ESB 2016 - 2018

ESB today is more or less at the 29th position on the WAM, filled with thousands of users and pages and a strong community, or so it is said. Whether or not this is the case will be covered some other time on another article, to the few viewers who are very interested in my personal wiki.

This article is just written by a long time wikian and member of ESB who has some stories to tell. I welcome any and all questions about this anecdote. If you want to share this to the higher-ups on ESB or Fandom for whatever reason, I would prefer you notified me first, although I know that by adding content to this page on a "public" wiki I have no right to stop the spread of information.

Disclaimer: All of the events here are described from my point of view and may be incorrect.

The Good
I began to go back to ESB after a year long hiatus and started going to chat, blissfully unaware of how many things would end up happening afterwards. I started talking and finding things to edit and became an active part of the community.

Chats back then were always filled to the brim. The list of users on the right had a scroll bar, but it would be a rare occasion to have more than 6 users in any chat today. There were forum games before they went on the forum hosted in chat. Back then, people had SpongeBob trivia, typing speed contests, and even, on one occasion, a hurt and heal that went on late at night when I became a chat moderator. In hindsight, it was probably not the best idea to use users who hadn't given permission, but we didn't think of that at that time. In the end, Jensonk won.

The Bad
The next day I was questioned about my involvement in the ESB Chat Moderators, in which a specific administrator who encouraged me to request for chat mod said "And you, as a chat moderator, allowed this to happen?" I was reprimanded for that incident, but it didn't really stick in my head at all.

On one occasion, I confessed to wrongdoing to that specific administrator because I thought I had broken a rule, and I thought that was the end of it. Later, that admin made a proposal about something. I opposed it, and he brought that PM conversation out in the public for the entire community to see just to make my opinion seem biased. I was never warned for the wrongdoing, and even now I seriously doubt that I had even broken a rule. No one bothered to tell me.

ESB in 2016 wasn't that pleasant, if I'm going to be honest. There were too many powerhungry users and too many requests that led to too much drama. It was so easy to get on someone's bad side for opposing them, and no one tried to address this. I didn't even know who half the admins and bureaucrats were, since only a few of them actively participated in chat. The rest didn't feel approachable at all.

The Ugly
The wiki was also under the shadow of several drama-filled incidents that had happened prior to 2016, with several old and experienced users staying on the wiki and usually arguing with each other over year long drama. I had no idea about half the things that had happened, and I didn't want to ask either.

Soon, the year passed by like a blur. I can't recall any other noteworthy events that occurred, but one thing that I disliked was the lack of a sense of community. The admins seemed to look down on the other users or didn't think we were worth talking to, only going to chat and staying there without trying to hold up conversations. Their internal disputes because of proposals or whatever wasn't hidden either, and they didn't try to hide it. Passive aggressive comments and chat drama was almost normal for that time.

In this time, many users' off-wiki behavior began to manifest, specifically in the SBFW chatroom where rules were more lax. ESB was too sanctimonious about cursing and such, viewing the people who did so (especially SBFW) as immoral. SBFW found us too uptight and had no problem trolling. The topic about off-wiki disputes has always been up for debate, and while I personally believe it is relevant to ESB matters, people cared about it too much.

Takeaways
I'm sure that most of the users who went on ESB were allured by the possibility of power, viewing rights as a sign of authority and being above the other users. Most of the people who go to Wikia Inc and become an active member are trying to get away from something. The more active a user is, and the more they edit, the more likely it is that they have a need to be wanted by a community because they can't feel that in real life. What better way to boost one's self esteem than to be given a trusted position, full with other users gawking on their message walls and going to them for help? I don't think I would be wrong in saying that trolls were even welcomed by these people, because they could jump in and save the wiki, being given the chance to prove that they're someone.

