Full summary of recent events - attacks, conspiracies and bans

As I am sure most of you know, quite a few people were banned from this message board over the last couple of weeks. These bans were triggered by several events that had a detrimental effect on the website and message board. These events, however, didn't just occur overnight but rather had a lengthy build-up that led to them.

A few years ago I sort of stepped away from the day-to-day operations of the message board. I didn't have as much time anymore, and quite frankly lost interest. My focus was primarily on how to add more features and bring more traffic. I figured that the message board was already a well established one and the moderators would be able to run it just as well without my regular involvement. I also stepped away from the moderator selection process and simply accepted anyone who was suggested by the existing moderators, which was probably my biggest mistake.

During that time a certain group of people pretty much took over the board, running rampant, bullying anyone who didn't share their points of view. That certainly wasn't the message board that I built 11 years ago anymore. On the board that I built everyone was allowed to express their opinion regardless of whether it was aligned with what other people thought. As long as one didn't act as a troll or a spammer, they were allowed to get their opinions out. These people changed that, they turned this board into their playground where they could uncontrollably stroke their virtual egos on a daily basis. They also had a few moderators that fully supported them, those same moderators that I accepted only because they were suggested by other mods. I don't have an exact count of how many members these people drove off the board and how many new posters never came back again because they were instantly bullied by this group. But I am sure there were plenty.

So, finally a couple of weeks ago they figured that they had enough influence here to launch an attack on me and how I run this website and message board. They attacked me in the Trashtalking Forum, which was closed yesterday and will be soon replaced by a slightly different one. I didn't know about their flaming thread, as I hardly ever visited that part of the board, until a member (not a mod as some of those people think) sent me a PM about it. I read the thread and then quite a few of their posts in other forums in order to get a better view of what was happening here. In my eyes it was an attempt to destabilize the board and pretty much the finishing touch to what those people were doing here the last few years. They had to be stopped or this board would have been lost for good.

I banned the obvious perpetrators, drawing an angry reaction from several of their cronies. I wanted to let it go but, unfortunately, they had different plans. They created a temporary group on reddit.com and then proceeded sending mass PMs to members of this board, telling them about their group on reddit.com and trashing this website. That's why a few more people had to be removed as well.

A few days ago I learned that they opened their own website and message board. And, of course, the grand opening had to be followed by another barrage of private messages, where they advertised their creation and spilled dirt on TheGangGreen.com. Meanwhile, several moderators were daily interacting with the leaders of that group via AIM. They were constantly lied to about how this group meant no harm to TheGangGreen.com and just wanted to have their own place to vent, while behind the scenes they were trying to sway away as many people as they could.

There was plenty of suspicion about one of the moderators and his involvement with the above mentioned group. A couple of days ago I confronted him and subsequently removed him from moderator duties. He responded with a flaming message on the message board where he also included a screenshot taken in the moderator-only forum. He was then banned for releasing private information to the public. He did not stop though. He sent me an email where he included another screenshot - his conversation on AIM with another moderator whom he baited into saying some things about me.

Then, yesterday, another moderator announced that he was the person who built the forum for that group and that he wanted to be demoted. Well, I figured that at least he finally came clean, so I removed him from moderator duties. That's where his class act stopped though, as he instantly proceeded sending mass PMs, advertising the board he created. I had no choice but remove him as well.

All this drama seems to be almost over now, although I would not be surprised to see more attempts by this group (a few of their supporters still post here) to inflict more damage to TheGangGreen.com. Meanwhile, the remaining moderators are doing an excellent job. We also got CMan55 back as an admin. A few others, who were driven off this board by the aforementioned group, are already back. The board will be again what it used to be. It will take time but I am sure we'll get there.

Well, thank you if you're still reading this, as I don't really remember the last time I wrote so much, probably back in college In conclusion I just want to say that I was really surprised by most of what has occurred here. I never imagined that adult people, and most of those are indeed adults over the age of 25, could act that way. Live and learn