DNBN Part I - How the site was taken over

As most fans of TVXQ know, the most prominent fan site of TVXQ was DNBN (동네방네 Dong Nae Bang Nae). Many fans, including international fans, used to visit the site to get the latest info about TVXQ.
DNBN's address was originally "www.dnbn.org", but soon after the breakup, most of the original admins resigned (basically kicked out), and the site was moved to the current address "www.dnbn.pe.kr" and is run by new admins. After the take over by the new admins, it turned into a fan site that only gave supports to the 3 instead of giving equal supports to all 5 members while advocating itself to be an OT5 fan site.

So what happened to it? Why was a most popular TVXQ fan site became a site that only supports CJS?

Here's a well known post by a blogger that explains in detail what happened at DNBN after the lawsuit was filed. It was posted on 1/28/2011, right after Akadong and DNBN finally decided to show their true colors by officially announcing their sole support of the 3..

http://blog.naver.com/znznakflf?Redirect=Log&logNo=60122923852

Here's the original Korean Text, and the translation.

아... 네, 이카동 공지 이후에. 이미 예상하고 있었던 일이 일어났습니다.
이카동 띠까리 동네방네가 공식적인 현판 갈아치우기 작업을 실행한 거에요. 
그런데, 너무나 뻔뻔스럽고 참 대담해서 이 상황에 대해 어리둥절하신 분들을 위해서 제가 부연설명을 하고싶어 졌어요.
정말 짜증나고 분해서. 동네방네가 여기까지 오게 된 그 전말이 너무나 궁금하신 분들을 위해서 제가 설명을 드리고 싶어졌다 이 말씀입니다.

왜 제가 동네방네를 그토록 역겨워 하는 줄 아십니까? 어째서 삼네방네라고 불리는 지 아시냐구요.
제가 판이 이지경이 될 때까지 동네방네에서 무슨 일이 있었는 지 설명드리죠.

소송이 터지고 나서... 그래도 그나마 예의있다고 '저 또한' 자부했던 동네방네 또한 루머 판이 됩니다.
규칙은 무용지물이 되고, 온갖 루머들이 돌아다녔죠. 그래서 결국 전 관리자였던 한 분이 공지글을 띄우게 됩니다.
그때 당시에는 저 또한 그 공지를 믿지 못했습니다. 대체 그 관리자라는 게 뭐길래? 이런 공지글을 세우는 거지?
게다가 니가 아버지를 만났다고? 웃기고 있네.

그리고 거의 대부분의 회원분들은 여기에 저처럼 반기를 들었죠. 
마스터 분이 자신의 권력을 남용했다는 듯이 분위기를 몰아갔어요. 저도 사실.. 그 분위기에 합류해서, 또 신속히 이 소동이 마무리 될 거라고 생각했기에
그 관리자분의 말이 허무맹랑하고 이상한 분위기를 조장하고 있다고 믿었죠.
사실 이때부터 의심을 했어야 하는데.. 동네방네라는 곳이 관리자분들에게 이래라 저래라 하는 경우가 많지 않거든요.
하지만 시기가 시기인지라, 또 사안이 사안인 지라 회원분들이 화가 났다고 믿은 저는... 그런데... 뭔가 이상했습니다.

다락방에서, 혹은 그 공지의 댓글창에서 목소리를 높이며 회원들을 '선동'하다 시피 한 분들 대다수가,
신생 회원으로 추정되는 분들이었거든요. 갑자기 나타나신 분들이 갑자기 끼어들어서 일명 물타기를 하기 시작한겁니다.
제 느낌이겠거니 하고 넘어갔지만, 나중에서야, 한참 후에서야 깨달았죠. 그게 물타기였다는 것을.

그분들이 어디서 유입된 분들일까요? 대체 누구였을까요?

그때 당시 다락방에 이카동 캡쳐가 하나 올라왔었습니다. 아주 우연히. 사실 지금은 그게 우연인지도 의심가는 바이지만...

