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Entry tags:	fandom: harry potter

Snapes Off the Astral Plane or The Snape Who Killed COS Forums
Thanks to flying_phoenix who found a lot of these links and posted them on harmonywank.</b>

Tried visiting the Mugglenet-affiliated COS Forums lately? Should you go there, you'll get this message.

It has begun! The forums and the forum staff are taking a very well deserved break. I hope you all enjoy your weekend off, take some time to relax and forget about Harry and his trials... We'll be back up after the weekend when we're all mellow...

Thanks guys,

lanifiel

So what are the chances of this being an innocent rest for the mods? Yes, you're right. It's closed down because of wank. About Snape.

The owner of site sums it up here. Or rather, he offers up an explanation that only makes sense if you know who was posting in the Snape threads when and about what. Intriguing statements such as

"Of course I failed to factor in the Lily/Snape thread. That gets closed and various staff members who are only trying to help appease both sides are being routinely rounded on, both publicly and privately for having the courage to just stand in the middle and be a buffer or at least try to be with seemingly no result."

have no context for the uninitiated. So, apparently we've missed something completely insane on COS. Well it's never too late to find out. I did a bit of digging to get the story.

COS mod

jessicacarstens has been writing about the Snape War since May. In this entry she expresses the opinion that "the whole off-CoS Marauder/Sevage wars are going too far." There were apparently comments, but she deleted them because the entry had "stopped helping." Her last ETA:

1. It would be very nice if CoS members did not post negative thoughts or opinions about other CoS members in public places. Be that another forum, lj, or a billboard in Time Square.

2. It would be very nice if CoS members did not join other forums if their intentions are NOT to participate in good faith in those forums regardless of provocation. Someone is running that site and I think it's an insult to their hard work to joing a forum just to spam or troll other members. If you have joined for positive thought provoking discussion then this is not spamming or trolling and what I am saying does not apply to you.

3. It would be extremely nice if private corresponce via e-mail, owls, flocked lj entries etc. were kept private and not posted in public places or forwarded to people who are not part of said private correspondence.

On September 11, 2006, Jessica posted about the site owner's resolution to the Snape War on CoS. Have three Snape threads: Snape the Hero, Snape the Villain, and Snape the Obscure.

"going to ask everyone NOT to post in threads that they don't believe in. I know what most people think and if I see you posting in a thread that I know you don't belive in I'm going to ask you to leave. This goes for both Sevages and the people on my flist. You are welcome to read the other thread but if you don't believe that Snape is a Hero, go post in the Snape the Obscure thread. And obviously vice verse.

The dissenters, however, found refuge in a thread over at the Harry Potter Network forums. According to them, the COS mods are punishing people for Harry-bashing if they dare say Harry dislikes Snape. Says Subtle Science:

The other thing I find mind-boggling Over There is the plethora of "Support Harry Potter" comments....It's a little unnerving how seriously they take the books.....

I mean--Harry doesn't actually need their support....Harry is--erm--a fictional character. He doesn't actually exist.... The people of Darfur need our support; the Pakistanis who are still suffering from last year's earthquake need our support. Harry, on the other hand, is doing quite fine in the able hands of his author......

But there is, apparently, a very (how shall we say it?) vivid fantasy life some of these people have involving the HP characters.*ahem*

October 14 was a very busy day in Snape War land. First, Jessica apologizes for hurting Snapefen's feelings. Then, she announces that they've deleted the Snape/Lily thread. Over what?

Apparently over the Harry Filter. 'The Harry Filter' is the Sevages' favourite talking point. The HP books are seen through Harry's eyes, and so we are seeing Snape through that (biased) filter. The anti-Sevages believe there is no such thing as the Harry Filter, only third-person-limited-omniescent, in which the narrator is never wrong, and therefore Snape is just a loser. (You have to admit it's a much more intellectual concept to brawl over than who's paired up with Hermione.) Comicbookworm posted on the Snape/Lily thread that her daughter, a published author, didn't believe in the Harry filter.

