Staff Complaint - Sycmos

[Dreamix]

BYOND Key: N/A, this is all discord and forums.
Staff BYOND Key: N/A, this is all discord and forums.
Game ID: N/A.
Reason for complaint: 

I have lately noticed Sycmos to engage in this kind of passive-aggressive talk, or vague-posting other users, or generally just being toxic, mainly on our discord servers. I don't think it's looking good, especially so considering they are staff (even if "only" lore-staff), they still represent the community and the staff team in how they behave.

Staff may have been involved in some of the screenshotted conversations, but I think this is a bigger and continuing problem, and not just some isolated incidents. Even if this does not result in any action taken against Sycmos, this should still be helpful if the behaviors continue on in the future, to avoid digging through old logs and ahelps in that case.

Evidence/logs/etc: Screenshots in the spoiler below, with explanations or dates or etc.

Spoiler

 

This was on the old relay, I have ahelped this on 11/10/2023, and I was told "i will bring up the rest of the stuff to the lore team administration". The message on the right references the actions of another member of the community, and I can only imagine the intention being to make them feel bad and be nasty.

 

Also on the old relay, ahelped on 12/10/2023. Back then a headmin was near the discussion, but I don't remember if strikes were handed out. I was also told to make a player complaint if this continues.

 

Same time as previous thing, still on the old relay. That is very much not a good look coming from staff - if there is a problem in the community, but a staff member won't explain it or deal with it cause they think they'd be banned for it, that kinda does not inspire confidence in the staff team, does it?

 

This was also around the time of the "remove relay ooc" thread on the forums, and it is just so terribly ironic, two-faced and hypocritical how they were talking about how the relay is so bad and should be deleted, but yet they themselves contributed to the problems that the relaycord was deleted for.

 

This is on the maincord. Admitting they are intentionally and deliberately unpleasant to other people. The one on the right is kinda old by now, but there's more on the old relay of this kind of hostility to anyone using or even talking about AI. It is toxic to act like this, even if I personally do not like AI or really think it's the "future".

 

Maincord. I'm not really sure how to even call this but, it's justifying people being toxic and talking shit about others in metacords, acting like it's normal. It's not normal, and it's toxic.

 

Accusing the dev team of "lack of transparency" and it being offensive, as if it was the dev team intentionally doing this to bypass feedback or whatever.

 

 

Additional remarks: There were two screenshots from the staffcord, but I was told to remove them.

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Dreamix
small typo vehave->behave

[goolie]

I wanted to weigh in after seeing some screenshots that I and one IRL friend were included in (but cropped out). The screenshots come after several players were politely and constructively discussing the loadout of a Trinarist traitor, to which Sycmos came in and brazenly accused another player of making a racist caricature, for which the player then apologised and deleted the character and sprites. Sycmos then went on to call other players in the discussion various forms of insults and accuse them of being in a "league of legends cabal?!" In this exact conversation, after complaining about brigading and cliques, Sycmos' friends then began thumbing up every single one of their posts, which is kind of ironic. Looking at the screenshots, you can see how incredibly combative to "non-community members" quote on quote they are and so much so that my friend no longer even wants to play on the server. You are driving away new players with how paranoid you are of people working together in arguments.

This isn’t the first time you’ve driven a player away from the community, either. Jump back a few months, and your snide remarks you left on Danse's messages and the encouragement you gave Nienna to just be pointlessly rude only managed to make him leave the server to take some time away from the toxicity that you cause. Unfortunately, the admins deleted the messages so nobody could see how nasty you and Nienna were being, and after I asked you to apologise to Danse and make up, you said this. I don't know why, but this entire year you've been so incredibly mean to people for no apparent reason, and I just wish you'd suck up, swallow your pride, and apologise instead of drawing the arguments out until an admin has to come and break it up.

[Sycmos]

Everything that I have said that has been posted in this thread was predicated on commentary by other community members that prompted a response deserving of my tone.

 

I stand by everything that I've said, without reservation.

[Garnascus]

This seems more like it would be a player complaint against sycmos? Not making a judgement on the behavior at this time but it doesn't appear it has anything to do with this position as a staff member. 

[niennab]

Since I was mentioned I figured I'd lay out what precisely happened in regards to Goolies' comment so there isn't any confusion. Staff and Player Complaints have a facet outside of moderation and it comes down to public perception. Goolies' account misses a lot of details as well as points the blame of something I caused, on Sycmos. I can't fathom why this narrative would be pushed and to what end but here we are. Thus, if it is going to be included, then I will leave my piece here too.

A player within the community has so far made two public good-bye messages following a lack of follow through. That's their prerogative (whether by choice or life circumstance), and while I don't judge them for it, I saw it as a chance to make a joke. Was it mean? Sure. I thought this player and I were on good enough terms for it to be an amicably rude joke but, I see that they think very differently of me behind my back. Sycmos liked the comment. Sycmos did not comment.

