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Topix Dinosaur Forum

Founded

Autumn 2006

Closed

N/A

Current Status

Slightly Active

Specialty

Dinosaur discussions, troll discussions

Security Level

Very Low

Forum Provider

Topix

URL

http://www.topix.com/forum/science/dinosaurs/

Founder

Topix Moderators

Number of Users

Unknown exactly; around ~20 dedicated users

Topix Dinosaur Forum was a forum on Topix where you can discuss about dinosaurs. It was often considered the main hub of the forum community until the Topix Dark Ages. The forum can be found here.

Creation and Early Months

The exact creation date of the Topix Dinosaur Forum is unknown. The earliest known posts were made in mid-2006.

There is little reliable information on the early months of the forum's history - most of the posts from the period have been rendered irretrievable, and very few of the contributors remain.

The first recognizable users, such as Wilferrel and Christopher Pearsoll, arrived to the website in early 2007. They proved to be effective stewards of the fledgling forum, fostering scientific conversations. Over the next several months, the userbase's population grew healthily.

The Topix Golden Age

By mid-2007, the Topix Dinosaur Forum had entered the 'Topix Golden Age', a period known for its lack of trolls and wealth of on-topix discussion. Several of the most recognized contributors of the time, such as Big Al, Spino vs Rex XL and Predator X, arrived during this period.

The forum's vast supply of active discussions and mature contributors allowed for trolls to be flushed out before their flaming or spamming could cause significant damage. Without any responses or flame wars to feed their attention, these lone flamers would either grow frustrated and leave or integrate themselves into the community.

The Topix Golden Age lasted for roughly a year, from mid-2007 to mid-2008, making it the longest uninterrupted period of stability in the forum's history.

The 2008/2009 Troll Crisis

Arriving right at the start of the Topix Golden Age, the minor flamer SpinoX000 attempted to troll and disrupt the forum. As with most trolls at the time, his attempts were casually ignored, leading him to grow frustrated and leave. When he returned in 2008, however, he found a heaven for his flaming and spamming in left-over, ignored troll threads that had yet to be removed by the inactive Topix moderators. Unusually ambitious for a lone troll, SpinoX000 attempted to convince the other flamers and spammers to band together and try to disrupt the forum. Some did rally to him, but he was unable to organize his forces or create any kind of command structure, leading his efforts to quickly collapse.

Still undeterred, Spino pursued a different strategy: in an effort to feign the numbers he had failed to rally, he created a number of clone accounts and launched a spamming campaign against the forum in mid-2008. He found only minimal resistance, mainly from more eager users like Ethan Dino, Spino vs Rex XL and Wilferrel. Most mature users were determined to simply ignore him, and continue on with their civilized discussions. The other contributors, led by Wilferrel, easily saw through Spino's clone accounts and, instead of engaging them in an open flame war, decided to mock his spamming and toy with him. This infuriated Spino, and although he desperately tried to bait them into a flame war, the contributors refused to give in. After a few weeks, frustrated by a lack of progress, Spino left the forum permanently.

Some of the older users, namely Christopher Pearsoll, hoped that the trolls' departure would mean a quick return to normal discussions of the forum. Pearsoll himself refused to get involved in the conflict, stating that insulting the trolls only fueled them and made them harder to drive out. Unfortunately, Pearsoll's hopes would not come to fruition. The campaign against Spino gave the minor contributor Ethan Dino a taste for flaming and spamming, Despite technically being a contributor, Ethan rarely provided useful information in on-topic debates, making him mostly ignored. This likely frustrated Ethan, and so naturally he was pleased when his participation against Spino boosted his profile. Eager to remain the center of attention, Ethan began trolling himself shortly after Spino left. He used the same strategy as his predecessor, creating numerous clone accounts and vehemently spamming the forum. Despite his horrendous grammar and apparent immaturity, Ethan managed to subdue and defeat a large number of the contributors who fought against him, mainly due to his stubbornness and the sheer number of his clones, along with the contributor's unwillingness to be dragged into an immature flame war.

With few contributors willing to fight against him, Ethan began severely disrupting the basic functions of the forum, trolling scientific debates and users who were never involved in the flame wars in the first place. Most of these users, like Pearsoll and Sakib, either greatly declined their rate of posts or left altogether. While not "officially" having defeated the contributors, Ethan and his clone army had no effective resistance, allowing him to troll and spam the forum as he pleased all the way into early 2009. Eventually, Lord Vader and the few remaining contributors banded together and led a rebellion against Ethan. Instead of fighting open flame wars with him, they used a strategy similar to the one used against SpinoX000. They would toy with him, ridicule his posts or indirectly mock him. Their insults usually centered on his immaturity, age and terrible grammar. 

