Resolved A place for commentary on the avalanche of red flags that have occured over the last 24 hours.

[Cheesesteaks]

There is a bunch of drama that has occurred over the last 24 or so hours and so far as I can tell every possible place where it would be on-topic to comment on it has been locked. So a few statements:

• There needs to be a place for open commentary on this subject that doesn't require me to go somewhere else.
  • It is going to be real freaking odd to juxtapose "An Appeal to the Sietch for our shared stand against Totalitarianism" and not allow discussion on the topic on the forum. Rather the shit we are here to get away from innit?
• Fascism is a really spicy ideology in any of its forms with many many definitions and very few of them I consider palatable, while I'm OK with coexisting in the same discussion sphere as fascists and ultratraditionalists, really I find that their opinions liven up the debate field, I need quite a bit more buy in to enjoy having them over me in a community. Same deal with commies.
  • I recommend we have a 'Fascism discussion thread' sometime in the near future from the relative jump in importance exactly what fascism means has had to the forum.
• Deleting the Punch Card Girl account and making no mention of it being a secret mod alt and then editing the posts post-deletion without mentioning the edit is bullshit, no matter the contents of the edit.
  • I'm going to state that my major issues with fascism stem more from "Everything Within the State, Nothing Against the State, Nothing Outside the State" more so than the racism side, through both give me issues.
• The presence of secret mod-alts is an issue in itself and the stated reasoning of 'not intimidating users in debates' is also bullshit because it does nothing to solve that issue unless your are relying on the deception, and deception written innately into how the board works is a bigger red flag than you'd find at a red army march.
  • If you were concerned about your own privacy the solution would have not to create a name associated with yours in the first place, not some two tiered system.

The only reason I am still here is the fact that there remain sane people on your staff and in the userbase, but so far as I can tell there is a lot of deception involved in the moderation of this community and it flows from the very top of it. At the minimum until this whole debacle is satisfactorily addressed I'm going to walk my participation here far back from where I was planning to, if it fails to be so... well you've taught me a lesson on freely trusting people on the internet.

P.S. this should have been a chan.

 

[Emperor Tippy]

There is a bunch of drama that has occurred over the last 24 or so hours and so far as I can tell every possible place where it would be on-topic to comment on it has been locked. So a few statements:

• There needs to be a place for open commentary on this subject that doesn't require me to go somewhere else.
  • It is going to be real freaking odd to juxtapose "An Appeal to the Sietch for our shared stand against Totalitarianism" and not allow discussion on the topic on the forum. Rather the shit we are here to get away from innit?
• Fascism is a really spicy ideology in any of its forms with many many definitions and very few of them I consider palatable, while I'm OK with coexisting in the same discussion sphere as fascists and ultratraditionalists, really I find that their opinions liven up the debate field, I need quite a bit more buy in to enjoy having them over me in a community. Same deal with commies.
  • I recommend we have a 'Fascism discussion thread' sometime in the near future from the relative jump in importance exactly what fascism means has had to the forum.

You can make a thread in the NSFW pub if you want to talk about something in the community and it doesn't fit better anywhere else.

• Deleting the Punch Card Girl account and making no mention of it being a secret mod alt and then editing the posts post-deletion without mentioning the edit is bullshit, no matter the contents of the edit.
  • I'm going to state that my major issues with fascism stem more from "Everything Within the State, Nothing Against the State, Nothing Outside the State" more so than the racism side, through both give me issues.

Yes, Zoe probably overreacted. That does tend to occur when former associates decide to attempt to blackmail you with personal, emotionally charged, information.

• The presence of secret mod-alts is an issue in itself and the stated reasoning of 'not intimidating users in debates' is also bullshit because it does nothing to solve that issue unless your are relying on the deception, and deception written innately into how the board works is a bigger red flag than you'd find at a red army march.
  • If you were concerned about your own privacy the solution would have not to create a name associated with yours in the first place, not some two tiered system.

Staff have separate accounts for a myriad of valid reasons. One of them is community engagement, another is so that they don't have to see staff related stuff when logged in, a third is to be able to post without having to be as careful to remain within the rules.

The only reason I am still here is the fact that there remain sane people on your staff and in the userbase, but so far as I can tell there is a lot of deception involved in the moderation of this community and it flows from the very top of it. At the minimum until this whole debacle is satisfactorily addressed I'm going to walk my participation here far back from where I was planning to, if it fails to be so... well you've taught me a lesson on freely trusting people on the internet.

P.S. this should have been a chan.

Of course there is deception involved in the management and moderation of the community. Considering the multiple doxxing attempts, the malicious reporting to TS's hosting service, the numerous posters who we know are only here to stir up shit, and the fact that multiple individuals are maliciously attacking TS and those managing it; we would be fools to make everything public.

Infractions are public, appeals are public, and bitching about us and TS is allowed (in the NSFW pub). Beyond that, you are highly unlikely to see any of the backend and/or management stuff go public.

EDIT: And this thread is locked, if you want to bitch about the topic then take it to the NSFW Pub.

 

[Big Steve]

There is a bunch of drama that has occurred over the last 24 or so hours and so far as I can tell every possible place where it would be on-topic to comment on it has been locked. So a few statements:

• There needs to be a place for open commentary on this subject that doesn't require me to go somewhere else.
  • It is going to be real freaking odd to juxtapose "An Appeal to the Sietch for our shared stand against Totalitarianism" and not allow discussion on the topic on the forum. Rather the shit we are here to get away from innit?

The Community Pub works best (Tippy says the NSFW pub but I'm not sure why it has to be that one).

[*][*][*]Deleting the Punch Card Girl account and making no mention of it being a secret mod alt and then editing the posts post-deletion without mentioning the edit is bullshit, no matter the contents of the edit.

• I'm going to state that my major issues with fascism stem more from "Everything Within the State, Nothing Against the State, Nothing Outside the State" more so than the racism side, through both give me issues.

As stated, Zoe overreacted given how things have developed. It's a sensitive issue for her.

[*][*][*]The presence of secret mod-alts is an issue in itself and the stated reasoning of 'not intimidating users in debates' is also bullshit because it does nothing to solve that issue unless your are relying on the deception, and deception written innately into how the board works is a bigger red flag than you'd find at a red army march.

• If you were concerned about your own privacy the solution would have not to create a name associated with yours in the first place, not some two tiered system.

[*][*]

The consideration was that it'd be a psychological thing. The poster would not see a "Staff" tag beside an account and wouldn't have the same visceral reaction compared to the open evidence of someone with power on the forums.

There's a history on various forums of staff members, even without intending to, causing issues when trying to join discussions openly. On SFDebris we even once had a supermod attempt to resign on the issue as he'd prefer to join debates and I mistakingly led him to believe he was forbidden from such due to his position.

The only reason I am still here is the fact that there remain sane people on your staff and in the userbase, but so far as I can tell there is a lot of deception involved in the moderation of this community and it flows from the very top of it. At the minimum until this whole debacle is satisfactorily addressed I'm going to walk my participation here far back from where I was planning to, if it fails to be so... well you've taught me a lesson on freely trusting people on the internet.

P.S. this should have been a chan.

We weren't intending to be maliciously deceptive toward our posters, merely cautious and protective given the opposition faced (which Tippy has gone into further detail one). We're still feeling out this process, as we're trying to avoid the problems and mistakes on other web forums in our collective experience.

Indeed, this is why we've implemented the policies regarding appeals we have, we want things to be transparent.