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Regarding recent events


Cirevam

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I would like to take this opportunity to respond to the video posted on September 23rd, 2022, by an anonymous user on YouTube. I will not link the video here, but to summarize for those who have not seen it, the video accuses myself, other forum moderators and admins, and the community as a whole of protecting a former user who was convicted of criminal wrongdoing. This accusation is not true. 

 

Allow me to state what should be clear in case there is any ambiguity: Rock Raiders United (RRU), its staff, and myself do not support or condone acts that are criminal in nature of any kind. This has been true from the beginning and remains true now. It is our intent for RRU to be a safe place for all of our users to discuss LEGO and other related topics.

 

I want to begin by stating that the video is based on a lie. It suggests that the account of the user in question, ftgSarge, remains active and unbanned. This is objectively false. Below is a screenshot from the admin control panel on the forum. In it, you can see the red banner stating that he is banned, and listed on the right is the date when the ban took effect: June 4th, 2022. 

 

IP addresses and e-mail addresses have been redacted for privacy.

 

BanProof.png

 

The confusion surrounding this point seems to have been caused by two things: that the ban was not announced publicly and that there is currently no graphical representation applied to banned accounts to indicate their status to other users of the forum.

 

First, moderator and administrator decisions are not discussed openly due to their sensitive nature. Just as other public websites and social media sites do not advertise when they ban users, neither does RRU. The other moderators knew I had banned ftgSarge because I told them, and some of those moderators privately told regular members about the ban. This is how bans have been typically handled in the past and how it usually happens on other websites on the internet, including major social media sites.

 

Second, in the past, banned users have had an identifier listed on their profile to display their banned status. Unfortunately it appears this feature was removed by upgrades to the forum’s software. I did not know this and only as a result of this video discovered that this was the case. Understandably, with no way for regular users of the forum to verify the ban, this gave the impression that ftgSarge’s account was still active when in fact, as of June 4th, 2022, it was not.

 

The video mentions that ftgSarge disappeared from the official RRU Discord server’s member list the day after the court documents were released but claims this is not proof that he was banned. In truth, he was banned from Discord on June 1st, 2022. Once the court documents were uploaded to the official RRU Discord - which, and I will go into detail on this later, was the first time I had ever seen them - I read them over and verified that they were real. I banned ftgSarge the very next day. The forum ban came three days later (June 4th) after I had investigated ftgSarge’s private messages for any evidence of note that would have needed to be passed to the relevant authorities. I found nothing substantial and banned him shortly after.

 

To address the main complaint of the video, that I was aware of ftgSarge’s legal situation and did not take action, this is likewise false. I had no explicit knowledge of ftgSarge’s situation before the 2019 court documents were shared on Discord. Rumors of some potentially criminal misbehavior related to ftgSarge did circulate around 2015. I still knew of no concrete evidence and certainly did not know of anything happening on RRU that was either in violation of our forum rules or that was illegal. As is the case for many websites, RRU cannot ban anyone based on rumors alone. We try our best to be fair and impartial, which is why provable violations of our forum rules are the only route to a ban.

 

It’s also important to note that I, like many other forum users, do not know the real names of most RRU users. As is the case with most websites, this information is not required when signing up for an account on RRU. The video is correct that ftgSarge’s real name was embedded within the URL of a posted podcast in 2010. As this was years before the rumors surfaced around 2015, if I saw the name and recognized it as one, there was absolutely no reason for me to make note of it. It’s more probable I thought it belonged to the poster of the podcast, not ftgSarge.

 

The video is also correct that ftgSarge’s real name was, at some point, added to the social media links on his profile. The moderation staff and I do not actively monitor what members of RRU add to their profiles, nor are we automatically alerted when profiles are modified. RRU has thousands of members, and the moderation staff does not have the time to review profiles as they change constantly over time. The only instance when we review a user’s profile contents is when another user flags it, which makes it appear in our reporting system.

