Monday, December 3, 2012

Quit Cracked Day

So it seems that the situation is, unfortunately, quieting down. It's extremely difficult going up against something that wields that much power. But we did what we could with what precious few "resources" we had.

However, let me make one last proposal. I propose that we have a "Quit Cracked Day." This is the same strategy implemented on one of the most popular websites in the world, Digg. Digg was formerly one of the largest and most influential websites in the world. They implemented a horrible design change that revamped their website to such an extent that the users left in droves. If you haven't heard anything from them in the past two years, it's because they were successful.

I suggest we do the same. I don't have any naive expectations about the success of this plan. I realize that the success of this plan depends entirely on getting the word out and whoever is willing to participate. I also realize that there are also many people who are either against us or simply unaware of our situation to act. I am very well aware that this plan could easily amount to nothing.

However, I am also of the opinion that it is far better to stand up for a principle even if nobody pays attention. I suggest we go out with a bang, rather than a whimper.

This is the tentative plan. Anyone is welcome to submit ideas for changing it. The date will be December 9, which is one week after the mass deletions/bannings took place. Everyone will simply not go to the website for any reason. Do not go there to see what articles there are, do not go there to post comments assuming your account is still active,  do not go there to vote up any comments. Simply do not have the name "cracked.com" anywhere in your web browser at all. And simply continue to not visit indefinitely unless the following conditions are met:

1. All accounts that were unjustly banned are reinstated and
2. A public apology is issued by one of the officials on the site.

Note that it does not matter if your specific account is reinstated. All accounts that you know of should be reinstated before visiting the site. Also, a public apology must be issued. Not one in a PM addressed specifically to you. It must be somewhere prominent like in the forums, one of their Twitter's, Facebook, or even the main website. No one will visit the website unless those two very specific conditions are met.

Again, I don't have any naive notions about the success of this plan. This all depends on you. Rally as many people as you know and make this plan a success on December 9. If nothing else, we are making one last, well-deserved statement. Stay Cracked, my friends!

109 comments:

  1. Wong will never issue a public apology. This won't work. We also won't stay away from Cracked for more than one day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah. Don't think I'm naive. I realize the chances are miniscule to none of this affecting anything. Really, this is just a last "fuck you" to Cracked. I thought about it today and I realized that things won't ever be the same, even if my account is reinstated. That sense of community and the feeling that I can say what I want will never be there again. The site takes up too much of my free time as it is, but at least I enjoyed it then. No matter how long I'm there, I don't think I'll be able to shake this incident and just move on like nothing happened. Is it childish? Probably. But at least I can leave with a sense of dignity, if nothing else. This is nothing more than psychological, to be completely honest.

      Delete
    2. This is the exact polar opposite of leaving with dignity. You could not be more undignified if you personally mailed wong pictures of you simultaneously sobbing and masturbating over his picture.

      Delete
    3. I don't know, John Cheese, these stupid hyperboles may work in your articles (do they now?), but here they only make you sound like a spoiled kid.

      Delete
  2. I have an idea: upvote attacks. It worked with darkstrolm.

    We'll post comments such as "I'm a stupid sociopath cockroach!" And all upvote it.

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    Replies
    1. Passive-aggressive, but I won't fault you. It's better than doing nothing, which is the main reason I'm doing this. The feeling that I'm powerless is driving me crazy. I'll admit it. This is purely psychological, nothing but. But at the end of the day, saying "I did something" and just walking away makes me feel better than just taking it up the ass and pretending it never happened.

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    2. I don't understand what is passive-agressive about this.

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    3. Just a joke. It's not. It's more rebellious than anything, which makes it awesome.

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    4. "It's more rebellious than anything, which makes it awesome." Its just... so hard to take you seriously when you say things like that.

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    5. How would upvoting that help in any way? Why not construct a snarky, yet subtle message and keep that afloat with hundreds of upvotes?

      Delete
    6. You do know that upvotes and downvotes don't actually mean anything, right? You do know the entire comment section is practically a SEPARATE ENTITY from Cracked itself, right? It's not even on the same host, as far as I know.

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    7. @MohammedShariff Again, jokes.

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    8. Seems like a real easy way to be passive aggressive is to excuse everything you say as a 'joke' after the fact.

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    9. Oh gee, that sounds so cool. It might even stay there, because, hey, there is a retarded message about challenging mods and Cheese's personal information available left untouched, despite the DEATH THREATS being the buzzwords of whoever bothers trying trolling here.

      A real challenge would be constructing a criticism of the professionalism and talents of Wong and Cheese and upvote that.

      Delete
    10. @Anonymous No, I agree with them. They are genuine (lame) jokes.

      Delete
  3. That sounds great. Too bad I can't write for Cracked or do anything whatsoever on account of the fact that I'm banned! So, look at it this way. I can either spend my free time writing about an injustice in the vain hope that maybe it will be rectified and I can enjoy the site like I once did, or I can simply act like it never happened and never enjoy the website again. I choose the former because at least there's a very remote chance of bringing joy to my life. Sitting back and doing nothing is a bigger waste of time than what I'm doing.

