What went wrong with NewDoom?

[K3K]

I know this might have been asked a couple of times, but how come there is only like 3 or 4 people ever online? Is it like abandonded or something? Sorry but I've been with doomworld for only a few months so I don't know exactly about the stuff that happened and would be happy if someone explained it to me. What I already do know that went wrong was paid subscriptions or something.

[Marnetmar]

I don't know much about NewDoom myself but I believe another part of it had to do with the mods getting out of hand.

[Joshy]

I was a NewDoom regular before under the handle 'Ghost'. The administrator of the forums, William 'Phoebus' Mull decided to start charging people to use the forum. To use it for free meant five posts a day that also cannot be edited. Obviously this didn't please a lot of people. Those who questioned were instantly banned, including the long-time loyal users. I can't say William was good at his role, he hated being questioned and a lot of people had quite an intense disliking of him as he wasn't exactly friendly anyway.

Since then, everyone just flocked over here or the Abyss community. To me, Newdoom is just simply an archive now.

[Technician]

That place was communist China even before Phoebus had the brilliant idea to charge his already shrinking fringe community.

Long story short, if you had an opinion that differed from Wills, you were sent packing.

[K3K]

Technician said:

That place was communist China even before Phoebus had the brilliant idea to charge his already shrinking fringe community.

Long story short, if you had an opinion that differed from Wills, you were sent packing.

What, was Willis like the owner/admin? What about the mods, just like Marnetmar said. What did they do to ruin it?

[Joshy]

TB171 said:

What, was Willis like the owner/admin? What about the mods, just like Marnetmar said. What did they do to ruin it?

William Mull aka Phoebus was the admin/moderator of the forum.

There was one other moderator, Doom_Dude, he was pretty much the opposite, a likeable and sensible moderator. He is also a regular member here as well. I don't recall him having anything to do with Newdoom's fallout, it was pretty much 'all Will'.

[GreyGhost]

TB171 said:

Is it like abandonded or something?

NewDoom's problems stem from an administrator meltdown, part of which is the paid subscription policy. You can read some more here and here.

[myk]

Technician said:
That place was communist China even before Phoebus had the brilliant idea to charge his already shrinking fringe community.

Shoulda stayed communist, at least it was free of charge!

[Vermil]

Joshy said:

William Mull aka Phoebus was the admin/moderator of the forum.

There was one other moderator, Doom_Dude...

There were lot's of moderators on NewDoom. Doom_Dude was somewhat more profilic to the users because he also did the news page.

[Dutch Doomer]

Makes me wonder why he keeps the site going when there is so little activity.

[Mr. Freeze]

myk said:

Shoulda stayed communist, at least it was free of charge!

Probably still is. It would explain the people who still post there, listening to Phoebus ranting about the "other" Doom sites that are barren hellholes while NewDoom prospers. Or something.

[fraggle]

I agree with the others here that it's down to WMull who basically killed his own site with his heavy-handed, seemingly paranoid approach to running it.

Looking through my past emails it seems that I only ever interacted directly with him once, and on that one occasion he was unfriendly and downright rude. I've seen enough of other peoples' stories about NewDoom to see how that attitude played out more generally.

I remember hearing stories about hosted sites that were shut down for petty reasons, and of course people banned from the NewDoom forums on a whim. I'm sure others will be able to tell their stories about this. WMull was always paranoid toward Doomworld for some reason. It may stem from a couple of incidents that occurred long ago where NewDoom got attacked or spammed by some Doomworld regulars.

The final nail in the coffin came a few years ago when he introduced the paid subscription model. Considering the number of users the site had, it was a move that was nothing short of absurd; I honestly wonder if anyone actually bothered to sign up. I'm kind of surprised that he's even bothering to keep the site around any more: the news on the front page is from 2009, all the hosted sites have left and the forums are all but empty. I presume the site still gets a few hits and makes him a few pennies in advertising revenues.

EDIT: An old post from a former mod that gives an insight into his mindset. You can also read this thread about the paid subscription model where other former users describe their experiences.

[K3K]

fraggle said:

I agree with the others here that it's down to WMull who basically killed his own site with his heavy-handed, seemingly paranoid approach to running it.

Looking through my past emails it seems that I only ever interacted directly with him once, and on that one occasion he was unfriendly and downright rude. I've seen enough of other peoples' stories about NewDoom to see how that attitude played out more generally.

I remember hearing stories about hosted sites that were shut down for petty reasons, and of course people banned from the NewDoom forums on a whim. I'm sure others will be able to tell their stories about this. WMull was always paranoid toward Doomworld for some reason. It may stem from a couple of incidents that occurred long ago where NewDoom got attacked or spammed by some Doomworld regulars.

The final nail in the coffin came a few years ago when he introduced the paid subscription model. Considering the number of users the site had, it was a move that was nothing short of absurd; I honestly wonder if anyone actually bothered to sign up. I'm kind of surprised that he's even bothering to keep the site around any more: the news on the front page is from 2009, all the hosted sites have left and the forums are all but empty. I presume the site still gets a few hits and makes him a few pennies in advertising revenues.

