the shoopster here (re-)introducing himself to the chi(sh)itysports message board forii . . .
. . . Now, the shoopster says (re-)introduce because the shoopster's been here before. A couple of times actually. Most recently, last off-season. At that time, the chicagobear.com message board forii, to which the shoopster was a daily contributor for over a decade, unceremoniously closed. Suddenly, for the first time since the early-2000s, the shoopster found himself, like so many of you, an internetional free agent. Where, I asked myself, to take the shoopster's nonpareil gameday breakdii (pl: breakdown) that had over the years become required Monday morning reading for Bear fans all over the world (wide web) and the remainder of the shoopster's many cyberspatial contributions?
chi(sh)itysports emerged as an early front-runner. After all, chi(sh)itysports was well-established, had a large fanbase, and a wherewithall within cyberspace sufficient for a man of the shoopster's caliber. So I came here, and figured the shoopster would spend the 2013 season breaking down the Bears with all of you.
Then, a funny thing happened. A start-up board, organized by some of the old ModSquad from the chicagobears.com message board forii, burst upon the cyberspatial scene. It was a modest affair, but had the attraction of some of the most erudite refugees from the defunct official site. While the shoopster continued to post here at chi(sh)itysports, he received overtures from this start-up board, chicagobearboards.com.
Meanwhile, the shoopster's tenure here at chi(sh)itysports hit some rough spots. Most of it had to do with one poster with a little too much - as I've come to call it - shoopster-on-the-brain. This poster would for some reason follow up each and every post the shoopster made with either juvenile clip art of inane video clips; all of it spam. This poster recruited a few other long-standing chi(sh)itysports posters, and corrupted at least one member of the ModSquad, and thus began a systematic campaign to try to run the shoopster out of here. Meanwhile, chicagobearboards.com was presenting educated, erudite discussions day after day and asking the shoopster to come and be the standard bearer for their fledgling board. What could the shoopster do? He went with the highest bidder, and spent 2013 on chicagobearboards.com, and left chi(sh)itysports to the rancid, rude pimply-faced punks who had worked so hard at trying to run him our of here.
I'll never know why they did it, but I have my theories. The most obvious of course is that they're old Soldiers. Now, let the shoopster explain. You see, back in the early 2000s, over within the chicagobears.com message board forii, there was a silly message board "gang" that called themselves The Soldiers. Their mandate was nothing but positive talk about the Chicago Bears within the forii, and they endeavored themselves a "cleaning crew" - their words - to rid the board of posters wishing to discuss items that might not reflect highly on the Bears. Few of which did of course in the early-2000s, considering what shVtty team the Bears were. What these guys would do - beyond a daily bullying of new posters offering dissenting opinions - was take to the less than flattering threads and spam them into oblivion with off-topic nonsense, juvenile clip art, homosexual innuendo - whatever they might think of to drone out the insightful discussion of what was wrong with the Chicago Bears.
They also befriended the ModSquad, several of whom were Soldiers themselves. Thus, they had a pipeline direct to the cyberspatial compadres that would allow them to push the button on posts they wanted deleted from the board. At first, this was a tactic rarely used by The Soldiers. Later, in their desperation to maintain control of the forii, they used every favor they could with their friends in the ModSquad, and suspensions for little more than dissenting opinions ran rampant at chicagobears.com.
It all worked for a while. Posters less advocatively inclined than the shoopster came and went from chicagobears.com - mostly went. But the shoopster knew that the discussion was suffering without the myriad of views. He decided to take The Soldiers on, gentlemanly at first, then mano a mano. The battle waged for months on the board, and the shoopster began to amass a group of encouraged assistants. Gradually, we were able to have our voices heard, to tell it as it was on the Chicago Bears without having The Soldiers drown out the truth. The tide began to turn. The diversity of opinion was inspiring. And the shoopster thought his unpleasant battle with The Soldiers was over. We'd live and let live, he told himself, and the shoopster would be the gracious victor, The Soldiers the gracious defeated.
But The Soldiers couldn't accept that. Despite the shoopster's established presence within the forii, and that of several other free-thinkers, The Soldiers were planning retaliation. Their scheme came to light during a message board contest. For years, The Soldiers had been hosting Poster of the Month and Poster of the Year contests within the forii. And of course, some Soldier was nearly always the victor. But when the shoopster advocated for the average fan in 2003, the tide began to turn. To the horror of The Soldiers, the shoopster won multiple Poster of the Month contests in 2003, and then won the Poster of the Year contest. Then came 2004.
the shoopster's Poster of the Month wins were less numerous in 2004, though still plentiful. That doubtless gave The Soldiers cause for relief as the year-end Poster of the Year contest approached. And things started off just fine for The Soldiers, with no less than the leader of the Soldiers, Soldier #1, a poster aptly named "mouse," leading the voting. the shoopster was actually a distant third. Then, mere days before the end of the contest, something happened. the shoopster began picking up votes at a furious pace. He soon moved into second place and then just as soon thereafter blew by mouse into first place. Doubtless, The Soldiers were aghast. Would the shoopster, an outsider who so clearly put them in their proper place within the chicagobears.com forii, win Poster of the Year - THEIR very own contest - two years in a row?!? It looked like it was going to happen, and thus The Soldiers next, desperate move.
With the voting nearly over, mouse decided to "clarify" the rules. According to mouse, there could be no repeat Poster of the Year. He posted his edict upon the message board forii for all to see. Suddenly, shoopster's votes stopped coming. In fact, some votes changed. Interestingly, nearly all the new votes were for mouse. In the end, mouse overtook the shoopster and declared himself the 2004 Poster of the Year. That, in mouse's mind, and that of The Soldiers, would be that.
Alas, The Soldiers had not thought their plan through. Had they, they would not have positioned mouse as the recipient of all of their votes. You see, as the shoopster pointed out, mouse won Poster of the Year in 2002. Thus his edict that there could be no repeat winners of the award invalidated him from 2004 consideration. When the shoopster noted this within the forii, mouse re-clarified that he meant consecutive wins, not repeat. Thus his 2004 victory, one year removed from his 2002 victory, was valid.
This was too much for the shoopster as well as many others within the forii. the shoopster called mouse on the carpet and in an historic message board question and answer session led by the shoopster mouse's duplicity was exposed. Many of The Soldiers, embarrassed by the actions of their leader, left the group. Systematically, within the period of about a week, The Soldiers, inshame, disbanded completely, most never to be heard from again.
So, you know, when the shoopster thinks about what happened last year when he was a free agent, and how chi(sh)itysports was the front runner for his 2013 services but then blew it shows up to offer the truth on the Chicago Bears as only he can possibly see it, the shoopster can't help thinking about The Soldiers. How there's probably a few of 'em left here. Not that they would want to admit it . . . I mean, would you? Either way, the shoopster digresses. With the off-season upon us, the shoopster is once again a free agent, the locale for his nonpareil breakdii for the 2014 season up in the air. Does he return to chicagobearboards.com, or does he jump to chi(sh)itysports? Like any free agent, he would be foolish not to explore all his options.
That's why I'm here. I have no idea when I'll make my final decision on where to spend 2014 - could be soon, could be not so soon. It all depends on how things go. Right now, the shoopster has nailed it down to chicagobearboards or chi(sh)itysports. The rest is up to you guys . . .
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