Open Designs

Open Designs Forum » Site News

1. uberlemurguy
   Moderator

   2 years ago Joe said in this thread:

   No reason to hold. No reason left to stay at OWD. We can make a better place, and i being handled by a group of people will get rid of the response of "the admin is busy, let him live" now we will have several admins, this site can go really far.

   Neuen (the other admin) said in the same thread:

   I am also going to help you no matter what OWD does. I think once you rip down a community like that you have to build a new one.

   If Joe and Neuen weren't admins, they would move to OpenCSS.net and we ALL should to.

   Posted 3 years ago #

2. Sean
   Founding Member

   Joe or Ethan, please come to the OD forum and at least say hello and let everyone know you are alive.

   Posted 3 years ago #

3. Dean
   Member

   RIP OpenDesigns.org :(

   Posted 3 years ago #

4. uberlemurguy
   Moderator

   it seems someone deleted the topic. i undeleted it until someone gives a good reason

   Posted 3 years ago #

5. Sean
   Founding Member

   uberlemurguy said:

   it seems someone deleted the topic. i undeleted it until someone gives a good reason

   The only people who have access to delete or un-delete posts are admins and moderators, so that's a pretty short list.

   Posted 3 years ago #

6. uberlemurguy
   Moderator

   yeah that was what i was thinking. i obviously didn't delete it. Is joe lurking in the shadows? O.o

   also, as a "founding member" does that give you moderator rights?

   Posted 3 years ago #

7. Sean
   Founding Member

   @uberlemurguy: I don't do any moderating and have not since I officially stepped down as an admin months ago, and no, I do not have special access.

   I only have a cool title that I gave myself when I still had admin access because of being a founding member/admin and wanted to get a little recognition :)

   Posted 3 years ago #

8. uberlemurguy
   Moderator

   ah, so you can but you don't. fair enough.

   Posted 3 years ago #

9. Sean
   Founding Member

   uberlemurguy said:

   ah, so you can but you don't. fair enough.

   As I said in my previous comment, I don't have special access, so to clarify I am just a normal user now. I can't change anything on the site. I gave myself the founding member title when I still had admin access, which I no longer have.

   Posted 3 years ago #

10. uberlemurguy
    Moderator

    oh i misunderstood. I thought you meant that you can't do things like WordPress upgrades, now I fully understand. Sorry.

    Posted 3 years ago #

11. NickyD
    Moderator

    it seems someone deleted the topic. i undeleted it until someone gives a good reason

    I did not delete anything in this thread. I have only deleted spam.

    Posted 3 years ago #

12. papab30
    Member

    Like I said in a different thread, I think someone is running the forums a little more heavy handed than from months before.

    Posted 3 years ago #

13. Sean
    Founding Member

    Speaking of forum moderation, who else is an active moderator besides Gnome, NickyD and uberlemurguy?

    Posted 3 years ago #

14. pseudoxiah
    Member

    Posted 3 years ago #

15. pseudoxiah
    Member

    if the forum moderator suggests moving to a different site how can we expect this site to last? what's a community if not his members? this is like a psychological war where we are dominated by the idea that joe officially owns this place. so we sabotage it and destroy it from within. its' working like a conspiracy: they wanted to destroy the place but let us do the job making us think it was our idea. it's like making a hunger-strike because the goverment does not give the population enough food.

    Posted 3 years ago #

16. Sean
    Founding Member

    @pseudoxiah: No one is suggesting that we sabotage or destroy OD. If the site is going to die, it will happen on its own from lack of use, support and administration.

    I agree a community is nothing without its members but OD isn't a community site per se anymore, not that it ever was 100% community driven but once Joe (LobsterMan) took full ownership of the site, it became a privately owned site with community support.

    Myself as a Founding Admin/Member of Open Designs and a long time member of the Open Source Design Community (OSWD, OWD, OD) I've put a lot of blood, sweat and tears over the past 9 years into all the projects and design communities I've been apart of... so it makes me a little sad to see OD heading in a downward spiral... but only Joe and Ethan can make the final say or changes to what will come of OD.

    I still tell people to submit designs to OD, even though I now run Get Free Web Designs (http://www.getfreewebdesigns.com/). The more support and sites for designers and users the better for everyone. We don't need a monopoly in the design community.

    Anyway... hopefully Joe and Ethan will step up and not leave the 7,000+ registered users, members and designers hanging... but either way I wish the best for OD...

    In closing, be sure to visit http://www.getfreewebdesigns.com/ and show your support for another strong design site with a mission of helping promote designers and the design work they do.

    Posted 3 years ago #

17. NickyD
    Moderator

    I think right now Gnome, uberlemurguy, and myself (NickyD) are basically running the site.....and most regulars here already figured this out. Other mods / admins may have been doing things, but not informing anyone. I had been in contact with Gnome & uberlemurguy off forum a few weeks back. We are doing the best we can with little power to keep things going. Gnome is taking care of some backend stuff with limited abilites / powers. ubelremuguy was approving some designs earlier with no directions given to him and helping with the forum, and I have been monitoring the forum.

    I think this site and GFWD can work together. Sean is launching his site, and doing a great job with Aaron on it. It is updated often. I think some may think Sean wants this site to go under so his new site will thrive, but I believe this to be not true. He has put a lot of time into the development of this site, and wants it to succeed.....but I know he can speak for himself.