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  4. You're the pathetic one. You joined a discussion you consider pointless in order to tell us we are wasting our life. Newsflash: you are participating in the same activity we are participating in. The only difference is, we care about this activity, you don't. Go die in a fire.

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  5. As much as I hate to say this, let's at least try to keep civil. I know emotions are high because of the incident, but it's not necessary to resort to death threats even if they are simply hyperbole. That just proves everyone's point. You make a good point though.

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  6. I wish Honest Abe were here.

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  7. Seriously? A writer gets a bunch of death threats, some seriously vicious attacks trying to goad him to become an alcoholic again, and people publishing what they at least think is his address so that others can screw with him...

    OVER. AN. ARTICLE. ABOUT. COMEDY.

    And you're calling the deletion/banning of accounts "injustice"?

    Sitting back and doing nothing would enable you to move on with your life, at least, which is by far NOT a bigger waste of your time than stewing in some tripe about how you're being attacked when the big bad Cracked admins block you from posting shitty comments.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why are you lumping us all in the same category? Most of us condemned and insulted the guy who published the address, along with the people posting the vicious threats. We feel wronged because 1) we were lumped in the same group as bad people without reason 2) we were banned for complaining about being called child fuckers.

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    2. I should mention that I posted this blog over a day ago when all of us were still in "revolution mode" and thought there was actually a chance that something would get done about this. This is simply a last "fuck you" to the whole deal. Anyone who wants to join is welcome too. I have no naive notions that it will affect anything.

      Delete
    3. People get death threats over writing slash fiction or food recepies over the internet. I bet the other members of Cracked staff get death threats all the time, but they don't make a spectacle about it. This particular writer had one verified threat and it was not over the comments. Also, Cheese's address and name are publicly available. He has not been hiding that information. And yet, we heavily criticized the poster for bringing that up. No one encouraged any kind of action.

      http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/pp213/DelMarch/Cheesy%20Wongs/Cheeseaddress-1.jpg

      And ask yourself this: why did it take so long for the address message to get removed? It might even still be there, after lots of messages undeserving of removal have been deleted.

      Delete
    4. Maybe you should be more clear, go to the forum and say it with all words: "All banned people were issuing death threats against (insert person here)." That would make it possible for me to fill a lawsuit for slander.

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    5. what

      Also, no one can go to the forum for the simple reason that Wongcheese has IP banned anyone who was in any way critical to him and his butt buddy Cheese.

      And if the revealing (as in simple googling based on his openly available first name) of Cheese's personal information is a threat, why the fuck has it been left there after comments like people telling they will never buy either Wong or Cheese's books got deleted?

      Delete
  8. Wong may be high-handed, but he doesn't typically do things for no reason at all. If you were lumped into the group of bad people, it was for a reason. If you were banned, it was not for complaining about being called child fuckers, it was most likely because you were drawing attention to the insulting comment you left before, and trying to throw it defiantly in the face of the people running the site that "hey, you can't silence ME!"

    All over an article that was a character piece by an established character whose traits include caustic and insulting humor. If this was the first Cheese article you've ever read, you're entitled to be surprised. But if you've read even one other article by Cheese, you know what his writing persona is. You know he's going to be insulting in the article. That's like getting pissed off at Soren acting like an entitled rich guy in an article.

    My best advice to you is to message Wong and explain that you got carried away and ask for your account to be reinstated. If you're reasonable to him, he will be reasonable back. The pissing contest going on here isn't going to make him change his mind.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You don't know anything. A lot of us were actually banned for complaining about being called child fuckers. We aren't the immature antagonistic idiots you think we are. We can't prove it now, because our posts were deleted.

      I'm rather familiar with Cheese. I'm not a fan of his, but many of the banned were fans of his. Many thought he was a nice guy until now.

      I love Cracked. WE ALL LOVE CRACKED. If we didn't love Cracked, we would not be so torn about being banned. I don't want to make people upset, or insult Cheese, or rub anything in anyone's face. I just want to be treated with some respect. I'm not begging for an apology or demanding that everyone think my opinions are gospel. I just want to participate in the community I used to enjoy so much. Please try to give us the benefit of the doubt.

      Delete
    2. OP Anonymous, I suggest going to the "Autumn Brontide" blog. There you will see a post about Cracked with screencaps of some of the actual comments that were deleted. They were not offensive or demeaning in any conceivable way, yet they were still deleted and banned.

      Delete
    3. Okay, in fairness to you, I went to the blog and looked at the comments. And they were all calling attention to the fact that they were deleted. They were all (to varying degrees) antagonistic about the fact that their comments were deleted by mods. Which is the point, really. The rational, adult thing to do when your comment first gets deleted is to contact (privately!) the agency responsible. It's not to rush in to draw attention to the fact that your comment was deleted, deploring the censorship of THE MAN. That's inviting further repercussions. That's practically screaming "DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!" And something was done.

