Just wanted to say something

@Seiken  
The thing Raptorshy did wrong is leaking internal staff messages and then “setting things on fire”. But she did apologize for it, and she did it in reaction to TSP’s statement that came out of frustration and was equally stupid. I don’t hold it against her, and even TSP is defending her from people that were villifying her.

@Rene_Z
 
I thought a different staff member leaked the logs? They continue for 90 minutes after raptorshy was destaffed and therefore lost access to the channel

@Background Pony #ED35  
She did not leak the complete logs, but she did leak TSPs message and basically quit the site herself (“Anybody who wants to leave should leave now”) before posting it all to 4chan.

@Rene_Z
 
Ok, gotcha

I really hope that things can get back to trying to make each other happier rather than what’s been going on recently. Is there any way we can try to get that back and not have people vilified and attacked because of, granted, some legitimate concerns?

@Background Pony #E1D3  
“Hey, we fucked up, rules are being rolled back to what we had in March, Nazi’s and Racists are bad and unwelcome, everyone else please remember to use your filters to avoid content you dont like.”

@Background Pony #E1D3  
No, the only way that could happen is the people in charge who caused all this with their sheer incompetence leave, everyone has seen the chat logs, everyone knows what kind of people they are and what they think, they have already made up their minds from day one and this is all just a big show

@Background Pony #E1D3  
Have patience. Be thoughtful. Make art. Comment with care. Aim for understanding, not persuasion. It’s not gonna happen overnight but it can happen if we act in good faith.

@Rene_Z  
@Background Pony #E1D3  
I see absolutely nowhere in there where he apologizes, admits that he didn’t do the right thing or tries to make it right to the people he hurt or the community he wronged.
 
An apology has several parts:
 

@Officer Hotpants  

 
And furthermore, I don’t think I’ve seen a single thing from the mod team that comes to the effect of “we were in the wrong for {insert things here}”. I’ve seen apologies from individual mods about their personal conduct in the chat log regarding interactions with each other, but absolutely nothing as an apology to the larger site.

@Iamunknown  
My announcement did that though.
 
It’s hard to come off as remorseful without seeming like insincere PR garbage. It’s a hard balance to pull off. I honestly can’t stress that enough. Doesn’t mean you can’t still try, but it’s not easy.

After all that’s happened this came to mind.

@Raptorshy  
I understand, and that’s why I greatly appreciated when you spoke and listened. It felt like interacting with a person who cared and tried to understand what others were saying. PR is PR sure, but your announcements and interactions had a genuine aspect to it and I greatly miss that. You’re correct to say that your announcement owned up to several of the things, until Joey pulled a Joey and completely erased what you had achieved.
 
I would want to caution you about shouldering the whole blame for what you may now feel was unnecessary. Now that you’re removed from the situation you have the luxury of time and hindsight to view your actions. Taking responsibility for this whole thing is absolutely not the correct or healthy thing to do and I urge you to view yourself as a whistleblower rather than anything else.
 
And frankly RaptorShy, I want to see TSP apologize publicly for how he treated you and the site (and the mods to a lesser extent). What he did was not in line with the rules of the site, the ethos of the fandom or the lessons of the show and he should own up to his actions. I understand the base rule of PR is “apologize as little as possible”, so actually seeing some genuine remorse and promise to do better would be a phenomenal start to rebuild some of the trust he’s broken.

@Rene_Z  
>Posting it all to 4chan  
A curious choice of ally.  
At least the favoritism was made clear.

@Background Pony #A7B7  
When stabbed in the back by those you have called close friends and ‘co-workers’ for years and ostracized, what would you do?
 
Pretty big talk for someone hiding behind an anon.

@Brass Beau  

 
I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment - we need to focus on putting the “unity” back in “community”. Part of why Raptorshy is so well respected and appreciated is because her announcement did just that.
 
@Rene_Z  
What happened there seems to have been each of them breaking under the stress of the whole situation, which is understandable given the situation itself. The past is in the past, and for now we need to focus on moving together towards a brighter future.

Wait, is posting chat logs all Raptorshy did? I had heard she sent a DoS on the site, which was why earlier in the thread I was calling her measures inappropriate but justified, since a DoS would affect regular Joes just trying to use the site, not just the staff.
 
If all Raptor did was post the chat logs and stuff, then I take it back completely. She 110% did nothing wrong, so why the fuck is she of all people apologizing? “I’m so sorry that I exposed the staff as corrupt.” Iamunknown is right. You should see yourself as a whistleblower, and that is not a bad thing in the slightest.
 
If anything, more people in this world should be out there doing what you did. Instead, we live in a time where a prison’s security cams can all mysteriously malfunction just long enough for an important prisoner to “commit suicide” and nobody says anything. Then nothing gets done about it.
 
So not only did Raptor not do anything wrong, but there was nothing wrong with her means of doing it. Don’t you let your so called friends bully you into saying otherwise when all you did was show their true colors.

@Background Pony #A7B7  
Where should it have been? Here, where it would be and has been deleted on sight?

@Background Pony #F702  
Raptor posted a screencap of a specific message from private moderation chat, she didn’t post the full chat logs. It’s literally impossible for her to have done it since the logs go beyond the moment she was kicked out. The following DDoS wasn’t her either, I’m positive.
 
As for the rest of your post, relax dude, this is a fan website for MLP art, not the goddamn government…

@ArmadilloEater  
It’s not the government… it’s the Illuminati!
 
All joking aside, a lot of things happened and we may never get a full account of the who, how and why. After this site (and its members) recover, we should take a critical look and try to answer these questions in a calm and reasonable manner.

@ArmadilloEater  
It’s not the government, no, but it does parallel a lot of things that go on in the world, not just with the government, but everywhere.
 
Vic Mignogna for example is a good example of the right people not speaking up when they should. He was accused of sexual misconduct, but so far just about every shred of evidence against him has been debunked. Meanwhile, if you look, around, you’d find that Chris Sabat and Sean Schemmel hated Vic. Always did. Mocking him in interviews where he wasn’t even present. Someone supposedly working for Funimation anonymously leaked a bunch of BTS audio of the Funimation cast saying some pretty inappropriate shit and it sounds like Chris Sabat actually orchestrated everything to ruin Vic’s career. But the only people on the inside who oppose this have remained anon for fear of losing their jobs, when instead they should be speaking up publicly.
 

 
This Vic story just reminds me a lot of what is happening here right now. The difference is, unlike the Funimation employee who is staying anon like a coward, Raptorshy didn’t hide behind a mask, and I think that has a lot to do with why so many people are listening to her. Any anon can fake a screenshot or fill a text document with “chat logs.” But this came straight from her, and that took a lot of bravery. Bravery I wish we could see more of in other places.

@Background Pony #F702  

 
@Brass Beau  
Sure, I can agree on that. Just, without forgetting that the whole moderation thing is done by a bunch of nerds in their free time, so it’s good to set expectations accordingly.

@Raptorshy  
TBh, the forum users and your actions show there is no hope for this site. The Free-Speech Absolutionists and the selfish who cannot even understand the impact of the content you UNBANNED does to people.

@Inucroft  
You mean… nothing. It does nothing.  
You know what does do something? Setting the status quo that it’s ok to censor harmless things that are harmless just because you don’t like them despite them being harmless. That status quo would be very helpful for Nazis. So good job on that.