I’m sorry. I tried everything i could think of, overextending myself to ridiculous extremes in the process; and i’m no closer to my goal of making any of this sustainable.
So i need to scale everything back, wrap up a few loose ends, and try to finish my Combo DVD for the handful of people who preordered it – while catching up on all the things i postponed or sacrificed along the way. I’ll try not to disappear completely, but no guarantees.
For those of you wondering what happened, here’s the problem. Anyone can do what i do for three months, maybe six months, maybe even a year. But it burns you out, like you wouldn’t believe. The 4-5 casual matches of MvC2 that i happened to play at SoCal Regionals were literally the only video games i’ve played in the past 2-3 months!
What can i say? Running these websites is a grind. Up until now i held onto hope that i could make something out of all this effort, but it’s just not happening and it’s time to face facts.
Our whole system of publishing content is broken beyond repair. If you look at any given video i’ve posted on u2b, roughly 2k views originate directly from Sonic Hurricane and roughly 10k views come from an embedded player on eventhubs.
That means “news” sites like eventhubs make at least five times as much ad revenue for every single video that i produce. Yes, we’re only talking about a few dollars here, but think of all the material that eventhubs leeches from external authors like me.
Over the last year, Sonic Hurricane has averaged around 95k hits per month, which probably makes me the most successful dedicated content producer in the community. For the record, i still haven’t made a single dime. I’ve actually lost money! That’s a really bad sign if you’re a video maker or article writer hoping to go somewhere with this.
On the other hand, eventhubs gets three million hits per month, which probably translates into a couple thousand dollars every month for that guy. Now ask yourself how much original content eventhubs produces. Yup, it’s damn near zero.
All their frame data is copied from Shoryuken.com translations of Japanese publications, all their strategy guides are stolen from SRK forums, and all their embedded videos are created by people like me. And the worst thing is, they’re actually pulling the community away from Shoryuken.com – using SRK content to do it!
It’s a sad state of affairs when the only person profiting from all this work is the guy who’s never produced a shred of original content and given nothing back to the fighting game community. And every single day, i have to watch people linking to eventhubs left and right. It’s just impossible to stay motivated when things are this fucked up.
It breaks my heart to see people talking shit about Shoryuken.com for every little error they make, then turning around and praising eventhubs. Where the hell was eventhubs when our community was struggling to stay alive, when all we had were decade-old games?
Say what you will about SRK, but you can’t deny everything they’ve done for the fighting game community. They’ve organized the best fighting game tournament in the world every year since 1996! And they lost money every year until at least 2006.
For the last three months, SRK has consistently posted game industry news faster than eventhubs. Yet every single time they slip up by a few minutes, some fool comes out of the woodwork to talk shit. Why?
You know, someone actually had the audacity to complain about a John Choi strategy article on SRK last month, because i guess he didn’t want to take advice from a top player who hadn’t won a recent tournament. I’ve had the same reaction to a few of my strategy articles. So why isn’t anyone questioning the matchup information on eventhubs?
I actually met the owner of eventhubs briefly at Evo. He seemed like a nice guy. I don’t blame him for trying to cash out on the mainstream success of SF4. But nobody knows who he is or where he came from. He just showed up with SF4 and capitalized on its instant popularity. And everyone jumped on his bandwagon and happily rode down the path of least resistance.
Honestly i love this community to pieces, but it’s hard not to be disappointed in the way this is playing out. For someone as burnt out as i am, it’s the final nail in the coffin.
Anyway i’m sure i’ll get a lot of flak from eventhubs supporters for pointing all this out, but whatever, bring it on. I can’t see any upside whatsoever from eventhubs becoming as insultingly popular as it has, and i haven’t even touched on half the negative impact that website represents. It’s just sad to see it go down like this after everything SRK has done for the community, and i’ll be quietly rooting for SRK to come out on top in the end.
Apologies once again. I hate drama, but is it better to stay silent forever?
I’d like to say that I wish you well in your endeavors and truly appreciate what you’ve done for the community.
I’m definitely one of the new-age Street Fighter 4 band-wagoners, but ever since I discovered your site I’ve enjoyed reading your articles and watching your videos, and checked it usually daily for new stuff. I especially enjoyed articles and comments where you would talk about the old days, the days I was simply too young to be a part of. In your writing I can get a real sense of how tight the community was and the kind of work it took to keep the scene alive when, as you said, all the games were a decade old or more.
