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.
Maj….check your inbox on SRK.
Okay finally got a chance to read everyone’s comments. Once again thanks for the kind words and the support – particularly from those of you guys who see this situation from a content producer’s perspective and don’t sympathize with the whole “eventhubs makes it easier for me to consume content so i don’t care where it comes from” standpoint.
To be clear, i’ve never supported SRK blindly. Anyone who’s been around the fighting game community for as long as i have has gone through phases of liking SRK and criticizing it. But again, the bottom line is they’ve always given back to the community in one form or another. They were paying outrageous hosting bills back when the notion of making money wasn’t even a possibility.
Without SRK, we’d still be arguing over whether throws are cheap. Not everyone likes the competitive aspect of fighting games, and that’s a perfectly valid objection. But the tournament scene as we know it wouldn’t exist without SRK. That’s simply a fact.
And yeah, SRK definitely dropped the ball when SF4 came out. If someone had stepped up and done two months of work to write a half-decent basic strategy guide, SRK could’ve been reaping the benefits for two years like eventhubs has. But in SRK’s defense, they did create a wiki with tons of detailed info which eventhubs gradually assimilated. That’s the catch-22 of trying to compete with eventhubs. They just absorb anything you try.
Anyway this discussion is heading in predictable directions. The only people in here supporting eventhubs are either eventhubs staff/contributors, or people who have no idea what it takes to make a combovid.
Having read some of the comments on eventhubs, it’s not the least bit surprising that their supporters just want convenient access to high quality content without thinking one step ahead. The question is, who’s gonna keep producing it for free so that eventhubs can profit?
As for disabling embedding on my videos, i don’t want to do that for obvious reasons. Look, the very first SF4 TACV that i made got embedded on a popular Japanese gaming blog which generated like 20k views. None of those people subscribed to my channel or left comments, ratings, or favorites – yet the blog post itself had 200+ comments.
In other words, those 20k were “empty” views – just like eventhubs gives me empty views. I realized very early on that views from embedded players are worthless to succeeding on u2b.
Believe me, if i forced everyone to link out to my videos instead of allowing embedding, my views would go down but every other stat (including subscriptions) would triple at least. That’s because people would be much closer to where they could interact with the video, as opposed to watching it on eventhubs where there’s no “Subscribe” button above it.
But the problem with sending people to u2b is that they’re just as likely to click on a video of a cat falling off a table and get lost in an endless vortex of cats falling off tables. Because u2b generally doesn’t make money off gaming, they’re constantly trying to grab your attention with stupid shit like idiots talking into webcams and cats falling off tables, which does earn u2b money.
Allowing embedding is worse for me, but better for the community. I realized this a year ago and choose the community. That’s where eventhubs comes in and assimilates it into their news stream. Yay!
The truth is the fighting game scene wasn’t prepared to deal with the shrewd self-serving practices of a website like eventhubs. Yes there are things we can do to fight against them internalizing all our content and profiting while true content producers get fleeced.
But we’ve never had to deal with this before, because up until SF4, there was no money on the table whatsoever. That’s what made us such easy targets.
There’s a lot more to say but i’m not in the mood to continue. Anyway i’m only one person, right? How hard can it be to replace me?
It will be sad to see you go, but you have to take care of yourself first. The content you produce has helped me improve my game a lot, and it continues to do so every day. Thanks for all the work you have done even if it was at the expense of yourself.
On a side note I find it amazing that eventhubs gets as many views as you say it does. Their web design is simply terrible.
This might sound crazy, but have you ever thought of asking the webmaster of Event Hubs for a partnership where you actually get compensated?
He might be interested in you giving the site more exclusives.
Come on man, think about what you’re suggesting. Do you honestly think i’d be okay with eventhubs rising to the top by intentionally breaking every rule of protocol and etiquette our community has ever had, as long as i get paid in the end?
Nice guys finish last, and you Maj, seem like a very nice guy. Just take a break, accept the fact that this is there is no chance of profiting of this sort of thing, and really decide if it’s worth it. We’re grateful either way.
