Doing The Right Thing

Holy cow, here's the whole post! Apache has an alcohol problem and THREATENED SUICIDE??

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Sorry about the "blah" post guys - I was trying to remember my comments
password .. all I have to say is this situation is really messed up. Ignore
my [VE] tag, I haven't been with VE since January or so - in other words I'm
not trying to represent VE in any way. Anyways, on to the goods ..

I started visiting VoodooExtreme when it first launched and I've known Billy
on more personal terms for over a year and a half after I began working the
the gaming journalism / web development scene. Billy does work another job
yes, and believe it or not the gaming news scene is probably more stressful
than what he does at his real life job. He's been getting fried out, he's
trying to fight a drug addiction to pain killers and he suffers from severe
migraines / cluster headaches (which I can relate to). I honestly believe
the only reason VE still exists to this day is because Billy just doesn't
want to see it die and he's been trying to keep it going despite his
struggles with himself and his own problems. Lowtax unfortunately was fired
because he began to prioritize Something Awful .. was it a mistake on his
part? I don't think so, I love Something Awful and he's been quite committed
to it despite the fact that he doesn't have a steady flow of income. Robert
(Apache) has major mood problems .. he's plagued by depression and has a
heavy addiction to alcohol. He's become very rude to fans and even former
friends / staff members lately. I'm not sure how many of you saw his
comments when he went off on people when he was putting down the Shack for
asking for donations but it was pretty ruthless. The next day, Billy was
discussing removing him with me and Robert immediately posted a apology and
began threatening suicide publically. Robert works hard yes, but he's just
as burned out as Billy and he's lost any bit of kindness left in his body.
Manveer (Eidelon) is a good kid, he wasn't available as much as Robert but
he worked his butt off. Chris was let go primarily because of his age, he
was a young guy and Billy didn't think that he properly represented VE .. he
was also paid the least despite the fact he was usually the main news hound.

Now Mike, although I haven't gotten to know him .. he's been working hard
but this is really uncalled for. His actions totally degraded the quality
and credibility of VoodooExtreme and this is something that will be looked
down upon for months or even years to come. He caused irreversable damage to
VoodooExtreme and I feel that this whole situation just knocked out another
brick out of the struggling foundation that is holding up VoodooExtreme
through these tough times. I feel sorry for Mike, I really wish he didn't do
what he did but based off all the evidence I have seen .. he is guilty.
Please stop knocking this other site, they are just defending themselves and
their hard work. This isn't the only time that VE has done things like this
anyways, I saw in a previous post that someone said that VE steals news
stories. I can confirm that as a former employee of VE .. we were told to
give as little credit as possible if at all. Robert is very guilty of
stealing other sites exclusive pics and posting them himself thus robbing a
struggling fansite of traffic that they deserve. VE has been going downhill
and in all honestly I think that for anything to improve, VE needs to do a
little cleaning up.

How about a little clearing of the air here.. How about getting a site you originated ripped from you because you were too stupid to purchase the domain name? How about you brought on a "friend" to help with the news and then another guy from the UK.. Well, let me tell ya. The "friend" purchased the domain name, we both agreed that would be cool since he had a credit card at the time and I didn't. My mistake #1. Then the "friend" uses his credit card to purchase server space.. Yeah.. SimpleNet at the time. Mistake #2. After a while, my posts were few and far between, but I was still active with them as far as discussions and such and was also working on some newer web design. So what happens? I get the site ripped from my hands. "Friend" changed the passwords and everything on me. Basically told me I was fucked. Well, I was.. I worked with Sander Pilon and the O3dfx crew for a bit after that.. Whatever. My clearing of the air.. Thanks Billy Wilson of what used to be my Voodoo Extreme... And to think.. I thought he was a "friend"...

Damn, that felt great!

SPICY : "Ryan asked me to post this in here, as well:

First off, I'd like to apologize for making this post in an unrelated news story. I did so in fear that it would get lost in the mess of comments on the other post. I feel this is important enough for people to take notice of.

