Server.com – Jokers Partner in Posts

By Juez N. Jurado

Last week's article about the seemingly heavy-handed moderating at Jokers Updates prompted a reader to deflect the criticism to the free service that supports the boards, Server.com*. The Jokers’ loyalist, claiming to run a DiscServer board like Jokers, wrote, “The Moderators. . .at Joker's have tried to explain many times that ‘accidental’ doesn't usually mean ‘oops, I shouldn't have deleted that’, it actually means that the posts blipped out of existence for some strange reason. Server.com, who wrote the code for the board, has acknowledged that this happens.” This sent us into research mode.

I visited Server.com, a WebApp company offering applications asserted to “run on highly reliable, remote servers. . .at a price anyone can love - free.” Reviewing July 1 through September 6 of their FAQ & Forum offered to support subscribers, I found many complaints about the advertising techniques that keep the service free but only one missing-post complaint not reasonably explained as user error.

On August 11 Old boy reported missing a full day's worth of postings. Server.com’s Sean Brunnock responded that it appeared an entire week’s postings were gone suggesting the user shared the maintenance password with someone. Old boy responded none of his four administrators confessed to deleting the postings. The final resolution was not posted on the board. As for other noted deletions, the posters broke the rules of the forum and were given an explanation upon inquiry.

Server.com’s Tamara responded personally to our critic’s allegation of missing posts, “This does not happen and no authorized representative of Server.com has ever said this. Jokersupdates.com has sole responsibility for moderation of the DiscApps in question. If a post is deleted, it is manually deleted by one of his mods. It does not magically disappear. If posts were mysteriously disappearing as this person alleges, I would have received reports of it by now. If he actually runs a Server.com DiscApp and this is happening you might ask him why he has never reported this problem via email or our help DiscApps. It seems a little odd that a host claims this with no supporting evidence of where it has occurred.”

We found the majority of non-ad discussions were from newbies in need of a little instruction. However, there were some questions about deleted posts from Server.com’s own discussion forum. Gammagirl, whose chief complaint was about ads, wrote, “I feel I left a very good post regarding this ‘thread’ message [an advertisement] you are posting to everyone’s board. And seems like you deleted it without answering it. Do you now pick and choose which complaints get to stay on the discussion forum here?” There was another curious posting where Peter’s question had been deleted but Tamara’s response remained, “Questions of this nature should only be handled via email. . . .please direct those questions to Support”.

So we found only a few posts that hinted at a bit of unhappiness but nothing that would lead us to conclude that Server.com is anything but as poster blues bro described, a “sterling service.”

__________________
* Congratulations to Server.com for receiving the Golden Web Award from The International Association of Web Masters and Designers. Launched in 1996, Server.com is one of the Internet's first and largest ASPs, providing a suite of six WebApps (web-based applications) for over 20,000 individuals and organizations. The company's ongoing mission is to provide an array of WebApps which can be utilized by individuals, groups or businesses. Server.com is owned and operated by Server Corporation in Boston, MA.

Byelander

Though we reported that Kent had left the TVClubhouse for good after several posters had shown disrespect to his family, it seems that he was still reading the boards.

Highlander, under attack from fellow posters and believing the coast was clear, began defending and justifying her actions in a manner worthy of Hardy and Nicole.

In a now deleted thread named "Where did KENT go? I miss him............" (which we luckily saved), started by Gadzooks, Highlander insists that she had not insulted his child, and again questioned his connection with the Banish-Krista site, claiming she believed there was some connection between Kent or his family.

Kent must have decided to break his vow of silence, for he wrote back and very specifically said that Highlander had insulted his family by saying his daughter was being exploited for money, and insinuating the exploiter was him or his wife. He went on to make it clear that neither he nor his family had any connection or supported the Banish-Krista site. He went on to say it was unfortunate for all the great supporters on the site that will be deprived of his posts on the site due to the actions of so few.

Surprisingly enough, it seems that two moderators, Max and Gail, supported Highlander more than Kent. Perhaps there is more to the Highlander story than we know?

The Hottest Game In Town

As an aside to the Kent squabble, Highlander seems to have been playing the hottest game in town when she said "...the whole thing was brought up again in the realitytrash site which was created by the same person who created the banish-krista site". Yes it seems the hottest game in town is now "Who Runs Reality Trash!"

This may be the first message board reference to this game. We get many e-mails from posters and moderators that either try to guess what poster we are, or telling us of how other people are certain who we are. And the chat rooms hardly go a day (especially Tuesday and Friday) without someone expressing their theory on our identity. And we know from our referrer logs that some of the message board staffs are discussing us in their "secret" posting areas.

The rules are simple - try to guess the poster(s) on your message board that run Reality Trash. We are registered on almost every Big Brother board that requires it (though maybe not with the same name) and have posted on every one that has appeared in our pages. Special bonus points go for determining the identity of our ace reporter Juez! Of course we do require some sort of accurate reasoning before we award the prize.

And here is our first hint prompted by incorrect guesses - we are not Spamgirl, Digilady, or Mishamisha from Elite TV, or Moondance, Ocean Island, or Zeb from the TVClubhouse.

I guess as Kent said, Highlander: "YOU AGAIN ARE WRONG".

Retractions: Mishi and Mcraig2

Our last issue had one major error and one minor and we wish to set the record straight.

Almost immediately after posting the Mishing In Action article, we received a note from Digilady proclaiming Mishi was in Elite Chat. A quick check confirmed this, but later we realized that she was there incognito as Glitterati, well maybe not too incognito since everyone was calling her Mishi.

We also received a nice letter from Mishi, our favorite ETV poster, where she explained that she was not mishing in action, she was not burned out, and she did not have a huge fight with the ETV staff. But she did take a few days leave from the net for housework and "to reacquaint myself with those short people that live in my house." We also got the impression from her e-mail that some live feeders took umbrage at our implications they were all imitating her. We regret if our statements caused any conflict, and praise all the ETV live feed posters.

We also received many complaints that our article on Reality 411 had a major gender error. MyssteryOne informed us in the nicest way that the poster Mcraig2 is actually a female, not a male. We apologize for our mistake, and will request a full gene screening in the future before we write about poster's gender.

Thanks to all our readers who pointed out these mistakes and for being so patient with our endless search for trash.

Favorite Poster: Elite TV's HookedOnFeeds

In deference to our faux pas with Mishi last issue, we have taken her suggestion for this weeks Favorite Poster.

From her letter: "You have highlighted several of our esteemed posters and deservedly so. I would like to bring to your attention Hookedonfeeds and *****. Both are hilarious and make the boring times in the BB house a joy to read about...no matter how incredibly painful to watch."

So this issues Favorite Poster goes to Elite TV's HookedOnFeeds!

Have some trash? Send it to us!

If you have some good scoop on the reality web scene, or want to nominate a favorite poster, send it to us at realitytrash@yahoo.com and we will try to get it into our next issue. And thanks to all of you who have contributed!

We are also looking for article submissions from our readers. We will give you your own byline and let you be part of our "Who Runs Reality Trash" game!

Reality Trash is published twice weekly on Tuesday and Friday if we get enough dirt. Please bookmark us and send us some TRASH!