The death of the Buffalo Bills Message Board - how did it happen?

[DaBillsFanSince1973]

1 minute ago, Gugny said:

 

Do something to get banned.  I'll check your profile out and let you know what it says.  Just PM your email first. 

 

 

I'm good. thanks

 

I was just curious is all as I have seen banned members here in the past showed "banned". maybe this new site doesn't do that.

[Billsfansinceday1]

This has come up a number of times both here and on other message boards so I thought I would chime in to answer some questions and perhaps correct some misconceptions.  On the BBMB, I was known as MASH/BFID and was one of the mods for the last 3+ years of the BBMB's existence.  I registered here under a new user name, to get a new start, but have been "outed" previously so I am comfortable stating the following things as far as I know them to be true.

 

1.  The mods had as much advance notice of the closure of the board as everyone else (ie none).

2.  With #1 stated, it was pretty clear for a very long time that OBD had lost interest in the BBMB.  There was no support at all from OBD and tech support was non-existent.  As a result, spambots were rampant.  Being the early bird mod, I would routinely ban 50-100 spambots every morning so they could infect the board with trash or porn or whatever.

3.  The mods were not picked per se nor were we compensated (we did receive signed mini helmets one year from Gregg Pastore...mine is here on my desk signed by Kyle Williams).  Mods did come and go for a variety of reasons and one was even banned for being so extremely abusive (Teratoma, who was before my time as a mod).  Essentially, we volunteered and had a clean posting history, and there was a need for additional support.

4.  The BBMB was certainly read by some at OBD, although, we really didn't know who.  I receive the Bills Digest and the last page of every episode was all quotes from members of the BBMB with comments from OBD staff to summarize the view of the topic from the top.  They obviously knew who was good and who was bad.

5.  There are a lot of comments here about the degree of moderation and I tend to agree with a lot of it but not all of it.  Early on, I talked at length with Robyn (WYO) who was the lead mod at the time and the co-author of the Code of Conduct.  Tom Donahoe, the previous Bills GM,  was a regular reader of the BBMB and despised all the negativity toward him and the organization...to the point that he threatened to shut it down.  As a result, a fairly stringent CoC was written to ensure the survival of the board.

6.  Regarding #5, was there some abuse by mods, sure.  Personally, I started out being too adherent to the CoC and infracted or banned some people who shouldn't have been.  As time went on, I tapered my moderating style while others may not have.  WYO tended to advocate for the "scalpel" approach rather than the "hammer".  Once she was gone, we migrated toward our own personal styles for better or for worse.

7.  Some members there did get extremely personal and abusive, especially on game day and around the draft.  If it carried over, they may have gone away, many who returned under another name.

8.  There was a fair amount of disagreement behind the scene about some of the infractions and bans, some of it quite accusatory.  Without a strong lead mod, there was no "referee" so things tended to get more personal and vindictive, or at least that was my impression.  Others would probably disagree with this, but se la vie.

9.  I am not aware of any new member being banned, unless their IP address was that of a PBU (Previously Banned User) or an address identified as a spam address.  

10.  It was stated here that mods had 2nd accounts.  The only occasion that I can think of was when we needed to test a new feature and needed an account other than our main user name.  

11.  I am also happy to be able to type "vague" without it hitting a language filter.  No idea how that happened, but it was clearly unintended consequences.

 

That's about it.  I really did enjoy the BBMB and there were a lot of very valuable contributors there, many of whom are now here.  I do enjoy it here and appreciate the discussion.

 

Edit:  Bills Chick was a mod.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Billsfansinceday1

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

14 minutes ago, Billsfansinceday1 said:

This has come up a number of times both here and on other message boards so I thought I would chime in to answer some questions and perhaps correct some misconceptions.  On the BBMB, I was known as MASH/BFID and was one of the mods for the last 3+ years of the BBMB's existence.  I registered here under a new user name, to get a new start, but have been "outed" previously so I am comfortable stating the following things as far as I know them to be true.

