[quote=@Inkarnate][i][sub]<Snipped quote by Yoshua171>[/sub][/i]
No, it isn’t.

But that fear might not be exclusively the fault of the administration. Over the last few months there have been efforts, intent aside, that have caused spread of distrust and possibly damage of the infrastructure. I won’t even mention diverting moderator time away from thread management to deal with duplicate accounts with intent to cause sitewide [i]dissent[/i]. The moderators on RPG are [i]not[/i] draconian by any measure, but if they are getting more assertive or exhausted I don’t blame them for doing so knowing what has occurred since Mahz’s return. This ripple effect you mention is not exclusive to the moderation team but also the opposition, dissenters, and disenfranchised whom have intentionally or unintentionally created a domino effect that has led to damaging the site and what I imagine is wasting the time of key staff members on a vocal disruption.

Also, if we want to talk about misunderstandings – what about cherry-picking Discord conversations to create a narrative of incompetence or totalitarian administration using out of context quotes?[/quote]
At no point did I say that non-mod individuals don't cause ripples. In fact, the entire point of my argument is that mods create [i]bigger[/i] ripples, implying that normal people also create ripples.

Additionally, I was there when many of these cherry picked discord conversations, were had, many of us were. The thing is, a whole lot of discord conversations are had in which PERHAPS legitimate points or counterpoints were made (facts included), but that doesn't mean they were seen. As with the mods, the players typically have lives outside of this medium and as a result can equally not be expected to see everything. Still, the thing here is, that even should the many users of the Guild also be responsible--which you're right, we all probably are to some extent--many of those "thoughts," and "issues" came from the fact that concerning things did in fact happen, and then were not addressed.

However, seeing some of the responses here I think I'd like to reevaluate a part of my stance.

I agree that it mods should not have to "answer to the public," or tell everyone why people were banned. Fine, very well, they do not want to create MORE drama aside from people getting banned to begin with. However, I do think that the person who gets banned, needs to be told WHY they were banned and that some sort of discussion should be had with them perhaps prior to the ban taking effect. Why? Because then even if they are angry they know why it happened to them. This allows the people to reflect on their actions, rather than remaining in a confused, sort of upset, limbo that makes them want to lash out because they don't know why these bad things are happening to them. Furthermore, if you have users know why they were banned, then if anyone wants to find out what happened they can just go ask.

Then you get less spread of confusion, and less fear of the unknown gaps, which creates a generally calmer and more stable social climate. Also, in the case of this post, I can concretely tell you that it was never Cyndyr's intention to cause site wide dissent. Anyone who knows her at least a little can attest to that. Hell, anyone who read the first post should know better, especially given that the thread was unlocked because she is being polite and understanding in the interest of causing discussion. Soo...I don't know, I feel like that bit kind of speaks for itself.

Anyways, at the end of the day that's just my opinion and the thoughts of how I think the problem could be resolved. It's really nothing too drastic to be honest.