Frustrated by the contributors refusal to openly acknowledge his insults, Ethan left the forum. The majority of contributors resumed normal discussions on the forum with great relief, however minor trolls would continue to linger on Ethan and Spino's troll threads, leaving the forum severely scarred. To make matters worse, only a few days after the crisis, the forum's main troll fighter Wilferrel suddenly departed. This crisis ultimately aided in starting Topix War I, and effectively marked the transition from the The Topix Golden Age to the Dark Ages.

Topix War I

Less than two weeks after the departure of Ethan Dino, two users named Giganotosaurus Fan and Ohyeah Spinogiganotosaurus arrived on the TDF. GigaFan, upon his arrival, was little more than a fanboy who spammed threads involving Giganotosaurus. OhYeah, while supporting GigaFan in the ensuing scientific arguments, did not actively spam or troll upon his arrival. What separated GigaFan from other fanboys was his location: Basildon, in the United Kingdom, which was also the location of one of the TDF's most prolific contributors, Spino vs Rex XL. GigaFan also had very good grammar, uncommon for minor fanboys, which raised further suspicions that GigaFan and Spino vs Rex XL were the same person. Nonetheless, very few acted upon the suspicions, with the exception of the contributor PaudieN1.

In the following days, the arguments between the two trolls and the contributors quickly escalated into a massive flame war. GigaFan and Ohyeah seemed to have an omnipotent presence on the forum, perpetually flaming and trolling scientific threads. Instead of mere fanboyism, the two trolls quickly began flaming the contributors with racist, derogatory and sexual content, although Ohyeah was less extreme in this regard. One of the few contributors who had not become very active in the flame war was Spino vs Rex himself, which greatly piqued the curiosity of PaudieN1, who thought that this was perhaps because Spino vs Rex was too busy flaming as GigaFan to participate as his alter ego.

Paudie then decided to openly "declare war" on the trolls, in the hopes that Spino vs Rex would join and the constant changing of names would lead him to accidentally reveal himself as GigaFan. Many contributors noted that Paudie's declaration would simply fuel the trolls and that flame wars had already been raging for several days now. Nonetheless, the declaration did galvanize many of the other contributors into rallying against the trolls, despite the continued warnings from older users like Christopher Pearsoll.

Over the next couple days, Paudie's plan had proved fruitless. At no point did GigaFan seem in be loosing the flame war, and at no point did Spino vs Rex accidentally reveal himself as GigaFan or vice versa. The war ravaged the forum, and despite the trolls' lack of manpower, they did not distinguish between those who wanted to contribute scientifically and those who were actively fighting. Their unprecedented ferocity essentially ended all on-topic discussion on the TDF, forcing the contributors into a forum-wide flame war. Those who had refused to fight were either forced to join the war, or leave. As the war was nearing the end of its first week, many of the contributors began to note that OhYeah was decreasing his rate of posts, and that his attacks were not as severe nor as hostile as GigaFan's. At some points, he even agreed with the contributors' points.

Eventually, a number of contributors had a private conversation with Ohyeah and convinced him to betray GigaFan, despite some objections from PaudieN1. With GigaFan's only ally now turned against him, the war began tipping in the contributors favour. Realizing that he could not out-flame the contributors on his own, especially with their newfound morale and zeal, GigaFan decided to switch to another strategy. In the early stages of the conflict, Paudie had made his belief that GigaFan and Spino vs Rex were one and the same very public. As such, GigaFan began impersonating Spino vs Rex in a desperate gamble to turn the contributors against each other. Luckily for GigaFan, the gamble paid off: overnight, he managed to turn almost the entire forum against Spino vs Rex and convince them that he was GigaFan. Some users, like Stygimoloch and PaudieN1, even began actively flaming him. Only a select few, like DinoFreakUSA and Ohyeah maintained their belief that Spino vs Rex was innocent.

Infuriated and disgusted by GigaFan's impersonation, Spino vs Rex quickly attacked the troll with a blitzkrieg of harsh insults, refusing to answer any of GigaFan's retaliatory attacks. This caught GigaFan off guard and, after some other users like Ohyeah joined in, GigaFan was sent fleeing. Spino vs Rex then offered several points of evidence to prove that he and GigaFan were not the same, such as Ohyeah's private conversations with the troll. Eventually, he managed to win back most of the users, although PaudieN1 remained certain of his theory and Stygimoloch still had strong suspicions. Spino vs Rex established a "Forum Council" in the wake of the war in order to help deal with trolls, and switched his name to Spinosaur King in order to help put the allegations behind him. Many other contributors who fled during the war returned and resumed conversations, though the peace would not last and marked only the tip of the very large iceberg that was the Topix Dark Ages.

Topix War II

Only a few weeks after Topix War I, Giganotosaurus Fan returned, having recruited numerous troll followers across the internet. Most of these trolls were small, lone flamers who normally would have just been minor annoyances, however with GigaFan's harsh and brutal flaming leading the charge, they soon followed suite. As the leader of the "Forum Council", Spinosaur King took it upon himself to rid the forum once and for all of GigaFan and the troll menace. Supported by almost the entire forum, and bolstered by the return of Wilferrel, the contributors went into battle against the trolls. Once again, users like Christopher Pearsoll were extremely frustrated, claiming that the contributors were just as bad as the trolls and only wanted attention. Nonetheless, his warnings were ignored and yet another war began.

