The politics in the Ripster case works like this.
Ripster put in a great deal of time in the community, from writing the large wiki, to the myriad of education mechanical keyboard posts on the forum..
So, you could imagine that if you as an unpaid individual invested so much of your own time on this endeavor, and have been cast aside, it's deeply hurtful..
I don't believe he responded to the drama as it was unfolding as well as he could. I also think the GH team failed the community by letting things unravel the way it did.
The GH mod/administration is as much at fault for not containing the fallout as ripster was for fueling it.
In the end, because the forum is not owned by ripster, a choice has to be made on part of the moderation team to save face..
And as for Ripster, as much as a resource he may be, must be sacrificed so that fundamentally the policy and perception of control of the forum is firm..
On the face of it, your perception is as a third party, and you own nothing, it's all just random text to you.. But there is a system of value/ reputation built on the modern Internet. This had to be preserved.
My own take on the situation is that Geekhack made a serious mistake in letting Ripster go.
The politics of Geekhack is preserved, and people still know who's the boss.. However a King is nothing without effective knights..
I do not believe the current GH administration has fostered the growth of the community to the extent possible.
They can easily say, well hey, we don't have the time,... , well why are you here then, why are you mod, Ripster had the time, he had the knowledge, he was willing..
But, overall, we can't expect everyone running forums to be tactical experts.. So things are the way they are..
And here we are today..
