My worst experience with the site wasnt even mine, it was my younger brother's. I have stayed in the shadows for over 8 years, without really saying anything important or "controversial" to the site. But my brother didnt have just 1, he had 2 really bad experiences.:

1st one: He participated in the 2007 Halloween Funfest by making a story, quite good if I say so myself, hoping to win a Mani Mani figure. Short story, he got himself and his entry topic flamed by a mod and 2 random people, because apparently his story didnt meet the quality requirements. My brother was going by the name ***rilwb, which was also the name of his facebook profile.
Iinstead of a Mani Mani, he got himself a stalker mod that found his fb profile and started threatening him by pming that he knew were he lived, that he knew how to use a sniper rifle really well, all of this every time he went online. Short story again: psychological trauma was the least of his problems for several months.

2nd one, 2009 if im correct. Halloween again, Chimera themed. He went by galvatron3000, same name im using here. The little guy went for another round because he wanted an Ultimate Chimera figure, which had been hinted at as one of the prizes.
He made a "Chimera Plastepedia Guide"
Every frickin normal Chimera in the game? done in plasticine a la Gumby tv series. Right here:
http://forum.starmen.net/forum/Storage/ ... avel-Guide

He wasnt able to submit it. He tried, and tried, and then I tried , but nothing. No mod responded nicely, from the 4 we tried, saying it was out of their hands, and not much more was said.

Wanna know what happened next? a few days before the contest, a knockoff version of my brothers idea was made into a contest entry post and then submitted with the least of problems, seeing as they were put up the same day.
That entry won 2nd place if im not mistaken. If you wanna check, I believe its also in the storage forum.
After that, he used to say he hated Earthbound, not wanting to play it again with me any time I fired it up.

Whenever im asked an opinion about Starmen.net (which is actually not very frequently),
I just say "stay away, its seen better days"

PS: This story actually has a happy ending. The other day, the little squirt actually asked me about playing EB and Mother 3 (which he hasnt played due to his depression). My face:


For anyone interested in knowing about other site complaints, heres something I posted in the Anti Bash Starmen Thread :
Theres a lot to bash about, and as a site regular for the last 8 years, I can tell you about all of the complaints Ive seen from exmembers and the occasional remaining friend there over the years:

Lets keep it short and simple, for now..
- The site is highly elitist, the degree of which varies from person to person:
Mods are known for being "irregular" in their behavior, varying from overdestroying people to turning their eyes away from conducts that simply hold no place in a civilized forum.
The posterchild for this is the eponymous Falcon24, whose behavior over the years made a surge from decent mod to "power hungry dictator"
For those interested, just google his name and starmens, the results will speak for themselves.

* On the Falcon24 example. He is just one of many, and he also has his own point of view on the many events that have occurred throughout Starmen.net. Right here: http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/l ... oughts.txt
Whether this was ever actually Falcons, I am not sure, but it shows precise knowledge of several crisis in which he saw himself involved that I remember, while being apparently written from his perspective.

* Another example, crafted from someone elses terrible experience: http://forum.skyon.be/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1142

The contests are rigged:
This one is really volatile, like in dynamite + nitroglycerin combined with what those Nuclear Powered Robots are made from, but plenty a post has been made with the subject and some "interesting" facts have arisen from the flame wars inside of them, so ill just carefully place it here as one places a baby sparrow in its nest (which means that you took it from there, and that sorta opens several more questions, which we shall discuss later, I think.. )

To me, the fanfests have never been anything to care about, though many disagree, specially when a figurine from Meeella is up for grabs.
But ive come to hear too many times the following:
- Usually great quality from the first place winners, but a great lack of it from the remaining winning entries.
- At least 6-8 threads per year with either of the following: "My work refused to be submitted and no mod helped me in time" or "my work wasnt even mentioned (while presenting at the very least decent quality)
- The judges never showed us their veredicts (this was changed at least from 2009 onwards)
- A disturbing amount of explicit or gory accepted submissions, while a significant percentage of "decent" works were not admitted, with the mods citing varying reasons, among them: quality and medium, this pretty much went off the charts during the Halloween Funfests, but we will talk about this one later.
- Complicity between Judges and contest winners/Accusations of existing Secret Forum: pretty much what the tile says, read up SimonBob, Falcon24 and at least 3 or 4 dudes and dudettes whose names, to my chagrin, escape me.

Or this, https://secure.fangamer.com/forum/Site/ ... ds/page/1/

Destruction of what Earthbound stands for, and the original intention of Itois work: Starmen.net, which has played an incomparable role in the history of videogaming by practically bringing Earthbound into everyday peoples minds, stands accused of breaking the concepts and player base behind the games due to the aforementioned elitism in their rewards and hierarchy, plus wanton discouraging of discussion in their forums, combined with was has been described as the (undeserved) appropriation of EBs fanbase image and persona, though lets face it, I dont see any other Earthbound site that more deserves the crown than Starmen.net, but its a valid point in its own right.

Fangamer is also more recently mentioned, but in this case, I have to stand up and say that without them, were definitely not gonna get ANY western swag from our most beloved and commercially obscure games, even popular ones dont escape from this one (Chrono Trigger, SMRPG, FF6)

But still, these are my opinions, everyone is entitled to their own. Theres two things ive learnt over my life that definitely apply here:

1.- Shout your opinions, to the great winds if possible, it doesnt matter to whom or where. As long as you dont plan on hurting someone, you can be full sure that more good than harm will come out of it.

2.- If something can resist getting Bashed, and not die, it gets better, stronger, and gets to shining like never before.
Instead, if something is so crippled even a small wind can bring down its sails, bro, dont waste your time.
Trials through fire, my friends.

Hope this all helps, in any way possible

I know Starmen.Net has its ups and downs, but I don't want this forum to become like the island of disgruntled and exiled Starmen. I'd recommend a place like the Lumine Hall forum for that sort of thing.