The demise of WhiteSeasons

From WikiYourFriends.com

Maury: Welcome back! We’ve been talking with former WhiteSeasons member and author of the book, Sure...Blame It On The Dog, Mr. Jake Wobegon. Now, Jake, before the commercial, we were talking about the WhiteSeasons community. Seemed like a pretty fun place. But now I’d like to talk about this other website, Dark Throne.

(audience boos)

M: Tell me, Jake, in your own words, what the heck happened?

Jakewobegon: Well, Maury, everything was going great in WhiteSeasons...with the exception of the minor tiff we had during fantasy football season...when one of the members, ErnestTheGreat, introduced us to a site where you could create your own country. I forget the name of it, but it was fun, and we all had a blast setting up our petty dictatorships. Well, one day I wandered onto the forum of that site.

M: And what did you find?

J: I found this innocent post that said, “check this out...kinda cool,” so I did. And what I found was the Dark Throne website.

(audience boos)

M: (to audience) Now, now, let’s let him tell his story. (Turns to Jake) So take me through the process of how this gets involved in the demise of WhiteSeasons.

J: (irate) It didn’t *bleep* contribute to the demise of WhiteSeasons, and if you read the book like you said you did, you’d know what I was talking about! (stands up)

M: Easy, Jake, we’re just trying to understand what happened. Go on.

J: (sits back down and forces himself to calm down) Well, I go to the site, and it’s fun...harmless even. And so I go to WhiteSeasons and post something to the effect of, “Well, I found this site, and it’s kinda cool, but kinda dorky, and you can check it out, and if you like it, well, it seems like fun. Don’t judge me.”

M: Sounds like you knew you were doing something wrong from the start.

J: NO! It wasn’t like that. It was more of embarrassment because not everyone is into fantasy. You have to remember, this was before the Lord of the Rings movies were coming out. Nothing malicious at all.

M: So then what happened from there?

J: Well, to my surprise, all the guys liked it. Scratch that. They LOVED it and created multiple characters and were getting all excited.

M: You say, “the guys liked it.” What about the gals?

J: Well, a couple tried it, but it didn’t take. As for the rest, they just couldn’t let go of Harry *bleep* Potter to venture out and try something new.

(audience boos)

J: (shouting above the audience) That’s right! And I hope the little bastard DIES in the last book!!!

(audience continues booing)

M: All right. All right. Let’s calm down everybody. Easy. Easy. OK. Now, in the book, it seems like this is a big success and starts drawing a bunch of new people to the site.

J: EXACTLY! We were forming alliances, and new people were joining, and not just kids only interested in Dark Throne, either. In fact we had this one gal post a bunch of her poetry on the site. We had a good laugh at that in the admin forums, but it seemed to calm the gals down for a while.

M: So what was the problem?!

J: The problem, Maury, is that nothing lasts forever. And just like the pet rock, the hoola hoop, and someday even Harry *bleep* Potter, the Dark Throne thing just sort of... dissipated. See, Maury, it wasn’t that Dark Throne killed WhiteSeasons. It’s just that was the moment that WhiteSeasons “Jumped the Shark.”

M: But doesn’t that mean the same thing?

J: No, no, you got it all wrong. “Jumping the Shark” in the original definition is when a show, or in this case, a website hits a pinnacle, and has nowhere to go from there but down. It’s all in the book.

M: OK, well then, in your opinion, what was it that killed WhiteSeasons?

J: One word, Maury. BoyInBlue.

M: That’s 3 words.

J: No, it’s an internet thing. It was all run together in one big jumble, and that’s a pretty good description for this piece of work.

M: So tell me about BoyInBlue.

J: Post whore, Maury. Post. Whore. In one month, he cracked the top 10 in total posts and in new topics... something that took the rest of us TWO YEARS to do.

M: Sounds like you’re a bit jealous.

J: Of that peice of *bleep*? No way! There were a lot of words being typed, but not a lot of stuff being said, if you get my drift. The guy was a leech. It got so bad that the only way to have a decent conversation was to talk in the admin forums. We tried to hold it together, Maury. We tried. Heck, Dreagen even created a new "invite only" site AND kicked BiB out of White Seasons at the same time. But by then, it was too late. The fire had just snuffed out.

M: Fascinating insight to a tragic situation. (turns to audience) The book...Sure, Blame It On The Dog. The author...Jake Wobegon. Thanks, Jake. Coming up next, what would you do if you found out your kindergartener was involved in a prostitution ring? Well that’s precicely what happened in this little Macon, GA school. We’ll talk with the parents when we return.

(cut to commercial)