Cav's Place

This post will be split into three sections, so you can jump straight to the one you’re most interested in if you’d rather not go through it all at once. Since reading all of this, as well as the previous post, will provide more background and explanations, I don’t recommend that, but the option’s there for those who want it.

I. Speculation: Why this new change of plans?

Other companies would have required far more before agreeing to change their course yet again in such a manner, and some probably wouldn’t have done so except under the most extreme circumstances, holding firm largely out of stubbornness and spite, to prove the power remains in their hands and they make the rules their customers must follow. As such, by the recent announcement, GOG.com proved yet again that they’re different, that they truly care about us, their customers and community. However, while we’d like to believe that these changes are solely a result of that fact, of their genuine desire to avoid disappointing us and losing our respect, I highly doubt that this was the only reason behind their recent decision, and I’m not even sure it was the main one.

All of this is mere speculation and I sincerely apologize if I’m wrong, but I do believe that those of us who vehemently protested against their previous plans forced them to back down, or at least forced them to do so far sooner and to a greater extent than they would have done if the reaction would have been even slightly more moderate. In addition, I believe this wasn’t necessarily due to the fact that we were strong enough, but because GOG.com were already finding themselves in a weakened position, since otherwise I can’t explain why they even considered abandoning one of their two clear, specific core values, and attempted to make the most of it by taking a big risk with a deadline.
I’m referring to the fact that, with Game Developers Conference just around the corner, GOG.com needed a big enough success story to counter the defeat that needing to once again accept any sort of regional pricing obviously represents. They needed a way to justify such a retreat without making it obvious for everyone that they were pressed into waving the white flag, and three games that they should be selling anyway, released independently by developers whose other games are already in their catalog, were definitely not enough. As plenty of others pointed out as well, if they’d have built their presentation around that, they’d have been a laughing stock, so they needed something else and they needed it quickly.

The obvious conclusion is that they were looking to obtain the rights to sell some major titles, from major publishers, which are not available DRM free anywhere else, and they needed to obtain those rights before GDC, in order to be able to announce the deal there. However, this required both an understanding community, proving that GOG.com users would be willing to accept regional pricing, and strong sales for Age of Wonders III, yet instead the result was outrage, users complaining and announcing that they will boycott them from now on, probably terrible sales for that game and likely a drop in sales for the site as a whole. Perhaps worst of all, word got out that the companies behind the games in question, and perhaps the one behind Age of Wonders III in particular, were receiving complaints and being boycotted as well.
The actual effects of the protests and the boycott didn’t have to be that significant. Their proposal would have needed to be based on hard data proving an increase in sales, and likely also on the improved image the publisher will benefit from thanks to GOG.com’s community. However, any major publisher they’d approach was likely to look at the situation as being asked to to give up on something they firmly believe in, namely DRM, on very short notice, for a distributor obviously in the middle of a war with its own customers, and knowing that their image will be tarnished and their sales may actually drop as a result. The extent of the potential damage wasn’t relevant, what mattered was simply that significant immediate benefits were unlikely.

As such, their risk hadn’t paid off and the deadline was quickly approaching, so they needed another story, something else to cling on to, and what better way to find it than by returning to the community and enforcing its strength? By backing down in front of us so quickly, they send the message that we, the customers, may be stronger than the publishers when enough of us stand united, and the support we’ll once again offer them thanks to this new change of plans will make it clear that we’re once again marching together.
So they finally got their story, and likely a better, more relevant and possibly more accurate one than what they were initially aiming for: They’re still spearheading a revolution, still battling to make a rotten industry accept fair practices, and they truly have a strong “army” behind them, an “army” which has just proven itself to be even more powerful than they are alone. Those who scoffed at them so far will need to think again.