Wow, that’s the saddest post ever on this site. With that said, I feel guilty for being one to use sites like EH, but like one of the first posts said, I actually never thought about what it meant watching it on EH.
Usually, I’d check pages like this and combovid, but it just became ‘easier’ having it all collected on the same page, but with the newfound insight… Well, I kinda feel bad about not knowing this earlier. Maybe I’m just uninformed on this matter, but I never heard about this before. Perhaps posts like these had to be made earlier and in a larger scale?
Either way, you quitting will have a huge impact on us all, but on the other hand, I can’t help but feel happy for you somehow. If this gives you time to just kick back and relax a bit with whatever you want to… Hell, go for it. With all the work you’ve done, you deserve a break for sure!
How hard can it be to replace you? I don’t think that’s possible. Look at the work you’ve done, and as you rightly say yourself, for the community. No, I don’t think you should underestimate your own contribution, which is immense.
I hope we’ll see you with original content again sometime. Until then, enjoy yourself to the fullest. Life’s definitely too short to not enjoy it.
And also… Thanks for all your hard work.
This is kind of depressing. Ive really enjoyed your vids and insightful posts. I am a scrub but id like to think ive gotten better by reading and implementing some of the articles youve posted.
On the bright side maybe now you will have more time to play Legend of the Five Rings eh?
Your Matsu Nimura CvS2 vid is ballin!
if i may interject with my opinion, after reading all this it looks like maj, you’re in the wrong for waiting so long to blow up about eventhubs’ tactics. there was clearly a better way than this, especially considering the bad press this is getting you right now.
eventhubs is equally wrong for not properly referencing back to sources (pointed out by some random fag isn’t properly sourcing, “maj created a new video” also isn’t properly sourcing).
everyone suggesting that maj shouldn’t be allowed to embed his own videos here and at combovid because eventhubs keeps stealing content should have been strangled by the cord on the way out of the womb. you’re all god damn retarded. thanks.
to people who pointed out combovid embedding others videos, the huge difference is that maj was helping small time guys like me get some exposure, and had videos from guys like error1 sent to him personally for hosting. he had permission, he linked properly, and he helped others while gaining nothing.
eventhubs on the other hand takes content without asking, doesnt link back to the source (check most combo vids they post, they dont say who made it, just “this guy pointed out this video), and take all the profit from someone else’s hard work.
look, i’ll admit i go to eventhubs. a lot. they’re convenient, i’ll admit that i get a lot of news from there because its easier than going to multiple sites. i’m also one of the few that will stop by said sites when something is linked despite eventhubs trying their best to hide that info.
i’m one of the guys that has visited sonichurricane daily since like ’03, so maybe i feel a sense of loyalty toward maj. he’s also helped me a lot with video advertising over the years (calling my CvS2 rock combos “stylish” helped me gain credibility a few years back, all i did was whiff crack counters with lvl2 cancels) and hosting videos for me before youtube was a big thing, and he gained nothing from it. thats the kind of guy he is, compared to the way eventhubs is run i’m sure you guys should be able to see why people are upset and standing up for maj.
I always made a point to visit this site and turn off adblock even if I already watched an embedded TACV elsewhere I would double up and watch it here too. I was always guaranteed an interesting read here. I hope you can find a way to make it work for you. Good luck!
I really enjoy Maj’s videos, content, articles, and knowledge of fighters down to the microscopic. They’re all highly fascinating and entertaining.
Eventhubs however, is just that. A news site. I wouldn’t have learned about sonichurricane were it not for Eventhubs to mention it. I’m an 09’er afterall. For a dude to just “cash in” while its hot, he still posts a helluva lot, often, in depth, objectively, and passionately.
Can you hate on Gizmodo, Kotaku, Engadget for “stealing” news topics from other sites and doing so successfully? Eventhubs doesn’t necessarily need to create new content, but its very organized, accessible, and newb-friendly: all of which were very inviting to me when I was a new player. And plus, there are usually fresh topics daily, sometimes hourly, at a singular node. Catalyst also writes up long logs of tournament stream events for those who may have missed the day’s action; for every large tournament. But that’s not contribution? It’s GREAT to have one place to refer to the multiple branches of the SF community.
