On the Removal & Banning of the Previous Community Manager

[X-SOLDIER]

Hey folks.

As many of you are aware, our previous Community Manager, JT was removed from that staff position after misconduct involving a thread. While there's been some back-and-forth about how the matter was initially addressed, there was a group consensus among all of staff at the time that they were no longer suitable for said position both because of the content and followed reaction.

Said user has now been permanently banned, and I wanted to be clear that this was due to ADDITIONAL misconduct after the fact, which was particularly heinous and unacceptable. I'm going to be wholly transparent on this, but I absolutely will not tolerate any of this quoted or discussed at all outside of this singular thread. The issue in question was with JT's signature:

Spoiler: Said Signature (click to view)

While that doesn't look like much, that string of characters along the top was odd enough to stand out. Aaaand as it turns out, it is decipherable as a simple coded script. What's written there is INCREDIBLY offensive, and we've checked with the mentioned parties before posting this. TO REITERATE: I WILL NOT TOLERATE ANY QUOTING OR DISCUSSING THE SIGNATURE OR SAID TEXT OUTSIDE OF THIS THREAD. PERIOD.

Spoiler: The offensive text from JT's signature uncoded. (click to view)

Spoiler: A second spoiler tag just to ensure you're knowingly looking at this and have read the aforementioned warning.

Mage is a whiny cunt who needs to learn her place and get back in the kitchen. Lex is a stupid Scottish faggot who got scared by some big burly men on a bus and needs to use his power to make himself feel better. Omega is an emasculated self-righteous prick who got upset by an emote. Alex is a whiny right-wing nazi lover who needs to learn to shut his faggot mouth. Pixel is jealous that my annoying american voice owned anything he ever did in his entire life and it only took me ## minutes to do meaning his entire life is basically a waste up to this point. And Ghost X is a dippy little sycophant who needs to suck some good dick cause he clearly doesn’t get any at home. death to nazis and death to tls

Note that this would be immediately unacceptable for ANY member — let alone a recently former member of staff — but for someone who was previously claiming that the public callout of his previously deleted unacceptable behaviour was inappropriate, displaying shit like this in a publicly coded message is incredibly hypocritical in addition to being offensive.

While we don't always share all the sort of information about member bannings and such (as there's a reason why the Staff section is private), all of staff feel strongly about being open and transparent when possible — especially when it's following up to an earlier situation with mixed opinions. We wanted to be absolutely clear to all of you that the banning was something separate from him being removed from the staff position for misconduct about the thread he made that needed to be clearly understood.

Hopefully this makes the whole situation clear that, however the initial incident over his post went, that was very much the tip of the iceberg of the whole situation that lead to his banning, and I'd like to make this an example of the fact that we absolutely DO NOT tolerate this sort of disgusting behaviour in ANY members of the forum – staff, former staff, or otherwise.




That being said, if you're one of the fine folks who likes this place and feels strongly about it continuing to be an open and welcoming environment, the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher Community Manager position is now available once again, and will be addressed shortly in a separate thread, so keep an eye out for it if you're interested.

For any thoughts, opinions, etc. on JT's removal and banning – the reply box is open. This isn't a place for shit-talking banned members, but I'm more than welcome to any comments on the matter for how anyone feels about the details of this banning being handled publicly.

Thanks for your understanding.




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[Mage]

 

[Joker]

I reigned myself in before, but I have two things to say here.

I'm glad this guy is gone. This kind of thing cannot be tolerated from any member, on any level, staff or otherwise, for a variety of reasons.

Second, users have been banned in the past over a lot less than an outright call to doxx someone and repeated flaming. But because the user ASKED to be banned (and then unbanned when he came to the opinion that he'd chilled out!), this was the result. I'm EXTREMELY disappointed in staff on this one (BECAUSE this was inexcusable from the start), largely due to the fact that this user seems to have skated by on "oh well what I did was bad but you didn't handle it properly" (as he repeatedly stated in his thread). Actions have consequences, and whether it was handled properly or not by staff to begin with (and it was) is completely irrelevant when it comes to the meting out of those consequences.

Don't be a Tony Romo.

 

[Octo]

This is deeply depressing. I don't have anything else to say.

 

[Claymore]

Shit. I have no idea what led to his resignation as Community Manager, but without a doubt, that goes way over the line. I have no words. For what it's worth, I appreciate this being made public, as I would have made the erroneous correlation that he was banned due to conduct in whatever thread led to the de-staffing.

Damn...

 

[Lex]

Right then

Re: community manager: I wanted to let the dust settle previously which is why you haven't seen me posting anywhere since the incident that started all this (including in the thread JT made about passing the role on). I would have said as much in that thread but since I ruffled a few feathers I wanted to give him some space at the time.