바로 이카동에 누군가가 동네방네의 관리를 부탁하는 캡쳐였습니다. 그리고 그 글들에 대한 댓글들은 그것에 대해 옳다는 쪽으로 이미 기운상태였구요.

한마디로 말해서 이카동에서 관리가 나오기 시작한거에요. 그 캡쳐는, 그것을 알려주는 시발점이었구요.

실제로 이카동과 동네방네에서 똑같은 아이디/닉네임을 쓰시던 분들은 그 캡쳐 이후에 관리자에 대한 글들을 많이 올리셨었던 것이 밝혀졌고.
일단 그분들은 그 캡쳐 이후에 다 잡아내어지게 됩니다. 그런데, 아이디/닉네임이 다른 분들은 잡아낼 재간이 없었죠. 
결국 남은 이카동 스파이 분들은 더 활개를 치기 시작했습니다. 사태는 그 이전보다 더 악화되기 시작했어요.
그 캡쳐 이후에 이카동 분들을 어느정도 추스려 냈다고해도
이미 분위기는 기울었으니... 조금만 더, 조금만 더 불을 지피면 상황 오버였으니까요. 그분들이 물러설 이유는 없었죠.
정말... 절망스러웠습니다. 제 눈에는 누가 선동하고 있는 줄 뻔히 보이는데도, 너 이상한데 라고 댓글만 달면... 뭐.. 상상에 맡기시겠습니다.

결국 그 이후에 여러 관리자님들과 스텝님들은 탈퇴를 하시게 됩니다.
근데 가관이었어요. 그때동안 일해주신 건 생각안하고 등을 떠밀었죠. 악성댓글을 달고.
진짜 예의하나는 바르신 분들이었는데.... 아주 댓글란은 참혹했죠.
이때까지 수고하신 분들에게 아주 꺼지라며 침을 뱉는 꼴이었어요. 그리고 저는 그 댓글란을 보면서 동네방네에 대한 모든 애정을 접게됩니다.
진짜... 참, 

그리고 그 이후에- 현 org를 버리고 주소와 서버를 이전하자는 글들이 올라와요. 
근데 또 어떤 분이 정말 혜성같이 등장하십니다. 대체 어디서 나온건지 알 수도 없는데
현 동네방네 총 관리자인 사유리라는 분이, 갑자기 등장하게 됩니다.
대체 어디서 나타나셨는지. 여하간 자기가 www.dnbn.pe.kr라는 도메인을 사놨다면서 이전작업을 착수하겠대요.
회원들은 거기에 동의를 했죠.

근데 저는 그 꼴이 참 웃기고 어이가 없었습니다. 진짜 어디서 듣도보도 못한 분이 갑자기 나타나서

마치 이 상황을 모두 다 예상하고 있었다는 듯이 도메인을 사다놓은 그 상황을 의심조차 하지 않는 이 멍청한 회원들의 대갈통이라니.

진짜... 병신같은 것들.

하기사. 진짠지 훼이크인지 어쩐지 신상정보를 올려놨기도 했으니 병신같은 회원들은 그걸 곧이곧대로 믿었겠죠.

뭐~ 그리고 그 이후에는 여러분이 아시는 바와 같이 그 물타기/선동을 도맡아 했던 분들이 
도메인 이전 후에 스텝/관리자 신청란에 지원을 하게 되요. 전에 관리하셨던 분들은 진짜;; 백에 하나 찾아볼 수 있을까 말까 하게 지원을 하고..
스텝/관리자에 신청하신 대다수는...
누구냐고요? 누구긴 누구겠어요 한자리 맡으려고 발악하던 이모님들이지.

그래서 제가 동네방네와 이카동에 학을 떼는 겁니다. 이카동이라고 별 다를 줄 아십니까?
지금 동네방네에서 한가닥 한다 하시는분들 거의다 이카동 분들이시구요. 동네방네에 난입해서 개판 만들어 놓은게 바로 그 이카동 분들입니다.

한마디 하건데 지금 동네방네와 이카동을 분리해서 생각하시는 것은 전혀 도움이 안되요.

