Dave Willis, author of the webcomic Shortpacked, posts a comic about two outspoken, popular(?) fandom bloggers who apparently are not big on Beast Wars. It is not very flattering.

These two bloggers (one Tom Croom, and one Joey Snackpants) soon show up in the comments to sow seeds of dissent. Or something.

Tom Croom is in a webcomic!
You clearly don't understand the true definition of "straw man".
Tom Croom will tell you why Beast Wars sucks if you donate $250 to the charity of his choice!
YOU CANNOT TRICK DAVE WILLIS.
Joey Snackpants still thinks Beast Wars sucks!

And as a bonus: This all started when because someone didn't get invited to a Transformers convention. I mean, have you seen their panel?

ETA: Apparently there's a Shortpacked tag.

swipeatronspark is a Transformers ficcer most known for writing, requesting, and promoting Sideswipe/Megatron fic. She puts herself up in an anon meme with a number of others. The results are somewhere between mixed and strange, with slapfighting anons galore.

( Cut for quotes. )

Some backstory: About a week ago, rather unfortunately around the time of the completely mindblowingly awesome Transformers: Animated season three premiere, the Transformers Wiki broke. The host decided to upgrade without backing the Wiki up or telling anyone about the upgrade, and was generally incompetent. Everything was rolled back to the last backup-- which was from even before they moved in from Wikia-- and everyone went JKDHSKJDHDSHJ until a bunch of people got together to help download the pages from Google's cache and wrote programs to convert it back to Wiki format from HTML. Understandably, it's a bit of a mess.

The "Bookworm Virus" refers to a catastrophic database fault suffered by TFWiki on the evening of March 15, 2009. Though the initial cause remains obscure, a variety of complicating factors resulted in a total loss of TFWiki's database and all backups, rolling the site's clock back to mid-July 2008. -- TF Wiki entry on the event.

In search of fans who have strong opinions, lonegamer78 comes to the IDW forum to ask for some help. Jeysie, a fellow repairfan and someone who flounced from the forum some time ago, comes in to echo the request. Badly.


The old Wikia site's kind of gone to pot due to vandalism and poor editors... you'd think for all of the people who bitch about how we'd do things, they'd go and turn the old Wikia site into how they'd want a TF Wiki to be... but I guess they're too lazy to do anything but whinge about those of us who are willing to spend our free time adding information to a Wiki. </controversy> Razz

bloodandsteel doesn't find this to be very pleasing, and gets into a snit-fight with Jeysie on it. Jeysie is insulted that the fans don't appreciate all her hard work.

Let me lay this out. Our whole wiki got hosed by someone's unauthorized incompetence . I just spent upwards of 20 hours over two days trying to help so far. We're going to have to reformat and repost over 9000 pages. By hand.

You'll pardon me if my sense of humor is not working at the moment. You'll also pardon me for telling someone with zero sense of tact exactly how it is.

bloodandsteel also complains that people are being hypocritical by complaining on the talk pages, while others claim that the Wiki shouldn't have so much humor in it.

I call bullshit.

So if I were to write a completely unbiased page about you that gave you undeniable glowing praise and told about how lovely a person you are and then went into the Talk page and slagging trashed you and everything you've created for everyone to see and trashed the people who went there supporting you, that would be acceptable behavior?

I should tell Shane that!

Answer: No it wouldn't be alright. It would make me two-faced, and I'm not. If I don't like something or someone, I let them know unless I'm required to behave in a professional manner.

In summary it's a slap fight between people claiming that the other side was mean to them first, with the neutral parties headdesking all over the place. A rather normal day on the IDW forum, really.

akisawana rants on fanficrants about how much Rhinox sucks, apparently in relation to a comment made here about her friend's slashfic.

Dear Beast Wars fantwats,

Please learn the difference between "character bashing" and "Rhinox is an utter and complete tool who would totally kill half the pairing given the chance, and is practically the abusive husband of the other half."*

Please do not refer to Rhinox as "the mother hen of the Maximals" or anything along those lines. It makes me headdesk. I think my skull is getting a stress factor.

Please go back and watch the show. It's on Youtube.

Seriously, when the Pit is being more intelligent than LJ, we have a problem.

Lordy, and it ain't even my fic!*

*Friends do not strangle friends into submission.

*I'm beta'ing it. I think that makes me more defensive.