I was saddened to find out that Ryan "TheMystic" Lord's comment was removed from a post here on Voodoo Extreme (you can now read it at http://www.accesscable.net/~jamie/comment.htm -- thanks CableCow), primarily because it hits the nail right on the head.

One thing that needs to be cleared up, however, is the fact that I was "let go" or fired. I was NEVER fired nor let go. I quit for reasons totally unrelated to this.

The fact that Voodoo Extreme copies other people's work is not a dead issue and they did not entirely "come clean" about it. Anyone who is currently working and has worked on Voodoo Extreme can account for the fact that we swiped other people's work. When we gave other people credit for their work, Apache or Billy reprimanded us. If we did credit someone, we were informed to bury it under a bunch of other news stories. Again, if we didn't, we were reprimanded.

Time and time again, VE lifts other news stories from other pages and posts them as their own. I'm sure Blue's News would be more than willing to stand up and say that they, indeed, knew that we were doing this. In fact, Frans and Billy got into a very heated argument about this and we were informed to take any Blue's News story that we could and not give them any credit.

This is not a new thing for the gaming community. Most every single site does it, but VE really profited from it.

Sincerely,
Chris O'Brien
Former Senior Editor, Voodoo Extreme "

100

My final (for now) post about VE (just got a break at work and checked the shack).

#267 by 203.63.125.26 at 07:24 PM PST on 05/29/2001
That is the perfect way to handle this mess.

No one can blame the entire VE site for one persons actions.

The rest of the staff can't be expected to check every other website to first see if the article has been plagarised.

However, though this may be the best way to deal with it, the initial reaction was not. When the issue initially came to light and people were expressing their opinions on this matter, the way in which comments were deleted and ip's banned was very disgusting.

People were writing clear, polite messages imploring the staff of VE to do the right thing, and those messages were being removed completely and their IP's banned.

What is the point of having a comments section if polite and constructive criticism is removed and the author banned?

Is this 1984? Are we supposed to pretend that the comments never existed?

Yes, VE did the right thing, eventually. That does count, but the initial reaction and damage control efforts show a different picture of VoodooExtreme.

-Torias

Wow. Nice of VE to do the right thing but what was this Mike guy thinking?!!?

How hard is it to write up a 4 page review?
What was he smoking when he thought that no one would notice?
What was he injecting when he thought that he could cover it up saying that they both got it from the same source?

What an idiot.

I can't find any mention of this scandal on IANAG

Not to beat a dead horse or anything...

But Voodoo Extreme is a poopy site, run by poopy people, who do poopy things.

Did you see the twit that Shacktagged himself there? That's almost as funny as the rest of this shit.
-Rat

it's incredible how many posters over there are bashing VE. you'd think they'd be trying to defend their site. i thought this comment was especially nice :) :


This whole site is about cutting and pasting things from other sites, and then with much creativity adding the word 'pimp' or making some obscure reference to ones genitals. I am to believe that somehow a review is different from the endless posts. Go figure.

That place has seriously gone down the drain. Billy needs to get his ass back in gear and clean up.

Voodoo Extreme involved in bad reporting and mindlessly banning like a bunch of assholes?

Who woulda thunk it?

I *KNEW* that shit didn't come from any ATI document. That 3rd paragraph was a blatant copy from IANAG. Why would an ATI document talk about inferior 2d image quality, lower core speed, and lack of T&L? They'd hype up shit like price point, performance in certain games, MOPS, etc.

Apology to John Apps 7:14 PM (your time) - Robert "Apache" Howarth - In-House: Blah - (84)
First of all, we would like to apologize to John Apps and Ianag, as upon further investigation, Mike Stone did appear to take some of the content from its Radeon VE review, and posted it as his own.

We have permanently removed the article in question and have let Mike go from Voodoo Extreme.

Again, we are very sorry for this and it will not happen again...

Adding insult to injury, there are more posts on that "ATI Review Taken Down" story than the previous champ, the "BattleCruiser Millennium News and Screens" story, complete with daily posts by Derek Smart.

