Viacom buying Neopets?

[Morningstar]

Okay, now I feel like crap because of what I posted. ._.

Oh, don't feell like crap, OK? Everyone is entitled to feel what they feel. Some of us have fared better than others in this game. If you had asked me about 1-1/2 years ago (after the infamous November TP glitch) what I felt, I am sure it would be different than what I feel today. I was giving an explanation as to why I thought people felt the way they did. Not that they were "bad and wrong" for feeling that way. I can understand people's anger and frustration with Dohring, I just don't agree with it.

[Atjj]

The little caterpillar guy too!

Do you mean a gloworm?!

[Erin]

No, the caterpillar guy from Teddy Ruxpin. I think his name was Grubby.

[arogance1]

No, the caterpillar guy from Teddy Ruxpin. I think his name was Grubby.

He WAS called Grubby


Hmmm, fond memories

[Nani]

Morningstar, Jabond, Erin, this is turning into one of the more productive topics I've seen in a long time. As I mentioned previously, I used to really hate Dohring. Lately, I've been cutting him a lot more slack. I completely disagree with some of the business decisions that have been made (not so much the banners, but the breaking of the promises TNT had made to us, and the way the banners are served. They are being so slow and ineffective about getting the bad ones off the lists that it's going to be an ongoing problem unless they make some major changes very soon.) but for one thing, I have no proof that they're actually his fault.

As for the Scientology thing, while I do have doubts about the validity of Scientology as a religion (some countries refuse to consider it as such and instead have labeled it a business, which is dubious), I don't think anyone - including Dohring - is inherently evil for following it. My problem is that Dohring has been implicated in scandals involving the Church of Scientology, in which he used the religion to scam others out of their money. Of course, these rumors might very well have been created by those who are simply jealous (money) or afraid (Scientology) of Mr. Dohring. For that reason, he's innocent until proven guilty.

Overall, while I'm still not particularly fond of Dohring, I've made a conscious decision in the last few months to give him the benefit of the doubt. Neopets has improved quite a bit in the past year or so, and believe me, I can think of ways in which it could be a lot worse. Maybe he's not a completely bad guy after all.

Of course, if they don't do something about those meeping banners soon...

[Erin]

Well, I'll admit I wasn't too thrilled with his actions after the banners were introduced, only because of the theory that was circulating at the time; the one that described the pump-and-dump technique, and the idea that Dohring might be using it to squeeze every last dollar out of the site before abandoning it for a more profitable venture. But since he's sold it to Viacom, I feel marginally better about him as well as the site's future. Like someone said (was it you, Morningstar?) - $160 million is quite an investment, and Viacom's not going to spend that much money if they're expecting to dump everything in the near future.

As for the Scientology issue, I'm not going to criticize someone based on their spirtual beliefs. That just screams narrow-mindedness to me. I personally don't agree with the ideas behind Scientology, but Dohring hasn't brought it to the site in any form, so why should I care what religion he practices?

[Articfox]

AWN now has something up about it noew too: http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=cat ... m_no=14185

Hopefully this won't end up in a cartoon series.

[DM was on fire!]

Does anyone sense that Isca or Caylis will have a wardrobe malfunction soon?

Hehe it's not impossible...

There are the same people that own MTV, now.

[Shoyru_Lover]

Speaking of which, as soon as Janet Jackson had her wardrobe malfunction, every other celebrity had one as well ... Paris.. nicole... everyone.

[Mongrel]

I think Dohring is just a scapegoat, someone to blame for all of Neopets' problems, kind of like major government officials(mayors, governers, presidents, prime ministers, etc.). He's someone who doesn't communicate directly with users often, so you don't feel guilty blaming him because you really don't know much about him.

[shroomy]

In my personal experience, Doug is cool. I'll keep it simple.

-C

[coming2atvnearu]

In my personal experience, Doug is cool. I'll keep it simple.

-C

Thanks for posting Shroomy!!!

Unfortunately, we don't have any personal experience with Doug which could be the root of the problem. Adam and Donna and the rest of the Team, such as the lovely Shroomy here, have always had a pretty gosh darn close relationship with their users. Even if its just a user account so we can verify that they actually play this game with the rest of us. However, with Dougy-boy we have no evidence he's ever played the stupid site. During especially stressful times there's always been a member of TNT to come in and talk to us, cuddle with us and read us a bed time story until everything gets better. No one has ever heard from Doug.

Now, I don't want to say he's PR inept because he's done a wonderful job of keeping Neopets fresh in the media and with large corporations. So why would he miss out on the opportunity to communicate with his primary demogrpahic? Answer: contrary to current popular belief, he does not care about us. That's the long and the short of it. The minute he comes onto this site or the Neoboards to prove me wrong I will gladly retract that statement.

As for Scientology, how is that relevant in any way, shape or form? Perhaps the only possible tie-in is the company he worked for that went completely bancrupt and only allowed people of Scientology to advance to the higher positions. Sure that was a slimey spot on his record but he's obviously not stocking Neopets with Scientologists nor is Neopets hurting financially like that company was.

Anyhoo, I'm still not convinced that he gives two toots of a tuitor's tooter about us or any other user on his site and that's not going to change until he pops out of his corner office and gives us a quick "hey, how are you? Sorry I haven't introduced myself. I've been pretty busy for the past 5 years. So since you're the people using the site what do you want to see?"

[Morningstar]

Unfortunately, we don't have any personal experience with Doug which could be the root of the problem. Adam and Donna and the rest of the Team, such as the lovely Shroomy here, have always had a pretty gosh darn close relationship with their users. Even if its just a user account so we can verify that they actually play this game with the rest of us. However, with Dougy-boy we have no evidence he's ever played the stupid site. During especially stressful times there's always been a member of TNT to come in and talk to us, cuddle with us and read us a bed time story until everything gets better. No one has ever heard from Doug. . .

Anyhoo, I'm still not convinced that he gives two toots of a tuitor's tooter about us or any other user on his site and that's not going to change until he pops out of his corner office and gives us a quick "hey, how are you? Sorry I haven't introduced myself. I've been pretty busy for the past 5 years. So since you're the people using the site what do you want to see?"

Just because he doesn't post here does not mean that he doesn't care about the users. I don't expect the CEO of Ford Motors to write me a thank you note when I buy a car, the CEO of McDonald's to call me on the phone to ask if I liked my McChicken sandwich, or the head of Microsoft to chat online with me about my Hotmail account. Heads of companies are busy people. And delegate the communication aspect of the job to their underlings. Why should it be any different for Neopets, Inc.?

[Witch King]

I'm not reading any of the other posts, but three words.

"It is sickening"

Selling to Viacom? Come on here! Don't get me wrong, Xamount better than Disney. But still! Why couldn't they of just said "We've got a TCG with Wizards. If we want to make books, we've got wizards. If we want big time art, we've got Wizards!" huh?

*Sigh*

[xredchipx]

I don't think that it is to bad because if Viacom buys it it shows neopets is a good game and could get it more members!