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Joshy

The Fall of Newdoom

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Hi, not sure where I'd post this or whether if it was news worthy so I posted here.
Just thought I'd let people know, the Newdoom forums is now only accessible through a paid subscription but considering of how relatively small the forum is and with the lack of content, it is inevitable that the forum will die out sadly.

Doomsday already has estabilished its own forum here: http://dengine.net/forums/

If you're wondering where the majority of the well-known Newdoomians will flock to, it is at: http://abyss.internetlantic.com/forums/index.php

Cue member migrations...

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It's a sad day indeed. The place didn't even make a decade stretch... It was a good four year run for me, though it has clearly been falling apart for well over a year now.

One could have hoped for a more noble end than this.

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It's such a terrible shame it had to end like this. It would have been better for him to stick to his original plan instead of dicking us over like this.

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Phoebus has no one but himself to blame for this mess. In my opinion, he wanted it to die. You want proof? Here's what he said to a person (that will not be named) offering to transfer ALL newdoom assets to his servers for free:

Phoebus wrote:

Don't talk about what I say in a private message here.
I'm going to ban the next person who does. Then you can have the distinction of being one of the last people banned from these forums.
Fact is, you disqualify yourselves from consideration with your own words.
Telling me "I'm willing to ENTERTAIN the idea...", "I don't have any money, but could you donate it?", "Sure I didn't put any effort into my hosted site, but...", "I don't really have time to be an administrator, but...", etc. etc. etc. AUTOMATICALLY tells me you're not really serious.
Don't go posting here how "my offer was turned down, how dare he!".
I'm not about to hand anything over of this import to people who by default have already shown me they're not up to the task.

And don't take it personally, either. Under the circumstances, I wouldn't wish this on you.

Seriously, I know what it takes. I know what it's worth.
I'm not the one who has to explain myself or convince anyone of anything.

I appreciate everyone's sentiments.


Am I glad to see it "die"? No, hell no, it was the first Doom Forum I was on. But in a way, and many doom veterans can attest, this was a long time coming.

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Eh heh, that place was really dead to begin with and was my Doom related forum to post on when I was Losered way back in 2005(?) until earlier this year. Also, I also got a permanent ban from there recently from posting a link to that Legacy map that pokes fun at him...how sensitive is he anyway?

Anyway, I think it's his fault to begin with anyway for lacking content and being relatively dead..not including the spamtastic Rants & Raves forum that had stupid forum games and other nonsense.

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All the "spamtastic forum games and nonsense" died when NewDoom was hacked years ago. Which Phoebus vehemently denied last time I brought it up, and I find hilarious.

William is a loony. We've all been thinking it for years, and now it has been proven by the same measure as a baseball bat to the face might sting.

I am going to miss NewDoom. It has been one of my internet "homes" for years now, but I am not willing to waste my hard earned cash on a forum that nets a total of 20 posts a day on good days.

I'll repeat what Fatal said in a thread that has since been deleted (William can't have any nay sayers around!), 'What [Phoebus] could've done is gracefully end the forums as was the original plan. We, as a community could have prepared for the event properly instead of having to suffer this sudden death."

This couldn't be closer to my sentiments if I had said it myself.

Goodbye NewDoom, and fuck you Phoebus.

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Couldn't have said it better myself.

To relay Fatal's final message, which thanks to William's fantastically large ego was quickly removed:

Fatal wrote:

So Newdoom has started to cost money, and I seem to have posting capabilities for some reason. Might as well use them for one more post, since it's not like I will stay here to chat with myself and Doom Dude, even though he is a very cool dude who gets my respect.

First of all, I think it's very safe to assume that no one will pay for Newdoom forums access. The price outrageous for forum access. Something Awful forums, for example, cost 10 bucks for a lifetime access, and those forums have so much more content that it's silly to compare these two.

What you (Phoebus, I assume) could've done is gracefully end the forums as was the original plan. We, as a community could have prepared for the event properly instead of having to suffer this sudden death. I'm not sure what you hoped to accomplish with this, except maybe to prevent us creating a refuge and "steal" Newdoom members as was the original plan. Maybe it's a matter of ego or somesuch. I wouldn't know, and it really doesn't even matter.

This is about the worst case scenario, and completely humiliating to those of us who planned to continue Newdoom's legacy elsewhere. It is so obvious that no sane person will pay for access to a quiet doom forum that I'm sure that you wanted to use this as some kind of excuse. "I didn't shut the forums down unexpectedly" or something, when that is exactly what you did.


So, fellow Newdoomers. Since this place has shut down, I give you my (and probably Newdoom's) last words:

Join The Abyss. We are a community that almost completely consists of (ex)Newdoomers, and would welcome anyone who decides to come over. We are a Doom forum with all kinds of activities ranging from Doom and other tech-related things to music and other arts. I believe we can offer the same things Newdoom has offered and more.




