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Katie spammed a bunch of threads along with Chris Menning who was banned. Why did they do this!? Also wasn't Chris one of the people who made this site? Why does everybody suddenly hate him!? I am so confused… I am not trolling or anything. I am just very stupid.

yea I was kinda wondering the same thing why he was getting – karma

Garlic McNabb was secretly Chris Menning all along and he switched the accounts.

It's a long story. I don't know if I'm allowed to say anything, so I'll wait for one of the hire ups. I was in the IRC when this happened.

Edit: Since Taryn said it, yeah. He was apparently screening members, was Garlic Mcnabb, and was spamming all over the threads. He got banned for making like a 10 combo post. And kept spamming "bump". And then he switched his accounts to make it seem like his regular account got banned and that everyone hated him for no reason.

Chrismen was trolling to test people.

More info please. Also what about katie? Why didn't katie get banned for thread spam? Isn't that worst than combo-posts? Earlier I was actually scared because I thought it was like two hackers working together.

No, Katie was technically posting threads with structure and thread games to get rid of the bad ones. So it technically isn't spam. And Chris was Garlic McNabb who started trolling about 2 weeks ago, then he changed his name to Fennel and started to freak out at Katie, insulting her saying she only got her Over 9000 title for spamming threads. Then he started spamming and constantly spamming bump. After he got banned he asked why, and then changed accounts most likely to make it seem like he was the victim in all of this.

I don't care what Chris has done for this site. That is NOT the way to act to screen new mods.

I don’t care what Chris has done for this site. That is NOT the way to act to screen new mods.

This.

Is the Chris who helped make this site and Garlic the same person?

Yeah, they are.

https://knowyourmeme.com/forums/just-for-fun/topics/6433-chris-menning-facts
:(

Also, the admins are terrible at their jobs, apparently.

Yeah, all of the threads claiming how awesome he is aren't as true now, are they?

It's 1AM in the morning on a sunday-monday night.

You can't really expect them to be on now.

Well this was a shocker. I thought that Garlic was just posing as CM.

The way he went about the situation, how he didn't listen to other people about a bad idea for a meme, the way he trolled, spammed, and was just an asshole; what he did was bad.

Well this is depressing. Everybody gets +1 for telling me what happened.

What is the possibility that someone managed to hack into his account and then did all that? I wasn't there so I don't really know if he was acting strange to begin with.

No, because Garlic said 2 weeks ago that he had an alternate account and was screening members to be mods. Look up that thread Tristan posted in 2 weeks ago. It's all there.

Edit: Here is the thread.

Who knows then. Maybe he was having a crappy day and did something stupid as we all do at some point.

Though really wtf mate.

I understand a bad day, but he did this for two weeks. I think someone would get over something like that by then.

This simply defies all known reason and logic.

Moved to site-related.

Here is what happened today, from my perspective.

Someone texted me about stuff going down in the forums.

I come and immediately, I see this thread. It was Garlic Mcnabb (posting under the name "Fennel Reynolds") basically bumping the thread over and over again.

Presumably he did this because he wanted to make fun of Katie's large amount of contributions.

I locked the thread.

I notice that Garlic McNabb is posting "bump" in multiple threads, and that users are getting very angry at them. Because "bump" is not constructive at all, and he obviously wasn't stopping, I banned Garlic McNabb.

Garlic McNabb posted this, in which I explained my reasoning; by this time, I was getting frustrated at the forums wasting my time. He also said that:

Seriously, Katie and Kalmo have been making personal attacks on me the whole time. They ought to be banned, not me.

I want to also point out that he said:

I’m sorry Pat but all you do is agree with Real Genius/Katie because I’m pretty sure you’re the same person.
I use alts, but never to back myself up.

Which is totally untrue, with Chris Menning sometimes saying Garlic McNabb dishes out the real talk, and also this:

I rebanned him for trying to avoid IP Ban.

