I wish Vertex would tell his side, but since he hasn't, here's my impression. I've made similar posts in the past.

Traffic had fallen. He worked for a very long time, in his spare time of which there is little these days due to whatever is going on in his life, on the update, with hopes of revitalization. At long last he felt it was ready to unveil. Some things hadn't been tested. (It's extremely easy for a single coder to miss things.) Other things simply didn't go over well with remaining users, such as the color scheme. The negative reaction was overwhelming. Vertex was upset that his hard work was for naught and didn't know what to do afterwards, so he remained silent and inactive. Now, perhaps, he is ready to get involved again.

I don't mean to speak for him. By the time I found RJ and joined, he already posted very rarely (as did many formerly regular posters), so I have no reason to defend him. I don't know him at all. Finally, I have no idea if all this is the case or if I'm way off. That is simply the only version of events that makes sense to me. I just don't believe he made a poorly-received redesign on purpose, or that he wanted the results that he got.

Does anybody feel differently?

shakin steak wrote :

Does anybody feel differently?
-end quote

Nah. I think you're probably pretty spot on. Nobody is going to invest the time and effort into overhauling a site with the intention of alienating it's members and ruining it's content and features.

I do think the effort was less of a labor of love, and more of like playing "catch up" with other site designs so as to stay relevant in search results (and therefore keeping ad revenue up).

In other words, it was all about the Benjamins, and not the Benjanime's.

I'm hilarious.

David Bowie's new album blackstar, which came out today, is very good. 7.5/10

shakin steak wrote :

I wish Vertex would tell his side, but since he hasn't, here's my impression. I've made similar posts in the past.



Traffic had fallen. He worked for a very long time, in his spare time of which there is little these days due to whatever is going on in his life, on the update, with hopes of revitalization. At long last he felt it was ready to unveil. Some things hadn't been tested. (It's extremely easy for a single coder to miss things.) Other things simply didn't go over well with remaining users, such as the color scheme. The negative reaction was overwhelming. Vertex was upset that his hard work was for naught and didn't know what to do afterwards, so he remained silent and inactive. Now, perhaps, he is ready to get involved again.



I don't mean to speak for him. By the time I found RJ and joined, he already posted very rarely (as did many formerly regular posters), so I have no reason to defend him. I don't know him at all. Finally, I have no idea if all this is the case or if I'm way off. That is simply the only version of events that makes sense to me. I just don't believe he made a poorly-received redesign on purpose, or that he wanted the results that he got.



Does anybody feel differently? -end quote

The new version of the site that was the death knell. It took RJ offline for like a month and then ruined everything for the sake of being able to include ads on the webpage. Several users' articles got screwed up and after that I had no interest in submitting anything on there again.  

So who here will be the winner of the $900 million Powerball jackpot? Remember, you should share with all members.

I don't play the Lottery anymore. Gambling's not my thing.

I've been playing it for a while. I only play it once the Jackpot reaches over 100 million.

Exmortus' new album "Ride Forth" is great. 8/10

I didn't win Powerball!

Did someone finally win it?