"Is anybody else experiencing a kind of perverse glee watching this place self destruct?"
So TWOP's sister site, FameTracker, is closing its forums forever. Glark announces:

After a strong start to our OODT program, support petered out and is not covering our growing costs of running the forums. A small group of hardcore donors helped us after the first month or two went by but traffic is growing much faster than support (which has shrunk).

We like to thank everyone who bought an OODT in the past and kept the forums going as long as they did. Our forum fund stopcovering costs a little while ago but we've got enough juice to go until mid-March. I'm going to place the official closing for Monday, March 14 but it might go a day in either way depending on circumstances.

He promptly starts a thread called "Last One Out Turn Off the Lights: The What Next Thread." There is the usual insane amount of ass kissing. HOWEVER. Many former and long-time posters decided to say what's on their minds. The fun really gets started on page 47. Avocato ponders Fametracker/s early days.

The whole concept of "I can say whatever horrible or tasteless or totally false thing I want to because this is Fametracker and that's what we do here!!!" is really puzzling to those that have lurked and posted here for years. It's also insulting, because no, actually, that wasn't what they used to do here. Making miscarriage "jokes"? Un-ironically calling women whores, or seriously accusing them of trapping men by getting pregnant? Engaging in a detailed discussion about how sexy a necrophilia scene was? Calling a female African American celebrity an orangutan, and then self-righteously defending that position, repeatedly? Proudly telling a story about calling someone a "n***er" in a movie theater because he wouldn't give up his seat? And then receiving support from fellow FTers for doing that? Having at least six screen names to open and pollute dozens of threads with useless and humorless posts? Taking over threads with never-ending circular arguments without an ounce of wit or intellect? Being unable to respond to any of this without fear of banning? None of those things used to be "what we do here!!!"

Snark is one thing. Smugness, unrelenting judgment, racism, sexism, and general misanthropy are different, and are things that have unfortunately been cropping up all over the place here as of late. People that tried to combat it were warned and banned, and suddenly those things became "snark." Hopefully the old definition will re-emerge at some of these new sites, if anyone gets past all the bickering and actually sets them up.

On page 48, a few others muse about moderating techniques not being exactly on target. However, Moodeln has a few ideas to share with the class.

As I'm sure any self-respecting denizen of a steamroom could attest, interrupting someone else's public rimjob is very bad form, but time's winged chariot forces me into this particular faux pas, which is to wonder aloud: do you all have any fucking idea why the FT forums are closing?

I'll give you a hint. It doesn't start with m, end with oney. There are all kinds of things that could happen to keep FT going, most of which have been mentioned--other sponsors, letting posters run a fundraising dealio; hell, even passing the mod torch along to someone else more willing to deal with it. None of these things are happening, and Wing is why.

Here's another fun observation: check out the fond farewells in this thread. Now see how many of them are longtime FT vets. I don't intend that as a move to pull rank, just a quiet illustration of what, had the forums continued, I am certain most of you would have discovered: old-schoolers tend to be run out. Sometimes it's by choice, sometimes not; but Wing has had a hate-on for anyone threatening her own star in the galaxy of internet fame for years, and as we stuck around, we all discovered that for ourselves. FT was going strong when *I* first joined three or four years ago, and the regulars then? Are gone. This is the last generation of FTers, and I'm sorry you won't get the schaden pleasure of starting to hate it yourselves. ...

So if I can be permitted for the thirty seconds this post will stay up to go out in honest-to-god FameTracker style--one hand on the mouse, a bottle of Jack Daniels on the keyboard, and a middle finger aimed square at the monitor--fuck you, Wing. This was the best thing you ever did, and you were too busy wanting Claire Danes' life to realize it.

Ah, because it is bitter, and because it is the wank. Not nearly as wanky is bitpixie, who shares, "I know a lot of long-time posters who had similar run-ins with Wing. Things that people were genuinely surprised got them in trouble. And banning people who honestly ask what they did wrong even though they probably, in good faith, want to avoid doing it again? What a brilliant idea."

lwil adds, "I was mostly a lurker, but that was what i disliked the most about this place. The moderators' hyper-sensitivity to any criticism about themselves and the ass-kissing about how great the moderators were by posters hoping to get on their good side." But merqury brings it home.

I'm laughing my fucking ASS off!! This is just hilarious. Wasn't everyone raining blessings on Wing & Glark as recently as 3 pages ago?

Avocato & Moodeln, loving it. I just find it hilarious that suddenly everyone has the balls to backtalk Wing.... Funny, 'cause everyone was so far up Wing's ass that I thought maybe I was ego-tripping, questioning the mod's views. I'm a pretty big guy (6'7", 245lbs), and due to a number of misunderstandings, I always make a conscious effort not to come off as a bully. With nobody questioning Wing but me (or so I thought), I convinced myself I was wrong on that one... funny. Thus: Isn't it funny now how everyone's throwing stones at a retreating figure? It's kinda like yelling "no, YOU shut up!!" long after she's left the room. I think the current state of the boards proves that Wing was pretty damn good at modding.

But bitpixie disagrees.

Actually, I don't think the number of upset posts is indicative of the usual posts that are moderated. And I really don't think there would be so many if the boards really had been run fairly. I know that running a good forum is hard--I've tried it and, man, I'm not saying I could have done better. But the FT team aren't the end-all be-all of the forum world that some people are making them out to be.

There were a lot of things wrong with the boards and that's the responisibliity of the mods. Wing in particular has had more than her share of blatantly unprofessional posts and clicked the button for too many unwarranted bannings. Honestly. You shouldn't have to worry about being banned for messing up a link or getting a fact wrong.

Awesome. Just awesome. No board reaction from Wing et al as of yet. And we're now up to page 60.

In case of deletion, I have taken the liberty of cutting and pasting some of the best posts at twop_crit. C'mon over.

ETA: I may very well love Pippy DeNova. Fametracker "bigwig" bstewart demands that the mods shut the thread down, and gets huffy on their behalf.

Seriously, OriginalRay. Glark? Shut these boards down, like, now. How fucking dare you ungrateful assholes come into someone's online home, denigrate their decisions and piss on their carpet, after enjoying their free hospitality for so long?

you are trotting out petty grievances that really don't deserve to be dignified with comment. Hopefully all of you who found the moderators not to your liking will start your own forum and leave the rest of us alone.

Pippy DeNova's reponse:

bstewart, get the hell over yourself. Fine -- it's Wing's site. But if you can't recognize that she's been rude and has let things go to hell as of late, you're fucking blind. I agree that certain things -- the "c" word, for instance -- are way are hell over the line. But if Wing uses this free site to be rude to the people who actually provided her with the traffic that supported the advertising that made the site run as long as it has, then don't be so fucking surprised that's gotten this ugly.

ETA2: The forums are now down. Good thing I did shitloads of cutting and pasting. W00t!