How much was the subscription? like $1 or $2 ?

[fraggle]

TB171 said:

How much was the subscription? like $1 or $2 ?

Here's a comment that suggests it was $18.50 per year.

[Acid]

fraggle said:

Here's a comment that suggests it was $18.50 per year.

Look at this

Yes, that’s right. If you have been posting at NewDoom for the entire nine or ten years that it has been in service, you now have to pay $2.50 a month to remove your ban, or a “discount” of $18.50 to remove your ban for a full year.

[K3K]

fraggle said:

Here's a comment that suggests it was $18.50 per year.

Even though $20 a year is'nt that much, I would NEVER EVER pay with money just to use a forum. Phoebus is pathetic banning everyone then making them pay just to get unbanned. That is just stupid.

[Nomad]

fraggle said:

Looking through my past emails it seems that I only ever interacted directly with him once, and on that one occasion he was unfriendly and downright rude. I've seen enough of other peoples' stories about NewDoom to see how that attitude played out more generally.

The real shitty part is that he is manipulative and dishonest. He could be a giant douche one minute, but sweet as honey when he thinks he can get something out of you. He'd ban stupid noobs for no real reason other than them having shitty communication skills, but he'd force one of the mods to ban anyone with community influence that was doing wrong so he wouldn't get the flak for it.

I recall one member in particular, though, that ran rampant for at least two years being a giant asshole, and finally when people brought this up in a thread he got ultra defensive and claimed "Well no one seemed to have a problem with him until now." Please, he watched the forums like a hawk and would ban anyone for looking at anyone else wrong; this member consistently trolled and flamed everyone and got off scott free. Eventually I openly called Phoebus out on it in a thread and got some nasty PMs, but ended with him giving me his ICQ number and begging me not to make a big deal out of it. I really don't get that guy. I think he's literally insane.

Vermil said:

There were lot's of moderators on NewDoom. Doom_Dude was somewhat more profilic to the users because he also did the news page.

By the time of the "fall," though, Doom_Dude was really the only one. All the others were either for specific categories (which were mostly dead anyway, save for Doomsday), or were driven away by Phoebus' shitty attitude.

By the way, if anyone happened to be interested in what he's been up to lately, it appears he's been pursuing an acting career.

[K3K]

Nomad said:

It appears he's been pursuing an acting career.

Is that really Mull? Or is it just one of those people that have the same name as the Mull we are talking about here =P

[Nomad]

No, it's him. There IS another William Mull on IMDB but it's some old grandpa. This guy is our Phoebus. I've seen earlier pictures of him and the ones there are the spitting image of him if not him.

[betabox]

I rememeber a few years ago I joined there, I waited about 3 weeks for account approval. Contacting the forum admin yielded no success. Some months later I decided to go back, maybe it was approved. What did I see instead? Inability to access the forum and the message about being banned for the forum; reason given is none and ban lift date is never. It must be a new-aged way to encourage people to join the forum.

[Acid]

Nomad said:

Snip

I think that we should leave this NewDoom business to die.

On the other hand, if that's really him, then he looks the same in all 7 photos to me.

[Kaiser]

No... that's him..

[Nomad]

BloodyAcid said:

I think that we should leave this NewDoom business to die.

I mostly agree, it's all in the past. But it's hard for some of us to accept--NewDoom for me was literally one of the first places on the internet I became a regular to, and for a time it'd be safe to have called it "home." The way Mull undermined the few of us that kept the NewDoom community going was despicable. I understand that it costs a lot to keep a website up that gets decent amount of traffic, but there are alternatives to just fucking everyone over the way he did. It was really the least effective thing he could possibly have done to keep the site going. As sad as it would have been, though, I don't think people would have been half as upset if he had just shut everything down.

[NiuHaka]

I hope that you guys are correct and that really is him. That would be great. I posted some of the first images of what later became my Ascension Doom marine in those forums. I didn't realize that the forums were dying at that time.

Edit: i found this photo of him. That is the same guy.

Edit: Also this.

[Technician]

He looks like Steve Jobs. How appropriate.

[glenzinho]

This from NiGHTMARE on 01-13-04:

I predict that someday, Phoebus will be the only person not banned from the Newdoom forums.

Uncanny...

[Jannak]

Nomad said:

I really don't get that guy. I think he's literally insane.

By the way, if anyone happened to be interested in what he's been up to lately, it appears he's been pursuing an acting career.

That should explain alot since most actors tend to be narcissists.

[GreyGhost]

fraggle said:

An old post from a former mod that gives an insight into his mindset.

That thread's a bit of an eye opener. Staff relations must have been pretty damn toxic for the mods let off steam and question Phoebus' judgement in a "rival" forum.

[Craigs]

Nomad said:

By the way, if anyone happened to be interested in what he's been up to lately, it appears he's been pursuing an acting career.

I see his latest role was labtech 1 in a TV series nobody's ever heard of. He's really going places!

[Marnetmar]

Gotta start out somewhere, douche or not.