Of the Exile

The Return of Besim

This story begins 4 days ago, when Besim returned to TWC. Since the October crisis, things had been running mostly swimmingly. Despite the unfortunate resignations of Garbarsarbar, Mimirswell, and imb39, things were relatively stable. Simetrical had been doing a load of forum work and upgrades with was desperately needed, the Curia had gained some independence and there were murmurs from some circles above democracy.

Besim's return changed all of this. Things were immediately silenced in the Curia, I was explicitly asked to keep things on the backburner until Besim had left. I obliged, and focused on the Total War Center Wiki and some other projects. Besim said he was there to upgrade the forums and site. The truth was far from that, as I will explain.

The Sale of ON

Two days ago, some members contacted me about pooling funds to purchase TWC from Ogre's Networks. Ogre had openly declared his intent to sell ON, on his blog, [www.fromthecookpot.com]. We found great potential and inspiration in the idea of a community owned board, and when we found out the price was a measly $1500. ZBoard was Ogre's bidder he had lined up. But the great and generous imb stepped forward and offered Ogre £1000, or almost $2000.

Myself and the people who were in on the situation were overjoyed at such an act of selflessness. Feeling confident in our future, we waited.

The next day, Ogre updated his blog.

Things have been long and drawn out in the process of Ogre relinquishing his interests in Ogre’s Network. There have been many hurdles. Some, he admits, have been caused by him, others have been caused by others involved. It all started about five months ago, now.

Two guys from Zboard approached me about buying the network. I won’t say who they are, because that’d be a breech of trust, but let’s just say at the time they had a good offer. So, what did Ogre do?

Well, Ogre was so busy with work and life–so he had somebody else handle it. And, truly, it doesn’t matter who tried to handle it, it was a big task. But, Ogre should have helped more than he did. He gave the deal to Besim. Umm, hmm, a mistake?

I’ll give Besim one thing, he’s a good web designer. We all know that. Yet, I’ll be honest, he tends to be selfish and greedy. That’s just his nature. Otherwise a good guy, don’t get me wrong. Herein lies the problem, though. Everytime I just want to let things go–no matter who’d it be to–Besim gets in the way. Why?

Even though the copyright on the bottom of each site says “copyright 2006 Ogre’s Network”, he claims the site designs are his. What the hell? Yeah. He might have designed them, but they belong to the network as a whole. I mean talk about selfish. I have no problem with him wanting to sell them to others later on, or what not. But, to say right now that he’ll take them away–I mean he’s pretty much talking about defacing the network. That’s troubling.

Of course, I’m trying to be the nice guy, like I usually am. And Besim thinks he’s getting the shaft, but I think I am to be perfectly honest. And I’m fed up with it. I am. This is getting neither of us anywhere.

It’s all giving me a headache. I’m wanting out of Ogre’s Network, just like Mithras is. And he is, now. So, I’m just trying to get things together to sell. That way things can at least go on without us three. Besim is wanting to get onboard with the new guys, which is understandable, but he has to understand that they have their own initiative as well. Also, now, I’ve got some fans from the sites wanting to buy the network as well. It’s getting extremely messy.

I’m wanting the quickest way out, that doesn’t destroy the network. And I believe the guy from Zboard is the best bet. He just seems the right fit for the financing. It takes a lot to run a game network. That’s why so many have fallen into the dust. Only a handful have survived because they took the right actions at the right times.

We were not completely deflated, however. We were all still confident TWC would end up in our hands, owned and run by the community.

So that's where things stood this morning. I returned from breakfast and found a couple very angry and urgent IMs flashing. It turned out Besim has consolidated control of TWC under his fist. Besim's first act as Dictator was to remove the Curia, Symposium, and all Curial ranks (except Artifex). It became clear from his initial plans that Besim was completely out of touch... what can one expect when being gone for a couple years, though?

In true form, I threw aside the archaeological journal I was supposed to be reading, and got to the bottom of things. I proposed a theory, in a thread ignored by Besim and since lost with the forum database restore, that I will re-propose here.

