Regarding deletion of the TWE...

Comments

[Professor Plum]

3.bp.blogspot.com/-oa2lrOri4sc/UIRuctbuKJI/AAAAAAAAA0o/8gf5TR_vtN0/s1600/shaun-of-the-dead-still1.jpg
>mfw

[Brony2893]

My reaction to the whole thing.
cdn.derpiboo.ru/thumbs/1200/1100/2012/06/25/15_32_26_320_20249__safe_princess_celestia_reaction_image_computer_trollestia_butthurt
...and then continue to watch the world burn.

[Prof_Omnom]

What...... WHAAAAAAAAA?!?!??!
What is happening?

[Brony2893]

+1 for the Shawn of The Dead pic.dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Bonbon_OMG_LOVE.png

[Sparklight]

563859
To quote a brief summary stolen from Aquaman's blog:

Quick background for those who may not know: the TWE (Train Wreck Explorers) was a controversial group of reviewers who reviewed en masse stories they deemed to be of subpar quality. Knighty announced today that in light of their attacking a story written by someone who was clearly of a quite young age, an event which has been detailed somewhat vaguely but still accurately in this blog post by Blueshift, he had deleted the group's page from this site, but had not banned any of its members. A quite lengthy debate/argument over the action ensued.

[EchoWolf31]

563859 I'm not to sure but TWE was a group on this site that helped authors that had a bad like to dislike ratio (basically the one's that had way more dislikes then likes) and helped them write better or something. But the head guy shut it down yesterday.

Edit: What ^ said.

[Mirth]

563870 Does this story they attacked still exist? And what's it called?

[Sparklight]

563893
From what I understand it's been taken down, and the author remains unknown.

Here's BlueShift's blog. It's the most informative one I've seen.

[Mirth]

563918 Thanks for the info. I can't imagine they'd leave that up. Also, I guess we'll be seeing a lot less of the failfic bashing I was used to from those guys. A lot of stuff was good critique, but... yeah, there was a lot of douchebaggery.

[FM]

TWE was a quality review group, for the most part. This news is... worrying.

[Sparklight]

564053
I'm seeing people saying they were a troll group, some saying they were saints stained by their former reputation... I don't know what to believe.

[FM]

564074

Yes, people are very fond of throwing the T word around. These people are mistaken, or have been fooled. I say fooled because there were folks who would go around to stories the TWE had taken an interest in, claim to be from that group, and post .gif's of trains and CHOO CHOO, etc.

Other people are under the impression that criticism has to be sugar-coated to be valid. The group's called train wreck explorers, after all (and this appears to be one of the reasons Knightly deleted them )-- much of their critiques seemed heavy handed. But the kindest thing you can do for an artist, no matter what the kids from deviantart may tell you, is to be honest. If you're looking to improve, you need someone to tell you that your bad story isn't ok, or nice, or super cool; but a Train Wreck. And the stories 'targeted' by TWE were train wrecks, as voted by the community. They only did stories with varying levels of severe downvote syndrome. People often sought out their group and ASKED to be reviewed. Their forums (which are now deleted so you'll have to take my word for it) showed as much.

You had users that were rather dickish but entertaining, like Evil Homer. You had ones that by comparison were sugary sweet, and one guy did his reviews in all pirate-speak. But go into a story that they mass-reviewed, and you'll see thoughtful criticism. You'll see comments with a big danm wordcount - reviews that took considerable time and effort.

They were a force of tremendous positivity for the site. No matter how bad your story, they would offer ways to improve it. You were never beyond hope, and their message to those reviewed was, generally, 'your story can be SAVED!'.

Like I said, their removal, and the way they were removed? Worrying.

[Sparklight]

564687
I'm not sure if I agree with your points on the TWE, but I did think Knighty jumped the gun by deleting TWE without warning. Hopefully Knighty will take a little more care next time something like this happens.

[FM]

566792

Past events predict future actions. Hope all you want, but the "I am the mod; my whim is law" card has definitely been played. Expect to see more of it.

[Sparklight]

568590
Given how the community reacted, I wouldn't be so sure. I don't know Knighty well enough to predict his reaction, but from where i sit all I can say is both outcomes are possible.

Even if this takes a turn for the worst, all we can do is protest 'till we're banned, or just leave the site.

