Thread: Dear BG    

Way to spill 40+ pages of lies, now that the move is complete, we have had time for an official answer.

Please enjoy the new location, no URLs have to be changed. Either:
http://ffxi.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
or
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
will work one in the same.

Please do not take these misunderstandings for granite, and we hope you can safe face in the future.

http://forums.ffxiclopedia.org/viewtopi ... 4950#74950

Originally Posted by Gahoo

As many are probably aware by now, the wiki and forums were hacked on Sunday, September 16, by someone trying to discredit FFXIclopedia and the administrators here. We have been working hard over the past few days to finalize the transfer of the site to wikia and to ensure that our personal information is protected from further abuse.

That process is now largely complete. The wiki is fully functional and our forums are (obviously) back up and will be moved in the next week or two. If there are any issues people are having with the new site, please let us know so that we can look into it.

The allegations levied against the administrators here are of course unfounded and completely false. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the vast majority of our community who has expressed, both publically and privately, their own outrage at these allegations. The support we have gotten has been a big help to us in dealing with all of these accusations. To those who have levied these allegations against us, we only ask that you consider the full facts - much of which was posted above on Friday - but has been mostly ignored.

There are a few pieces of misinformation out there due to the hacked emails and lack of contxt. There are three issues related to the fundraiser which have been identified: (i) the merchandise itself being part of the fundraiser funds; (ii) a differing price point on the merchandise; and (iii) the source of the funds for the giveaway. We'll try again to clear this up.

1. The merchandise was always a part of the fundraiser and is no different than any other fundraiser that has gifts for donations of certain dollar amounts. If anyone wanted to forego their gifts they could have easily done so - and indeed - some did. Most were excited to receive these limited availability items and donated precisely for that reason. We had 110 people donate $50+ in order to qualify for the t-shirt. Assuming they each donated only $50 (which we know they didn't), that accounts for more than half of the total donations. There is no way to determine whether more or less money would have been raised without the gifts, but it seems likely that the gifts helped rather than hurt.

2. In December 2006, five to six months before we had the total volume, design, quality, etc. for the t-shirt and mouse pads, we had a different wholesale price quote. The prices ended up changing. We got better quality items and ordered less than we originally had hoped. The quality was important to us, and we have not heard any complaints from those that have actually donated and received the items themselves.

3. The accounting above is accurate with two exceptions. 1. The servers were actually $609/month (two Intel Xeon 3060 Dual Core Conroe Processor servers with 4096 MB RAM, a 2 Server Cross Connect and DiskSync 20 GB). 2. We spent $250 to acquire the ffxiclopedia.com domain.

As for the remaining funds to be used for the WotG giveaway, they will be that amount leftover from the fundraiser, not from Wikia. The discussion over these use of these funds started in late August shortly after the announcement. Wikia was generous and offered to pay for some or all of the the giveaway if we desired. We originally accepted because, well, why not. It was not because there was no money, because any money was missing, or any other fanciful idea. While certain individuals insist on trying to make nothing into something, we are not trying to hide anything. Remembner, for years the administrators maintained the site with zero, or more accurately, negative, compensation. Nevertheless, we are willing to use the remaining funds to cover the costs of the giveaway.

If people have questions, post them here and we will do our best to answer them. Please understand, for legal reasons we cannot and will not discuss the terms of the transaction with Wikia or the actions being taken against those that have invaded our privacy. We take not only our user's privacy seriously, but our own as well.

This brings us to our last point. More than anything, this reaffirms the need to have everyone protect their passwords and confidential information. This week the administrators and junior administrators have had their financial accounts, email accounts and ffxiclopedia accounts hacked. Use strong passwords everywhere, change them frequently, and don't use the same one everywhere.

Can someone help me understand? If they're admitting that their emails were hacked, then they're admitting, in essence, that the screenshots are true. People have formed their own opinions, although perhaps some have been steamrolled by popular opinion, based upon screenshots we've seen. So, thereby, they're admitting that our views on what we see as fact, are valid.

In case any of that sounded blurred, here's the cliffnotes:

They admit their emails were hacked. We have the proof of their transactions. Therefore, they are admitting to the validity of Ganiman's actions, and furthermore admitting to deceptive practices and misappropriation of funds.

Am I right?

How many months of server rental did they purchase?

My question is this, If 3 people are making all the money from the Wiki, should they not do all the work?

The Wiki was created by Gami and the other admins, but was built buy 100's of people doing research and posting the information that made the site what it is.

Since Gami and the others are selling the hard work of others, should they not get paid as well, it seems that when you sell others work as your own that there is some law against that.

Or the admins could just delete all info they did not personally post and start over, doing the work of the hundreds of people that made the original posts.

So what will it be? Take the money you made off of other peoples work and give them a cut, or delete all the info that you did not post and start over?

r u shur

Sure, we were hacked. And yes the screenshots are real.

BUT EVERYTHING IS ALL LIES

Yesterday I sent an email to Trever Jonas at Wikia. This is what it said:

Good afternoon,

I am a member of the large, online community of Final Fantasy XI. Recently, as I’m sure you’re aware, it was discovered that the “wiki” known as FFXIclopedia was engaged in some transactions to transfer service to be under Wikia. However, the online community which helped build this site feels as if they have been deceived, not only by your company, but most importantly, by the progenitor of the FFXIclopedia. Apparently, many are under the impression that he falsely announced a fund raiser, and then misappropriated the funds, and then in turn sought to sell to Wikia the online community. Evidence of these transactions has been posted in various places on the internet, and is circulating, causing a lot of mixed responses.

I’m sure you’re aware of all of this, and I’m sure Wikia is making efforts to help things in this matter come to an ethical and moral high ground. Because I’m sure of your company’s integrity when dealing with incoming sources of business, I would have thought that a “press release” would have been issued, at least, to inform the community – which is vast – on Wikia’s side of the matter, along with any information we may have to confirm the validity of what is going on.

Anyway, I would like to help pass along such an announcement, and hear what Wikia has to say on the matter. Thank you for your time.

This is what I've gotten in response:

Pathetic "defence." There is NO context those e-mails could be put into that would erase the perception that you decided to sell user created content and make a profit off of it, while lying to the community about it.

It's time for Fun Fact Time with Alleya! Gather round kids, this is gonna be a good one!

Fun fact #1: Gani and all the wiki admins are still silly douchebags who were taking money under the table and keeping it quote "under wraps."

Fun Fact #2: Gani and other wiki admins have repeatedly said that BG contributes almost nothing to the wiki.

Fun Fact #3: BG is still making its own wiki that will spank ffxiclopedia on their cooperate money mongering asses.

Fun Fact #4: No one really gives a shit what the "real story" is anymore because the lack of response and/or lack of consistency in their response to every claim that has come against them, along with aforementioned under-table money, has completely dashed what little credibility they had against the rocks. As a direct result, see Fun Fact #3.