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| The Hexagon Sun [Manu Interview]; Community Thoughts | |
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| Topic Started: Jun 8 2013, 05:32 PM (18,879 Views) | |
| UmbreonShadow | Jun 8 2013, 05:32 PM Post #1 |
 
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 The Hexagon Sun was originally established from ZTV and Northern Skies back in the Spring of 2012 and then to Gaia in the Summer of 2012. The blog is made for the analysis and discussion on community matters. It's original intent was to critique and explain the events occurring in the community that may or is it causing parasitic strain in the community. It is also analyzed in the classic community sense. I will be posting some raw, classic works from the past and perhaps eventually I may start posting new content. 
* ZTV back in 2011 to 2012 had established many affiliations in attempt to unite the community. Edited by UmbreonShadow, Aug 27 2013, 03:39 PM.
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| UmbreonShadow | Jul 9 2013, 06:56 PM Post #16 |
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KingHoopla Interview - July 9th, 2013 KingHoopla is what some people in the community consider to be a legend. He was most notably known to be one of the key figures in the turning points in the community. A former co-admin of ZooTycoonVolcano and a rebel who wanted to reform the forum tried very hard in his power to do so. He left ZTV in 2009 with a bang that at first seemed like a joke, but a warning shot. Eventually after a few months later, ZTV's administration was overthrown and the forum itself was shut down. KingHoopla was never involved much with the community after those events until he surfaced to help out with Gaia's administration. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- US: Why did you join the community and what was your first ZT forum? KH: It all began with a simple quest for new content for Zoo Tycoon 2. I was unsatisfied with the limited number of official downloads, so I believed that perhaps if I looked, I could find something else. I was unaware of the infant modding community, or of any communities at all aside from the official forums, so my search took some time. However, I eventually stumbled across Zoo Admin. Even though the new animals I found there were simply reskins of the existing animals, the fact that there was new content of any kind was quite exciting -- particularly the prehistoric creatures. US: Why did you choose to go and work at ZTV? KH: I first visited the site formerly known as Zoo Tycoon Volcano after seeing a post that Zooasaurus made about it on Zoo Admin. I have always been a bit of a paleo nut, so the prospect of a fansite centered around prehistory was a major draw. It was pure chance that I happened across it when I did, as the link was removed from Zoo Admin shortly after it was posted. Zooasaurus was banned from the site for stealing another member's content and passing it off as his own, and as a result, the link to his site was removed. I never originally intended be a staff member on Zoo Tycoon Volcano. I was content to me an ordinary member, though that changed as activity on the site began to die. During of January 2007, a couple of weeks had passed without any signs of activity on the site. I believed that, given the chance, I could revitalize it, so I approached Zooasaurus and spoke with him. He promoted me to administrator, and I began adding several new features to the forum. When coupled with an effective advertising strategy to attract new members, it ushered in the "Golden Age" of Zoo tycoon Volcano. US: Before ZTV's downfall, what sort of measures were you trying to do to save the forum? KH: In the months leading up to the event, it was widely believed that the majority of the staff of ZTV were corrupt. Some members were bullied, others were given a free pass to do whatever they wanted. Mods would ban people for their own amusement, rather than to enforce the already relaxed rules. The head administrator and several others embarked on a spree of "hackings" of various other sites, culminating in a staged hacking of ZTV itself in an attempt to cover up the crimes. I will admit that I participated early on in some of these events, but as they began to grow out of control, I backed out. I was a friend of Zooasaurus, the head administrator, so the first things that I did were to simply tell him when I believed something was a bad idea. When diplomacy failed, I took more drastic measures, such as removing what was perhaps his favorite part of the site at the time the teen forum. He had gained the reputation as a powerful and ruthless leader, so few people dared to openly defy him in such a way. After all, the internet is serious business. US: What inspired you to lead a band of rebels to take out ZTV? KH: Saying that I led anyone in a plot to destroy ZTV is inaccurate. My original plan was set up in such a way as to make it seem as if there was a band of rebels hellbent on sowing panic in the general populace and ultimately taking down the site. However, while there were countless people who wished for this, I concocted the plan and attempted to carry it out alone. The end result was a forum covered in UN and Randy for several hours, until the staff were able to remove it and demote me. This event happened several months before the ultimate downfall of the first ZTV. I did not lead anyone in the event that led to the destruction of the first ZTV, either. Shaz, who was an administrator at the time, was increasingly disgruntled with the path that the site had taken. On one particular night, she admitted that she was considering leaving, and possibly doing some damage to the site in the process. We talked for a while, and I pushed her towards it. The end result: Shaz gave me access to the administrator control panel, and we proceeded to remove all topics and members from the forum. FelixPrismus and a few others were online at the time, and we included them in the ensuing carnage. DragonGod attempted to stem the tide, but he was ultimately unable to prevent the destruction of the site. FelixPrismus deserves a special mention in this event for two reasons. First, it was he who discovered a technique for locking the head administrator out of his own account -- something that was normally impossible, as not even another root admin can alter the account of the person who first created the site. This technique involved changing the head admin's name to something unrecognizable, then preventing them from seeing the name in order to prevent them from logging in. Second, I purposefully left an extra administrator account in the site as a "back door" of sorts from which to access the forums. FelixPrismus didn't know this, and when he saw the account, he deleted it. As a result, the only account that had administrative access to the forum was Zooasaurus's own, which was inaccessible after the name was changed. As a result, the old forum stands empty and unchangable, as a monument to the past. US: Where did you go afterwards? KH: I became a nomad of sorts, roaming from place to place. There wasn't really a single site that I considered my "home" but the one that I visited most often was the zombie MMO known as Dead Frontier. I still play it on occasion. Beyond that, I spent my time focusing on my university studies. US: You made a big appearance back in the community when you were hired as a moderator at Gaia, what made you come back? KH: The only reason that I returned to the community was because my friend Aerin M. asked me to. He was recently promoted to Roleplay Manager on Gaia, and asked if I would return and help out. After returning, I helped locate and report a number of shock spam posts perpetrated by ZTV's head staff members, which, among other things, led to my promotion to moderator. I have since been demoted however, due to inactivity. My university studies haven't left me with enough free time to effectively perform my moderation duties, and since being a seasonal moderator is a rather silly prospect, I agreed to step down. US: What is your community philosophy? KH: Truth, justice, and lulz. There is nothing wrong with enjoying yourself in the community. Despite the ceaseless drama that seems to occur to this very day, the original intention of both the game and the modding community was to create an enjoyable experience for all. However, when true injustice arises, one should not simply stand back and watch. In times of crisis, my attitude is best summed up by the following quote: "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." - Elie Wiesel US: ZTV right now is going through some bad times, the forum is not as popular and active as it used to be, how do you feel on that? KH: Honestly, I have no opinion one way or the other. I no longer visit ZTV, nor do I have any strong ties to the forum. In the end, it is Zooasaurus who pilots the forum. Whether it soars into the sky or crashes into the ground is beyond my control. US: Where do you want to go beyond ZT? KH: I am currently studying Information Systems, and I should graduate within a year. Modding ZT2 is little more than a hobby for me, a way to keep my problem solving skills strong between courses. Eventually I will move on with my life, but in the time I have, I hope to make a positive impact upon the remaining community. We are pushing 10 years since the release of ZT2, and the modding community is still going strong overall. Edited by UmbreonShadow, Jul 9 2013, 07:00 PM.