For those who aren't familiar with Beast Wars, Rhinox is generally regarded as one of the more reasonable, stable, and decent of the good guys, although like all the other characters he's had a few morally questionable moments. The rest of the comm goes "WTF mate" in response to this rather odd alternate character analysis, to which akisawana responds that we'll understand when we're older.

I guess it must be one of those things you don't recognize until you grow up [...] I guess Rhinox is just something you can't fully grasp until you've grown up.

dunmurderin notes that they're actually older than the OP. Response?

I did come up with a defense for my opinion. Your response was "you hate Rhinox so anything you say doesn't count because it's distorted by your dislike of him." So you may be twice my age, but you sure aren't acting like it.

Apparently older here is defined as mentally old enough to agree with her.

This is also when a new challenger comes diving in to claim that age isn't everything anyway and defend her colleague's assessment of FFR maturity Yes, apparently ianam1983 is the author of the nefarious fic in question and has come to show her bravery and creativity by comparing the abandonment of an immortal, sadistic mass murderer and cannibal to child rape.

It's my fic. Y'all want to argue about it, feel free to take it up with me. I love hearing this "in-context" BS. Like if the situation is screwy enough, you could rape a child and be forgiven for it. Some things are just plain unacceptable no matter what the situation, no matter what the excuse. (Hell, if you carry the "in-context" argument to its logical conclusion, you can justify Megatron's actions in the entire show, or even Rampage's. I've seen people do it.)

I'm making a moral statement here. Rhinox never got called on his crap in the show, so I'm calling him on it. What's more, I'm exploring an aspect of his character that I find highly interesting. He is not a plot device to me. I'm trying to get into his head and find what makes him tick, and why he does things like this. I'll admit that part of it is deeply satisfying to me as a fan, who found him very unnerving even when no one else did, to put my perspective down on paper, and I won't apologize for that. But I personally find that an adult perspective on a kid's show uncovers a lot of layers, subtleties, and shadows that were overlooked as a child, and those make very good story elements.

Because no one's ever used alternate character interpretation to explore the darker side of a character or faction before, and certainly not done it while actually adhering to their canonical characterization. What foolishness.

Still, for all that akisawana has a severe case of needing to chill the fuck out, she does have an excellent marketing idea!

Is your vibrator named Rhinox or something? Seriously, why can't you just chalk us up as a bunch of loonies and walk away?
Clearly you're not going to change our minds any more than we're going to change ours, so why don't you and "Rhinox" go have a little quality time together. I think it would do you good.

Beast Wars vibrators? I'd go for that.

EDIT: Apparently the ranter just isn't brave enough to face the slings and arrows of FFR and has deleted. Fortunately alanahikarichan has a few screencaps.

So, we've all seen the heights of frothiness that Transformers fans can reach, but what about the fanboys' fanboys?

First, Matt Moylan of the webcomic Lil' Formers posts a comic comparing the various incarnations of Optimus Prime.

Then, David Willis of Shortpacked! satirizes Matt's comic in one of his own.

Cue fanboy outrage, in both blogs of the involved artists. Multiple times.

And in the tfwiki.net talk page for Matt Moylan.

And in the wikipedia.net talk page for David Willis.

The heights of impotent nerd rage their fans reach on behalf of people with careers most of the fans would punch an elderly relative for is pretty hilarious.

Remember this wank (also known as this wank) about death threats over Transformer porn?

lady7jane, you were right.

( Cut because this is getting damn long. )

I refer to this as small because it's pretty much over now, but still worth a look.

Over at fanficrants, Transformers stickyfic is protested. Or rather, stickyfic with no warning. smart_blonde223 sends a polite message to the culprit, asking for a warning to be placed on the fic.

The result? Wank. She gets flamed, barred from the site, said site actually gets taken down in a spectacular flounce, and the 'writer' turns up to threaten the OP. It's right here.

Well done, TF writer. Well done. You showed those nasty people! Taking down your site means you are such a martyr and everybody will be so impressed.
*slow-clap*


ETA: I somehow missed this. My bad. *blush*

Dearest, beloved, Fandom Wank.

I know you were looking forward to great excitement today. Some of you said words to me that indicated you anticipated fiery 'judgement' upon those who remained fresh and dewey white, those you call n00bs.

Anyway, you got today instead.

Stop anticipating things, we'll just break your hearts.

Sincerely,

Sepia P. Magpie, Esq.



PS: Use this post to reflect on how you could be better people. Or just fuck around in the comments.

