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Moving Forward
fun reacted to baraklava for a topic
Since it seems you have not seen it, and it is possible many people in the future won't see it, I will link to the video directly here. This video is the entire reason why the ownership changed. It goes into detail about how Cirevam, then-owner, opted to defend a friend convicted of pedophilia: The only part of the video I think is not verified to be true is the claim that this pedophile user wasn't banned from RRU, which seems to be true. However Cirevam's claims of not knowing the guy is completely false/damage control though, but since he stepped down peacefully I will leave it at that. Apart from the website having an issue with persistence and disarray of information, there are things that you don't know, and perhaps that's for the best. Personally I witnessed enough behaviour, such as bullying, from the administrators before this mess (that is, excluding Cirevam) that I distanced myself from the site, and this change in ownership will not solve the fundamental administrative issues that I have observed. As an administrator/moderator, it is just as important how you treat your users as moderating the site itself. If you keep the website itself clean but allow/foster toxicity or sow malcontent with its users, I'd argue you are not doing a good job. Usually it's not noticed / an issue for users until they're personally involved. Going forward I will personally not use the site anymore and focus on keeping my own communities healthy, though I think sharing details of everything I've observed will probably only serve to cause unnecessary drama. I will re-post the links of alternate Discord communities for you, @Thomkok23, as you seemed to have missed them in the other thread. You are welcome with discussing your projects here, we have even had threads about how to correctly construct the in-game buildings/vehicles in the Research Realm:1 point -
Regarding recent events
fun reacted to baraklava for a topic
Sure, I got some more questions, because your statements are starting to diverge, and you're dismissing several Discord chats that are floating around. Taking all evidence into account, "I didn't know" is either a lie or a very brave excuse. I think what you're saying can, in the very best-case scenario, be a "truth with modification", so let me be devil's advocate here for a while and bring up all the evidence speaking against you. Firstly, here are some screenshots that was added to the YouTube video a few days ago, that I think were shared in the Discord before it was deleted: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GtuSioYc6qfazSWsCWnw4et2uSBvBZAC?usp=sharing I’d like to go through them in chronological order: https://imgur.com/a/CokF1BJ This is a conversation from 2017 about the “ftzsarge’s court papers” card in your Cards Against Humanity deck. Apparently it was removed in 2017. Here one of your moderators, Gilbert, responds to a request to remove it, and demonstrates understanding of what the “court papers” are and how serious they are. I would assume that means they’ve seen or read them, otherwise why have an opinion on them. For reference, these are the only things I’ve seen from 2012 that can be described as court papers, they can be found if you google for sarge's real name that is in the news article: https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/southernminn.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/29/e29ee4a1-60b7-5d3c-a742-e2f617a88145/50f4791d06527.pdf.pdf Gilbert also goes out of his way to explain that the card got removed because it’s confusing, not because it is disrespectful to the person who was traumatized on this very website, and he doesn’t agree that removing a card referencing a sexual predator on the website where they were active is fair because of other cards referencing more terrible stuff. The next conversations are timestamped 21st January 2022 which is when sarge joined the Discord. There seems to be even more moderator conversations, or conversations between moderators and users. I’ve also thrown in the moderator conversation from the video taking place on the same day, obviously sometime during/after these: https://imgur.com/a/UU9YW1Y It seems several users knew instantly who sarge was, but ShadowDraikana, who wasn’t around back then, didn’t, which checks out. However as soon as ShadowDraikana learnt about sarge, they escalate it into a moderator discussion, within 30 minutes to be exact. A summary of information: - Bodge/Jamie knew (confirmed by MrBuilderMan's May message), and claims to be leaving "because of it" (From the time stamp, I assume either because there was no instant ban or because they realised sarge was never banned in the first place?) - Antillies was contacted directly - McJobless was attempted to be contacted directly but couldn’t be reached directly (??? How is this acceptable???) - You have a conversation with ShadowDraikana directly after this, so you were definitely notified too - You describe him as being active around 2010-2013, which does not check out with your statement that the rumours surfaced in 2015, nor that you played games with him in 2014. Would rumours just randomly surface years after the incident