The Grand History of SD.Net

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fgalkin
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The Grand History of SD.Net

Post by fgalkin »

The history of SDN is long and glorious. While the life of other, lesser boards may be monotonous and unchanging, here at SDN new things are always happening. For that reason, the SDN Chronicle usergroup was created to record this history for posterity before it is forgotten.

This thread lists the most important events in SDN's history. As such, it is recommended reading to both the n00bs and the old members who wish to remind themselves of the great history of this board and to re-connect with its glorious heritage. It is a work in progress, meaning that it will be updated as things are completed, and of course, as new events occur.


Table of Contents:
The Weekend of Hell by Psycho Smiley







Update History:
1. Wednesday, April 6, 2005: The Weekend of Hell


THIS THREAD IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE KEEPERS OF THE LORE.
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin
Last edited by fgalkin on 2005-04-06 07:52pm, edited 4 times in total.
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fgalkin
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Post by fgalkin »


The Weekend of Hell
By Psycho Smiley

It is a time of unrest on the Boards. Trolls have been stupid, and easily dealt with. The people seem as happy and perverted as ever. Yet, underneath the surface, this has begun to change. Trolls are becoming more persistent, if not intelligent. Old slights and rivalries, accumulating for some time, have begun to reach critical mass. And the sparks needed to kindle a wildfire are about to be struck....


Saturday, February 1st, 2003

While Ted had been shit-flinging for some time, and The Cult of Kelly had been quite vocal, one of the first concrete examples of what was to come was provided when Crayz9000 made an ill-considered comment in the "What do you look like?" thread.
Crayz9000 wrote:Stormbringer posted an old picture of his prom and his date. Now, since both of them were... ah... big-boned, a remark popped into my head that Elim Garak (part-time troll and generally idiotic ST debater) had made on ASVS when Dalton (who is about Stormbringer's size) had posted his prom picture. It being about three in the morning my time, and my brain not working right, I idiotically repeated his remark, intending it in a joking manner.
Stormbringer, of course, did not appreciate the humor. A spectacular flame-fest erupted, and was eventually split from the thread. However, things didn't stop there. In an attempt to save face, Crayz9000 used his mod-powers to delete the offending topic. This did not have the intended effect.
Stormbringer wrote:He made a completely jackassed remark and got flamed for it. It got split and stuck here and he deleted it. Mike then gave him the boot. (Here)
Mike[/url] as [url=http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2]AdmiralKanos wrote:Moderator power is not a toy, and should not be abused. Any sign of moderators abusing their privileges is dealt with immediately. (Here)
One would think that this episode would be done with at this point. That was not to be the case.


Tuesday, February 4th, 2003

On Tuesday, news came to the forum that the ACLU had started a board, where creationists were dominating a debate on evolution. It was decided that SDNet's Anti-Idiot Invasion Force would be the perfect group to straighten things out.
Alyrium Denryle wrote:Basically, we were started as a group devoted to "Invading" forums full of horribly stupid people. This went well for a while. However, eventually people started to not be able to keep their large traps shut, as our name was not supposed to be mentioned on our targets. Especially not our "port of origin" and got some "negative feedback" so to speak.
From the records available, it seems that two things went wrong. The invading creationists realized that the AIIF was an organized group, and discovered they were based at SDNet. That would have been bad enough, but other groups were also attacking the creationists, and the AIIF was involved in a friendly-fire incident.
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:My angle was that I fucked up a debate really fucking bad because there were a few people from another board baiting the creationists at ACLU. I took one of their bait threads accidentally (not knowing it was bait for the fundies) and proceeded to fill the poor bastard who posted it with hot flaming lead. A few other people got out of hand over there as well.
By the end of the week, it was clear that the entire operation was a disaster.


Saturday, February 8th, 2003

Saturday morning, Alyrium announced that the AIIF was being purged of non-participants and unreliable people. To simplify matters, only Horsemen and mods would be retained, with all others being required to re-apply. Rather than taking the news calmly, members and assorted hangers-on began badgering him with rules and regulations to be implemented.

To make matters worse, Alyrium had not noticed that Crayz9000 was no longer a mod, and had not removed him from the roster. When Crayz commented on this fact, Ted asked why he had lost his status. Dalton, already fed up with Ted's nonsense, assumed that Ted was just being an ass. When Stormbringer pointed out that Ted might not have known, Kelly replied that "Ted does not deserve ever to be cut any slack." (Here)

As if to illustrate this point, Ted was off making an ass of himself elsewhere. Zaia had posted a thread about a friend of hers over in Iraq. She was understandably worried about his safety. Ted decided to reassure her with this:
Ted wrote:Dont worry Zaia, the chances of him getting killed by an Iraqi are slim to nil.
The chances of him getting killed by a trigger happy yankke, looking to "get me some gooks" are rather high. (Here)
Zaia wrote:He was always kind of obnoxious before that, PMing me for pics all the damn time, but I put up with it. Then, like a few people said in those threads, something went weird with him and it was like he snapped. Got really heartless and mean, and said things I never thought he'd say.
When confronted, Ted confirmed that he knew how his comment would be received, and didn't care. However, the subject was quickly shifted by weemadando to a debate on the friendly fire incidents in Afghanistan, and then on to WWII atrocities. Many prominent members and moderators were involved.