 

However, had I or another administrator or moderator seen the documents or been provided with them in 2012/2013 or 2019 and been able to make the connection (through knowing the ftgSarge’s real name), we would have taken action then and there. There is absolutely no question.

 

The video perpetuates the idea that documents surrounding the user’s 2013 arrest and even their real name were, and I quote, “public and general knowledge.” As this topic relates to the public disclosure of a user’s real-world information, it would have caused immense amounts of discussion on RRU and be easily findable (and memorable), especially in 2013 when the forum was much smaller than it is now and especially within the moderation team. I have not been able to find any references to the documents or any associated revelations. You will note that the only piece of evidence this anonymous poster provides to prove their assertion that this information was widespread is a single post in a word game topic thread from 2015, the exact time when the rumors were circulating.

 

MrBuilderman’s post on Discord on May 31st, 2022, was the first time the moderation staff and I were presented with verifiable evidence of the situation surrounding ftgSarge. With those documents in my possession, I acted immediately, banning ftgSarge from both the official RRU Discord (as the video notes) and RRU a few days later, as explained above. I acknowledge that the deletion of MrBuilderman’s post without subsequent explanation - especially given the seriousness of the alleged issue - was handled poorly. The deletion most likely should have been followed by a brief response that included reasoning and a message to any concerned users.

 

MrBuilderman’s post was deleted not, as the anonymous poster claims, to hide information but because it violated Discord’s Terms of Service (https://discord.com/terms). MrBuilderman’s post contained personally identifiable information about the user he was targeting - MrBuilderman “doxxed” him, in simpler terms - which is disallowed as harassment under Discord’s terms of use and community guidelines (https://discord.com/guidelines). Had I not removed the post and Discord had been notified, it’s very possible the privileges of the server and my account may have been revoked. It was also explicitly against RRU’s community rules prohibiting the same (https://rockraidersunited.com/topic/4132-global-forum-rules/).

 

Further, MrBuilderman was known to myself and the moderation staff as a user who had historically caused issues on RRU, though under different usernames. He tended to provoke conflict and purposefully derail conversations and threads. He would also attempt to circumvent bans by creating new accounts (MrBuilderman was one of multiple aliases), which is expressly prohibited under RRU’s forum rules. I hope it is clear from the public way in which MrBuilderman presented us with this information and his phrasing that his effort was not in good faith. Had MrBuilderman (or his alias username on RRU) contacted us directly, we would have scrutinized the documents he provided in the same way and taken the same action.

 

This leads me to one last point regarding MrBuilderman. In his post, he also posted a screenshot of a Discord message (from a server of which I was not a member) from a user of RRU, in which they claimed that ftgSarge was a known predator years prior (the message was from 2020). To date, I have not received any information outside of the 2019 court documents that corroborated the rumors heard in 2015. This user may be referring to the rumors, not tangible proof, but I cannot say for certain as I was not a part of that conversation, nor did this user present said tangible evidence to me if they had it.

 

I do not know ftgSarge on a personal level, nor do I have a friendly relationship with him. Yes, I did happen to play Planetside 2 with him sometime between 2012 and 2013. I’ve played many games with all sorts of people over my many years, including members from RRU. As I mentioned, this was before the rumors surfaced around 2015. That he stayed on my friends list is simply a fact of having lost interest in Steam and not going back to prune it (on top of entering adult working life). I am sure many of you also have many people on your friend lists (potentially even on social media sites) that contain people you added from such a long time ago that you couldn’t even remember who they are. As to my friends list on Discord, as someone running a public server, I’m in the position of needing to accept all kinds of friend requests, most of which are from people I do not know nor will ever know in any substantial way. That ftgSarge found my profile on Reddit is also not surprising, given the uniqueness of my screenname.

