Poll: The Great Mythrandia

[IceForce]

Also, I kind of miss Eternal Nothingness. He was mental but entertaining.

umm, he hasn't gone anywhere, and he hasn't been banned.

I'm not sure why people keep getting this wrong...

I know. I just haven't happened to come across any of his threads in a while.

Ah okay, fair enough.

Well, there's one linked on page 1 of this thread. Post number 24.

 

[runic knight]

I vaguely remember that user.
The thing I remember the most about them (apart from the insane ranting they always used to do), was that they had a 2003 join date.
Probably the oldest join date I've ever seen here.

I'm wondering about the longevity of memorable forum events/users in the collective consciousness of the Escapist.

Longevity wouldn't be very long, I would say.

For example, I remember Vault101's spelling (or lack thereof). I remember Karutomaru's nonsense. I remember Boudica's craziness. I remember Zeel's antics. And I remember the way Mortai Gravesend could seemingly argue forever, and never gave up on an argument.

But the more time passes since these users got banned, the more people join this forum who've never heard of them.

(Also, it occurs to me just now that we haven't had any really notable users, like those above, for quiet a while now. Except Daystar I suppose.)

I miss Vault and Mortai's posts. They were fun reads.

I have not been here too long, but already I see people I enjoyed reading posts from have disappeared. That saddens me.

 

[RaphaelsRedemption]

Ahhhhhh. Let's see, old and now fallen Escapists.

Demented Teddy. Pirate Kitty. Boudica. Swollen Goat. Furbert. Hubilub. Vault101. Karutomaru. Mortai Gravesend. Danyal. DarkSpectar. Sober Thal...

Ah damn, there are so many of them. Sometimes you meet the ever nice ones and they stick with you. Caramel Frappe or Aylaine. Or JulianKing94. Or Nouw. Or Redlin5 or Marter or Zombieinc. I like to remember those ones better.

I guess we all come and go. We all have great and good conversations together. Some are remembered more rthan others, but we all get our chance to make an impression. Some do it by being unfailingly nice. Others, not so much...

EDIT: That third paragraph makes it sound like I think Mater and Nouw and so forth are gone. Not so! I just think I remember them better because of their generally respectful posting. Thanks for the good memories guys!

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I look back on the whirlpool days and the banned with fondness I miss max34 and vault and others I cant remeber his name but he was always good for a laugh zeels short comeback was surprizingly fun and I found myself agreeing with what he said I miss all the drowing threads better then this sexism thing we have going on Heck anyone remeber the dereailed thread where everyone just posted gifs of everything

/The/ Derailed thread? Were you active at all during Daystar's rise to popularity? That was kind of his thing XD

Annoyed the crap out of me, too, because back when I joined they actually had and enforced a rule about thread derailment around here. To the point that when I first joined, I was worried about getting in trouble for derailment any time a conversation in a thread got too off topic, which I eventually found out was okay as long as it was in the natural course of the conversation. Which someone posting spiderman pics in a deliberate attempt to shut down a thread he doesn't like isn't.

If you're reading, Daystar, you're okay in my book now, but man was that crap awful.

[sub][sub][sub]Also, that whirlpool fad was, like, last Summer, wasn't it? It's not from /that/ far back.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I could name names and immediately identify new alts for frequent trolls on a few of the Gamefaqs boards I frequent. The only reason those posters are still around is Gamefaqs doesn't have a rule against ban jumping, or at least doesn't try to enforce it.

It makes you wonder why a lot of other sites don't have a "no banjumping" rule.

I mean, even youtube doesn't seem to have or enforce such a rule.
I've seen plenty of people get around sanctions and suspensions on youtube accounts, simply by making a new account.

I can only assume, for a lot of sites, it's simply too difficult to enforce a rule against banjumping.

Probably a combination of that and whatever ad revenue the trolls bring in being a larger pile of cash than what they'd gain from other users by keeping them out, especially when you add in the cost of being that thorough on a site as massive as Gamefaqs or Youtube. Most small to mid sized forums do a pretty good job of blocking ban jumpers, the really big ones just can't keep up.

