• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Anyone here post at Gallifrey Base?

Yep, real overreaction from some nutters.

See what James Moran says:
http://jamesmoran.blogspot.com/2009/07/stepping-back.html

I've never really watched Torchwood but bravo to Mr. Moran here. Those so-called "fans" who go after the writer with death threats and horrific insults are beyond pathetic and I'm glad a writer actually took them head-on for once and called them out on the paltry, ridiculous behavior. It's a fictional character, you fucking morons.

This is my favorite part, though I'm sad he seems to be regretting his decision to give insight into his writing process:

But the rest of the messages? Unacceptable. Some have been spewing insults and passive aggressive nonsense. Accusing me of deliberately trying to mislead, lie, and hurt people. Telling me I hate the fans, that I'm laughing at them, that I used them, that I'm slapping people in the face, that I've "killed" the show, that I'm a homophobe, that I want to turn the fanbase away and court new, "cooler" viewers, even that I'm hurting depressed people with dark storylines. Asking me to pass on vitriolic, hateful messages to people I love and respect.

Not cool.

These are all things that nobody would dare to say to me in person. But on the internet, it's easy for them to fire off these things. Forgetting that at the other end is me, a real person, someone who has been nothing but open and friendly. But I've been a bit too open, a bit too nice, a bit too willing to explain the thought process behind story decisions. And some people are taking advantage of that, or misinterpreting what it means.

So here's the deal: I'm a professional writer. That's my job. I write what I write, for whatever the project might be. I have the utmost respect for you, and honestly want you to like my work, but I can't let that affect my story decisions. Everybody wants different things from a story, but this is not a democracy, you do not get to vote. You are free to say what you think of my work, even if you hate it, I honestly don't mind. But the ONLY person I need to please is myself, and the ONLY thing I need to serve is the story. Not you. I will do my work to the very best of my ability, in an attempt to give you the best show, the best movie, the best story, the best entertainment I possibly can. Even if that means that sometimes, I'll do things you won't like. I won't debate it. Either you go along with it, or you don't. None of it is done to hurt you, or to force some agenda down your throat, or anything else. It's all in service of the story.
 
Yep, real overreaction from some nutters.

See what James Moran says:
http://jamesmoran.blogspot.com/2009/07/stepping-back.html

I never have understood people who react that way towards writers, making it personal.

About the closest to personal emotions I have regarding professional writers are admiration and envy. And that's solely because at present, the best I've achieved are a few freelance articles here and there, in fanzines or local publications, that still require me to have have a day job.

Never did get those people who can't comprehend attacking the idea, not the individual.
 
Yikes, that's just plain awful. And I wonder how many of those people were the same ones screeching their hate for Ianto when Torchwood started. Some people live only to scream and attack.

What happened to DWF? Did the rats finally chew the bottom of the ship out?
 
yes its nice when writers keep a blog, and as such can explain the process when the episode has aired, its even nicer when they take questions, but if they have to shut down the comments section becasue of crazied fans it would make me not bother.
 
I haven't posted here in 19 months, but I had to comment on the James Moran situation (and GB).

First, the reason why I haven't posted here since January 2008 is that I found that certain parts of this BBS (not really the Doctor Who section, though I can't recall if it had a separate board back then) got to be so unfriendly that I just one too many rude postings, and I quit. Before that, I had quit the BBS for about a year because I was flamed on the basis that a) I liked Enterprise and b) Disliked Firefly and made the mistake of posting both politically incorrect opinions, and defending my rationale.

So although thank god it didn't get as bad as is being described here, I can understand how Moran feels. Except it's worse in his case, of course, because this is his chosen profession, and it's got to be frustrating to hear people who think all TV writers do is sit around a table snickering over a bag of pot and wondering how to screw the fans over. It was B.S. with Star Trek: Enterprise and it is B.S. with Doctor Who and Torchwood.

I think it also hits home a bit heavier with me today because I'm a professional writer in another field, and while I pride myself on doing good work, I'm only human, and I've got someone mad at me now who claims I misquoted her in a story. Not a big deal - no one's going to get sued over it or anything; it was a minor thing - but the way this person is going on at me, you'd think I'd spent the 15 hours it took to write the 1,000-word story (it was a bastard of a thing) snickering over a bag of pot about how I was going to screw this person over.

I'm not saying everyone should blindly like creative decisions made on our favorite shows. If it pisses you off enough, you always have the freedom to leave. And you have the freedom to say "I wish you hadn't done that" or "You could have done it better."

But I do think that the Internet, in particular, has bred a new brand of lunatic. Obviously, not every fan of Star Trek or Firefly or Harry Potter or Doctor Who is going to be sane. Franchises that appeal to a wide audience will also appeal to the nutters. But it does seem the nutters are becoming more vocal.

Not that this is new, either. Dig through the BBC News online archive and you'll find the story about the death threats being received by RTD and his team back in 2004 when they unveiled the new logo. Death threats -- over a LOGO?

And if TrekBBS hadn't lost its archives about 3-4 years ago, you'd still be able to see the post by a guy who claimed he smashed his TV upon reading here that the Borg were going to appear on Enterprise. I've been accused of making that one up, but trust me, it happened (or at least the guy claimed he did it).

All I can say is -- I just hope these people get some help. Sending out threats and vile e-mails to guys like Moran, or anyone else involved with Children of Earth just because they took a brave creative decision ... these people need help. Full stop.

