The Skinny on Rich (and Gonegold somewhat) SEE 1ST POST EDIT

[DPW]

I'm sorry you are correct hits is poor grammar on my part. 12000 unique visitors is what I should have said.

It's pretty crazy that 12,000 people were reading the GG forums.

That's a lot of lurkers. Probably 12x at least the number of people who posted frequently over an extended period.

[noxiousdog]

Gone Gold isn't a place; Gone Gold is people.

Gone Gold is Soylent Green?

[Ænima]

Here's a semi-lurker putting one down for GG.  Kampai!

[Zaxxon]

Gone Gold isn't a place; Gone Gold is people.

Gone Gold is Soylent Green?

Damn you NoxiousDog for beating me to the punch by 180 seconds!

[Blackhawk]

Damn me for not getting the joke.  :?:

[Tareeq]

Damn me for not getting the joke.  :?:

Soylent Green is people.

To Serve Man - It's a cookbook!

[ravenvii]

Damn me for not getting the joke.  :?:

Go watch Soylent Green with Charles Heston.

[VynlSol]

Here's to you Rich, glad to know you're hanging tough!

[Grievous Angel]

Whack fol the darn O, dance to your partner
Whirl the floor, your trotters shake;
Wasn't it the truth I told you
Lots of fun at Gone Gold's wake!

[jblank]

The whole thing stinks to high heaven, and I dont like it. It was my favorite site on the web, and was someplace I had visited DAILY, for years. Now, thats gone, and I am not pleased.

I don't know about you, J, but I stopped visiting the site years ago and I've been visiting the community daily.   And that community shows no signs going away.

Perhaps not, but alot of the PURPOSE, for that community, goes away, without some forum for respectful political discourse, amongst the members.

[noxiousdog]

Perhaps not, but alot of the PURPOSE, for that community, goes away, without some forum for respectful political discourse, amongst the members.

patience.  (you have no idea how ironic that is coming from me.)

[The Mad Hatter]

The whole thing stinks to high heaven, and I dont like it. It was my favorite site on the web, and was someplace I had visited DAILY, for years. Now, thats gone, and I am not pleased.

I don't know about you, J, but I stopped visiting the site years ago and I've been visiting the community daily.   And that community shows no signs going away.

Perhaps not, but alot of the PURPOSE, for that community, goes away, without some forum for respectful political discourse, amongst the members.

Agreed. It looks like CG will pick up the slack for everything but the political/religious forum. That's fine for most GGers but sadly not for those of us who liked that aspect of things. We are currently homeless; Popehat has the people and the will but the interface is just too primitive.

[Mr. Fed]

Popehat has the people and the will but the interface is just too primitive.

We prefer "quaint." :wink:

[GuidoTKP]

Popehat has the people and the will but the interface is just too primitive.

We prefer "quaint." :wink:

Oh, I don't know, I'm somewhat down with "primative"  Have you ever seen Brian eat? ....

[jimbo]

Things are getting off to a slow start here: http://www.kcscene.net/notquitegg/

[Stephen]

Salutations.

My absence from Friday morning until this evening is easily explained: my wife and I, after dropping our two young boys at her parents' for the weekend, retreated to a B&B in rural New Brunswick to enjoy some horseback riding, a train excursion, some fancy dinners, et al in celebration of our 5th wedding anniversary. Nothing clandestine there. Well, nothing clandestine related to gonegold, anyway.

For what it's worth, I had absolutely no idea that anything out of the ordinary was going to happen.

After catching up on email and then these boards (thanks Bill, Peacedog, and Rip), I checked in with EV1 where I had full control to manage the GoneGold account and verified that the EV1 server account has been shut down. This, to me, means one of two things:

• Rich actively contacted EV1 and shut down the service, or
• EV1 shut down the service and would have contacted Rich with the reason

In either case, Rich has been extremely noncommunicative with anyone GoneGold-related in the past months/years, and I think it's fairly obvious that a continuing relationship there is painful/troubling/stressful for him. The site may well have been self-sustaining, but I can imagine him disraught just knowing that it's out there and people are looking for him and he's unable/unwilling to participate. Shutting down the site is a viable option for him, and I'd wager it's one he finally opted to take, for any number of reasons.

