Re: What happened to GG?

[mermaid blood]

well, this happened for a start: (26/3)



A newly created rule, only visible on the top of the Dan and Phil subforum, nowhere else on the GG and not announced.

It was met with this:




...Conflicting explanations from moderators (which were also ignored when pointed out).

The rule was created within the same 12 hours that several regular GG members from different forums were one-click banned without prior warnings (against GG's own rules), all after giving comments during a disagreement with a moderator Gabz_is_shite. The posts have since been deleted by moderators, so it is difficult to follow, but two of the posters claim their comments weren't even supporting the disagreement. I'll let someone else take over from here. It gets very murky and bizarre, tbh.

[Delta503]

Nothing much to add regarding the main trigger, but I really do think that this is good for the long term as well. GG is a technical nightmare with issues that have plagued the site for months/years not looking anywhere near fixed; the people running it have a seriously questionable past, beyond just what happened this week, so it's not a particularly safe environment and I always felt that the D&P threads kind of got tainted by the wider GG reputation. Not that I'm saying we're sweetness and light 100% of the time by any means... but y'know

Really looking forward to seeing this place develop, and I really hope it can provide a strong alternative to GG! Thanks to everyone working so hard making this happen

[IzzySmi]

Hi, I really hope no one minds me adding my own two cents into this topic and my ban (I know a few people were asking about me).

I was IzzySmi on GG and one of the first to be permanently banned 3 days ago, some of you may have noticed I had absolutely had nothing to do with the "debate" about whether Gabby cared about the lives of anyone or as Gabz_is_Shite tried to imply - she only cares about her Mulberry handbags
Nesoi lied, I received no warnings before my permanent ban and in fact I have never received a warning on that forum EVER. I don't believe any of my posts were ever moderated/edited either as there was simply no need. So why the lifetime ban.. AND, why the two IP address bans? That's right, both of my IP addresses from two different homes have been banned so I am unable to even access the site never mind read it or make another account. (Thankfully I do have two devices with data that I have never previously used for GG so I can sort of read the forum on those - it's hard work though).

I know I broke no rules, I know people didn't report me for flaming/trolling either as my last posts on the forum were about Gabby lying about sleeping naked (sooo offensive yo), edited eyes in selfies and buying Hobnobatron an Easter Egg and before that I hadn't been online for over a week due to being busy.

I do know why I was banned though, as some of you probably knew - Gabz_is_shite and I used to be quite friendly and we'd PM regularly, now that all went sour in 2015 when her behaviour began to change and she repeatedly picked on an 18 year old regular on our thread. She'd pick on her posts relentlessly, mock her boring psychology knowledge, tell her off for mentioning Gabby's anxiety and accuse her of diagnosing (even though mentioning Gabby's anxiety is allowed as the rules state we're not allowed to discuss mental health issues the YouTuber has not mentioned themselves, Gabby has mentioned numerous times about her anxiety) etc etc and I agreed with the 18 year old in question about a certain topic of contacting Red Hare & all of Gabby's sponsored brands as GIS was pushing for Gabby to be "fired" which in itself seems a bit too nasty for me however I stated that I agreed with the 18 year old and that Red Hare simply didn't care about her behaviour so let's not encourage users to continually email them like Gabz_is_Shite was doing. Of course I received an angry PM from the not-a-mod-yet saying how dare I stick up for the stupid little bitch that dared to have a differing opinion to GIS. LOL. I tried to reason with her via numerous PM's but she was infuriated (apparently the girl in question had disagreed with hr once before months previously and it'd stuck in her mind) and I said "Look I think this is a bit silly, if someone has a different opinion to you once - that does not mean they're your lifetime nemesis. I PM with lots of people have disagreed with in the past." because really, most of the GG posters are lovely. Even when you have disagreements with them we're all old enough to be kind to one another and chat happily. However Gabz_is_Shite did not agree and I was promptly put on her "Stupid little bitch" list which tbh many people on the velvetgh0st thread are on (and probably don't realise it) but we won't get into that.

Now she didn't pick apart my posts or act snarkily to me like she did to the other girl and many others, for the sheer reason of our previous PM's. I knew way too much about some of the stuff she did and she'd commented numerous times "don't tell anyone on the thread about this", about totally normal stuff like having numerous Twitter accounts purely for the purpose of "sending Gabby nasty shit lol" emailing my GaBully thread to numerous newspapers and journalists (wasn't particularly happy about that) and accusing another GG thread of having the biggest bullies on the planet (lol, why? because they didn't believe you were an insider?) etc etc.
Completely normal behaviour for someone with a full time job in the industry eh .
Not to mention mocking a certain user for immediately PMing her after an disagreement on the thread and of course - talking about her job.