I’d never really considered what it meant when I watched something embedded on Eventhubs rather than on SRK or at the contents original source. After this article I’ll make more of an effort to watch and read content from its original provider, if only for what meager support it’ll offer the community I’m now proud to be a (mostly silent) part of.
I wish you the best Maj.
I have a lot to say on this subject but am opting to keep my mouth shut due to the fact that there are multiple ways to look at the situation. Either way, sad to see this post, makes me really depressed considering how great this site is.
Maj,
This article is probably the saddest I’ve been reading anything regarding the FG community. Content aggregators are a problem for all creative individuals online, though I never realised that they’d have an impact on guys like you with regard to fighting games.
You’re one of my favourite contributors of FG knowledge, whether it’s strategy articles or combo videos/interesting system mechanic notes, and I hope you can find the motivation to start writing again in the future.
Gnickwoxel: Thank you sir. I totally understand where you’re coming from. If you haven’t been around long enough, it’s virtually impossible to tell the difference between the people who paid their dues and the ones who just showed up at the right time to capitalize on what everyone else built. It’s not your fault.
haunts: Dude what’s there to be afraid of? Just say what’s on your mind. Hell, if i release an SF4 combovid next week, eventhubs will still have to post it. What other option does he have? Not like he’s suddenly going to begin making combovids himself. (And he’ll probably still credit “Sonichurricane.com” without bothering to make it a clickable link, because he’s afraid his lazy audience might actually click on it and see where his content comes from.)
Dreddybajs: Eh, it’s alright. Like i’ve said before, it was worth a shot. It didn’t work out and there’s no sense forcing it.
Maj,
I feel there are pros and cons of all the major sites out there: SRK, Eventhubs and even my own, iplaywinner. Fact is though that you’re right that there is a serious problem with EH not producing original content. I cant tell you how pissed I was when I wrote a Makoto guide for SRK forums and was listed as a “contributor” on EH when I never told them they could use my guide. I mean shit, me and Mr. Quotes put that together for the SRK community, not the EH community. I think we had a conversation about this sometime back.
Since then, iplaywinner has become similar to EH when it comes to news, and now that SRK is in the mix it makes it even harder considering even if we are first, we still dont see as much traffic as either site. That said, we also pump out a ton of original content and try to have a mix of everything to keep people coming back. It just gets frustrating when I go to a tournament and dont have time to tend to my own site, being 1up’d by other news sites, when Im out there in the trenches trying to do good for the community.
I work freelance on video game guides just to get by and keep iplaywinner running month by month, so I feel your pain like few others truly do.
This is really just the tip of the iceberg. I have things to say that probably wouldn’t make you happy, but this isnt really to place for it. If you come to NCR, hit me up during a break and I’ll go into more details.
Again, hope you have a change of heart and get back into it sometime in the future.
I know this won’t mean much, especially since I’m still a scrub at SSF4, but your Footsies Handbook is like the bible to me. Every time I win or lose, I re-read the handbook while in training mode and brush up on the concepts while practicing the execution.
Thank you for that.
I’m also guilty of being part of the SF4 bandwagon, and eventhubs is one of the sites i looked to for information. As Gnickwoxel said earlier, i never thought about the implications about watching stuff there rather than on the original site. It saddens me that you have lost your drive, but i understand from where you are coming from. I check you site (and combovid :P) at least twice a day, always eager to read one of your articles. Your footsie handbook was one of the best compilation of articles i’ve ever read. I hope to read more interesting stuff from you in the future. Thanks for all your hard work, i really appreciated all of it.
Your Italian fan :P
P.s. Your Ryu combo video is awesome, i rewatch it from time to time :)
I’ve had a feeling for a while that you’ve been taking on too much Maj… You’ve been making great combo videos and strategy articles, and personally I think daily updates and sticking to any kind of week to week schedule is just too much for this kind of thing. Take a break if you need to, take care of yourself, and do this for fun!
I think what got you interested in SF in the first place, the game itself and the community, it wasn’t about money or the integrity of different websites right? Scaling back sounds like good news to me… I’m still looking forward to the DVD and whatever other projects you have in the works, but yeah, there’s really no need to stick to a schedule imo! You’ve put a lot of cool shit out there this year, take that break!
Really, I fucking hate Event Hubs. But, they saw a market and capitalized on it.
