Misconceptions Created by TPM/WWW

[Zak]

I kind of understood why. I wasn't even a mod yet at the time so didn't catch the TM drama of it, but I believe it had to do with the "Shippers Prom" being the catalyst for most of it - of course, if something like that happened now or within the last decade or so, people wouldn't have cared as much - but at that time when SPAM was a big deal, and basically ANYTHING that seems like it was an excuse to 'postcount++' was frowned upon (hell, even posting twice in a row could get you shit), the Shippers Prom was basically full of that, basically like Mt. Moon consolidated into one thread that the Shippers community mostly partook in - and because it was in a low-key forum that only a certain community visited with a few coming in and out, it was under the radar for a LONG time and because it was already over 100 pages once it came to the attention of the rest of the board then naturally shit really hit the fan. People were just upset that as a mod of the forum he was allowing that to happen and egging it on.

If they banned Ash_300 for saying "I'm thankful that you posted this so that I can postcount++" in a poll about Thanksgiving, the reaction to discovering the long-running Shippers Prom you can only imagine the result.

And speaking of haters being loud, I think as a result, for a while on TPM it became the 'cool' trend to hate shipping in general and anyone associated with it and jeer at anyone who mentioned it (mostly influenced by Suzie). Which was kind of dumb - like I said I wasn't even a shipping person myself, but the level of abuse and abhorrence toward the topic of shipping was almost meme-worthy.