darkSpyro

With the new game announced, I thought I'd visit and go down memory lane.

When Dark52 was the sole admin here with no moderators, predatory users had full reign to do whatever they liked in PMs to younger, more vulnerable users with no consequences.

This website, despite being about a children's video game and having no age restrictions, was NOT safe for children. Yes you could say parents should have kept a better eye on their kids, but it's easy to get around these restrictions and just not listen to advice. We're not about to victim blame here either.

I think it's entirely fair criticism of Dark52 when I say users such as Levi should have been permanently banned much sooner. He knew Levi was asking users for nu de photos of themselves, many being under 18, which is the illegal btw under soliciting 'corn'.

I had a dreadful experience with the user goldengeye. I was 13 born in 97, he was two years older than me born in 95. He sent me extremely inappropriate PMs considering the age gap and asked me to send such photos of myself to him. Thankfully I did not. He also talked about wanting to meet up. When I told his girlfriend about what messages he was sending me, he then violently threatened to "break my nose". I told Dark52 about this in PM, there was no response or action. goldengeye's account is not banned.

If this gets deleted I will just repost it until my account is banned.

Anyone got any other experiences to add? I'm sure there has already been a topic about Levi and how he's now in prison.

Yupppp if with moderators there were still many issues, it was nearly lawless when Dark was waffling about getting any

Don't have any huge cases, but I had some from the time Dark didn't let moderators have banning power yet - people would get islamophobic,lgbtphobic all kinds of -phobic; or threaten other users over minor things, or even full on dox to silence the other, and nothing would happen because Dark had the final say.

The dS wild west was certainly a wild and definitely unsafe time. I remember all the pleading it took for dark52 to finally pull his head out of his rear and open up moderator applications.

As for levi, hopefully that depraved loser is rotting away in prison being the disgusting predator he is. I doubt he was the only one behaving like that here, but he was definitely a high profile case.

Quote: Bifrost

Yupppp if with moderators there were still many issues, it was nearly lawless when Dark was waffling about getting any

Don't have any huge cases, but I had some from the time Dark didn't let moderators have banning power yet - people would get islamophobic,lgbtphobic all kinds of -phobic; or threaten other users over minor things, or even full on dox to silence the other, and nothing would happen because Dark had the final say.

ffs

Quote: Immy

The dS wild west was certainly a wild and definitely unsafe time. I remember all the pleading it took for dark52 to finally pull his head out of his rear and open up moderator applications.

As for levi, hopefully that depraved loser is rotting away in prison being the disgusting predator he is. I doubt he was the only one behaving like that here, but he was definitely a high profile case.

Oh yes I remember the pleading. Someone spammed the site with 'corn' and it was up for hours visible to all ages because Dark52 was not online to remove it.

I completely agree with everything that's been said here. Nothing was ever addressed in a timely manner—if it was addressed at all. Even now, despite having moderators, many of them appear to be inactive, and rule enforcement still seems inconsistent. That said, this certainly doesn't apply to every moderator.

Given everything that's been discussed in this thread, I think it's important to say that if the new game brings people back to the forum, I sincerely hope the mistakes of the past aren't repeated. A safe, well-moderated community should be a priority from the start.

I’m surprised to see anybody bring these things up and embarrassed by how long I’ve known this site, but I appreciate your post. To be honest, when they announced a new Spyro game, this place was my first thought and my stomach churned. Don’t want the game and I’m part of the Microsoft boycott, I’m not going to heal by being here so it’s not like I have any other reason to visit, I should just stay away…

I don’t know how I wasn’t asked for inappropriate photos at any point on here. There was one user, probably long gone, who claimed to be a teenager but was very aggressive about wanting to date me. So I dunno if they were a groomer or just dealing with their own teenage issues. I think I remember having sort of suggestive conversations I shouldn’t have had on here while I was still a teenager, but otherwise it was early into my adulthood which is at least weird, although I don’t think that was as nefarious. I can’t remember for sure when I had those conversations. I don’t know. It was all unfortunate but it wasn’t explicit so nothing compared to some kids here. I wouldn’t say I was groomed. And I was here for way too long, so I seriously dodged bullets.