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| CRG | Jul 10 2013, 02:21 AM Post #17 |
Mr. 1859
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That was an extremely interesting read. One of the best reads I have had in months actually. Being as this has both KH and ZTV's influence neither side could really blame the other for anything which leaves pure facts for the most part. As a member who lived through the dieing days of ZTV I've always found this interview series by Umbreon to be interesting. I've been a big fan of KH for awhile and I consider him 1 of the 2 members I respect in the community the most. His persuit to risk everything for Justice has probably had a bigger impact on me then I know. As I have always felt the truth must come out. Even back on CU when I found out an admin out of spite had hacked other sites I sent pm's to over one hundred people when no staff was on with images revealing it. |
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| Ignacio | Jul 10 2013, 02:45 AM Post #18 |
Ex Corrupt Staff
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This blog is really interesting. As a member i became active a couple of years ago, first at spanish forums and then in NS, so reading this for me is like reading "comunity history" which is really entertaining and informative. I also love the way this written; it feels really profesional. |
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| UmbreonShadow | Jul 10 2013, 03:46 AM Post #19 |
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Thank you both for your kind compliments. I'm happy that people find my blog series very interesting and informative. One of my intentions is to bring up community history and to hear the voices of the past and present.
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Jul 17 2013, 06:05 PM Post #20 |
 
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It must suck doing something that's suppose to teach others a lesson and they never learn from it. I did something like KH did for the betterment of ZTV awhile ago and its still a bitter back stabbing fun hating drama filled cesspool among the staff. Glad I'm not co admin anymore RIP ZTV Edited by Biz, Jul 17 2013, 06:28 PM.
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| Murdock129 | Jul 17 2013, 06:49 PM Post #21 |
 
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To be honest Biz, almost all of us old members, especially those that got involved with drama, had some kind of serious issue with ZTV at some point, and we all learned in time to just forget and abandon the cesspool to what it is now and move on to better places in the community. Honestly it's news to me that ZTV's hacking was done by itself, but I'm honestly not surprised, though I really don't get how ZTV's staff went from the fun loving golden age active members to site destroying trolls, who became among the biggest bullies on the site. It's so long ago it's almost weird, while I was heavily involved I still can't remember most of the specifics, like what precisely the Ch0des roll in everything was, but given that it's all in the past I'm not going to look for answers and try and dredge it up. There's a good reason that ZTV is an almost dead site, ostracized from the community in which it started, synonymous with corruption and tyranny and barely clinging to life And I just realized exactly how harsh that all sounded, sorry, bad day all round, I might be being more brutal than I intend |
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Jul 18 2013, 01:45 AM Post #22 |
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Hey, ZTV maybe be a lot of things but once I became mod and then eventually admin and "Co-owner" I tried my hardest to get rid of the "Tyranny and corruption" and it worked for the most part. Members were no longer banned just because they were annoying. My problems with ZTV and yours greatly differ. I just wanted to run a site, the rest of the staff were beyond lazy and only made decisions to spite one another without thinking of the actual site. This has been going on for the past year now and I got fed up and just quit. Edited by Biz, Jul 18 2013, 01:46 AM.