It was one hell of a ride, but me and my fellow Abyssians think that this is the end. Goodbye, Newdoom.




And in addition to that, he later said in an IM probably the most brilliant thing you could say about all of this:

Phoebus finally banned EVERYONE!

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Heh - my first attempt at registering on the NewDoom forums was stymied when I was informed that my email address (which was only a few weeks old) had been banned, maybe Phoebus was still twitchy about letting Australians on the board - we're all hardcore hackers down here. Clicking on the only "contact Admin" link I could find took me to a 404 page, so I'd given up in disgust, until today when idle curiosity drove me to find out what the subscription rates are - $2.50 per month or $18.50 per annum for "Full Forum Privileges" and until I've paid I can't even edit options. This is a sick joke.

Phoebus - if you're following this thread, I won't mind of you perma-ban my account. I've no further use for it.

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I was banned when I joined back in the old days for asking forum members to stop spamming a guy's project thread. hahah. I recently joined and... somehow banned again?

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Hahaha, oh wow.

Phoebus is a fucking douche nozzle. I know everyone knows this already, but seriously the guy is fucking pathetic. I don't even know why anyone ever bothered with NewDoom considering the way things worked over there and his attitude. The fact that he instantly deleted anything that was remotely disrespectful of his site (or remotely appreciative of this site) just kind of hints at the depths of his psychosis. I was once threatened with a ban just because I linked to another Doom site that happened to have its own forums (needless to say the post was deleted, and he threatened me in an e-mail), and I finally got permabanned for HAVING AN ACCOUNT ON DOOMWORLD. I think you'd get a better story from darknation, though. He was a mod there way back in the day until Phoebus pretty much backstabbed him.

Sadly, there are probably hardly any regulars from there that will end up here due to the bad rap that Doomworld got from WMull. Apparently we are a forum of elitists who will ban anyone for anything, hackers, and whatever the fuck else he would say about us. Then again, I'm not sure if many people there even know about this place because even mentioning the word "Doomworld" would get your post deleted and possibly get you banned. Whenever he needed to trash talk us it would be "that other site" or "certain other sites". Wow.

Way to go William "Phoebus" Mull, you colossal retard. You just shot your dumb ass in the foot.

newt said:

It's a sad day indeed. The place didn't even make a decade stretch... It was a good four year run for me, though it has clearly been falling apart for well over a year now.

It's been around for longer than that. I'm pretty sure at least since 2003. Four years ago since the site got hacked, maybe.

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Danarchy said:

It's been around for longer than that. I'm pretty sure at least since 2003. Four years ago since the site got hacked, maybe.


I was referring to the time I had actually been there, sorry. Joined back in early 2005, which as I understand was not a very long time after the hacking yes. The site actually started in 2000. Interestingly enough, Newdoom turns 9 years old this month.

It's sad but true that there was a lot of unnecessary DW-hating over there, and to be honest I had for years wondered what the hell was the point of the feuding between this community and that--but I am not surprised at whom was the catalyst. However, I do think that at some point recently he stopped either caring or paying attention (much more likely the latter), as at least a good handful of level-headed people there brought that fact up in the last year or so with (AFAIK) no "punishment" dealt.

If I had had the money and could have convinced him at the time he was putting the site up for bid some months ago, I would have been so tempted at taking the site off his hands just so it could have been freed from his self-absorbed wrath--not that I had the know-how or otherwise to take over. As it is, though, the site hardly got posts anymore. As completely fucked up a death as this is, the site really began dying well over a year ago.

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NDCP2 thread one month ago

dutch devil said:

Its nice to see it has finally been released, I am hoping for an NDCP3.

Gez said:

You've got only one month to do it, though.

dutch devil said:

Erh no there is plenty of time.


No further comment needed.

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sucks, the Newdoom forums used the cacodemon smilies I made.

It was nice to know people used them... but now they are back in the closet.

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@Gez: Heh.

It's really shitty, too, because we didn't end up getting those more serious bugs fixed that I can tell. Now it's unlikely we ever will unless we can still coordinate it elsewhere (not that it was going much of anywhere even when the forums were still accessible).

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On a lighter note, I wonder where the REoL tuff flamefests will go?
...

Oh, right. fuck.

Being serious, though, I don't think that DoomWorld would mind new people coming here; after all, most bad thoughts towards doomworld were nurtured and spread by Wmull in the first place!

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Danarchy said:

I think you'd get a better story from darknation, though. He was a mod there way back in the day

darknation was a moderator? Oh wow.

I don't know this Mull guy, but from your descriptions he sounds kinda paranoid... Good thing there is no more Doom forum for him to administrate, I suppose...