I'm not going to get bogged down in bashing, I just want to help clarify some things - I've been drawing ire left right and centre since the beginning of this debacle, but I hope this explanation clears up any foggy feelings about recent decisions.

I want to make it clear that I did have the support of staff on the decisions that were made at the beginning with the whole thread nonsense and JT's ultimate destaffing, but that I took a step back and decided not to deal with anything further regarding JT in the public threads that followed because no other staff member was making posts so it might have looked like a personal thing, which it wasn't. Some staff members disagreed with how I handled that (though nobody could agree on which part they actually disagreed on) but ultimately agreed with and supported the decision.

After he was destaffed there was no need for me to be so directly involved anyway (because he was no longer a site staff member). Anything beyond the first few hours after the post that started it all I wasn't involved in except talking to other staff members behind the scenes. At that time I was sad it had come to that given JT's work on the site, but given his behaviour following there was really no other recourse.

Today I logged in and discovered this. There's not much for me to say here - it is what it is and he's permabanned. The worst thing about this happening today is that discussing it in the staff section ate up time that should have been spent playing Sonic Mania.

If anyone has any questions, this is the place to ask them - no holes barred, transparency.

Needless to say, if anybody uses offensive language as aimed at me in that signature I will permaban you without discussing it with staff. And I'll have their full support, because in case anyone was unaware it's fucking unacceptable.

 

[Octo]

To lighten the mood a little, who was it who figured it out? cos like I never would have spotted that in a million years, so I think a career with MI5 beckons

 

[ForceStealer]

Flintlock. I am similarly impressed

Other people say they could tell is was wingding-style text (I never even took note of it, I guess I thought it was a border or something?), but Flint deciphered it with nothing else to go on.

 

[Mage]

TBH I did have a close boggle at it when he added it but dismissed it as gibberish. Would never have guessed he'd done something like that. Unfortunately I'm not surprised.

 

[Octo]

Flintlock. I am similarly impressed

Other people say they could tell is was wingding-style text (I never even took note of it, I guess I thought it was a border or something?), but Flint deciphered it with nothing else to go on.

Flint?! Oh now it makes sense!

(just kidding Flint <3 )

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Second, users have been banned in the past over a lot less than an outright call to doxx someone and repeated flaming. But because the user ASKED to be banned (and then unbanned when he came to the opinion that he'd chilled out!), this was the result. I'm EXTREMELY disappointed in staff on this one (BECAUSE this was inexcusable from the start), largely due to the fact that this user seems to have skated by on "oh well what I did was bad but you didn't handle it properly" (as he repeatedly stated in his thread). Actions have consequences, and whether it was handled properly or not by staff to begin with (and it was) is completely irrelevant when it comes to the meting out of those consequences.

Thanks for being candid. The initial situation was definitely not as well-handled as we'd've wanted it to be for a variety of reasons that many folks have particular feelings towards or against to one degree or another. (I only saw said thread after I think the third edit was made to it because of when I was online). I don't think that anyone would argue your point here. The tl;dr is that the initial situation wasn't dealt with smoothly by staff as a cohesive whole.

There were a variety of opinions about it being a sort of rage-post that was then retracted and deleted. I think that the difference between that incident and this one is that there's reasonable claims of "crime of passion" vs. "premeditated crime" type viewpoints when discussing it between staff, whereas the second case is very much cut-and-dry within the "premeditated" category (which makes for an easy permaban).

Since we don't want that sort of uneven handling of things in the future, I'll just be outright with it:

If anyone posts some heinously inappropriate bannable-worthy shit, but then feels like an asshole for doing so & deletes it &#8211; YOU'RE STILL GETTING BANNED FOR IT.

Think before you post. There isn't an excuse for your shitty behaviour. You're responsible for the consequences of anything that you do the moment that you hit post/send. This goes for the Forums as well as the Discord.

Needless to say, if anybody uses offensive language as aimed at me in that signature I will permaban you without discussing it with staff. And I'll have their full support, because in case anyone was unaware it's fucking unacceptable.

To be clear this isn't a sensitivity thing about being critical of staff. That sort of personal attack is beyond permanently unacceptable from or to ANY member here, period. My above statement should stand as a clear indication for the stance on this. This isn't a Lex-specific thing.





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[Flare]

I really appreciate the transparency on this, you guys. This is still pretty shocking and I'm not sure what all to say, but I'm both horrified and creeped out by that decoded signature message. That whole thing feels very wrong. Reading it just made me feel blah. Didn't know he was that kind of person, though he has made comments before that I didn't like the sounds of.
I'm sorry all you in staff had to deal with this and get such a horrifying message.