 

1.  The mods had as much advance notice of the closure of the board as everyone else (ie none).

2.  With #1 stated, it was pretty clear for a very long time that OBD had lost interest in the BBMB.  There was no support at all from OBD and tech support was non-existent.  As a result, spambots were rampant.  Being the early bird mod, I would routinely ban 50-100 spambots every morning so they could infect the board with trash or porn or whatever.

3.  The mods were not picked per se nor were we compensated (we did receive signed mini helmets one year from Gregg Pastore...mine is here on my desk signed by Kyle Williams).  Mods did come and go for a variety of reasons and one was even banned for being so extremely abusive (Teratoma, who was before my time as a mod).  Essentially, we volunteered and had a clean posting history, and there was a need for additional support.

4.  The BBMB was certainly read by some at OBD, although, we really didn't know who.  I receive the Bills Digest and the last page of every episode was all quotes from members of the BBMB with comments from OBD staff to summarize the view of the topic from the top.  They obviously knew who was good and who was bad.

5.  There are a lot of comments here about the degree of moderation and I tend to agree with a lot of it but not all of it.  Early on, I talked at length with Robyn (WYO) who was the lead mod at the time and the co-author of the Code of Conduct.  Tom Donahoe, the previous Bills GM,  was a regular reader of the BBMB and despised all the negativity toward him and the organization...to the point that he threatened to shut it down.  As a result, a fairly stringent CoC was written to ensure the survival of the board.

6.  Regarding #5, was there some abuse by mods, sure.  Personally, I started out being too adherent to the CoC and infracted or banned some people who shouldn't have been.  As time went on, I tapered my moderating style while others may not have.  WYO tended to advocate for the "scalpel" approach rather than the "hammer".  Once she was gone, we migrated toward our own personal styles for better or for worse.

7.  Some members there did get extremely personal and abusive, especially on game day and around the draft.  If it carried over, they may have gone away, many who returned under another name.

8.  There was a fair amount of disagreement behind the scene about some of the infractions and bans, some of it quite accusatory.  Without a strong lead mod, there was no "referee" so things tended to get more personal and vindictive, or at least that was my impression.  Others would probably disagree with this, but se la vie.

9.  I am not aware of any new member being banned, unless their IP address was that of a PBU (Previously Banned User) or an address identified as a spam address.  

10.  It was stated here that mods had 2nd accounts.  The only occasion that I can think of was when we needed to test a new feature and needed an account other than our main user name.  

11.  I am also happy to be able to type "vague" without it hitting a language filter.  No idea how that happened, but it was clearly unintended consequences.

 

That's about it.  I really did enjoy the BBMB and there were a lot of very valuable contributors there, many of whom are now here.  I do enjoy it here and appreciate the discussion.

 

Edit:  Bills Chick was a mod.

I would love to have known which of our posts were on that last page of the digest lol. I’d love to know if any of my non gameday posts over there ever were seen by obd lol. Il take no responsibility for the game day ones. Those are pure emotion and alcohol. 

[CLTbills]

28 minutes ago, Billsfansinceday1 said:

This has come up a number of times both here and on other message boards so I thought I would chime in to answer some questions and perhaps correct some misconceptions.  On the BBMB, I was known as MASH/BFID and was one of the mods for the last 3+ years of the BBMB's existence.  I registered here under a new user name, to get a new start, but have been "outed" previously so I am comfortable stating the following things as far as I know them to be true.

 

1.  The mods had as much advance notice of the closure of the board as everyone else (ie none).

2.  With #1 stated, it was pretty clear for a very long time that OBD had lost interest in the BBMB.  There was no support at all from OBD and tech support was non-existent.  As a result, spambots were rampant.  Being the early bird mod, I would routinely ban 50-100 spambots every morning so they could infect the board with trash or porn or whatever.

3.  The mods were not picked per se nor were we compensated (we did receive signed mini helmets one year from Gregg Pastore...mine is here on my desk signed by Kyle Williams).  Mods did come and go for a variety of reasons and one was even banned for being so extremely abusive (Teratoma, who was before my time as a mod).  Essentially, we volunteered and had a clean posting history, and there was a need for additional support.