Initially, the war was very similar to Topix War I. Although the contributors severely outnumbered GigaFan and his followers, the trolls' severity and ruthlessness made them an even match for TDF. GigaFan centered most of his insults around OhYeah, who he referred to as a traitor, and SpinoKing. He even attempted his imitation tactic once again, however this time the contributors weren't fooled. However, PaudieN1, still adamant in his theory, insulted both SpinoKing and GigaFan at the same time. This, along with his efforts to convince the other users of his theory, only served to divide and weaken the contributors.

By the end of the first week of fighting, little progress had been made. However, GigaFan began noticing that many of the minor trolls who had initially followed him had grown bored and left. Fearing that he would become isolated and abandoned just as he did at the end of Topix War I, GigaFan made numerous major spams on frequently trafficked pages on wikipedia and other notable websites, inviting trolls to come to Topix. This resulted in a surge of manpower for GigaFan, and marked the arrival of numerous infamous trolls including The Texas Duo and Pincus Shain. The war began tipping in GigaFan's favour, worsening the disagreement and infighting among the contributors and allowing the trolls to overrun most of the forum.

However, just as the troll's victory seemed certain, a saving grace came for the contributors. By this point, the forum's traffic had lowered considerably due to the trolling, which attracted the attention of the traditionally apathetic Topix moderators. They made a brief sweep of the forum and banned all the troll accounts. Most of the major players, such as GigaFan and Pincus Shain, changed their IPs and returned without much issue. However, the uncommitted minor trolls had neither the time nor interest to do this, which meant that GigaFan had suddenly lost the main fodder of his troll army.

Spurned by this sudden good fortune, the contributors managed to reorganize and end the infighting that had plagued them. They redoubled their efforts against the remaining trolls, dispelling The Texas Duo and Pincus Shain and locking GigaFan down into a brutal flame war. By the third week, GigaFan realized that openly engaging the contributors was useless and so he once again resorted to his trickery. He initially claimed to be SpinoKing's real life friend, although this claim was dismissed by almost everyone, even PaudieN1.

GigaFan then resorted to his old strategy of impersonating SpinoKing, but this time the ante was upped when SpinoKing's main account began posting as GigaFan, not just a guest account. Almost immediately, the entire forum turned on SpinoKing and began an overwhelming barrage of flaming and insults, citing his account's posts as irrefutable proof that he was GigaFan. SpinoKing claimed that his account was hacked, but the contributors did not relent and soon he was driven out of the TDF. With SpinoKing driven away, PaudieN1 became the de facto leader of the contributors and took charge of their efforts against the trolls.

Unfortunately, the infighting broke the contributors' momentum, allowing GigaFan and his few remaining supporters to once again grind the flame war down to a standstill. A week passed with no further progress, until further contributor infighting broke out when Pincus Shain admitted he hacked SpinoKing's account to pose as GigaFan. Several contributors began blaming Paudie for driving away SpinoKing on false accusations, although he fiercely defended himself, claiming that Pincus was just trying to turn the contributors on each other. Just as it looked like the contributors would break out into fighting against each other, SpinoKing returned and began a one-on-one flame war with GigaFan, mirroring the flame war at the end of Topix War I.

Over several days, SpinoKing ruthlessly barraged GigaFan, who despite defending himself adamantly was eventually beaten into submission. Seizing onto this victory, the other contributors rallied around SpinoKing and successfully broke the remainder of GigaFan's troll army. GigaFan, along with his supporters, were exiled from the TDF by SpinoKing's "Forum Council". With the troll menace defeated once and for all, the community hoped for a return to normal forum activities. However, instead the discussion returned to whether or not SpinoKing was in fact GigaFan. Paudie led a renewed round of allegations centered on how SpinoKing so easily defeated GigaFan, even though weeks of flaming by the other contributors did little to deter him.

As the forum buckled under the contributor's infighting, the forum-dominating troll Ethan Dino returned, under the name Mike Anderson. He once again began spamming and flaming, but this time his insults were fierce and his trolling more vehement. Surprised, confused and disorganized, the contributors did little to retaliate and in only a few hours the forum was covered in Mike's spamming and trolling. Encouraged by this, Pincus Shain, the Texas Duo and a few other former supporters of GigaFan returned to the forum and began trolling. While some contributors attempted to retaliate, most of them were exhausted by the weeks of fighting and some, including PaudieN1 and Stygimoloch, surrendered and left the forum.

