All the years that I was on KF I witnessed Null and the mods being abusive, neglectful and hostile towards the average Kiwi. Null led the way in this, and the rest of them followed. It was a culture of mod abuse that he cultivated and fostered, like he was fine-tuning his own, online version of a bizarre "hazing ritual" that he would subject the users to, so they would earn the privilege of being allowed to post on his broken website. I thought we were all on the same team, but apparently we were not. I had no idea how organized this was though.
I only began to remember all these incidents after reading other people's stories your forum, because I couldn't properly contextualize these incidents before. I just thought it was the "fucked up KF culture" at the time and tried not to think much of it, because I wanted to use the forum to read and contribute research and to read funny posts/news, so considered these things to be distractions. Like I said, I had no idea there was a secret section of KF where the mods get together and deliberately decide to target the users themselves. (I'm sorry if this seems naive to the rest of you who already knew about this, but it's just so perverse to me.)
Here's another incident I now remember (this happened sometime in late 2020 - early 2021 if I recall correctly). It's an example of the mods being inactive and indifferent when I actually needed their help:
A Kiwi that I had already blocked for harassing me, had authored an OP about a large famous European Youtuber with over half a million of subs at the time (now it's over a million). This Youtuber didn't yet have a dedicated thread on KF, but had already been brought up in a couple of other threads. It was someone that I myself had previously posted about in another thread about an American Youtuber they had dated for about a year. This Youtuber get a million+ to a couple of millions of views on their videos, and has been on mainstream television shows in their home country. They were already becoming a mainstream lolcow, not some obscure "village idiot" that only KF-resident lolcow connoisseurs would be interested in.
The new OP on KF was going to get a lot of attention, because theisYoutuber had just made a shocking announcement that was the direct impetus for the creation of the thread. A lot of potentially new eyes would be on this thread.
However, once the new thread started, at the very top of the OP for this Youtuber, the OP author (the Kiwi I had blocked) specifically @-ed me alone, and none the other Kiwis on the forum who had already posted about this Youtuber. I had made no contribution to this OP at all, didn't know it was in the making, nor that I would be dragged into it. Like I said elsewhere on this forum, I didn't even want people @-ing in OPs that I did actually contribute research to. I did NOT want to be @-ed to an OP I that had nothing whatsoever to do with. The OP author had @ed purely for the purpose of harassing me.
In the OP where he @-ed me, the author was asking Kiwis to DM me on his behalf, to then pester me about unblocking the OP author (who I had no intention of EVER unblocking) so that I would join the new thread (which I had no intention of EVER joining). The KF mods casually allowed this harassment of myself in a new OP. I had no choice but to block any people DMing me, telling them that I had no intention of unblocking the OP author or any intention of participating in their thread. There weren't a lot of these DM exchanges but still, I had to deal with it on my own. I couldn't even tell anyone about it so as to not encourage more harassment.
All the time I was on KF, I constantly had to witnesses other users in other threads getting away with shit that I knew Null or his mods would've instantly banned me for. I knew that I myself ever made a single post (let alone an OP) urging others to DM another Kiwi who had already blocked me while pestering them to unblock me, that post along with my account would be suspended immediately.
If Trombonista or the mods were actually doing their job as moderators, they could've just removed the DM request with my alias at the top of the OP. The article about the Youtuber would've been the same and the thread would've gotten the same amount of attention due to the public controversy, but without me being dragged into it against my will.
Knowing what I've learned here, I now suspect that I had to put up with being openly targeted in a new OP... because Null and his moderators had decided that I was a legitimate target, not just for Null and the mods but for other users as well. I obviously cannot prove that this was actually the case, but now that I know about the secret section of KF where Null and his mods target users, it's the explanation I needed for the "special treatment" I got that puzzled and frustrated me all these years.
KF mods like Tromobonista wouldn't mod when it was necessary or welcomed, but instead would mod when it was not only unnecessary but unwanted by the regulars of a thread (like the Positron example I already gave).
