The Problem with Giants and Mammoths

mammothOh my… look what the kids have gone and done now!

Greetings from the brand new, freshly constructed, and all-inclusive Game of Thrones vacation destination of choice… WatchersontheWall.com.

A man is honored to be a part of such a great community that was built with none other than the reader, the guest and the fan in mind, just as it should be. I consider the staff here at WotW second to none when it comes to news, casting, and commentary and I am equally honored to be working with each of them.

But before we get too deep into the desideratum, we need to discuss the elephant in the room (or to keep it Thronesesque, the mammoth). Leave it to the Unsullied village idiot to bring it up.

Grab a cocktail (not necessarily a cocktail video) and pull up a seat to your table. After all, this Wall was built for you…

Regardless of where you reside or where your travels may lead, traditions should and will follow. I have many, so without further adieu, my first disclaimer at WatchersontheWall.com:

Disclaimer: This explanation/discussion piece is NOT written to trash or reflect badly on one particular person or to badmouth anyone associated with the Dark Side(d) (from this point on referred to as “Giant”). It is also NOT a reflection of the thoughts or feelings of any other WotW staff members other than myself (although it very well may be).

And it will be rendered in at least 2 parts due to a laundry list of facts that I feel you deserve to know. However, this piece is not authored to persuade anyone from never visiting their site again or to get more visitors to WotW. That decision is up to the reader, as it should be.

If you are a brand new reader that is not aware of where the core of the WotW group originated, this article will probably interest you very little if at all. If that is the case please feel free to navigate to the main menu and enjoy the rest of WotW!

If you are still here, well, here goes

I will always remember the sinking feeling I got when WinterPhil gave us the news. But for some reason, I was not surprised. Phil was opening a new chapter on his life that I was made aware of, and change is an understandable part of life. Sometimes it affects others positively. Sometimes, not so much.

But regardless, I will never blame him for the decision he made. I owe him a debt for he opened a door and gave me an opportunity to be a part of a community that gave me the great reward of nothing more than interaction between fans. That by itself has always been enough. No compensation guaranteed, and none requested (other than a t-shirt, which I never received, dammit!).

Immediately following the announcement and for a while, all was quiet. Business as usual. No changes made other than the initial announcement on the old site of the buy-out and the transition. A new editor was named.  But no pop-ups. No click bait. No news on alterations was essentially good news from my perspective.

Of course there was reader frenzy and discourse about the possible changes forthcoming, most of which the Giant unfortunately solidified later as legitimate concerns.

But honestly, I was cautiously optimistic. I was never impressed with their web designs or layouts, but I was also led to believe (at first) that the changes to the site would be minimal yet more functional. Phil had a site redesign in the back of his mind anyway.  And the new editor was adamant about staying true to the old design (a battle that by his own account was being waged behind the Giant curtain).

Plus, joining a collective of established sites with current readership that could flow over to us sounded promising. The quantity of readers growing was always welcome. But the quality of content provided to the readers was always the most important.

Somewhere along the line, someone lost that memo.

When yours truly was prompted for input on the direction of the site during the transition (which to be honest was never really requested), these were my remarks. One was a statement during a phone call, and one was in a written email.

This was context pulled from an email when discussing how the Giant needed to delicately handle the transition and have a plan. By the way, I wrote this with the utmost respect for the GoT/ASOIAF fan base after witnessing first-hand how passionate they can be. I think most of you will agree:

“However, you need to warn the Giant…. this is not the NFL.  It’s worse.  You think football fans are passionate….. shiiiiit…. they aint seen nothing.”

I know… intelligent, was it not? But the point was blunt and should have arguably been heeded.

However, the following statement on the phone was made with the utmost sincerity and I know the person it was directed towards will remember it:

“This is probably the best advice I can give you: Do NOT, under any circumstances, sacrifice the site fan base in order to bring in more readers. They are a loyal group, and they will welcome the growth in terms of more fans joining in. But if you’re intent is to go for content quantity over quality, you will reap what you sow.”

Shortly after that phone call, there was a notice received regarding “quotas.” The word “quota” of course ended up meaning “filler” and at that point, none of us knew how serious that would eventually become.

Now, in all fairness, the quota deal did not affect me directly. The brass knew my role and what I did and the fact that I was one of the only Unsullied on staff. They knew I did speculation and recaps and reviews and was available for anything that they may need a hand with.

However, my partners in crime on WotW and the new editor were affected a little more adversely. Fury delivered as she always does, repeatedly, for what is a thankless job: moderating the site and the comments. But when editing and moderating of posts and comments was pulled from the four of us who knew the site the best and without notice, it became quite obvious that the boys upstairs did not have a grasp on exactly what they had gotten into.

Our powers were eventually reinstated following a group email where the importance of moderation and editing (among other things) were discussed. But the red flags were flying and the concerns of readers and the contributors alike, at least to some degree, were validated early on.

However, of all the changes that were made early in the transition, it was the business left unattended that the Giant did NOT handle that baffles a man the most.

As I have never tried my hand at anatomical analogies, there may never be a more suitable situation as this. So here is my best shot for today…

Most businesses have a model. Most models are at least somewhat proven. For a group that boasts over 200 websites, there is no doubt that their respective model has been effective in the majority of situations.

But admittedly, this was unchartered territory for the Giant. And as in Game of Thrones, the Giant seemed to know his business. Yet despite his size, he was not wise enough to be able to lead the diversity it would take to unite the clans and make it successful.

Back to the analogy…

Leadership will come and go. The commander that may have had the insight to create or unite or lead can change. Buyouts happen. Acquisitions happen. Founders and CEOs and Presidents and Vice Presidents retire, or move on, or get canned. Regardless, success can be maintained with the right model. The brain can be changed. But it is rendered useless and can do absolutely nothing without its backbone.

And throughout the early stages, this is the unchangeable, most pertinent anatomical part that no one with the Giant seemed be concerned with. Fury, FaB, and HmR (and I guess arguably myself) seemed almost disposable in their eyes. To this day, I will never understand the logic involved with the brain choosing not to consult with the backbone and making sure it had a voice regarding important decisions about an entity that they themselves had been so instrumental in building.

But that is the way it was. There was little to no communication. The editor continued to fight the valiant fight, but his efforts were largely discounted and neglected.  Meanwhile, the Four went weeks without any updates. And what we did get from the top was covered with buzzwords and vagueness. We stood without contract, or contact, or non-compete.  We could have all packed the ship and got on the boat to Braavos and no one would have known.  We were a body of uncertainty. But yet we stood, ready to serve. The Watchers were at their post, as they should be.

One morning I sat down at my computer and was abruptly blocked from a site that I had been visiting for literally two years without fail.  However, on this particular morning, I was blocked completely by what appeared to be some kind of ad infiltration. At first, I mistook it for a virus. But then every other regular site I visit for daily news came up without issue.

And then, the dominos… all right before the busiest time of the year. The new brain was making decisions without considering the health of the backbone or the body, and everything we knew was about to change.  Completely.

To be continued.

A man shall return for the conclusion of this fiasco soon enough!  Until then, and sincerely, thank you all for joining us at Watchers on the Wall.  This site was built for you, the readers, and we cannot keep it up without your support.

Here’s to the first of many posts!  Raise a glass!  Take the Black! And may there always be peace in your realm.  -Oz

“Unbowed.  Unbent.  Unsullied.”

PART TWO: TIME TO REST IN PEACE

171 Comments

  1. Thank you for posting this. Hard to believe how little they seemed to know about the site they bought.

  2. There is peace in the realm now that we are – happily – at Watchers on the Wall. Thanks, Oz, for this insightful and honest post. I am saddened but not surprised that the Dark Lords disregarded the opinions and advice of the Fab Four. Shortsighted and narrow minded!