Seems every time VE is in the news it's not for anything good.

First for bashing the shack, and now this. Blues and shack are pretty much my 2 news sources now

Someone's going to need lube up with some KY Jelly to do some WuTang Kungfu on their asses with a size 8 funky double-dildo.

People read VE still? I got tired too many junk posts... If I want to read alot of news then I'll trust the skills of Blue, and if I want whats really important then I'll read Shack. VE got annoying to read, wasn't always up and after a year, the humor got to me.

http://www.voodooextreme.com/comments.taf?postID=15839

Seems like they're checking both sides of the story checked out before they do anything. :)

the last part (continued)

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For those of you wondering what happened to me .. I started off on a bad
note after being slandered by GameSpy. GameSpy deliberatly damaged my
reputation and image to Dave Morrison (Octane) and Robert Howarth (Apache).
It seemed as if the two made it a mission to remove me .. after a short
arguement with Chris O'Brien after posting a news story that he didn't feel
was newsworthy, I was forcefully cut from VE by Robert and Dave without any
proper authorization. Robert and Dave run things at VE .. they threatened to
quit if Billy did not remove me despite the fact I was one of the hardest /
most dedicated workers on the site while I was helping out during the
Christmas season.

I can't predict the fate of VE, but I can say that it doesn't look good. I
hope Billy opens his eyes and does a little in house cleaning .. he needs to
jump up on the reigns again and realize that he owns VE and has control over
it's quality. I'm done writing for now .. I hope this has cleared up some of
your questions.

Ryan "TheMystic" Lord

Steve and Marteen .. promise me you will never get this far out?

There go Mystic's posts.

I'm surprised it took so long.

Xvdl posted this:
http://www.iamnotageek.com/#VoodooExtreme%2Ecom+is+ripping+me+off

Original author makes some comparisons.

All of this gay drama. What's the most retarded drama the Shack has seen so far? I remember the 3million Lex Lethal trolls, some anon gayness here and there, and maybe the time Steve nuked my child molestation jokes like over a year ago when I was a silly little anon.

Read post number 22 before it's gone.

http://www.voodooextreme.com/comments.taf?postID=15839

I read an interesting post in their comment section before it was removed...

its to big to fit here though, but it seemd to talk about alot of inside stuff from a former employee Ryan "TheMystic" Lord

Guys, guys!! VE is FOR YOU!! ;)

Seriously though, I don't know what's going on about the whole thing but I do know three things when it comes to VE:

1) I miss Billy

2) I don't really like Mr. Apache

3) Plagiarism is not cool...uh...oops! ;)

If you guys still want to read the story by Brandon Park, it is here:

http://www.angelfire.com/boybands/shackpics/exposed/EXPOSED.htm

VE is a joke.

The apology has been removed.

What's the deal?

People got banned for talking about how VE posted a plagarized review? That's not cool.

VE is my least favorite gaming news site!

Plagiarism is not cool but it sure gets you out of jam, sometimes

Life just doesn't punish plagiarism enough. In grade school, you get a zero on the test/quiz/project in question. In college, you get expelled, no tuition refund, no appeals, no questions asked. But in life, sometimes you get congratulated and lauded as the savior, as if you were the one behind it all along.

Hey guys, early this morning VE posted a hardware article which the author plagiarized parts of from another hardware article at IANAG.com. You can read some more at HardOCP.com When the VE readers spoke out in objecting in the comments section the comments were removed and people were banned. However now Brandon Park (who?) has come forward posted a public apology and removed the offending article. Congrats VE on deciding the right thing. The rest of us webmasters thank you :)

So who is Brandon Park?

The reviews are done
the comparisons are made
the lawyers close in.

Looks like Billy is gonna have to hop the next plane out of Yew-tah, and put some manly prison-lovin' on Mike Stone.

Shacknews- Got some comments? Or do you have 101 ways to plagiarize other news sites? Mail us!

Spicy f'n post Stevie "wonder boy" Gibson!

Can I be your hoochie mama?