So this isn't one of those fun announcements where I get to talk about fun things, but seeing as someone has taken the liberty of jumping to big assumptions, be it 'told' by staff or not, and then spreading those assumptions based on the word of one staff member (taken out of context) in one of the most toxic ways I've seen so far on-site, I figured I should address it, and yes - I will be naming the people involved.
So in case none of you got the private message from Bolt, an Official Warning was given after a big Discord outburst. For the sake of clarity I'll put the warning I sent below, quoted.
Munchkin wrote:Tue Oct 02, 2018 7:42 pm
Hello Bolt.
Due to the recent events in the Help Desk on Discord, matched with your previous leave on the Hikaru account, we are giving you both an official warning and a Discord ban from our server. Both situations were incredibly toxic and when the situation was explained you continued the toxic behaviour, acted aggressively and generally caused disruption for the people involved. You also took to calling out a certain player when they were well within their right to do what was said, and actually spoke to staff about the consequence before giving it.
Therefore, you are no longer welcome in our Discord and any attempt to bypass this will result in another warning. As well as this, any attempt at stirring more drama on other platforms like on-site will also be met with another warning, and once you have your second we offer no others before a ban is put in place. That being said, we hope that this isn't a situation we have to revisit again.
If you have issues or concerns with a rule, decision or otherwise then Private Message an Advocate so that we can talk to you personally instead.
Thanks,
The Advocates.
For those that missed the Discord incident, the issues are described above. Primarily, the issue Bolt had was that their Defiance overstepping consequence was too harsh, and they were given a temporary Abandonment (with their Fire element) by a player called Mads. It's now important to clarify two things. First of all, Bolt deleted the post after this issue arrived. Second, and the main reason I'm clarifying, is that Mads came to a mod
before giving the consequence.
Now to Bolt's PM, which was sent to a fair few of you, and I'm being as open as I can about this for everyone involved so we can clear this up simply and as clean as possible, without any behind the scenes PM's and backdoor messages.
Bolt wrote:Wed Oct 03, 2018 1:51 am
It's ok. I've already got a confession from a staffer with my alt confirming that ruining both of my characters was intentional because I post a lot. You guys don't have to hide it. You can shove the warning up your ass - I'm not continuing here.
I've been kicked off of sites for being a bad writer and had my posting limited, but never in 15 years of RPing have I had my character concepts ruined in this manner. The fact that it was was mod-sanctioned is the most despicable thing I've ever witnessed in an online game.
Now, aside from the fact that this was sent to a mass of people who had literally nothing to do with the situation, there are a few problems with this message and the situation in general that I'll cover.
First of all, and keeping it simple, the overstepping penalty. Starting with another quote.
BoltYesterday at 4:19 PM
I don't buy it. Moderate magic usage should not result in my entire character concept being railed
Discrimination
"Entire character concept being railed". A temporary, IC consequence is in no way a concept being railed. In fact, overstepping is a consequence that many people have to deal with. In fact, everyone that writes a magic and progresses in it will find themselves overstepping. It is a huge part of our system, a big part of what we do and frankly, not a punishment for anything - but a consequence for IC action that could be easily resolved, as was told to you many times - me included. As well as this, the player that reviewed this (Mads) was also called out in the Discord server, as mentioned in the warning. So, and bearing in mind we made it clear in the post that it was looked at and approved by staff, and you knew that from the initial post and from being told. So, issue one I have here is calling out Mads for that when you clearly express that you knew that, we made it clear for you and, frankly, calling out a player like that is both unfair and toxic.
Issue two, though, is the incident of a "staff member confirming ruining your plot was intentional". First of all, again, ruined plots? No. Not quite. But the second issue to note is that isn't, at all, what was meant by the member of staff. What happened was that you made a fake alt and spoke to them to talk about it. This was a member of staff who had no involvement in the Bolt situation (They are not an Advocate and wasn't asked about the review, so had nothing to do with it), and was asked a question that, frankly, wasn't fair to ask.
But all of that aside, what Brother said was:
evenoobToday at 12:16 PM
A tad sensitive? It looks like his character concept was nuked by some biased mods. I can get that at miz any day.
☆Brother☆Today at 12:16 PM
Nah
It's an issue of him attempting to power game other players
Bolts a good writer but he's pulled this a couple times(edited)
evenoobToday at 12:17 PM
So u make it unplayable for power gamers ? Lol
That's good I guess
☆Brother☆Today at 12:17 PM
Nah just like
You shouldn't be able to be one of the most powerful in like 2 months
He was pretty much going for speed running a writing sight
Anyways no we have a good community though I generally just stick to my city and players
I find that if you want to stay here and enjoy it. And this applies to mix to. Find a core group and stick with them
*Miz
evenoobToday at 12:20 PM
Thank u for admitting the discrimination is real. This is all I wanted to know
I'll spread the word
So, after pretending to be someone you're not, you claimed that the message above proves that staff is out to get you for writing too much. Without the context, I can see how that in some way gives that message across. But this, in no way, is what the warning or the magic consequence for. I can't stress that enough. You were given a consequence by a player, who checked with staff, for
IC actions. And what this says is that a member of staff said that trying to speed run to the very best in a few days isn't something he, or the staff, like. As well as that, these logs again have the situation blown out of context for anyone that wasn't there to read it. "Character concept nuked".
But with those points in mind, this situation is over. People can make their own opinions based on the logs, though I'd like to stand by what we decided as staff. You were toxic, and messaging people with no involvement without all the right logs, evidence or facts in mind backs that point up.
But there we are, and I have no intention of warning you again so long as this issue remains as is. Your account will be retired, as you asked, and you're welcome to either return to the site or find a new one to write on. However if you do want to talk about this do it through the Advocates so that we can avoid issues like this becoming public and can handle it like adults having a conversation, instead of aggression towards players and staff. Any incidents of the latter won't be met kindly
Thanks all.
Munchkin.
