LOL at this

[msgkings322]

Not sure if I have the story completely correct, as I started posting (very minimally) and mostly lurking in 2003. I think the "Mules" as they are affectionately called started posting in 2000 or 2001. So in any event, take this story with a grain of salt, but I think it's relatively close to accurate. Anyway the term "mule" came about by a poster named "castacore" (who a lot of people think is cazic). Castacore was a very doom and gloom poster who was always predicting imminent failure. Two of the more popular posters around that time were ram9198 and ILDoyle. Anyway, those two used to always go at it with Castacore telling him he was a pantshitter. The rest of the Giants board agreed with ram and IL that the sky wasn't falling and that Castacore was just a chicken little. Then the rest of the board basically would just belittle Castacore and call him a pantshitter as well. Castacore basically called the rest of the board "mules" for blindly following anything ram said. He called ram "teh Mule God" and anything ram said would be backed by ILDoyle and then the rest of the mules would blindly agree no matter what.

The boards back then were very entertaining to read. I just never posted because even though it was fun to read it was very clique-ish. You kind of had to "put in your time" so to speak before you could be considered a respected poster. A lot of times if you posted in a thread or even started a thread it would just be ignored until you were "worthy". At least that's how it seemed to me. A lot of the posters on the board back then had been posting together for years so there were a ton of hilarious inside jokes and back and forth banter.

I figured it was something like that just curious about the details. Seems like Tito was a 'respected poster' back then.

 

[filosofy29]

I figured it was something like that just curious about the details. Seems like Tito was a 'respected poster' back then.

Well, gp has a theory (and it very well may have some merit to it) that Tito may be a respected poster from back in the days moonlighting as Tito just to make the board miserable. But rest assured, Tito was never a respected poster on that board under his current moniker. At least not in the 7+ years I've been reading the board. I don't recall seeing Tito there until about 2 or so years ago.

The posters I liked from the old board were Frisco_Short_Stop, balzac, tehhed, jobuneedsarefil and Lionel_Mandrake (can't remember his earlier nic). I also enjoyed relo_36 and Byco42, but sometimes their obsession with the Godfather was a little overwhelming, lol. All in all it was a fun board, but I think it's a little glorified now. I mean, a message board is a message board right?

 

[msgkings322]

Well, gp has a theory (and it very well may have some merit to it) that Tito may be a respected poster from back in the days moonlighting as Tito just to make the board miserable. But rest assured, Tito was never a respected poster on that board under his current moniker. At least not in the 7+ years I've been reading the board. I don't recall seeing Tito there until about 2 or so years ago.

The posters I liked from the old board were Frisco_Short_Stop, balzac, tehhed, jobuneedsarefil and Lionel_Mandrake (can't remember his earlier nic). I also enjoyed relo_36 and Byco42, but sometimes their obsession with the Godfather was a little overwhelming, lol. All in all it was a fun board, but I think it's a little glorified now. I mean, a message board is a message board right?

Exactly. None of it 'matters', to me or I'd wager any of you either. I was just getting myself educated.

Interestingly, this returned 'mule' bags on Nolan too. So I guess he's been annoying for a very long time.

 

[filosofy29]

Exactly. None of it 'matters', to me or I'd wager any of you either. I was just getting myself educated.

Interestingly, this returned 'mule' bags on Nolan too. So I guess he's been annoying for a very long time.

Yup, you hit the nail on the head. I mean, don't get me wrong, if all of you guys on this board started saying I was a tool or a douchebag and ran me off of the message board, I'd definitely have to take some time to re-examine myself, lol. That said, I'd still love my wife, my family, my friends and my two dogs, and I'm pretty sure the sun would still rise too .

I'll have to check that out. I wonder if I'll recognize the mule too. I'll be white black.

EDIT: I don't recongnize the dude, but who knows if that's the same nic he used to use.

 

[gp956]

Nolan wasn't around in those days. The mule is just making a comment about what he is reading now.

Just to add a bit to what Filo already mentioned. Part of what I did not like about the mules (at least the pitch fork carry dullards among them), is the mules revealed the actual identity of castacore and harassed him at his business and home. And, of course, the running dog pack mentality of the hangers on - bhaakon and agiantstep fit into that group, I think. McCovey Chronicles suffers from the same problem.

Anyway, the party ended when ESPN changed formats, deleted every old post, and "fired" all local moderators and switched to a centralized moderating scheme that never dealt effectively with trolls. Also, initially, their automated post filtering algorithm was badly mangled, such that you could not figure out which word was preventing a post from posting. The last bit was, I think, the straw that broke the camel's back, and led to the mass exodus of the mules to the "runboard".

And btw, cazic is most likely castacore.

 

[gp956]

Well, gp has a theory (and it very well may have some merit to it) that Tito may be a respected poster from back in the days moonlighting as Tito just to make the board miserable. But rest assured, Tito was never a respected poster on that board under his current moniker. At least not in the 7+ years I've been reading the board. I don't recall seeing Tito there until about 2 or so years ago.

