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Fanpop as I used to know it.
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------ Two years ago, when I first joined fanpop, things were a lot different here. I was 15 years old and I only watched one TV show: Heroes. I was insanely addicted to that show (I still am, it’s my second favorite show ever) and I was searching for some episodes online on some random site. That site (I have no idea which one is now, Lol) had a lot of links to episodes, and some of those links bought me to fanpop. The first think I noticed about this site was those funny options things where you could vote, also known as picks. =P And those were the reason why, in June of 2007, I joined this site. To answer those picks and eventually get spoiled about future episodes I hadn’t seen yet. xD (if you watch Heroes, you know how it works, in season 1, people were always dying there. LOL) I got totally addicted and I joined the Heroes spot, and I eventually made my own first pick. That pick gave my first prop ever, by no other than Dave (YAY, thank you Dave <3), and I swear I jumped around the house when I saw the little prop thing. xD Then I made some more picks. =) It was the only thing I was doing on fanpop, lol. (It’s sill my favorite way of contributing, because I love to choose the right images to add, and I love to read other people’s comments.) So, after 15 picks on the Heroes spot, I got my first Dedicated medal ever... And almost a heart-attack when I saw it. LOL xD See, on those days, it wasn’t very common to watch people with many medals. It was VERY rare to find people with fanatics, I think I only met one or two. Back then, the Heroes spot was the spot with more fans and the most popular (which made me extremely happy, yay go Heroes! xD). It had about 3000 fans, and I might be very wrong, but I’m pretty sure it hadn’t had more than this. Yea, pretty crazy right? Considering how much fans the Twilight spot has now. Lol But this was then. For some reason, I went un-active a few months. Season 2 of Heroes was starting and I didn’t want to be spoiled by picks, since I was waiting for it to come on TV (which took quite time actually, it sucks to live in Portugal). Also, I was running out of ideas for picks. LOL Months later I got back and I had started to watch other shows. So I joined more spots, like One Tree Hill and Supernatural. OTH is my favorite show ever, and my second dedicated medal was for that spot, also with just picks. Then I started to add videos and my first die hard was for that spot, I got it on August of 2008. My first Fanatic medal was for that spot too. Now, you don’t ever forget your Fanatics (especially your first), so I know that I got on October 22nd of 2008. I also know I’m a nerd for knowing that date. By December, I was the 6th top contributer of that spot. And right now, I’m proudly the 3rd. =] And this is what happens when you work hard to something. All the wait and all the work feels undeniably great. But situations like these are more rare and rare these days. And I guess that’s the point of this article. You see, I must really be a naïve person, because it took me a LONG time to figuring out the medal system. I had no idea what kind of “amount” of contribution was needed. And when one time, I read somewhere that the ratings helped, I thought WE had to give ratings to get medals. So I kinda rated ALL the videos on the OTH spot. LOL (I don’t regret it btw, I found some great videos there xD). Anyways, silly me for being slow, no wonder why people call me “looser” or “Joey”. =P Some new fans aren’t naïve at all. In fact, they were very quickly to understanding that whole thing. So it’s simple, they ask people to rate their stuff. There was a ratings forum on the OTH spot, on the Friends spot and maybe on others spots too. All you had to do was posting links of your stuff and people would rate it. Those forums no longer exist, they were deleted, because it wasn’t a fair way of getting medals. I honestly couldn’t have agreed more with this decision. Now, those new fans (new fans, not the fans who were using those forums), are fully aware of this. So instead of having a forum, they do it by messages. They message other users asking for ratings. As I see it, this is exactly the same thing as having a forum, except that with messages, there is no prove of the cheating. This kind of cheating is like air, you don’t see it. But you know it’s there. A lot of users have an incredible number of medals right now. All because of those ratings. At this moment, I have 26 dedicated medals, 17 die-hard medals and 7 fanatic medals. I’m a member of fanpop more than two years now. And I feel really accomplished. Trust me, it’s not about the medals. It’s how far I’ve went, from having zero medals, to have 50. So, I think it’s very unfair to see some users – cheating users – who are here, for less than FIVE MONTHS to have way more medals than me or other users, that work harder for them. It’s not even about the medals, it’s about the content that they add to getting those medals. To add icons, all you have to do is find some LiveJournals or some fan sites. Also, you can add repeated ones. And it gets even easier when you ask other people to rate them. Now imagine how I feel, when I’m working for a medal, adding stuff and NOT asking anybody to rate them for me, to witness situations like these. Let me just use a couple of hypothetical examples. Let’s say a certain user added, 75 videos and 120 images to a spot. Let’s say I added 875 videos and 1485 