 

You may notice that the posted video alleges much but very rarely provides support for its assertions. Its language is hyperbolic and extreme. As I’ve mentioned many times above, it was posted anonymously, and the poster took care to hide their voice. For those that know me, I am not a person who is easily offended or slighted and would never really care to retaliate even if I was made so. I can only infer then that the individual who made this video is masking their voice not to protect themselves from their target but to prevent themselves from being discovered by the public at large.

 

To address the state of RRU and the official RRU Discord: in the aftermath of the video being posted. I was extremely taken aback by having myself and this community targeted so specifically and by the quantity of the baseless accusations and their gravity. I was overwhelmed, and I panicked.

 

I decided to take the forum offline temporarily while I processed the situation (which has been done in the past for various reasons). I knew I didn’t want to delete it since the research and tools stored here are too valuable to be thrown out altogether. I would never jeopardize the hard work of everyone who has contributed to such a treasure trove.

 

And though I was not rash enough to delete the website, I was rash and deleted the official RRU Discord in my panic. When the original video was uploaded, nearly all of the people I am close with and would usually consult for advice were offline. Those that would have counseled patience were unavailable, and I shut everything down without being able to think clearly. I did not realize that Discord will not restore deleted servers under any circumstance (I sent a support ticket the following day, and they told me it was gone forever). It was not my intent to delete everything related to the server permanently. This is my fault, as it seemed like the only option in my panicked state at the time, and I sincerely apologize. It was the wrong decision.

 

There will be changes to the forum going forward. For now, most of the site is in read-only mode, except for this thread which is open for feedback from existing members. I want to be clear that nothing was deleted, and you can verify that with your own eyes. I will also be stepping down from any sort of moderation duties. I never enjoyed having the responsibility on my shoulders, and I will not have that responsibility going forward. The moderation team may change over the coming days, and I will have little, if any, input in those decisions. For the moment, Slimy Slug is the acting administrator of RRU to allow the site to continue operating during this transition period.

 

I hope that we can return to RRU’s roots, where people were excited to change and improve the games they loved without any drama. Just people getting together to do what they enjoy.  

 

If you wish to talk to me to gain further insights or to discuss what has happened and have ideas on how I can improve beyond the ideas I mentioned before, please don’t hesitate to reach out. This thread is dedicated to discussing the current situation and is intended for an open, honest, and transparent dialogue. Please remember that doxxing or breakage of the Community Guidelines is not allowed. However, I do encourage anyone with questions or concerns to engage with myself and other users here.

 

I thank everyone for their patience in reading this far. I hope that the above information, in combination with the relationship I have built within this community for over a decade, will speak for itself. 

 

 

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  • Cirevam changed the title to Regarding recent events

I'm not really active on the forum anymore, but even so would like to thank you for your time and effort moderating this site over the years (along with everyone else doing that).

 

I definitely understand your reasons for taking off, and wish you all the best :)

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Just wanted to chime in and give you a huge 'thank you' for all the memories you've allowed people to create in the community and for all the great moderation, ideas, tutorials and modding you've done throughout the years. You've definitely been a huge inspiration and for that you have my thanks. It's unfortunate that so much shade was thrown your way, needlessly; you deserved better. I honestly believe the community wouldn't have been the same if it weren't for you, especially the modding scene that surround Rock Raiders. I understand your decisions though, and wish you the best of luck with whatever comes your way. Thank you.

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23 hours ago, Cirevam said:

the video accuses myself, other forum moderators and admins, and the community as a whole of protecting a former user who was convicted of criminal wrongdoing.

Imagine being a mod or admin responsible for someone on a random website on the internet who is apparently a criminal in real life. It is completely illogical that an admin or moderator should take the background of a user into account. An admin or a mod should only monitor bad behavior on the website. no idea if I followed it 100% right at all (didn't see the video), but leave the real world out. The owner of that video doesn't sound like someone using logic to me.