I’m sorry for what you went through. I’m just so sorry that happened to you and I don’t even know what to say about it. This stuff was a serious problem here, never should have been in the first place, let alone have persisted for so long.

These problems kept going even after this place had mods. There’s also the fact that dark hand-picked literal children as mods too. This website had multiple groomers before there were any mods and yet he still decided to do that. It’s just something that speaks for itself.

The adult mods had their own issues. While it was better, it was still so much worse than it should have been. Clique website. I remember one mod basically self-promoting at times. I remember one mod who was just passive-aggressive every time I saw them. Dawg I remember- this is one of the few things I can laugh at- being suspended for double-posting while Sess had threads with her blatant harassment be hidden from view, swept away. Just context for anyone who wasn’t here, Sesshomaru75 was another prominent user who turned out to be a groomer and was exposed much more recently than Levi. Up until she got exposed, she was one of the most rude regulars on this website and yet was constantly excused for it. But other than the harassment, I can’t personally speak for what happened with her.

This was a huge community moderated as if it were just a small friend group. I’m not trying to make light of the grooming or say the bullying was just as bad of a thing, but even beyond grooming, this wasn’t a safe or good place for children because of how certain adults here acted and how the entire thing was run. I remember years ago seeing someone say something like “darkSpyro can’t decide what age group it’s for” or something which was so true. Most of the rule-pushing stuff was contained to this subforum, but that’s not a good excuse because new children joining wouldn’t know better or have any barrier to entry. There’s the moderation, then there’s also that dark could have stepped in and at least set some standard, but he didn’t.

It gets easier over time, but you know, It’s not normal to have the kind of reaction I did to a game announcement or even to be typing all this. What I experienced on this website is not the kind of thing that therapy could directly tackle, outside of validating that I wasn’t as awful as I felt about myself from things on this site. Therapy hadn’t and I don’t know if it even has caught up with growing up on the Internet like that, I’m still figuring this trauma out because I didn’t have fitting support when I most needed it.

I can’t even have it all wiped because dark is so so incredibly stingy about superflagging. I’ve emailed multiple times about other accounts and I never saw any response. I don’t know how or why anybody has kept contributing or kept tying to liven this site up in good conscience. I don’t know how dark could have kept it online in good conscience, or have seen what happened here and have acted basically the same way for the entire lifespan of this website. He shouldn’t have even started a community for children’s’ games if he was so unwilling or unable to be responsible for it. This site is just a wreck from the top to the bottom, with that admin and that history, it’s more than a matter of trying to rebuild it better. I think that this website just deserves to be buried.

I still talk regularly with about three people I met here. At least all of it wasn’t for absolutely nothing, at least we got to meet and I think we have nice friendships, but there was so much pointless immature pain that came about here. I really regret being here, posting about myself and game news so much. The sad thing is that I’ve seen the exact same kind of things in some Skylanders circles, so both of these series are kind of ruined for me by my experience with these communities. It overshadows all of these games for me. The nicest thing I can say is that at least this was a politically progressive space, unlike some of those other circles.

After all this time, it’s more important to make things better for myself, but I feel like I’ve never been able to completely heal from my experiences here. I’m not doing as badly as this post makes it seem, really, but I don’t want to downplay how awful this community was. I guess I’m just venting and piling it on because I think this place doesn’t deserve any better.

So many users here made lovely contributions or were just trying to have fun only to be targeted over absolutely stupid, pointless things. I don’t know where a lot of them are now, I’m sure some of them probably just look back and laugh or don’t feel as badly so power to them, but I know there were other people who felt that way because they told me themselves. There’s a difference between doing a little trolling and having a little chaos about and pushing back on spam or oversharing, versus the favoritism and selective moderation and other garbage that happened here. Again, it’s not on the level of the grooming, but it was still awful for kids.

OP I recognise and vaguely remember you, but I never really knew you- no idea if you would have recognised me on any other account- however I hope you can love yourself. Just don’t forget self-love, especially these days.

I probably won’t check back here, fyi. I was just here to check one of the guides, then found this thread. Despite all that I said, I’m at a point where I trust myself to disengage and I know it’s the healthiest option for me. That game announcement really affected me more than I would have hoped, thank god that at least I have people to talk with about it and not be so scared of being blamed now.