    This new site seems like home…like the old days. Nobody does it better!

  3. When the new powers arrived, I made a comment about how this would be the ruin of the site and its community and that we would all sooner than later move to a new community that would pick up from the ruins of the old.

    And of course I was attacked for saying it. 🙂

  4. You know what this website needs? More cocktail recipes. With that in mind, I present the Flaming Hodor!

    Ingredients;
    Hodor
    Hodor
    Hodor….

    I forget the rest. Next time, I’ll show you how to mix a Bloody Hodor, a Hodor on the Beach and a Long, Slow, Comfortable Hodor Up Against the Wall.

  5. Nice to get your first post up, right, Oz?
    It is unfortunate there’s been so much spoilery material to handle these days 😉

    Anyway, feels good to be here, guys!

  6. GeekFurious:
    When the new powers arrived, I made a comment about how this would be the ruin of the site and its community and that we would all sooner than later move to a new community that would pick up from the ruins of the old.

    And of course I was attacked for saying it.

    You were hardly the only one foreseeing that Fansided would ultimately turn WiC to shit. Almost everybody stood against them when it was first announced that they would take over.

    The Kingshaver: You know what this website needs? More cocktail recipes.

    😀

  7. Hear Marko Roar,

    Breath of fresh air, Good Ser. Happy to be here with you and all these great people!

    GeekFurious,

    “Tell your sister… you were RIGHT.”

    mariamb,

    You are quite welcome. Thank you for coming home with us and inviting others to join us!

  8. I was getting so SO frustrated with all the STUPID filler/quota posts… “Dame of Thrones” “Arms of Thrones” “Spirits of Thrones” ARGHHHHH!

    Thank you Axey, Fury, HmR, and Oz for rescuing us!

  9. Wow. Just….wow!
    Corporate overlords, we do not kneel. And you’re not dressed for the weather.

  10. If anything the biggest change came from the weak moderation that turned every comment thread into one of nothing but bitching about book changes (the site in the last several months seemed to draw in more hardened book readers than anything else rather than show newbies who wouldn’t recognize Patchface from Dacey Mormont, and Oz, don’t worry, they were minor unimportant characters so no spoilers) and sniping at each other.

    I’m not sure when that happened. It wasn’t even during the debate over “Breaker of Chains,” when we had a real spirited discussion about the Jaime/Cersei scene, and rightfully so.

    It seemed to get worse and worse as the last 2 episodes approached and then into the first several weeks of the off-season, when it really was truly difficult to even be into the site to view comment sessions, which invariably degraded into a bitch-fest about the many crimes of D&D. It was odd, and brought a level of tension to the site that wasn’t fun, and I’m not sure whether the breakaway group running things here now, or those making comments, are just a bit closer to the group I was used to during, say, Season 2 (when I discovered the-site-that-shall-not-be-named-so-let’s-call-it-LordVoldemort.net), or if the mods have generally been more active in the past until the late days of LordVoldemort.net.

  11. So glad you guys did this! I was lost in a stormy sea and rudderless until you appeared on the horizon. In other words, I lost interest in the previous site and my interest in the show started to wane. I missed the close community of “the other place”. Group hug everyone! Do we still support the bottom or what? 😉

  12. You are too nice, Oz. You should really work on that.

    Anyway, I will be devastated if at some point this site doesn’t put together some piece-of-shit how-to cocktail video just for poops and grins.

  13. Thanks for the insight and good luck with the new site. Wish you all the luck in the world on this new endeavor.

  14. Wow so Fansided did not even make you guys sign non compete clauses? I was worried that Fansided would go after you guys for making a new site. Glad to know my fears can be put to rest. Surprising lack of care for the website they purchased it seems.

    Anyways, when the Fansided deal was first announced, winterphil made a comment about how the site would get a much needed update. Excuse me if I’m wrong but did this update ever happen? Other than the ads and the app, the annoying repeated sign ons, and so forth, what did Fansided bring to the table besides new readers?

  15. GeekFurious,

    Gotta own up to that.

    I hoped beyond hope that FS wouldn’t be stupid enough to try and ruin things, and would just be helpful. I have AdBlock Plus, so I was spared the worst of it, but man there was a lot of clickbait. Took a while to realize it, given that the good stuff from these (Watchers) guys was still there; but hell, the photo threads on the GoT Reddit were less clickbaity than that got.

    Glad these guys built a new site. Starting to feel like the old Winter around here.

    BTW, any chance WinterPhil ever posts here, or we find out what he thinks of all this?

    PS: First WotW post!!! Glad to be back!

    PPS: Are there some site rules or something forbiiding mention of where we all (or many of us) came from?

  16. I tried to give the new overlords the benefit of the doubt back at the old-site-that-shall-not-be-named. But the quality of the content slipped, the pop-ups were very annoying (and spoilerish – but as a dyed-in-the-wool Sullied, that was not too big a problem for me), and the discussions devolved into name calling and vitriol.

    It’s nice to be here, and I am so glad that those who really cared about what it was that brought us together as a community cared enough to be brave & strike out on their own.

    THANK YOU so much, Fury, HmR, FaB, and Oz!!!! I’ll STFU now, before the gushing gets really embarrassing 🙂

    Edit: Supporting the bottom, as always!

  17. Oz, thanks for this, albeit somewhat veiled, inside scoop!

    I saw the writing on the wall (pun intended) when I noticed that most of the articles weren’t really anything quality about the show and weren’t written by the Core 4. And they started getting cutesy with the names of feature stories, like the one about the “dames”…I’m a feminist and those posts did nothing for me….and then spoilers in the polls?! So glad you all started this site. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

    Skipjack,

    What really chapped my hide about the cocktails is how bad they are.

    Some of them…well, most of them….sounded pretty nasty, didn’t they!! The first time I saw that chick in the tight t-shirt sticking her chest out and pretending to be boozing it up I was like, “Really?! This is where we’ve ended up?”

    Greatjon of Slumber,

    If anything the biggest change came from the weak moderation that turned every comment thread into one of nothing but bitching

    I noticed the trend too and unfortunately couldn’t resist pushing back. I actually wondered (but did not saying anything on the site) if some of the “trolls” might actually be working for the “Giant”. You know, to drum up controversy and get more people posting. Maybe that kind of thing drums up business in competitive fan sites for sports teams (after all, competition and arguing about who is better is what they’re all about) but for a GOT fan site, it just doesn’t make sense. I started to read fewer and fewer of the comments and posts. And some great commenters left like Daniellica (spelled?). Her insight was fantastic and I miss her input. Somebody needs to tell her about this site.

  18. So glad the new site gets the community back to normal – enough of the corporate political BS (as excellently described by Oz) everyday at work!

  19. Wait, wait, wait. Waaait a minute. So we won’t get any cocktail videos here? What a disappointment.

  20. Greatjon of Slumber,

    Funny thing about that. WiC has always had a really liberal commenting policy. And people have always complained about adaptation changes. I wasn’t more lenient with people after the sale, that’s for sure. There were fewer mods, with Winter gone. I think mainly what you were seeing was an overall attitude shift. We couldn’t prevent people from being angry and irritated when they were at WiC. I think the overall shift in content, and the ads, and just everything- people were too pissed off. And it was never our policy to prevent people from having an opinion about the show and books. It still isn’t. We can’t end the show vs. books debate, really, “purists” vs “bookburners” accusations, as frustrating as it gets sometimes. But I hope the change in environment will help people relax a little.

    Of course it sucked when people complained about the overall changes in the site and we were unable to admit we agreed, even when people point-blank wanted our opinions.