[FM]

568647
Yeah, and neither of those are good options. But, the community reaction? I'm seeing a majority going 'way to go, getting rid of those mean meanie pants!' in the comments section. And the few who are dissenting from the carebear hive mind, are giving Knightly the most lukewarm objections.

But hey, who wants to risk being banned by the angry admin, right? Like the fist of a kindergarten God!

This whole thing is such a train wreck. choo choo.

**edit**
I have read under a tenth of the comments, which is when my eyes started to glaze over and I went into a short term coma. Could be that I'm wrong and the bee hive has been given a good whack. From randomly clicking a page and scrolling down, I see the topic has turned to pedophilia and spiderman .gif's.
There are valid reasons for and against the deletion of such a group, but the comments section of a guy's blog? I get the feelin we fishin in the wrong pond, dawg.

[Sparklight]

569209

But, the community reaction? I'm seeing a majority going 'way to go, getting rid of those mean meanie pants!' in the comments section. And the few who are dissenting from the carebear hive mind, are giving Knightly the most lukewarm objections.

From what I've seen, TWE supporters are fighting tooth and nail to prove that they were right.

I have read under a tenth of the comments, which is when my eyes started to glaze over and I went into a short term coma. Could be that I'm wrong and the bee hive has been given a good whack. From randomly clicking a page and scrolling down, I see the topic has turned to pedophilia and spiderman .gif's.
There are valid reasons for and against the deletion of such a group, but the comments section of a guy's blog? I get the feelin we fishin in the wrong pond, dawg.

I had a big argument with a guy about the Anti-clop group. The majority of the comments have split off from the main topic and moved toward sex. Funny, that.

[Professor Plum]

570630
Aye, most blog posts the Admins make devolve into arguments whether foalcon and the like should be allowed on-site. And when it's a thread that's already got hundreds of replies, that's all it needs to push it into the 1500+ comment level Knighty's blog currently sits in.

As for whether we were a troll group or if it was our past reputation, as one of the founding Explorers, I can guarantee it was the latter.

Let me tell you a tale, child. A grand tale indeed.
Stay a while, and listen...

dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw976_small.jpg

The TWE started out as a group of about 10 of us who loved to read those so bad they're good fics.
You know the ones. pRince Martin Willis, Return of the Changelings, anything by FelixDawn, stuff like that. Hence the name, you know? Train wrecks are utterly horrific to look at, but at the same time, you just can't look away...

We occasionally comment if a fic is particularly bad/funny, but for the most part are fairly quiet.

So it starts with about 10 of us. Less than a week later, more than a hundred other people have joined. Next week, we had 300+

denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw221_small.jpg

Kinda took us by surprise, y'know?

So we go from a handful of people who like derailing threads and quoting things like "Yangus smiled and got behind her and rammed his member inside her, it was wet and warm like a bagel that just came out of the microwave" (oh god why would you write that bagels shall never be the same) to having hundreds of randomers run around and scream "THIS FIC IS SHIT LEL CHOO CHOO MOTHERFUCKERS" in our name.

denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw8499_small.jpg

So, naturally, we kicked them all.
All 300+ of them.
(Including Wanderer D )

So there was just the ten of us once more and we had an idea. We saw it as an opportunity to actually accomplish something, y'know? I've never seen a group grow that large that fast (with the exception of that FAGGOT HORSEFUCKER AUTISTS group from the other day), so we set about training reviewers.
Soon, we were back up to 350-ish members with a group of proven reviewers nearly a hundred strong, and the rest of them on strict orders to shut the fuck up.
I am proof-reading for 5 people and posting running-reviews for another dozen who contacted me through the TWE that wouldn't have found me otherwise.
Hell, I didn't even review properly before this whole shindig.

And then Knighty happened.

denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw7869_small.jpg

I find it funny that one of the excuses he used for our deletion was that our name was offensive, yet goups like "The First Amalgamated Church of Niggerton" are fine.

~ScreenedPlum, TWE's Drunk Scotsman and Die-Hard Swoodilypooper
dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/thumb/mlfw4597.png

[FM]

584364
I don't buy the 'offensive name' thing. It's something that got thrown out after people started remarking on how there was no real justification as to deleting the choochoos. The question of why Knightly didn't ask yal' to change the name gets brought up a bunch, but the answer is fairly obvious: the name had nothing to do with it.