Pincus Shain soon began rapidly escalating his trolling with vicious and unrelenting flaming against the contributors. Previously his insults had been limited to "Retard" and "Dumbass", but now they extended to using racist, homophobic and sexist insults. As the resurgent troll army rallied around Pincus, most of the overextended and exhausted contributors capitulated and left the forum, despite SpinoKing's urges to stay and fight. When Stygimoloch created Paleo Insanity and PaudieN1 created Paleo Place as a way to flee from the devastation the trolls caused, almost all major contributors left the forum. Realizing it was lost, SpinoKing surrendered days later, officially ending the war.

Topix War II was by far the largest war the forum ever faced. The war dragged on for so long that many contributors who left at the start to avoid feeding the trolls never returned. Pincus Shain would go on to sarcastically name himself emperor of "TrollTopia", and ruler of Topix, as a way of mocking the broken contributors. With multiple notable contributors having left, never to return, the war led to the darkest period in Topix's history.

Reign of Pincus

Pincus ruled the forum with an iron fist all throughout the rest 2009 and into 2010. After the defeat of the contributors, they fled to two separate forums: Paleo Insanity, created by Stygimoloch, and Paleo Place, created by PaudieN1. Pincus and his supporters attempted to attack the forums a few times, however they were always instantly banned. A user under the name of Pincus Shain began contributing to Paleo Place, however it is generally accepted that he was not the real Pincus.

Pincus demonstrated a rare level of control over the forum that he dominated. While Ethan Dino had managed to essentially drive most contributors off during the The 2008/2009 Troll Crisis, he never actually had control over any users. The same can be said for the aftermath of the Topix Cold War, in that while the contributors were driven off, no one troll had authority over the forum. Pincus, however, managed to control the forum and instead created discussion threads about derogatory and racist subjects, many of them insulting the contributors who had fled the forum. The Topix Moderators sometimes made incursions and briefly banned trolls, however they simply changed their IP and returned. From mid-2009 to early 2010, Pincus had absolute authority over the forum.

Topix War III

In early 2010, many contributors became frustrated with the trolls' degradation of the TDF, having turned it into a derogatory, racist, and insulting discussion board. The idea to retake Topix came from Ernst Udet, and was supported by many including Spinosaur King, Ohyeah and Lord of the Allosaurs. They agreed to establish the Topix Rebellion and retake the forum from the trolls. They posted invites across both Paleo Insanity and Paleo Place to join and take back Topix. However, almost immediately, they were faced with opposition. Users such as PaudieN1 and Stygimoloch fiercely opposed the concept of retaking Topix, arguing that Topix was doomed to constant war with the trolls without support from the moderators and that their new forums are safer and more secure. This did not deter Ernst or his supporters, and despite limited manpower they launched their campaign to retake the TDF.

The contributors almost immediately found themselves at a disadvantage; disorganized and with limited supporters, Mike Anderson and The Texas Duo easily locked them down into a grueling flame war. Only days after the war began, Lemmings Armageddon and a few other contributors backed out of the fight and returned to the Paleo Insanity, echoing the statements of Stygimoloch and Paudie. However, this still did not deter Ernst, who redoubled his efforts against the trolls, refusing to yield an inch. Encouraged by his example, SpinoKing and LOTA quickly followed suite and before long the trolls found themselves on the defensive. The trolls attempted to post invites on other forums to gather more supporters, similar to what GigaFan did in Topix War II, but few responded to these invitations.

However, on the fifth day of the war, Pincus Shain returned. Having not been active in the conflict until then, he began a vicious onslaught against the contributors, quickly sending many of them running and eventually leaving only Ernst Udet, SpinoKing, LOTA, Ohyeah and Big AI. Once Pincus turned his attention on them, they too were battered and overwhelmed in only a matter of hours. Low morale and fatigue led Big AI and LOTA to leave, while SpinoKing and Ohyeah reduced their rate of posts. Pincus declared the rebellion was no longer a threat, and demanded their surrender. However, Ernst Udet refused to surrender and instead disbanded the insurgency, angrily departing from the TDF and all other forums permanently. SpinoKing and Ohyeah soon returned to Paleo Insanity, leaving Pincus and the trolls triumphant once more. Many of the trolls mocked the Topix Rebellion, calling it "pathetic". Even Ernst and SpinoKing admitted that they doubted the rebellion would ever take back Topix, and were simply frustrated by the lack of any action against Pincus.

The Topix Civil War

With the defeat of the contributors in the third war, confusion and anger erupted all over Paleo Insanity and Paleo Place. Many were angry at Ernst Udet and SpinoKing for not heeding the warnings of Stygimoloch and PaudieN1, who had predicted that another war would only weaken the contributors. Ohyeah began flaming Paudie for these accusations, and a brief flame war between the two erupted. More instability arose when Stygimoloch mysteriously vanished, abandoning Paleo Insanity along with him. Many users blamed his departure on SpinoKing and the other participants in the war.

His departure severely jeopardized the contributor community, leaving Paleo Place as their only safe heaven. When the civil war branched out there, however, it too became threatened with collapse. Since most of the fighting was between fellow contributors, PaudieN1 did not have many options in terms of banning users. He consistently refused to allow SpinoKing onto the forum, still convinced that he was GigaFan.