  21. Thanks for posting this Oz. For once you are the Sullied.

    Looking forward to the next part of a tale that we now know ends well (and Seven Gods know we don’t get these often around here) with a rebooted site, a renewed spirit and a brand new range of private jokes involving cocktails.

  22. HouseMartellBitches:

    BTW, any chance WinterPhil ever posts here, or we find out what he thinks of all this?

    PS: First WotW post!!!Glad to be back!

    PPS: Are there some site rules or something forbiiding mention of where we all (or many of us) came from?

    Winter did post this regarding the new site.

    And welcome back!

    There are no rules here about mentioning the other site. But there are definitely rules about mentioning us at the old house. 🙂

  23. zod: You were hardly the only one foreseeing that Fansided would ultimately turn WiC to shit. Almost everybody stood against them when it was first announced that they would take over.

    A FEW people voiced it. But that wasn’t my point… it was that people refuse to accept reality when a big site takes over a fan site. And when you say “everyone” you just mean a handful of people, because that’s about the number of people who spoke out right away.

  24. I just looked at “LordVoldemord.net” and wow the site turned even worse since you guys leaved. I’m so glad to be a watcher on the wall now.

    Btw did I take an oath of celibacy? 😉

  25. so the siterunners didn’t understand the core elements of the site and what appealed to its fans and made sweeping changes that stood contrary to the spirit of the original material. huh. funny, that.

    anyhoo, i’m so glad this site is up and running with the fab 4 (and bex and the new writers) … this is awesome and i think it’s stunning how much y’all have affected the GoT viewing experience for so many ppl. *slowclap for WotW*

  26. GeekFurious,

    Hope you don’t break an arm patting yourself on the back. Here are the usernames of “A FEW” or “a handful” voicing skepticism to downright outrage:

    Diego
    Nick_Scryer
    AJC
    umuckurlife
    Hodor’s Bastard
    Wastrel
    Small Saul
    Dolorous Ned
    ATG
    Fat Balda
    Sid
    Zack
    Cary Storm
    Balerion
    Melisandre
    Bill
    Khal a Bunga
    john
    Laurntius
    Johan Spurre

    I was going to parse all of the 359 comments in the http://winteriscoming.net/2014/01/01/winteriscoming-net-joins-the-fansided-network/ thread to really rub your nose in your narcissism, but I had to give up after the first 40 or so.

  27. It was the downfall of LV.net when the Giant usurped the ‘Throne’ but now peace has been restored to the realm because basically the whole population migrated to a new realm. (I hope I’m not foretelling the end of ASoIaF???)

    But seriously… I have been silently reading the old site for a long time but never made a comment there and the further down the road it went with fansided, the more afraid was I to do so because of all the ranting and people insulting each other.

    Though I’m glad that I stumbled on that one comment on the old site that informed me that a new site was in the making and led me here to the happy new place and to a good and clean beginning.

    To the fantastic four and all the staff here: Long may they reign!

  28. GeekFurious,

    You, Ser Furious, are rivaled only by Nostradamus.

    I think a lot of us were apprehensive but were willing to see how it went. Oh well, water under the bridge now. That site is as useless as nipples on a breastplate.

    Always Support The Backbone!

  29. Cumsprite,

    It appears I was more skeptical than I remembered:

    Having said that, however, it is hard to be anything but disappointed with this announcement. WiCnet as we know and love it will be gone for good. Whether that is for the better or worse is yet to be determined but the omens are dire indeed.

    The FanSided articles (it’s hard to call them that) are extremely short (several short paragraphs) that are superficial at best, no real in depth analysis. Most of these “stories” have single digit comments, and that is being kind as many have zero comments. Another annoyance is that there is no preview for a post. There is a picture and a headline. Not much to go on to determine if you even want to read the post. Once you click on a post again you get minimal “story” and the same endless picture links. Seems to be click baiting at it’s most extreme.
    After perusing a few more of their sites it is obvious that WiCnet will instantly be their best site. This appears to be a great move for them as it will benefit them a great deal more than it will benefit WiCnet imho. And while Patrick Allen claims they “do not answer to a large corporation”, what is their first and most prominent link? SI.com (sports illistrated). That’s right folks, SI, is owned by Time, Inc. which is a division of Time Warner. There is only one god for corporations. And his name is Greed. And what do we say to Greed? Not today.

  30. GeekFurious:
    When the new powers arrived, I made a comment about how this would be the ruin of the site and its community and that we would all sooner than later move to a new community that would pick up from the ruins of the old.

    And of course I was attacked for saying it.

    Wow. And you call me narcissistic.

  31. Glad to see a new Oz post 😀 And yet again, glad to be on WotW. It might not sound as catchy as WiC, but the quality is much better. Fartsided has lost us for good.

  32. minty:

    But seriously… I have been silently reading the old site for a long time but never made a comment there and the further down the road it went with fansided, the more afraid was I to do so because of all the ranting and people insulting each other.

    Though I’m glad that I stumbled on that one comment one the old site that informed me that a new site was in the making and led me here to the happy new place and to a good and clean beginning.

    To the fantastic four and all the staff here: Long may they reign!

    I had a very similar experience, minty. I had read over at the old place for a long time, had hesitated signing on, and as things seemed to shift, I continued to put off creating an account. I stumbled upon a mention of this place…I think only a couple/few days after it was up and running…checked it out, and it was very clear I’d enjoy it here, so signed up almost immediately. I’m glad I did, and I’m even happier those from the old place took the chance and made the choice to create WatchersontheWall. I’m especially excited by the creation of the message board forum. Great job all around, y’all!

  33. Hexonx,

    You are wise indeed, good show. I really wanted to give everyone their proper credit for “calling it”, but it really was a lot of posts.

    Full disclosure: Cumsprite did not post in that thread. Just a lustful gleam in his da’s eye at that time.

  34. It’s interesting hearing all of this stuff, especially since I’ve heard some bad things about other related sites like Westeros and Reddit. I’m glad you all were able to make a fresh start and I wish the best of luck to the site

  35. This is the place to come for actual ASOIAF/GOT news. I just hope others rotate this way too. Shame what happened with WIC. The irrelevant articles and pop ups were farcical from the start. Just glad this site now exists.

  36. Omg I can’t believe I found you guys. I don’t know if some of you remember me but I used to visit the old site from time to time and I was starting to wonder what was going on there and why it wasn’t awesome to go there anymore. Now I know ;^)
    Anyways, you’ll be seeing my name here from time to time since I’ll be posting here now and them. Nice to see all these familiar “faces” again as well as the fantastic team who make our waiting withdrawal a lot easier to bear. Thanks a lot. I’m already getting myself comfortable here 🙂


  37. [Bard Simpson is thrown out of Mr.Burns’s casino.]
    Squeeky Voiced Teen: “Oh yeah? What are you going to do? Start your own casino in your treehouse and get all your little friends to come? I’d like to see that. Ah ha ha ha…”
    [Kids pile into Bart’s new casino in his treehouse]
    Bart: “Hi, yeah, welcome. Have a lucky day. Mm hmm.”
    Squeeky Voiced Teen: “Well, he certainly showed me.”

  38. Josla,

    I recognize the name. Welcome back. Just out of curiosity, how did you come across the new site? I hope those that don’t visit as much in the off-season find their way here as well.

  39. minty:

    PS – Isn’t it funny that the guys are measuring their d**ks over who saw the downfall of the old site coming first….

    There will always be those concerned about the potential inadequacy of their swords.

  40. JacMac30:
    Do we still support the bottom or what?

    Forgive my ignorance (new member of this community, not a migrant from WiC) but the bottom of what (or who) is getting support?

  41. Dragonslayer:
    I just looked at “LordVoldemord.net” and wow the site turned even worse since you guys leaved. I’m so glad to be a watcher on the wall now.

