Just read this interesting account by JW of the PA’s last hapless days…(Paul Barker rules!)
"OK, I admit it. I’m not exactly sure what a Manifesto even is (quick, someone run to dictionary.com and then come back with the answer as if you knew all along) but doesn’t it sound a lot cooler than “Pinny Rambling About More Junk”?
Why did I announce my Manifesto? Because I see a bunch of people running around like knuckleheads. Because I see finger pointing, name-calling, and accusations. Because I see a lot of scapegoating, vilification, and character assassination, but not a lot of substance behind any of it. And in the midst of all of this, I think many people have suffered while all this time the truly guilty have somehow slipped under everyone’s radar and have somehow slipped through, unbloodied and untarnished. It is not vengeance I seek with my Manifesto, but reason. I want people to open their eyes. I want people to use their brains.
Here is the truth, Kids.
FACT: The last Mods for the Piss Army were Theodora and Martyrsexxx.
Why do I know this? Because they told me back in the summer. I did not ask for such information and in all honesty I did not want it, but I guess they wanted to score brownie points with 'ol J-Dubs or something. I personally don’t like having such information as I think it taints the overall experience and creates a bias but regardless, I continued with my dealings as always, with respect for people’s privacy and anonymity (where called for) and civility toward others.
Even when I would disagree with administration and mods I still respected their position and authority and accepted that I was on the board voluntarily and participation therein implied an acceptance of whatever power structure was set up by the board’s true owners (perhaps a gray area in itself).
When things got retarded during Rabidgate and I couldn’t stand it anymore I asked them to delete my account, as I wanted out anyway. Instead of honoring my request I instead received the announcement that they were banning Rabidchicken. I think I found this more offensive than their initial unwillingness (yes, I heard, “their hands were tied”). I think that people should do things because it is the right thing to do and not out of fear of how others react or perceive them. And my request for deletion was not a move of blackmail or any such stunt. I just wanted out.
But those who know me know my inability to self-regulate, so, since my account had not been deleted as I asked, I was back on the board and life continued leisurely.
Then came MODDERGATE. “Rants_Mod” publicly posted some of SickSteve’s private messages and made sport of them on the board. This was not only offensive to me on many levels, but it was a bit of a revelation as well. Many of us (yes, especially me) had been laughing at SickSteve’s posts on the board and dismissing his mentions of his PA activity “being monitored” as paranoid or delusional. I issued a public apology to SickSteve. I did this as a publicly visible letter because I had misjudged him publicly and I felt I owed it to him to make this known to everyone.
My letter opened up an onboard controversy and I received shortly thereafter an apology from Theo. I accepted her apology and told her that while I wouldn’t hold it against her personally I did need to stick to my morals on the board and still needed to address the actions. I told her that Rants_Mod and Theo were to me two different personas and she would be well advised to do the same so as not to take things to heart.
She obviously ignored my advice and took things too personally. Her blind defense of the Rants_Mod’s actions and her simultaneous denial of knowing anything about it was transparent and embarrassing. She had a few supporters though, and soon I found myself arguing with three who accused me of irresponsibly creating chaos out of nothing and I was even informed that since Angie and Al were sick of such onscreen bickerings that my actions would likely cause the PA to get shut down.
At no time during all this (despite many seeing right through her horrible acting job) did I compromise the anonymity of the Rants_Mod position. And so it got worse. Theo and her friends began upping their game and threw immature potshots at me calling me out while using my own respect for privacy as a shield that they could hide behind. She started even making subtle mention to things that I’d asked in PM’s to Rants_Mod. Someone else called her out on some of this crap and we got more of the classic deletions to cover her own ass.
I had already, during this madness, sent another request to delete my account to the Rants_Mod. The “Mod” finally replied with the worst see-through performance of admission I’d ever seen and wrote something like “I’m new here, I think I can delete you but is that what you really want? I’m new here.” I sent her message to both her own account and the Mod account that her actions and treatment of me was embarrassing and she needed to stop immediately. She had the nerve to act like she didn’t know what I was talking about, but when I told her clearly on the board that she is not allowed to make anymore mention of JW or reference to me in anyway she finally complied with my deletion. As they feared, the “death” of JW put the PA into a tailspin and almost immediately thereafter a poll started up wherein PA members declared “Mutiny” and discussed choosing a new Mod and contacting Mrs.Jay with their disapproval of the leadership of the time and their request for instatement of a new mod.
