It has been decided to try and monetize the site. It’s been something we’ve often discussed, but always decided against because we thought that it might alienate our supporters, plus we didn’t want to seem trashy. That’s still our concern, but that reality is that we’re not receiving enough revenue from the twitch.tv ads or the store to keep up with maintaining the site.

We know most of you use ad blocking software, and we do wish that you guys would disable such software to help us out. The current ads on the blog are per click, excluding Fangamer which is per sale. Soon we will try to get per impression ads, which would lead to more revenue.

Now the revenue we do make will always go directly back into supporting TSG. First it will be used to pay site costs, or upgrades (aka new forum software). Second is prizes for contest, giveaways, or other events plus shipping costs for prizes. Running TSG is pretty costly, and often times we have to dig into our own personal funds to support TSG and keep it running, which is obviously unsustainable.

I want to thank you for your continued patience and support.

You are welcome to leave your comments on this post, but remember be respectful.

This is another question we’re asked quite frequently. Many people think that it’s quite easy to put on a marathon like we do, and it is…before the marathon starts. I’ll explain what I mean shortly, but for now we’ll start from the beginning.

Earlier today our forums were taken offline by Dreamhost because someone filed a DMCA complaint. The person filing the complaint claimed he owned the rights to a specific piece of content posted in our forums by a member of the community. The content is question was a list of leaked perks for the upcoming game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

At this time we do not believe the individual who filed the complain is part of Activision, nor do we think he owns the rights to the information. We plan to file a DMCA counter-notification against the party. We could easily remove the content and therefore enable the forums faster, however, since we are not infringing on any rights, we want to take a stand against these sorts of actions.

With that said the forum will remain down while we sort this out. The blog will continue posting news and original content as usual, but you will not be able to post comments on the articles until we resolve this matter.

Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience the downtime may have caused.

(Update after the break)

What is it? - It’s a free pack we are releasing based on the response to a question we asked on Twitter: “What is your favorite game of all time?” The pack consists of two songs, and two wallpapers.

Where can I get it? – http://bitly.com/majorasmaskpack

I wanted to start this up as a way to publicly answer some of the most common questions we get. Yes, there are a lot of them.

Anyway, at least a few times a month we receive emails asking if they can become a speedgamer, and they list various reason why.

Here’s the answer: Generally speaking, we’re all speedgamers: The fans, the forum members, and anyone who just plain likes us and what we do. I know that’s not what the question is asking though, you want to know if you can participate in a marathon. Well the answer is yes and no. First we have to know that you are trustworthy and reliable. The best way to do this is to become an active member in our community. Second, you have to realize that we have a lot of staff members, including forums moderators and chat ops, that we contact first whenever we need help filling a position. They have already proven themselves trustworthy and reliable.

Now I don’t want to discourage anyone, but the likely best case scenario time frame for you to actually get a chance to participate in marathon is a minimum of 1 year. Do NOT count on that though. If you are willing to buckle down and commit, then more power to you. We would be happy to have you join our community, and if we need you, we will contact you.

If you have any questions or comments about this response, let me know in the comments section below.

Tonight at 8:30PM CST John Graham and Jeffrey Rosen from Humble Bundle (@humble on twitter) and Wolfire Games (@wolfire) will be joining us tonight live to answer some questions, whether it be about the bundle or not, while we play the games in the newest bundle.

John will be on the stream via skype video, whereas Jeff will be in the chat. If you have any questions, please tweet at us: @thespeedgamers, or post your question in this thread

This is all viewable at http://live.thespeedgamers.com or http://justin.tv/thespeedgamers

UPDATE:

If you missed the interview, here is the video

Sunrise is fast-approaching so let me get this done quick. This has been a couple months in the making and it’s taken a couple all day’ers and an all night’er to make it happen in time for the marathon.

I know there will probably be issues here and there with this new redesign and it is a pretty drastic change format-wise to what everyone is used to, however I’m quite optimistic that everyone will get used to it and like it. It’s no Gawker redesign

List of additions:
– Featured post slider (thanks to Diana)
– Fancy background pokemon thing (thanks to Rust)
– Marathon post slider
– Tips page

Other things:
– Moved static images and some JS scripts to a CDN
– Finally added

Anyway feel free to leave your comments, opinions, questions, point out a bug below and I will get to them when I wake up…I hope you all find everything okay.

P.S – I’m still working on the mobile site. Will get to that tomorrow also.

Goodnight.

There was an issue where the blog comments would sometimes not link with your forum profile. This issue should now be resolved. It was due to a security setting with the forum.

Sorry about all that.

Thanks.

Hey guys, just an update. Enjoy some Braid.

Part 2 after the break