Page 1 of Website Trolls - Biting The Hand

Two of my favourite sites are in trouble (or potential trouble) because of ill-considered and abusive postings in their forums.

The Home Theater Forum is hoping it hasn`t destroyed its cordial relationship with Warner Home Video following Monday night`s Chat with representatives of WHV. Over the past few years, HTF members have been fortunate enough to get the opportunity to talk direct to senior insiders at WHV about planned releases and to make suggestions about what they would like to see released. Following Monday night`s Chat, Ron Epstein the forum`s owner was horrified to see postings accusing WHV of evasiveness and out-and-out lying. Warner reps were monitoring the posts and were not happy bunnies.

As Ron points out himself, WHV is the one Studio in Hollywood that actually takes part in such a dialogue. Sony doesn`t. Universal doesn`t. Disney certainly doesn`t. Does Warner need the grief of hearing so-called fans bitching about them in language expected from some rabid AICN talkbacker?

A similar situation has precipitated Steve Roberts to announce the closure of the Doctor Who Restoration Team Technical Forum. He has been treading a fine line between informing freqently excitable Dr Who fans about forthcoming DVD releases and his employers` requirement for contractual confidentiality. Well, following a week of abusive posts about 2entertain (and specifically his boss Dan Hall), Steve has decided not to give the Barkers a forum to air their ill-informed views. The forum will close at the beginning of April (the website will continue, but I fear that Steve`s informative releases about the restorations carried out will eventually become simple PR-puff).

I`m all for lively debate, but this is ridiculous...

J Mark Oates

Sad to see the RT forum go, but it`s just a fact of life when people get so puffed up about trivial things and want to fight it out online...

Doesn`t really sound like trolling. That`s more the deliberate attempt to derail a thread or start arguments, whereas this sounds more like a bunch of fanboys getting worked up and ranting. I`ve never visited either site, but I can almost understand some of the conditions that might lead to people having a pop at distributors based on my own dealings with them.

The Warner thing is ridiculous though. What do they expect? Universal praise? They`re not exactly at the forefront of quality when it comes to their high-definition releases, for example (frequently releasing titles without HD soundtracks and no HD extras, compared to Paramount/Universal), and they aren`t afraid to threaten minnows when it suits them. Oh no, someone criticised a massive coporation and they got upset. Boo hoo.

This item was edited on Thursday, 26th March 2009, 09:45