without him being active? - The situation is regarded as "One guy walks in, everyone throws a s*** fit" and that "This community was getting on your nerves". At this point all moderators had been contacted, and there was definitely knowledge on sarge, but nothing was being done about it. You give more information later. The next thing happening is the May 2022 incident, on the 31st of May. Screenshot of the provided information below. We’ve seen that in the video, where you tell people to bring it up with you privately or with other moderators. As MrBuilderMan truthfully claims: They’ve done that. All moderators know the situation since January or earlier, and you didn’t consider a history of predatory behaviour enough to warrant a ban. Now let's put this here for context. This is a response you gave to a user during the May 2022 incident: https://imgur.com/a/U47DzYV Wow, that's quite a recital of the situation to know by heart! Here you acknowledge that, at the time sarge was called out publicly: - There was a news article prior to this incident, and confirming that it was indeed shared to the point moderators knew about it - The year you quote for this happening is 9 years ago, e.g. 2013 - The connection between sarge and this article was NOT unclear, nor a rumour - People were described as "freaking out" when a convicted pedophile returned to the site he was preying on - You say "we didn't think he was going to come back" - I'm not sure if you were a moderator at this but it sounds like you had definitely heard of him before - You indeed had a discussion about it with your current mod team in January 2022 - You settled on "keeping a close eye on him" - You "knew who he is": This does not sound like someone who is "only rumoured" to be a predator. If you would talk like that about other members based only on rumours, I'd be equally pissed, but here there was actual evidence to be found. - You were afraid that if you banned sarge you wouldn't be able to keep track of him (This is not a valid defense under scrutiny - He could have created an alternate account with his main account still active) - You said you had a pit in your stomach reading sarge’s name, tho not because he was a sexual predator, but because you “knew you couldn’t win” (did anyone ever speak out in defense of sarge except for yourself?) - Your attitude to the situation was that you didn't like that someone would get "punished forever", which checks out with Jamie’s statement that you considered his time served and didn't want to act on old crimes - Your primary reason for considering a ban is "It might get people to shut up already", nothing to do with sarge being a pedophile - "But then they'll accuse me of something else probably" (What does this even mean? Why do you turn this discussion about banning a predator into being about you?) - You also acknowledge that you banned MrBuilderMan as soon as you found out he was evading his previous ban with an alt. You definitely weren't afraid to ban people, why was it controversial to ban sarge? - Despite explaining all this in a DM, in the public Discord channel where people noted this message, you did not give any answers even close to this. There you said people were "stirring s***", so you wanted people to take it to DMs so you could calmly explain why a sexual predator is definitely allowed back. I’m not sure if you haven’t encountered internet dramas before, but being incredible intent on keeping stuff to DMs is straight from the toolbox of manipulators and child groomers, because you can better control narratives then and exploit people for longer. See how, when all statements are put together in a single thread, suddenly cracks form in your statements? Anyway, from the info stamped May 2022, I would conclude: - You had read the news article before May, as it was not linked in MrBuilderMan’s post, treating it as a rumour. You must have explicitly known about this during your moderator discussions in January, which was the last time this was brought up. You must’ve known the connection between sarge and the article. - The conversation takes place after you banned MrBuilderMan, as you say you knew they were Brickome - You clearly did not just read some documents that change the entire situation, or you would’ve told this user sarge is being banned, rather than you’re “keeping an eye on him”. Personally, reading this your focus seems to more have been to find the path of least drama: "It might get people to shut up already" does not line up with what you wrote in your long post above - that as soon as you read the article MrBuilderMan linked, you considered them proof and banned sarge the day after. Your response to this person does not mention the posted documents at all. He was not banned at the time of the conversation, and your primary reasoning for banning him had nothing to do with the documents, you must've seen those before. If only MrBuilderMan/Brickome would've contacted any of your moderators with all this information. https://imgur.com/a/UU9YW1Y In fact, let's revisit those documents again. Here is a direct link to what MrBuilderMan provided. You've seen the original message above, so here's the link they posted. I'm spoilering the link, as there is personal names etc in here of