The Removal of the Freedom Force Resource Forums

[Gremlin]

Some of the sports boards I frequent are just about as bad as 4chan when it comes to people taking things way too far and acting juvenile.

No. They're not. The only thing nearly as bad as 4chan is 7chan...

*cowers in a fetal position in the corner as the memories flood back...*

[Courtnall6]

Hockey and Soccer are my main two....but mostly hockey.

I was kinda into Basketball and Boxing in the 90s...never that big on Football...and I hate baseball like poison.

nope, you're not the only hockey fan.

sweet

[Mr. Hamrick]

The sports discussion section would be nice...although I think I'm the only hockey fan around these parts...

I think the problem with having a sports discussion area is the same one that would be inherent in having political and religious discussions: many people tend to get overly emotional or lose sight of rationality when it comes to discussing their favourite sports teams and sports figures. Some of the sports boards I frequent are just about as bad as 4chan when it comes to people taking things way too far and acting juvenile.

I don't really consider myself a "true" hockey fan (especially when compared to some people I know... my mum, for one) but I do keep up with the Canucks games on TV. I'm more of a basketball and boxing fan myself, and I'm slowly getting into mixed martial arts. Heck, my whole extended family's made up of boxing and competitive martial arts fans. We actually schedule our family gatherings and reunions around pay-per-view fights and some of our photo album folders are labeled not by date, but by the principal fighters involved in the match  

We've had sports threads before though, Zulu, just not a section of the forums for it.  And I don't recall anyone acting uncivil about the discussion.  BWPS even took my shots at him being at Auburn in stride and occasionally returned fire in kind . . . in good ol' SEC college football tradition.  

nope, you're not the only hockey fan.

sweet

Who are you a fan of Court?

[GogglesPizanno]

Ok Im just throwing it out there... Every four years at the Winter Olympics.
I cannot get enough of the Curling.
I LOVE curling.

[Panther_Gunn]

Ok Im just throwing it out there... Every four years at the Winter Olympics.
I cannot get enough of the Curling.
I LOVE curling.

Ok, now you've gone to far.  You're now officially dead to me.

[Courtnall6]

Who are you a fan of Court?

Les Canadien du Montreal...bleu, blanc, et rouge forever

[laughing paradox]

Parlez-vous le francais? Tres bien!

So I just had to say that on the upside of things, this situation seems to have one positive outlook. We've all seemed to come together against a common enemy. In that sense, IPS is our Squid Monster, like in the Watchmen comic.

[Gremlin]

Ok Im just throwing it out there... Every four years at the Winter Olympics.
I cannot get enough of the Curling.
I LOVE curling.

[zuludelta]

We've had sports threads before though, Zulu, just not a section of the forums for it.  And I don't recall anyone acting uncivil about the discussion.  BWPS even took my shots at him being at Auburn in stride and occasionally returned fire in kind . . . in good ol' SEC college football tradition.

I guess the FR community can be trusted to keep things civil when it comes to sports discussions, now that you mention it. I tend to get affected by the teams I follow, though (although not as bad when I was younger). I'd sometimes lose sleep over the Toronto Raptors losing close games (thankfully, I've since weaned myself away from an all-encompassing obsession with the sport and the team, otherwise, I'd probably need sleeping pills the way the Raptors are playing these days).  

I was kinda into Basketball and Boxing in the 90s...never that big on Football...and I hate baseball like poison.

Never that much into football myself. As for baseball, I like playing the game recreationally, but watching it on TV bores me to tears. The preference for basketball and boxing, I think, is at least partially a cultural thing for me. They're the virtual national sports in the country where I'm originally from (the Philippines) in terms of popularity, even though the official national sport is sipa, (similar to Indonesia's more popular sepak takraw, basically volleyball played with feet).

[Glitch Girl]

Thank you Gremlin, you gave me the first good laugh I've had all day.

Still no news from Lunarpages.  I did have a brief moment of panic when the site was down for all of 5 minutes, but other than that, we seem stable.  All in all, it has not been a good day: someone at work lost their child overnight and the funeral is Sunday so that's been weighing as well.