images to the same spot. Which means, I added more than 800 videos and 1000 images than that user. Now, let’s say we both have Die-Hard medals. Does this scream fair to you? Other example. Hypothetical. On other totally different spot, with much less fans than the first one. A user added 170 videos and 130 images. That user has a Fanatic. She’s the top contributor. Other user added 20 videos and 200 images. That user has a die-hard. She’s the second top contributor. I added 350 videos and 1500 images. I have a die-hard. I’m the third top contributor. Fair? Excuse me for not thinking so. The thing is I don’t even care about medals. I don’t. This is about other people taking me the pleasure of feeling ACCOMPLISHED. How can I feel that way, knowing that I worked so hard, knowing that I waited months and knowing that some other user got it easily with less work and in two weeks? I’m not the only one who feels this way. Some other people do too. Some other people tried to do something about it. And I watched some of them getting banned. We lost Myra, the top contributor of all fanpop because of this mess. Myra, who I truly admire because of her work. There are a lot of people who might not like her. But even those, you can’t honestly say that Myra didn’t work for her medals and that she didn’t deserve EVERY SINGLE ONE of them. Because she did. And not only just her. Gogokef, Clarkfan, Addie, Tvfan95. Does this names ring any bell to you? I hope whoever who is reading this, understands what this article is about. This is not me bragging and/or trying to get more medals. This is me trying to stop unfair situations. The fanpop 4 built the best site on Earth, hands down. This is not just about picks for me now, lol. I spend most of the times talking on forums and I met the most amazing fans here. <3 So, I’m not, in any way, trying to tell them what to do. But I can’t help to say that this rating system It’s not working. In my opinion (and notice that this is just an OPINION), I think the ratings shouldn’t count as much. They can count, but not as much as they do now. On one side, I think the videos should be considerate more important. You can add all the images you want, all the times you want, but you can’t add repeated videos. And if you notice, the users that “cheat”, don’t add much videos. It’s not hard to understand why. But on the other hand, there aren’t as many videos of one subject as there are images, so yea, it’s not right than the videos count more than images.. In the end, it’s better to leave this situation to the people who know the best, aka the fanpop 4. =P I was just trying to express how I feel about this. Sorry If I offend anyone. I didn’t use any names, just to avoid that. I’m not trying to get anyone banned, like I don’t want to be banned. I love this site way too much. I guess this is what I’m trying to say: I honestly don’t know why people cheat to get medals. There’s no better feeling than getting new medals when you least expect it. Especially if one of those medals is a fanatic. You get the accomplished feeling and when you told other users about, they also get REALLY happy (sometimes happier than you ;)), because they know how hard it is to get a medal. And they totally prop spam the hell out of you. LOL This feeling is great. Don’t take it away from fanpop. There’s no point of having 20 fanatics if they feel like a normal medal to you. Let’s get this feeling back! =] EDIT: There’s something I think it’s relevant and I forgot to add. The thing is that, the “cheating” users I mentioned above, don’t just message each other asking for ratings, they also ask to rate others users stuff low. Some users tried to stop the cheating, but not only they couldn’t do it, they saw their perfectly fine stuff being rated with one star. I’ve saw/read one of those messages, sent by one “cheating” user. I think someone has that message screen caped somewhere. The content of the message was simple, it said to rate everything of their “friends” group high (as in 5 stars), and rate everything of the users who tried to stop the cheating low (as in 1 star). And I’ve seen stuff rated low. Seriously, who wastes their time like this? Also, who wastes their time creating tons of fake accounts? Because those are against the fanpop rules, but I’ve seen a LOT of them. I think it’s just mean, not only they are getting medals not playing fair, but they are making it hard for other users to get them. Users than DON’T cheat. This is not what fanpop is about. Again, I apologize If it seems that I’m writing this just to attack someone. That’s not really my point. This is just to show how tired I am of all the situation. =/ To finish.. I promise this is my last edit. LOL This article has 5 pages on Word already, I don’t think I would be writing as much if this was for a school paper. XD
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And which cheater calls [i] YOU [\i] a loooser!?
Ans i just wanted to say, that when you Get a medal and you know that you have worked hard for it, the feeling is amazing. And you feel so good when someone that has worked hard for it, get's a medal, it's AWESOME!!
And you Are a loooooser for knowing the dates and months, when ypu got things, but you Are MY loooooser!<3
And aww thank you my Janni. =P <33
You know i'm just YOUR looooser, LOL! =D
You just had one of those moments.
I seriously couldn't agree more, and inspite of recent events, this was very ballsy.
Great job <3
Mel (i hope it's okay to call you this way =P), thank you so much for your words. =]
I totally understand you.