sarge, but it is relevant to the discussion: If you have read this link, you would probably have noticed that these are not the 2019 documents. These are from 2013. You can find these by googling the real name of sarge directly from the news article you've confirmed you read. They are actually part of the original article on his arrest, note the URL. In fact, it shows up in the article if you click "[Real name of predator] criminal complaint". https://www.southernminn.com/faribault_daily_news/news/updated-faribault-man-faces-child-porn-possession-solicitation-charges/article_bf14f5b1-b9f3-5fc0-9a39-25ce70e0520c.html You saying that the posted documents were the 2019 documents makes it quite a strong case that you didn't read them at all before removing MrBuilderMan's message. That they were the 2019 documents is a blatant lie that you cannot refute. If we add that knowledge, and treat these documents as the 2013 documents, it is incredibly hard to believe that you had only heard rumours, and throughout this “long moderator discussion”, you didn’t ask anyone to check the proof that people had shared. The article and the 2013 document were the 2 incriminating things shared from what I can tell, and you definitely knew of the article before this, which contains the court documents, and Gilbert knew of the "court documents" at the very least (or were there 2012 court documents?). There's just no way that you avoided bringing it up throughout your long discussion. Maybe you didn't care for the initial "rumours", as you demonstrate with MrBuilderMan, and dismissed what they said as untrue because you had beef with them. Not sure where I should add this little note too but: You said you removed the message for breaking TOS and forum rules. Fair enough, I can’t see the part where it’d threaten the server to be deleted, but alright. Under the same clause, this is why any discussion about sarge's real situation is removed from the RRU site. Only one mention surviving outside of DMs/shoutbox/Skype is not surprising and using that as a defense for why this wasn't publicly known is incredibly dodgy from your end. Finally in September 2022, the video is posted. It provides new evidence that has not been publicly seen in the form of the 2019 court documents, (which tbf could be found just by searching his name on the correct website) showing sarge is still going after kids and harassing the victim they preyed on on RRU, proving the fear people had of him regressing. Your response is to delete the Discord and shut down the site. A few days later you make this post. Wtf? Yes you can? Bans are also reversible, you can ban people while you investigate at the very least, but you make it sound weird that other people are uncomfortable around a pedophile. I asked ShadowDraikana for updates on the situation a few times after he (reportedly was banned, and they never brought up sarge was banned, so I highly doubt this. So if we plot a timeline of what can be proved here: 2009: sarge joins RRU 2012: sarge commits crimes on this website (according to some other users, and quite frankly that's the only thing that makes sense) 2013: Some users are made aware of sarge’s crimes through an article and court papers (from several users, including your own words) 2015: "Sarge’s court papers" card is added to the Cards Against Humanity deck through a RRU topic 2017: "Sarge’s court papers" card is removed from the Cards Against Humanity deck by Gilbert for being confusing 2019: sarge makes a RRU post. Unknown if anyone reacted to it as Cyrem is the owner at this time. 2021: sarge contacts you via Reddit. You say you knew the rumours, but do not bring anything up with your moderators, nor do any further investigation 2022, January: Sarge returns. All moderators are notified. You personally knew of the news article, and collectively knew of the court documents. The situation is dismissed. No further research or questioning is made. You must’ve known about the article at this point. 2022, May: Sarge is called out publicly using the same 2012/2013 arrest documents that’s been online for years, the very "Cards Against Humanity" card that has been discussed already. The user calling him out is banned and you opt to remove their message to protect the Discord server, sarge and yourself (I'm not sure you've even realised this is exactly what you're saying?) and do not take conversation further. A day later, you (say you) ban sarge (but the moderator logs are missing since you nuked the server) yet you still keep him as friends on Discord, and despite no new information being available. The reason from most chats with you point to you doing it to "shut people up". Personal footnote #1: Shortly after this incident I asked ShadowDraikana if they knew anything about the situation. The ban came at a very opportune time, right after a neighbouring community that you can't control caught wind of the situation. Actually, come to think of it, why did the ban even take a day of consideration after you read the documents that you must've already seen? 2022, September: Video is posted, Discord is nuked, you make this post with some explanations, some lies, and a lot of excuses. So when I say that "you not knowing" in the very best-case scenario I see is a "truth with