blockland: the community that killed the game

[Ono-Sendai]

What are you talking about lol, he's just who I remember trolling on here a lot besides like McJob. Or Man of Reason/Dotdotcircle but those people were just skids

I’m actually dotdotcircle (not sure who Man of Reason is though, not my alt). It doesn’t excuse anything but my trolling and behavior many years ago came from a place of mental illness and an abusive home. I feel like a lot of the people here who were “stuck in a loop” like that had similar reasons even if we were just kids.

This game was so influential on me and I made so many friends. I played off and on since before retail and I really felt like I grew up on this game and played even before middle school. The community could be amazingly bad (I didn’t help) and inappropriate for the people here. It’s very interesting seeing everyone reflect back on it as adults in this thread. If I was a parent I would definitely not want my kids on here when the game wasn’t dead. Even still the people I met helped me through very dark times in my life.

It’s so sad that forums in general are all but dead now. They really offered a different experience than what we have now.

[Ad Bot]

[Rigel]

last i heard of her she got a job and stopped being homeless so that's cool i hope she's doing well

Oh WOW, now I feel kinda bad.

[Mr. Bones]

I’m actually dotdotcircle (not sure who Man of Reason is though, not my alt). It doesn’t excuse anything but my trolling and behavior many years ago came from a place of mental illness and an abusive home. I feel like a lot of the people here who were “stuck in a loop” like that had similar reasons even if we were just kids.

This game was so influential on me and I made so many friends. I played off and on since before retail and I really felt like I grew up on this game and played even before middle school. The community could be amazingly bad (I didn’t help) and inappropriate for the people here. It’s very interesting seeing everyone reflect back on it as adults in this thread. If I was a parent I would definitely not want my kids on here when the game wasn’t dead. Even still the people I met helped me through very dark times in my life.

It’s so sad that forums in general are all but dead now. They really offered a different experience than what we have now.

I remember when you gave me Badspots phone number on RTB, I was like 12 lol.

[Mr. Opioid]

Reading through this thread has been cathartic. I dunno where to start with everything.

The beginning should work. I joined these forums when I was first 7. It wasn't too bad at first but I started to stick out and that wasn't a good thing. A 7 year old just didn't have the faculties to deal with that kind of large negative attention. I think it just got really bad when the build theft drama happened and then I made that abominably stupid "Truth" thread. That was a couple weeks after my 8th birthday. The aftermath of that loving destroyed my self-esteem. I don't think it was a coincidence that the week after that, someone I thought I could trust in my life started making loveual advances. Vultures can smell weakness.

I won't pretend to be a victim beyond reproach though. For one, you can't really blame a fire for burning the wood that you throw into it. I don't hold ill will towards anyone who made fun of me or whatever back in the day. I was kind of asking for it, especially with that "roblox is horse terds[sic]" thread, and my chronic tendency to not understand what the forget was going on and just keep saying stupid stuff over and over. I only wish I had been a lil' bit dumber so I couldn't keep finding my way back on the forums. The other thing I can think of is all the stuff I'd do for the sake of attention and trying to chase the holy grail of being "accepted" as one of teh kool kidz, and a lot of it was just not okay. A couple examples I can think of off the top of my mind are:

• Rughugger - The loving edgy comment I made in that thread wasn't okay and no excuse or rationalization could ever undermine just how stuffty it really was. I'm sorry for that.
• SailorMan - Might be small but at the end of the day I stole the dude's plane build and tried to pass it off as my own. Well, to be fair, it was one of my friends who tried to pass it off as his so I really ripped him off instea- whatever. Shouldn't have tried to steal his stuff, I'm sorry for that.
• Anyone else I hurt or otherwise alienated in all the stupid bullstuff I got up to. I'm sorry if I did anything to hurt you, and I should never have done it.