However, he was at least partially right about people overly attacking him, and spamming.
Thus, I warned a few users about attacking other users in the forums. Seriously, leave this stuff out of the forums. Do not join in when attacking a user, and contact a moderator (perhaps that "report to mod" suggestion Katie had might help).

He claims Katie spams, which is interesting because Katie decided to post a billion threads today. However, many of those threads were definitely JFF material and weren't spam. I looked over Katie's history and warned her not to 1) post many threads in a small amount of time 2) overly antagonize or get angry at other users on the forums 3) autoplay on people's walls. This was not a light warning.

Although 1) might not be considered spam, other users will inevitably be frustrated, which is almost the same as setting up the conditions for a flame war.

I locked many of the threads made by Katie, due to arguing and derailment (there were too many threads anyway, and some were out of control). I also locked one this one that attacked Katie in its title.

I understand that Katie wanted to make these threads to give more life to JFF. Unfortunately, when I logged in, the forums was in a complete mess. Even then, I still think that making that many threads in that little time is a bad idea. Garlic McNabb said Katie was trying to increase her amount of contributions, and whether that is true or not, it shows that creating many threads in a short timespan can be annoying to other users.

At this point, Garlic Mcnabb revealed himself to be Chris Menning. Chris Menning changed his account to that of Garlic's, and vice versa. So now it looks like I banned him as a former community manager, when I actually banned him as the spamming Garlic McNabb.

I can only assume Chris Menning did this to prove a point about how Moderators often don't ban users for attacking other users or spamming (he specifically pointed out Katie as an example). We don't ban often because its difficult to make decisions about banning high profile members, but if not banning is going to result in the massive spam shitstorm that happened today, jesus christ.

In general:
1) Please do not spam or make useless comments that don't contribute to the thread.
2) Comments that don't contribute to the thread include you attacking another user.
3) Report the user that is trolling/flaming/spamming to a moderator, and ignore them as much as possible (and hopefully contacting mods in the future will be easier).

If there are any missing details that you want to know that doesn't invade people's privacy, let me know. If there is anything you disagree about with the decisions I had to take (because I was the only moderator that was online while this massive spamming took place and was a bit stressed/harsh), please let me know.

Sorry about that :(

edit: as Daniel Vazquez pointed out, we should be more proactive in taking down trolls/spamming users/flamers to prevent something like this from happening again.

editedit: i also have to say that while writing that up^, I had no clue what happened with Garlic in previous threads (i've been busy with irl stuff), and so I shouldn't be harsh in saying "you should report to the mods" since tensions were clearly at a critical point.

Chris was posing as Garlic McNabb. I was not in the IRC when this happened, so I'm not entirely sure what was going down.

I would probably think this is a more personal thing between him and Katie/RG, or something about the way the forum regulars handle newcomers and trolls.
Basically, all he did (as Garlic McNabb) was troll, bump, and posted asinine threads, just for the contribution points. He did this to screw around with Katie, like with the Contributions Whoring Thread. Then he copypasta'd down some negative quotes said by several users and posted under his About.

Iono, the whole situation was like a Troll fire-drill. What people should and shouldn't do in these kinds of situations. Seriously, if a troll is bothering you, IGNORE. When a shitstorm occurs, contact a higher-up to take care of the situation faster. Don't just provoke trolls.

There's probably more to this, but that's just my guess. I've not been on the site too much these days. But I try my best to get on when I can! ; __ ;

Another thing about that. Admins are not supervising the site 24-7. Users should almost be as responsible. If you see something, say something. Post on wall/message. Most of us, if not all, will receive the alert in our e-mail inbox.

EDIT: OH WTH, OGW. Curse my tiny typing fingers! How do you do that?? You typed a much longer and descriptive summary already?? T___T oh god…

I'll just make this post a TL;DR of your post. ; //// ;

(Mellow and OGW's post)tl;dr versions please. I read all the posts but when I finished reading it I was still like "…wut?". I think I get mostly what y'all mean though. I feel bad for Kalmo, this is the second time someone tried to get him banned.

