Now that we've passed 10 years in this place (combined between VLE and TSH) I feel that I can finally reveal this conspiracy theory to you all.
What if I told you that this board, this community was one large psychological/sociological experiments into the effects and feasibility of an anarchistic society?
What if I told you that this board was designed as means to determine how a population would react in a virtual world in which there were almost no rules governing that world?
Consider the following:
- VLE as we know it was started at a time when ESPN was banning various members of their CFB message boards.
- One of the biggest causes of these bannings was the various Dude Threads started on ESPN's CFB message boards.
What if I told you The Dude thread was engineered not only to increase the popularity of the Canes_Knights user, but also to plant the seeds of rebellion?
Consider the following:
- It was due in large part to the Dude Thread that the Canes_Knights user was voted by his ESPN CFB message board peers as the poster of the year.
- It was due in large part to the ESPN mods handling of The Dude threads and the people that posted in them that we migrated to VLE.
What if I told you that this rebellion was planned and that the whole idea was to move to a new place, where the rules (or lack thereof) could be controlled?
Consider the following:
- It was around this time that a new board was proposed by Smiths.
- The Canes_Knights user was one of the few people in the initial inner circle of creators.
- In such a position, the Canes_Knights user was able to influence the governing rules of the community.
What if I told you that the Canes_Knights user was designed in such a way so as to be not only an active participant in this experiment, but also its overseer?
Consider the following:
- Since the beginning, a large part of the direction of VLE/TSH has been shaped by the Canes_Knights user, including the insistence that rules be kept to an absolute minimum and only to a point that is necessary for the basic functions of the board.
What if I told you that the Canes_Knights user then positioned himself in such a way that he became an integral part of the system?
Consider the following:
- Early on in the existence of VLE, the Canes_Knights user learned how to update and change aspects of the board.
- This allowed the Canes_Knights user to control the look, feel, and features of the board, as well as the memetic possibilities (due to smilies and other features.)
What if I told you that the VLE board's demise was the planned end to this experiment, but the experiment was going so well that rather than ending, it was simply migrated to a new playing field (TSH)?
Consider the following:
- The database of VLE was accessible by only one person: the Canes_Knights user.
- The only person who researched all of the various features and thus had an understanding on how each of them or combinations of them would impact the data integrity and thus the viability of VLE on the hosting companies servers: the Canes_Knights user.
The funny thing is, this is actually more believable than most conspiracy theories out there.