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| Murdock129 | Jul 18 2013, 11:59 AM Post #23 |
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I am not intending to blame you or call any names in terms of who was corrupt and caused the downfall and all that, what I am saying is that those who tried their hardest for the site were unable to stop the trolls, the power abusers and so on, who clearly appear to be the majority, and hence that's a good reason the site became what it is today |
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| UmbreonShadow | Jul 18 2013, 08:06 PM Post #24 |
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You both have logical points. The unique thing about ZTV is that, despite the drama and controversies its been involved in, it is not a dead site per se in the way we could say for forums like Environ, Tesara and soon to be Northern Skies (if not already fully dead). Some activity still exists, and that is because the people there stuck there for the whole ride. |
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| UmbreonShadow | Jul 20 2013, 02:50 AM Post #25 |
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FelixPrismus Interview - July 20th, 2013 FelixPrismus was, and still is an individual that some of us remember as a guy who had the courage to stand up to the things that he thought were wrong, even if it meant to hurt his reputation on a mass community scale. He used tactics based on real life influences in political and philosophical literature in the 20th Century. He was a key member in a lot of turning points in the community, especially with forums like Zoo Tycoon Volcano and Tesara. Many despise him for his actions, but some look to him as someone who was right on many levels and have done good instead of evil. He continues to frequent the forums, mostly Zoo Tycoon Volcano, but puts most of his time in his studies on foreign policy and the Middle East. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What made you join the ZT Community and what was your first forum? I joined the ZT community 6 years ago after I had shortly moved into my new neighborhood when my parents split up. My only neighbors were girls about my age and you can imagine I was a little encouraged to leave the house pretty often. But one time, I met a friend of my neighbor that was a guy, whose username here was SeaDragon, and we began to hang out. SD was my original partner, and if anything I was his partner. SD brought me to my first game forum, which was called Pokemon Volcano. Its name was deliberately modeled after Zoo Tycoon Volcano, which I don't have a problem with. From the beginning I was always FelixPrismus; that's the name I chose when I registered at Pokemon Volcano and it's been that way since. There's only one place on the internet that my alias isn't FelixPrismus, a libertarian news forum called DailyPaul.com. I have a whole different circle of online friends at DP but that's a different story. Anyways, when I created the name "FelixPrismus", it was for something of a writing project that I had. I wanted to give the bad guys in my story a cool name, so I based the name off of The Circle of Ossus, the bad guys from the game Age of Empires 3. I liked "The Circle" so I stayed with the theme of a shape. I changed it to prism, and after what felt like an eternity looking for a latin translation of the word "prism", I got lazy and just added "us" at the end to latinize it. I added "Felix" before it on the understanding that it meant "feline" on the understanding that the main bad guy would have a fascination with the agility and strength of a tiger. That is where FelixPrismus comes from. But anyways, my first forum Pokemon Volcano had a pretty good run. It was a Pokemon RP site with other stuff on the side, an off topic section, other RP's, etc. I had my first group of online friends at PV; those whom I remember were SD, Eagle, pokerobert, PelicanMan, and The Fish, who later would become RyuKami, one of my confidants and somebody that I still talk to on occasion. After an incident, I began to stop going to PV sometime in late 2007 or early 2008, and began switching my main site to Zoo Tycoon Volcano. PV did not live long after that. 2. You weren't a designer, nor much of a ZT fanatic, so what did you do? I was never very interested in the Zoo Tycoon games. My friend SD introduced me to ZT2, and I enjoyed it pretty well. I had every expansion except Marine Mania. ZT2 was never one of my favorite games though. I grew up with RTS games like Age of Empires 2, Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, StarCraft, Age of Mythology, Empire Earth, Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun, Command and Conquer Generals, Command and Conquer 3, etc. My favorite game from my childhood would have to be Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 (not an RTS). But anyhow, you could see that ZT2 wasn't exactly my area of expertise. It was a good game though. Once I began to play ZT2, Zoo Tycoon Volcano began to look more like the place to be for me. PV began to sputter out in divisiveness and personal attacks, and I started to like ZT2, so going to ZTV seemed natural. One incident however set that in stone. I have to warn you though, I won't hold back in this interview. I will tell the story straight and name names. That being said, this incident took place either in early 2008 or more likely in late 2007. It happened when a member named The Painted Dog came to PV. I don't remember if she actually broke any rules, but me and SD were pretty much in agreement that we thought she was a pest. TPD and I in particular began a pretty public feud that descended into frankly ad hominem attacks on her, and she went to an admin on ZTV, Mint, to come to PV and speak to us in her defense. That night I met the guy who would pretty much serve as my mentor for a long while, Mint, in a battle on the PV chatbox. it was me and SD versus TPD and Mint. When Mint came to the site, it was pretty clear that we were dealing with somebody who was a force to reckon with. Mint held us back and we reached an impasse when SD and I failed to effectively make a case against Mint. We ended on good terms and after that Mint would take me as his apprentice of sorts, and introduced me into his group of friends and associates in his fraternity-esque group called Purple Box. After that, I began to take ZTV as my home and slowly phase out of PV. SeaDragon was a good partner. He's still out there somewhere. I hope he's been having a good time. 3. You were one of the key members of Mint's group during the NHU Incident back in 2007/2008, what was that all about anyways? I first began being active on ZTV in early 2008. When I first came there, there was a regime holding the site in a chokehold. This regime was the NHU rules. NHU means Non-human user. In early 2008, members would pretend to be animals who could use computers. This was intended as good fun and not to be taken seriously. However, more rational members laughed off the idea of animals using computers and stated the blunt reality that we were all people. Some people in the ZTV staff such as DragonGod and ZooMaster didn't like that, so they created a set of rules (henceforth known as the NHU regime) that meant to question the idea that someone else wasn't an animal would be a serious offense often punishable by banning. Really it was ridiculous mass censorship of what everyone knew to themselves to be true, especially the NHU members. Modern apologists for the NHU regime will say that the anti-NHU members were radicals and pyromaniacs whose only interest was to attack other members, but since there is a strong case that had there never been an NHU regime in the first place that anti-NHU members would have been much more calm and collected without having to rebel against the whole board rules in order to point out the obvious, this interpretation is clearly incorrect. The war guilt, the