Octopus Overlords

Do any of you know his whereabouts?
or whats happened to him?

Uh oh.

alt

He's still around, but the last time I saw him was on The Screensavers.

In Revelations, the LaPorte bots follow the crokinole bots, right?

DillonBarba wrote:Do any of you know his whereabouts?
or whats happened to him?

I don't but I do harbor the same curiosities.

I admire(d?) the man for his genuine spirit, though wouldn't want to use him as a role model for web development execution. There are a wide range of opinions on the man from folks who prioritize these things differently. At one point it seemed as if some folks were interested in creating a Rich is bad bandwagon, though that wasn't exactly allowed to pass without comment. My only direct interactions with him were brief personal conversations and "professionally" as a moderator for his web forum (which was an aspect of his web page which he had delegated), so my own opinions have lessened intensity due to a comparatively isolated professional experience compared to those for whom had a more direct line to the man. I was rather heavily invested in the online community which had him at the top of its totem but mine was a far from unique experience in that regard (and obviously folks from that subset are going to have a wide range of opinions and justifications for those opinions).

So not so much a can of worms being opened here as one may think. My opinion is that there are relatively few people who have strong opinions on Rich which are as justifiable in terms of the strength with which they share (or shared) those opinions. There were some background activities occurring for which most of us have only heard one side of the story (I've probably heard as much of the full story as anyone as my marginal professional involvement with Rich did bring me into direct contact with many folks who had stronger professional ties), and one would hope the emotional responses to those actions had long since worked their way out of folks' systems.

My interest remains firmly as a curiosity for a person that kicked off a project which has had a strong impact on my life. I rather doubt that this curiosity will ever be satisfied.

I just want to know what Rich thinks about crokinole.

Don't know but I wish him well. I hope he's still gaming and that he found whatever it was he was looking for.

Though it would be pretty funny if he was using an alt and actively participating here or at GT.

The Meal wrote:

DillonBarba wrote:Do any of you know his whereabouts?
or whats happened to him?

I don't but I do harbor the same curiosities.

I admire(d?) the man for his genuine spirit, though wouldn't want to use him as a role model for web development execution. There are a wide range of opinions on the man from folks who prioritize these things differently. At one point it seemed as if some folks were interested in creating a Rich is bad bandwagon, though that wasn't exactly allowed to pass without comment. My only direct interactions with him were brief personal conversations and "professionally" as a moderator for his web forum (which was an aspect of his web page which he had delegated), so my own opinions have lessened intensity due to a comparatively isolated professional experience compared to those for whom had a more direct line to the man. I was rather heavily invested in the online community which had him at the top of its totem but mine was a far from unique experience in that regard (and obviously folks from that subset are going to have a wide range of opinions and justifications for those opinions).

So not so much a can of worms being opened here as one may think. My opinion is that there are relatively few people who have strong opinions on Rich which are as justifiable in terms of the strength with which they share (or shared) those opinions. There were some background activities occurring for which most of us have only heard one side of the story (I've probably heard as much of the full story as anyone as my marginal professional involvement with Rich did bring me into direct contact with many folks who had stronger professional ties), and one would hope the emotional responses to those actions had long since worked their way out of folks' systems.

My interest remains firmly as a curiosity for a person that kicked off a project which has had a strong impact on my life. I rather doubt that this curiosity will ever be satisfied.

So to answer your question DillonBarba in 5 words....

No, and I liked him

I've never harbored any grudges. In the end the community was greater than one individual.

On a smaller scale I understand the pressures of running an online site. Back in the mid-to-late 90s I had a horror DVD review site. It started off small but as it gained an audience the stress of making sure it was updated daily was pretty overwhelming. And at that time I was just a college student with a lot of free time on my hands. I finally just walked away from it cold turkey.

The internet is a strange double-edged world. One in which you can meet and socialize with people you'd never socialize with in real life. But at the same time that anonymity makes it easier than real life to just drop off the grid when it becomes too much.

YellowKing wrote:I've never harbored any grudges.

Pretty much this. I was pretty taken aback. And a bit that I didn't really have contact with a lot of people I talked to online outside of the outlet but that was my own damned fault. I felt bad for the likes of Andy who likely also didn't have any warning. Rich didn't owe me anything but if I worked on hard on site content, I'd be pissed as all hell.

I wish Rich well. I swore he popped up somewhere on some site or another to briefly apologize.

I'm glad that he could fade into obscurity, which is presumably his desire. There are a lot of strange stalkerlike people out there and Rich was a minor Internet celebrity.

I was a lurker at GoneGold until the last year or so, but I must have missed whatever controversy there was.

I remember it as a great site for talking about computer games. And it passed on to OO, which is a great site for talking about you lot.

Since we're kinda on the topic of Gone Gold, does anyone remember the forum poster "simon"?

He was a super nice guy, use to post pictures of his cute kid, and I did some game trades with him, I think?

Anyway, I was wondering if he ever migrated over here?

JSHAW wrote:Since we're kinda on the topic of Gone Gold, does anyone remember the forum poster "simon"?

He was a super nice guy, use to post pictures of his cute kid, and I did some game trades with him, I think?

Anyway, I was wondering if he ever migrated over here?

Yep, he was around in the early days posting under that name.

Last post was back in July of 2007.

I've still got my Gone Gold t-shirt! I'll always be grateful to Rich for starting up that website, even if the community fractured when it went down so unexpectedly. It took me something like three weeks to find this place, and I was really worried I wouldn't be able to find the community again, believe it or not.

I ate him. He's in my belly now.

YellowKing wrote:I've never harbored any grudges. In the end the community was greater than one individual.