      Delete
    4. Fair point. That still doesn't make any of this right, which is the entire reason we're all so upset. Not banning people at all would be a far more effective strategy.

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    5. Actually it does make it right, because it's against the rules of the forum to do that. It doesn't matter the situation, if you keep reposting about being deleted, the next step would be to ban that person.

      Is that really what all this is about?

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    6. "Hey, why was my snarky comment about Wong and Cheese being ministers of propaganda deleted? I didn't use ANY bad words! I better re-post the comment while passive aggressively calling attention to the fact that it was deleted. Surely that won't get me in any trouble- HEY! They deleted it! That was uncalled for! I should complain about it some more! Maybe post a few more times because that certainly won't get me banned or anything. Perhaps I'll act completely faultless about the whole thing, like I wasn't TOTALLY BAITING THE ISSUE."

      Delete
    7. The original reason for being banned was not calling attention to the fact that people were being banned. People were originally banned because of the fact that they were drawing attention to the fact that John Cheese and David Wong were making horrible comments against the commenters and when they tried to take it to the forums, they were banned.

      Delete
  9. I already did. Being unbanned isn't the only thing I want, however. I want my side to be understood. If you think participating in a rational discussion about something is a "circle-jerk," that's your problem. Meaning, your problem is you interpret everything you see in the most negative and antagonistic way possible.

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  10. I have no way to contact him. Nobody does. We're banned, remember?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ryan, don't think this blog is pointless and won't change anything. Despite the hurt we experienced, we have not been pushed to our limit. Nobody hacked the website. Nobody contacted anonymous. If this happens again, we might push back harder. And your blog will serve as a useful reminder of what went down in the past. It will teach history to the newly wronged.

    I hope this scenario never happens and this is the last time people are massed banned for questionable reasons.

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    Replies
    1. What Cracked did was wrong, but hacking the site and contacting Anonymous is NOT the right way to respond.

      Delete
    2. I'm the OP Anonymous, and I agree totally. It's not the right way to respond at all. And we have showed restraint by not responding in this manner. My point is, it may not always be this way. This may not be the last Cheese incident. Our patience may not last forever.

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    3. "Hurt?" You're "HURT" because an impartial website deleted your over-the-top rage? Rage that was only perpetuating even worse, completely unrelated to the article itself? Get over it.

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    4. Jesus, where did you all come from? Here is the entire point of this. We were banned from a website in which we felt we had a community because of virtually nothing. If you think we're overreacting, fine. If you think this pointless, fine. So then, what the fuck are you doing here?

      Delete
    5. Because you're still a human being and every human being deserves a chance to reflect on their own ridiculousness. Maybe you'll be a better person once you know how to get past this kind of pettiness.

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    6. "People are going to remember what went down here!"

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    7. Maybe this is all a bit petty and ridiculous in hindsight. Point taken. However, we all deserve a chance to defend what we did and to ask for rectification. Did we get it? No, but we tried.

      Delete
  12. E-mail is a thing that exists, you know. And I call it a circle jerk because when anyone has politely pointed out anything the least bit critical, they're being called "cracked plants" and told that they just don't understand that you really did nothing at all offensive, you were just standing up for your rights.

    To me, that's a bit of a circle-jerk.

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  13. Right, expressing my opinion is a circle-jerk? Eternauta called you cracked plants, don't pin it on me. Thanks for responding so maturely to my attempts at conversation rather than dismissing it as self indulgent nonsense.

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  14. I'm pointing out the response as a collective. Difficult to have a circle-jerk on your own.

    It's not just expressing your opinion that's going on here. It's picking a scab and inviting each other to rub salt in it. Also, it's no wonder you feel innocent and as if you were totally non-offensive when you consider a phrase like: "Meaning, your problem is you interpret everything you see in the most negative and antagonistic way possible" to be a mature attempt at conversation.

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  15. You're right, that was a totally unproductive insult. A response to your totally unproductive insult. What I wrote before that was my attempt at conversation.

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  16. Key difference: I'm not aiming to do something about the situation. I have no grievance, no problem to solve. YOU do. I'm watching the unfolding of this drama from the perspective of some of those that were banned. It makes an interesting contrast from having watched the actual situation unfold, like a good character-driven epilogue.

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  17. Right, you are doing this merely for your own entertainment. Your actions are not an attempt to bully people and feel superior. You're totally cool and above it all. Yeah, we all believe that.

    You suffer from typical internet troll failure in logic. You think others are lame for having an argument. You join in the lame argument and claim you are somehow superior to others involved in the exact same activity. It's not difficult of figure out why this objectively makes no sense.

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  18. Hey Ryan.

    Hypothetical question for you.

