WOT

Board Title
WOT
Board Type	Special
Board Number	408
Entry Requirements	Level 15

WOT, formerly War on Terrorism, is a board on GameFAQs. A pseudo-politics board, War of Terrorism was designated as a Special Board in 2005 and has no topicality. Regular posters on WoT are known as "WoTers" or "WoTermelons."

Created in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, CJayC created the NYC/DC Tragedy board (the board was created in the hours after the attacks, before 9/11 became the phrase to refer to the attacks). The board was designed for users to discuss the real-life attacks and to prevent social and game boards from being flooded with 9/11 topics (which was the occurrence leading to board creation). A few months after the September 11 attacks and with the United States announcing a global "War on Terror", the board was renamed War on Terrorism to reflect the changing nature of board discussion. The War on Terrorism board continued to be a battle zone for political debates.

In mid-2005, CJayC added many new boards based on demand. As part of this increase of boards, CJayC formally made the War on Terrorism board a Social board. It was renamed "WOT" (still called "WoT" by many users, emphasizing the lowercase "o" in "War on Terrorism") and placed in the Special Social board category, making it inaccessible from the main board list. A few days after this decision, CJayC announced in a topic on WOT that he had changed his mind, and wanted to try something else. However, most WoTers supported the original decision and elected to remain a special board.

A new board entitled Politics was created on September 8, 2005 to replace WoT as a dedicated political discussion board as part of the newly created "News: Past, Present, and Future" category. However, the regular posters on the two boards remained more or less exclusive from each other.

WoT, by far the more active of the two boards, continued its trend towards a social board similar to LUE, although political discussion remains a popular subject among its' users. WoT's status as a special board combined with a lack of new posters has made WoT's community especially close.

Culture of WoT

War on Terrorism has continued to grow as not only a message board for political discussion, but also for socializing.

nolimitz13

Nolimitz was an outspoken critic against George Bush. Because of this, he had many allies and enemies on WoT. During the 2004 election between George Bush and John Kerry, Nolmitz made an infamous topic titled "Bye Bye Bushie." Inside, he bet his account that Kerry would win. The next day, it was confirmed that George Bush won the election. True to his statement, nolimitz canceled his high karma account. Though he has become the butt of many jokes, nolimitz is also admired by many WoTers for sticking to his word. His topic, "Bye Bye Bushie" is still referenced in topics claiming the outcome on contested events, whether they be election or other.

External News Articles and Links

As many WoTers continue to participate in political discussions and debates, many external news articles are linked in support of arguments. However, WoTers became enraged as moderators began deleting posts that had pasted news article text as copyright infringement. Moderators responded to the outrage by creating a sticky topic on WoT which quickly became the scene of a massive argument between WoTers and moderators. However, the sticky topic was hilariously destroyed when a WoT regular, RabidPirate, spammed the topic, resulting in an horrific explosion and destruction of the topic. WoT continues to be moderated for posting large portions of a news article and animosity is still high between WoTers and moderators. Lately, tensions seem to be flaring up over a similar issue as moderators have been deleting posted links of YouTube videos displaying copyrighted media.

Sons of 408

Sons of 408 was a message board outside of GameFAQs to be used by WoT members, a la LUE's LUELinks, as a bastion from what many viewed increasingly draconian rulings by GameFAQs moderators. It was created and run by Dan, a regular WoT poster, and named after WoT's board number. The message board had a small following, but failed to gain a large percentage of WoT posters. The board eventually was overcome with pornographic ads and was abandoned.

The Evil Republicans

The Evil Republicans was an attempt on the part of regular WoTer FlamingSchoolBus to create a group within a group. The Evil Republicans humorously built itself upon stereotypical evil that many of the boards more liberal members attributed toward Republicans. Such activities as drilling for oil and clubbing harp seals were popular topics to discussion amongst Evil Republicans. The Evil Republicans spawned countless spinoffs, such as the Evil Democrats and the WoT Defense League, but none ever grew to such sizes as the Evil Republicans did. At their height, The Evil Republicans had over ten 500 post meeting topics. As of 2009, they still are in existence, yet much less active.

Tsiamon Coldfire

Tsiamon Coldfire was a female and a regular poster on WoT. Due to the rarity of females on WoT and on GameFAQs in general, Tsiamon quickly became a polarizing figure on WoT, garnishing both respect and hate from other WoTers. Many accused her of constantly complaining over frivolous things while others called her smart, witty and strong. When Tsiamon successfully published a fantasy book, she ferociously marketed it on WoT. This marketing seemingly created animosity toward her and for whatever reason, the majority of WoT became openly hostile toward her. Dark Terror, a regular WoTer, in following this animosity, created a topic claiming Tsiamon was pregnant. The topic was a hit and many insults were thrown toward Tsiamon within it. A few users defended her, but the pressure against her was too great. Tsiamon left the board and was soon followed by one of her defenders, BigDan, though he would return at a later date.

CnC_Babe

In the summer of 2008, another female user faced harassment. CnC and another user, Dirty Larry, were engaged in a real life relationship which they publicly discussed on WoT. They engaged in many topics displaying their affection for one other, much to the discomfort of several board regulars. When it was admitted by DirtyLarry that he had contracted herpes, the popular joke on WoT arose stating that CnC had given it to her. After much harassment from the user base, CnC Babe announced she was leaving WoT. However this announcement was false, as she returned to the board with in a day. Much to her dismay none of the WoT regulars cared about her ploy for attention. After this incident the harassment eventually subsided until only the most dedicated trolls mentioned the incident. CnC later left WoT under possibly related circumstances, but it is rumored that she returned as the user LuciferNPals

Fads

WoT, like other message boards, has a number of fads that have either developed on their own or where adopted from other message boards and internet culture as a whole. lol,™ was developed as to claim something or someone to be a "tool" (hence the trademark logo). For example, lol, apple™, would be an insult claiming somebody to be a tool of Apple Computers.

lol, decaying _____, follows a similar formula. Most often, this is when speaking of Great Britain's current status and polices (I.E. "lol, decaying Britain") However, this saying is often altered to correspond with other topics, such as "lol, decaying America" and "lol, declining Microsoft"

AA stands for Average American and is used by some users. It was first created by WoT Poster TheHeroicOne. It is used to describe the stereotype of the average American being apathetic, uncaring and unable to come with any solutions for any meaningful problems.

Another fad of WoT is the use of the board's name as a substituted for the word "What." This can be seen in such examples as "WoT kind of car do you have?" The board's name is also used as a joke in people ask when "WoT" actually stands for. Such a question is usually answered with "Waste of Time," "Waffles or Toast?" and etc.

ITT (meaning In This Topic) is also heavily used on WoT. It can be used as just as an informational topic title (I.E. ITT: Pictures of Cute Kittens) or as an insult to other WoTers (I.E. ITT: Lying nerds who've never even kissed a girl).

External Links

• WOT at GameFAQs