Dealing with Encyclopedia Dramatica.

I've been managing an online community for years, and over the course of time, I've banned... I don't know how many people, but it's a pretty good amount. There are also people from other websites within my niche with users who are petty and jealous of my site's success.

These banned and jealous people have created a page about my website on Encyclopedia Dramatica that is filled with cruel, libelous, very personal, and overall extremely disrespectful content about my site, myself, my staff, and regular forum members. To be honest, I was shocked when I first saw this page, and even upset some, but now I kind of don't care about the content, and I'm oddly flattered that people think enough about me one way or another to devote a page that large to me and what I've done.

Here is the real problem...

When you search for my website in Google, this Encylopedia Dramatica article ranks just below my site, Youtube Channel, and then something else. It's all on the first page. My site does well with traffic and is very well known within my niche, so I'm surprised that this article is as high as it is. Naturally, I would prefer if the defamatory article about me wasn't so visible. Some of my staff members have registered there and deleted the content, but not surprisingly, it all appears again within moments.

I have been around these types of boards long enough and I've never seen anyone bring up an issue like this. I guess the closest thing may be people on rival boards taking shots at them, but I feel this is a bit different, largely because this is a high ranking monument dedicated to personally bashing me, and many visitors to my site will see this.

Does anyone here have any clue for a way of dealing with this issue somehow?

Thanks in advance.

Edit libel to inoffensive levels, dont remove it all of it, else it will be reverted as a fix to 'vandalism'. You could also have it renamed/retitled, and your branding identity replaced by something innocuous and playful like "that who shall not be named."

Else -> thicker skin. And thicker than that.

LeadCrow said:

Edit libel to inoffensive levels, dont remove it all of it, else it will be reverted as a fix to 'vandalism'.

Click to expand...

ED is about drama, if you remove anything that has good lulz value then chances are that they'll add it back, and if you start edit warring to remove it then you're just feeding them and digging yourself into an even deeper hole.

If it's really libelous then there's always legal action. But most of the time ED is a monster that can't be defeated, only ignored.

It doesn't matter what they say, as long as they're talking about you....

Think of it as free advertising. A site like ED (not sure I care for that acronym!) is like the tabloid rags at the checkout counter. Everyone looks at them; nobody believes them. But they may just visit your site to see for themselves.

Have you ever tried asking ED staff for it to be taken down, or have you only vandalized the website? If it was the latter, I am not surprised at all that it is still up.

Let me tell you this, I have been managing online communities for a long time too, and I can count the people I have banned from my forum (other than spammers) on one finger. Maybe your problem isn't that people are "jealous of you", but how you treat your members, just a thought.

I totally understand.

I myself have been a victim of the nasty, bitter and smallminded occupants of ED.

They posted stuff about me which was true, and consequently made me look very bad. I imagine the same thing has happened to you, so you have my deepest sympathies.

To make matters worse, your low website ranking means that not only does ED rank with you, they're getting traffic hits when people click on them instead of your site.

Kind of makes you wonder if it's all worthwhile.

That bottle of pills is starting to look pretty good - hey?

Zaiger: You are the admin of ED?

I'll just ignore it. Haters will hate.

Alfa1 said:

Zaiger: You are the admin of ED?

Click to expand...

Yes, but I am not an unreasonable person. I have never once denied someone the removal of content when they have asked me in a calm and respectful way. If they are just going to flip out at me then I will ignore them, after all it wasn't me who wrote the article, so why should I respect the wishes of someone who doesn't give me the same respect?

We have written policies about the process it takes to have content removed. If people doesn't want to follow them and would rather "vandalize" the wiki, that is their prerogative. Just don't be surprised when the page makes it to the #1 Google result, we are a very popular website.

zaiger said:

Have you ever tried asking ED staff for it to be taken down, or have you only vandalized the website? If it was the latter, I am not surprised at all that it is still up.

Let me tell you this, I have been managing online communities for a long time too, and I can count the people I have banned from my forum (other than spammers) on one finger. Maybe your problem isn't that people are "jealous of you", but how you treat your members, just a thought.

Click to expand...

ED staff is anonymous. They do that site for the "lulz". If you remove anything, they'll add it back. All I have to say on this subject is - try building links to other pages on your forum, so you can knock them out of search - well, a few rankings down and such.

And also, its free publicity.

I've had a similar issue, but it wasn't toward a website or forum. It was a Tumblr blog made for the website I visited.. and yeah, Tumblr and stuff. It was trying to be an ED, but failed badly when I got it taken down, and possibly others for being a hate blog.

I was harassed, trolled, had screenshots taken of my 'rage', etc. It's not fun to be in OPs situation.

I would just ignore ED from now on. Zaiger and all the other people from there aren't telling the truth when they say they cannot delete pages. Of course they can. It's their site. Don't believe anything that website posts.

It's annoying, but no-one is going to be able to get anything done about ED at the moment. They are criminals and at the end of the day, criminals like to play dirty by moving to countries where they cannot get busted. I think the 'don't feed the trolls' policy should be enforced more often.

Trolls love attention. Starve them of that and they'll go away.

zaiger said:

Yes, but I am not an unreasonable person. I have never once denied someone the removal of content when they have asked me in a calm and respectful way. If they are just going to flip out at me then I will ignore them, after all it wasn't me who wrote the article, so why should I respect the wishes of someone who doesn't give me the same respect?

We have written policies about the process it takes to have content removed. If people doesn't want to follow them and would rather "vandalize" the wiki, that is their prerogative. Just don't be surprised when the page makes it to the #1 Google result, we are a very popular website.

Click to expand...

Can you please help me get the article on e removed its photoshopped with lies and is ruining my life its just two nasty bullies making **** up to make themselves feel good

kath said:

Can you please help me get the article on e removed

Click to expand...

Have you tried:
https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Encyclopedia_Dramatica:Staff
?

Your comment seems desperate, emotional and frantic (I'm not saying there isn't good reason for that), you might want to calm down a bit and come up with a calm and logical reason (with proper grammar) why they should remove the content and be very polite when asking. (Nothing worse than sob stories from users that want content moderated. I really do have a life and I don't care about your drama. Don't waste my time by forcing me to find a logical reason why I should moderate content for you.)
Point to their own community rules (again, leave your emotions/attitude at the door while doing so) and explain why the wiki is not beneficial to their site.
https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Encyclopedia_Dramatica:ED_Is_Not

If that doesn't work they have an article on their own site that says how to vandalize a wiki properly.
https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Vandal/How-to

I've been in similar situations. I simply ignore it. The internet is full of trolls and there isn't much we can do about it unless we threaten our own freedom of speech online... For example, imagine if there was a push to make laws against sites like ED, the same laws could easily apply to your forum if a member talks about another member or entity that might even slightly be considered inconsiderate.

On editing the ED wiki, I'd make it a habit to just edit the page each day, several times a day if possible...but only as a game LOL. Sure, they will likely continue to revert it but if you keep it up, the same way, over and over again, it will likely eventually start to annoy those on the ED site. Use proxies and such in case they start to ban you... don't give up, keep doing it over and over again, make it a habit... Play with them a bit LOL why not? You really have nothing to lose screwing with people who screw with you

i'd ignore it
(or post my side of why)

same as you have a right to run your site how you wish, so does the other site.

your issue is with the ?former? users that made the post.


suppose you could, tit for tat, go around making unfavorable post bout them
though, getting thicker skinned would likely be better