Misconceptions Created by TPM/WWW

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Misconceptions Created by TPM/Facebook/Whatever Internet. I list some of mine first. You can post yours, comment on these and nitpicking is also encouraged.

1. The abbreviation LOL originated from TPM.
2. The word SPAM originated from TPM.
3. Shazam is an Australian radio channel created by shazza.
4. With current TPM settings, if you move a thread from Pyhätunturi to another subforum, the posts in the subforum still count in member's postcount.

[Zak]

Since mod status was denoted as "Gym Leader" and represented with a certain number of Pokeballs higher than Veteran, I thought once you reached a certain postcount you could become a mod. Oh the mind of a 13 year old.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

A classic misconception

6. Kasumi was female

Though I knew all the time he wasn't

[shazza]

7. The first few months at TPM I thought moderator was pronounced 'moditor' (rhyming with monitor).

8. TPM was the second UBB I joined. Between August-November 2000 I was part of a Perfect Dark UBB community (PDark.com ?). The first couple of weeks I therefore believed PDark.com and TPM were run by the same person.

9. I thought firepokemon in #pokemasters and Flying Destiny in the TPM UBB were two different people.

[Zak]

Oh, here I have one.

10. Kim the Enchantress had a joke in her sig about being the "third hottest girl on TPM after LuGiA007 and Pikapeace", and because of that I did in fact actually believe for a while that they were both female.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

11. Gary Oak is (Spoiler:) only one person.
12. Gary Oak has Admin capabilities, because his name is in red font.

[Knight of Time]

13. "I'm not Fish, I am FInniSH" is known to be a whacky quote (see what I did there, Mikachu?).
14. If you lose to Blademaster in an ASB battle, you may find yourself "Rawked" by his Blaziken.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

13. "I'm not Fish, I am FInniSH" is known to be a whacky quote (see what I did there, Mikachu?).

15. TPM, Bulbagarden and serebii were up to unite for certain April Fool's Day.

[Zak]

Speaking of Bulbagarden and Serebii, that made me think of another one.

So I was actually there first before coming here, and at the time Archaic (who some of you may remember, now the current Bulbagarden webmaster) was an admin at both those places. And spending a lot of time in the anime forums naturally I would see his name a lot and I figured he was kind of a big deal in the Pokemon internet community in some circles. I'd seen his name here too from time to time and more or less assumed the same. Never was big on the whole shipping thing, but he would occasionally pop in Anime Discussion forum as well.

Long story short, imagine my surprise when I found out how hated he was here and what had actually been going on in the Shipping forum the whole time - didn't really know until shit hit the fan and it got shut down. But that was definitely interesting.

[Lady Vulpix]

Only a few people hated him, and I never understood why. Sadly, haters tend to be very loud.

[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.

[Knight of Time]

Hmm, seeing Zak make a mention of Ash_300 here makes me very curious to ask a question. Zak, would you, Gabi, or another moderator possibly be able to tell me what percentage of his posts were spam, please? I'm fairly sure it's not all of his posts, though if that was really the case, it would be a huge jaw dropper for me.

Roughly how many people here were into the Shipping forum? I never really cared about it personally, and I don't recall ever making a post there.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I didn't even read the Shipping forum. When I was at lukio/high school, I ignored both it and ASB. They were like special places, ones I never understood. Only after my third TPM break, I started to gain interest in ASB and eventually joined in 2009.

[Zak]

Another one which might sound dumb is that for a while I didn't know Ash_300 was actually formerly a spammer - I thought he was a popular respected member who just happened to have a high post count he was notorious for.

[shazza]

During TPM's days in the early 2000s, was TPM truly one of the most popular pokemon Web 1.0 websites? Does today's popularity of Serebii and Bulbapedia dwarf TPM?

I ask because I can't disassociate my nostalgia from the facts.

[Lady Vulpix]

I knew of the Shipping forum and saw people argue over it, but I never set foot in it myself. I was a regular member back then, and I hated fights, and I saw no reason to get involved in a fight that didn't concern me, especially considering I wasn't even into shipping. Speaking of misconceptions, the first time I saw there was a "shipping" forum, I thought it was for discussions about merchandise deliveries. Then, when I found out what it really was, I just wasn't interested.

I never cared for postcounts either. Many of you may recall me questioning what the big deal about it was, and why people thought they'd get more respect just by having a bigger number. Ash_300 became a sort of legend by achieving a huge postcount by spamming a lot, and I understand people being sort of impressed that he got away with it, but I think that was just because the management couldn't agree on what was or wasn't spam, nor how to deal with it.
After that, and for too long, they tried to establish some sort of order by fighting spam while still not being sure of what spam really was, and that caused another whole lot of trouble. That was around the time when I became a PCG mod, and the toughest part of my job back then was trying to explain what was or wasn't spam, both to spammers who made meaningless posts for the sake of postcount, and to admins who thought any post of less than 10 words was automatically spam and that there was no excuse for double-posting under any circumstances. I'm happy for the balance we have achieved since then, especially after we managed to write down the TPM General Rules, but that took a lot of time and effort, and the process left a strong negative impact in the community.

[Zak]

I'm banned from Bulba forums actually so couldn't say, but the site Bulbapedia is definitely popular, considering it's reached the point where I hear people mention it in real life outside the internet. Haven't looked at Serebii in years.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

16) Yoh Asakura and YAMI YUGI were (not?) the same person.

My deepest respect and eternal gratitude went and still goes to Yami Yugi because he taught me a useful English grammatical pattern. His Signature read 'Not only IS Yami Yugi a master dueler, he's also full of confidence and strength.'. Otherwise I always would have written it 'Not only Yami Yugi IS a master dueler, he's also full of confidence and strength.'.

The word order up there helps when you study Swedish language, too.

[Gary Oak]

17. You all may have thought that I am just a video game character and not a real person, but the truth is, I am just as real as all of you. And for the record, Pallet Town is also real. If you want proof, ask Gramps, and he may tell you how to get there.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Gary Oak - The Returning Member of the Year