I don’t know either of you personally, and I love both sites. I think much of SonicHurricane’s recent traffic MUST be in large part of EH’s mentioning, and the hate may be misdirected. But I’m just am armchair judge.
Best to the both of you.
Thanks for all, Maj, you’ve created contents with uncomparable artistic and intellectual genuine. sonichurricane.com is from far the best website dedicated to fighting games and I don’t think you can be replaced.
I know it’s not much but I’ve just ordered a copy of your combo dvd.
once again thanks for all you’ve done and good luck !
@Maj
Well I really don’t know.. all this has done is hurt the community. I thought your post was about monetary compensation in the first place.
But you know… this “protocol and etiquette” our community has rarely gets followed in the first place. Street Fighter fans are not the most rational and professional of folk. Catalyst is just a dude aggregating news and videos, and you’re a guy that’s creating videos.
Naturally, logically, that is a partnership made in heaven.
If egos were not involved. Do you think the writers of Family Guy and The Simpsons get recognized for their talent? All you see at the end of those shows are two fat names: Seth Macfarlane and Matt Groening.
Why did Keiji Inafune leave Capcom? He felt unappreciated; his artwork for the new Megaman Legends game got voted LAST by the community. Now, that’s got to hurt, no matter how steeled your heart is to the industry.
But where the would the SF combo video scene be without Maj and James Chen? Do you think more than a handful of people even know you two pioneered, like, all of it?
I don’t know, this comment is going nowhere… in the end you’ll have hardcore fans like me always Maj, but if you want universal recognition and compensation, you’d probably have to sacrifice a lot in the process anyway. That is not the easiest thing for OG’s to do!!
I say everyone buy Maj’s combo DVD out of appreciation.
@Crysalim
While, yes, the problem may be that Maj actually has to pay to keep his bussiness around rather than being rewarded for it, the man decided to keep his honor and keep his morale code and principles and not be a cash-in like video game from movie adaption developers are, for example.
I guess of all my uncles, I liked Uncle Cave Man the best. We called him Uncle Cave Man because he lived in a cave and because sometimes he’d eat one of us. Later on we found out he was a bear.
Maj
I respect your work. But i will also tell you that this is a comment from one of the 3 million hits on EH. I will try to make some very valid points so i hope you get to read this entire post. Now as far as ive known, youve produced some really impressive combo videos, thats it. i never really even looked at this website but you know what? after all this drama… ive actually found out about your footsies articles and look forward getting to it…
BUT… let me not digress,
the only reason why im posting here is to voice why I check that website so much. If there is any update on SSFIV, results for tourneys, combo videos (such as yours), tips, techniques, ANYTHING… it for some reason is always there as if it were CNN. Its the CNN of street fighter.
I can understand how you would be upset but… i wouldnt be able to expect those sort of updates on your sites. I have to admit that the site’s aesthetic does help as well. Its all marketing… and as you’ve read before, your business model. Im SURE you can start to work on this and be just as effective as them… even borrowing from SRK or info from EH and having your own version of character tips, frame data, etc would NOT be a bad idea. In fact, necessary. If you look at optionselect.com, you will see that they are starting to build into that direction as well!
EVENT HUBS is basically becoming the WALMART of SSFIv and you will find anything you need there. Do you yourself personally shop at WALMART? or do you go to different mom n’ pops stores for your specific needs? Its the same concept. And yes.. marketing does involve having a background, art, etc on this website. Believe it or not, it does make a difference.
Does your lack of any of this content take away from the very interesting info on your site? Not at all but think about it. You need to be more business minded since youve made it clear that it is a concern for you. Thats it man. I wish you wouldnt have taken this so personally but you seem really hurt. You have to be smart about this man… I really recommend you read “Think and grow rick” by Napolean Hill. I HIGHLY recommend it. You will have the mindset to accomplish anything you can with this site and not post articles of defeat.