동네방네=이카동입니다. 그냥 간단하게 이렇게 생각하시면 되요.
뭐... 결론에 비해서 서론과 본론이 좀 길었죠? 뭐 그냥 이건 제 넋두리라고 생각하시고. 이만 이 포스팅을 접도록 하겠습니다.

Translation:

Ah…Yes, after the announcement by Akadong, its pawn DNBN officially changed their stance as expected. However, their move is so shameless and daring, it gave me the urge to further explain the situation to the people who are baffled by all this.
It’s so annoying and upsetting, I want to tell the whole story to those who are curious, how DNBN came to this.

Do you know why I am so disgusted at DNBN? Do you know why its called “SamNeBangNe” ? (note: Sam means Three in Korean, and DNBN is called “SamNeBangNe” by some fans because of they always supported only the 3) I will explain what happened at DNBN.

After the lawsuit… DNBN, considered to be courteous including myself, was run over with rumors. Rules became useless, and all kinds of rumors floated around prompting one of the ex-admin to post an announcement.

But at that time, even I couldn’t trust the announcement. I thought, who did she think she was? Why did she make such an announcement? On top of that, she met their parents? Bullcrap!

And most of the members opposed her just like I did. The atmosphere was turning towards the admin abusing her power.
 Even I... went along with it. I thought this crisis would be resolved soon, and I thought what she said was absurd and believed she was making things weird.

Actually, I should’ve suspected something at that time because it was rare at DNBN to tell the admins this and that, but I just felt that the members were upset because of the timing and (the sensitivity of) the issue… but, something was strange.

Most of the people instigating the members in the attic (members only forum) or posting replies on her announcement looked to be new members. They suddenly came out and started to drive members’ opinions.
I overlooked it thinking I was just being sensitive, but I realized much later that they were manipulating opinions.

Where did they come from? Who were they?

Around that time, a screencap from Akadong happened to be posted. I have doubts now if it was just a happening…
It was a screencap of someone asking Akadong to control DNBN. And the replies to that post were already agreeing to the request.

Simply said, Akadong came out to manipualte opinions. That screencap was telling the start of their actions.

After the screencap was posted, it was actually discovered that the members who were using the same id/nickname in both Akadong and DNBN were making many posts about the admin, and those people were all caught. However, there was no way to catch people who had different id/nickname.

Eventually, the rest of the Akadong spies became more active, and the situation started to get worse than before.
Even though some people from Akadong were weeded out after the screencap, they had no reason to back off since the opinions already tilted…… just a bit more push and the situation would be over.

It was really…hopeless. I could clearly see who were the manipulators, but if one raises any kind of question about them… well, I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

Eventually, many admins and staffs resigned. It was a ridiculous sight to see. They were pushed away without considering all the work they’ve done until then. They were bashed… They were such courteous people…

The comments were cruel. It was like spitting and telling them to get lost after all the effort they put into. I removed any affection I had towards DNBN after seeing those comments.

Really…it’s…

And after that, suggestions started to come up to abandon the ‘org’ address and to move the address and server. Then, someone suddenly comes on to the scene. Sayuri, the current head administrator of DNBN, came out of nowhere. She said that she purchased ‘www.dnbn.pe.kr’ domain name and will begin the moving process. The members agreed to it.

I found that laughable and ridiculous. I mean, those foolish members with bird’s brain didn’t even question the situation where someone who was never seen or heard before suddenly comes out with a domain already purchased like it was already planned.
Really those… dumbasses.

I guess since she disclosed her personal info whether it was true or not, those foolish members probably trusted it at its face value.

Well~ after that, as all of you know, those who participated/instigated in manipulating members’ opinions volunteered for the staff/admin positions. Maybe one in hundred former admins applied for the positions.
Who were the most of the applicants for the staff/admins? Who else? It’s those aunties frantically trying to grab a position.

That’s why I am so sick of DNBN and Akadong. You think Akadong is any different? People who are “prominent” at DNBN are mostly from Akadong, and they’re the ones who broke into DNBN and ruined the site.