While I was asleep, this player had a meltdown on the relay which was later followed by Goolies demanding Sycmos, not me, to apologize. Something that admins had to then step in on to get Goolies to stop. For whatever reason, Goolies has made Sycmos the target of my actions and the situation I caused is irrelevant to them as it is irrelevant to this complaint. 

The cruel joke

Spoiler

The response

Spoiler

Goolies' demands

Spoiler

 

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by niennab

[goolie]

This is exactly my point. Instead of admitting or even acknowledging that you’ve hurt the other party, you both double down and go into defence mode. Why is even any of this even needed? Just stop being so standoffish and rude all the bloody time. Anyone can see from the screenshots, (yours included) that you're both being overly toxic. And Sycmos? It's completely laughable to say that your posts were warranted because it was YOU that started the arguments in basically every case.

[Roostercat]

Hi gang. I know there's quite a few longstanding community members involved in this complaint, but keep in mind that complaint forums are meant to show evidence and for the person being complainted to defend themselves. There is no room for namecalling or blatant insults here. Chill out. This also covers accusations and veiled insults as well. Act like adults. 

[Roostercat]

Going to also throw out to keep this thread on topic. The staff team is not interested in whatever other players are dragged into this complaint. We care explicitly about Sycmos and the people directly involved in the complainted actions. 

[Sycmos]

46 minutes ago, goolie said:

It's completely laughable to say that your posts were warranted because it was YOU that started the arguments in basically every case.

If you recall the circumstances in which I was commenting regarding the first several screenshots they involved a number of your friends brigading a discussion regarding a rather offensive depiction of a "religious extremist" that did not involve them and had been resolved between myself and the player.




It was even acknowledged as much by Alb.


Another one of the above screenshots was a circumstance in which you used to try and extricate an apology from me again, much like what you attempted in Nienna's screenshots, after I simply posted an sticker in response to a rather uncouth series of comments:

  
 




Furthermore on this, Garn encouraged saying what you meant, even if it meant getting banned:



Given that I was about as direct with my comments as is reasonably okay with server moderation, this complaint reads more like tone policing than any sincere issue with my conduct. Besides providing context, I feel that I do not need to explain myself any further.

[goolie]

I'm going to make this quick because I hate back-and-forth arguments like this, and I'm not going to respond anymore as this isn't even my complaint, but just look at the screenshots you've just posted and how you're talking to the people in them. You type to people in such a passive aggressive way that you'd think every single person on the server has personally got a vendetta against you!

As for the Alberyk screenshot ⬆️, I asked him, and he has no idea and can't even remember what you're referring to, so I don't know where that's come from. Couple the conversation you've posted there and the screenshots @Dreamix has posted of the same conversation and others, and even how you've typed in this very thread with your first response, you're not acting professionally at all.

EDIT - In response to you saying that multiple of my friends were brigading the discussion about the Trinarist traitor, this is a complete lie. The only person that was involved in it (and even before you showed up!) was my IRL friend Shark. The rest of the people in the conversation, excluding Garn, who only came in to give you a few short words and to moderate after the argument broke out, were people that I was not even familiar with at the time. You on the other hand, @'ed Lavilla to have them join the conversation and argue, and then Nienna joined in, along with Lisek and Biplane, who all dogpiled onto my friend and the original poster. You all also helpfully reacted to your messages with 👍 & 🙏 to make it even more obvious you were all there to back each other up.

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by goolie

[Triogenix]

Okay, me and @La Villa Strangiato will be handling this complaint. As Rooster already said, please keep all posts on topic in this thread, and act like adults. We'll be reading through everything over the coming days.

[Dreamix]

21 hours ago, Garnascus said:

This seems more like it would be a player complaint against sycmos? Not making a judgement on the behavior at this time but it doesn't appear it has anything to do with this position as a staff member. 

I think this is a bit of a grey area. Probably the most "classic" player complaint is "this antag/secoff killed me with no RP, mods please ban/warn them", while for a staff complaint it could be "this admin banned/warned me and I disagree with that ruling". The templates for both complaint types ask for ckeys and round IDs too, so, I almost wish we had a third type of complaint, being a "community member complaint" or something of the likes, to report out-of-game stuff that happens over discord or forums.

 

Anyways. In the end I went with a staff complaint, because I do not believe with the conduct that Sycmos is displaying, that they should continue to represent the staff team and our community, or to continue being a lore writer, participating in lore arcs with others, or making rulings on whitelists.

Like, sure, everyone makes mistakes or bad calls, including myself, but what should happen next after such mistake, is admitting it and saying "okay I lost my cool, sorry". But Sycmos does exactly the opposite, doubling down, and adding fire to the drama. They continue to display the problematic behaviors that I am highlighting in this complaint, including inside this very thread. They say it is okay to be mean to others if what they say deserves that tone. They also accuse me of tone policing - if pointing out toxicity is "tone policing", then sure, I guess that is what it is.

[Triogenix]

This complaint has been handled, and we have reached out to those involved regarding a verdict.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Triogenix