Speak

so did you guys stop giving a fuck? heard nothing from you guys since the last post.

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:57:39 -0400

We really only wanted to get information out for the masses. For them to wake up and question. The only other purpose we serve is to be a venting place for Bulbagarden users and staff if they feel like Bulbagarden is getting them down.

where can i find this secret porn forum?

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:47:17 -0400

It’s not accessible to anyone not a mod on the Bulbagarden forums. It’s also not a porn thread anymore, as HAVA made them get rid of it.

Can I speak to CoolPikachu!? I am certain he is the one running this blog >_>.

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:10:03 -0400

CoolPikachu! does not run this blog. The only thing he’s contributed to this tumblr is a submission.

This isn't really a question, just more of an observation from someone outside of this situation (I've never been a part of Bulbapedia or any other Pokemon forums, just a lurker) - Even if everything you said here was made up, I'd still side with you over the kinds of people who would dehumanise a trans person like that previous comment, or women like with their 'boob week'. They honestly disgust me.

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:46:54 -0400

Especially when they call other users immature or other users bitchy because they have fun or stand up for what’s right. Hypocrisy. Just like going into the 4chan thread and saying there’s no Van. Clearly there is from the links Bulbanews so graciously posted. They’re liars. They’re no better than Serebii or WPM sometimes.

Why is Archaic ignoring the Van's existence?

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:42:36 -0400

I’m not sure. He can’t deny the proof, so he should address the elephant in the internet room.

I can imagine them scrambling to try to think of ways to cover up the porn forum. probably some BS about it being just for mature discussion or not allowing underaged kids LOL

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:33:32 -0400

Well I believe it is now, but I’m not for sure. If they make an announcement on any of this, they probably won’t make any mention to the Van.

Hey, it's Mozz. I just im'ed you. :popcorn:

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:53:21 -0400

I’m not TTEchidna, just an FYI. D:

if a current mod wanted to submit something anonymously, would that be possible?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:24:32 -0400

Absolutely. Anyone’s welcome to post anything.

what do you think about the other admins? Evkl, Evil Figment, SaturnYoshi, DCM, Satoshi-Kun, Grn Marvel?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:48:05 -0400

The only ones I’ve talked to personally were Evkl and SaturnYoshi. Both are nice and fun to talk to. Evkl is helpful in solving problems or issues you have, as well as SaturnYoshi. I only was in a chat with DCM a few times way back. The rest of the admins I’ve never talked to or interacted with, so I have no opinions to them.

I can't read the van screencaps, is there any way for you to transcribe them (or make them easier to zoom into)?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:27:58 -0400

On the post, there should be an alternative link to a dropbox folder with zoom capabilities.

Or just click it here…
http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/45772787/1/Mods%20and%20the%20Van?h=e4d609

Not a question but we do have evidence of the HAVA Media Buyout. Check the domain whois on GoDaddy and it'll show the owner of the domain is the CEO of HAVA Media as seen on their website

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:44:31 -0400

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get screenshots of the information on the forums. I don’t think anyone was fully aware of the buyout except the really high up and really into the forums. The Whois is the only solid proof existing outside of TTEchidna’s word, who was very into the Garden operations.

How did Immewnity get it into his head that hijacking the Bulbanews twitter account would help us? No one even likes him.

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:42:16 -0400

While not directly linked to us, we did use it as a good opportunity to publish links that confirmed what TTEchidna was saying.

what are your thoughts on the current head of the forums, Musashi?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:40:58 -0400

Never talked to her, never interacted in the same social circle. I might have been in a chat with her. I don’t have any opinion on her, sorry. D:

This is a very interesting issue. I'm not sure that I have any real issue with them being bought out by HAVA Media, nor whatever secret forum you say they had (it'd be great if you could provide any proof of that beyond the existence of a usergroup on BMGF). It seems like this is a lot more of a personal problem, with the group of however many people are submitting t this taking issue with the upper staff. Well founded,but not sure this was really needed.

