| |
|
|
| |
|
Due to some personal issues, I will not be able
to continue maintaining and updating this site. So I have decided to reveal
all, well almost all, before the end.
For those of you still trying to guess my identity, which is all of you, you
may as well give up. I am a long time member of TVCH - there from the beginning
of Big Brother 1 - but I very seldom post. But I read religiously every day,
and was drawn into the soap opera that unfolded with new twists and turns that
sometimes felt like a roller coaster. As many of the other reality addicted, I
thirsted for more and read the other sites such as Jokers and 3BigShows. I read
all I could through the end of BB1, through Game 1, through Survivor and the
Mole, through Game II and through BB2. I saw the damage Game 1 did, was
suprised that Game II was even allowed to be played. I was sad to see the
people split off to form Reality Roxs and Elite TV, and though I read them, I
stayed in my heart a faithful member of TVCH.
One of the things I noticed was how much a community the reality sites I read
had become. But sites were so independent and isolated, that news between the
sites was usually vague and distorted. Sites that had "trouble"
tended to whitewash it, and those that broadcast it elsewhere did it in such a
manner that it was all deemed sour grapes. And to really find, or understand,
what was going on among the different sites you had to read almost continuously
to keep up. The community at large needed a clearinghouse, or newspaper, to
inform the netizens at large what was going on.
So I got the bright idea to start Reality Trash - a National Enquirer type
e-zine that would take the good and bad gossip from the reality sites and
publish it for all to see. Poorly designed on purpose to look like a cheap
newspaper, I also tried to make it as easy as possible on myself to keep
updated. I really expected a lot of hate mail (which except for a few obvious
cases hasn't occured), so I knew I had to protect my anonymity. I also did not
want to spend any money on the project, because I expected it to fail almost
immediately.
So I looked at the different websites to see how they were doing things. It was
easy to tell that BBInsider was going the cheap route, so I investigated their
webhost and signed up a site and began writing some trash. That first issue,
talking about BBInsider closing up, Reality 411's bandwidth problems, TVCH
losing Moondance (though she had already returned, much to my chagrin), Big
Brother Live 2, and the first favorite poster at Elite TV, hit about every site
that I visited regularly except Jokers - and the Big Brother Live 2 story was
just a simple ploy to bring in more readers.
I was overwhelmed by the response. People telling me the things I got wrong,
people congratulating me on the things I got right, and people swamping me with
gossip.
It became apparent there were several things I had to do to keep this a
success. First, if people wrote me with gossip, I couldn't reveal the source
unless they agreed. I have tried to keep to that principle, though I may not
have always succeeded. Secondly I knew I had to check out the gossip I got to
make sure it was at least reasonable and based on fact. I found I couldn't use
about 80% of what I received because I couldn't verify it myself, or I couldn't
find a reputable source who could verify it. Finally I knew I couldn't do it
all by myself, so I needed people to submit good articles of their views and
opinions that I could publish with very little editing.
So off we went. I started adding little features to the site that I stole from
other sites, just to see how they worked, so I added the counter and stats from
Elite TV and the Top 50 icon you saw everywhere. I tried to add a message board
like BBInsider from Forum Universe, and that is when I found they were probably
closing down. So I took a look at Jokers board and went with it.
As we went along, several themes seemed to emerge. Moderation on sites kept
hitting me - there is not one site that did not have someone complain to me
about the moderation there. Then there were questions about the Top 50 that
made me decide to investigate what was happening. And of course finally there
were the trolls... |
| |
|
Yes every site that is moderated has people that
dislike it. The usual course of action was for the person to bitch about it on
the site, sometimes to the point of banishment or voluntary leavetaking, then
they would bitch about it somewhere else. Else they would quiet down, but hold
the grudge internally until it invariably flared up again.
