This Era is marked by a slow descent into inactivity, huge staff purges, and bloody fights between members who had formerly seen each other as friends. As you can probably tell, this was the worst era of our wikia since the Birth Era.
The descent into the hell of the Dark Era was at first very slow. In the beginning, members of the Wikia got along, for the most part, but updates began to slow until early November when the developer (Zeach) decided to not update the game in almost 3 months. People suddenly had nothing to do, so Bureaucrat Ursuul tried to spice things up with contests, achievements, improvements to the staff system, and new features. But still, old members began to drop into complete inactivity faster than new members were coming in, and the boredom meant only a tiny spark was needed to cause huge dustups between members. Meanwhile, the Senior Council of the Democratic Era turned out to be inefficient, unable to effect much change on the wiki or improve the generally poor competence of the current Staff.
It was then, when we had slowly grown into unrest and were tired of having no updates, that the Staff Purge came. Tired of the petty fights between underage users and the general incompetence of the Staff at addressing anything, Ursuul decided to demote the vast majority of the staff and immediately resign. (This was partially a failed attempt to lure a recurring vandal into an IP range ban.) The tensions thus far immediately spilled into chaos, while the remaining Provisional Administration led by Zathsu was unwilling to take any sort of stance. Factions formed, with one "rebel" group trying to gain leadership over the wiki into the resulting power vacuum, and another "loyal" group generally supporting Ursuul and strongly opposing the rebels' attempt to gain power. Rebels argued that Ursuul's supporters were corrupt and that they were the best choice to restore sanity to the wiki, while loyalists argued that the asocial users in the rebel group were of no ability to hold a position of power. Both sides, however, were frustrated at the chaos and lack of action by the current Administration.
One of the largest flame wars during this anarchic time started over corrupt actions taken to stop the group trying to gain power, as Ursuul, frustrated with the anarchy and rebellion, exercised some control over the wiki through his alt account used as a Bot. Secret alt accounts were used, users chosen by the loyal group were promoted to positions of power behind the scenes, and the ideal of transparency and democratic governance from the Democratic Era was long gone. There seemed to be no relief in sight, as former friends were pitted against each other in the struggle for power, both sides trying to restore order to the wiki but only causing further drama and tension.
At last, however, Ursuul returned to the wiki. He established control over the wiki and began restoring order, mending the wounds of the earlier chaos. While many users still harbored resentment towards others, efforts were made to cool things down while having stronger administration in place to ensure this couldn't happen again. Ursuul started a smaller, Second Staff Purge, aimed at reforming the staff to make it more stable and apt to moderate the wiki, instead of reducing it to tatters like the first Purge. New projects were started to give the community a purpose other than fighting each other, and slowly but surely, peace returned to the Wiki.
| Eras |
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| Birth Era • Dawn Era • Democratic Era • Dark Era • Reformation Era • Unification Era |