(no subject)

[cleolinda]

Ooo, girl. After years of restraint and politeness (ELSE YOU TASTE THE BANHAMMER!), it's all coming out on Fametracker Forums. Posters are finally bringing up the "misogyny and racism" rampant in the Celebrities section, the bizarre bannings, and... the fact that no one really reads the articles on Fametracker proper. (Hey, I like the Galaxies of Fame!) If you've been frustrated with the state of the forums for the last year, maybe more--start at the bottom and work your way back up, because the mods apparently called it quits on March 7, and it's the Wild West out there now.

Comments

[pygmymetal.livejournal.com]

I'm saying Ye Olde Posters weren't the antidote of brilliant wit that some of them seem to think they were.

LOL, that seems true for most message boards IMO. ;)

*grabs a stick and some marshmallows and settles in for the flame wars....

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I also enjoy the misuse of the word "antidote" there. They meant "epitome," maybe...?

The Gift

[azabita.livejournal.com]

I checked the Celebrities threads during lunch today, and the Troll Patrol one, and I came to the conclusion that FT has resembled that episode of Buffy. When the gates of hell (?) opened and all those demons were unleashed? Exactly.

*sigh* I'm staying away now. I deleted FT from my favourites at work. Might do the same at home later.

Are you going to another Board? I think I won't. After the overhaul last year, I didn't feel it was the same. For example, the Devil's Advocate never posted again, and boy I missed that guy (?).

Re: The Gift

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wondered where DA went and what happened to him (?). The weird thing is that I was feeling really meh *before* the overhaul, and I was hoping the overhaul would fix things, somehow. Like, give people a fresh start. Nope.

I don't know--I'm signed up at Moldy's board and on the displacedsnark group. I'm going to keep an eye out to see where people gather, but... eh. Most of the people I really like on FT have LJs, or I dragged them over from the Phantom thread to a new comm.

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

you know, i have to admit...

after seeing wing chun profiled in a few feminist zines (bitch did a big writeup on her, for starters), i was kind of surprised at her boosterism of neil labute (hates women, really likes keeping the boom in the frame) and her love of the movie private parts (in which a female director pays lip service to a guy who says that rape is cool and funny). it seemed weirdly inconsistent with the people who were pimping her. i mean, you like what you like and all, but...

[edda.livejournal.com]

Bitch was where I found out about FT in the first place. Little did I know the horror it would someday lead me to.

[ambiguousreason.livejournal.com]

Ooo, it looks like TWOP's forums. Since I have never had anything to do with FT, I'm just going to stay away from it, but.. from what I've heard (not much, but enough) it sounds ugly. Real, real ugly.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, FT usually has better grammar. Usually.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

... and it's the Wild West out there now.

It's worse?

Those are the nastiest forums I've ever visited over the years. Visited briefly, then got the heck out. I've worked in professional theatre as a costumer, and I'm long past listening to poorly concealed envy of celebrities.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It's worse in that the nasty isn't passive-aggressive anymore--without the fear of active mods, someone actually started a thread devoted to bashing a fellow poster. That, and people are getting to criticize the site for the first time ever.

The female celeb threads were vile, though--I've only just now started hanging out in the Gerard Butler and Phantom threads, which are lovely places full of affectionate snark and squee, now that the end is nigh. I'm hoping to drag the fun people over over to LJ. I seem to have mostly succeeded, so there's that.

[ktnb]

Bwahahaha! *draws hearts around Moodeln* I should have known FT would crash and burn in the final days.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was pretty awesome right there.

[live-in-morocco.livejournal.com]

i've always enjoyed twop's forums more. there was always just a general tone of this passive-agressive anger on fametracker. i could never quite pinpoint the cause of it.

let me tell you, it'll be nice to actually be able to type something out and not have to worry about capitalization/grammar/being extremely funny.

i love the articles, though - galaxy of fame and hey! it's that guy! especially.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

was always just a general tone of this passive-agressive anger on fametracker

And you don't see the same on TWOP?

[sajee.livejournal.com]

It has just imploded over there. It is freaking me out. Surely, it's only a matter of time before it appears on fandom_wank or otf_wank.

I do think the forums have totally gone down hill in the past year and got particularly bad after the blackout. I also think no-one bought the OOTDs because they were ugly and cliquey.

[maura-mellon.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with the OODT comment... except I think it's more to do with the fact that, out of context, none of those things are actually funny. "Paris made me change my number"? WTF?

[maura-mellon.livejournal.com]

Wow, I didn't know there was so much hatred for (and on) FT. 'Course I never hung out much in the Celebrity forum, except on the Gerry thread (which is nearing 100, yay!). It truly is depressing over there now.

