Team Fedora
From GFWiki
A (now-inactive?) group of members founded in 2001 and briefly resurrected late 2003 and early 2004. Characterised by avatars containing fedoras, not much else is known about this group, and many believe they never really had a point in the first place.
Note: While this article may seem excessively long, it is mostly a thorough history lesson on the major events of 2001.
Biography
Founded: April 2001
Also known as: The Hat Club
Members
Name/Date Hired
- Dsal/April, 2001 (Co-founder)
- OctoberOmicron/April, 2001 (Co-founder)
- Elysian/June, 2001
- Paikuhan/Early 2002
- IoriYagami_n8/???
- Sword Serenity/July, 2003
- Obsidian/August, 2003
- Kensaki/August, 2003
The Name
In the midst of its first cases during early 2001, OctoberOmicron and Dsal (the only members at the time) had made a major discovery in a now forgotten case and celebrated in an AIM conversation. In relation to Team Fedora's (self-imposed) detective work, Dsal playfully made a comment along the lines of selecting a file from a filing cabinet and stamping it CASE CLOSED, along with other comments reminiscent of the old film noir genre.
OO had, during the previous week, for some reason been watching a lot of Pokemon. He had developed a crush on Team Rocket member James before finding out the fucker was male... This can be blamed on bad eyesight and listening to VGM while watching the show so he was never able to hear the masculine voice. BUT THAT'S ANOTHER STORY!
Because Pokemon's Team Rocket was fresh on his mind, he quickly combined the name with something related to those old film noirs... And Team Fedora was born.
Team Fedora (2001-2002)
The FinalRob Case
With the exception of finding out Marcel's motives for wiping the board March of 2001, every single Team Fedora action (until August that year) revolved around the FinalRob case.
Stealing Members
When he first started VGMDungeon, many Gamingforce members reported private messages FinalRob was sending in attempts to lure members over to his new board. In order to keep an eye on him, nothing was done about or said to FinalRob about these complaints. OctoberOmicron was privy to this information as a newly appointed moderator, and with Dsal's help they kept an eye on who was joining the Dungeon. Not long after they also joined FR's Dungeon, and soon Dsal was made a moderator thanks to his friendly, neutral personality. Luckily, the existence of Team Fedora was unknown of at this time. In the end, there was nothing to worry about. Most of the members FR was able to lure soon returned to Gamingforce. Others loyal to Gamingforce, such as Dyhalto and IkarusZino, posted at VGMD simply to be abusive. FinalRob wouldn't ban them (not for too long, anyway) because he'd then be left with a board total of ten posts a day. Ironically, FinalRob's Dungeon attracted members that eventually jumped ship to Gamingforce, such as the insane 42 year old (posing as 19) edia, the shortlived Team Fedora member (mentioned later) Elysian, the overweight lazy Asian Daedelon1, and IoriYagami_n8; a member with murky ties to Team Fedora.
The Mole/Password Incidents
Roughly May or June of 2001 Pink, who had somehow made Gamingforce staff, started an attack scheme to destroy the Dungeon. This was somehow endorsed and possibly suggested by bobo himself. All evidence of this was kept strictly within the moderator hut. Eventually, before anything could be done with the plan, FinalRob let it be known that he knew all about it and even sent some Gamingforce staff members the file to show he wasn't bluffing. Obviously, the scheme was cancelled... Somehow OctoberOmicron (method forgotten) discovered that Carley, a Gamingforce mod who had also become a mod at the Dungeon, was feeding FinalRob information. The reasons for her doing so are now forgotten, and OctoberOmicron immediately removed her from staff. Though nothing concerning espionage towards FinalRob was ever posted again in the moderator hut, FinalRob (showing what a thoughtless fool he could be) AGAIN made it obvious he was privy to information there. Luckily, before a witch hunt could ensue, OctoberOmicron asked every staff member who also posted at the Dungeon about their password and it was discovered that Vertigo used the same password at the Dungeon as he did at Gamingforce, therefore unknowingly granting FR access.
Here is an AIM conversation between OctoberOmicron and Carley (using her boyfriend Yushiro's SN) held on October 26th, 2006. It explains why she fed FR Gamingforce mod hut information.
[22:49] OctoberOmicron: BTW
[22:49] OctoberOmicron: Now that it's been so long.
