Current mood:

high

"Oh, I am *so* going to pay for being involved in this, but it's worth it!"
-calluna. (Hey, sorry, but it's damn funny.)

First, I'll fess up: I am an attention whore. And I don't care. I'd post this in i_wank, but it's just too sensational to not share with the greater community. Those who dislike Gaia wank can turn away right now.

And besides, Gaia's almost like a fandom now, right?

(Warning: Writeup may cause blindness and hairy palms. And there's multiple wank running concurrently!)

It all started on February 3 in the Gaia Exchange, where users can try to rip off sell items to other users. Up until then, there was only one price guide--the Gaian Exchange Network or GEN. That night, another price guide popped up called the Estimated Value Items List (or EVIL).

Being that there were two guides running concurrently, something unprecedented in Gaia, there was a huge hoopla. I, as a guest writer for GEN (keep that in mind), decided that it'd be cool to interview the leaders of each price guide (Chibigreen Tejinashi and Senbei) and see what their views were. At the time, I also didn't know that Senbei was basically the sockpuppet of Araunah and the rest of EVIL (IIRC).

I posted the respective interviews here and followed them up with an essay on what I thought of EVIL (that they should stay around, and that they'd break any illusion of a monopoly). It was read, commented on, and ultimately ignored.

As the month went on, Gaia adjusted to two price guides. Though there was some initial bitterness between both sides, it all died down, for the most part. In the end, most people ended up supporting the idea of both lists, including myself and most of GEN and EVIL. (In fact, it's linked to in their guide.) Both guides forged a truce for their members to not flame or make fun of each other, which was respected for the most part. Also, note this.

The only one who seemed to perpetuate the rivalry was Araunah, who made occasional cameos in the GEN thread to make fun of them and also made an AYB parody sig featuring Chibigreen. However, for the most part it was peaceful.

All right, enough background; let's get to the wank.

GEN is stickied at the top of the Exchange Forum, while EVIL is not. EVIL members feel that they'd have more credibility if they were a sticky. So, CelestialWolfGirl starts a Questions and Feedback thread on the matter, which is worded very politely.

Most of the early entries are relatively nonwanky; I say my position (that I have reservations, but they should be given a chance) at the bottom of the second page and toddle off on my own. Then calluna, who is NOT a part of GEN, comes in and states that while most EVILers are civil, Senbei/Araunah...is not.

Araunah makes an appearance right afterwards and accuses her of flaming EVIL. Calluna replies that she wasn't flaming him and suggests that he might be stalking her, since every time she criticizes him, he shows up two minutes later. Discussion switches to be about S/A, and Calluna cites my interview--specifically the part where Senbei says that he's questing for a gold medal.

Araunah denies the accusations, so Calluna finds the article and posts it. He then tells her to get out of his thread.

Meanwhile, one of his monkeys fanboys comes in to suggest that I made the interview up.

I'm surfing Gaia peacefully, when I suddenly get a PM from Calluna about how he's denying the entire thing. My first reaction?

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Post that to Fandom_Wank RIGHT NOW. I'll be over at the thread in a little bit.

I read over what's been posted, and flip the fuck out. I then proceed to tear Araunah a new asshole, not only in the thread, but also in PM.

First, I highly resent you calling me a liar. That was my interview that you and your supporters wrote off as rubbish.

As a non-member of the GEN (though a frequent essay-writer), I should have no reason whatsoever to support them. Even if I were a member...GEN is just a price guide. They are NOT there to regulate the market, and it looks like the members understand that. GEN is not trying to create a monopoly.

I've actually advocated you guys, even in your own sticky petition. At the bottom of page 2, I said that I would support you being stickied, although with reservations.

http://josie.go-gaia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=58707055#58707055

The fact that you and Shadow_Wing called me a liar, in light of that, just completely destroyed any support that I had for you guys.

In short, thank you for turning against one of your supporters who hangs out at the GEN thread. I thought the flamewars in GEN were somewhat ridiculous (especially since they seemed to damage your credibility more than help it), but you've really outdone yourself this time.

Araunah responds to the PM saying that he didn't trust it because it was posted in GEN, and that he has no idea who the fuck Shadow_Wing is.

I...go postal.

Does it matter where it's posted?

Do you think Chibigreen or any of the other GEN-ers held a gun to my head and made me write horrible things about you? Believe me, if I wanted to slander you, I could have done a hell of a lot worse.

You're still calling me a liar, regardless. Though it might have been one of the people who had access to Senbei that replied to me, and not yourself, it's still your exact same words. I did not switch a single word around at all.

And if this is all a huge ploy to strong-arm me into writing glowing praise about you, go to hell. Seriously. Report me to a mod if you so wish, because I'm really at my wit's end with this.

He then denies calling me a liar again (just that the interview wasn't trustworthy because I didn't post it in EVIL), and apologizes for the implication.

Meanwhile, I'm nearly about to reach through my computer and beat the living shit out of him IRL. Unfortunately, since I know when to quit, I just left it as-is and started wanking all over my LJ and other places on Gaia. (I will drag those up if you so wish.)

While that's the sensational wank (IMHO), the entire thread is a complete goldmine. Scratch, that, it's a three-ring circus.

Besides the essay wank, there's also drama about a banner (with Ara taking credit for someone else's work) and the rumor that EVIL posted during the ball on Saturday. I'd write accounts for both of them, but that'd make the journal entry far too long.

God, I love Gaia. And there's another wank account that I should write up from the G_O LJ comm about us being EVAL BITCHES just because some of us don't think that Cigarette is dying. *sigh* But all the good comments were deleted from that...