Sulake CEO slips truth about fansites!

[Thetyler]

Fansites are a massive part of habbo as it gives people something to do, listen to, and also feel part of a certain community.

I think if they get rid of the fansite scheme, fansites will still be around but it won't be as easy to advertise them

[Richie]

New management make new rules.

That's something that could be easily said for fansites but we aren't talking about a 'teen hang out area' this is an actual company, real jobs, real money so realistically as a company sulake shouldn't just let someone swoop in and make change as they please. Change is good and that's his job, to make habbo better, but only if it's positive change like adding badges, games and other cool features. Removing something that advertises their product is just mind boggling.

[GommeInc]

Seems fair, Habbo have more important things to be doing at the moment than allowing fansite names into the filter - it's the problem with relying on a useless white list filter rather than putting resources into real-time moderation and a black list, which is the common sense approach (of which Paul La Fontaine has nought).

Besides, Habbo gave up on fansites years ago and the sheer lack of fansites these days is testament to this.

[Red]

That's disgusting. I don't think he realises how important fan sites are. They are what keep the long term users on habbo. I sure wouldn't be using it if I didn't have habbox.

[Kyle]

Habbo isn't a game for children and never has been. They're taking the right precautions for the time being by disallowing outside links but my worry is that they have no plans to bring it back in future. Yes, paedophiles are able to lure people away from habbo and have their way with them on other sites, but this type of thing also penalises all those innocent habbos that just want to keep in touch with their friends. Some middle ground needs to be established or even more users are going to leave.

I am all for disallowing links and I don't think there should have ever been clickable links in the first place, but when people are persecuted for advertising sites like habbox - which has been open for nine years and never really put any of its members in any serious danger - it makes me a little bit mad.

Fansites have been a large part of habbo since the very early years of its development and have helped it to stay alive by retaining many of its older members. Sulake needs to take a look at the age range of those that have played the game for years, not people who sign up for a couple of days or weeks then drift off back to bin weevils, clubpenguin or neopets.

Old fansite system worked. A public list of approved sites which have of a mixture of original content and good moderation (which is more that can be said for habbo...) is the right way to go. This new system of allowing any Tom, Richard or Harry to submit their fansite and receive a badge to show that it's 'legit' pretty much right away is flawed. Sure, it's more inclusive than the previous one, but there was a reason that fansites needed to be approved beforehand... Some of the people wearing this fansite owner badge really don't deserve it... Back in the day fansite owners would have been encouraged to take every safety precaution possible to keep their site and its users safe but now you see fansites being hacked every few weeks lol.

My suggestion would be to bring back official fansites like last time. Gold, silver and bronze. Bronze would be all fansites that have been submitted and vetted by staff members (Jason + someone else at the very least) to make sure they fit a certain criteria. Silver would be sites that have earned their place with original content, strong user bases and good moderation and gold would be the same, just a higher calibre. All these sites, once approved, would have the right to advertise themselves in client and if one was to be found to breach the fansite way could be reported and subsequently removed.

As a company that makes millions you'd think they would be prepared to throw some money into improving a feature that if anything, makes them even more money. I really wonder what they're spending their money on (other than Paul's countless homes overseas, no doubt!) since they seem to be saving so much by outsourcing moderation and customer support and using automated systems rather than real life people.

[karter]

The way he is talking, its like he is thinking about removing the fansite system. If he does there will be outrage from so many users and even staff members (like Jason).

pretty sure it will not outrage jason, his job would be changed and he wouldnt give a damn

[Richie]

[tm]

In actual fact what Paul has said is that he doesn't want ANY external linking from Habbo or even talk of anything that takes conversation away from Habbo. This includes twitter, youtube, google, facebook, ALL other websites and even the outside world (he may have been joking on the last one).

https://twitter.com/PaulLaFo/status/227478078727811072
https://twitter.com/PaulLaFo/status/227477089929003009
https://twitter.com/PaulLaFo/status/227476128107991040
https://twitter.com/PaulLaFo/status/221298665057304576
https://twitter.com/PaulLaFo/status/224891396287508482
https://twitter.com/PaulLaFo/status/224891937210105856

Enjoy^

[Red]

Well thats the point. He can block other links but fansites shouldn't be lumped together with Facebook or anything else.
Fansites don't take discussion away from habbo anyway. :S

[Aaron]

Habbo have already gone far into preventing hacking. This new safety lock? You now can't add new habbos? Hacking isn't as much of a problem now I bet. There is other precautions Habbo can take also, but like they listen to the users. It's all about the money...

Yeah I remember speaking with one of the developers of Sulake and he said they were removing the 'Add' feature for adding new Habbo Users to your account as it was too time consuming for them to move them between ID's and for safety ect ect. Although Nathan, if you're forgetting Sulake is a company trying to make a profit.. obviously it'll be about the money, it's a Multi-Million euro company..