[22:50] OctoberOmicron: Remember when you were a mod simultaneously at GF and VGMD?
[22:50] YushiroDS: Yep.
[22:50] OctoberOmicron: Remember giving FR info about GF's hut?
[22:50] YushiroDS: Haha, yeah.
[22:50] OctoberOmicron: For data purposed, was there ever a motive?
[22:51] YushiroDS: ...
[22:51] OctoberOmicron: purposes*
[22:51] YushiroDS: No, I was a dumb kid.
[22:51] OctoberOmicron: He didn’t offer you anything?
[22:51] YushiroDS: No.
[22:51] YushiroDS: He just told me that bobo said shit about me or something, so he suggested that I do that to get back at him.
[22:52] YushiroDS: Nothing more, nothing less
[22:52] OctoberOmicron: Ahh, that might ring a slight bell.
[22:52] YushiroDS: What might ring a slight bell?
[22:52] OctoberOmicron: Just saying that it sounds familiar now that you mention it.
[22:52] OctoberOmicron: It's been a while, afterall, over five years since all that happened.
[22:52] YushiroDS: I guess so, yeah.
FinalRob's Many Faces
After many prolonged arguments in gfchat (which was in an AIM channel at the time) things eventually simmered down. A small peace treaty was made and both sides even considered sending one of their own moderators to the other's mod hut as a way to keep an eye on things, but this never panned out. Team Fedora's only connection at this point was the member Aeris (not Gamingforce's Aeris/aeristerra who at this point was not yet a member), a member who for many reasons Team Fedora suspected as being a separate account of FinalRob's. During this time Elysian had learned about and been invited to join Team Fedora. He had also become a moderator some time before.
Unfortunately, FinalRob refused to make any of his staff administrators, which would give a person access to IP records. The only other administrator at the Dungeon was the co-owner Wayreth, and the man gave bobo a run for his money as far as board owners being absent go. But one day in July of 2001 (the reason being a mystery other than FinalRob repeatedly showing poor decision-making skills) FinalRob made Dsal AND Elysian administrators. Immediately Team Fedora took advantage and IP checked Aeris, and she shared the same IP as FinalRob. Out of curiousity the whole board was checked and it was discovered that Roadkill, the violent PC game hating bouncer, and the catty Jessica were also FinalRob's Dupe Accounts. The FinalRob article also mentions a member named "Banties" as one of the dupes, though "I don`t have the slightest fucking memory about that."--OctoberOmicron 10:29, 30 Oct 2006 (PST)
Jessica was actually a member at Gamingforce before FinalRob left. As a poster she was known for two things: Fitting the dumb internet whore stereotype, and coming to FinalRob's aid when he would get in his flame wars with julia, one of which resulted in his infamous "raccoon den" comment. OctoberOmicron realized his mistake here: Being an admin at Gamingforce, if he had at some point run an IP scan with FinalRob's IP he would have long ago discovered the connection. In retrospect all of FinalRob's dupes sucked up to him, and they all interacted with eachother. FinalRob bragged about chatting it up with the two females on the phone, and Roadkill looked up to him.
Wayreth was immediately notified about FinalRob's treachery, and he gave full permission to Team Fedora (though he didn't know there was a Team, just Dsal and Elysian) to do whatever they wanted. Why would Wayreth allow this to be done to a board he shared ownership in? He claimed he was too disgusted to ever want anything to do with FinalRob again, but some think he just wanted to get out of the whole messageboard internet lifestyle altogether. Immediately FinalRob was removed from staff. OctoberOmicron and Pink were added as administrators. Elysian had developed a friendship with Pink, and Team Fedora felt it was appropriate for "her" to be a part of what was to happen, since Pink had been a part of the original (bobo planned?) plot FR had discovered months before.
VGMDungeon's Destruction
Team Fedora and Pink had varying ideas on what to do with the now hijacked VGMDungeon. Team Fedora wanted to simply take over, but, with half the ownership belonging to FinalRob, long term plans were impossible. Because OctoberOmicron is a noted archiver, sometimes to a point of excessiveness, the plan was for him to enter the mod hut, record everything for study later, and Team Fedora would have fun for the next few days at FinalRob's expense. No one quite remembers, but it's believed FinalRob was on some sort of fishing trip during this period so Team Fedora had a decent amount of time to do its work. Unfortunately, Pink had other plans. In a Team Fedora AIM chat, where TF held most of its meets, she let her intentions be known and before anyone could stop her she completely wiped VGMDungeon. Because everything happened so fast after Dsal and Elysian became administrators, the mod hut was never properly archived or even looked through.
