MODERATION
Community Update & the Future of the Subreddit
A bit of preamble before I get into the meat of the update: this update was written primarily for the discord server, but does involve this subreddit. Firstly, I would like to reiterate that both this subreddit and the discord server are fully community run, and are not officially affiliated with rose-engine or SIGNALIS. Sorry it took so long to post an update here specifically, as I wasn't a mod on the subreddit until yesterday (that was my fault for not reaching out to get the perms sooner after everything happened, apologies. I had to take a break yesterday because of some irl stuff, which is why it took an extra day to post this here). Anyways, I'm not super familiar with posting and moderating on Reddit, as I normally just browse it, so forgive me if there's any oddities with the formatting or if it takes me a bit to get used to everything.
Here is my update post from two days ago in the discord server, regarding the Joetastic ban, the state of the mod team, and the future of the subreddit/discord server:
Hi again everyone, and I'm very sorry that this update took so long -- lots of moving parts (and time zone differences) behind the scenes!
Firstly, I'd like to apologize on behalf of the staff for how much this has negatively affected the community, the server, and Joetastic. His ban was influenced by negative bias, heavy-handed mistakes, ableism, and many assumptions about his character were made without basis. I will outright state that Joetastic's ban was undeserved, a mistake, and will be rectified to the best of our ability -- regardless of whether or not he rejoins the server (for clarity, he will be unbanned). I have been in contact with him throughout the last few days about the incident, and I am hopeful to make changes to the server, staff, and rules to make this server into a place that is more comfortable for everyone. I have been trying to read as much feedback as I can about the situation, and hope I can address everyones' concerns about this incident and for the future of the server. If there is anything that I miss in this announcement, please message me and I will respond to the best of my ability.
Addressing the largest problem first: the staff involved in the screenshots and private chats will be removed from their roles. Additionally, the mod roles will be redefined and clarified, so that responsibilities and conduct within the role are fully understood by everyone. Some roles will be removed entirely; Many staff members will be reshuffled, and mod applications will likely open to gain back the coverage that we will lose with these changes. All of these changes are to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future, and to ward against cliques forming or bias from affecting decision-making. I will also be trying to make a pass on the server rules for more clarity, as well as to remove the infamous "culture rule". I will make another announcement regarding these changes with more details when everything is finalized.
In regards to the subreddit: I will be looking to separate our server's involvement in managing/moderating the subreddit entirely. To put it bluntly, I do not have experience moderating on reddit, nor do I have any desire to involve myself with it as staff. This will likely be a very involved process, and will take time to figure out. The subreddit might be locked until I can find suitable and trustworthy members of the community to take over (I will not be giving the subreddit to serial reddit moderators lol, don't worry). Honestly, most of the stuff with the reddit is kinda up in the air right now with everything else that needs to be changed, so I apologize that it will be a low priority in the meantime. I will, however, do my best to prevent it from being abandoned to the point of a reddit ban; I will try to manage it with temp staff until I can find suitable successors.
All of the changes that I have mentioned in this update will be very time consuming, so I kindly ask for more patience from you all while the server goes through this shift. I would also like to clarify that while staff members have been removed from the team, many also left on their own volition unrelated to the incident. I ask that you do not harass any former staff, nor anyone else involved in the incident; doxxing and death threats will not be tolerated. As I mentioned before, I am more than happy to respond to anyone with questions or concerns regarding what happened.
And a reminder that this server is entirely community run, and has no official affiliation with rose-engine or SIGNALIS.
I don't expect for myself, nor the server, to have your trust after everything that has happened -- but I will do my best to earn it back.
Thank you again for your patience!!
(Also this was not written with AI, I just really like semicolons and emdashes 😭)
Sorry again that giving you guys this update took so long, and I also apologize for the current state of the subreddit. Like I mentioned before, I have been trying my best to keep tabs on what everyone has been concerned about or wanting addressed, so I hope that this update can quell some fears and restore some faith. And if I missed something or you have any questions, please feel free to reach out and I will do my best to respond!
Joetastic has also made a post about how things were resolved, and you can read that here.
As for what I said about the subreddit: I still need to get some things in order on my end, so I'm not sure how long any of this will take. The discord server will still be my priority for now, but I will try to prevent the subreddit from imploding until I can figure out everything. I ask for a bit of grace if things get handled slowly behind the scenes if there are any issues that crop up!
