The 7/11 Experience was originally produced as a series of text posts (and one SoundCloud audio file) on the Discord server HTwins Central. It documents the events of and surrounding the 11th of July, 2017. While some context is provided in the text itself, it may be of help to consider the following additional information:
HTwins Central is the official Discord server following the various projects of the HTwins, Cary and Michael Huang, in particular their series Battle for Dream Island, currently in its fourth season, Battle for BFDI, or BFB. The server is currently home to over 5000 fans of the pair and can be accessed here.
The 7/11 Experience is also available on YouTube and SoundCloud.
It's the 4th of July, 2017, 4:06AM, PDT.
As America prepares to celebrate another Independence Day, something is amiss on HTwins Central.
Tantusar has been unceremoniously ousted from the staff because of a misreading of a situation. Debate rages on. Alt accounts arrive with opinions, some fabricated to make others sound better, but none of it helps.
Several staff members are inactive, some without reason. There is little that could make this worse.
Exactly one week from now, it will get so much worse.
A plot is hatched. A blade, sharpened. A team, gathered.
It's the 4th of July, 2017, 4:06AM, PDT. Start the clock.
It's the 5th of July, 2017, 4:06AM, PDT.
One week since Tantusar's removal, he still searches for answers from a silent administration.
Accusations fly. Some suspect that Tantusar owns one of the alt accounts. He protests that he doesn't need alts to make a point.
Six days from now these accusations will be the least of anyone's worries.
Flash back to 2016. Chris Dawthon still heads the staff team, and seems like a far less terrible choice than he would soon after.
A user, Becca, arrives on the server, and almost immediately goes on a long tirade. For whatever reason, Becca takes issue with the system of governance on the server, crying that it will surely lead to corruption and misery because she's seen it before and if we only listen to what she has-
Both Tantusar and Chris spend the next half hour tearing her down, calling it out as a blatant powergrab. Becca runs away with her tail between her legs, and is never seen again, at least not by that name.
Snap back to the present.
It's the 5th of July, 2017, 4:06AM, PDT. The clock is ticking.
It's September 2016. Dawthon is ousted from his position as server owner and Spicyman33 is promoted to the role. This would be the start of the longest reign of a server owner to date. Earlier in the month, Joseph Howard is promoted to moderator solely for being himself, and, after considerable infighting in staff channels following Dawthon's fall, is promoted to administrator.
It's October 2016. One month to the day since his removal, Dawthon wants his job back. The staff refuse.
It's November 2016. In a backalley off to the side of HTwins Central, a group of dissenters plan a protest. Among their ranks are Dawthon, a staff whistleblower supporting the dissenters and a staff spy supporting the staff. Moderator applications are posted. They will offer nothing but corruption and misery.
Snap back to the present.
One week ago, Tantusar, having allowed Joseph Howard to explain himself, but having been told that he would be responsible for telling the story by Joseph himself, obliges.
The rant is long. It is a scathing attack on Joseph's character. Its contents are lost to the sands of time.
It's the 6th of July, 2017, 4:06AM PDT. The clock is ticking.
It's November 2016. Several staff and a group of apparently likeminded people form a secret group DM, unbeknownst to the dissenters. The group will eventually be labelled "Another Brick in the Wall" although it will later be informally abbreviated to "Brick chat". From here, without the knowledge of the whistleblower, the group will monitor the server the dissenters are operating out of.
Moderator applications are also discussed. Back in staff discussion, tempers flare over a controversial candidate. The candidate will be selected, although not in a way that pleases anyone involved. This is not important to the story as a whole, but should help to provide some small amount of context.
The whistleblower leaks the staff discussion channel contents and is removed from their post shortly thereafter. This, too, is not important to the story.
Snap back to the present.
On another server, Tantusar is consoled by a circle of equally angry friends. Things don't seem to be looking up any time soon.
It's the 7th of July, 2017, 4:06AM PDT. The clock is ticking.
It's November 2016.
GreenTree never wanted the applications to go ahead. He only scored the final few.
Tantusar tried to be sensible. If he hadn't seen evidence of quality first-hand, he wasn't going to give a high score.
But no amount of sense could change the fact that the process had been tainted. The non-staff members of Brick chat had given a recommendation.
AshaTheAthlete was a relatively recent addition to the server population. She hadn't said or done much in her time. But, after a series of glowing statements by the Brick chat interlopers, the remaining unaccounted-for staff gave equally glowing scores, except for Qwerby, who gave no score at all. The process had been completed only marginally better than that which selected Joseph Howard as a moderator. (Which is to say, everyone blindly voting him in without any real debate.)
And so ended the absolute worst set of moderator applications in the server's history.
Snap back to the present.
On HTSTEM, HTwins Central's STEM-based sister server, which would be created in February 2017 after considerable unrest... Nothing of particular note to this story was happening.
It's the 8th of July, 2017, 4:06AM PDT. There are three days. The clock is ticking.
It's 2017. For several months, Asha does nothing. When she does speak it is only to apologise for her “poor internet connection” from “the Seychelles.” The concept of removing inactive moderators from their posts is brought up a few times but never taken seriously. The most that goes to vote is automatically abstaining them from votes, which passes. Nobody suspects a thing, because why would anyone ever suspect anything on a server for kids, by kids, about a set of channels with kids as a primary demographic?
Snap back to the present.
Nobody suspects a goddamn thing. There are bigger fish to fry than somewhat lacking staff. Who even cares, right?
Honestly, it means about as much to anyone as retrospectives on the circumstances that led to a tragedy.
It's the 9th of July, 2017, 4:06AM PDT. There are two days. The clock is ticking.
It's the 10th of July, 2017, 4:06AM PDT.
That night, Midnight Light and BestShibae2014 had resigned. Both hoped to distance themselves from the community. Shibae would never be seen again.
It was quiet. Maybe nothing would come of the 10 days that came before.
Something is about to come of it.
It's the 10th of July, 2017, 4:06 AM PDT. There are 24 hours. The clock is ticking.
[Producer's note: Immediately before the original release of the finale, HTwins Central was put on lockdown. This lockdown would last 11 minutes, the length of the video below, and a time relevant to the story, as is about to be made clear.]
Written and performed by Thomas Chick as a First Exit Production.
Music from Nine Inch Nails' album Ghosts I-IV: (in order of broadcast)
Chapter 1: Track 11
Chapter 2: Tracks 7 and 12
Chapter 3: Tracks 9 and 14
Chapter 4: Tracks 16 and 17
Chapter 5: Tracks 20 and 19
Chapter 6: Tracks 22 and 21
Chapter 7: Track 6
Finale: Tracks 3, 5 and 32.
All tracks released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
Ticking sound by dobroide.
Icons provided by Font Awesome under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Special thanks to all those who provided research material for this project.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.