06-28-2023, 12:05 PM
I'm gonna add my side of experiences regarding the recent events that Croakie brought up, because this is something I desperately need off my chest before it plagues me further. I will have to clarify, these are my experiences alone in trying to talk with few members of the GM team regarding it all. The severity of it is likely far from anything anyone else has felt, but regardless, if I am by any means in the wrong in some elements likewise if Croakie is wrong, I have come fully prepared to accept that. Sadly, neither of us were never informed in what things were incorrect from the people in question, and I do wish they actually chose to given that was implied. So here's what I have gotten on the matter:
Croakie is a friend of mine from a long while ago, and this was before I joined SL2. I had shown interests to SL2 from seeing other friends of mine partake in it, including Croakie, but I never got into it until years later and now. I have been here for a month, so keep in mind, I have absolutely no complete knowledge of what happened in the past for so many policies and rules to have been reshaped, nor do I know the full picture of the events, but I will go by what I know since it was all I could even find. Until last week, I had been sharing a little bit of SL2 moments I've had with Croakie, but only recently been explained why Croakie never joined SL2 again. Croakie was permabanned and was uninformed about it, basically shadowbanned forever. Naturally, I wanted to look into it myself because it felt absurd on how that came to be.
What I found so far - and I repeat, bare minimum I could dig up - was a few forum posts regarding the ban in question, which was placed to be a week long ban. This was from three months ago. Since I really wanted Croakie back into it since I always enjoy having a good time with my friends and that I was also really convinced that the community as it was now was pretty welcoming, I figured that the 3 month time was a good amount enough to reflect and change, and even Croakie herself acknowledged that she made some fatal errors to move past. That much faith I had in Croakie about it. So I sent a modmail about it and wanted to ask why this decision was made to make it go from a week to permanent. Granted, that isn't how modmail works, and that is on me for mistaking it. What came after however was by far one of the most indignant conversations I have been met with in this community before.
I have to mention now that I am fully aware of the policies that have been provided, and I wholeheartedly try my best to understand why they've been put up. Individuals who feel targeted may face even worse backlash for speaking up in a more public manner, and given how severe online harassment can get, this is something I could get behind. What I can't get behind is if the policy is used in a manner that feels less about protecting others and more in a sense that feels condescending, and this is where my negative experiences begin. When I was responded to, I was explained that third parties cannot be detailed about the ban in the case of protecting the victims. I can get behind this, I didn't need to know the story in detail. What didn't feel right was that there was denied any part of context whatsoever, literally as in not saying a smidge of info like "their ban was increased to perma because harassment" or anything. This did not come across as right, because the policy should invoke protecting the victims and avoid retaliation against them, not outright refuse any clarity on a case. Something as basic as "they were banned for (reason)" shouldn't come across as info that could lead to anything harmful is what I thought. They'd only talk to the banned party in question. So I brought up they never did in those few months gap, and their response to Croakie that I got to know about left me really ill:
This is not clarity. It did not address any of the points, much less explain the reasoning behind their decision in proper. All we got was an extremely condescending response in the form of "accept what you did wrong", without properly addressing what was done wrong, and that is where the core issue lies. I'm sure there would be some concerns about this being "oversharing info", but when there's barely any context to grasp from this, I doubt it would cause any harm by all means.
The part that especially made me feel ill about it was the part of "riling up fellow players", because this permaban as far as I am aware was only responded to up until recently when I came up with it. This only left the implications that me, coming up to the GMs on my own volition to know what made them choose to make it a permaban, was considered as a player being riled up. If that was considered "being riled up", I could only imagine how that would leave other small negative responses to interpretation. But most of all, this made it feel like it was my fault they responded so aggressively to Croakie, something that I can't explain with words on how dreadful I ended up feeling afterwards.