Cyndi, a popular author in the Transformers fandom, is raging mad. deviantArt just TOSsed her fanfic Ambrosia. What was the fanfic about? Primarily about Starscream and Unicron getting it on in full detail.

But it wasn't porn, according to Cyndi. Oh no. It's LITERATURE.

( I HAVE BEEN HORRIBLY WRONGED ONOES )

In conclusion? LOL BNFS

ETA: All of Cyndi's journal entries have been locked.

My psychic wank skills have lead me right once more.

The IDW thread was relatively polite when I first posted, if a bit teal deer. Then Damolishor showed up and it all went to h***.

I reckon that it's pretty obvious that the number of people who realise that Transformers DON'T "Sexually reproduce" (Why do something that is not only unnecessary, but which would be uncomfortable for robots) to the small number that do is indicative that the people who know they don't are right. I don't know why the hell this point keeps coming up.

*snip*

Therefore, No sex.

And don't even ****ing get me started on the fact that Powerglide, Ironhide and Inferno are NOT the boyfriends of Moonracer, Chromia and Firestar AGAIN. I'm not a fan of the borderline hentai, either.

And they're off, with wall paragraphs like you've never seen. There's also arguments as to whether Powerglide straddling Chromia is worksafe (apparently boy robot kissing falls under NSFW but this does not) and Tramp wields his boldface like a mighty sword that might also represent a penis while Damolishor slings his asterisks every which way and Jaysie urges people to stop being so mean to Tramp. Supposedly Damolishor and Tramp have history to the point of Damolishor threatening to kick Tramp's ass back before Tramp was banned from seibertron.com, but this information is not verifiable at this time. EDIT: Ah, here we go.

To cap it off, here's a sparkling gem from Tramp that seems to sum up his argument:

I am not saying you have to agree with me. Just don't tell me I am wrong on this. And here, where at least they aren't talking about sex.

EDIT: Also, it appears that Tramp's fascination with humancentricity even led him to write a letter to Simon Furman himself to convince Furman of his point.

EDIT: And now they're arguing over whether it was making out or Powerglide slipping Moonracer the dipstick. Why?

EDIT POINT TWO: The mods come along to say 'stfu before Hasbro comes poking around and sees you've implied robosexings! Understandable, given the fate of transformerotica.com all those years ago.

EDIT POINT THREE: And in our final act, Tramp cries censorship but the Mosaic mods decide to ax the piece anyway. The thread is locked and for now the madness quiets. The original piece can be found here.

This is actually not movie!wank, although I'll warn for visual spoilers in people's sigs and icons.

A few promotional shots from the upcoming Transformers cartoon series, "Transformers: Animated", were posted up a while back and a number of people reported dissatisfaction with the Teen Titans-esque designs. Apparently there was a showing of more images and a few clips at BotCon and it was generally deemed, if not Good, at least Half-Decent. The Allspark discusses.

The Phazer does not approve.

No. Sorry. Not interested in it being stylised. Saying goodbye to Transformers until Classics 2.

Anything closer to Armada sounds like my nightmare.

I've no interest in it. If I wanted that style, I'd watch Teen Titans and buy their toys instead of Transformers.

Phazer

Unfortunately for Phazer, people do not approve of him and his opinions. Insults fly and there's some sort of sidetrack about onions and their fandom. Things calm down until the fifth page, where Hollywood Hoist shows up to defend Phazer's honor.


I would say Phazer is one of only a handful of fans whose opinions I put any stock whatsoever in. He is always well-reasoned, knowledgeable, and, above all, consistent. That's more than I can say for many of his detractors, who flit about from one bandwagon to the next while spilling untold volumes of noise in every direction. I hope he'll end up liking a couple of the Animated figures, as they appeared to have toned down the extremeness a little, but I'll say they still don't stand chance against the upcoming Classics.

Ah, but the plot thickens, as Kalidor points out.

I find that statement, and this entire post highly dubious. Especially considering you're hiding behind an open proxy rather than using a legitimate IP address.

Feel free to come back with your true username, assuming it already hasn't been banned (as the open proxy has now been).

Interestingly enough, neither Hollywood Hoist nor The Phazer show up in that thread again.

I'd like to personally comment that The Phazer is obviously a bad person because he hates Mini-Cons. And Mini-Cons are love.

Botcon is the big Transformers convention put on by the Fun Publishings, offical collectors club. Each year they release a special set of figures for the con.