modification" then I mean you knowingly refused to ask for or read information and didn't take this seriously at all. You didn’t ask anyone for more info. You didn’t ask anyone to dig for more proof for such a serious accusation? You must've barely even read the article, and didn't bother investigating anything further. You neved asked any alleged victims. You ignored the moderators who brought up this issue with you, and so did several other moderators, who did not treat this as a serious issue. The image I get is that you simply didn't listen to their concerns: You thought your moderators were overreacting, wanting a guy out for no good reason other than being a predatory pedophile previously… which is a great reason because predators are traditionally excluded due to the high risk of regressing, and y'know, allowing a convicted pedophile back to the site they were preying on, treating them as an equal next to the victim they previously traumatized sends some pretty concerning signals of what values you have. Heck, if sarge was banned back in 2013 and would've come back under a different account, I don't think anyone would've noticed, but giving this clear signal that you consciously allowed this guy back and defended him is disturbing in itself. Worst case scenario, which the video advocates for, is much grimmer. To anyone bringing up that an admin/owner can't keep track of everyone on the site - That is correct, but they can take accountability for their own actions and inactions. When the issue was raised, the answer was to do nothing, several times. If you own a website, you take on accountability to keep it safe, otherwise why not transfer ownership to someone who actually cares and can do a better job? That said, personally I don't believe your reason at all. I don't necessarily think you're a pedophile despite the dodgy behaviour, but you demonstrate very poor leadership values and you allowed a pedophile back on a LEGO-recognized fan community. You can't have gone through all of this, thinking sarge maybe did a little "crime stuff" in 2012, and thought "That was it, crime's over, he's become better, everyone can forgive each other, and people are gonna hate me if I unjustly ban a man who preyed on children"... I can't even imagine your ways of thinking that would arrive to you thinking this was all just a rumour. Maybe that's even more disturbing. Burden of proof is traditionally on the accuser, but I think we also have to take into account that you're the owner with the power to delete/adjust (even Edit on the website lol) just about anything (and you demonstrated you will happily do that, as you torched all the evidence in the admin chats) so we arrive at a word-against-word case where you act as if your word is the truth. Without you showing that "very long discussion" you had about this, and that demonstrating nobody knew of the article and court documents, which can't be true as it is very evident some of you knew, with the available evidence it is much more likely you knew the situation, and instead figured he had “done his time and people are overracting”, and that his victims don't matter. Oh yeah footnote - I do mean victims. I don't think this is public info, but Lair above mentions it too. The pedophile may have been caught for one of his crimes, but I know there is more than one victim from this site who he harassed and tried to manipulate. Not necessarily in an illegal way yet, but with obvious malicious intent that likely would've gone the same way. Who knows where that would've went if he wasn't caught, or how many other victims he has had throughout the years. Just seems to me that you are trying to dodge all responsibility with carefully calculated excuses, when in fact that's not true: saying to some "these were just rumours", while saying to others "there was actually a news article". Saying it happened in 2013 to some, and saying "Actually, 2015, right after wer stopped gaming together, but I kept him as a friend" when you got caught. Saying you acted when you were handed the 2019 documents when in fact it was the same article and court documents you and your moderators had seen for years, while acting as if "I didn't know" is a valid excuse as the owner of the site when people have tried to let you know. I'm sure there's more I haven't spotted yet. It's all pretty disrespectful towards the moderators who tried to raise this issue and many times more disrespectful to the victims of sarge's harassment in this community. Not to mention you switching to suddenly being incredibly polite to everyone after being very stern in all other chats screams damage control. Put down the shovel, stop digging yourself into a hole, and take on the accountability you had as a site owner. As a response to anyone looking for a similar Discord to discuss LEGO stuff, these 3 Discord servers have been around for quite a while with similar crowds, you are very welcome to join any of them: The Lego Research Realm - for LEGO research and preservation, similar to what RRU was about Project Island - for the Project Island game (New Lego Island game) The Manic Miners Discord - for the Manic Miners game (Rock Raiders remake) (dunno why my two separate messages merged into one, but they did and I can't edit it)1 point