    Let's say that this, THIS message board kept going. Piling up comment after comment. Let's say it stopped being polite and started getting really nasty. People started calling each other child fuckers and other people started threatening to kill people. People were doing this not just here, but over Facebook and on other forums. It just got really fucking ugly.

    The initial response would be to nuke it, wouldn't it? If it seemed like it was all leading to a really dangerous mob mentality, you'd want to get rid of it for the sake of everyone. You'd get rid of it all, and try to save the people who you knew along the way.

    In the process, a lot of innocent casualties would occur because well - there's so much to go through and frankly, you don't know who all these people are or what they did. But you'd at least keep your friends, because no matter what role they might have played they have been there from the start - not to mention that you KNOW those people and have been following their activity. The important thing is to put out that fire, and hope that the people involved learned their lesson about things getting out of hand and don't just start the same fire back up somewhere else, this time pinning the blame on you as well. That kind of blatant failure to understand the situation - inability to move on - why would you want any of that to come BACK to this hypothetical forum?

    How stupid would all that be?

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    Replies
    1. Ah, so is that why you're all here? To teach me a "lesson?" Look, I can understand the deletions. I can understand the bannings. What I can't stomach is David Wong's lies to cover up the truth. What I can't stomach is the fact that nobody's account has been reinstated. According to a lot of you here, only a hundred or so accounts have been banned. If that's true, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes to go through and see which ones deserve it or not. Then, reinstate them. Simple as that. Has that happened? To my knowledge, no. There is simply no excuse for that.

      Delete
    2. Actually the accounts of anyone who knows how to ask nicely are almost always reinstated if they just politely ask, assuming they didn't act like an unstable lunatic
      - for instance, taking the ban seriously enough to try and incite revenge attacks on other sites.

      Delete
    3. Here's the difference, DB. If we were like Wong, your comment would've been deleted minutes after it was posted. Imagine if we were cowards who didn't face our detractors directly. Imagine if we misrepresented the facts and dehumanized you instead of making a fair argument.

      How stupid would that have been?

      Delete
  19. The Amazing InsomniacDecember 4, 2012 at 1:19 AM

    Personally, I don't suppose a boycott will even be noticed. There has been a certain amount of
    speculation as to how insignificant the number of dissenters is, and I'm afraid the opinions
    of the Cracked forum are likely to be right - there are not enough to matter. Roughly a
    thousand comments have been deleted on the Cheese article. Let's assume that everyone who
    wrote one of those has been banned. Add in the fact that some of the more vocal dissenters
    wrote multiple comments, say ten on average. That would make a hundred bans. The actual number may well be lower - in fact, if you look at the activity on Ono's place on Reddit and this blog here, my impression is that there are two or three dozen people at most who still care about this.
    On the comment section of more recent articles on Cracked you'll still find one or two commenters who will make the occasional jab at the incident, but other than that, the place
    seems to have returned to normal. ButtChocolate and other star commenters are happily at it
    again, and the average reader is discussing the niceties of the current article. On the
    forums, the whole thing is no longer an issue at all; even non-dissenting replies to the JC
    thread have been deleted after Wong "suggested" they all move on.
    While I'm convinced that the dissenters played a major role in driving up John Cheese's
    article views by refreshing the page every five seconds and probably even more by attracting
    gawkers, that's obviously not something that could possibly work in reverse.
    To sum it up: it's all over, the shouting included; the official version of the incident ("JC said puns were stupid, the comment section went hysterical and threatened to kill him and his family, until the banhammer and subsiding adrenaline levels restored the order") has now
    become the truth.

    Why am I still going to "boycott" Cracked?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Amazing InsomniacDecember 4, 2012 at 1:22 AM

      (2) Well, the attraction is gone.

      I was attracted to the community, which I suppose was naive to begin with. The Cracked voice ("We here at Cracked") is little more than a clever marketing trick, and the comment section are largely a bunch of strangers who don't blink an eye if fifty of their number get super-banned.
      The forums are a community, but they don't see themselves as the Cracked forums, they are still very much PWOT, and they are hostile towards outsiders to the point of xenophobia. I have observed this before, but I was particularly revolted at the sanctimonious post by the moderator Kalli in which he or she pontificated on how the subnormal intruders from the comments never last long on the forums. This was at the time the single most offensive post on the JC thread, yet the others were deleted while this one remains as a testimony that you can be offensive on PWOT if only you offend the right people.
      Which brings me to my next point: The mods and admins keep a tight ship on the forums, and they have good reasons for doing so. They intend to create a place where civil discourse is
      possible and the more unsavoury phenomena of internet culture are kept outside. I was very
      attracted to that concept, and I'll admit even now that they have been successful to a certain
      point. But it's a matter of hierarchy alone whether or not you have to abide by the rules.
      Time and again I have seen posts deleted for being "snarky", yet the snarkiest post I've ever
      seen was by Wong himself: A fan had very respectfully criticized the decision to include the Ferris advertisement as an article on Cracked. Not even Cheese himself found fault with the tone of the criticism. Yet Wong responded with two (!) scathing posts that pointed out that the fan had not payed any money for the content. Read it, if you still can, it's not a pretty sight.
      I'm not going to dwell on the "shit-smearing teenagers" and the "cockroach" posts - they were
      obviously okay; while posts saying they hadn't found Cheese's article funny were banworthy.
      The same goes, to a lesser extent, for the mods. They can gang up on newbies who made a mistake and ridicule them in page-long circle-jerk threads, they can use "gay" as a synonym for "shit" (which counts as homophobic in my world) and they can swear and cuss at you like drill sergeants. Guess what happens if a new forum member's post is anything less than a bland, fawning endorsement of the accepted opinion.
      I don't mind them governing their own website as they see fit. But I find it distinctly less
      than admirable that they don't even attempt to govern themselves. I don't think I want to be part of such a community.

