This is the truly hilarious part of all this to me. You're faulting me and Jared for loving our jobs. How ridiculous is that? We both invest a lot of time in TouchArcade because a) it pays the bills, but more importantly, b) because it's a ton of fun. I really wish I could figure out where you get the idea from that I'm completely obsessed over the forums. Here's a brutally honest news flash for you: The forums to me are literally little more than yet another filter for the App Store. I spend my day going through a ton of new releases, as you're well aware, the App Store moves at an insane rate. From working here for over a year now, I've got a ton of systems, some automated, some not so much, for making this easier. When a new thread gets posted on the forums that receives a certain number of replies inside of a certain time period, thanks to the magic of Boxcar, an alert is pushed to my phone. I've got similar things set up for other areas that make my job easier. What does the freedom from this separation of needing to be on my computer 24/7 allow me to do? Well, since my fiancee and I both have jobs where we work over the internet, in the past six months we've lived in the following places, in no particular order: -In the heart of Manhattan in New York City -In downtown Chicago on the coast of Lake Michigan -A creepy old coal town in the mountains of western Pennsylvania -In this really cool recently revitalized area of Milkwaukee -In a cute little cabin on one of the top ridges of the smoky mountains in eastern Tennessee -In a condo on the beach in South Carolina -In a house near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to see the Space Shuttle launch -In a condo on Marco Island on the opposite side of Florida In the next two months, we're going to be living in Key West before heading back north for another stop in the smoky mountains area because we loved it so much, spending the holidays in Boston, then trekking up to Maine to get snowed in living in a cabin with an outdoor hot tub. In other words, I wouldn't trade my gig on TouchArcade for anything. I've been more awesome places, and seen more amazing things in the last six months since we started this adventure than most people see in their whole lives. Furthermore, I've had various community management gigs online since the release of Ultima Online, and I've seen so many of your types it's hard to remember anyone's names anymore. The process goes a little something like this: -Someone gets way too absorbed in the community. -Racks up a ridiculous post count. -Begins to think the rules don't apply to them. -This line of thinking results in them getting banned. -They apologize, come crawling back, with a new chip on their shoulder regarding the community management. -This inevitably leads to them pushing the limits until they get banned for good. Again, I've seen this so many times that it doesn't even excite me anymore. I don't have any kind of grudge against you or the other people who post here. My only goal is to keep the forums free of morons, to make my life easier. If you call that obsessive, well, I'm not really sure what else to say. I'm not sure how much more clear I can be that to me, the forums are just another cog in the machine that basically allows me to do 75% of my job from the stool of this phenomenal little beach side bar we just discovered a few days ago. I hope one day you find a job you enjoy as much as I enjoy my time here. Maybe then you will understand.
Yeah, buddy... I am feeling so with you. My rug rat (son) just went 10 months. Although he sleeps very good, it is a fulfilling but heavy burden.
Awww... heck, I thought you made this forums because you and INSM love to play Sheriff and Deputy. Disappointing. But I know what you are talking about. My job is a hard one... with hard rules, difficult decisions and sometimes even a bit dangerous. I love my job, it became part of my personality and normally, I don't wanna miss it. But in the end... it is only work. There are dozens of things - like family, friends, my home - which are important. The rest, like work, is just a necessity - knowing this, I never became obsessed with my work.
Eli or INSM, Just out of curiosity, how does one become an employee at TA? Is it all about helpful post counts or is there some kind of screening process?... I've always wondered...
Can't speak for Hodapp or IMNS but I would guess it would be first job availability and then application and interview process of appropriate applicants that possess the right job qualifications and experience.
Thanks for taking the time to explain yourself to me, I'm glad we can have these chats. I find equally amusing all the assumptions you make about me while you call me out on making them of you. For a start, the assumption that I don't think the rules apply to me is slightly insulting. I'll admit to bending a few, along with other people who get carried away with the flow of the drama, but nothing harsh (except that one time, but in my defense it wasn't yet written in the rules and was basically meant as a joke which you took rather more seriously than anticipated). Secondly, although this new ordeal has been blown way out of proportion, it stems from a valid complaint myself, derek and several other members have. Whether or not you choose to acknowledge it is your call (though I doubt you will since you guys seem pretty closely knit), but it certainly isn't a simple case of rebellion for the sake of it. As for grudges, you can deny it if you like, but some of the things you said and did started to look remarkably like a grudge, even if you didn't intend it to. I know we've had a disagreement or two in the past, and when you bring it up again several months later I get the impression you've been holding it against me the whole time, long after I'd let it go. I think perhaps it was stirred up a little more by other members basically trying to pit us against each other which didn't help the situation. Anyway, I'm willing to put the grudge thing down to a series of misunderstandings because this whole thing has been boring from the start. I don't disrespect the TA staff or the work you do, even when you more or less use the fact I like your website as an insult against me (I might also add that I do translation work over the internet, so it's not as though I'm sat here on the forums like a hawk 24/7, browsers have tabs and I can manage several of them at a time) and I'm not faulting you guys for loving your jobs, I think that's great and it's be a grand thing if everyone could say the same. What I was faulting you for is picking on me for basically just having the same hobby as you do. You're into games and technology and are lucky enough to work in that field, I'm into games and technology and spend my spare time indulging in it. You spend a lot of time doing what you do because you're interested in it, I don't see why it's a negative thing that I should do the same without getting paid. I'll wipe the slate clean now if you will, and drop this argument because I'm sure we've both always agreed that it's nothing less than ridiculous and it's my opinion that the least we can do is be civil to one another. We're all here for essentially the same reason after all.
I felt like quoting this cause it takes up lots o' space, um how are you not in trouble yet mister!!!! thems fightin words!!!