I love the Fame Audits, though. I think I've read every one, even those of people about whom I know nothing.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It's funny--I wouldn't have posted this at all except I had several FT/LJers I've known for a long time reply to the earlier "FT refugees" entry saying that they weren't sorry at all to see the forums go. And I'd felt this weird, bad vibe on the boards that I couldn't explain--mostly on the female celeb threads, but in some of the movie threads as well--but I thought I was just imagining things. Well, it turns out half the posters felt the same way, and thought they were imagining it too, which is why there's this huge outburst now.

I have to say, though, the Phantom and GB threads are warm and cuddly places. Too bad I only got involved with them recently. Maybe we can replicate that atmosphere over at the comm.

[theendofallthat.livejournal.com]

I dropped FT like a bad habit in May-ish. Tired of Wing and her power trips, tired of Glark and his shit, and completely sick of the posters. God, what assholes the majority of them are. It's the same reason I abandoned the TWoP forums. They're amusing, yes, and they're better moderated than everything else on the internet, but at a certain point...yeah. Done.

I'm glad it's finally dying. We have ohnotheydidnt, we don't need FT.

[edda.livejournal.com]

Haven't been following too closely...what kind of shit specifically is Glark up to? He seems like a really mellow guy. Did I miss something?

Because if I did, I want a chance to be luxuriantly snarky about it now.

[lezopez.livejournal.com]

I'm so sad. It's like after working so hard to make those boards so special, they WANT out final moments on the boards to be full of arguments and trolls. The entire reason I liked FT is because there were STANDARDS. Someone on FT point out that it doesn't have any dignity anymore, which is sad.

Alright and I'll admit it. I never liked Wing, though I definetly admire the tight ship she ran. I think she seemed a little... unnecessarily rough sometimes.

I never posted in the Celebrities anyway - once in a while, especially in the Pervy Hobbit Fancier Dominic Monaghan thread, and lurked in the Brit Bot's... but I never really got the concept of posting in someones thread just about hating them. If you don't like them, why did you even bother clicking on the thread?

I like the Fame Audits (in fact, thats how I found Fametracker) and the Galaxies of Fame. While I think its a novel idea, I find Hey its That Guy! to be *kinda* boring.

[lezopez.livejournal.com]

First I should point out that I meant to write "our moments".

And that I didnt even find FT til August, so I don't know what it was like before. I guess I really missed out.

[agentsculder.livejournal.com]

Maybe because I never posted much outside of the movies and celeb forums (and only in threads that generally dealt with stuff I liked) I didn't notice some of the stuff y'all are talking about as much. One thread I always hated was the Ugly thread. I would sometimes look and see who people would be calling out as being unattractive and it would make me want to cry. Ever since I got word that the forums are closing, I've basically stuck to the Gerrry, POTO, and Beowulf threads. I just hope no one busts in to burst the bubble of happiness in there.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I basically kept tabs on blind items and a couple of other threads for a while, lurking, and I added POTO to my tracking list after Christmas. Mostly I've just been busy, but... I always made time for FT when it wasn't as bitter and passive-aggressive. I'm a lot happier when things are funny and affectionate, or at the very least witty. But yeah, I rarely stepped foot in Celebs, so I thought maybe I was imagining things. Turns out I wasn't, apparently.

[skyblade.livejournal.com]

Devil's Advocate was banned at some point after constantly talking about asses. He actually returned a couple of months ago under a different moniker (not sure if I'm at liberty to say who.)

I can't say I ever really felt a severe downturn in the direction of the boards, the celebrity threads went too fast, and tended to revolve around subjects (who is dating whom), and I generally wallowed in the geekcentric threads, which seemed to be just fine. (and believe me, it's not like dorks are unable to be abrasive and hateful-see the CHUD boards) I mean, a lot of the celebrity threads were about rather dubious talents to begin with. The law of diminishing returns would demand that something like a Britney Spears thread would eventually peter out, no matter the wit of her detractors.

I know other people have been feeling this way a long time-an offshoot messageboard that has existed for months have been complaining about it. They've also been complaining about Wing Chun's moderation. I never really had a stance on it-it tended to happen in neighborhoods I never visited, and I didn't quite fit in with the crowd enough to simmer with indignation. I mean, they're fairly nice, just birds of a different feather, I guess.

So Fametracker closing has left me a little dissapointed, as it was a routine for some four odd years, but I think I'll be fine.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what *is* this offshoot messageboard I've been hearing about today? (I can screen your comment afterwards if you don't want anyone to see.)

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

Well, I have never been on FT but when I heard it was closing, I went over to check it out. Scary. Very scary. I have issued with TWoP, and don't really post over there anymore, but FT is a whole other creature. Maybe I'm just getting the unfiltered nastiness, but if the mods were anything like people were saying, I'm glad I didn't lurk or post there. I have enough issues with the way TWoP is run.

The one unfortunate thing is that I've actually found myself liking the FT Book threads, and I wish I had known about them earlier.