One thing I want to say, there’s no use separating Akadong and DNBN
DNBN = Akadong, simple as that.

Well, was my post too long to get to this simple conclusion? I’ll end the post now. Just consider it my grumblings.

=======================================================================

Here's the summary of the above post: the rumors were rampant at DNBN, and one of the admin posted some kind of announcement to control the situation. Akadong members infiltrated DNBN and used the admin's announcement as an excuse to kick out the existing admins and took over DNBN then moved the domain and server to the current location.

So that's how DNBN was taken over, and how they became a CJS fan site.

I'm sure the readers have many questions now. What was the announcement the original admin made that caused her to get bashed from the members, leading to her resignation along with other admins? Are there any proof that Akadong members manipulated DNBN? What happened to the old domain? Wasn't DNBN supporting all 5 at least until Yunho and Changmin decided to come back as TVXQ, prompting them to change their stance?

The above topics will be covered in my future posts.

Introduction - the Fan Sites

So by now, the readers should know why the 3 ex-members of TVXQ filed the lawsuit against SM to void their contracts, and where all those false information and the rumors blaming Yunho and Changmin for the breakup originated from, the 6.25 meeting. If you are a new reader of my blog, I strongly suggest you to read my previous posts, starting from here: http://truetvxq.blogspot.com/p/roadmap-to-truth.html

However, the 6.25 meeting alone does not quite explain how those rumors spread so widely among fans, and how all those one-sided information seeped deeply into the fandom. By the time CJS got the injunction judgment, temporarily freeing them from SM, the fans' opinion and even the general public's opinion was overwhelmingly in support of CJS. The support was extremely one-sided in such whn Yunho, Changmin, and their parents released signed statements expressing their stance, they were buried and ignored, and instead of their statements being heard by the fans, Yunho and Changmin were bashed viciously for not supporting the 3.
http://truetvxq.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-homin-was-bashed.html

So what happened to the fans? How could they so blindly believe the lies without even verifying if they were legit?

We all know that CJS's individual fan site admins must've had a hand in that after participating in the 6.25 meeting, but it's hard to imagine that they could convince rest of the fans, especially the "All Fans" 올팬 (Korean term for the fans that support all 5, same as OT5. These days, Korean TVXQ fans define "All Fans" as the fans that support all the members of TVXQ: Yunho and Changmin, but the term is still used both ways depending who you talk to.)

It's understandable that fans biased towards CJS to believe those lies, but what about OT5's and Yunho, Changmin's fans?

That's where the role of major fan sites come in, especially the fan site that used to be the biggest and the most well known fan site of TVXQ, DNBN.

As most of the readers know already, DNBN was waving the OT5 flag on the surface until they officially announced their support of the 3, but they never actually supported Yunho and Changmin. So what happened to it? How can a prominent fan site that was active in supporting all 5 turned into a JYJ fan site so suddenly?

In this chapter about fan sites, I will talk about DNBN, and also talk about few other sites including the sites that support Yunho and Changmin.

The next post is coming soon!!! (I promise)

Conclusion of 6.25 - Why I started this blog Part II

I guess it's only fitting to conclude the chapter on 6.25 meeting today, exactly 2 years after the meeting was held.

The readers may remember that my very first post on this blog was brief explanation on why I decided to start blogging about TVXQ.
http://truetvxq.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-i-started-this-blog.html

I wrote that I wasn't a die-hard fan of any K-pop artist, and as matter fact, I love rock music, specifically Heavy Metal/Classic Rock. (Metallica!!!) But I do listen to other kind of music, and I love listening to K-Pop and respect the artists' ability to perform complicated dance routines while singing.

Some of you may be wondering why is a person who's not even a fan running this blog, spending so much time and energy? Here's why and how I got into this.

