The mods and admin of the Alternative History site are terrible people

[blackentheborg]

For five years, I was a member of the Alt history discussion board, a popular forum for alternate history stuff. I contributed countless lists, wikiboxes, art, timelines, etc. I wouldn't go as far as to say I was a valued member of the community, but I was well known, at the very least. I enjoyed what I made as well as entering into discussion with users. It was neat.

Enter Ian the Admin and CalBear.

For those of you who don't know, while he insists he's benevolent, Ian is anything but. He is far too eager to hit someone with the ban-hammer if they disagree with him one too many times. CalBear, too, is known for his itchy trigger finger for both kicking and banning users, mostly due to the issue of current politics trickling in to main discussion threads. Usually, these two and the users would live somewhat peacefully, as long as they didn't intentionally go out looking for attention.

Things started to go south, very quickly, when I got into a confrontation with CalBear over current politics, his forte. A particular list on the Alternate Presidents thread happened to feature Pat Buchanan, which Cal insisted was current politics and thus resulted in a mod edit deleting the list as well as a warning. One problem: Pat Buchanan was a figure from the late 80s/early 90s and hasn't been politically relevant since then. Many of us pointed that out, me especially, but Cal didn't budge. He didn't even listen to complaints that Buchanan had appeared on every other list for the last 305 pages without incident. I accused him of throwing his weight around.

This got the attention of Ian. Because how dare I go against the grain?

A while later, I was in the middle of the Ameripol forum arguing over Joe Biden. A user unironically suggested Biden, in comparison to Sanders, was more progressive. I replied with this video of Bender laughing. Ian was on me in an instant, giving me a warning for 'bullying and harassing' another user. I responded, verbatim, "Bruh it's just a funny meme video, I wasn't harassing this guy."

In response, Ian promptly bumped up this warning to a kick, and responding verbatim, "I'm not your 'bruh', stop wasting my time. You're kicked for a week." Clearly, I'd irked him by using a slang word. According to other users, him and the mods would get like this often, outright banning users over slights and maligning them as the bad guys.

After my kick, it hadn't occurred to me that Ian would be watching my every move, just waiting for a chance to bring the hammer down. In attempt to bridge gaps, I tried asking if there was a way for users to apply to be mods, so there could be users enforcing the rules that weren't his own little group. He locked it in a heartbeat, giving a holier-than-thou excuse. The ban I had been dreading eventually came down when I pointed out that Anonymous had dropped new leaks -- things I didn't really believe in myself, just quoting what people were saying about it, like "big if true". Ian had this to say about it.

What irked me most was that he intoned I was never a 'useful contributor' to the site. I had spent five years on that forum, making as much content as I could muster. People enjoyed reading my stuff, so much so that they reached out to me here on Reddit to say so. I was disgusted. I was furious. I still am, really. What was worse was I was literally JUST about to post a response to another user asking for more proof of that Anonymous dump. If Ian was just 1% less of a petulant child, this wouldn't have been an issue.

I attempted a while back to appeal my ban, only for Ian to call me an asshole. Seriously, I'm quoting him directly.

TL;DR - F**k Ian the Admin, he is a terrible person and is ruining that forum for everyone.

[morgankingsley]

I haven't touched that place in months. Just never my thing. Atlas is better

[blackentheborg]

Oh, and some more, recounting second-hand as it happened after I left the site:

<sub>Last time I checked, 31 people were banned as of [last month]. He reversed a kick for plagiarism because "he couldn't find it anywhere," despite Calbear finding it easily. The person who reported it disagreed strongly with that and was kicked. He then sent a, according to Ian, a semi threatening PM that included an old pic of Ian. Ian, rightly, assumed he was being Doxxed, and banned the person.

He then somehow assumed that that this pic MUST have come from the AHC discord and messaged Sabot Cat, who's an admin there, demanding to be allowed in to investigate his being Doxxed. Sabot sent him a very polite, very professional reply stating that they took doxxing very seriously, that any member that engaged in doxxing would be banned and asked for the member's name so they could investigate it.

