The previous one was too depressing. Enjoy this stalwart hamster struggling against incredible odds to eat a piece of popcorn.

This is a plea to all the hackers and spammers that are reacting to the current situation: I'm begging you to PLEASE redirect your energies in the proper manner. If you're hacking the polls or otherwise defacing GameFAQs, GameSpot, etc., all you're doing is bringing grief to a software engineer who otherwise is not involved in what's making you angry. If you're spamming the forums, you're bringing grief to a community staff member who has no control over the executive policies. If you're flooding the customer service lines, you're just making a customer service representative work late nights. For all you know, these people may actually agree with your sentiments.

Again, I understand everyone's rampaging emotions right now, but please know there are employees here who are not only mourning the current situation, but then are also the ones cleaning up the messes, and none of this actually accomplishes whatever your intended purpose is. And please have a measure of faith in those of us who work here to stand up for what is right, and to take the steps necessary to continue (or perhaps restore) a legacy of integrity.

I can't recommend or condone another specific action to take in terms of going through the proper channels, whatever they may be, but I'm pleading with you to not punish the employees here who are apart from whatever crimes you may perceive, yet receiving the brutality of an empassioned mob.

After some consideration, I regret to inform that I will be unable to reply back, answer, or act on past and present incoming private messages. There's just too many, and too little time to take care of them, and frankly it's no longer part of my current job expectations.

If you're having any problems with the site, be it with emblems, unions, etc., go to the Knowledge Base (http://www.gamespot.com/misc/helpcenter.html), the Tech Support forums, or contact Customer Service here: http://gamespot.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/gamespot.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php. We have staff that will be able to help you in each of those areas.

(1) The power went out in San Francisco yesterday afternoon, and our sites were definitely affected by it. We're still recovering but we're definitely operational.

(2) Yes, I know I'm a couple months behind in answering PMs. I have over 100 of them so I plan on spending Friday morning going through them one by one and replying back. Sorry about the massive delay!