Frustrated by this chaos and fearing the entire community would soon collapse, SpinoKing created Prehistopia as an alternative to PaleoPlace. Most users created accounts there, and under a stable administration the infighting stopped and the community stabilized. Prehistopia and PaleoPlace came to be collectively referred to as the "Prehistopian Empire" and were the primary contributor hubs for the next few months.

End of Pincus's Rule

Up until mid 2010, Pincus had been ruling Topix with an iron fist, undeterred by the short lived rebellion. However, several months after his victory over the rebellion, for reasons unknown, he posted on all forums that he was abandoning TrollTopia and would cease his trolling.

Galvanized by this surprising good news, many of the older users returned to the TDF. Mike Anderson and The Texas Duo tried to flame the contributors, however they were quickly flushed away by the rush of on-topic discussion. Infuriated and ignored, Mike and The Texas Duo had no choice but to leave the forum. The return of the veteran users and collapse of TrollTopia marked the official end of the Topix Dark Ages.

It was not revealed until mid-2012 that Pincus left because he had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for causing a child to attempt suicide.

Post Dark Ages Peace

After Pincus left, the forum flourished in one of the few peaceful periods of its history. Veteran users from the Prehistopian Empire, such as SpinoKing, LOTA, Ohyeah and Anomonyous, flocked back to the TDF. On-topic, scientific and mature discussions flourished for the first time since the Golden Ages, and several new users arrived and integrated themselves into the forum. Many of them, such as Troodon8888 and Enraged Giga, would go on to become leading members of the community. Although Prehistopia and Paleo Place remained active, the TDF once again became the contributors' main hub of scientific discussion.

The return of the veteran users was not unanimous, however. Some, such as PaudieN1, refused to return to Topix and echoed the warnings of Stygimoloch. He also continued to maintain his belief that SpinoKing was GigaFan, despite this belief having been abandoned by most of the community.

Nonetheless, the Post Dark Ages Peace was a prosperous, albeit modestly long, period of tranquility and peace in the forums history. It marked the end of the Topix Dark Ages, and the beginning of a more modern period in the TDF's history.

The Second Topix Civil War

As a result of the increased forum activity triggered by this period of prosperity, a surge of new users poured into Topix from mid-2010 to early-2011. Initially, these users integrated themselves into the community without much issue, but in later months their activities became problematic. Most of them were young and immature, causing them to unintentionally clog up scientific threads with ignorant and inaccurate posts. They also frequently fed the lone trolls and spammers whom older users had learned to ignore, further polluting the forum.

By Spring of 2011, these troll-feeders had spread across the entire forum and contaminated almost every major thread. Since the troll-feeders weren't technically trolls, the contributors only had limited options to respond to them. Some hoped that they would eventually integrate themselves into the community, but when users such as Troodon8888 or Enraged Giga attempted to reason with them, they would react with hostile and aggressive responses. The veteran users who had returned after the Dark Ages began discussing among themselves how to respond. Ultimately, under the leadership of SpinoKing and LOTA, they finally conceded that Stygimoloch was right all along and that Topix must be abandoned.

In April of 2011, almost all veteran users abruptly abandoned the TDF for Imperial Palace, a new forum created by SpinoKing after Prehistopia was destroyed. Their departure rapidly worsened the crisis that the remaining contributors faced, and before long the troll-feeders' pollution reached its breaking point and led a large wave of trolls to attack the forum.

These new trolls very rarely flamed the forum heavily, however they managed to drive many discussions off topic thanks to troll feeders, who aggressively responded to any posts made by the trolls. As many of the troll feeders were younger users, the trolls would often mock their age or immaturity, further infuriating the troll feeders and further driving the forum off-topic. The most well known episode of this came when The Experts Are Mistaken began impersonating the user Nitrox, then known as Neon Drane. Nitrox became infuriated by the impersonation, and began lashing out and flaming TEAM along with his ally A Plot Device, much to the displeasure of the rest of the forum. Other users attempted to calm Nitrox but to no avail. TEAM would go on to decline his rate of posts, and the incident eventually developed into a flame war between Nitrox and A Plot Device which merged with other conflicts between trolls and troll-feeders. Many of troll feeders like Nitrox, despite contributing to the forum and in some rarer cases being respected members, soon became the target of waves of insults from the contributors themselves, who criticized them as immature and dumb.

Arguments, though not very severe, also broke out between users who wished to not feed the trolls and between users who opted for a "war". The King of Britain made a notable statement on this, saying that the concept of not feeding the trolls couldn't work since the trolls weren't the problem. He stated that the only way to truly stop the fighting was to abandon the forum altogether. Initially this was rejected by most as being too extreme, but eventually the contributors began to recognize this statement as true. In all, it was this infighting that earned the conflict the "Civil War" name. Some have called it Topix War IV, however many have stated that this is incorrect since a "Topix War" is when two sides are fighting, but neither the trolls nor troll-feeders had any real unity and thus could not be labelled as a "side" in this conflict.