And i'm happy you like the videos i post. lol
I wish i've made them, trust me, i really wish i would be able to make great videos. But i can't, sony vegas make my head hurts. LOl xD I just make arts from time to time. =]
Anyway, thank you again <3
But i don't really make much art work. Just some. ^^
I need to seriously do some SPN art, i've never made of them. *blushes* Shame on me. =/
And, i also need to join the SPN viewing party. I haven't had much time, but hopefully now i will have more. =D
Myra, who I truly admire because of her work. There are a lot of people who might not like her. But even those, you can’t honestly say that Myra didn’t work for her medals and that she didn’t deserve EVERY SINGLE ONE of them. Because she did.
This. I don't know anything about how she got a ton of her other medals, but I do know about her 90210 one. I joined that spot back when Lila first made it and she and I were the only 2 fans. I added a ton of content and before the show even started, I had a dedicated. A couple weeks after the premiere, I had a die-hard and it took me quite some time too. Now I have a fanatic and I adore it as much as my other fanatics. Then a few months back, Myra starts adding countless screencaps of which ratings were somewhere between 5-6 people and she immediately got a fanatic. I also know that she asked other people to rate her stuff there too. She hadn't even left more than 5 comments on the whole spot whereas I have over 200. I'm not saying she didn't deserve a fanatic because she did add a lot of screencaps, but her caps got rated by 5-6 people and within a month she had a fanatic whereas I worked really dang hard for my medal almost over a years time.
My point of saying that is: It's not really fair to point out how Myra worked really hard for EVERY. SINGLE. MEDAL. she got because she didn't. If she had, her images wouldn't have been rated by so many people within a short time frame. I don't mean to offend you since I'm sure you and Myra were great friends, but can you understand my frustration in that situation?
Now, I DO have a problem with forums & messages asking people to rate stuff aside from the VRSOF, which is acceptable. I've never had any encounter with them personally, but they sound really unfair and I completely understand your frustration. I do NOT however, have a problem with "rating buddies". IE: Having one or two good friends where you TRADE ratings. For example, I have a couple friends whom I ask if they want stuff rated from time to time and they give me links. Sometimes they ask me as well, sometimes not. It doesn't matter. It's just nice to know that people are willing to help you out in a more respectable way.
I'm not a 90210 fan, i'm not on the spot, so i don't know what's going on. I do understand how you fell tho.
But that's just one medal. I used Myra's example because it's incredible how much she added everywhere. So, that might have happened with one spot (she's human and not perfect like all of us), but not with the others. Plus, if that did happen, i bet she didn't add REPEATED caps, which is what happens in my cases, people add repeated stuff.
Also, i agree on the rating buddy thing you're saying. Because that's the HEALTY thing. On forums, we talk about a lot of things and sometimes i rate my friends stuff or they rate mine. But this happens like what, once a month? And with just one link. While these users message each other everyday. More than once time if they need it.
What i was saying, is that these cheating users message not one or two buddies, but 6 or 7 of them. That's why adding 120 icons is perfectly fine to have a fanatic. Because they have a LOT of ratings.
As for Myra`s 90210 fanatic, she not only added screencaps, but tons of incredible icons and some videos too. Nothing was repeated, unlike the content that many other users add nowadays. She had added thousands of images, so regardless of the amount of ratings her screencaps got, she still deserved the medal.
I, too, came to know about Fanpop by searching videos, as I live in the Philippines and most shows were shown months after the series ends. I used to watch videos only, and then I joined the OTH spot. I remember participating in the picks, and then reading in the comments about the what's up forum. I searched for it and found that there's a Brucas spot - heaven on earth! LOL. Everything picked up from there, I started making my own picks and commenting in every pick I stumble upon. I got my first dedicated in the OTH spot by adding picks and commenting only. Then I started adding icons and videos, but as you have said, there's not much out there since everyone is out looking for them. I didn't know how to make icons back then, so it took time before I got my first fanatic. I was everywhere - I made picks, wrote articles, made pop quizzes, uploaded videos and images. Actually, Janni had to message I can't remember who for my medal. When I got it I was pretty excited, it's in the Brucas spot and who doesn't want a Brucas spot medal?
