A mini-wank of epic-proportions
At first, I thought Moonlight had generated another wank. This is pretty wanky. But not Fandom_Wank levels, because a) I'm involved in the wank, b) the majority of the wank took place behind closed doors on a password protected site, c) the wank is not particularly big and (possibly most important) d) it is not terribly funny.
Here's the mini-wank:
Once upon a time, there was a little fandom. Apparently a too little fandom, because they canceled the TV show in question, "Moonlight." The fandom began with one big site, MoonlightFans. It Joomla'd (went kablooey) left and right and prompted a woman named Leeser to start her own site, MoonlightLine.
The site was riddled with overprotective, mommying mods who frequently tried to quash rijane and Hydriotaphia and Eris and others who simply wouldn't shut up. The fans used logic and the fact that they were grown women (who just happened to have fallen in love with a drop dead gorgeous vampire) to "attack" the site. They were modded, their posts altered, yelled at via PM and told that they were ruining the site.
Leeser was called in to overrule the mods and maintain the peace. There was some sickening "we are family" moments and some abusing of the logic/silliness of ri and H and a general tone of repressive modding all around. But Leeser supposedly had the inside scoop on renewal efforts, knew show folk and was the biggest Big Name Fan in all the land, so folks stuck around. She kept up the fight long after other sites had given up and desperate women everywhere clinged to her (yes, go bleach your mind of that visual, okay?)
Sometime in the middle of the renewal efforts, the entire mod squad quit the board. Without a word. They started their own web site and left the fandom in Leeser's capable hands.
A lot of stuff happened. One very dedicated fan finally uncovered Leeser's sins. She'd been skimming money from Moonlight fans since nearly the beginning. For details of her sins in serious fashion, click here. For the wanky version, click here.
Now, all this is bad enough, but it turns out that the mods who fled the site knew what Leeser was up to. They knew that numbers for the Moonlight Convention didn't add up, they knew that Leeser had been lying about having contacts with Joel Silver Productions. The mods never contacted anyone else in the fandom, instead they let Leeser fleece the fandom further while they retreated to their own site (MoonlightForever) with campaigning made verbotten. Leeser told her version of events, that it was all about campaigning and some personal tiffs.
When the shit hit the fans, the mods finally came out of the woodwork and produced documented evidence of Leeser's shenanigans. Something that should have been done months ago, before yet more money went into her pocket.
Since they stepped forward, the mods - led by GinaJas - were lauded as heroes in the fandom and the users who fled Moonlightline jumped to Moonlightforever. Things were mellow for a while. We lusted, we ficced, we all played nice.
Until January, when the ML4ever people announced that they'd found an even stupider name: VampLoveForever. They were adding True Blood and Twilight to the fandom altar. This as the Moonlight DVDs were about to drop and reruns to air on the SciFi Channel. A very bad flash animation and banner showed Moonlight pushed off to the side.
All hell broke loose. Despite the mod assertions, no one wanted to be part of the even-crazier Twilight fandom and the vomitous True Blood fandom. The complaints raged. The bitching raged. The stories from the mods were confused at best - at first it was because Leeser backordered the domain, then the change was because the fans asked for it, then they wanted to attract more fans, then it was because it was their damned web site and they'd do as they pleased.
In a tangential issue regarding the overly restrictive placement of slash in the fic area and intrusive age restrictions on fic, I flounced from the site and didn't post again. Until Friday night.
While I was away, the wank raged on. People deemed the new direction unwelcome and cried over yet another loss of Moonlight, that the flash was piss poor, that the banner (which oddly sported Nosferatu and Bela Lugosi in about 2/3 of it) was unappealing, etc.
Bear in mind during this entire time, I didn't post once. Not once. I didn't even visit the temporary board set up while they changed servers. Until H managed to poke me into peeking in Thursday night. But I did. not. post. The only disparaging thing I said during the entire debacle was that "VampLoveForever" sounded like a bad porn name (which the Admin, GinaJas lol'd at in her post) and which I stand by.
The wank was long-winded and got a bit heated and finally Gina erupted with a "Bitch in Charge" post. Here's a screencap in case that disappears.
Again. All of this was going on while I was away, trying to regain my sanity.
Her post was enough to drive off redwinter101, one of the most prolific authors on the site. She deleted her fic and her offices were summarily removed. Now, a PM to her would have been nice here, but it didn't happen. And a thread popped up asking what happened to her fic.
