411 - Information Please!

The site that held the Top50 #1 spot for so long seems to be going rapidly downhill.

We had noticed after the World Trade Center attacks that posters and moderators at Reality 411 were somewhat touchy, but in the weeks that have followed this has escalated into full blown nastiness, with detrimental results to the site.

It was with some dismay that we observed a "Smackdown" forum on the message board (now MIA, replaced by a Love Cruise forum), a place ostensibly that members could speak their minds about other members and keep it off their Crazy Comments and other forums. Seems the members and moderators took this to heart and began a frenzy of flaming that has left some reeling, and others leaving. We knew it had reached dangerous proportions when e-mails began flooding our mailbox from both sides of the conflict. Posters such as lilsister and lovelessinlondon seem to have left the house due to the animosity on the board.

Things seem to have reached a climax with the resignation of the moderator Kaela and her farewell post and responses. Kaela says "I quit I do not want to be associated with reality411 site anymore" and that "lies" and "backstabbing" is not what she wants to be associated with. Pouncez, another moderator, responded in no uncertain terms and with very descriptive language what she thought of Kaela's decision and invoked another poster, MysstryOne, in the conversation. We understand that this conversation degenerated into more name calling and posting of personal information to the board.

We have done a little research and found out that Kaela, MysstryOne, and another 411 poster named Jewls2 are now running a site created by Jewls2 called Letz Talk.

This is not the first moderator that has either left or been terminated at 411 recently. We know of at least three that were "demodded" and we believe several others have also left. Our sources say expect more to leave in the near future.

We realize this type of intraboard war occurs all the time, and that posters and moderators leave, and that some start their own competing site. The real question is "Hows does it affect the site?" We did some investigating into Reality 411's statistics.

Since the site does not allow viewing of their statistics on the Big Brother Top 50 List(which for some reason seems to be having technical difficulties anyway), we looked at their site statistics that are provided to them by AddFreeStats and can reached by clicking on the little icon at the bottom of the site page.

According to the stats - Reality 411 came from nowhere in July to consistently have 15 to 20 thousand unique visitors per day, an astounding number, up until the 15th of September when it took a tumultous drop and has kept on dropping, until now it seems they are only getting about a thousand unique hits per day (compare this to another reality site dynamo, Reality TV Fans, who is still receiving thousands of unique hits per day). Is this totally due to the end of Big Brother, or is it also a reflection of the recent "personality" of the board? We leave it to our readers to judge.

We do applaud the decision to remove the "Smackdown" forum. We hope that it and other measures are enough to keep this site alive.

Editorial: Chat Bashers

We have been a regular attendee at Big Brother celebrity chats sponsored by the different sites, and afterwards we make a nice sweep of all the sites to see the comments made by participants.

Though many are complimentary of the chats and sponsors, there are invariably a number of people that have to find fault. Here are some of the common themes we keep seeing:

1. "The chat was fixed - they never asked the hard questions"

Now let's be serious folks. Some of your hard questions you would not repeat in the presence of your grandmother without getting your mouth washed out with soap. Asking celebs such questions as "Are you really such an asshole in real life?" is probably not going to get your question top billing on any chat site.

But there are other hard questions I am sure you think should be asked. But think about it - the people that put these chats together spend a lot of time to set these things up, and a lot of fans and detractors come to them to get to interact with the celeb, and the celeb, especially if this is their first chat, are putting their trust in the chat sponsors - your "hard" question may just ruin all that - the celeb might either leave immediately or never chat again. And if they leave and never chat again, perhaps we will never get to ask the harder questions as time goes on. Kent is a perfect example of how this can work out - he continues to show up for chats, and as time goes on it seems he gets asked harder questions and he answers them honestly. Sheryl also seems to be more and more willing to participate in open chats and answer the hard questions.

So give this one a rest - the people running the chats are working in the best interest of both the celebs and the fans by trying to make sure the celebs continue to come back to the net to interact.

2. "The chat was poorly run or boring"

This one invariably pops up on competing sites. From what I can tell, however, running a chat is not a simple task. If you are a regular in chat rooms, you probably don't see the problem - it can't be that hard to pop in an write a few lines of text.

But remember, the celeb chats are a totally different animal from run-of-the-mill chatrooms. Everything is focused on one or two individuals, the celebs, who are usually not chat proficient, and the room booms with hundreds and hundreds of people, all who want to interact with the celebs, and many who want nothing more than to disrupt the event. Things have to be put into place to make sure the celeb feels somewhat secure and in control of the situation. Private messaging to the celeb has to be eliminated so he can concentrate on the questions everyone else is seeing. Questions have to be asked in some manner that everyone doesn't speak at once. Technical problems with the celebs computer, or with the chat software itself can cause a meltdown.

And even if all the technical stuff works perfectly, the host(s) and the celeb(s) have to have some sort of interesting interaction to keep it lively while involving the audience. Neither are usually very proficient with dealing with this format, and the drab question/answer sessions make people fall asleep quickly. It is a real art, and in our opinion just making it through the chat without either side running from the room screaming is a miracle unto itself.

ISo give the celebs and chat sponsors a break. They are doing all of us net "freaks" a great service by appearing in our chat rooms, and I, for one, really enjoy the chance to bask in reflected fame, however fleeting it may be. Don't ruin it for me!

Pickle Update

We recently reported that a poster named Dilligaf at TVClubhouse had found the love of her life.

Well seems things are progressing rapidly. A quick trip to a 20 year reunion was magnificent. It is also our understanding that she is actively seeking employment in the city where her knight has his castle. And talk of nuptials are definitely in the air.

The only thing missing is a circular band set with large gemstones. And from the rumors we hear, this is soon to be a reality.

Congratulations Dilligaf!

Dregs and Dross

Just a few tidbits too small for an article:

The message board has been hopping with Zeb mixing it up with Flint, Whit4you, and anyone else that his fancy takes. Seems Flint has held ground pretty well, and on our scorecard is a few points ahead.

The http://www.tornadohills.com/bb2 board has been down for an inordinate amount of time. We know that there was supposed to be a server switch, however that should have been completed by now. Either there are problems with the switchover, the board has been shut down, or it has moved to a private location.

Reality 411 is setting up Survivor III pools, much like an office sports pool. Look in their Crazy Comments forum for details.

Elite TV is going game and recipe crazy. Join them on their board to solve some very difficult puzzles, or go and see all the new and wild recipes their members are posting.

The Top 50 sites seem to be having real problems, especially the Big Brother site.

Favorite Poster: SuperShirll

We are not sure what site SuperShirll calls home. I believe we have seen this poster on every site from Reality TV Fans, to Reality 411, to the TVClubhouse, to Elite TV. A true cosmopolitan netizen, all sites and all boards succumb to her wandering wisdom.

We applaud you for your ability to navigate the many communities of reality tv. You are a most prolific poster.

Now contact us and let us know where you consider home!

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