Tanon Demodded - Best of WOT
One thing Gamefaqs has going for it is its assortment of special interest boards, some interesting, some not, some active, others deserted. It's this variety that got me into board hunting years back. Sometimes it's difficult to keep up with what goes on where, however. But fortunately, thanks to a tip to GUAC, we're happy to present the site's latest demodded user.One of the new batch, Tanon was fairly well-known on the War on Terror (WoT) board and had a dislike for Barenziah Boy Toy, which would be his undoing. BBT has made a reputation for himself posting the same topics on different boards, to the point where some complain it's spammy. Some good old fashioned board drama erupted on board 408 once BBT's topics started to get closed and he complained about it.
On January 5, BBT posted a topic on Hellhole, "Overaggressive mod closing topics in a Social Board without any justifications.." in which he described that a mod was trying to silence him, even though he wasn't breaking the terms.
"Because the mod couldn't actually get it moderated because it doesn't violate the TOS, he/she has decided to make an end-around and close the topics instead, to avoid having any moderations be overturned."
This topic was itself closed. BBT kept up the pressure, however, and started to get attention for it. In what was almost a repeat of the bover demodding, Krystal told the user to stop complaining, nothing to see here...then reversed after talking to Allen and admitted yeah, there was something. At least this time she didn't call anyone a whining baby.
Krystal109 Posted 1/9/2015
"We have already discussed your complaints with the moderation staff and we are in a review period to see if proper action is done in the future. Whining about it more isn't going to change the past and you can only look to the future...The boards are not your complaint zone and it is disruptive to the flow of the board to constantly complain in new topics."
But she did also reinforce that unpopular messages/users aren't just going to be modded:
"You might find a user annoying, but as long as they are not breaking ToU then they are protected by the ToU. Learn to ignore people if you dislike them...we allow crossposting topics between boards. You can easily see this from topics on Poll of the Day to CE with Full-Throttle. The question is are the disruptive on a board and if the answer is no then we should NOT be closing or modding them. Just because a user is annoying is NOT a violation. If that was the case we'd have no users on any of the boards."
...Wait, did Krystal just call us all annoying? Oh well. Now for the switcharound a few days later.
Krystal109 Posted 1/12/2015
"The PM was written by my boss, who I handed over links to, so it make [sic] have some factual mistakes. That being said, Tanon did make multiple posts that were highly inaccurate and only confuse the user base and incite them against the moderation and administrative staff...We purely abide by the ToU and do now [sic] make up moderations to hit you guys. There were also other cases of false information, such as me correcting you about mods being hired by their own merit and not their home board. Overall, the posts and disputes were sent to my boss who had the ultimate call. My personal view, I never saw anything you did as threatening."
Here's an example of how fast Tanon was closing BBT's topics, this one within minutes as other users were used to expecting him, as he posted at the end to let BBT know he was giving him a hard time:
Tanon's defense was that he was just joking about some of his provocative/inaccurate messages, Krystal replied he can't say something offensive and then write it off as a joke, Tanon fired back "You are the one that told me to have a sense of humor!" (and this is technically true, since Krystal told people have a sense of humor when she was saying unprofessional things like the "vag smells" story and how fun it'd be to troll by closing boards/making everyone a mod and then watching the drama).
The reasons for Tanon's demodding, as provided by the guy himself:
"Removing your status as a moderator
Hello Tanon. After reviewing both your recent public posts and your moderation performance, we have decided to remove you from the moderation staff. You are posting things publicly that simply aren't true, and more than one post appears to be disparaging against your fellow moderators. You also appear to have taken it upon yourself to treat a particular board that you frequent in an inappropriate manner, posting messages that sound threatening as well as moderating posts (or not moderating posts) incorrectly."
along with a Krystal message
"I know that in the past that there has been concern of your pocket modding WOT, which means that you actively seek out marks on that board and give them lenient moderations or N/A's. This is why I suggest not modding a board that your [sic] frequent and instead just mark posts to let an objective part [sic] handle them."
In other words, Tanon was showing favoritism to people he knew on the board by getting accounts he liked off the hook, while punishing accounts he didn't like, even if the accounts didn't violate the Terms. To get around this he simply closed their topics because the users can't dispute a locked topic, keeping it out of any review by anyone else. It was only through BBT's complaints that the closings were investigated.
Mith, another newish mod, decided to use the occasion to make threats to other peoples' accounts if they kept up the complaints:
User reactions to the demodding varied from praise to 'THE TROLLS WON!!1' Here are some of the best comments.