Well, every year it's a mad dash to get the special set from their website and not suprsingly the highly sought after con exculsives sells out very quickly.

And a cry goes out...

The Phazer, seems to think having your product sell out is a bad business model

In fact, He's so upset he's saying it's time to get Hasbro to pull Fun Publsihings license!

grayman is so incensed by the short run, that unless a secod run is issued, he's leaving Transformer collecting FOREVER!!!

skmspy thinks Botcon should have more than one event a year. after all, it's so easy anyone can do it! (WAIT, a guy who does this for a living says it's not?) Well then I really don't care one way or another!

Ah, Transformers slash. You get the regular slash-crazies with the added benefit of them all liking giant robots.

The incident starts when RG posts a silly fanart of Galvatron bending Cyclonus over a table (Mature Content flag) on March 27th. All is well, and the slashers are amused.

Until Tibby comes along. Tibby is not a slasher. Not only is she not a slasher, she thinks these Galvatron is gay jokes are getting old. The artist points out that she doesn't have to look at these if she doesn't like them. (Though, Devil's advocate here, it's not like he warns in the title that it's even slash.)

Tibby, however, is grossly offended by this suggestion, both on her own behalf and on the behalf of gay people everywhere:

It is demeaning and insulting to people of that lifestyle and it tarnishes the character's repuations and profiles. Its not funny or cute anymore and it is just disgutsing to see your pictures of Galvy ass raping (or other homosexual "jokes") Cyclonus on a regular basis. Try using your good talents to create your own characters and senarios for a change.

RG responds in a reasonable, if long, manner. Tibby happily ignores him to respond to seiberwing's comments on TF slash.

Tibby's thoughts on yaoi: It's disgusting and so out of character for the characters themselves that it is just insane. Why do you fan chicks have to ruin a great story universe with your personal perverted fantasies? It tarnishes Galvatron's already trashy reputation and makes poor Cyclonus look like a simpering pussy. How you all get off on that I will never know.

Seiberwing remains in the fray and is joined by Shinju-chan as they both point out to Tibby that she has drawn her OFC in a hot tub with Galvatron. (Sadly, said picture has been taken down by Tibby so I can't link you to it.) As well as her OFC and her best friend's OFC hanging off Megatron's arms. How's that less ruinous of a great story universe than slash, the S-dames ask.

Tibby vindicates herself! She didn't really like that picture, anyway! Also, she does not draw sex all the time, unlike some of you people.

The comment-thread goes on for a little longer, but no more replies from Tibby. Woeface.

That doesn't mean she's out of the fun, though! You see, she's leaving the fandom over this! (March 30th)

Except, less then twenty-four hours later, she's changed her mind. Also, her character Darkhawk isn't a Mary Sue. (She totally is.)

However, while Tibby is back, her TF art isn't. Well, not on that account anymore. It's been moved to another account and sadly pruned of some of the sillier pics of Darkhawk. Woe.

There is an interesting LJ entry from her on March 28. Standard frothing "I hate slash!" rant, except for the bit about spirit-Galvatron at the end.

And in a sense spirit Galvatron is fuming seeing stupid homo jokes of him and Cyclonus. He's raging, screaming and all out furious about it. He's sick and tired of seeing it and wants to destroy all that fanart that depicts it.

Edit: Someone's gone over to troll Tibby's LJ, so I'm taking down the link to that.

Anyone remember Transformers KISS? No? I envy you.

At any rate, there is wank once again. A thread on it was made about two months ago, and was reasonably peaceful because people had a sense of humor about it. Yay sane fans.

The wank doesn't start until page ten, with this phrase.

"Transforming combat robots that get their powers from molesting underage girls. I think that sums up Japanese culture better than anything else possibly could"

Since when is this kind of racist crap OK on RPG.net?

I think my Japanese friends and family members might have something to say about this.

Arguments break out over whether commenting on odd habits or pervertedness in parts of Japanese culture is racist or observation. Choice comments from both sides:

I understand the point you are making, but when you have a homogenous society like Japan, the issue of race does creep in especially considering the history between the West and East and The US and Japan.

Furthermore, your bias is clearly displayed, as Rape-man (which is not what I was really talking about anyway) MIGHT BE ERRONEOUS as compared to “Rambo Defines…” would be COMPELTELY WRONG. You’re directly implying that maybe it really does define their culture by the use of weasel words.

Saying “Transforming combat robots that get their powers from molesting underage girls. I think that sums up Japanese culture better than anything else possibly could” IS completely wrong as well. Not some weaselly “might be erroneous” garbage.