    Btw did I take an oath of celibacy?

    Well, you heard Sam last season, TECHNICALLY it doesn’t call for celibacy … ;-).

  42. Really pleased we have this place to visit now. It feels a lot like home just like the old place before the changes. An interesting read for sure. Keep up the good work team!

  43. I hope everyone will get on board with my new cocktail posts. Hate to spoil, but:

    1. Get a glass
    2. Pour in alcohol
    3. Drink

    😉

  44. Great to see your first post, Oz. It was definitely worth the wait. I’m looking forward to accompanying (and consoling) you on this Lysa-less venture going forward.

  45. Again, so happy to be here! keep up the outstanding work (especially the shooting coverage)!!!

  46. Bex:
    I hope everyone will get on board with my new cocktail posts. Hate to spoil, but:

    1. Get a glass
    2. Pour in alcohol
    3. Drink

    This post lacks sex appeal.

  47. Thank you for the new site. Can you tell us why some commentators altered their names? Did the master of dark arts have control of said names? I would think if anyone had that as intellectual property, it would be GRRM, not the other site unless that site had an agreement to use said IP from GRRM. Only your name, not a proper GRRM motto, survived the migration.

  48. GeekFurious is a smart guy but has the unenviable quality of going on and on about everything he gets right whilst simultaneously forgetting everything he gets wrong.

    As for the old site; it was simply an embarrassment. I use the past tense because as far as I’m concerned it’s dead to me.

  49. Oh, and is it plausible that new GOOs will find a post here too or is there a contract with the other site.

    Thanks again.

  50. Oz of Thrones

    There are no rules here about mentioning the other site.But there are definitely rules about mentioning us at the old house.

    Just out of interest ARE there any specific rules around this? There’s nothing stopping one of us providing a link to this site on the dark side site is there? I mean, what can they do about that?

    Obviously I appreciate you guys can’t do that yourselves, but surely we, the minions, can do that to let others know who may have missed all this, right?

  51. As an aside, during a foray across the Styx I’ve noticed that they’ve finally acknowledged that the schism has actually occurred at all. About 6 hours ago they still had Fury, FaB, HMR, Oz and Bex as contributors, seems they’ve now removed that titbit.

    Great to learn more though from the great and powerful Oz

  52. While I do agree that FS did WIC a great disservice, and I have great respect for Phil and all the writers who came here to found WOTW, this narrative does bring up another question:

    Where did things go wrong? False pretense when negotiating the takeover? Misread fine print? Written guaranties that were broken? Excessive trust with the initial approach? (This last one would be a bummer, I still have great respect for Mr Bicking, but one has to be realistic when debriefing a poor outcome)

  53. Ross: Just out of interest ARE there any specific rules around this? There’s nothing stopping one of us providing a link to this site on the dark side site is there? I mean, what can they do about that?

    Obviously I appreciate you guys can’t do that yourselves, but surely we, the minions, can do that to let others know who may have missed all this, right?

    People have been mentioning this site and us since we left, and have apparently linked to us several times already. Everything gets deleted immediately. They really don’t want anyone knowing what happened, where we went and that things have changed.

    As for the change in our names, no one made us do it. WiC owns nothing of us. I changed mine because I dislike that we had no identity of our own, really- we were anonymous phrases who never really got to take ownership of our work. The names had a GoT flair to them, but it didn’t work for me when starting over. The others made a similar call. New place, may as well go with a new name.

  54. Sue the Fury,

    Sue the Fury:
    As for the change in our names, no one made us do it. WiC owns nothing of us. I changed mine because I dislike that we had no identity of our own, really- we were anonymous phrases who never really got to take ownership of our work. The names had a GoT flair to them, but it didn’t work for me when starting over. The others made a similar call. New place, may as well go with a new name.

    Thanks. Didn’t think of that.

  55. Ooooh that’s a nice bit of lore from this community. A self-derisive motto that goes back to a pre-season 1 treasure hunt taken to extremes by our leaders, that provided the phrase “always support the bottom” without any context, and which fueled countless theories… In the end it meant nothing, but it was so fun we gave it meaning, and it was funny enough that they (HBO or a subcontractor) turned it into an Easter Egg.

    In truth it was supporting the bottom of a container with one’s hands, totally unrelated to the treasure hunt. But now it just means how dedicated the WIC/WOTW community is… I think some tshirts were made with the phrase!

    Of the Night: Forgive my ignorance (new member of this community, not a migrant from WiC) but the bottom of what (or who) is getting support?

  56. I am an Administrator for Game Of Thrones Wiki.

    According to Alexa rankings page, only five websites currently link to WatchersOnTheWall.com:

    The first is a news post relinked on Reddit, the second is Game of Thrones Wiki’s Season 5 page, where we’ve been interlinking you guys as a news source.

    The third is a hungarian language fan forum linking to the same report, the fourth a french fansite, and the fifth an italian subtitles fansite.

    http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fwatchersonthewall.com

    I first heard of your new site only when I saw it cross-linked on the FatPinkCast tumblr feed. We are now actively using your site as a major news source. And by “we” I mean me and the other five active Administrators who actually run Game of Thrones Wiki.

    During the week of the Season 4 finale, GOT Wiki had 8 million hits. Over 3 million on finale night itself.

    One of the four please email me at [email protected]

  57. Thanks for the inside scoop, Oz! Good to know.

    Man, the comment section has really dwindled over there…

  58. The Dragon Demands,

    Okay this is sort of random.

    We’re a new site, there wouldn’t be much in Alexa. Several sites picked up on the penance walk story so I know we’re linked to by a lot more than five websites. There are also a lot of other websites that have linked to us here and there, now that I think of it. If you have a specific question, you can send it via the Contact email, Dragon.

  59. Hexonx,
    Thanks. From now on I too shall strive to always support the bottom.

    On another note this article clearly addresses the issue with giants. Are the mammoths to feature in part 2? 😉

  60. Sue the Fury: People have been mentioning this site and us since we left, and have apparently linked to us several times already. Everything gets deleted immediately. They really don’t want anyone knowing what happened, where we went and that things have changed.

    They continue to underestimate the “fandom” in intelligence and loyalty. They also must have a very high opinion of their posts on cocktails and makeup if they think that no one has noticed a change in content.

  61. I love this place.

    I’ve always been much more a lurker than a participant, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling like I’ve gotten to know many of the folks who’ve migrated from there to here. Others have already expressed better than I can the disappointment at the changes that were made over there, but the new hang-out is more awesome than I could’ve hoped for. I know I’m in the right place when I find myself laughing out loud again as I read the comments, instead of wanting to punch several someones in the face. Y’all are much better for my overall health and well-being. Thank you! Looking forward to the rest of the story, Oz!

  62. Sue the Fury,

    Can we do a little GoFundMe for you guys to get you some money for targeted pay per click ads to build awareness? I just did a quick search and no one has bought ads for relevant keywords. Granted, you may not necessarily want everyone from over there (I hear trolls like to eat PPC for breakfast)…

    #marketinghat

  63. Since this new site seems to be doing quite well, and brought over a significant fanbase, I can only assume the conclusion of this story will be one much happier than one George R. R. Martin might write for us.

  64. The Dragon Demands,

    Phil is no longer a part of any website, he doesn’t owe anyone an explanation for comments he makes. If he doesn’t agree with what Elio and Linda said about the new castings, that’s his right.

    Just to be clear this post is not a Q&A to offer up our views on every single matter. We’re not a monolith, for starters- all of us have varied opinions about things and are free to express it. We’re not really here to dish on other websites (well, besides WiC in this case) or the ASOIAF vs GOT fandom debates. We have Unsullied and ASOIAF readers here so I think it’s clear we enjoy both. Oz simply wanted to address the reasons for our exits, because people have been wondering a lot, so maybe after this we can just put it all to bed and move on.