If you build it, they will come.
Good luck man, and i look forward to checking out your content.
Gil
slash: I’ve never filed a DMCA complaint before and i don’t know if it would work, but anyway i don’t want to resort to that. Even when fifteen different people uploaded my Evo Ryu video to their u2b channels, i just asked them individually to remove it instead of reporting them to u2b. I’ve got no problem with speaking my mind when i get fed up with some bullshit, but i’m not gonna try to get someone in legal trouble.
CrackPr0n: Where do you hang out these days? Are there any good arcades left in the OC? Maybe we can meet up at one of Valle’s gatherings or something, now that i can afford to have a life again.
Sabrewulf: The reason “NOBODY EVER Links to EH” is because there’s never anything original to link to. But it’s hard to feel sympathy for them when people actually link to my videos on eventhubs rather than linking to my own damn website.
pherai: The main reason i was at Denjin Arcade is because i helped clean up at SCR and there was this leftover box of metallic Lars cards/coasters. They were gonna throw it away so i salvaged it and drove around to a bunch of arcades to give them to the owners to hand out to Tekken players.
Sorry dude, wish i’d known you wanted to play. I thought i saw you smoking in the back, but nobody was playing anything so i took off. Haha actually i tried playing one game of 3rd Strike with Ryu, but the LK button was broken which meant no throws. I’m nowhere near good enough at 3S to win without grabs against a defensive opponent. That was Thursday.
I also went back on Friday to drop off a few giant posters that were left over from Evo because everyone else had flown in and those things were too heavy to take on an airplane. There were four of them originally, but ShinJN wanted one at SCR. So i took the remaining three to Denjin because no other arcade had room for them. I hope they can use ’em. We opened up the Blanka one and i thought it looked pretty cool.
Anyway let me know the next time you’re gonna be at FFA and i’ll meet you there to play some CvS2. I’m pretty rusty but i did manage to get a double-digit win streak at FFA on Friday. Like 16 or 17, haha. I was kinda happy about that.
OnlineGarbage: You do realize that CNN has to obtain permission to show music clips, sports highlights, etc. and/or has to pay royalties, right? I’m not sure where the walmart example fits in, because eventhubs certainly isn’t purchasing their “product” inventory from manufacturers.
Sorry to see this Maj. I’ve always been a huge fan of your work and your commitment to the community. Until I saw this post, it never really crossed my mind that the community was big enough to be at this stage. I didn’t think there were really any lines drawn in the sand, although I always preferred SRK, IPW, optionselect, and your sites.
Good luck, and I hope to see you doing what you do best again sometime soon in the future.
It seems a little ridiculous to me that you won’t require direct links because you think your viewers are easily distracted. I know the first thing I look for when I want a Dudley combo video is cats falling off a table!
That being said, IANA web content publisher so I may be naive about all this, but why can’t you embed videos on SonicHurricane and require direct links to the site? This way you get all the traffic, and none of the distraction of Youtube. You know we hate to see you go!
@Maj
Not even kidding if you had a donation box I would scrounge up what i could and give it to you. Your articles have made me a better player and your combo vids have opened my mind as to whats possible in fighting games and for that I thank you.
Maj, I just want to say that since my return to the Street Fighter scene last year your work has been some of, if not the most inspiring and educational that I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of reading.
As many of the others that are posting in response to this article have stated I never realised or even considered just what impact a site like Eventhubs could have on genuine contributors like yourself. It’s indeed very sad to know that the success of an site such as EH that contains very little if any original thought could ultimately spell the demise of a site like yours.
I sincerely hope that this is just a fork in the road for you(SonicHurricane) and that you will continue to produce your awesome work if not as SonicHurricane then by some other means.
