This is blatantly and indisputably false. Why would anyone say this especially you?
The sponsor-supported revenue model was in place for over 20 years prior to that incident. The sponsors were already there for literally decades. They didn't suddenly appear.
I wasn't sure how to react or respond and still am not. This one of those things so obviously untrue that everyone should know it, especially you. I don't want to assume the worst regarding your motives. So I will just ask you.
But maybe it is just an honest mistake on your part?
Maybe someone else told you this and you believed it?
Maybe you really did think this was true?
I find your false statement extremely disappointing. You are someone that is respected and has a lot of influence in the community. Misstatements like this are readily believed by your followers. And the misinformation is not easily corrected even with a retraction.
Millard, please chill with the disappointment. As I’m sure you can read in my post and many others that the disappoint is wide spread. I guess let’s finally get into it and address some things. Meso has changed and that’s fine. Change is hard for us older members but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad but it’s been a drastic change.
To say you’ve always had sponsors may be true as far as a banner here and there but the “sponsor tag” and “sticky” section in the underground is recent. I will leave this somewhat vague and won’t get too deep because I know you must operate within legal means but I would imagine with the dynamics of how Meso is now that bank account looks pretty good nowadays compared to recent years.
I honestly may have been reaching when I said you banned around 20-30 guys in one swoop to make way for Meso to have sponsors. It’s still a mystery of why that mass banned happened so all one can do is speculate. Those guys jumped on a source who threaten to not only dox but send hot packs to members and I can see where things got out of hand, but in recent years the source would had been banned and not all the members. Yes, I know you gave warnings but again, for decades there wasn’t much a member could say that would get them banned as this was truly a uncensored board so I can see why they kept going as they thought, he doesn’t perma ban members for holding sources accountable. To everyone’s shock we were wrong. To add insult just recently I read where you said that Naps actually isn’t banned and that they just choose not to be here.
Those of us that remained and somehow weren’t in the Naps thread were left with the burden of trying to hold the line and vet these sources very short handed. Then came along QSC. The most shady source we have seen or will ever see. I could spend the rest of my day gathering links to where they have blankly admitted to scamming, making threats, doxing, etc and I still don’t know if a day would be long enough to gather it all, but yet they have 9 or an infinite amount of lives here. So guys like me adapted. You don’t see us vetting or doing much calling out any more. Now we even get called shills due to it when in reality we just have a
what’s the point mindset. For example, I have exhausted myself in the QSC thread and seen them not only banned for stuff that gets a member perma banned but I’ve seen them banned 3x or more but yet they are still here, which means sources are untouchable. So why would one exhaust their energy towards vetting or holding sources accountable for their actions? Especially when it’s likely the member will be the one banned for harassing or spamming.
In summary, Meso now profits a lot off of vendors, there are sponsor tags for those that pay the piper and have their operation in a sticky section. Members around here drop like flies and are banned daily and sources seem untouchable. Members are fearful while vendors are not. This is new. It’s hard to keep beating that drum and stating this isn’t a source board when this is how it’s summarized. The power has been stripped from the members.
To add, the new role system you put in place some time back now was not supposed to reward those that only participate in the underground but yet go look in the QSC thread. It seems to reward shills and not acknowledge others as it should.