Quote:

. I don’t know how or why anybody has kept contributing or kept tying to liven this site up in good conscience.

let's be real, we've been doing things in spite of Dark since the skylanders games, maybe earlier

I did have one person ask me out and say I was so beautiful when I was 12 and they were 19 lol. Luckily it was a very filtered photo but it shook me up a bit.

I feel like a bit of an exception tbh. I joined this site when I was 10 and mostly had really good experiences. It sounds dramatic but this and the other sites I was on at the time were lifechanging in a good way and I learnt a lot and it shaped who I am. I think I was always the sort of child (and I'm no different now at 26) who knew what was bad and good and just didn't do anything bad. I knew not to click on weird links or share too much or look at certain topics and I ended up an unscathed adult (or at least unscathed from the internet lol).

It's mad to me how young dark was when he made the site all on his own. Most people on it were teenagers and kids when I was most active 2009-2012. I like to think the good outweighed the bad for most people. But I get that especially in that era, there was some awful stuff online and awful people. It was brutal. The worst I really had was people making fun of me really harshly for my art when I was still 10 lol but it didn't bother me loads. But the thought now of having a go at a primary school child is a bit weird

I didn't know about Levi being in prison!

Quote: Spyrobaby

I did have one person ask me out and say I was so beautiful when I was 12 and they were 19 lol. Luckily it was a very filtered photo but it shook me up a bit.

I feel like a bit of an exception tbh. I joined this site when I was 10 and mostly had really good experiences. It sounds dramatic but this and the other sites I was on at the time were lifechanging in a good way and I learnt a lot and it shaped who I am. I think I was always the sort of child (and I'm no different now at 26) who knew what was bad and good and just didn't do anything bad. I knew not to click on weird links or share too much or look at certain topics and I ended up an unscathed adult (or at least unscathed from the internet lol).

It's mad to me how young dark was when he made the site all on his own. Most people on it were teenagers and kids when I was most active 2009-2012. I like to think the good outweighed the bad for most people. But I get that especially in that era, there was some awful stuff online and awful people. It was brutal. The worst I really had was people making fun of me really harshly for my art when I was still 10 lol but it didn't bother me loads. But the thought now of having a go at a primary school child is a bit weird

I didn't know about Levi being in prison!

Oh yeah, he was sentenced to 25 years back in 2020.


https://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Nelizar

Quote: Spyroboy

Quote: Spyrobaby

I did have one person ask me out and say I was so beautiful when I was 12 and they were 19 lol. Luckily it was a very filtered photo but it shook me up a bit.

I feel like a bit of an exception tbh. I joined this site when I was 10 and mostly had really good experiences. It sounds dramatic but this and the other sites I was on at the time were lifechanging in a good way and I learnt a lot and it shaped who I am. I think I was always the sort of child (and I'm no different now at 26) who knew what was bad and good and just didn't do anything bad. I knew not to click on weird links or share too much or look at certain topics and I ended up an unscathed adult (or at least unscathed from the internet lol).

It's mad to me how young dark was when he made the site all on his own. Most people on it were teenagers and kids when I was most active 2009-2012. I like to think the good outweighed the bad for most people. But I get that especially in that era, there was some awful stuff online and awful people. It was brutal. The worst I really had was people making fun of me really harshly for my art when I was still 10 lol but it didn't bother me loads. But the thought now of having a go at a primary school child is a bit weird

I didn't know about Levi being in prison!

Oh yeah, he was sentenced to 25 years back in 2020.


https://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Nelizar

Oh wow that's somehow even worse than I imagined

Oh gosh I've been reminded of the time Levi sent me a description of his junk and asked me to describe mine back.

Quote: gayfeather

long text!

I'm really sorry to hear about your experience. I remember the bullying on here being bad also. Older users would be very hostile towards younger ones who were deemed to be "annoying" (maybe they were "annoying" because they were children/young teenagers on the internet for the first time?).