  65. Of the Night: Forgive my ignorance (new member of this community, not a migrant from WiC) but the bottom of what (or who) is getting support?

    In early 2011, HBO put out a website called ‘The Maester’s Path’ created for the fans, critics and bloggers to start a buzz going before the season aired. It was essentially a series of challenges with puzzles to solve each challenge. The crew of the old site was one of those that received a box with scents, maps and all kind of goodies for one of the challenges. Of course the box and its contents was scrutinized for further hints. One of the papers inside the box had a phrase “Always support the bottom” watermarked on it. This cause a bit of frenzy among the fans figuring out what could the mysterious phrase means. It turns out the paper was just marked inadvertently from being underneath a heavy container with the phrase embossed on it, (Always support the bottom… so as the contents won’t fall out) and does not really figure into the puzzle.

    That was when it had become the “house words” of the old site.

  66. Ross,

    It’s my understanding they’re deleting comments about it.

    I used to follow the show with the DVD releases and visited the old site as a time-lapse lurker in lieu of a community I could share my late-to-the-party enjoyment with. This was the first year I watched it in “real time,” and actually joined the community. I’m glad I didn’t wait any longer. I wouldn’t have started following the right people on Twitter and would have completely missed all this.

  67. Helen Carnate:
    Cary Storm,

    Since I changed my twitter recently I’m now me instead of Anguissette1979, except at Fleabottom where I don’t think I’m allowed to be anyone but Angie/79 (Right, Rygar?)

    There is no more Rygar. There is only me.

    Edit: And we sincerely miss you.

  68. Magiese:
    Ross,

    It’s my understanding they’re deleting comments about it.

    I used to follow the show with the DVD releases and visited the old site as a time-lapse lurker in lieu of a community I could share my late-to-the-party enjoyment with.This was the first year I watched it in “real time,” and actually joined the community.I’m glad I didn’t wait any longer.I wouldn’t have started following the right people on Twitter and would have completely missed all this.

    They just don’t know what “community” means. At all. That’s why we’re here.

  69. mariamb: They continue to underestimate the “fandom” in intelligence and loyalty. They also must have a very high opinion of their posts on cocktails and makeup if they think that no one has noticed a change in content.

    Truth!

  70. Sue the Fury,

    Well what I was asking is if you’re idealistically “anti-book fandom”; because apparently anyway, you seem to be doing the right thing and being inclusive of BOTH as WiC was this time last year, with clearly marked “Unsullied” sections and “book reader only” reaction sections, etc.

  71. Helen Carnate:
    Cary Storm,

    Since I changed my twitter recently I’m now me instead of Anguissette1979, except at Fleabottom where I don’t think I’m allowed to be anyone but Angie/79 (Right, Rygar?)

    [Raises an eyebrow]
    “angiuissette”, you say?

  72. Tywin Shat First: They just don’t know what “community” means.At all. That’s why we’re here.

    I don’t know. They do show bewbs. And that guy did have a hell of a beard.

    I miss Zach. Cant he escape their clutches?

  73. Tywin Shat First,

    Hold on, you meant “community” doesn’t mean “LOOK AT THIS! NOW LOOK AT THIS!”? Are you sure?

    …Wait, no, you’re right, that’s just empty marketing.

  74. The Dragon Demands,

    Good to see you here!

    (Well, all of you, really. Though Veltigar… I hardly recognize ‘im without a Mads reference! Color me sad.)

    To answer your question, I think we each have different levels of tolerance towards book purists. Early on, I had an almost violent reaction to their constant nitpicking, and was solidly anti-purist, but as time passed, I began to see the forest for the trees. The truth is, we’re all purists to a degree; if there was a show on HBO called “Game of Thrones” that featured a laugh track and a hearty womp-womp every time Eddard looked glumly at the camera, we’d all be considered hardline purists. So it’s really just a question of degrees. I still wince at the ones who don’t understand television structure.

    (I understand and wholly support the Talisa complaint, with the caveat that her death was … memorable, so I suppose she served the show. They left so many clues regarding her HONEYPOT status, however, I feel like they paved the way and then chickened out. But I don’t really know for sure. Bex would be the expert on All Things Failed with Talisa, however.)

    I get along well enough with Linda and Elio. They are exceedingly dedicated–more so than I could ever be. I’m not sure they get along well with me; I may be a bit too bouncy for their tastes. And Westeros has oft played the role of jealous first wife as opposed to benign father figure, where other ASoIaF sites are concerned, and the next time they openly name-drop WiC or WotW as a source for any of their filming news will probably be the first time.

    I also enjoy Lindaaaa’s back-and-forths with various Tumblr bloggers. The vitriol is never veiled. But I’m perverse that way, and love a good debate.

    But I respect Westeros as the Grand-daddy of ’em All. Most of us were weaned on the Westeros boards.

  75. I think you guys should include a Cliff Notes version of the “Always support the bottom” story on the site’s About Us page. It really is such a defining thing about this group of writers and a big chunk of the recently migrated readers and posters!

  76. I learnt about this site from a post on WiC. But I would have learnt about it from news links in the GOT/ASIOAF reddits if I hadn’t seen those posts.

    Thank you all and please keep doing it. Been reading since a little before Season 1. Half the fun of the show is the speculation and argument about adaptation.

  77. Helen Carnate:
    Axechucker,

    Axey – are we going to get your video reviews over here now when the new season starts up? They were hilarious! Also, please tell me we’re still going to have Twitter recaps!

    Yes, in fact I’m shooting an AxeyFab episode right now I have loosely titled, The Trial of Benioff and Weiss.

    (No, really.)

    It’s getting long. Might be a two-parter. We’ll see.

    However, any AxeyFabulous episodes I do that aren’t Game of Thrones-centric don’t belong here, so I won’t be posting those. You can subscribe to HappyCool on YouTube if you’d like.

    (That said, I have only done one non-GoT AxeyFab so far. I could be slightly obsessed.)

    And yes, when next season comes ’round, I will be doing Twitter posts here. (WiC might keep doing them as well. It’s not as though I trademarked it. WiCThoros filled in for me once and did a pretty good job!)

  78. Veltigar:
    Glad to see a new Oz post And yet again, glad to be on WotW. It might not sound as catchy as WiC, but the quality is much better. Fartsided has lost us for good.

    I’m starting to get worried that Euron and the Greyjoys will be cut entirely. If your constant complaints to cast Mads as Euron help ensure that we get Euron in *any* form appearing in the TV continuity, I’m all for it.

  79. Mine is the Furry:
    I miss Zach.Cant he escape their clutches?

    About a week ago, I saw Zach post a pretty long comment giving his perspective… he definitely seemed to be siding with everyone over here. The comment ended with “I will receive an angry email for this post.”

    Hours later, his post had disappeared.

  80. Helen Carnate:
    Lex,

    I just saw that on my recon mission…. no posts with more than 60 comments and most only have 10-20.

    *snicker*

    There seem to be quite a few articles with less than 10.

  81. Lex: About a week ago, I saw Zach post a pretty long comment giving his perspective… he definitely seemed to be siding with everyone over here. The comment ended with “I will receive an angry email for this post.”

    Hours later, his post had disappeared.

    Let’s kidnap him!

  82. Lex: About a week ago, I saw Zach post a pretty long comment giving his perspective… he definitely seemed to be siding with everyone over here. The comment ended with “I will receive an angry email for this post.”

    Hours later, his post had disappeared.

    Not really shocking. Either he reconsidered it and deleted, or someone did it for him. Wouldn’t be the first time FS decided staff shouldn’t be speaking out.