As I said in my first post, I knew something wasn't right when TVXQ broke up with only 3 members filing the lawsuit instead of all 5 which prompted me to check out the contract, and reading the contract was as far as I got regarding the matter. I wasn't really a fan of TVXQ, and I just checked out the contract to see how K-Pop artists' contract was structured out of curiosity. After I read it, I knew the contract was actually pretty good except for a couple clauses as I stated in my entry about the contract, and it was definitely not a "slave" contract and not bad enough to break up the band. I didn't really care too much about the lawsuit since I wasn't a fan. I'm into sports as other men are, and contract disputes over money happen every day. You see athletes with huge contract fighting for more money, so I just assumed it was over money and left it at that.

I think it was around October of 2010. I was surfing YouTube, checking out some music videos, and happened to watch TVXQ's "Mirotic" video. I noticed that there were some comments from users bashing SM for their "slave" contract, but they were using wrong info based on what was spreading around in many fan sites at that time. They were using this info: http://truetvxq.blogspot.com/p/lies.html

I started to comment about the contract trying to correct the mistake, and got into a heated debate with a Junsu's fan. I knew my info was the correct one since I read it from the source, but she could not be convinced and claimed that the contract I read was a fake (really?). I even told her I read it in Korean, but it was no use. She didn't even believe I was a Korean. Then she started throwing other stuff at me which I had no idea about, so I started doing more research into the matter. I have read articles from many English sites and Korean sites, and read both sides of the argument. That was when I realized that many international fans only had access to limited information, twisted and manipulated ones at that.

What I didn't understand was that many of them were claiming they were fans of all 5, but bashing SM at the same time that didn't make sense at all. If you really support Yunho and Changmin, how can you bash a company they chose to stay and work with? It's really a simple logic, and I commented many times about the fallacy of it, but most people just didn't get it and refused to admit it.
 
Anyways, I kept going back to that video, and got into many debates (argument, fight, whatever you want to call it) mostly with the same group of people (JYJ fans), and as I was going through it, I started to gain more knowledge. I had an advantage because of my Korean skills, and I was getting information that they never heard of, and eventually they couldn't argue with me any more and started making personal attacks and put a "Pro-SM" label on me.

That was when I found out about the 6.25 meeting and learned that all these lies and deceit were not accidental, but rather planned and systematically spread. I actively started to defend Yunho and Changmin on various threads (youtube, allkpop, blogs etc.) because I felt it was so unfair and unjust for two young men, who did nothing but the right thing, to be bashed relentlessly by many biased, clueless fans. As I found out more about the two, I began to gain tremendous respect towards them. In my opinion, they've handled the situation exceptionally well despite the emotional toll they must've endured, being framed by their close friends and their career almost ruined.

As I was getting involved in the debates, I was also getting questions from others who wanted to learn more about what I knew. It was getting frustrating because there was only so much I could provide, and there wasn't any international site available that I could direct them to. I found myself saying the same thing repeatedly, just to different people.

So I began to think that my time would be better utilized if I made a blog instead of repeating same info over and over, but I was hesitant to do it because I knew it would take a lot of effort and time considering the vast amount of documents and information that needed to be translated.

It was soon announced that TVXQ would come back with Yunho and Changmin. I thought that their comeback would calm everything down by making the fans to just support their respective band, and eventually two sides will just go separate ways. CJS themselves gave indications every chance they had that they were over with TVXQ and quite happy with their career as JYJ.

Then the tweets started coming and the attacks by the fans.

I realized that there was no end in sight, and here I am, typing this post, running this blog.

So please thank that Junsu's fan, because without her, TrueTVXQ blog wouldn't exist.


Why did they need the 6.25 meeting?

So let's talk about the 6.25 meeting. Why did they hold it in the first place? Why did the 3 and/or their parents felt the need to spread the lies, blaming the breakup on HoMin and SM? Couldn't they just file the lawsuit, start their career as JYJ while running the cosmetics business? Why was it necessary to ruin 2 men's career and the reputation of a company who worked to make TVXQ together?

If you recall, the conclusion article I wrote for the cosmetics business ended with this paragraph:

"Now the final question. Even with the money making potential the cosmetics business presented, TVXQ also had big potential to make more money since they were just starting to get really big in Japan and Asia, so why would CJS risk breaking the group by filing the lawsuit? Was the cosmetics business that big that CJS would give up TVXQ? That would be answered in my future posts."

http://truetvxq.blogspot.com/2011/01/conclusion.html

The answer to the above questions? The 6.25 meeting.

