___Fishwave - an obscure handle belonging to the Scene's utter troublemaker. Even the handle he has found suitable for himself reveals his identity, his true self. Only an anarchic and independent mind can invent such a crazy sign of nonconformism.
___This nonconformism does by far not only express itself in a strange handle, but also in actions many of our kind readers have heard (Or better read?) of. Yes, I mean the editor who shocked the cream of our scene with the most disrespectful articles known to scene-kind. When Fishwave of the formerly unknown Sardonyx started to frighten his editor colleagues with Seenpoint (From Issue 3 on known as CN) the newborn magazine immediately gained a huge popularity. Why? SLAG OFF is the decisive keyword explaining the two-edged fame CN still has today.
___With a breathtaking lack of respect Fishwave and his co-ed Alhazred mocked at the narcissistic elite, completely ignoring their status of being living legends. Among the victims of Fishwave's sharp feather of irony we find coders (Chaos, the coding god himself was depicted as a fascistic dictator, Dr.Skull used to be a Bill Gates-like businessman), graphicians (Magic's personal guru Facet was heavily insulted), musicians (Dreamer of Nah Kolor was accused of ripping), swappers (Degraded to useless relicts of grey scene stoneage) and not to forget the editors! In short, Fishwave attacked almost everyone with a little bit of reputation. And guess what, my dear readers? I am not talking about the past - I am talking about the present. My group Looker House and the magazine your eyes currently cannot turn away from also fell under the razor blade of his criticism.
___Let's take an insight into his way of writing first. His ironic writing style, including his slag-offs pushed CN straight up the charts. The average scener with average skills and non-existent reputation has an opportunity to laugh about the people he know he'll never be able to reach through Seenpoint. Suddenly those idols, unreachable at least for those without IRC access and for lamers in general are presented as people with weaknesses! The VIS, wrapped in mysteries and legends ("The metallic glitter you see at Azure's neck belongs to a cybernetic interface tripling his brain performance. Moreover Aliens have taught him his coding knowledge, but he had to sell his soul to them for it...") became human again (I don't want to repeat the words Fishwave used to describe Mop's figure). According to a known saying malicious joy is the best joy there is, and Fishwave makes use of it.
___Many enjoy reading CN, when they see their enemies being verbally picked on, unless they're not victims THEMSELVES. This is also the reason why CN was, from the first issue on, taken under heavy sustained fire by all other magazines there were. The bullets some of them used were unfortunately also rumors and lies. True facts were not always in the majority. But did it inflict any damage to CN? No, it didn't. To say it with Antibyte's words: "Did Melon Design have to suffer from their war with Kefrens?". No, this was definitely not the case - It rather increased their popularity and more people watched their demos. In a comparable way this happened to CN.
___As I said in the beginning I consider Fishwave to be an individual. He knew his new writing concept would sell, and due to his skills he became one of the best ranked editors in a short time. But he also accepted the calculated risk of getting lots of enemies who take his provocation SERIOUSLY. At this point most readers should have noticed that I don't belong to Fishwave's enemies. In fact we are friends. We even think about doing an article together. But what about my ironical reply to his Insomnia-Report and his 'Best Russian Coder' article, then? The decisive aspect many people tend to ignore in their damaged pride is that Fishwave doesn't intend to hurt anybody with his articles. I am one of the few people who believe to have understood him. Fishwave won't really feel offended by my reply as I didn't feel truly offended myself when reading what he wrote about us. After all, he gets a fitting answer, doesn't he?
___People see their very identity and self confidence attacked when Fishwave decides to drop some lines about them. This is the way the readers interpret it, not the way it is originally meant. If Fishwave had gotten some intelligent answers on his criticisms, containing the same irony and sharp sense of humor, it would have made him happy. Instead he received pointless accusations, in which people showed how dependent they are on the admiration of others. It is no good idea to base your self-confidence on others. Better base it on yourself and on the knowledge of your skills.
___As time passed Fishwave had to face real antipathy directed against him. According to my opinion the reason for having such a huge amount of opponents has its roots in a simple misunderstanding. Most probably people reacted to one of Fishwave's provocation with hatred instead of with the same kind of sarcasm they have been confronted with. A logical consequence is enmity.
___I won't make the mistake to see any war declaration in Fishwave's behavior. Instead I act adequately. Indeed many sceners tend to misunderstand his jokes; He once mocked about Dim by Mellow Chips being coded partly in Amos. But we see on the other hand that Fishwave honored the skills of Braindead, the coder behind Dim, in an interview. Here we maybe have a proof that he's not the devil many want to see in him. Nevertheless people might also argue that Fishwave has nothing but a split tongue, thus making contradicting statements. Well, different people, different opinions, we have to cope with that, haven't we?
___Disgust and misunderstandings are the prize many people have to pay for their own way of behavior and thinking. Fishwave might be the most tactless dude there is, but he doesn't whisper behind other's backs, he expresses his opinion directly, which is not even meant to hurt at all.
___We may not ignore the fact that his articles DO hurt sometimes though, for many don't understand the true meaning behind. Fishwave invites you all to write back in an ironical and intelligent way. Don't let it hurt you, invent a creative reply people can laugh about when reading it. Ofcourse there are limits of taste, which were crossed by him from time to time (Fascism and dictatorship is really not the thing to mock at, but it seemingly sold very well).
___Outing myself as one of Fishwave's friends a rather dangerous thing, I know. Nevertheless I decided to do so. I experienced myself that Fishwave is also able to laugh about himself. If you have a closer look at the released CN-issues you will see that he does so indeed.
___I can bear your criticism, so don't hesitate to write your opinion. If you take aggressive and pointless accusations against me into consideration, you cannot expect an answer. I will react to valid and striking arguments. I also don't mind you being ironical... Furthermore I want to inform you that my opinion is based only on what I know about Fishwave and his articles. There might be facts which I didn't take notice of. Maybe you have any hard evidences showing that I am wrong with my opinion.