Conspiracy Theories and Besim's Greed

It is my thesis that Besim has undertaken the actions of the last few days in order to drive the sale of Ogre's Network to ZBoard and gain him his proper share of the cash from the sale. First, let us establish the evidence:

• Besim and Ogre are in conflict over ownership of the network and who will get paid what from the sale of the network
• Besim would like to remain a part of the administration with the new owners
• If imb39 bought TWC it is very unlikely Besim would remain in any capacity
• Ogre is learning towards ZBoard as the buyers of ON

Besim's plan was simple.

• First, he would upgrade the TWC skin and software and design, in order to make himself appear more valuable (as opposed to MIA for a year or two). This recent upgrade would also make him, and the network, appear more attractive to Zboard.

I feel that this is as far as his plan had originally gone. That is, until imb39 placed his bid, and Besim found out. Things rapidly spiraled.

• Besim, feeling threatened by a sale to a TWC community leader, decided to create a crisis, in true TWC fashion. He struck where even he, in his detachment and isolation from the community, knew would cause problems: he removed the Curia and Symposium.
• Besim anticipated a flood of dissent towards Ogre, about Besim's actions.
• Such dissent would drive Ogre to sell the network at any cost. Any further holdout or debate would just be cost-inefficient for Ogre, it just wouldn't be worth it to keep up and resolve the problems with Besim.
• Ogre would turn towards ZBoard to sell to. With the instability, caused by Besim, and Ogre's current favour of Zboard, this would be the logical conclusion, and far more desirable for Besim.

Morning

I had done some minor trolling, according to Staff, referring to Besim's job at Walgreen's/Kohl's as a 'burger-flipper' instead of cashier. Silly me. Anyway, I digress.

With this revelation of motives in hand, I posted it. It was barely even contested by Besim! I continued to press the issue, culminating in a thread asking for donations to pay off Besim to leave TWC alone. Besim didn't like it, and perma-banned me. Anyway, I made for class.

Afternoon

It seems that while I was away, staff had been trying to speak to Besim. He quickly realized that his plan could backfire if he caused too many problems. He slowly made pseudo-concessions, restoring the Curia first to the Common Community, then to the Administrative forums. Besim, though incompetent, is surely crafty. He didn't want to make the same mistake Archer had made when he tried to consolidate the power to himself, and unite the citizens against him. Besim slowly restored the Curia, then the ranks. But privately, in Staff, he was silencing all dissent.

Besim has made up his mind that Ogre will choose Zboards, and Besim will head the administration while control is transferred. He is recreating TWC into his vision. This is a point of tremendous import that I will elaborate on in a bit.

Evening

I returned home from class and found TWC was down, but soon came back up. It seems Besim had decided to restore the database from before his changes this morning. Which means he effectively knocked out all dissent that went on, permanently. Soon after I arrived home, and Besim saw that ugly yellow lightbulb under my name, he contacted me via MSN. Normally, I would never make MSN conversations public, but as I have been banned from TWC for the following exchange, I feel it is only fair. I give only my word about its unaltered genuineness. It has only been cleaned up for slight formatting issues.

MSN Convo

11/30/2006 8:16:33 PM Besim: Hello Rob

11/30/2006 8:16:50 PM Besim: You obviously know who I am, so I don't think I need to introduce myself.

11/30/2006 8:17:11 PM Besim: I was going to send you a private message, but decided against it. I figured talking in person is best.

11/30/2006 8:17:24 PM Rob/Professor: well given that the last 15 hours or so from TWC have disappeared perhaps you should remind me... but perhaps not

11/30/2006 8:17:34 PM Besim : hush pleas

11/30/2006 8:17:45 PM Rob/Professor: righty-o

11/30/2006 8:18:09 PM Besim: None of that would have happened if all went to plan, I know what you have done on other sites (strat commander) and that will not be coming here

11/30/2006 8:18:28 PM Besim: I am asking you to cool off, this is an admin issue and there is a small minority of you who feel the need to start an uproar

11/30/2006 8:18:44 PM Besim: if you do not cool off, I will ban your account simple as that

11/30/2006 8:19:25 PM Besim: YOU have no idea what is going on and I have talked to Ogre today, he apologized to me and from what I know selling the network to TWC will not be an option.