And good for me there's a new Doom forum to haunt =D
EDIT: oh wait now I saw the forum is for guys with sense of humour... I kinda lack it, heh. I can lurk.

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printz said:

I don't know this Mull guy, but from your descriptions he sounds kinda paranoid.


You bring up a good point; None of the community's history, or drama, has ever been formally chronicled. The only way you can get any idea of what has happened over the years in the doom community is to play the drama-inspired jokewads like CIF series, or Dwforums, and many others. Everyone should know their frads, nickbakery, the fish show, Lutdeath, and countless other community in-jokes that are hard to grasp or appreciate unless you either were around when they took place, or have been informed about it. It's much, much deeper than a 4chan meme will ever be.

EDIT: Apparently there are some terms documented on the doom wiki, such as Frad. It's a start.

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Nah; I'm more interested in playing Doom games or the modding movement, than on whatever scandals have happened with funny people here and which now are history and everyone is happy or doesn't care.

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Looks like Dumpster is headed for the dumpster.

Danarchy said:

It's been around for longer than that. I'm pretty sure at least since 2003. Four years ago since the site got hacked, maybe.

He's been running gaming sites since 1998, and even then he still was a wackjob (registering raven-games.com a week after ravengames.com, then suing the owner of the older site for taking his site's name is not a good first impression)

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David_Dweedle said:

waaah? man now all I can post my stuff on is Doomworld... dangit.. I liked Newdoom.


there's always wadsinprogress.info for projects that aren't done yet.

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The "hacking" was really the DB being fried in a software upgrade. :p

Those of us who were regulars were happy to hang out in our little group there. Phoebus had strict and often irrational rules (no talk of torrents? Seriously???), but we could be spammy and random.

The rules here all make sense and are close to the average on the web. :)

I dunno how he thought he can keep a place running when the n00bics would have to pay to ask questions. 99% of the stuff I responded to on ND was guys posting their first maps or asking technical stuff. The rest was arguing with REoL or being spammy. :D

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So I guess I'm not the only one who got banned with zero reason and zero expiration.

Nicely done Phoebus, you've lost any respect I've had left for you now. Idiot.

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Aliotroph? said:

The "hacking" was really the DB being fried in a software upgrade. :p

I'm afraid you're wrong.

I suppose now that NewDoom is basically dead and the main perpetrator of the hacking is actually dead, the whole story can be told.

In early January 2004, the Doomworld server was being restored from a backup for some reason. For a short time, listings of directory contents were available for browsing to everyone. Amaster was poking around there and found a list of passwords and e-mails leftover from an old version of the forums. He used this info to log in as Lüt on the Doomworld forums and snoop around. Finding it to not be very interesting, he decided to try Phoebus' password he found in the list to log into NewDoom. He was able to access his forum account and FTP account.

The first thing he did was remove all the mods' privileges. Then he gave every account administrator privileges. He changed Phoebus' password and made a global announcement stating that everyone had admin powers. He didn't do any mass deletion of posts.

After that, deathz0r began changing colors, set the software to display 1 post per page, and probably some other things. He also claims he didn't do any mass deletion of posts, but ended up being the scapegoat.

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Bloodshedder said:

Finding it to not be very interesting, he decided to try Phoebus' password he found in the list to log into NewDoom. He was able to access his forum account and FTP account.

The first thing he did was remove all the mods' privileges. Then he gave every account administrator privileges. He changed Phoebus' password and made a global announcement stating that everyone had admin powers. He didn't do any mass deletion of posts.

Okay, that's dumb. Did it bar Phoebus's access to the site he was webmastering? If not, then he could have just started anew with new data, while swooshing away the pranksters.

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I remember when this guy contacted me on ICQ, claiming to be WMull's cousin. He then carried on to telling me that WMull claimed that I and some others were conspiring to bring down Newdoom.

If there's any truth or not to it, I dunno. But it was pretty fun. The only thing I can think of that may have made WMull come to that conclusion, was that I moved my site from ND to DW. And I together with someone else (maybe it was Kaiser) suggested to the Legacy leader Hurdler, that they should do the same.

Another funny.
When I were hosted, WMull decided to set up a download center for all downloadable material that the hosted sites would put up. But while doing this, he went through everyone hosted's files and moved any and all ZIP files to this and as such made them available to the public. He didn't actually told anyone he was doing this mind you. Now I had been using the FTP for storing betas of my Doom mod Nimrod as it was being developed at this time. So one day Boris comes to me and asks me about if Nimrod has been released. Cause it's up there on this download center. He had spotted it there and downloaded it.
Good times. :p

I never got banned from ND forums though. But I once asked him to change my username, as they had done for me here. But he refused and said that I had to create a new user instead.

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