It probably didn't help that the Drama board was the one that I lurked the most. I know a lot of people somewhat parasocially through that, like familiar names and stuff that popped up here and there, though I don't really know them. However, trying to use that place as an extraction for "how to act" was just setting myself up to fail, though unfortunately those failures rippled out and hurt other people. Speaking of, the stuff about all the groomers and child enthusiasts on this site doesn't surprise me too much. The normalization of those topics was devastating. I'm pretty sure I even got approached by one on RTB chat but I turned him down, at that point I was already "seeing someone", we'll put it that way. I'm just glad that now people have taken the initiative to kick those starfishs out and show them no respect or dignity. Such a thing alone is its own sweet reward for everything.

It'll soon be 10 years since all of this started. I haven't slept or eaten since I made my last post in the Plastiware thread. Part of it is because the nature of that thread caused a lot of memories to come flooding back that I hadn't previously thought of, but I think a major part of it is also that this site still loving scares me, some sort of childish fear that overcomes me and it's hard to work with. It lurks on my mind, keeps things too alive, makes it so that I can't relax, etc. Maybe I can do soPhysician Prescribed Desoxyning to try and fight that back. DrenDran asked earlier why people would keep coming back if they had no positive attachment to the forum. I suspect it would have to do with some form of trauma reenactment. I think a lot of people just had bad experiences on this forum and coming back to try and post in the present day is a form of reclaiming power over that, reliving the experiences on here but towards their favor, to try and make this forum hurt less, or some other way of finding a silver lining in all the chaos. I know it's probably the same for me.

And yet in all the stufftalking of this game that one could do, there's still a lot of positive memories to be had. Blockland's burrowed its way into my identity in a way that I can't really escape, with all of the memories and experiences. I've got a lot of nostalgia with this game. A lot of happy and funny moments that couldn't be had anywhere else. This game really was special. I got a lot out of it just as it took a lot out from me, a complex sort of relationship where I can't bring myself to take a definitive stance on whether this was all a good or bad thing. For what it was though, it was just a thing in my life. And I'll always remember this game, no matter where I go, whether that's for better or worse.

[Moriarty]

I find this topic to be really interesting because it puts to words what I sometimes wonder but can't articulate.

A lot of times as I've grown older when I think about this forum specifically I mostly think of how it, somehow, became a breeding ground for lack of a better term, hatred in all forms. I think having read (and am still reading, to be quite honest, because everyone sharing their experiences deserves to be heard now and forever, and deserves better than what they experienced,) the things that have happened here through the eyes of an adult, rather than experiencing them as a child, it is no loving wonder so many people who have come through here are the way they are. I would not be lying if I said that one of the best decisions I made was to just stop looking at this website. Being surrounded by people who are bred and encouraged to be awful, ESPECIALLY as an impressionable child who wants to fit in, could not, and for many people did not end well. It's difficult to look back on the person that this environment pushed myself and others to be. I don't want to even look at my history here because I know that it cannot be good. I feel sad that when I look back on this place I barely feel nostalgia but instead relief that I didn't turn out worse.

It's harrowing to imagine, let alone accept that many horrible things have happened as a result of non-existent yet somehow hostile moderation, and allowing troubled, despicable adults and children to intermingle and be influenced to be awful. And that's all from just reading this one topic.
 
Y'all deserved better. Y'all still deserve better. I hope that better comes for all of you.

[Blockomaniac]

I remember finding this place as a kid in like 2009 before registering, and seeing that "Dont make posts for sympathy." rule. I still can't believe Badspot made it say "Don't make a post about killing yourself, just do it" full on knowing there were ten year olds here. I also remember he talked about how people who threatened to kill themselves should maybe actually do it.



I don't know if he meant that as a joke or what, but considering his long history of telling people to kill themselves, maybe not. Either way I can't wrap my head around someone wanting to represent themselves this way to a community. It definitely made me feel weird reading this stuff as a kid, until it was disturbingly normalized.