 

[Alex Strife]

TBH I did have a close boggle at it when he added it but dismissed it as gibberish. Would never have guessed he'd done something like that. Unfortunately I'm not surprised.

Those were mostly my thoughts. I felt it was odd and thought there might have been some hidden meaning there. Considering the last issue he had was with me, I suspected I might be attacked there but I never imagined other people would be mentioned (though of course it makes sense). Tried for approximately one minute to see if I could make heads or tails of it before deciding I couldn't be bothered.

I couldn't care less about what he wrote about me but I'm disgusted that he wrote what he wrote about the others. I appreciate you guys a lot and I don't take nicely that someone would do this to you.

Regarding Flint's work (damn son!!), that is some impressive stuff. I already told Lex but we've got our own Turing here!!

 

[Mage]

I think that the difference between that incident and this one is that there's reasonable claims of "crime of passion" vs. "premeditated crime" type viewpoints when discussing it between staff, whereas the second case is very much cut-and-dry within the "premeditated" category (which makes for an easy permaban).

I vehemently disagree - he took the time to create a new thread, posted a picture of the woman concerned and some spiel. That's as premeditated as the threads that followed. The worst thing about the initial post was that he was a third-party to the scenario which prompted it and still did it.
I've been on the receiving end of similar shit and there is no way in hell you can justify that sort of warped thinking. I had an inbox full of abuse and that is what he wanted to do to that woman. That is not on, and using this forum as a platform to rouse a lynch mob is not acceptable. At the very least he owed Yop and staff an apology for misusing the site and didn't even have the grace to do that.

 

[Joe]

To be clear this isn't a sensitivity thing about being critical of staff. That sort of personal attack is beyond permanently unacceptable from or to ANY member here, period. My above statement should stand as a clear indication for the stance on this. This isn't a Lex-specific thing.

This. I was reading the very first sentence regarding Mage and my finger was already on the ban button.

If anybody here feels the need to use this sort of language toward anybody here on the forum I'd like to suggest the following: Instead of typing it out, write it on a little piece of paper. Fold that paper up, bend over, and push it right up your butthole. Let it rest there until you mature a little.

 

[Lex]

There were a variety of opinions about it being a sort of rage-post that was then retracted and deleted. I think that the difference between that incident and this one is that there's reasonable claims of "crime of passion" vs. "premeditated crime" type viewpoints when discussing it between staff, whereas the second case is very much cut-and-dry within the "premeditated" category (which makes for an easy permaban).

I don't disagree with this point but I just want to say I think the differences in opinion on how that was handled were the differing camps of people who recognised it as dangerous behaviour/ a warning sign and people who saw a temporary lapse in judgement. I saw the former and others saw the latter, which I completely understand. I will reiterate that I didn't have anything personally against JT (I was after all the person who lobbied for him to become a staff member in the face of opposition from another staff member at the time) but I will protect TLS's reputation like a lioness does her cubs

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I think that the difference between that incident and this one is that there's reasonable claims of "crime of passion" vs. "premeditated crime" type viewpoints when discussing it between staff, whereas the second case is very much cut-and-dry within the "premeditated" category (which makes for an easy permaban).

I vehemently disagree - he took the time to create a new thread, posted a picture of the woman concerned and some spiel. That's as premeditated as the threads that followed. The worst thing about the initial post was that he was a third-party to the scenario which prompted it and still did it.
I've been on the receiving end of similar shit and there is no way in hell you can justify that sort of warped thinking. I had an inbox full of abuse and that is what he wanted to do to that woman. That is not on, and using this forum as a platform to rouse a lynch mob is not acceptable. At the very least he owed Yop and staff an apology for misusing the site and didn't even have the grace to do that.

I fully agree with you here, Mage.

In case it's wasn't clear, I'm not attempting to be apologetic for how we handled things before. Not in the least. That was just an attempt to sort of explain where I feel that the viewpoints were coming from that caused the uneven execution, as well as to point out the series of events as they DID transpire, not as they SHOULD'VE – again, another reason that we felt it was of utmost importance to be open about this, and exactly how it WAS handled, step-by-step.

That's also why I wanted to phrase it that way, because the end result is that whether it's a "crime of passion" vs. "premeditated crime" – your ass is still going to permaban jail for it just the same, because we're officially not gonna split hairs over that bullshit anymore.




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[Octo]

If anybody here feels the need to use this sort of language toward anybody here on the forum I'd like to suggest the following: Instead of typing it out, write it on a little piece of paper. Fold that paper up, bend over, and push it right up your butthole. Let it rest there until you mature a little.

This also works for love letters

 

[Shademp]

JT's actions are unforgivable and I support the staff's decision to permanently ban him.