II. Analysis: What actually changed and what does it imply?

To get this out of the way first, their plans to introduce “local pricing” have been turned into an actual improvement by adding choice. The way the announcement was worded meant that there was a significant amount of doubt about this at first, but the matter was later clarified and we now know that the users who’d have had different fixed prices forced upon them for all games under the old plans will be given the option of paying either those new fixed prices or the standard ones, in US dollars. Of course, this still makes it likely that only a relatively small number of users will actually benefit from the change, the best option having been for GOG to accurately convert the USD prices into all the currencies they’ll be able to accept at least daily and allow all users to choose the one they want to pay in, but at least it now seems certain that nobody will end up paying more.
It should be noted that many of those who reacted vehemently likely perceived these “local pricing” plans as a far worse slap in the face than allowing regional pricing for a certain number of games, this being a good part of the reason why the letter meant to clarify matters only made things worse. It was a situation that absolutely needed to be addressed, because otherwise it’d have triggered renewed reactions the moment people would have seen the initial plan become reality, so GOG didn’t exactly have the option to simply try to wait out the storm. Based on some messages posted during this time, it’s also possible that they never even meant to, the fact that they didn’t intend to allow this choice from the beginning being perhaps no more than an error of judgment, albeit a major one.

What’s interesting to realize is that making “local pricing” optional may have defused the situation enough to allow them to wait it out, if they wanted and could afford to do so. The most determined protesters, such as myself, would have taken this and thrown it right in their faces as another attempt to take us for fools, and each new release that would have been regionally priced, so each success according to the strategy they had set for themselves at the time of the initial announcement, would have carried a risk of renewed complaints and protests, yet I think enough would have fallen for this old and frequently used trick of announcing something terrible before taking a step back in order to make people believe that something still clearly worse than the previous situation is actually an improvement to allow the situation to become manageable for GOG. However, and thankfully, they did not stop here.

To explain what will happen regarding regional pricing, in case somebody somehow ended up here without reading or without understanding the recent announcement and the clarifications posted after it, GOG.com will not actually return to enforcing their flat price principle, but they will cover the entire difference for the users who will end up paying more than the standard price due to their location. At the moment, they will do this by offering said users $5.99 and $9.99 gift codes to roughly make up for the difference, even exceeding it slightly, but later this year, as soon as they will implement the system, they will offer the exact amount back as store credit, which will obviously be far more useful and valuable than the codes. This ensures that users will not actually pay more for such a game, as the additional amount will count as being paid for the other games they will redeem or buy with the codes or credit, but at the same time it leaves the door open for publishers who so far refused to sign digital distribution deals with GOG because they rejected regional pricing.
Of course, precisely why they chose this route is up for debate and I have speculated about this issue above, but what’s obvious is that they picked the option that will cause them the most financial losses in order to appease both the publishers and the users as much as possible. Unfortunately, this means that publishers will have no reason to try to move away from the rotten regional pricing model, because GOG is not currently forcing them to cover any of the loss, and I would have definitely felt much better if they’d have promised to never accept any other game that uses this model after these three that they had already signed contracts for. At the same time, at least if the promised store credit will be usable to purchase any other games, including during sales, I do believe that users will no longer have a real reason to boycott or protest against GOG, as they make me feel that they took it upon themselves to continuously apologize, through deeds instead of mere words, for their ongoing betrayal of the flat price principle. If we’re to ever get rid of this rotten practice, however, the games that will be regionally priced, as well as their publishers, ought to be boycotted individually.

Before moving on to my suggestions, I’d like to also address some frequent concerns some users have expressed after this new change of plans, starting with those referring to the games we won’t see on GOG.com solely because of this. My one clear answer whenever that issue is brought up is that the only games we won’t see as a result of this are those that shouldn’t be purchased legally, which also goes for those we’re not getting due to GOG rejecting DRM. In fact, since they did not even shut that door by completely rejecting regional pricing once again, some of the games we will see will be in that category as well, so there is absolutely no reason for concern about what GOG.com won’t be able to obtain because of this. There are ways to obtain DRM free digital copies of games without paying for them and those methods should be used if you are simply interested in playing such a game, because the publishers and developers that enforce unfair practices shouldn’t be encouraged.
As for the fact that GOG.com may actually end up losing money for each sale of a regionally priced game to customers living in regions where the price is higher, possibly to the point of endangering their very survival, it should be noted that they wouldn’t have made it this far if their business sense would have been that poor. Yes, Trevor Longino initially calculated that they currently lose $2 for each copy of Age of Wonders III sold to a client living in the European Union even without considering transaction fees, but he later admitted that his numbers were wrong and they’re in fact very close to breaking even. That more or less matches my own calculations, which I don’t claim to be perfectly accurate but are definitely more so than his, and which result in something between a $1 profit and a $2 loss in that scenario, depending on the exact taxes and fees that apply, since that result does take transaction fees into account as well. However, even if they do take the worst loss, $2 per copy sold in the EU, they still earn far more than that per copy sold elsewhere, so they still make a profit out of having such games in their catalog and nobody should worry about them going bankrupt as a result. Though, of course, if such worries help convince some to avoid buying such a game, that’s even better.