Catalyst should run for office. The amount of lies coming out of his mouth make me want to puke. Playing dumb and saying you “forgot” does not excuse you for not linking the sources of your material. There’s only so many times you can “forget” to do something especially after doing this for 3+ years. The “nice guy” and “I just didn’t know I was doing anything wrong” act may fool the noobs but most of us who have been around the fighting game community for any decent amount of time are too smart for that bullshit. You blatantly used information from other sites without proper credit and links. You knew very well what you were doing. If that’s how you want to run your shady Eventhubs and can sleep peacefully at night doing so then more power to you. Props to Maj for calling this douche out.
P.S. before NYORONORU dick rides and chimes in. This message was for Catalyst and not your godlike 100% original guides that you can’t stop bringing up to defend him. It’s not about the money. It’s about ethics and honesty. Neither of which Catalyst has.
I just think it’s so weird to go to Eventhubs. I’ve only been there to read the stuff that was linked in all the threads about this whole debacle.
When I found this site a couple of years ago, I couldn’t get enough of it. And that was the old version. All those CvS2 vids were great!
Ever since you switched to the new format, I’ve been checking this site every day to see if something new had come out. I subscribed to your u2b channel, but only as a courtesy, since I don’t use u2b in the way you’re supposed to.
Whenever I check out combo vids on u2b btw, I always look at related combo vids, fuck cats falling off tables.
ohthecommotion: In order to “embed videos on SonicHurricane and require direct links to the site” i would need to block other website domains from embedding the video. Unfortunately u2b doesn’t give you control over that unless you’re in their partner program, which generally doesn’t approve of video game content. I’ve tried to apply, but their automated rejection letters don’t even make sense. So i’m basically trapped between u2b’s bullshit and eventhubs’ bullshit.
Personally if i had any say over where people could watch my combo videos, my preferences would be:
Sonic Hurricane > SRK >>> u2b >> eventhubs
Instead i get 2k views on my own website and 10k views on eventhubs. Yay!
Thank you.
Hey MAJ
You completely missed the entire point of the WALMART analogy. Just as WALMART is a store that you go to for ALL of your needs (food, electronics, condoms, toilet paper, car oil, etc.), EVENTHUBS is also a place where any person with an interest in SF would be able to find anything (tips, updates, latest news, tourney results, rumors, etc.)
The same allure that have popularized stupid sites like perezhilton and TMZ even. This is why there are 3 million hits, not because fans like EH more than your website. Get what i mean? If you design your website to cater only a certain facet of SSFIV, dont get jealous of another that caters all aspects. Get what i mean? of course there are gonna be more hits. I hope this clears things up as its the point i was trying to get across. And yes, your website hits are lost as a result of collateral damage. The same way many other businesses have gone out of business because of WALMART. It sucks but dude… you need to find a way to restructure. Be it disable embedding, catering to many facets of SSFIV and not just one… work with or even establish some sort of contract with EH wouldn’t be a bad idea, where you just elaborate on your very own site. Anyway, don’t get discouraged. Fuel your emotions and pour them into something that will work for you, don’t give up.
Take care
what a whiney little bitch you are… i swear who the hell cares dont make videos others will, eventhubs is just easier to use because its all on one website vs. going on a billion. if you are not happy then leave… if someone serves you shit dont complain just dont eat it. Yes srk has done alot in the PAST years but thats it eventhubs is better layed out and much easier to use with daily updates… your updates consist of bitching and crying while eventhubs is putting in work… idk why everyone is trying to kiss your ass and feet when you spent more time writing you two dollar “i give up” letters grow some balls fight fire with fire steal shit from eventhubs who cares, this website i use to visit daily here and there but all the sudden you stop posting and you post this crap dude grow the hell up, you sounding like a lil bitch right now… DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT
@trplem19
Do you seriously think Maj is complaining about how Eventhubs is easier to use? Of course the fuck not, it’s the fact that they’ve archived all if the information formulated by other sources without properly crediting the authors.
And what the hell kind of analogy was “if you’re served shit, don’t complain, just leave it”. What point does that prove? If I were to punch you in the face (and I gladly would), by your logic, you’d have to just leave it instead of doing something about the fact that I just punched you in the fucking face.
Clearly you have not the read the entire article, read that Maj is leaving, and assumed it’s from jealousy, which it clearly isn’t. Please, just get the fuck out.
