[Balor]

Introduction

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My name is Drezdin, and I am writing this open letter to address the ban of Hoot and the explicit role I had to play in it.  I understand that by doing so I am painting a massive target on my back, however I wish to do so for the sake of transparency for the friends who think fondly of her.

I am providing my account of events as candidly as I can while respecting the privacy of those involved.

You will find below a summary of events, in chronological order,  and the conclusion reached.

It is worth noting as well that I am doing this with the express consent and blessing of the GM team.

TLDR:
There has been documentation in excess, of grievances caused by Hoot that damaged the reputation of the players OOC for events that should have remained in IC.




Summary of Events
(There is still a lot here)
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Starting in abouts June, Hoot as we have come to know her began committing acts of harassment and guilting others without acknowledging her role in events. Starting with the doxxing of Minkaron’s ckey via cache checking  in June when she interacted with one of his incognito characters, and grew paranoid over past events with individuals wholly unrelated.

This led to three separate meltdowns at the time: one in Tannis Militia’s discord, one in a private discord (A), and one in my DM’s.

At around the same time as the aforementioned doxxing, Hoot had also joined a private guild named the Flame Badgers, who I like to describe as Team Rocket, but more akin to a corporate military complex. In short, it is a guild made up of enslaved Homunculi, who are expendable as part of their dark comedic roots. 

Her initial Badger Ignatio was played briefly, however; in line with myself joining the Guild, she applied and was granted a secondary Badger named Glace. Around this time she also proposed an event chain surrounding a Papillion named Turkol and his twin whose name I cannot recall.

Eagerly she had Turkol assault a Badger played by a party unrelated to this report. This was the inciting incident, and for a time she ran the events privately for the Badgers with rumors sent to the Tannis Militia.

She also ran three mini events, most of which were impromptu by her and one was by request. It led to the Badgers being put on IC lockdown, as such no badger could travel alone. An event was kicked off by what was assumed to be an illusion of Glace, only for us to learn at the resolution afterwards that it was Glace proper.  This is a violation of Eventmin rules, and Hoot requested not to tell the GM team for fear of her losing that position. We complied as we were friends.

ICly, Adamant Chronos, the leader of the Badgers and the villain of their story, was not too pleased that Glace had broken protocol: once with the event, and several times prior. IC infractions included traveling alone, spreading illness through the HQ, etc.

ICly, Adamant requested that Glace drink a vial of poison, or explain why he should be left alive. Jin the Blue, who plays Adamant Chronos, was in a voice call with Hoot concurrent to the happenings of the roleplay. It was in this voice call that he not only received consent of death, but also offered several options to Hoot to get their character out of the situation. Escape, argue to live, fight and escape, etc. Jin the Blue made it explicitly clear any action other than drinking the poison would allow Glace to live with at worst a slap on the wrist and corrective training. 

Jin the Blue was at no point abusive, nor did he trap her into that character death, Hoot willingly chose to kill Glace as they did not believe they had an IC reason to escape or live due to their character traits. Jin the Blue acted cordially and in line with server rules throughout.

Hoot proceeded to vent in private server (A), had a psychotic episode in my DM’s where I did my best to advise her to speak with Jin about potential retcons, options she had, and encouraged communication when she was less distraught. It is at this point in August she posts to another private server(B) the circumstances of Glace’s death in such a way that it appears Jin the Blue did not ask for consent, or offer advice to preserve the life of her character.

Jin the Blue also wishes to state on the record “I spent several /days/ after the death of their character in DM’s, in an attempt to console and comfort them as I understood that the death of a character is a traumatic event, and understood that Hoot was fragile.” These DM’s will not be shared as they contain a great deal of private information.

Hoot at this point desired to cease all Turkol events associated with the Flame Badgers, and move on to other parties she wished to involve; namely the Tannis Militia. Jin and her spoke at length where he lobbied that, not for his sake, but for the other badgers who had invested time and energy, they be allowed to remain relevant if not prevalent in the Turkol Storyline. This was a request that Hoot could deny if she so chose.

A request Hoot granted.

Another Turkol event passed for the Badgers without incident, and out of Hoot’s respect for the pacing of the story we held firm patiently as she looked to involve the Tannis Militia.

At this time Minkaron requested a week before Hoot ran any events where he needed to be explicitly involved as he was preparing for another event he was hosting publicly for unrelated and independent parties. Minkaron wanted the week to build his event space, and write his script for this public event. Hoot agreed to these terms, but at the time also spoke to others in Private Server (A), expressing a great deal of impatience and frustration at the wait.