motivation for aggression, must be pinned on the administrators who created and apologized for the censorship that pervaded the board in 2007 and after, not on those who stood for free speech and common sense. Since that's established, I think the reader has a right to know how the NHU regime finally came apart. It took a stunning joint operation between me, Mint, and others to undo the regime, but our plan worked and the NHU regime was torn to shreds wholesale. This is how it happened. Credit for creating and setting the plan in motion belongs to Mint, who was the primary architect of what was to happen. It began when Mint created a sub-forum for all self-avowed NHU members to register. The pretext was that this was to make them easier to identify apart from the regular member base, but in reality it was a hitlist put together by the targets themselves. The next step was for Mint's allies, grouped together in my first underground organization in community history that I called the Sons of Liberty, dedicated to to systematically disprove each and every one beyond a shadow of a doubt, which we did. I said I would name names, so here you go. My own personal rival in this period was Kingcobrasaurus, henceforth KCS. KCS had long been claiming that he was a snake who was trained to use technology, and I had been trying to disprove KCS for a long time, I finally was able to do so in this operation due to the fact that KCS had uploaded a picture of a yellow snake with a glowing eye and darkened background as his avatar. However, after some searching, I was able to find that exact picture from a gallery on the National Geographic website. I finally had what it took to make it known to the public that KCS was lying, and if it were known that he was lying, then it would send a ripple effect of doubt throughout the site, which it did. The NHU sub-forum allowed Mint's allies to effectively discredit the entire enterprise of the NHU regime, and as soon as it was common knowledge that the whole thing was a big sham, the always-courageous admin King Hoopla issued a formal declaration that no member was from then on allowed to call themselves a Non-human user. The Sons of Liberty had finally won. Now you may be asking yourself, why go through so much trouble just to prove that other people were human beings? Wasn't it hugely petty? Wasn't it unnecessary? Why couldn't we have just left them alone? I think those are the wrong questions. Consider the following questions instead. Wasn't it unnecessary to maintain a regime of censorship in which saying what everyone knew to be true was a bannable offense? Wasn't it unnecessary to make an issue out of people's manner of self-identification by creating a class of protected persons in the board rules? Wasn't it petty to unforgivingly shut down those who believed that it was not wrong to say what everyone knew to be true? Couldn't the people who said what everyone knew to be true have been left alone? Answer each of those questions in the affirmative and you will come to understand why we did what we did. 4. You drastically became an opponent against a lot of the policies and actions that the ZooTycoonVolcano staff was doing in 2008 as well as 2009, what brought you to that point of being a big critic of the administration? I have always been motivated by libertarian instincts, meaning a suspicion and distrust of government and authority. I don't think anyone has the right to force someone else to do anything, ever. Now when it comes to the 2008-2009 conflicts, the first thing you have to understand is that those were 2 different conflicts. The second thing you have to understand is that on both occasions there was a clear division of who the belligerents were. A famous libertarian anti-war activist named Carl Oglesby once invented a way to divide certain politicians in America depending on what side of the country they came from and who they represented: On one side, there were people from the North who were represented by the super-wealthy, bankers, federal officials, and well-connected politicians like Nelson Rockefeller, John Kennedy, and Gerald Ford that were called the "Yankees". On the other side was the "Cowboys"; they were people predominantly from the South who were represented by men from the country, small businessmen, oil corporation interests, and their own brand of politicians like Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, and CIA agent E. Howard Hunt who were considered "worse" by the libertarians for being much happier than the "Yankees" to start wars and engage in domestic spying, etc. With that in mind, allow me to try my hand at Oglesbian analysis: I believe that all conflicts I was involved in at all times and in all forums had two distinguishable sides. Instead of the "Yankees" and the "Cowboys", I think that it a very useful way to divide the sides in community conflicts has been the "Imperialists" and the "Anti-Imperialists". What this means is simple. The "Imperialists" were those who often had the favor of the main admin on the forum in their efforts, and who retained if not the majority of influence on a forum's staff then a significant portion of it, and whose goals were self-aggrandizement and the expansion of their own influence and powers and that of their friends, often coupled with the systemic use of force or coercion on other people in order to make them behave a certain way. I believe that this is a very accurate assessment of those people whom me and my friends and allies often stood against. Now those on the other side, the "Anti-Imperialists", were represented by people who fought not for themselves but for a cause, people who often retained a minority of influence in a forums staff, and who were characterized by the majority of its key players being non-staff, a genuine people's movement. Control over other people was anathema to the anti-imperialists, and they rose up against these schemes in order to preserve people's liberties and allow them go about their business how they wanted. The objectives of the anti-imperialists at any time period was always twofold: 1. Standing in lockstep against the interests of the Imperialists and 2. Furthering a wider goal that was ultimately what motivated the key players. To put it bluntly, the anti-Imperialists were a movement of heroes. That being said, allow me to now apply my Imperialist/Anti-Imperialist model to the 2008 and 2009 conflicts respectively. The 2008 conflict was less clear than the 2009 one. It began from my perspective when I was appointed moderator in early 2008 after another staff member left the staff. The moderator who left was an ally of Mint's, so it was thought appropriate that another ally of Mint's would fill the gap. Not everyone thought this way though, and the bloc of admins and mods opposed to my appointment represented by DragonGod, Fennec Nichov, Spinosaurus, and the ruthless ZooMaster, the "Imperialists", would prove to be dedicated enemies. The argument went that appointing me in place of the leaving mod was cronyism and that someone else should have gotten the position. I find this to be a curious position considering that at the beginning of every forum, the administrator class is almost entirely populated by people who were already friends with the head admin. Is cronyism only unacceptable after the closest cronies of all are already comfortable in their positions? I was most emphatically unconvinced by the sloppiness of the arguments against my position. I suspect that more than anything else, what motivated opposition to my position was a resentment by the Imperialist class that an ally of Mint, the undisputed leader of the anti-Imperialist forces, took the new mod seat instead of someone within the sphere of Imperialist influence. Whatever the case, the anti-Imperialists and their enemies clearly defined themselves between the two color groups that arose in that time. Mint and his anti-imperialist friends