      Delete
    2. The Amazing InsomiacDecember 4, 2012 at 1:25 AM

      (3) Last but not least, the articles. There are a lot of talented writers/comedians on Cracked.
      There are very few columnists whose work I don't enjoy. Wong and Cheese were actually among my
      favourites. But my enjoyment of their work depended largely on my notion that they were people
      who had something to say to me. Cheese has been through some very hard times in his life. He has overcome many of his problems and has learned a lot in the process. That is why I value the things he has to say (I use the present tense advisedly as I don't believe the sad developement of the last days can negate his previous work). I perfectly understand why he doesn't want to mingle in the comment section - there are always a handful of people there who post moronic stuff like "Where's the funny? He should start drinking again ROFL". As a recovering addict, you don't need to hear
      that.
      I can also understand that he's allergic to the permanent suggestions that he should go to the
      comments. After all, it isn't as if he didn't communicate with his audience; in fact, he spends a lot of time and energy on that. He merely chooses to do that in an environment where
      he's in control.
      What I don't understand is his active hatred against the entire comment section, which has always supported him to 95%. Why insult all of us on Twitter? Why declare that he "will bash the comment section till the day I die"? To my mind, that's a sign of deep insecurity and massive anger management issues. I hope he will overcome those problems as he has overcome others, and when he does, I will rejoice in his success, as I have rejoiced in his success up to date. But part of that developement will have to be a moment of introspection concerning the events of the past few days, and possibly even an apology.

      But oh! what shall I say to thee, Lord Wong? I think, perhaps, of all the participants in this drama, Wong has disappointed me the most. Obviously, that has something to do with the high esteem I had for him before. And it isn't even that I can't find excuses for him: He has a business to run and can't afford to have people upset the apple cart, nor does he have the time to reason with every single offended fan. What's more, he's John's best friend - naturally, David will defend his friend when people gang up on him, and naturally, he won't be his most rational, objective self in such a situation.
      But his blanket statments dehumanizing the entire comment section? His total failure to comprehend what people were upset about? His refusal to step back and examine his own actions?
      All that from the author who told us about the "monkeysphere" and the monsters we create in
      our heads. That's what I can't get over.
      And that's why I don't believe I'll be able to enjoy Cracked again the way I did before - this
      knowledge will be with me when I read the next article by Wong or Cheese, or when I look at
      the comment section under any article and remember that I'm a cockroach and that some of us have been taken by the pest control.

      Delete
    3. Yes, yes, and yes. Completely agree with you here. I agree that a boycott will do nothing. I don't have any naive notions that it will. This is just a last "fuck you" to the whole thing and then I'm done. It's just a purely psychological thing made to make everyone feel better about the incident.

      (2) I got that same exact sense from the forums. That Kalli guy did make my stomach turn the most out of all of them. The whole place strives to distance themselves from "the comment section." Oh God, not the archaic, horrible comment section! What a horrible fate to be associated with them. Please.

      (3) I'll probably participate in the "boycott" for about a week. I could use a break from the site anyways. But I agree, I don't know if I'll be able to enjoy the site like I once did. I understand why everyone reacted the way they did, but none of this will ever sit right with me. The whole mess can be summed up in one word: clusterfuck.

      Delete
  20. go die in a fire, huh? words from the world-weary, wisened, mature writer

    ReplyDelete
  21. good show creating this blog, ryan. I haven't gone through everything yet (and anonymous up there just made me facedesk too hard to try to read through these comments), but have you mentioned the reddit on here?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most of my traffic comes from the reddit post so I just assumed that most people knew about it already. I can make a separate post mentioning it if you want?

      Delete
    2. Nice job glossing over the issue, mickey.

      Delete
  22. The number of bans are significantly lower than a hundred, and the number of permabans significantly lower still. Some of you broke rules on a comment field (not even a community, a COMMENT FIELD) and now you think it's worth "fighting" a website over? It happens. Everyone has been banned or modded from somewhere or other on the internet.

