Hello I'm kyoteblue aka Jonathan Keepers, and I'm trying to get some form of dialog going between The Miniature Page and Frothers UK, as I'm unable to join or post on Frothers , the TMP Editor(s) have set this blog up as a place to have a neutral place to have that dialog, all I ask is that you not make personal attacks.
Note I have never had nor posted on a blog and have no idea what I'm doing so please be patient with me.
kyoteblue.
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ReplyDeleteDue to the length of this comment I have had to split it into three posts.
ReplyDeleteLet me preface this commentary by stating that I’ve used several accounts on The Miniatures Page over the years and have never been a member of Frothers. There were very few stifles between the accounts, and none were ever dawghoused. While some of the banter on Frothers is amusing, I do not want to be one of the ex-TMPers that just can’t let it go. So this blog gives a good opportunity to air some grievances about Bill Armintrout that I would refrain from doing on other websites, but it would probably be a Festivus miracle if he acknowledged any of those grievances.
Before Bill began hiring the new editors I was of the opinion that TMP had been going downhill for several years, but after the new editors were hired was when things really started to get strange. All of the editors shared similar characteristics: attractive, younger, Filipino women. So they seemed like strange choices considering TMP is predominantly an English-speaking website and appears to be mostly inhabited by middle-aged and older men. But there was also quite a bit of fanfare involved in the announcements of the newly hired editors, and as could be expected of a situation such as that, there was a lot of fawning over the new editors from the membership, some of which seemed rather inappropriate.
I certainly questioned why Bill would create such a situation. It seems rather shortsighted if he thought something along those lines would not happen. There followed some online catcalling, some of the editors seemed to enjoy it and even encourage it, apparently photos of the editors that some people found racy were posted in the members-only section of the site, and then Bill publicly asked the editors to be a bit more professional in their interactions with the membership.
I became aware of the Weird Vibe thread on the Frothers site shortly after Bill began hiring the editors. At first it was just poking fun at Bill for being so seemingly ignorant that introducing a handful of attractive women into a venue mostly populated by older males would create an opportunity for some unseemly behavior. Then some online sleuthing was done and it was discovered that the editors were not what they appeared. I hesitantly followed the links to the Transpinay Helper site, and lo and behold there were the editors using the same names and pictures that they used on TMP. At first I thought it might be an elaborate piss-take from one of Frothers because it was just so surreal, but then I followed links to the various social media profiles and found the exact same thing. There was no doubt that all of the editors were transgender and worked for some mysterious entity named Monty Schwab.
That in and of itself I do not care about. If someone wants to change their sexual orientation, by all means go ahead, I do not care one iota. But the problem was that some of the TMP membership had been flirting with these ladies without knowing the true nature of their sexual orientation, which seemed like a recipe for disaster, especially considering Bill was undoubtedly aware that the editors were transgender.
If I recall correctly, Bill started posting a lot more in the Weird Vibe thread shortly after the Transpinay Helper information came to light. Ostensibly it was to protect his editors identities, but that ship had already sailed when all the information was freely available on their social media and TPH profiles. It also seemed like Bill knew some inside information about the mysterious Monty Schwab character, and of course people began asking if he were Monty Schwab. Bill repeatedly denied that he had anything to do with Monty Schwab, while at the same time continuing to post information that only Monty Schwab could know.
Then some of the TMP editors posted in the Weird Vibe thread to defend Bill. I can only assume that Bill asked them to do so, and if he did then it probably proved to be a mistake seeing as how his editors were the ones who let slip the fact that he was indeed Monty Schwab.
ReplyDeleteIt was around this time that ALizardInCrimson started a thread on TMP admonishing Bill for getting his editors involved in the Weird Vibe thread. Someone in the thread asked for a link to what the furor was about, and I responded that anyone who had linked to the Weird Vibe thread in the past had been banned from TMP. The next day I visited TMP only to find that ALizardInCrimson’s account was locked, as well as the accounts associated with my current IP address and a good portion of the people who had responded in the thread. I can only assume that my crime against Bill was that I stated the truth. Anyone who linked to the Weird Vibe thread found their account locked, and apparently even mentioning that to be the case was pretext for a locked account.
At first I was somewhat miffed, but then quickly realized that I didn’t care. At that point I had posted very few times in the year prior to the banning, only a handful of the really helpful and knowledgeable people were still posting, and the Tango-spamming had become outright ridiculous. While there is occasionally some worthwhile gaming content posted on TMP, anymore I tend to visit just to watch some flame-war buffoonery, and there is certainly no shortage of that on TMP or Frothers. After my accounts were locked,
I erased the email addresses from my profiles, and then changed and forgot the passwords. I no longer want to be a member of TMP, and the biggest reason for that is Bill’s capricious moderation style.
Shortly after Bill was exposed as Monty Schwab by his own editors in the Weird Vibe thread, Bill began a thread on TMP confirming that he was indeed Monty Schwab, the editors were all transgender, and Bill was the operator of the Transpinay Helper site. To the credit of the TMP membership, the furious uproar that had been predicted in the Weird Vibe thread did not happen, or at least I did not see anything of the sort. Although from what I understand there were quite a few people who quietly left at that time.
While there are some truly contemptible posters who inhabit TMP, especially in the Ultramodern sub-forum, Bill deserves almost all of the blame for the soap opera that TMP has become. There are also some contemptible posters who inhabit the Weird Vibe thread on Frothers, and I suspect the operator of that site deserves to share in some of the blame with Bill for allowing the “TMP-Frothers War” to continue.
Don Koyote, let me leave you with a quote that was uttered a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Who’s the more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows him? Please believe me when I tell you that Bill is making you look foolish. This is the internet, and as long as Bill continues to be hypocritical, people will continue to point out Bill’s hypocrisy. If that is pointed out on TMP, Bill has shown that he is more than capable of erasing the evidence and banning the perpetrators. If that is pointed out on other websites that Bill has no control over, he has shown that he tends to have conniption fits when realizing he is incapable of erasing the evidence and banning the perpetrators.
ReplyDeleteLet me finish with some questions for Bill Armintrout:
When will TMP 4.0 be a reality? It has been about two years since the announcement and yet there appears to be no progress whatsoever towards that end, despite promises to the contrary if members continue to support TMP. I am an admin/moderator of a website that has had two upgrades in the same time period, and each upgrade was accomplished in less than a week, although granted that the database is considerably smaller. To be honest, I think technology has passed you by.
Why did you continue to deny that Monty Schwab was your pseudonym for so long? Supposedly it was because you were protecting the identities of your editors, but by then their identities were already known because of their own social media and TPH profiles. I’m sure your answer will be that they did not use the same names and pictures, but I saw with my own eyes that they did, and I think there are screenshots to support that. I suspect the true motivation is that you were embarrassed. If you had been forthright from the beginning there would no doubt be a lot less animosity towards you, and because you were not your reputation may now be damaged beyond repair. If you don’t believe me, just look at how your own paying members mock you on your own site.
Do you actually enjoy this attention? I have been somewhat hesitant to post to this blog because I’m afraid that you revel in this attention, and this post may very well be exactly what you want to see because it may help keep some controversy going. On the one hand, your pot-stirring nature and the way the editors were first introduced to TMP makes me think that you do indeed enjoy the controversies, but on the other, you stopped making hiring announcements after a few months as if you had learned from the mistakes and were simply excited to be expanding TMP when the original announcements were made.
Please note that the Wayback Machine will be used to preserve this post. I do not think this post is offensive toward anyone, and I expect it to remain on this blog in its unedited form. If it is removed or edited, I plan on providing links to the archived post across all social media formats.
And with that I have probably droned on for far too long.