III. Suggestions: How do we make the best of this?

Of course, I personally continue to firmly believe that games with regional pricing should not be on GOG, regardless of the compensation offered to those who’ll need to pay more, and maintain my initial proposal of at least creating a separate site for them instead, in case CD Projekt is so desperate to distribute them anyway. However, since the decision has been made to accept them under terms that for the moment I find tolerable, the first suggestions I want to make deal with choosing which such games ought to be selected and under what terms and conditions. After all, the offer they’re making, despite any calls to boycott such games, is likely to ensure a greater number of units sold without lowering the publisher’s profit per unit, so GOG.com will likely be in a position to refuse distribution deals offered to them by publishers who advocate this pricing model instead of needing to seek them out.
First, it’s probably safe to say that, as an exception to any other rules, games with at least ten thousand votes on the wishlist may be added as soon as possible if the stumbling block has somehow been regional pricing so far. Considering the titles on that list, I find this prospect unlikely, but I’m adding this here just in case there are any in this situation, because it’s clear that enough people want to purchase them legally and then it’ll be up to them to decide whether the terms are acceptable or they’ll choose to boycott them and wait for the publishers to give up on this pricing model instead. Once again, I strongly advocate the latter choice, however, because otherwise the situation will never change.
Otherwise, I think adding any game that uses regional pricing and has less than ten thousand votes on the wishlist should be subject to a community vote. These polls may run for a significant length of time or they may be very brief, even running for a single day, depending on the circumstances, but there shouldn’t be more than one running at any one moment. In addition, and regardless of the number of votes it has on the wishlist, whenever the contract for such a game comes up for renegotiation and the publisher refuses to eliminate regional pricing, the community should be able to vote yet again, deciding whether the new deal, whether or not it is in any way different from the old one, is acceptable or they’d rather see the game removed until the publisher will make a better offer, at which point there should be another vote, though these repeated votes probably shouldn’t count against the limit for simultaneous polls.
Games more than two years old which will have to use regional pricing if added should only be considered if they have at least one thousand votes on the wishlist, while for newer games I’m suggesting implementing a variation of the terms mentioned in my original proposal, referring to creating another site for games with regional pricing: If those games will be allowed on GOG instead and they’ll still use regional pricing two years after they were added to the catalog or three years after they were originally launched, whichever comes first, there should be a vote deciding whether the community finds it acceptable or they should be removed instead, regardless of how much time passed since the last poll caused by a renegotiation. Any game removed as a result of a poll but which would otherwise meet the requirements can of course be added again as a result of another, if the publisher will make an offer that’ll be better than the previous one.
Of course, there is a risk that all polls will have a positive outcome due to all the people who aren’t affected by regional pricing and simply don’t care about the principle itself, so I would also suggest a higher threshold for new additions, such as two thirds being in favor, with a simple majority being sufficient only to keep existing games. Some restriction as to who’ll be able to vote should most probably be implemented as well, such as only giving this right to users who have an account for at least three months, have posted at least one message on the general forum and have a positive reputation, though the time requirement may be reduced to a single month if they have made at least one purchase. In addition, it’s clear that votes should be weighed according to how the users will be affected by the pricing model, and I’d suggest a weight of one for those who’d end up paying less, two for those who’d be paying the base price, and three or four for those who’d be paying more, possibly having these two values as separate tiers reflecting the actual prices, in case there would be significant differences between the regions that would need to pay more.
All of this should obviously allow GOG to add any games they are willing and able to add, regardless of pricing model, as long as the community will actually desire said games. However, the polls and the limits ensure that such games will not be added too quickly, but instead perhaps trickle into the catalog, and also that adding them will not necessarily cater to publishers’ demands indefinitely, but only offer them a gradual path towards fairer pricing practices.