Consequently, I'd urge everyone to leave the man alone. He's chosen to distance himself from the site; respect that decision. If the well-wishes and good thoughts were helping him, we'd hear tell of private emails of thanks and gratitude being returned to specific individuals. But where he's gone completely incommunicado, I'd be inclined to think they're just reminding him of gonegold and adding to his stress. Give him some breathing room, and let him forget about gonegold - either for awhile, or forever.

I hate to waste brain cells trying to fathom the nuance behind heresay, but if Rich truly did claim that the site was turned over to someone and it "turned to hell" - which I believe is some sort of miscommunication or misunderstanding - then it's Rich's way of justifying the drastic action of pulling the plug. Andy was a trusted friend of Rich's who had the ability and the will to maintain the basic nuts and bolts of the website, and handled a lot of the day-to-day web administrivia such as front page updates. Bill really took the reins in terms of his Night Calls and driving the site to a more sustainable business model, but he stayed true to Rich's original theme. And I had complete access to the entire server for adminsitrative and maintenance purposes, but I placed a fairly heavy-handed restriction on myself to not become involved in content. Rich may well have felt that dealing with the constant email, the demands on his attention when he was struggling with other more important issues to be hellish, but I don't think it was a "spoiling" of the site by Mr. X that brought us here. Case in point: I haven't received a single email from Rich saying, "Disable Mr. X's account, and let's get things fixed up."

So. GoneGold the entity is owned by Rich, and for all intents and purposes (unless I receieve an email to the contrary), he has shut it down. Beyond that, there's not much more for me to add.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Faldarian]

I'm here (not that anyone noticed I was gone ), but I'm still holding out hope that the forum comes back in some form or another.

It's pretty obvious the turds hit the fan, but it still seems like everyone is still standing around it trying to decide if we should hose it off or just buy a new fan  

/edit: Yay, I'm the bad luck fairy. I get all optimistic and then Stephen posts (thanks for the news though    )

[SpaceLord]

Thanks for the update, Stephen.  

Life goes on.

[Jafisob]

As someone who visited Gone Gold before it was www.gonegold.com and was a constant lurker for years I have to say I will miss the site.

I wish Rich the best and I respect his decision to shut down the site.  Hopefully we can maintain the GG comunity here or elsewhere if need be.

[warning]

Thanks for the update Stephen.

And good to see you Faldarian.

[The Meal]

Thanks Stephen.  That makes our future path that much clearer.  Good to have you back, hope you had a great vacation.

~Neal

[dbt1949]

[th'FOOL]

Dbt, you just made me laugh and cry at the same time

[Hrothgar]

Like I said in the other thread, it seems like this action was what's best for Rich.  That's good enough for me.

Thanks Andy, Stephen, Bill, Joel, Jason and all the mods and everyone I'm forgetting.  Most of all thanks to Rich.  He more than anyone made me feel proud to be part of the gaming community.  Best of luck Chief.

[Seekre]

congratulations on your 5th wedding anniversary - in this day and age always a great accomplishment.  

Boy, I sure will be glad when all of this is over, I am way over exceeding my comment count, on any forum I gravitate to.  I can tell you this, I will move to wherever the GG community goes to - and it certainly seems to be this site at this point.

[Zaxxon]

Like I said in the other thread, it seems like this action was what's best for Rich.  That's good enough for me.

Thanks Andy, Stephen, Bill, Joel, Jason and all the mods and everyone I'm forgetting.  Most of all thanks to Rich.  He more than anyone made me feel proud to be part of the gaming community.  Best of luck Chief.

For the fourth time in two days, amen to that.

Rich, if you're reading this, know that you've been a positive part of more lives than you could possibly know.  Take solace in that, and move on to whatever you're moving on to with my best wishes.  

Andy--awesome job on the Gold Guide for so long--you were the light at the end of many long searches through the tunnel for me.

Mods: what a thankless job, eh?  Thanks.  You rocked, and you continue to rock.