They also told him that, due to his conduct on AH.com, he would not be receiving an invite to the server as he had been permanently banned there. And due to Ian's policy on "unsubstantiated" accusations, she declined to elaborate on why unless Ian specifically asked, at which point she would gladly tell him.

Ian then spun this into a post that not only banned Sabot Cat, he banned any and all mention of the AHC discord on his site and labeled the entire server "toxic." Along with claiming that he took this action because the entire admin team of the server refused to allow him to investigate his being Doxxed. This obviously did not go over well with a lot of people. Though his normal sycophants of course applauded his decision.

Well, then Sabot posted the message she actually sent Ian on the Discord and a member saw it, and posted it in the thread Ian created specifically as a Honeypot to ban as many people as he could. The message DIRECTLY contradicted his claim that the server admin refused to cooperate with him. Several people pointed this out, including myself (very politely I might add, and in my case I even said I have no way of knowing if that message was accurate, but if it is, it makes it look like he banned Sabot because she wouldn't let him on her private server and not the reason he gave for the banning).

In response, he began banning people left, right and center for darring to disagree with him. Several people were deserved bans, they decided to go out in a blaze of glory and openly insulted him. But the vast majority were saying that things weren't adding up or for refusing to give him an invite to the server. Ian later admitted publicly that he wants to be on the server so that he can monitor it and ban anyone who says anything bad about him there.

The irony of all this is, the person who started all this by sending picture to Ian, was banned from the discord within an hour of all this starting and in all the time he had been on the server, he was only a lurker. The only comments he ever made were too admit that he was the one who started it all. In further irony, Ian isn't even targeting the right discord server. The member who sent him the pic got it from a different server of disgruntled ex AH.com members. Ian refuses to believe that despite being told that multiple times.</sub>

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Sir, this is an Arby's.

[blackentheborg]

Sir, this is an Arby's.

Sir this is the Off-topic Board.

[PSOL]

Join greener pastures like Atlas! I promise that we don’t bite.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Sir, this is an Arby's.

Sir this is the Off-topic Board.

not a sir but ok

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I've seen the title and got excited about another long rant directed at us, but instead found someone talking about some other forum and some other authoritarian mods.

[The Mikado]

Changed thread title.

[darklordoftech]

Calbear probably thinks Julius Ceasar is “current politics”.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Calbear probably thinks Julius Ceasar is “current politics”.

Trump likes to think of himself as an American Caesar, but if he is, he's his own Brutus.

[Former President tack50]

I suppose this thread is proof that, no matter how much we complain about the mods in here, they are way better than the average in the internet

Even the worst instances of mod overreach here pale in comparison to that.

Talk Elections has a surprisingly large amount of AH "refugees" tbh. In fact given the amount of issues I wonder why there is no "Alternative History After Dark" tbh; AAD was founded for much, much less than that.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

How long before you're not even allowed to make TLs where the South wins?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

How long before you're not even allowed to make TLs where the South wins?

Well, absent foreign intervention, they usually aren't realistic. But while I might laugh at such timelines, I wouldn't ban them on that ground.

[darklordoftech]

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/if-the-110th-congress-passed-an-assault-weapons-ban-would-bush-have-signed-it.491883/

It’s before Obama’s inauguration, yet Calbear said, “ So current politics that it actually sears the policy.”

[HisGrace]

Sir, this is an Arby's.

Sir this is the Off-topic Board.

No it's seriously an Arby's. I'm waiting for my Beef N' Cheddar with curly fries.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Sir, this is an Arby's.

Sir this is the Off-topic Board.

No it's seriously an Arby's. I'm waiting for my Beef N' Cheddar with curly fries.

Here's your food, sorry for the delay. We were busy dealing with another customer, he was talking about "emo Krassenstein precincts" or something.

[blackentheborg]

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/if-the-110th-congress-passed-an-assault-weapons-ban-would-bush-have-signed-it.491883/

It’s before Obama’s inauguration, yet Calbear said, “ So current politics that it actually sears the policy.”

TBH Calbear sees "Obama" or "Bush" and everything goes red, probably