Very bite-sized wank for a bite-sized fandom.
So, once upon a midnight dreary, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child wrote a character by the name of Special Agent Pendergast into their series of thriller novels. And the fans looked upon this and saw that it was good.

Then they attached a messageboard to their website. An EZboard website no less. Hmm. And then the board grew and grew, so a fan with the username Dragonesse took on much of the moderating duty.

Then, about a week ago, without warning, she deleted a large number of the accounts and people were locked out of the boards. There was a fair amount of surprise and scratching of heads. But it turns out that the n00bs were starting to chafe. And the tally of members went from over a thousand to two hundred and forty.

But some aren't too sure about the rather extreme measure. Well-reasoned arguments, tl;dr, and mild hysteria result:


SilverPhoenix13 brings up an excellent point - ...but how are we going to get and retain new members if they can't lurk first on all the boards, to see what kinds of discussions we have on the books...?

But quickly loses her cool - When this board begins to die, I will start my own elsewhere. Without new input and new ideas, it's going to get very stagnant, very soon.

And yet, a mostly civilized discussion results. New systems are suggested. There is much agreement.

Leanan Lalaith notes that the solution hasn't solved much - And, yet, the change in posting privileges would appear not to change the behavior. Has anyone else noticed there have been at least three threads saying 'hi' added to 'Introductions' since this new system was implemented…a section that has printed at it's top in 24-point bold, "DO NOT OPEN NEW THREADS IN THIS FORUM"?

deering remarks on n00bs... words to live by! - But if people keep treating them like they are [stupid]--or like their wanting to post is a major honkin' inconvenience--they not only won't be noobs, they won't join, period.

And then, suddenly, the boards are back to normal and the mod has left a lovely passive-aggressive goodbye note. She later posts the following while drunk. EZboard censors the post, for added hilarity.


i'm going to preface this by saying that i am drunk, disappointed and angry.

now.

NOT ONE OF YOU @#%$ GETS THIS. I'm not angry at the system, I've known for years that the system sucks. I'm angry at EACH AND EVRY ONE OF YOU who didn't offer your support, but BITCHED about the changes I tried to implement. The majority of you voiced your objections in a very petulant, immature, ingrateful way, which was rather hurtful to me. I feel extremely underappreciated here. It makes me very angry that you guys, for the most part, turn against me when I'm not doing things exactly the way you want but are all 'we need you and appreciate you' when I put things back the way you all goddamnedfucking like it. So @#%$ you all. I'm not in the mood to put up with this bullshit. I don't deserve it.

Well, "@#%$" you too, then.