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1 hour ago, Thomkok23 said:

Imagine being a mod or admin responsible for someone on a random website on the internet who is apparently a criminal in real life. It is completely illogical that an admin or moderator should take the background of a user into account. An admin or a mod should only monitor bad behavior on the website. no idea if I followed it 100% right at all (didn't see the video), but leave the real world out. The owner of that video doesn't sound like someone using logic to me.

Sarge was a child predator arrested for sexually abusing a child from this very site.
Rock Raiders United is a site that historically has had many children on it, because it is a site about Lego video games, which are primarily made for children.

And after getting out of prison he came back to the very site he used to prey on people.

This is one thing you definitely do want to take into account.

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I won't go picking apart details that don't check out with other statements you've given on what you knew, but I think it's important to give skepticism to your statement here given the responses I've heard from people closer to this situation...

 

I want to at least bring up the Discord: You say this deletion was rash, but the Discord logs show that there were about 3 hours from your initial response to the situation until you said you were going to delete the Discord server. Discussion at that time had been halted: There were two messages in the 90 minutes before that. You have time to think. You could've made all topics private, or remove the permission to send messages. Gilbert, one of your admins was in the Discord too at the time - someone you could definitely discuss the situation with. None of that checks out with your statement.

 

 

This is highly relevant because while discussing the aftermath with several involved, one of the central pieces of evidence, the admin chat of the Discord server, was removed. I think you can agree youself it is highly suspicious you call it a rash decision when you had time to think.

 

Can you explain how this was a rash decision, and do you have any of the admin logs saved, or was all this evidence just burned?

 

Excuse the presentation, but here are the relevant messages I mention: https://imgur.com/a/GRZ6v50

Also at the end, the process of deleting a server. Not really unclear that it's gone permanently?

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10 minutes ago, Lair said:

Sarge was a child predator arrested for sexually abusing a child from this very site.

If that is the case then I am happy this guy got banned the second the admins and/or moderators got notice of the issue.

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1 minute ago, Thomkok23 said:

If that is the case then I am happy this guy got banned the second the admins and/or moderators got notice of the issue.

He did not, is what the entire issue here is about. There were almost five months between him joining the Discord server and him being banned, despite other moderators claiming to have brought the issue up with Cirevam.

Also he had been lurking on the forums for several years prior to that:

[img]https://i.imgur.com/wCSKe5t.png[/img]

wCSKe5t.png

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16 minutes ago, Lair said:

He did not, is what the entire issue here is about. There were almost five months between him joining the Discord server and him being banned, despite other moderators claiming to have brought the issue up with Cirevam.

According to Cirevam when he found out he banned him immediately.

 

On 9/26/2022 at 8:39 PM, Cirevam said:

The video mentions that ftgSarge disappeared from the official RRU Discord server’s member list the day after the court documents were released but claims this is not proof that he was banned. In truth, he was banned from Discord on June 1st, 2022. Once the court documents were uploaded to the official RRU Discord - which, and I will go into detail on this later, was the first time I had ever seen them - I read them over and verified that they were real. I banned ftgSarge the very next day. The forum ban came three days later (June 4th) after I had investigated ftgSarge’s private messages for any evidence of note that would have needed to be passed to the relevant authorities. I found nothing substantial and banned him shortly after.

 

No idea if he knew prior, but it sounds like he did look into the matter before banning him. I think that's good enough for me. it could always have been faster or sooner, but he did it in the end for all the right reasons. It is a pity that this has happened on this website. hopefully this will never happen again.

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10 minutes ago, Thomkok23 said:

According to Cirevam when he found out he banned him immediately.

Yeah, that's kind of the issue here, what Cirevam is saying does not match what everyone else is saying.

18 minutes ago, Thomkok23 said:

No idea if he knew prior

According to at least one other moderator he was told, and his response was that his past shouldn't matter. 

7amh6ip.pngZ3WeFv9.pngmkLxzyP.pngdmZq9gc.png

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I'd like to raise from my RRU grave to state that there was definitely proof of Sarge being arrested way back in 2013. I had his arrest warrant sent to me over I believe Skype back when it first happened, and we did talk about it for a while here on RRU, be it in the skype group or the live chat.

