Apple2012's Fine Blog

I'm officially at the 70 entry mark. 100 entries isn't far away. It looks like I'm tied with a_mailbox when it comes to writing entries, and I'll surpass him if I continue. I'm not trying to be competitive, but I'm saying that because I have gone far. Now what about BLAHBLAH1000? He hasn't written an entry in a while, and I thought he likes blogging. I'm not trying to be bossy, but I would like to see another entry. And bigl0uc0ntra is writing an entry everyday too. That's good for him. I'm not trying to promote spam or discourage others from writing, but I would like to get up to 100 entries and see more from the others. I know that I don't have the largest blog on LBPC, but I do know that I written the most this year.

Since there's no specific topic on the tenth entry from every ten entries, I would like to tell a story about my experience on TV.com in 2008. If you were reading my posts, you could see that I did go to TV.com several times. It's true, I was a member of TV.com back in 2008, but I had serious misbehavior on forums back then. Now I'm not like what I was in the past. I am better in behavior these days when it comes to forums, but it could also be that TV.com was too strict. Trust me, TV.com is not a forum site. People treat it as a forum site because of the message boards for every TV show. TV.com was part of the CNET websites, where they record some news and information on TV shows, video games, music, and movies. The four websites from that same system I was part of are TV.com, Gamespot, MP3.com, and MovieTome. I mostly spent time on TV.com, and rarely on Gamespot. But there are forums that people go to. Just letting you know, all of the text in green is more about the story. Any text in black means I'm making a connection.

I discovered TV.com in 2005 when I was looking for information about a show I liked back then. Later in 2007, the TV show Chowder premieres on Cartoon Network. That was my favorite show at that time since the premiere. There was an episode where a girl fell in love with Chowder, and he is trying to get her off of him. I didn't know the name of the episode, so I looked on TV.com to find out what it was called. I later used it as a site I would read over and over again because of a guide.

In 2008, I discovered the forum for the show Chowder. I never joined until I got tempted. So I signed up for TV.com, and immediately moved to the Chowder forum. My very first post was the first post of the very first topic I made (just like what I did here in LBPC). It was called "I know a secret episode of Chowder", but that's because the DVR named the episode ahead of time. The topic, unfortunately, is deleted. I joined on St. Patricks Day. I chose to limit myself to the Chowder forum until April, when I explore the other forums.

On other forums, I see some very interesting topics. The Chowder forum actually is peaceful. It appears the editor was deleting all of the good topics for no good reason. All it talked about was the show in general, but there were game threads and favorites threads, not only that, but there are fanfic threads too, such as the one where you can make up your Chowder episode. On the Spongebob forum, when I first went there, it was bad. People were involved in board wars. It was the battle of the Avatar fans and the Spongebob fans. Avatar fans were invading the Spongebob forum to insult the show and everyone who likes it. Spongebob fans fought back because the Avatar fans were invading the forum. There were many topics on Spongebob vs Avatar, and they were locked. Maybe I should make a Sponge vs Avatar topic on LBPC. Or not, but it is a big deal if it was on TV.com because the forum for a show is the base for all of the fans. The one question I have about this now: If the Avatar fans hate Spongebob, then why would they invade the Spongebob forum? I was more in favor to watch Spongebob because I never saw Avatar. Trust me. Never join forums about stuff you hate. And Avatar has nothing to do with Spongebob. The only thing they find a similarity with is over that stupid KCA award. If people like Avatar more, it's just how it goes. And why would actually root for a show that is going downhill. Speaking of that, another thing I saw on the Spongebob forum were topics about how bad the show is doing. They were comparing seasons, and I learned Season 4 was the season when the show is finally going downhill. And that was the time when Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered.

On the Camp Lazlo forum, while it was more about the show than anything else (just like the Chowder forum), there were four or five topics complaining about the cancellation. That year, Camp Lazlo has ended. I saw this one user who was criticizing Cartoon Network and its shows on many forums. He got banned in June. On the OOJH (Out of Jimmy's Head) and Squirrel Boy forums, before they got cleaned up, they were talking about how bad Cartoon Network is. So after reading all of the clues from each forum (including the animation forum), I see what's going on; Cartoon Network is going downhill. It's going downhill even while I was on TV.com.

The Avatar forum was about the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender. And guess what: that forum was the biggest war zone on TV.com I ever seen. I never read the war topics, but I hear there were many flames and trolls. I go there rarely, but it's worse than the Spongebob forum.

Now that's enough about my experience on each forum I went to, so I should go deeper into my life on TV.com.

In May, I received my very first TOS violation warning. TOS stands for "Terms of Service", and a TOS (that's what people call it) is a moderation of a post you made. The violation I got was considered trolling. What I did say was talking about what we hate about the show Chowder, and I said "If one hate was already taken, choose another hate". I think that's the problem here. One warning isn't bad, unless if it's severe. Later that month, I received three more warnings, and they were all from the same topic on the Spongebob forum. I was comparing Spongebob to another show. It's not just any show, but it's Chowder. So then I had to stay off of TV.com for a week because of all these violations. I'm not suspended, but I just can't stay for any longer. A few days after I came back, I saw the Chowder forum clearing up, because of our editor. So then, I wish to become editor. This means I have to contribute to the Chowder guide more often. I was promoted to Trusted Contributor, but being editor was what I wanted.

