Mods of a popular Star Wars fan subreddit called Saltier Than Crait (r/saltierthancrait/) have announced that they will ban anyone who posts links to articles from Forbes, other sites including We Got This Covered and some YouTube Channels, including our very own Clownfish TV.
The reasoning? These news outlets and YouTube channels are reportedly “too negative” about Lucasfilm and Star Wars for the subreddit’s liking.
The great irony here is that r/saltierthancrait/began as an outlet for fans to vent about their disappointment with Disney’s handling of the Star Wars franchise, specifically The Last Jedi.
Here are a list of the sites and channels that will get you an immediate ban, per the subreddit mods. Sites that will get you banned include Forbes, We Got This Covered, Bounding Into Comics and even our Disney and theme park specific sister site Pirates & Princesses.
Banned YouTube channels include Geeks + Gamers, Doomcock, Midnight’s Edge and ComicArtistPro Secrets.
There does seem to be a twinge of “professional jealousy” as in addition to the site ban, mods want everyone to know that they originated Star Wars fan bitching.
I didn’t know that you could corner the market on complaining about one of the most popular pop culture things ever, but there you go.
Bounding Into Comics covers the situation here, and cites many examples of frustrated fans outside of that subreddit voicing strong opinions on The Last Jedi a day or two after the movie hit theaters in 2017, including Nerdrotic and a few others.
The Star Wars subreddit Saltier Than Crait has issued new guidelines for the forum banning anyone describing themselves as Fandom Menace as well as links to people they deem bad including Bounding Into Comics.
Moderator Moonlit_Mushroom posted to the subreddit, which boasts membership of over 74,000 individuals, announcing the bans.
Moonlit_Mushroom wrote, “These are actually not new rules here. In fact, they are some of our oldest rules. I think most of our OG Salt Miners already know this stuff. I have seen them try to help to inform and remind the many TENS OF THOUSANDS of new miners who’ve subscribed here in the past year.”
The moderator then provides a number of links to the subreddit’s rules and previous posts as well as the subreddit’s current rules.
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From there, the moderator attempts to assert claim over criticizing The Last Jedi.
They write, “We were here first. We are the original. We started this sub the day after The Last Jedi came out.”
Mushroom continues, “Those calling themselves “The Fandom Menace” only started to do so many, many months after this sub had been up and running, and only seemed to do so to ride on our coattails with their very own ‘political agenda.’ Us old timers have seen it develop over time here, first hand.”
Bounding Into Comics published an article three days after The Last Jedi released on December 18, 2017, titled, “5 Reasons The Last Jedi Was The Worst Star Wars Movie Ever.”
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On December 15th, the day the movie released, Gary Buechler of Nerdrotic also expressed his distaste for the film.
Buechler stated during his livestream review of the film, “There was no enjoyment level at all for this movie. And it started from beginning to end. And it was basically the treatment of Luke Skywalker. The treatment of Luke Skywalker was an abomination. Nothing short of an abomination and a blaspheme of Star Wars.”
Their claim is an outright lie as noted by just these two examples. Furthermore, they are not entitled to ownership over anyone else’s opinions regarding The Last Jedi or anything else for that matter.
Regardless, Mushroom writes, “If you think this sub is on “your side” fighting a political war, you are wrong. If you are trying to push us to support that war, you are not wanted here. If you are here for “Bitch Eating Crackers” flavoured popcorn and fandom drama: leave this sub, and find another one. If you think discussing that stuff is gonna get Lucasfilm to listen to us: you are mistaken. Because, if anything, it makes them FAR less likely to. It hurts our cause.”
Mushroom then adds a number of bullet points:
- It hurts our cause, of responsible, reasonable criticism.
- It hurts our cause, to tie our personal thoughts and feelings on bad movies to spurious politics.
- It hurts our cause, when those supposed “politics” are being fed by misinformation.
- It hurts our cause, when questionable clickbait blogs – that claim to represent the will of the fans – act in bad faith, to whip up paranoia and rage.
- It hurts our cause when when others use us to justify their nefarious (and likely political) ends.”
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From there Mushroom then reveals the subreddit’s new ban list.
The list includes Geeks + Gamers, Doomcock, Midnight’s Edge, Bounding Into Comics, Cosmicbook News, Clownfish TV, Pirates and Princesses, Ethan Van Sciver’s ComicArtistPro Secrets, WeGotThisCovered, and Forbes.
The moderator declares, “From here on out, anyone posting ‘Fandom Menace’ or ‘Clickbait’ posts – especially anyone trying to circumvent our spam filters which should prevent them from being posted in the first place – will be banned.”
As for why Forbes was added to the list Moonlight Mushroom addressed that in the comments, “So, Forbes used to be a reputable Business news sight, obviously, but it got bought out a few years back and has resorted to intentionally posting rage inducing, misleading editorials to get more hate clicks.”
He added, “This is incredibly dangerous because it is coasting on it’s sterling reputation which lends it post legitimacy it no longer has. Clickbait. This isn’t just about ‘Fandom Menace,’ it’s also about clickbait.”
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As you can expect this is another lie. Shocking, from someone who claims they are against misinformation.
Forbes was founded in September 1917 by B.C. Forbes and Walter Drey. B.C. Forbes would be the Editor-in-Chief until his death in 1954. His son Bruce Forbes then took over, followed by his brother Malcolm Forbes.
The Forbes family still partially owns the company, although Integrated Whale Investments, a Hong Kong-based investment group, did purchase a 51% majority of the company in 2014.
The site still lists Steve Forbes as the Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media. Steve Forbes is the son of Malcolm Forbes and the grandson of the company’s founder B.C. Forbes.
To conclude the power drunk post, Mushroom writes, “To everyone else, especially our OG miners who have been frustrated by the uptick in this nonsense: I’m sorry we haven’t directly addressed this before, but while most of us may think the Sequel Trilogy is garbage, the Fandom Menace has been trying to light that garbage on fire, and make it toxic. We decided not to give that fire more oxygen.”
“But rest assured: no one is more frustrated than your mod team is by the uptick in users spouting their misguided ‘talking points.’ What YOU can do to help put out the fire, is please remember to Hit The Report Button when you see anything ‘SUS’ so we mods can take care of it.”
Mushrom concludes, “Thank you, to everyone already doing that, and helping to keep this sub, the community for Star Wars discussion and criticism, that we all want it to be.”
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It reads more like only accepted opinions will be allowed, others will be banned. That doesn’t sound very friendly to actual discussion and criticism.
I predict this subreddit will gradually die as there won’t be anything there worth reading or even debating since debate appears to be going the way of the dodo there.
