Post by Malice on Aug 9, 2008 13:57:44 GMT -5
Dear Twightlight Faux,
The Twilight Lexicon was hacked. Here's what I was able to dig up.
Basically many fans were upset by their new rules on the site:
Then later I found this:
We will be discussing this in episode 6, but this is the info we have right now. As things progress I will post more...
The Twilight Lexicon was hacked. Here's what I was able to dig up.
Basically many fans were upset by their new rules on the site:
[On the New Rules]
"Last fall we wrote a site manifesto stating where we envisioned the discussion on this site going, and defining what kind of group we were, and where we see this site heading. Now that we have had a week to digest Breaking Dawn, here's where we stand.
Is Breaking Dawn the most perfect book ever written, or are any of the Twilight Saga Books the most perfect books of all time? It's a matter of subjective opinion. Nonetheless, here's where we stand:
1. The Twilight Saga is comprised of four books. It is not a trilogy. You may have wished that the books stopped at three, but they didn't, and this site is a fan site for all the books in the Twilight Saga. We firmly stand by the canon as established in all four books. It all really happened. If you want to pretend Breaking Dawn never happened, that's fine, but on this website there are no banners, avatars, sigs to that effect, and discussion acknowledges and concedes that all events contained in the four volume series exists. Denial of canon has no place on this website.
2. Bella is not a Mary-Sue, nor are any of the other characters in the series. If you think that you are on the wrong website. There is no character bashing on this site. Stating "Alice's visions and perkiness really annoy me." Isn't character bashing. Stating, "pleez let's get over failcob, the demon spawn, and the speminator." is character bashing.
3. Stephenie Meyer's writing nor the writing of any other professionally published author mentioned in passing on this site is to be compared to bad fanfiction, ever.
4. Vampire males are fertile, and female vampires are not. Stephenie evaded the question in PC number one. Pel personally refers to the word "most" as in "most bodily fluids are replaced by venom", as "the most important 4-letter word in an interview", and alternatively "the adjective that rocked the fandom". To this website's satisfaction it explains how Bella is able to conceive. It is not debatable that it happens and was explained. We are open to discussion on the particulars, but debating that it can't happen, or stating that the author lied is not tolerated here.
5. Stephenie Meyer is a member of the LDS, aka the Mormon church. One of the many values that the church exposes is the value of family. There is nothing wrong with valuing children. Stephenie is not trying to ram LDS values down anyone's throat. If she were, her characters wouldn't swear, wear tank tops, or self medicate with cough syrup. Like every author, parts of her life influence her writing, and a part of her life is her religion. C.S. Lewis and Tolkein's Catholic values are evident in their work. Phillip Pullman's atheism is evident in his. By no means are they trying to indoctrinate you any more than Stephenie is. Simply when religion or the lack thereof is a significant part of someone's life it will affect their work, and that is not per say a bad thing. It gives you something to look at and think about. Accept it or reject it as is your choice.
6. Jacob Black continues to be a great character. He is not a pedophile. Stephenie did not always intend for a Bella/Jacob ending only to change her mind at the end. Jacob's story was planned to play out the way it did.
7. If every time you post it is going to start with feelings along the lines of "it would have been better if…". "I'm so disappointed that…", "this was such a letdown because…" it takes the fun out of the boards. Sure there are debatable issues, but no one likes someone who is constantly the party pooper, or who is constantly the devil's advocate.
8. You as a thinking human being can decide what you want to take away from any novel. We have a certain vision as a particular fansite, owned by particular people, why we like all of these books. We may not like every single part, but overall we like them. We are by no means stating every website should do what we have chosen to do. We would never dream of telling another website how to run their message boards. There are plenty of places where almost anything goes there are other more strict websites, and plenty in between. This is simply a matter of what works for us. As a privately owned website with no membership fee, we continue to reserve the right to moderate our boards in accordance with this philosophy.
9. Lastly, If the above items, that will shortly be enfolded into our regular site manifesto cause you to say, "Hey this site isn't for me anymore." Best wishes, and we do sincerely mean that. We say the above knowing full well we will lose people. At the same time there are others who will be staying around because of this policy. And of course there will be those who don't care one way or the other.
Anyway, the above is in effect as of Monday. By then the majority of the hardcore English language fan will have most likely gotten the book and finished it, had a chance to emote with others, and can then decide all things considered "where do I stand?"
If you have any questions or concerns you can contact the following Admin/Moderators
Be My Escape
Seraphyn
Cocoa
Ambereyes
Bronzehairedgirl
Eri HellishRedDevil
NenaCullen
Danobanano
December
Sprtygal"
Then later I found this:
Update: Both the blog and the forums of the Twilight Lexicon were hacked. At the time we were dealing with a large variety of incoming troll accounts from people who based upon IP addresses had never posted on our message boards before. The posters were all unhappy because of the posting regulations on our forums. Our posting regulations were cross posted to other websites and for whatever reasons their members felt the need to come over and say "we don't like your site rules" and create accounts "to tell it like it is" when they had never shown any interest in our site before. Because our mods were so wrapped up in dealing with the incoming trolling nonsense, we didn't realize we were being hacked until it was too late.
Was the software vulnerable? Apparently so, but does that mean we were "asking for it" and "deserved it" as a poster on Alphie's LiveJournal seemed to imply, does it make it any more right than entering a house or garage with an unlocked door and destroying things. Just because it happens to be the Internet doesn't make it any less time consuming for us to fix, doesn't make it any less of a violation of personal property, and yes on a personal level it hurts too.
Regardless of what the specifics of those regulations were ranging from limiting netspeak to stating character bashing wasn't allowed, it was our website. We have as much right to decide the content on our website as a does any other site. We don't go trolling the "anti-twilight" sites, or the snark sites to get them to change their content. Interestingly enough those sites even have rules for posting or membership, yet for some reason the trolling people from there don't see that as a form of censorship. Why should others then feel it necessary to get us to "see the error of our ways". They seem to accuse us of being the thought police, but by their actions how are they different in demanding that we meet their standard? If you don't like a site go someplace else, build your own there are 1,000's of twilight sites out there. Why destroy something that is not yours, and is not threatening you in any way? If many people think like you, they'll join and you can take it from there...by the way, you'll have all the other headaches of running a site too.
At least one major Twilight site was closed in the last year because the moderators couldn't take the nastiness of people screaming "I have free speech. You are censoring me." anymore. Sure free speech exists, but there are limits and repercussions, try calling your boss an effing moron (though an effing moron he or she may be) and see if you are not fired. Sure you have an opinion and have free speech, but by working in a company there are also terms of conduct that are abided by to make everyone's life more pleasant. If you are constantly complaining on the job, and harassing others no one wants you around. In it's simplest terms that's all we were trying to do with the forums. We wanted to provide an environment on a fansite (fansite...as in we are fans and like the material, if you are no longer a fan, why would you stay around?) that worked for the majority of the thousands of posters, not the disgruntled vocal minority. When you are a huge site, you can't be everything to everybody; it just doesn't work that way. Just like with the boss and employment, no one is forcing you to stay there. If you don't like the rules, find a new job. However continuing to stand for days on end in the employee parking lot and scream at management and the current employees only makes you look silly and obsessed.
So, where does the Twilight Lexicon go from here. We'll be back. We have files that were backed up within the last week and the last month. We will put it back together again. It's just going to take awhile.
Lori and Laura
AKA Alphie and Pel
We will be discussing this in episode 6, but this is the info we have right now. As things progress I will post more...