In the course of the conversation, Gina outed a friend of mine, Eris, who had been anonymously posting under another name. And she asserted that she'd done no retaliation or the like along the way.
I oh-so-helpfully posted:
"I've been quiet for the most part on all these matters, but I checked with red and she's okay with me opening my big, fat mouth.
The outing of Capri publicly reeks of retaliation. Unless I missed her own unmasking in the transition (which I am bringing up solely because Gina outed her on this thread).
It would be nice if the mods inquired what prompted a number of prolific authors (red, myself, Capri, Hydriotaphia) to pull their fics, but they are in no way obligated to do so. The reasons may all be the same, they may not."
And then I applied my classic sense of humor and changed my avi to:
I yoinked it from Fandom_Wank and thought it was funny. H claims (and is right) that I was baiting her a bit. But the reaction was not exactly proportionate:
"I won't be rude and put this out publicly as you are so apt to do to me, but your avatar is frankly offensive since it is a personal attack on me as those were my words. I ask that you remove it. Because frankly, you are correct, this is NOT a democracy, and you and your crew of malcontents can go forth and plague someone elses site."
I removed it immediately, but a PM war ensued. Because I objected to a) being accused of malcontent that I wasn't part of (I've done my share, but that wasn't mine) and b) being called a plague (yes, Gina, being told you plague someone infers that you are a plague)
In the subsequent PM wars (see 1, 2, 3 and 4), Gina held me responsible for the sins of my friends and I pointed out that would be unfair, just as it would be unfair for me to hold her accountable for the actions of her "friend" Leeser last spring. She took umbrage to that and continued to be confrontational and, imho, rude as fuck to me.
I resolved that I wanted out of this fakakta fandom. I went through all my posts and replaced the content with "This is not a democracy" ('cause I'm mature like that). There were two author thread I contributed to at length that were locked and my blood pressure was steadily rising. I've never liked the mods at that site and the general attitude and this complete lack of disrespect was the last straw.
I asked her to delete my account, which she promised to do "in the morning"
Meanwhile, back on the thread, she posted the following in response to concerns from members about the fleeing of the authors: "I am NOT driving anyone away - these people chose to leave of their own volition. I asked NO ONE to leave, I drove NO ONE away with my actions."
I've never been known to keep my mouth shut when someone is clearly lying. So I posted my nu-uh:
"Since I've already been painted with vicious brush and have asked for my account to be deleted (which Gina has helpfully agreed to do "in the morning"), I'm going to do some of that "calling out publicly" you hate so much.
You are lying, Gina. You point blank told me to go.
In a PM at 11:48 p.m., you said (in response to the *one* thing I posted on this entire matter in more than a week): "Because frankly, you are correct, this is NOT a democracy, and you and your crew of malcontents can go forth and plague someone elses site."
I then changed my avi to:
Her response:
Dear rijane, I knew you could not go quietly. At least include the whole pm. Here I will:
I won't be rude and put this out publicly as you are so apt to do to me, but your avatar is frankly offensive since it is a personal attack on me as those were my words. I ask that you remove it. Because frankly, you are correct, this is NOT a democracy, and you and your crew of malcontents can go forth and plague someone elses site.
GinaJas
And even after this rijane, I'm still not deleting your account until morning, allowing you to retrieve anything you might need. I'll not go running to delete it now hoping to stave off another attack.
G
Mine:
"I had planned to go quietly when I first yanked my fics. It was your PM that prompted my infamous "screaming."
For those keeping score at home, I did not visit the temporary site. At all. I did not post, I did not read. I only logged into this site for the first time at about 11 p.m. EST Friday.
And I left out the first bit because it was irrelevant. But to clarify, I had an avi up from Fandom_Wank that said "This is not a democracy," which Gina took umbrage to.
And, as I pointed out in my response,
"you're more than welcome to point it out publicly. It was not meant to be a personal attack. It was supposed to be funny. I'll have to revisit the thread to see where/if you said it. I honestly don't recall you doing so.
The avatar is from F_W - you can go there and check out their avatars yourself. It's also where I got my "The Internet is for Porn" avi I had up for a while.
And if I'm not welcome, I'm more than happy to take myself elsewhere. And I'll be sure to spread the word of the warm family atmosphere that abounds herein."
You have nothing here I want. Delete away.
Best,
The Bitch Who's Not in Charge. "
Gina, for once, listened to me.
And so all traces of rijane have been wiped from the porn-o-riffic Vamp Love Forever.
