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The Roast of Davideo7

 

08-12-16 07:17 PM
Davideo7 is Online
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Davideo7
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The objective of this thread is to absolutely just beat down Davideo7, destroy his self-esteem and completely destroy him. Don't hold back because who really cares about his feelings, just go all out and hurl as many insults as you possibly can and don't worry about consequences. Also don't forget to remind him over and over again just how much of a loser and failure he is (because ultimately we want to make him as depressed as possible).
The objective of this thread is to absolutely just beat down Davideo7, destroy his self-esteem and completely destroy him. Don't hold back because who really cares about his feelings, just go all out and hurl as many insults as you possibly can and don't worry about consequences. Also don't forget to remind him over and over again just how much of a loser and failure he is (because ultimately we want to make him as depressed as possible).
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(edited by Davideo7 on 08-18-16 01:01 PM)    

08-12-16 11:35 PM
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So, I mean, I don't want to shoot this down, but it would be very helpful if we got a general idea of what your services would cost. Obviously it's not always going to be the exact same, but giving us a baseline of what to expect would help with getting you a referral.
So, I mean, I don't want to shoot this down, but it would be very helpful if we got a general idea of what your services would cost. Obviously it's not always going to be the exact same, but giving us a baseline of what to expect would help with getting you a referral.
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08-13-16 04:03 AM
Davideo7 is Online
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Lord Leggy - King of IT : A lot of people don't share that info until the person requests a quote, some consider it bad practice. Also, it's hard to put an exact price on things so I'll just put down my hourly rate.
Lord Leggy - King of IT : A lot of people don't share that info until the person requests a quote, some consider it bad practice. Also, it's hard to put an exact price on things so I'll just put down my hourly rate.
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08-13-16 04:17 AM
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There's been a relatively large amount of growth in the small town I live in, so if I hear anything about a new store opening, I'll make sure to send them your way if they're interested in having a website built. My parentss know pretty much everyone here. One question, though: how should we tell them to contact you? Email? Phone number? 
There's been a relatively large amount of growth in the small town I live in, so if I hear anything about a new store opening, I'll make sure to send them your way if they're interested in having a website built. My parentss know pretty much everyone here. One question, though: how should we tell them to contact you? Email? Phone number? 
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08-13-16 04:25 AM
Davideo7 is Online
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m0ssb3rg935 : Good question. I'll add my email address to my first post that people can use to contact me. I plan to update my portfolio (it's nearly 10 years old) and I'll simply have people give the URL of my new portfolio out to others.

That'd be great if you did that .
m0ssb3rg935 : Good question. I'll add my email address to my first post that people can use to contact me. I plan to update my portfolio (it's nearly 10 years old) and I'll simply have people give the URL of my new portfolio out to others.

That'd be great if you did that .
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08-13-16 07:48 AM
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I recommend you get your A+ certification. You dont need any schooling for it. just buy a book, study, and they hold test in some sort of facility. 
I recommend you get your A+ certification. You dont need any schooling for it. just buy a book, study, and they hold test in some sort of facility. 
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08-13-16 08:56 AM
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Not sure if you already tried or not, but you may look into freelance work at places like https://www.upwork.com/

Even Craigslist had some interesting gigs.

Just a thought.
Not sure if you already tried or not, but you may look into freelance work at places like https://www.upwork.com/

Even Craigslist had some interesting gigs.

Just a thought.
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08-13-16 09:12 AM
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Upwork has been known to treat freelancers very bad, I recommend Guru.com since they do offer support and it's safer because no one gets the money until the agreement is done.

Fiverr is also good too, a little bit safer than Craigslist because people have found ways to abuse PayPal.
Upwork has been known to treat freelancers very bad, I recommend Guru.com since they do offer support and it's safer because no one gets the money until the agreement is done.

Fiverr is also good too, a little bit safer than Craigslist because people have found ways to abuse PayPal.
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08-13-16 12:19 PM
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I work at a large fitness association in Detroit and we have twelve different buildings plus associated work. I'm buddies with the marketing and art people and I know there are only two dedicated graphic designers and two more dedicated software people.

I don't know what the situation looks like but I'll make some inquiries and see what's going on. I think it would be helpful if you got on that not-too-updated work and make it available just in case.

I'll find out first and then from there I'll let you know if we are in the market for any help. I know the designers complain they're always swamped but that's business everywhere.

I'll ask.
I work at a large fitness association in Detroit and we have twelve different buildings plus associated work. I'm buddies with the marketing and art people and I know there are only two dedicated graphic designers and two more dedicated software people.

I don't know what the situation looks like but I'll make some inquiries and see what's going on. I think it would be helpful if you got on that not-too-updated work and make it available just in case.

I'll find out first and then from there I'll let you know if we are in the market for any help. I know the designers complain they're always swamped but that's business everywhere.

I'll ask.
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08-14-16 04:24 AM
Davideo7 is Online
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Beastmode64 : Unfortunately I wouldn't have nearly enough for that. I honestly can't even afford 3 meals a day at the moment.

Ultimatone : I've considered sites like that and freelancer.com but the problem is, there's a lot of competition and I'd prefer finding work that didn't require me to invest many hours into finding. With sites like those, you have to invest many hours finding jobs, communicating with potential clients and trying to convince them to pick you over others. Plus, it's really hard to compete with coders from India who are willing to work for way less than what I'd be able to live off of. If it comes down to sites like those though then I'll go for it but I'm hoping to find a few clients directly. Thanks for the suggestion though and I'll definitely look into finding clients on that site if it comes down to that.

mastergame : I've been thinking about Fiverr.

Ghostbear1111 : That'd be great. Yeah I really need to put together an updated portfolio. However, I've been working on Vizzed for so many years that it basically consists of my entire portfolio over the past 6+ years so in a sense, the entire site could be viewed as my portfolio.
Beastmode64 : Unfortunately I wouldn't have nearly enough for that. I honestly can't even afford 3 meals a day at the moment.

Ultimatone : I've considered sites like that and freelancer.com but the problem is, there's a lot of competition and I'd prefer finding work that didn't require me to invest many hours into finding. With sites like those, you have to invest many hours finding jobs, communicating with potential clients and trying to convince them to pick you over others. Plus, it's really hard to compete with coders from India who are willing to work for way less than what I'd be able to live off of. If it comes down to sites like those though then I'll go for it but I'm hoping to find a few clients directly. Thanks for the suggestion though and I'll definitely look into finding clients on that site if it comes down to that.

mastergame : I've been thinking about Fiverr.

