Staff Complaint: ChrisCa and Aqy

[LetzShake]

BYOND Key: Letz Shake

Staff BYOND Key: ChrisCa and Aqy

Reason for complaint: Using staff position to try and silence a civil discussion because they didn't like the inoffensive subject AND in my opinion because they didn't agree with the majority opinion of the discussion.

Evidence/logs/etc: http://pastebin.com/X8FBYd7b

Additional remarks: This complaint is moreso about ChrisCA. Chris, almost every time I have seen him enter the game, which is pretty infrequently, will spout gibberish into the OOC (literal just keysmash garbage), type in all caps, and is often belligerent or behaves in a way that, if it wasn't done by a member of staff, would probably have them pretty quickly shunned by the community.

Aside from this incident, where he comes in, decides he doesn't like the OOC conversation's subject matter and basically shouts that it MUST stop, there was a more severe incident recently that came to mind where he entered the chat, and, without much context as I can recall began badmouthing fellow staff member SueTheCake in some pretty offensive ways. Aside from questioning why she's a member of staff because of her hiatus, he went on to call her a 'he/she' and a 'guy who wants to be a girl'. I don't think you need to be a super-liberal SJW type to think that's pretty damn offensive to say about ANYONE nevermind a member of our community. I don't have logs of that unfortunately but I'm sure I'm not the only one who saw it, if Chris decides to deny what he said.

Aqy is included because I think a discussion of how we handle OOC conversations is definitely warranted. I disagree with Aqy trying to shut things up (and eventually calling in Tablespoon to do that, since I guess they don't have the authority to, themselves?). I think Aqy was definitely in the wrong to seek to have all of OOC muted, even if you were to cede that there was something said in the whole discussion were 'insulting' given it was such a small amount compared to the otherwise civil discussion at large.

When I disagreed, entirely, Aqy challenged me to make a staff complaint. So here I am. I'm not writing this because I want or expect some action to be taken against Aqy. I just think it's worth discussing the way OOC is regulated because this isn't the first time I've seen the threat of silencing OOC used as something of a bludgeon when I don't think it should be done so lightly.

Relevant logs are uncut save for IC information which I cut because nothing IC was involved in the discussion. Includes PMs between myself and Aqy.

[ChrisC]

Since I've posted to the other one the only thing I'mma say on this one is I ment no offence in to the gender part towards sue IE that it's a guy wanting to be a girl part. I have no problem with it someone asked bout it so I told them simple as that. Now bout the other part about them not even being/playing on the server anymore and being a loremaster for a race still I stand behind questioning how this is still happening

[Aqy]

Ultimately, I have no strong opinion about what the basis of the conversation was on. And that had absolutely no influence on my choice to ask Tablespoon to mute OOC at all. Tajaran aren't a big issue to me. Unathi aren't. Xenos aren't. Furries aren't. You do what you wanna do. What I care about was things like this:

"OOC: Letz Shake : Man I had a character get beaten to death for making fun of Samantha Mason's fake-ass speech impediment once"

"OOC: Letz Shake : Says the guy who gives himself superpowers every round"

"OOC: Letz Shake : Only thing toxic in OOC is you, buddy"

Which of course were not said one after the other.

I understand discussing stuff that may be controversial, but there's no reason to be making jabs at other people while you're discussing that. There were of course, more people than you doing this, and that's why OOC was muted. I have no problem with people talking a lot, or turning the screen blue with OOC, talking about racism that's towards real people or tajaran, I don't care personally what you guys talk about, I don't really mind at all(As long as it's within the rules). But this wasn't a civil discourse on tajaran policies, most of you were just(again, not just you) prodding at eachother. And that's when it should be taken to the forums so that you're not sending messages back and forth calling each other weeaboos, and edgy, and salty turning it into one huge mess that quickly lost its purpose.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

For a moment I forgot Chris' rank, and assumed he was coming at this as a moderator or admin. Then I remembered he isn't; considering Chris isn't an admin or member of moderation staff, he shouldn't be ASFASIOFHASFAS'ing OOC and attempting to police it and should be treated as any other player. I wasn't present during this situation, so that's all I can really say there.

What does concern me is his behavior towards Sue. Trash talking another member of our development team, one I work with directly, like this is beyond unprofessional. It's a trash way to talk about someone and I don't want it tolerated. Your justification, for me, falls completely flat. If you don't know how to handle a situation with tact, don't handle it at all. You have no obligation to spread any news on someone's personal life, assuming this was actually the neutral "just telling it like it is" situation you claim it is.

[josh1133]

To make a small post for the one I posted on Ffrances.

Don't agree with Chris, dont understand why he did what he did and same reasons as Jackboot.

Do agree with Aqy.

[ChrisC]

For a moment I forgot Chris' rank, and assumed he was coming at this as a moderator or admin. Then I remembered he isn't; considering Chris isn't an admin or member of moderation staff, he shouldn't be ASFASIOFHASFAS'ing OOC and attempting to police it and should be treated as any other player. I wasn't present during this situation, so that's all I can really say there.

What does concern me is his behavior towards Sue. Trash talking another member of our development team, one I work with directly, like this is beyond unprofessional. It's a trash way to talk about someone and I don't want it tolerated. Your justification, for me, falls completely flat. If you don't know how to handle a situation with tact, don't handle it at all. You have no obligation to spread any news on someone's personal life, assuming this was actually the neutral "just telling it like it is" situation you claim it is.

 

What I put about the gender thing is neutral, the other part is my opinion and if you want to talk it out with me just say so and we'll take it somewhere else IE skype byond TS w/e since it is not the topic of this thread

[Guest]

Isn't this one and the other one a complaint on the same thing?

[LetzShake]

Isn't this one and the other one a complaint on the same thing?

 

Yes me and Frances made them at around the same time, stemming from the same incident. Frances' post is more detailed and better organized, but mine also mentions the Sue incident of the other day that I also think is worth addressing. I expect they'll probably be merged.

 

What I put about the gender thing is neutral, the other part is my opinion and if you want to talk it out with me just say so and we'll take it somewhere else IE skype byond TS w/e since it is not the topic of this thread

 

It is, a little bit. Maybe not specifically but I meant that the standards of what is acceptable seems to be pretty wildly different for users and staff. I guarantee if anyone else said that about Sue they would've probably gotten a pretty stern talking to, at best. I know if it was my server, and someone called a member of my staff a 'he/she' I would be giving that person a boot in pretty hasty fashion.

[Guest]

The threads are going to be left split and treated as two separate things.

One reason for this is Aqy is a mod and is under Skull, Chris is classified as a Dev and is under me.

Since the threads are tied I'm going to be waiting for the other one to be dealt with before sorting this one.

[Shadow]

Aqy and ChrisCa are no longer staff members and therefore this complaint will be locked and archived.