And Maj, like many others, I’m sad to see you leave. I once asked a question in the Newbie Saikyo Dojo about an element of the footsies handbook, and you answered my question clearly and effectively, and even came back when I had more questions. You’ve been an asset to the community, and I hope you’ll find a way to keep making videos, I know the community would love it if you do.
Thank you sir, i appreciate it. But that kind of stuff really doesn’t get to me at all. What seriously bothers me is seeing you guys waste your valuable time arguing against childish/ignorant bullshit.
I’d honestly prefer it if everyone ignored the obvious trolls instead of defending me. At this point, just about everything that needed to be said has been said. Anyone still looking for a fight clearly didn’t care enough to read through the previous comments, so there’s really no point arguing with them.
@Maj
Hey man, i just want to give you my prospective from a causal SF player which is the majority the SF community. I think there a many other people like me.
Your site is for a specific audience most like SRK, SRK has a reputation of being elitist, and many casual who are just coming into that community will general stay away such people. So yeah you are right SRK has been around struggling during the non-SF4 years, but that was how the fighting game genre was for that time and yall grew together and have your own small community.
Sites like EventHubs.com were made for the causals. They didn’t have people at the time, that will call you newb or overwhelm you with such info and when you don’t understand people think your stupid. Thats is why EH have so much traffic because its simple and easy to understand for the causal which makes up for the majority. EH just have general info nothing too detailed and just connects a bunch of SF news together. You must understand that people are lazy. Yes we could search to find this info from here and there, but sites like EH puts it all together, from dumb articles, to new stories, combo vids, to all things SF.
I see you’re getting up at, you think that when you put in so much work to do you vids and stuff you are getting only 2k views where EH is getting 10k for your work. But this is where our opinion differ. EH have the causal audience so it already have the traffic of the other 100 things that site has. In general, for people who DO NOT know about you, which is alot, they would have to google general information or things of that nature just to even see your work. So what i am trying to say where you are upset that you have 2k views and EH have 10k, if not for sites like EH you would NOT even the 2k views the you seem discourage about.
People like me only even heard about you through sites like eventhubs. You would be still be part of the small community that struggled for soo long before SF4. Without EH you maybe getting 1k views or what ever because you cater to a small part of a part of that community, Eventhubs is exposing you a different audience they may or may not appreciate what you do but you gain new fans (like me) and haters. But all in all EH have given you exposure than what you would normally get. Catalyst even say go to your website to break down what the hell you vids where doing. Because honestly when i first saw your vids i was what the hell is this, until i read where he said goto your website where you broke everything down.
In conclusion, eventhubs gets its 10k views on your vids only because people just happen to be there for other things and just run into your vids. Its actually just exposing you to a broader audience that would not normally even see your work. If you enjoy what you do then keep doing it. Do not quit because you think you’re not getting credit for the hard work you put, because you actually are. If you was doing this for money you may have set you goal to high. If you was doing this for the love of what you do, then i see no reason why you should quit. Because honestly to me it just seems that you got burned out from this and use EH as your scapegoat. EH help you get new casual fans like me and extra traffic from casuals who may turn into regulars just like being expose to people like you.
Thanks for work, do not quit for that reason.
Sir, i understand why your perspective is what it is, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Your conclusion, and every premise it’s based on, are wrong.
Sadly, there’s nothing i can do about even that. To explain where you’re wrong would take about twenty paragraphs longer than anyone from eventhubs is willing to read. And most of those guys would still refuse to accept it and go back to making excuses for eventhubs.
Look, that website gets over 60k hits per day. That means i could explain the situation to ten thousand people and still not have made a dent. Every one of your points has been raised and shot down during this whole discussion, but nobody cares enough to read all that.
And i hope you don’t take any of this personally – but to be fair, what you wrote was incredibly insulting. I realize it was probably unintentional, or rather careless, but at this point it’s taking all i’ve got just to remain civil about this.