Ghostbear1111 : That'd be great. Yeah I really need to put together an updated portfolio. However, I've been working on Vizzed for so many years that it basically consists of my entire portfolio over the past 6+ years so in a sense, the entire site could be viewed as my portfolio.
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08-14-16 01:49 PM
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I mean it doesnt cost much. Maybe around 150 at most to be honest. 
I mean it doesnt cost much. Maybe around 150 at most to be honest. 
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08-14-16 03:10 PM
Davideo7 is Online
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Beastmode64 : When I literally have almost no money at all, $150 is way out of reach. I literally have no way to come up with that kind of money. Any money I do get from selling stuff has to go right toward bills, server fees and to feed my kids and I'm not even able to sell enough stuff to afford those things. $150 doesn't seem like much to you but to me with my current situation, $150 looks like $5,000 to me. I appreciate you trying to help me out but I just had to put into perspective just how bad my financial situation is, it's way worst than what everyone knows.
Beastmode64 : When I literally have almost no money at all, $150 is way out of reach. I literally have no way to come up with that kind of money. Any money I do get from selling stuff has to go right toward bills, server fees and to feed my kids and I'm not even able to sell enough stuff to afford those things. $150 doesn't seem like much to you but to me with my current situation, $150 looks like $5,000 to me. I appreciate you trying to help me out but I just had to put into perspective just how bad my financial situation is, it's way worst than what everyone knows.
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(edited by Davideo7 on 08-14-16 03:11 PM)    

08-14-16 04:14 PM
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Beastmode64 :

150 bucks is not a lot to own, but it is a lot to owe.

That is what it means to be an adult, one who has bills, family, and other needed expenses. I'm one of the lucky ones, who has many of my expenses paid for me. But even I can't find 150 dollars to drop on things I could use, all the time.

It's basically a full week's paycheck for me, at this point.
Beastmode64 :

150 bucks is not a lot to own, but it is a lot to owe.

That is what it means to be an adult, one who has bills, family, and other needed expenses. I'm one of the lucky ones, who has many of my expenses paid for me. But even I can't find 150 dollars to drop on things I could use, all the time.

It's basically a full week's paycheck for me, at this point.
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08-15-16 11:15 PM
Lazlo Falconi is Offline
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This is probably going to be one of my most unpopular posts, but I'm sort of used to voicing the unpopular opinion...

You need to put Vizzed away and grow up.

Vizzed is great but it is not and can not be a reliable revenue stream. When you were a teenager and living for yourself, you lived the dream man. And it was awesome. Never forget that. But you're an adult now, and you have children who need you to act like it.

You need more money and you're willing to take on side jobs to get that done. Awesome, great first step, but if you're not willing to put in the hours to compete with others on big sites you're never going to get anywhere. Clients aren't going to just fall into your lap. You need to actually get out and find people. That means spending hours, days looking for them. And yeah, you'll chase a few leads that go nowhere, I've done it, everyone who has ever tried to earn freelance cash has wasted time. That's the nature of the beast, and why so many people charge upwards of one hundred dollars per hour.

If that sounds like it's not going to work for you, I've got bad news: You will never earn a living freelancing. It just won't happen. If that's the case, then you need to get out of your house and get a job.

If you cannot eat three times per day your business is failing. If your business is failing you need to evaluate it--and since your business is built on selling copyrighted material that people could otherwise get for free, you likely have no path forward. I'm sorry man. The dream has to end some time, and when you can't afford to feed yourself and your children, that is the time.
This is probably going to be one of my most unpopular posts, but I'm sort of used to voicing the unpopular opinion...

You need to put Vizzed away and grow up.

Vizzed is great but it is not and can not be a reliable revenue stream. When you were a teenager and living for yourself, you lived the dream man. And it was awesome. Never forget that. But you're an adult now, and you have children who need you to act like it.

You need more money and you're willing to take on side jobs to get that done. Awesome, great first step, but if you're not willing to put in the hours to compete with others on big sites you're never going to get anywhere. Clients aren't going to just fall into your lap. You need to actually get out and find people. That means spending hours, days looking for them. And yeah, you'll chase a few leads that go nowhere, I've done it, everyone who has ever tried to earn freelance cash has wasted time. That's the nature of the beast, and why so many people charge upwards of one hundred dollars per hour.

If that sounds like it's not going to work for you, I've got bad news: You will never earn a living freelancing. It just won't happen. If that's the case, then you need to get out of your house and get a job.

If you cannot eat three times per day your business is failing. If your business is failing you need to evaluate it--and since your business is built on selling copyrighted material that people could otherwise get for free, you likely have no path forward. I'm sorry man. The dream has to end some time, and when you can't afford to feed yourself and your children, that is the time.
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08-15-16 11:32 PM
Davideo7 is Online
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Lazlo Falconi : I do put in the hours necessary to compete with big sites. I usually put in 60+ hours a week and there have been times when I've done 80+ hours a week.

I realize clients aren't going to fall into my lap which is exactly why I made this thread. I figured I'd offer my services to those on the site before I start searching around locally.

I've been in this business long enough to know how it works, longer than you actually. I use to do freelance work many years ago and I also have experience working with big clients with my previous employer.

I'm still kinda confused about some of your jabs at me though. How is running this site not growing up? How am I not acting like an adult? This site use to do very well financially and it's just a matter of getting it to that point again, even if it means expanding the site in non-RGR directions.
Lazlo Falconi : I do put in the hours necessary to compete with big sites. I usually put in 60+ hours a week and there have been times when I've done 80+ hours a week.

I realize clients aren't going to fall into my lap which is exactly why I made this thread. I figured I'd offer my services to those on the site before I start searching around locally.

I've been in this business long enough to know how it works, longer than you actually. I use to do freelance work many years ago and I also have experience working with big clients with my previous employer.

