 |
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Crow13 temp-banned again
You may remember our report two months ago on crow13; His belligerent, demanding and often absurd posts resulted in a temporary ban. This time around, it wasn't crow13, but rather, his alter ego, link_72 who caused all the trouble. Unfortunately for crow13, it isn't the handle, but the post content that identifies a spammer as a spammer.
CorruptHardware Leads Protest Against Spam Discrimination
Earlier this week, Tom Potter, (also known as CorruptHardware), lead a successful demonstration against spam discrimination. Admin granted Potter and his cronies a special, unmoderated forum, Spamalot, (in addition to a section for locked topics to go), for them to have fun in.
Because Admin purged spamalot, some of the truly outrageous posts, (including horrific images of animal abuse, as well as racist/mysogenistic/anti-semitic posts), were not documented, and thus, without the proof, there could be no bans. Though many forum members were upset at the lack of action taken against perpetrators, the SmackJeeves administration is confident this will not be the last we hear from them, and the opportunity to ban again will present itself. The story doesn't end there, however. Potter is now campaigning to become a moderator of Spamalot forum.
Following the Spamalot upset, Sandcomics attempted to demonize CorruptHardware.
"Just because CH got his way and got a place where they can go and spam. Is stupid."
Most forum members like the new forum, however, and even the moderators are having fun with it:Sandy, a forum member since last year, says "the spam thread's kinda neat, ... you can express your wackyness [sic] without actually harming anyone." Now that rules have been implemented, and the forum is moderated, Spamalot is indeed harmless. Tom Potter, (CorruptHardware), only had this to say about Sandcomic's criticism: "I like how sandcomics is turning me into some mythological beast who fought the immortal mods and walked away champion. NO ONE EVER LET HIM STOP DOING THIS!" Marine Incriminates himself; Permanently Banned
Admin wasn't available for comment, but apparently a post has come to light in which Marine incriminates himself in the Spamalot scandal:
"I started [posting on SmackJeeves] because a ... fan (cory) said they had a spam forum. Okay I thought. I'll go post around. Turns out I had an account over there ... and so I started posting. The trolling in the spam forum was immense, I gave them zippocats and pain series, racism, etc, etc. Next day I go and there are rules on a spam forum."
Will this mean a permanent ban from the forums? Several SJ users believe so:
"Seriously, though, ... why is he not ... banned?"
- Trebor Almasy, SmackJeeves forum member and moderator Mods Promoted to Admins Following slew of Spam Attacks
Following the outrageous forum attacks, Dan made Augest, Cutething and Trebor all admins to deal with future attacks quickly and efficiently. The community has been mostly supportive of this change, but one member feels that the mods have been launching a behind-the-scenes campaign to take over the site.
"The Moderators were turned into admins and wanted power. Cinder made dan put up ads to pay for his cinder litter and food. More ads were added because dan wanted alot more power. Cutething got over weid with power , we think she switched brains with cinder. Everyone left Smackjeeves because it got too big and there was too many forums and stuff.. Everything went boom!"
Cutething, a notorious mod-turned-administrator, says, "it's offensive to the people of this forum, especially the mods/admins who try to keep the site running." - Sandcomics When asked to say more, she graciously responded: "I'm just ... surprised and angry. If people don't think we collectively or individually are doing a good job, we'll step down, or work hard to change our ways. I've never worked with a more devoted group of people. Dan, especially, is one of the most generous and giving guys I've ever known. His dedication to the site.. the fact that up until this point, he's been paying for it out of pocket and through small site donations... That's amazing to me. Not to mention the amount of unpaid work he does to keep the site up and add new features, as well as handle support requests quickly and efficiently all by himself."
Sandcomics seems to be launching a behind-the-scenes campaign himself:
"I have alot of stuff being fought privatey. So just wait, And someone will turn out being banned or disranked. Me , a moderator, i don't know."
Will anyone be banned? Or will this just be old news next week?Cutething Dead?
In an elaborate prank orchestrated by several community members, including those holding positions of rank, several threads were created documenting the infamous moderator's untimely demise. A few days of heated debate turned the prank into an obvious joke when members began speculating whether or not Cutething had become a zombie. Still, some members were unclear what had happened, and thought the prank was for real.
To combat the rumors, and alleviate any undue concern while visiting her boyfriend in San Francisco, Cutething posted on the forums under the username Cinder, which is the name of her boyfriend's cat. She posted that the cat was holding her hostage, and would not release her until the following week, when its demands were met. Still, community members remained confused. Upon her return, she tried to reassure everyone that she was very much alive.