  83. Has anyone else said that you guys pulled a ‘Mad Men Season 3’? Or am I the first to suggest that analogy?

  84. this is now the second defection (i use the word lovingly and at least did not accidentally say defecation) from a major website that i have been a part of. feeling downright e-revolutionary.

    first was from espn when they banned me for using a curse word not directed at anyone but would allow rampant bigotry , jumped at the chance to get out.

    as for this site, i can’t blame anyone for trying to get bigger, better and paid, and admire that same person for getting out when they feel their integrity is compromised. good on you all!

    for the record though, oz, while i am sullied, your defection cinched my following. keep up the good work!

  85. Bex:
    Thanks to WiC the honeypot theory lives!

      Quote  Reply

    I love what Elio of Westeros.org pointed out in his video review after she died, and all chance of further character development or revelations ended:

    That SO MANY people believed in the honeypot theory, or at least found it plausible, is sort of evidence that MANY people thought that the entire character “Talisa” as she appeared in Season 2 and Season 3 was so poorly written that they earnestly hoped it was all a sham facade. It turns out she was just plain that poorly written.

  86. TaviColen123,

    Well if I did it would kind of spoil Mad Men if you were to watch it, but let’s just say there’s an extremely similar situation in the finale of S3 which is considered one of the show’s best episodes: ‘Shut the Door. Have a Seat.’

  87. OZ! I am so happy to see you!

    Hmmm. Maybe I’ll change my name to AngryWiCCommenter and then me and AngryGoTFan can date. Or! BewbstheShittyWiCBartender.

  88. As a long time lurker at WiC, I couldn’t understand the changes Fansided brought. Thank you, Oz, for giving your side of the story. It does provide some perspective about what was happening behind the scenes while Rome was burning. I am glad to have found WotW early on. Thank you for carrying on the spirit of the original WiC (the backbone ? in your analogy).

  89. I mentioned Watchers on the wall at WIC after mentioning how slow they are on news compared to this site, they deleted it within 5 minutes. And comments are awaiting moderation now….

    yeah I deleted that site from my favorites. Long live the watchers on the wall dammit!

  90. Late to the party but thanks for sharing Oz.

    I have AdBlock Plus and never noticed the annoying ads and found the dumb clickbait posts easy to ignore. What had me pissed off was that I sent an email asking why half my posts were going into moderation and were they ever going to fix it so you don’t have to resign in every time. I never got a response. When the fab four defected a few weeks later it was certainly an easy call as to where my loyalties were going to be.

    The few times I’ve popped into WIC lately it seems to be a ghost town with few commenters left. I’m glad WotW has been a success so far and pretty much every regular is here now. Although where’s Hodor’s Bastard? I don’t remember seeing any comments.

  91. Having tired of watching WiCNet wade deeper into the Click-Bait Swamp, where lizard lions of their own making await, I was really pleased to see this site spring up – as others have said, it’s a lovely reminder of the old site, pre its obsession with eyeballs. Now New Zealand is going to be represented on the show, it’s especially important to have a home where fans who take no side at all can be welcomed.

    (Would you believe me if I told you that Keisha Castle-Hughes’ most recent role here was as a mysterious character called “Benjen Stark”, who was constantly warming cold hands before the fire?)

  92. I quite liked some of the video recap shows they did for season 4 at WiC, even though they were nowhere near Flicks and the City’s ones in terms of intelligence and humour.

    I think the first outward signs of its demise were the constant new “news” posts with interview content we had seen many times before. And then the cocktail recipes started to pop up.

    JacMac30,

    Good to see you back in the fold Jackie 🙂

  93. Despite what people say, we know that everyone has a craving for recipes illustrated by amateur. So we asked a nice, big-breasted friend of ours to show you some of his beloved recipes. They’re especially recommended for GOT-themed party in the wild. Without further ado, from today on we are pleased to offer:

    Shagga’s Goat* Recipes
    1: “Roasted Goat

    Difficulty : 2/5
    Ingredients: Goat
    Directions : Roast a Goat

    *All of Shagga’s goats are feeded with 100% fresh manhood.

  94. Ms. D. Ranged in AZ,

    Hope my online name doesn’t offend you Mrs D. A while ago I wanted to change my then online name. Some months back there was a documentary programme on British TV about the Anglo-Saxons and mention was made of Aethelflaede (sp??) also known as the Lady of Mercia. I live in the English midlands and the LoM founded my hometown all those years ago but I thought “Lady of Mercia” would be too much of a direct filtch. Also there is a nursery rhyme “Dame get up and bake your pies”. I think at one (historical) time “Dame” was a courtesy title for women in the UK and schools for younger children were called “dame schools” sometimes (women teachers I suppose).

    Now after addressing Mrs D…..getting back to Oz’s post. It is interesting to read his perspective on what happened. I don’t condemn WinterPhil for what happened. Something cropped up in his life and he couldn’t devote the same amount of time and energy to the website as before and I sincerely believe he thought the amalgamation with Fansided would go well. I was willing to give Fansided the benefit of the doubt in the early days but…..well the rest is history. I look forward to reading more of Oz’s witty posts in the future.

    MescalinicSided:
    Despite what people say, we know that everyone has a craving for recipes illustrated by amateur. So we asked a nice, big-breasted friend of ours to show you some of his beloved recipes. They’re especially recommended for GOT-themed party in the wild. Without further ado, from today on we are pleased to offer:

    Shagga’s Goat* Recipes
    1: “Roasted Goat

    Difficulty : 2/5
    Ingredients:Goat
    Directions:Roast a Goat

    *All of Shagga’s goats are feeded with 100% fresh manhood.

    Tried this but a big black winged shadow swooped down out of the sky and nicked the goat (and I never tell lies).

  95. Tried this but a big black winged shadow swooped down out of the sky and nicked the goat (and I never tell lies).

    Shagga’s Goat Recipes – Q&A Panel
    sometimes it happens. that’s why the difficulty is a “2” and not a “1”.
    that’s the reason why we recommend to our aspiring goat-chefs to always bring an extra axe with them.

  96. Just popping in to say hi and to demonstrate that a lot of casual readers who follow GoT news actively but never actually comment on these posts have actually also transitioned here. Thanks to all of you guys for making this site and keeping us updated. <3

  97. The fact that you guys would share this story with us is a further proof of your respect and desire to communicate with visitors, which is exactly what makes you so great.
    (and I guess everyone loves talking about their former bosses?)

    also, I sure hope cocktail video jokes will be as immortal and relentless as The Bottom

  98. MescalinicSided: Shagga’s Goat Recipes – Q&A Panel
    sometimes it happens. that’s why the difficulty is a “2″ and not a “1″.
    that’s the reason why we recommend to our aspiring goat-chefs to always bring an extra axe with them.

    Now you tell me!!!

  99. Oz posts at WotW! I was starting to doubt it LOL Good job on the site by the way especially on such a short time, I understood from Fury’s posts that a lot of the complaints about stuff not working got to you. In fact good job to all. *applause*

    I’m happy I can finally comment on your thread and not have to worry about spoiling stuff for the Unsullied. I suppose you did that for all of us when you revealed what actually happened behind the Fansided failure. I call it that for now. Who knows if it is going to change.

    Also, thank you for the explanation, we are all a curious bunch. Just look at the cast threads. (Kidding!)

    NOTE: Why is Ry allowed to post with two different nicks in the same thread?! Someone should get on that. THE NERVE!

  100. Oz of Thrones:
    Ross,

    Magiese is right.They are deleting comments about this site as fast as they can moderate them.

    You’re not kidding – I just tried mentioning this site as an experiment on wic.net and it disappeared in a couple of minutes. Impressive, in a weird big brother / evil overlord kind of way.

