[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by Dion

If you asked him I doubt he'd say that he owned the GDT's. He does it in the same vein as what sureloss does - posters here appreciate what they do.

I wouldn't be surprised if he stopped doing it due to all the precieved ownership thing and other assumptions made about him.

Why not ask him instead of making assumptions?

Originally Posted by Vox

Funny how people can read the same sentences so differently.

No where in the OP does the word "letting" show up, nor is there anywhere in the post that I find a suggestion that he will now "let" people start the GDT. I read Cali "asking" people to help him write the GDTs, and asking rather earnestly.

I do not read "now's the time" as "now is the time that you will be allowed to start the thread". To me it says that if you have ever considered writing one, now is a time that it would be really helpful to step up.

I'm with you Dion. Sometimes it is good to ask. Or to give someone the benefit of the doubt, especially when they've clearly expended a lot of effort to give us something for nothing in return.

Thanks guys,

Wow, I don't know how people get that impression that I'm some overlord who is talking down to everyone and handing out threads piecemeal like i own them.

Here are the facts everyone, just so we're clear:

1) A couple of years ago HD was still doing every thread, and had been doing so since I had started on this site. That gives me the impression that while there's no official ownership of the GDTs (because of course not), there is a person who sort of has the label of being "that guy". It always seemed like CP was comfortable with that fact.

2) When HD said that he wasn't going to be able to do them anymore, he also asked for others to step up in his absence. What an arrogant prick, right? How dare he claim ownership of the GDTs? :roll eyes:

3) At that point I volunteered to do them. Note this, because it's especially important: NOBODY else even tried to do them, ever. I have never stepped on anyone's toes because nobody ever tried to post a thread before me, or during my entire time doing them.

4) I've never claimed "ownership" over anything, nor would I. However, it seemed to be that I became "that guy" because everyone said so, or at least implied as much. When you do something for a couple of years for nearly every single game, and nobody objects, then you assume that its just become your thing. Note, not something that I own, but rather responsible for. This became especially evident when I would receive several PMs before the start of every season asking if I was continuing in the same role for the next season.

5) The ONLY reason I bothered to start the thread in the first place was to pass off the responsibility. I don't want to be the guy that everyone looks to for all the GDTs, and I never really did want that either. It's just how it worked out. So, in an effort to make this more of a COMMUNITY thing, rather than just my thing, I asked for as many volunteers as possible, the same way that Bingo asked for volunteer writers to do the Game Takes segments last year. I know it's different because he actually DOES own the site, but my point stands.

I posted a similar thread last year and from what I remember the comments were mostly to the effect of "you keep doing them", and "I wouldn't know what to do". So this year I put a few more lines in there to try and spur some hesitant posters into trying it for the first time. Sorry if it came off as any other way because that was clearly not my intention.

I hope this will help people realize that this isn't some authoritarian or ego thing on my part. I like writing them. It sorta became my thing. I wanted the rest of the community to step up and do them. I felt like some sort of organization of it was important, especially if someone wanted to do some in depth writing, mostly because I like reading a preview. That was never a requirement though. I felt like if I didn't put this out there that people would be PMing me constantly about it until I did say something.

So here we are. What I'm surprised by is the reactions of so many who feel like I'm making this about me. That's exactly the opposite of what I'm trying to do here and I deeply regret that so much of this has become about me. I never wanted that and I'm quite embarrassed by all the drama around this. I've said several times over that I don't want to have anything to do with this now if for no other reason than to let the community decide what to do going forward. I hope that makes things crystal clear for everyone, and I really, really want to just move on now.

Thanks.