After these events, OctoberOmicron immediately made a new thread in Gamingforce's General Forum (the thread remained there its first week before being moved to the Community Commons) where everything was explained. It was the first and only time before 2003 that Team Fedora's existence was mentioned in public. While the revelation of a rival message board owner being outed as a person that needs various fake personas to keep his board slightly active may not seem like a big deal now, it was then. FinalRob was nearly universally hated at Gamingforce. To sit and list his foes would be ridiculous. To top things off, it was revealed that Yushiro had had cybersex with FR's persona Aeris. While Yushiro innocently may have thought this was a beautiful female, FinalRob KNEW very well Yushiro was male. Combine this with his tendency of using the password "rainbow" (this is a fact!) and FinalRob's humiliation was complete. His fall was known widely and celebrated. The reaction was akin to a celebration after a long, drawn out war. Team Fedora's investigations concerning FinalRob were now over, with the exception of a quick penis-image attack on his then ten-posts-per-day board one month later.
Details on FInalRob's two attempts at resurrecting a message board (VGMD/GameSekai), along with various member reactions after these events can be found at the FinalRob article.
Pink's (gender) Case/Elysian's Leave
Roughly August of 2001 Team Fedora, for fun, made a thread and thoroughly went over every single detail in an attempt to reach a conclusion on Pink's gender. This was the first and only case that was publically gone over. OO decided Pink was a female pretending to be a female pretending to be a male. Dsal was undecided but seemed to lean towards male. This was probably Team Fedora's biggest failure and the case left them even more confused about the answer.
Around the same time Elysian simply disappeared. His last posts consisted of arguing with julia and a disagreement with OctoberOmicron. He was never seen again, and later on it was found out (from Dogmatix Man) that he had planned to just leave out of the blue once college bagan again. Who knows. "Personally, I think the fucker is still around as one or two people over the years have strongly reminded me of him." --OctoberOmicron 15:49, 26 Oct 2006 (PDT)
The Archiver Case
Absolutely no one seems to remember this case. The only certain thing here is that it introduced Paikuhan, OctoberOmicron's protege, as a member and that it was early 2002. However, there is one line by OctoberOmicron from an August, 2003 post shedding some light: "Pai' joined during... Archiver being IP searched or some shit."
The only other information on this case will be provided in the 2003 Team Fedora Article below.
The Square Forum Case
At some point in the first quarter of 2002 bobo started a major revamp of the forums. The biggest change was the addition of four console based forums: Sonic's Loop (aka Sega forum), Mario's Warp Room (though called Mario's Pipe at the time), Sony Scape, and Microsoft's Window. While these were all console based forums, bobo also decided to add a Square Forum. Nobody really cared, but one man did. He sported a little red bastard avatar, and he had recently been added to Gamingforce staff. His name was IoriYagami_n8, a die-hard Sega fan who also deeply hated the favortism Squaresoft enjoyed. Happy to finally see a Sega forum he would soon become famous for ruling with an iron fist and richly contributing to, he couldn't help but make remarks and complaints to bobo about the Square forum. It is believed that Iori felt the simple existence of the Square forum tainted the Sega forum, since they were both created the same day. This was all noticed by his fellow staff but, for the most part, only observed with humor. Iori's major issue was: Why a bunch of console-based forums and then a Square forum if we already have an RPG forum? bobo, ever the famous hardheaded chocobo once he'd made up his mind, defended the Square forum by saying Squaresoft games and albums were what always brought the most traffic to Gamingforce. It DESERVED its own forum simply because of this. It was at this point that OctoberOmicron started taking a greater interest in the matter, for he hated anything having to do with creating the now congested Gamingforce. But there didn't seem to be a way to convince bobo to get rid of the forum at this point. Time passed, and Iori's frustration simmered as he concentrated on his beloved Sega forum.
