List of criticisms and complaints against TwoP

I’m not alone here. There is a large volume of complaints against Television Without Pity moderators out there. I hope that by compiling this list, the powers that be at TwoP would wake up and realise that their revenue will be affected one day if they keep up with this bad business practise: turning away their customers by being unprofessional and downright mean. My ultimate hope is that they’ll improve – not by removing their strict forum rules which I appreciate, but by instilling some common sense and manners into their moderators:

• Spare the Snark or else? (What’s Alan Watching?)
• Television Without Pity forums moderators (Sci Fi Forums)
• TwoP criticisms and commentary journal – read the litany of complaints in the Posters Promoted to Mods post
• WTF, TwoP? (Eskimo Bliss)
• encore: abridged version of the infamous letter to NBC (marjorie-palimpsests)
• centre stage, encores (marjorie-palimpsests)
• Elsewhere: TwoP Bayliss (Nobody Cares About Your Blog)
• Television Without An Off Button (Back of the Book)
• So that’s why Television Without Pity killed the “Housewives” thread (TV Barn): “… I’m reading too many comments from ordinary viewers about the “Hitlerish” forum moderators on TWoP.”
• That’s Television WITHOUT Pity (Just Eat the Damn Peach)
• Will corporate ownership ruin Television Without Pity? (Slate)
• And this is why corporations don’t buy blogs (Gawker)
• House Forums and Such (End of the Thought Process)
• Bravo acquires TWOP
• Television Without Pity, Pitilessly (Mrs Morrison’s Hotel)
• TWOP rant thread at Gossip Rocks Forum
• TwoP thread at the Data lounge
• Help me save Television Without Pity (Guardian UK)
• Banned from Television Without Pity for Nothing (The Feisty Critic)
• Snarkest Forum TWOP thread
• Bitter but Brilliant

Have stories to tell about TwoP? Or have a blog post about it? Leave it in the comments.

I wanted to give TWOP a second chance but…

First, read this post.

It’s wonderful what 8 hours of sleep does for you. I’m not as angry as I was last night, when I received a string of rude e-mails from TwoP’s notorious queen bee Bayliss, and not even when I opened my e-mail and saw that Serge, the head moderator, has (predictably) taken the man’s side and wrote a rude and condescending email in return.

You see, I generally enjoy the posts at TwoP. I usually hang out at the True Blood forums, and once upon did so at the Supernatural threads until it got way too negative and eye-rolling inducing. (I now hang out in the kinder, more fun supernatural.tv.) But True Blood forums were fun because posters were articulate and had so many theories about what could possibly be happening and they have interesting insights into the characters.

So I decided to have a look see to see what they’re up to today, and I see this sticky post at the top of the forum.

From Bayliss: Both of those are obvious at this point. If you’re a reader of the books, you know where to go. If not, talk about it here. Just stop effing playing with the rules, when we know damn well what you’re talking about.

From stevetolove: Sigh. Thank you for saying this. I like a mod who gently reminds of us why we are here. ;] (One of the many reasons I just registered on this site.)

I’m in for the ride – with both hands raised high!

So, basically Bayliss has put up a post praising his “generosity” and moderating abilities high up so that’s the first thing everyone sees when they log on. The amount of ego stroking involved is nauseating.

Seriously, I don’t know how anyone can tolerate such narcissism.

I’m outta there.

I do hope Bayliss will reach the mental maturity of a teenager one day, but I don’t see it happening.

You’ll probably be seeing me at The Blue Whale Pub instead. TwoP, I’m really gone for good. GOOD RIDDANCE.

Television Without Pity : Nazi moderators = zero response from Bravo = zero business sense

Just got banned from Television Without Pity forums by a moderator named TwoP Bayliss. My crime? Telling him off for calling posters “weak”.

I wasn’t surprised that my post was deleted and I was banned right after that. (He sure works fast!) Bayliss, who apparently has a pretty notorious reputation (See here, here and here and God knows how many bazillion other posts) said that I was banned “by user’s hysterical request.”