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Thanks for the heads up pal. The Rock Raiders United Discord was my favourite place to go to when it came to Lego related gaming. I hope you can bring it back eventually. I hate to see a community that was my primary go to for Lego talk go down in flames.

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Thank you to everyone who took the time to read and respond. I’ve taken my time to ensure my response is thorough enough to address your points and concerns so far. Thank you for your patience.

 

On 9/27/2022 at 10:02 AM, ben221199 said:

Seems clear to me.

 

I appreciate you saying so, Ben. My hope is to make things as clear as I can. If anything is uncertain, I hope you and others will let me know so that we may discuss it.

 

On 9/27/2022 at 10:16 AM, bartvbl said:

I'm not really active on the forum anymore, but even so would like to thank you for your time and effort moderating this site over the years (along with everyone else doing that).

 

I definitely understand your reasons for taking off, and wish you all the best :)

 

Thanks for all the positivity Bart. It’s unclear what the future brings but I hope things will eventually go back to normal, for as much is possible. Best of luck to you too and thanks for dropping by.

 

On 9/27/2022 at 11:50 AM, rockboy said:

Just wanted to chime in and give you a huge 'thank you' for all the memories you've allowed people to create in the community and for all the great moderation, ideas, tutorials and modding you've done throughout the years. You've definitely been a huge inspiration and for that you have my thanks. It's unfortunate that so much shade was thrown your way, needlessly; you deserved better. I honestly believe the community wouldn't have been the same if it weren't for you, especially the modding scene that surround Rock Raiders. I understand your decisions though, and wish you the best of luck with whatever comes your way. Thank you.

 

Thank you for your kind words, Rockboy. I’m glad I was able to make a lasting positive impact on your experience with the forum. I wish you all the best going forward.

 

On 9/27/2022 at 2:38 PM, Thomkok23 said:

Imagine being a mod or admin responsible for someone on a random website on the internet who is apparently a criminal in real life. It is completely illogical that an admin or moderator should take the background of a user into account. An admin or a mod should only monitor bad behavior on the website. no idea if I followed it 100% right at all (didn't see the video), but leave the real world out. The owner of that video doesn't sound like someone using logic to me.

 

Thank you for chiming in Thom. I think you're right in that it is a hard balance to strike for moderation teams when it comes to considering behavior or events happening outside of the website they moderate. Speaking for myself in this specific case, once I had evidence in front of me of serious criminal activity of this member and was able to verify it, even though it occurred outside of the forum, I had to take action. My goal has always been to keep RRU a safe place for all of its users. I think if I had done anything else at that time it would have undermined that mission.

 

4 hours ago, Agent2583 said:

Thanks for the heads up pal. The Rock Raiders United Discord was my favourite place to go to when it came to Lego related gaming. I hope you can bring it back eventually. I hate to see a community that was my primary go to for Lego talk go down in flames.

 

Hey Agent, thanks for the reply. The Discord server was a great place to come together and talk but I’m not sure whether or not it’s going to return; in whatever form that might be. That depends on the decisions of the new administrator and moderators and is entirely out of my control. But I have faith the community will figure out a way to recover and thrive again at some point down the line.

 

On 9/27/2022 at 4:17 PM, baraklava said:

I want to at least bring up the Discord: You say this deletion was rash, but the Discord logs show that there were about 3 hours from your initial response to the situation until you said you were going to delete the Discord server. Discussion at that time had been halted: There were two messages in the 90 minutes before that. You have time to think. You could've made all topics private, or remove the permission to send messages. Gilbert, one of your admins was in the Discord too at the time - someone you could definitely discuss the situation with. None of that checks out with your statement.

