Has there been an officical announcement scheduled for SDCC?

I'm thinking they'll be an announcement but no opportunity to ask questions about the contest.

Back when this whole contest started, they stated the president would be brought out on stage at Comic Con during the Star Wars presentation.  That presentation has always allowed Q&A, usually moderated by Sansweet.

Personally...I STILL don't think this is a big deal, but I'm not going to lie.....if I was there, I would totally enjoy someone actually asking the questions we keep hearing all over the internet to the man himself.  It would be cool if they'd just answer it and put all this bitching to bed.

USCWannabe is currently being held for "re-education" at the San Dimas Correctional Center for an indeterminate length of time.

Jail?  Really?

Yeah, I'm definitely going. No midnight show here, so I'll have to see it after work tomorrow.

I was just thinking Hasbro was kind of sucking big fat eggs at the moment...   

Well, I'm admittedly more impressed by the Sideshow and Gentle Giant line-ups (I sat going through those pictures for an hour last night), but from the coverage I've seen over at GH and RS, it looks like there are a few cool repacked and repainted clones.  I thought it was funny how you guys took pictures of the bottom of the case.  I bet they love that. 

To me, the comparison is absurd.   You'd have to do some hardcore trolling to get banned here, and you would have your nads stomped by the group on your way out.  You wouldn't be quietly banned and then any and all talk about your suspension wiped from the record. 

RS is the place where instead of dealing with a problem or criticism, it is swept away.  There are no guideposts for noobs to learn the ropes of posting, since anything that goes awry is deleted.

I don't think my comparison was "absurd" at all.  Throwing someone off a website because they are registered at a competing website is silly. That's all I'm saying. They don't throw you out of McDonald's because you also eat at Burger King and talk about how crappy the McDonald's burgers are while you're in there.  It would be crazy for RS to throw me out just because I also post here, and vice versa.  I don't dislike either site at all.

Yes, I realize RS has actually thrown people out for things they've said or done over here.  I don't get that.   And yes, it's a lot easier to get banned over there.

As for the grand measures it would take to get banned over here, again...I attribute that to the whole traffic thing.  This place is like Cheers.  If you act up in Cheers, the other patrons quickly stifle you, and you'd quickly realize that your antics aren't welcomed. If you continue them despite no one thinking you're cool, one of the staff will throw you out, creating a huge scene.

RS is like a Baseball stadium or a Casino.  If someone acts up, the ushers in black quickly throw you the hell out of there without asking any questions and erase any trace that you were ever there.  Unless you happened to be at the site at the moment something went down, the next day.....you'll never even see the problem.

Although this practice works well when people do things like post a bunch of porn (someone did that the other day), I think it's counterproductive for silly things like an insult that went too far or a thread skepticizing  questionable "election" results.  When these sorts of threads are swept under the rug, the majority of members never get to learn what's right and wrong to say there, and that's partly why some bans end up being "shocking".

When I was moderating, I used the padlocks instead of the "Move to private admin section" feature, and I always posted a one or two sentence note letting folks know why the thread was locked. I would warn the topic starter publicly or privately and what they wrote would then sit there as a reminder of what NOT to post until it eventually fell off the front pages into obscurity.  The best moderators there still do this, and I know all the moderators here do it.  It's the only way that people learn.

I can't tell if that's all that's left of his blog

I saw a few of the posts that were removed, but they don't seem to be up there now.  I believe StarWars.com removed them, not Mr. USC.

I would like to hear from him though, it'll be interesting to hear his side.

Do you think their status as an official LF licensee is a conflict of interest in regards to the contest rules?

Philip did not run, Dustin did.  Had Philip run, yes....that would have been breaking the rules.
  
Dustin is not employed by Philip as far as I'm aware. From personal experience, I can say that Rebelscum doesn't pay it's staff a dime.  

Had a nice long break from the internet this weekend, as I was working (finally) on my Star Wars room at the new house.

This is going to be my best one yet....and I can't wait to share the pictures here. 


AE said:

I often times see you say, "Well, they haven't done anything to me - so why should I be upset?" And that always bothers me. God damn, Josh - If you can remain totally passive about all that has gone on over there in the years we've been pals... I can't help but ask, at what point will you care? What is it going to take, man? I know it isn't true, or at least I hope not, but it just comes off as if you really don't care about anything or anyone else, so long as you've got what you want - these benefits, as you keep calling them, must be beyond my imagination, for you to be capable of remaining generally uncaring all this time...

And...

You've seen your pals go down, eventually it'll be you.

I really can't aruge with that I guess.  Yes, I've seen a lot of you banned from Rebelscum.  It sucks.  I don't like seeing that and I hate the fact that some of you aren't welcome over there (even if you wanted to come back).  I guess all I'm trying to get across is I don't want to be thought of as being disloyal or something, just because I continue to hang out there.  It's still a cool place as far as I'm concerned.  But yes, I realize my membership over there could get yanked from me at any moment.  Even if I was banned....I'd probably still visit to help subsidize my collecting habit. 


