zombie84 said:
This may sound like typical non-PT-fan cynicsm, but I do honestly believe they shut down the forums because they essentially took over TF.N. That site did lots of business with the official site and had lots of cross-talk and business dealings. TF.N was always better respected and more popular for their forums, so I have this suspicion that they just decided to jump into TFN for the fan-oriented extensions of the site like blogs and forums. Of course, I have nothing to prove any of this, but I know they do business together and it would certainly explain the "direction" both sites have been moving towards in the last two years.
I absolutely agree. I have no relationship - personal, e-mail, or anything else - with anybody at TFN and so I'm only speaking from my own casual observations, but what I have observed appears stark and indisputable: TFN has been slowly bullying away anybody who is either critical of LFL or just altogether not politically correct/corporate polished in their posting and behavior.
There has recently been an influx of....well....girly shills at TFN who literally come across as LFL employees masquerading as fans. They can be identified by their boundless enthusiasm and posts which are 100% complimentary toward LFL and refusal to say anything bad or even give acknowledgement to posters who do share critical observations. What's more, they're always very politically correct and the site has had more of the fake, "Oh no he di'int!" outrage of people who say things which are politically incorrect than any message board I've ever been at. Bar none.
I literally called Dave Filoni "effeminate". That was all. They SWARMED on me. I absolutely refuse to believe that any honest sampling of grown-ups are that hysterically politically correct to be so outraged. One guy there was apparently being too sincere about it, he was talking about how he is "transgendered" (don't know or want to know what that even means) and so calling somebody "effeminate" was "offensive".
It was insane. You can go to 1,000 other message boards and never again see apparently grown men behaving with such girlish hysteria. Ever. So I just don't believe that that was just run-of-the-mill phoniness, I believe that several of them (enough to dictate the thread norms) were there with an agenda.
Then, there are many users there who have just vanished. Plo Koon, DRG4, and many others have just vanished. I'm not saying that all these people were banned like I was, but I do suspect that many of them were bullied away by the LFL shills. You get ostracized there if you don't submit to the shills, and it's just....just boring, really.
Finally, I have been banned there (for calling Filoni "effeminate". And, okay, when they swarmed on me I did double-down and observe that, in videos, Filoni also has a lisp and a womanly gait. But those are honest observations, still.) Now, I'll admit to having been banned before. Like many people, I start stupid s--- at internet message boards and sometimes I look back at these stupid, heated arguments and I'm like, "What the f--- was I thinking?" But this has been different, lately. They, (a) ban you for ANYTHING, (b) ban you in secret - they don't tell other members that they banned you, even if you plead with them to do so, (c) have little to no response in requests for why you were banned. I received one short e-mail saying little more than, "We think you were flaming". They have no criteria other than the subjective opinion of whoever banned you - meaning that if the mod or whoever just has a random opinion that you're "flaming", that's it. No objective standards or fail-safes to make sure they're not power-tripping or anything else. Just, banned in secret with no notice or explanation.
I'll also note that, when I got in fights in past years (I've been a member since '04) and was banned for a week here, three days there. I usually soon admitted that I was starting s--- or breaking rules. But now, it's different. They have now banned me twice in the past six months - for two months, each - and I honestly cannot grasp why. Both times, I was shocked when I went to log on and saw the "BANNED" screen. The only explanations that make sense are some combination of (a) power-tripping mods, (b) being LFL shills, (c) having orders from TFN heads to keep everything PC and LFL friendly, (d) having LFL plants at the site issue fake complaints.
But they're a bunch of girly, ignorant (you would be amazed at the rank stupidity in the average post mixed in with all the, "Ahsoka is the best Star Wars character ev-ah!!!" quotes from 30 year old dudes), catty, stooges.
TFN used to be great. But just like everything great - whether it's eBay or the US government - it's started by great creative people, but then the great men soon bore of their creation and the bureaucrats come in to maintain the system, and pretty soon it's just crap.
Below is the "explanation" I got from TFN for my ban, followed by my response:
TFN: You were banned after very recently receiving a warning for your posts in the 3D Saga, and for some reason decided not to heed said warning. I lost count of the number of times you breached the "post, not poster" rule and despite antagonising people, you decided to carry on, inflaming the situation. This is textbook baiting. Your ban stands at 2 months. I will not be posting that you are banned as it is a long standing rule that banned users are not discussed. - Mod
DAVIDBRENNAN: You said that I violated a "post not poster" rule, which presumably means that I attacked other posters. This is an abject lie. I insulted nobody. On the flip side, I was actually called names by others, repeatedly. I calmly ignored them, as always. So if this supposed "post, not poster" rule was the real reason for my banning, then you would obviously be banning others. But I'm positive you didn't, because I know that your motive wasn't actually to enforce any "post, not posters" rule. You then said I was "antagonizing" and "baiting" people. That can mean whatever you want it to mean (which is probably the point). My posts were short and productive, always leading to a point and a new line of discussion. This is the precise opposite of antagonizing, this is cumulative dialogue. The point of not discussing banned users is presumably to prevent insults toward them. Please note that I wholly waive and discard any concerns about that, and request that you please note to other users that I was banned so that they can contact me. It is not regarding the contact of the specific thread, but rather my relations with the other members. Please just let them know that they can contact me outside of TFN. They have no means of doing so, since you've kept my ban a secret. Please just let them know that I'm banned, and they have to contact me elsewhere. Please. Thank you.