I'm still kinda confused about some of your jabs at me though. How is running this site not growing up? How am I not acting like an adult? This site use to do very well financially and it's just a matter of getting it to that point again, even if it means expanding the site in non-RGR directions.
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08-16-16 01:33 AM
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What exactly are your plans to make this site do well financially? And of those plans, what are you not currently doing? What, in your opinion, is the reason that the site isn't doing as well as it used to? You said $150 is like $5,000 to you, at what point do you think you'll believe that making this site a viable financial option isn't worth it anymore? Other than posting this thread, what other efforts have you put into finding work? To what extent are you currently employed? Who was your previous employer, what was your exact role, and why are you no longer with them (may be related to the previous question, answer for your current employer as well if you have one)? Why does your portfolio page talk more about the kind of shirts that you buy than about the work that you did for your previous employers? If you were looking to hire someone for a freelance job, why would you hire yourself?
What exactly are your plans to make this site do well financially? And of those plans, what are you not currently doing? What, in your opinion, is the reason that the site isn't doing as well as it used to? You said $150 is like $5,000 to you, at what point do you think you'll believe that making this site a viable financial option isn't worth it anymore? Other than posting this thread, what other efforts have you put into finding work? To what extent are you currently employed? Who was your previous employer, what was your exact role, and why are you no longer with them (may be related to the previous question, answer for your current employer as well if you have one)? Why does your portfolio page talk more about the kind of shirts that you buy than about the work that you did for your previous employers? If you were looking to hire someone for a freelance job, why would you hire yourself?
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08-16-16 03:13 AM
Davideo7 is Online
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soxfan849 : A lot of questions and a lot of good ones. I'll try and be brief though since I had some work left to do before heading to sleep.


I've got a lot of plans to make this site do better financially but it'd take quite a while to go over every single one of them since I've literally got 100s of ideas for this site but it's just a matter of prioritizing and finding time for each of them but I'll go over some of the big ones that I plan to do soon (or am currently doing).

1. Send out newsletter to bring back some old members. I haven't sent out a newsletter in over a year and this newsletter will have more updates in it compared to previous newsletters. Plus, users are currently working with me to try and make sure the newsletters don't get filtered like they have in the past.

2. I've been working on a new donations page which will offer users more ways to donate beyond just PayPal. Countless users have told me that they'd donate if I offered additional methods.

3. Ad adjustments. I've been moving ads around on pages so that they earn more and I've also been adding an additional ad to some pages. I'm not quite done with this but it's already started to make a difference.

4. Increasing the value of Viz. I've done a lot over the past few months to increase the value of Viz and I still have more plans to increase it even more. The reason that this is part of my plans is because giving Viz more value means more users are going to want to earn it which results into more content being submitted to the site and more content means higher search engine ranking which ultimately means more traffic.

5. Expanding the site. I've been working on expanding the site beyond the RGR over the past year or so and I have lots of plans to continue this.

6. Target an older audience with the RGR. For the longest time, I've been targeting a younger audience with all of the Pokemon games and Mario games but now that those are removed, targeting a older crowd will help fill in the traffic gap that the removed games left behind. The older gamers care less about Pokemon and more about the games they grew up playing and the site still has all of those (except of course a few 1st party Nintendo games).

7. Patreon. A lot of users have been suggesting it and I'm finally getting close to taking the initiative of setting one up. If I offered enough benefits on Patreon, I think the additional income would help out a lot. Things I'd offer would include a custom username color for high patrons, letting the patrons have more say in what projects I prioritize, prioritizing messages received from patrons, exclusive privelages and features, etc. Of course those benefits would end as soon as they discontinue their monthly funding.

8. Implementing new features. Like I said previously, I've got a lot of ideas for features which I think will drive in new traffic and I've also got a lot of ideas for improvements over the current features which will do the same.


Promoting and advertising this site is the one thing that I'm not currently doing. It takes time and money to advertise and promote and SEO can be a nightmare but they are things that I need to invest more time into again. Years ago I invested a lot of time into these things.


The biggest reason I think for the decline of the site's traffic is that there are too many competitor sites now. When the Retro Game Room really took off, the site had very little competition but now there's way too many copy cat sites.


I'll never ditch this site, the very worst thing I would do is possibly ditch the RGR but this community means too much to me and I know it means a lot to many others. Even if I have to get a 2nd job, I'll always have the drive to get this site back to where it use to be.


I haven't put any other effort into finding work yet. I've been finalizing some stuff on the site that I had planned on finishing before I really dive into finding work. Vizzed is my only income at the moment (besides selling stuff on ebay which doesn't really count).


My last employer was a computer company in a nearby town called StarTech and I was their web designer. It was about 8 years ago when they layed me off when the economy wasn't that great and they weren't doing that great financially. They eventually hired me back part time but by that time Vizzed was doing well enough financially that I didn't need to continue working there so I ended up quitting.


My portfolio is actually really old (around 10+ years old). It was basically the final project I did in college in my last class. So yeah, the stuff on there is outdated and I probably should get around to making a new one.


I would hire myself because I view myself a jack of all trades. I've done and can do Search Engine Optimization, I can work on servers, I can do graphic design, I can do programming, I can do database work, I can pretty much do everything required to make an entire website (which should be obvious based on Vizzed).


I didn't mean to invest that much time into a response but I guess I wanted to show just how committed I am to this site and the users who use it. I've had a lot of people doubt me over the years, even friends and family members which even includes my Dad. I've had a lot of people tell me that this site wouldn't go anywhere and that it was a waste of time. Funny thing is, I've even had a lot of users tell me that this site was no longer relevant and that everyone has moved on and lost interest and these users said that literally 10+ years ago when the site only had less than 1000 users so looking at the current user count (576,792 users), I clearly proved them wrong. This site has struggled in the past but I've been able to pull it through various obstacles.
soxfan849 : A lot of questions and a lot of good ones. I'll try and be brief though since I had some work left to do before heading to sleep.


I've got a lot of plans to make this site do better financially but it'd take quite a while to go over every single one of them since I've literally got 100s of ideas for this site but it's just a matter of prioritizing and finding time for each of them but I'll go over some of the big ones that I plan to do soon (or am currently doing).

1. Send out newsletter to bring back some old members. I haven't sent out a newsletter in over a year and this newsletter will have more updates in it compared to previous newsletters. Plus, users are currently working with me to try and make sure the newsletters don't get filtered like they have in the past.