On the topic of OG and GB, I was a regular contributor to the forum for several years -- in fact that's where I moved full-time after dropping TrekBBS. There were places that were a bit rough in there -- I nearly dropped it a few times, too, though I decided to stick it out. I got particularly annoyed with the over-the-top hatred of RTD. It was as if people who had spent the previous decade bashing Rick Berman had found a new target. It got to be pretty hilarious when you had these people condemning every word RTD and his "cronies" wrote, while the show kept rising in the ratings and Journey's End got some of the highest Appreciation Index numbers in history. The only other thing I can compare it to are the unconsolable Star Trek XI bashers who were soundly drowned out by the wall of positive public opinion. But I digress.

I liked the forum. It had good threads, and like here you'd also see a few familiar faces such as authors and big-name fans. I'm convinced an actor or two also popped in under an alias, just as it's rumored a few Trek alum pop in here from time to time.

It was a good community, yet it was brought down by a single person's decision to close it. And that did not sit well with me. Yes, I know, Gallifrey Base was set up and everything and it looks identical to the original, but all the archives are gone, you have to jump through the hoops of re-registering. Why couldn't the guy who ran OG simply give the password to the guys running GB? It's not as if he kept the whole forum on a bunch of servers in his kitchen.

Basically, it soured me on forums in general. The same week the closure of DWF was announced, one of the Yahoo Groups I'd been a member of for going on 10 years simply disappeared. Gone. Vanished. No way to contact the 150 or so other members. Because one person, a moderator, decided she didn't want it any more and deleted the group. The kicker was I was a co-moderator of that particular group and I didn't even get a say. Nor was I given the chance to take over the group, which I would have done. And so a community was effectively destroyed. A few of us who managed to keep track of a few e-mail addresses have kept in touch, but the rest are gone.

I've decided not to sign up for Gallifrey Base. I dislike the "private" nature of the thing that prevents any sort of previewing -- I wasn't fond of it at DWF, either, and the rationale given was bollocks as I've seen just as much "sensitive" material posted in the clear here and at TrekWeb and other forums -- and I think it's worth has been reduced by the lack of any sort of historical archive.

But more than that, I haven't been given any assurance that ownership of the forum isn't resting on one guy who'll end up shutting the down if the money gets tight or he gets pissed off at someone (a contributing factor in a few BBS's going dark), or he gets tired of it. I don't want to commit to a forum that could die in 3 months or 3 years. I'm not making any assumptions regarding the people in charge. But my trust has been shaken. I got flamed at DWF for having some sort of attitude of entitlement with regards to online forums. And I say, damn right. James Moran doing a one-person blog is one thing. A community of thousands (I think I read the OG Doctor Who Forum had something like 6 THOUSAND members) plays by different rules. When Lyon announced the closure of the DWF my first reaction was to actually consider subscribing to the Doctor Who Information Network's PRINTED fanzine, Enlightenment, and going back to old school.

Long post - I guess I had 19 months of stuff to say! I'm not sure if I'm returning full-time to TrekBBS, but I might post in this forum from time to time...

Cheers!

Alex
 
I don't like any forum that doesn't allow for an airing of grievances with the staff.

Is this true for Gallifrey Base?
 
Well, welcome back, skidoo! You'll find the Enterprise forum is a much more relaxed place now than it was back in the day. :)
 
slightly off topic, but this thread is close to it already.

I bought my first "graphic novel" today, Star Trek Countdown, all 4 parts (in one book) for £8.
 
Last edited:
I don't like any forum that doesn't allow for an airing of grievances with the staff.

Is this true for Gallifrey Base?
Depends on how you define "airing". They don't have a public forum like MA, but do welcome bringing your concerns over moderators to the administrators privately.

(Or at least, so the rules say. Can't say I've tried it myself. :))
 
I don't know what I was thinking. I just made a couple posts there expressing my dislike of Rose. A can of worms I shouldn't have opened. The things we do when we're bored.
 
There are a few normal posters there, but a hell of a lot of people with serious chips on their shoulders. Who will look down on you if you cant afford 75 quid for three new figures, or scoff if you chose to have a family rather than a complete collection of plastic toys.

People who will know every date of when a figure was released, and the difference between the regular 5th Doctor and the one from time crash, yet have no idea how to communicate with another human being.

I thought some trekies could be anal, but some who fans are definitely bigger on the inside.
 
Wow! I've certainly never had that experience with the toy crowd.

I know there are some that post pics of their collections and do indeed have every single one released (which makes me wonder A) where the get the money and B) if they have real lives) but the toy forum was always more friendly than the regular forums where wars are still fought over Rose and Martha.

And I've noticed than fandom, for any sci-fi show can be daft. Which is surprising because I always thought sci-fi fans would be more intelligent and "enlightened" than say, fans of reality shows.

Also, I haven't been in the GB toy forum much since DWF went down. Most of the nice toy crowd went to outpostwho.com.
 
There are a few normal posters there, but a hell of a lot of people with serious chips on their shoulders. Who will look down on you if you cant afford 75 quid for three new figures, or scoff if you chose to have a family rather than a complete collection of plastic toys.

People who will know every date of when a figure was released, and the difference between the regular 5th Doctor and the one from time crash, yet have no idea how to communicate with another human being.

I thought some trekies could be anal, but some who fans are definitely bigger on the inside.

I must be looking at the wrong bits of the forum- I've never seen anuthing like that.
 
I have mostly been posting in the toy section, maybe the rest of the board is different.
 
Are you surprised that a bunch of people who post on a toy-collecting forum take toy collecting a little too seriously?
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top