24-7 Internet Radio For Gamers

Dear Scot: Get Over Yourself

So I woke up this morning to find that I have been banned from the allgames.com forums from here to eternity. Aww that sucks, but oh well, life happens, right? Some of you may have read that and either cried, didn't care, or planned on calling all your friends over to have a party. Whatever. But I'm not writing this blog post because I was banned, but because of the reason I was banned. This is the message that pops up when I try to access the forums:

You have been banned for the following reason:
I don't appreciate the nasty itunes review you left, this isnt a community for the haters

That refers to a 2-star review I left for AGI a few months back. This reasoning really bugs me, and I'll explain why.

First of all, let me get this out of the way. Yes, I dislike the AGI show. I listened for a few months and then I woke up. Yes, I let my voice be heard and I wrote a negative review on iTunes about it. Those are facts, and I'm not denying them.

But here's where things get a little wonky. You see, as backlash for writing such a review about All Games Interactive, Scot decided to ban me from the All Games Radio forums. Notice the difference? Excuse me, Mr. Rubin, I'm sorry, but the last time I checked, All Games Radio is a lot bigger than you. It is a lot bigger than your show. All Games Radio consists of around 20 different and independently run podcasts, and your show is just one of them. Although it may be the "flagship" show, it is not the only show. So with the reason you stated as for why I am banned basically says that if I don't like your show, I don't like any show on the network. Get real. I happen to listen and enjoying listening to quite a few shows that are a part of AGR, including The Bobby Blackwolf Show and Orange Lounge Radio. But you're saying that because I don't like your show, I shouldn't be socializing around with any of the other AGR shows.

Let's use an example. Let's pretend that you bought an iPod. You use it for a while and then you decide that you don't like it. So you leave a negative review of your iPod model on, say, the CNET site. Would it make any sense for Apple to call you up later and tell you that you are hereby banned from using any mp3 player whether it's theirs or another brand? Would it make any sense for them to say "Because we are the flagship mp3 player, if you don't like ours, you don't like any mp3 player"? I'll answer that for you, No.

Also, if you've read this far Mr. Rubin, I want to thank you and tell you to get over yourself. So somebody doesn't like what you make. So what? How is that a big deal? One of the most important lessons that I have learned in my life is that no matter what you do to make yourself known, there are going to be people who don't like it. Just a fact of life. And if somebody does come out and says that they don't like it, it's your job to turn the other cheek. Get over it, move past it. Don't moan, groan, complain, and seek revenge about it for the rest of your life. Focus on the positives of what you make, such as the average review of your show on iTunes is 4 and a half stars. Don't focus on one review. You're not perfect. But you know what you're doing? Silencing the critics. Backlashing against any one who says anything negative about what you do. Do you want to know who also did that? Stalin, during his reign of terror in the Soviet Union. When he was the leader of then-Communist Russia, anyone that came out and said anything that sounded like complaints about communism was captured and exectued, sometimes even by Stalin himself. In that time, millions upon millions of people were executed in that country, and most historians believe he was a lot worse than Hitler. So he's not considered to be a national hero anywhere, don't you think? My point is, by backlashing someone simply because they dislike what you do doesn't make you more of a man. It makes you more of a douche. So I say it again: Get over yourself.

So that's what I have to say about this whole ordeal. I apologize for it being kind of long, but I feel I should speak up about this. Anyway, I'm moving past it now, settling in greener pastures. Peace.

< Previous Post

16 Comments

Comment by Redertainment on July 6, 2008 at 9:44am: I agree with you. About the banning being screwed up, not on not liking AGI. What is wrong with well reasoned criticism? Many people use that criticism to better themselves and the things they produce. Without the criticism of others, my blog wouldn't be what it is today.

Comment by Curtis_AG on July 6, 2008 at 9:44am: Well, I feel your pain. I got banned from calling in to the show, the chatroom and the forums way back in January after I was complaining too much to Scot about the show's content. However, I am still allowed to call in the DPL show.

Hopefully that if things go well with Scot, I would be able to be part of the AGI community again. But I had to learn the hard way that I won't be making those mistakes again.