Moving on, I also have some suggestions aimed at using public image to put some more pressure on publishers to move away from the regional pricing model. The voting and the other conditions may also help, but they’ll be far from enough, both because each publisher will only be affected by them every so often and because, as I have stated above, the number of people who simply don’t care may make it too easy for nearly anything to be approved without this necessarily implying genuine interest or a true acceptance of the terms of the deal. As such, I think a system of badges should be implemented for games that use regional pricing, and this system should probably also reward the publishers who have found ways to allow GOG.com to sell their games without this pricing model despite the fact that existing contracts would have forced them into it otherwise.
I’m sure this could be done in many different ways, but the simple idea that came to me would be to use some sort of “medals” to display the publisher’s efforts. It could perhaps start with various models of bronze medals for those who would cover a part, but not all, of the compensation offered to those who’d end up paying more than the base price, different designs and/or varying amounts of visible “silver plating” providing a rough visible representation of the percentage covered. In this case, a silver medal would indicate that the publisher is covering the compensation in full, but still insists on regional pricing, regardless of the reason why this is the case, while a gold medal with a certain special design would indicate the fact that the publisher made great efforts to exempt GOG from existing contracts that’d otherwise impose regional pricing. A game that is available on GOG.com at a flat price without this having required special efforts on the part of the publisher may optionally be indicated by a plain gold medal, though this should be the norm and not necessary. Last but most definitely not least, a gold medal of a different design, perhaps enhanced with some other visual elements, such as laurels, would indicate games that are actually fairly priced, no users being charged more than the base price but those from poor countries being charged less, possibly with additional variations indicating the number of countries that benefit from such lower prices.
This would serve to offer a permanent visual representation of the efforts made by publishers towards adopting a fair pricing model, ensuring that all potential customers are aware of this whenever they look at a game’s page, or perhaps even whenever they see the title anywhere on the site, since smaller versions of the images could be displayed in most, if not all, places. As such, it would offer users far more options to “vote with their wallet”, showing them how much each publisher is willing to compromise, which is information that’d be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to obtain otherwise. In effect, this would reward publishers who are willing to make an effort, offering them an incentive to even take gradual steps if they are currently unwilling or unable to go all the way, knowing that even those steps will be noticed and may translate into a better public image and possibly better sales.

According to yesterday’s announcement, which they actually made sure I was aware of, GOG.com is taking some steps back from its plans of allowing regional pricing for certain games. In addition, according to clarifications posted by both Marcin Iwinski and Trevor Longino, the latter as part of a more detailed post, they will also make some necessary changes to their plans for introducing local pricing for the entire catalog, turning that part of the mess into an actual improvement by allowing users to choose between the standard price in USD and that in the currency assigned for their country, if different. These local prices will still be fixed, however, so the better choice will depend not only on any conversion fees the user may incur, but also on how the exchange rates will vary over time.
As such, while the new plans do not imply a true return to their previous principles by once again completely rejecting any and all regional pricing and no other improvements can make up for that, so the announcement itself is no reason to celebrate or congratulate them, I feel they have taken sufficient steps for me to tentatively suspend the call for a boycott. Trust is extremely hard to rebuild once lost and I rather doubt they’ll ever regain my confidence and support to the extent they had it before this mess, but at the moment I believe those of us who saw them as more than a business, those of us who supported them thanks to their principles and to the fight they led, can once again make purchases from there. I will definitely stay well away from any games that are or will be regionally priced, however, regardless of any compensation, and strongly urge everyone else to do the same, regardless of how or even if this policy affects them personally.
Despite being tempted to download these games that are or will be regionally priced, if merely to make a point, I will also return to my rule of never “pirating” any game available on GOG, not that I had done so during this brief time. Of course, the fact that I have not and will not make purchases from any other such stores, seeing as I’m not aware of any others that clearly and firmly reject DRM and regional pricing, in fact most enforcing both, has never been affected in any way and my choices of obtaining digital copies of games will remain limited to GOG and “piracy” at least until I’ll become aware of another service that’ll adhere even more strongly to both of these principles. If I’ll ever learn of one that, on top of rejecting any and all forms of DRM, will actually practice fair pricing, as in establishing the base price, which is usually the one for the United States, as maximum but striving to offer lower prices to as many poorer countries as possible, I’ll definitely have a look, but I’m yet to hear of any even attempting such a thing.