I'm not going to go into the topic of her job too much because my god I don't have all day and this is taking too long as it is, but it's complete bullshit. She isn't a YT insider at all, the sheer amount of time she's online suggests she doesn't even have a job and she's told numerous different stories about her YT job. One being that she only works with brands to help them find suitable social media people (lol wot you saying Izzy?) to promote their products, another being that she works with small bloggers/instagrammers etc and the doozy being that she's management for 2 of the biggest YT males in the UK. I did accidentally stumble across proof of one of her "very big insider truth facts" that completely discredited it as a blatant lie. I have since found some other things but I didn't mention them due to her being a mod and I was repeatedly warned by other users that could see through her lies that she would undoubtedly be reading my PM's.

I also saw NaughtyMinx's first and LAST comment *sob*. I know a certain Mod painted her to be a nutcase (who's to say she isn't though, I ain't diagnosing nuttin) and that was probably because NaughtyMinx's comment actually stated that Gabz_is_Shite had put misinformation in the velvetgh0st FAQ and if she was going to post in the FAQ, it should at least be truthful otherwise it compromises the integrity of the entire FAQ (very true) and she also went on to say that if GIS (seriously couldn't she have an easily typable name *sigh*) truly worked in the YT industry then have some decorum because her bosses/company will certainly know who she is and will easily be able to find out if she's posting (and now moderating) on such a site anyway NM's comment was immediately deleted and her account banned. Anyone surprised? Me neither. Oh, plus GIS's post was edited by the next morning, and the info had been removed.

Anyway, I could go on and on about the things I found out but I won't. I'll tell you this though, when I was finally able to go onto GG on Thursday via my phone (the day of all the bans) when I was navigating through different threads via the Board Index, guess whose very noticeable pink name was ONLINE every time I went there? Gabz_is_Shite and then the next day she comes on pretending she'd been out enjoying herself the previous day and the bans were all news to her? HAHAHAHA. Why you lyinnnn.. Why you always lyyyyinnnnn.

Nesoi and GIS had been regularly PMing for months before she was made a mod, I don't know why Nesoi is so actively involved unless she truly believes GIS is an insider and think it's her way in to find out super secret YT gossip.

I didn't break any rules, I don't care what the Mods come back and say. They're lying and I think that's blatantly obvious. Now I hear they are exempt from all rules themselves and can edit posts whenever they feel like it. Wow, so they can basically make it look like you've said something you haven't. Delightful.

Thank you to the lovely ladies on all the threads I was a part of and the support people have shown! I'm IzzySmi on Twitter if you need me or want info.

[Anonymousse]

Anyway, I could go on and on about the things I found out but I won't. I'll tell you this though, when I was finally able to go onto GG on Thursday via my phone (the day of all the bans) when I was navigating through different threads via the Board Index, guess whose very noticeable pink name was ONLINE every time I went there? Gabz_is_Shite and then the next day she comes on pretending she'd been out enjoying herself the previous day and the bans were all news to her? HAHAHAHA. Why you lyinnnn.. Why you always lyyyyinnnnn.

THIS! THIIIIIS! I noticed this too, while I was browsing that only she was online from the mods and then... that.

So I'm probably banned for my comment, now that they had the time to "clean up the mess" and people will be none the wiser.

Thanks for this info!

[trashqueen]

thanks Izzy for the info

i don't have anything of importance to add (well aside that how my post quoting jhamba was edited without my permission when she was banned wtf was that), but i do have a question, if anyone is bored enough to bother, i would love to know some of the lies gabz made up about d&p, i picked up on some stuff when reading the old threads (like the whole dan and lily melrose thing lmao), but i feel like i'm probs missing something big?

i wouldn't be surprised if gabz was actually lily

[swofro]

I want to thank your post so much, IzzySmi. Thanks for explaining things.

Adding my two cents into the gg story, a few hours before gg shuts down for maintenance, nesoi PM'd me saying that I have two accounts when that is absolutely not true. I have been on gg with my mobile and my mobile only for the whole time(which I bought last year from ARGOS). I first stumble into gg last year when tabinof is release because I want to read early reviews, there is no way I have been online using other IP or anyone else using my phone to log into their account. I take the approach of giving her benefit of the doubt and politely tell her that there must be some mistake with the system that she thought I have two accounts. I wait for a while in case she reply and when she didn't, I went to sleep and gg went down few hours later.