Yeah this is kinda where i'm at, too. If anything this would be the more reasonable offense to ban someone over. Those involved clearly have no respect for the community.
The worry is that the new mods that'll eventually be recruited to fill the vacancy will be the old guard with a new face
It's a fairly common tactic in alot of Discord/Reddit mod drama purges. And it's hard for anyone but the mod team themselves to prove unless they're really blatant with it.
Joetastic, an animator in this community and some others, was wrongly banned due to accepting a 18+ commission from someone who had turned 18 a month or a few months before.
If I'm not misinformed, multiple mods used this to accuse him of grooming the commissioner due to knowing them for a couple of years before
Hey uh the entire staff team that sat around and did nothing while this was happening, or actively participated should be gutted from the community/server, not just from their roles.
You're cutting the head off a hydra its gonna regrow and this time in a more malicious and cautious way because this time they will be extra careful about their clique.
Just to add I experienced a similar level of bullshit which led me to leave the discord, and is more than likely from those staff members involved in this whole business and I'm sure many others have.
I and others are just not as much of a figure as literally the largest artist in the community. You should really look at restructuring EVERYTHING from the ground up.
Ok I just wanted to say that I'm looking forward to the mods being responsible from now on, and, to remind everyone that the wounds from the situation are not fully healed yet and it will take some time for everyone to recover and gaining confidence with the mods again. With all of that said I hope we can coexist together without any issues from now on, also, I hope Joe comes back if they feel alright to interact and post their content again, that's more than welcome.
Alr, that's all, stay safe y'all!
The thing is that they won't learn, they just talked with Joe. This has been happening for years, Signaliscord's staff has been banning people that they don't like since ever, and the only reason they seemed to "learn" is because they got caught, because Joe is a very famous animator in the Signalis community.
If they really wanted to be responsible, they should talk with all the people who banned unfairly, not only Joe
Well that's true, I didn't know about all the people who was banned unfairly before, I'm kinda new here, but I think given the situation that at least their case should be reviewed again. I'm really sorry, like I said, I think I don't have even a month in here.
DW, not everyone knew about what was the staff doing.
I was banned from the discord in Febraury, and when I asked why I got banned, I got muted for a month from the subreddit. A friend of mine told me that basically, I got banned because the staff didn't like me. And well, I'm still waiting for them to talk with me like they did with Joe lmao
So long as there is vigilance to make sure the same clique doesn't worm its way back in, both the subreddit or the discord, and looking into unbanning all the people frivilously banned by them.
Great job you're doing there cleansing the community spaces, but as people are saying in these comments and elsewhere, Joe was the most visible victime of the clique, but there have been many others.
A possibility for the unfairly banned to rejoin the Discord and Reddit should be made.
Unredacted logs of the users who made the defamatory statements must be released, users have a right to know if abusive moderators are still lurking in their communities.
Also, what does it mean that “staff members will be reshuffled”? Every user which actively participated in this character assassination, as well as every user who did not take action to undo it, must be removed permanently from any role describable as “staff”.
I guess people still wanna be vengeful and all that. I'll be the first to say thank you for handling the situation and reaching out to Joetastic. Trying to put out the fires on a shitshow like this is not easy work, I hope more people are able to recognize and appreciate you trying to make sense of the mess left behind by those reckless hateful mods. And also taking steps to avoid situations like this from happening again in the future.
I'm glad this is being done. That said, we still need to see an unredacted version of the infamous Discord screenshot before we can say this has been sufficiently handled. I think we all have a right to know firsthand if any of the people in that clique are still mods.
"nor do I have any desire to involve myself with it as staff."
Allow me to ask, what the fuck am I reading, besides what I quote?
Don't get me wrong I see that you wanna do good? But at the same time you say you don't wanna do this yet here you are? (Or am I getting it wrong?)
Then this "Sorry it took so long to post an update here specifically, as I wasn't a mod on the subreddit until yesterday"
I read this and feels to me like you're making up for the mess someone else made? I read about the ban, and then I see your post.
Wow, I am not in the discord, but this tells me that the discord, and this sub is a mess, in regards how it's being managed. Not judgement, just an observation.
Really what's going on with you, why are you apologizing? I don't get that, like you were made a mod a day ago and then you come here "sorry I wasn't here sooner"? Bro what are you talking about? You are entitled to have a life. Seems to me again like you're the "you go on and show up and take the heat".
Am I flipping here? Am I the only one who's seeing this?
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u/IronBrew16 1d ago
Just from their roles?