The conflict that's being discussed here started even before I got involved into FL modding. So, I have no idea when and how it started in the first place, but it's no secret there were hostilities going on around (and inside) TLR during previous several years, reaching their pinnacle in the recent months. Never thought that modding scene could involve such harsh and unhealthy competition, and never encountered anything like it elsewhere. I believe the original cause was the excessive will of many people to show and prove that they have better modding, administration, design, and community leadership skills than everyone else, that the mod/server/site/forum they are running is better than others, getting more downloads or more player attention. Over time it all just developed into personal hatred of certain individuals towards each other. And since the individuals unfortunately appear to be to be admins of FL communities, the hostility spread along community members as well.
Seems that everyone forgot that mods are made to make the game more versatile and appeal to wider player base. Every modder, in theory, should be interested in their competitor's success as much as he/she's interested in success of his/her own mod. Also in theory, ethics should be prevalent in how mod makers treat each other, and constantly referring to own mod as "most", "best" and "THE one" is very far from any ethics. It's for players to decide, and since tastes differ, calling one's mod the best would be true only for part of the playerbase.
Anyway, to more recent events - since arguing about mods is minor trouble compared to what happens now. With TLR down and global server down, it's inevitable that Freelancer will lose a large percent of its previous playerbase. As if it wasn't enough, right now, when TLR is back, we have two communities competiting with each other, and two possible future "global list server" solutions. I was present at TLR chat meeting for a short while. The constant spam that was going on there made any normal discussion impossible. One of Discovery admins was there for much longer than me, and several days later got back to me saying that I should never deal with TLR or their admins again cause they want to put everyone under their control. Never got much detail over what was actually offered about uniting all FL communities within TLR, but it's obvious that any offers that require placing own forums/portals under someone else's administration and under TLR banner is not an option for most FL server owners. The idea, if it ever existed, was dropped shortly afterwards, since right now TLR only offers placing links to server websites and forums. What's wrong with that I cannot see. I also cannot see what's wrong (or surprising) in the fact that rebuilding TLR mod/tool database takes a long time. Lancer's Reactor, despite of technical issues that were present before the shutdown, and even despite the lack of content after it was re-launched, is the place that many people still consider to be the central hub of all English-speaking FL community.
When I got the e-mail from SWAT offering hosting space/updates/other services on the portal, I was quite surprised. There's nothing wrong about SWAT in general, but for a community where members were well taught to praise the work of local moders and undermine (if not despise) the work of everyone else it's quite strange to act as possible TLR replacement. The example is right here. R8R said in his previous long post that generally he'd prefer TLR to exist and prosper, but without Louva in charge. However, in his post dating January 3rd he did not mention his name at all, while still posting lots of negative stuff about TLR. bakedpotato later said that the info provided was mostly lies, yet no one even bothered to ask what was wrong, with everyone busy with endless praising R8R for doing good job, and flaming TLR admins. Since there was no relevant posts on TLR itself describing why was it shut down, the picture is again pretty vague. Maybe bakedpotato should simply post what actually happened? Anyway, returning to the SWAT offer. If I can use SWAT as a host for Discovery mod in addition to TLR, I'd use such opportunity. But what about posting news, or discussing anything in forums? I expect that I would get comments similar to what Crossfire supporters post about Discovery on Mod DB. Humiliation and insults, or at least saying it's inferior to Crossfire. This attitude won't change overnight only because some independent modders/players joined this place after TLR went offline.
As for TLR, well, when one of their admins (or someone posing to be one?) comes here and disgraces himself with petty flaming (don't like theme, don't like tagline) it becomes obvious that something's wrong as well. But it's more related to admins personally, not the site they are running, and not the way they run the site (same can be said about Louva logs, although I have no idea to what they are related. In any case, racist talks, like flames, are a disgrace for a person who's saying, not for those who hear or any nation). A year ago, when I submitted news on TLR that Discovery entered Mod DB's top-100 last year, one of TLR admins was first to accuse me that I did not post about the contest earlier, thus not giving others chance to participate. This secret contest I was trying to hide was running for 3 years before that, and no one ever paid attention. I replied that next year more competition would be welcome. The only competition was Crossfire (thankfully, we were not alone). A few other modders also began to pay more attention to the generous opportunities Mod DB provides. Most others simply ignored Mod DB for a year afterwards. I guess that if similar news would be submitted now, both me and R8R will get accused for concealing the existence of this event once again. But, em, this is called freedom of speech. I may not like it, but they have right to voice their opinion (unless they refuse to post the news in the first place, which TLR never did as long as I remember).
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What would be ideal is for the Communities of SWAT and TLR is to work together as independent alternatives to each other. They should support each other and have friendship with each other. The truth of the matter is that there are many Communities out there and people will choose the ones they prefer. Not all will choose SWAT or TLR. SWAT and TLR should work to their mutual benefit as well as the benefit of all of the other Communities out there.
Sounds like an easy solution with one important question never answered. Who's in charge of the GLS replacement now? Since TLR has already posted a solution that works, why not use it universally? Until there's proof that TLR is biased and certain servers are removed/blocked from the GLS alternative by w0dk4, there's not much use in SWAT offering its own one. Fact that some of TLR admins expressed personal opinions in offensive way doesn't mean that they are going to ban anyone from GLS. There is place for two communities, but not for two GLS versions. Double GLS will be a bad thing for everyone.
Problem here is that no one seems to be interested in "peaceful co-existence". Since it's evident that friendship is no longer possible, and there will be competition, could you please leave the GLS in the one capable hands (if they prove to be capable), leave downloads where their authors want them to be, and stop immature and pointless flames from both sides. Thank you.
