Hanspiracy - Hans' Fall From Grace

"Why don't you do your job instead of making false accriminations all the time?" - Ricky, Trailer Park Boys.

This post is not really about conspiracies at all. Hanspiracy is simply too good a portmanteau not to release into the wild. This post is about Hans' fall from grace in my eyes. It does deal with his biases, which I suppose could be a conspiracy at some level, since he tries so hard to hide them.

I voted for Hans Jagerblitzen. I used to white knight for him. He seemed the perfect candidate for faction warfare reform. He is certainly passionate about the issue. He's certainly a hard-worker. Both of those sentiments cannot be taken away from him.

But I've had certain reservations about him, too. Which I mostly kept to myself during the summer months.

The first reservation, Hans spending too much time listening to the wrong people. Susan Black, for one.

The second reservation, Hans desire to keep everyone happy, tell them what they want to hear. It makes it hard to decipher what Hans really believes, because he'll agree with almost anyone if he figures it won't turn that person away from him. Every reply on the voting reform thread for instance.

Some people believe that, in order to fit in, I'll bash whoever it is that's popular to bash with the group I'm currently flying with. That might be the case, somewhat, with Susan Black. But then, mocking Susan Black is fun to begin with. When I was with Late Night, it was popular to bash Fweddit, but I believe I was both critical and supportive of them during my time with the Minmatar, probably more supportive than critical. And even after joining Fweddit, I remained supportive of Hans.

Until I was pointed to a particular bit of Hans commentary on a Shalee blog post. (All this went down in August, most of it is probably water-under-the-bridge to the participants by now, but I was only made aware of it about six or so weeks ago. I had no intention of dredging it up again, but people seem to be getting the wrong idea on why I'm no longer a Hans supporter.)

To anyone that actually knows Shalee Lianne, you'll know that she's one of the least spergy faction warfare bloggers out there. Susan and I, spergy as hell. Shalee? Not in the least. And it takes a hell of lot to get her riled up to the point where she makes a "fuck you" post directed at anyone. She's also the least prone to writing bits of propaganda. Shalee is a dyed-in-the-wool Amarrian, but separates the fact from her roleplaying fiction.

So it was surprising, and yet not so surprising, to see Hans going off on Shalee for calling out some sperg and propaganda Ms. Black had written. Surprising, because Hans generally tries to keep his Minmatar bias under tight wraps. Not so surprising, because he'll white knight Susan over almost anything. Susan is gospel over on the Minmatar side of the fence.

Susan had written a thing, presuming to know what was going on with Fweddit, and the Amarr in general, at the time. Mostly just a whole lot of shit she made up. The usual sort of Susan troll. Shalee called her out on it. Who better to know what was actually going on, and to correct a bunch of ill-informed assumptions, than Shalee. Her iLaw is tight with Fweddit. Certainly not from day one (nobody could quite get a handle on Fweddit when they first arrived), but by August, they were on each others comms and fleets regularly, sharing intel, plotting cultural victory.

The whole thing should have probably died there. Just two bloggers going at each other for a brief time. But Susan was under attack, or so Hans felt. So he commented publicly to Shalee:

Why is it that no matter what is posted by anyone on any side of the war, it’s “Oh look, TEARS!!” Taking a post that leaned more towards factional pride than complaint, and responding with the “stop crying” pic not only doesn’t make sense, it places this post squarely in the same category.

It’s unfortunate, because Sov Wars also started out as a very objective, fact-based reporting platform that quickly slid into an editorial soapbox where its been mired for months. You are fair to say whatever you’d like about Susan, but there’s no point in pretending that this website hasn’t offered up just as many “tears” or hosted propaganda itself.

This is all fine and dandy of course, I love the ongoing entertainment, but I’ve been following all of this long enough that none of the “You minmatar….” or “Those silly Amarr…” posts really stand out anymore. I have nothing against those that like to blog in this style, trash talk is a Faction Warfare staple, but we must be true to ourselves and call a spade a spade.

I can only hope that as the minutes are released and we move into the FINAL phase of discussion regarding Factional Warfare improvements, (let’s be honest – there’s no official commitment past winter expansion) that those in the blogosphere that want to contribute to the FW iteration process can curb the finger-pointing that has becoming boring and cliche, and move back to something even remotely resembling objective, balanced discussion.

For everyone else craving a fresh, drama-free look at the current state of the feature and the changes on the table to improve it, I highly recommend you sign up to follow Zeric Sarain’s blog, Overheat Everything!

It's kind of unbelievable, really. Read the comments on Susan's spergy post, not a single reply from Hans castigating her on spreading bad vibes. But the moment someone, and as unlikely a someone as Shalee, starts posting to clear up some misconceptions, even if done angrily, Hans is jumping down her throat. Not even the benefit of the doubt. A "don't attack my Susan Black" sort of knee-jerk reaction.

That single reply alone, and I lost nearly every ounce of respect I had for Hans. Just the most egregious example of Hans' bias towards the Minmatar, and Susan Black in particular, that I'd ever come across. He'll take anyone down a notch publicly if they attack any of his friends, but if those people attack anyone else, then it's nothing he'll be bothered about. It's a one-way street with Hans, the Minmatar can act how they like, everyone else should remain drama- and sperg-free.

Shalee defended her position:

You can suck it too, Hans.

I love how you single out my blog for being unfair yet say nary a word about hers.

She verbally attacked MY MILITIA and MY FWEENDZ., lying about them, so I set the record straight. Call it pvp blogging. She attacked, I countered.

A real effort had to be made to piss Shalee off to the point that she breaks out the "You can suck it" comments. Hans tries to soften his stand:

I miss the days when Sov Wars was primarily a reporting of events, and stayed away from the competitive stuff you see everywhere else from local chat to personal blogs to the EVE-O forums. If you and Susan end up falling into some silly blog duel, the whole community misses out in the end from wasted energy and wasted potential. Susan knows how I feel about this already, cause we talk every day on comms. That’s just my opinion, and It’s only because I value this site and appreciate the work youv’e done for the community that I bothered to speak up at all. Take that however you’d like.

Now he's dictating how and what she should write about on her blog. Backhanded compliments, at best. He's only speaking up because he cares so much about Shalee. Politics more, please.

Almity then came to Shalee's defense:

So instead of mailing Shalee you insult her blog in public. Very tactfully done Hans. Susan may know how you feel but since you don’t(would not dare?) say anything publicly you remain a very biased individual.

You have always been in the habit of shouting down any Amarr voices labeling them cry babies or whatever. I’m not even sure if your aware of your anti-amarrian behavior. Maybe the hate is so deeply rooted inside you think you are fair, when everyone else can see you are not.

Hans, Susans post was not factional pride. It was an attack on Amarr and Fweddit. Your “factional pride” must blind you from any kind of truth.

Susan has repeatedly insulted Amarr, Shalee, myself, and countless other people and corporations. Where have been to reprimand her? Lets not forget Shalee is the one who said I went too far in my assessment of you and your CSM abilities.

What I find most shocking is your blatant disrespect of her blog. You have Shalee to thank for your spot on the CSM. Without her being “bias” and campaigning for you there is no way you would have finsihed in the top 20.

Shalee did nothing but respond to Susans trolling. She defended her Militia and her friends in Fweddit. If you have issues with what Shalee posts on SovWars you may want to look closer to home.

And that's more or less where it ended. That Hans even felt the need to comment is poor decision-making at best.

So, that's how Hans fell from grace. Bias is obvious bias.