It was in this instance that Dragonruby advised her that it would be feasible and advisable to message Minkaron ahead of time so that he could prepare other Militia Members to be present for the event chain. She verbally agreed with said advice, and then promptly ignored it,
killing their character “Maddie” by the hands of their Event Character, Turkol.  Another violation of their Eventmin status and regulations we agreed to keep quiet. These actions were taken without warning Minkaron who was immediately pinged and urged to be present by participants who were unaware of his earlier request towards Hoot. 


To note: Hoot was not denied permission to kill their character, though they claimed such in private discord server(B). No one had told them they cannot kill their character, only that they wait three days so that characters can be available to give her character proper attention.

This event led to a great deal of grievances from Mink and KitKat who felt that Hoot had failed to communicate properly with them, and that she had attempted to use a form of guilt to force them into an event they were not ready or willing to involve themselves in.

They offered little to no explanation as to why they had forced this issue other than citing the advice given to her by Dragonruby and others, which, upon speaking to those relevant parties, turned out to be a misconstruing of the advice she had actually received.

Shortly thereafter Hoot entered my DM’s to vent where I gave them the best advice I could while encouraging them once again to work on their communication and respect for other people. She claimed that she knew she had “fucked up” and wished to get better.

While I chastised her for upsetting my wife, Kitkat. The conversation was cordial, and I encouraged them to think before they act on their emotions and impatience.

A few days passed, and cordiality remained between all parties involved. With the final date of the Turkol events scheduled. The night prior Hoot in Private Chat (A) spoke with me, Jin the Blue, and Dragonruby.  Where she began to speak about the death of characters, in an attempt to guilt Jin.

When I reminded her politely, I must stress that I was cordial and in no way abusive.  That “People care about your characters, there are so many that have been cherished and remembered. There is evidence in Tannis Militia chat of how much impact they have.” To which she raised her voice and yelled at me. 

After a short time she also began to make passive aggressive passes in Server (A) at Jin who spoke at length with her privately afterwards in an attempt to clear the air once more.  Coming to the conclusion that Hoot still held a very personal grudge about Glace, and a general lack of interest in the Turkol Event Chain.

Jin and Mink spoke with Hoot and requested the opportunity to black screen and resolve the Turkol event to prevent further issue, as Jin and Mink felt nothing good would come of it with Hoot’s current mindstate and the bad blood that had come with the event chain.

Having caught the brunt of both sides of the emotional turmoil of friends disagreeing and Hoot’s well documented mental illnesses as patiently as I possibly could. I proceeded to speak with Hoot on August 30th. Cordially, politely and gently informing her that I needed space from her.

I was clear that this was a “Selfish and cruel” request, and that I had no intention of denying her time spent with other mutual friends in Private Server (A) or otherwise. I did not expect her to make any sort of amendments to her person, or to make things up to me. I just asked for time to calm down because her company had grown taxing. Not because Hoot is dangerous, but because of the volatility of her needs and the constant reassurances she demanded.

The friendship for me was no longer a healthy one.

Jin the Blue would also like to go on record as having made a similar request.

The intention of both Jin and I to calm down from what had become a very unhealthy and needy friendship emotionally when it came to Hoot’s actions towards us.  While Minkaron and Kitkat did not explicitly request space, Hoot had chosen to give them such wordlessly to my understanding.

She also offered to leave any servers I owned, but I assured them that would not be necessary as I did not dislike them or hold any malice to Hoot the person. But needed time away from their actions.

September 8th she directly messages me stating that she was feeling lonely and would like an estimate of time when I would be willing to speak with her again. Respectfully I informed her that I still needed more time, but that I was feeling much better about things. 

Furthermore adding that I would speak to them the following week, as Hoot seemed to calm down I presumed that I would be able to genuinely resume my friendship with her. Though wary, I tentatively resumed regular contact.

At this point in time, while Hoot was not in contact with KitKatarine directly, she proceeded to donate a sum of money through Ko-fi unprompted and unrequested. A donation neither her nor I were made aware of until after it had been sent. 
(Ko-fi being a site where individuals can donate money to artists who post their work.)

After several attempts to determine if they were certain, and donated the money with a sound mind and stable financial status, it was put to the order of a drawing tablet for my wife. ONLY after we had expressed gratitude for the donation, and made sure Hoot had given it in good faith.

