Orson was definately after. I remember the anger.

 

I remember looking for TF news and popping onto Transfandom.com, and after a few months posted here, seeing as these were those boards... if that makes any sense.

After the split, and TFW got its own front page news uh, page I never went back. I remember registering and maybe posting a couple of times but in the end I just stayed here.

 

OK, I've only been here for about 2-3 years.... What is the Orsen's world debacle and what caused the split between sites? You guys now have me sufficiently curious.

I wanna know!!!!!!!

 

I never really heard (or if I did, cared) about Transfandom until now. The only other forums I was on before coming here was BWTF.com and GameFaqs.

 

The truth is hidden away in one of those internet tubes.

 

I can only assume that the split was caused by the webmasters having different ideas on how to run a site. Orson was the name taken by Aaron Archer, the head designer of Trasnformers at Hasbro. He came here to give the fans juicy little tidbits of info, and even got his own subforum to answer any questions that he wasn't bound by a NDA to keep quiet about. These tidbits were the best news ever available. But then some asshole (Supposedly the webmaster of TFans, though I beleive that it was probably Renaud.) complained that we were getting preferential treatment, so Hasbro Marketing used it as an excuse to cut off Orson from the fandom and bring all news under thier inefficient fiefdom. All of this was just because some loser didn't like getting news second.

 

I caused the split between the sites. I told people that other people called them names. The rest is history.

Actually... I heard rumors of what really happened when I was at OTFCC 2003 but I was more excited about this new line called Alternators.

Its funny you mentioned TFandom today though kickback, as I just relogged in today for the first time in months. Alas, I didn't have any long lost PM's like I thought I might.

 

To touch back on this subject, me too. During the times that the 2005 boards were down I've done some browsing of the other TF sites out there. Without mentioning names, because I'm really not trying to cause problems here, there are some people out there with absolutely no sense of perspective, and they tend to congregate.

Everything they don't like is part of some vast conspiracy. Anyone who tries to inject some sanity into the discussion is shouted down. As if acting like a jackass on some internet forums changes the thing they didn't like.

No thanks. If that kind of stuff went on here regularly I'd be looking elsewhere (or just not in any way involved in the fandom). The signal to noise ratio is good enough to make me want to participate.

You're all welcome.  

 

Transfandom died for a number of reasons. First and foremost was their inability to change and evolve with the fandom as a whole. The fandom, and nearly every fan site, grew, changed and wanted more from their sites of choice. By holding onto the ridiculous prototype policy for as long as they have was the first and last nails in their coffin. If you are going to run a news site, then you better be providing news to your members. Regurgitating press releases doesn't cut it anymore.

EDIT:
I see that their ears must have been burning and they decided to update their frontpage after over a month.

 

But how new was the news?

 

wasn't there a third site that was part of the merge?

 

Transformers News

Transformers News (really one of the first site heavily devoted to nothing but TF news) was the third part of the merger. There were four of us (Zac, Dru, Jim, me)that were the staff, led by Zac Shipley. Only Zac and I really posted news on TFD following the merger. Back at the time of the original merger, having a staff devoted to scouring the net for the latest news was rare, with maybe only one or two sites really devoting time to a larger front page news system. Well before the time of the TFD/TFW split, I was the last remaining relic of Transformers News on staff. By the time of the split, TFD's front page news idea was commonplace among websites now and Transformers News soon became forgotten. I guess you can kind of say that it went with TFW during the split, as I'm retired staff here and Zac still posts on occasion.

 

Although I have only recently joined the forums, never really cared to until now, I turned to TFW for news on Transformers since I was in college in 1999 or maybe 2000. After the merger and split I stayed with Transfandom and would look over at this site for a second source of information. About a year or so age I made this site my primary source of info, although Transfandom was my home page till last week. I must say this site is a lot better. The only thing I will miss from Transfandom is the Aisle 15 section, with pictures of the figure to look at as well as read.

 

The owner of the site in question later admitted his involvement (despite earlier threats of lawsuits for "defamation of name"). Allegedly, he was "doing the fans a favor" because Aaron was being "rude" to them as Orson and "never actually answered anything", just "giving some vague non-answers" and "posting outright misinformation". But then, this is the same guy who claims I'm a "big ass liar" and only ever post "recycled news", to a degree where he deletes any news reports to his own board that cite me as a source and then reposts them with someone else credited. Whereas his site regularly reports news that's been up on all the other big TF sites (and sometimes even has already been posted on his own site) weeks, if not months ago.

However, I also heard whispers through other sources that the true reason for him calling Hasbro to have Archer taken off TFW was because he had made Archer an offer to leave TFW and post exclusively at his own site instead. Aaron apparently rejected the offer, so the site owner in question figured "If I can't have Archer all for myself, no-one else should be entitled to have him either!"

Those are pretty much the two extreme positions I've heard over the years, with all sorts of additional reasons and whatnot in between. What's the truth? We may never actually know.

 

Nevermore, you rule. I really, really hope the second reason is the true story as it's fucking HILARIOUS

 

  TFD has crumbled quite a few times. There can't be much of it left these days. Poor management will do that. At one time I was kicking myself for not hearing the "abandon ship" call when others did, but I've come to terms with that in recent days. Some people didn't realize that TFD has been a sinking ship for years now. I'll give them credit though. It has taken quite some time to take the whole thing under. They must have some hella life preservers... Either that or some hefty sacks of hot air.

 

That's so darn hilarious it reaches into the realm of Saturday morning super-villainy!
"If I can't have the Solar Power Tower / superfuel / Sword of Tengu then no-one can!"

 

sadly, it's also the most believable.