    The moderation was perfectly within reason; there was a shitstorm of trolling that spilled over into private messages and other websites, not just against Cheese but against other commenters. That's the sort of thing a banning system exists for, do you not want huge clusterfucks of insanity to ever be moderated at all? If you value this perceived "community" within the comment section then you should logically not want total anarchy.

    There isn't any logical reason for "I don't care for this article" to escalate into threats against the whole site, facebook trolling and worse. This isn't draconian censorship here; every single ban is within reason and you need to cool off and act like normal people about it.

    If you want to rally and attack the big mean website that dared to enforce its own established rules, all five of you are welcome to do so.

    :)

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    Replies
    1. Where the fuck are you all coming from? Jesus. Let's get one thing straight. There were absolutely no death threats because of the article. The death threats were because John Cheese insulted the commenters. That doesn't make it right, but this entire mess had quite literally, NOTHING whatsoever to do with the article. We were not banned because we insulted him, made death threats, posted his personal information, or anything of the sort. We were banned for simply posting our opinion that maybe, just maybe, John Cheese shouldn't be calling us "child-fuckers." That David Wong shouldn't be calling us "cockroaches." That David Wong shouldn't ban people from the forums for taking offense to this. And most importantly, that people shouldn't be banned from the comments for it. Pure and simple. And another thing, as I've mentioned before, it doesn't matter how many or few of us there were. It still is not right.

      Delete
    2. Wrong. You were indeed banned solely because your behavior escalated far beyond reason. Nobody is ever banned just for their opinions, ever. Thousands of people express distaste for articles without ever getting banned, because they know how to do it like human beings.

      You need to realize that absolutely nobody did anything wrong but YOU in this situation. Fact. How you acted would be considered wrong on ANY community or website, anywhere.

      You are someone who LEAVES COMMENTS ON THINGS, and you're getting angry because an internet comedian made an "insulting" joke about people who also leave comments on things. That is not your lifestyle, your livelihood, your job, your religion, your sexuality, your race or anything else you have any sound reason to feel defensive over. It's a fucking joke. A joke about something innately trivial.

      Delete
    3. I'm just going to assume that you're the same anonymous that commented on the other posts, so I'll just respond to you as one person. let me get one thing abundantly clear. I never once went to the comment section and said anything to the effect of, "Guys, he's banning everyone! Quick, tell them before they delete your comment!" Some did, and I would argue that they are completely justified in doing so. However, I didn't. My first account was banned because I made a comment about the forum HOURS before the bans even started. I had absolutely no way to defend my actions, no way to contact anyone to explain myself, not even a second chance or a warning. Just banned. My second account was banned for replying to another comment. The comment didn't even mention the bans in any way, didn't mention John Cheese, didn't mention ANYTHING! My comment was simply sympathizing with someone else who thought that this was unfair. To paraphrase I said something "We're all in this together, man." A pretty vague comment that, even if they determine deserves deletion, sure as fuck doesn't deserve a ban. My "behavior" didn't "escalate far beyond reason." Instead of making generalizations about all of the commenters, why not actually listen to the reasons we were banned? They are ridiculous, unjustified, and undefendable. Pure and simple.

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    4. "Nobody is ever banned just for their opinions, ever."

      Every single person who sympathizes with this blog WAS banned for "just their opinions." ALL of them. EVERY one. My comment about the forum occurred hours before the bans and it was about the way the people on the forums treated the commenters. It wasn't about the forum bans, it wasn't about the death threats, it was an OPINION that the users on the forums were being unnecessarily rude to the commenters. There is no justifiable way you can defend my ban. None.

      Delete
    5. And what was the original comment that go you banned?

      Delete
    6. Because it is true that no one is banned for their opinions. But they will be banned for stating their opinions like an asshole.

      It's really easy to say, after the fact, "All I did was politely state my case and got BANNED for it." But from what I can tell here, every deleted comment I've read so far had a reason to be deleted.

      It sounds like you were banned before the fact, meaning it was probably an entirely different reason other people were banned. So what exactly is all this about? What's the original incident for you that got you banned?

      Delete
    7. I can absolutely assure you that my comment was in no way shape or form "assholish" and it would be very difficult to misconstrue it as such. From what I can tell, I was banned for calling attention to the fact that people were being banned on the forums. This didn't sit well with them because it would ruin their "pristine, clean" image they have going on. So, they banned anyone so much as mentioning the fact. None of this is difficult to understand. I understand completely why they did what they did. Cheese and Wong were assholes. They regretted their mistake, so when people called them out on the forums, they were banned. After people in the comments section started pointing it out, they too were banned. And all of this was justified under the guise of "death threats," which, I should mention, he receives after every article he makes.

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    8. Politely stating my case. If I knew I would be censored/banned, I would have taken a screenshot. It's easy to come here and try to distort things by lying and saying "it was stated like an asshole", but that's simply not true.

      PS. I don't think being an asshole is a bannable offense in the forums, given that Wong is still there.

