I would like to genuinely apologize to those of you who were psychologically and/or emotionally hurt by this event. It was never mine, nor any one else's, intent to cause grief through our words, and I had hoped that we threw out enough over-the-top melodrama and red flags to indicate that it wasn't true. However, just because it is not true that we're shutting down the site doesn't mean that this was just a joke. It brought up some important talking points regarding the future, and sometimes stirring up the wasp's nest is the best way to get people's attention.
In the same vein, this was not meant to be a money-making venture either, or at least not one motivated by fear. Since this site transferred ownership, donations have been needed to keep us going, and thanks to the generosity of several members, we're approaching our first year anniversary of being 'out on our own'. Donations are an on-going necessity, and I believe that the past day or two have shown that many, many people would be affected by having the site cease to exist. So I guess what I'm trying to say is: If you truly like something, try to find ways within your means to support it, through donations, time, effort and input. Within the past two days we've seen a spike of new members who have registered just to plead with us to not shut down the site. This give me a great amount of hope for the future, but it also makes me rather sad too. So many people have been enjoying what we've produced, but have not bothered to register until confronted with the possibility that TASvideos.org may be finite and mortal. Please, for everyone who has recently registered to show their support for keeping this site going, or for anyone who has been lurking but has never gotten around to registering, contribute! I don't care how much or in what capacity. If you know a lot about a game and see that it doesn't have a tricks page with documentation, we'd be grateful for your information. If you think movie descriptions could be improved, write it up and we'll add it. This site thrives on the input of its users, and with the changes that have been made over the past year we're in need of more help to maintain the content than ever before. So please, whatever you feel you can pitch in, please do. And please know that we will never threaten to shut down the site in order to raise donations, but continue to be aware that the admins can't do it on their own, as much as we may want to.
On a slightly related note, a topic that has been brought up several times in this and the other thread is the lack of games to TAS because "all the good ones are gone", or that TASvideos is always reduced down to a frame-war. So I'd like to address those issues as well. We have a huge amount of new consoles that are now TASable, and a ridiculous amount of games for some of the 'newer old' consoles which remain untapped (looking at you, GBA). I realize that some people only want to work on a certain system, and for the oldest consoles we have, we may actually
be running out of content. But as I've said on my homepage for no less than two years, if someone produces a run of a game which does not have a published movie, and that people find entertaining, it has a very good shot at getting published, and I'm likely to be much less restrictive with my judgment when it comes to technical ability.
Please leave mystDS out of this, it's a separate issue entirely New, entertaining content is always cut a bit more slack, and I personally never expect someone to try to make a frame-perfect run of a new game (some people like to aim for that, but that's their prerogative, not mine). If you're trying to improve a game that has several previous versions, yeah, it had better be very, very tight. But at least 60-70% of the content on this site could be improved by a surprisingly big margin, and because of conversations that have been brought up recently, we now have rules/guidelines in place to deal with improvements that aren't "perfect". Reasonable effort will have a reasonable chance at publication.
I think I've covered everything that has come to mind after reading through the half dozen pages of conversation, but if you ever have questions regarding anything based on the site, please ask me. Thank you everyone for your vocal support of our site, and I hope that this year can continue to see TASvideos grow for the better.
