Update Staff Decision

[Buffy Summers]

We know that all of you have been waiting for the staff to take action with regards to the events leading to Kean and Lyri leaving us. The staff has taken the past week to debate, research, and review those involved in the most recent attack, as well as the bigger picture and what has transpired for some time now here on the boards. Thank you to everyone who offered their opinions, insight, and support to us during this time. It has meant more to us than you could possibly know. 🙂

It's clear that things have not been right over the past year. Most of you have probably noticed it - maybe not as it pertained to the staff, but the problems between members were and are evident. And especially recently, some of the longer-term members have posted how different things have become around here. We have posted a lot about the situation and tried to implement some changes to fix this, but it seems the situation has still become worse. And that can't continue.

We have lost very good members as well as staff over the behaviour of certain people. This behaviour includes bullying, inciting trouble on the boards and spending the majority of their time upsetting and harassing others. This is not good for the community as a whole and as a result we have implemented some permanent bans.

This is not something that we have ever had to do before, and we are all sad that it has come to this. We do not take it lightly, and we know that some of those we have had to ban were some of your very good friends. We are very sorry that it has come to this and that the community will have to lose members that they care about. We also fully understand it will still take time to get back to how things used to be but we hope that this is a step in the right direction and please know that we do this for the good of the community and in order to salvage it.

We realise that there will be people who disagree with or who may not feel comfortable with our decision, sadly such is inevitable even with the best of intentions. But we are final in these decisions, and if anyone is no longer comfortable being a part of this community we will understand. Our hope is to make this the best place it can be for everyone, but we don't want anyone to feel obligated to stay if you don't think the boards are for you anymore. If that is the case, you can contact an Administrator and we will close your account for you; no questions asked and no hard feelings. We will be sorry to see those folks leave, but we will understand their decision and wish them all the best.

This board just can not afford to lose any more good members or staff members because of abuse. We hope that no further bannings will be necessary, but we are serious about not putting up with behaviour like this any longer.

The Buffy Boards Staff

 

[Seraphim]

Hi. My wife (yellowcrayon) got permabanned apparently for merely being associated with some of the actual offenders...? That rather smacks of douchbaggery. Or has she been up to stuff I don't know about? kkthxbai.

 

[DrusillaRox]

Omygod. YC and Jen? And harm?

How....Why....what

*cries*

 

[Seraphim]

Anya and Clem have also been permabanned, just FYI.

 

[DrusillaRox]

Anya and Clem have also been permabanned, just FYI.

Oh god! that's 5 members!

---------- Post added at 04:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:34 PM ----------

charmingslayer agrees: You mean Anyalover17 and Clemrocks?

Yep. Those two *sighs*

 

[Seraphim]

The latest report from the wife says she was banned for

1- "creating a rift in the community"

and

2- "bullying members."

Now, (1) is vague enough that I won't comment, but (2) strikes me as extremely uncharacteristic. My wife has numerous flaws, but she isn't a bully -- I've never, ever seen her bully anyone... I honestly don't think she's got it in her.

Neither does she. So she asked who was accusing her of bullying. The response was that the identity of her accuser was being "kept secret for fear of reprisal."

I have two things to say to this.

(A) - WTF? Fear of reprisal? YC has just been permabanned. What form, exactly, would this feared reprisal take?

(B) - Since when is it just or fair to permaban someone based on an anonymous accusation with no opportunity given to defend yourself? I thought BB was supposed to be a benevolent dictatorship. :mad39:

And yeah, I realize the administration has a history of not taking kindly to its policies being outed. I'm probably in line for another infraction. Oh well. Y'all non-banned folk deserve to know how "justice" is done around here.

Peace.



EDIT: Oh, and when YC asked how it could possibly be justice to permaban based on an anonymous accusation, Buffy apparently replied "It's justice for the good members of our site."

I leave it to the readers to judge for themselves what sort of tone and attitude that reflects.

 

[DrusillaRox]

charmingslayer agrees: Why?!?! Anya never did anything wrong.

I have no idea. I am in the same dorm as YC and she has been nothing but kinda and amazing to everyone, from what I saw

She even organized something which made everyone *really* happy

What am I supposed to DO with this?

 

[Buffy Summers]

For the record, I will not name names of victims. The internet is a big place and I have a responsibility to protect them.