The Sevages MADE FUN OF HER by parodying her on their anti-COS thread.

subtle science: There is no Harry Filter. There's no such thing as a third person, limited, narrator.

I know this because I'm sure somebody who lives on the same half of a continent as I do is a writer, somewhere, and writers don't believe in Harry Filters.

Besides, these are just coming-of-age adventure stories, so there can't be anything remotely intelligent in them. Writers know that, too.

Silver Ink Pot: My daughter writes lots of stuff, too, and she never heard of the Harry Filter in her whole life. Neither has my husband, or my ten-year-old, or my football player - and hey, if the Football Coach hasn't taught him something, then it isn't worth knowing!

Subtle Science: Every sane person thinks Canon!Snape is an interesting character--although he deserves to die because he's ugly....

But every sane person now has to hate Snape because of fandom; it's now required, because of the Snapelicious Sevapologists.

So, Canon!Snape must die, anything else from JKR would be lazy writing.

Everyone knows this, because surely there's a "writer" somewhere who knows. Even if JKR doesn't.

The guy bagging groceries--who once wrote a note to his girlfriend in high school--never heard of a Harry Filter. Neither have my cats--who also agree that nobody could ever have loved Snape and Snape could never have loved anyone because he has greasy hair. The cats, who admittedly have never written anything, urge everyone to SUPPORT HARRY!

Louisa: The whole "I'm a writer, therefore I know" annoys me quite frankly. I know a lot of writers and not one of them is half as condescending as that one. I only hope to high heavens that I haven't inadvertently purchased any of her books - assuming she has actually been published, which I doubt. If I should ever find I have I will do the unthinkable (for a reader) and burn them. After of course reviewing them on my quite well publicised web site

Silver Ink Pot: actually helped to write a book about Harry Potter! I wrote four freaking essays in a book, and then I wrote three more for Mugglenet.

Lots of us have written Essays - Subtle Science, The Black Adder, Aluna, Norbertha, Inkwolf, Serpentine, and I'm sorry if I can't remember everyone! (I'll Edit!)

Anyone can "say" they are a writer, but I'd love to see a sample before I believe them. So far, what I've seen of certain people isn't convincing, and no reason for any of us who have "published" to change our minds about anything.

Do you think comicbookworm, the scorned mother of a published author, took that lying down? Here's her side of what happened:

What the fuck is the problem with these bitches
This is an unlocked public entry.

What kind of pathetic bitches find it necessary to attack the daughter of someone they dislike? How low do people have to go to feel they need to make gratuitous attacks on children (of any age) completely uninvolved in any personal dispute.

By they way, she's 40 and has as much a right to call herself a published author as any of the psychotic bitches attacking her.

And if any of the Snape cultists (who stalk LJ) are interested in seeing what she has written, you can come to the Beverly Hills Public library which is going to do a reading of her works. For those of you (the Snape psychotics) with your heads so far up your asses that you can't reference a map (which is most of you), the Beverly Hills library is one of the best funded libraries in the country since it is in such an affluent area. They are very selective and having a reading there is quite a feather in anyone's cap. They even bring in actors to dramatize the readings.

and

SIP made a snide comment equating my daughter, who is 40, to her teenage daughter. Of course SIP didn't know that my daughter is almost as old as she is.

Mostly they knocked me. I've had both fiction and non-fiction published. My disabilities have made writing difficult lately.

The partisans gather about on both sids, and the Snape/Lily thread is removed.

Which only makes matters worse, of course.

Later that day, comicbookworm made another LJ post.

The last laugh

This is an unlocked public entry

My daughter was away for the weekend, but when she got back tonight I told her that she had been the subject of ridicule by people she has never met or had anything to do with (nor knew even the slightest thing about her). She thought it was hilarious since she is the same age of many of the ringleaders of the hate parade. But she did say that what made it horrible was that these women had no idea how old she is, and that thought they were ridiculing a child (or teenager).

