Hey everyone, I've removed bans for everyone that did not request one in the previous admin thread. (I think. If you got banned and I didn't restore your account yet, let me know and I'll fix it.) Don't worry! We're not gonna just ban people for no reason.
In case anyone hasn't seen it yet, Alaskaball confirmed that Sangria was their admin alt. They were messing around with their admin tools on their own account and figured it would be seen as a funny bit, but without being informed of the bit many of the mods and admins were just as shocked, confused, and appalled as you were. I've talked to the other admins and mods, and we're all gonna take it easy on bits for a bit. (Pun intended. This is the last one, I promise.)
If you're afraid that there's been an infiltration of transphobic, egomaniacal wrecker mods who hate the users, I want to assure you that's absolutely not the case. The overwhelming majority of mods and admins on this site are trans. Our admins are all trusted, long-time users in good standing. We regularly browse, comment, and post on our main accounts. You post and chat with us daily as comrades, and we value all of you. You may not recognize the usernames on our admin accounts because we regularly swap the alts used for admin privileges. This is why you'll see really old or unused alt accounts as well as really new accounts on the admin team.
I've seen a lot of speculation down below, some entertaining, some upsetting. We absolutely do not accept transphobia or any form of bigotry on this site. Some of the statements provided by mods and admins have been seen as transphobic and bioessentialist. I want to offer some transparency, but also clarify that I can't get much more specific on this for personal security reasons.
During the earlier discussions on how we felt things could be improved with these communities, multiple trans mods and admins described their reasoning in favour of the change by expressing with a variety of wording that it's the [he/him] demographic in particular that has been the source of toxic and troubling behavior in the tanks. That the he/hims haven't been beating the accusations, so to speak. With that group being largely cishet white guys on this site, these two terms were assumed to roughly correlate. We weren't making prepared statements for release, the comments that got posted here were paraphrased and combined from more casual comments made by trans people, in the mod chat to mostly other trans people about some of the chauvinistic and ironically bigoted posting habits that they saw as alienating and unhealthy for the site, and what we could do to improve the situation. We genuinely didn't foresee the potential for a miscommunication of those statements as being bioessentialist, and want to extend our sincerest apologies for the misunderstanding.
Edit: Please feel welcome to post in c/gossip as you would have posted in the_dunk_tank, and in c/counterpropaganda as you would have posted in the_dredge_tank.
I'll try to keep this short, I think the more I talk the less people like me, and the more I shut the fuck up and listen the more people like me. Funny how that works lol, I think I'm just an annoying asshole that people secretly hate but that's a separate issue. Trying to do some self-crit on how I interact with others, I've been likely making others uncomfortable IMO so I'm gonna shut the fuck up and listen more. Anyways...
First of all, I love this site. I am new here, only half a year, but I truly love that I can shitpost with comrades without having liberals throw a fit. I love that I can dig into the News Mega and read good analysis from comrades like @Awoo@hexbear.net or @SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net (please come back to admin!). I love that I can make an essay on some Fallout: New Vegas mod 3 people have played and have people take it seriously. I really love this site, and I think most of the users, mods, and admins do too. I want this comfort and safety to be felt by all users, not just me.
Second, I hope the claims of chauvanism and misogyny are not shelved, but investigated openly. I think a lot of the pushback against this was a lack of evidence presented, and the struggle around this aspect could have been lessened with a few examples. If we want this to be a safe space for marginalized comrades, marginalized comrades should have their voices respected when it comes to how they experience the site. I think the fact that these claims were discussed behind closed doors compounded the problems, and garnered undue pusback. I understand why these conversations weren't held publicly either, out of preventing harrassment and for safety, which is why I think having prepared examples and evidence under CWs would help prevent pushback. The fact that several trans members have expressed issue with [he/hims] should be taken seriously. Edit 2: Speaking of, if I have contributed to this as a [he/him] user or as a white person in general, please let me know, even in DMs with an alt if you want to remain anonymous. I'll make a selfcrit post and do better, I promise, I'm stupid so please have patience, I want everyone to feel safe here like I do. It's not on others to correct behavior but just in case.
~~Third, the user that keeps making accounts and attacking people needs to come forward and self-crit, or be removed. This is unacceptable. It's good that the transphobic statement was addressed, but as far as I know the harrassment is an open issue.~~ Edit 1: Looks like this was resolved! Thanks!
Fourth, the Admins. @CARCOSA@hexbear.net should not have been the shield taking the brunt of pushback, and should not step down. They were very level-headed. TransComrade69 should not have been handling everything alone either, which is how it appeared. Regardless of how ze was handling the situation, it was only magnified by having hir handle the sitiation seemingly alone. @Alaskaball@hexbear.net lol. Lmao, even. Honestly a good bit, but the timing could not have been better, or worse, I guess. Glad to see you stepping up to be an open face of the admin team, that should help repair user relations a bit. @Lyudmila@hexbear.net you're handling things very well, props!
To cap this all off, this all spiraled out of control because people here clearly care a lot about the site, outside of a few rogue elements the overwhelming majority stood by our trans comrades even at risk of being banned. Not everyone behaved well, I won't pretend that, but I do think the vast majority of users here are kind, considerate, and willing to discuss the actions taken to fix the problems that started this debaucle.
Love y'all, hope we can bounce back stronger as @Frank@hexbear.net said, and as @Awoo@hexbear.net said we may need to just slow our roll on posting a bit and not take every little thing as seriously as possible.
Edit 3: tried and failed to keep it short, lol
On the third point, if you mean DebatebroX, I'm fairly certain we got that handled.
Crack teams of posters are closing in on their location as we speak.
Great!
Same goes for me. I don't always have the best social judgment. If I'm inadvertently hurting people, I want to know so that I can stop and improve as a person.
Great post comrade
GOOD post
Good post!
Our intention was and still is to reduce the aspects of the site that have kept other users, and minority users in particular, from feeling that same level of comfort and safety that we do.
Eliminating bigotry is a tough and ongoing process. We can't just handle it by banning people indiscriminately, it's going to be a multi-faceted overhaul. I want to be transparent about this upfront, so I think it's important to clarify that there will be some changes to some communities and the COC related to this, but obviously I'll chat about it with all of you a little later. I think we all need a little bit of time to cool down given how fast and confusing the last few days have been.
I genuinely care a lot about all of the posters here, and I want us to be a warmer, more comfortable, and more positive site. It's going to take all of us users pulling in the same direction to achieve this, and I'm looking forward to working together with all of you to improve things.
Sounds good to me! It's my hope that we can help make this a safer and more comfortable space for everyone, so it's good that this is being taken seriously. I agree that cooling down is probably for the best before moving again. Good luck, y'all have my support