So, Jeff was fired. It seems--regardless of the reasoning--that this was the case. Now, I realize that people are upset. In fact, I am too. Everyone, however, is handling the situation differently. Remember when you were a kid and your mom taught you to control your anger? She taught you that thinking rationally and reasonably would better get your point across and get people to listen to you. Yeah, it seems like in this situation, people have forgotten what their mothers have taught them. And this, more than Jeff getting fired, more than the revolution in the game reviewing web industry that is inevitable, embarrasses me.
As a moderator, part of my responsibility is to clean up the forums. I try to do my job as objectively as possible, helping empower the users and make GameSpot the best possible site it can be. After all, I love this site and I want to do everything in my power to see it succeed; to see it become the staple of video game websites. However, I know some things I cannot control, such as how users handle issues that arrise. This, above all, frustrates me.
It should be evident to all frequent users of the site that the Off-Topic board has a thread with over a thousand replies. Most of them are dedications to Jeff--little goodbyes thanking him for everything he's done in his ten year tenure. However, some of the posts go to an extent that is unecessary; asking the users to spam inboxes of GameSpot and CNET employees, flaming the current employees (despite the fact that they had no correlation with the incident), and even hacking the website. What does this accomplish? If anything, it shows the immaturity of the GameSpot users, how they can't accomplish anything within wrecking havoc upon those who had nothing to do with "Gertsmann-Gate". It's important to channel your anger appropriately: send messages to CNET (but do it politely and bring up valid points), stop visiting GameSpot, cancel your subscription, but don't cause more issues for those who have nothing to do with the problem.
And this, more than anything else, makes me embarrassed to be affiliated with this site during this time.