Every once in awhile, when I find myself defending JD to Mattkenobi, LJ, or some other yahoo over there that wants to make cracks about this place.....I wonder if it might get me in trouble.  If I get banned for NOT hating Jedidefender, yeah, that would suck.....same as it would if suddenly Chris decided to throw me out of here for not hating RS.  For the most part though....I try and follow the rules so as not to get thrown out.  I know where the line is and though I may dance around it, I try not to cross it.  I like my membership and would like to keep it.

I have a feeling that Phillip could drop a nuclear bomb on Seattle, and Josh would be the first to jump out of the ashes and support Phillip's actions...

I'm not THAT bad.

Do I think Philip having ads on his free website or sending me the occasional targeted email is evil?  No (although if it got too annoying, I might change that opinion).
Do I think that blanketing everyone from JD with bans was fair?  No.  I think it was a "Clean N Sweep" attack to solve a site war that never really was.  Plus, it was a long time ago.  In a perfect world, I'd like to see all of you were reinstated, as an acknowledgement that the community at large is better off with you in it.  However, I don't think that anyone here who's banned really wants to go back, and that's really the meat of the whole thing.

Last but not least, and on topic:

Do I think Philip somehow rigged this "election"?  No.  As evil as some make him out to be, I don't think he or Dustin would do something like that....nor do I think they'd have the power to do it even if they wanted to.   USC probably got DQed for any number of things he said or did online, or some things we never even heard about.

So the resource is traffic. That's an interesting way of looking at things, to say the least.

In a community like ours, yes...I think the place with the most people is going to be the one with the most benefits.

The comment regarding RS having the news first most of the time is absolutely inaccurate. I implore you to do a study of your own and match them and us, story for story and report on what you've found. I can guarantee it is not what you stated.

I know they collect it from many different sources, but I usually see it there first.  Yes, I'm sure JD often gets it 25 minutes sooner, but in the end, it doesn't matter to me as long as you both have the story.  There really are no "exclusives" in this community, because everyone cross-posts.  Unless of course you want to count exclusive interviews and stuff....but I really didn't feel like talking about their whole Rancho Obi-Wan, Gentle Giant or Sideshow things they've done as positives.  My point is not to belittle JD or give you 10 reasons why they're better.  I'm just sticking up for RS a little, because it's not such a horrible place. I know some of you guys hate it...and I respect your reasons why.  I even agree with some of them.  But I don't hate them along with you.  I apologize, but I don't feel like that's a character flaw on my part.

Your counterargument regarding our ads is almost laughable too so I won't really go into that since it's pretty simple to figure out that our ads have a completely different objective.

Your front page has several sponsors. Their front page has some too. Probably more. Philip says his pay the bandwidth bills.  I'm sure he makes some nice gravy on top of that.  If you have a different objective with the revenue from yours, great.  Either way, as the end user.....it's the same deal to me:  I see ads on the front page when I stop by.

You guys DO have more contests though, and I think that's sweet, even though I've never won. 

I'm done trying to get you to open your mind, Josh.

How do you want me to open it? RS works for me.  JD is a great place too, for different reasons. Neither one sucks in my eyes.   Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one with my eyes open in that regard.

What is it that I am not realizing?

What rule did I ever break over there in all the time I was a member?

I have absolutely no idea. I don't know why half of you guys are banned.  The few that I do remember being banned went down in flames, and what a way to go.

A big point here is that as Star Wars fans and collectors, most/all of us want to have a Fan Club President who is a fan him/herself, who is someone we can look up to, who's a person who wants to be friends with and get to know many other Star Wars fans out there, a person who's fair and willing to speak up for us and listen to our ideas, someone you can approach and chat with at a convention or just say "Hi", someone who doesn't have an "agenda", someone who represents the entire community, and most of all, someone who's worthy and deserving of the position, even if it's just (supposedly) an honorary title for the most part.

I would agree with you if Dustin had actually just become the "fan club president".  He didn't.  He received an honorary title as a prize for selling magazines.   This was never an election, it was simply a sales drive.  We weren't voting for the best candidate. People were trying to sell subscriptions to hyperspace to win a trip to a comic book convention.  Dustin has no more power today than he did a week ago, he just gets a free trip to Comic Con. This whole thing was a joke 3 months ago and it's still a joke today.




Now.....if they ever have a REAL election, where votes are earned and not paid for, and Philip wins......debate the merits of THAT.   But when it's a sales drive and the biggest Star Wars collecting site out there comes in  2nd (or even 1st by DQ), I don't see how that should shock anyone.  They've got the most resources to throw "votes" at something like this. They used em.  Big shocker.

Will the fan club change? 
Will ANYTHING change?
I doubt it.