The main bullies did seem to get banned eventually, but after years of hostility. Far too late and they never seemed to get a warning to make the site more pleasant. To name the ones I remember this happening to were:
black dragon - this one was quite nasty to me generally "it's you, everything you do is horrible" comes to mind. I was actually going to leave the forum because of them, then they suddenly got banned so I changed my mind.
blackholes wolf - generally hostile to many. I remember being called stupid over saying that heat damages your hair... it does.
sesshomaru - same as above, generally hostile to many (though I wasn't aware of the alleged grooming, I think I had long left the site).

I remember Ghakimx making fun of my weight, but he wasn't eventually banned.

I'm sure there are more I just haven't seen/forgot.

oh i didn't realize it was okay to name names.
I suspect Juarmo is the person that stalked me offsite because of the typing quirks, but they were already quite unbearable in the forums. No proof for the stalking, bullying wasn't seen as all that bad, so never punished.
UncleBob is the doxxing person that I mentioned, the victim left and he stayed possibly because of insider Skylanders info for far too long.
And then there's someone who's still posting on general/news/etc and I'm not gonna name because they namesearched before, and probably still do so; who was/is all sorts of -phobe, openly made fun of people for their weight or gender presentation, bullied others, and generally made every thread they were in into stepping on eggshells.

i don't want to reveal who i was before on my previous account because my groomer still has an account on this site and can come back but like many others i was also one harmed by levi. since i was being groomed by another person at the same time, i just kept replying to his messages. i was a lonely teenager so any attention was good, right? nope. this still causes me pretty bad anxiety today and i'm terrified of being used again.

this site meant a lot to me in my growing years, i made friends, i had fun times, i even had dreams about this site. but i also got to see the horrible side of the site like many others did too. i'm really sorry to everyone harmed by people on the site, i'm also sorry to anyone i had harmed myself.

while i've certainly been scarred by actions of others on this website, i still want to be here and see it become better. i just have so much nostalgia for this place, it's hard to leave.

Quote: Ice Dragoness

Oh gosh I've been reminded of the time Levi sent me a description of his junk and asked me to describe mine back.

Quote: gayfeather

long text!

I'm really sorry to hear about your experience. I remember the bullying on here being bad also. Older users would be very hostile towards younger ones who were deemed to be "annoying" (maybe they were "annoying" because they were children/young teenagers on the internet for the first time?).

The main bullies did seem to get banned eventually, but after years of hostility. Far too late and they never seemed to get a warning to make the site more pleasant. To name the ones I remember this happening to were:
black dragon - this one was quite nasty to me generally "it's you, everything you do is horrible" comes to mind. I was actually going to leave the forum because of them, then they suddenly got banned so I changed my mind.
blackholes wolf - generally hostile to many. I remember being called stupid over saying that heat damages your hair... it does.
sesshomaru - same as above, generally hostile to many (though I wasn't aware of the alleged grooming, I think I had long left the site).

I remember Ghakimx making fun of my weight, but he wasn't eventually banned.

I'm sure there are more I just haven't seen/forgot.

Lol I remember blackholes questioning why kiwifarms was banned and people here kept saying because it allowed doxxing. They then brought in a friend from an old account to back them up saying that there was a rule for not doxxing. Which was false.

always the dogwhistles that some users notice but it's not seen as suspicious :T

Quote: Ice Dragoness

Oh gosh I've been reminded of the time Levi sent me a description of his junk and asked me to describe mine back.

Quote: gayfeather

long text!

I'm really sorry to hear about your experience. I remember the bullying on here being bad also. Older users would be very hostile towards younger ones who were deemed to be "annoying" (maybe they were "annoying" because they were children/young teenagers on the internet for the first time?).

The main bullies did seem to get banned eventually, but after years of hostility. Far too late and they never seemed to get a warning to make the site more pleasant. To name the ones I remember this happening to were:
black dragon - this one was quite nasty to me generally "it's you, everything you do is horrible" comes to mind. I was actually going to leave the forum because of them, then they suddenly got banned so I changed my mind.
blackholes wolf - generally hostile to many. I remember being called stupid over saying that heat damages your hair... it does.
sesshomaru - same as above, generally hostile to many (though I wasn't aware of the alleged grooming, I think I had long left the site).

I remember Ghakimx making fun of my weight, but he wasn't eventually banned.