If anything SRK has itself to blame for not being on the ball when SF4 was released. Too little too late in the eyes of tons and tons of users who would rather just go to EventHubs for their daily SF related news.
Which frankly fucking sucks. But, that is the market we live in today. This same sort of fucked up shit is being played out in the wider video game community as more and more users just go to Kotaku for their news over the real source.
I would tell you to carry on and do it for the love of the game and other such sentimental bullshit. But, I know how it feels like when you think your hard work is just being misused and end of the day you are not getting the credit you think you deserve.
Frankly, fuck it off man. Focus on doing what won’t make you feel burnt out. Be it just playing games or whatever.
Best of luck man.
“Our whole system of publishing content is broken beyond repair. If you look at any given video i’ve posted on u2b, roughly 2k views originate directly from Sonic Hurricane and roughly 10k views come from an embedded player on eventhubs.”
Your articles on fighting games are easily among the best I’ve seen, but for profit (or even for break-even) content production is basically a dead end in these days of the Internet. If you figured out how to make it work, you could become very wealthy in, say, the newspaper business.
Maybe I’m a cynic, but you can’t really depend on others – especially the unwashed masses – to make you happy. If it’s not making you happy, then hopefully you’ll be able to transition to something that does.
P.S. Any thoughts on how difficult it would be to Rick Roll Eventhubs’ embedded player?
I’m just gonna jump in with the crowd that says “take all the time you need and come back when you’re ready”. You’ve earned a break. Having no insight into this sort of situation myself (probably because I hardly produce anything/produce stuff for largely irrelevant games), all I can say is it would be a shame for the community to lose a guy like you.
Whatever happens, I wish you the best of luck on whatever it is you decide to do down the road.
Once again Maj impresses me. This is a major issue in the community that nobody talks about or even notices until this.
This is eventscrubs straight theft and a cancer. It played a good role but instead of doing it in the right way they just stole and now are killing off real content producers by taking away their content for themselves.
I used to work on the web and acting like this means you would never work at another online company. When a big site like kotaku or slashdot uses your content, they link back to you and you end up getting so much traffic sometimes them linking it can knock a small site offline. You never have to worry about event hubs knocking anyone off line because they steal 100% of your content to put directly on it so there site no need to you to click any links back to anything. They stole so much stuff from SRK I can’t even count how many times I would see on SRK first then eh posts it like it was an original with no link. Wehn they do have a link to the source it never mentions the source (usually SRK or a place like here), it’s just a random name with no reason to click on it (before it was just a name of SRK poster with no link at all). They are just covering their ass to go “oh I linked back!!!” but they know exactly why they do it like that, so you have no reason to click on the source. The fact they do it like that makes it totally clear to anyone who works in the industry why they are doing it: to steal it and prevent anyone else from looking back to the source instead of only at them.
If eventscrubs succeeds at stealing traffic from sites with real content, guess whos going to make your content? Nobody. If you think it doesnt matter or Maj is just tired you disrespect yourself and all the great info guys like Maj work hard to create.
Stealing content hurts your community. EH steals it, uses it to make money, and gives nothing back. If you support that with your traffic, you are directly fucking up our scene, so be aware your actions have consequences.
PS- Haunts, you know the real story on eventscrubs. Man up and tell it.
This is really crappy news to read about Maj. You’ve always been one of my favourite writers when it came to the fighting game community, and it saddens me that you have to go through this tough time and give up doing something you love.
Sometimes I think about the work I do on Gamerhold and Shadowloo and wonder if it will ever get me anywhere. Can I do this for a living?, will someone take notice someday?, things like that. You were the last person I thought would be going through something like this.
When it comes to Shadowloo, we try to put up as much original content as we can, and if there is big news in the FGC, we will put it up, just like the other big sites, but I always make sure I link the readers to the source of the news, whether it’s twitter, a u2b channel, blog, website, FB page, Ustream page, etc. I make sure people know where it came from and take no credit for it. So in saying that, I hope I am not one of the people who may have offended you in anyway.
I really hope everything works out in the end for you Maj, whether it’s getting back to work on SH.com or perusing something else. You’re a very hard worker, and I hope you get rewarded for it someday.
I honestly just registered for Sonic Hurricane to voice my opinion. I feel like such a bastard, I had not considered what sites like EventHubs has done to SRK. Nor did I really realize that they had no original content regarding their strategy guides and whatnot. I’m really sorry.