***

Actually I can qualify the one and not the other because I happen to live in the United States and not Japan (I live on an Indian Reservation, technically), thus I can say that the society I live in is certainly not represented by Rambo while I really can't say if Rape-Man represents Japan on not from personal experience, not having visited. The notion that this represents a clear bias is something you're inventing yourself by reading more into the text than is stated.

If Japanese Society is homogenous, as you claim, then what's loved by one should be loved by all. In that case we have to conclude that Rape Man, Jam Fingers up Asses: The Video Game, and Megatron: Pedophile Tongue Rapist are indeed representative of Japanese culture. You're basically contradicting yourself since your argument in this post seems to boil down to:
A: The Hideous Lolicon stuff is only liked by a few weirdos and doesn't represent that culture.
B: Japanese society is very homogenous with everybody being very much alike.

***

"And incase your interested, I have been to Japan and no, I didn’t see anyone get raped by robots."

Weird. When I went to Japan, I saw it happen every day. You must have been there during the two-month rest period, when the robots are recalibrated, and their robo-reservoirs are replenished.

I found some more Transformers movie wank (although this is about as easy to find as lesbian porn), started in the Official Don Murphy forums by a little man named Shadowfire.

WHY in the HELL do they feel compelled to make Prime look like a 2 bit street hood?

The reason for transforming into vehicles is to BLEND IN . When is the last time you saw a semi covered in a flame paint job? Why not just paint "I'M OPTIMUS PRIME" in big letters on either side - the result is the same....

When are the people makig this stuff going to WAKE UP and reconnect with the rest of the world????

When others try to tell him to chill out, he resorts to name calling.

I swear, people that hype the movie just because of the TF name remind me of Jehovah's Witnesses....

Why settle for what the studios want you to see, when it could be so much more if you would but say 'no'?

Apparently, if you don't think the movie will rape your childhood without lube, you are a plant or a drone worshipper of Bay's mighty cock. Shadowfire then reveals his mighty plan to bring down the movie.

Wasting money on an inferior movie it the act of a mindless lackey.

I have SEEN pictures of the characters, have obtained a draft of the script (don't ask - I won't tell you how), I have asked WHY and been attacked by bay drones.....

Do NOT presume to tell me to f*** off, or declare war on me - after all, the last person to piss me off almost had his neck snapped (lucky for him I realized what I was about to do, and was able to stop).

I propose that all those who do not like the look of this movie begin preperations to raise hell begining in may of next year - post protest flyers at the theatres, stick BOYCOT TRANSFORMERS on every TF toy package,

In short, do whatever come to mind to screw them like their screwing us.



Never mind that large portions of the internets have seen the script that has obviously been edited and altered into unrecognizability by this point, and that no one outside the Batshit Fanboy culture actually cares.

People gripe back at him and eventually the thread dissolves into a discussion of women and their bits. And all is well with the world--for about three seconds, anyway.

Jetplague puts it well:

Alright......we've got flames, beef, lots of bitchin' going on and back talkers. It's the backyard BBQ of Transformer fans!!

"Autobots! Transform and Rolls out...cause it's hot dogs next."

EDIT: And I have discovered Shadowfire's secret identity!

But this was too good to pass up.

I don't know if anyone's heard of the Transformers KISS series. The premise is that the Autobots must fight the Decepticons and power up--by being kissed by girls. I'm dead serious.

These are four borderline NWS images from the manga of it.

http://www.mediaworks.co.jp/special/daioh/pickup/pickup03.html
http://www.fantofan.jp/news/mag/dengenkidaioh-oct06-1.jpg
http://www.fantofan.jp/news/mag/dengenkidaioh-oct06-2.jpg
http://www.fantofan.jp/news/mag/dengenkidaioh-oct06-3.jpg

Someone posts the links at the Allspark, one of the large Transformers message boards. People wank about whether it is sexual or not to have a penis-shaped tongue coming out of the dude's mouth and towards a preteen girl.

Someone, once again, leaked material from the upcoming live-action Transformers movie. But not just any material, oh no.

These are pictures of the big man, Mr. Megatron himself. (Could someone get a screencap before it gets taken down? Please?) Done!

Naturally, the fandom explodes. The whole blog is wank, but I'll post a few gems.