[wickerman]

All of this 'not a big of football' nonsense will cease at once before I am forced to deem you all traitors and have you hunted down and whipped with a wet noodle.

[deano_ue]

i think we're seriously getting off topic

[Alaric]

i think we're seriously getting off topic

And that's a bad thing because...?

[blobula]

Les Canadien du Montreal...bleu, blanc, et rouge forever

Les Canadiens de Montreal ? Wow, I live in Montreal and I'm a huge hockey fan.

[Panther_Gunn]

i think we're seriously getting off topic

And you're surprised because.....?

[Johnny Patches]

i think we're seriously getting off topic

And that's a bad thing because...?

im sorry
but yes its a very bad thing
its like nobody gives a rat's atrs
and its really blows.
i know i havent been as long as most of you
and this forum means alot to some members..
sorry buts how i feel

[BentonGrey]

Don't take it so hard JP, I think people are just trying to blow off steam.  We're all worried and angry, but you can't stay that way forever.  Better to goof around a little than let this eat us up.  The Admins will do what they can, and the rest of us will chip in any way we can.  I for one am not going down without a fight...however, there isn't much we can do until GG hears back from her host.

[Panther_Gunn]

i think we're seriously getting off topic

And that's a bad thing because...?

im sorry
but yes its a very bad thing
its like nobody gives a rat's atrs
and its really blows.
i know i havent been as long as most of you
and this forum means alot to some members..
sorry buts how i feel

Trust me, everyone still cares.  But this is a very scatterbrained group.  If you don't get hit with at least one obscure referrence a day around here, we're not trying hard enough.  Threads wandering off-topic for a bit is par for the course.

*wonders if he should ask Zap to shake B A D out of his drunken slumber to post some randomness*

[tommyboy]

i think we're seriously getting off topic

And that's a bad thing because...?

im sorry
but yes its a very bad thing
its like nobody gives a rat's atrs
and its really blows.
i know i havent been as long as most of you
and this forum means alot to some members..
sorry buts how i feel

Easy there, JP.
Plenty of people care plenty.
But people also need to blow off steam in other ways, to just be a community of friends rather than a witch-hunt or lynch mob.
Lets all get through this however we can. If you need to vent, PM me or email me.

[BentonGrey]

i think we're seriously getting off topic

And that's a bad thing because...?

im sorry
but yes its a very bad thing
its like nobody gives a rat's atrs
and its really blows.
i know i havent been as long as most of you
and this forum means alot to some members..
sorry buts how i feel

Easy there, JP.
Plenty of people care plenty.
But people also need to blow off steam in other ways, to just be a community of friends rather than a witch-hunt or lynch mob.
Lets all get through this however we can. If you need to vent, PM me or email me.

Well said Tommy.  I could vent and rage for pages, but it wouldn't do any good.  Better to try and celebrate the community and wait for the verdict.

[Gremlin]

i think we're seriously getting off topic

And that's a bad thing because...?

im sorry
but yes its a very bad thing
its like nobody gives a rat's atrs
and its really blows.
i know i havent been as long as most of you
and this forum means alot to some members..
sorry buts how i feel

I know it can be frustrating, but this community's been through a lot lately. We're just trying to keep ourselves from cracking under the stress by kidding around. It's certainly keeping me sane.

As sane as I can get, anyways... 

[Johnny Patches]

yeah your right guys  its just sad whats happening

[Gremlin]

Thank you Gremlin, you gave me the first good laugh I've had all day.

Still no news from Lunarpages.  I did have a brief moment of panic when the site was down for all of 5 minutes, but other than that, we seem stable.  All in all, it has not been a good day: someone at work lost their child overnight and the funeral is Sunday so that's been weighing as well.

Any time! It's what I'm here for.

I'm really sorry to hear that. The death of a child is always tragic. The family has my condolences.