I really hope you don’t end up giving up, as you have done so much for our community yourself.
When I am writing a character strategy guide, there is not much original content. A character can only do so much and can attack in only several ways, so I just apply all my matchup knowledge and research into one guide. I don’t really know how you expect me to make original content involving, say, Abel strategies. Do you want me to make Abel combo videos or something? I made a list of common Abel combos that you see everyday Abel players use so that they can practice something in Training Mode.
Frama data is pure numbers. How else do you expect them to host it, type in every little number until you are satisfied? All their strategy guides for TvC and currently SSF4 are being written by me, and no, I am not “copying and pasting from SRK.” And lastly, I don’t remember a single video or article hosted on eventhubs without linking straight to Sonic Hurricane’s authors or content or at the very least mentioning you by name.
Just like the Shadaloo guys say. It’s a conglomerate of Street Fighter news. There isn’t a single site that “owns” news.
I just wanted to let you know that I really enjoy the content on this and combovids sites. Your extremely intelligent and knowledgeable in 2D fighters and really have learned alot from you. I hope the site will remain, or if not, your content will be posted somewhere else where it can be viewed and enjoyed (SRK maybe?). I do agree that overextending yourself either emotionally or financially for something of a hobby isn’t really realistic. Take all the time you need, and if you return, we’ll be happy to see you.
The only thing I don’t understand from you and a some of the SRK members is this hatred for Eventhubs. I am an old skool player. Been on the nets back in the alt.games.sf2 days, and was on Shoryuken very early on and I sometimes enjoy going there to browse content and look for info. However over the last few years when it came to finding content, news, and such for Street Fighter, Eventhubs has been a really good site to go to. For the longest time, SRK didn’t even post news and such, unless some major announcement for Street Fighter or Evo came along. I never went there to find up to date news.
Also SRK is very arbitrary and disorganized when it comes to finding content. And talking about theory fighting on that site seems iffy because of the wonderful moderators that make sure you feel unwelcomed if you say anything out of turn. The community there is very arrogant and unfriendly, so it’s nice to have another place to go where things aren’t so like that.
You mentioned that your frustrated that people aren’t paying attention to your content because your not a top player, and that James Chen had the same issue. It seems to me that your doing this to Eventhubs as well. It seems a little unfair.
As for making something sustainable out of Street Fighter (and other fighters) fandom. It’s terribly difficult to make sustainable models doing tournaments and opening arcades/cafes where people come and play. I think that SRK, Eventhubs, and iPlaywinner are exceptions perhaps, but making any type of living making a blog is hard in all circles. And fighting games just aren’t as big in the big picture as other genres of games (like FPS).
Again it’s sad to see this happen, but I do hope you won’t pull your content off the webs, because it is appreciated. There may be some knuckleheads out there that don’t know, but I see it, and I’m sure many other players do as well.
So thank you for your work, and best wishes on all your future endeavorers.
UrkAngiJordi
Hi Maj,
I’m assuming you got into this because it was something you loved doing, and if you’re no longer enjoying it, you should definitely take a well-deserved break.
You may not have profited from it, but rest assured your articles have made a huge contribution to the community and will be missed in future. To put things in perspective, no one has ever topped your Footsies Handbook and websites / top players don’t even attempt it anymore – they simply tell people to check out your website. You have created a work of reference that will forever be considered a ‘bible’ for 2d fighting games. That’s a huge achievement and something you should be proud of.
Sites such as Eventhubs clearly do profit from your hard work, and it’s sad that you aren’t able to claim a slice of that. On the other hand, it’s not clear whether such sites take viewing figures away from you. The people who normally go to your site to see original material may not be the same people viewing your content on external sites. That is to say, many people viewing your content on Eventhubs may not have otherwise been aware of your site (I’m just speculating, so disregard me if I’m wrong). If you look at it that way, these sites can actually be used as a platform to expand your viewer base. I won’t lie to you – I’m relatively new to the genre, and Eventhubs was the first website I came across. I didn’t know anything about SRK.com, etc., in the beginning, but gradually broadened the range of sites I visited through the information on Eventhubs. I then found your site through SRK.
I can understand the popularity of Eventhubs. What they lack in original content, they make up for in original presentation. In other words, they have taken information from many sources and have presented it in a way that is accessible for novices. Whether or not their information can be relied upon, people love instant access to tier lists, character guides, hitbox data, etc. SRK.com is clearly the best place to find detailed information such as character combos, matchups, strategy, etc., but trawling through pages of forum discussions can be time consuming and daunting for some beginners, even with a search function.
