Feelings & Friends

Well, as most already know our situation with the WyldRyde IRC network. This blog entry will help to explain my feelings a lot further than previously known.

I originally came to the WR network in August of 2007 through Chris Pirillo. I was a ustreamer by nick in his IRC channel and soon registered the nick TJENN and even started my own Ustream broadcast. I got a 3rd party IRC client and was able to connect to WR automatically. The chat there was a good experience. Most of the time, the channel would see around 200 chatters. I started chatting every day, almost 24/7 it seemed. I enjoyed it a lot. I soon started meeting new people and even created a channel of my own.

I eventually gained voice by one of Chris' OPs, Kat. She saw that I contributed to and helped the chat. It was around this time, Jenn my wife, got into it. She came and started chatting in Chris' channel as well. Soon after, I signed up for a few things that Chris Pirillo had going. I got an email from him and that started a good friendship. We soon began talking to Chris and his wife Ponzi a lot. We helped him by reminding him of things and telling him if his stream was having problems.

Things were going great. I had met a lot of cool people and became a well known regular in the chat. I soon found out that I could apply for a "half-op" volunteer job in Chris' chat. I wrote the 500 word essay and provided the needed information. Later that year in December, I was granted half-op duties in Chris Pirillo's channel. It was really cool to be a half-op. As a half-op, I was granted access to Chris' Ventrilo server so I could talk one on one to Chris and other Ops, even Ponzi! This turned out to be very cool. It was a way I could discuss things easier with Chris, the other Ops and even the other chatters.

As time went by, our friendships with Chris and Ponzi grew. We were approached by Chris to do several jobs for him. One of them being a job of uploading his daily videos to a video site. We soon were exchanging greeting cards for Christmas and were even able to have his cell phone number. At this time, I was happy that our friendship had gone this far. Jenn loved talking to Ponzi about cooking and arts & crafts.

Things were going great, until, it seemed like some of the other OPs in Chris' channel seemed to develop a nasty ego. If you were trying to ban someone and made a small honest mistake, they would jump all over you like you had just committed the biggest sin on earth. If you had an idea or suggestion, it was just tossed aside like yesterdays newspaper. It was also evident that if you didn't go by a certain OP's way or the way it had to be, you were either bitched at or demoted. Some OPs like CCMike just seemed like he did whatever he pleased and if you disagreed with him, he didn't care. Too many times when Chris, himself, would enter the room from Ustream and his nick wasn't typed right, CCMike would kick him out of the channel thinking it was an imposter trying to cause trouble. I told CCMike in the channel that he should have checked the hostmask and would have noticed that it was the real Chris Pirillo. He then quickly scolded me and said that I should have told him in the chrisops channel. Was this an act of embarrassment?

Moving along, in the latter part of December of 2007, a chatter by the nick, GTPeach, came into the scene. She was a trouble maker at first, but soon was able to suck up to all the OPs. She made her way through all the male WR OPs and even some of the Chris OPs. She flirted and sucked up to all of them. She even "net dated" one and pretty much destroyed his IRC channel by trying to run off the other female chatters. He eventually had to get away from her and ban her from his channel. One time, she came into Chris' chat with a very long nick. One of the rules not stated in the !rules command is that nicks can't not be long. Now this rule to me, needs to be more defined and included in the channel rules command. CCMike asked her to change it and she ignored. He then kicked her several times and she kept coming back in with the same nick. He eventually banned her from the channel. Well, Jenn and I went to her IRC channel and I was trying to explain to her how she could change her nick so it wouldn’t keep going back to the long nick. She assumed we were there to bother her so she started cussing at us and called us names. She called Jenn a bitch.

After that incident, it seemed like GTPeach aka Leigh, decided to harass Jenn and I. She would talk about us in other channels and openly attack Jenn or myself. Both Jenn and I went to several WR OPs telling them about her harassing us. All they said is to ignore her. Now, it does say in WR's TOS that any harassment will not be tolerated. Here is the link... http://www.wyldryde.org/rules/#disruptivebehavior
Now if harassment is not tolerated, then why didn't the OPs tell GTPeach to stop harassing us? GTPeach kept on harassing us, and we kept on reporting this to the WR OPs but nothing got done. Want to know why? GTPeach had already flirted and sucked up to all the male WR OPs. She was zlined once for disruptive behavior but it got lifted just one day afterwards. One night, GTPeach even openly attacked me in a ustream chat and said that I was not a real storm chaser. I stood my ground and told her to fuck off and leave me alone. She didn't. She kept on agitating me, trying to get me in trouble. See, that is what she does. She will cause trouble, then sit back and watch it escalate. Then she plays "little miss innocent" and everyone believes her. Why? She had them wrapped around her little finger right where she wanted them. All she had to do is flash her fat body on cam and she got what she wanted to.

It got so bad that she started harassing my friends. This was also reported to WR OPs but nothing got done. GTPeach and even a WR OP were caught trying to be fake people and get my friends in trouble. I soon was so frustrated at the situation that instead of voicing my feelings, I made a picture to go on my stream to do just that. All it was, was a No smoking picture with the word GTPeach in the middle of it. Not long after, one of Chris' OPs, CCMike, brought it to attention in a thread on the WR forums created by then half-op DasFamiliar. This thread was created to try to get all the ops to know what was going on in Chris' channel and try to get all the ops to see eye to eye on moderating the channel. CCMike decided to turn it into a bash TJ thread. He soon demanded me to take the picture down. This is when I told him and others that he can not tell me what to do with my own stream. What I do on my stream is up to me and no one else besides Ustream itself.

