Dear all Harry/Hermione shippers.

When I was 13, about five years ago, I came here as a troll to tell you that you were idiots. (My name was kewl_gurl3000, and I was, and am still, a Ron/Hermione shipper.) I was banned for that and someone sent me a copy of all my posts. I recently found and read them.

I am APALLED at how stupid and immature I was. Everyone has the right to ship who they want. Just because I didn't agree with you was no reason for me to behave like a moron. Even though most of you may not know who I am, I felt I should apologize anyway.

Some people may wonder, “What brought on this sudden need to repent? Well, I'll tell you. I am a HUGE POTC fan. When Jack/Elizabeth didn't happen, even though I though it should, I was DEVASTATED. I then realized that is how all of you must have felt. You wanted your ship to happen, you felt it SHOULD happen, and it didn't. I can sympathize with that.

I really hope that you can all find it in your hearts to forgive me. (Even though, again, most of you are going "Who the heck is this person, anyway?")

-kewl_gurl3000


P.S.I do agree with some of you on some things. Albus Severus Potter is a weird name, lol.

MOD NOTE: I've inserted a link to the other kewl_gulr3000 account. I'll repeat in here what I've inserted in her sig:

She had apologized in Dec 2007 for previous trolling. Aside from a general skepticism over what we read on the internet, we have no reason to doubt she's the same person. - Portkey mod team

- gal-texter, Jan 2009

MOD NOTE:

I have locked this as I feel that it could degenerate into bashing/abuse. I have left it here however as I feel that I cannot delete it because it is an apology. Take it as you want to, but I will be severe on anybody who is abusive/bashing in PMs etc. You don't have to like it, but it stays.

Adam.

There's logic in the apology, regardless of whether this user is the same person as the original kewgurl_3000 (whom IIRC was also harassing Kate J on her HarryLovesHermione.com site).

At any rate, thanks to those of you who haven't been feeding these trolls. Just hit that Report button and let the mods take care of them.

Our SCQ friends have told us that plenty of losers continue to lurk here (and in SCQ) and ridicule our members outside PK. Someday these trolls would realize that their lives would be better off doing more productive things. Maybe it'd be when their grandkids ask them what they did in their youth. Or when their family / friends / bf / gf ask them what they do on their spare time. Or when they experience some life-altering event that would make them regret their hatred -- not that I wish they'd have that kind of event.

Sure, these loathsome creatures can register several times and mask their IPs, but whose time are they wasting? Mostly theirs. How pathetic is it to go to places where they are persona non grata? We decent humans don't need to ridicule or pester others in order to validate our self-worth.

I once heard this advice, "When you carry so much hatred for someone, you give them rent-free space in your mind." Well, these trolls are not worth an iota of space in our minds. Obviously they think WE are worthy of their attention.

I'm sure the trolls would make fun of this statement but I don't care. It's their character that'd sink lower, not mine.

I've originally posted this and its two succeeding messages in our "Shippy Semi-Debates" forum..

We interrupt regular programming to bring you this FYI:

It would've been great if people observe our quoting policy here which is linked in the Site-Wide TOS and in the board's footer. After all, these rules are based on real life etiquette particularly of not making fun of people esp behind their backs. Here's proof that some people have too much time on their hands.

Apparently, this Ikabod's been a Portkey member for a while now. If this is the same Ikabod's who's been treated pretty much courteously by Portkeyers from what I've seen, shame on you. I haven't read many of your posts, but those that I've seen (since my Apr 2008 return to PK) were responded to in a fair and friendly manner.

In that same entry, a JulianRain brought up Marcella's old typo, "I wright professionally." It's likely he or she's the same person as this troll, because I had deleted that linked post's original content within 4 hours after it was posted here in the forums when there were only a few people online here. That post had been originally posted here around 4 or 5 AM US Eastern time on a Friday, if my time conversions are correct.

We could impose even more restrictions to these debates forum, but I'm sure they'd persist in coming here. I doubt they'd be worth our attention. I'd rather PK staff spend their time on more constructive endeavors than monitoring them. I've heard of that LJ comm's reputation since post-HBP, so eh, I won't bother complaining to them.