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:35:06 -0400

Done and done. Although we lack an actual screenshot of the HAVA Media buyout, TTEchidna was a staff member and had access to all of their details. Unless we can get them, we’ll have to settle for the revelation of Mozz’s Van. Sorry. D:

Two things. Is there anyway you can set it so we can comment on these entries? I don't know how tumblr works. Also, do you mind telling who you are, so we know who we're talking to?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:09:51 -0400

I *think* we allowed replies, if it doesn’t work, we’ll try to find out how to get comments allowed.

We’re former Bulbagarden users who’ve been frustrated with their antics.

Not like it really matters or anything, but while none of the...

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:03:00 -0400

Mods and the Van screencap

Mods and the Van screencap

Mods and the Van screencap

Mods and the Van screencap

Mods and the Van screencap

Mods and the Van screencap

Mods and the Van screencap

Mods and the Van screencap

Not like it really matters or anything, but while none of the staff here had access directly to the van, we got some screencaps of Garden staff talking about the Van and mentioning some rather interesting details. Put that together with the links Bulbanews sent out yesterday and they can’t hide that the Van.

Alternatively, there’s also
http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/45772787/1/Mods%20and%20the%20Van?h=e4d609

A certain Bulbagarden staff member who shall go unnamed just told me that he no longer respects me as a result of my siding with TTE during these shenanigans. He also told me that, as a result of him no longer respecting me, he didn't want to be "bothered" to use the correct pronouns for me anymore (I'm trans). Funny, I wonder if he isn't going to be bothered to use the correct pronouns for TTE or any of the other cis people involved? Bulbagarden's staff includes bigots, pass it on.

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:12:57 -0400

Not really a question, so I can’t really respond. But here is the message for all to see.

Laments of a regular member

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:06:27 -0400

I suppose, even as a regular member, I have things to say about Bulbagarden. This story is a perspective about things the way a regular but heavily involved member saw them.

When I first joined the Pokémon fandom about two years ago, it was to write fanfics out of all things. I had many zany stories in mind, some of which came to fruition, others not so lucky.

My experience with a fansite was, in fact, Bulbagarden - it started with Bulbapedia in December 2009, mainly to insert a “payout” page (which is now a mainspace page with full detail!) because I had noticed a pattern in the way the payouts were calculated. Eventually, I got pretty active in Bulbapedia. I then found out about their forums, but this was around the time of the Team Rocket takeover, and I found that the members and layout at the time were pretty tacky, so I stayed away.

I joined my first Pokémon fan forum in March 2010 - it was Serebii’s forums. I thought the community there was okay, but their pages were horribly laid out, and this would have been around the time when Serebii’s forum’s database suffered some sort of a breakdown, resulting in the pages loading really slowly and generally spoiling my experience there.

Then, I decided to give PokéCommunity a try. I quickly got bored of that place, because I thought that the users were too hostile and their policies too strict.

But then, I came across Bulbagarden again, and thought, why the hell not. I registered, mostly to share my fanfics with people.

That would have been the end of that, but the date I registered happened to be May 23, 2010, five days before Reshiram and Zekrom were released to the public. As predictable of a new, young, and foolish member, I got swept up in the excitement. Originally, my username was “Ztobor” to match my Bulbapedia name. That quickly changed to “Zekurom” in honour of Zekrom. (Don’t ask about the “u”. It was a personal choice.)

From that moment on, I was a regular member. I participated in all sorts of discussions, some more meaningful than others, others downright asinine. I caught the Bulba-fever. Since it was just about summertime, I had all the time in the world to post about, and I made use of it. Within the first three months of me joining, I amassed a total of two thousand posts, none of which I personally consider particularly spammy, and certainly none of which were just a single word. And all this without even touching the conversational thread, which I’m now convinced is just an IRC substitute for the forum-oriented.

Of course, I never forgot about the fanfic section, which is where about half of my posts went. I became a regular there, and was pretty well known. In fact, I drove the community to create a new section of the writing forum, the Writer’s Block, out of annoyance for discussion threads clogging up the main fic section.

