Freinds of the Sonic Community... I have been with you since 1998. I remember the huge deal behind the Dreamcast and what was to us, it's killer app, Sonic Adventure. I remember the Moogle Cavern. I remember Sonic HQ. I remember Matt The Yak from Sonic Vegemite. I remember The Emulation Zone and Andy. I remember some guy named TLoB. Not sure why. I remember Simon Wai and his Sonic 2 Beta site. I remember Rlan from the Sonic Fan Games HQ, hosted by Emulation Zone. I remember Ozy Majere from Sonic United.
I remember Tristan Brensen from The Super Sonic Zone.
TSSZ was, if I can remember, part of the Emulation Zone. It was at the time the only Sonic fansite dedicated to news. Not only did it gather news relating to a hedgehog who, unknown to us, was way past his prime, but also to the community itself. The first SAGE I heard about was from TSSZ. The Chao of Evil attack on fansites was documented by TSSZ. SSRG's drama was given full coverage when their own website had nothing but a tombstone and a crying Sonic. NO CARRIER's bullshit was featured on TSSZ and probably led them to getting kicked off.
I forget when it was, possibly 2004, but I left the community. It was nice seeing Sonic Stadium rise up and become big. Usually only fansites owned by Americans were getting big, but Dreadknux totally changed things for the community, and for the better too. The Moogle Cavern's death was a bit of a heart breaker. The Great MC Chat was not so great, but god, the MC itself inspired so many humorful websites. Wasn't Vegemite inspired by MC? I forget.
I come back and see that everything has only slightly changed since I left. SSRG's back, sort of. Stadium is now holding actual events with assistance from SEGA? TSSZ is, well, TSSZ. Although I swear Tristan has changed his name or something.
What's different with TSSZ now, is that people want it to change. Yes, change. For nearly a decade, TSSZ has covered the community. Is this important? No. But that's what the site has done and it makes little sense to run a site that provides only news relating to Sonic the Hedgehog and perhaps SEGA when news.google.com can just do that for you, RSS feed and all.
A site I've never heard before--but well-organized and is now one of my most visited Sonic fansites--is especially dealing criticism to the "new" TSSZ. Sonic Retro has gotten as far as banning Tristan from their forums for discussing Retro on TSSZ and then making the whole ordeal front page news. Because I guess when Retro covers drama, it's ALLLLLLLLLLRIIIIIIIIGHT.
Friends, I'm sure it's annoying and obnoxious. Tristan's "professionalism" makes a simple story such as "some guy only wants English-speakers to post on his message board that is used and run by English speaking people" and turns it into "some guy is turning the community into xenophobes." A simple bullshit tale of a guy stepping down only to go back is turned into a whole ordeal about some resentment only with a few interviews with members of that guy's forum.
Once again, this is old news. TSSZ has done this since the beginning. While people have protested in the past, they did one thing right--they contested, made it damn clear they contested, and left it at that.
I don't know what is going on in your heads, but after contesting you continue to create an issue out of it in your own websites and your own forums. This is only going to increase drama, friends. If TSSZ is willing to report something as little as the enforcement of the English language on a fucking message board run by people who probably only understand English anyways, why on Earth would he refuse to report on your posts and your actions?
Ignore Tristan. Ignore TSSZ. This is what you must do. Your actions so far have done the following:
1) Increase traffic to TSSZ: creates incentive to post "news."
2) Increase content for TSSZ: and the cycle continues!
3) Make Tristan look like "teh victim": while half of the Sonic Community might very well facepalm at Tristian, half does not. In fact, they will probably believe Tristan's conspiracies.
By posting on your own website, you establish two things. One, that Tristan's cherade has effected you personally. Two, that TSSZ poses some kind of threat to you. Which, it shouldn't. By banning Tristan, as one site has done, you establish nothing. While Tristan complained about access to Retro, the reality is that he can access just as much and will post news just as much.
Someone told me that ignoring sites like TSSZ is what has "sites like Encyclopedia Dramatica thrive." This poor fellow is mistaken because ED gets more visitors and more content when people who get covered start reacting to ED. You can even find pro-ED people making YouTube videos to further troll these people. If these people had simply ignored them, very little would come out of ED. Or, and come on, we know this is what you're thinking, the chans, for that matter.
No, friends, we must simply ignore. If we don't, this will simply continue. If not, then at least do it comically. Post a picture of a gigantic gaping asshole on your website and wait for Tristan to PRINT-SCR that and post it as some conspiracy to drive underaged straight people away from TEH COMMUNITEE!!!!11111