Now there was a new outlet. And boy did we hear about it. Jokers' site was
deleting things for no reason, Reality 411 had banned everyone that didn't
agree with them and now everyone was sucking up to the mods, TVCH is cutting
posts left and right, and if you talk out about it you are banned. The only one
we didn't get complaints about were BBInsider, since the owner there was
missing in action, and Reality TV Fans. So we investigated and published.
Some people thanked us for opening their eyes. Most posters didn't seem to care
that much one way or the other - they had chosen a place to call home, and one
of the reasons for that choice was the way the site was run. The biggest
response, though, was from the moderators of the different sites, and that
began the great Moderation debate.
My thoughts on the subject was that the sites could pretty much run their
business as they saw fit, as long as it wasn't demeaning to their members. But
I also wanted to point out when I thought they were doing things that might be
detrimental to their sites. In some cases the moderation, and actions of their
moderators fit this bill.
Luckily I did not have to enter this fray too much. Some very good writers,
both moderators and members, submitted articles that pretty much spelled out
the different positions. I don't think anything has been resolved, and wish
that I could continue this board so that this debate could be continued. But
that will not be possible. |
| |
|
I first started hitting the Top 50 list to find
the sites I should be reporting on, which would also give me the best chance at
traffic. It seemed to be the site that all the Big Brother sites signed up on,
and was perfect for my purposes.
It always bothered me that the top site, Reality 411, never allowed its
statistics to be seen. So I checked their site, and found their on-line stats,
and saw enough that made me pretty much forget about it.
To make sure I understood how it worked, I signed up Reality Trash for the
list. The site climbed pretty rapidly, almost entirely due to the fact that I
published an article by the owner of BanishKrista.com, and they put a link to
my site on their front page. But when the link was moved to another page, and
then when BanishKrista shut down, my ranking dropped rapidly.
But during this time, I noticed some funny things going on with the top 4 or 5
sites. TVCH was being beat by BanishKrista, even though if you looked at the
statistics TVCH seemed to have the upperhand. And when BanishKrista was removed
from the site, someone else took its place. Then TVCH vanished from list,
ostensibly because they put the Top50 code on their main message board page.
I started getting gossip about this, and about some old animosities between the
owners of Reality411 and TVCH. I began to suspect there was more to the
relationship between the Top 50 and Reality 411.
Then the 411/Letztalk split occured, and in the nastiness that ensued we tried
to report the truth that we could see. We were contacted by both Kristii, the
owner of Reality 411, and one of her moderators, Pouncez. On a whim, we checked
the IP address of this message with one that we had received from Star, an
admin at Top 50, and they matched. When we confronted Pouncez with this
information, she admitted that she was the same person, but there was no
conflict of interest. What she didn't know was that I had received a
communication from a confidante of hers before she had sent her message that
said Star told them "if Reality Trash messed with Kristiii's site she had
the power to go in the stats report of your site and make it look like you
didn't have enough hits which would give her reason to take your site or anyone
elses that messed with reality411.com off the top 50 board. " Though this
is hearsay, and is the reason I did not previously print it, it is in direct
contradiction to Star's declaration that she could not touch the statitistics
and that there was no conflict of interest.
Also hearsay was that Kristii was the actual operator of the Top 50 reality
sites. This also came from the above confidante, but also from various
well-respected site owners who had been told by Kristii that she ran the
bigbrother top 50 site. It is also interesting that after 411 withdrew from the
reality scene that all the sites were removed from the Big Brother, Survivor,
and Reality TV Top 50 lists.
Star believes we were trying to bring down the Top 50 site. No, we had placed
our trust in it as a fair indicator of reality sites, but found it's integrity
to be compromised. Star also told us we should contact the Top 50 admins to
verify here claims. We did on numerous occasions, using both their tech support
form on their site and e-mailing all the addresses found from doing a domain
whois. We, as well as other site owners that did the same thing, got no
response from Top50.
If you look at these three Top 50 lists today, you can see there are serious
problems. There are almost no listings, if you click to get statistics you get
an error, if you click on their forums you get an error. If you go to
info.top50network.com/ops
and look at some of the other lists you will see some of the same problems - no
membership and other server problems.