 

Hey Barak, thank you for taking the time to read through my response and compare it with the research you have done on the situation. I realize that everyone has better things to do with their time than comb through all of the information and make the comparison. I appreciate you doing so and asking the questions you have.

 

To respond to the quote above, with the weight of what I and the community were being accused of, three hours was not sufficient time to have a clear head. It is now more than four days after the video was posted and I am still processing that any of this is even happening. I am sure there are people who can recover more quickly. I must not be one of them.

 

I did speak with Gilbert but he was likewise overwhelmed by the situation. I was also waiting for responses from people who were online and hoping more people I could speak with about this unprecedented situation would come online. Between my own state of mind and the wait, while communicating with others and hoping more would log on, time did pass.

 

On 9/27/2022 at 4:17 PM, baraklava said:

This is highly relevant because while discussing the aftermath with several involved, one of the central pieces of evidence, the admin chat of the Discord server, was removed. I think you can agree youself it is highly suspicious you call it a rash decision when you had time to think.

 

Can you explain how this was a rash decision, and do you have any of the admin logs saved, or was all this evidence just burned?

 

Also at the end, the process of deleting a server. Not really unclear that it's gone permanently?

 

I agree that from an outside perspective, yes, it does look suspicious. As I acknowledge in the original post, it was a wrong decision, but it was done in my highly emotional, panicked state. I was not thinking logically - I was overwhelmed by the situation and the accusations.

I also truly thought that Discord might be able to restore things. I didn’t read the popup and expected that a recovery could be done in the future. Some websites have a “soft” delete function, and I expected that to be the case here.

On 9/27/2022 at 4:17 PM, baraklava said:

Excuse the presentation, but here are the relevant messages I mention: https://imgur.com/a/GRZ6v50

 

23 hours ago, Lair said:

Yeah, that's kind of the issue here, what Cirevam is saying does not match what everyone else is saying.

According to at least one other moderator he was told, and his response was that his past shouldn't matter. 

*screenshots*

 

Lair, thank you for providing additional context as to what you are hearing outside of this thread.

 

I can only speak to my personal truth and what I know, then and now. To the best of my knowledge, until May 2022, I did not know of ftgSarge’s actual crimes. I had only heard unsubstantiated rumors. I was never told his real name. I was never shown documents related to his supposed criminal activity and the legal situation he was involved in until May 31st, 2022, when MrBuilderman linked to court documents. Nothing was clear or certain to me until that time.

 

When ftgSarge was discussed amongst moderators, as far as I remember, it involved the rumors or unsupported assertions. From what I could see from the admin side of the site and on the Official RRU Discord Server, nothing inappropriate or illegal involving ftgSarge was happening. I cannot ban someone based on rumor alone or someone’s discomfort.

 

It is possible other users and moderators assumed I knew more than I did, but the reality was I knew only the unsupported rumors. Had another moderator or a user said to me that ftgSarge was actively involved in criminal activity, was explicit in their description, and had provided me with concrete documentation related to ftgSarge’s criminal activity, I would have immediately taken action, just as I did when I was linked to the court documents in May 2022.

 

21 hours ago, Zephyria said:

I'd like to raise from my RRU grave to state that there was definitely proof of Sarge being arrested way back in 2013. I had his arrest warrant sent to me over I believe Skype back when it first happened, and we did talk about it for a while here on RRU, be it in the skype group or the live chat.

 

I appreciate you resurrecting your account to make a contribution. This very well could be true, as we now know that that matches with the timeline within his court paperwork. However, if such a document was being circulated, to the best of my memory, I never saw it and it was never shared with me directly.

 

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As a decent human being, I am disgusted.

As someone who was a child on here during the time of this user's convicted crimes being raised only to be handwaved, I am mortified.

As someone whose job now occasionally involves being in contact with children, and to which I've been through safeguarding training and background checks to keep them from harm, I am horrified.

 

This place was where many of my earliest internet memories were formed and what kindled some of my most trusted friendships, but I cannot with good conscience stick around here knowing what we now know. Do better. 

