Thank You UGO for SAVING My Favorite Website

A few weeks ago, following the buyout of 1UP and the mass layoffs that followed, I posted the blog you see below this one.Now that the dust has settled and many ex-1UP staffers have already moved on to new and exciting things, I decided to write this blog.When I wrote my previous blog I, along with many 1UP users,I was pretty angry about what I thought had gone down.But that's the thing about the internet, is'nt it?In a place where rumors and speculation run rampant, you can never know the truth about something until you here it from the horse's mouth.
This March will mark 4 years that I have been a member of this community and to think that I was considering deleting my account is kinda scary.There are many 1UP users who, like myself, come home from work everyday and check the front page for news,read and write comments on news/reviews/previews,make blog posts and chat it up with fellow 1UP users on the boards.And let's not forget about all the great podcast and video shows.To many of us this was a part of our daily routine.So to hear that we may be losing that part of our life was quite frightening.But now that we've heard the real story straight from the people involved, most of us feel much better about where our 1UP is going.
Over the years we've seen many 1UP staffers leave the site and it sucked to see them go, but it was ok because they were choosing to leave to persue their dreams.1UP/Ziff Davis did'nt fire them and so it seemed ok for them to go.Plus 1UP always managed to find intelligent,creative people to fill their positions.But when so many members of the staff were let go, it left a feeling of betrayal because most of them did'nt want to go.Not to mention the fact that there seemed to be no "official" word on what exactly happened.We,the 1UP community, felt betrayed.
But all was not as it seemed.Slowly we started hearing from the folks involved and truth began to come out.We started to find out that what had transpired was not as abrupt as we thought.We learned that those editors that we loved so much actually expected this to happen (albeit not on this scale) and that we almost lost our site and community altogether.And personally I would rather have 1UP with less staff than no 1UP at all.We will all miss the people who we have grown to love for so long now and we will contine to support them in all of their future endeavors, whatever they may be.
So with that said I would like to be the first to say THANK YOU UGO , FOR SAVING MY FAVORITE WEBSITE.I would also like to apologize for things I wrote in the previous post, before I had all the facts.After reading Sam Kennedy's explanation of what happened with the buyout I felt like crap.Not only was 1UP not changing (in the editorial sense) it was actually going to get better.I felt really bad for the survivors when I read comments from users attacking them.They deserve better than that and I hope that people like Sam and Tina did'nt let the ramblings of a few heartless morons get them down.The people left are extremely talented people and I look forward to reading and watching whatever they put out.And now that we know that Milky is staying, things are looking better and better for our community.With the return of 1UP cover stories and things like Game Night, I'm feeling really great about being a 1UP user and a member of this great community.Here's to the future of 1UP.
 ps:click here if your interested in hearing the greatest podcast ever recorded,yes it's that good.