Sunday, February 9th, 2003

Meanwhile, back in Alyrium's AIIF thread, things were heating up. weemadando responded to Kelly with "Coming from someone who is regularly forgiven for having some insanely motivated temper tantrums I find that comment most amusing." (Here) At this point, Ted fired off a few smart-assed comments at Dalton and Kelly. Sides were quickly chosen by most participants in the thread, and soon the insults were flying fast and furious. Terms like Kelly-apologist, lackey, and stereotypical [insert regional descriptor here] were common.

Eventually, someone pointed out that the thread was supposed to be about Alyrium restructuring the AIIF. MKSheppard took this opportunity to say "I HOPE HE RESTRUCTURES IT INTO THE FUCKING GROUND!" (Here) Stormbringer then pointed out Sheppard's sig, which now referred to an "Anti-Einhander Brigade", and questioned his motivations. Eventually, Darth Wong locked the thread down.
Darth Wong wrote:What the fuck happened here? This is the worst flamewar I've ever seen on this board, bar none. Sure, I've seen worse insults being thrown around, but generally they were at people who truly deserved them, like Arminius or Patkelly. (Here)
Dalton replied that "It was only a matter of time". (Here) And things had just begun.

Darth Wong decided to take immediate action, and in a new thread called Sheppard on his sig.
AdmiralKanos: "Shep has chosen to use his sig in order to intantly broadcast his anti-Einhander bullshit thousands of times all over this board (that's the special nature of a sig flame). He has also replaced it after having it removed, and ignored PM's about it. Does this call for any disciplinary action, or should we just chalk it up to Shep being his usual obnoxious self and carry on?" (Here)

MKSheppard: "Why don't we have Einhander punished for running around like a fucking chicken little, screaming all over the former ATJ forums that this person, no THAT person,no THAT THAT person is a troll...." (Here)

Stormbringer: "And that's been dealt with so what the hell is your problem now? Or is this just Shep's gay-bash-athon?" (Here)
Einhander Sn0m4n later explained that "The whole Shep angle was motivated by his phobia (he's lost it since) from his latent bisexuality." Sheppard declined to comment.

Eventually, after much arguing, Sheppard agreed to adjust his sig, but only after being asked 'nicely'.

Darth Wong started another thread for Ted, asking for an explanation for his behavior. Ted claimed to understand that people were upset, but stated that he felt unable to show compassion for others, saying "opinions of people who are just lines of text on a screen have no actual effect on me." (Here) Most participants of the flame wars attempted to hash out their differences in a semi-civilized fashion.

Aside from that, things seemed to quiet down. Most participants went back to whatever they had been doing. The debate over WWII died out. Members wandered in, saw the wreckage, and demanded an explanation. But all was not as calm as it appeared. Heads did not cool; they merely simmered. And by the end of the day, things were at full boil again.

Darth Wong announced temp bans for Ted and Sheppard. However, the thread devolved into a war between one faction that wanted to assassinate Sheppard's character, and another which wanted to defend him. Much of the debate was over Sheppard's felony conviction. For the record, here is a portion of the news article that was posted:
According to prosecutors, the elder Crierie agreed with his ex-wife that the guns would not be kept in her residence, where Ryan Crierie resides, which angered the teen-ager.

After the father threatened to destroy the teen's AR-15 rifle, Mike Crierie drove his son to the Rocking Spring Drive residence, where prosecutors say the teen pretended to retrieve bags from the back seat but got a shotgun out instead.

The teen-ager then ran to the back of a neighbor's home, where he loaded the gun, ran to the front of the house and fired a shot at his father as the man drove off, prosecutors said. Mike Crierie suffered a pellet wound to his eye and ear.

His son ran to a CVS store on Norbeck Drive, where he unloaded the shotgun and handed it to employees, telling them he had just shot his father, prosecutors said. (Here)

Monday, February 10th, 2003

Another portion of the debate was split off into another thread. weemadando, in attempting to defend Sheppard, demanded sanctions against those who were arguing against him.
weemadando: "Sheps bashing of NY is pretty much just in response to a lot of NYers being so goddamn superior...

And I was really offended as was Shep at the insinuations in the AIIF thread that he was against the AIIF simply because Alyrium, the leader is gay. How about temp banning Iggy and Stormbringer for being such shallow fucks?" (Here)

Stormbringer: "Pardon we for finding it really funny that Shep went after out two most prominent gay members on the same day. And even more coincidental when he never said anything before then." (Here)

weemadando: "OK. From conversations with him.