(I later received an email from a TwoP member giving me the thumbs up and saying that she/he agrees with me and appreciated my post. Good on you! Now if everyone could en masse post naughty, against the rules (whatever the fuck they are) posts on the forum so that Bayliss will have a good workout clicking his mouse, It’d be much appreciated.)

Here are some comments from around the Internet about TwoP’s worsening reputation:

Yep, Television without Pity sucks. The biggest problem I find with the site now are the mods in the forums. Their reasons for banning/warning are draconian and completely arbitrary and petty, and if you have the audacity to question them in any way, it makes things all the worse for you. It’s become the case wherein I am afraid to post in their forums because you never know what sort of thing is going to piss off a mod and get you banned on any given day. – Ramon, commenter of the post, Bravo Sends Television Without Pity to hell.

The site’s attitude toward boardies is “there’s more where you came from.” The staff doesn’t care if it runs the place into the ground either; in their own minds, it’s a stepping stone to their future as the Next Big American Author. So it all results in an asylum being run by the lunatics. From Marjorie-Palimpsests’post.

I was banned also. I had a warning about using proper grammar and punctuation. I e-mailed them and told them I had a learning disability and wouldn’t post anymore. Instead of answering my e-mail I was banned. – Anonymous, Posters promoted to mods?

While the idea is a good one, in actuality the boards at TWoP are some of the most poorly moderated on the internet because there is no consistency and no clear guidelines, chiefly because the people running the board have contempt for the posters and that filters down to the individual moderators.

The mods have absolute power and no feedback mechanism to tell them if they are doing a good job or not because commenting on the moderating is against the rules and gets posters banned. Warns and bans are given for anything a mod feels like whether it’s against the board rules or not and there’s no way to let them know that what they’re doing is unfair or unwarranted. Sars doesn’t even bother to read the posts before she starts banning people. There is a sense among the people running the board that it doesn’t matter because the posters only idiots anyway. Eventually almost all the mods end up becoming bullies just because there’s nothing to stop them.

I’ve tried to post there many times because there are some clever posters, but I’ve always been defeated by the bad moderating. The best and most intelligent threads are the obscure shows where the moderators never go.- Mer, Bravo buys TwoP.com

I’ve always known that TwoP moderators are rather “warning-” or “banning-” happy. And they can ban you for the slightest, stupidest, weirdest reasons. And if they can, they’ll kick you in the nuts while they do it.

Here’s this: I truly do not understand why a business which depends on Internet visitors for traffic and thus ad revenue, would turn off their main customers by being downright rude and condescending to them. I mean, maybe it’s just me, but hey – if you piss off your customers, you lose revenue. Worse, many of these these customers end up BLOGGING about it. Like moi, see?

What makes TwoP so freaking great that they’re excluded from this steadfast rule about doing business? And why is it that parent company Bravo letting this slide despite the numerous complaints about TwoP moderator behaviour off and on the Internet? I can only conclude one thing: They have zero business sense.

Anyway, my saga is rather tiring to talk about, but after being banned  I was furious enough to write to the head moderator. (I know, apparently the head mod is as bad. Bleah.) And if that’s not all, Bayliss wrote a couple of condescending emails to me (once saying that I’ve “made a dramatic enough mess of this morning”), thinking he’d grind me with the heel of his digital boot. Uh-uh. You’re messin’ with a blogger who has to deal with numerous comments about her being not right with God and am on the straight road to hell. So I’m trained in snark, friend.

In the end of the funny email exchange (funny because I realise how much like a 2-year-old he was) I had to thank Bayliss for amusing me to no end.

I used to love TwoP to bits. I loved the fact that posters actually bother to capitalise when necessary, and that the “Oh, XX is so cuuuuute!” posts are at near zero. But now, with the moderator Nazis, TwoP has become the unfriendliest forum on the Internet. Give me the Gateworld Forums any day, where people do write in intelligent English and are allowed to let loose and be as fan-filled as they want.

Conclusion: WTF am I wasting my time at TwoP when I’ve other things to do and better sites to visit? And if Bravo loses money over the behaviour of their jerk-ass moderators, why the hell should I care? So here’s to you, Bravo: I’m ignoring you, TwoP and everything you generate. Up yours!

But wait, there’s a Part 2!