The wank will be with you... always
I have been alerted that there is fresh wank over at boards.theforce.net, Star Wars fandom spooge central.

In short, the TFN site ownership has request the names, phone numbers, and addresses of the entire volunteer mod staff. If the moderators do not hand this over, they would lose their mod powers. And if all the mods and staff leave, the site owner has threatened to shut it all down.

An element of site ownership has told the entire Mod Squad that we must provide him with our real names and addresses and such by registering at another message board and then passing on our user names there to him through G-S. If we do not, we get demoted. All future moderators will have to provide this information. This may be expanded to cover City Representatives as well.
The Mod Squad and Old Folks Home have two major issues.

1) The security of the information and the purpose behind the information gathering. As everyone is probably well aware, the Mod Squad is about as leaky as the Titanic. This has fostered worries about how secure this information would be, even though it?s being stored elsewhere. No system is perfect, and there is the worry that that information might come out and what might be done with that information. And we?ve yet to be told why we need to give it (though the guess that it is something along the lines of ?if LFL sues, it?s on the shoulders of the moderators?).

2) The way that this has been handled by site ownership. More than anything else, I think that?s what?s at the heart of this. The feeling in the Mod Squad and Old Folks Home is that an element of the site ownership does not care about the message boards and the users and moderators here in any way at all. We as a group have not been provided with reasons why the information is needed; we feel that we?ve been threatened; we feel that we?ve been insulted; and finally we feel that we?ve been ignored.

It all leaks out when certain mods are spotted as being mere mortals.

And yes, slash even gets a brief mention!

Apparently it's 'settled' now, with a statement from the site owner, but this being TFN... Who knows? Many are still up in arms that the demoted mods haven't recieved VIP status, as is the standard for ex-mods.

ETA: A bit of snark from Jeff 42. (Scroll halfway down.)
A much better Cliff Notes version from

lannamichaels

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lannamichaels
2004-02-29 07:06 am UTC (link)

Alright, here we go. I'm not a fandom wanker, though I am a bit of a wanker.

Fandom creds: I go by Liz Skywalker over there. Modded for a year, stepped down. Let's see if I can recap the important and pertinent points.

-Scott sold out his share of TFN. Philip Wise, who everyone already knew was a bastard, bought it out. But since, like J*osh, he never posted, we were all fine with it.

-Philip is a complete and utter arsehole to the mods. Hacked thread here, courtesy of Darthy. In it, he calls them paranoid, which they have every right to be (mods have to change their passwords very often and it has to be long and use q08234 shite) and doesn't answer any of their concerns.

-One by one, they fall to darkness and change color schemes.

-Philip returns at the end of 48 hours and starts demoting people.

-People in comms have a cow. Mods are going left and right.

-epic brings up the slash debate and bring me into it which is stupid stupid stupid. Why? Because the slash debate will get your thread closed.

-But since the mods actually have a stake in this thread, they keep it open.

-No, I'm not bitter. Hmph.

-The thread goes through a series of lockings because the remaining mods are going to bed and need someone to babysit the thread.

-It's finally closed when Philip explains himself. Which, yeah, he doesn't. Incidentally, I left the boards for four hours and then thread jumped from six pages to eighteen.

-Through all this, it's become phenomenally clear that there is nothing we can do, the boards are going to hell, Philip only wants money (except that he says he makes no money off the boards and I'm inclined to believe him), and Josh is his bitch.

-And if Josh is his bitch, goddammit, I want pictures.

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	dunc 2004-02-29 07:13 am UTC (link)
	I am so over my head with this... TFN wank is near impossible for the casual reader. Thank you. :) Mind if I link it from the main post? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

lannamichaels
2004-02-29 07:16 am UTC (link)

No prob. Want me to go more in depth? I've been following for a bit. There's just so much pissing going on. And you might want to link to Jeff's newbie joke. Of course, background for that is that there's always a part of the mod squad update that problem users were discussed, and there's some shite and trying-to-be-teh-funneh going on about that.

TFN is too fucking esoteric.

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(Anonymous)
2004-02-29 07:27 am UTC (link)

"It's irresponsible of us to not have the contact info for people that volunteer on the site."

What... the shit... is THAT about?

Okay, how long has the JC been running before he decided to shove his face into things? That man needs to be kicked in the face repeatedly. I'd volunteer, but I don't think I have adequate leg strength to put as much power into the kicks as are needed.

-And if Josh is his bitch, goddammit, I want pictures.

I would pay good money for that.

-Danni

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lannamichaels
2004-02-29 07:30 am UTC (link)

What... the shit... is THAT about?

It's either to send them Christmas cards or name them in a deposition. Either way, it's fucked up and unnecessary. Mods are not responsible for what is posted on the boards. Thus spake the TOS.

Okay, how long has the JC been running before he decided to shove his face into things?

Just about six years. Two years on UBB, the rest of it on Snowboards. And it's been running pretty well, considering how big it is and how wanky the Star Wars fandom is as a whole.

I would pay good money for that.

I think we all would. I'd chip in a few "not giving Josh a shiner at C3" coupons.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	cleolinda 2004-02-29 02:41 pm UTC (link)
	Page 21: "I am going to go on a fast! I am not going to eat or drink or sleep until all of the mods are reinstated and Phillip issues a comprehensive apology!" "Can I have the food that you don't eat?" Heeeeeeeeee. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kazzik 2004-02-29 09:32 pm UTC (link)
	I love you. I would like this to be known. <3 I haven't been to the boards in a crazy long time. Because they are insane, and because whenever I consider it, I happen to speak to you and change my mind v quickly. Thank you for the cliff notes sweetling >:D (Reply to this)(Parent)

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