    What I also noticed was my post was only number 3 in actually a relatively decent post with a short Sophie Turner interview that had been up for a fair amount of time. It’s too early to sound the death knell quite yet, but I think it’s fair to say the migration has been fairly extensive.

    Do you have a number of hits / independent users for your site vs. what you were used to at wic.net?

  101. Sue the Fury:
    Greatjon of Slumber,

    Funny thing about that. WiC has always had a really liberal commenting policy. And people have always complained about adaptation changes. I wasn’t more lenient with people after the sale, that’s for sure. There were fewer mods, with Winter gone. I think mainly what you were seeing was an overall attitude shift. We couldn’t prevent people from being angry and irritated when they were at WiC. I think the overall shift in content, and the ads, and just everything-people were too pissed off. And it was never our policy to prevent people from having an opinion about the show and books. It still isn’t. We can’t end the show vs. books debate, really, “purists” vs “bookburners” accusations, as frustrating as it gets sometimes. But I hope the change in environment will help people relax a little.

    Of course it sucked when people complained about the overall changes in the site and we were unable to admit we agreed, even when people point-blank wanted our opinions.

    You have a point – the tensions surrounding everything may have made people more grouchy but it also did seem like whatever new folks came in were more of the “book-purist” variety, too. So far this site has had a mix I’m more used to from back in Season 2/3. Of course, some of that is that the show is deviating further, which one has to expect, but it’s high time to embrace the changes; there’s no alternate version.

  102. The Dragon Demands: I love what Elio of Westeros.org pointed out in his video review after she died, and all chance of further character development or revelations ended:

    That SO MANY people believed in the honeypot theory, or at least found it plausible, is sort of evidence that MANY people thought that the entire character “Talisa” as she appeared in Season 2 and Season 3 was so poorly written that they earnestly hoped it was all a sham facade.It turns out she was just plain that poorly written.

    There is one thing that many people have not remarked on that D&D actually did quite brilliantly — and that’s the frequency of Roose Bolton and Talisa Maegyr’s appearances within a few minutes of each other, with one often interrupting meetings of the other with Robb. To wit:

    –Both characters are first introduced in “Garden of Bones,” within minutes of each other. Robb meets Talisa as they together amputate a Lannister soldier – Roose disagrees with Robb’s decision to side with Talisa.

    –Robb’s meeting with the Northern lords in “The Prince of Winterfell” is interrupted by Talisa. The last to leave is Roose Bolton, who lingers, with a somewhat concerned look on his face, before departing.

    –A chat between Robb and Talisa is interrupted by Roose, who comes bearing bad news, in “Dark Wings, Dark Words.”

    –Talisa is killed by the Freys in “The Rains of Castamere,” and Roose Bolton stabs Robb fatally.

    It’s pretty creepy when you think about it…

  103. Greatjon of Slumber,

    oh maybe it’s more that people who were there before the change felt uncomfortable sharing their negative opinions about show changes (it was my only major beef with it really)? it was definitely that way for me because I remember that whenever I would comment on a change negatively, whether a reasonable complaint or nitpicking about a favorite moment cut i would get bodyslammed by dozens of staunch show defenders so i preferred to avoid commenting in that kind of sections altogether. The income of new fans actually tipped the balance for a while before comment sections turned to rant and hate filled garbage with most commenters dedicated to dousing either GRRM or D&D, which was what made me leave the site (along with horrendous decline in content quality).
    Sorry, just my own two cents

  104. Thank the gods for you guys and the dedication you have to ASOIAF to start up a new website again. You guys are truly ‘for the fans’ and (from all the comments above) you can see how much we all appreciate your efforts and dedication to us and the ASOIAF universe. I’ve already had two comments on the ‘dark sided websited’ waiting moderation and then deleted in the past week alone, let alone all the BS that site has become. Even now most of their articles have an average of 5-10 comments, when it used to be 50-100 comments per article. Anyway, glad to have this site that run by people who stay loyal to the fans. Looking forward to the off-year before season 5 with you guys.

  105. Greatjon of Slumber: There is one thing that many people have not remarked on that D&D actually did quite brilliantly — and that’s the frequency of Roose Bolton and Talisa Maegyr’s appearances within a few minutes of each other, with one often interrupting meetings of the other with Robb. To wit:

    –Both characters are first introduced in “Garden of Bones,” within minutes of each other. Robb meets Talisa as they together amputate a Lannister soldier – Roose disagrees with Robb’s decision to side with Talisa.

    –Robb’s meeting with the Northern lords in “The Prince of Winterfell” is interrupted by Talisa. The last to leave is Roose Bolton, who lingers, with a somewhat concerned look on his face, before departing.

    –A chat between Robb and Talisa is interrupted by Roose, who comes bearing bad news, in “Dark Wings, Dark Words.”

    –Talisa is killed by the Freys in “The Rains of Castamere,” and Roose Bolton stabs Robb fatally.

    It’s pretty creepy when you think about it…

    It’s a pity it all turned out to be coincidental; it would have been cool to look back on it in retrospect if there was something more to it.

    You even forgot one: when Roose is counselling Robb on what to do with the Winterfell situation (urging him to let Ramsay prove himself), Talisa comes in and interrupts, leading to sexytime.

  106. Helen Carnate:
    Veltigar,

    Veltigar without the Mads Mikkelson signature makes me doubt the authenticity of this post…….. >.>

    The Dragon Demands: I’m starting to get worried that Euron and the Greyjoys will be cut entirely.If your constant complaints to cast Mads as Euron help ensure that we get Euron in *any* form appearing in the TV continuity, I’m all for it.

    The Dragon Demands: I’m starting to get worried that Euron and the Greyjoys will be cut entirely.If your constant complaints to cast Mads as Euron help ensure that we get Euron in *any* form appearing in the TV continuity, I’m all for it.

    Axechucker:
    The Dragon Demands,
    Good to see you here!
    (Well, all of you, really. Though Veltigar… I hardly recognize ‘im without a Mads reference! Color me sad.)

    I had no idea that my Mads Mikkelsen quotes were so sorely missed. It really warms the heart to know that, but I think I’m officially retired from this particular rat race. You see, a couple of weeks ago I was fighting against some sustainable electricity producing giants, when one of them struck me square on the head.

    My faithful servant, Sancho Panza has since forbidden me to engage in Mad(s) quests and other such follies. So, I’m locked in for the moment, forced to dwell on memories of past glories while I catch up on Rectify. Perhaps one day, I’ll come out of retirement once more, don my shining armour and get my noble steed out of the garage , but for now I’m content with the serenity my current situation entails.

    Seriously though, they better include some kind of Greyjoy storyline in there. This is the family who counts some of the greatest PoV’s and some of the most interesting non-PoV characters (except for Balon the Brainless, who’s infuriatingly insipid) in the entire universe amongst their ranks.

    Not giving them their proper place is a heinous crime of epic proportions, which will result in retaliation from fans everywhere. I foretell some quite hurtfull comments, about certain peoples mothers, to be issued out by rabid lovers of deep characterization, superb worldbuilding and allround badassery. HBO can’t say I didn’t warn them! :p

  107. Dame of Mercia,

    No worries! The use of Dame doesn’t bother me as I’m pretty open minded where language is concerned (and I understand it has different meanings at different times and places). It wasn’t so much the title of the stories as the lack of utility of the content that disturbed me.

  108. Have been pondering all afternoon on what I am going to write down over here.

    Yeah, I ve been absent from Wic.net for a long time…due to some private matters and due to something I would describe as “not beeing at home at all”.
    When I started to recollect my private mess – and reactivated myself on the matter of interest in GOT stuff, I found out about WotW site a few hours before the announcement on 4 leaving Wic.net has been announced.