People who rush for admin usually find that it's not as fulfilling as they imagine. If the only purpose for having admin is to be able to feel good, that's not going to last very long. Admin comes with editing and input on community decisions. You are expected to use your tools to solely serve the community, not oppress them or flaunt your power. People who want to have the feel of power quickly fall flat. Someone who is corrupted by the power often makes it pretty obvious, and even if they manage to get admin they will eventually be discovered. There's a reason why so many former administration members end up leaving ESB or being inactive falling a demotion or resignation, or why so many people give up their rights after they think they lost the community's trust.

The next time you think that the power will make your life better, don't. It's more worthwhile to fill your life with people who actually care about you instead of filling it with edits and moderation that begins to feel like a chore after a while. Don't put online life before real life. Even if real life is very hard for you to get through, rushing for admin will only make you look back and realize how unfulfilling your time on Wikia was. I had these exact same urges once, and I think that the best thing I ever did was to take the user rights requests slowly. I witnessed so many people who rushed it, so many people who claimed to be my friend but only wanted to be friends with a support vote. At the end of the day, there's hardly anyone left on ESB who I was close with in the past. Power drove them away.

Finally, don't trust someone on a wiki who encourages you to request for a user right early and rush it. It is a volunteer position that will become part of your workload, not someone else's. Allowing them to influence that isn't a good idea. Of course, don't treat friends and acquaintances as suspects for people who want to use you; it might just be a misunderstanding. The point is to not let someone else decide these things for you, since whether or not you get a user right only really matters to you a lot. Also, as described above, it's not as good as it sounds to people who just want a right to feel powerful.

Disclaimer 2: I'm certain that some viewer is probably sharing this with their rules free chat and insulting every single word or phrase I type, but that is to be expected. I'll probably be called self-righteous and a hypocrite or whatever, or told that I'm wasting my time. However, I'm not trying to please anyone with this. I'm not writing this anecdote so I can cite it for my bureaucrat request or anything like that, and neither am I trying to get on the admins' or users' good side. Everything I say on this page is my honest opinion. I won't bother to defend myself any further; when people put their minds to it, they can find anything to nitpick in anything you say.

The Good
If pre-2016 on ESB was a dramafest, I don't even know how to describe what 2017 was. There's so much to say about all the events this year that I don't know how to begin, so I'll just start off with sounding like I'm trying to advertise my powers (I'm not). Because of the constant drama that occurred in the Skype Chatrooms of ESB, I was promoted to Skype Admin to help the bureaucrats sort out the drama. The News Team was up and running after a failed proposal, TheOneFootTallBrickWall was the leader, and I was in charge of open proposals. Later in the year, Brick gave me Discord Manager of ESB. In September, I was promoted to rollback for several mainspace edits. In October, I was promoted to discussion moderator.

These aren't my favorite memories, but I don't really remember anything else "good" that happened to me during this time. As you'll see from the next two sections, I seriously don't even know whether or not these promotions were good.

The Bad
Disclaimer 3: This is when I'll be naming names. I do not wish to claim that any of the users described in any section are still the same person or bad people. Yes, they did make mistakes with what they've done, but all of us have. I don't know what most of their personalities are today, and I'm not too interested in covering that here.

The users vs staff movement was already gaining traction, and there were even signs of a potential revolution in the end. Brick rose to power very quickly and supported Wikia Staff and ESB Staff with all his power, and I slowly saw him cutting the friendships he had made with people. To be honest, I seriously think that's why the revolution was as large-scale as it was, with secret groups, political manipulation, and people using others for power. Because of Brick and his friends' fallout, his friends naturally sought a group of people who seriously disliked Brick. Neither side wanted to hear the other,; there were groups made, leaks done, badmouthing, and ESB became the one thing no one wanted it to be. Brick also used this to gain favor with the staff. It wasn't an Encyclopedia for SpongeBob SquarePants. It was the perfect place for users to claw their way up the food chain and gain power. It was almost like it was taken out of a fictional book that depicted political struggles, but it was very real.

