Alolan_Apples
“Assorted” Collector
I may have been on TBT for only three and a half years by now, and I may have created an account on Neopets back in 2003 (which is now gone), but today is the 10th anniversary of when I first joined a forum site. And my first forum I ever went to was the forums on TV.com.
In case if you’re wondering, my GameFAQs account (turtle4apple) is linked to my TV.com account since they came from the same network. The reason why I am known as turtle4apple on GameFAQs is because I picked that name back in 2008 when I first joined TV.com. It’s also my first username involving apples.
History:
I remembered hearing about a site called TV.com back in 2005, but I didn’t start going there more regularly until December 2007 when Cartoon Network was airing a TV show called Chowder (BTW, last November was the 10th anniversary of Chowder premiering on CN). On January 2008, I was drawn to the forum of the Chowder board, as I read the forum regularly. One of the threads was some heal or hurt game involving the show Chowder. Because I didn’t want Panini to lose (in case if you’re wondering, Panini is the pink rabbit-like character in Chowder, claims to be Chowder’s girlfriend when he isn’t even interested into girls at the age he was), I officially joined on March 17th, 2008. I picked the name “turtle4apple” to name my account after both turtles and apples while having a number in my name. For about the first month on TV.com, I strictly stayed on the Chowder board, as I created like 5+ threads (first one being about an episode that never aired, at least what Cartoon Network never mentioned on their online schedule). I posted on the boards for Spongebob and Camp Lazlo early on, but then expanded my horizons. But my obsession for Chowder annoyed some of the members (more particularly one on the Spongebob board), and it got him harassing me and finding posts that went against the site’s rules. After four TOS warnings (basically site infractions), I had to take a break for at least one week.
I came back to TV.com right around the time Cartoon Network’s HAR HAR HAR Tharsdays first came on, as Chowder was one of the four original shows on the programming block. But then I threatened to quit TV.com because the editor of the Chowder guide (which had moderator-like responsibilities) at the time deleted several threads, including my favorite threads. I learned that if I want to stop this from happening again, a new editor has to take the seat. And to do that, one has to make 80 points more than the top contributor to the guide. The new episodes of Chowder premiering around the summer helped boost my score since I made a lot of contributions. I even became a trusted contributor, one status below the editor status. And then, I became the editor of the Chowder guide. That means, I held the submission and forum moderation responsibilities.
In case if you’re wondering, every TV show listed on TV.com had their own forum, for discussion of the TV show, as well as a guide. Actors and writers had their guides and boards as well. Because the forum is too large to where moderators can’t patrol every forum except for the central forums, there is a forum privilege where whoever has the most points for the TV show guide can moderate the forum. But the problem is, most of the cartoon boards (typically childrens’ cartoons) had young editors (teenagers specifically). They do not handle the moderation responsibilities very well. The Spongebob board did have a good one though.
My editorship did not last too long though, but I did retain it all the way until my ban on TV.com. And on the last month, the site had a huge redesign, but it was pretty glitchy.
On October 31st, 2008, I was officially banned from TV.com. This is pretty much the end.
How my life changed:
Other than having experience on public forums, the whole membership on TV.com has changed my life in two major ways.
First, before I joined TV.com, I had a very limited view of the world. Within the first 15 years of my life, I never traveled outside the United States, I only went to 10 of the United States. In fact, most of these states I only seen a few places or were just drive-by states. Even in the realm of media, I had a small mind because of what I was around. I wasn’t a movie person until I turned 21 or 22 (not even the classics), the only video games I knew were the video games I played or owned, and the only TV shows I knew were cartoons. Granted, I did hear about Pokemon for a good while by then, but I never had interest into playing the actual main series games, so even on Pokemon, my view is limited. Would you like to know why? Back then, my family was poor. We were able to afford some vacations at least once in a while, but when it came to games and tv, not so much. Also, I had a tiny comfort zone when it came to games, and we didn’t have cable until I was 14. The big reason was that my parents wouldn’t allow cable. They didn’t want us watching too much TV when I was younger. Most of the time, we only seen cable shows in hotel rooms.
When I joined TV.com, I began seeing many show titles that I was not familiar with. I never even heard of South Park until I joined TV.com. We were restricted viewing from adult shows in particular, but we didn’t even hear about South Park (which was the most inappropriate TV show at the time). But I knew Family Guy, which I didn’t see much. And as time rolled by, I’ve been expanding my mind and going beyond my comfort zone. The irony, before I joined TV.com, I only knew cartoons. Now, I hardly even know half the kids’ cartoons airing today. Since I never had interest into adult cartoons, I’ve became more of a live-action person, but I’m even further into the video game realm.
