Fametracker

[frenchy]

This morning was my first time back at Fametracker. I didn't think the Tom Hanks article was particularly funny, but what caught my eye the most were the mistakes. Sincehe? We'd never sen? Were Tom Hanks and a Bath Puff taking turns holding a gun to her head as she was writing this? It felt so rushed.

[underjoyed]

And the thing that sucks about that is that they implicitly blamed the posters for the downfall of the forums (you didn't buy enough OODT! never mind that we didn't give you any warning that we were in dire financial trouble!) when I am fairly sure it wasn't that at all.

Gah, I can't believe I'm typing this, but I do remember several warnings about the financial situation and at least two good ol' fashioned scares about closing the forums. This was since 2001.

Yeah, I guess it was that - unless I'm mistaken - there hadn't been any warnings at all between last May, when the forums reopened, and the announcement that they were shutting down, full stop. No indication that the OODT weren't doing the trick. As a result, it seemed to come a little bit out of the blue and just gave me the impression that they simply didn't want to moderate any more. Which is fine. Understandable. But if that's the case then just say so. I'll find a way to carry on, and I'll do so without t-shirts that I'll never wear and Movie Manners cards I'll never hand out (although I'd happily pay to see somebody else do so).

[carrier76]

What were all of the OODTs? I never bought one because I saw the first couple and thought they were pretty bad.

Also, I think it's kind of funny that they took all of that time to put everything on a new server less than a year ago only to shut it all down like 10 months later.

[Deleted]

Most of the FT OODT's were buttons, right?

There was the Cletus and Brittany one that said "I'm sorry you don't have what I have" with a big picture of an engagement ring.

There was also one about scientology with a big clam on it that said WWLRHD? which stands for What Would L Ron Hubbard Do?

I thought they were pretty funny but I'm not a button person so I never got around to ordering one. I feel bad that I don't ever donate any money to FT or TWOP. I almost bought a 7th Heaven t-shirt once on TWOP that said "Go to hell. Heaven's full of Camdens" but at the end of the month I never really have $25 to spare for a t-shirt I'm only going to wear to bed.

But I think they're funny most of the time. I do admit that 1/2 the time I don't get the jokes. Like with one that said "Who's your spy daddy" I assume that it's Alias but since I never watch that show I wasn't sure.

[tipsygrrl]

I can't stop going to the site. I'd been around since MBTV, and I was going to stop reading it altogether after the amazing forum flameout, but I keep typing the URL out of habit and reading the content. I'd never been a huge HITG fan, but some of the other stuff has made me laugh out loud. It seems that when I like a series of articles, they stop doing it, though...I especially miss the Reasonable Person. (Does anyone remember the Reasonable Person?)

[bbug]

I have the Omarosa-inspired OODT.

I can't really get into the FT site anymore...the celeb vs thing category is just not funny. I think one of the problems with FT (and increasingly with TWoP) is that snarky writing about entertainment has gone mainstream. With some of the essays on FT it's like the writer is just trying too hard to be different and funny and hip, and it's not working. The typos always crack me up, though, because for people who are so uptight about grammar it's not like they edit the pieces all that carefully.

[jennipoo]

Fametracker's on spring break now (uh, Woo!?!). Why bother coming back?

[Deleted]

I agree with whoever said it became a job. And the thing that sucks about that is that they implicitly blamed the posters for the downfall of the forums (you didn't buy enough OODT! never mind that we didn't give you any warning that we were in dire financial trouble!) when I am fairly sure it wasn't that at all.

I agree. I didn't like how they blamed us. If money was the real issue then they could have just asked for it. As you stated that wasn't it. If they were tired of moderating they could have turned over those duties to some other posters. Something else was going on. I don't know what and I think its really low of them not to be honest and tell us the truth.

They seem like a bunch of twenty-ish kids who got a little chip on their shoulder by wrongly assuming the reason people went to their site was because of their talented writing and that wasn't the case. They weren't savvy enough to realize the fortune they had in the Forums. They could have made a bundle off of it. Not only with charging fees, but with the web traffic it brought to their site. In the end they shot themselves in the foot.

Other than that I don't have any other complaints. It was free site and very enjoyable.

[foxfair]

They weren't savvy enough to realize the fortune they had in the Forums. They could have made a bundle off of it. Not only with charging fees, but with the web traffic it brought to their site. In the end they shot themselves in the foot.

Oh, yeah, totally InnocentOne. Methinks Wing et Co. are not the most business-minded people. The FT forums were very heavily trafficked, and I bet the traffic would have risen (I've recently noticed a pattern of shout-outs/links to the DHAK empire sites from the Gawker empire sites - Defamer, Screenhead etc., and some of them definitely smack of 'official link dealie'). Someone with a modicum of business sense ought to have been able to spin that into $. I think if they had charged a small monthly/yearly fee for membership, a lot of people would have paid it. I would have paid $5/month in a heartbeat, but I doubt I would ever have bought a OODT. I dunno, whatever the reason, the site went down and they tried to blame the posters. That reeks of spite and unprofessionalism.

As for being warned, I joined FT after the great meltdown that longer-time users speak of and I never heard a whisper about financial trouble.

[rattlerbrat]

You know, I never bought an OODT and would have been much more inclined to make a small donation via Paypal. I just don't need t-shirts. Especially t-shirts I am never going to wear outside the house.

What killed me about that is...don't t-shirts and whatnot cost money to produce!? EEDIOTS! Just take direct donations! And count me in as one who was furious when we were all hit with the "It's YOUR fault we're going down!" bullshit. I didn't like any off the OODTs, and I shouldn't have to buy something I don't like to support you.