This email was made for UG and iTunes, so I had no reason to check it till yesterday. I've stewed over whether or not I wanted to reply, and decided to do so.
First, I want to disagree with you. I don't think any older users would like to hear from me,
because if they did they would have tried to talk to me. Not the case. You're the only person to email me.
I'm going to explain why I decided to leave Ultimate-Guitar, but I don't think you'll like it.
Feel free to share this email as well, but once again, I doubt you'll be showing anyone. I think my story will also explain why you won't spread it around.
Also, I have no evidence to back up anything I have to say, only memory. I either don't have access
to the things I'm going to talk about, or no desire to look them up. I'm sure if you ask anyone I mention in this email about it, they'll deny everything I say. I'm also sure their word will probably be found
better then mine. The reason for that is: I'm not in the club anymore.
So let's start off with the reasons I mentioned in my thread, and then move on to things I didn't mention.
Slut becomes a mod. Slut waits a week. Slut becomes the only mod he knows of that had to make a welcome thread
for himself. "Hello!" says Slut. "I'm the new Promote Your Band mod!"
This thread died after a few half hearted welcomes, of course. But one post stuck out. Marchoso said something similar to:
"Oh, thats my forum! I guess I'd better start working in there."
Obviously bells rang out at that. My original intent when I asked Doug for the position (more on this later) was to bring something to Promote Your Band no one had ever brought. I'd always seen PYB as more then a forum for
advertising your band, as everyone else did. I saw it more like Songwriting and Lyrics. A community. A place for people in bands to talk to each other about their bands. Crit each others bands, etc.
So, seeing as how no one was actually doing anything in the forum other then deleting the odd spam post, I
decided to take action to accomplish my vision. I created the "Thread of Excellency". A thread where the best bands I had heard on the site, either by song writing or by production values, would be listed by genre.
I left the thread open for discussion on the bands on the list, and for peoples input on the thread.
This thread was actually looked over and some bands used for the UG Bands of the Month article. It was a useful thread.
The rules of the forum, written by LazyGuitar and around three years old, had been put in an announcement. Spam was rampant. I
had you take down the announcement. I rewrote all the rules myself from
scratch. I put it up as it's own sticky. Spam died off pretty quickly.
I made sure the Band Logos and Band Name threads were kept clean. I remade these threads every thousand posts or so to make sure
they didn't get cluttered. I stickied a thread made by someone else
about where to post your music, and where to have merch made.
I also contributed links I knew of to the thread.
Basically, I had shit down tight, and I recieved many messages of thanks for what I had done. It seems many people who ventured to PYB felt it had the same potential I did. A sub community like every other subforum had.
Apparently though, what I did was not good enough. Some of my stickies started getting removed without my consent. I remade them. They disappeared again.
Then one day I get on and see the rules sticky I had made was gone. It was replaced by an announcement by Marchoso.
My rules, which as I said before I wrote from scratch, had been copied
nearly verbatim. I think there was one extra sentence added. A rule I hadn't thought of.
And then at the end, Marchoso had the gall to thank himself, myself, LazyGuitar and Beatallica for their hard work on the rules.
The rules I had written. The rules none of them had anything to do with.
I remembered: "Hey! I think there's a rule in the Secret Forum about messing with other mods decisions without their consent!"
So I messaged Marchoso and got something along the lines of "Deal
with it, take it up with Frenchy if you don't like it" as a response.
So
I bit my tongue and went on with life. I did notice, about a month
later, his announcement had only 100 views. The same amount of
views my sticky would get in a day. I also had noticed throughout the
month spam had risen dramatically. Because no one reads announcements.
One
day, I get on and see the Thread of Excellency has no posts in it, and
is closed. Posts that I had left because either they showed support
of the idea, intelligent conversation, or links I wanted to check. Gone. All gone. No warning, no heads up, just up and gone.
This threw me over the edge. How did he have the right? I never messed with his stickies! Oh wait, that's because he had none.
He never did jack shit unless I did. And when I did, Marchoso swooped in to add three words and write himself into the credits.
Unacceptable.
I resigned that day. The last post I saw on Ultimate-Guitar was Carmel
telling me I should have messaged Marchoso about it.
My rebuttle? Fuck her, fuck him, and fuck that. I already messaged him,
as I previously stated, and was essentially told to go fuck myself.
So,
now we come to the point where I tell you the things I didn't mention
in my thread. Why do I go into them now? Because I mentioned Carmel.
I have no problems with anyone on Ultimate-Guitar on a personal
level, especially Carmel. Carmel has always been nice to me, I've
always been nice to her. We used to talk years ago in the chat, long before she somehow rose to god like levels of power without anyone noticing.
Honestly, Frenchy, you're the only person I've ever seen on the UG
Staff who ever deserved it. Everyone else, myself included, kissed ass, called in favors or showed tits for their spot on the roster. How did I get on staff? All I had to do was ask Doug for the spot.
How did Carmel? One day no one knew who she was, the next she was an
smod. And then her boyfriend made mod? I wonder how that happened!
But...
Frenchy, you're a great guy, I'd still call you a friend if we skyped. But god damnit, you're just as bad as the rest of them.
This has been going on as long as I remember on Ultimate-Guitar, but I never put the pieces together untill I was put on staff. This
greater-than-thou, I'm in a secret club and you're not so I'm far
better then you attitude the mods of Ultimate-Guitar have.
The pseudo-government we all established because we could never have any power in real life.
But the problem is, it isn't even pseudo-government. It's Orwell at his finest.
I'll give you two examples of the complete idiocy of nearly every mod on Ultimate-Guitar.
First example - The pear.
Mod 1 - "Hello, I think we should discuss the use of the LOL WUT Pear on the forums." Mod 2 - "I think it's funny, but we need rules so it isn't over used."
