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+--- Thread: On the Recent[ish] Ban of Brum (/thread-1003.html)
On the Recent[ish] Ban of Brum - Sal - 05-10-2020
So this probably should have been posted like a month ago, but then the Great ‘Rona of 2020 happened, and life got “new normal”, and yeah. Apologies for the delay; a written statement about events is indeed warranted for future reference if nothing else.
PERMANENT BAN DECISION AND SUMMARY:
In summary, Brum was permanently banned on March 23, 2020 after numerous written warnings via the forum and the Discord, and prior temporary bans. Additionally, the ban was prompted, in part, by complaints received by mods from other forum members reporting that Brum was causing them to feel disrespect, discomfort, frustration, anger, or other negative emotions that, overall, lessened their enjoyment of the forum and Discord. The main reason for Brum’s ban was ultimately his inability to mesh well with many other members of the forum despite repeated guidance from the mods for behavioral changes, creating a negative environment that lessened others’ enjoyment of the forum and generating hostility in the Discord. Forum administrators were not willing to sacrifice the enjoyment of many for the freedoms of one and agreed unanimously upon the dismissal.
On the day of Brum’s ban, a public announcement was made on the Discord by Seperallis. Additionally, Seperallis commented on March 24, 2020 the following when asked by a forum member about Brum’s ban:
“The short of it is that [Brum] is apparently incapable of respecting fellow members, and creates an environment that causes people to literally not want to be here. The term "toxic" gets used, and it's for once an apt term as he poisons every conversation he inserts himself into.
Over the course of years, every comment he makes disparages some race, some nationality, some ideology or religion or political leaning.
I'm not in the habit of issuing bans based on people's opinions or being factually incorrect...I'm actually not in the habit of banning people at all. However, his behavior transcends his opinions. He browbeats people with the same argument, the same cynicism, the same 19th century race theory and white guilt, the same conspiracies day after day, hour after hour. Mods have asked him to tone it down, members have asked him repeatedly to stop as it is mentally exhausting to deal with; one ban has been issued over this behavior previously, with no change other than him appending "but not all" such and such to his victim group du jour, which honestly just made the other behavior worse.
In the past, other admins gave him a pass because of his autism. I disagree with this, because half this discord is autistic and does not have Brum's problem of refusing to acknowledge that any part of their behavior might cause grief to others. While it's a shame that White Guilt is his autistic fixation, he doesn't have an Autism problem...he has a behavioral problem dictated by his personality, which is fundamentally at odds with others and the rules.”
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Brum’s permanent ban follows several other punitive actions over the past few years. His written warnings for the behaviors described above are documented as far back as October 2018; he received a written warning then to clean up his behavior, quickly followed by a second written warning in November 2018. Upon his reinstatement, he did not seem to show any real lasting change in behavior or his ability to respect fellow forum members, leading to his ultimate dismissal.
Continuations of these behaviors resulted in an official complaint being lodged with forum staff, and a temporary one-week ban for Brum beginning May 29, 2019. Mods at that time sent Brum a written explanation of why he was banned as follows:
Screenshot: https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/401516151273684993/709115228075589673/Capture_2019-05-29-17-16-48.png?width=425&height=586
Brum’s membership was reinstated one week after his temporary ban as promised. Despite the punishment, the message was apparently not received and no lasting behavioral changes were noted.
With several unofficial warnings from mods and pleas from fellow members to “knock it off” in the Discord over the remainder of the 2019 year, things came to a head beginning in January 2020. Brum’s first official warning with yours truly, Sal, as acting as a mod “Chief of Public Relations”, came on January 28, 2020 following his inappropriate behaviors in the #Politics area of the Discord. He was publicly warned on Discord at that time:
Screenshot of main issue: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/326100111182790656/671744733072195594/Screenshot_20200128-103448_Discord.jpg
Screenshot of warning #1: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/326100111182790656/671744758598860804/Screenshot_20200128-103456_Discord.jpg
His second official warning in quick succession came for the exact same sort of behavior on February 21, 2020:
Screenshot of the main issue: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/326100111182790656/680520160309673985/Screenshot_20200221-160346_Discord.jpg
Screenshot of warning #2: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/326100111182790656/680520160918241330/Screenshot_20200221-160325_Discord.jpg
(*As a note, he recanted his statement that “everyone’s a stupid idiot” after he was called out on this behavior. Whatever that’s worth. Regardless, the judgment stands and the warning was not withdrawn.)