@Maj
No problem man, to each their own, i respect your opinion. You stand where you stand. But this is first where a “opinion” can be considered “wrong.” We have different opinions i can attest to. But me being “wrong” on a opinion….. I was giving my prospective from a casual SF player, and where most of us newbies are coming from. Sorry if my opinions was insulting can’t control peoples feelings, but still a fan. Even if Eventhubs brought people like me to you. But honestly i believe you like this community too much to just give up.
P.S. Why didn’t you just tell him to stop, Catalyst seems like and nice guy, you said you met him and he seemed nice. he maybe lying but i don’t see it why both of you would, but you could’ve just asked him to. Maybe he is from a new school where he doesn’t have proper adequate, but how could he have known if you didn’t educate him.
Um, this dude makes a living off everyone else’s work while contributing almost nothing original himself, all while undermining actual content creators. What does it matter if he acts polite on the surface?
Your “opinion” was that eventhubs would still be getting those views without putting everyone else’s work on the front page, which isn’t an opinion. Your “opinion” was that i get a lot of traffic from eventhubs, which isn’t an opinion. Your “opinion” was that i’m using eventhubs as a scapegoat for problems that aren’t their fault, which isn’t an opinion.
And all of those statements are false, along with several others you brought up. Trust me dude, he’s not making “accidental honest mistakes” for you to blame me for not “educating” him. Anyone who understands how web traffic works can you tell that eventhubs succeeded because Catalyst took (deliberate!) advantage of how open and selfless our community was.
It might be easy for you to look past all that without feeling the slightest bit angry – but i’m sorry, it bothers me.
And again, i am not giving up because i’m pissed off at eventhubs. I’m giving up a for much more practical reasons. The eventhubs situation is only a thorn in the side, although it happens to be a particularly painful one that people seem to enjoy twisting in.
Fine you’re right, i can’t debate it. but those are my opinions, its what how i think, my opinions but whatever. But that site is just a news site. Honestly, its how me and my friends even knew you exist. Us causal players would never know about your cool vids and other cool things from desk and the rest of the community if it wasn’t for eventhubs.
but whats done is done, is guess….because like him i didn’t know it was wrong because other sites outside of SF do the same time. its one things if he credit himself for making your vids, he gave you nothing but props. I even downloaded bittoftasty CD, cool music, i would have never found it own my own much like your vids. He linked your article which lead me to YOUR website when you went into detail explaining your combo vids. Us causal folks would have never known you, never, man…
Look, i’m not saying i don’t know why you’re upset, its just so frustrating because this whole Misunderstanding is like how im with my girl and she is up set over something i did and never told me, like im some mind reader that just suppose to know. Its crazy because since sites like EH and SonicH really could have got the community stronger, but you kept silent for so long this just came out of nowhere. sorry if this is old news but im really just finding all this out today, and its soo disappointing because yall are both such cool guys. /end rant, lol
@Maj
but after reading you’re ‘practical reasons.’ I understand your much needed break, i problem with that, just wish eventhubs bothered you so, because once he knew how you felt, he stop. Didn’t have to go that route other sites give other sites credit on different genre’s of entertainment all the time, through blog sites and whatnot. We never thought it was a bad thing because a lot other websites do the same thing, alot of people get happy when someone else mention that is normally more popular, this just seems weird to us casual folk. God Bless man.
You know, i’m getting pretty tired of people telling me to be thankful for eventhubs. If eventhubs didn’t exist, you would’ve found Sonic Hurricane through SRK, or GameFAQs, or some other website, or maybe through google, or maybe through youtube.
Why? Because you’re the (uncommon) type of person who cares enough to type “sonichurricane.com” in the address bar – which you have to do, since eventhubs deliberately always posts it as plain text instead of a clickable link.
Maybe it would’ve taken you longer without eventhubs, or maybe it would’ve happened sooner, but it doesn’t make that much difference. Like you said, eventhubs is just a news site. There are plenty of those around. Most of them are a lot less parasitic than eventhubs though, which probably also explains why they’re less successful financially. And believe me, there really aren’t that many people coming here through eventhubs.