@Mellow
I definitely think that users should be proactive about telling moderators about problems, and that they should try to ignore trolls, but goddamn.

And I know you weren't here so obviously its not your fault, but if its a "troll fire drill," it was really, really stressful. Users were getting really angry at each other. I was the only moderator online with forum modding and banning abilities.

I was stressed like hell looking at i don't know how many threads and comments, to say the least.

Several hours of my day were completely wasted on a "fire drill."

At least its over :/

EDIT: lol Mellow. NO ONE can beat me at tl;dr posts.

No, no one tried to get me banned (thank god). It's just something that went way too far that shouldn't have happened in the first place. Trust me, if I almost got banned, I would be talking a lot differently right now.

TL;DR:
Chris owes OGW a beer.

"Seriously, Katie and Kalmo have been making personal attacks on me the whole time. They ought to be banned, not me." Sounds a hell of a lot like he tried to get you banned. Also there's the thing with RF and TK but now's not a good time to talk about that.

Oh yeah. I forgot about that post. Wtf? I didn't "personally" attack him. The worst I did was call him an asshole.

I think all of us owe OGW for holding down the site as well as he did.

Does OGW even drink??? Lol.

well then… what about nazi propaganda being spouted off here, people who have bad mouthed KYM and the users here, real Trolls that say things like "Also, the admins are terrible at their jobs, apparently", etc, etc. Last time I got into it with someone I was told there was nothing the admins could do because no rules were broken. we can inform you of what's going on but sometimes nothing gets done or if it does it's not fast enough.

Dammit, OGW. Give me your address already so I can send you something nice.

I sent Kyle a stuffed penguin, and I sent Morgan a Obi-Wan Kenobi action figure, attached with a note: "You're my Only-One Kenobi".

Don't you want a nice gift with a witty note?

See:

I can only assume Chris Menning did this to prove a point about how Moderators often don't ban users for attacking other users or spamming (he specifically pointed out Katie as an example). We don't ban often because, understandably, its difficult to make decisions about banning high profile members, but if not banning is going to result in the massive spam shitstorm that happened today, jesus christ.

We're probably going to be more proactive about it in the future.

Also, you should know that there used to be only one button: "Deactivated"
which was basically permaban and all posts hidden.

So, yes, we were afraid to permaban every small troll.

Now, we have "Deactivate," "Ban," and "Delete Spammer." (and this is pretty recent)

That will now give us much more ability to be actively moderating trolling users.

edit: so yeah, you're pretty much totally right, and the "he isn't explicitly breaking any rules" can now be more flexible and transformed into, "he is annoying and not constructive, and will hopefully calm down following a ban"

That's great but my point is, if they really aren't breaking any rules then they can continue doing what they are doing and continue to piss people off. And I can get banned for retaliating? That's just not right.

I am afraid you will use my address to rape me ;_;

[photo:120727]

I didn't say you can get banned for retaliating.
Also, in the example you were using, you posted on his wall, which was okay (except for the autoplays).

I was mainly talking about the forums, and I really don't think derailing threads by getting angry at users is really the best option.

Obviously, if you argue with users for (somewhat) good reasons and don't do it in every single thread, it definitely doesn't deserve a ban.

I mean, you must try really really really hard to deserve a ban for "overreacting when arguing with another user." I'm talking about all caps, autoplays, seriously angry and spammy harassment that no one looking at the thread would enjoy.

edit: And as for banning trolls, as mentioned before, with the ip ban option (lasts 7 days), we'll probably be less hesitant to ban them, and if activity continues- permaban them.

Anyway, like I said, our track record in banning trolls has not been the best, and I'm sorry about that, and for not fully realizing the implications of this until now.

editedit: as for the chris menning = garlic, and the intentional trolling and everything, I don't have any comment because I'm frankly as confused as the majority of you. I haven't been here for a couple of weeks, and am still catching up.

