I Think It's Time I Walked Quietly Away from TVTropes

[Jinx999]

Yeah. He could justify removing any links to the work. Censoring discussion of works (which is what deleting the page is) based on one line descriptions of the premise is being a freak.

[Dartz]

I'd argue that there're times when it's necessary to scream and shoot. Then again, I'm not really a person who can comment on this sort of thing.

But there has to be an ad supplier other than Google.... I know quite a few sites that get traffic as much as TvT. Most likely Boards.ie does and it's got a shit-ton of NSFW stuff on it.

Nowadays, I only use gmail/gdocs for reasons of inertia.... and because my old college mail switched over to using google apps for itself after the original college-run server got rooted horribly.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[Bob Schroeck]

I think I should clarify that the letter wasn't going to go on my troper page -- it's just in the same file with the new bio. I had planned to do exactly as has been suggested -- host it on my site. I was planning on posting a "Goodbye to TVTropes" message in the forums whose content would pretty much be "Bye, reason here (link).", with a link on my top page and maybe encouraged a few other places. Anyway, taking down the big post here now, and if time allows tonight, I will do the clearing out and the reset of the bio.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

Foe someone's who's a bit better than I am, is there any issues with their Terms of Service?

Section 14 - they can change their end of the deal at any time for any reason or no reason at all, without the end-user's consent.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[CattyNebulart]

Foe someone's who's a bit better than I am, is there any issues with their Terms of Service?

Section 14 - they can change their end of the deal at any time for any reason or no reason at all, without the end-user's consent.

I doubt you will find a better deal though. That is in most hosting contracts that don't involve 5 or more figures.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[Bob Schroeck]

What the hell? Less than an hour ago I posted a message here... Oh well, since I was coming to update it, I might as well recreate it from scratch.

It's done.

Pages I changed:

Main/MugglesDoItBetter

FanficRecs/BubblegumCrisis

Main/InWhichATropeIsDescribed

FanficRecs/MegaCrossover

Main/ThePowerOfRock

Main/DefrostingIceQueen

Heartwarming/DrunkardsWalk

Heartwarming/FanFiction

Main/RecursiveFanfiction

FanFic/Crossover

Main/Epigraph

Main/MakeMeWannaShout

Main/TemptingFate

Main/SuperheroParadox

Main/TheBigListOfBooboosAndBlunders

FanficRecs/Unclassified

Main/SelfInsertFic

Main/WeirdnessMagnet

FanficRecs/TenchiMuyo

Main/SongFic

Main/FantasyPantheon

CowboyBebopAtHisComputer/Other

BadassBoast/RealLife

Tropers/LooneyToons

Fanfic/Drunkards Walk (replaced *and* submitted to cutlist)

SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism/FanWorks

Main/TroperWorks

Main/WaxingLyrical

Sandbox/FanFicPagesHavingPtitleMarkup

Main/AscendedFanFic

Main/MetaOrigin

Main/DifferentlyPoweredIndividual

Main/HulkSpeak

Main/DieOrFly

ShoutOut/TabletopGames

Main/MisappliedPhlebotinum

Main/TheUnpronounceable

Main/KingArthur

Main/AnachronismStew

Main/RobinHood

In addition, I came across a thread in the forums in which my story "The Fulfillment of Prophecy" is quoted in its entirety without my permission; I put up a message requesting its deletion as a violation of my copyright.

(You know, if it doesn't come down, I could legitimately throw a DMCA takedown at their host. I don't want to need ammunition, but it's nice to have it in case things go that way.)

There's already been one "oh wow" message in response to my actions tonight; I wonder if anyone else will even notice.

In any case, although I plan to monitor things for a couple weeks or so, I'd be grateful if other folks did the same, and let me know if they see any changes or reversions, and who did them. Thanks.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

Just checked in before crashing. My editing privileges have been suspended. I have a private message, but my private message privileges have been suspended.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

My user page appears to be gone now. I suspect Fast Eddie didn't like my resigning from the wiki this way -- he seems to be doing the whole Stalinization thing now.

And after thinking about it overnight, I think I'll dispense with the letter. It was really more for me to blow off steam than to address the wiki, and at this point it wouldn't really reach anyone that it should.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Matrix Dragon]

Well, your user page is there for me. I dunno if someone put it back or something, but I can see it just fine.

[Bob Schroeck]

Might be I'm just IP banned or something, then.

I'll have to go look for a proxy service just to see.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

An incognito window in Chrome is just as good as a proxy, turns out. There's an entire thread on the topic in Ask the Tropers. Someone actually says "I don't think Eddie needs the potential headache of authors determining which works can be reviewed, cataloged, or documented here."

Ah, TVTropes, thy arrogance astounds even me. I'd love it if someone would post a line to the effect of "TVTropes: Where everything about a work is respected except the rights of its author".

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Matrix Dragon]

There you go Bob. Not like I do anything but lurk anyway.

EDIT: Wait, never mind, my comment has been deleted. Sorry Bob, I tried to strike a blow for justice (Or at least a 'jeez guys, stop being assholes') and was smited.