      Delete
    9. "You were indeed banned solely because your behavior escalated far beyond reason. Nobody is ever banned just for their opinions, ever."

      Wrong and wrong. I was banned for politely going to the forums to explain that most of the people in the comments section LOVE Cheese and that it's HURTFUL to paint them all indiscriminately as "child-fuckers". This is what I was banned for. Nothing else.

      And please note that this was BEFORE the ONLY threat that I saw in the comments (the infamous address comment) was posted. In fact, that was when I learned that supposedly some of the commenters had written death threats to Cheese: because he told me so in his answer. Prior to that, I was only aware of his mentioning death threats he had received on Facebook and Twitter - which, you will notice, are not the Cracked comments section...

      So yes, I WAS banned just for my polite opinion that it's not nice and very hurtful to call "child-fuckers" a whole bunch of people who love you and never said anything horrible against you.

      If you can't stomach this truth, that's your problem, not mine. I know what happened, and you denying it to the ends of time won't change the truth.

      Delete
  23. ^^^^This is one of the most classic signs of idiocy on the internet. The accusations of hypocrisy that isn't actually hypocrisy at all.

    It takes all of half a minute to respond to something. You're the ones who have been flipping shit over nothing, it's a trivial matter to come in and point that out.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Ok, so then what is David Wong's e-mail then? I can't find it anywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  25. If I were writing a book, I'd be a little nicer to my readers, even if they were comment trolls. I was banned for asking Cheese to calm down, so I'm not going to look at anything he does anymore, because really he is just an uneducated forum troll who thinks he is a comedian.

    Good luck Mack.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I doubt his readers and the people telling him to drink himself to death are the same group of people.

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    2. If nothing else, I´m definitely gonna write review for his book on Amazon, telling people what he thinks about his fans

      Delete
    3. Except I´m not gonna use any of the words and names Cheese called us, because even if i censored myself with stars, they would probably ban me from there too.. :D

      Delete
    4. "If nothing else, I´m definitely gonna write review for his book on Amazon, telling people what he thinks about his fans"

      Good idea.

      Delete
    5. "I doubt his readers and the people telling him to drink himself to death are the same group of people. "

      But... the people in the comments section are definitely among his readers. So are you saying that the people telling him to drink himself to death are not the same group of people as the Cracked commenters?

      Delete
  26. So what we've learned here, when all is said and done, is that Ryan is 20 eh? That's understandable. We've all been young and stupid. In fact, some of us here are probably older and still stupid.

    ReplyDelete
  27. The only thing we learned here, is that your idea of arguing is posting anonymous retorts calling people pathetic for exposing their opinions, and attacking them personally instead of his arguments.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Hey, cocksuckers from Cracked,

    We know this is petty. Some of us were naive enough to think about "destroying" the site, but this blog is primarily for our whining. We were regular readers, and the actions by your douchebag masters upset us. Realistically, we'll whine here for a couple of days and forget about this, except the bitter taste of the incident will remain forever. I know you'll be dismissive of us, because you're from the Cracked elite, but this blog is no different from the free republic, or the reddit thread at pwot. We think Wong and Cheese are massive douchebags, and we want to talk about it in isolation. Their behavior fascinates us and Wong is a great example of how massive assholes misuse authority. Take his cock out of your mouths and ask yourself if him tabooing random subjects, like any form of criticism, back at the forum is fair.

    Your "team" clearly has more educated, eloquent, and mature people, which is why you were able to spin this in your favor with better-worded posts. But always remember that you are rallying for two massive cunts who won't flinch for a second to ban you if you stand between them and their egos.

    For now, leave us alone and fuck off. Go back to cracked and circle jerk about how sad a circle jerk we're.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. This blog was posted on the day this all happened when we all thought there was a chance that something would be done about it. We were naive, obviously, but all we wanted was a little haven really. Keep in mind, we lost! You won! There's no reason to come here hijacking the thread. you said what you had to say, we don't agree, we have arguments to back us up, and all you seem to be coming back to is the whole "death threat" argument, which, as we all mentioned, were not made by the vast majority of us.

      @doucheslayer I do take issue with the fact that their "team" is more educated and mature. There are many posts here that are downright immature and stupid and many posts by our "team" that are eloquent and intelligent.

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    2. I'm not saying we're stupid, and I admit that was poorly worded as I was projecting my attributes onto all you guys, but you have to admit it's impressive how they distorted the facts and cleverly diverted the discussions to them look like victims. In the forums one douche is comparing our "mob mentality" to nazis. Wong is a master at this, presumably after years of nothing but douchenozzlery on the internet. In his first response to this mess he suddenly made the discussion about how we were teenagers and it's all because we don't produce anything and are jealous of their super-joke-writing abilities. The amount of bullshit that guy scribbles out to make such disingenuous arguments is both sad and hilarious.