Yep, but this is also the reason there are grudges. The dickish way he pulled the plug on GG was a blatant refusal to accept that the community he helped spawn grew bigger than himself. I can get that the site grew beyond his interest and ability to manage, but there are other ways he could have abdicated gracefully.

I met Rich personally a few times; cordial and aloof would describe those meetings. He seemed decidedly not interested in seeing GG become any bigger than it had already become. I think what probably started as a hobby and diversion simply became work, and not the type of work he enjoyed.

It's remarkable that the community was as indestructible as it was. It would probably make good material to some sociologist interested in the dynamics of virtual communities. That it did reconstitute itself probably lessens LaPorte's villainy. I don't think I personally would have ever held him accountable -- until I knew what happened. At the time of the resurrection, I didn't really know why GG vanished.

wonderpug wrote:I just want to know what Rich thinks about crokinole.

I lik...I mean, he likes it...allegedly.

Jeff V wrote:

YellowKing wrote:I've never harbored any grudges. In the end the community was greater than one individual.

Yep, but this is also the reason there are grudges. The dickish way he pulled the plug on GG was a blatant refusal to accept that the community he helped spawn grew bigger than himself. I can get that the site grew beyond his interest and ability to manage, but there are other ways he could have abdicated gracefully.

I met Rich personally a few times; cordial and aloof would describe those meetings. He seemed decidedly not interested in seeing GG become any bigger than it had already become. I think what probably started as a hobby and diversion simply became work, and not the type of work he enjoyed.

It's remarkable that the community was as indestructible as it was. It would probably make good material to some sociologist interested in the dynamics of virtual communities. That it did reconstitute itself probably lessens LaPorte's villainy. I don't think I personally would have ever held him accountable -- until I knew what happened. At the time of the resurrection, I didn't really know why GG vanished.

I think what he did to get GG going was a great thing, I loved that site in it's prime. It got to be too much for him, or life got too much, whatever the case. It was his site and his to shut/wind down as he wanted. He didn't owe us anything, really. There may have been personal issues that went on but they didn't involve me so I'm not obliged to take a side.

I only lament the missed opportunity for him to evolve GoneGold as there was no shortage of willing talent willing to help (as GT aptly demonstrates). Heck, I think Roll Call could have been made into a book. But in the end it was his decision and I don't begrudge him any of it.

I have a hard time holding a grudge against someone that did so much. I do miss the site however.

I didn't really mind so much his shutting down of the site. It was the POOF it's gone! that kind of upset me. I was going thru withdrawals until I found the then Console Gold.
Unless somebody brings it up I don't give the whole GG thing any thought.


Just sounds like something my stepson would do.

I have a Gone gold t-shirt.

I hope Rich is doing well.

That is a name from the past! I hope he's doing well.

I wouldn't be here without him so I appreciate what he did. I was not happy at the time but in a sense he was a guy ahead of his time.

LordMortis wrote:I wish Rich well. I swore he popped up somewhere on some site or another to briefly apologize.

He popped up at one point on some gaming news site about two years after GG was shut down but didn't apologize for anything, IIRC. He also went after the ConsoleGold guys at the same time after months and months of no contact (they abandoned the name and became Gaming Trend shortly after). So even then he wasn't really being nice about things.

But in the end that was his choice and none of us knew/know what was going on behind the scenes. Right after he shut down GoneGold I was emailing back and forth with Bill Harris about it and Bill told me some things about how the site had been running while he was doing the front page that really surprised me, namely that Rich's involvement had been relatively minimal for some time. Bill was basically running the site, including finding advertising and so on, not just writing content. So while Rich shutting things down seemed sudden at the time, the reality was that he was already pretty disconnected because of his real life stuff.

I got an email from Rich in 2005:

Hello Jay,

Thank you for your kind thoughts and wishes. I completely understand any
frustrations felt and thank you for accepting my apology.

Stay Safe,
~Rich


----- Original Message -----
From:@hotmail.com>
To: <richard@gonegold.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 8:59 PM
Subject: Last Call


> Hey Rich,
>
> Glad to hear you are doing better, I had feared the worst. I guess you
> could put me in the "Sure i was a little disappointed when I couldn't log
> on to my favorite Gone Gold, but there's more to life than a gaming site
> on the internet" crowd.
>
> I wouldn't let the fanatics get to you. Hell, they were screaming for Sid
> Miers's blood when CivIV shipped a day later than announced. It's a GAME,
> folks.
>
> Anyway, just wanted to wish you the best in all things.
>
> Jay M.

I hold no grudge but am curious to hear how he's doing/what he's up to now.

LawBeefaroni wrote: Heck, I think Roll Call could have been made into a book.

Does someone have all the Roll Calls?
I sure would like to read them again.

[Andy] I might have them somewhere - I'll do some searching and report back if I find them.. [/Andy]

Cool, I would definitely like to read them all again as well.

freelunch wrote:[Andy] I might have them somewhere - I'll do some searching and report back if I find them.. [/Andy]

Were you Gonegold's "Andy from Australia"?

I've always thought the Roll Calls could be put together into a fantastic book.

Dave Allen wrote:Were you Gonegold's "Andy from Australia"?

that was me. I used to have the site archived as it was before the server disappeared but after searching today I'm not sure I still have it - it isn't anywhere obvious

There are a few here and there at arhive.org.

Wow... "Value of the Week" sure dates it:

These include: Electronics Boutique, CompUSA, Software Etc., Best Buy, OfficeMax, Staples, Circuit City and others

Absorbed, Dead, Dead, Alive, Alive, Alive, Dead.

Bring back Egghead!

Bring back TinyFuzz!

Sigh

SpaceLord wrote:Bring back TinyFuzz!