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

I meant *issues.

[pinkfinity.livejournal.com]

Unrelated to this, did you get my email?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Email? I don't think I did. Let me root through my junk folder--half my stuff's been going there lately...

[lezopez.livejournal.com]

Hey uh... *looks around nervously*

Wings not on Livejournal is she? I'm not gonna get banned from my own journal for saying I didn't like her am I?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heh. Not that I know of, no. Although I fully expect to see the "Last One Out" blowout brought up by at least one of the TWOP/Damn Hell Ass King bloggers. Bitterly.

[doctorzbornak.livejournal.com]

I find it so funny how so much of the comments/drama revolve around Jennifer Garner. I read the celebs forum daily but avoided her thread most of the time because, dude... who really cares that much about Jennifer Garner?

It did bother me how every single female celebrity was ugly and had her every flaw examined. And every woman with any kind of chin was a man (that may be my personal issue, but eh.) And after a while I was kind of ashamed to have started the Star Jones thread because a lot of those people got really, really mean.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I seriously don't understand that kind of hate. I mean, I did some rants on request for that meme, and it was fun. And then it was over.

[br0k3nsoul.livejournal.com]

This makes me think of that book about the end of the world (On the Beach I think? We were just discussing it in my pop lit class, too) where everyone knows they're all going to die, so they just go wild. It's like a wee little crumbling society and now that the president's in his bunker the people are rampaging in the streets.

I think I'll probably save the PotO thread and a few others and then just call it quits, to preserve my memories. I was lucky enough to never have any real bitter feelings about anything on FT until just now.

[fanofall.livejournal.com]

Oh WOW. I am absolutely STUNNED. That was just... the angriest thing I have ever seen.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It's not the anger that surprises me--it's that the mods are letting it go on and on and on. I keep thinking it's some kind of entrapment or something.

[bakednudel.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's..not surprising I guess. I mostly read movie threads and Keanu threads, but after Revolutions and Reloaded came out I got tired of the snark. I do remember a Keanu thread that stayed nice for a long time... but the other celebrity threads, especially about women, were just ridiculous.

Actually now that I think of it, I believe that is where I "met" you Cleo! at Fametracker. And yeah, I used to love the Galaxy of Fame and other articles...

[tony-pius.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Shiny Happy Keanu Thread is apparently one of the last bastions of sanity in a Celebrity Forum gone mad.

I hardly ever read the Celeb threads, though. I was all over the Publishing and Movies fora, and kept an eye on a couple of things in TV and General. I never felt the unpleasantness that posters seem to be backlashing against, perhaps because in the threads I read we were mostly slagging works rather than people. And I found a few worthy sites through FT, like, um, this one.

I've been a daily visitor to Fametracker for almost two years. I'm sad to see it go.

[rockgeisha.livejournal.com]

*does victorious dance*

I *dance* CALLED *dance* IT!

[gryphonmage.livejournal.com]

You know, this is the reason that I never joined FameTracker, post approximately once every three months in the TWoP forums and have stopped reading almost all the recaps. Snark is funny. Flat out meanness is not.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Make sure you bring your hipwaders, because things are deep. It's kind of sad - it's at once a criticism of the mods for being too happy with the Mallet O' Banning, and a display of what happens when there aren't any mods. Thankfully, I never hung out in the Celebrity forums, because that seems to be where most of the bile was/is concentrated.

I'll miss the place, but then, I fly under the mod radar because I post very infrequently.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

There was apparently an option to purchase the OODT and then not actually receive it, so your "purchase" was in reality a straight donation. I really didn't have any notion that the forums were in trouble - maybe I assumed that they worked out some sort of deal like TWOP did - so it all came as a very abrupt surprise.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I was shocked but not surprised--I knew how close TWOP had come to shutting down entirely without Yahoo's support, and the OODTs were basically a response to a previous "We're gonna have to shut down the forums" problem. The fact that the forums were on the brink again even with the donating was probably part of what drove them to just pack it in. At the same time, I can see how people didn't get how seriously the need to buy those things was, and how they were basically just tokens in exchange for the donation. I don't think they were ever really intended as things you would actually want to buy, which seems to have turned some people off. I never donated because, quite frankly, I was posting once in a blue moon and couldn't afford it--my available resources were going to LJ, a site I actually did use a lot.

I do think this is a big mistake on management's part if they actually want to continue running Fametracker. I mean, Wing apparently gets published by a few papers and MSNBC.com, so maybe she doesn't need it now. But I promise you that main site traffic will fall off drastically without the forums to draw people. She was saying that a paid forum membership would be hell to administrate, but you know what? If you want to continue running Fametracker, it may be necessary. And maybe she doesn't.

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

Just my luck...to catch on to something as its ending. :)
Thanks for the sire rec.