The posters I liked from the old board were Frisco_Short_Stop, balzac, tehhed, jobuneedsarefil and Lionel_Mandrake (can't remember his earlier nic). I also enjoyed relo_36 and Byco42, but sometimes their obsession with the Godfather was a little overwhelming, lol. All in all it was a fun board, but I think it's a little glorified now. I mean, a message board is a message board right?

Yeah. With as much vitriol as some of those guys had towards ESPN after their changes were implemented, i could see one of them deciding to troll the board as much as possible.

 

[SF11704]

Interesting. I've been reading the ESPN boards for about - ever! IBWT is a mule from the old ESPN board. At least the monicker is correct. Almost all of the mules migrated to the RUNBOARD back in 10/2006. Many are still there today. They actually have there on area on the board. They left the ESPN board because of censorship. Most of them felt they were being unjustly censored and just picked up and left. Just as many of the people here moved to Sports SportsHoopla they moved to RUNBOARD.

They were cliquish. Very cliquish. As Filo indicated - you needed to gain acceptance before they would acknolwledge you. From what I can remember the MULES tag did come from the argument with CASTCORE. Many of his posts were legendary. They would make Nolan look like an eternal optimist. Another tag you'll often see is HF (humorless fxxk). That was another characteristic shared by many of the MULES.

Tito was never around at that time. At least under that name. I can also tell you that they never would have tolerated the behavior. Being a 'pantshitter' is one thing but being an anti-fan is quite another. The Cain bashing wouldn't have went over well at all. I do have a suspicion that he tried to gain access to the RUNBOARD but that didn't work out too well for him.

I was also a little surprised that IBWT came back to the board and announced himself as a MULE. Very few there would understand the reference. I'm also surprised that he never made an appearance at the RUNBOARD during the past 4-5 years.

Maybe I'll ask him a few questions and see what he remembers about the MULES

 

[msgkings322]

Interesting stories, rich history. It's like Lord of The Rings. Lords of The Keyboards?

Sounds like the 'mules' aren't missed much by the folks here.

 

[filosofy29]

Interesting stories, rich history. It's like Lord of The Rings. Lords of The Keyboards?

Sounds like the 'mules' aren't missed much by the folks here.

I liked a lot of them. The ones that weren't so egotistical. Hell, I missed last years, but I've been in Frisco_Short_Stops annual Hockey Playoff pool for the prior 3 years. I'd love it if some of those guys posted over here, but I get just as good of entertainment and baseball knowledge from everybody that posts in here currently.

I just thought that a bunch of the Mules were pretty harsh on some good posters and may have driven some away. That said, they were very entertaining to read.

 

[tzill]

Not sure if I have the story completely correct, as I started posting (very minimally) and mostly lurking in 2003. I think the "Mules" as they are affectionately called started posting in 2000 or 2001. So in any event, take this story with a grain of salt, but I think it's relatively close to accurate. Anyway the term "mule" came about by a poster named "castacore" (who a lot of people think is cazic). Castacore was a very doom and gloom poster who was always predicting imminent failure. Two of the more popular posters around that time were ram9198 and ILDoyle. Anyway, those two used to always go at it with Castacore telling him he was a pantshitter. The rest of the Giants board agreed with ram and IL that the sky wasn't falling and that Castacore was just a chicken little. Then the rest of the board basically would just belittle Castacore and call him a pantshitter as well. Castacore basically called the rest of the board "mules" for blindly following anything ram said. He called ram "teh Mule God" and anything ram said would be backed by ILDoyle and then the rest of the mules would blindly agree no matter what.

The boards back then were very entertaining to read. I just never posted because even though it was fun to read it was very clique-ish. You kind of had to "put in your time" so to speak before you could be considered a respected poster. A lot of times if you posted in a thread or even started a thread it would just be ignored until you were "worthy". At least that's how it seemed to me. A lot of the posters on the board back then had been posting together for years so there were a ton of hilarious inside jokes and back and forth banter.

you have it essentially right. Castcore is Cazic; I believe he copped to that at one point.

 

[tzill]

I liked a lot of them. The ones that weren't so egotistical. Hell, I missed last years, but I've been in Frisco_Short_Stops annual Hockey Playoff pool for the prior 3 years. I'd love it if some of those guys posted over here, but I get just as good of entertainment and baseball knowledge from everybody that posts in here currently.

I just thought that a bunch of the Mules were pretty harsh on some good posters and may have driven some away. That said, they were very entertaining to read.

My experience, and I didn't post back then very often, was that they'd cut you some slack if you were actually trying to put up analysis. If, however, you were regurgitating KNBR or the Chronicle, they'd at best ignore you and at worst harass you. I liked and respected teh mules, but I also was intimidated by them. When they left, it was dead for a while. Then filo, step, ecg, gp, coach, laguna, myself, and a couple of others started posting and there was a nice period where it was a good board. Then, crapzic pulled his usual pantshitting and a couple of others showed up as well and it became flamewars. Oh, and drive by Barry bashers drove a lot of responses as well.