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6 hours ago, Cirevam said:

I appreciate you resurrecting your account to make a contribution. This very well could be true, as we now know that that matches with the timeline within his court paperwork. However, if such a document was being circulated, to the best of my memory, I never saw it and it was never shared with me directly.

 

 

In total fairness to you, it was 10 years ago and I  was rather close to both of Sarge's victims, so my memory could be faulty and the docs could have mostly just been shared with me and other members the victims were close to. Unfortunately Skype logs don't go back that far and I've since wiped my laptop HDDs from the time so I'll never know.

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I haven't been active on here for a long time but I still lurk often enough to have noticed the site being offline. After reading through this thread I wondered if I should take down some old videos I posted on youtube featuring the RRU logo (I actually can't do that because I can no longer access that google account). And then I found the video describing the details of what happened that Cirevam mentioned in the OP and discovered that it in fact uses a still from my own video as its backdrop. Definitely the strangest way I could have imagined for something from my LEGO Racers modding days to have resurfaced 9 years later. 

 

That aside, I just wish all the best to those who were affected by the horrible things that happened. If there continues to be an RRU for me to lurk on going forward then I hope things change for the better here.

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On 9/28/2022 at 5:46 PM, Ayliffe said:

As a decent human being, I am disgusted.

As someone who was a child on here during the time of this user's convicted crimes being raised only to be handwaved, I am mortified.

As someone whose job now occasionally involves being in contact with children, and to which I've been through safeguarding training and background checks to keep them from harm, I am horrified.

 

This place was where many of my earliest internet memories were formed and what kindled some of my most trusted friendships, but I cannot with good conscience stick around here knowing what we now know. Do better. 

 

Ayliffe, thank you for being open and taking the time to communicate how you feel. I understand your decision. I wish you the best going forward.

 

On 9/28/2022 at 11:24 PM, Zephyria said:

 

In total fairness to you, it was 10 years ago and I  was rather close to both of Sarge's victims, so my memory could be faulty and the docs could have mostly just been shared with me and other members the victims were close to. Unfortunately Skype logs don't go back that far and I've since wiped my laptop HDDs from the time so I'll never know.

 

Zeph, I appreciate your willingness to be honest about the lack of clarity at that time. It’s something that I am struggling a great deal with, so I thank you for your openness about the situation.

 

16 hours ago, Brickulator said:

I haven't been active on here for a long time but I still lurk often enough to have noticed the site being offline. After reading through this thread I wondered if I should take down some old videos I posted on youtube featuring the RRU logo (I actually can't do that because I can no longer access that google account). And then I found the video describing the details of what happened that Cirevam mentioned in the OP and discovered that it in fact uses a still from my own video as its backdrop. Definitely the strangest way I could have imagined for something from my LEGO Racers modding days to have resurfaced 9 years later. 

 

That aside, I just wish all the best to those who were affected by the horrible things that happened. If there continues to be an RRU for me to lurk on going forward then I hope things change for the better here.

 

Thank you Brickulator, for emerging and sharing your thoughts.

 

Thanks again to everyone who has posted so far and continues to post. If anyone has more questions or concerns, please feel free to share them, and I will do my best to address them promptly.

 

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On 9/28/2022 at 11:12 PM, Cirevam said:

I can only speak to my personal truth and what I know, then and now. To the best of my knowledge, until May 2022, I did not know of ftgSarge’s actual crimes. I had only heard unsubstantiated rumors. I was never told his real name. I was never shown documents related to his supposed criminal activity and the legal situation he was involved in until May 31st, 2022, when MrBuilderman linked to court documents. Nothing was clear or certain to me until that time.

 

When ftgSarge was discussed amongst moderators, as far as I remember, it involved the rumors or unsupported assertions. From what I could see from the admin side of the site and on the Official RRU Discord Server, nothing inappropriate or illegal involving ftgSarge was happening. I cannot ban someone based on rumor alone or someone’s discomfort.

