Ziggy

Ziggy, also known as BlackTrident, Legolash, StormierZiggy or "The Baron", is a member within the Minilip online gaming community, widely regarded as one of the most controversial figures in the community's history.

An early member of the old forums, Ziggy's time on the old forums was punctuated by disputes with a succession of staff and frequent bans. In July 2010 he was unbanned by Tetsumonchi and the pair became friends in real life, as they lived only a short distance apart, while also working on a website together intended to showcase their video projects. Ziggy, while popular with the community, continued getting in trouble for challenging the staff, and was ultimately perma-banned once again. Shorty thereafter, he entered the staff forums using MMFgamer's account and leaked information intended to embarrass the staff. Tetsumonchi continued to work with Ziggy on their website, named the Eye of the Storm, but a breakdown in relations led to the closure of the website just a few days after launch. Though perma-banned, Ziggy continued to hang around the forums and post using other member's accounts, and also released evidence that MMFgamer had given him access to the account, leading to the moderator being sacked. Eventually, Ziggy did depart the forums.

Ziggy felt scorned by Tetsumonchi, whom he regarded as having screwed him over on EOTS, so in November 2010 he released a collection of partially edited chat logs intended to show misconduct and obnoxiousness on Tetsumonchi's part. This act ultimately let to Tetsugate the following month, Tetsu's temporary departure from the forums, and arguably contributed to Miniclip's decision to take administration duties in-house several months later. During Tetsugate, Ziggy repeatedly claimed to have additional more serious chat logs, although this was untrue and largely intended to keep the hysteria going.

In May 2015, Ziggy registered on the Miniclip Community forums. Given the time that had passed, and the fact that it was a new forum, Ziggy's past was not held against him by the staff.

A highly controversial during his peak on the old forums, Ziggy was lauded by a large portion of the community who admired his charisma and self-confidence, and respected outspokenness towards the staff and opposition towards rules and regulations. Ziggy was a great "people person" who could easily make friends and fit in. Conversely though, the staff considered him an arrogant troublemaker while other members he didn't see eye-to-eye with labeled him a manipulator, using people to further his own ends and turning on people if they opposed him, and not to be trusted.

As BlackTrident
Ziggy joined the Miniclip Forums in March 2004, 10 months after they opened, and became part part of the original clique of central members. Unbeknown to staff, Ziggy was only 11 at the time, making him two years underage. Along with other early members, Ziggy frequently opposed the authority of forum administrator AmberMouse, whose demands he believed inhibited the ability of members to enjoy the forums. This led to a series of short bans for both Ziggy and a few of his friends before finally being issued a year-long ban.

As Legolash
In late 2005, BlackTrident's ban expired, although he had forgotten the password for it, so re-registered as Legolash, despite still being a year underage. Ziggy immediately became very active and recognized Gimilie from before his ban. The pair began submitting a huge quantity of posts, many of which were only one or two words long, or a single smiley. With minimal moderation on the forums during this time, these posts continued for weeks and eventually attracted the attention of members like Dracophile and Tetsumonchi, who accused Legolash and Gimilie of posting outright spam and using the forums like a chat room, and frequently slammed the two younger members. Eventually Ben became aware of the commotion and also cautioned the pair.

By sheer coincidence, Ziggy learned that Tetsumonchi attended the same school as him, and identified Tetsu, a senior at the school, via Tetsu's brother. Tetsumonchi was very protective of his identity around this time, and on the forums falsely claimed that he used in the USA. Tetsumonchi had recently won Member of the year, and Ziggy decided to publicly call Tetsu out on the forums in an attempt to expose him as a fraud, although Tetsu simply rubbished his claim and accused Ziggy of trying to harass him. The community sided with Tetsu and Ziggy was virtually ostracized.

Ziggy sought revenge for his humiliation and in April he sent Tetsu an email, posing as Miniclip employee Ben Gillbanks. The Ben imposter offered Tetsu a temporary admin position, but stated that he would need Tetsu's forum password in order to change the account. An over-ambitious and gullible Tetsu agreed to help out and gave Ziggy his password. Shortly after, Tetsu left with his family to spend a week in Spain. When he finally found a internet cafe he logged in to discover that his account had been locked following a string of attacks on staff and members. Tetsu knew he had been fooled, and created a new account to explain the situation. The community again sided with Tetsu and Dracophile called for Ziggy to be banned. However, staff said there wasn't enough proof and Ziggy denied involvement. Tetsumonchi and others began searching for the proof they needed, and discovered Ziggy's personal forum. There were rumors that within hidden areas of the board, Ziggy had bragged about the attack. The group from Miniclip, consisting of Tetsu, Draco and several others, demanded access to see for themselves, but Ziggy refused. However, when Dracophile threatened to hack the forum, one of its admins agreed to give them access without Ziggy's knowledge, to avoid damage to the board. Evidence was collected and Ziggy was perma-banned from the Miniclip forums. Tetsu got his original account back shortly after.