The other thing before I joined TV.com was that I never knew how Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon was doing among my age group back in 2006 to 2009. I never knew that people were being cynical towards the new Spongebob episodes or the new TV shows on Cartoon Network (new for THEIR time, not today). When I spent time on TV.com, I began learning about how cynical people were these days. The Chowder board was more tranquil, so that’s good. The only time members got riled up was when Sniffleball/Mung on the Rocks did not air on January 25th like when it was supposed to (this was around the time of the 2007-2008 Writer’s Guild of America strike). They had a meltdown after the delay, especially when Cartoon Network promised to air the new episode. The Heavy Sleeper/The Moldy Touch was also delayed. We didn’t see these episodes until the spring. The Spongebob board, since it’s a lot larger, you would expect more trolls. It had trouble with the Avatar fans (Avatar meant Avatar: The Last Airbender) raiding their forum, trash-talking the show of Spongebob while they don’t like people talking about their show there. Spongebob and Avatar had nothing to do with each other, yet people compared the shows because of how Avatar was creating competition for Spongebob. Towards the summer, I’ve been seeing countless discussions on how Spongebob was going downhill after the movie. Spongebob fans cited select episodes, changes in character personalities, and the management as proof that it is going downhill. On the Camp Lazlo board (and several other boards on Cartoon Network’s shows), I’ve been seeing lots of cynicism towards CN and how they were ending the more popular shows from 1999 to 2004 while airing the new shows that did not meet to the standards. Camp Lazlo, like Chowder, was one of the few shows the fans of my age actually appreciated during a time CN wasn’t doing too well, and Camp Lazlo was already ended by the time I joined the board.
Instead of actually telling the other users to calm down, I seem to have jumped the bandwagon on the whole cynicism towards the TV shows because of my interest into controversies. I had no idea about what’s going on with CN at the time. Spongebob, I knew that they had a change in management after the movie, which is why it went into the darkness. But the other shows, I thought they were actually bad. As I got older, I began to realize that it wasn’t Cartoon Network that’s going downhill. Most of the people that complained about it were teenagers. Usually, as people grow up, they get too cynical about everything they appreciated as a child, at least newer stuff. But it wasn’t until early 2017 when I understood the real reason why they were unhappy with Cartoon Network at the time. One reason was that the primary animation was Flash, which was cheaper, but looks like they didn’t work it well. The other reason was the style of humor of the newer shows, which was more dumbed down than what they had in earlier shows. Of course, the Boston Bomb Scare got the previous CEO to retire as the new CEO ruined everything. Older shows were prematurely cancelled, Toonami was ended, and CN started taking live action shows, which contradicted the channel’s name. Also, when cartoons aren’t popular enough, they were quickly terminated.
Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow.
In case if you’re wondering, my GameFAQs account (turtle4apple) is linked to my TV.com account since they came from the same network. The reason why I am known as turtle4apple on GameFAQs is because I picked that name back in 2008 when I first joined TV.com. It’s also my first username involving apples.
History:
I remembered hearing about a site called TV.com back in 2005, but I didn’t start going there more regularly until December 2007 when Cartoon Network was airing a TV show called Chowder (BTW, last November was the 10th anniversary of Chowder premiering on CN). On January 2008, I was drawn to the forum of the Chowder board, as I read the forum regularly. One of the threads was some heal or hurt game involving the show Chowder. Because I didn’t want Panini to lose (in case if you’re wondering, Panini is the pink rabbit-like character in Chowder, claims to be Chowder’s girlfriend when he isn’t even interested into girls at the age he was), I officially joined on March 17th, 2008. I picked the name “turtle4apple” to name my account after both turtles and apples while having a number in my name. For about the first month on TV.com, I strictly stayed on the Chowder board, as I created like 5+ threads (first one being about an episode that never aired, at least what Cartoon Network never mentioned on their online schedule). I posted on the boards for Spongebob and Camp Lazlo early on, but then expanded my horizons. But my obsession for Chowder annoyed some of the members (more particularly one on the Spongebob board), and it got him harassing me and finding posts that went against the site’s rules. After four TOS warnings (basically site infractions), I had to take a break for at least one week.
I came back to TV.com right around the time Cartoon Network’s HAR HAR HAR Tharsdays first came on, as Chowder was one of the four original shows on the programming block. But then I threatened to quit TV.com because the editor of the Chowder guide (which had moderator-like responsibilities) at the time deleted several threads, including my favorite threads. I learned that if I want to stop this from happening again, a new editor has to take the seat. And to do that, one has to make 80 points more than the top contributor to the guide. The new episodes of Chowder premiering around the summer helped boost my score since I made a lot of contributions. I even became a trusted contributor, one status below the editor status. And then, I became the editor of the Chowder guide. That means, I held the submission and forum moderation responsibilities.
