Mr. Smart is the Best Forum Poster [INTERNET HISTORY ITT]

[Lum]

The redacted file Smart posted is not so redacted after all 

http://www.dereksmart.org/bin/TheDaveAllenSaga-REDACTED.pdf

In case you're wondering just how badly Alganon did at launch you can find it on page 6...

Am I missing something? The version I have has blacked out parts in the approrpiate places (including Alganon's subs at launch).

[Grumblesmurph]

The text is still there under the black boxes. You can select it and copy it over to notepad or something to see what was probably meant to be hidden. -Names of investors, how big the settlements they were discussing were etc. It's all there...

[bhodi]

Really? In this day and age, that blunder happens over and over again. People STILL don't learn "redacted" text in PDFs is nothing of the sort.

[taolurker]

I wonder when the backers of the game realize they probably have grounds to dismiss DS and then make this all an extremely ironic and funny ending, and BTW one I hope for.

[lac]

You can't really blame end users on this one. Adobe should have fixed this a long time ago. The CIA, the justice department, Mr. Smart, all these institutions accidentally disclosed sensitive information they were contractually obliged to keep to themselves because of this. Shame on you Adobe, shame on you.

[Mrbloodworth]

Really? In this day and age, that blunder happens over and over again. People STILL don't learn "redacted" text in PDFs is nothing of the sort.

Its for printing, not distribution in digital form, thats what backspace is for. But otherwise .

[Stormwaltz]

The text is still there under the black boxes. You can select it and copy it over to notepad or something to see what was probably meant to be hidden. -Names of investors, how big the settlements they were discussing were etc. It's all there...

I think I know some people who'll be interested in reading that.

[sam, an eggplant]

I love the irony of Derek lambasting David Allen for filing frivolous lawsuits, of all things. That's some good shit, man.

Derek first threatened to sue me in 1993 for an offhand comment about his already legendary flamewars on usenet. I'm not a unique snowflake. He's threatened to sue hundreds if not thousands over the years but never actually followed through. He has no teeth. I'm sure there are other members of that very special club reading these boards right now.

He's totally pathological. And so entertaining!

[Mosesandstick]

I maybe incompotent (or maybe its foxit) but I can't highlight the text in the pdf

[Severian]

I maybe incompotent (or maybe its foxit) but I can't highlight the text in the pdf

It is not just foxit, the text isn't selectable under full Adobe Acrobat, the pages are images. At least that's true of the PDF that is there now, maybe a different version preceded it.

[sam, an eggplant]

Hopefully someone has the originals. I would like to see behind the curtain.

[Grumblesmurph]

Yep, the original has been replaced by an image version.

[Mrbloodworth]

The PDF got linked in so many places, I think he must have read a tutorial about how to convert it.

[IainC]

Odds on Grumblesmurph being Serek's plausibly deniable leak-alt?

[Mrbloodworth]

Odds on Grumblesmurph being Serek's plausibly deniable leak-alt?

That would be too funny.

[Khaldun]

Doubt it. Can't imagine him capable of not spewing back once he's in a thread like this, alt or no alt. Plus whomever the person is who uses that handle elsewhere seems to have a sense of humor, not really Serek's forte.

[Mosesandstick]

Can we start referring to him by name? He knows that we're laughing at him.

[taolurker]

Can we start referring to him by name? He knows that we're laughing at him.

The sheer amount of times his name appears in links as part of this thread should've already summoned him, but it still wouldn't be prudent to summon the demon intentionally by actually doing that... Would it?

If he is lurking, it's probably in his best interests not to respond, but that would mean he'd learned something (and that is not something we can conclude by other times he's posted).

Still is internet history like the thread title suggests, and still delivers after a couple of weeks.

+++++ = 5 stars!

[Severian]

If I didn't make this clear enough in my earlier post, he linked a screenshot from this very thread in his latest blog entry.

[Mosesandstick]

He doesn't seem like the sort of person who can resist correcting our mistakes or fulfilling his curiosity and not reading, so god knows whats happening.

[sam, an eggplant]

Reading through the PDF, I'm mostly surprised at how small the numbers are. Not just the abysmal sales (we all knew it was a flop, although selling only 1600 copies is pretty sad) but their budget, too.

