I don't know all the details of what was going on at WP. Some of what had gone on preceded me. Alex didn't originally own WP alone. He was one of the creators of the forum, but Dan Grover, as I understand it, was the main owner of the forum. Scuttlebutt is even one time Alex himself got banned for a brief period (though that may just be rumor). Dan eventually handed it over to Alex because he was having personal problems and couldn't handle it anymore; Alex is the one who worked to make it as large and well known as it is though.
In general Alex is a very talented businessman but also a consummate liar; he's very convincing and in person even seems extremely nice. But I know that he's been caught in blatant lie after lie and is very good at using people that it isn't wise to trust him no matter how convincing he might seem.
Anyways, Alex used to give so little power to his mods and admins that when they would try to do their jobs it was like Alex was deliberately making it more difficult. I know that Dunc and Vivi were in the thick of the whole thing and there was a lot of turmoil. It was in reaction to a handful of WP members who were trying to stir as much shit as possible (such as eamonn, ascan, etc.) I tried to deal with them but they were set on making trouble. But Alex wouldn't give mods and admins the authority to deal with them. Then suddenly most of the mods went on strike. It was a whole series of power plays. I was still modding at the time. After about a week or so the mods came back. I left. Alex tried hard to get me to return but I just didn't want to deal with the shit.
Some more stuff happened that I didn't witness, just more bickering and power plays I'm sure. Finally, Alex fired and banned the staff. Members like eamonn and ascan were banned afterwards I believe. It was ironic that the members who made our moding responsibilities a daily hell then began stirring shit because of our banning.
It was at that point, and for some time prior, that old members began their own forums, spinoffs from the WP fallout. This forum, in fact, is one of them. It originally was a forum that was begun, like Gestalt, from The Neurolands, a website that was a small group of forums. The Neurolands was the brainchild of Neuroman, who was tired of how WP was being run and wanted to start a community that didn't make the same mistakes Alex was making.
Eventually McJagger took Intensity off Neurolands and I got Gestalt onto another server. Btw, Intensity was originally just that, no "squared". But Squared was the rebirth of the site. But the website was in direct response to the free speech that was usually quashed on WP, although I2 used to be a lot more no-holds-barred. But then I think that was during a time when the members just wanted to blow off steam on each other and also really didn't give a crap about each other. Now you're a community. It still has its no-holds-barred approach, but you all know each other more and just don't throw as many low punches. It also probably helps that eamonn and ascan aren't still around too. Those two guys had sticks so far up their asses they were usually choking on them.