[Raug]

I've been visiting the Gonegold Forums for 4 years, and to hear that the plug was pulled is very, very disappointing and saddening to me. Visiting the forums had become important to my daily routine. I would wake up and catch up on the new posts first thing in the morning. If, for some reason, I wasn't able to I would be cranky the rest of the morning.  :lol:
That said, I can understand and accept Rich's decision. I have been where he appears to be mentally now. Where you're so down you just don't want to deal with anyone or anything, and even the thought of it is stressful. Best wishes to you Rich, wherever you are.

Also, a big, big THANK YOU to the unsung heros of GG. The forum mods and staff who managed to walk the fine line of moderating that fostered such a great atmosphere for the community. You guys did an incredible job.

Here's hoping that the community can survive here to the fullest extent. Now, I need me some political rhetoric!

[Valael]

It seems all good things really do come to an end.  And with Stephen's post, it would seem as though the final nail has been driven into the coffin.  

My favorite gaming site is now gone, and hopefully CG can help fill that hole.  As the previous two posters said:  Thanks to everyone involved.  Even if people bitched at you about certain things, you still played a major roll in making GG what it was.

It's unfortunate that Rich no longer has the will/desire to put into it, but it's completely understandable.  He definitely deserves the thanks of everyone for what he created.  The site was great, and the community in general was even better.

[koanicriddle]

Thank god I chanced that CG might have some info on the Gone Gold disappearance.  It's amazing to me how much I've missed GG in the time it's been down.

My first thought was that there must have been a hardware failure, or something along those lines; I never considered the possibilty that the account had been shut down.  I wish Rish the best, and hope that the community finds another home.  As others have stated, I feel bad invading CG...

[TC Weidner]

Sad end to a great site.  Good to see the welcome mat of CG and that so many of us have moved over here however. This truly is a unique community .    and here's hoping to a successful start of a new chapter.

[Knightshade Dragon]

As others have stated, I feel bad invading CG...

Don't.  You aren't invading, you are invited.  There is a very distinct difference.

[dbt1949]

I just removed Gonegold from my Favorites.What a sad day.

[wookiee007]

If this is how it ends, then I for one am very disappointed with anyone involved in it "getting turned off"

Almost everyone in the community had respect for Rich and if anyone stepped out of line, they were quickly dealt with. Unfortunately, it seems that that same respect was not given back to the community, and by giving no notice to anyone involved, many people are feeling  hurt and bitter right now.

I still hope it comes back to life.  If it does, there is a good chance that I may not go back. Everyone here has been great and extremely accomodating. Why would I leave here after we were treated so poorly. Without a damned good excuse I will be staying here.

[koanicriddle]

Originally by Knightshade Dragon:
You aren't invading, you are invited.

Thanks, Knightshade.  It just feels strange; GG was one of the first sites I visited every time I logged onto the 'net.  And I don't even own a console these days  

[The Meal]

If this is how it ends, then I for one am very disappointed with anyone involved in it "getting turned off"

Well then your disappointment is targetted at an incredibly tiny portion of the population, from everything I've seen.

~Neal

[th'FOOL]

You realize, of course, that we were GoneGolders too....

Heck, I didn't even have a console when Ron invited me to join the team.

[HarveyB]

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper

TS Eliot

[gwartok]

Well, I hate to see it go, especially like this but at least it's done and we can move on now. There was alot of talk about what the community could do to get the site active again after Bill left and the silence to that was pretty damn deafening imho. Since I'm getting the impression that CG will be our new home hopefully those talented members who were offering their time to keep GG active will do the same to make this an even better one.

[Rip]

You realize, of course, that we were GoneGolders too....

Heck, I didn't even have a console when Ron invited me to join the team.

Well maybe it is just an evolution cycle. GG splits like a cell and creates multiple copies of itself. Each one stronger than the original. I think I will follow any/all websites that rise from the GG ashes. Should be interesting to look back in a year or 2 and see what worked and what didn't. At least now change is inevitable. Could turn out to be the best thing that ever happened.

[DPW]

At least the community didn't work hard to start getting the front page back up and updated daily for a few months only for that to abruptly end.