Since some folks are saying some things, calling folks out, I figured I'd make a response. This thread will not be open for discussion here on TFW, so take, copy/paste, discuss in other avenues as you see fit. I was happy to never mention or discuss any of this ever, just split and move on, but apparently that can't happen. I am aware by responding to this, I just continue to give attention to those that apparently need it, but I feel it's best to state my side, once, and be done. Those that want to hate, twist, and make stuff up will always do so, so I won't be addressing this again (hopefully).

My private conversation with an ex-sponsor, who also owns and operates a potentially competing website like this one, was paraphrased by his staff members. Incorrectly. The entire, verbatim, unedited (except for email addresses), conversation is below in the next post. I reference that in my below statements.

One of his staff members posted something saying "the truth" about TFW. Well, let me dissect that.

False, wanted it neutral.

False, wanted it neutral. On his store, or store related venture (blog, facebook, twitter, etc)

True, if he was going to continue to be a sponsor.

News that was supposedly sourced from Kapow toys, but posted on FMH, were edited to link back to Kapow, since at the time they were still sponsors.

In other circumstances, when FMH posted solicitation based news, but there were no references to Kapow, but our other sponsor did have information up about it, we referenced our sponsor instead. This is done whenever possible to give our sponsors coverage.

False, I ended the agreement. Not that it matters, but since this was stated as if I just got PWND, that's fine.

Information about leaked information went up on FMH, with no link to a Kapow page. Just a text mention as it being from them. We looked for the original source, couldnt find one on his Blog or store site, and a staff member who was on Kapow's Facebook list already - said he saw it there. I said to reference Kapow, and where it came from, since they are the sponsor, and FMH is not. This was information that was not supposed to be public, which I learned after the fact.

That is true, by this time I had enough of the BS comments from FMH staff on the forum, and other things I learned about all this, after the fact. I just wanted it done, and we had already finialized a split. No need for a response.

How? I have done nothing, nor even mentioned his departure. We pro-actively remove links to any site or forum that has news that we can source to another place. It has been done for years. It is done to us, on an even larger level than we enforce here.

In the 2 weeks since all this went down, and there seemed to be some animosity brewing, yes, we pro-actively removed some links to FMH when possible. There is no need for us to allow promotion of a hostile site on our own when information can be sourced to another place. And in the event that it can not, we make a call on whether to mention it at all on the front page. If you are competition, and hostile towards our community, why should we help promote yours?

However:

site:tfw2005.com fullmetalhero.com - Google Search

This happened when I was out, WATCHING TRANSFORMERS 3. I met some friends down at the mall early, ate lunch. Went to foot locker. Parked at movie theater, waited for everyone to get there. Went and saw the movie. Chilled a bit after, talking about it. Then came home. Then, read and responded to this.

There is one other point I'd like to clarify. There is now another sponsor, who is affiliated with a forum. I think that shows that I am not against other sites existing, or even that sponsors are involved with them. But when your other non-store ventures directly compete with TFW2005 and what it does, then it means we need to stop our sponsorship arrangement, that's all.


I hope that clears this up, for anyone that cares. It's just more internet drama, and I'm getting a bit too old to deal with it. I run websites, this being one of them. I want them to grow, and thrive. I want those that visit it, and contribute to it, to enjoy themselves. I do what is necessary to make that happen.

And, I still wish Andy the best in all his future endeavors, running his store and his forum.

-- Alex
(aka Tony Bacala)

 

Unedited Emails between myself and Andy from Kapow Toys (other than email addresses):

Oldest ones at bottom, newest ones at top.

One more email came in from Andy, several days later, where he was upset about something I still don't fully understand, and I did not respond.