Davideo7 : Are you happy?

Is life making you happy right now?

If you're not happy, we have to fix that

Any ways we could make you more happy?

I'm sure we've all seen the stress you've been put through with all the updates to the RGR plugin and all the problems it has had, but we really do appreciate all of your hard work.

David, you should be happy, and if you aren't, I'm sure many of the users of vizzed would like to change that

So, David, are you happy?

I Liked this because I like everything that involves trying to make people happy, and this is really cute <3, but is there an inside joke I'm not getting here?

Barathemos : Hey, how nice. We will always help David if he's not happy no matter what. Like Kimmy said, is this an inside joke?

Barathemos : Are you happy?

Is life making you happy right now?

If you're not happy, we have to fix that

Any ways we could make you more happy?

I'm sure we've all seen the stress you've been put through with all these troll posts like this. We hope you will feed us, though.

Bara, you should be happy, and if you aren't, I'm sure many of the users of Vizzed would like to change that.

So, Bara, are you happy?

I don't see why he wouldn't be happy. He got Dreamcast added to Vizzed, which by his own statement is his favourite console, and that alone would make him happy enough. 

supernerd117 : Post of the year lol. I think that this would get much more replies by changing the topic to your post.

Barathemos, we're here for you.

There's no shame in telling us what's wrong.

Kidding aside, I think that David is happy. When it comes to Vizzed at least.

I hope David is happy and I am sure he is happy. I mean, who would not be happy when you have a community of friends to talk to daily! I know I am.

EX Palen : Thanks I hope he enjoys it. I don't think I'll make a separate post, though.

EideticMemory :

At the very least, I believe he isn't unhappy, and is at least in neutral.

I think that David thought 'finally, barathemos doesn't bug me anymore, life's great!' and then you come with this post and he's like 'for pete's sake, not again...'  

I'm stressed and overwhelmed and have been for a while now but for the most part, I'm still able to find happiness.

I'm stressed because my wife and I weren't able to pay for taxes this year (being self employed means I have to pay in when tax time comes). In the past year I haven't been making enough off the site to put money aside for taxes. For those who don't know, I make a living off of the site and I use that to provide for my family, that's the only way I can justify putting in so many hours on the site; it's my full job.

The site has taken some revenue drops and traffic drops over the past few years and last year I made barely enough to live off of but only because we didn't set aside money for taxes. Now this year we've got to put aside money for taxes and put money toward taxes that we already owe each month which means I need to find a way to increase site revenue before the year ends, otherwise I'm going to have to find a 2nd job which means I'd be working far less on the site (probably 10 hours a week compared to the current 40+ hours a week).

I'm overwhelmed because I'm still behind on a lot of things. I've still got months worth of Notifications to go through (2280) and many months worth of Private Messages to go through (473). I've also got a lot of things I need to fix around the site. It's overwhelming to know that I've got 100s of hours worth of stuff that needs to be done and it doesn't help when users (even higher up staff members) constantly complain about me not getting around to things when it's very hard for me to catch up, especially when I need to also worry about expanding the site so that the site can survive (and it doesn't help when things come up that slow me down even more such as serious site issues or the latest hacking incident).

It seriously makes me just want to curl up on a ball and sleep all day but I try to stay focused and get through the stuff I need to get through one day at a time. It also doesn't help that I struggle with a sleep disorder that makes it hard for me to get enough sleep for me to stay focused sometimes and it sometimes causes me to have some crazy sleep schedules. And because I put so many hours into the site and have been for so long, I also sometimes suffer from neck, shoulder and wrist pains which can make working very painful and since I can't afford health insurance, it's expensive for me to go to the chiropractic as often as I need.

I'm still able to find happiness though because I do have a great website with an awesome community and I do have a house compared to living in the basement of my in laws (like I was less than 3 years ago) and I do have a wife and kids that I love spending time with.

The positives do outweigh the negatives so yeah, I am happy, even if I am incredibly stressed and overwhelmed at times.

I should remember to vote this for best thread because I think it is one of the best This should go in the Treasure Can when it's closed!

Davideo7 : It's pretty disappointing how many users don't realize how difficult it is to run such a large site. Most users complain about you not getting to things fast enough, when it's actually impressive that you take at least 3-4 months to reach a forum takeover request or something like that.

I never knew that you were having financial struggles and I'm praying that everything will get sorted out and you can be less overwhelmed and stressed.

juuldude : Nope

To summarize for the people that really actively want to help David be happy... .Donate to the site. Whether that be time, money or even just telling your friends about the site... it's that simple

Most users are at least semi-aware of how much effort it takes to run a site like this.. the problem is that most of the users seem to take this for granted. 

Davideo7 : Have you thought about selling clothes like shirts, shorts, sweatpants, and hoodies, with the Vizzed Logo on them? 