@Maj
lol, Dude you see how you name all those sites at once Eventhubs just put those together and you know who they came from. Yeah you’ve around for a while 10 years, and most of us just now hearing about you, within the last 2 years. So yeah some of us casual may by chance found you out, but took 8 years. And we have been fighting games before SF. But besides the point, you have a beef with Eventhubs, then why didn’t go to them why did let it fester. And yes it very uncommon for someone who never heard of “sonichurricane.com” to randomly just type that an address bar.
But we look at EH as a news site thats all, heck they even post links forum discussion as what they considers new.
Oh make no mistake, it didn’t take eventhubs for you to find Sonic Hurricane. It took SF4. The only thing that makes eventhubs special is being at the right place at the right time. They had absolutely nothing to do with this community existing, succeeding, or becoming what it is.
There are at least 3-4 websites that do the same exact thing that eventhubs does, and they do it just as well. Why does eventhubs get 10 times more traffic than all of them combined? Right place, right time.
Fame is a positive feedback loop. They’re known for being known. Just like SRK has a reputation for being elitist mainly because SRK has a reputation for being elitist. The typical comments on eventhubs are ten times worse than anything you’d ever see on SRK.
Also, uh, i think you misread or misinterpreted the “uncommon” line. It was an explanation for why having my videos posted on eventhubs hasn’t done me any good. Also it was a compliment.
@Maj
Well my mistake man. Rest up, regroup, looking foward seeing your stuff that i wish i could do 100% of them time. Just wanted to let you know you are appreciated, even though a lot of us came from eventhubs. No one think ill of you, you’ve been too good with you theories and tricks. Catalyst heard you and wont post you’re stuff. Just wondered if you seen it from his eyes he honestly didnt know he was doing you wrong. Every post he had only he praised you for your genius. And talking with him he runs that site pretty much by himself after he started with his family which bailed on him. After talking with him to hear his side i thought he was making big money for that site. lol i would barely call it a profit for as much time he is on his site.
Their site is popular for whatever reasons like you said, why not come together. If he was still doing what he did and only got 5 views a week on his site, would you still be upset at him? Its a news site, and my man you’re Big news, if no one cared how you feel, this won’t even be a discussion.
If eventhubs only got 5 views a week, i’d be mildly annoyed rather than upset. What does that prove? Part of my frustration comes from eventhubs supporters refusing to acknowledge that giving so much power/influence to one guy who gives nothing back is bad for the community in the long run.
But whatever, if you can’t see it now, then you’ll see it eventually. And i’m still not buying that “he didn’t know he was doing anything wrong” bullshit. Catalyst couldn’t possibly be that clueless.
Anyway i don’t care how much time he spends on his site. If he claims he puts in 50 hours a week on eventhubs, that still doesn’t justify the 500 hours’ worth of other people’s content he leeches for free every week.
I wouldn’t mind if he was supporting the entire community, like dividing up his weekly profits among all the people whose effort really makes eventhubs tick, and maybe keeping 10% or whatever for himself. But he’s keeping 100% for himself and all the people who actually create the stuff you go to eventhubs to watch/read/see get nothing.
Btw are you implying that you know how much money eventhubs makes? Because i’d love to know too. I’m still estimating it’s gotta be over a $1000 per month. Nobody has refuted that with any real answers – only vague bullshit like “it’s not as much as you think blah blah.”
You know what Maj… I have enjoyed all your content and I had no idea that eventhubs and other sites like it were hurting you so much.
I am not going to pretend its okay for people to use you videos and you get none of the traffic but that’s the nature of the internet these days. If it wasn’t for eventhubs I would have never found out about your site. I use to go to EH for third strike guides and they really helped me improve at that game so he isn’t a complete con artist. Sure the guy catalyst got lucky and cashed in on the hype of SF4. Can you really blame him for being in the right place at the right time?
The answer to that question depends on whether you see this as a community or a marketplace.
But hey, if you support what eventhubs stands for, then good luck with that choice. I hope he doesn’t let you down.