I say boycott the movie. Hell, even picket in front of it when it comes out. I really want to see this thing flop...and everyone, to piss off the movie makers even more, post torrents of the movie and wave it in their faces, saying, we're watching your damn movie but not paying a cent for it. That'll get them nice and flamed. Maybe even hopefully teach them a lesson about messing with the original.

How mature.

We all know they were aliens, but do they have to look like pretty junk put together by a tattoo artist? I mean, I'll give it up, Megatron looks sic. He looks like a creature that'll stir up some s**t. BUT DONT' CALL HIM MEGATRON!!! Starscream looks like a Macross reject. Bumblebee looks sic also, but can we, just for the sake of keeping some kind of purity, call him Sunstreaker? I know Lambo won't give up the rights to use their cars and its all good. This piece of crap movie is going to only generate the revinue as the price of maybe 2 Lambo Murcielagos. Optimus is the only one that has the Classic look, but looks like a bionicle. All in all, HORRIBLE!!!


I have one thing to say: The word 'purity' should never, ever be used in this fandom again. They were pissed enough when Armada swung around and Thrust went from second-string doof to master tactician, Wheeljack turned into a Decepticon, and Starscream actually got some characterization.

NeoGalvatron01 brings logic:


I mean, just in that splash page on Seibertron (so much for being unbiased) I see 6 COMPLETELY different designs for Megatron under the heading "This is Megatron", none that would translate to anything realistic, and I'm sure he'll have 6 more before the franchise dries up completely. Yet THIS Megatron is suddenly not good enough? You know what? Get over it and go bitch about Star Wars some more. At least we've SEEN those movies.


Some agree, others say "It is my belief that NeoGalvatron01 is a F**king Mole."

I'm just wondering how they'll make something that complex into a toy.

Over at tffans.com, LoneDrifter asks Are there any female Transformer fans? Or is this a "Loch Ness Monster" type of myth? He apparently does not know who writes the bulk of the Mary Sues, the squeeing over favored characters, and the slash in this fandom.

People genially provide names of known Transformers fanfemales, post pictures of them as proof, and give personal anecdotes.

Lazerblast either brings the stupid or the sarcasm; I’m not sure: There's no such thing as female TFans. Ovaries are natural repellants to little plastic transferring robots.

HEADMASTER clearly brings the stupid: To those who have seen, been with, or is married to a female TF fan, thats great. But, I have to see one. But if I do, the reaction I would have would be similar to watching two cars hit each other RIGHT in front of you. Because we are like the wild, timid deer of the fandom.

UltimateTransfan shows who wears the pants armor in this fandom with this picture. Of course this is followed by speculation of whether she is naked in there.

Therosk makes no sense: couldn't help but think that meeting female TFans being a rare occurance as too out of place when meeting females would be pretty rare for some of u fullstop.M

And Shadow ES makes a good point:I don't really want to hook up with a female fan. I need someone in my life saying "You can only buy one, because we're going out to eat tonight" , not "Hey, get these other seven too!"

It’s frozen now, sadly, but it’s a fun (yet minorly sexist, according to some) peek at Transfandom’s fanboys.

I'm surprised no one's done this yet (and if they have and I didn't see it, I truly apologize).

So, the Transformers live-action movie trailer came out early because someone
posted it on YouTube. It's deleted, but can be seen on the official site here.

First Don Murphy speaks out.

Okay just ducked into the trailer here after letting Michael know that the
teaser site is crashing every few minutes because of the insanely heavy traffic.
He was pleased and commented that it is NOT a trailer. Or even really a teaser.
He called it an "announcement" and I guess it is. I mean there's no footage from
the film in there. We are on Day 29 of 81. Still so much to do. So let's call it
an announcement because he's the director.

Anyway here's the day-

1- Some lowlife scum illegally posted the "announcement" on YOUTUBE this
morning. ( I wonder he he was from Wales?)
2- We got it down within a few hours.
3- Dreamworks decided, screw it, it's ready, you want it that bad you might as
well have a great copy of it. So the site went live a few days early.
4- Site started getting 100,000 hits an hour. Insane. Site not ready for that.
Downloading very slow.
5- You guys reported in your feelings.
So that's the story gang.

Discussion ensues there and in other spots (where there are angry postings
and accusations of having a Bumblebee fetish), check the whole forum area for fun. There are arguements on everything from the color of the sky on Mars to the expected "They aren't making things exactly like they were in 1984! This movie will suck!"

Anyone else who has links to wank on this particular subject is invited to post them and I shall include them here.