This all took a turn for the worse when FishTank, on behalf of Wikia Inc., worked with Spongebob456 to make infoboxes portable and get rid of some tabbers that had been implemented on ESB for years. Countless people thought that staff were trying to tell ESB what to do, and I seriously think that this is when the anti-Staff sentiments planted its roots in the community. No one can be happy about staff forcing a change, even if it ended up helping ESB. However, we must keep in mind of the fact that Wikia Inc. is a corporation, and their ultimate goal is to make money. It might not always be fair, but that is how the market works in real life. The majority are given features on a silver platter so they can generate revenue for staff, and the minority's "rights" are usually violated. I don't even remember what the whole argument was about, but it ended up being about Staff and dictatorships instead of about infoboxes. Countless users left at this, the "revolution" I described gave up on the website, and 90% of the people who I thought were my friends were all gone.

The administration reviews in November saw the resignation or demotion of 6 users. Discussion moderators, administrator, and chat moderators all in one. There were too many staff members who actively fed the trolls or did a poor job at using their powers, and that was it. Many of these users went on to exhibit trollish behavior, which is really a common trend on ESB. Former staff members almost always hate how the website is run now, sometimes expressing themselves through trolling and believing that it is justified.

The Ugly
ESB was attacked by thousands of sockpuppets that stemmed from 1-5 users only. Not much I can say about this without feeding the trolls too much, but one of these sockpuppets was a former discussion moderator and assistant who quarreled with a chat moderator on a regular basis. Hundreds of sockpuppets with names that harassed that chat moderator were made under his name after he left Fandom, and some of the chat moderators baited him on Skype. They also had a contest to see who could ban the most socks and brought far more harm than good on ESB.

Another thing worth mentioning. The SBFW influence I described earlier was a lot more prominent on ESB this year. Brick had regular arguments with them and reported some of the members to Staff, in addition to making his very own Reputation blog after resigning from his positions on ESB and leaving his legacy to me. Here's the link if you're interested.

I want to confess something about that. I was very good friends with Brick and frequently tried to let some of his trolling go because of it. I was not the best chat moderator at all because of it, and I even ended up writing sections of that blog for him. I didn't support him in the staff channels, but I also didn't report him at all because of our history. This is probably one of the few regrets I have about my history on ESB. I indulged in corruption for a user who didn't tell me anything when he left, trolled ESB countless times after he resigned (and told me not to act on it), and ignored at least 50% of my messages in private unless it had to do with his reputation. Because of this, I want to say something as a warning. The blog is intentionally inflammatory and was written just to spite all the users who reported Brick for valid wrongdoing.

You might just think I'm writing this out of spite now and criticize me for my gullible actions, or maybe even think I'm intentionally spreading lies about Brick. If you want to ask me more about that, please DM me and I will provide evidence. Also, I'm not writing this just to get revenge on another user. I only dedicated a few sentences to him, while the rest of this article is purely about the other parts of ESB history. I only mentioned him because he was part of a large part of my year on 2017.

Takeaways
The first one that's a bit obvious is to not abuse your powers on ESB. Don't bait the trolls for your own fun. ESB is filled with thousands of articles and hundreds of users. It's not just your own place to have fun.

The second one worth mentioning is the fact that ESB has not been the best place throughout the years. That is an important part of history that no one pays attention to, but we were no better than a corrupt government in real life for a large part of 2017. Staff manipulated users, users manipulated other users to incite change. The ranks of the administration were littered with trolls and who abused their powers. It was also filled with people who enjoyed the drama so that they could gain more popularity for "stopping the drama." I don't know if there's anyone like this on ESB today, but I am glad that we have moved past that era (for the most part, anyway).

2018
2017 was the craziest year on ESB for the community. 2018 was the craziest year for me. The supposed "revolutionary movement" from last year dissipated, and the SBFW users wasted no time jumping into the mix. Many of the old users had left because of the infoboxes drama and MightyMorphinJon's account being hacked, and I felt incredibly lonely at that point. Almost all of the users who I thought were my friends in 2016 were gone, and I didn't really meet any new good friends (save for TheKorraFanatic, but that was more mid-late 2018).