4.  The BBMB was certainly read by some at OBD, although, we really didn't know who.  I receive the Bills Digest and the last page of every episode was all quotes from members of the BBMB with comments from OBD staff to summarize the view of the topic from the top.  They obviously knew who was good and who was bad.

5.  There are a lot of comments here about the degree of moderation and I tend to agree with a lot of it but not all of it.  Early on, I talked at length with Robyn (WYO) who was the lead mod at the time and the co-author of the Code of Conduct.  Tom Donahoe, the previous Bills GM,  was a regular reader of the BBMB and despised all the negativity toward him and the organization...to the point that he threatened to shut it down.  As a result, a fairly stringent CoC was written to ensure the survival of the board.

6.  Regarding #5, was there some abuse by mods, sure.  Personally, I started out being too adherent to the CoC and infracted or banned some people who shouldn't have been.  As time went on, I tapered my moderating style while others may not have.  WYO tended to advocate for the "scalpel" approach rather than the "hammer".  Once she was gone, we migrated toward our own personal styles for better or for worse.

7.  Some members there did get extremely personal and abusive, especially on game day and around the draft.  If it carried over, they may have gone away, many who returned under another name.

8.  There was a fair amount of disagreement behind the scene about some of the infractions and bans, some of it quite accusatory.  Without a strong lead mod, there was no "referee" so things tended to get more personal and vindictive, or at least that was my impression.  Others would probably disagree with this, but se la vie.

9.  I am not aware of any new member being banned, unless their IP address was that of a PBU (Previously Banned User) or an address identified as a spam address.  

10.  It was stated here that mods had 2nd accounts.  The only occasion that I can think of was when we needed to test a new feature and needed an account other than our main user name.  

11.  I am also happy to be able to type "vague" without it hitting a language filter.  No idea how that happened, but it was clearly unintended consequences.

 

That's about it.  I really did enjoy the BBMB and there were a lot of very valuable contributors there, many of whom are now here.  I do enjoy it here and appreciate the discussion.

 

Edit:  Bills Chick was a mod.

 

Good insight. Cool to know what went on behind the scenes, and that OBD actually saw the posts and cared about it.

[JoeF]

Tom Donahoe -- isn't he the one who drank babies blood?

 

The additional input and perspective have been great additions for the most part, even with the occasional Nate Peterman bad half posters...I bet it feels nice for the BBMB folks to be on freer site.  Kudos to Scott again for giving us all a home.

 

John From Hemet...Kim Pegula is attractive and Terry is a lucky man.  Like me -- he out kicked his coverage but he is making do....

[Shaw66]

24 minutes ago, Billsfansinceday1 said:

This has come up a number of times both here and on other message boards so I thought I would chime in to answer some questions and perhaps correct some misconceptions.  On the BBMB, I was known as MASH/BFID and was one of the mods for the last 3+ years of the BBMB's existence.  I registered here under a new user name, to get a new start, but have been "outed" previously so I am comfortable stating the following things as far as I know them to be true.

 

1.  The mods had as much advance notice of the closure of the board as everyone else (ie none).

2.  With #1 stated, it was pretty clear for a very long time that OBD had lost interest in the BBMB.  There was no support at all from OBD and tech support was non-existent.  As a result, spambots were rampant.  Being the early bird mod, I would routinely ban 50-100 spambots every morning so they could infect the board with trash or porn or whatever.

3.  The mods were not picked per se nor were we compensated (we did receive signed mini helmets one year from Gregg Pastore...mine is here on my desk signed by Kyle Williams).  Mods did come and go for a variety of reasons and one was even banned for being so extremely abusive (Teratoma, who was before my time as a mod).  Essentially, we volunteered and had a clean posting history, and there was a need for additional support.

4.  The BBMB was certainly read by some at OBD, although, we really didn't know who.  I receive the Bills Digest and the last page of every episode was all quotes from members of the BBMB with comments from OBD staff to summarize the view of the topic from the top.  They obviously knew who was good and who was bad.