populated his Purple Box group, which was something of a fraternal society of fun-having. Meanwhile, on the other side were the Orange Ribbons United, the Imperialist group created by ZM with the unstated interest of opposing and working against Mint and his friends. Members of PB and ORU went at it for a long while, and for a time it had seemed like the ORU group had won out. On July 7th 2008, I was banned from ZTV after making fun of the admin DragonGod in PM partly by transposing his avatar onto an image of the cartoon character "Darkwing Duck". I took Darkwing Duck's hat and put it on top of his dragon. It's pretty clear by now that this was a pretext to get rid of me, and that day it happened. I still remember the courage of my heroic friends RyuKami and Zenbi as they stood up to the Imperialists and spoke up for me and in defense of my right to make a joke. After that I was done with ZTV and forums for a while and hung out with friends IRL and read some books. A few months later though I came back to ZTV again and was allowed back. I re-united with my anti-Imperialist friends who were all still here, like RyuKami, my right hand man, Mint, my mentor, DL, a good pal, Dark, another pal, and KH, who was like an uncle figure. In that time I found out that not long after I had left, ZooMaster, my old enemy, went insane and went on a rampage on the forum and was promptly and very deservedly put down. After ZM was out of the picture, the Imperialist power structure deteriorated and for a while it seemed like Mint's anti-imperialist coalition had won out in the end. We enjoyed our victory for a time. That is, until we realized that a much bigger threat was only just around the corner. The 2009 conflict came about as Zooasaurus, the head admin of ZTV, in mid-2009 came to replace the role played by ZooMaster as the primary Imperialist enemy and proved to be a much more powerful and much more ruthless foe. Zooasaurus used every manner of deception and self-aggrandizement in pursuit of his interests, lies, power abuse, targeted attacks, unequal enforcement of the rules, use of spies, etc. Zooasaurus's allies in his endeavor were more or less reduced to DragonGod, Trexroarr and Snowleo. The vast majority of other significant community players were either anti-Imperialists themselves or sympathized with us, "us" being me, Mint, KingHoopla, VGnome, RyuKami, SilentUmbreon, RyuKami, DeathLemon, Xtremepieman, Darkpkmn, and Biz, a newcomer anti-imperialist ally who fit in well. In this conflict, for all of my posturing, there was never a clearer instance of who were "the good guys" and who were most emphatically "the bad guys".Zooa and his Imperialist allies were for power for powers' sake, and since we were opposed to that aim, we were targeted to be systematically wiped out. For our efforts against Zooa, we were smeared with the newfound label "ch0des", for the chatbox that we frequented, known as Cbox di Ch0desbox, created by VGnome. To oppose Zooa, we used a variety of populist tactics, and rose up with the fervor of an Intifada to expose him as a tyrant. I grouped the anti-imperialists together in my new movement that I called The New Paradigm, the name taken from an organization from a Playstation 1 game called WarZone 2100. The New Paradigm worked in tandem to use a variety of techniques against Zooa, most famously uploading a gallery of embarrassing pictures of Zooa saying tyrannical or ridiculous things, like that DG was his puppet, or that he was going to come after us, etc. VGnome, Xtremepieman, Deathlemon, RyuKami and myself also created embarrassing comic strips of Zooa and his allies designed to shame them by putting them in Seinfeld-like situations, such as Zooa sleeping with a girl that he accidentally calls "Snowleo". In particular, I'll always remember one night when RyuKami, by all accounts my closest associate and partner, and I tag-teamed Zooa on his own chatbox and called him out. I'll never forget that Ryuk called him "Trotsky" to his face. That was fun. This kind of stuff would go on for a while. Long story short, after a long campaign of suppression, after being put down time after time, there came a time when Zooa realized that he was discredited and renounced his Imperialism, allowing "the ch0des", formally the anti-Imperialists, back into ZTV. That was the creation of UN Day, after the famous smilie "(un)". UN Day is commonly cast as a Camp David Accords-like peace treaty between the Imperialists and the anti-Imperialists, but I can tell you from firsthand knowledge that this was a clear and wholesale surrender by the Imperialists, most importantly Zooa, to the anti-Imperialists, the "ch0des". Once again, history vindicated us. Once again, the anti-Imperialists were victorious. 5. KingHoopla noted in the early July 2013 interview that you innovated a way to lock an administrator out of their own forum control, how did you manage to do that? I was pleasantly surprised to see that KingHoopla credited me with inventing the method of destroying an invisionfree forum without any hope of recovering it. He is right, as usual. I first created the method of destroying an invisionfree site by total accident. One day, quite literally out of nowhere, Black Lemur handed me his password to his admin account on Trexroarr's designer forum Madagascar Magic. I thought to myself, "well okay, time to have some fun!" I did not have the slightest clue what Madagascar Magic was, but as soon as I knew that it was a site that belonged to one of my old Imperialist enemies, Trexroarr, I knew what I wanted to do. I had to be careful to hijack the website late at night after all of the most important admins had gone to bed, so I stayed up late and got my way into the ACP. I took a while to consider exactly what I'd do to the site, until I decided I would just plaster inside jokes between me and my friends all over the board, like the famous "Randy" head, the smiling black guy who was really a friend of mine in middle school. Here's how I did it. First, I demoted everyone except me and the head admin. I can't touch the head admin account since it's made that way in the invisionfree ACP. But there's a little hitch that I didn't know you could do, and this hitch is the key to wiping out an invisionfree forum. As King Hoopla explained in his interview, while you can't change the password of the head admin in an invisionfree website, you can change their name. I simply changed Trexroarr's name to gibberish in English, translated the gibberish into Arabic, and then made the Arabic his name. Then, I made it impossible for him to see the board. Now can't he just send an email to log in again? Sure. Go ahead and log back in. There we go, now let's type in our nam-well $#!^. King Hoopla learned from my example at Madagascar Magic and used this exact same technique to knock down the original ZTV website. So, I guess in a way, I am indirectly responsible for the original ZTV's destruction. I kind of like the thought of that. 6. After the downfall of ZTV in 2009, you were targeted a lot by the community as a " mastermind " of spam groups, what was your feeling during that time? A lot of raiding and hacking happened while I left the community in the period after July 2008 (not 2009). In my absence, my name came up a lot as the prime culprit for a lot of people's misfortunes. I am sorry to say that while I enjoy the publicity I was not responsible for anyone's site problems from July 2008 to about November 2008. This did result in a lot of hilarious situations though. It is true that I was gone from ZTV for a brief period in 2009 as part of the pre-UN Day wipeouts. On one occasion, Biz joined ZTV with the username "Not FP For Sure". As you can imagine, he was promptly banned, even though he wasn't me for sure. I was never the "mastermind" of any spam attacks, contrary to popular opinion. I did participate in some, and am famous for engaging in what I like to think of as "covert operations" though. I