The Good
I was made an assistant in May and and admin in September. I also continued to fulfill Brick's legacy and work on the news team, as well as write two detailed blogs about the wiki for the community to see. There weren't many good things about this time period, but the drama from before was over, so I guess it was an okay year.

The Bad
During this time, a chat moderator by the name of NatRox created his own server where many users who were from ESB talked about things in general. I was in it for a brief moment and saw many old users from 2017 in it, and it was a good place to talk for a while.

To be frank, that server was very poorly managed. There were countless channels no one used and arguments between Golfpecks256 and DanzxvFan8275 that NatRox didn't bother to stop. There was an evident power struggle on NatRox's server, which was primarily caused by Dan and Golf's friendship falling out. NatRox gave them both enough powers so that the other person couldn't be banned (after countless user rights reviews, users pretending to "leave" and returning within a few days, and NatRox intentionally censoring criticism). There were also several other problems, such as NatRox making it so that a recurring troll couldn't be banned and giving him power, which he used to vandalize the server. The server didn't do too well in the end, and I'm glad I left it while I had the chance.

If that was the end of it all, I would have been happy. But, Dan's group of friends who occasionally voted together (SpongeBot678, Chuck123456, and occasionally Rocky Lobster) infiltrated the ranks of ESB staff and continuously spread lies/badmouthed several members of the administration. Interestingly enough, this particular group used to target Brick, but then switched it to Golf. Although most of this took place in 2017, the conflict had spread onto ESB, which I will elaborate on.

Disclaimer 4: I do not hold a grudge against the aforementioned users and do not wish to claim that they are still acting in bad faith today. This is a historical anecdote, and I only included them because they did all the things I mentioned. I'm on fairly okay terms with them (or that's what they'll have me think, hopefully it's true) and Golfpecks is a fairly competent admin on ESB today.

The Ugly
A few days before the administration reviews in February, I was notified by one of the members of Dan's group that they had been badmouthing me for a while now. As I had supported Dan during his drama in NatRox's server, I was understandably upset. I knew fully well that he was not interested in the well being of ESB but I didn't want to report it as it was still off wiki. However, after I was mentioned, I realized that instead of bothering to voice his concerns to the wiki, he would rather insult anyone who didn't want to follow his own agenda. That was very problematic for an admin, so I reported it to Sb456 and mentioned it during the reviews. I eventually changed my opinion when one of the people who agreed that it was problematic voted to keep Dan (then gave me an explanation later) and voted to suspend him, but ultimately no action was taken against him.

The next admin review, I was nearly demoted for bringing that up and because of a combination of other factors, including the fact that Redbomb1 (who is widely believed to be Icanhascookie, a user who made hundreds of socks in 2017) was angry at me for accusing him of being Cookie in our DM. None of the admins or bureaucrats who I reported the Dan incident to bothered to defend me save for Jackninja5DipperGravityFalls, although I ultimately kept all my rights because over 50% of users voted to keep me. I was disappointed with the staff who I thought I could count on to defend someone who acted in good faith, but it didn't come to a great surprise to me. I didn't use a variety of different methods to gain the favor or staff. I didn't get close to them just for power. All of my friends were people who I genuinely enjoyed talking to, and most of them had left ESB. I didn't want to bother them with my small problem anyway, and I mistakenly believed that the people involved in the incident would say something.

In addition to that, the Golfpecks drama with Dan's group never ceased, and it ultimately escalated into Golf being the target of their rules-free chat. He continuously went on SBFW and contacted them, and eventually he reported the wiki and got it closed. That caused SBFW users to go to ESB and begin trolling. In this case, although I don't support what SBFW did at all, I think it's worth stating that Golf borderline baited them, similar to how Brick did the same in 2017. The rest isn't too relevant to 2018, so I'll just leave it at this.