5.  There are a lot of comments here about the degree of moderation and I tend to agree with a lot of it but not all of it.  Early on, I talked at length with Robyn (WYO) who was the lead mod at the time and the co-author of the Code of Conduct.  Tom Donahoe, the previous Bills GM,  was a regular reader of the BBMB and despised all the negativity toward him and the organization...to the point that he threatened to shut it down.  As a result, a fairly stringent CoC was written to ensure the survival of the board.

6.  Regarding #5, was there some abuse by mods, sure.  Personally, I started out being too adherent to the CoC and infracted or banned some people who shouldn't have been.  As time went on, I tapered my moderating style while others may not have.  WYO tended to advocate for the "scalpel" approach rather than the "hammer".  Once she was gone, we migrated toward our own personal styles for better or for worse.

7.  Some members there did get extremely personal and abusive, especially on game day and around the draft.  If it carried over, they may have gone away, many who returned under another name.

8.  There was a fair amount of disagreement behind the scene about some of the infractions and bans, some of it quite accusatory.  Without a strong lead mod, there was no "referee" so things tended to get more personal and vindictive, or at least that was my impression.  Others would probably disagree with this, but se la vie.

9.  I am not aware of any new member being banned, unless their IP address was that of a PBU (Previously Banned User) or an address identified as a spam address.  

10.  It was stated here that mods had 2nd accounts.  The only occasion that I can think of was when we needed to test a new feature and needed an account other than our main user name.  

11.  I am also happy to be able to type "vague" without it hitting a language filter.  No idea how that happened, but it was clearly unintended consequences.

 

That's about it.  I really did enjoy the BBMB and there were a lot of very valuable contributors there, many of whom are now here.  I do enjoy it here and appreciate the discussion.

 

Edit:  Bills Chick was a mod.

Excellent, Fancy. I agree. 

 

Mod s did tend toward more of a hammer approach toward the end, and some posters didn't like it.  They thoightnoy was necessary because of the Spanish, pbus, etc and it was.  But some of it was just unnecessarily harsh.

 

Being a mid is thankless.  I always likened mod decisions to a nearsighted football ref making out of bounds calls without his glasses.  If you went near the sidelines you were going to get some bad calls.  But most of the posters anywhere stay near the middle ifnhe field and even nearsighted refancan tell they're in bounds.  

 

A lot of people were happy at bbmb.  The quality of discussions was excellent several years ago. It deteriorated some I've the years but there still were plenty of good threads.  

 

This place is well run. Without the Bills looking over their shoulders the mods have more freedom to shape it the way they want.  I have my quibbles with it, but that's just the near sighted ref problem - no place is.going to run exactly the way each member wants. 

4 minutes ago, JoeF said:

Tom Donahoe -- isn't he the one who drank babies blood?

 

The additional input and perspective have been great additions for the most part, even with the occasional Nate Peterman bad half posters...I bet it feels nice for the BBMB folks to be on freer site.  Kudos to Scott again for giving us all a home.

 

John From Hemet...Kim Pegula is attractive and Terry is a lucky man.  Like me -- he out kicked his coverage but he is making do....

I would bet that people aren't freer here.  The fact that the Bills wouldn't give the mods the technical ability to truly ban bad actors meant that moderating over there was a constant guerilla war with some people who were just jerks.  Here you have well behaved people posting - they feel free because they don't live in fear of being banned.  At bmbb people were paranoid with good reason - the mods were tough. But you have to remember that the mods got rough because they were in this constant battle with a lot of.peoblem children they couldn't get rid of. 

[teef]

2 hours ago, Patrick_Duffy said:

 

It was Teef's fault

It was when I posted the nudes of myself...wasn't it?

[Roundybout]

2 hours ago, Fan in Chicago said:

Watch it, Scott. McD is influencing your thoughts 

 

 

Question to BBMB refugees - who or what the heck is Crusher ?

 

EJ fanatic who was permanently broken when he was benched for Orton.

[DaBillsFanSince1973]

2 hours ago, Fan in Chicago said:

Question to BBMB refugees - who or what the heck is Crusher ?