 

[Darklord008]

I distinctly remember seeing one of Myth's posts, but I wasn't in the forums often enough to get the full insanity. I also remember Vault101, EternalNothingness, Boudica (barely), and the ones who are still around, like DVS and Daystar.

OH! And LilithSlave. Not sure how much she'd be considered a "well-known" member, but I distinctly remember her post about "Are Lilith Aensland fans lolicons?" Or something, and that started a pretty big shitstorm. It got turned into a feminism argument, and it was the first really big one of those I saw here. That I can remember anyway. I'm sure some of the Old Guard can come up with older ones.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I distinctly remember seeing one of Myth's posts, but I wasn't in the forums often enough to get the full insanity. I also remember Vault101, EternalNothingness, Boudica (barely), and the ones who are still around, like DVS and Daystar.

OH! And LilithSlave. Not sure how much she'd be considered a "well-known" member, but I distinctly remember her post about "Are Lilith Aensland fans lolicons?" Or something, and that started a pretty big shitstorm. It got turned into a feminism argument, and it was the first really big one of those I saw here. That I can remember anyway. I'm sure some of the Old Guard can come up with older ones.

Oh, I remember her. I was in the thread where she got banned. She was a male to female transgender with a huge hate-on for absolutely anything she saw as belittling another person, but only if it was coming from a majority group to a minority group. The other way around was not only okay, but apparently to be commended.

Sounds like typical Tumblr social justice warrior stuff, but the reason she got banned wasn't a gender thread, or a civil rights thread, or a human rights thread, or even anything particularly political. No, she went apeshit because I used the term "weaboo" to describe a certain type of anime fan[footnote]That would be the, usually much younger and new to the hobby type that thinks they know everything about Japanese culture because they watch anime, usually only watches the most mainstream in the West anime -- and gets all of their knowledge of Japanese culture from those shows -- who thinks, based on this flawed knowledge, that Japanese culture is better than their own. They are likely to spout random Japanese words and phrases, despite not actually knowing any of the language, just a few things that pop up in anime a lot. It's a negative name for a phase many of us go through if we're young enough when we first find out about how cool the cartoons coming out of Japan are -- which was the topic of the thread, she started it to try to explain why anime was different from cartoons, and got shot down by several of us talking about how that's only true if you're using it as an English loan word, as opposed to the way it's actually used in Japan. And even in the loanword form, it still means cartoons. It just changes from cartoons in general to Japanese cartoons.[/footnote]. She then proceeded to get more and more aggressive, culminating in a nasty PM to one of the other posters in the thread, which got her banned.

A colorful poster, but ultimately one of the ones I'm glad isn't around anymore. Like that one guy who kept accusing bronies of being pedophiles for no other reason than because they liked a cartoon, or any number of other posters who have actually deserved a ban.

Scratch all of that, that was another poster. Lilithslave's name was throwing me off because they were from around the same period and her name sounds like the kind of name you occasionally see feminists using when they want their pen-name to signal who and what they are before they even start writing. Boudica, who was mentioned earlier in this thread, had such a name -- borrowed from an ancient female leader of the Britons who fought against the Romans. Lilithslave was pretty cool. A bit of a nut about Touhou and Japanese games, with a little bit of the mountain-out-of-a-molehill style of Eternal Nothingness, but like j-e-f-f-e-r-s, she brought a perspective to the site that is sorely lacking. Sad thing is she isn't even banned, she just got discouraged by the response to her Touhou threads[footnote]where she was a little too aggressive, and absolutely incredulous that anyone on a gaming site might not have heard of a Japanese indie series you can't even buy outside of Japan. Not that it doesn't have a big following outside the country, but the guy who makes it is eccentric, and refuses to sell it except locally.[/footnote] and made a thread asking for suggestions as to what site would be a better fit for her, apparently picked one and left for good.

The name I was thinking of was actually FranbunnyFFXII. Not very similar at all, but if you look at the stuff the two of them were posting, it makes more sense for the names to be switched. I had forgotten this but she didn't even watch anime, yet started that thread to tell people about something she had very little knowledge of. The irony of the situation was apparently lost on her

 

[DugMachine]

Mythrandia was awesome. I witnessed the insane ramblings and walls of text with my own eyes. Other users I can remember were Vault101 and of course Boudica for the insane jimmy rustling that ensued for those few months.