[Gremlin]

yeah your right guys  its just sad whats happening

Don't beat yourself up. I know it's crazy, but we've gotta stick it out. We'll be just fine. We're a resilient bunch.

[USAgent]

Man, it figures....I finally come out of skinning retirement after over 3 years, I post one skin, and the next day the FF stuff has to go, its gotta be my fault....yep...back to retirement for me.

One thing that is kinda neet to see with all this going on is the amount of "users" that are logged in here today.  Normally I see about 6 -10 users, but today I've seen 35, 48, 51....and its neet to see what everyone is doing "by clicking on the amount of guests and members in the users online section"
Alot of people sending messages, checking their messages, viewing hot topics.  Very active we are right now.

[Shogunn2517]

Not that I wanted to be a late party crasher, but I'm of two opinions.

The first is obvious.  This is a sad occurence.  This community provided literally years of enjoyment to a game that had a few hours of shelf-life to me, to be quite honest.  If this were to be the last of it(which I do have to say I'm quite confident it is not), I've thoroughly enjoyed what everyone has brought to the table and appreciate all contributions meshing, skinning or otherwise(this includes IPS).

Secondly, I'm not sure how effective this removal can be.  As it's been pointed out, nothing is being bought or sold with these creations.  There's no profiteering.  Moreover, several gaming, and non-gaming related sites have created similiar mods, editions and additions that involve copyrighted Marvel and DC characters and these communities thrive and thrive without threat.  Lastly, again it's been said, with all the threats that these publishers actually face, this forum(and any affiliated sites) couldn't possibly be of concern when facing actual threats to their copyrights and once looked into, they'll realize what's been pointed out above.

But I could be wrong.  I don't know.  I wasn't aware of such a problem going on.  I've been a casual associate of this site for several years now and have had nothing but friendly interactions with many prominent members, including IPS himself and based on my own experiences, I do not have an unkind word to say about any of these individuals, but thank you.

But I do have to wonder, is my avi-pic no longer allowable?

[Johnny Patches]

Man, it figures....I finally come out of skinning retirement after over 3 years, I post one skin, and the next day the FF stuff has to go, its gotta be my fault....yep...back to retirement for me.

break the toys and go.. you gotta  be from illinois

[The Nemesis]

Secondly, I'm not sure how effective this removal can be.  As it's been pointed out, nothing is being bought or sold with these creations.  There's no profiteering.  

No, the mods decision to take the FF portion down for a while is indeed prudent.
The trick is not to incur the wrath of the copyright owners (which is why the community's small size is a good thing in this case). Laying low for a while may very well show that the FF community is no threat (assuming IPS alerts/alerted them of course).

People generally don't get taken to court if things weren't sold, but even if not, the copyright holders can tell all those who are making the skins to stop, and delete every byte of offending material (a cease & decist order).
Not as bad as being sued, but I'm sure everyone can appreciate the desire to avoid that.

I think the right things are being done though, and I expect we'll be able to recover in good time.

[wickerman]

Maybe the mods could create temp areas for non copyrighted stuff to be posted and discussed - some of us work on original stuff or simply FF stuff.  If someone wanted to reskin Minute Man as a hippie, we have permission to do that.

(Please God someone do that!)

FFX related stuff shouldn't be off limits either or scripting.

It might help to keep us from hanging out anticipating the worst because we have nothing else to do...

[NomadX]

U.S. Copyright law is quite explicit that the making of what are called "derivative works" -- works based or derived from another copyrighted work -- is the exclusive province of the owner of the original work. This is true even though the making of these new works is a highly creative process. If you write a story using settings or characters from somebody else's work, you need that author's permission.

source: http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

Wouldn't this mean that IPS has no copyright claim to his work as he didn't have permission from the original copyright holders? Seems rather hypocritical of him to even do this. Apparently, respect and an understanding not to abuse someone's work isn't enough for some people. And why did it even have to go this far? Couldn't IPS have asked the mods to remove everything by him instead of going to the host? It's a very petty thing to do, in my opinion.