In case if you’re wondering, every TV show listed on TV.com had their own forum, for discussion of the TV show, as well as a guide. Actors and writers had their guides and boards as well. Because the forum is too large to where moderators can’t patrol every forum except for the central forums, there is a forum privilege where whoever has the most points for the TV show guide can moderate the forum. But the problem is, most of the cartoon boards (typically childrens’ cartoons) had young editors (teenagers specifically). They do not handle the moderation responsibilities very well. The Spongebob board did have a good one though.
My editorship did not last too long though, but I did retain it all the way until my ban on TV.com. And on the last month, the site had a huge redesign, but it was pretty glitchy.
On October 31st, 2008, I was officially banned from TV.com. This is pretty much the end.
How my life changed:
Other than having experience on public forums, the whole membership on TV.com has changed my life in two major ways.
First, before I joined TV.com, I had a very limited view of the world. Within the first 15 years of my life, I never traveled outside the United States, I only went to 10 of the United States. In fact, most of these states I only seen a few places or were just drive-by states. Even in the realm of media, I had a small mind because of what I was around. I wasn’t a movie person until I turned 21 or 22 (not even the classics), the only video games I knew were the video games I played or owned, and the only TV shows I knew were cartoons. Granted, I did hear about Pokemon for a good while by then, but I never had interest into playing the actual main series games, so even on Pokemon, my view is limited. Would you like to know why? Back then, my family was poor. We were able to afford some vacations at least once in a while, but when it came to games and tv, not so much. Also, I had a tiny comfort zone when it came to games, and we didn’t have cable until I was 14. The big reason was that my parents wouldn’t allow cable. They didn’t want us watching too much TV when I was younger. Most of the time, we only seen cable shows in hotel rooms.
When I joined TV.com, I began seeing many show titles that I was not familiar with. I never even heard of South Park until I joined TV.com. We were restricted viewing from adult shows in particular, but we didn’t even hear about South Park (which was the most inappropriate TV show at the time). But I knew Family Guy, which I didn’t see much. And as time rolled by, I’ve been expanding my mind and going beyond my comfort zone. The irony, before I joined TV.com, I only knew cartoons. Now, I hardly even know half the kids’ cartoons airing today. Since I never had interest into adult cartoons, I’ve became more of a live-action person, but I’m even further into the video game realm.
The other thing before I joined TV.com was that I never knew how Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon was doing among my age group back in 2006 to 2009. I never knew that people were being cynical towards the new Spongebob episodes or the new TV shows on Cartoon Network (new for THEIR time, not today). When I spent time on TV.com, I began learning about how cynical people were these days. The Chowder board was more tranquil, so that’s good. The only time members got riled up was when Sniffleball/Mung on the Rocks did not air on January 25th like when it was supposed to (this was around the time of the 2007-2008 Writer’s Guild of America strike). They had a meltdown after the delay, especially when Cartoon Network promised to air the new episode. The Heavy Sleeper/The Moldy Touch was also delayed. We didn’t see these episodes until the spring. The Spongebob board, since it’s a lot larger, you would expect more trolls. It had trouble with the Avatar fans (Avatar meant Avatar: The Last Airbender) raiding their forum, trash-talking the show of Spongebob while they don’t like people talking about their show there. Spongebob and Avatar had nothing to do with each other, yet people compared the shows because of how Avatar was creating competition for Spongebob. Towards the summer, I’ve been seeing countless discussions on how Spongebob was going downhill after the movie. Spongebob fans cited select episodes, changes in character personalities, and the management as proof that it is going downhill. On the Camp Lazlo board (and several other boards on Cartoon Network’s shows), I’ve been seeing lots of cynicism towards CN and how they were ending the more popular shows from 1999 to 2004 while airing the new shows that did not meet to the standards. Camp Lazlo, like Chowder, was one of the few shows the fans of my age actually appreciated during a time CN wasn’t doing too well, and Camp Lazlo was already ended by the time I joined the board.
Instead of actually telling the other users to calm down, I seem to have jumped the bandwagon on the whole cynicism towards the TV shows because of my interest into controversies. I had no idea about what’s going on with CN at the time. Spongebob, I knew that they had a change in management after the movie, which is why it went into the darkness. But the other shows, I thought they were actually bad. As I got older, I began to realize that it wasn’t Cartoon Network that’s going downhill. Most of the people that complained about it were teenagers. Usually, as people grow up, they get too cynical about everything they appreciated as a child, at least newer stuff. But it wasn’t until early 2017 when I understood the real reason why they were unhappy with Cartoon Network at the time. One reason was that the primary animation was Flash, which was cheaper, but looks like they didn’t work it well. The other reason was the style of humor of the newer shows, which was more dumbed down than what they had in earlier shows. Of course, the Boston Bomb Scare got the previous CEO to retire as the new CEO ruined everything. Older shows were prematurely cancelled, Toonami was ended, and CN started taking live action shows, which contradicted the channel’s name. Also, when cartoons aren’t popular enough, they were quickly terminated.
Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow.