In terms of originality, I would also like to praise Haunts and iplaywinner for the matchup videos on that website. Again, these videos are available elsewhere, but nowhere else presents them in such an intuitive and useful way.
I just want to reiterate that your website has always been my first port of call for insightful articles on fundamental strategy, and that you have made a difference to me personally (obviously, if I care enough to write this ridiculously long comment!). I sincerely wish you the best for the future, and hope you don’t let this ordeal affect you too much.
Gee Maj, I had no idea things were so rough for you. But yea, feel free to take the time you need to make the things you want. I know what it’s like to take something you like and making it a chore. That is the worse thing to happen and it’s never good.
Personally your videos have always been some of the more interesting I’ve seen in the fighting game community and I’ll try to give the original content sites more respect now that I realize what all is going on.
Best of luck in your future endeavors and I hope things get better
this is really sad, i hope you reconsider.. after all you still have a loyal fanbase who check your sites directly
also EH is focused on SSF4 and new Capcom games, it will always be lacking because of that
Maj,
Sorry to hear all this. I understand a lot of your frustrations. Please know that your blog has been incredibly educational and useful for me, and I appreciate your time and effort. Having put together a lot of low/no/negative revenue-generating web content myself, I certainly sympathize.
I am a bit sad you’re throwing in the towel right now, though, since I just wrote an article about how awesome your site is:
http://www.toptiertactics.com/2010/11/tactical-thursday-%e2%80%93-street-fighting-strategy-by-sonic-hurricane/
@WiNG
PS at the time I wrote the article I wasn’t really sure if you are/were the only contributor and couldn’t find any contact info to ask. Sorry!
Maj,
I will miss reading your insightful, intelligent writing, awesome interviews and general fun chicanery. What’s fucked up is that I was just recently wondering what exactly it was that Eventhubs did that made it useful when all it was doing was parroting everyone else or copying and pasting things. Now I see they’re apparently getting paid for it, and that’s… I don’t know.
Low.
This is Catalyst, the guy who runs EventHubs.com.
I just want to say this article was terrible, had a bunch of false information and was one of the most disappointing things I’ve read from a community member.
Really uncool of you Maj. REALLY uncool.
@catalyst_nc
please elaborate. I honestly have no idea of how/where information is being funneled/created.
@catalyst_nc
How the hell is this article terrible? Is it not good enough for you to simply just rip and post on your website? You don’t do jack shit for the community except put together a half-assed attempt at organizing it into one shithole for noobs to read. One thing you’ll realize is that the more people that you alienate with your shitty blogging practice like Maj, you’ll have nothing to cover except Ono’s bullshit tweets.
Go eat shit and die.
yo maj,
i’ve been following you for years and years now. i even made you a site button way back in the day (https://sonichurricane.com/images/gifts/blackadde-banner-sh1.jpg)! i just wanted to express my gratitude for all the hard work you’ve done providing some awesome, informative entertainment for the community and all your insight into the various fighting game engines over the years.
are you still taking orders for your combo vid dvd? do ya need some graphic design help (for videos, promoting the site, etc.), since that’s all i can really offer?
Maj. I love your articles. They’re some of the most insightful and objective articles published in not only in the fighting game community but in the gaming community as a whole. Everyone needs a break sometimes. Creative people always get burnt out at some point, especially without a decent break. Sometimes it seems like art is paying off, but it just takes time–sometimes a lot. I believe in you man. Chill out a while and keep on truckin’.
There are many ways to look at this issue, like haunts pointed out. I wouldn’t be surprised if objectively some estimates or statements were a little off; regardless, the core issue about content creation stands. I’m interested in what Catalyst has to say about this matter, as his little explanation hardly had any real content in it.
On a side note, this announcement is much bigger news than Ono tweets and other small-time stories, so I expect this should be published on eventhubs. Reno has it on versuscity already.
It goes without saying how much Maj has contributed to the community. However, this is one of the few articles where I really disagree on one of the points. It says that anyone could do what you [Maj] do for three months or even a year. I call bullshit. I’m confident that most people do not have the skills to put out that level of quality content, even if they wanted. And much fewer have the determination to put it out at that quantity for weeks, let alone months.