 

[sky14kemea]

Honestly surprised Jeffers got banned. All he did was tell someone who dismissed his argument (it was as usual a good argument) by calling him a "fanboy" to "Fuck off". Is that seriously a bannable offence? What a fucking joke.

Telling someone to 'Fuck Off' is a punishable offence, yes. The fact that he was on his last chance was the reason he got banned from it.

People seem to forget that we don't perma-ban people for things unless it's amazingly serious. (Or they're a banjumper/bot). They have to build up at least 7 infractions to get perma-banned.

What, I come in here to find out EthernalNothingness is gone? Never will we get to use that fabulous gif again, whatever shall we do!

I'm not seeing a perma on EN's status, though I'd advise not using that .gif against them anyway from this point. It's insulting to the user, which is why it's started causing a lot of bans recently.

See, this is why I don't like that rule. Sometimes people get a reputation, be it as a troll, a crazy person, a single issue wonk, you name it, and it's well enough deserved that posting a picture like that or calling them a troll really is justified.

I don't see how insulting someone for their views is ever justified. Yes, EternalNothingness has some very controversial views, and sometimes the threads aren't worded very well, which can cause a lot of backlash. However, the backlash is only caused by other users not being civil about it in the first place.

By all means, report an EN thread for seeming like flamebait, and we'll look it over. But using insulting pictures or "in-jokes" against a particular user isn't justifiable at all. In fact, it's borderline cyberbullying in my view.

I sure wouldn't think it was justified if I tried to discuss my different views and ended up having the more vocal of the userbase group up against me and mock me with a hand-made image. I'm hoping no one else here would like that either.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Honestly surprised Jeffers got banned. All he did was tell someone who dismissed his argument (it was as usual a good argument) by calling him a "fanboy" to "Fuck off". Is that seriously a bannable offence? What a fucking joke.

Telling someone to 'Fuck Off' is a punishable offence, yes. The fact that he was on his last chance was the reason he got banned from it.

People seem to forget that we don't perma-ban people for things unless it's amazingly serious. (Or they're a banjumper/bot). They have to build up at least 7 infractions to get perma-banned.

What, I come in here to find out EthernalNothingness is gone? Never will we get to use that fabulous gif again, whatever shall we do!

I'm not seeing a perma on EN's status, though I'd advise not using that .gif against them anyway from this point. It's insulting to the user, which is why it's started causing a lot of bans recently.

See, this is why I don't like that rule. Sometimes people get a reputation, be it as a troll, a crazy person, a single issue wonk, you name it, and it's well enough deserved that posting a picture like that or calling them a troll really is justified.

I don't see how insulting someone for their views is ever justified. Yes, EternalNothingness has some very controversial views, and sometimes the threads aren't worded very well, which can cause a lot of backlash. However, the backlash is only caused by other users not being civil about it in the first place.

By all means, report an EN thread for seeming like flamebait, and we'll look it over. But using insulting pictures or "in-jokes" against a particular user isn't justifiable at all. In fact, it's borderline cyberbullying in my view.

I sure wouldn't think it was justified if I tried to discuss my different views and ended up having the more vocal of the userbase group up against me and mock me with a hand-made image. I'm hoping no one else here would like that either.

Sky, I understand what you're getting at, but this isn't about opinions. EN is... special. Not to insult him, but I honestly wonder if he doesn't have some sort of mental disorder a lot of the time. The picture may be a bit much, but it's a pretty fair warning to say something to the effect of "it's an eternal nothningness thread, don't let him get you too worked up," which is ultimately what that picture is designed to do. I'm not going to continue using the image, mind you, I'm just trying to explain that there's more to it than people not liking someone's opinions. He's just got a really weird thought process and a way of getting other posters so frustrated that they make a mistake and get in trouble. If he were actually doing it on purpose, he'd be the most successful troll in history, because nobody even suspects he's doing anything but being himself.