When I wasn't thinking good of her, I think she might have an ulterior motive. Lol, word. The only other possible explanation I can think of myself is that she is digging up on everyone that is complaining and whining about mod and rules etc on D and P board and try to frame them for mistakes to get them banned.

That's why I somehow can't wait for gg to be up again so I can see what happen to my account / if nesoi realise she made a mistake and apologise or whatever.

The whole business is seriously putting me off gg for good. It is good timing as well that D and P community set this new website.

Edit: seconding trashqueen 'bout gabz's lies

[l8er_sk8er]

Thank you for this long post. My fave part about Gabz_is_Shite that i remember, is that she used to be called Gabz_is_Shiz. "Rebrended" herself after becoming a mod.
If i remember correctly GIS even posted in the other threads then all the banning/deleting happend. So I don't believe for a moment that she didn't look into her favourite thread.
I think that Jhamba's banning took place in 2 parts. First she have had status "punished" (like batgirl (i have screenshot)), as i understand, it means that you are banned but all posts stay. And then it seems they change their decision.

[mermaid blood]

Thank you hugely, IzzySmi, for taking the time to explain your side of things. it helps vindicate the stories of some people who are pretty upset they were caught up and lost their accounts and all their posts during this debauched week. what a fucking mess.

I would warn anyone currently still holding an account there from adding anything identifying yourself/linking back to this thread until GG is back online and you have salvaged what you would like from there first, lest you and your entire history be one-click deleted. the next week shall be very interesting.

[wtfamidoinghere]

Thank you IzzySmi! I hope more people tell their side of what happened here. I read jamieeee's posts before GG went down, don't know if they will still be there when the site is back. But they also said that no warnings were issued and they were not flaming.

I've written this in my intro post so sorry for repeating myself, but...

Am i the only one who was slightly annoyed by Morgan's post on the blog?
It says "FYI... Apologies, but it'll help you come up with better conversation I think... "
It sounds to me like a dig at how we didn't just let the topic of the bans go like good little posters should

I don't understand how the owner of a website can be involved like this? The evidence against GIS is piling up, shouldn't the owner of GG investigate that? I mean, if a mod was spreading lies in my forum and then banning others for calling her out, i'd want that mod to go, not support her

What pissed me off more than the banning was how the mods replied to all of this. The general notion of them being annoyed about people being "off topic" and their smilies all the time was quite infuriating, is that just me?
Frankly, i didn't want to talk about it untill they told me to stop talking about it

[oqua]

Hi everyone! Firstly, THANK YOU, IzzySmi, for that great post! It's a really welcome addition to this thread!

I'd like to add my own experience to Swofro's post: I also received a PM from Nesoi saying that I had multiple accounts!

From: Nesoi
Subject: multiple accounts
Received: 16:27

Message:
It is showing that you have 4 accounts from the same IP. The other 3 are [...], [...] and [...].
GG states a user can only have 1 account per IP. Which accounts would you like me to delete?

(Note: The PM lists the names of the other 3 accounts, but I redacted them to protect those users' privacy, since they are real accounts, seemingly fairly established on GG, and they're definitely NOT me!)

As is the case with with Swofro, the claim that I have multiple accounts is completely untrue. I've never registered for GG in the past, and I've never even posted in any thread other than the Dan and Phil one. The only account that I've ever had is oqua.

All I can say is that given the timing, and regardless of the mod's intentions, the message came across as a threat. I also find it curious that I and all three other users have had accounts for at least three months, yet this message arrived on a day so fraught with mod/user drama on the D&P threads.

I also find it troubling that the PM asks outright which of "my" accounts should be deleted. To me this implies that when the dust settles, three GG users will have their accounts deleted unfairly, all because (in the most charitable interpretation of events), the methods mods use to determine matching IP addresses are inaccurate.

[Lari]

Thank you IzzySmi for that post!
i had nothing happen to my account except my posts asking for an explanation were deleted just like most other posts that asked the mods to explain

[mermaid blood]

NB: Any GG Velvetgh0st thread members/lurkers reading who have found us through the redirect page:

Firstly, hello! you are definitely welcome to contribute here, any information you might want to share on the events of the last week is encouraged, as the issues in both threads got pretty intertwined with one another (see IzzySmi's post above explaining the connection between them). Please heed the warning I posted earlier though, about risking your account over there by identifying yourself here. If you feel uncomfortable rejoining GG when it returns under their moderation, I would recommend checking out the Velvetgh0st thread on YouTalkTrash:

http://youtalktrash.com/forum/topic/vel ... iscussion/

YTT forum contains quite a few mods and members that were involved in the last big GG fallout with Morgan around 2 years ago. It's pretty lively in sections, though not Gabby's yet, but the most recent post there reads:



So they would definitely love GG's traffic and could probably tell you a tale or two. Anyway, just a suggestion.