Comment by GenoBaby on July 6, 2008 at 10:31am: That is a bit suspect on Scot's end if it's true. I would like to hear the other side to this story as well... cuz there's always three sides to a story... person A, person B, and the truth. It's still jacked up for a universal ban from the forums which represents all AGI shows.

Comment by shelvon banks on July 7, 2008 at 4:53pm: dude you obviously do not no anything about Scot and as his friend i think that you comparing him to Stalin is a bit much. You are entitled to your opinion, but Scot only bans people for a legit reason, so you must have done something that you are neglecting to mention.

Comment by Stickaxe on July 7, 2008 at 5:00pm: Ok, I see your point. But don't you think that if there was something else I did, he would include that in the reason why I was banned? For example, if you were sent to prison, don't you think you should know the whole truth of why you were there?

Comment by ssj100matt on July 8, 2008 at 12:36am: This is what you wrote in your review:

"This is a GREAT podcast, only if you like the New England Patriots football team. This show claims to be a video game-based show, but half the time they talk about nothing but how great the Patriots are. They do manage to squeeze in talk about pop culture, sexual relations, recent parties, movies, and the problems of the government. They have a hard time focusing on video games, which is what they claim to be all about i might add, but even when they do it all ends up being fanboy wars and lame soundboard jokes.

Also, the main host, Scot Rubin, flat-out refuses to accept the fact that sometimes he can be wrong. He'll bring up stupid points that have no foundation to back up his arguments, and when he finally realizes he's down in a hole and can't get out, he'll make an awful joke about the guy he's arguing about saying 'This guy isn't credible because he's gay/retarded/a hater/a pot smoker. Look, he even is wearing gay clothes/made a mistake in chat/made criticisms about the show/has a deep voice. Don't listen to him!'

So, in the end, take this show as what you will, but it is not a video game show, and it is not good. Peace..."

I can see why Scot would ban you for that (you ask for it in the first to 2 sentences really)... But i do find it odd that he is doing it now and not 2 months ago...

Comment by Demitrius Berkley-Thomas on July 8, 2008 at 1:05am: I think the main problem here is that he used his same itunes name for the forums and chat. Seriously though i do think the universal banning is a little much but it's not my decision. I also think that Stickaxe is confused about what allgames interactive is about. Allgames Interactive isn't just about games and gamers but what gamers are talking about, which imo AGI follows to a tee. Anyway i hope this situation gets resolved with the least amount of drama possible.

Comment by robowski on July 8, 2008 at 12:59pm: hey stickaxe,

this is a community and in any good community you back each other up. Not just the listeners in allgames but the shows also. I'm sure Scot had a reason for what he did and I'll back him up. How could you even consider to write a bad review on itunes! People who don't even know about the community or any of the allgames shows could read your review and completely reject anything to do with allgames. I found out about agi because of itunes. It was completely random and half the new listener I hear calling up say they found out about agi through itunes. I love agi and I can't imagine going through a work week with out it.

I remember my first coach in High school and I will never forget the lesson he taught us when he told us that we needed to look out for each other. We needed to trust each other, why? Because you had people from freshman all the way to seniors and some people disliked each other just because they were young and naive or older and cocky and so on. Don't fight the system, realize what you did and apologize. Scot is a reasonable person, figure something out rather then making the situation worse then it was..

Comment by Detective Rocko on July 8, 2008 at 4:52pm: Robowski, what your basically saying is that because he used a system which allows him to voice his opinion, and because his opinion happened to be negative, he should be punished. Yeah, that makes sense.

Comment by SeymourBewty on July 8, 2008 at 9:08pm: Nobody likes to hear that what they've been putting their energy and money into for the past 4 years sucks. I can see where both sides are coming from on this argument, but still this post and the itunes review were just pure negative, without anything constructive to offset it. To tell you the truth, I'd probably be pissed off too if I read a review like that about something I did.

I guess I kinda take a different viewpoint about this whole thing. When I get bored with the show, or if Scot does something that annoys me (like that shouting match with Jay Bishop yesterday GEEZ! My poor speakers!) I just turn it off, and hope that the next show is better. The show has it's on days and off days, but when it's on, it's really fucking ON and hilarious, so that's why I keep listening.

Anyway, just my two cents. It sucks you got banned, but that's how things usually work around here.