It is our belief that those that run Top50Network have lost interest in the
project, especially since the advertising revenue on the web has dried up. We
believe they had a server crash that wiped all their site info for all the top
50 lists, and aren't that interested in bringing them back. The only thing we
are puzzled at is why they are keeping the system running at all. |
| |
|
As most of you know, some of my articles, and the
starting of my message board, brought out some of the worst people on the
reality scene, who are now finding their amusement by bashing the site, and
making unfounded personal attacks on myself. This is what trolls do, I knew
that when I started the site, and fully expected it. But it doesn't make it any
easier when the attacks start, and become so vicious, and so untrue. The bright
side of it all, if it can be called a bright side, is that I have been thanked
by many who had been the focus of their attacks for redirecting their ire to
me.
I didn't set out to single anyone out when I first started the site, but I did
know that I would report on trolls when I found them. They are the ugly side of
the web, and I didn't care much for their disruption of what to me appeared to
be nice, stable communities. I was actually somewhat of a fan of Guruchaz,
until the post Game II School of Corrections which seemed to me more a forum
for him to flame and bait the members of TVCH than a true reformatory. And he
used it to the hilt, following a pattern that he still follows, being
alternately contrite then aggresive.
I was saddened to see the people that left to start Elite TV go - even with
their faults they were a vital part of TVCH that had helped keep the place
running during the slow times between reality shows. But TVCH is a big place,
and even with their leaving there were plenty of people for lively
conversation. And I read the other site just to keep up on the developments
there, thinking it wouldn't be long before they came back, or folded the site.
What bothered me most about this time, though, was the constant fighting
between the members of the sites. And the chief agressor from TVCH was none
other than Guruchaz, who was now called Zeb. From what I could read, he would
sign on with new accounts and post nasty messages. He also signed up with an
account named Erph that for some reason Elite TV let him use and post with,
till he posted a particularly nasty message and then was banned. We also
believe (and have been told) that since at the time all new member's names
would appear at the top of the board, he would register a new derogatory name
with nastiness in the profile just so people would read it and think bad about
the site.
At the same time a war broke out on BBInsider, and it seemed both sides were
totally enjoying it, until Zeb decided that he needed to post personal
information about Digilady on the site, along with some slanderous,
pornographic text. Members at the site tried to scroll it off the screen by
posting mulitple messages, but Zeb kept putting the information back up. Our
sources say he denied this, as well as his harassment at Elite TV, that it was
someone setting him up, however recent events and admissions by him, and the
fact that he had done something similar on usenet in the past, confirm this was
his doing.
All this time he continued his antics at TVCH - being nasty at times, being
moderated, but also advertising (some call it spamming) the TVCH site elsewhere
and starting games and threads in an effort to prove himself valuable to the
site.
Then during BB2 he pushed to hard. From what we understand he was given a final
warning then continued to post messages that were moderated until it was
finally enough and he was banned. Zeb blames this on Flint, but there is no way
Flint could have made the banishment stick unless the ones that really run TVCH
agreed.
But that was not enought for Zeb. Falling back on his old trick of multiple
names, he resurfaced as Xyth. We were tipped off about this, and published and
article on the deceptions. We asked TVCH what they would do about this
deception, and their response was that as long as a poster behaved, they had no
problem with it, especially if they could not prove it was Zeb. Well it didn't
take long for Zeb/Xyth's true colors to surface, and Xyth was also banned.
This was unforunately around the time of the terrorist attacks against the U.S.
The first thing Zeb does is go to BBInsider and post that TVCH is supporting
terrorism. And he continues his attacks against Elite TV on BBInsider that had
never stopped, and begins his attacks on Flint, Whit4you, Lancecrossfire, and
anyone else he feels had wronged him.