Takeaways
To begin with, to all the people who I directly or indirectly mentioned in this anecdote, I'm confident that most of what I say is true. Yes, it is a one-sided point of view (that is what an autobiography is, after all) and yes, there may be discrepancies in my writing. However, I will not remove your name just because you asked me to. The truth should not be hidden just because it might upset someone, and censoring a part of ESB history is never justified.

Second, I hate to say this about ESB, but don't count on staff's complete support for you. If people manage to form a group of users who vote as a team and you haven't been too close with ESB Staff, it is likely that they will not step in and deal with it. That was the case for ESB in 2016, 2017, and 2018, considering staff liked to form their own groups. I don't know if it's changed now, since there hasn't been any major "coalition" this year, but only time will tell.

Third, things you do off wiki will affect your ESB experience. If you argue with another user off-wiki, they will likely mention it on ESB. If you badmouth administrators and such, that can be counted against you in a user rights review. I don't support people bringing off-wiki "drama" onto the wiki, but I strongly believe that off-wiki behavior should definitely count towards or against a user on ESB.

Fourth, don't use ESB as a way to take out your anger against someone. Rising through the ranks and going above someone won't make them fear you and apologize for anything they've done. It will only enable them to call you powerhungry and look down on you for using their conflict as your only drive for power. It doesn't look good for you at all, and, like I mentioned in my 2016 section, you won't get the rewarding experience you're seeking.

Conclusion
The next time I mention the "good ole days of ESB," this is the time period that I mentioned. It wasn't the most pleasant time on ESB, but it was before we had to worry about FANDOM and modernization. This was also the time where I met the most friends and got to know people who would seriously help me if I needed it, although most of them are off Wikia now. On the other hand, many of these "friends" just found me popular with the community and wanted one more person in the administration to support them for the coveted bureaucrat role. The leadership hasn't changed a lot on ESB. However, with every passing year I feel a bit out of place on ESB because of all the new faces, and it feels like I hardly know anyone now. Sometimes I have doubts about whether or not we've changed for the better, since countless good contributors all left the wiki for one reason or another.

Furthermore, it's worth pointing out that I don't know how to feel about ESB today. Back then there was a lot of drama, but there was arguably a stronger sense of community and more approachable people. Today, it's all FANDOM issues and forum games on ESB. Users reuse the same concept (hurt and heals, counting games, NES) over and over again to the point where it stops being original, and only a few users are willing to play each type of forum game. That's not really a community if half the wiki avoids the forum games and the other half do nothing but play them. I hope that I can look back on this and write another year's worth of information in 2020, assuming that I haven't lost interest in ESB back then.

Thank you to everyone who read all of this. If anyone has further questions, feel free to ask them in the comments. I will not censor you unless your comment goes against the ToU of Wikia Inc. or is completely hateful but that's the only restriction I'm imposing. If I do delete a comment, it will only be done after I consult both TheKorraFanatic and Tanhamman, who have both given me a tremendous help with writing this. You could do nothing but insult me in a comment, but please do not get offended if someone else does the same to you. That is the price you pay for a community with freedom of speech. If you enjoy your rights, don't try to take them away from others.

EDIT: I thought that my conclusion would be my last major edit on this, but seeing as there's a lot of arguing in the comments about stuff I don't even know about, I thought I'd drop my fifth disclaimer. As I mentioned above, I will not be censoring anything that does not go against ToU except under specific circumstances, and that will be decided after I consult others. With that said, I personally don't support what's going on in the comments section completely and try to make my posts respectful, but I will not be regulating what happens in the comments.

EDIT 2: This is the official response to my autobiography by someone who I only wrote a few sentences about here:. I do not believe there is a need to fill up this autobiography with more attention than it is needed, but the only thing I will ask people is to please come to me if you have any concerns. It is never a good idea to only hear one side of the story, ask anyone can lie. That is why I linked the blog. People should see the defense of someone else and then come to their own conclusion.