2. I've been working on a new donations page which will offer users more ways to donate beyond just PayPal. Countless users have told me that they'd donate if I offered additional methods.

3. Ad adjustments. I've been moving ads around on pages so that they earn more and I've also been adding an additional ad to some pages. I'm not quite done with this but it's already started to make a difference.

4. Increasing the value of Viz. I've done a lot over the past few months to increase the value of Viz and I still have more plans to increase it even more. The reason that this is part of my plans is because giving Viz more value means more users are going to want to earn it which results into more content being submitted to the site and more content means higher search engine ranking which ultimately means more traffic.

5. Expanding the site. I've been working on expanding the site beyond the RGR over the past year or so and I have lots of plans to continue this.

6. Target an older audience with the RGR. For the longest time, I've been targeting a younger audience with all of the Pokemon games and Mario games but now that those are removed, targeting a older crowd will help fill in the traffic gap that the removed games left behind. The older gamers care less about Pokemon and more about the games they grew up playing and the site still has all of those (except of course a few 1st party Nintendo games).

7. Patreon. A lot of users have been suggesting it and I'm finally getting close to taking the initiative of setting one up. If I offered enough benefits on Patreon, I think the additional income would help out a lot. Things I'd offer would include a custom username color for high patrons, letting the patrons have more say in what projects I prioritize, prioritizing messages received from patrons, exclusive privelages and features, etc. Of course those benefits would end as soon as they discontinue their monthly funding.

8. Implementing new features. Like I said previously, I've got a lot of ideas for features which I think will drive in new traffic and I've also got a lot of ideas for improvements over the current features which will do the same.


Promoting and advertising this site is the one thing that I'm not currently doing. It takes time and money to advertise and promote and SEO can be a nightmare but they are things that I need to invest more time into again. Years ago I invested a lot of time into these things.


The biggest reason I think for the decline of the site's traffic is that there are too many competitor sites now. When the Retro Game Room really took off, the site had very little competition but now there's way too many copy cat sites.


I'll never ditch this site, the very worst thing I would do is possibly ditch the RGR but this community means too much to me and I know it means a lot to many others. Even if I have to get a 2nd job, I'll always have the drive to get this site back to where it use to be.


I haven't put any other effort into finding work yet. I've been finalizing some stuff on the site that I had planned on finishing before I really dive into finding work. Vizzed is my only income at the moment (besides selling stuff on ebay which doesn't really count).


My last employer was a computer company in a nearby town called StarTech and I was their web designer. It was about 8 years ago when they layed me off when the economy wasn't that great and they weren't doing that great financially. They eventually hired me back part time but by that time Vizzed was doing well enough financially that I didn't need to continue working there so I ended up quitting.


My portfolio is actually really old (around 10+ years old). It was basically the final project I did in college in my last class. So yeah, the stuff on there is outdated and I probably should get around to making a new one.


I would hire myself because I view myself a jack of all trades. I've done and can do Search Engine Optimization, I can work on servers, I can do graphic design, I can do programming, I can do database work, I can pretty much do everything required to make an entire website (which should be obvious based on Vizzed).


I didn't mean to invest that much time into a response but I guess I wanted to show just how committed I am to this site and the users who use it. I've had a lot of people doubt me over the years, even friends and family members which even includes my Dad. I've had a lot of people tell me that this site wouldn't go anywhere and that it was a waste of time. Funny thing is, I've even had a lot of users tell me that this site was no longer relevant and that everyone has moved on and lost interest and these users said that literally 10+ years ago when the site only had less than 1000 users so looking at the current user count (576,792 users), I clearly proved them wrong. This site has struggled in the past but I've been able to pull it through various obstacles.
The Owner
Owner, Developer, Advertiser, etc
Founder, Mod, Investor


Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'

Registered: 12-06-04
Location: Wisconsin
Last Post: 55 days
Last Active: 54 sec.

08-16-16 10:36 PM
Lazlo Falconi is Offline
| ID: 1295982 | 2401 Words

Lazlo Falconi
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David man... I'm not talking about spending more time on Vizzed. It's great that you are devoted enough to spend 60 hours a week on the site, but you've got to take this more seriously. Time spent is not a measure of success, the only measure of success is cash in hand, and you clearly don't have it. Your business is failing, and just spending time here is not helping.

This is going to get hurtful, and for that, I am sorry, but it needs to be said. You spend sixty to eighty hours each week here... Doing what? I've got to be honest, man, it doesn't show. I don't see it, and very clearly you don't see a return on that time. So I've got to ask, what are you doing? Replying to notifications all day and running contests does not at this point constitute working on the site. You've been doing that and the site is still failing.

So let me address your points more in depth.

A: You wanted to offer your services on this site before searching locally. Great. So far, so good. What do you intend to do to get your name out in the community? You've been running Vizzed for over a decade, which means you haven't been taking outside clients in as long. Trends have changed. No websites look like this anymore, because nobody wants a website that looks like this. I know, I know, you're a designer, and you can take things in a million different ways, but think of what a potential client is going to do. If anyone finds your name (Again, how do you plan to get to that point?), they'll look at your portfolio which is, I'm sorry to say, lacking. It's stale, Maybe fifteen years ago, if you didn't have kids you could have landed a job with that, but it looks like you've been sitting on your hands since 2007.

Let's think about this. As a client, why should I invest in you to make my business more successful when yours is failing? Why should I invest in you to update my web presence when yours looks like it came out of the nineties? Again, please do not be offended, I like the Acmlm look, but it is not good from a business standpoint.

And this segues quite nicely into my next point.

B: Why should you listen to me? You've been doing this longer than I have. Very, very true. In fact, I'm not in that business, so you've definitely been in it longer than I have. But let's look at this: If you know what works and I don't, why do I own a house? Why am I not begging teenagers to give me jobs? I have steady, multiple income streams. Yeah, it's not a glamourous as owning a web-forum, but I eat three times a day, and don't ask for handouts.

C: So that's how running this site is not growing up. You are trying to save a business that you started when you were a teenager. You did great for a while, but you can't work to impress people anymore. You need to work to feed your children. We all want to be our own boss, but honestly, making sure my children have dinner and can go to college, and won't need to pay for my when I'm to old to work is far more important that my personal goals. That's what I mean by growing up. And they're not jabs at you. I am not trying to insult you in any way, I am just being honest with you, as one father to another.