1- Alyrium. Had a go at him because of the whole AIIF debacle, which to be quite frank had started before Shep got anywhere near it. He was just one of the most vocal.

2- Einhander. This had been coming for a long time. The graphic gay sex threads were just a small part. Most of it was Einhander's somewhat overzealous flames and "misuse" of the ATJ forum, which I myself on several times attempted to counter. Hell, it was such misuses (by no means limited to Einhander) that led to the ATJ purge.

But for some reason him having a go at two people for long established reasons not limited to him means that he's a blatant homophobe? Why them didn't he attack Verilon or any other of our gay members?

Get a consistant arguement." (Here)
Eventually, the thread devolved into a pro/anti-American flamefest, with weemadando providing us with one of the most memorable scenes of the weekend:
weemadando wrote:I believe this is where I step in and say...

BUT AMERICA FUCKING SUCKS ANYWAY!

Image

Excuse me while I cackle insanely in the corner. (Here)
Understandably, things simply went downhill from there. Eventually, even the mods began flaming each other.
Solid Snake wrote:Holy shit... A mod fight. What the hell do we do when we have our leadership fighting? (Here)
Some of the mods were willing to share their memories of this particular battle:
Stravo wrote:Ando went ballistic (for reasons that I will never fathom) and starts on an anti-American jag that dragged me and Stormbringer in. I just remember being so angry at Ando that I was shouting at my computer monitor everytime I read his flames in anger and dreaming about us actually physically fighting (our avatars anyway, it was a fucking weird weekend)

The mods were deeply divided because Enlightenment was in rare form (if you look back at many of his posts he was just an anti-American twit that liked to make comments all the time even if they were unrelated to the thread in question) joining in with Ando, Mike who was not a big fan of America at the time because of the coming war was hesitant to come down hard on Ando and Stormbringer and I were furious at Ando and Enlightenment to a lesser extent.

The flames extended into the mod forum which we were never proud of afterwards.
Stormbringer wrote:Just to get it straight, I wasn't a mod at the time. I was only a Horseman, and that didn't mean much then. As for my veiws, Ando went off the deep end on the Anti-America shit. He can be a decent guy but frankly he's got a blind irrational hatred of America, not just our politicians or what, but just plain America. He blew his top then and there was a flame war. I think he was a douche bag then and flamed the crap out of him.
Dalton wrote:Think of a firefighter trying to put out a raging inferno, succeeding briefly before some maniac unleashes his flamethrower. Eventually, you just have to excise the maniac. Now, the whole Ted and Shep thing was bad enough - in fact, I'm used to massive flamewars with Shep, since we have history on ASVS. There was a lot of Ted and Shep-related flamewar activity since the board's inception, and that should come as no surprise due to Ted's complete lack of any sense of tactfulness and Sheppard's unhealthy love for napalm. Combined with the whole AIIF/ATJ thing, that led to a particularly ugly flamewar. This wasn't the worst of it. The most vivid part of that weekend was watching Ando slowly burn up all the currency he had with me with his anti-America flag-burning and NYC-bashing 9/11-related garbage. All I remember, really, is one big blur of fire, flame, hate, vindictiveness and...just...memories I'd rather not revisit.
weemadando had a different view of the events, of course:
weemadando wrote:Most of my stuff was me just provoking a response from people who should really have known better. My positions on most matters are well known and whether you agree or not, people should have been able to tell the difference between malicious abuse and traditional Aussie piss-taking.

Much of what happened that weekend had been brewing for a LOOOOOOONG time. Kelly was never my favourite person and her actions against several long time friends of mine really pissed me off. The ATJ had slowly been dying due to a lack of trolls and the lack of any real power due to the creation of more mod and admin positions. The AIIF was a good idea, but never amounted to much due to limitations placed on its actions and a general "immature" tone I suppose you'd call it.

[...]

And for the record my plea is: "Not acting weird at all. Just being me."
From that point on, it's not really clear what happened. All the topics from the entire weekend flared up again, spilling over into countless threads. Eventually, it just ran its course, and stopped on its own.

On December 7th of the same year, Sheppard posted a thread in Testing called "Anyone remember the anti-einhander brigade?" He, Einhander, and a few others had a good laugh. Some members made it clear that they would rather not remember that weekend. More posters simply indicated their confusion.

Things at SDNet have changed since that weekend. The "no bans except for trolls" policy has been replaced. The moderating staff has grown larger and more skilled at handling flamewars. Perhaps there is less tolerance for situations that have the potential to spin out of control. In any case, we have not seen the like of that weekend since. May we never see its like again.
Shinova wrote:May this be known as the "Weekend of Hell" (Here)
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Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin
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