 

[Seraphim]

But no responsibility to protect members against potentially false or misunderstood accusations, eh, Buffy?

Y'know, in some parts of the world, there's a "three strikes" law -- if you get accused three times of illegal filesharing, your ISP has to kick you off the Internet. The names of the accusers are "kept secret for fear of reprisal." So put yourself in the position of someone who's just been kicked off the 'net due to some anonymous accusations, when you're pretty sure you're innocent. It sure would be nice to know who's said what about you, so you can defend yourself, wouldn't it?

Well, now you know where the wife sits. She's not asking for mercy if she's really done something wrong -- she's just asking for the opportunity to defend herself. She'll pledge to keep any names confidential if there's really a concern about reprisal or whatnot, and frankly, you have no reason to mistrust her word. She's never lied or been dishonest to anyone on BB.

Permabanning is a serious punishment that's reserved for serious offenses. Why is it unfair to give the accused an opportunity to defend herself before she's tossed into outer darkness?

 

[BuffyElevated]

WOW..... I have to say that finding out that YC was banned is a huge shock to me. 🙁 I never say YC as a troublemaker here at all, and I'm tripping on the fact that she was amongst the ones banned... 🙁
This is crazy!!

 

[Rampage]

I have two things to say to this.

(A) - WTF? Fear of reprisal? YC has just been permabanned. What form, exactly, would this feared reprisal take?

(B) - Since when is it just or fair to permaban someone based on an anonymous accusation with no opportunity given to defend yourself? I thought BB was supposed to be a benevolent dictatorship.

I am looking at this, and I see two things quickly.

(A) The victim requested anonymity. That should be good enough for you. As for reprisals, you hijacking this thread seems a pretty fair start in this, as well as your poor choice of wording.

(B) What is your wife going to say in defense? "No I didn't" or "I was misunderstood". Neither of them are of any consequence in this matter.

The issue is that there are people who have harmed the community here, who have harmed the site by causing staff to leave and by creating an environment that was intimidating to others. After careful consideration and investigation, the person in charge of this site made moves that needed to be made in her estimation, which is ultimately the one that matters.

Look, I get your position. It's your wife, she is upset, you want to defend her. But do you think she is going to tell you how she screwed up to get off here? REALLY? Of COURSE she doesn't know what she did, and maybe that is the problem. But she will have plenty of time to reflect on it. As for you making a stink with someone who was so lenient and understanding that she now has lost two mods over this garbage...just move along man.

Let. It. Go. It's over, per the OP.

 

[Revolver]

YellowCrayon is awesome. That is all.

 

[DrusillaRox]

I second that. She rawks.

 

[BuffyElevated]

Definitely.... I am still in utter shock and disbelief that she was one of the ones banned. 🙁

 

[Spiral]

You know, Buffy, we've been friends for a long time. We've been members on and worked together on many a board for YEARS and we've seen all sorts of personalities and the drama that follows. This HERE? this ranks near the TOP of the BULLSHIT chronicles.



First of all, for all the people trying to take Buff and staff to task for their descision? GET OVER IT! They did what THEY felt necessary to PROTECT members from an obvious case of ongoing harrassment and bullying! Just because you didnt see it or werent directly involved in it yourself doesnt mean it DIDNT HAPPEN and if you WERE the victim here or anywhere ELSE YOU'D want the same consideration and PROTECTION that the victims of these fools on here are now getting.

The fact that OTHER STAFF were pressed to LEAVE because of the ongoing behavior of these troublesome members?? THAT is something you dont see happen to often and is very telling to how BAD it was.

Buffy, girl you did the RIGHT THING. and this announcement was a COURTESY to board to let them know what was going on and why.

Seraphim? I've watched you for a while and I find it funny that the only time you really appear is to advocate on behalf of your wife. maybe if she wasnt such a shit starter she wouldnt be in the situation s he's in now. I really don't care HOW you take that either. that woman felt the need to declare her background, like it made her calling Buffy names any MORE excusable? the BOTTOM LINE is that if she doesnt like how things are around here she can LEAVE and frankly so can YOU.

Buffy is a very kind, friendly, generous, LONG SUFFERING PERSON who has maintained this and several OTHER message boards for quite sometime. The fact that she keeps this board going DESPITE the show for which the board is about having long since ended (while other boards dedicated to other ended s hows like Charmed are failing left and right) shows her dedication.