--------------

I would also like to take the time to reply to your last post. Again, I mean no insult, but self-reflection is the only way to move forward. Please do not get offended, and try to be critical of yourself.

I honestly don't know how you can have hundreds of new ideas, and spend sixty hours per week, and not implement one of them. This again goes back to my early point, just what are you doing? At eight hours per day--and I mean eight hours of honest work, the VGR should have taken you a week at most. Actually less because you already had the existing Vizzed architecture. Since it's cleary just the RGR again, it really should have been a day project to port the code over to the new location. Maybe it would take more time to upload all of the information, but since you farm that out to your users, I honestly don't understand what the hold up was. So let's move on to your more specific points.

1: A newsletter is your big plan? David, I'm sorry but that is not going to bring people back. The very first one you send out might bring a few people who have completely forgotten about this place back for the nostalgia high, but most will go unread, and you're going to notice many diminishing returns on that. And in any case, if you really think this will help, you should have done this as soon as you noticed funds dipping, but dude. People are just going to unsubscribe from the newsletter--or worse, mark you as spam because they never signed up in the first place, completely negating all the "work" you've been doing in getting vizzed.com unblocked! I'm sorry if this sounds negative but I've actually done research in marketing, and newsletters... Newsletters are not what you need.

Now, that said, to anyone else I would say try it because it doesn't cost much. But to anyone else, the newsletter would be a simple project they spend a slow afternoon on. Not a weeks long ordeal perfecting your anti-spam campaign. You're wasting far too much time and driving down your worth. When you own a business, if you aren't making money, you're losing money. Vizzed costs too much to worry about people's inboxes.

2: Donations are great, but how are you going to retire on them? I know you've received some amazing donations in the past, but that is not a sustainable business model. I would highly suggest revamping this page, but this shouldnt' be something that's "in progress". It takes fifteen minutes to open a patreon page. Gofundme even less. Google Checkout, Square, whatever. It is not an all-day affair, so again, what's the hold up? If you're working on this why isn't it already done between the time you posted that and now?

3: How much time have you sunk into that? And how much extra revenue has it generated? If the answer is less than at least $30 per hour spent, then you've been wasting time. Someone with your length of experience should be earning much more than that in industry. This actually made me curious. So you live within driving distance of Minneapolis (And don't you dare tell me you don't like driving, that's an excuse to not find a job, I don't like driving either but I do it because I'm an adult.) According to Glassdoor, an entry level developer in Minneapolis should be making $34/hour. So if you're making less than thirty four dollars for every hour you spend on Vizzed--and I mean take home pay--you are failing yourself and your family.

4: This is the first thing that could potentially make Vizzed viable, but I don't think you'll be able to bring enough value to Viz to make earning it worth anything. Buying steam games and real products with it is kind of a great idea, but a back-of-the-napkin calculation shows that games are far too cheap. If a game costs $20 to buy on Steam, then the Viz price should earn you at least $40 in ad revenue. That's a very hard thing to calculate, and I'm not sure you've done the proper calculations on it. Seriously. People get paid upwards of $100k per year just to figure this kind of stuff out.

5: Expanding the site doesn't mean anything. What do you plan to do to monetize your existing assets? How do you intend to make money from the new work you plan on doing? When you own a business, before spending any time or money you need to think, "How will this help Vizzed succeed?" And as a father, before every single [color=red]thing you do, you need to ask yourself, "How does this help my children?" If you cannot answer the first question with a specific dollar value, stop and reevaluate. If you have no answer for the second question, do not do that thing.

6: And what will you do when you get take down notices for those games? Remember, you are operating outside the law, and you don't have a legal leg to stand on. Nintendo pulled the rug out from under you with their take down notice, don't let someone else do it to you. You need another source of revenue, plain and simple.

7: YOU'RE GETTING CLOSE TO TAKING THE INITIATIVE?! No! You should have done this years ago! Like I said before, this should take less than fifteen minutes. Your rewards are fine but please remember, most people make less than $100 per month on Patreon. And also remember that for every thing you do, you need to be making more than $34 per each hour spent to ensure your time is invested wisely. None of your rewards look like they'll take that long to implement but you mentioned a custom username and stopping benefits when someone discontinues paying--so are you going to constantly monitor this? If that's the case you're throwing time away. Are you going to script it? Do you beleive you'll make enough money through patreon to cover $34 per hour of learning the API? Just be careful with that, don't let it consume you.

8: Again, how much time will you spend on those ideas, and how much money will you earn back?

Promoting and advertising: nah. Sometimes you need to spend money to make money, but first you have to have a way to make money. Ads on a site serving illegal content is not the way to make money.

[quote]SEO can be a nightmare[/quote]

False. Canonical links (This should be easy for someone with as much experience as you), valid HTML so spiders can crawl the site effectively (Again, should be easy), and more prioritization of content. This is why QualityRoms had userbars on the right, so spiders would see the post before the user. This is beginner stuff, man. You've got to get with it. At QualityRoms' height I spent maybe six hours a week on it, and in a matter of three months got it to over three hundred visitors per month, with only some twelve ROMs available. And even that was not enough of a return-on-investment for me to continue, mostly because I didn't want to operate in illegal goods.

The biggest reason for the decline: Again, wrong. The biggest reason for the decline is that your business model has become obsolete, and you've lost your biggest draws. It's fine that there are copycat sites now (I mean, no there aren't, ROM sites have been around since long before Vizzed started) but if that's a problem, then you need a new revenue stream.

[quote]
I'll never ditch this site, the very worst thing I would do is possibly ditch the RGR but this community means too much to me and I know it means a lot to many others. Even if I have to get a 2nd job, I'll always have the drive to get this site back to where it use to be. [/quote]

This is what I've been saying the whole time. You need to get a second job. If Vizzed isn't paying the bills, and you can't find a way to make it do so, then it's time to move on. But you can't look at it as a second job, it needs to be your priority. Vizzed can be your hobby again. And if you ever think of something that allows you to make money from Vizzed again the way that you used to, then come back and do that. But think of your children before you think of this site. They need stable income. I know you haven't put effort into finding income outside of Vizzed, but you really need to. And you need to prioritize that over Vizzed. You can't keep this site going if you can't afford to keep the lights on.