Anyways, people, since they named you guys and linked to your posts here, then it's only fair we tell you about them. Thanks to the Portkey member who linked me to that entry.

Lastly, may I bring up this suggestion again.



The above quote is PK's reason for being. Anything else is incidental.


Also this reminder. In real life, it's hardly worthwhile to be friends with backstabbers so I don't see why PK should bother accomodating them.

Okay, I've confirmed that journalfen's Ikabod's this same person. She logged in PK a few hours before my prev post. I won't take further action against her yet since she hasn't personally insulted PK-ers in her opening LJ entry,** unlike others who've labeled PK-ers like "f*ing bast**ds". Her PS about Marcella's PK comment is borderline personal, so I'll let her take further action if she thinks it's warranted. I half-expect she'd shrug it off though. Marcella, this reminds me of your "list" of things people could do with their time!

**I only skimmed the LJ replies

Maybe this indiscretion's an exception rather than the norm for Ikabod. My advice to you and like-minded people: if you find yourself often annoyed at the opinions expressed in this "Debates" area, then don't read them. No one's forcing them on you; you're the ones who come to this site and Debates section like the Energizer bunny (to borrow Ikabod's words).

Don't get confused on what the site's focus is. *points at above post* We're not targetting all HP fans. People should expect more H/H people here in PK because they're our target audience. Everything about PK screams H/H and has always done so, from our artwork and fanfics to forum structure. That's why I had renamed this area "semi-debates" and "debate-ish" because PK never aimed for a completely unskewed debate environment. Read our TOS again.

I and other staff hardly agree with some criticisms against JKR (here's one of many examples post-HBP) but we're not going to stop others from posting their views here in a JKR thread in the debate forum. PK staff would not delete posts unless they personally attack other people. (We often move posts to more appropriate threads or forums though, but that's another mater.)

Before you, Ikabod, or others complain about me not PM'ing you first, think whether you gave PK and its members the same courtesy when you made entries like that one in journalfen. You play nice, we'll play nice.

Ikabod has read and replied to the PM I've sent her today, shortly after I had made my prev posts.







This next part's more of an FYI for other PK-ers and lurking troublemakers (you guys keep proving to us that you persist in coming here). We've seen this happen again and again here and outside PK, so I expect to link to this thread in future cases.

I replied to the above PM, "Whatever. I had already posted in the Forum Help Desk sometime ago what our current policy is regarding deleting accounts."

I hadn't received her request to remove her account, btw. She has already mocked PK-ers before so why should I believe her when she implies she'd stop doing so after I delete her account? That shouldn't be a bargaining point in the first place. Clearly we subscribe to different etiquette. Besides, no one twisted her arm to log in here and read our posts in "semi-debates', after she had asked to have her account removed.

When I had said I saw her being treated pretty fairly and in a friendly manner, I wasn't referring to posts she had made here in the Debates forum 'cos I hardly read the posts in there. But I don't have to explain to people like her whatever modly actions were taken, nor do I have to justify to her specifically any delays in mod responses. I've already touched on our response times in the TOS, aside from it being common sense. Also as far as I can remember, none of the people she named in her entry have been rude to her.

In RL, when people badmouth us or have ill preconceptions against us, we wouldn't want those people inside our homes, would we? I'm exercising that right now as Portkey is the home of H/H, D/G, L/J and R/LL shippers. We've taken mod action vs some H/H shippers before for being nasty to other people; so it shouldn't come as a surprise that we'd do the same to non-H/H shippers. These actions include reminding people not to bash, deleting their posts, putting them on our watch lists, warning them by PM or on the thread, suspending their account permissions and kicking out severe or repeat offenders.

We wouldn't be surprised to see some of these people try to sneak in under new PK aliases. We've already addressed that as well. We current staff have a goal on what we'd want PK to be; it doesn't include bending over backward to accomodate people who are quick to mock and generalize vs PK-ers.