envy between sites. Instead of work from webmasters being praised for their strengths and constructively criticised in order to promote improvement, well-developed sites were often downplayed for their value and constructive criticism typically took the backseat to flames. Maybe it's just the lack of common courtesy and etiquette between fellow members that has led to the downgrade of community harmony in the first place. Online, people have found it so easy to rudely criticise and often do not take into account other people's feelings when they say something. Some feel protected behind their glowing screens, giving them the strength to push out whatever is on their minds irrespective of whether it may be insulting or hurtful to others.

Unfortunately, there is just no simple solution. Part of the reason I've stepped back from being involved in the larger, open communities is that I see these problems continuing with so signs of stopping. Many members don't even realize when they are contributing to the problem. Part of the time the problems arise when someone just doesn't consider others when they begin their comment or critique. Other times, the problems arise when others don't properly read what is actually being said. As well, sometimes, what was being said just wasn't phrased well, but either the original poster fails to quickly apologize for the mistake or those who felt wronged are too harsh and unforgiving of an unintentional error.

The problem with the community lies in the community. The solution also lies within the community. I do what I can to promote positive growth, but no single person can fix the problems the community faces. Too many times do people forget we are here to talk soakers and share our enjoyment of water warfare.

All I can ask is for members to respect the feelings and beliefs of other members. Perhaps a new thread might be useful to get feedback on the underlying problems?

:cool:

ISS: Soaker Sagas · by **Spinner** on Thu Nov 04, 2004 10:09 am

Belisaurius, closing down Hydrotactics would do no good, IMHO. If RAK chooses to shut down his site, that's a big loss to soakerdom, but it is not the end of everything. There's no need to go over the top about this. Archive it for reference if he does decide not to renew the hosting.

iSoaker.net :: Soaking the world!

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