Just as with any individual who has failed the test of decency I hope they will see the consequences of their actions and eventually reform into a better person. But whatever challenges lay ahead of him are no longer our concern.

 

[Mage]

IDK man, the 'death to TLS' comment didn't exactly sound promising.

 

[Joker]

Thanks for being candid. The initial situation was definitely not as well-handled as we'd've wanted it to be for a variety of reasons that many folks have particular feelings towards or against to one degree or another. (I only saw said thread after I think the third edit was made to it because of when I was online). I don't think that anyone would argue your point here. The tl;dr is that the initial situation wasn't dealt with smoothly by staff as a cohesive whole.

There were a variety of opinions about it being a sort of rage-post that was then retracted and deleted. I think that the difference between that incident and this one is that there's reasonable claims of "crime of passion" vs. "premeditated crime" type viewpoints when discussing it between staff, whereas the second case is very much cut-and-dry within the "premeditated" category (which makes for an easy permaban).

I'll be more candid. I have no problem with what Lex did originally. I say this as someone who feels that someone making a "momentary lapse in judgment" on the level of "you know what, I should rouse the posse on TLS and have ourselves a lynch party" has no excuse. There is no defense for this. I feel the appropriate response was taken initially - show the community what's happening, and then PULL THE TRIGGER and have done. The lack of followup is what bothers me. Your use of the word "cohesive" (and the next paragraph) seems to say there was probably some disagreement on the way to handle it in staff, and I guess all I can say here is this: put yourself in the shoes of the people he targeted with this (whether forum members like Tetsujin or Tennyo who just told the guy to chill and got an insulting, angry retort in response, or the Cheater Who Must Be Doxxed, or the person cheated on, who likely wouldn't want their private business out in public - which is a very real issue for people here). Why would the immediate response not be to say, "you know what, no, gtfo"?

 

[Cthulhu]

I was in the "moment of passion" camp myself when he posted the gang hate thing; I was fully in agreement that his position was forfeit, but I was going to leave it at that. It was still uncharacteristic of him, as is this thing, but then, maybe I just didn't know him. I've been on the internets long enough to not be surprised with personality shifts like that TBF.

I guess even apparent sexually liberated, left-wing ex-mormon liberals can turn violently mysogynistic homophobes (but cowardly, hence the cipher) in a very short amount of time with little provocation. I'm pretty sure he'll try and apologise and claim spur of the moment, medication, personal situation etc, but I'm not having it - he's spent probably over half an hour writing the message, finding a cipher font, shooping that thing together, etc. That's premeditated and intentional, and TBF even if he was high off his tits with whatever he's on, I still don't want him around here if he turns like that while inebriated.

I mean most people turn funnily incoherent when drunk.

 

[ChipNoir]

Good lord, those comments are worrying. People who can hold such animosity while pretending to smile and still be a part of the very community they seem to hate give me the willies. I'm glad to see him gone. I came here to avoid that kind of trashy behavior in Gamefaqs.

 

[Joker]

I mean most people turn funnily incoherent when drunk.

yop-senpai noticed me

blush

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I'll be more candid. I have no problem with what Lex did originally. I say this as someone who feels that someone making a "momentary lapse in judgment" on the level of "you know what, I should rouse the posse on TLS and have ourselves a lynch party" has no excuse. There is no defense for this. I feel the appropriate response was taken initially - show the community what's happening, and then PULL THE TRIGGER and have done. The lack of followup is what bothers me. Your use of the word "cohesive" (and the next paragraph) seems to say there was probably some disagreement on the way to handle it in staff, and I guess all I can say here is this: put yourself in the shoes of the people he targeted with this (whether forum members like Tetsujin or Tennyo who just told the guy to chill and got an insulting, angry retort in response, or the Cheater Who Must Be Doxxed, or the person cheated on, who likely wouldn't want their private business out in public - which is a very real issue for people here). Why would the immediate response not be to say, "you know what, no, gtfo"?

I'm sure there'll be some specific comments from staff on this (EDIT: like Yop just made), but the main point I wanted to make here was that we're openly acknowledging that it wasn't handled well, and that under all circumstances going forward, this was the flat-out policy:

Since we don't want that sort of uneven handling of things in the future, I'll just be outright with it:

If anyone posts some heinously inappropriate bannable-worthy shit, but then feels like an asshole for doing so & deletes it &#8211; YOU'RE STILL GETTING BANNED FOR IT.

Think before you post. There isn't an excuse for your shitty behaviour. You're responsible for the consequences of anything that you do the moment that you hit post/send. This goes for the Forums as well as the Discord.

...so that we won't have to deal with that sort of uneven handling of shit again, because it's not acceptable to not be able to expect that from us as staff.




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