I am not a medal whore (excuse me for the language). I love my medals but IMO it doesn't really show how dedicated I am to a spot. Unless I find videos or images to upload, you don't get a die hard. There are some people who join a spot and uploads stuff but never participate in the activities of the spot. And some of these people have fanatics or die hards! Okay, let's say they have uploaded enough stuff to get a shiny red medal or people just love to rate (I believe rating has a bearing) and I have only made a hundred picks (where people can comment, talk, discuss), a thousand comments, hundred images, one or two videos and Idk, a couple of articles and I have a dedicated/die hard. I don't think that makes me less of a fan, them being fanatic and I, on the other hand, a die hard. Now, I think that's unfair too. So I don't see medals as I used to see them. -rant over-
K thanks bye.
but jlfan, myra did deserve that medal, no matter how you see it. because you only looked at the screencaps she most recently added. i don't know the exact number of images she added to that spot. but i can swear on my life, that while she had her die hard medal, she has added 22000 images to that spot, and i'm not even kidding. yes, three zeros.
however you have only added just over 1700.
i had added just under what you have added, and i only have a dedicated medal.
so don't be bitter.
however, i can be bitter. cause i know two fans that have just been given sophia bush fanatics. now, not mentioning names, but let's compare. i have a diehard.
user 1
videos - 20
images - 3400
user 2
videos - 4
images - 1837
me
videos - 11
images - 4688
let's continue, hilarie burton spot. i have been working so hard for a fanatic, and one fan just got one.
user 1
videos- 3
images - 2700
me
videos - 10
images - 6190
yeah guys, this is so fair.
:)
:/
anyway i hope someone reads this and realises we ALL think the same
Another thing i can say is that apart from all of it being utterly true, this is SO damn well written. I loved every single part of it.
I absolutely agree with every single point you`re making. I hate it how some certain people show NO respect and turn into huge medal cheaters but i hate it even more that they seem to get away with it. Something must be done. NOW. Because it`s really not fair towards to the people who are trying to earn medals FOR REAL.
So for god`s sake...i just hope someone would notice that and do something about it.
Anyways. This was by far the best article I've read in a long time. Pat.. YOU ROCK HUN <3
Amy, i also couldn't agree more with you.
The examples you gave are the prove of how much unffair this whole situation is. Especially because all that those users added was REPEATED icons! I mean, icons from sophiabush.org or something? It's obviously we all see them more than once time here on fanpop. Also, those users don't proper credit those icons.
What is even worse for me, is how FASTER they get those medals! On the Hilarie Burton case, it took Myra more than ONE YEAR to ger her fanatic. This user got in less than a month.
Again i have to say that this is seriously not fair.
Like reading a very interesting moment in a Harry freaking Potter book? :O WOW. That's too much, but thank you hun! <33
You know i'm jumping all excited for that here. LOL xD
Also i had seen certain named users "showing" they had posted new content. And certain users did have certain followers that would do it without those certain users saying anything.
Not bashing what is said, i just think people need to get their minds off medals so much and post quality content instead of a "who can post the most".
This is true BUT we cannot just sit back and do nothing while we`re noticing that there`s clearly some -against the rules of fanpop- members action.
Yea, i would agree with you if THAT was the case. It's not.
The users i'm refering too do not even post videos because it's hard to find good ones that aren't there. They post icons and not always GOOD qualilty icons like you said.
Not bashing what is said, i just think people need to get their minds off medals so much and post quality content instead of a "who can post the most".
You can think what you want, and you may even think that is article is a way of me getting new medals, which is not.
I have added more than 1000 icons to a certain spot (good and not repeated icons) and i don't have any medal, not even a dedicated. And this is fine to me, because there are a lot of users in this case. The other day i rated more than 25 pages of icons of someone (that didn't ask me, btw) in other spot, that were there for NINE months and didn't had any ratings at all.
This situations happen and i get it. That's not why i'm complaining. I'm complaining because the cheater users i mentioned don't EVER wait for their medals!
They add stuff, they ask for ratings and they get medals. Sometimes they get fanatics without even having a dedicated first!
This is just insane.
And I feel really accomplished.
Trust me, it’s not about the medals. It’s how far I’ve went, from having zero medals, to have 50. >> I agree! That is the important, not how many medals you have.
I have to admit it took me a while to learn the importance of medals and what they represent. They are not to show how many "friends" you have rating your stuff or what a great fan you are for that meter, but how a great contributor to the spot. You can love something and don't have a medal there, there's not important.
It took me a while and it was Myra that made me see it. So I know I fight what I was (ok, I wasn't like those people, but I was close I think)
And I don't care about medals anymore, not at all. I mean I get very happy getting one 'cause I know I deserved it, but it's not my goal on Fanpop anymore. Fanpop is a lot more than silly medals (it's a great idea, don't get me wrong, but some people made me feel bad about it)
Thank you so much Nanda. <3
I feel the same way. =]
Snerkie yeah I do agree with your post but I think this article points out the quantity of ratings, above anything else.
jlhfan624, i get what you're saying. I'm not a 90210 fan and i'm not on the spot, so i can't talk much about it. I understand how you feel, but Amy (loves-oth) said that Myra added 22000 images to that spot. And that wouldn't surprise me, because Myra always added a lot of good content to the spots. So she might have got her medal fast, i don't know, but she did deserve it. And that's why i pointed her name in the article in the first place, because she adds a lot and it's always NEW stuff, not repeated stuff.