[quote]I would hire myself because I view myself a jack of all trades. I've done and can do Search Engine Optimization, I can work on servers, I can do graphic design, I can do programming, I can do database work, I can pretty much do everything required to make an entire website (which should be obvious based on Vizzed). [/quote]

You might, but I certainly wouldn't, and I make those decisions for my company. Your whole biography talks about how you were too lazy to do well in school, this whole post has been you talking about things you think you should do but haven't yet because... "Iunno". Every one of your projects in your portfolio lists the time spent making it and it's all twice if not three times what an expert can do it in. Yeah, you're a jack of all trades, and a master of none.

Look at it this way, WorthOfTheWeb says that Vizzed could be sold for almost half a million dollars. It should be earning $12,000 per month. And yet it's not. Why? It's great that you would never sell Vizzed, but you're clearly not marketing it properly.

You've spent a great deal of time in this thread justifying your actions to myself and to Sox, telling us how commited you are to your site and its community. Great. You really have done something amazing. You built a self-sustaining web site, and even made some money off of it. You have succeeded. But now you can't eat three times per day. But at the end of the day, you don't need to convince me, or Sox, or your dad that you've done a good job. You just need to put a roof over your childrens heads. And that roof shouldn't be your mother-in-laws floor.

David man... I'm not talking about spending more time on Vizzed. It's great that you are devoted enough to spend 60 hours a week on the site, but you've got to take this more seriously. Time spent is not a measure of success, the only measure of success is cash in hand, and you clearly don't have it. Your business is failing, and just spending time here is not helping.

This is going to get hurtful, and for that, I am sorry, but it needs to be said. You spend sixty to eighty hours each week here... Doing what? I've got to be honest, man, it doesn't show. I don't see it, and very clearly you don't see a return on that time. So I've got to ask, what are you doing? Replying to notifications all day and running contests does not at this point constitute working on the site. You've been doing that and the site is still failing.

So let me address your points more in depth.

A: You wanted to offer your services on this site before searching locally. Great. So far, so good. What do you intend to do to get your name out in the community? You've been running Vizzed for over a decade, which means you haven't been taking outside clients in as long. Trends have changed. No websites look like this anymore, because nobody wants a website that looks like this. I know, I know, you're a designer, and you can take things in a million different ways, but think of what a potential client is going to do. If anyone finds your name (Again, how do you plan to get to that point?), they'll look at your portfolio which is, I'm sorry to say, lacking. It's stale, Maybe fifteen years ago, if you didn't have kids you could have landed a job with that, but it looks like you've been sitting on your hands since 2007.

Let's think about this. As a client, why should I invest in you to make my business more successful when yours is failing? Why should I invest in you to update my web presence when yours looks like it came out of the nineties? Again, please do not be offended, I like the Acmlm look, but it is not good from a business standpoint.

And this segues quite nicely into my next point.

B: Why should you listen to me? You've been doing this longer than I have. Very, very true. In fact, I'm not in that business, so you've definitely been in it longer than I have. But let's look at this: If you know what works and I don't, why do I own a house? Why am I not begging teenagers to give me jobs? I have steady, multiple income streams. Yeah, it's not a glamourous as owning a web-forum, but I eat three times a day, and don't ask for handouts.

C: So that's how running this site is not growing up. You are trying to save a business that you started when you were a teenager. You did great for a while, but you can't work to impress people anymore. You need to work to feed your children. We all want to be our own boss, but honestly, making sure my children have dinner and can go to college, and won't need to pay for my when I'm to old to work is far more important that my personal goals. That's what I mean by growing up. And they're not jabs at you. I am not trying to insult you in any way, I am just being honest with you, as one father to another.

--------------

I would also like to take the time to reply to your last post. Again, I mean no insult, but self-reflection is the only way to move forward. Please do not get offended, and try to be critical of yourself.

I honestly don't know how you can have hundreds of new ideas, and spend sixty hours per week, and not implement one of them. This again goes back to my early point, just what are you doing? At eight hours per day--and I mean eight hours of honest work, the VGR should have taken you a week at most. Actually less because you already had the existing Vizzed architecture. Since it's cleary just the RGR again, it really should have been a day project to port the code over to the new location. Maybe it would take more time to upload all of the information, but since you farm that out to your users, I honestly don't understand what the hold up was. So let's move on to your more specific points.

1: A newsletter is your big plan? David, I'm sorry but that is not going to bring people back. The very first one you send out might bring a few people who have completely forgotten about this place back for the nostalgia high, but most will go unread, and you're going to notice many diminishing returns on that. And in any case, if you really think this will help, you should have done this as soon as you noticed funds dipping, but dude. People are just going to unsubscribe from the newsletter--or worse, mark you as spam because they never signed up in the first place, completely negating all the "work" you've been doing in getting vizzed.com unblocked! I'm sorry if this sounds negative but I've actually done research in marketing, and newsletters... Newsletters are not what you need.

Now, that said, to anyone else I would say try it because it doesn't cost much. But to anyone else, the newsletter would be a simple project they spend a slow afternoon on. Not a weeks long ordeal perfecting your anti-spam campaign. You're wasting far too much time and driving down your worth. When you own a business, if you aren't making money, you're losing money. Vizzed costs too much to worry about people's inboxes.

2: Donations are great, but how are you going to retire on them? I know you've received some amazing donations in the past, but that is not a sustainable business model. I would highly suggest revamping this page, but this shouldnt' be something that's "in progress". It takes fifteen minutes to open a patreon page. Gofundme even less. Google Checkout, Square, whatever. It is not an all-day affair, so again, what's the hold up? If you're working on this why isn't it already done between the time you posted that and now?

3: How much time have you sunk into that? And how much extra revenue has it generated? If the answer is less than at least $30 per hour spent, then you've been wasting time. Someone with your length of experience should be earning much more than that in industry. This actually made me curious. So you live within driving distance of Minneapolis (And don't you dare tell me you don't like driving, that's an excuse to not find a job, I don't like driving either but I do it because I'm an adult.) According to Glassdoor, an entry level developer in Minneapolis should be making $34/hour. So if you're making less than thirty four dollars for every hour you spend on Vizzed--and I mean take home pay--you are failing yourself and your family.