Some time after these events, Sega announced it would no longer be making gaming consoles after the Dreamcast, that it would concentrate strictly as a game developer. bobo, deciding this meant Sega no longer merited a forum, and without consulting his staff, simply moved Sonic's Loop posts to the General Video Gaming forum and deleted Sonic's Loop. Iori's ensuing rampage is undescribable. One of the conditions he joined staff on was to moderate this forum. Now it was gone, just like that?
After realizing resurrecting the Sega Forum was an impossibility as far as bobo was concerned, he realized the injustice: as a game developer Square would be allowed to have a forum while Sega would not. There was a small confrontation in the mod channel. OctoberOmicron, looking for an excuse to campaign against the Square forum, but also admiring Iori's sheer tenacity, joined in. Over the following months many threads in the mod hut and just about every mod channel meeting (to discuss moderation policies and board improvements/suggestions) quickly turned into full-on assaults against the Square forum. At first bobo's will was impenetrable, but finally (the exact reason unknown) he relented and the Square forum posts were moved to the appropriate forums and this bastard forum finally saw its fall.
It is said (though if there was proof it no longer exists) that after the victory Iori's little red bastard avatar was seen wearing a fedora for a very brief period of time. This explains the uncertainty of his allegiance. Check the IoriYagami_n8 article for further details on what's been described here and related events.
Though technically not a case, this was Team Fedora's final act before OctoberOmicron retired June 2nd, 2002. Due to most of its members retiring, it would be nearly 14 months before it saw any sort of life again.
Team Fedora (2003-2004)
2003 Team Fedora Article
Below is a brief Team Fedora article written by OctoberOmicron on August 6th, 2003 for the purpose of informing potential new recruits. While it basically says what has already been written above, it does provide other points that will be gone over first.
- While OctoberOmicron admits the origin of Team Fedora's name, he does not provide full details... _
- It gives you an idea, but nothing further, about what Archiver was up to and Paikuhan's involvement. The Archiver case seems to have been solved.
- It provides details on the retirement of Dsal and Paikuhan.
- The explanation on Elysian's departure is made to sound like a forced retirement, in complete contrast with the explanation in this current article. Explanation? "The guy had really pissed me off and I thought it'd be better to just make it sound like we threw him out than admit he simply disappeared."--OctoberOmicron 16:30, 26 Oct 2006 (PDT)
Team Fedora originally started when Dsal and OctoberOmicron experienced a lot of "mysteries" going around on the Gamingforce forums, the VGMDungeon forums (FinalRob's board, now GameSekai) and various IRC and AIM chatrooms. Nothing major at first went on, and minor "cases" were easily handled and dismissed. After amassing an IMPRESSIVE victory record, the joke was formed with old detective movie style antics as far as the hatrack, filing cabinet with "files," our CASE CLOSED inkstamp, etc. One day Dsal "tipped his fedora" after a victory in some shit or another, and you just couldn't help but picture a full grown panda in the classic trenchcoat tipping a fucking fedora. OctoberOmicron immediately named it "Team Fedora," the "Team" and basic format of the name coming after sitting through an episode of Pokemon and seeing Team Rocket up to their antics.
In middle to late June of 2001, Team Fedora's greatest case came about. At the time FinalRob had been and still was scheming and doing whatever he could to steal Gamingforce's members and bring them to his Dungeon. One, but not the only, of his tactics was to PM newer GFF members and ask them to come over and avoid the childish people at GFF (moderators) who were supposedly on a powertrip. Among the first VGMD members was Jessica, Aeris (not aeristerra) and Roadkill. Conveniently, these three either talked to FR on the phone, called him a sexy bitch, or plain kissed his ass. Dsal and Elysian happened to be board staff there, and with the help of Wayreth (Cofounder Admin at VGMD) did an IP check for one reason or another and came to realize that FR was the actual manipulator of these accounts. Obviously, for such help in this achievement, Elysian was immediately inducted. Thus began the long death of VGMD and the eventual birth of GameSekai.
Paikuhan joined after helping out in a mess concerning Archiver in early 2002, the details of this will be updated sometime when they are found.
Team Fedora's second biggest case, and biggest failure, was the attempted discovery of Ice/Icegirl/Amyrose/Pink's true gender. The case has been closed since due to it being solved by others/or verified by Pink herself. (it's a he)
Dsal has retired long ago because of a blooming marriage and home. Two months after joining Elysian was unceremoniously retired due to a complete change of character. Paikuhan retired some time ago because of differences with certain member(s) of the GFF staff. IoriYagami n8 was rumored to've been a member, but this is unverified.