This was meant to be a much longer post, analyzing the new plans, speculating about the real reasons behind this new change, trying to determine what should be done next and offering several suggestions which may help them make the most of the current situation while at the same time helping all of us have a greater impact and, if at all possible, score more victories in this battle against the rotten practices the gaming industry sees as the norm. However, I definitely don’t seem to be getting anywhere when it comes to actually writing what I mean to write, so let’s hope tomorrow will be a better day.

Imagine my surprise Wednesday afternoon, when I woke up to a puddle in the middle of my desk. Knowing that I hadn’t spilled anything before going to bed, the first impulse was to look towards the ceiling, wondering if the water was somehow dripping from above. That wasn’t the case, and in fact it’d have been next to impossible in that spot, so I was at a loss until I noticed a small amount of water along my headphones cable as well. Following it, I then noticed more water around my network switch, so I rushed to unplug it and take it away, placing it on the floor while I dried the desk with a rag.
Since there were no other traces of water, it was obvious that the entry point was my Internet cable, so my assumption at that time was that it had somehow found a way through the hole in the wall, which I remember being filled with foam after the cable was pulled inside, and then ran along the short piece of cable before dripping on the desk when it reached the plug. The fact that I could see another drop forming just at the back of the plug seemed to confirm that, but when I ran my fingers along the cable itself I noticed that it was otherwise dry, and so was the wall around the hole. As such, I was left with only one other option, which proved to be the correct one: The water was actually coming from inside the cable.
What obviously happened was that the jacket had ended up torn somewhere along the way and, with the rain we’ve been getting these days, the water was getting underneath it and making its way out at the other end, through the back of the plug since there is some space there and it was therefore easier than to keep going forward through the plug, which is pressed tightly on the wires. This, the fact that these plugs have the contacts at the top, my desk apparently being slightly sloped towards me, and my headphones cable touching the switch and therefore providing a way for the water to go around the other items placed in front of it, which prevented the puddle around the switch from reaching its cooling vents, were the reasons why everything still worked. In other words, I was very lucky not to wake up to far worse problems than a wet desk! The greatest risk was for the switch, but a short there may have affected my computer as well, not to mention the possibility of having the water follow the headphones cable the other way and therefore reaching it directly.

Since I needed to keep the switch off the desk and preferably leaning backwards, so the drops won’t go towards it, at first I placed the new batteries I had bought for the camera underneath it, plus that I unplugged it again when I had to leave that evening. On top of water on my desk yet again, this also led to soaked batteries, since they’re not fully encased in plastic, the back being paper. As such, I needed to take them out at night and place them somewhere else to dry, hoping they’ll be quite fine in spite of this.
Though I unplugged the switch yet again when I went to bed, that still left me needing to figure out some other way to keep the water off the desk, since the piece of wire that goes inside my room is very short and can’t exactly be moved anywhere else. So I looked around, grabbed an old empty casserole from the kitchen and placed it where the switch usually sits, then took a set square from my desk and placed it on the casserole, then put the switch on top of that, ensuring that the water dripping from the back of the plug will end up in the casserole and stay safely away from the switch, my desk or anything else. Since the back of the switch was dangling above the casserole and the wires tended to pull it back and down, I also looked for things to place on top of it to make sure it won’t be going anywhere, ending up with a small notebook wrapped in two plastic bags, two CD cases, three packs of playing cards I apparently received with some magazines over the years, and two tiny books, one on physics and one on algebra, which I remember dad buying for me back when I went to high school. It looked weird, but it was efficient.
Yes, I have a picture of the casserole, taken before I emptied it after waking up the next day, and perhaps a better one taken today, showing roughly the amount that dripped through over the course of one day, minus any that had already evaporated, of course.