So although I said, "tell the mods" when this happens, looking at the forum threads that took place while I was absent, I can see that a lot of tension has been built up, and I was harsh.

editeditedit: sleeping, will look at thread later

OK and I do know that you do your best and try to be fair.

All hail mellow
[photo:143117]

Not trying to derail here. But I once read a post on reddit of how a girl was able to successfully rape a dude.

So I can understand why you don't want to give me your address! :3 No biggy!

0, garlic is too much of a troll to hack into FR's account

Some people in this forum do all of the following too often:

1. Feed the trolls (even when they know its a troll)
2. Harass newcomers
3. Shut down anyone with conflicting opinions
4. Speak on behalf of Know Your Meme without realizing that the deciders are the staff.
5. Use "Chris Menning once said" as though because I once said something it must be law.

Not everything that I said as Garlic was something that I honestly agree with. Most if it was said to see how people would react. And people reacted much worse than I ever expected.

Also, the choice to switch my accounts wasn't to decieve anybody. It was to show you that the noob that you guys belittled for "being pseudo-intellectual" was actually me. I've really lost hope that this community will welcome other people interested in meme research.

But as for owing anyone an apology, I regret nothing.

PS: Bragging about being an oldfag or ancientfag means nothing.
PPS: Re-read Acknowledging Common Experiences now that you know who I am, for added entertainment value.

An advice to all
If you feed the troll you must suffer the consequences of your actions

(And don't cry about it )
ps
rules of the internet
11. All your carefully picked arguments can easily be ignored.
14. Do not argue with trolls -- it means that they win.
19. The more you hate it, the stronger it gets.
20. Nothing is to be taken seriously.
28. Always question a person's gender – just in case it's really a man.
77. The internet makes you stupid.
82. Nobody tells the truth on the Internet
142. Just ignore him he will think you're afk.
232. You cannot control the person in charge. No exceptions.
242. This is the internet, honesty is not an option. NO EXCEPTIONS!
243. Everybody lies on the Internet. Rule 242 is a lie too. No exceptions.
407. The trolls will NEVER be gone. No exceptions.
427. Do it for the lulz.

read the rules of the internet then post …

You are very harsh on that matter, Chris.
About that phone dropping on head while texting in bed thread, those who assaulted you right away were pretty much the same people as… well.. always. I guess they are like that and have that attitude from the beginning, unfortunately. There are some others who tried to actually do some research anyway to see what came up with it.

But hey, I understand the goal. Even if I think some of those "oldfags thread FTW" are more of a joke than anything, the issues addressed here are more than real.

However, I must say that, as for 5., Of course what you said once isn't law but about nearly everything you once let out here were (still are?) wise enough to be taken as examples, even if your view on memes changed in a drastic way over the course of years.

EDIT: I wasn't there when all hell broke loose but I must say that, now that I arrive after the (shit)storm, it's making me laugh a little, with a bit of bitterness.

I leave for one day and this is what happens? You guys crack me up!

Also, the choice to switch my accounts wasn’t to decieve anybody. It was to show you th guys belittled for “being pseudo-intellectual” was actually me. I’ve really lost hope that th welcome other people interested in meme research.

Just because you're Chris doesn't make you not a douchebag.

Douchebag.

Walks in Walks out.

…I just lost my respect for KYM after reading all this. I'm basically a newfag but I'm really upset.

When I joined a few weeks ago the KYM forums was a place dedicated to people who are interested in memes, and the JFF is, well, just for fun. And even though there are trolls and flame wars it quickly died down and people weren't actually agitated. This time ….well, you know. And when Chris turned out to be Garlic, I was even more upset. It was like a oldfag looking down on us saying that "HAHAHA YOU NEWFAGS ARE TROLLED BY OLDFAGS GET BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM KYM BELONGS TO OLDFAGS"

I'll stay out the forums for a while now.