Fast forward a little while and I’m posting about all the good times I’ve having at Bulbagarden. (Readers of this tumblr are probably wincing at that right about now. So am I, when I look back on it.) This goes on for quite a while. I got into trouble a few times and left, but that was mainly as a cooldown period, not because I had any grievances with the staff. (I even got banned once and left for two weeks.) In fact, I applauded them for being reasonable in enforcing the rules. This behaviour continued all the way up till about late May this year, a year after I joined. They were running another staff recruitment drive after the upgrade to vBulletin 4, which happened to happen exactly a year after I joined. Obviously, I thought I had a shot, because I was such a frequently appearing and helpful member.

But then, the day when stuff was meant to be released, I was constantly jittery about it and asking a staff member who was a friend about whether they saw my name on any lists in the staff forums or not. He responded in the negative, and I thought, “welp, that was a waste.” Except it was more like, “oh shit, I didn’t get accepted. Wat do wat do WAT DO.”

Then, it came to me in a moment of revelation. I was addicted to Bulbagarden. I had worried about this staff thing so much that it intruded into my sleep and dreams. I needed to quit. For good.

I wasn’t even staff yet, but I tended a goodbye letter, which can be read here: http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/zekurom/im-getting-out-here-30702/ : and then I left. Just… pop. Like that, I stopped posting. Cold turkey. After a year and over five thousand posts, I disappeared. I might have popped in a few times to place a new fanfic on the board or reply to a lingering blog post comment, but that was about it. Basically, back to pre-Zekurom first-five-days activity levels.

But again, I still didn’t blame them. It was all my problem. And looking back, I still think it was my own fault for being addicted to Bulbagarden.

Then came my IRC stage. By now, I was involved in another Pokémon fan project that involved discussing things in an IRC channel, so I thought, why not check out some of the IRC channels of these fansites? I joined Bulbagarden’s IRC first, and then came a bunch of other connections that I will not name here for fear of incrimination. But from those other connections, I learned about a new side of Bulbagarden - a much darker one. I learned about what other people thought of Bulbagarden’s fansite. At the time, there wasn’t much drama, but I met up with a former member who had been permanently banned, and heard the whole story from a whole new point of view.

From that point on, my view of Bulbagarden started getting worse and worse. I found out about what had happened before I joined the fandom, and it wasn’t pretty. And then I found out a few things about what had happened during my stay at the fandom, that had been glossed over by the staff members for sheeple such as me. (Not to say that the masses are all sheeple, but out of the ones that were, I was one of them.) It wasn’t pretty either. All the accusations against Bulbagarden that I had dismissed as jealous ranting came tumbling down on me. I was left, perhaps not with the truth, but definitely with more information than I had had before.

And then this happened. TTEchidna’s rant. I had always heard from the BMGf staff that he was a bit of a kook due to stress from IRL stuff. But I never imagined that it was a huge coverup. For me, even though my view of Bulbagarden had already deteriorated, it was personally quite a kick in the balls to find this out. For the whole time I was there, I was under some sort of corporately owned hierarchy, not a community-owned Pokémon fansite. With all the revelations that have been pouring out, I’m surprised I’m not cursing myself for being so ignorant. But then again, maybe I shouldn’t be. I never knew any better. I was a part of the sheeple.

I agree on the respect thing. But do you think this is respectful? I can see a need to air grievances, and for the most part, I think it's very healthy to do so in a public place. but attacks on other staff members "dick riding" seem kind of rude :/ Not an attack on you, so please don't snap. just something that irks me.

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:34:38 -0400

Yeah, I think it is disrespectful. But there are people who express things differently so certain derogatory terms might end up. I see three instances, so I can’t speak on behalf of the ones who did use the term “dick riding”

Would it be okay for a regular member to post a confession here as well?

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:25:29 -0400

Sure, why not. Everyone’s confessions are welcome here.