A New Team Fedora?
After returning to Gamingforce August of 2003, OctoberOmicron was faced with a completely nonexistent Team Fedora. All members had moved on one way or another. The previous month he had recruited Sword Serenity, a member he hadn't met before leaving the year before, but had gotten to know through many AIM conversations.
Unfortunately, overcome by the happiness of finally returning to Gamingforce and believing he was making a good choice (much the same way a drunk thinks his fingers will grow back if he cuts them off), OctoberOmicron decided to make a thread in the modhut inviting anyone who wanted to join - since just about all his friends were staff at the time - completely going against the previous natural flow of Team Fedora member recruitment. The members that joined were NYRSkate(wtf!?), Aeris, The Quiet Fox, and Guru. Over the next month they were all removed. The reason being inactivity, but mainly because of the watering down of the team. But the damage was done.
This time around members mandatorily had Team Fedora sigs along with the long-custom fedora wearing avatar. The sigs also contained a link that led to a member list describing the join date and status of each Team Fedora member. Obsidian and Kensaki were then added in September to act as a more "public" side of Team Fedora. Because the only public revelation of Team Fedora was over two years ago at that point, and because few members remained from that era, many members from the community reacted negatively. Some examples being Sassafrass's inquisitive thread (http://gamingforce.com/gffarchive/showthread.php?t=16487&highlight=team+fedora) concerning Team Fedora, months later her more abusive journal entry (http://gamingforce.com/gffarchive/journal.php?action=view&amount=single&userid=106&entryid=18544) on the subject, a short-lived and embarassing rivalry (http://gamingforce.com/gffarchive/journal.php?action=view&amount=single&userid=4912&entryid=18538) with the Vidmasters Club, and much more that can be found with simple journal/post searches at the Gamingforce archive forums (http://gamingforce.com/gffarchive/index.php). Interestingly enough, Galatea also made a thread on the subject found here (http://gamingforce.com/gffarchive/showthread.php?t=17042). The first post, in which she asks "If someone you care a whole lot about asked you to give up one thing that was important to you..." was based and motivated by her wanting Obsidian to leave Team Fedora.
Some of the accusations leveled against Team Fedora included:
- Team Fedora being a stepping stone towards becoming a staff member.
- Team Fedora was an extension of the modhut because at one point (before the above mentioned members were removed) six of its eight members were on staff.
- Team Fedora being an elite clique/OO's friends.
- Team Fedora being an example of elitism because they wouldn't let just anyone join.
"Because I was such a jackass I probably deserved a lot of the criticism here for only providing signups to staff."--OctoberOmicron 14:51, 27 Oct 2006 (PDT)
These attacks would continue for Team Fedora's entire existence 2003-2004. It was months before many members would stop using spoof fedoras on their avatars. Before 2003 Team Fedora never sponsored itself through sigs and small webpages. It never even revealed itself save after the FinalRob case was solved and partially in the Pink case. Part of the reason is it would be silly for Team Fedora to announce its actions and let any "suspects" in on the case. Secrecy was necessary.
A community reacting the way Gamingforce did, in retrospect, was understandable. Because (before this article) Team Fedora's involvement in certain cases was mostly unknown, they could only assume it was some upstart popularity contest clique with nothing better to do. Temporarily being full of staff at one point didn't help either.
The Aardark Case
Though solved, this was a very odd case. Currently being considered as far as belonging here or not.
The NYRSkate/Traitor Case
Coming soon. (http://www.gamingforce.com/gffarchive/journal.php?action=view&amount=single&userid=4&entryid=26120)
Team Fedora: 2006?
Team Fedora is believed to be currently inactive. Though, if a case were being currently pursued, Team Fedora would not say so for obvious reasons. No sense alerting anyone possibly related to the case. Publically, OctoberOmicron is working on his own not on a case, but on gathering information, tracking down old members, and archiving as much as he can for this damned wiki.
Team Fedora Fun Facts
- Team Fedora is Gamingforce's first team/group/clique.
- Though members now use fedoras in their avatars, the tradition officially started when Paikuhan, roughly in December 2001, made OctoberOmicron the black and white Cloud avatar he uses to this day.