Had we known what we would discover afterwards we would never have accepted any donation or gift from Hoot. On September 29th, we learned of the conversations that took place on the following dates: August 25th, August 28th, and September 9th respectively Hoot had ventured into the text channels of Private Server (B) owned by a respectable individual, who for now will remain unnamed. 


On August 25th, following the death of Glace, she painted a portrait of all the events summarised here in the worst light possible, citing Jin by name in the light of an inconsiderate abuser, as well as citing the actions of his character without context of the efforts he had gone through OOCly.

August 28th she cited Minkaron and Jin implicitly in Server (B) claiming that they had punished her for attempting to provide them with content. Leaving out the context of her lack of communication and prior adverse actions.  Willingly painting them as villains and herself as the victim.

September 9th I joined Server (A)’s voice chat briefly to speak with friends. Hoot was in the voice chat at the time, and she left the voice chat unprompted due to my presence, which while I appreciate, was not necessary, and I in no way attempted to chase her out of the chat. We had spoken cordially the day prior, and I had reiterated I had no intent to deprive her of the company of mutual friends.

That same day, in Server (B) she proceeded to explain my actions without the context of the reasons cited prior in this summary. Allowing me to be painted as an “abuser”, “thin skinned,” and “manipulative.” While I was not explicitly named, she had brought up Flame Badgers, and Tannis Militia. 

Citing that the reason for many of these actions were “killing a character without permission.” and that she had “grown obsessive over something.” without the context of what led to the actual adversity behind these decisions.

She actively rallied individuals in Server (B) under the guise that she was just “venting” and allowing my own request to potentially be attributed to Minkaron and Jin the Blue. 


I only learned of these posts and interactions after I was invited to Server (B), and had afterwards been alerted to mentions of the Flame Badgers. After extensive searching through logs I discerned that if she had shared them in Server (B), there was potential for them to be shared everywhere.

All good faith and trust in that moment had been broken. As evidenced by the shock of Hoot’s ban, I and others have gone to extensive lengths to protect and keep Hoot’s wrongdoings private knowing that she is mentally fragile.

However it was within the past five days that I decided personally that this would happen to someone else, and that Hoot regardless of our initial friendship had not acted fairly or in consideration of the respect I and others had offered her over the past two years. 

As such I contacted Dystopia who then put me in touch with the GM team in their entirety. I wished to weigh my options as I intended to boot Hoot from Server (A) and wished to block them. As I laid out my reasoning they felt that her accumulated grievances and the sheer extent of the logs provided were enough to justify her removal from the Eventmin Team, and a temporary ban.

It should be noted that EXPLICITLY AFTER SHE WAS BANNED:

Hoot attempted to spread discourse through Server (B) to rally a lynch mob, attempting to share information belonging to Kitkat that qualifies as Doxxing: Explicit documentation that displayed her full name, and other personal information Hoot had acquired from her Ko-Fi donation and shared without her explicit consent.

All in an attempt to implicate her as having maliciously taken advantage of her and seemingly pin the ban on Kitkat. When she has the least involvement in the series of events that led to the ban.

Conclusion

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Extensive logs, testimony and context was sent to the GM team that numbered at the least 20 screenshots.  While none will be shared here due to the volatility, private context, and the several displays of mental fragility found within.  This is not due to a lack of desire for transparency.

This is out of respect for all parties involved up to and including Hoot, as regardless of the contents of this address. They are still a person and I will not share the intimate details of their dirty laundry to more people than absolutely necessary.

As many of the logs include respected individuals not related to the aggrieved who were misled by Hoot in server (B).

Furthermore all relevant logs the aggrieved parties were willing to share were sent in their full context directly to the GM team to be put under extensive scrutiny. 

It is after several days, I must state once more that this was after several days of deliberation the GM team decided that Hoot had without a shadow of a doubt acted maliciously towards the aggrieved parties, negligent of her duties as a Eventmin, and without good faith as a friend.

As such they decided to move forward with punishment that included:

Firstly: Their immediate removal from the Event Staff.

Secondly: The immediate doling out of a temporary ban.

Thirdly: Further punishment for their transgressions post ban are pending.

I personally have removed Hoot from any shared servers I am responsible for, and blocked them. They are free to appeal the ban as all others are, and I will never deny them the attempt as it is not my place.

However I felt the need to clear the air and be as candid as humanly possible regarding the events that transpired which led to me going to the Staff team.

It is here that I must reaffirm this was not a decision made lightly by anyone involved, and this option was only pursued after many attempts to reconcile the situation in private failed.  And it became clear that small problems prevalent prior to the Turkol Event, as made clear by her initial doxxing of Minkaron’s ckey by unknown means (Presumed to be cache checking) were only expounded upon during the duration of her events.

