Now that I feel the Weebay/Marlo situation has come to a close, I guess it's time for an explanation.
First of all, this was obviously not an easy decision for me. I have been extremely conflicted over this for the last two weeks, but Weebay's inaction and non-response to me forced my hand. I gave him several days to respond to my last email, which never happened. I decided giving him a 2-day suspension was the only way I could get through to him.
Weebay is a good person and a very well-respected player and moderator. I felt very comfortable with him in the forums, and trusted his judgement. He seemed the type of person who'd be a great co-worker because you never had to wonder if he was doing his job or not.
When EightStars initially posted a picture of herself with another player, the topic seemed innocent enough. If she had an ulterior motive I don't know. Maybe she did. Let's assume so. In any event, the topic was not an issue until post #27 (Weebay's initial response). Prior to that moment, if the topic had been offensive, harassing, demeaning, or humiliating to him, he had the power to lock it, remove it, or report it to me or another moderator.
It's unfair to assume all moderators read every single post, because it's not a realistic expectation. But by responding to it, he obviously was aware of it. I can't fault a moderator for getting frustrated from what is posted about them. If he had merely modded it or told me he felt it was over-the-line, we wouldn't have the situation we have today.
Shortly after the topic started turning on EightStars, it was moved it into the Battleground so it could not be modded.
Weebay mailed me to say he felt his integrity was being attacked, and that he wanted to post private text messages from her in the forum. I told him it was out of the question and inappropriate. I advised him to take a different path, because furthering things were not going to make the situation better for anyone. The next day he posts everything on the Awakened Lands Facebook Group. He unfortunately made a topic in the forums with a link to the content, thus bringing it directly into our forums.
Our next correspondence was me warning him that the next step he took was going to dictate the outcome. Again, I tried to direct him in a way that would make his point yet not go over the line. He continued to delay responding to me so the attacks could be taken up by his friends and the harassment could continue.
Recently I became aware of a cover-up when looking in the logs. Prior to EightStar's original post being moved to the unmodded forum, it appears Weebay thought he was responding from an alternative forum account instead of his own. After noticing the mistake, he had his erroneous post deleted. It was already quoted by a couple of other players and labeled "suspicious", but then as usual the topic went in another direction. When I discovered this information, I didn't want to believe it.
I really do regret things ended up the way they did. Everyone tells me not to step in, however in this case I feel if I had stepped in sooner we'd still have him around. I felt Weebay AND Marlo were in violation of multiple rules, yet their suspensions were not intended to be long. They have decided on their own to make the temporary suspensions permanent.
Marlo's case is another story. His constant attacks and harassment against EightStars were beyond inappropriate. Almost every post he made was derogatory and against the TOS. Unfortunately for him, he went too far. |
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Information about the bannings