I thought about this incident the other day, when I saw this post from Null actually giving a shit for once about a user getting targeted in the Foodie Beauty thread. I certainly never received that level of consideration when I was being openly targeted, not in the midst of a thread about an obscure Youtuber, but at the top of a brand new OP about a mainstream cow in the midst of a public controversy.
I only began to remember all these incidents after reading other people's stories your forum, because I couldn't properly contextualize these incidents before. I just thought it was the "fucked up KF culture" at the time and tried not to think much of it, because I wanted to use the forum to read and contribute research and to read funny posts/news, so considered these things to be distractions. Like I said, I had no idea there was a secret section of KF where the mods get together and deliberately decide to target the users themselves. (I'm sorry if this seems naive to the rest of you who already knew about this, but it's just so perverse to me.)
Here's another incident I now remember (this happened sometime in late 2020 - early 2021 if I recall correctly). It's an example of the mods being inactive and indifferent when I actually needed their help:
A Kiwi that I had already blocked for harassing me, had authored an OP about a large famous European Youtuber with over half a million of subs at the time (now it's over a million). This Youtuber didn't yet have a dedicated thread on KF, but had already been brought up in a couple of other threads. It was someone that I myself had previously posted about in another thread about an American Youtuber they had dated for about a year. This Youtuber get a million+ to a couple of millions of views on their videos, and has been on mainstream television shows in their home country. They were already becoming a mainstream lolcow, not some obscure "village idiot" that only KF-resident lolcow connoisseurs would be interested in.
The new OP on KF was going to get a lot of attention, because theisYoutuber had just made a shocking announcement that was the direct impetus for the creation of the thread. A lot of potentially new eyes would be on this thread.
However, once the new thread started, at the very top of the OP for this Youtuber, the OP author (the Kiwi I had blocked) specifically @-ed me alone, and none the other Kiwis on the forum who had already posted about this Youtuber. I had made no contribution to this OP at all, didn't know it was in the making, nor that I would be dragged into it. Like I said elsewhere on this forum, I didn't even want people @-ing in OPs that I did actually contribute research to. I did NOT want to be @-ed to an OP I that had nothing whatsoever to do with. The OP author had @ed purely for the purpose of harassing me.
In the OP where he @-ed me, the author was asking Kiwis to DM me on his behalf, to then pester me about unblocking the OP author (who I had no intention of EVER unblocking) so that I would join the new thread (which I had no intention of EVER joining). The KF mods casually allowed this harassment of myself in a new OP. I had no choice but to block any people DMing me, telling them that I had no intention of unblocking the OP author or any intention of participating in their thread. There weren't a lot of these DM exchanges but still, I had to deal with it on my own. I couldn't even tell anyone about it so as to not encourage more harassment.
All the time I was on KF, I constantly had to witnesses other users in other threads getting away with shit that I knew Null or his mods would've instantly banned me for. I knew that I myself ever made a single post (let alone an OP) urging others to DM another Kiwi who had already blocked me while pestering them to unblock me, that post along with my account would be suspended immediately.
If Trombonista or the mods were actually doing their job as moderators, they could've just removed the DM request with my alias at the top of the OP. The article about the Youtuber would've been the same and the thread would've gotten the same amount of attention due to the public controversy, but without me being dragged into it against my will.
Knowing what I've learned here, I now suspect that I had to put up with being openly targeted in a new OP... because Null and his moderators had decided that I was a legitimate target, not just for Null and the mods but for other users as well. I obviously cannot prove that this was actually the case, but now that I know about the secret section of KF where Null and his mods target users, it's the explanation I needed for the "special treatment" I got that puzzled and frustrated me all these years.
KF mods like Tromobonista wouldn't mod when it was necessary or welcomed, but instead would mod when it was not only unnecessary but unwanted by the regulars of a thread (like the Positron example I already gave).
I thought about this incident the other day, when I saw this post from Null actually giving a shit for once about a user getting targeted in the Foodie Beauty thread. I certainly never received that level of consideration when I was being openly targeted, not in the midst of a thread about an obscure Youtuber, but at the top of a brand new OP about a mainstream cow in the midst of a public controversy.