"I would think the fact that mods moderate completely based on their own opinions without regards to the rules of the site should have been a concern for the administration for years...I oppose unfair abuse by the mod staff. Tanon was abusing his power because he either didn't like BBT or thought it would make him popular on WoT " -EscapeLA
"Hey, how about you try to be professional and not backbite the mods in public view, Krystal? Especially when you blatantly misread one of their posts, and then decide to 'call them out' on it." -Masta Crouton
"Maybe if the admins were less concerned about being white knights for the trolls on GameFAQs, these forums wouldn't be considered one of the biggest laughingstocks on the internet. Christ, just look at 261 and see how this 'hands off' policy in regards to dealing with obvious trolls, as compared to the previous administration, as a microcosm for why this has been a complete failure." -chaos knight
"261 is s***ty because a lot of the users are s***ty. They would pretty much have to purge 80% of the board to make it decent again. And it's kinda sending a mixed signal when the community complains about the piss poor trolls but still carries on conversations with them."-goatthief
"Tanon had the right idea in trying to do something about it, but aggressively targeting him while gloating about it publicly was, well, less than ideal." -Flashman
"The ToU is subjective and almost everyone on this board has been around long enough to have experienced varying degrees of strictness in its enforcement...This all seems very petty." -Clutch
"The BBT treatment on this board borders on cyber-bullying. If you are annoyed by him, ignore him. Simple as that." -Russian Rocket
"lol if you're an adult and cant ignore someone" -star52789x2
"Krystal, we could respond maturely to your comments but there wouldn't be a point. Most of us have been posting on this site before you earned your position here and most of us will be posting after you're gone. Being serious with you is a waste of time. You're a nobody on the internet like everyone else." -AC_fat_guy
"BBT argued that longevity was a virtue. I quoted his post. I then said something to the effect of "malaria has been around awhile and has killed lots of people, but nobody thinks it's good." In the next paragraph, I addressed BBT directly. I got a 3KL for "offensive" for this. Krystal has subsequently said that using malaria is why my post was deleted. She then gave examples I could have used: specifically, the Great Wall of China and moldy bread...But let's be honest. If I compared BBT to moldy bread, I'd have been moderated for saying that his posts are vomit-inducing...The moderator who deleted that post was probably going to delete my post no matter what I said. " -Abyssmal Fiend
"I wish I could say what I thought of the admins right now. Esp. that Krystal one. since she is responsible for the asinine moderations today (both the bone spur one and the malaria one)...Here's one. A tame one. Krystal is a worse troll than BBT." -Hyena 20
"too many good-hearted mods unknowingly eating s*** on behalf of the s***posters as of late. Krystal, take a hike." -B_Dan
"Good job GameFAQs for punishing a moderator who actually did his job right...when there's a mod with actual merit you s*** can him." -Southernfatman
"I'm not the one that trolls and flames a user purely out of spite. I'm not the one that abuses his moderator privileges just to target someone purely out of spite...The mod abused his privileges. How is that considered merit?" -Barenziah Boy Toy
"GameFAQs is one of the biggest ****fests on the internet, and Krystal just confirmed its status. The trolls run the forums, and the admins would rather defend them than the thousands of other decent users that try to post on here. It's pathetic; this place has gone to hell ever since CJayC left and gave the reins to SBAllen." -chaos knight
"^You are right that the trolls run WOT. Luckily, the admins finally did something to stop the moderator from abusing the TOS and allowing huge portions of a board to troll and flame individual users simply because they are biased and spiteful of them" -Barenziah Boy Toy
"No offense guys, but BBT played a complete blinder and WTFpwned you all. You'd think after all these years you guys would know when not to take the bait. Tanon got demodded and BBT took his scalp. You are aware that he is going to be on an egofilled high for a very long time, but that was all your own doing." -JD_Novas
"In the end you are probably right. I just thought I'd actually try to clean up the place a little and make it a better WoT for all. I was pwned. Though we all get to go home at night and not be BBT. So we have that going for us, which is nice." -Tanon
When you look at the totals between WOT and Hellhole (yes, I started counting Hellhole's locked topics after a night when I noticed 1/3rd of them were closed), the Hellhole board has a lot more locked topics proportionally. BBT had 7 topics over 9 days, that's less than 1 a day, and it's just that for whatever reason his posting style manages to get the marking crowd all flustered despite them often agreeing with the substance of the topics. This got worse when a board regular became a moderator and started modding based on who his favorites were. But by keeping up the pressure on mods, BBT has shown how one person can make a difference and change the system.
BONUS: Krystal's appearance prompted one user to ask: "What do you not like about black people, Krystal?" in reference to her PR problems after she once said she didn't date black guys because of the different culture.
I have no issue with black people and have dated more than 1 in the past. You really shouldn't believe rumors and misconstrued comments that others have twisted to be racist.
I'd have answered this within the topic, but (again) that topic was closed. So here's your answer: a few months ago when I heard about this, I asked Krystal in a PM what the critics were talking about. Her answer confirmed that she had in fact said this.
People say I am unprofessional because I said I don't usually date black men because of cultural differences... this makes me racist apparently.
Does that sound like a rumor to you? Also keep in mind that some of the complaints weren't due to what she originally said, but when she doubled down and said she thought that way because of this one time she dated a black guy with a demanding African mother. This made it sound like she was generalizing that bad experience to all black people and also implied all black people identified with this same "African" culture.
See you next time~
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