Slander and Suspicion, Chaos and Confusion

What happened on the forum last July?  Dyebat asked that Board and staff be able to prove they were real people, rather than anonymous internet identities.  And all hell broke loose.  Staff members began resigning, even those who had already provided identification. 

Waldog and Stevieboy resigned first.  They were followed by Kalua.  Staff told some members that they had planned a “mass exodus”.

Staff members began to make posts falsely accusing a group of people, the DJGers, of trying to take over the fansite.  They claimed that Dyebat and lchris were also involved in the imagined “takeover”.  LonniR sent out the following email to several members.

From: "Lonni Xxxxxxx
        Date: Sun, July 18, 2010 11:23 am 
     
       (Name), I'm letting you know that unless the good members such as yourself and as many friends as you can muster do not post against Chris and Dyebat's actions, the entire staff is prepared to resign today.
        Hard to believe, I know, but they are in league with DJG and his followers, who hate us and have sworn to bring our Forum to its knees. We have long suspected it, but the proof of it is right there on that thread. Notice who keeps constantly defending their actions and attacking us.
        If we don't receive help today we will be gone and they will have it. If you want to save the forum, please get as much help as you can and start posting the truth.

She posted similar allegations on the forum.

LonniR:  It is not this site that is evil, but it is being taken over by those who are.  Look at some of the ani-staff(sic) posts and you will see it.  (07/18/10@ 12:59:04pm EST)

She was joined in those false and slanderous accusations by other staff members.

Truus: I can tell you what is happening here is a planned takeover.
And as much as I admire the efforts of Dyebat, Ichris and Tweek, I can tell you they lead you now the wrong way.
The worst thing is they are not honest to you all, as members.(07/18/10@ 11:03:07pm EST)

Waldog:  Then Dyebat took it upon herself to TAKE OVER the site and the forum and make demands on staff that were not agreed to.  Dyebat is not honest about any of this nor has Ichris been.(07/20/10@ 12:37:15am EST)

None of that was true.  Those who were accused knew that it wasn’t true.  But something was happening.  There were reports of strange occurrences on the forum. 

Access to threads and to the Red Room was changed.  Some members had their PM capacity reduced.  Some threads and posts disappeared.  Some members could not read all the threads.  Here are just a few of the things members reported.

• The page numbers are not working correctly on some of the threads.  You cannot get beyond page one.

• The trolls are in again and have changed the title of the "Chats About Susan" subforum to "The Happy Valley".

• Some hacker was just in the control panel

• those members in the "Red" category have full access to the site, while regular members do not. If you read the newest threads, it's only the "Red" members who can read and post in them.

• When I try and go in to go into the "Transparency" thread that Dyebat started I get this message: (Name), you do not have permission to access this page.

• when I try to post new threads, I get a message that I am not permitted to do so.

• the only forum sections I can currently see are Forum Rules, Forum Announcements, Blog of the Day and Continuous Chats. What happened to all the rest of the topics?

• Somebody was posting today, by the name of "EvaMarie".  It said the account was opened in July 2009 but I think today was the first time there had been any posts.

And most disturbing of all were the reports of unfamiliar names in the admin control panel.

• heads up I am seeing kaydaniels...in the location of the Mod Control Panel...

What was going on?