You can't even make a Wii game for $2M these days, much less a MMO. It's an astonishing accomplishment that Algalon actually exists, that it's not vaporware, that you can log in and play. Sure it sucks, but it's the talking dog syndrome. If you're walking in the park and you see a talking dog, it doesn't matter what he says!

[Lum]

If the server can only handle 100 simultaneous users I'd say the word "exist" is subjective.

[LK]

All this shit over that few users? Seriously? Holy fuck.

[Malakili]

All this shit over that few users? Seriously? Holy fuck.

It really does show just how bad the game is doing (did?) with those numbers.  I mean, realistically speaking its a total non issue and the fact that we are discussing it at all is pretty shocking.  I mean, I expected low numbers, but that low is really something. 1600...that makes barely living games like Champions Online look thriving.

[LK]

Everyone involved must be rule whores. It's the only way something this insignificant can turn into the drama bomb that it did.

[Khaldun]

Actually, I'm with Sam on this one: if you can make something that works, even a slavish WoW clone, for that money, that's already kind of an accomplishment. It's like if I made a model of a jet plane in my garage for $1,000 and it kind of made a whooshing noise and sort of threatened to maybe fly for a second and looked pretty much like a teeny-weeny 747. That would get me some kind of credit.

[Comstar]

I don't think there ARE any lawyers. Both sides bluffed the other and the actual confrontation will be between 2 sock puppets who refer to each other in the 3rd person.

So what numbers were buried in the PDF? A 2 million dollar budget? 1600 accounts in total?

[Khaldun]

Comstar might well be right. Though I honestly think Allen should be able to find someone who thinks there might be contingency fees somewhere in the bottom of all this.

[sam, an eggplant]

So what numbers were buried in the PDF? A 2 million dollar budget? 1600 accounts in total?

Yeah, although he contradicts himself and calls it a $4M investment elsewhere, so who knows which number (if any) is accurate. It also notes Allen's salary, which was shockingly low at under $100k. Although if he was actually a crook as Derek claims, he could have just paid for his groceries and mortgage with the company credit card.

There are certainly lawyers. Allen has a strong case. He might well be a crook, but that burden of proof is high. He was certainly defamed, publicly, repeatedly, and maliciously.

[ajax34i]

ROFL, lawyers furious or worried?  Nah, they're not, it's part of their job to be extremely calm and not care.  He does whatever he wants, and the laywers will just charge him more, as it will take "more time" to fix all the extra crap.  I doubt any of the laywers have any sort of emotion re: this.

It's like tech support people being furious at the computer not working, or devs being furious that bugs exist in their code. 

Nah.

[Abagadro]

Depends on the lawyer really. I had a few uncontrollable clients when I was an attorney and they drove me up the wall.  You have to work with other attorneys and appear before judges so its necessary to maintain a bit of credibility just for the sake of your overall practice. When you are repping someone that continually makes your work turn to shit, it gets a bit aggravating. I'm sure there are some lawyers who just don't care and will churn hours, but many attorneys actually don't like representing wild clients. 

One of the things they teach you in law school for this very reason is that a "lawyer is not a bus". You don't have to rep every client that wants you to. Most lawyers have enough to do without the stress of a wild client.

[Prospero]

Are lawyers a series of tubes?

[dusematic]

Depends on the lawyer really. I had a few uncontrollable clients when I was an attorney and they drove me up the wall.  You have to work with other attorneys and appear before judges so its necessary to maintain a bit of credibility just for the sake of your overall practice. When you are repping someone that continually makes your work turn to shit, it gets a bit aggravating. I'm sure there are some lawyers who just don't care and will churn hours, but many attorneys actually don't like representing wild clients. 

One of the things they teach you in law school for this very reason is that a "lawyer is not a bus". You don't have to rep every client that wants you to. Most lawyers have enough to do without the stress of a wild client.

Although once you accept the case you have certain ethical obligations to continue representation.

[Abagadro]

Although once you accept the case you have certain ethical obligations to continue representation.

You can bail at many different places. Really the only time you are stuck is if it gets so far into the case (i.e. the trial is coming up) that withdrawing prejudices the client.

[Samprimary]

oh. OH. the comic just came to me. finally

/