I figured I'd at the very least try to contact again and at least have them talk to Croakie regarding the matter to actually explain it to her regarding why it became a permanent ban. If the policy about transparency prevented me any basic context whatsoever, then at the very least it is expected to the main party who faces these accusations. I didn't expect any talk of "hey, let's negotiate your ban" of any kind, only a "hey, let me tell you why you're perma'd", because that would be the most they could explain without going into detail. But all that we were left with was a lack of communication. Croakie was never contacted and nothing had changed. This is not okay, and if they are supposed to have any justification behind their decision, they should at the very least inform in some sort of way why.
I want to put this out as well, I've seen more public reports go wrong before, and a community was absolutely desolate by the end of it due to how mishandled it was. It was an extremely poor response from the owner that escalated things, and most I know have chosen to not belong in that community. But this is different, because I trust the GM team to be far more capable - and I am 100% sure they have proven to be - which is why this becomes so much more upsetting. They have every capability to make things clear, but have chosen not to for reasons I can't understand, policy or not.
A decrease in transparency is fully understandable given the circumstances, but an absolute lack of it is too much. I had come fully prepared into these conversations that if by all means Croakie did do something permaban worthy, I'd put commitment into letting Croakie change from that. But when there's no discussion or contact about why to begin with, there is no progress that can be made in the first place. An expectancy in improving without the actual reasons just feels hollow.
It was from this point on that I sadly lost my faith in the GM team's decision making, when they can't provide some basic decency that, regardless of policy and/or if the person in question did something truly awful, should be a mandatory requirement for understanding their flaws. Just recently, I've also noted regarding some bans that have happened over things that escalated in the past. These reports in question were months apart from now and had only freshly been brought up. Obviously, I won't excuse any sort of behavior, regardless of how much time has passed, like harassment to be acceptable. "Bygones are bygones" can't be applied to everything depending on the severity, and punishment, in some shape or form, is always due. But when you're demanding of change and reflecting on your problems, holding onto these reports for this long instead of resolving them on the go is a rather poor decision in my opinion. Keeping those problems and never actually addressing them until it suits someone to be reported, at a point where that person might've already changed long ago, to slap them with a ban doesn't feel correctly handled. It was also where I realized that they are capable of providing evidence and/or context. They have clearly done it in the past, albeit that there are doubts, but they explained it to the accused people in question. So how come they failed to do that for Croakie?
This is where I felt that the whole argument of weaponized mod reports and paranoia around the community was starting to become true to me. Because if I were to have posted some art that may seem a little NSFW and someone reports it, even after I've removed it and said "yeah, that wasn't good of me", what if that report still passes through and hits me later? What if I have an outburst in general chat due to some personal stress, apologize to all parties involved and everyone moves on, but that still comes to pass into a report? Most of all, what if I don't even get a chance to rebute at any of these points? What if the report is a misunderstanding or misconception over things, but since even the most basic context is denied to the accused, there would be no chance to respond?
These concerns have led me to not support the Dev team as much as I'd want to, and that is rather upsetting, because I really love the SL2 community. There's only few groups where I have ever put this much investment, art and content out like this, moreso that a lot of people I've known for years are in here. There's also been new people I've met that have made me quite happy to interact with and roleplay around. So can you imagine if by any chance I made one misstep, and someone reports it, that I would be left zero chance to explain and end up getting shoved out of the community? Right then and there, everything I give is suddenly cut off. I'm not saying I ever will, I fully try my best to understand and respect all parts of the situations. But it seems not everyone, or barely anyone for that matter, gets the chance to understand because there's no transparency that leaves us with something to acknowledge. This kind of paranoia does not belong in a healthy community, and if the GM team truly means well, then I wish it was expressed better than the ways things have gone to my experience.
These are just my words regarding the matter I've seen, read and felt, and I hope by all means that it is resolved in a positive result. I hope that a tangible decision, in which moderation and reports are handled, ends up being put out so that a much better balance is put in place, both for the sake of clearing all doubts and to solidify trust into the GM team on multiple matters. Praying the best for the SL2 community and a long and healthy life.