[GabbyBeGone]

Thanks for the post Izzysmi, it was very informative.

I was prepared to give Gabz_is_shite the benefit of the doubt, but hearing that she was online the whole time and is a serial liar - there is no way I could have any trust or respect for her now.

I think I will try once more to get answers from the mods when the site goes back up, that is if my account hasn't been deleted. I only started posting when this whole shitstorm started so I don't care if I am banned.

I will check out other sites for Gabby gossip, but I hope that at least one of the mods on guru gossip will see sense and recover the old posts. Shame if so many good posts are lost.

[sweetmm]

Woah I can't believe why there are people like GIS who gets too "invested", GG is just an escapism, a place to relax and share thoughts i.e. gossips about youtubers. The real life / world is out there, but I think people like her have it completely turned around

The issue of being accused of having multiple accounts under an IP address is certainly baffling unless a few people are staying in the same location and do share the IP address e.g. at uni or office. If it is just a smoke screen to delete users that is downright vile.

Thanks to everyone that shares their personal experience here

[human]

The problem that seems to be arising with the banning of IP's is very odd to me. It's not really a good idea to ban via IP because if you ban specific IP addresses, people can either just get a new one and come back, or their ISP will issue a new one soon anyway if they're a regular internet user and use dynamic DHCP from their ISP so it's not much of a deterrent. I'm not sure if some of the mods have gotten a bit trigger happy with banning IP ranges, thinking it's doing the same thing? Which is a really bad idea, but it could explain why innocent users are seeing random ban errors on GG when trying to connect from other devices. Also, I'm pretty sure there are some ISP's who use one proxy for many users though so in theory, they could all be displaying the same IP... I think. It's difficult to know for sure. I'm pretty sure it just doesn't work though.

Also, I've really no idea why they would search for an IP, find several accounts and assume they're all the same person. Least not without doing some background checks on email addresses, use of grammar and any similar traits in posts and stuff like that. Unfortunately it's not as easy as just listing all the user accounts under an IP and determining it's one and the same person.

I'm pretty sure the only way you can really ban safely on a forum is by user account and if you wanted to be crankypants about it, a cease and desist letter mailed to their home address - but nobody got time for that. Surely just ban the account and be done with it. If they come back, then so what? If they're the sort of person who is going to get in trouble then they'll just get banned again anyway.

So I'm absolutely intrigued as to their banning mechanism, I'll be honest. I'm not sure how it works but I think something is a bit odd there. I know the website was inherited to current staff though so it may just be practises passed down from the original staff and no real fault of the current mods. Nobody knows for sure unless the staff want to explain the bans that happened last week.

[manged]

Anyway, I could go on and on about the things I found out but I won't

Please do tbh.

I'm always here for shite-ing on Gabz. I had very few interactions with her and hold no personal grudges against her; I just find her behavior incredibly fascinating, because I’ve witnessed similar things in other online groups. Also she's fun to hate!

From the start, I was wary of her “friend of a friend of a friend” gossip. Another user and I both concluded that something would inevitably come back to bite her in the ass. She was clearly knowledgeable about the industry from the jump, if you read her first few posts, but notice how her sources transitioned from friends to colleagues and even her own firsthand experiences at industry seminars. I think she saw how much people valued insider tea, enjoyed the attention it got her, and adjusted her GG persona accordingly. She would literally tease new insider gossip in the thread and wait for her inbox to flood. And when people questioned her credibility, she became defensive.

As people within the D&P forum began communicating outside the public threads, many compared those PMs and noticed inconsistencies in her stories. Honestly, the shit I saw read like bad fanfic plots. Like Lily Melrose (gurl who?) making out with Dan at parties or Marcus Butler witnessing a fight between them. Even lots of things she shared publicly were even proven false.

I think Dansdimple and HelloWand emerged around the time people started voicing their critiques and skepticism. They would only ever defend Gabz when she was "under attack", create a set up for Gabz to later respond, and occasionally interject some irrelevant comment about D&P to seem less suspicious. At the time, Gabz had a few people kissing her ass, so those accounts weren’t on my radar, and I wasn’t in contact with many GGers at that time, so I can’t say whether others suspected it early on.

Then DansDimple came on in Gabz defense for something, and wound up attacking people who argued back. I think she even called Jhambs a bitch. Of course, Gabz logged back on, surprised that all of this had happened but thankful Dansdimple stood up for her.