was a leader of the anti-imperialist elements of the forums throughout history. I had secret groups. I had secret plans. But spamming was never my thing, and especially not shock spamming. I'll give you an example of the kind of things that I would do. This story is especially interesting because it involves my interviewer, UmbreonShadow. One day, we found a forum that belonged to a member of the community who was universally reviled by the name of Blackfire. On multiple forums he was responsible for countless acts of BS, so we figured to teach him a lesson. UmbreonShadow (henceforth Amp) was able to get into an admin account, and I anticipated a clean and easy victory. I figured I would turn Blackfire's site into Madagascar Magic 2.0, and Amp and I cracked open ACP like CIA agents breaking in in the night. We were initially successful and were able to wipe out the admins, until I made a critical error. I created a separate admin group that I was going to use while I wiped out the primary admin group, but I deleted the primary admin group BEFORE I placed Amp and myself in the newly created admin group. This stupid mistake cost us the entire mission, and to this day Amp and I still have a good laugh about it. I'd like to think that my "antics" weren't just nonsense for the sake of nonsense. They always had an aim, even if it was retaliatory. We made comics to make fun of Zooa and the Imperialists. I turned Madgascar Magic into a playground to retaliate for TRR's participation in the Imperialist suppression of New Paradigm members. Amp and I tried to take over the site of a guy who was a general POS to other people. Our antics were never purely for entertainment. They were political in nature. 7. You took a break from the community scene for a while until the Tesara issue came up, what brought you back? I didn't take a break from the community as much as there wasn't much going on. The anti-Imperialists had mostly won out on all accounts. There was a feud between ZTVers and Environers in 2010, mostly because the famous Imperialist Trexroarr had been run off the site and had fled to calmer seas in the forum Environ. Now that was one for the history books. One day, me, VGnome, SilentUmbreon, Biz, DL, RyuKami, Xtremepieman, and perhaps others decided to create a hypothetical list of rules that TRR would have in a kingdom in which he was the dictator. These rules were totally ridiculous things like "NO BREATHING", "NO POULTRY", "NO FAT CHICKS", "NO LOGGING IN", "NO LOGGING OUT", "NO REGISTERING", and my personal favorite, "THOU SHALT NOT HAVE FALSE GODS BEFORE ME." If that wasn't enough, the list was called "TRR's 100 Methods to Sucking Your Mom's Chode". That is not a joke. We posted it in the spam forum and it was universally received as the funniest thing in years, except for one person. In his last major attempt at suppression, Trexroarr unilaterally suspended me and RyuKami (and not the others?) and then put us "on hold" until Zooa came online to "decide what to do with us". Naturally, Zooa thought the list of rules was hilarious, and he sided with us, deposing TRR for abuse of power and eliminating one of the last holdouts of Imperialism from the site. Once again, another victory for the anti-Imperialists. Now at this point ZTV was almost squarely in anti-Imperialist hands, and it would be that way to the present day. All disagreements and conflicts after that would almost universally be inter-anti-Imperialist (too much?). Tesara fits into this picture because in about mid to late 2010 I began to frequent that website in a rare change of personality. I did not have a good history of going to other sites besides ZTV, and I mostly only stayed there. This suspicion of other sites was largely set in when I registered at Environ and my account mysteriously disappeared. Anyhow, I decided to join Tesara and try my hand at their debate section, which was a much different atmosphere than ZTV's debate section, which I already dominated. This was new territory to conquer, and I did join in with my classic confrontational style. A significant part of my views has changed since then, so I likely would not be making the same arguments today as I was in late 2010, but the conflict with Tesara began when one day I realized that the Tesara staff was enforcing the rules on an unequal basis. One debate became heated enough that Iben unilaterally closed not only the topic but removed the entire debate forum. This did not seem necessary at all to me, and seemed more like I was a pretext for a pre-planned move to eliminate the forum. In the short term, I could tell that I was being targeted and other people who were involved in the incident were let off easy because they opposed me. I did not find this out for sure until years later when one of my allies would see for himself in writing what was said in the Tesara staffroom the day of that incident, where one Tesara mod freely admitted to the others that I was happily punished while others were not, despite the fact that it was announced that they were. This entire situation stunk to high heaven to me, and I was determined to do something about it. On December 24th, 2010, I set my plan into action. 8. What was The Network about? This was The Network. On Christmas Eve 2010, I utilized lessons I had learned from reading the famous book of a community organizer, Saul Alinsky. Alinsky was a socialist, but his fame comes not from his personal views, but from his organizing tactics and strategy. Alinsky's book Rules for Radicals was written in 1971, but it started to become popular in 2009 and 2010 when right wing personalities began to resurrect Saul Alinsky's writings to point to as a way of understanding what was going on in the country at the time. I picked up a copy of Rules for Radicals and read it in the summer of 2010. In terms of the Tesara conflict, I attempted to apply Alinsky's tactical expertise to my situation. Rules for Radicals inspired me to create an Alinskyite popular movement to rise up against the Tesara administration and expose what was going on. That's the serious part. The funny part is how I came up with the name "The Network". In 2008 I created a theory of what happens when guys in real life watch other guys get hit in the crotch. No you didn't just misread that. I called my theory "The Network" out of the understanding that all men have a "Network" where when they witness one man get hit in the crotch, the "Network" extends back to him and he feels the pain too. I still think my theory is very sound. Anyways, The Network was actually my favorite underground group. It was also my biggest. I still have the list of all of the original Network operatives. We numbered over 20. Our goals were pretty significant for only having just gotten off the ground as a popular movement. The Network's objectives were wide and its mission intended to be long-term. The Network was a conspiracy to infiltrate as many of our anti-Imperialist agents into the site as possible as functioning members, and then have them join the staff, and one by one, continue our efforts until we retained a significant amount of influence, perhaps a few mods and maybe even an admin, in order to have an iron wall against the Imperialists on Tesara, and eventually be influential enough to set policy by default ourselves. In short, we wanted to play a repeat of what happened in 2009 to Zooa; rise up, discredit him, take influential positions in the site and then use influence to fight back against Imperialist aggression. This worked in 2009. It did not work in 2011. What is there to explain this? Firstly, the first night that any major action was taken against the staff by a vast assortment of regular members who were really Network operatives was to rise up and call out the staff's handling of someone's punishment (if I remember correctly, someone was warned for something, but I don't exactly remember). This was supposed to send a message to the staff that they