Frankly she doesnt deserve to be hounded, harrassed and disrespected ..nor does the board or its GOOD members need to be vexed by a handfull of pompous trouble makers who think they can call the shots around here.

 

[Seraphim]

Rampage: Believe me, I don't see my wife as a perfect woman. I do, however, know her pretty well (I don't tend to marry people I don't know 😉). One thing I know about her with absolute certainty is that she doesn't bully people.

So I immediately smelled a rat.

Then the administration offered her no opportunity to defend herself before permabanning.

So I doubly smelled a rat.

Then the administration refused to provide any details of whom she bullied, how or where.

So I triply smelled a rat.

I may not post here often (though apparently I post a little more than you 😉), but I do a fair bit of lurking. There are a couple people on the ban list whom I can honestly see might be troublemakers, might have made vicious remarks, etc.

But my wife is not among them. I (and everyone I know of on this board, with the exception of whomever this anonymous accuser might be) can vouch that my wife has never done anything to cause staff to leave, and has never created an intimidating environment -- in fact, I seriously doubt she's capable of creating an intimidating environment! 😛

It is my sole interest to promote fairness and justice here. If it turns out my wife has been leading some kind of internet double life where she's an angel in places I can read and a devil in places I can't, I assure you I'll be the first person to say her banning was justified. Until then, however, the administration has some questions to answer. This smacks too much of the type of caprice in the May mass banning for me to be anything but suspicious.

I cannot in good conscience let injustice go unanswered, whether it's hitting my wife or my worst enemy. That's not who I am. So I'm willing to take the hits for the sake of holding people accountable.

Peace.

 

[caitaintdead]

Some great, awesome, people have been banned. I will miss them. In particular Jen and YC, who I've had a great time with on the boards. Having said this, a hard decision had to be made, and this time, I'm completely backing the mods. So... if anyone that got banned reads this - you got banned - it sucks. If any banned people want to keep in touch add me to msn, or email me (ferguson09 [at] hotmail.com).

Other then that, I wipe my hands clean from this discussion and thank the mods for all the crappy decisions they have to make here. You guys rock for all your hard work, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this place evolves in the weeks and months to come.

 

[DrusillaRox]

I have a question: If YC is such a trouble maker, how come she never got Temp banned before, with everyone else (myself included) or even a PM?

 

[Washburne]

I've beforehand said that I'd stand by the decions by admins and mods and I still do. Of course not everyone will be happy about this (as shown already) and that is your right. Not understanding why can make it more difficult but a big part of this problem has been from the start that we, the regular members, don't see everything that's been going on. But what do you expect them to do? Show all pm's and don't delete/edit posts and so on? I made up my mind and I don't think this was an easy decision but they do what they think is best for the board. And like it or not but that's their job. As Buffy said you're all free to leave if you don't like it.

And as for the anominity about accusers I get that that is frustrating. But I've expereinced enough of people stopping to post, stop coming to the boards at all or not tell the mods when they've felt misstreated by others just because they've been afraid. Might sound silly to some of you but that doesn't change that it's the truth. So even if I understand that you're upset about it I also understand why it won't be told.

 

[Rampage]

Seraphim, Serahim, Seraphim....

Let's understand each other. I am not your friend, so keep you smiley faces and comments about my post count to yourself.

Truth be told I don't watch Buffy, never have. I am here in support of the young lady who takes care of all of this, who was VERY upset because she lost friends on this site...mods who helped here here as she tried to keep a forum going for people like yourself and your wife.

This person is one of the most fair and even-tempered, careful and conscientious people I know. We haven't always gotten along but even when we didn't, I NEVER doubted her goodness for a MOMENT. That you seem to is a fact I find both insulting and infuriating.

So you see...we both don't post a lot here...and we BOTH have young ladies we are defending. The trick is, my FRIEND runs this shit and your wife does not. So guess who had to go?

Like it or not, you have no right to call this into question or play this back and forth "let's try this in public game". If I were the Mod here, you would at least get 2 days to cool off and cut it out for flaming a thread with this.

Your so-called investigation consists of a man (you) vouching for the character of the person he is married to and hopes to keep screwing. That is DEFINITELY an endorsement to take to the bank. Then you DEMAND proof? I'm sorry, when were you made a mod? When have you done anything for this site to demand any proof? The person who runs this and has busted her ass for you AND your wife has made her determination. Be man enough to live with it.