On several occasions Hoot was made aware of what adverse actions they had taken, and on several occasions we had attempted to work with her to resolve them. Having learned that this was only causing undue stress on ourselves with no sign of improvement or meaningful acknowledgement in regards to her wrongdoings, I personally reached out to Dystopia.. 

This was the only option we felt would make any real difference.

[Mewni]

It saddens to say but, I'm really not surprised.

[Anhita]

As somone who was initially very confused when I heard about the ban and thought Hoot litterally got assassinated into the night, I admit, I am saddened hearing this.

The fact that this went on for 4-5(?) months without anyone really knowing((or atleast, no actions taken)) kinda shocks me. And the timing for the actual ban seems rather unfortunate. I was looking forward to the events Hoot could have provided for the community after seeing the post for their recent one. And I felt like I had the winds kinda knocked out my sails upon realizing there probably wont be a follow up to it.

Regardless, Though I feel harassment and abuse shouldn't be tolerated. I am leaning towards the more lenient end of hoping that she learns from this and returns to the community as a better person after their ban(if it remains temporary) and things can continue trucking along in some creative and constructive manner, even if they are no longer an eventmin.

[Jupiter_Storm]

I only just noticed this thread so I apologise for the double-post, but, I'll just re-iterate what I said in the gm-help channel of SL2's Discord for the sake of posterity and transparency...

I would like to offer a heartfelt apology to the entire Staff team about my part in the big fuss that was kicked up last night, and the extra work and trouble it caused you. As well as some general mistrust and colourful opinions I have expressed about the way you do business. I have been made a fool of both by the misinformation of others (and I'm not just referring to Hoot here, but a number of other past grievances that this has made me reflect on), and by my own bellicose approach to handling issues.

I can only once again express my remorse at this. I hope that moving forward we can be on good terms. My eyes are wide open now. Cheers.

P.S. I would also like to thank Dystopia for being exceedingly patient with me last night in particular, and for hearing me out despite being well aware that I was completely in the wrong.

[Humanne]

Thanks for shedding light on the matter, I for one was in the dark.
I want to address anyone that regards my comment at all:
PLEASE DO NOT DEMONIZE ANY OF THE PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THIS MATTER.
It's not within the thread's intent, nor OP's wishes, to have anyone be subject to witch-hunt.

[Snake]

For the people concerned about it, there will be a follow-up to the Light vs Darkness events, that much I can (sort of) guarantee, at least. Just not in the way most players will expect to receive.

And yes, I'm in sound and sane mind we'll not push this to a direction it should not be. We're all still good people here, and no one deserves to be treated any lesser than that, behavior issues or not. Grief for the circumstances and life choices, not the person behind them. Remember that we're all flesh and blood behind the screen, before you consider impulsive choices based on short-lived emotions.

Additionally, giving mad respect for clarifying most of the concealed and important info that was intently omitted too, Drez. Heart to heart. Being played for a fool and having my trust put in the wrong people is not... a good feeling to have. Especially when this had almost caused a fight among friends.

We're a small community here, for heaven's sake. We're all but manchild playing a child's game. I just hope dearly this is the first and last case, and that it serves as an example for others to watch out for their own life choices.

[Mewni]

Regardless, Though I feel harassment and abuse shouldn't be tolerated. I am leaning towards the more lenient end of hoping that she learns from this and returns to the community as a better person after their ban(if it remains temporary) and things can continue trucking along in some creative and constructive manner, even if they are no longer an eventmin.

Particularly I don't, mostly because I already fell victim to doxxing and I know how much that can mess up someone. That alone should be a harsher punishment on its own IMO, sure we are all fallible human beans playing a silly vidja, but once it goes outside of it to emotional blackmail and personal info being exposed in bad faith, things kinda stop being a case of lessons needing to be learned and more of a situation to not even entertain the chance of it happening again.

You know, that and rallying people up by pretending they are unaware why any of this happened.

If all of that is not grounds for a harsher punishment and subject to leniency, I'm fearful of where the limit is, since as far as I am aware, perma bans were lent out for far less than doxxing, feelings for the person aside all of that is pretty fucked up.

[Shujin]

SL2 people showing tribal behaviour and following a lynch-mob call, without second thought?

What else is new... Can we go back to getting a lynch-mob after Trent, ICly? torches and pitchforks included? That were the good times =/