The Saga Continues

Apparently issue was made of some honorary members of the OutKaSt list. Namely Damon's Mother, and Benjamin Linus. Both of whom had expressed Skate support and yet were quite obviously only fun, tongue and cheek additions to the list. Well, since they weren't active posters, a public notice was plastered over the OutKaSt's thread about it by none other than Darth Halfrek. (To be fair, there was a similar if less 'laying down the law' comment on the Couch to veto the addition of Tim Goodman to their list.)

http://www.thefuselage.org/Threaded/showpost.php?p=1424062&postcount=769

lisagwilkins, i was looking over your membership list. it appears that you have some members that have never posted in this ship thread or previous threads. as i stated HERE this is not really how ship rosters should have new members added. in theory then each ship could add whomever they wished ad naseum by adding anyone, everyone and their brother to the list just b/c they like *insert ship name here*. that is not really fair or feasible. i also think that if any other ship did start doing that, that you all would have serious problems/complaints about such a practice. thank you.

To which Lisagwilkins responded with the following:

http://www.thefuselage.org/Threaded/showpost.php?p=1424084&postcount=770

***mod edit

I have been administrator of this thread only since October 17, 2006. All membership numbers before member #216 are out of my control.

Benjamin Linus and Damon Lindeloff's mother were specifically given "honorary memberships" which is clearly stated on the membership list. These were done specifically in response to Ben's comments in Every Man For Himself, and Damon's comments about his mother's preferences on the show, AND in the spirit of good, clean fun. Obviously, by being given "honorary memberships" it's perfectly clear that these two people would not be expected to actually post on the thread.

However, if you are displeased with their presence, please let me know and I will remove them from the membership list.


Note the mod edit. Apparently what was taken out was a request to have been contacted about this via PM rather than clogging up the thread. Then her post was completely deleted, to which she responded with this:

Since my previous reply has been removed, how would you like me to address these issues?

Then Carency stepped in with:

http://www.thefuselage.org/Threaded/showpost.php?p=1424155&postcount=772

The explanation portion of your previous post has been restored.

Per the previous request, the names should be removed. It should be apparent from halfrek's previous post that this is an issue of keeping things fair between ships -- we cannot allow it for one group and not the other, and the lists really shouldn't be a competition for endorsements. The request was directed to you as the current thread administrator, not as an admonishment.

And yet the admonishment still came. She was given infraction points for being disrespectful to the mods and telling them how to do their jobs. Damned rebel upstart for rocking the boat. Can you imagine Banshee ever being treated this way?

Quite frankly, I think any rutting ship or group should be allowed silly honorary memberships. It's all in good fun, right? Or was supposed to be. Competition for endorsements? That's taking things a little seriously ain't it?

But that's not all, Lost citizens...

Another OutKaSt member was reprimanded for breaking the rules recently. LostTVfan posted a link to a blog site where Sawyer's popularity and the results of a character poll were discussed. She wanted to share this with her fellow posters as it's always great to read positive press.

There is the link which was originally posted:

http://www.lostblog.net/lost/tv/show/its-good-to-be-sawyer

Her link was edited out, the reason being : Advertising.

So LostTVfan wrote out the entire text for her fellow posters to see, since the site she'd linked to was a no-no for some reason.

She was mod edited again, reason: removing material under third party copyright.

At this point she was informed she'd been slapped with significant amount of infraction points, presumably for defying their dictate. As usual there was no warning, no gentle slap on the wrist, just points.

Now, upon investigation there IS a rule about copying out whole articles or song lyrics (understandably the Fuselage does not wish to be sued for breach of copyright). And so, LostTVfan took it upon herself to get full permission from the author to resolve the issue. The fruits of her labors can be seen here:

http://www.thefuselage.com/Threaded/showpost.php?p=1426277&postcount=788

Hopefully that will be the end of it. A hullabaloo over a link to a frakking article about Sawyer and his blasphemous popularity.

Can someone please tell me, though, just how the first link was even 'advertising'? The Fuselage rules are stated as follows:

"No SPAM
Do not place ANY advertisements on the forums. This will be considered SPAM and could result in you account being banned. We generally class advertisements or spam as a website with which the person has a personal interest in, or is not a relevant topic of discussion. Also, in consideration of respect for this community and its membership, we will not allow links to other not for profit web sites except within a member's profile or as a small, unobtrusive link in the signature or in our links section. For profit links are expressly prohibited and will be removed and the user possibly banned. If you have a for profit site that you would like to advertise, please contact the administration for advertising rates. The harvesting of poster emails or screen names for the express use in spam, junk mail, pyramid schemes, or other unsolicited emails is prohibited. "

Hmmm, I have seen many a link made to articles and blogs about the Lost characters, the actors, the show, the writers, polls and so on. In various threads all over the Fuselage.

Why was this particular example singled out for such punitive action? Was it originally reported by some poster disgruntled by the pro Sawyer content of the linked article or were the Mods just looking for an excuse to lay the smack down on this unsuspecting Skate poster?

Does this mean that all links to Lost-related media sites and blogs are now classified as 'advertising'? Better watch out kiddies, the Stroomtroopers are out in force, determined to make your day frustrating and decidedly lacking in any kind of fun whatsoever.

Oh, and an interesting sidenote to all of this is the mysterious temporary turning off of the Voting function in the VIP sections. Gregg Nations had asked his fans to vote on the threads so that he would answer those with 3 stars or above since he was a busy man and strapped for time. As was expected the Jaters in particular were very free in voting five stars for any pro-Jack or Jate posts, and voting one stars to lower the pro-Sawyer/Skate posts. Understandably some Skaters noticed this and responded in kind. Juvenile, yes, it was. So was the voting turned off because of these actions? They say it was a glitch and is now back and running. Who knows. But yeah, it's a pity people stoop to such tactics. On both sides.