 

a glorified arrogant troll, the soulless one.

 

[JoeF]

52 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

 

I would bet that people aren't freer here.  The fact that the Bills wouldn't give the mods the technical ability to truly ban bad actors meant that moderating over there was a constant guerilla war with some people who were just jerks.  Here you have well behaved people posting - they feel free because they don't live in fear of being banned.  At bmbb people were paranoid with good reason - the mods were tough. But you have to remember that the mods got rough because they were in this constant battle with a lot of.peoblem children they couldn't get rid of. 

Makes sense Shaw...BTW -- your posts and analysis have been a great addition.    Enjoyable reading!

[Jauronimo]

I had an account at BBMB for a few months.  Mods asked me investigate and infiltrate what they referred to as "subversive and un-American activities".  I got out when they asked me to wear a wire.  That part didn't make a lot of sense to me.

[SaviorPeterman]

The official reason for the BBMB shut down is not that complicated, Russ Brandon (not the Pegulas) hired a sock puppet named Derek Boyko in Feb to be the new VP of communications for the Bills. One of the reasons Brandon brought this guy on is because he was trying for years to shut down the Eagles official message board on their website due to 'negative fan experience' inadvertently hurting ticket and merchandise sales. Keep in mind the Eagles have had a many good years the last 10+ years compared to the Bills but yet a few down seasons truly riled up the fan base there especially before they landed Carson Wentz a few years back.

 

In any event, after the latest regime change Brandon and his new errand boy made a very quick decision to shut down the BBMB for good because they new the situation there was going to get progressively worse with the expectation of a truly terrible 2017 in a full blown rebuilding campaign. It's no secret many long time 'homer' type of posters even stopped drinking the koolaid flowing from Orchard Park. Same reason Bills official beat reporter Chris Brown was forced to stop posting on the forum as well because he was relentlessly attacked from all sides for posting the usual pro Bills drivel and canned response type of statements.

 

So you can believe this story or not but this is what one of the former mods I've kept in touch with shared with me after the dust settled and they figured out what happened. Also the moderators weren't even told this was happening either that's how sudden it was. Same mod also acknowledged what most long time BBMB already know....T&C is/was truly a major loser that got off on banning people on an online forum, apparently the only reason he/she was a mod in the first place is because of a relation to somebody that worked at One Bills Drive. Either way good riddance, no hardcore fans should ever waste their time on official team run forums to being with. Private, unofficial ones like this are always the best route for engaging in serious hardcore discussion.

 

[GoBills808]

I don't want to dwell too much on this because it's in the past but the moderators at the former site (some apparently who have decided to join as posters here, so be forewarned ye who read this thread) were to a person (I interacted via DM with most if not all of them) carbon copy representations of the guards in the Stanford Prison Experiment. Literally incapable of rational behavior and common decency. True story.

 

When something goes under, the people in charge never want to admit that it was their fault. Those were the BBMB moderators, at least two of whom now post here, and I'm not surprised in the slightest that they still won't take responsibility for their failures. Just food for thought.

[Klapaucius]

16 hours ago, Patrick_Duffy said:

I'm not sure, but I was told that the mods there were taking advantage of their power and just banning people for no reason on a regular basis. Made any new comers feel unwelcomed and what not. But I'm not totally sure, just passing what I heard it to be. You probably will never really find out to be honest. In any event, this site is much, much better.

 

I was banned shortly after registering because my name 'Losing my Mind' led them to believe I was a trouble causer. I rarely post, but do a lot of reading. Getting banned for a name turned me off from the board.

[Patrick Duffy]

1 hour ago, teef said:

It was when I posted the nudes of myself...wasn't it?

Yes, yes it was Teef, and although my wife enjoyed them it did not float well. And the glory hole pick, well that one just took the "cake". #cakewalk

8 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

 

I was banned shortly after registering because my name 'Losing my Mind' led them to believe I was a trouble causer. I rarely post, but do a lot of reading. Getting banned for a name turned me off from the board.

