When I joined TSC, I was mesmerized by the insanely fast times, high scores, and crazy videos of the members. I didn't ever conceive the level of SA2 playing I witnessed as possible. F-Man's city escape 1 video was a welcoming, intriguing, awe-inspiring piece of media that effectively convinced me to join TSC. I wanted to be a part of the community of sonic lovers. The maturity and skill of the members really convinced me this was the place to be. Never before had I seen such a tight-knit and skilled community for video-games. This website was, without a doubt, the authority on sonic the hedgehog. If you thought your times were fast, a quick check of the rankings page would set your mind straight. TSC was -valid-, that was certain. I never thought a single record could be false. The rules were so well developed, the charts so well maintained. I couldn't possibly fathom that TSC was invalid everywhere. Every chart, every statistic. They were all there for a reason, legitimate. I -knew- this for a fact. TSC was the authority of sonic competition.
This little fact is what kept me at TSC. I wanted to learn from the likes of SadisticMystic. I wanted to become knowledgable and elite at sonic too. Had I shadow of a doubt that an illegal stat existed, a poor chart existed, and I probably would not have stayed. TSC's duty to maintain its own validity recruited at least one member. I doubt I'm the only one who was convinced by TSC's respectability. One can dispute whether my stay at TSC has been positive, but I don't think anyone can honestly dispute that TSC's validity was probably its highest quality and contributed the most to its growth as a community.
I no longer think this validity exists.
Well, that's an overstatement. The same stats and charts that existed when I first joined are woven into the site. It is still the top sonic competition website, no questions asked. The effects of years of care by administrators and players are still clearly evident in the site. The validity itself is not gone. The attitude behind it is. We no longer care to be the undeniable authority on sonic competition. Most illegal records are not checked for. Those that are found aren't deleted. Illegitimate statistics are -ok-! This is an attitude of apathy. If we cannot even maintain the validity in statistics of this website, how can we be trusted to do anything. How many other fake stats are out there? Are we attempting to grow as a community, to maintain our status as the top sonic players? Can we possibly do it when there is falsehood on our own turf?
I am not kidding.
http://www.soniccenter.org/forum/index.php?topic=3122.0http://www.soniccenter.org/forum/index.php?topic=3382.0Nobody has done a -thing- about them.
Is this the attitude that drew me into TSC? I was mesmerized by the care and respect of this place.. by the fact that it clearly wanted to be an unshakable tower in the eyes of falsehood.
There are other things too. TSC was always respectable and intelligent enough to know what charts should and should not be tracked. Infinite score techniques were always immediately banned. Levels with potential for infinite or rings were either never added or removed as soon as they were exploited. TSC was never redundant. Everything that was here to compete in was here for a reason. It was a capable chart. It had passed the judgment of an extremely respectable group of sonic players.
This is no longer the case.
Many months ago, Ring Rush proved that grinding rails in SSR increased score. This brought up a problem; every level in which rails could be grinded multiple times had potential for infinite score. Those charts were invalid. They had NO competition value. They were not worthy of being on TSC, because TSC's authority on sonic competition judged competition potential as well as actual achievements. Roughly a month ago, SkyLights and I sat down for a couple hours and found every single level in which this tactic was a problem. We cared enough to maintain the validity of TSC's charts; we weren't going to let the problematic charts poison TSC's reputation. We found all 31 levels affected by the exploit. The dirty work was done, all that was left was deletion. I figured that maintaining TSC's validity was a top priority; I was wrong. After Gerbil promised (and failed to deliver) one weekend of deletion, I figured I would make the deletion an absolute necessity. I sat down and exploited some of these charts. I spent long periods of time regrinding rails just to get high scores (which are infinite with patience). These charts no longer were just potential hazards; they were actively exploited. We didn't just have competition unworthy charts on our hands. We had a game which was exploited against all the principles of validity I had known TSC to be for. TSC effectively lost all authority in SSR competition. If our scores cannot be taken seriously, who says the game at all can be?
Unbelievably enough, the fact that charts have been proven infinite and exploited is not reason to delete them. A month later, many '*GerbilSoft bored*'s later, the charts are still up.
TSC has no validity, no influence. Our stats have no validity. Our charts cannot be taken seriously.
What is left of TSC if neither our statistics nor places to submit them are able to be trusted? the community?
The welcoming community I once eagerly joined exists no more. People get irritated when I ask gerbil to fix SSR scores. People get irritated when I discuss TSC in a serious light. The community I joined, the one that maintained a calm, mature, respectful demeanor regardless of circumstance is gone. Replacing it is a tribe of insults who enjoy opportunities to make TSC look like a jackass. Rather than be respectful even in the worst of BS calls, our community would rather insult, argue, and rickroll the questioners. Are we trying to be a valid community to make up for our inability to accurately rank sonic competition?
this topic says no:
http://www.soniccenter.org/forum/index.php?topic=3398.0please guys, can we return to the amazing TSC that mesmerized me and convinced me to join? I have not spent years of my life striving for that 'one last run' because of the current attitude. Can we save TSC's validity before it falls too deep to recover?
I would appreciate it if I am not flamed. If you are openly apathetic about TSC, you clearly do not care about what this topic has to say. Keep it to yourself. If you care not about fixing TSC, you probably have nothing to contribute. Be apathetic to yourself; don't force it on those of us (I hope it's 'us' instead of 'me') who care about TSC's authority on sonic competition.
Thank you.