Ziggy attempted to return to the forums in October 2007 as "Ziggy". The staff quickly figured out who he was and discussed allowing him back, however they considered his behavior to be odd and decided to keep his perma-ban in effect. He was banned by Scootz a few hours after registering.

As StormierZiggy
In March 2010, Tetsumonchi had just reached his first anniversary of being admin, and had received positive feedback from the community. Seeking to further improve the forums, he decided to attempt to heal old rifts and grudges by granting some banned members another chance. One of these members was Ziggy, who re-registered as Stormierziggy and had all his old accounts merged, granting him instant elite poster status. Ziggy was able to quickly reintegrate himself into the community thanks to his charisma and humor. Putting the past behind them, Tetsu and Ziggy, who lived only a mile apart, decided to meet for a catch-up and surprised the community when a photo emerged or Ziggy at Tetsu's house. This was followed, at the start of May, by a half-hour video interview, conducted by Ziggy, in which Tetsu spoke about the forum and answered questions. Shortly after, the pair agreed to establish a website and forum where they could showcase their individual and joint video projects. It became known as "The Eye of the Storm".

While Ziggy became highly popular with the community, his disregard for rules brought him into conflict with the moderation team, who, by May, had already issued him with several infractions for drug references - although Tetsu reversed most of these. Ziggy hated authority and would protest every punishment he received, accusing the moderators of power abuse and drumming up support on MSN. He promised the community that EOTS would be free of corruption and somewhere that members could relax and be themselves. This excited members who eagerly awaited its opening - vowing to Ziggy that they would swap their allegiance to EOTS. As time went on, Ziggy's relationship with the moderators continued to deteriorate, perpetuated by heated arguments with American Girl. Further reprimands by staff were not reversed by Tetsumonchi, causing a strain in the pair's relationship before their site had even launched. Throughout June, as Ziggy's infractions and bans mounted, so did his private arguments with Tetsu, who refused to reverse them or shield Ziggy from further reprimands. At the end of June, Tetsu went on holiday to Egypt. Ziggy and Ultimate Solstice were perma-banned two days later after a serious altercation with the moderators, resulting in huge protests from the community.

Ziggy alleged that the staff had been been waiting weeks to ban him and his friends for anything, because they disliked them for "speaking their minds and telling the truth". With Tetsu absent, Ziggy persuaded MMFgamer5 to give him access to his account in order to read staff discussions about his ban. While in the staff forum he leaked critical or mocking remarks by the moderators regarding other users, then to MMF's alarm, banned American Girl and the moderation team as a prank before himself being banned by one of the Estonian administrators. Many in the community thought it was hilarious and said the moderators "deserved it" for being "corrupt" and for the "horrible things" they said about users. MMF was secretly forgiven by Tetsu, who also continued to work with Ziggy on EOTS as he did not want the site to fail now that it was so close to completion. Ziggy continued to speak to members recently via MSN and convinced people to abandon the Miniclip forums once EOTS was open, as it would be free from rules and corruption. A promotional video for the site was filmed and shown on the Miniclip Forums and Tetsu arranged for a sticky to be created in which to announce the eventual launch, although moderators, the Estonian admins and Tim all objected to Ziggy's request to be allowed to return to help promote the site.

At midnight (GMT) on August 1st, the sticky was posted and EOTS finally opened to the public. EOTS made 5000 posts in its first day while the Miniclip Forums fell silent; an estimated 90% of its community having left for EOTS. Members praised the relaxed atmosphere, absence of rules and the freedom to express themselves, declaring that EOTS was their new home and they wouldn't be returning to Miniclip. While delighted by the activity, Tetsumonchi was saddened by the remarks about Miniclip. However sadness changed to concern when a strong anti-Miniclip sentiment began to grow on the forum, with "former" Miniclip users now harshly trolling the company, the moderation team, and users Ziggy did not like, such as American Girl and De Joeri. This led to heated arguments between Tetsu and Ziggy over rules, with Tetsu wanting a liberal set and Ziggy wanting virtually none in order to keep things chilled. No decision was reached and the following day saw further trolling of Miniclip, users registering under offensive usernames, spamming, and an excess of vulgar language and discussions. This bothered Tetsu, who felt Ziggy was controlling the project and receiving all the credit whilst