The excuse that was soon brought up is that my stream reflected Chris Pirillo since I was a half-op in there. I refuted this by saying that my stream reflected me, TJ. Not Chris Pirillo. I created my stream to do what I wanted to do. To show people my stuff, my opinions. I never took down the picture as I had it there to reflect my opinions.

During this time, Chris went to visit his brother Adam. Adam wasn't feeling good and was in a rut. Jenn asked Chris if there was anything we could do to help, just tell us. Chris told us to make Adam laugh, so that is what we did. We soon became really good friends with Adam. Adam became so into the whole streaming/chat thing that he soon started a stream himself. Now when people start a stream on Ustream, their default IRC is with the Ustream network. Jenn, myself, and a few others persuaded him to move to WR so he could have a chat he could control much easier. We had helped him so much that he had OPed us, and a few others in his Ustream chat to help out more. Jenn IMed Chris Pirillo telling him that we got Adam to move to WR. He then told us to create a channel for him named #adam. We did and Adam got moved over. I even emailed Ustream asking them to move his ustream chat to the WR network. Not long after I created and registered Adam's channel, Steve aka usrbingeek came in and took full control over the channel. Steve is one of WR's OPs and admins. He didn't even ask or let me know what was going on. I soon was deopped and the others that Adam OPed were deopped as well. This made my angry and left me wondering what was going on. I was able to regain control over the channel and reOP the people that were made OPs by Adam himself. Adam came back in later that day and was having problems getting his nick identified to the network. At that time, there were over 10 WR OPs in #adam. When Adam was typing in the room that he couldn't figure out how to get identified, not one single WR OPs stepped up and helped him. Not one! It was Jenn and I who emailed him back and forth on how to do it. I even registered his nick for him. We were helping a friend. During his time streaming, he would be funny and paint and show off his awesome writings. He was a trip to watch and talk to.

Steve I guess noticed that I had taken control of the room back and redid all the settings once again. his time, he got rid of all my control. So, in frustration I logged on to Adam's nick and redid all the settings and deopped all the WR OPs. Not once did Steve or the other WR OPs ask me about my intentions for the channel. My intentions were that once Adam was good on the commands and knew how to kick/ban and stuff, I'd give full control to him. After all, it was Adam Pirillo's channel. Not mine, and not WyldRyde's. BUT WR thought differently. To them, it was their channel. Just like #chris is their channel. Their excuse was that Chris told them to make it mirror the user level settings as the same as they were for #chris. Well, if this was correct, then their settings were screwed up. People who had voice or hop in #chris were nothing in #adam.

One day, Jenn and I were dragged into the chrisadmin channel. We were told that because of the GTPeach picture on my stream, it was voted that we were to be dehopped. It was also brought to our attention about the whole ordeal of using Adam's nick. I tried and tried to explain my side, my feelings but they didn't care. Steve kept saying that I stole #adam from WyldRyde. Ummm, #adam wasn't theirs to begin with. It was Adam Pirillo's channel. Also, how can I steal something that I created in the first place? If I stole it from them, then how was I able to get control of the room back? Ummm, because I was the one that created and registered #adam, not Steve like he said he did. I kept telling them that all they had to do is tell me what was going on, but they didn't care. So, in severe frustration, I told them to fuck off. This resulted in a 2 week gline from the network.

After the 2 weeks were up, we came back and were voiced users in #chris. I soon began seeing a huge change in the way Chris' channel was ran. Sometimes, the OPs were too strict. At times, it felt like a Nazi style room. People were getting kicked without warnings and at times, it seemed like people were getting kicked for the littlest things that used to be overlooked simply because they were not causing trouble. Other times, it seemed like the OPs weren’t paying attention at all. There were times that trouble makers would be in Chris' room for 20 minutes or more and noting got done. Some people even used the new alert word "chrisop" to try to get someone’s attention. That didn't even work. One time, Chris Pirillo himself typed in the room, "where the hell are the ops?" Now to me, when the host of the IRC channel asks this, then there is a big problem. I tried to bring this to attention, only to be kicked, then banned from Chris' channel. I then brought it up on WR's forums. I got the same lame excuse every time that "the OPs have lives and can not be at their computers 24/7." Now, at any given time, there is over 10 OPs and close to 5 half-ops. You can not honestly tell me that during the day, all 10-20 ops are off living their lives and not at their computers? I mean, if you're not going to do moderating duties in a chat room, then why are you even in there?

One time, there was even a person that came into the chat room under the nick TJtrash. It came in and began talking and harassing me. Nothing got done. Several people asked if that person could be kicked and banned, but nothing got done. This person then began to harass another chatter, yet nothing got done. I know who this TJtrash was. It was the "nicest asshole you'll ever meet" Those who have followed Chris and his chat will know who I am talking about.

I finally had enough of the bullshit and posted yet again on WR's forums. I once again got the same lame excuse. I had enough of this. I posted my reply. Stating my real, true feelings. I knew it would seal our WR fate and it did. We got permabanned from the WR network. That's ok, I found my home on another network that treats their users with respect and honesty. WyldRyde has changed and so has Chris Pirillo's channel. Both are no longer fun and feel like people are unwelcome there. I am not the only one who feels this way. There are others who feel like me but remain to stay silent. It's sad that such a big network and a channel that used to be fun had to turn into bullshit.

My feelings are that this network has ruined a friend that no longer cares about streaming nor his own IRC channel. This network had run off a lot of good users that brought good people and content to the network. This network tried to drive a wedge between two good friends and they failed. They think they have seen the last of me but they are mistaken.

Steve Mermelstein, CCMike, Jeff Weisbein, and Kathie Armstrong, your little network and channel will soon one day come to its judgment day. And on that day, you will regret the decisions made in the past. You will see that respect and honesty goes a long way. That is not a threat but a promise.