For me, I started reading the Wheel of Time series back in High School. One of my good friends handed me the first book, and soon I had my parents purchase the set. I didn't realize that the six books that were out at the time, would start me on a long journey.
At the time, in 1996, there wasn't much in the way of places to discuss it outside my friends at school. The early AOL forums were filled with idiots and predators, and the best places online had yet to form. It was in that vacuum that websites sprung up to converse this subject. I started at Wotmania and Dragonmount, the two largest communities online. While I never had a problem at either place, both places were just too chaotic for me. It was soon after that a new forum, called Theoryland, sprung up, to which I began to participate in. I enjoyed this new site as the conversation was elevated, with people allowed to speak their minds openly. It even created a unique idea, the creation of factions, to allow people to band together around a common concept.
Theoryland became the place to discuss the books, at least, in my humble opinion. However, that changed with the promotion of a new poster, Terez. This new poster had many posts, but her blatant attacks on others, and outright lies, triggered me to question her rapid raising, saying it was about quality, not quantity of posts. In that light, much of society becomes too focused on numbers. Here is someone rewarded for being pushy, downright obsessive, instead of being a deep thinker, I said. However, I was ignored. It wasn't "nice" to say.
Fast forward nearly 10 years, the books have been finished by Brandon Sanderson. Theoryland is falling apart, and according to internet rumors at Dragonmount, is done within the year. Why?
I discovered upon returning to the forum, after years of living my real life, that the forum had descended into the worst form of anti-American, anti-Religion, and anti-Intellectualism. Many of the posters made comments such as "Americans are for the genocide of all Muslims around the World." (SBX - who is a moderator ). These scary comments were left uncontested. "Americans are just like the Roman Republic!" "Christianity should be wiped off the face of the Earth." Not just completely wrong, but nearly psychotic. When I did step in to correct the record, I was called an asshole, my country, the United States of America, assholes, and my G-D, you might have guessed it. (By Nazabaque, who would have guessed?)
That is the situation in which moderators took ample enjoyment in. They didn't stop it, but took primary role in spreading the hatred. Clearly, not all, most of the moderators were gone, last posting over 2-3 years ago. The few moderators left behind by the Web admin to run the situation, the most obsessive ones, were left to have free reign.
When pressed about the situation, the truth came out regarding the poster known as Terez. Not only was she obsessed with me as a poster, but she was obsessed with her own image. Now, in real life, I have experienced this before. People are jealous and freighted of me because I am smart and knowledgeable. They figure they have to prove themselves by taking down the one they feel stands in their way. She took great umbrage at any mention of the fact that she was wrong, or had posted theories that didn't turn out nearly close to the end of the books. For Terez, it was clearly personal, and has been, since she has been at Theoryland. More so, she's has a brainwashed view of the world. For example, she believes all lawyers manipulators of truth - slander of some of my dear friends in the business of constitutional and business law. That she hates America, and those in charge of pursuing justice, is no coincidence. However, that she is a moderator of Theoryland is a terrible abuse of being a position of power or even respect.
For Terez, this warped sense of her own entitlement runs throughout Theoryland (19,000 posts) , even Dragonmount (with her 20,000+ posts). You can see it in the Brandon Sanderson interviews, where she has to footnote her own incompetence. In a similar situation, when I confronted her about her own statements, she balked, denying she was ever wrong. She never admits fault, or that she is wrong, by the way.
It was upon this confrontation, where her past history came to light, that my user status of "Hero of the Horn" was changed to "Senior Member." When it was clear that she was caught abusing her powers, shutting down free speech, and other Hero's started questioning why, the status magically changed back. That it shows such a lack of creativity and cowardice is a good reason to believe it was Terez. She, after all, claims to revel in "vagueness" and she was the one online at the time of the change.
The truth, of course, is not to be revealed by any involved. Instead, only the usual "glitch" and "someone hacked" it has been offered in response by none other than, Terez. Surely, she believes everyone fell for the old "dog ate my homework" excuse too.
Whatever the real case is, Theoryland is a mess. It's moderators endorse anti-American bigotry. It's owner is absent and time is running out. What a shame.