The next day dad went to the people from the network I’m in, who repeated what they had told him over the phone, that for them having water dripping from a cable is not unusual and the fix would be to simply slash the jacket a little, right in front of the wall, outside, so all the water will pour out through there and not make it inside the apartment anymore. When he insisted for another solution, they gave him an extension cord, so I was able to place the casserole, with the dripping cable dangling above it, on one side of my monitor, while the switch remained on the other, the two being connected by said cord. That obviously didn’t actually do anything about the problem, but it was a way to reduce the risks even further while I waited, as they said they’re terribly understaffed until next week and as far as they’re concerned this is not an emergency, so they refused to even have a look at the cable themselves at the time.
As such, after I kept saying I’d like to see how the cable looks myself, the actual solution came from dad and the building administrator, who went with him, and without me, on the building’s roof today. What they found was that, likely due to being exposed to the elements for the eight years since it’s been there, the shielding simply started to crumble off the cable in the spot where it goes over the edge of the roof and starts its way down towards the apartment. For a stretch of a few centimeters, the wires themselves could apparently be seen, thankfully still insulated individually but with all other shielding stripped off, so it probably wouldn’t have been too long until at least one would have been exposed, or even before the cable would have snapped completely. Worse, when he touched it in another spot as well, the jacket simply crumbled under his fingers. So the administrator suggested friction tape, and they wrapped the areas in question in it.

Though the casserole seems to have remained dry today, I couldn’t precisely say whether that completely solved the problem, since it hasn’t been raining heavily since then and, either way, there’s bound to still be at least a small amount of water under the jacket, which will still need to slowly make its way out even if no more will get in. Either way, even if it does work for the moment, I have no idea how long that’ll last. It does appear that at least a portion of the cable will need to be replaced soon enough, which makes me once again think about moving it, so it won’t be so exposed anymore, and so we won’t end up needing to do it quickly if and when we’ll be required to do so by the authorities.

Seeing as I have more than one eye on the situation in Ukraine, this will only be a quick update, written now so I’ll get these days out of the way before matters get even worse in the region. Thankfully, few events took place during this period, even fewer of them were in the street and, seeing as I didn’t personally attend any, I wouldn’t have had too many details to give anyway.

I should start by mentioning that the vote on the proposed changes that would have allowed construction on 85% of the surface of retroceded areas that are currently listed as green spaces did take place, in the relevant new committee, on February 25, and the amendment in question was thankfully struck down. What’s more, another one, stating that local authorities will be required to obtain approvals from the relevant Environmental Protection Agencies before cutting down healthy trees was adopted. This doesn’t mean it’ll remain in the new form of the law once it’ll go through the Parliament as well, of course, but it is a start… Though one has to wonder how come such a requirement wasn’t already there in the first place.

On February 26 an announcement was posted on the “official” page of the movement, promoting a crowdfunding campaign meant to allow the artists in question to film the concert that is to take place here in April and also record it as a live album, 10% of any funds received after the goal is reached being donated to the Save Rosia Montana campaign. At the moment it doesn’t exactly look like they’re set on reaching the goal, however, so I’m not sure how relevant it is, especially since I don’t see any mentions of this actually being a concert for Rosia Montana in any way, though the announcement gave that impression.

The monthly “Critical Mass” event organized by cyclists took place on February 28, during the evening, and some messages I saw state that it was quite noisy, which bothered some participants as well, even though overall they seemed very pleased with how it turned out. While in this particular instance it wasn’t truly meant as a protest, it has been used as such in the past and, either way, the event is largely seen as promoting alternative urban transportation, be it by bicycle or by other non-motorized means. Seeing as Bucharest’s mayor seems to believe that the city is largely inhabited by cars, that is definitely an uphill struggle.