Yes, similar things like that happened to A LOT of people. It was stupid and a few of those mods had a big part in it.

[Jay_Fixit]

2 hours ago, Billsfansinceday1 said:

This has come up a number of times both here and on other message boards so I thought I would chime in to answer some questions and perhaps correct some misconceptions.  On the BBMB, I was known as MASH/BFID and was one of the mods for the last 3+ years of the BBMB's existence.  I registered here under a new user name, to get a new start, but have been "outed" previously so I am comfortable stating the following things as far as I know them to be true.

 

1.  The mods had as much advance notice of the closure of the board as everyone else (ie none).

2.  With #1 stated, it was pretty clear for a very long time that OBD had lost interest in the BBMB.  There was no support at all from OBD and tech support was non-existent.  As a result, spambots were rampant.  Being the early bird mod, I would routinely ban 50-100 spambots every morning so they could infect the board with trash or porn or whatever.

3.  The mods were not picked per se nor were we compensated (we did receive signed mini helmets one year from Gregg Pastore...mine is here on my desk signed by Kyle Williams).  Mods did come and go for a variety of reasons and one was even banned for being so extremely abusive (Teratoma, who was before my time as a mod).  Essentially, we volunteered and had a clean posting history, and there was a need for additional support.

4.  The BBMB was certainly read by some at OBD, although, we really didn't know who.  I receive the Bills Digest and the last page of every episode was all quotes from members of the BBMB with comments from OBD staff to summarize the view of the topic from the top.  They obviously knew who was good and who was bad.

5.  There are a lot of comments here about the degree of moderation and I tend to agree with a lot of it but not all of it.  Early on, I talked at length with Robyn (WYO) who was the lead mod at the time and the co-author of the Code of Conduct.  Tom Donahoe, the previous Bills GM,  was a regular reader of the BBMB and despised all the negativity toward him and the organization...to the point that he threatened to shut it down.  As a result, a fairly stringent CoC was written to ensure the survival of the board.

6.  Regarding #5, was there some abuse by mods, sure.  Personally, I started out being too adherent to the CoC and infracted or banned some people who shouldn't have been.  As time went on, I tapered my moderating style while others may not have.  WYO tended to advocate for the "scalpel" approach rather than the "hammer".  Once she was gone, we migrated toward our own personal styles for better or for worse.

7.  Some members there did get extremely personal and abusive, especially on game day and around the draft.  If it carried over, they may have gone away, many who returned under another name.

8.  There was a fair amount of disagreement behind the scene about some of the infractions and bans, some of it quite accusatory.  Without a strong lead mod, there was no "referee" so things tended to get more personal and vindictive, or at least that was my impression.  Others would probably disagree with this, but se la vie.

9.  I am not aware of any new member being banned, unless their IP address was that of a PBU (Previously Banned User) or an address identified as a spam address.  

10.  It was stated here that mods had 2nd accounts.  The only occasion that I can think of was when we needed to test a new feature and needed an account other than our main user name.  

11.  I am also happy to be able to type "vague" without it hitting a language filter.  No idea how that happened, but it was clearly unintended consequences.

 

That's about it.  I really did enjoy the BBMB and there were a lot of very valuable contributors there, many of whom are now here.  I do enjoy it here and appreciate the discussion.

 

Edit:  Bills Chick was a mod.

Hey buddy. So you can agree that T&C was the worst mod in the history of the internet right? Because I’d love for him to know it.

[Luka]

1 hour ago, teef said:

It was when I posted the nudes of myself...wasn't it?

 

I quite enjoyed that. But no board is capable of handling that amount of traffic all at once.

[Dr. Who]

MASH was always a good fella.  Glad he is here.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Dr. Who

[DasNootz]

16 hours ago, SDS said:

 

Disagree. A lot of good people have joined. A few others weren’t a god fit. No worries. ?

This site has gotten much worse.

[SDS]

3 minutes ago, DasNootz said:

This site has gotten much worse.

 

Thank you for taking time out of your day to tell me/us this. I hope you feel better.