Kevin Sorbo shuts down International Fan Club

I was never a member of the International Kevin Sorbo Fan Club but as many of you know for many years the fan club hosted its official forum here at SF-Fandom. Through the years the SF-Fandom Administrators received numerous complaints about several members of the fan club who were regular posters in the forum.

Because the Kevin Sorbo Forum was associated with the fan club I resisted efforts to take action against the three individuals. They were moderated on several occasions, but then so have many people been. In fact, I myself have been moderated on SF-Fandom (there are no exceptions to the rules). People make mistakes.

But the complaints kept coming in from a growing number of posters, not all of whom were members of the Kevin Sorbo fan club, so I finally took action (reluctantly) and started banning these unpopular personalities from SF-Fandom. I hate having to do things like that but it had reached the point where even a large number of SF-Fandom moderators were exasperated by the individuals.

Only a few weeks ago we received the news that Kevin Sorbo had withdrawn his support for the International Fan Club. The Website is now offline and I have no knowledge of what its status is, if there is any status at all. But the SF-Fandom Kevin Sorbo Forum is still up and running.

We were asked to take down all internal references to the international fan club, and I believe I have done that (for content not included in the extensive forum archives). I cannot do anything about past references to the fan club preserved in the archives.

I don’t know why Kevin withdrew his support for the fan club. I know what I have been told, and it sounds to me like a handful of people may have conducted a poison pen campaign as a retributive measure against the International Fan Club. If that is actually what happened I think it’s unfortunate that Kevin would allow himself to be influenced by a poison pen campaign.

If this decision is in any way connected with the user bannings from SF-Fandom, those decisions were mine and mine alone. Yes, the moderators were almost all unanimous in asking me to do something because everyone was tired of seeing the long parade of complaints (and the occasional issues that cropped up in the discussions) — but no one was banned from SF-Fandom until I made the decision.

And I made that decision because I found those people to be disruptive. A large part of the fan community (many dozens of people) sent me complaints over a 2 year period. A lot of those people left SF-Fandom because I refused to take action.

Someone recently asked me what is to become of the Kevin Sorbo Forum. That’s a good question. If people don’t use it we may shut it down. I don’t like shutting down forums but we’ve had some turnover in forums through the years.

Except for those who have been banned, Kevin Sorbo’s fans have always been welcome here and always will be welcome here. I don’t want to become drawn into the personal conflicts that a few people start up but I felt it was time to say something. It’s not fair to blame the former International Fan Club for banning people — the club’s leadership had no part in that decision. If people are angry and up in arms about THAT situation, well, you went after the wrong person.

I take full responsibility for the user account bannings here at SF-Fandom. No one else need bear that burden.

I’m sorry the International Kevin Sorbo Fan Club has been shut down. From what I understand, it had a lot of generous and warm-hearted members. I hope they find a new outlet for their passion if SF-Fandom no longer meets their needs.

I will always be a fan of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda. I don’t have to have a fan club to be a fan. I wish everyone well and hope that all the toxic people calm down, grow up, and get on with their lives.