Moving on past the end of the calendar winter mentioned in the title, a message I saw only after the fact indicates that an environmental activism workshop took place on March 1. Since that’s all I know about it, however, I’ll skip straight to the next day, when people were asked to gather in front of the Bucharest National Theater from 4 PM and take part in a silent march to commemorate the child who was found dead in Aricestii Rahtivani, after inhaling gas from a conventional oil well owned by OMV Petrom and not protected by as much as a fence despite being very close to houses.
According to a particularly detailed report I read, some 25 people took part, though when I glanced at the webcam overlooking the area I could only count about 15 before they started moving, around 4:45 or 4:50 PM, escorted by a significant number of gendarmes, as well as by police. After reaching Victoriei Square, which was the end of the planned route, they took the metro to Bucharest North, the city’s main train station, spreading fliers and informing people about the dangers of fracking on the way, the event being organized by the group whose main cause this is.
According to the same report, they continued doing so after entering the train station as well, and as a result they had trouble with the guards, who kept telling them it was illegal and wouldn’t allow filming or taking pictures either. Eventually, they moved outside and to the nearby OMV Petrom gas station, a few potential clients turning away at the sight of them before a part of the group went home. The others took the metro back to University Square, spreading some more fliers on the way. And yes, this means they are running out of them rather quickly, and as a result they launched something of a crowdfunding campaign the next day, asking for donations to print 100000 more.

I guess I’ll finish this post by noting the fact that a protest was scheduled to take place today, March 3, starting at 2 PM, in front of the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). I don’t know and, seeing as we’re talking about a protest against accepting ethnic parties or individuals supporting such interests into the governing coalition, don’t care what actually happened. The only reason I’m mentioning this at all is that the specific people, who happen to belong to the Hungarian party (UDMR), who are to become the new Ministers of Environment and Culture don’t have a good track record when it comes to certain major issues, including the Rosia Montana problem, so there are valid reasons for concern. The protest itself doesn’t seem to deal with those reasons, however, instead simply stating a nationalist and xenophobic agenda, and when this happens I obviously have to start protesting against the protesters, even if we may be on the same side when it comes to other matters.

While some were once again paying more attention to Ukraine as soon as the mess started, on February 18, and by the next day many were focused on the developing situation, the first solidarity events were only actually announced for February 20, starting with a call asking people to gather around the University Square fountain at noon and then march towards the Ukrainian embassy. However, I haven’t seen or heard anything else about it after the fact, so I’ll hazard a guess that too few, if any, showed up and nothing notable actually happened. I will mention that neither this call nor the one for the evening’s event came from the known activists or groups that are part of this movement, the latter being organized by an NGO.
In part, that may have been because a protest, triggered by the fact that the prefect of Vaslui county, who is a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), refused to organize a referendum for removing the mayor of Pungesti from office although the submitted request contained about one and a half times the required number of signatures, was scheduled to take place in front of the party’s headquarters that same evening, starting at 6 PM, but what I saw later makes me say that only some 15 people attended that event, which obviously means that no more than a few of them were there either. Not that I found that in any way surprising in itself, seeing as there was very little reason to stage a protest in that location, especially considering the fact that PNL was in the process of breaking away from the governing coalition, but it rules it out as the reason why many weren’t in front of the embassy either.
Some were, however, and in fact I found people already there at 6:45 PM, when I arrived myself, even though the event was supposed to start at 7 PM, at which time around 65 were present. The numbers didn’t actually increase significantly after that, around 75 being present at the peak, but one of the organizers mentioned a total of about 110 people, which seems reasonable when you consider that some left before others arrived. Even those who had attended the protest that took place in front of the headquarters of PNL eventually showed up, though that caused some tension when Paul Iurea brought up the matter of Pungesti while speaking through the loudspeaker. As far as I’m concerned, that was absolutely inexcusable, seeing as we were there strictly to show solidarity with the Ukrainian protesters and commemorate those who had been killed there since February 18, but thankfully the situation didn’t escalate and, either way, the organizers called the event to an end around 7:45 PM. The candles were left burning, however. And yes, I have a few pictures as well.

