CB Official Partners?

[Lampyridae]

To put things in perspective, here is Koni's announcement from the CB Infinity forum:

Infinity’s online community evolves

From its beginnings in December 2005, Infinity’s online community has grown an changed constantly. And it still does! August 1st will be the beginning of a new phase in which Corvus Belli hands over the management of the online community to InfinityWarCors.com and DataSphere.net. Infinity players will find there new communities, made by fans for fans.

Since August 1st, the current forums won’t allow new posts, but will remain accessible until October 1st.

Wait no longer! Register now at InfinityWarCors.com and DataSphere.net and be a part of the new online community of Infinity players.

Emphasis mine. This is what everybody understood from CB, and unfortunately its language is rather vague.

Now, something everybody needs to understand is that DataSphere is not a subcontractor of CB's. It's not a company and sure as heck as not even signed any paperwork with CB yet. CB cannot offer DS services as part of its contract. The agreement is pretty loose. It is simply unenforcable and not under their control. If you think of DataSphere as a wargames club on the internet, you're about as close to understanding it in legal terms as you can get. The Admins are personal representatives of a collective. Comments about CB breach of contract are, sadly, quite on the mark. If subforums and forum-related stuff are part of their agreement, CB *should* have negotiated and informed all parties *before* the move. I don't know the specifics, but since Customeeple, a Spanish company is on board and seems happy, there must have been some better communication with them from CB. I'm pretty sure CB's intent was not to dump everyone in the poo.

Furthermore, CB confirmed to us that we are independent and to remain so. To show favouritism to official partners, not matter how awesome they are, goes against the spirit of that, even if we think their stuff rocks. There is also the problem of exclusivity: if we were to follow CB's example and "be the official forum and subforum provider for exclusive official partners" we would have to lock every single independent manufacturer's thread and remove their advertising. Contract renegotiation can be a very ugly thing. Especially international ones.

So, you see, we need a different path. I know I speak on behalf of all of the DataSphere community when we say, hell yes, we want everybody on board.

[Harlekin]

So, you see, we need a different path. I know I speak on behalf of all of the DataSphere community when we say, hell yes, we want everybody on board.

Yes, please.

[Antenociti]

To put things in perspective, here is Koni's announcement from the CB Infinity forum:

Infinity’s online community evolves

From its beginnings in December 2005, Infinity’s online community has grown an changed constantly. And it still does! August 1st will be the beginning of a new phase in which Corvus Belli hands over the management of the online community to InfinityWarCors.com and DataSphere.net. Infinity players will find there new communities, made by fans for fans.

Since August 1st, the current forums won’t allow new posts, but will remain accessible until October 1st.

Wait no longer! Register now at InfinityWarCors.com and DataSphere.net and be a part of the new online community of Infinity players.

Emphasis mine. This is what everybody understood from CB, and unfortunately its language is rather vague.

Now, something everybody needs to understand is that DataSphere is not a subcontractor of CB's. It's not a company and sure as heck as not even signed any paperwork with CB yet. CB cannot offer DS services as part of its contract. The agreement is pretty loose. It is simply unenforcable and not under their control. If you think of DataSphere as a wargames club on the internet, you're about as close to understanding it in legal terms as you can get. The Admins are personal representatives of a collective. Comments about CB breach of contract are, sadly, quite on the mark. If subforums and forum-related stuff are part of their agreement, CB *should* have negotiated and informed all parties *before* the move. I don't know the specifics, but since Customeeple, a Spanish company is on board and seems happy, there must have been some better communication with them from CB. I'm pretty sure CB's intent was not to dump everyone in the poo.

Furthermore, CB confirmed to us that we are independent and to remain so. To show favouritism to official partners, not matter how awesome they are, goes against the spirit of that, even if we think their stuff rocks. There is also the problem of exclusivity: if we were to follow CB's example and "be the official forum and subforum provider for exclusive official partners" we would have to lock every single independent manufacturer's thread and remove their advertising. Contract renegotiation can be a very ugly thing. Especially international ones.

So, you see, we need a different path. I know I speak on behalf of all of the DataSphere community when we say, hell yes, we want everybody on board.

We asked for a sub-forum before we knew that Arachas wanted money for one.

At the time DataSphere said they were now the new official forums and we acting under that impression (given by Arachas, subsequently found to be untrue)

You are the first DataSphere rep to say that you want us here or even give such an impression.

Arachas said that we didn't 'deserve' a sub-forum: we had not "contributed enough to data-sphere" in the past to 'just be given one'. When we said what we had contributed he laughed in our face.

So which face of datasphere do we take as being the real one? Your reasonable one or his? Or is this simply propaganda.

Let me point out that nobody from DataSphere has contacted us directly, by email or phone or any other method than via this forum: nobody. You seem to think we must come to you and that we have the time to read all of your threads and posts... and that it is symptomatic of Arachas's attitude... Everybody now has to come to him cap in hand.

If you want to talk to us then contact us directly, don't use your forums to conduct a campaign that really only serves to paint you in a better light.

If you want official partners like ourselves and Warsenal to be here then actually approach us with reasonable demands presented in a reasonable fashion by reasonable people, not arrogant demands, false stories about demands of favoritism and claims of official status which are discovered to be untrue..

I wont deal with Arachas though, neither will Bill from Warsenal...

..but if any part of your post is authentic then the ball is in your court.


PS: bear in mind that we will not be reading this forum anymore - there is no point replying to us here, by post or PM, so if you want to talk then it has to be directly.

[Harlekin]

To be honest: I guess, that most of the Infinity players (and as such your customers) don't give a € cent about your quibble with Arachas or anybody else.
And with your last post here, you lost quite some respect in my eyes, especially with the statement, that you won't care anymore about what the community (your customers!!) thinks about you, your products and the "forum incident"...
Acting professional isn't a one-way road in my eyes...
And I really don't get it how personal likes or dislikes could dominate a business decision. That really is WHUT?!?!

[Arachas]

Jed, I believe we agreed to stop talking about this in public. And yet here you are again.

You have failed to heed a prior note concerning your conduct on these forums. So consider this your official first warning.

Should you choose to step out of line again, you will receive a second warning. After which a 1-week ban will be instituted.

Thread locked.