You might feel a bit angry or frustrated about it, which i undersant, but at least, it's only one spot. I've lost count of how many spots i'm frustrated about because of the users cheating i talked about.
I edited the article now, hope it's okay. =]
And i won't edit it anymore, promisse. xD This is big enough by now. LOL
And jlhfan, I am not a member of the 90210 spot but if Amy says Myra has uploaded 22000 images in total, then that makes up for her fanatic. She may have gotten it faster than you did but she still is deserving to get it.
You are the best <3
This is an AMAZING article, and you have so right!
I agree so much!
I will not comment about the things you are discussing btw! LOL!
But Cat, my Joey <3 YOU ROCK!!!!
LMAO, i love Joey! =D I honestly feel honored to be called that. xD
Seriously, Joey Tribianni is made of win. =P
And thank you Lucia. =] I hope it works for the best too <3
And thank you tushtush <3
Couldn't agree more with you, Mary.
You might feel a bit angry or frustrated about it, which i undersant, but at least, it's only one spot. I've lost count of how many spots i'm frustrated about because of the users cheating i talked about.
You know I have it the same with certain spots, so I also know that this sucks like bigtime!
Like I've talked about the Manchester United spot before and how a user cheated, cheated and cheated. I sent her messages about it, but she only said she was gonna report me and stuff 'cause I claimed her for cheating. Which is completely easy to notice. I've added stuff to the United spot since August or something. It was one of the first spots I ever added something to. Anyways. I got my dedicated medal in January or something. So it took me almost 6 months to get it. Then suddenly this used came to the spot and added a few images. Maybe 50 or something? And it took her one month to get her die-hard medal and I still hadn't gottem mine. While I'd added about 500 images and a lot of videos to the spot. That was when I noticed that she was cheating. So I looked at the things we had added, and all my stuff weren't rated at all, while her stuff was rated by 4 people or something. So I messaged her and told her that cheating is illegal and stuff, and then she started to report me. Which is completely insane. I talked normally to her and told her what's right and what's not right. She just kept dinying that she cheated and stuff. I sent messages to the F4 with links to the spot with her cheating and stuff, and she lost all her medals.
Now I finally have my die-hard medal. It took me a lot of time and I've added almost 2000 images to the spot. I'm really happy about my medal and I know I've deserved it considuring how much time I've spent on the spot.
The same user also got lots of other medals. I think she joined Fanpop in December and started to add things in February or something. I checked her contribution and she had added 5000 images in all, and had LOTS of medals. Even one or two fanatics. I joined Fanpop in April last year and I have 4 fanatics which I'm all very happy about 'cause I've added a lot to all the spots. :)
I mean i have my fair share of them but to me it is not about that i love contributing to spots and sharing the pictures, videos or the art i make with others it is a joy and not all the spots are like that. As for the rating the stuff low i do not like as someone did that to me at the bl spot which i never understand.
i am making my self very popular by saying this- i know- but i wish fanpop would just get rid of the medal system already.
its causing more grief and fights and jealousy than anything else on this site.
props should be enough (if used correctly)!
i understand that the medal system was a great tool when fanpop was new but its not like we are lacking content these days.
knowing all the crap that goes on with medals they have lost all meaning and anyone who is still impressed by other peoples medals is delusional.
"You see, I must really be a naïve person, because it took me a LONG time to figuring out the medal system. I had no idea what kind of “amount” of contribution was needed. And when one time, I read somewhere that the ratings helped, I thought WE had to give ratings to get medals. So I kinda rated ALL the videos on the OTH spot."
LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOO i totally did that too. i rated every single video on the oth spot and other spots .... ROFL. When i first joined i didnt have a clue how fanpop worked, i remember asking people (myra being one of them) how to add more than one images at a time. When i first joined i only knew how to add picks. Good Ol' times. (;
germany123, i kinda agree with you. I love the feeling that getting new medals gives me, i feel really proud. But you're totally right about this: "its causing more grief and fights and jealousy than anything else on this site"
LOL, Laura thank you! <33 LY too. ;)
And yea, it took me a while to figure it how to do stuff. xD Mostly because i didn't even know how to ask people. LOL
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