I told her that I had mentioned her Beverly Hills library reading, and she reminded me that they only have 11 of them per year, so that's how exclusive it is.

Meanwhile, the Sevages continue mocking the Harry-supporters. According to them, no one is posting on the new Harry discussion thread.

subtle science: Poor Harry, who so desperately needs everyone's support, appears to have been abandoned by his so-called champions.

inkwolf: Well, you've got to remember, we're dealing with people who start a Not About Snape thread claiming they don't want to talk about Snape, and spend the first entire page whining about all the Snape talk on the forums, and when an actual Snape-free thread is formed most of them fail to post in it.

In a word: brainless hypocritical trolls.

Oops, that's three words. Ah, well, that exceeds their attention span by at least a word.

It must be really sad to have no life outside of harassing other people...

And so on, and so on. We can't see how this finally went down in the COS forums, because eventually things got to the point where the COS forums got taken down. But we do have Lanifiel, the COS mod, showing up on the Sevages' thread.

So what exactly is it about CoS forums you all dislike enough to start a thread about? Is it the staff? The other members?

I'm all for free speech but you wont see a thread like this on CoS forums where people can complain about other forums. It's just professional courtesy. I havnt gotten involved in the Snape debate threads yet, frankly I dont care either way if he's good, bad, bitter or selfish. It means very little to me. But I am interested in why this thread exists over here...

So they tell her. Inkwolf seems to speak for the group:

I'm over here because I told these people that they could come back to CoS and post again safely: and I told them that the moderators were also fed up with the trolls: and I promised them that the same old trolling and baiting and thread-closing crap wouldn't happen to them if they came back to CoS this time because the moderators would be watching.

And it happened anyway.

Why shouldn't I hang out here when half the other moderators hang out in livejournal making fun of my friends with the trolls?

SilverInkPot's rant about the COS view of Snape/Lily is quite something too.

"anyone who dares mention Love as someone's main motivation, including Lily, is a Snapealicious Hag with delusions of grandeur."

But from there one you can read the arguments between the anti-Sevages and the Sevages on-thread.

Anyway, as we saw at the beginning of this post, the site owner claims to have worked out a compromise, and that the COS forums will be back. So, to sum this up, here are the reaction posts.

The Snapewar: My View by

fyrftyr20 (She's against it.)

A mod's view

benzozw4 (We mods aren't so bad!)

Jessica's Viewpoint by

jessicacarstens(She's sick and tired of all the fighting.)

I think I'm about to cry in frustration... by

lozenger8 (Dissing the COS mods is not nice.)

And, cached from before COS went down, an illuminating post about the Sevages, why they're to blame, and how they're not today's Snapefen.

And because I have magical knowledge of how the HP fandom works, a promise. Anyone who tries to continue the war in the comments here will get mocked. Extra info. is fine. Why your side is so right is not.

More Snape War Posts As I Find Them

The Sevages Have Ruined CoS, cached by LJ seek, by

ex_captain_j286

shaggydogstail provides an explanation of it all for FW

More: CoS mod Inkwolf claims the forums weren't shut down because of Snape. The mods just wanted a break, I guess? ~~From Snape wars?~~

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(Post a new comment)

	sockpuppet_rat 2006-10-27 11:16 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, HP fandom, you're so very, very, very crazy. Why would I ever need another wanky fandom when you have so much to offer? (Reply to this)

	luckdragonfujur 2006-10-27 11:19 pm UTC (link)
	I like the HP books. And to read/write the occasional fic. Things like this make me feel that I don't put as much effort as the average ~~batshit insane~~ fan. >.>;; (Reply to this)

	dracolovesharry 2006-10-27 11:19 pm UTC (link)
	More Snape wank? Aren't they tired yet? I know I am :( (Reply to this)(Thread)