The next day’s events started around 2 PM, when those interested in appearing in a short video message for the people of Ukraine had been asked to gather in University Square. The video itself was edited and posted later that same day.
The evening threatened to become something of a mess, however, seeing as at least three different and overlapping events were announced, and that’s without including the viewing of Gasland 2, which was set to start at 6:30 PM, as part of the previously-mentioned exhibition dedicated to the fight against fracking, and which I firmly believe should have been rescheduled. In fact, on top of all of that, somebody mentioned a fourth event related to Ukraine to me as well, but I haven’t personally heard anything about it otherwise, so what worried me most was the one that actually was created by the known activists, which called people to gather around the University Square fountain from 6 PM and start a silent march towards the embassy 45 minutes later, preferably with tape covering their mouths.
Since the organizers of the previous evening’s event had asked people to once again gather in front of the embassy at 7 PM, and somebody else was asking for help to create a peace sign out of candles in the same location, starting at 6 PM, this seemed set to simply split us. Worse, there were also suggestions to pass by the Ministry of External Affairs and briefly protest against a perceived lack of a firm official reaction, the initial statements coming from our authorities being simply that Romania will support the decisions made by the European Union and NATO. As such, the risk of many turning the event into a protest against our Government, ignoring the fact that the real purpose was to display solidarity with the Ukrainian protesters, commemorate the dead and demand an end to the violence, was extremely high.
Eventually, while the activists decided to simply ignore the fact that two thirds of those who voted in the poll they had created on the event page said that we should go directly to the embassy, without a march or anything else, they did discuss the matter with the others and an agreement was reached, the 7 PM event going ahead as planned, for those clearly opposed to the march, and the rest joining them later, at which point those who meant to create the peace sign could do so as well. Thanks to this, despite still having serious doubts about the whole plan, I felt that I could go to the fountain and can therefore say that, after some efforts were made to hold the more restless ones back for a while longer, about 150 of us left exactly on schedule, at 6:45 PM, and reached the embassy around 7:40 PM, thankfully without making any stops or detours to protest along the way, with the exception of a short one in front of the Government that still remained within reasonable limits. The tape wasn’t mentioned again either, and not many chose to cover their mouths in such a manner, yet at the same time very few seemed to actually remember that it was supposed to be a silent march and kept chatting away instead.
Though some offered higher estimates, up to 400 or even 500, after actually trying to count several times I’ll say that the highest number of people that were gathered in front of the embassy at any one time was around 250, yet I think that everything turned out quite well. Many were arranging and lighting candles, there were flowers, some had brought messages, the large banners seen the day before were obviously there once again as well, and I was glad to see that nobody else brought up any unrelated issues. In addition, after they had formed a loose cordon and politely asked us to stay away from the narrow strip of sidewalk immediately in front of the embassy fence the day before, any potential tensions with the gendarmes were avoided after a representative apparently came outside and told them to allow us to stand anywhere this time.
Eventually, as people were starting to get ready to leave, Alex did make use of the loudspeaker once again, finishing a short speech with a call to end the evening with a visit to the Russian embassy, to ask Russia to allow Ukraine to be free. As such, around 8:20 PM a few of us left in that direction, some others catching up a few moments later, and while I never actually tried to count, I’ll say that at least 30 of us, possibly slightly more, reached the Russian embassy. As you can see in the second part of another video, or perhaps even in the last one of my pictures, that didn’t exactly do anyone any good, because the gendarmes met us there and didn’t allow us to stand on that part of the sidewalk.
The request was reasonable under the circumstances and many quickly decided to avoid any incidents and cross the road instead, but at that point Alex’s temperament got in the way again and he started arguing, then asked everyone to stand where we had first ended up, in a spot that can be described as across the road from a corner of the embassy, even though some of us actually intended to go all around the intersection and stop across the road from the actual entrance, and launched himself into a furious rant that quickly moved away from the evening’s topic. Thankfully, while some were gathering around him, enough others kept a cool head and eventually managed to make him stop and walk away. As far as I’m aware, that was when the evening’s events ended, though we walked back to Victoriei Square together and, once there, as some of us headed for the metro station, others broke away and seemed to be heading in the direction of the Government.

With the next day being Saturday, I was actually expecting a bigger event, similar to those that took place in many other parts of the world. However, if anything did happen that day, it definitely wasn’t big and I haven’t seen or heard anything about it. As such, this period ended with a whimper on February 23, when a small number of people once again gathered around the fountain, starting at 4 PM. I do have a few pictures, and gendarmes and some reporters were present, but they had little to do seeing as only 40, maybe 45 of us were there at the peak and not even the candles could be lit due to the wind. After 5 PM some were starting to leave, and I did so as well around 5:15 PM, along with others. Should perhaps also mention that another group had announced an intention to turn the event into a protest after 5 PM, but nothing of the sort happened while I was there and I haven’t heard anything about it later either.