The surge in troll feeders and minor spammers, along with fierce infighting between the members of the community quickly made the forum a breeding ground for all manners of trolls in general. Flamers like Billy Joe Jack, Rufus Dufus and Tsar vs Castle Bravo all came to Topix, and began igniting enormous and wide-spreading flame wars across the forum. This, coupled with the troll feeding and infighting led to the complete collapse of scientific discussion across the forum and the first major war since the Dark Ages began. The only users who were able to stand against the trolls were those who arrived in the Post Dark Ages Peace, namely Enraged GigaTroodon8888Mattking and Giganotosaurus. However, these users ran a fine line between fighting the trolls and feeding them; feeding was generally labelled as constantly responding too them and attempting to defend yourself, while fighting has been differentiated as mocking the trolls, or not becoming too involved in arguments with them in general. This led to even more conflict between the contributors, many of whom said that ignoring the trolls was best. Of course, this led to rebound accusations of hypocrisy by the contributors who favored fighting the trolls, stating that those who opted to ignore the trolls were instead giving them more attention then ever by discussing them. The situation soon began spiraling out of hand.

However, the war entered an even darker phase when the troll Pissin scot arrived on the forum. Scot was a vicious and derogatory troll who used racist and sexual insults, and often attacked users on personal levels. When he initially arrived, however, most of his insults were centered on Enraged Giga as he lived in Germany, often calling EG a "neo-nazi" or "fascist". However, when other users began defending EG, Scot branched out and started flaming almost all of the forum. Sparked by Scot's charisma and ferocity, the other trolls redoubled their efforts and began trolling at much more obscene levels. The contributors began falling back and many, including Giganotosaurus, left the forum. With the forum drowned in spamming and flame wars, Enraged Giga created the forum Dino Den for the contributors to flee to. Dino Den proved to be a major success, and most users quickly switched over there and left Topix behind, just as the users of Imperial Palace did. Indeed, many of the users of Imperial Palace had discussions on whether or not to invite new users to the Palace, though it was vehemently opposed by some, who said that it would only bring the troll-feeders and spammers to Imperial Palace.

For the next month, Dino Den served as a safe haven for the users of the TDF. Invitations were also posted to Imperial Palace, and soon many of the older users began repeating the words of The King of Britain; Topix must be abandoned for the trolls to leave. Soon it seemed that the TDF would be left behind as it did following Topix War II. However, while the contributors simply expected pissin scot to leave after the contributors stopped paying attention to him, scot instead followed the contributors as they fled Topix. He launched a rapid series of vicious and ruthless spam and flame attacks on the Wiki, causing damage that years later had not been fully repaired. He then registered on Imperial Palace and Dino Den, however he was swiftly banned on both forums. Nonetheless, the Wiki remained under almost constant siege from Scot, and the contributors feared that soon the Wiki would be flamed to an irreparable state. Many of the contributors decided to return to Topix, hoping to distract scot from the Wiki. While their plan did break the siege of the Wiki, despite their manpower they could not best scot on the forum; he was simply too persistent and too relentless. Outnumbered and on the defensive, the contributors turned to one final option. They began mass reporting scot and the other trolls to the Topix Moderator's, attracting their attention to the forum. The moderators made a brief sweep of the forum and banned almost all the trolls. However, this was not enough to stop scot. He instead returned on Dino Den and while it received less activity now that the contributors returned to Topix, this did not deter Scot who began flaming and spamming it. A brief but significant incident soon took place and Scot was banned. He then left the forum, and many of the contributors created a set of guidelines to prevent the rise of troll-feeders that sparked the conflict. These guidelines took the manifestation of the Topix Republic.

The Second Topix Civil War, measured by sheer significance, length and damage inflicted was the second largest conflict in the forum's history, surpassed only by Topix War II. It led to the essential destruction of Dino Den, severe damage to the Wiki that still is visible, and the final abandonment of Topix by dozens of contributors, new and old. The war's name has also been somewhat controversial; the actual infighting was only significant in the early stages of the war, and a few young users opted to call it Topix War IV. However, for the reasons stated previously, most others dismiss this. The Second Topix Civil War marks the rise of troll feeders as the dominant threat to the forum, and they would go on to ultimately shape the next several years of the TDF's history.

Topix Republic Peace

Throughout the rest of 2011, under the simple guidelines of the Topix Republic, the forum was stable and active. While a string of trolls did keep an active presence on the forum, most of the time they were simply ignored and the forum was at general peace.

As with all periods of peace in the forum, several new users arrived including Raptorialhawk, Ripa The Vraptor and Tyranna2 (Tyranna2 had been on the forum since before the Second Civil War, however he did not post at a steady rate up until then). On Imperial Palace, small discussions were made as to whether it was worth it to attempt and go help the new contributors. However, most of the members of Imperial Palace such as Spinosaur King said that the forum was constantly doomed to war with the trolls, and that the peace would not last. Nonetheless, for several months spanning from July to December, the forum was flourishing with on-topic and active discussions, and most of the trolls threads were flushed away.

