Dear SEN community,

Before you disregard me as someone that doesn't care about SEN, know that I was a somewhat active mapper and member of the old site and database (2007).

First, let me introduce myself, my name is Kris and most know me as Spartan[nK]. I am the founder and web developer of a community known as VG, which is short for VileGaming.com. We have been around since 2005. Yes, the site was designed both front and back by me alone.

Now on to the good stuff. I come to you today with a merger proposal of your community joining mine. I think it would be in the best interest for both our sites since we both can earn a few things from this. We would gain your communities skill, knowledge, and production in all things mapping/modding related. You would gain an easier to use site with a plethora of features and a better experience for your users. With our 2 commuities combined we can become the strongest and biggest driving force behind all things user created for StarCraft II, which is my main concern. To be able to provide a central place for any fan of StarCraft to get their fill of everything is our number one priority.

Aside from the mapping/modding contributions that would be possible through you guys, we at VG are working towards have the best leagues (non-money, fastest, ums, etc.) for SC2, the best source of media, and so much more. For example, me and my brother started a web comic a few days ago based on StarCraft, the first issue is here:
http://vilegaming.com/comics.x/3

I also try to keep the site designed as best as possible, such as the forums:
http://vilegaming.com/forums.x
http://vilegaming.com/forums.x/3
http://vilegaming.com/forums.x/topics/10837

What I offer and what you get is as follows:

- Me as a constant and dedicated developer for adding new features to the site, and continued support.

- Tons of features, gimmicks, etc. There are too many things to go into detail about, so if you have the time just register an account on my site and have a look for yourselves.

- A more organized and functional design for your community, something that would look like this:
http://vilegaming.com/league.x/3
..but for mapping/modding specifically. The middle would be all news posted by your staff. The sides can be recent maps/mods, highlighted maps/mods, etc. This section can even be titled SEN so that you keep your online name/entity of StarEdit Network, because I know how much the title is valued. Or we could try something new and call it Starlantis (lol).

- Your staff still get admin positions and will be the head honches of all things mapping/modding related.

Lastly, I am willing to also offer $900 total to whoever would get it from SEN (can be split 2-3 ways if more people deserve it). The payment would be split into 2 dates, and 50/50. For example, if one admin (eg. IPurity or MMoose) was to get all the money then he would get the first $450 when the site merges officially and the second $450 1 month from the merge date. The splitted payment is just for insurance. Another example, if 2 people were to get the money then each of them would get $225 after the official merge and the other $225 a month later (still a total of $900).

Thanks for your time in reading this and I respect whatever decision is the final one.

Sincerely,
Kris "Spartan[nK]" Sauquillo

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Sep 16 2008, 8:34 pm by Spartan.

Oh and before anyone makes any accusations, the money is not a bribe, but compensation for all the time and work put into this community so far.

My two cents: A merger would decrease average member/post quality, in some cases greatly. The nice thing about SEN is that you can expect almost everyone to avoid chatspeak on the forum itself. There were a lot of LMAO's in random topics I looked at. It would decrease focus on SC. And, honestly, I really like SEN's forum (and some other systems) system better. No ads (well, maybe those go away when registered... I sure hope so), 100% of screen space used, better color/design scheme, etc.

For the community itself, I expect that we'd be better off, after SCII comes out, as a separate website. SEN has more mapping experience and, as the majority here, can impose its own standards on new members, where if merged our active members would (I think) be outnumbered and standards would be lower.

There are some nice things, like the comics and tournaments and whatever else you have, but I think SEN'll be a better mapping website alone. It sounds like more of an absorption then a merger anyway .

Now, I hope that the $900 won't tempt anyone .

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 16 2008, 9:23 pm by Centreri.

I for one am gone if SEN merges with any other site (again).

Well, with Maplantis it was actually good, because Maplantis was originally SEN anyway. This is a completely random-like merge.

The SEN/Maplantis merge had far more going for it than this merge does. And it still hurt the community. This would destroy it.

This is more of an absorb than a merge, anyway.

Its like a bribe to shut down the site. Boo!

I originally handed IP ownership of the site and all my work in building a community for free assuming that he would continue to keep the site as a map making site and if he ever got tired of it he would pass on the torch, once again, to someone who would handle it for free.

And let me be totally honest. If IP does take this kind of deal, I would probably relaunch maplantis for SC2. Vilegaming or whatever doesn't seem to have the same feeling of a map making community that SEN/Maplantis had. Maybe I'm wrong.

This is one of those topics where I "have to" post, I guess. At this time, I do not support a merge or buy-out from VG.

While VG is impressive design-wise, it seems lacking in "our type" content from my perspective. VG does not seem very geared towards either mapping or modding. There are only 2 forums with a combined 20 topics. I will admit the gaming section seems significant.

My second major point is that of advertising. Firefox informed me of some pop-up windows that it blocked and there are some full-page ads that load along with the website. I will admit that SEN had Google Ads for a few weeks, but that was the full extent of advertising seen on SEN in recent times. VG has much more advertising and I will not stand for that. I wish for the userbase to have a site that is dedicated to remaining ad-free.

There is also the quality issue, which Centreri discussed in greater detail. I see a Forum Games area with over 20000 posts (roughly 1/6th of the total activity). While we have our fair share of troublemakers, vandals, spammers and flamers, etc., Staredit Network's quality of posted content is relatively high in comparison to other prominent StarCraft websites. This adherence to quality of content is not something to be sacrificed carelessly. I am also fairly certain that most of the userbase along with me would not appreciate any sudden drop of standards.

SEN may be deficient in some areas. There may be missing and incomplete features and areas. There may be poor design in some areas. However, there are good people here. SEN is my home and their home too. SEN has been around for too long. (longer than VG, at that.) I cannot sell it out.

Well said.

I was getting slightly nervous. Thank god .

Is the $900 negotiable?

Try OVER 9000 dollars!

But seriously, I would stop coming, not only do I not like the idea, I don't even like the name, I'm glad Moose has agreed otherwise.

Also, we actually had ads for a while? Did Adblock block them or something? Because I never saw a thing..

=/ Should I feel guilty for being happy about this?

Just by going on the main forum (hardly even looking at it) it seemed like there was nothing but spam or null. It took a while to get used to SEN again from Maplantis, I don't think I'd ever get used to VG.

Excuse me Spartan but if you seriously thought for a second this would go through, you know nothing of SEN.

I don't like "General" Starcraft communities. Too many people making too many problems.
of course, doesn't matter what I think.

I have a routine, I check facebook and then SEN, if SEN were to become any other website, it would take out of my routine and I am not willing to change my routine, I am happy with Moose's stand on this, and I agree. Say no to Merging!!

This. Every frigging word he just said. Just what I was I do.

It seems a little late to offer an opinion here, since I'm just agreeing with the masses but:

I don't think that it is beneficial for Staredit Network to partake in any merger or anything other than assimilation; we have a rich history that deserves preservation and even in the greatly diminished state we are in, I (the staunch conservative on such matters) think our tradition should be preserved in full. That and all the inherent quality and focus issues Moose pointed out. And that I really like the flowing layout of SEN, and personally think it's pretty good. (Ironically, the width-delimited layout of the old Facebook I find much better. There's my conservatism for you.)

I can't say how proud I am in the administration that the $900 didn't tempt anyone.

That being said, VG is actually a very respectable website, much more legitimately established than any of the other sites that once were trying to merge with SEN (I'm not talking about Maplantis here..). I just think we're better off as we are.