    Posted 3 years ago #

18. Sean
    Founding Member

    NickyD said:

    I think some may think Sean wants this site to go under so his new site will thrive, but I believe this to be not true. He has put a lot of time into the development of this site, and wants it to succeed...

    I have said time and time again that I want OD to thrive and as you pointed out, if I didn't care about the site, I would not have put so much time and effort into OD or the other sites (OSWD, OWD). I finally stepped down from OD as an admin because of being burned out for various reasons.

    With Get Free Web Designs, it's a breath of fresh air and like you said, Aaron and I are doing a great job with the site and it's updated almost daily.

    I do feel bad for the current moderators of OD... you are in the same boat as I was just prior to stepping down as an admin... you can only do so much but the site needs a lot more done besides just people moderating the forum.

    -Sean
    http://www.getfreewebdesigns.com/

    Posted 3 years ago #

19. uberlemurguy
    Moderator

    i am a proponent of GFWD and OC (OpenCSS) because they have active admins and mods. I can't fully support a site that has no admins ever showing their face around here. I am surprised joe even bought it, because in my 1.5 years here I barely saw him.

    Posted 3 years ago #

20. Sean
    Founding Member

    uberlemurguy said:

    i am a proponent of GFWD and OC (OpenCSS) because they have active admins and mods.

    Thank you for your support of GFWD http://www.getfreewebdesigns.com

    I can't fully support a site that has no admins ever showing their face around here.

    Being a past OD admin, I see where you are coming from, which is why I was always active in the forums when I was an admin and look now, even though I am no longer an admin, here I am :)

    Gnome is doing a great job of approving designs but I feel he's in the same boat that I was with OWD the last 6 months of that site before I left to help start OD... he's doing all the approving and has little to no power or help from admins (Joe/LobsterMan).

    NickyD is also doing a fine job of moderating spam. Not too sure who else is actually doing moderating at this point.

    I am surprised joe even bought it

    Joe didn't buy OD... well he did purchase the domain name... but he was one of the founding admins (like me).

    Posted 3 years ago #

21. uberlemurguy
    Moderator

    ah, it was my understand that Joe bought it to make it a private venture.

    Posted 3 years ago #

22. Sean
    Founding Member

    uberlemurguy said:

    it was my understand that Joe bought it to make it a private venture.

    Who did you think he purchased the site from? As mentioned, he did purchase the domain name 2+ years ago (November 27, 2006) when the site was first started... which is how he basically took full control of the site, he has always owned the domain name.

    I just did a whois lookup and see that I'm still listed as a technical contact for the domain... hehe... nice... that was done in the beginning because I originally hosted the site back then.

    The whois information was last updated on January 12, 2009 which is when Joe took over the site completely.

    Posted 3 years ago #

23. uberlemurguy
    Moderator

    Okay, it is all clear now. I though he "paid you guys off" so that he could have complete control. Funny how the whois hasn't been updated, but if I had ownership of this site, I would probably forget about that too.

    Posted 3 years ago #

24. Sean
    Founding Member

    uberlemurguy said:

    I though he "paid you guys off" so that he could have complete control.

    This didn't happen. No one was paid off. He just decided once I was officially stepping down from the site as an admin, he wanted to take full control of the site, so that's what he did. This is all documented in other threads on the forum.

    On another note, I'm really not sure what happened with Christopher. He just stopped coming around the site and doing admin stuff.

    The bottom line here is this... Joe (LobsterMan) is a decent guy, which is why I'm puzzled on why he isn't poking in on the forum and saying something.

    At any rate, I'm tired of talking about it because at this point in time I have nothing else to add on this thread, plus I have other things I want to focus on, like http://www.getfreewebdesigns.com/ :)

    Posted 3 years ago #

25. Sean
    Founding Member

    Well it's been about a week and I was wondering if anyone had heard from either Joe (LobsterMan) or Ethan? and if so, anything new to report?

    Posted 3 years ago #

26. uberlemurguy
    Moderator

    nope, not a thing. i have sent > 5 emails in the past month.

    Posted 3 years ago #

27. Sean
    Founding Member

    uberlemurguy said:

    nope, not a thing. i have sent > 5 emails in the past month.

    When the admins are not talking with the community and user base, that's bad... but when the admins are completely ignoring the moderators. that's really bad.

    -Sean
    http://www.getfreewebdesigns.com/

    Posted 3 years ago #

28. Sean
    Founding Member

    Just a small reminder to all OD users, I am no longer an Open Designs site admin (for many months now) and I do not have access to help you with anything related to the site.

    Please do not contact me about anything Open Designs related, example why certain design downloads are not working, why various features don't work, when will a design be approved or why was it removed, or why you are not getting replies from Joe (LobsterMan) or Ethan.

    I'd love to help you out but again I have no way to help you with anything OD related. Maybe check with an OD moderator but last I knew, moderators had limited access too.

    I only bring this up because I've been receiving a lot of support type emails for OD the past few days.

    -Sean
    http://www.getfreewebdesigns.com/

    Posted 3 years ago #

29. uberlemurguy
    Moderator

    I couldn't help but laughing! It is very tempting to make a blog post. Saying what is going on here. So very tempting...

    Posted 3 years ago #

30. Sean
    Founding Member

    uberlemurguy said:

    I couldn't help but laughing!

    Glad I helped you get a good chuckle :)

    So much of this would be a moot point if Joe (LobsterMan) or Ethan would just speak up. Who knows, maybe Ethan isn't even an admn anymore?!

    Either way some communication from the OD ownership staff would be really great.

    Posted 3 years ago #

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