THEN THE PA DIED. It went offline. The page disappeared. Quickly thereafter Jordan and Chris scurried up a Facebook page for everyone to play on and discussions about finding out the status of the old PA site started up concurrently. After a week or two, Afra was blamed by Mrs. Jay for the removal of the site. Afra has quite successfully submitted what most of us see as pretty clear documented evidence that he was NOT the perpetrator as he did not have control of the site’s material and content, etc.
So what happened? Well, I don’t know for a fact, but let me tell you what makes the most sense based on what I know about the facts and what I know about the players.
Pinny Long’s Theory for the PA’s Removal:
I believe that the mods and Admins for the PA panicked. Their horrible handling of a situation turned a momentary lapse of judgment into a fullblown public crapstorm. All fingers were pointing at them (rightly so) and the natives were turning into a bloodthirsty mob and were forming a lynch mob that seemed intent on action . . . . action which was statedly going to involve discussion with Mrs. Jay. I think the Admins/ Mods pulled the site down. They probably either just wanted to buy some time and figure out what to do, or perhaps they were going to “clean some stuff up” on the board. I think they screwed up somehow and deleted or lost the site.
When Mrs. Jay ultimately asked them about it, I think Afra was the easy scapegoat. Either they denied knowing anything and Afra’s name rose up when they looked into the site account. Or perhaps they straight up threw him under the bus.
Anyone who knows Angie knows that she is not savvy with respect to computer stuff. She relied on fans to do all the online stuff. From Myspace to PA, it was all just fans chipping in and volunteering services and time. So, if she was told that Afra was the culprit, why wouldn’t she believe this? And, perceiving this all as a turn on her and her organization she posted announcements making reference to this on both Myspace and the PA site location.
Oh, and did anyone else notice that right before Afra got nailed to a tree Theo showed up at the PB4PB Facebook and had the nerve to ask everyone for an update? Some of you actually gave it to her. It was shortly thereafter that I noticed a creepy correllation between things discussed on the PB4PB Facebook page and actions committed by the 13th Planet crew. So, I decided that there were some “spies” that were still feeding back info to Mrs. Jay. So, since Annie had made me a Mod on Facebook (another thing I never asked for) anyway, I felt that it would be best for the group to block Theo and make the group private to reduce such activity.
I think Mrs. Jay jumped the gun. I think she relied on others and it backfired on her. I’ve stated this before, but I’ll say it again, Mrs. Jay has never been anything but a total sweetheart to me, and up until very recently there was nothing but glowing praise and shameless asskissing on the PA from the majority of the rest of you as well. I’m kind of disgusted by how quickly some of you turn on someone just because of some hearsay or allegations between parties that you have nothing to do with in the first place.
I’m not defending anyone here. No, what I’m trying to do is show you how, if my theory makes sense (and I sure think it does) that there are quite a few victims in all this. And I think that some of these victims may have even been pitted against each other while some lying liars that tell lies hide out. Some dorks tried to start crap with Claire because she was defriending people. Oh, my gosh. Who cares? I know some people take issue with her for being ra-ra for the Jays but you know what? At least she sticks by her friends and she’s always been consistent. It’s easy to change opinion about someone when everyone else around you is talking trash. But she stays true. I got plenty to fight with her about, don’t worry. But I sure am not going to lob crap at someone that tries to get AWAY from all this madness.
I don’t care who defriends me on Facebook and I don’t care who thinks I’m a jerk here either. If some of you do, well that’s your problem.
One more thing, please. I’m not saying all this to start up crap with anyone. I’m saying this to shed some light on a situation that could use some. I really didn’t ever want to have to mention the name Theo again, but recent events made me feel I had a responsibility to speak up.
That is all. If you want to cry and call me a bully or something, go for it. I’ll throw you on the pile with the rest of the bloated carcasses in my collection. Seriously.
Love,
JW
PS: I’m sorry for any grammatical abortions in my Manifesto. There’s no way I’m gonna proofread that long-winded pile of crap."