The next generation of fools was headed by Nolan, Tito, Livin, and Prince.

 

[filosofy29]

Just to add a bit to what Filo already mentioned. Part of what I did not like about the mules (at least the pitch fork carry dullards among them), is the mules revealed the actual identity of castacore and harassed him at his business and home. And, of course, the running dog pack mentality of the hangers on - bhaakon and agiantstep fit into that group, I think. McCovey Chronicles suffers from the same problem.

Damn, that's interesting. I never knew that part of the story. That must have happened before my time there as a lurker. That's some fucked up shit. I wouldn't even do that to Tito or SF_Envy. That's where some of the "Mules" took it too far. Not sure who was in on it, but that's just wrong. And as you also said, a lot of the "hangers on" types were the worst offenders of ridiculing others.

I also always found it kind of funny that a lot of the old posters probably call/called themselves "Mules" but are most likely not. I always was of the mind that Castacore had a select few posters in mind whom he considered "Mules". I think a lot of the posters who claimed to be Mules were just wannabes. In my humble opinion of course.

EDIT: And now it appears tzill has the old mule caught in public as a HF.

 

[msgkings322]

Damn, that's interesting. I never knew that part of the story. That must have happened before my time there as a lurker. That's some fucked up shit. I wouldn't even do that to Tito or SF_Envy. That's where some of the "Mules" took it too far. Not sure who was in on it, but that's just wrong. And as you also said, a lot of the "hangers on" types were the worst offenders of ridiculing others.

I also always found it kind of funny that a lot of the old posters probably call/called themselves "Mules" but are most likely not. I always was of the mind that Castacore had a select few posters in mind whom he considered "Mules". I think a lot of the posters who claimed to be Mules were just wannabes. In my humble opinion of course.

EDIT: And now it appears tzill has the old mule caught in public as a HF.

I was just going to post that. Maybe he is a 'mule'.

 

[gp956]

That whole, "I couldn't post because my work installed a firewall" is BS, of course. Why not just say, "I had no desire to post when the Giants sucked ass"?

 

[msgkings322]

That whole, "I couldn't post because my work installed a firewall" is BS, of course. Why not just say, "I had no desire to post when the Giants sucked ass"?

Good point.

 

[SF11704]

From what little I can remember. I think CASTECORE was a dentist or something in that arena. I also believe that some people found out about that as well and that led to some other problems . LLDOYLE was a lawyer from Atlanta I think. I also think he was the most respected of all the posters during that time. There was also some other poster claiming to be the CEO of something. Just can't seem to remember what and can't remember the name. Many flaming wars over that person's posts. Always references to their corporate jet and what not. Byco was a Tigers fan. I do remember that there was quite a bit of knowledge within that group.

 

[Robotech]

I used to post back then, too. I think you guys are right that they were very cliquish. I never really felt like I was part of the group when I posted. Now I feel like we are all Giants fan (except for the anti-fans like Nolan, of course).

I remember lamenting the fact that the Giants drafted Tony Torcato instead of Sabathia. CC is a local kid and I just wondered how the Giants could have missed him. That post earned me the wrath of the Mules.

 

[msgkings322]

I used to post back then, too. I think you guys are right that they were very cliquish. I never really felt like I was part of the group when I posted. Now I feel like we are all Giants fan (except for the anti-fans like Nolan, of course).

I remember lamenting the fact that the Giants drafted Tony Torcato instead of Sabathia. CC is a local kid and I just wondered how the Giants could have missed him. That post earned me the wrath of the Mules.

So they were cliquish and stupid too?

 

[filosofy29]

I used to post back then, too. I think you guys are right that they were very cliquish. I never really felt like I was part of the group when I posted. Now I feel like we are all Giants fan (except for the anti-fans like Nolan, of course).

I remember lamenting the fact that the Giants drafted Tony Torcato instead of Sabathia. CC is a local kid and I just wondered how the Giants could have missed him. That post earned me the wrath of the Mules.

Did you use the same nic back then Robo?

I know, I got flamed once for getting mad at Pedro Feliz always swinging at the first pitch after the pitcher had thrown like 8 straight balls out of the zone.....usually resulting in a GIDP. It was then brought to my attention that Feliz had a .307 average when he swung at the first pitch.....I just had to throw my hands up at at that point and give up.

 

[Robotech]

Did you use the same nic back then Robo?

I know, I got flamed once for getting mad at Pedro Feliz always swinging at the first pitch after the pitcher had thrown like 8 straight balls out of the zone.....usually resulting in a GIDP. It was then brought to my attention that Feliz had a .307 average when he swung at the first pitch.....I just had to throw my hands up at at that point and give up.

Yeah, I'm using the same account that I used back then. Good 'ole Peter Happy, as they called him on the board back then.