[Vigil]

I think it’s impossible for a decade of this place to be inexorable from who I am, for better or worse. All I can say is thank you for the few that were fun and honest, I know quite a bit of us have moved on to far more niche communities (as is the way of the internet now). I think it’s quite astounding taking a retrospective at behavior considered vogue even 5 years ago. Not that it’s gone away at all, it just moves to different places.

[hankyje]

Hey guys, just stopping by to say I love yall. This really has given me a new perspective on just how much this community affected my development growing up, and shaped me as a person for better or worse. I definitely inherited a lot of cynacism that I didn't notice in my peers at the time. I had this fear of hypercritical judgement, so I wouldn't really post anything with much substance but I still wanted to have a presence.

Browsing through my post history I definitely feel the need to apologise for the dumb and inappropriate stuff I used to say publicly on here. I can remember more than a few occasions in which I was an starfish to people privately as well despite there being points in my life in which this community was the most important thing in the world to me. As suprised as I am to hear about stuff like grooming and whatever happened with bisjack, one of the most prominent community members, in hindsite I agree that this should have been obvious. Definitely were a majority of children on here who were unfortunately easily preyed upon.

I don't know if I will ever be able to enjoy a game like this as much as I did again without the unrelenting creativity of a child, but I look forward to and am constantly tracking the progress of brickadia. I hope that game can thrive and capture the same kind of passionate and tight community that this game had when I grew up playing it. Sorry I'm late.

[Aide33]

definitely inherited a lot of cynacism that I didn't notice in my peers at the time. I had this fear of hypercritical judgement, so I wouldn't really post anything with much substance but I still wanted to have a presence.

holy stuff i thought i was the only one, this forum made me scared to share the stuff i made with others. i got over it eventually, but it was a huge pain in my life

[Smashed_Eggs]

As suprised as I am to hear about stuff like grooming

I look forward to and am constantly tracking the progress of brickadia.

if you look down on grooming i might not look forward to brickadia if i were you, has had and still continues to have its fair share of that

[Ladios]

if you look down on grooming i might not look forward to brickadia if i were you, has had and still continues to have its fair share of that

The individuals were quickly removed from the community, as opposed to here in BL where we have people like bisjac posting as recently as a few months ago.

I personally enjoy the brickadia's community united stand against bigotry and promotion of tolerance that I had never really felt here.

[Kayne weee]

The individuals were quickly removed from the community, as opposed to here in BL where we have people like bisjac posting as recently as a few months ago.

I personally enjoy the brickadia's community united stand against bigotry and promotion of tolerance that I had never really felt here.

im sure you enjoy your leaded gasoline too you doofus

[Ladios]

im sure you enjoy your leaded gasoline too you doofus

cool story bro

[Kayne weee]

cool story bro

no surprise a 30 soPhysician Prescribed Desoxyning year old man would be attracted to brickadia so much. perfect place for your prey

[Ladios]

As an individual who was personally targeted by groomers on these forums, I am indeed saddened to see that Brickadia has in the past suffered these same perpetrators (who had originally come from these forums). I feel confidence, however, in how rapidly these perpetrators were removed from the Brickadia community, especially in comparison to users like Bisjac who have posted on these forums as recently as a couple months ago.

I do not appreciate you making light of such a serious topic, and am not sure what the brickadia staff has done to you to warrant this continued grudge. From what i've seen the most frequent complaint against it's staff is that it is too strict about removing offensive content/users which is a weird dissonance.

This line of conversation, however, is getting away from the topic of this thread, being the problematic behavior of the Blockland community forums.

[Edit]I feel the need to apologize for being so antagonistic, Kanye, as I do not know your personal experience with members of the brickadia community, and I do not wish to invalidate any feelings of abuse you felt you received by it. I, personally, have found the community to be more proactive against intolerance and abusive behavior, but I admit that I have only recently been playing the game and much of the community is currently away from the game while awaiting EA. If there are other offending members that you know of I would appreciate knowing who they are so I can do my part by preventing them from joining any of my own servers.