On TV.com, just like on LBP Central, there are personal blogs too. I was writing a lot over there too, but I never reached 100 entries. I mostly talk about my experience from TV.com. Unlike LBP Central, blogs were not quiet. I usually get comments on my entries every time I write. I even remembered spam comments on friends' blogs, so later on, I decided to put a 50 comment limit on every entry I write. So if you are wondering I like having comments on my blog here, I written a blog on TV.com too. I even talked about interesting stuff like I do here.

In July, because I violated the TOS outright 15 times, I got suspended for five days. This means I lose my priveleges from the site for the day I got the suspension, and the next five days. Even though I was suspended, I still read the forums. So far, here on LBP Central, it's already August, and I haven't received a single infraction. I even joined LBP Central this year before St. Patrick's Day. But on TV.com, I was more obsessive than I am today. I go there as a regular basis, and I get impatient when it comes to new posts. I'm not like that anymore, but I do like to talk about it to compare and contrast. It was July I got suspended from TV.com. After the suspension, I decided to not violate the TOS anymore, and I never got a moderation until after editorship.

Later in July, after Season 1 of Chowder was finished, I made enough contributions that promoted me to editorship. Yes, I became editor of Chowder. It means I control the guide and the forum of Chowder on TV.com. Now as of you know about me on LBP Central, I did say that "I wish to get Mm Picked" a lot of times. But just in case if you're wandering, I done something like getting Mm Picked before, and that was becoming the editor of a guide on TV.com. The role of the editor is to monitor the forum and filter the submissions of the guide. That means, I have to accept submissions if they are valid, reject if they are invalid, and edit if they were valid or invalid. I can also sticky topics, lock topics, and delete topics. The editor has the abilities of a moderator. I was actually a bad moderator. Even though people were cheering on me to become editor, as well as they congratulated me for winning editorship, I now think I'm bad as a moderator at that time. I sticky threads that I like and lock or delete threads that I don't like, and sometimes, lock if they need to be locked. And my behavior on other forums was very bad.

In September, I got a TOS violation for making accusations of a past editor. The TOS didn't say anything about it. I didn't even lie. Since this violation, I was really mad, so I eventually violated the TOS even further and come up with lawsuit threats. I was being hateful too. I also said multiple times that I was going to leave TV.com, but I never have. And finally, by October 31st, I got banned from TV.com. It's a permanent ban. Since the ban, I never came back.

On TV.com, there are 8 basic violations and the rules against them. One of them was censor bypassing. You cannot say bad words on the forums, so if you wish to swear, you have to use astericks, but do not expose even part of it. The next one was disruptive posting, where any post you make that disrupts the reader, causing them to go off topic. Examples include bumping old threads (I don't like that either), posting short and random messages that are completely off topic (i.e. I like pie), or excessive quoting (i.e. a whole bunch of quote boxes in one quote box). The third basic violation is flaming. That's where you insult people online, which includes yelling, namecalling, and threats. The fourth one is illegal activites (like plagiarism). The next one was offensive content. That's where the bad words and inappropriate content goes under. There's another one, which is the most common violation. That's off-topic posting. They won't even allow other topics that contribute to the main topic. There's trolling too. That's when you are trying to annoy someone. This includes provoking them so they can violate the TOS too, threatening to report them, or make them look bad. And last, there's spamming.

There were other rules (and strict ones too). They weren't even stated in the TOS. For off-topic posting, if even 1% of your message is unrelated to the topic, whether or not you are trying to contribute, you will get moderated. Not to mention, but you can't even quote or talk to other people who are already off-topic. Very rediculous rule.

So that's the story on my experience on TV.com. I am now banned from TV.com, and other CNET sites. I can't use my account, and creating another account is strictly prohibited. Here's why: If you were caught several times for misbehavior, engage in extreme behavior, or cheat on a guide to keep or acquire editorship, you will get banned, and they will know you forever. If they know you have created a second account for an extra chance, they'll ban that new account too.

I do not feel like going back to TV.com since it's been a long time. I have changed, and so has the world. If I ever go back, I can see how it changed. It's been four years since I was officially banned. It's been three years since I left Cartoon Network. It's been two years since Chowder has ended. It's been a year since I joined the Playstation Network. And finally, I joined Little Big Planet Central this year. I was never a fan of South Park or Little Big Planet around my TV.com days, but now I am. Comparing both experiences, I got suspended in July from one site while I didn't even get moderated on another, but that's because I was posting a lot. I had over 2,000 posts by the time I got editorship (which was in July), but here, I don't even have 500 as of August. It's probably because the forums here are too small, or because I was obsessive. Normally, those with more posts get more violations. But I learned my lesson and know not to repeat these mistakes again. I actually like LBP Central more. We got contests, spotlights, and special profile features, unlike TV.com. Even if there isn't much to do here.