"I'm sure some people are still sure I'm a zombie.. that's just what happens. Especially online; you get all of these crazy rumors." She said. "I mean, look at what happened to Jaleel White... he still has a message on his site reassuring fans he's alive." 
Beany and Kyo Banned! Trebor on rampage?
Last week, Trebor banned two senior members of the forum, including Beany, one of the SmackTalk creators.
"I figured out the only REAL way to increase my popularity is to get rid of the MORE popular members, so now I'm hunting down the popular members one by one. Who will be next? Bling, Enkida, AFStaff? Hahaha I'm gonna get ya!"
Has he gone insane? Some say he's always been insane, and this is nothing new. Cutething was available for comment:
- Trebor "Trebor... Trebor is many things, but he was completely right on this one. Completely. I stand behind him 100% about this. As much as I adore those guys, what [Beany and Kyo] did was unacceptable. I think a week ban was entirely fair."
Cutething had also expressed her dismay at the behavior of the two forum members, and is rumored to have had rather strong words with one or both concerning the reasons for their bans.
Beany couldn't be reached, but Kyo answered a few of our questions:
"well, i'll say my ban was fair. i WAS being a mook. and i WAS being more awesome than trebor (haha!) Admin has asked me multiple times not to post security stuff so that everyone can see it, and i just kept doing it (i don't know why either...) Then there was this Sonic-spriter i messed with. i took it too far."
But why did he do it?
"I blame my ban on Cutething not being there. Cutething is a very lenient person, and she keeps me from doing stupid stuff, or reverses it when i do stupid stuff. she keeps me out of trouble basicially. Now, Trebor may be lenient when warning people, but Cutething, she keeps them from doing stupid stuff in first place. I mean, just look at this, Cutething is gone for a week and I get 3 warnings! Beany got banned too. That's because Cutething is awesome."
Will this kind of response prevent Cutething from taking week-long trips out to San Francisco in future?
"Oh hell no. Ha ha, no way. But I'll probably bring my laptop with me next time. Maybe." 
SmackTalk Forums move to SmackJeeves!
Now that SmackTalk has established itself as a permanent part of the SmackJeeves community, it was decided to move the forums to SmackJeeves, and become a completely integrated part of the site. It also makes it easier for SmackJeeves users to keep up with SmackTalk events, and contribute articles, ideas, and art to the popular webzine.
Count to 5,000 Thread Going, Going..
The last lap is upon us, and soon, competition will become stiff as members vie to be the 5,000 poster. Despite having 4,100 or so posts as practice, people still don't know how to count.
The Admin's Parade of Updates.
These last few months have seen a good deal of development on the site. Starting with the addition of automatic "thewebcomic.com" domains and proceeding to the inverting of the comics list in the navigation menu, our delightfully delicious dan has done dramatic deeds for us at SmackJeeves.
Thanks to his efforts, the following improvements were implemented:
Secret Santa 2006
Trebor donned the red hat this year, and took charge of SmackJeeves Secret Santa 2006 project. He collected the names, and then secretly handed them out. Despite some confusion, a handful of flakeouts and a couple of missteps, the project was largely hailed as a success. At the final count, 74 comics were made and given out. 15 people flaked out, leaving an estimated 68 who participated. It was an excellent turn out by the community as a whole, and we here at SmackTalk would like to say, "Bravo!" to all the participants.
Controversy over Ads
Controversy has been raging in the forums regarding recent changes to advertising policy. The increase in advertising on the navigation pages, and on comics while not logged on, was announced as "experimental" by Dan on the 6th of January. Since then the responses have been passionate and varied. Some noteworthy responses include "The ones that move scare and confuse me," "It's getting a tad ridiculous, actually." And conversely, "Project Wonderful is indeed wonderful!"
To those hoping the current way of things is just a phase, tough luck: In an exclusive interview, Dan told Smack Talk "Unless I figure out a better way to bring in money, yes, ads will stay on Smack Jeeves in some form or another indefinitely." If that's what it takes to keep Smack Jeeves free, maybe its not such a bad thing. |
|||||||
Unfortunately, it became very clear, very fast, that a forum without moderation isn't a very fun forum at all. Cutething drank tea and watched the madness go down until Admin deleted everything, made the forum moderated, and posted some rules for Spamalot.
