I suspect fowl play <.< :0

Hey guys,

I've noticed something lately on the site I'm really concerned about and I wanted to bring it up before you all so we can figure out how we're going to moderate this. As you have probably noticed by now, there is an epidemic of birds taking over YWS.



You may think this is harmless, but I'm sad to say there is actually a long history of these menaces wrecking websites if left unchecked. For example, WritingBliss, a once vibrant writing community, has now been taken over by penguins and author Annie Cyrus Copping has shared her heartwrenching story about how she was brought to ruin by malicious birds.

Furthermore, recent research has demonstrated that birds are directly responsible for the collapse of writing websites:



This is a very clear threat against our beloved writing society and we must take swift and decisive action to ensure the birds don't lead to our demise.

*Mods who defected to the bird cult (see above) need not reply to this thread. The opinions of traitors will not be considered.

Oh dear. This is very bad. Quite bad. I thought the onslaught of bird avvies was just another silly little #classified vs #unclassified thing, but the evidence you've supplied regarding penguin-lead anarchy is compelling.

What course of action would you suggest? A PSA from @Big Brother? A site-wide censorship of all avian-related material? Or! Perhaps we could get a couple mods to go undercover and try to infiltrate their ranks, see what their motives are, and hopefully cause disarray in the bird bureaucracy. I would be willing to offer myself up for such a worthy cause.

(Also. Shady. alliyah has had her chicken avvie since the dawn of time and I kind of doubt she planned ahead for bird armageddon that far in advance. Can we maybe drop the allegations against her? At least for now?)

absolutely not. she's top of my suspect list. i think this was her plan all along -- pretending to love chickens to get us to lower our guards but really being a secret operative for penguin anarchy @_@

THIS IS FAKE NEWS.

Also, I want to point out that these allegations are completely baseless.

Mods who defected to the bird cult (see above) need not reply to this thread.

^ The picture we're meant to "see above" doesn't show any birds at all! Just a bunch of people wearing suits.

Oh please. @_@ Are we being serious here? The chickens have done nothing except bring joy and excitement to the site. Need I remind you about our newest and most celebrated literary genre?

At least I know I have poetry crew behind my back on this one.

I know we did have that minor set-back with the Goose Invasion last year, but we got it under control didn't we? The biggest threat to this site has always been and continues to be the presence and schemes of "Classified" - which I'm fairly sure has connections to the latest penguin movement.

Also for a scientist I'm not sure I buy your data in that chart. According to my count chickens have never caused site distress or mayhem, while classified has been documented to have shut the site down on at least on occasion.

Thank you @Snoink for posting some sense in this thread! Sorry that Shady is dragging you into all this mayhem.

Going to tag @Meshugenah and ask if you can please intervene here - I'm not sure if I can talk sense into Shady at the moment and am far too busy with getting ready for NaPo to be brought into this silliness.

um excus me i specifically said NEED! NOT! REPLY!

@Big Brother do you have any anti-bird spray?

Listen... I know what this is about. You're just jealous that we have a Chickens genre and not a fish genre. Again, GET OVER IT.

Birds are better than fish in almost every single way. People LIKE birds more than fish. I know you want to live in a fantasy world where that isn't the case, but you know what???? This is the world we live in. Again: get over yourself.

Also, if you want to have that fish fantasy? You're a writer! Start writing your fish fantasies up. But leave YWS out of it...

Thank you so much @Shady for having the courage to speak out about this. I’ve struggled with bringing it up for so long, worried about the consequences, but it’s time— we can’t stay silent on this issue anymore. This is so hard to say, and I wish it weren’t true, but there are penguins and other fowl here, even among us mods. It is a dreadful fact, but one I have to finally acknowledge.

Everyone, please, keep an eye out. Spotting the early signs of DTBC (Defecting to Bird Cults) can save a writing website:

• Sudden changes of avatar to a bird of any kind
• Bird jokes, puns, or references
• Declarations affirming the power of birds, especially hostile intentions such as website takeovers
• Speaking positively of a bird— if the mentioned bird is a goos, chicken, or penguin, the case may be especially severe
• Defending known bird cult members
• Edit in light of new DTBC evidence— pretending there is no hostile bird cult

It’s never too late to stop the bird uprising, no matter how scary it might look. Stay strong, and save YWS!

Seriously??? Y'all need to get over yourselves! You're just jealous that I am worrying a book series about Swans.

And DTBC is totally made up.

You guys are crazy...

Come to think of it, I think “pretending there is no hostile bird cult” needs to be added to the warning sign list. Thanks, @Snoink, for pointing out this very important edit (and I hope you leave DTBC behind soon).

I don't want our YWS to be taken over by stupid birds! Thanks for initiating this @Shady. I was suspicious of this penguin chaos and never linked the dots that who else will have this planned if not alliyah, the known bird lover of YWS huh. I do think this was very well planed operation going on for years and maybe Nate got manipulated too into making the chicken category literay work, this is too sus!

*gasp* Indeed, I’m very grate-fowl— ahem, grateful to you for wing-ing this to our attention, Shady. You see(gull), it would truly be a disas-tern if the site were to be overtaken by invasive bird species, as every-birdy can agree that it should be overrun by puppies instead, considering owl beloved Big Brother. Not to be a grouse, but I personally would(pecker) complain very much if a whole flock of ywsers were DTBC. As you can cl-eagle-y see from my crow-tally non-avian message. I do apologize if I’m rambling, as I’m still not quite used to beak-ing a night owl, and I am up past my bedtime. Good night. I’ll reply to this better in the morning (dove). O>O

Nice try, @SilverNight, but DTBC doesn't mean anything of the sort. You're just making up fancy acronyms to convert up your blatant lies,and hoping it'll work.

It won't.

So being unnecessarily prejudiced toward birds.

Source:

The Free Dictionary [Internet]. "DTBC". Acronym Finder, AcronymFinder.com, 1988-2020 [cited 15 Mar. 2023]. Available from: https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/DTBC

@DreamyAlice wrote: I was suspicious of this penguin chaos and never linked the dots that who else will have this planned if not alliyah, the known bird lover of YWS huh. I do think this was very well planed operation going on for years and maybe Nate got manipulated too into making the chicken category literay work, this is too sus!

I ... really don't know how to even respond to this. I'm the one who started the questioning of the penguins! If anyone's behind the Penguin chaos it's probably @Liminality, @PenguinAttack, @niteowl, or ForeverYoung299.... but I'm not trying to get into personal disputes in this ridiculous thread that Shady started.

And need I remind you that @TheEgg (which is a chicken egg btw) is the most liked post of all times, and the last time we had a mascot wars vote The Egg was voted the winner. YWSers have chosen chickens independently and without coercion, and I think I speak for all people when I say we just love chickens. Don't blame Nate for seeing the obviously poultry enthusiasm among us.

I think you all need to spend less time coming up with far-fetched conspiracies and more time getting behind what YWSers actually love Chickens and Poetry.

(Also is it just me, or does anyone else think Spearmint's account is acting a little ... out of character? I can't put my finger on it, but I suspect classified involvement)