Basics
"Driver Madness" is a message board website running phpBB3 dedicated to the Driver Series of games, although it still has a nice social board system in place. It has over 300 registered members currently, and is currently ran by bb_42001. Notable members include Harlequin, Nikusakken, T.K., PostalDude, Dr. Doom, someone972, Sedans, Wheelman75, and cleone.
Controversy within the Community
On February 8th, 2009, the then-unknown member/heavy spammer chrisl121212 (now cleone) posted, a day after his registration, that he would be creating a Driver fangame, to be released a few months later. It was not much later that the game was delayed. The game was delayed several times due to different reasons, such as vacation, data loss, etc. Awhile before the game was released, chrisl121212 began spamming heavier, flaming, and trolling many of the other users. He threatened suicide many times, not to release the game, and asked to be banned. Many users tried to get it to stop, to no avail. When the game was released at long last, users tried it and reported their testimonies on it. chrisl121212 responded to most with flames, as he was convinced the game was terrible. It wasn't quiet for long.
In late July, the user T.K. opened up his GameFAQs spinoff, That One Place. chrisl121212 responded, believing that his own site was superior due to its games. Users responded contrarily to this, preferring That One Place, which was growing rapidly, due to its active community. Not long after, chrisl121212 became less tolerant to those around him, and began flaming, spamming, and trolling everyone in site. Driv3rOwnz (now PostalDude) had befriended T.K. not long before that due to their shared interest in an online multiplayer game. Driv3rOwnz commented on how he couldn't tolerate chrisl121212, and T.K. began paying more attention to their posts, and began seeing what Driv3rOwnz meant. chrisl121212 become an incessant pest in a matter of days, and then, in early August, problems arose.
T.K. and Driv3rOwnz began trolling chrisl121212's every move, although at times, Sedans would join in on the fun. T.K. would use advanced logic against chrisl121212, and Driv3rOwnz would attack with basic maneuvers, although highly effective in it's own. chrisl121212 would respond with less-than-par comebacks, flames, hypocrisy, contradictory statements, and attempts at trolling. Many well-noted trollings were in the Free Chat topic (many times), "People Who Diss Driver", "Chris's Future", and "Flame Topic". At one point, chrisl121212 wanted a username change. The chances to get them changed had been over since a week after bb_42001's administration's beginning. chrisl121212 then overrode his social graces and commanded it. He had already angered bb_42001 not long before this, so chrisl121212's attempts at a change were futile, and it went as far as to threatening the administrators and moderators. At one point, chrisl121212 was to be banned for 2 months, along with PostalDude (formerly Driv3rOwnz) due to repeated stabs at each other.
bb_42001 reversed both the bans and let them go. The many trollings continued until mid-December, although chrisl121212 had disappeared a few times before. He came back under the name "cleone" and was somewhat better. T.K. had decided to resurrect his old PC game development team that had died out many months ago. He began staffing with a topic, and gave cleone the chance to join up, although he refused since he had his own (consisting of only him). Not long after that T.K. started up the team's site, and decided to ask someone who had been working with cleone on his game, designing cars, Wheelman75. cleone stated that Wheelman75 already worked under him, to which T.K. responded "But he is nothing more than a mere associate, since 'CL Games' is truly nothing more than 'Chris Leone'." cleone responded that he had decided to recruit him for his next game, although T.K. had already made attempts at contact. cleone responded poorly to T.K.'s reponse to letting cleone join, stating that he refused to work for a team that only designed FPS's. T.K. pointed out that an FPS was in the works, but not the main sight of the team.
The trolling had already continued before this, in other topics. T.K. stated that it was highly likely that cleone was homosexual, due to his homophobia. In the game dev team topic, cleone decided to attack the team due to it's use of Game Maker 7, which was known for being harder than it looks. T.K. responded with that fact, and waited for cleone to spew more trash. This continued through the day and to the night. T.K., Sedans, and PostalDude couldn't believe what they saw the next morning.
Over night, on Dec. 31, bb_42001 became sick of the garbage and posted a new set of rules. T.K. was upset by this, posting a 4-paragraph rant and pointing out that it should've been done when bb_42001 took over, or at least when the problems were at their worst, back in August. Sedans pointed out that bb_42001 had become corrupt, and was taking cleone's side. When cleone signed on that day, he praised the new rules, and hoped that it would solve the problem, failing to realize (for the umpteenth time) that he himself was the problem. cleone claimed again and again that T.K. and PostalDude were the problems. Sedans and T.K. had already made promises to keep in contact in the case that they were banned.
cleone made the final claim that these newly-enforced rules would fix what T.K. and PostalDude had supposedly broken apart. T.K. had become fed up, and ended the childish trolling with one last attack. He responded incredily harshly, stating that he hoped cleone would make a failed suicide attempt that rendered him forever comatose, that he would have a painful death, and said that cleone was absolute scum, and a moron for believing himself to be spectacular. cleone never responde back to that topic, and when he did respond to other topics, T.K. stayed out, as he had let off his steam and wanted to stay out of the mess.
bb_42001 decided that the rules were a bad move, and in a final attempt at keeping the community together, dropped the rules and banned cleone from the site for the next 6 months. T.K., Sedans, and PostalDude rejoiced at the news, and T.K. stated that "justice has been served". T.K. and PostalDude are no longer trolls, having decided to retire from the job due to cleone's absence.