4: This is the first thing that could potentially make Vizzed viable, but I don't think you'll be able to bring enough value to Viz to make earning it worth anything. Buying steam games and real products with it is kind of a great idea, but a back-of-the-napkin calculation shows that games are far too cheap. If a game costs $20 to buy on Steam, then the Viz price should earn you at least $40 in ad revenue. That's a very hard thing to calculate, and I'm not sure you've done the proper calculations on it. Seriously. People get paid upwards of $100k per year just to figure this kind of stuff out.

5: Expanding the site doesn't mean anything. What do you plan to do to monetize your existing assets? How do you intend to make money from the new work you plan on doing? When you own a business, before spending any time or money you need to think, "How will this help Vizzed succeed?" And as a father, before every single [color=red]thing you do, you need to ask yourself, "How does this help my children?" If you cannot answer the first question with a specific dollar value, stop and reevaluate. If you have no answer for the second question, do not do that thing.

6: And what will you do when you get take down notices for those games? Remember, you are operating outside the law, and you don't have a legal leg to stand on. Nintendo pulled the rug out from under you with their take down notice, don't let someone else do it to you. You need another source of revenue, plain and simple.

7: YOU'RE GETTING CLOSE TO TAKING THE INITIATIVE?! No! You should have done this years ago! Like I said before, this should take less than fifteen minutes. Your rewards are fine but please remember, most people make less than $100 per month on Patreon. And also remember that for every thing you do, you need to be making more than $34 per each hour spent to ensure your time is invested wisely. None of your rewards look like they'll take that long to implement but you mentioned a custom username and stopping benefits when someone discontinues paying--so are you going to constantly monitor this? If that's the case you're throwing time away. Are you going to script it? Do you beleive you'll make enough money through patreon to cover $34 per hour of learning the API? Just be careful with that, don't let it consume you.

8: Again, how much time will you spend on those ideas, and how much money will you earn back?

Promoting and advertising: nah. Sometimes you need to spend money to make money, but first you have to have a way to make money. Ads on a site serving illegal content is not the way to make money.

[quote]SEO can be a nightmare[/quote]

False. Canonical links (This should be easy for someone with as much experience as you), valid HTML so spiders can crawl the site effectively (Again, should be easy), and more prioritization of content. This is why QualityRoms had userbars on the right, so spiders would see the post before the user. This is beginner stuff, man. You've got to get with it. At QualityRoms' height I spent maybe six hours a week on it, and in a matter of three months got it to over three hundred visitors per month, with only some twelve ROMs available. And even that was not enough of a return-on-investment for me to continue, mostly because I didn't want to operate in illegal goods.

The biggest reason for the decline: Again, wrong. The biggest reason for the decline is that your business model has become obsolete, and you've lost your biggest draws. It's fine that there are copycat sites now (I mean, no there aren't, ROM sites have been around since long before Vizzed started) but if that's a problem, then you need a new revenue stream.

[quote]
I'll never ditch this site, the very worst thing I would do is possibly ditch the RGR but this community means too much to me and I know it means a lot to many others. Even if I have to get a 2nd job, I'll always have the drive to get this site back to where it use to be. [/quote]

This is what I've been saying the whole time. You need to get a second job. If Vizzed isn't paying the bills, and you can't find a way to make it do so, then it's time to move on. But you can't look at it as a second job, it needs to be your priority. Vizzed can be your hobby again. And if you ever think of something that allows you to make money from Vizzed again the way that you used to, then come back and do that. But think of your children before you think of this site. They need stable income. I know you haven't put effort into finding income outside of Vizzed, but you really need to. And you need to prioritize that over Vizzed. You can't keep this site going if you can't afford to keep the lights on.

[quote]I would hire myself because I view myself a jack of all trades. I've done and can do Search Engine Optimization, I can work on servers, I can do graphic design, I can do programming, I can do database work, I can pretty much do everything required to make an entire website (which should be obvious based on Vizzed). [/quote]

You might, but I certainly wouldn't, and I make those decisions for my company. Your whole biography talks about how you were too lazy to do well in school, this whole post has been you talking about things you think you should do but haven't yet because... "Iunno". Every one of your projects in your portfolio lists the time spent making it and it's all twice if not three times what an expert can do it in. Yeah, you're a jack of all trades, and a master of none.

Look at it this way, WorthOfTheWeb says that Vizzed could be sold for almost half a million dollars. It should be earning $12,000 per month. And yet it's not. Why? It's great that you would never sell Vizzed, but you're clearly not marketing it properly.

You've spent a great deal of time in this thread justifying your actions to myself and to Sox, telling us how commited you are to your site and its community. Great. You really have done something amazing. You built a self-sustaining web site, and even made some money off of it. You have succeeded. But now you can't eat three times per day. But at the end of the day, you don't need to convince me, or Sox, or your dad that you've done a good job. You just need to put a roof over your childrens heads. And that roof shouldn't be your mother-in-laws floor.

Vizzed Elite
The Shake Zula


Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'

Registered: 01-07-12
Location: Cartoon Hell
Last Post: 1381 days
Last Active: 1256 days

Post Rating: 2   Liked By: earthwarrior, legacyme3, Sword Legion,

08-16-16 11:14 PM
legacyme3 is Offline
| ID: 1295988 | 244 Words

legacyme3
Lord Leggy - King of IT
Level: 268


POSTS: 25294/27250
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VIZ: 2982476

Likes: 1  Dislikes: 1
This is beginning to feel like an intervention. And honestly, I think it was needed.

You might hate it, David, but I implore you. Please, heed Lazlo Falconi's comments. He raises a lot of points that I think need to be considered very deeply.

It's not enough to say "Yeah, I'll definitely keep it under consideration, thanks." You actively need to take steps to do what he says.

I'm not a father. That whole dimension of it didn't really click with me until he brought it up. Vizzed has to be secondary. Providing for your family has to be first and foremost. I'm chasing lofty dreams too, I want to be a physical therapist, and be my own boss, but to get there, sacrifices need to be made.

Those sacrifices CANNOT be your children and family. The thing that makes the most sense for you is to sacrifice Vizzed a little bit. Not totally leave it. But instead of spending 60 hours a week, spend 20, and use the other 40 to get a full time job that will provide for your family.