[robkelk]

Spreading the word, at least to rec.arts.anime.misc (one of the few Usenet groups that's still in use and not overrun with spam): news:4fa27f9a.1600156@news.individual.net

Ah, TVTropes, thy arrogance astounds even me. I'd love it if someone would post a line to the effect of "TVTropes: Where everything about a work is respected except the rights of its author".

If you're not just blowing off steam, maybe you should send that DMCA takedown notice now. (If you wanted to edit later, that would be a bad idea... but you've already burned that bridge.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Black Aeronaut]

Just checked in before crashing. My editing privileges have been suspended. I have a private message, but my private message privileges have been suspended.

Wow.  I really hope they don't go and start undoing your edits.  If they do, then we have surpassed the Beginning-of-the-End.

[Bob Schroeck]

I won't say I wasn't fishing for someone to be my mouthpiece, but I wasn't expecting service that quickly. Thank you, Sky.

Further news: This Elbruno character who claims to have undone everything I changed is sadly mistaken. I'm going through my change history and so far at least half the stuff I removed is still gone. It looks like he only went back as far as the point where I edited my troper page and no further, possibly assuming I did that first and then made my other changes. Actually, the changes he's reverted are only the ones I did after I initially thought I was done.

And "The Fulfillment of Prophecy" is still in the forum thread I linked above. I just may do the DMCA takedown as a "take that" if it doesn't go away in a couple weeks.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Matrix Dragon]

What exactly WERE you suspended for anyway? I mean, announcing your intention to leave the site convinced them that maybe they should make it easier for you to leave?

[Black Aeronaut]

Whoops! My bad.

Dang.

Bob, sic 'em. Sic 'em hard.
EDIT: Bob, is there any way to get a permalink on that thread from 'Ask The Tropers'?  I want to post that to Spacebattles.  Probably won't take very long for the place to get itself churning into a frothy fury once they see that.

[robkelk]

What BA said. Don't wait a couple of weeks - they've shown that they can delete text quickly, so they don't need that amount of lead time. Exercise your copyright NOW.

Edit: On the unlikely chance anything of mine is there, would somebody please point it out to me in a PM or an email? And if anything of mine is referenced, please remove the reference(s). I don't have an account on TVTropes, nor do I want one now.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Matrix Dragon]

they've shown that they can delete text quickly,

Very quickly indeed. My comment was up for less then two minutes before it was deleted.

...

Candleja

[Bob Schroeck]

And Sky's echo for me is already deleted.

I was suspended for removing references to my works. It's right there in the thread in ATT. Official Wiki policy: authors have no right to control mentions of their own work.

Finished going through my change list. Fully 2/3 of my deletions have managed to go unnoticed. I think that's a big win.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Matrix Dragon]

I guess now you just let the old 'Notability Effect' do what it does, and let it fall out of sight through the cracks. If the current attitude continues, it'll probably be wiped in a year or two when they decide that unlicensed fanfics are evil. That, or you write a pure porn chapter of DW and make Fast Eddie do it for you

[Bob Schroeck]

Spreading the word, at least to rec.arts.anime.misc (one of the few Usenet groups that's still in use and not overrun with spam): news:4fa27f9a.1600156@news.individual.net

Whoa.  Coolness.  Although my troper page is still there after all.

If you're not just blowing off steam, maybe you should send that DMCA takedown notice now. (If you wanted to edit later, that would be a bad idea... but you've already burned that bridge.)

I'm not just blowing off steam.  But I'm going to wait -- I gave the best notice I could given that I no longer have private messaging any more, and I'm going to play more than fair about it.  In fact, when I get home tonight I'm going to see if I can find a direct email address to Fast Eddie and make an even more formal request.  I'm not going to use a DMCA takedown as a "get even" smack, as fulfilling as it might feel.  After all, the wiki staff didn't violate my copyrights, a user did.

However, I am thinking about finding an IP lawyer, perhaps looking for one doing pro bono question-answering on the Net, and ask one thing.  Presumably as a wiki, TVTropes has been protected by the "Safe Harbor" provision which means its operators are not responsible for anything users post, because they can't possibly review everything that might be put up on the site.  But if Fast Eddie is now setting himself up as the ultimate and final arbiter of what is allowed on the site, does that void "Safe Harbor" protection for the wiki as a whole and open him to personal liability?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

Bob, is there any way to get a permalink on that thread from 'Ask The Tropers'?

I don't think so, but when I get home tonight I'll see what I can find.

ETA:  Rob, I'd look for you right now, but I'm already stepping bigtime on my work hours.  Maybe someone could search for you before I get home, but if they don't, I'll add it to my To-Do list.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

That, or you write a pure porn chapter of DW and make Fast Eddie do it for you

Nah - all that's needed is Drunkard's Stagger: Kekko Kamen. I don't know enough about that anime to write that Stagger, though.

Spreading the word, at least to rec.arts.anime.misc (one of the few Usenet groups that's still in use and not overrun with spam): news:4fa27f9a.1600156@news.individual.net

Whoa.  Coolness.  Although my troper page is still there after all.

Which is why I included the link back to this thread - so people could get the most up-to-date information (and see the reactions to the situation).
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Logan Darklighter]

This I deem important enough to de-lurk for. Supporting you 100% on this, Bob. Do what you have to do and what you can. And if you know a way I can help you, let me know.