    I wish to thank you Oz, for writing down “the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”, by adding that I am great fan of your recaps (to be honest – these were the only thing I was reading on Wic.net during the last season).

    Hello to Bex and Cian, as new faces over here.

    And big hugs to my Twitter-recaps boss Axe, Sue and Marko (najbolši sosed – morda več ne grem v Slovenijo, ampak slovenščine ne bom nikoli pozabila – obljubljam!)

    And of course, my old pals from commeting section: Jackie, Johan S., Lex (I was wondering when would you pop-up over here?), Dizzy..and many more…I am so confused and I have not got any intention excluding anybody – so my deep apologize for the folks I forgot to mention.

    Of course, there is Mr. Bicking – with his ideas and courage (yes it was courage back then) who after all created the base for this community.

    So, guys Always support the bottom (Wearing the T-shirt very often)

  109. I know you’ve been working extremely hard behind the scenes, Oz, but it’s wonderful to finally see you post your first article on the site that you helped build! It’s too bad that it had to focus on such an unfortunate series of events, but I thank you for lifting the curtain to reveal a bit more of what went down during your conflict with the Dark Side(d) of The Site That Shall Not Be Named. You absolutely made the right decision to break away, and now that you’ve escaped back into the the light, I can assure you that we’re all having a great time in this new community that you’ve constructed!

    “However, you need to warn the Giant…. this is not the NFL. It’s worse. You think football fans are passionate….. shiiiiit…. they aint seen nothing.”

    As a rabid fan of both football and Game of Thrones … truer words have not been spoken. 😉 Looking forward to the start of the former to help pass the time until the latter returns!

  110. I found this site before it went live, I had just chanced into a comment that mentioned the Tumblr page. I joined Tumblr just to find you guys and am glad the site is up and running smoothly now. Thank you for all your hard work! I started out on Westeros and moved due to the tone of that site. I love the atmosphere here and was totally missing you Oz! Welcome back.

    Once again I just want to say thanks.

  111. Johan Sporre:
    The_Rabbit01,

    Yay! At TitanCon we need to take our customary group picture with our t-shirts again
    Are you making plans for Sibenik?

    Definitely. As for plans for Sibenik, yes there are underway..and it seems very likely. Hopefully you ll read my report from the sets here at WotW!

  112. Ms. D. Ranged in AZ:
    Dame of Mercia,

    No worries! The use of Dame doesn’t bother me as I’m pretty open minded where language is concerned (and I understand it has different meanings at different times and places).It wasn’t so much the title of the stories as the lack of utility of the content that disturbed me.

    I tried reading one of those “Dame” posts and my eyes started bleeding. I’m under doctor’s orders never to read them again.

  113. I actually thought Ozzyman was going to write an article complaining about the visual effects of “The Watchers on the Wall” (which I thought were great obv)… heh… I’m glad I was so wrong. I love you all! This site makes me feel at home again :’)

  114. minty:
    Nymeria Warrior Queen,

    Agreed, I love the forum too

    PS – Isn’t it funny that the guys are measuring their d**ks over who saw the downfall of the old site coming first….

    HAHAHAHAHA! Yes! That was my first thought!

    OZZZZZZZZZZZ!!! Thank goodness you’re here! LOVE your Unsullied viewpoint! Love to the family!

  115. Axechucker: Yes, in fact I’m shooting an AxeyFab episode right now I have loosely titled, The Trial of Benioff and Weiss.

    (No, really.)

    It’s getting long. Might be a two-parter. We’ll see.

    However, any AxeyFabulous episodes I do that aren’t Game of Thrones-centric don’t belong here, so I won’t be posting those. You can subscribe to HappyCool on YouTube if you’d like.

    (That said, I have only done one non-GoT AxeyFab so far. I could be slightly obsessed.)

    And yes, when next season comes ’round, I will be doing Twitter posts here. (WiC might keep doing them as well. It’s not as though I trademarked it. WiCThoros filled in for me once and did a pretty good job!)

    Oh Axey… [sniff, sniff]…you’ve made me the happiest woman on the planet… [sniff]…I LOOOOOVE your Twitter roundups. [kiss]

    Thank you, WotW, for creating this site!!

  116. Hi, new here. I only started to read the old site a couple of months ago and didn’t understand some comments about it that I saw on other sites. This explains it.

    You seem to be a great community. It’s always great to be reminded of all the loyal fans out there, since a lot of sites get overrun by people seemingly there to complain and accuse everyone of everything.

  117. *thinking about housewarming gifts*

    Lemon cakes, peaches, or…? I’ve got it! … Blood Oranges 🙂

  118. I’m just happy to have a new site to visit that has the sense of community that WiC used to have. Mostly I just lurk, but I did get a good laugh comparing the number of comments on this post alone (162 according to the count) with the number of comments in the 10 most recent posts on WiC combined (163 at the moment), so I thought I’d add one more here to tie the game.

  119. First. Hodor.

    Second. Stannis.

    Third. I’m glad you all started this site. I’m a bit late to the online fandom although I’ve been a asoiaf reader for many years and I get overly obsessed without getting the books spoiled but as a fan of the TV show I find online fan sites almost a requirement to additional enjoyment of the show and books. The giant was my go to place, now this is. I run websites myself and have been through what you guys have been, it’s rough and it sucks but as Oz said, all things change. Even though it matters not at all I think you are handling it well. My only advice is to let go of the old as best and as quickly as you can, in your own time and focus everything on the new.

    This is happy land and I’m really glad to have a place to hodor, stannis and read about tv stuff while worrying about book spoilers 🙂

  120. I didn’t know that this site existed or what went down until a brave soul mentioned it in the comments on the Giant’s website this morning. Glad to be here now. Thank you Oz, FaB, HmR, and Fury for sticking together for us.

  121. I’m at WiC every day, several times a day since its founding and I didn’t see one comment about this site there until yesterday. Pisses me off I missed out for 4 weeks! I want all the chickens!!!

    Thanks to the brave crows who keep posting the link there. Keep it up, there are many stragglers who need rescuing! FOUR WEEKS and I never saw it.

    Oz, so where is part 2? Thanks for the post.

  122. Long time lurker, yadda yadda. Just wanted to comment that I just found WOTW due to the CEO of Fansided finally addressing the leaving of the core writers (in what looked to be a very PR-filtered speech on how the matter hadn’t been addressed due to ‘leaving on bad terms’ or implied unprofessional ‘conduct’)… on the message board of the announcement of another changeover in editors. Hmm, no final warning sign in that, I thought! Thankfully someone posted a semi-disguised link (gone when I checked back an hour or so later); I’ll enjoy the resumption of this community over here from now on.

    P.S. There may or may not be a curtain call for the migrated staff. I’d almost be curious to check it out for sardonic laugh values, but then again, wouldn’t that just be more click bait crossed with yet more corporate doublespeak? People have to deal with such smarm on a daily basis from HMOs and ISPs, etc, etc. They don’t want to have to face this in their escapist pleasures (e.g. fandoms).

  123. minty,

    Yeah, I noticed that. Funny how some of these guys think being first is so important. (btw I was very familiar with FanSided on another site, and as soon as I saw it had consumed the old site, I knew. But I don’t make a big thing about it, ya know? 🙂

    Anyway, I have also been lurking since season one, and lately started posting. I was sad to see folk leaving and then noticed someone’s stelth like post with the addy here. It was on long enough for me to copy and paste, and here I am! Glad to see all the folk I knew before, and looking forward to more great GOT news and talk!

  124. Oh my Gods! Here you all are! I thought I was taking crazy pills. I had pretty much stopped visiting the Dark Side(ed) because there was just so much damn filler. I was so sad, I missed you guys! Glad to be back among friends here.

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