Mod 3 - "I hate it, but there isn't much we can do about it. I do think we should try to limit it's use though. Mod 4 - "I agree, I think it's hilarious in certain situations."
Then
suddenly, as if a puff of smoke and a laughing genie were heard, three
people post back to back, within seconds of each other.
Carmel - "I THINK WE SHOULD BAN THE PEAR." Manda - "I THINK WE SHOULD BAN THE PEAR." Frenchy - "I THINK WE SHOULD BAN THE PEAR."
And then all the other mods come in like little sheep behind their shephards in a great united cry of "BBBBBAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Mod 1 - "Oh yes! We should ban it!" Mod 2 - "Totally, it's not funny in any way and we should hand out a 30 day ban for its use!" Mod 3 - "I've always said we should ban the pear!"
Mod 4 - "lol wut?"
Second example - The guy who faked being sick in Italy or whatever.
Mod 1 - "Hello, I think we should discuss if we tell the users whether or not this was a hoax."
Mod 2 - "This is tricky, on one side I feel this could cause an upset, on the other it would be wrong not to tell them." Mod
3 - "I agree with mod 2, I feel it could be wrong to be so secretive.
We should be more transparent to gain the users trust."
Mod 4 - "I'm still not sure on my position but I feel all points were made well. I'll think about it and post later.
And then that puff of smoke appears, back to back within seconds of each other.
Carmel - "I THINK WE SHOULD NEVER TELL THE USERS." Manda - "I THINK WE SHOULD NEVER TELL THE USERS." Frenchy - "I THINK WE SHOULD NEVER TELL THE USERS."
The Mods - "
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IM A SHEEP."
Mod 1 - "We should never tell them, thats a great idea!"
Etc, etc, etc. And then afterwords all the mods meet up in the chat and giggle cause they know secrets the users don't. It's so nice to be in a secret club, even if you all behave like you're in a sorority!
This is nothing new, you three didn't invent it. Before you we had
Doug and Chris, before that Lazy and Beat. After you there will be new people to lead the herd. It doesn't stop the fact it's disgusting and something I wanted no part of.
Imagine eating dinner with Hitler, and everyone around you is
agreeing with everything he said without a second thought, and nothing you
say can change anything. That's what it felt like. We had seats at the
table, but you three shoved so much bread down our throats
no one could ever tell you we weren't hungry.
Were
you three having little meetings behind closed doors, discussing where
to take the forums? That's what it felt like, and if you were, maybe
do a better job at hiding it. Like spreading your posts out. Not have
them all occur at the same exact god damn time. You know,
like an intelligent person would?
If
you didn't do that, and it was a coincidence...well I can't buy that
because it was so fucking obvious what was going on. So nevermind.
Like
I said Frenchy, you're a great guy. Manda was great. Carmel was great.
But the difference between a one on one conversation and
what happens in the Secret Forum are miles apart. It changes people's
behaviour on the forums. It changed mine. It changed theirs, and god damnit Frenchy, it changed yours.
This
high and mighty attitude, keeping secrets from users, not allowing
certain pictures to be used. It's too much. We all got too big for our
britches.
Some of us got bigger then others. Ever read Animal Farm? I'm sure you
have. Slap the title "Ultimate-Guitar" on it, change the pigs to smods
and admins, change
the rest of the animals to "mods and users" and there you go. Wow, I
didn't have to write this email, I could have just said that.
Basically, the staff is filled with corrupt mods and moronic mods, and I could no longer be a part of it.
I
hope you share this email. I hope you post it in the secret forum. But
I know you won't because you know I'm right, and the last thing you want
is to let the sheep know they're going to the slaughter, and not green pastures.
So, to conclude, I want you to remember this. It fits the sad state of Ultimate-Guitar and it's staff.
All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
I just wrote loads and it got deleted, damn.
Anyway, I agree with most of this, there's too many people here willing to change heir minds and opinions to coincide with their superiors. I have a great deal of respect for 90% of mods on this site who do a bloody good job, but there's some who do buggar all then show up out of the blue and ban people/close threads with their 'Holier Than Thou' attitude for a few days then piss off again.
I won't go into it in such a great deal, but people are too scared to speak out in case they get warned. Too many people sucking up to mods, and I know some mods out there that hate that feeling - feeling inhuman, nobody wanting to talk to you about normal, everyday things. Be yourself people.
The other topic that annoys me is the group of UGers (mainly Pit goers) that feel they are better than others, and are treated better by staff and users alike. Now don't get me wrong, some of these users deserve it - there are some great people out there, funny, smart etc and they are fine by me.
The other half however, try their utmost to be seen as 'popular' - they post in every thread sucking up to the other 'untouchable' users to bag themselves brownie points.
This really used to annoy me, I mean, aye, everybody wants to be liked but these people are just embarrassing.
How to combat this? Make your own friends. I used to look at the likes of Yakult and Dinkydaisy and the likes years ago and think they were the bee's knees, but nowadays they're never on, which is a shame. I have my own UG friends (You guys know who you are) and I think it's much better talking to them then kissing asses of the 'popular' folks.
I guess that's just the way things are though, and the way they'll always be. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should just ignore the bunch of towels and make your own friends, and most importantly be yourself. Have your own views and you'l be respected more for it.
Fantastic blog. Interesting insight too. I agree with Drew, I'll get warned if I speak my mind, even on this blog I bet. Free speech results in a warning. If you call certain mods heavy-handed, you'll ironically get banned.
Great blog, first time I've read a wall of text in ages, but most of this overuling seems to only apply to the pit. Things seem to go smoothly in other parts of the forums, you shouldn't have resigned.
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