Nordicvs
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GamingForums
"Nordicvs" is the name of well-respected debater and so-called "god" of the Melee flaming forum who was active on the old GF (now: File Front Gaming Forums) for most of 2005. His real name is Tom and he was born and lives in Canada. His aliases (at GF's Melee forum and elsewhere) included several characters such as "Svendorn," "Crosvind"/"Izokhan," "robitika," "Siron," "Duncelor," "Nihilium," "Drax," and "Crunt."
(The origins of "Nordicvs" on the Internet stretch back to the Apolyton Civilization gaming site, where he was an active debater and game modder, as "Nordicus," from 1999-2002.)
The Death of The Melee
The Melee forum was a hidden forum in which GF members had a lot more freedom to post thoughts, ideas, and debate; while flaming was encouraged, it was not mandatory. Many threads were used for "trolling," trying to instigate a flame war or just trying to annoy or anger other members.
Creativity, imagination, and intelligence were also very much encouraged during these engagements. The forum had few official rules, yet it had many cardinal rules that were understood by those who participated.
Nord left GF after an incident in which a Senior Administrator and Melee founder broke a couple of cardinal rules ("don't take anything seriously" and "if you're pissed off, fight back") by banning an alias, or "double login" (DL), of Nord's, because he disapproved of the content. Nordicvs decided that he, being the creator of the thread posted by his alias, should also be banned, or "Siron" should be unbanned, since his alias had broken no rules and was banned on an emotional whim.
He wasn't banned, nor was Siron unbanned.
For months leading to this, the Melee had become a shadow of its former self, and Nordicvs, along with several other posters and staff ("TheMack," "Tap112," "X-C"/"Jakob88" and many others), struggled to keep it active, interesting, and, at times, funny. Since most members avoided any threads started by Nordicvs, or his comrades, it was important to use DLs.
It took careful planning, time, writing, brain-stormed ideas and coordinated efforts with others, to bring in a new DL, such as Siron, and eventually work his character into shape, come up with a thread idea, and get him into the Melee. The needless banning of Siron destroyed a month of work that those involved hoped might turn the Melee around to be "great" again. It was the last straw for Nordicvs, and it was the unofficial end of the Melee forum as everyone had known it.
Nord wrote a furious post in the Melee, and promptly retired, asking that his Mod status be terminated and that he be banned, and he left GF. (He still was not banned, remaining an "Advanced Member.") Several other Melee regulars either left or forced staff to ban them, some in protest, over the disgraceful conduct of the Senior Admin and-or over the general corporatization of the site.
Several months later, the Melee degenerated into just another "spam" forum, and soon after that it was closed forever.
Retirement: Post GamingForums
Nordicvs joined the ranks of Devious Tyrant (a rule-free website created by Alan "AzH" Smith, with "gizmo" as its webmaster) in late 2005. Devious Tyrant, or DT, was a refreshing haven for those leaving behind sites which had been over-taken by corporate influence and political correctness. Early in 2006, AzH made him a Moderator on DT.
Devious Tyrant soon filled with many members of other websites seeking more freedom. There was a strong base of "flamers," mainly from GF's old Melee forum who consisted largely of atheists and anti-Christians. The problem was that, having no rules, there was no structure, and members used every forum at DT as a flaming forum.
A few rules were eventually included, and Nord came up with the idea for the "Dungeon," DT's flaming forum.
The new problem that emerged: the hostile and aggressive "hardcore" members ended up fighting with each other constantly, driving some members away and scaring off new members. Nordicvs, now an Administrator along with gizmo and AzH, discussed ways to expand the site, generate more interest and increase its member base. There was no general agreement on what changes could be made as far as content was concerned.
The only result was that DT began raiding other websites. The idea was to have DT's "hardcore" members unleashed on the "hardcore" members of other sites, as well as trying to recruit quality posters from such sites.
Several sites were raided (Worthy Christian forums, Brawl-Hall, A Troll Kingdom, WTF, and many others, including Mock Forums in 2008), with moderate to fair success, and a few new members joined DT. When Nordicvs came upon a site called "Super Evil Industries," he recognized a member and so started to develop an idea for a raid.
He was banned very quickly there, and, after a fake tantrum and being let back in, he was joined by several DT "Raiders."
The residents were annoyed and, according to Nord's plan, the member he'd recognized ran to Something Awful and manuevered them into doing a Devious Tyrant piece on their Weekend Web.
It was the publicity that AzH and Nord had wanted, and although the review was a huge out-of-context disappointment, the result was a great deal of traffic and several new members.
By late 2006, staff (and member) in-fighting was becoming problematic, and AzH seemed disillusioned with the site. The member base began to shrink.
After a fight with gizmo, Nordicvs left DT.
GamingForums revisit
Nordicvs made a few last visits to Gaming Forums in October/November of 2006, to "say goodbye properly."
The Rise & Fall of Devious Tyrant
After a few months, he returned to a DT that was smaller (and even more hostile) and lacked any real sense of itself as an online community. AzH was considering selling the site, and gizmo spent most of his time on other projects.
Nordicvs offered to take DT off of Azh's hands, and paid for the vBulletin license for a year, but he could not get full control of the site as an owner.
Soon Nordicvs was the primary Administrator, bringing in "Nuke" (from GF: "nuclearfieldmarshall") as a co-Admin, and "Evil" as Mod, among a couple other staff members. Nord wanted to turn DT into a men's site, since its current problems could not be reconciled.
By 2007, the site was losing more and more members. Nordicvs was finding out that his idea had become disastrous for the place, and that he should not be the sole leader. In-fighting increased, and he inevitably came to the conclusion that he should step down as Administrator, leaving the site to Nuke and a rarely-visiting AzH.
He quit DT shortly after and "retired into private life."
Devious Tyrant was merged with another site of Alan's (Lurking Mastermind), but the two different member bases could not be merged, and this gradually led to DT being sold to someone else.
Mid-2008, Nord visited DT after nearly a year, but only stayed a few weeks.
Current Location & The New DT
In 2011, after coming back from B.C., and returning to the Internet, Nordicvs got in touch with Nuke at DT, which was in its worst state since its founding. Alan was no longer involved in any way, there was no webmaster, the database was broken from at least one merger with another site, the owner rarely showed up and did not concern himself with the site, and the active member base had declined to only a handful of faithful, sporadic posters.
After several conversations regarding what could be done, Nuke, Evil, and Nord agreed to move the site onto a free forum platform, having the three of them as co-Admins. Evil had already created the new DT site, back on December 23rd, 2008, on Zetaboards. None of the forum's threads, posts, or any of the database could be incorporated into the new site, and thus it was left behind.
In November, 2011, the new DT was launched. A redirect was established and mass-emails were sent to its old members. Quite a few showed up, and it was a cool sort of reunion.