And that is the story of my mini-wank with VLF. I swear to God, I will never be part of a fandom that is made up mostly of menopausal women ever again.
Here's the mini-wank:
Once upon a time, there was a little fandom. Apparently a too little fandom, because they canceled the TV show in question, "Moonlight." The fandom began with one big site, MoonlightFans. It Joomla'd (went kablooey) left and right and prompted a woman named Leeser to start her own site, MoonlightLine.
The site was riddled with overprotective, mommying mods who frequently tried to quash rijane and Hydriotaphia and Eris and others who simply wouldn't shut up. The fans used logic and the fact that they were grown women (who just happened to have fallen in love with a drop dead gorgeous vampire) to "attack" the site. They were modded, their posts altered, yelled at via PM and told that they were ruining the site.
Leeser was called in to overrule the mods and maintain the peace. There was some sickening "we are family" moments and some abusing of the logic/silliness of ri and H and a general tone of repressive modding all around. But Leeser supposedly had the inside scoop on renewal efforts, knew show folk and was the biggest Big Name Fan in all the land, so folks stuck around. She kept up the fight long after other sites had given up and desperate women everywhere clinged to her (yes, go bleach your mind of that visual, okay?)
Sometime in the middle of the renewal efforts, the entire mod squad quit the board. Without a word. They started their own web site and left the fandom in Leeser's capable hands.
A lot of stuff happened. One very dedicated fan finally uncovered Leeser's sins. She'd been skimming money from Moonlight fans since nearly the beginning. For details of her sins in serious fashion, click here. For the wanky version, click here.
Now, all this is bad enough, but it turns out that the mods who fled the site knew what Leeser was up to. They knew that numbers for the Moonlight Convention didn't add up, they knew that Leeser had been lying about having contacts with Joel Silver Productions. The mods never contacted anyone else in the fandom, instead they let Leeser fleece the fandom further while they retreated to their own site (MoonlightForever) with campaigning made verbotten. Leeser told her version of events, that it was all about campaigning and some personal tiffs.
When the shit hit the fans, the mods finally came out of the woodwork and produced documented evidence of Leeser's shenanigans. Something that should have been done months ago, before yet more money went into her pocket.
Since they stepped forward, the mods - led by GinaJas - were lauded as heroes in the fandom and the users who fled Moonlightline jumped to Moonlightforever. Things were mellow for a while. We lusted, we ficced, we all played nice.
Until January, when the ML4ever people announced that they'd found an even stupider name: VampLoveForever. They were adding True Blood and Twilight to the fandom altar. This as the Moonlight DVDs were about to drop and reruns to air on the SciFi Channel. A very bad flash animation and banner showed Moonlight pushed off to the side.
All hell broke loose. Despite the mod assertions, no one wanted to be part of the even-crazier Twilight fandom and the vomitous True Blood fandom. The complaints raged. The bitching raged. The stories from the mods were confused at best - at first it was because Leeser backordered the domain, then the change was because the fans asked for it, then they wanted to attract more fans, then it was because it was their damned web site and they'd do as they pleased.
In a tangential issue regarding the overly restrictive placement of slash in the fic area and intrusive age restrictions on fic, I flounced from the site and didn't post again. Until Friday night.
While I was away, the wank raged on. People deemed the new direction unwelcome and cried over yet another loss of Moonlight, that the flash was piss poor, that the banner (which oddly sported Nosferatu and Bela Lugosi in about 2/3 of it) was unappealing, etc.
Bear in mind during this entire time, I didn't post once. Not once. I didn't even visit the temporary board set up while they changed servers. Until H managed to poke me into peeking in Thursday night. But I did. not. post. The only disparaging thing I said during the entire debacle was that "VampLoveForever" sounded like a bad porn name (which the Admin, GinaJas lol'd at in her post) and which I stand by.
The wank was long-winded and got a bit heated and finally Gina erupted with a "Bitch in Charge" post. Here's a screencap in case that disappears.
Again. All of this was going on while I was away, trying to regain my sanity.
Her post was enough to drive off redwinter101, one of the most prolific authors on the site. She deleted her fic and her offices were summarily removed. Now, a PM to her would have been nice here, but it didn't happen. And a thread popped up asking what happened to her fic.
In the course of the conversation, Gina outed a friend of mine, Eris, who had been anonymously posting under another name. And she asserted that she'd done no retaliation or the like along the way.