Anyhow, once all this has died down…Maj, don’t you have a golden TE stick to be playing on?
@catalyst_nc
i like how you tolerate prolific trolls/retards.. and ban people who disagree with your “editorial policy” on sight
so uhh….do you still want that “article”?
@catalyst_nc
You did not explain how it is untrue.
From the first today I go to eventhubs, I know that you’re copying content from other sites.
Reno from versuscity.net has warned you multiple times that you copied stuff from his site WITHOUT A BACK LINK.
Reno even put disclaimer from his posts saying that EVENTHUBS is not allowed to repost his material, jeez.
What kind of excuses do you have when you do that again and again?
catalyst_nc,
I think you have to see that its not just one person who is saying this. Many people in the community feel this way, so it should be addressed.
That said, as I mentioned before, there are pros and cons with all of these sites. Without EH, many new players would have felt lost when the game first dropped and undoubtedly became a place where new players could easily access information on the game. At the same time, there is a real disconnect between EH and the actual community of us who go to tournaments and what not. Some people dont care if their information is posted on EH, but others get aggravated when they put work into something and see it reproduced on another website in one form or another.
I’d say you should just try to reach out to people in the community a bit more instead of sort of being back in the shadows.
Thanks for the kind words guys. This wasn’t an overnight decision. It’s just impossible to keep going without the kind of financial support that (only!) eventhubs has, and it’s even worse when you realize everything you’re doing is helping them profit and strengthen their position.
Just to respond to the points that have been brought up:
Is it really THAT hard to click on a character forum on SRK? Saying that SRK is less organized than eventhubs – that’s true and i hope SRK remedies the problem soon. However that doesn’t change the fact that SRK is the heart of the fighting game community and that’s where every single matchup discussion originally takes place. Then every other matchup guide uses SRK heavily as a reference. “Crediting the source” isn’t a fair trade here, especially when eventhubs does everything it can to give people zero reason to refer back to the source.
To anyone who calls SRK’s community “very arrogant and unfriendly” – That’s utter bullshit. Have you BEEN to eventhubs? Their users write the most insulting comments i’ve ever read. I’m sorry, there’s no argument to be had here. You absolutely can’t criticize SRK over this and praise the nightmarish atmosphere at eventhubs.
Look, here’s what it comes down to. My stated goal was to make minimum wage for the work i put into Sonic Hurricane. That means if i spend 30 hours on an SF4 Ken combovid, i would need to make $240 to meet the mark.
Is anyone going to pay me 240 bucks for two minutes of Ken combos? Hell no. (So far i’m probably averaging around $1 per video.) Is it anyone else’s fault that i wasn’t smart enough to figure out a way to earn that $240? Hell no.
But you know what? At least that effort used to feed back into SRK, and i used to know that my videos were benefiting and entertaining the community. Except with eventhubs on the scene, they’re actually using my video to draw viewers away from SRK and they’re making money off my work in the process.
And the community is blindly supporting them, which to be honest is making me resent the community – not a good feeling. So now i’m looking at 30+ hours a week to write articles and create content for these websites, and for the life of me, i can’t motivate myself to do it. You know, it’s just not worth it.
The bottom line is it’s impossible to beat eventhubs at their own game because they don’t give a fuck about anyone else, and they go out of their way to undermine SRK at every opportunity. I’m just not willing to go that far in the way i do things. Not to say SRK is perfect, but they do a LOT for the fighting game community whereas i’ve yet to see any tangible, positive thing come out of eventhubs.
So it basically comes down to the fact that if it doesn’t benefit SRK (or if it benefits Eventhubs ahead of SRK) it’s not worth the trouble.
All this complaining essentially boils down to that. Don’t allow your videos to be embedded anymore, send them to Keits first if you want SRK to have frontpage status front and center.
No, it comes down to the fact that eventhubs produces nothing original, hosts no tournaments, gives out nothing, and is making a lot of money off other people’s work while everyone else gets nothing.
Believe me, if there was a way to prevent eventhubs from embedding my videos (and ripping off my screenshots and copying entire posts) i would’ve done it LONG ago.
Maj: i’ve yet to see any tangible, positive thing come out of eventhubs.
Hate much? So all of those visits you got from them for linking to your content and crediting you was bad on their part? Have you ever tried to disable embedding on your videos? It’s not hard, it’s a single click. HAV called you very immature for how you handled this, can’t say I disagree.