      Delete
    3. "Hey now! We made this public forum only for US! That's why we posted it on Reddit! Leave us alone with your well-worded arguments against our fleeting whines! How dare you try to bring an opposing view! Now go away!"

      Delete
    4. @Anonymous Anyone is welcome to post here no matter how stupid their comments are unless the comment is actually doing something abhorrent like GENUINE death threats or posting personal information. I never said I "made" this only for us. I expected criticism from the moment the blog went live. I do not delete comments for disagreeing with me (unlike a certain other website.)

      That being said, most of the comments you are all making are immature personal attacks and never actually address our arguments. Some of you were more reasonable than others. Most weren't. So, are you still allowed to post here? Yes. Do I recommend it? Unless you actually have an argument, no.

      @doucheslayer What did Wong write now? Is it on the forums?

      Delete
    5. Here's a post by arrace in page 52 of that John Cheese thread

      "Do you know what scares me? That even though this is a completely unimportant event to the history of the man, the process behind it can probably explain many historical atrocities. The commenters obviously aren't literal Nazis, but it's kind of scary how things can escalate so quickly, and people can get so swept up in it all that they literally try to post John's address. It's the same culture that exists on 4Chan when everyone is trying to outdo the others on how much they can offend a suicide victim's family. Group think is frightening."

      And this isn't the first time Wong and Cheese have gone into a power trip. Last time some people reasonably criticized Wong's sexism article and were banned for "trolling". They always delete seemingly innocuous posts they don't like and tell people to stay out of threads when someone disagrees with them strongly. Like every authoritarian, Wong always seeks ideological homogeneity.

      Delete
    6. Kind of like how Arrace's point up there isn't that you are a Nazi, but that you are unconditionally subservient to a ever-stirring crowd of laments that will twist anything into a direct and personal attack while failing to see your own possible wrongdoings.

      Delete
    7. "It's cool because I wasn't saying YOU were gay! I wouldn't sink so low as to throw that insult out, jeez! I was just comparing you to a gay person to show how obedient you are!"

      Delete
    8. Well he explicitly states that the process behind our outrage is equivalent to famous historical atrocities(you know, like THE HOLOCAUST), implying pretty heavily that John is the clear victim here, while we're mindless lunatics, ignoring the underlying frustration behind all this. The commenters aren't angry because Cheese doesn't like puns. We're angry because Cheese and Wong were dicks.Giant, throbbing dicks. I'm not going to explain something that has already been stated way more eloquently by others here. I'll just say that as far as teenage internet assholery goes, we've been pretty tame.

      Delete
    9. "Hey let me defend a guy who made a wife-beating joke by pointing out a homophobic slur that my masters have used frequently in the past to derail this discussion. Because hypocritical sanctimony is how we roll, yo!"

      Delete
    10. I don't get it, doucheslayer. Who are your masters and how did they derail this discussion? Also - it's not really a discussion at this point, is it?

      Delete
    11. What doucheslayer is saying is that homophobic slurs are ok when HE says them. Because he's special or something.

      Delete
  29. Good luck with the boycott Spartacus. Maybe you can use your new free time to write some My Litte Pony/Stargate fanfiction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. at least none of us will ever beg money for our wedding

      Delete
    2. I don't have any false notions that the boycott will work. I know it won't. Frankly, I think everyone here just needs a good, long break from the website.

      Delete
    3. Ryan please stop saying it won't work... it's kind of annoying, you started it, don't act so embarrassed by it.

      Delete
    4. Yeah Ryan! How dare you be honest and open about something!

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    5. @refudiate Sorry. I just realized how embarrassing it actually was after I posted it. It looks like some lame call to action. Like "don't let the man get you down, man. Let's fight back!" It wasn't the effect I was going for at all, and people seem to have made several assumptions about my personality from it, justified or otherwise. But it is what it is, I guess. Sleep in the bed you made and all that.

      Delete
  30. "Look, he's young! Yes! Perfect! Now I don't have to actually come up with an argument! Anytime he says something I don't agree with, I can just point and say 'Look, he's only 20. Let's dismiss everything he says. Hahaha!'"

    ReplyDelete
  31. No, it's not satire, smartass. That's what you are.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Wong always knows what's best,
    He is better than the rest,
    When he bans you he says "Yay!
    Nothing better to do today,"

    Look. It's a poem. ^



    Yeah, I'm genuinely going insane.

    ReplyDelete
  33. It's tough running a forum, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  34. @Anonymous At some point the voices in my head always stop. It's not that bad.

    ReplyDelete
  35. With all these anonymous voices and ridiculous crossfire it's probably hard to keep it all straight in your head.

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  36. It's satire. It's such an OBVIOUS example of satire that I refuse to believe it's not satire. I refuse to believe that anyone could GENUINELY post something like this. It would just be too astronomically hilarious a level of non-self-awareness. So yeah, I vote "satire".

    ReplyDelete
  37. Wow, it sure seemed like John Cheese came here a lot, what with all the fail trolling.

    ReplyDelete