Journal of Other Forum Analysis (Volume II, Issue 2)

[Jansen]

Holy shit

What are the "conspiracy theories" because I haven't seen anything along those lines in this thread in the last few pages?

I think they're referring to people wondering if Andy Robinson's Bluesky post about Era users misunderstanding his article was the impetus for the ban wave. imo, the timing is so coincidental that it makes sense people would wonder, but it seems like any speculation whatsoever is being painted as conspiracy theories.

I absolutely believe that harassment campaigns against Era have been coordinated through Discord previously. Era's a large forum with a big target on its back because of the ostensibly progressive values, and we've seen with things like Gamergate that people aren't afraid to pull some bullshit. And I'm sure there's been some bullshit with the splinter communities, though from what I've seen over the years on the user end of things, that's much less common. It seems like staff—or just B-Dubs, who knows—is beginning to see any form of talking about Era outside of Era as coordinated harassment campaigns. That any Discord that dares mention Era in a way that's less than positive is a breeding ground for coordinated, targeted movements. I don't blame the team being on high alert (like I said, huge target!), but at some point, you (general you) need to remember that that is not the case. Venting frustrations, talking about actions that have caused controversy, discussing bans, or even just talking about the forum at all are not inherently anti-Era. They're not inherently weaving grand conspiracy theories. Frankly, I think it does a major disservice to Era to slide into that. It comes across as paranoid and white-knuckled. With the pressure the team feels, I'm sure that's legitimately part of it, but that doesn't make it actually true of every form of off-site discussion.

Considering the very real issues that people have brought up with the ticketing system, I can't help but feel like actioning the one relevant ticket and championing it here is anything other than punitive. It comes across defensive, very "see?????? we DO do this!" And one of the biggest problems that people have repeatedly discussed is the continued generalizations about these issues. It's "a week of being insulted in this thread" when the majority of the posts are not doing so. It's "we DO admit we're wrong" while explicit examples of times that wasn't true go unaddressed. It's claiming users are continually brigading when there's a difference between a)coordinated harassment campaigns from off-site and b)multiple members of this forum coming to discuss issues at once. It's "this is a place for good faith discussion" when good faith discussion is blatantly ignored, even misrepresented and actioned.

Look, I like knowing things, including what led to issues like this going down. If that brands me a shit-stirrer that just chimes in to dogpile when I'm not actively involved—like with the DK thread, as I didn't post there or get banned—then I guess I'm a shit-stirrer. I don't post in bad faith. I don't understand doing that, quite honestly. But it seems like unless you're involved in something (not even as a witness, just directly involved), it's considered brigading and litigation and and and and.

But since I do like knowing things, I went through the last 20 or so pages of the thread. Starting with where the VGC DK thread debacle happened, as that's been the crux of this conversation. That's 50 posts per page, starting on page 17, through page 37 as I'm typing this. That makes, what, 19 and a half pages? Almost 1,000 posts? #813 to #1,821. That's 1,008 posts.

Let's take out the staff posts, posts about other topics (ignoring mods, multiple-reply-to-post reminders, external Discord dogpiling against random communities instead of mods), and posts made by members of the staff in general. There were 109 of those.

So now we have the number of posts that are about the DK thread, mod transparency, points going unanswered, etc., anything that's about the discussion at hand.

That's 899 posts. Only counting users that specifically contributed to this conversation (and excluding mods), that amount of posts was spread over 189 users. A few of them only contributed to drive by neg, and I do literally mean a few. That still leaves a good 185ish users that actively participated in the discussion as a discussion. That's definitely a lot of people, so I can see how it would be overwhelming for staff!

I know the staff feels like they're being brigaded, like there are tons of direct insults and conspiracy theories. I was reasonably certain that it was a very, very small minority of the posts in this discussion that would fall into that, and I think knowing that might help the mods realize this has been in good faith.

For conspiracy theories, I counted things like:
"Seems like Andy Robinson's call got through."
"That that was posted and then bans started happening was not a coincidence.
"The statement was to appease the author of the poorly written article, who had the audacity to flame members of the community that didn't understand what he wrote."

I did not count initial speculation; mentions of what it feels like; Ashes of Dreams's last post (because Ashes has proven, over literal years, that they're trying to help improve the forum for both the mod team and the users), or speculation about retaliation (because that is not conspiratorial; it refers to the retaliator's action of retaliating, not organizing to secretly enact a specific outcome).

That's 10 conspiracy posts out of 899.

For insults, I counted direct insults like:
"You can't make this level of ineptitude up xD"
[the cops post]
"Can mods even read?"

To be generous, I also included "An absolute fucking joke, as always," though it was an overall reaction and not specifically aimed at anyone.

I did not count users specifically pointing out other users due to commonality unless it specifically included an insult. (There were only one or two of these.) I also did not count reactions like "lmfao" or "lol"; those are part of the discussion, not insults. I did not count moments when users said it feels like the team has disdain for users, as that's people discussing what things currently feel like to them, not active insults.

I found 20 outright insulting posts out of 899.

For calls to resign or rotate out members, I counted things like:
"After multiple mistakes (including serious ones that a regular member would've been banned for), I'd love to know why B-Dubs is still a moderator for Era."
"This place badly needs a moderator purge."
"The only thing that will move a needle anywhere is MOBA firing the regime because of decreasing ad revenue. That's honestly all that matters to the organization paying the server bills and admins' salaries."

I did not count general mentions of rotating the mod team as a whole to give them time off, as they were not calling for any specific peoples' heads and were very clearly in good faith.

Being generous, I counted 9 posts that called for mods to resign. 9 out of 899.

Out of all the insult, call to resign, and conspiracy theorizing posts, only a few users solely contributed that way. Some users did get to that point after having been in the thread a while. I count 15. Give or take one or two on either side, but that means that out of 186 users discussing this, 8% lost their temper. 92% of the users in this conversation have been level-headed, guys.

Over 899 posts, there were 10 conspiracy posts, 20 active insults, and 9 calls for resignation. That makes 1.1% conspiracies, 2% insults, and 1% calls for resignation. Total it up and only 4% of this discussion has been hostile toward the staff, but the staff messages repeatedly conflate hostility with good faith discussion (and that's before we get to the idea that a hostile tone does not mean that something is inherently untrue).

Look, staff, I don't know how else to get through to the team that people here are trying to actually talk to you. Literally 96% of this discussion has been civil. Sometimes a little heated, clearly passionate, but civil. I counted. This has not been a brigade. This has not been shadowy Discord servers coordinating attacks on ResetEra or on ResetEra staff as a whole. This has been ResetEra users themselves. At least four former staff members, at least three verified industry people, several help desk and community moderation workers past and present, and many, many users that actively use ResetEra to the point that I, as a lurker, recognize their usernames and/or avatars.

I know you probably feel like this has been just a few users pointing pitchforks at you, but that's not true. Take it from someone with anxiety, someone who regularly needs to remind himself of objective truths when he starts to spiral: this discussion has not been to harm you. It has been the community coming together to tell you they're seeing concerning patterns in staff behavior, and doing so because they enjoy their time in this community. Chunks of Era have been driven off before. It doesn't have to happen again. Please, take a breath and internalize: the majority of users here are trying to talk to you and find common ground because they care. Only 4% of posts from this Donkey Kong discussion were hostile. We are not out to get you.

A post like that should get you instantly permabanned