I like how you’re OK with SRK embedding your stuff but eventhubs is no good! Those darn eventhubs people, trying to help you out by getting word out there about your content and site. Those guys are assholes. I hate when people try and help me out with stuff too!!
Trust me dude, you have no idea what you’re talking about. They’re not helping me by embedding my videos. It’s the other way around.
And you’re saying i shouldn’t be able to embed my own videos on my own website just because eventhubs exists?
haunts: eventhubs was at evo and the stream guys, Seth, Chensor and others thanked them a bunch of times for helping out.
If eventhubs does nothing for the community, how come so many people know about it and it’s such a big deal what they do? If they sucked and didn’t offer anything, why would you even talk about them or know of them? Something fishy is going on here…
Sorry if this has all been beat to death, I haven’t read the other comments.
I enjoy reading your articles about strategy, but I’ve honestly never seen this as anything more than an insightful blog. You have a little ad up there for a combo DVD or something, but I’m not interested in paying for that kind of thing. I get combo videos handed to me for free on youtube all the time, and they don’t particularly interest me. Beyond that, I haven’t even been made aware of any of your other endeavors related to fighting games.
I don’t think it’s impossible for your business model to work, even though I can’t quite figure out what it is. Eventhubs guys definitely has a business model, it’s the same old “news site and/or wiki that caters to a currently under-served demographic” that you see spring up whenever there’s a new game being released. It’s a good way to make a few bucks.
If you want to make money off of this, I think you need to be a little more business savvy, and couple that with your knowledge of ftg’s, plus reputation in the community. You could make something of it, but your current trajectory is definitely not upwards, at least from what I can see.
Anyways, I really do enjoy reading your insights about fighting games. It’s genuinely interesting, but the value of epiphanous knowledge has dropped to zero on the internet; we expect to run across it, free of charge.
I always view content from the original producer. RSS feeds make life that much easier. I’m sad to hear you’re done producing content, Maj. I love everything you’ve done for the community.
Things will move forward without you, but I certainly hope you’ll be back!
SRK has srk.com + EVO
iplaywinner is active in norcal tourney scene + content of their own
What kind of SIGNIFICANT original stuff has eventhubs ever produce?
Answer that question.
What kind of tournament has it organized?
What good does it do to the community except to perform the job of a RSS feed reader from other sites? I can setup a good reader link just for that and there is no ads from google reader.
hadoken,
oh yeah i know, and thats cool and all, but again, this isnt just me saying it. you talk to players in the community and stuff and they have similar feelings. many players who hit tournaments month by month dont really know what EH is all about, who is behind it etc etc. there is just a general disconnect there and i think that is what is hurting EH.
i think its really less about that and video embedding and more of the actual content of the site. I mean Maj, if you set it up right with donations etc you can easily make 200-300 bucks per video with proper promotion. With srk/eh/ipw out there pushing it, it could be even more, But then who would be pointing the finger at you for making money? Mo money mo problems. :)
My issue is stuff like the SRK frame data, the japanese tier list, stuff like that just gets republished on EH and there isnt a lot of effort to give credit where credit is due. Again, a lot of people feel this way, so dont kill the messenger, its just most wont speak up about it. Some are actually really aggravated about it, it’s just Maj is the first person to make a real public post about it.
at the same time, EH does a great job of putting together tournament results and also general information for upcoming games like Marvel 3. They’re not inherently a bad site, there is some good stuff on there, but the comments posted above here echos a lot of the general perception from players in the community that ive heard first hand.
KarinNoPapa: Fair enough. Good luck finding 0-value epiphanies elsewhere.
haunts: Not that i want to set up donations, but why would anyone point fingers at me for making money off my own content?
The biggest deal is that right now, there are no set transactional contracts between content providers and news hubs. If this was a traditional space such as a newspaper company, content providers would be PAID by the newspaper company to provide the content.
However, the issue is that right now, the content is generated by the individual but the ‘newspaper company (EH)’ is stealing that content to obtain subscribers/ad-money/revenue from the content without paying the original content provider.
At the very least they could do what they can to help support the content generators, but they are doing the shady shit by stealing all of that.
What there needs to be is a more closed-loop transactions. Maj, what do you think about SELLING your content to EH? Do you think that might be a benefit? It will eventually get circulated publickly everywhere, but as long as you gain something upfront, everyone is happy, no?