There were some small episodes that occurred during this, notably some minor religious disputes between users like Dinotrek27 and others, however they never broke out into truly dangerous flame wars. This period of peace, while most likely aided by the establishment of the Topix Republic, has generally been credited to the decrease in total users across the forum, and by extension the decrease of traffic the forum gained. While there was never any activity lag, there were only around 20-30 dedicated users who posted consistantly, and even that may be a stretch. This meant that random flammers and stragglers never came across the forum and as such trolls nor troll-feeders could ever grow in significant numbers. However, towards the end of 2011, the forum did slowly begin increasing in size, and while some of the new users were on-topic contributors, many of them soon revealed themselves to be troll and troll feeders.

Topix Cold War

It was towards the very end of 2011, around December, that the months of prosperity the forum experienced came to a close. The long period of peace meant increase traffic on the site, which meant that more long flamers and spammers or just immature, young users would find their way to the forum. These young users were similar to the "troll-feeders" that arrived at the start of the Second Topix Civil war, however in this case there weren't as many. Rather, the most disruptive users to arrive at this time were two fanboys named Weinerschnitzel Cranzer and Prime who began posting large Tiger fanboyism on the forum, most notably on a thread discussing whether a lion or a tiger would win in a fight, prompting a large debate and subsequent flame war with Mattking. Cranzer took the side of Prime, whilst Edaphosaurus support Mattking. However, of arguing with scientific sources as Prime had, Cranzer began flaming Mattking and Edaphosaurus and made numerous baseless claims, including that a tiger could beat a T. Rex. This flame war ultimately laid the foundation for what was to come, as it also caused internal conflicts between the contributors as many accused Mattking of feeding the trolls. This period also brought some good tidings, however, as the increased traffic also attracted numerous new users such as Paleoworld-101 and Dilophosaurus who went on to become major contributors.

By early 2012, however, the flame war between Mattking, Weinerschnitzel Cranzer and Prime was beginning to escalate. More and more users began joining in, and soon chaos erupted across the forum. Instead of arguing with Prime and Cranzer using scientific facts, more and more the users began flaming and spamming them, making the situation even worse. Several younger users, namely Andrink, took advantage of this situation, declaring it "The next Topix War". Andrink himself was extensively ridiculed by other users for his desperate pleas for attention, namely when he impersonated Giganotosaurus Fan then pretended to drive him off, and declared himself "Topix's hero". When other users easily exposed that Andrink was simply impersonating GigaFan, Andrink created the now-infamous "the forums biggest mook" thread. When other users accused him of this, he blamed it on A Plot Device, a user whom Andrink despised. Andrink cited how the threads were created by a user under the name "A Plot Device". However, A Plot Device used an actual account, whilst the mook thread was created by an unregistered user, proving that Andrink in fact created them. Following this, dozens of users flamed Andrink, calling him an immature attention-seeker, causing him to leave.

Despite Andrink being driven off, however, the flame war between Mattking and Prime continued. Zero Percent Wrong, a user from Imperial Palace, became friendly with Prime, causing Edaphosaurus to begin flaming him. This caused conflict between Edaph and the rest of the users, as ZPW was a well-respected contributor. Even Mattking, Edaph's long time friend, began to dislike him and rarely supported him against Cranzer and Prime. Thankfully, by June of 2012, the flame war began to die down. Bunny Rabbit, a user who supported Mattking early on however abstained for most of the fight, returned and helped drive Cranzer away. Without any supporters, Prime's rate of posting began to die down and by the end of June he left and relations between Edaph and the other users returned to normal. Many hoped this would see the return to normal activities on the forum, however they were sadly mistaken. Many of the troll feeders, flamers and spammers had directed their attention to Prime, Cranzer and Adrink; with all three of them gone, the troll-feeders and spammers had nothing to do, and so they simply began trolls the other contributors.

Among these resurgent trolls were Bunny Rabbit, who spammed to forum intensely with fanboyish content, and was even accused to be a racist after he said