They not only wanted to continue the cosmetics business, but they also weren't willing to give up TVXQ. More accurately, they didn't want to give up TVXQ's earning power. We know that they didn't care about the TVXQ name itself from the way they ran their cosmetics business, throwing TVXQ around everywhere, so it had to be the money.


It is not that hard to see that they'd lose the fans' support if the real cause of them leaving SM was known to the fans, and many fans would've left them. Just read the 6.25 transcript again, and you can clearly see the purpose of the meeting. The topics that were discussed the most in that meeting were Crebeau, HoMin taking SM's bait and changing their mind, bad contract, and the 3's intentions of keeping TVXQ together, and to keep TVXQ, HoMin had to leave SM with them.  The meeting was held to hide the real reason for the breakup, shift the blame on HoMin, and appeal to the fans that they want to keep TVXQ together (reason for their fans preaching AKTF nonsense even now). By painting themselves as victims, they earned the fans' sympathy, making them unite in their support.
How well did it work? Exceptionally well as we all know. The 3 had fans' full support in everything they did. Fans supported them while the 3 accepted MNet's award without the 2 when the date was originally scheduled for a TVXQ concert in China. Tokyo dome? A-Nation? CJS' fan meeting right after cancelling the TVXQ fan meeting? Not even a question. Having dedicated fans who'd do anything to protect their "oppas" at any cost helped too. As most readers know, the effect of 6.25 meeting is still felt even today. There are fans who still believe and spread the lies that were created in that meeting 2 years ago.

As matter of fact, the fans are one of the biggest victims in this. I have read many fan accounts from the fans who initially supported CJS who later found out the truth, and had to go through painful process of healing to get over the shock and disappointment over the artist who they supported with all their heart. I'm sure many readers here can relate to that.

I wouldn't care if they just split for money. It happens to other bands, and they aren't the first and they won't be the last, but holding a secret meeting to frame the members they used to call "brothers"? Unforgivable. And it is still going on even now.

It was a huge blessing for Yunho and Changmin that 6.25 recording became available to the public. The tide started to turn once the file became widely available. The non fans' public opinions was initially supporting the 3, but after listening to the recording, their opinions changed and the support towards Yunho and Changmin started to grow.

Another effect of 6.25 meeting was that it solidified TVXQ's breakup. The 3 didn't need to make any kind of settlement with SM and go back to the company since they had the fans' overwhelming support. Just look at what happened with Kara who were in a very similar situation as TVXQ. The difference was that there was no 6.25 meeting, and the fans did not support the 3 like they did for CJS. Kara's 3 members eventually settled their differences with the company and came back, and they are working together again.

That's exactly what needed to be done with TVXQ to prevent the breakup, and if you recall Forever's post, that's precisely what she was pleading the fans to do, but to no avail.

There are positives that we got out of this whole saga. The fans finally got to see what Yunho and Changmin are capable of on their own, and their hidden talents are in full display for others to see. By going through this adversity, the 2 came back much stronger and with determination, and it shows in their performances. Also, the fans really found out the true colors of each members. I personally do not put too much weight on the image of the entertainers displayed to the public because I am aware that their persona are mostly manufactured by those around them, which I also do not mind. It's not like I'm going to have a personal relationship with those entertainers, so as long as I like what they bring to the table, I'm ok with it and don't really care how their real life is.

But as I got to learn more about Yunho and Changmin, I could see that those two men are genuinely great people, and they have earned tremendous respect from me the way they handled this crisis. That was another reason for me to start this blog.

Am I a fan of TVXQ now? Yes, you can say that. I support Yunho and Changmin as a person. Their music and performances aren't bad either. :)

So that about concludes the chapter on 6.25 meeting. That is the whole reason I support Yunho and Changmin, and the real reason I am making effort to spread the truth.