Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[SAS~Malone]

Dear friends

As a result of ongoing, irreconcilable differences between the owner of FreeModding site, and the admin/editorial team here at SAS, we have decided to withdraw all links directing to FreeModding site from our boards. It is unfortunate that it has come to this, but this battle, which we have been trying to contain for close on a year, if not longer, has come to the point where this is the only option available for us to carry on with our site as a productive modding site.

Despite repeated requests from us, for members to stop starting contentious discourse in our public forums, the problem only worsened, with insults and accusations constantly been thrown around with wild abandon in our forums, at every conceivable opportunity.
After trying to maintain working relations for so long, without success, our team has unanimously decided we will no longer endure this saga in our forums. A sad day for the community at large, but there it is. No further discussion on this topic is needed, and will not be entertained.

Beo and Deutschmark have been banned after being identified as main instigators of this crusade. We have not banned any other freemodding team guys, although some have chosen to leave of their own accord. As opposed to every single person with an SAS~ badge being banned straight out at Beo's site, even those who have had no part in the matter.

Be that as it may, this is where we stand at the moment, and time will tell what the future holds in store. Suffice to say, we are moving forward from this as a team, and there are many great mods in the pipeline, so life will go on as before, pretty much. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our members, but as said, we could see no alternative for peace in our forums. We are not here as guardians of the free world, and make no pretense to be such. We are here to mod IL-2, and mod the shit out of it. We would like to thank our members for maintaining the peaceful, friendly atmosphere in our forums, and hope to see it continue in this way, in the days ahead.

Thank you in advance for your support and co-operation in this matter.

Team SAS

[SAS~Malone]

Addendum:

Due to us having replaced the freemodding links in Deutschmark's Huey thread with direct links, there seems to now be the impression that we have somehow 'stolen' the mod. This is obviously not the case, but is the picture that certain people would like to try and paint. SAS standpoint on this is as follows:

We ask our users to rather provide direct links, as opposed to links that redirect members to another site, where they then also have to register in order to be able to download. (there will be exceptions to this, M4T being a good example. they have been around much longer than any modding site, provide a vital service to the community and deserve our full support))

As far as this is concerned, SAS downloads are available to anybody -you don't need to register here to get any mods. This, as opposed to certain so-called' free' sites, that force the registration process on everyone. In the case of John's Huey, which has proved a very popular mod with the community, we decided to provide the direct links for the benefit of our members, and the whole community. Remember, these mods were posted here of their own free will, we did not force anybody to do so.

The fact that there are now demands for all links to be removed, only goes to highlight the fact that getting these mods posted here in the first place, were not for the benefit of the community, but rather for the promotion of the sites where these mods were made. SAS, then, was essentially being used as a marketing tool to promote said sites, who in turn would belittle and insult the entire SAS site at every opportunity. We let the ordinary members decide for themselves on this matter, but to us it is blatantly obvious that self-promotion (at SAS' expense) was the order of the day, and not just providing mods for the enjoyment of all. The Huey mod will be removed within Deutschmark's stipulated time-period, and we will then also make an announcement concerning that in the relevant thread.

As for any further requests to have links removed, they will be denied. This idea of posting something in a forum on the internet, then throwing your toys out of the cot several months later for an unrelated issue, and demanding it to be removed, is really novel, and it doesn' t happen on any forum, anywhere on the internet. No reason why it should be any different here. You may ask for it to be removed, certainly, but you cannot demand it. We are no longer open to such demands here. As usual, and as expected, the innocent members are again the ones who lose out due to this mindset.

For this, the SAS sincerely apologises to all our members and guests. As can be plainly seen, we are not the ones taking anything away from the community at large, in order to try and spite a handful of people. This subject is closed for now, and again I request to not enter into open debate about this.

Thanks in advance for your support and understanding through this time.

The SAS Team

[LuseKofte]

It has been a few days since what links there were between The FreeModding site and SAS were cut. We knew this would be a difficult time for all concerned, but the problems that had existed for some time could no longer be ignored. We are not saying that the fault lies entirely on one side, we have made some mistakes and we fully acknowledge that fact. SAS has always been a vibrant and innovative site, run by real people with real lives.  We are not perfect and will never claim to be.

Firstly we would like to express our sincere apologies to those who have felt uncomfortable with what they have had to witness recently, rest assured we feel the same. We asked you not to discuss the situation in open forum here and we are very pleased to see that, with a few exceptions, you have responded with admirable restraint.  For that we would like to thank you. We also accept that you deserve to know the full story. We promise we will release a full account once the dust has settled, and we are back on an even keel again. There is still some turmoil and relationships with other sites are strained at the moment, which is why we would like to avoid any discussion on the matter here.

Despite what is claimed elsewhere, we have not banned a single user for posting anything here. We have removed some posts which we consider could have had a negative impact on the current situation, but the members who posted them have not been banned or suspended, also we have not issued a "blanket ban" on other site's administrators, we have only complied with the wishes of those requesting that their membership be removed. We are not a closed site and would not wish to be so.

In the meantime we ask you to remain polite and civil here, as the vast majority of you have always been,  and not to form an opinion until you have the full facts.

Yours sincerely,
The ~SAS team