Tl;dr: Croakie was never responded to up until recently to an unexplained permaban, and the response given was left condescending. No basic context, information or any detail for that matter, regardless of how small and guiding it could be, was provided to neither me asking or Croakie responding. Policies should be enforced to protect, not to cut off any communication that could've made a possible mutual understanding. Due to the way how reports are currently being handled, the way I see it, I do not feel that the community is in it's safest health yet, and I pray that may change for the time I stay here.
Peace.
Croakie is a friend of mine from a long while ago, and this was before I joined SL2. I had shown interests to SL2 from seeing other friends of mine partake in it, including Croakie, but I never got into it until years later and now. I have been here for a month, so keep in mind, I have absolutely no complete knowledge of what happened in the past for so many policies and rules to have been reshaped, nor do I know the full picture of the events, but I will go by what I know since it was all I could even find. Until last week, I had been sharing a little bit of SL2 moments I've had with Croakie, but only recently been explained why Croakie never joined SL2 again. Croakie was permabanned and was uninformed about it, basically shadowbanned forever. Naturally, I wanted to look into it myself because it felt absurd on how that came to be.
What I found so far - and I repeat, bare minimum I could dig up - was a few forum posts regarding the ban in question, which was placed to be a week long ban. This was from three months ago. Since I really wanted Croakie back into it since I always enjoy having a good time with my friends and that I was also really convinced that the community as it was now was pretty welcoming, I figured that the 3 month time was a good amount enough to reflect and change, and even Croakie herself acknowledged that she made some fatal errors to move past. That much faith I had in Croakie about it. So I sent a modmail about it and wanted to ask why this decision was made to make it go from a week to permanent. Granted, that isn't how modmail works, and that is on me for mistaking it. What came after however was by far one of the most indignant conversations I have been met with in this community before.
I have to mention now that I am fully aware of the policies that have been provided, and I wholeheartedly try my best to understand why they've been put up. Individuals who feel targeted may face even worse backlash for speaking up in a more public manner, and given how severe online harassment can get, this is something I could get behind. What I can't get behind is if the policy is used in a manner that feels less about protecting others and more in a sense that feels condescending, and this is where my negative experiences begin. When I was responded to, I was explained that third parties cannot be detailed about the ban in the case of protecting the victims. I can get behind this, I didn't need to know the story in detail. What didn't feel right was that there was denied any part of context whatsoever, literally as in not saying a smidge of info like "their ban was increased to perma because harassment" or anything. This did not come across as right, because the policy should invoke protecting the victims and avoid retaliation against them, not outright refuse any clarity on a case. Something as basic as "they were banned for (reason)" shouldn't come across as info that could lead to anything harmful is what I thought. They'd only talk to the banned party in question. So I brought up they never did in those few months gap, and their response to Croakie that I got to know about left me really ill:
This is not clarity. It did not address any of the points, much less explain the reasoning behind their decision in proper. All we got was an extremely condescending response in the form of "accept what you did wrong", without properly addressing what was done wrong, and that is where the core issue lies. I'm sure there would be some concerns about this being "oversharing info", but when there's barely any context to grasp from this, I doubt it would cause any harm by all means.
The part that especially made me feel ill about it was the part of "riling up fellow players", because this permaban as far as I am aware was only responded to up until recently when I came up with it. This only left the implications that me, coming up to the GMs on my own volition to know what made them choose to make it a permaban, was considered as a player being riled up. If that was considered "being riled up", I could only imagine how that would leave other small negative responses to interpretation. But most of all, this made it feel like it was my fault they responded so aggressively to Croakie, something that I can't explain with words on how dreadful I ended up feeling afterwards.
I figured I'd at the very least try to contact again and at least have them talk to Croakie regarding the matter to actually explain it to her regarding why it became a permanent ban. If the policy about transparency prevented me any basic context whatsoever, then at the very least it is expected to the main party who faces these accusations. I didn't expect any talk of "hey, let's negotiate your ban" of any kind, only a "hey, let me tell you why you're perma'd", because that would be the most they could explain without going into detail. But all that we were left with was a lack of communication. Croakie was never contacted and nothing had changed. This is not okay, and if they are supposed to have any justification behind their decision, they should at the very least inform in some sort of way why.