could not do whatever they wanted without facing mass opposition. Instead, the opposite happened and a crackdown broke the back of the Network resistance. It certainly did not help that I was away at a friend's house during the incident unable to direct what was happening, but I heavily doubt that had I been there it would have made much difference. The Imperialists at Tesara had won the day, and the Network was battle damaged with little more options left. What was to account for the difference in the 2009 uprisings and the 2011 uprisings? I think the reason is very clear. What all successful guerrilla movements had throughout history was support of the vast majority of the population against the imperialist aggressors. This was the case in 2009. It was not the case in 2011. Most members on Tesara saw nothing wrong with the staff coming down on "troublemakers" like the Network anti-Imperialists. We jumped ahead of ourselves and got what was coming. The Network was great fun while it lasted though. I built the biggest and most influential popular movement in community history. I infused them with a sense of justice and the motivation to fight back against unbridled aggression. I molded their views on standing up to people with power. I don't think it's fair to say that we lost. I think it's more accurate to say that we were on the right side of history all along. Tesara is a shell now, but all members of The Network are living successful lives. We outlasted Tesara. We overcame it. We won. 9. Where do you want to go beyond the community? In real life I have plans to go into politics, and I'll be moving into my college sometime within the next month. I'll be studying political science as my major but as all people my age know the first year of college is all about basic classes so I won't get to the interesting stuff until next year. Until then I hope to read lots of books about the history of the Middle East, one of my hobbies. I see great things in the future. By chance this spring I met someone in a very high position in the Texas government, and I see myself as something of an apprentice to the guy. Hopefully this new development will lead to bigger and better things. Something tells me my hopes will be answered. If I am able to achieve my goals in life, it will be in no small part to my all-time hero, Murray Rothbard. Rothbard was an economist and a historian, but his uniqueness lies in the fact that he was also extremely well read in several different fields of thought, philosophy, economics, political theory, ethics, history, etc. He knew the ins and outs of all of them. But more than anything else, one article in particular that he wrote inspired me perhaps more than anything else. I'll put them here for the reader so they can judge for themselves. The context is that people in life often lose confidence in themselves and their goals, and Rothbard explains why this does not have to be so. After I read the article to this quote, I came out a changed person. At that moment, the goals that I set for myself seemed impossible to let down; I was determined to achieve what I had set out for myself at all costs. Hopefully these words will have that effect on you too. Sometimes, people give up the fight because, they say, the cause is hopeless. We've lost, they say. Defeat is inevitable... In the same vein, assume for a minute that the fight against...evil is a lost cause, why should that imply abandoning the battle? In the first place, as gloomy as things may look, the inevitable may be postponed a bit. Why isn't that worthwhile? Isn't it better to lose in thirty years than to lose now? Second, at the very worst, it's great fun to tweak and annoy and upset the enemy, to get back at the monster. This in itself is worthwhile. One shouldn't think of the process of fighting the enemy as dour gloom and misery. On the contrary, it is highly inspiring and invigorating to take up arms against a sea of troubles instead of meeting them in supine surrender, and by opposing, perhaps to end them, and if not at least to give it a good try, to get in one's licks. And finally, what the heck, if you fight the enemy, you might win! Think of the brave fighters against Communism in Poland and the Soviet Union who never gave up, who fought on against seemingly impossible odds, and then, bingo, one day Communism collapsed. Certainly the chances of winning are a lot greater if you put up a fight than if you simply give up. 10. What is your community philosophy? My community philosophy is the same as my philosophy as a whole. The use of force or coercion on other people in order to make them behave how a certain group of people wants them to as opposed to how they would prefer to go about their lives is illegitimate. I believe in a moral obligation to stand up to people with power and question authority. I believe that all people everywhere have the right to do what they want and live their lives as they see fit as long as they don't hurt or steal from other people. Perhaps there are readers who have a problem with decisions I have made in the past, but for anyone to disagree with my central beliefs I think is quite another thing. And in fact, perhaps decisions I made in the past were wrong. Surely, everyone makes mistakes. This is true for all people. But there is another question for people to confront in looking back. In the game Knights of the Old Republic 2, there is a scene where the main character faces the ghost of a Dark Jedi who asks about his past as a soldier who committed war crimes but reformed his life, and the ghost says, "So, if you could do it all again, would you?". I have always answered this question with yes, because, as the game option says, "My decisions have made me the person that I am today." I can say that I have no regrets because I believe that what I fought for throughout history was just. All of my mistakes were in the tactics I chose to further my goals, and this, I believe, is forgivable. For if some people's goals are realized, inevitably other people's goals can't be. Whoever's goals prevail in the end depends on whose tactics to achieve their goal were better. Surely the fact that I was out-strategized at times says less about me than it does about them. However, I remain convinced that my side, the anti-Imperialist side, was the indisputable force for good throughout history, and that we made 2 mistakes if any. The Network remains the most discussed past action among myself and my comrades. The question is, if Tesara fell apart in the end, was The Network necessary? I find it difficult to answer this question. Perhaps in the end The Network was unnecessary. I believe this view is defensible. But if a person is to have this view, they also have to interpret the events of 2011 at Tesara as an exercise in the futility of intruding into unsustainable systems. What is an unsustainable system? Well, the entire Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, so I guess we have one example. All European powers who ruled over foreign peoples were driven back home in the end. 20 years of intruding into Vietnam cost the US 60,000 men and gained it nothing at all. What does this have to do with anything? It's simple. If we are to understand that Tesara was an unsustainable system, then it fits into the same mold as the Europeans and the US. Meaning, if you try to control other people, and rule over them, and suppress their will, in the end you're not going to succeed. This, in essence, is "imperialism", and imperialism cannot win. The evidence is all around us, in real life and here on the forums. Every time admins overstepped their powers and began to try to control other people, they were beaten back and discredited. Every single one of them lost in the end. What then is the lesson to take from all this? Firstly, I think all people everywhere, not only those with an interest in what happens in real life in the world or even what happens here in the community, but