His third strike came in the form of the permanent ban as described above. It doesn’t bear repeating.
CONCLUSION:
At this point, Brum’s permissions have been set so that he does not have access to post or edit content on the forum nor post on the Discord server; he can, however, see his existing posts so that he’s free to copy his prior content elsewhere if he so desires.
It does not seem likely that Brum’s membership, especially to the Discord server, will be reinstated in the foreseeable future. To date, mods have not received any requests to allow him back and see no reason to do so.
The mods wish Brum best of luck in his next endeavors and hope that this experience affects some real change in his attitudes and behaviors, and most of all his awareness of how his actions impact others.
It is the goal of the mods of the Eternity forums to foster an environment where all members may be able to enjoy their time spent here. Let’s be real: this is a forum where we come to relax and play make-believe. It shouldn’t be a place that we come to dread because one bad egg is making things shitty for the rest of us. We want forum members to feel that they can come to us with any problems they experience - whether because of a fellow member, a staff member, a rule, or a rogue sentient AI hellbent on the destruction of all humanity - and that we can offer solutions. Sometimes, as in this situation, tough decisions must be made, and one party will receive what they feel is the short end of the stick. It is never a joyous event to need to ban a member, but this action was taken only after years of complaints and thought; in truth, it likely should have happened sooner in this case. We apologize to any and all whose enjoyment of this community was lessened because of the discontent they were caused.
Questions about this ban may be directed toward Sal (who, let it be known, was only a mod beginning around December 2019 and was not personally involved with some of the actions described above, but who has done her research and consulted with fellow mods to fully understand all that has transpired.) But maybe check the section below first. If I get any of these, I’m honestly most likely just going to C+P the answer below:
QUESTIONS I ANTICIPATE AND WON’T CLARIFY FURTHER:
Q1: Is Brum going to be coming back?
A1: Probably not.
Q2: Doesn’t Brum deserve a second chance?
A2: Brum’s first official warning for his behavior was back in October 2018, and that’s definitely not when the behavior began. He’s had many, many chances to change his behavior, and he has not. He ran out of chances.
Q3: Was Brum effectively “voted off the island”? Did other forum members essentially force him off?
A3: No, but the nature of the reason for his ban meant that us staff had to take complaints from other forum members into consideration. It was ultimately the decision of forum staff to ban Brum.
Q4: What rule did Brum actually break?
A4: Community Guidelines Rule 3A: “...respect your fellow members as human beings and be courteous and mindful of others; please steer hijacked conversations back on topic, and refrain from constant antagonisms and "baiting" over interests and beliefs/lifestyle.” By extension, rule 12Aiii: “All general forum rules also apply to conduct within the Discord server.”
Q5: I’ve seen similar issues from other members and they weren’t banned, so what gives?
A5: Punishments are decided situationally. If you are having issues with another member of the forum whether on the forum or on Discord, let a staff member know if you can’t resolve it yourselves.
Q6: I’ve seen the kind of stuff Brum posts and I think people are taking it the wrong way.
A6: This is a matter of intent vs. interpretation, it’s entirely subjective, and it’s not a valid argument. Fact of the matter is, he broke a rule on many, many occasions.
Q7: Since most of Brum’s issues were Discord-specific, could he just stay banned from the Discord but come back to posting on the forums?
A7: No, mostly because of practicality issues; lots of RP discussion and planning goes on in the Discord that never gets “officially” recorded elsewhere but still yields bearing on RP. Also, we don’t want someone to be in our community if it means perpetually being on the cusp of being shunned. It’s not fair to anyone to have that. It’s an all-or-nothing deal.
RE: On the Recent[ish] Ban of Brum - Flo - 05-11-2020
It is good to have someone serious as the Chief of Public Relations. The last one was a real knob let me tell you