Now for actual trolls? I find the rule against calling them what they are to be absolutely awful and counterproductive. Shame actually can have a constructive purpose, in certain situations, and that's one of them. A rule like that, to me, is like punishing a bully's victim because the victim stood up for himself. Not in a violent or offensive manner even, just for the simple act of saying "hey, stop that. It's bullying."

 

[CommanderL]

I look back on the whirlpool days and the banned with fondness I miss max34 and vault and others I cant remeber his name but he was always good for a laugh zeels short comeback was surprizingly fun and I found myself agreeing with what he said I miss all the drowing threads better then this sexism thing we have going on Heck anyone remeber the dereailed thread where everyone just posted gifs of everything

/The/ Derailed thread? Were you active at all during Daystar's rise to popularity? That was kind of his thing XD

Annoyed the crap out of me, too, because back when I joined they actually had and enforced a rule about thread derailment around here. To the point that when I first joined, I was worried about getting in trouble for derailment any time a conversation in a thread got too off topic, which I eventually found out was okay as long as it was in the natural course of the conversation. Which someone posting spiderman pics in a deliberate attempt to shut down a thread he doesn't like isn't.

If you're reading, Daystar, you're okay in my book now, but man was that crap awful.

[sub][sub][sub]Also, that whirlpool fad was, like, last Summer, wasn't it? It's not from /that/ far back.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

I call it the derailed thread but It was just a thread the Op wanted deleted from some reason So everybody went in and filled it with gif's and such and even the mods got involed it was brillent

 

[sky14kemea]

Sky, I understand what you're getting at, but this isn't about opinions. EN is... special. Not to insult him, but I honestly wonder if he doesn't have some sort of mental disorder a lot of the time. The picture may be a bit much, but it's a pretty fair warning to say something to the effect of "it's an eternal nothningness thread, don't let him get you too worked up," which is ultimately what that picture is designed to do. I'm not going to continue using the image, mind you, I'm just trying to explain that there's more to it than people not liking someone's opinions. He's just got a really weird thought process and a way of getting other posters so frustrated that they make a mistake and get in trouble. If he were actually doing it on purpose, he'd be the most successful troll in history, because nobody even suspects he's doing anything but being himself.

Now for actual trolls? I find the rule against calling them what they are to be absolutely awful and counterproductive. Shame actually can have a constructive purpose, in certain situations, and that's one of them. A rule like that, to me, is like punishing a bully's victim because the victim stood up for himself. Not in a violent or offensive manner even, just for the simple act of saying "hey, stop that. It's bullying."

Y'know, people often call me "special" in the same sense. My friends and I often joke about how I must hit my head a lot, because of some of the things I come up with. Maybe that's why I'm taking a more vocal stance on it than most, but I stand by what I say. Any user of this forum deserves the same respect as any other, and the rules do not change just because that person has a very distinct personality.

I understand his threads can be frustrating to others. I've talked with a few other Mods and we agree that it's not 100% the other users at fault. However, EN isn't breaking any rules by posting them, he/she just isn't wording them very well, and consequently people have a more confrontational reaction to it. That's why I don't mind if people report his threads to a Mod to ask to get the OP looked at. It's a lot better than posting some inflammatory .gifs and getting yourself an unnecessary warning.

As for the actual troll rule. Again, I get the other side of it. When you do see an actual troll it's frustrating, especially if you end up getting warned for pointing them out.

However, if we let people fling around the word Troll with freedom, it'll end up more often than not being used as an insult towards people. (Which it's still being used for now as well...)

When you see an actual troll, the advice always given is "report and move on." Don't post. Don't give them attention or emotional reactions, because that's what they're after most times. Just either report the post, or PM a Mod direct if you think that won't solve it!

I know the rules can seem really strict and sometimes pointless (We get a lot of flack for Low Content, for example). But they're put there in the best interest of all the users.
Plus, the rules are up for being re-written soon. The only reason it hasn't been done before now is that if the Rules get a change, everyone on the site has to re-agree the terms and conditions. Which is as huge a hassle as it sounds.