I received a PM from some GGers who brought up that DansDimple might actually be Gabz. I’d already been active in a few other subforums where that was an issue, and site staff would either merge all accounts with the same IP or ban the puppet accounts. Well, apparently that rule had been revised by the time this issue was brought up with a mod, because even though it could be confirmed that the accounts were linked to one IP, the admins could no longer assume all accounts belonged to one person. When Gabz was confronted by the mods about this, she claimed that the accounts probably belonged to others in her office building, as keeping up with YouTubers is a part of the job or something. Frankly, I doubt Morgan and any other mods were invested enough to investigate any further. If you read the posts from these accounts, they follow the telltale signs of sock puppet accounts.

Anyway, if she has ties to YouTuber management, they’re very loose. I’m more inclined to believe she might be a student taking classes in marketing or management. She might even have an internship. It doesn't take a fucking genius to understand how sponsorships work and shit like that. She was able to offer vague crumbs of information, word it in a way that sounded legit to people who were thirsty for anything that sounded like concrete evidence and wouldn’t know any better anyways. She probably could've been even more influential and popular on GG if she could've kept that rotten personality under wraps.

[sweetmm]

Anyway, if she has ties to YouTuber management, they’re very loose. I’m more inclined to believe she might be a student taking classes in marketing or management. She might even have an internship.

I loved to egg her so that she'll post more as it would throw the light on her fictions. My thoughts, I believe her friend/relative or someone she has conversations with are in the media-related industry. Hence she is merely relating gossips she heard.

However your theory of her being a student/intern makes sense too as most of the stuff she said in D&P threads are "water-cooler" gossips.

[senpai]

Thank you for sharing IzzySmi! It's really appreciated. Way too many people have encountered the wrath of our fave mod. Dare to disagree with, or god forbid, question the authenticity of our overlord's accusations/claims and face the very mature exclusion and belittlement that follows.

Anyway, if she has ties to YouTuber management, they’re very loose. I’m more inclined to believe she might be a student taking classes in marketing or management. She might even have an internship.

I loved to egg her so that she'll post more as it would throw the light on her fictions. My thoughts, I believe her friend/relative or someone she has conversations with are in the media-related industry. Hence she is merely relating gossips she heard.

However your theory of her being a student/intern makes sense too as most of the stuff she said in D&P threads are "water-cooler" gossips.

Yeah, it could be either of those things at the very most. Doesn't this seem familiar to the good ol' "I'm a week into my Introduction to Psychology class but I know everything about their family life and upbringing" that half the Phandom seem to try and pull? No shade though.

[teamug]

And I'm not the only one. Multiple Accounts. BULL. very convenient timing. Just like swofo and oqua.
Claiming I have mine and one other account. The whole "which would you like me to delete" ummm..seriously. Never in my life. All this mere hours after I commented on the gg d+p off-topic about that mod post 'explaining' the situation and "let's not publicly gang up on anyone" when they were doing the very same. The complete hypocrisy did my head in and I sarcastically commented "let's not gang up on anyone" all of a sudden they're commenting back and morg liked it and then..probably should have kept my mouth shut about the sarcasm, but I didn't, and I wake up to this message about deleting user accounts. Charming. And no time to reply before downtime. Pissed me off to no end.
And I would like to keep my posts alive on gg if only because it is the only proof that my one contribution to that thread was the voldemort -rename.

[mermaid blood]

And I would like to keep my posts alive on gg if only because it is the only proof that my one contribution to that thread was the voldemort -rename.

(you were already burned into my memory, dw. your legacy will live on and i shall utter your name whenever someone asks 'voldy what now?')

[sweetmm]

And I would like to keep my posts alive on gg if only because it is the only proof that my one contribution to that thread was the voldemort -rename.

(you were already burned into my memory, dw. your legacy will live on and i shall utter your name whenever someone asks 'voldy what now?')

That's the thing, we coined so many inhouse-jokes there.

I sincerely hope we'll be able to migrate them threads just due to sentimental values

[mez29]

It looks like the link to this forum on the GG offline blogpost has been removed, unless I'm mistaken.

[SquishPhan]

It looks like the link to this forum on the GG offline blogpost has been removed, unless I'm mistaken.

I just checked and was still able to find a few people linking here, so they didn't remove all of them at least.

[IzzySmi]

Damn wrong thread.
I also notice that the few people that mentioned me and jamieee by name had their comments deleted too.

[sweetmm]

[offtopic]Any of you guys remember the drama of the JoeyG thread in GG, where a few posters rebelled and open a new forum. Is that new forum still active?[/offtopic]