I want to put this out as well, I've seen more public reports go wrong before, and a community was absolutely desolate by the end of it due to how mishandled it was. It was an extremely poor response from the owner that escalated things, and most I know have chosen to not belong in that community. But this is different, because I trust the GM team to be far more capable - and I am 100% sure they have proven to be - which is why this becomes so much more upsetting. They have every capability to make things clear, but have chosen not to for reasons I can't understand, policy or not.
A decrease in transparency is fully understandable given the circumstances, but an absolute lack of it is too much. I had come fully prepared into these conversations that if by all means Croakie did do something permaban worthy, I'd put commitment into letting Croakie change from that. But when there's no discussion or contact about why to begin with, there is no progress that can be made in the first place. An expectancy in improving without the actual reasons just feels hollow.
It was from this point on that I sadly lost my faith in the GM team's decision making, when they can't provide some basic decency that, regardless of policy and/or if the person in question did something truly awful, should be a mandatory requirement for understanding their flaws. Just recently, I've also noted regarding some bans that have happened over things that escalated in the past. These reports in question were months apart from now and had only freshly been brought up. Obviously, I won't excuse any sort of behavior, regardless of how much time has passed, like harassment to be acceptable. "Bygones are bygones" can't be applied to everything depending on the severity, and punishment, in some shape or form, is always due. But when you're demanding of change and reflecting on your problems, holding onto these reports for this long instead of resolving them on the go is a rather poor decision in my opinion. Keeping those problems and never actually addressing them until it suits someone to be reported, at a point where that person might've already changed long ago, to slap them with a ban doesn't feel correctly handled. It was also where I realized that they are capable of providing evidence and/or context. They have clearly done it in the past, albeit that there are doubts, but they explained it to the accused people in question. So how come they failed to do that for Croakie?
This is where I felt that the whole argument of weaponized mod reports and paranoia around the community was starting to become true to me. Because if I were to have posted some art that may seem a little NSFW and someone reports it, even after I've removed it and said "yeah, that wasn't good of me", what if that report still passes through and hits me later? What if I have an outburst in general chat due to some personal stress, apologize to all parties involved and everyone moves on, but that still comes to pass into a report? Most of all, what if I don't even get a chance to rebute at any of these points? What if the report is a misunderstanding or misconception over things, but since even the most basic context is denied to the accused, there would be no chance to respond?
These concerns have led me to not support the Dev team as much as I'd want to, and that is rather upsetting, because I really love the SL2 community. There's only few groups where I have ever put this much investment, art and content out like this, moreso that a lot of people I've known for years are in here. There's also been new people I've met that have made me quite happy to interact with and roleplay around. So can you imagine if by any chance I made one misstep, and someone reports it, that I would be left zero chance to explain and end up getting shoved out of the community? Right then and there, everything I give is suddenly cut off. I'm not saying I ever will, I fully try my best to understand and respect all parts of the situations. But it seems not everyone, or barely anyone for that matter, gets the chance to understand because there's no transparency that leaves us with something to acknowledge. This kind of paranoia does not belong in a healthy community, and if the GM team truly means well, then I wish it was expressed better than the ways things have gone to my experience.
These are just my words regarding the matter I've seen, read and felt, and I hope by all means that it is resolved in a positive result. I hope that a tangible decision, in which moderation and reports are handled, ends up being put out so that a much better balance is put in place, both for the sake of clearing all doubts and to solidify trust into the GM team on multiple matters. Praying the best for the SL2 community and a long and healthy life.
Tl;dr: Croakie was never responded to up until recently to an unexplained permaban, and the response given was left condescending. No basic context, information or any detail for that matter, regardless of how small and guiding it could be, was provided to neither me asking or Croakie responding. Policies should be enforced to protect, not to cut off any communication that could've made a possible mutual understanding. Due to the way how reports are currently being handled, the way I see it, I do not feel that the community is in it's safest health yet, and I pray that may change for the time I stay here.
Peace.
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