Worst case, Vizzed spirals a little bit, but you clearly love it. You've stuck with it, through highs and lows. And that's what gives me confidence that if it goes down, it won't be out. You've grown it from nothing, basically twice.

Even in that worst case, it's not game-over. It's merely a strategic withdrawal for the benefit of your family.
This is beginning to feel like an intervention. And honestly, I think it was needed.

You might hate it, David, but I implore you. Please, heed Lazlo Falconi's comments. He raises a lot of points that I think need to be considered very deeply.

It's not enough to say "Yeah, I'll definitely keep it under consideration, thanks." You actively need to take steps to do what he says.

I'm not a father. That whole dimension of it didn't really click with me until he brought it up. Vizzed has to be secondary. Providing for your family has to be first and foremost. I'm chasing lofty dreams too, I want to be a physical therapist, and be my own boss, but to get there, sacrifices need to be made.

Those sacrifices CANNOT be your children and family. The thing that makes the most sense for you is to sacrifice Vizzed a little bit. Not totally leave it. But instead of spending 60 hours a week, spend 20, and use the other 40 to get a full time job that will provide for your family.

Worst case, Vizzed spirals a little bit, but you clearly love it. You've stuck with it, through highs and lows. And that's what gives me confidence that if it goes down, it won't be out. You've grown it from nothing, basically twice.

Even in that worst case, it's not game-over. It's merely a strategic withdrawal for the benefit of your family.
Vizzed Elite
6-Time VCS Winner

One Leggy.
One Love.
One Dream.


Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'

Registered: 09-14-10
Location: https://discord.gg/YCuUJz9
Last Post: 1291 days
Last Active: 1291 days

Post Rating: 0   Liked By: soxfan849,

08-16-16 11:29 PM
legacyme3 is Offline
| ID: 1295993 | 475 Words

legacyme3
Lord Leggy - King of IT
Level: 268


POSTS: 25295/27250
POST EXP: 2003421
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Likes: 3  Dislikes: 0
I have one more post to add to all of this, and I'm only posting this as a personal favor to you, David, one that it hurts a lot to bring up publicly.

I come from a poor family. My step-dad was a lot like you. He was always trying to make his dreams reality. I admired that about him, I did, but at the end of the day, it forced my mom to have to work twice as hard to support all of us.

For a long time, we lived in my step-dad's mom's basement. All while he was chasing his dream. It hurt.

It stunted my growth as a human being, I felt trapped. It made me more bitter, more jaded. It turned me into a very harsh cynic with a very harsh world view. I lost my faith in God. I lost faith in my step-dad. I lost faith in a lot of things. I became suicidal. My life was a living hell for those few years. It killed any aspirations and dreams I had. It killed my drive, my motivation. It made me lose a lot of who I was as a person, things I'm only now getting back, things that I haven't known for a decade.

All the while, the thought "My dad is a deadbeat. He seems so smart, and he's failing to provide for us, so what hope is there for me?"

I looked up to him. I didn't see him as a hero, to begin with, but this is where I began to resent him. Everyone else had fathers that seemed to know what they were doing. Mine was completely lost, devoting time to dreams he couldn't quite nail down. Maybe he's successful now, maybe he isn't. I haven't spoken to him in five years. My mom divorced him. We escaped to a life where we could all be happy.

I'm now living 3,000 miles away, chasing my own dreams. My brother is a manager in retail. My sister is going to college in Florida, 1,500 miles away. We're trying our best to become self-made people in spite of our upbringing.

Please. Do not let your kids grow up like what we had to do. Maybe they will understand. Maybe they will even forgive you. But I know full well what I missed out on. I am aware of how I was robbed in my childhood, because my father wasn't willing to make sacrifices.

I know full well how NOT to be a father, because of him, if I ever do have kids.

I don't want your kids to have the same issues I had.

I didn't even think about how this was a possibility until now. And I apologize for perhaps hurting you. But I know that this is something that only I can really say
I have one more post to add to all of this, and I'm only posting this as a personal favor to you, David, one that it hurts a lot to bring up publicly.

I come from a poor family. My step-dad was a lot like you. He was always trying to make his dreams reality. I admired that about him, I did, but at the end of the day, it forced my mom to have to work twice as hard to support all of us.

For a long time, we lived in my step-dad's mom's basement. All while he was chasing his dream. It hurt.

It stunted my growth as a human being, I felt trapped. It made me more bitter, more jaded. It turned me into a very harsh cynic with a very harsh world view. I lost my faith in God. I lost faith in my step-dad. I lost faith in a lot of things. I became suicidal. My life was a living hell for those few years. It killed any aspirations and dreams I had. It killed my drive, my motivation. It made me lose a lot of who I was as a person, things I'm only now getting back, things that I haven't known for a decade.

All the while, the thought "My dad is a deadbeat. He seems so smart, and he's failing to provide for us, so what hope is there for me?"

I looked up to him. I didn't see him as a hero, to begin with, but this is where I began to resent him. Everyone else had fathers that seemed to know what they were doing. Mine was completely lost, devoting time to dreams he couldn't quite nail down. Maybe he's successful now, maybe he isn't. I haven't spoken to him in five years. My mom divorced him. We escaped to a life where we could all be happy.

I'm now living 3,000 miles away, chasing my own dreams. My brother is a manager in retail. My sister is going to college in Florida, 1,500 miles away. We're trying our best to become self-made people in spite of our upbringing.

Please. Do not let your kids grow up like what we had to do. Maybe they will understand. Maybe they will even forgive you. But I know full well what I missed out on. I am aware of how I was robbed in my childhood, because my father wasn't willing to make sacrifices.

I know full well how NOT to be a father, because of him, if I ever do have kids.

I don't want your kids to have the same issues I had.

I didn't even think about how this was a possibility until now. And I apologize for perhaps hurting you. But I know that this is something that only I can really say
Vizzed Elite
6-Time VCS Winner

One Leggy.
One Love.
One Dream.


Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'

Registered: 09-14-10
Location: https://discord.gg/YCuUJz9
Last Post: 1291 days
Last Active: 1291 days

Post Rating: 3   Liked By: earthwarrior, soxfan849, Uzar,

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