Nice to hear that David's happy with us here. I dedicate most of my free time to the site, and only if I wasn't the only one of my friends to both like retro games and speak fluent english, I could drive some traffic in.

Take it easy, David. You can count on the great mods and admins we have in here to do most of the work. 

thing1 : If that ever becomes a reality, count me as a customer. So difficult it will be real, but well, are dreams forbidden?

Davideo7 : I'm really sorry to hear about all of the stress and finacal problems you have been having I hope that you are able to recover and don't have to get a second job. I wish you the best man... It's really immature of those staff members to not be considerate of how much you already do and how hard it is for you to fit in those other things.

NintendoFanKimmy :
greenluigi :
Lol no joke I just wanted to see how David was doing lol

supernerd117 : um... Ok...

EX Palen : well yes, but he added the dreamcast at a huge toll on his money and it took a ton of his time and energy

EideticMemory : well see... There's this boy I like on my baseball team... And the only time I get to talk to him is at baseball... And my last game is tomorrow

Oh you were kidding

juuldude : actually I have been having a good bit of social interaction with David lately with bomberman and steam so... Nothing really new lol

PacmanandMariofan : sad that people don't understand how much time he already puts into everything else...

sonicmcmuffin : those people who take it for granted just don't yet understand how hard it is to try and have a family while trying to make a profit off of a not so high paying job that still requires a ton of effort.

thing1 : it's a really great idea,but there really aren't many users who would buy that. He could probably get a few hundred sales from users like you, me, and EX just really not enough to get a huge amount of business, and be able to make a good profit with having to buy stock and such...

Barathemos : There are online shops and local shops that you can do by order. It's like a bulk discount. Granted, they would be  a little spendy, because he would have to charge for shipping and handling, and then some profit. Maybe if he did like a limited time only thing? Give people a month to place their orders, and then at the end of the month, close the orders, and then go and place the order with the shop? Maybe do like a yearly kind of thing? 

Davideo7 : I share your pain with taxes. Although I'm not doing them myself, I can't even IMAGINE the maze you have to go through. In the few years I've been in the country I still haven't been able to understand the several tax forms one has to fill. They are much simpler in Canada.

But at least you can still find some happiness in this world. That's a relief because Vizzed makes many people (including myself) happy too!

Davideo7 : I have one word for you : You are a great man....You should know that you have the best site in the world to play retrogames (and I know a lot of sites that have retrogames). I wish you all the best and a much more fortunate in life.

PacmanandMariofan : It's embarrassing that it does take me so long to get to things but it makes sense since I'm the only developer on the site. Most sites this big have multiple developers.


sonicmcmuffin : That's very true, some users do take that for granted.


thing1 : There's a few problems with selling Vizzed Merchandise.

1. First of all, in order to make a good profit, I'd have to buy the merchandise in a huge bulk and that'd cost $1000s. I don't have $1000s to invest into merchandise and even if I did, it'd be way too risky to invest $1000s into something that may not even sell very well which means I'd end up being stuck with a lot of useless stuffy lying around that I can't do anything with.

2. If I went through a website like cafe press, they take such a huge portion of the profit that my profit margin would be way too small. This wouldn't help out at all financially unless literally 1000s of users were to buy the merchandise.

3. I honestly don't think many users would buy the merchandise because most users don't have the money. The #1 reason most users don't donate to the site is either because they don't have a way to donate or they just don't have money to donate. If they don't have money to donate then they don't have money to buy merchandise.


EX Palen : tRIUNE does free me up a lot of time by taking care of a lot of RGR related stuff. The rest of the staff definitely help free me up a lot of time as well. In fact, if it wasn't for the efforts of the entire staff, there's no possible way I'd be able to take care of this entire site. It's because of their hard work and dedication that this site can survive.

janus : The taxes definitely suck. Last year we couldn't afford the taxes either but I was able to sell like $10,000+ worth of games that I own to help come up with the taxes. This year I really didn't want to have to sell $10,000+ worth of games that I own again because otherwise my game collection would take another serious hit and I don't want to have to keep doing that until I no longer have any games, especially since I need these games to help me try and keep things on this site somewhat legal.

This year we ended up doing a payment plan with the IRS where we'll be paying $500 a month for the next few years toward the taxes we weren't able to pay. Now this is great that they're willing to work with us but it really sucks to have to set aside another $500 a month when I already have to set aside money for next year's taxes, set aside money for the many bills we have and so many other things. On top of all of that, my wife and I and our kids don't have health insurance so if any of us ever have to go to the doctor, we take another huge hit financially.

I've got some ideas planned for the next 2 or 3 months for the site that I think will really help increase site revenue but of those plans fail, then I have some backup plans which include making a few apps and making a few YouTube videos.


asdren : Thanks, I love hearing stuff like that