I oh-so-helpfully posted:
"I've been quiet for the most part on all these matters, but I checked with red and she's okay with me opening my big, fat mouth.
The outing of Capri publicly reeks of retaliation. Unless I missed her own unmasking in the transition (which I am bringing up solely because Gina outed her on this thread).
It would be nice if the mods inquired what prompted a number of prolific authors (red, myself, Capri, Hydriotaphia) to pull their fics, but they are in no way obligated to do so. The reasons may all be the same, they may not."
And then I applied my classic sense of humor and changed my avi to:
I yoinked it from Fandom_Wank and thought it was funny. H claims (and is right) that I was baiting her a bit. But the reaction was not exactly proportionate:
"I won't be rude and put this out publicly as you are so apt to do to me, but your avatar is frankly offensive since it is a personal attack on me as those were my words. I ask that you remove it. Because frankly, you are correct, this is NOT a democracy, and you and your crew of malcontents can go forth and plague someone elses site."
I removed it immediately, but a PM war ensued. Because I objected to a) being accused of malcontent that I wasn't part of (I've done my share, but that wasn't mine) and b) being called a plague (yes, Gina, being told you plague someone infers that you are a plague)
In the subsequent PM wars (see 1, 2, 3 and 4), Gina held me responsible for the sins of my friends and I pointed out that would be unfair, just as it would be unfair for me to hold her accountable for the actions of her "friend" Leeser last spring. She took umbrage to that and continued to be confrontational and, imho, rude as fuck to me.
I resolved that I wanted out of this fakakta fandom. I went through all my posts and replaced the content with "This is not a democracy" ('cause I'm mature like that). There were two author thread I contributed to at length that were locked and my blood pressure was steadily rising. I've never liked the mods at that site and the general attitude and this complete lack of disrespect was the last straw.
I asked her to delete my account, which she promised to do "in the morning"
Meanwhile, back on the thread, she posted the following in response to concerns from members about the fleeing of the authors: "I am NOT driving anyone away - these people chose to leave of their own volition. I asked NO ONE to leave, I drove NO ONE away with my actions."
I've never been known to keep my mouth shut when someone is clearly lying. So I posted my nu-uh:
"Since I've already been painted with vicious brush and have asked for my account to be deleted (which Gina has helpfully agreed to do "in the morning"), I'm going to do some of that "calling out publicly" you hate so much.
You are lying, Gina. You point blank told me to go.
In a PM at 11:48 p.m., you said (in response to the *one* thing I posted on this entire matter in more than a week): "Because frankly, you are correct, this is NOT a democracy, and you and your crew of malcontents can go forth and plague someone elses site."
I then changed my avi to:
Her response:
Dear rijane, I knew you could not go quietly. At least include the whole pm. Here I will:
I won't be rude and put this out publicly as you are so apt to do to me, but your avatar is frankly offensive since it is a personal attack on me as those were my words. I ask that you remove it. Because frankly, you are correct, this is NOT a democracy, and you and your crew of malcontents can go forth and plague someone elses site.
GinaJas
And even after this rijane, I'm still not deleting your account until morning, allowing you to retrieve anything you might need. I'll not go running to delete it now hoping to stave off another attack.
G
Mine:
"I had planned to go quietly when I first yanked my fics. It was your PM that prompted my infamous "screaming."
For those keeping score at home, I did not visit the temporary site. At all. I did not post, I did not read. I only logged into this site for the first time at about 11 p.m. EST Friday.
And I left out the first bit because it was irrelevant. But to clarify, I had an avi up from Fandom_Wank that said "This is not a democracy," which Gina took umbrage to.
And, as I pointed out in my response,
"you're more than welcome to point it out publicly. It was not meant to be a personal attack. It was supposed to be funny. I'll have to revisit the thread to see where/if you said it. I honestly don't recall you doing so.
The avatar is from F_W - you can go there and check out their avatars yourself. It's also where I got my "The Internet is for Porn" avi I had up for a while.
And if I'm not welcome, I'm more than happy to take myself elsewhere. And I'll be sure to spread the word of the warm family atmosphere that abounds herein."
You have nothing here I want. Delete away.
Best,
The Bitch Who's Not in Charge. "
Gina, for once, listened to me.
And so all traces of rijane have been wiped from the porn-o-riffic Vamp Love Forever.
And that is the story of my mini-wank with VLF. I swear to God, I will never be part of a fandom that is made up mostly of menopausal women ever again.