Abandonment and the Imperial Palace Age

With the end of the Cold War, the forum was nearly abandoned, with only a few users posting, most of them being trolls. Many users thought the age of the TDF was over as trolls flooded the forum. While some new users came in, most of them left due to the mass trolling. Certain users like Tyranna2 stayed and tried to drive off the trolls, but for a while it was of no use. Imperial Palace took over as the dominant forum. On Topix, the main trolls were Coprolite1, Crazy Fish, Doctor Facepalm, Altanative Whatever, and JMD with much more minor trolls, such as "the experts are mistaken" and Mike Anderson, now known as Slappy, returning to troll. Eventually, it was revealed that Coprolite was simply Tyranna2 trolling under a different name. A troll, named JMD, along with a radical user known as coelophysis, also came and posted. JMD was referred to as 'junior' by the trolls, which he did not like at all. JMD had originally been an ally of Doctor Facepalm, but they began flaming each other after JMD seemed to side with Coprolite, an enemy of Crazy Fish, AW, and Doctor Facepalm, even though JMD has stated that he never was friends with Coprolite. JMD was notorious for sometimes stating that he was going to leave the forum, but coming back after a short time. Doctor Facepalm left on 2 December 2012, and came back on 24 December 2012 as a contributor, while AW and Crazy Fish halted their trolling shortly afterwards, although Coprolite didn't stop there and continued flaming other trolls. By late December 2012, JMD had mostly given up his trolling habits. However, JMD left just a few weeks later as Rexby arrived. Although originally thought to be just a fanboy, Rexby began to troll by January 2013 by spamming many threads, as well as flaming contributors. Rexby quickly got into a flame war with Coprolite, who had at first been his friend. By February 2013, with Coprolite constantly blasting random insults at him, Rexby began to post less and less, while PAZB left the forum.

Revival 

With the TDF having been mostly abandoned, many contributors left the forum for Imperial Palace. Although some users, such as Tyranna2 continued to feed the trolls by insulting them, as well as themselves trolling under different names, they mostly left. In April 2013, a fanboy called Raptor216 entered TDF, but quickly departed afterwards. That same month, a new user, named Oasegenggam, came to the forum and fought Rexby, who had already been weakened by attacks from Tyranna2, PAZB, and Paleoworld-101. During the spring and early summer of 2013, however, many users began returning after nearly a year of abandonment. However, many of the contributors' hoped for reviving the TDF were crushed as Oasegenggam began progressing into a more and more persistent troll as the summer of 2013 went by.

Oasegenggam and Australia Forum Crisis

In early August 2013, a large flame war began between the contributors and Oasegenggam, alongside a few other trolls. The flame war completely destroyed the brief stability that had started only weeks ago. The flamewar stretched all the way through August 2013, and while the contributors outnumbered Oase almost 4-to-one, Oase's stubbornes and refusal to give up ensured that the flamewar remained even. Finally, in late August 2013, Oase declared he would stop trolling and begin contributing.

Initially, many users believed Oase would stop his trolling. However, after only a few days, several users claiming to hail from the "Topix Australia Forum" came and began trolling fiercely obscene and sexual content. As the people from the Australia Forum continued flaming in September 2013, Oase became a troll once more, although as soon as he restarted trolling, he began to fade away. Coprolite, Paleoworld-101, and PAZB attacked the users from TAF (Topix Australia Forum) on their own forum, although they continued to troll. While they did eventually leave, in early 2014, the obscene threads they posted would constantly be replied to by trolls, ensuring the effects of the attack would remain visible for quite some time.

"Extinction"

On September 5th of 2013, raptorialhawk declared, on both Topix and Imperial Palace, that TDF was dead. Though many users, such as Spinosaur King have argued that the Topix Dinosaur Forum has already been dead for a long time because of a lack of administrators and the fact that trolls are attracted to the forum, the community finally came to agreement that TDF was "extinct" after the declaration.

There are still infrequent posts on TDF and Tyranna2 (as Coprolite) has also posted, but all discussion is dead. Raptor216 reappeared in October 2013 and began making fanboyish comments, stating that paleontology was just about digging up bones and was not really science, but Paleoworld-101, infuriated, chased him away. Oase gradually made less and less posts until he nearly stopped in December 2013, and the TAF users left TDF. A new fanboy/troll called "gigantoraptor for ever" has also appeared, though it is not certain whether "Minty Chick", who posts from the same location, is really GFE (gigantoraptor for ever) or a separate person.

In early January 2014, Oase returned and apologized for trolling, only to leave immediately afterwards. Meanwhile, newer contributors, like Pale0Guy and Prehistory, started to flush out fanboys, such as coelophysis. Some users, like Fegelein, thought that this may actually have been the end of the abandonment of Topix. Ironically, he was one of the many trolls at the start of TDF's abandonment, and it was caused partly by him. Despite this, Rexby returned to TDF in February 2014, albeit not as powerful as he was prior to his departure. He made fanboyish posts and spammed the forum, though at a steadily declining rate. He left in May 2014, although other fanboys, notably Jakesaurus imperator, have taken his place.

Currently, the forum remains in this "extinct" state, with the only discussions occuring on the forum almost always off-topic or plagued by spamming from trolls. Nearly all contributors have fled to Imperial Palace.

Recently, there have been three new contributors who have attempted to ward off trolls; Migatte, Vipersocal, and Dinosaurine. Dinosaurine was a very short lived guest who regularly fought Coelophysis, and Migatte admitted that he has really stopped trying to stop the trolls, but he still comments regularly. Vipersocal has since left and now Migatte has retreated for the time being.

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