11/30/2006 8:19:58 PM Besim: This site will function on a pyramid system, if you do not like how it is run...please leave and find a new place to annoy its member base

11/30/2006 8:20:17 PM Besim: there will be no curia influence in choosing the staff for the site or admin or in this case moderators

11/30/2006 8:20:39 PM Rob/Professor: why are you meddling in TWC suddenly? what gives you any moral authority to dictate how things will be done?

11/30/2006 8:20:50 PM Besim: 50% if not more of the people who have been chosen by the curia are lazy and have done nothing....just rank hungrt

11/30/2006 8:20:57 PM Besim: because this is my network, my site

11/30/2006 8:21:07 PM Besim: I maintain the design and they were asking for a design for the longest time

11/30/2006 8:21:18 PM Besim: the network is due for an update, and I started with the site in need of it the most

11/30/2006 8:21:42 PM Rob/Professor: that doesn't explain why you have suddenly commandeered TWC

11/30/2006 8:21:49 PM Besim: and dictate? Ogre, Mithras, myself Archer and past admins have not liked the democracy that has been running

11/30/2006 8:22:03 PM Besim: why do I need to explain myself....TWC need an update....I am here to work on it

11/30/2006 8:22:15 PM Rob/Professor: if I were going to accuse anyone of being power hungry, it would not be the curia, it would be the administrators that boot TWC around at a whim

11/30/2006 8:22:32 PM Rob/Professor: an update is different from a fundamental restructure on a whim

11/30/2006 8:22:39 PM Besim: look

11/30/2006 8:22:57 PM Rob/Professor: you haven't been part of the community, you have no idea what has made it successful, what has made it unique

11/30/2006 8:23:01 PM Besim: The curia and the democracy is a broken system, you guys want your people in power and want to manage our sites

11/30/2006 8:23:04 PM Besim: that will not be happening

11/30/2006 8:23:17 PM Besim: Rob I suggest you leave the site alone and move on

11/30/2006 8:23:22 PM Rob/Professor: now YOU want to come in and say how things should be and create an image as if TWC was broken and needed fixing

11/30/2006 8:24:05 PM Rob/Professor: I have done far more for the community than you have, I've been a far stronger link to it than you have, and you want me to move on because you've suddenly decided to roost

11/30/2006 8:24:06 PM Besim: We are done, this is a staff issue now. I am just warning you to cool off and that the network is not interested in selling the network to you or TWC

11/30/2006 8:24:32 PM Rob/Professor: and here I thought you wanted to talk, when you just wanted to threaten

11/30/2006 8:24:33 PM Besim: I know I am not part of the community, but I am the one who keeps the site running and have in the past...not recently though

11/30/2006 8:24:58 PM Rob/Professor: no, you haven't kept it running in the past... its realy easy to blame the curia for administrative clashes with it, instead of the admins themselves

11/30/2006 8:25:01 PM Besim: You were causing issues earlier on that did not need to be done....I am just saying to cool off or I will ban you

11/30/2006 8:25:32 PM Besim: Rob find a new website to visit

11/30/2006 8:25:35 PM Rob/Professor: causing issues that didn't need to be done? are you listening to yourself?

11/30/2006 8:26:02 PM Besim: you were making posts and making an uprising

11/30/2006 8:26:04 PM Rob/Professor: you disbanded the curia and syntagma only to be force dto reform it hours later

11/30/2006 8:26:19 PM Rob/Professor: talk abotu things that didn't need to be done... jeez

11/30/2006 8:26:52 PM Besim: the curia needed to be rid off

11/30/2006 8:27:00 PM Rob/Professor: according to whom?

11/30/2006 8:27:01 PM Besim: wether you like it or not, it is not my problem

11/30/2006 8:27:15 PM Besim: according to the admins who run the site and the issues it has caused

11/30/2006 8:27:17 PM Rob/Professor: the administrators that neglected the site? you, sulla, archer?

11/30/2006 8:27:23 PM Rob/Professor: YOU have caused the issues

11/30/2006 8:27:27 PM Rob/Professor: ARCHER caused the issues

11/30/2006 8:27:30 PM Besim: you are banned

11/30/2006 8:27:34 PM Rob/Professor: the curia has done nothing wrong

11/30/2006 8:27:34 PM Besim: good day