everyone, including you reading this right now, everyone can take comfort and excitement in the fact that no matter what happens, injustice everywhere will always be risen up against and opposed by people with a conscience. For all there is to be miserable about in life, this is a great constant to take pride in. Secondly, I think it is equally important to understand that not everyone in life has to be like me and organize against injustice. You can go about your business by yourself and do what you like and be perfectly in the right. Consider this. Surely there were members on Tesara who were not on the Network's side or the Imperialists' side. They just wanted to go about their business on the forum without having to worry about division and conflict. There is a certain higher morality in those people. Equally surely though, one day it became clear to some members that another site was better, convincing them to migrate there. At some point this migration must have caught on, because as soon as the bulk of Tesara's members decided to leave it behind, Tesara became an unsustainable system, condemned by its membership to inactivity. The sheer genius of this happening is lost on people as they go about their day, but a closer look reveals how truly incredible this is. Without making any conscious decision to do so at all, people make life better. People leaving Tesara and going to Gaia or Northern Skies, or Round Table, is equal to people saying, "This is what I want". People go to forums that they think are better, and leave forums that don't serve their tastes. As people move from forum to forum, the community adjusts to their liking; forums rise and fall, with those who serve the people the ones that win in the end, and those who let people down the ones that disappear into nonexistence. This means that without any conscious decision to improve society at all, people, on a mass level, are in a continuous exercise to improve society. As soon as people begin to leave a forum en-masse, it becomes an unsustainable system, condemned as an element of society that no longer serves the people what they want. The sheer brilliance of this cannot be overstated. Without having any intention of doing so at all, without any grand plan or aim, regular people make life better just by doing what they want. In this way, history is inherently slanted against injustice and inferior systems. This means that there is one final important fact that everyone should understand. The anti-Imperialists who took a conscious stand against injustice may be the heroes of life on the internet and in the real world, as well as throughout all of world history, but that doesn't mean regular people, the people who are just worried about going about their business every day, can't be heroic. It should serve as an inspiration to all people everywhere that, by just going about your business everyday, you are taking part in an eternal exercise in improving the world; By just going about your business everyday, you can be a hero too. Edited by UmbreonShadow, Feb 27 2014, 01:58 AM.
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| Iben | Jul 20 2013, 09:30 AM Post #26 |
There'll be no foot-walking! Just air-flying!
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As I'm growing tired of being accused of being a member of this whole Network thing, could you at least post some more information about this group and the members of it ? Because the lies, accusations and conspiracies about me working together with that group has caused someone to leave the community and really left me baffled as I didn't have any hand in this so called "The Network" group thing and I want that to be cleared out once and for all. The only thing I briefly recall is being brought in the ZTV staff room as the rumours about the whole Tesara taking over were raging throughput the community and I was shown that it wasn't there. Which is what I honestly got to see, I didn't see any topic about ZTV trying to raid on Tesara. Edited by Iben, Jul 20 2013, 09:55 AM.
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| Zooa Kai | Jul 20 2013, 10:07 AM Post #27 |
<3xx~I <3 me infinitely the most <3 ~xx<3
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I can attest to Iben not being a member of the Network. I myself took part in it, as well as various other members, whom can name themselves if they desire. It is not within policy to just give that information out, even with it having transpired a fair time ago. |
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| Deleted User | Jul 20 2013, 02:06 PM Post #28 |
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Deleted User
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I know I'm often accused of (and guilty of) being a drama queen myself, but does any of this smack of melodrama and self-importance for anyone else as much as it is for me? I enjoy (in a weird rubber-necking kind of way) reading about the behind-the-scenes history of some of the community's sites and more infamous events, but the fact that we even *have* infamous events and sabotage groups conspiring to take down another site like it's something to be proud of, or entertaining, or whatever, seems profoundly bizarre. I mean, seriously... is this all there is for people to do on the internet? Troll each other and scheme to destroy something as silly as a forum for Zoo Tycoon 2? It's so preposterous, all of it. /rant, return to work. |
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| Murdock129 | Jul 20 2013, 02:39 PM Post #29 |
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But MiBound, don't you know? TEH INTERNET IZ SERIUS BIZNISS! But on a more serious tone, it does seem weird, I've only really been in two large fandoms online, this one and warhammer, and the Warhammer fandom doesn't seem to have this kinda, well drama problem. I don't know if that means it's this community that has an exclusive problem or if Warhammer is the exception not having it, but if someone who is in other communities knows for sure I'd be interested to know. I mean I can't really say too much about the staff wars at ZTV, so I can't say personally how preposterous they were given how all I know tends to be second hand accounts. But I know just how ridiculous other things were like the... you know I'm not gonna dignify it by calling it a 'war' as many people do. The General Animosity between Environ and ZTV, or the Drama caused by VG Shutting down Caldera and Environ being blamed for it and then being shock spammed and harassed. Man looking back those were beyond ridiculous |
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| UmbreonShadow | Jul 20 2013, 03:04 PM Post #30 |
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Well. just for the record, I was not informed about the information he was going to put down. They ask me for an interview and I simply write the questions that are familiar to the person I'm interviewing. KingHoopla's interview brought up some interesting points and in several ways he felt good about doing it when to others it was not, now was it on the level as FelixPrismus's? Probably not. I'm not the one who can awsner questions that come from people wondering about what the interviewee said, because I'm not them. Although, some of us would have to agree that bringing up some history may bring up some sensitive parts in the past and that may be inevitable and there is nothing much I can really do. If an interview had slandering and defamatory language that was off the walls? I would have either edited it or told the person to change their tone. I apologize if the content in this interview has upset some, but it's just commentary and opinions coming from one person from their own perspective, much like the others did with other interviews. What is past is past, and at the same time, could help teach lessons for future reference. |
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