Goonhub
10-05-2024, 05:05 PM
I am making this thread, on behalf of the admin team, to clear up misconceptions about what’s been happening with Zamujasa / Xkeeper. I’d like to share why we removed Zamu from the team, why we did not provide an explanation to players when we removed her, why we are now removing her from the community, and why we are telling you all of this now.
Why we removed Zamujasa from the team
Zamu was removed from the team via admin vote. Zamu was not removed from the team for disagreeing with other admins or for advocating for certain changes to the game. Zamu was removed for consistently being hostile and disparaging towards other admins whenever she disagreed with them, as well as a history of selectively leaking information to stoke player outrage. This behavior spans many years and many, many incidents. After yet another argument, Zamu outright stated she was not willing to change her behavior. So we decided to start a vote to remove her from the team. This decision was the culmination of years of conflict and hurt and we did not take it lightly.
Why we did not provide an explanation to players when we removed Zamujasa from the team
Because Zamu's removal from the team was largely due to interpersonal conflicts and did not have much to do with the actual game, we assumed it would not be necessary to share the context with the community and that it'd be counterproductive for players to know or have to deal with what was, bluntly put, admin drama. We also did not want to pour salt on the wound and speak badly of Zamu right after her removal. Despite feeling wronged ourselves, we took, what we thought, was the less bad option of staying silent and (attempting to) keeping the peace.
Why we are now removing Zamujasa from the community
After we removed Zamu from the team, she's continued to engage in the same behavior that got her removed, minus some of the more egregious personal attacks and jabs. When she keeps talking about how this sucks and that fucking sucks and the admin team sucks and why aren't the admins listening to the players and the admins should really be doing better and etc., I don't think it's because she's genuinely trying to help or improve things, but because she simply wants to complain and encourage division and conflict within the community. To me, it's clear that this isn't being done in good faith. And we don't have to put up with that. The admin team is not here to be anyone's punching bag. The players are not here for anyone to weaponize as part of their grievances with the team. So we are removing Zamu from the community as well.
Why we are telling you all of this now
Truthfully, we could’ve just continued to stay silent and weather this all out. We’ve already been doing it, and we’ve done it for so many other cases. Seeing all of this happen and its reverberations throughout the community, though, has made us reconsider. If we’ve made a mistake in not telling you this earlier—and it feels like we have, based on recent feedback—then the least we can do is tell you now. We don’t want to alienate players and have you believe that there’s some grand admin conspiracy or that we’re not communicating with you simply because we don’t respect you, when, in truth, things are far more complicated and we’re just a bunch of tired and hurt people who simply wanted things to stop hurting.
To be clear, I'm not saying that the admin team is perfect or faultless. Nor am I saying that Zamu has only ever been awful to other admins and never nice or that no one has ever wronged her in turn. (I realize that, whether we stay silent or speak out, we will always “lose” to some degree.) Our goal isn’t to convince everyone that we’re right and Zamu is wrong, but to share our perspective and explain why we did what we did. I've asked some other admins to respond to this post with their own experiences, in their own words, to further contextualize everything that's happened—use your own judgement and take of this what you will.
I’m sorry it came to this and that we didn’t do anything sooner. We intend for this to be a first step towards clearer communication with the community.
For the sake of this thread not getting derailed, only admins will be able to reply. If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, feel free to either DM me (@5amsky on Discord), use the ]report or ]reportanon function via MedAss (the Discord bot), or make a private or public admin feedback thread.
If you are reading this thread and going "I have no idea what's going on" or "I do not care", that is totally fine and you do not have to care. This is intended for those who may feel confused or disillusioned by the admin team and recent events.
Why we removed Zamujasa from the team
Zamu was removed from the team via admin vote. Zamu was not removed from the team for disagreeing with other admins or for advocating for certain changes to the game. Zamu was removed for consistently being hostile and disparaging towards other admins whenever she disagreed with them, as well as a history of selectively leaking information to stoke player outrage. This behavior spans many years and many, many incidents. After yet another argument, Zamu outright stated she was not willing to change her behavior. So we decided to start a vote to remove her from the team. This decision was the culmination of years of conflict and hurt and we did not take it lightly.
Why we did not provide an explanation to players when we removed Zamujasa from the team
Because Zamu's removal from the team was largely due to interpersonal conflicts and did not have much to do with the actual game, we assumed it would not be necessary to share the context with the community and that it'd be counterproductive for players to know or have to deal with what was, bluntly put, admin drama. We also did not want to pour salt on the wound and speak badly of Zamu right after her removal. Despite feeling wronged ourselves, we took, what we thought, was the less bad option of staying silent and (attempting to) keeping the peace.
Why we are now removing Zamujasa from the community
After we removed Zamu from the team, she's continued to engage in the same behavior that got her removed, minus some of the more egregious personal attacks and jabs. When she keeps talking about how this sucks and that fucking sucks and the admin team sucks and why aren't the admins listening to the players and the admins should really be doing better and etc., I don't think it's because she's genuinely trying to help or improve things, but because she simply wants to complain and encourage division and conflict within the community. To me, it's clear that this isn't being done in good faith. And we don't have to put up with that. The admin team is not here to be anyone's punching bag. The players are not here for anyone to weaponize as part of their grievances with the team. So we are removing Zamu from the community as well.
Why we are telling you all of this now
Truthfully, we could’ve just continued to stay silent and weather this all out. We’ve already been doing it, and we’ve done it for so many other cases. Seeing all of this happen and its reverberations throughout the community, though, has made us reconsider. If we’ve made a mistake in not telling you this earlier—and it feels like we have, based on recent feedback—then the least we can do is tell you now. We don’t want to alienate players and have you believe that there’s some grand admin conspiracy or that we’re not communicating with you simply because we don’t respect you, when, in truth, things are far more complicated and we’re just a bunch of tired and hurt people who simply wanted things to stop hurting.
To be clear, I'm not saying that the admin team is perfect or faultless. Nor am I saying that Zamu has only ever been awful to other admins and never nice or that no one has ever wronged her in turn. (I realize that, whether we stay silent or speak out, we will always “lose” to some degree.) Our goal isn’t to convince everyone that we’re right and Zamu is wrong, but to share our perspective and explain why we did what we did. I've asked some other admins to respond to this post with their own experiences, in their own words, to further contextualize everything that's happened—use your own judgement and take of this what you will.
I’m sorry it came to this and that we didn’t do anything sooner. We intend for this to be a first step towards clearer communication with the community.
For the sake of this thread not getting derailed, only admins will be able to reply. If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, feel free to either DM me (@5amsky on Discord), use the ]report or ]reportanon function via MedAss (the Discord bot), or make a private or public admin feedback thread.
If you are reading this thread and going "I have no idea what's going on" or "I do not care", that is totally fine and you do not have to care. This is intended for those who may feel confused or disillusioned by the admin team and recent events.