I'm sure there are more I just haven't seen/forgot.

I remember all of those users, and I couldn't stand a single one of them. Those who have been here long enough to remember the Troll, DARK, from nearly 17/18 years ago, they probably wouldn't be surprised to hear it was Blackholes who was behind the account. They were behind quite a few troll accounts actually, but somehow nothing was ever really done about it. Sure, he'd eventually ban the account, but it's almost like dark52 enjoys sitting back and watching the chaos ensue a bit before actually getting off his backside and springing into action.

Hey guys it's Lunarz/Grizzle

I never had a positive experience on this website outside of the roleplay section where I met my two oldest friends who I talk to every day still and have met irl. I remember two users tho I can't recall usernames but I'd know em if I saw em. They played Minecraft with me and someone else and we found out they had started dating when one was underage. It was so gross and I wish I'd done something about it back then or said something. I didn't know what to do.

This site had so much clique-y bs and was such an echo chamber of bullies. It was lawless. One person who was 'popular' could get away with saying anything they wanted. But another person who was less liked could say the same thing or something unproblematic as opposed to someone 'popular' and get dogpiled. It was so bad for my development growing up. I didn't get bullied in school but looking back I felt like I was bullied here.

Now I'm not proud of all my actions on this site. But I think a part of growing up is admitting fault in actions and growing from those experiences. I've apologized to some people like Darby who I believe is doing well, and some I've fallen out with and didn't realize sooner that they were the issue and not me. I regret a lot of the way I acted. But jesus christ most of us were so young. But it doesn't excuse a lot of the behavior. A lot of that fault comes from moderation. I'll be honest Dark52 leaves a goddamn lot to be desired. He never cared about what happened and to who on this site.

Ice Dragoness I am so sorry that happened to you.

And to anyone I had beef with or if I ever made anyone uncomfortable I know I was young but I'm truly sorry. I don't think I ever went to an extreme but I was a weird, autistic, hormonal, idiot youth who hadn't found his place in the world. I'm actually on my second week of college rn. Going for my AFA in Theatre Performance. I'm making friends, there's a girl I like, I got a callback for the musical, I'm excited to get up and go to school every day and finally have excitement for the future. Things have been insane rough the last 10 years but I'm pushing through. I feel like I look good, I'm more confident in my skills as an actor and singer, I have good friends, community. I have a long way to go but I've come so far.

Being on this site every night refreshing til 5 am. It wasn't healthy. But I did meet one of closest friends here. Two people from this site are still on contact with me. They're actually dating and live together. One is one of three people I'd trust with my life. So some good certainly came out of it. I also think I can say this safely cuz he's Ripto'd but I am not longer friends with Mesuxelf. We moved out together irl for half a year and him and his friends thought it was okay to constantly say the N-word as a 'joke'. I'd come home every night to him wasted (He was a severe alcoholic and sometimes would admit it and other times wouldn't) was neurotic about how clean the apartment was and left for 2 weeks to his parents place cuz I didn't wipe a single stain from a hard to see part of the fridge, and would constantly fight with me on everything and belittle the things I like such as Marvel movies telling me how unrealistic (lmao) they were and why they sucked and tryna take my enjoyment out of em. I never fight with friends but every convo was a fight.

I guess this is just a little update and also recap of my time here. But yea, this site was a cesspool imo and there were few safespaces and v few railguards set in motion. We were essentially kids moderating other kids. It was irresponsible. I hope everyone is doing well. You're welcome to PM me I'll check this site every now and then. But yea.

DARK CINDER - she was a teenager who bullied a kid called deathhorn

Quote: Grizzle

Hey guys it's Lunarz/Grizzle.

Living with that person sounds awful I'm so sorry!

Quote: peanutthekitten

DARK CINDER - she was a teenager who bullied a kid called deathhorn

I remember that well. I believe DARK CINDER manipulated deathhorn to spam 'corn' here.

I had spoken to this DARK CINDER a few times off the site because we both liked Coronation Street at the time. I said I thought the tram crash scene with the character Ken shouting "Get back!!" was funny and this greatly offended her. She called me a b!tch then blocked me. Girl... it's not real, it's a work of fiction.