 

It is possible other users and moderators assumed I knew more than I did, but the reality was I knew only the unsupported rumors. Had another moderator or a user said to me that ftgSarge was actively involved in criminal activity, was explicit in their description, and had provided me with concrete documentation related to ftgSarge’s criminal activity, I would have immediately taken action, just as I did when I was linked to the court documents in May 2022.

 

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.

QKjh8Fv.png

 

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. 

 

 

 

On 9/26/2022 at 8:39 PM, Cirevam said:

However, had I or another administrator or moderator seen the documents or been provided with them in 2012/2013 or 2019 and been able to make the connection (through knowing the ftgSarge’s real name), we would have taken action then and there. There is absolutely no question.

 

On 9/26/2022 at 8:39 PM, Cirevam said:

Had MrBuilderman (or his alias username on RRU) contacted us directly, we would have scrutinized the documents he provided in the same way and taken the same action.

If only MrBuilderMan/Brickome would've contacted any of your moderators with all this information. https://imgur.com/a/UU9YW1Y

 

 

 

 

On 9/26/2022 at 8:39 PM, Cirevam said:

To address the main complaint of the video, that I was aware of ftgSarge’s legal situation and did not take action, this is likewise false. I had no explicit knowledge of ftgSarge’s situation before the 2019 court documents were shared on Discord.

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.

 

On 9/28/2022 at 11:12 PM, Cirevam said:

I cannot ban someone based on rumor alone or someone’s discomfort.

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.

 

On 9/26/2022 at 8:39 PM, Cirevam said:

The other moderators knew I had banned ftgSarge because I told them

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.

On 9/30/2022 at 8:19 AM, Brickulator said:

That aside, I just wish all the best to those who were affected by the horrible things that happened. If there continues to be an RRU for me to lurk on going forward then I hope things change for the better here.

 

On 9/30/2022 at 3:32 PM, jjmfdl said:

There is a text archive of the discord floating around, I am sure a bot could be made to repost all of the messages from the archive, if we could rebuild all of the channels.

 

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)

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On 9/26/2022 at 8:39 PM, Cirevam said:

There will be changes to the forum going forward. For now, most of the site is in read-only mode, except for this thread which is open for feedback from existing members. I want to be clear that nothing was deleted, and you can verify that with your own eyes. I will also be stepping down from any sort of moderation duties. I never enjoyed having the responsibility on my shoulders, and I will not have that responsibility going forward. The moderation team may change over the coming days, and I will have little, if any, input in those decisions. For the moment, Slimy Slug is the acting administrator of RRU to allow the site to continue operating during this transition period.

@Slimy SlugDo you have any timeframe for the transition period? I would like to know when we would be able to post again on this forum.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On 9/26/2022 at 12:39 PM, Cirevam said:

And though I was not rash enough to delete the website, I was rash and deleted the official RRU Discord in my panic. When the original video was uploaded, nearly all of the people I am close with and would usually consult for advice were offline. Those that would have counseled patience were unavailable, and I shut everything down without being able to think clearly. I did not realize that Discord will not restore deleted servers under any circumstance (I sent a support ticket the following day, and they told me it was gone forever). It was not my intent to delete everything related to the server permanently. This is my fault, as it seemed like the only option in my panicked state at the time, and I sincerely apologize. It was the wrong decision.


Awesome, now the dying community is even more dead due to a careless decision. I don't even care about all this, or who's fault it was, I'm just pissed that I don't have anywhere to talk about my projects anymore.

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6 hours ago, Yellowberry said:

I don't even care about all this, or who's fault it was, I'm just pissed that I don't have anywhere to talk about my projects anymore.

Clearly that's what's most important here.

Baraklava already linked to some new communities many RRU members have moved to, you can probably talk about Lego related projects in one of those, especially the research realm or the misc Lego channels in Manic Miners.

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