The BBInsider fiasco is somewhat interesting in that Zeb acquired a troll, or
trolls to be more exact, that began attacking and baiting him. Zeb immediately
assumed they were the group at Elite TV and began attacking them back, using
their names and threatening to again expose their personal information. The
funny thing is, his attackers contacted us and they were not from Elite TV, but
were prior backers of Zeb that were trying to get BBInsider shut down so he
wouldn't have a place to post. When things got to the breaking point and Zeb
started attacking Digilady's businesss, they started an e-mail campaign to
Forum Universe to take action. They thought the least that would happen is that
he would be banned, but were delighted when they found out Forum Universe was
shutting down and closing BBInsider became a reality.
Unfortunately for these conspirators, a new site had sprung up that gave such
people a safe haven. Disgruntled TVCH member donnabert started a site whose
main attraction was bitching about the moderators at TVCH. She began the board
as an unmoderated forum, but if she had done her homework she would have known
that openly bashing the "mother board" would draw defenders like
flies to shit. It was a virtual war with all sorts of shenanigans occuring -
many of them centered around whether donnabert was moderating posts or not.
Finally donnabert required membership, then the forums closed down for what
seemed like good.
A major proponent of the site was a TVCH bannee named BBVoyeur. BBVoyeur had
not only been vocal about his banishment, but had gone back ala Zeb under a
false name and made other posts as Facemask. He also went into every profile on
the site and copied member's addresses, then spammed them with an e-mail
decrying his banishment.
It looked like the people who had shut down BBInsider had won, but for some
reason donnabert reopened her forums without fanfare. Guruchaz and BBVoyeur
swooped upon it immediately and began their inane accusations with renewed
vigor. With other articles published at our site from contributors, most
notably the one on Game I and II, there was fresh fodder for their speculation.
The most interesting thing about this, however, was the revelation of Zebs'
support base he always bragged about. It seems it consisted of Highlander and
Optics. Which makes sense due to some of the other information posted on our
message board about the games. Seems Highlander and Souer are estranged
sisters. Soeur was one of the TVCH members that left for Elite TV. Thus
Highlander has a very strong bond with Zeb who also detests the site and
attacks it regularly. Seems Highlander has an ulterior motive in supporting Zeb
- that of getting back at her sister. If you have read much of Zeb's writing at
TVCH, you will notice that Highlander frequently posts after Zeb and supports
everything he says. Now she is trying to do the same at donnabert's site,
however I think her motives are much clearer now.
Donnabert gets angry when I call her site a "bashing" site, even
though the only forum that is being posted in is one called "Bitch About
BBFC". And all the posts seem to be made by the trolls mentioned above, by
one name or the other. Is what they say true? Well what they use is a well
known technique where they say something small that is definitely true, then by
inference claim everything else is true. And it is usually enough to make
people wonder. However most of what they say is pure speculation, conjecture,
or just vicious lies and is not worth reading. These people are petty and
vicious, and some people say they are dangerous. They have been exiled to a
small backcorner of the reality tv web world that we can ignore and hope they
go away. Of course knowing trolls, this will not occur. |
| |
|
Well that is about it. There are other tales to
tell, but they will probably go to the grave with me.
I will not be able to return any e-mails, and I am closing the message board
down. I hope you find other avenues to air your gossip.
I want to thank all the moderators, posters, and site owners for their
tolerance and their confidences. I especially want to thank MissMary of Reality
TV Fans for introducing me to a great site, and for teaching me some things
about running a site I had not thought of.
I want to thank Flint for his encouragement on the articles I wrote, and I am
sorry you got involved in the troll war on my message board. I hope you like
our overseas stay.
Thanks BanishKrista for your support and the link from your site - I think it
helped me get the start I needed to survive. And you can tell all your friends
at Elite TV that have been writing that you aren't the editor here.
Most of all thank you TVCH for a great site that I have truly enjoyed. I am
going to miss all the members there that I have grown so fond of.
Good night sweet prince. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
