Setting the Record Straight

[epistler]

I had hoped to be able to leave the original anti-shurtugal without too much drama, and certainly without a flame war. Unfortunately though I decided to make it quick and even deleted my LJ account sooner than I'd originally planned in the hopes of being left the hell alone, a flame war broke out anyway and apparently a bunch of people, mostly anonymous, have decided that I'm to blame for this whole situation. They've also made a bunch of claims about me which are quite simply untrue, all in order to try and make me look as bad as possible.

For the record:

( Haven't we grown past this stage? I mean really. )

Right of Reply

[torylltales]

I was banned from posting on Antishurtugal.Livejournal without even so much as the chance to defend myself from the lies being spread about me, so this is my Right of Reply that I was going to post there. Basically an open sporking addressed to Hackslayer.

“The Epistler and Toryll attempted to instigate a riot after finding out Quenbolyn was quietly drawing away from the community, harassing her on her personal social media.”

1. I did not “attempt to instigate a riot”. Being concerned about the future and direction of the group I loved, I asked the question: what happens to us now? Asking for discussion and clarification.

2. I have never once contacted quen outside of Livejournal. I do not know quen’s real name or details. I have contacted quen via Livejournal direct message maybe 3 times in the last 5 years, each time to politely request moderator assistance with spambots, trolls, or posts stuck in the moderation queue.

“The Epistler, Toryll, and others were not happy with the change and accused Hackslayer of years of absence”

1. This is true, we were not happy with the change being made with no consultation from active members of the community.

2. It is also true that Hackslayer has been absent (in the sense of not being visibly present or engaged in the community) for many years. If they had not been absent, I would not have needed to beg quen for moderator assistance with spambots and the moderation queue, etc.

“They demanded the ownership be turned over to them.”

To someone who is part of the group and still regularly visits. i.e. an owner who wouldn’t have to begged to perform their moderator duties. I didn’t want it to be me, and I didn’t really care if it was Anya, Gharialguy, Baaar, Vorpal Tongue, Minion, Epistler, Bishop8, Pipedream, Cmndrnemo, or even Ultramega or Kris_Norge. I just wanted an owner who is an active and visible participant in the group, and who is therefore contactable and available when needed.

“will never turn over the legacy of Anti-Shurtugal, what we worked so hard to build, to small-minded sycophants of a bully who would rather continue to denigrate an author who had his 15 minutes of fame and has now faded into relative obscurity. No sense of vision, of looking toward the future”

Interestingly, it was precisely “looking toward the future” as well as preserving the legacy of Anti-Shurtugal, that prompted me to ask what was going to happen when we were, at the time, rudderless. Better groups than ours have fallen apart and become spambot graveyards because the owner disappeared.

If that’s how little you think of Antishurtugal, though, why not just delete the group entirely? There’s obviously no reason for it to continue, and no real “legacy” remaining to speak of.

“the few times the staff tried to become more active both toryll and the epistler have sent slurries of condescending comments that made them feel attacked and unwelcome. fragon I believe was the unfortunate recipient not that long ago”

Fair enough I did get on fragon’s case, and I accept responsibility for that. I was annoyed at her patronising holier-than-thou attitude and the way she was attacking commenters, NOT because she was "trying to be a mod". And if I recall, it was Epistler who STOPPED that whole incident, rather than adding fuel to the fire.

"foaming_beast did her job behind the scenes well and attempted to be active, just so happens she couldn't keep up with the chapter sporkings. however she did all the admin duties as best as she could

and then epistler and toryll bitched about the comm being abandoned"

1. I don't recall a single one of us saying a bad word against foaming_beast, who has been a far better and more active moderator since being given mod status, than I can recall in the history of the comm. I have openly praised foaming_beast's work as a mod, which has included a range of moderator duties including dealing with spambots, trolls, making new tags, and dealing with posts sent to the moderation queue. Don't bring foaming_beast into this as a victim, she's not. Nobody has criticised the job she's been doing as the only visibly present mod.

2. I did not ‘bitch’, I asked for clarification and discussion about the direction of the group now that quen had deleted her account. If quen had made an announcement instead of just deleting her account without a word, I would not have made my post asking for clarification.

“hackslayer, who has been keeping an eye on this community from the beginning believe it or not”

If Hackslayer had been performing their duties as a member of the admin team this whole time, none of this would have come up and we wouldn’t have had to beg quen for a new mod to get rid of spambots and deal with posts stuck in the moderation queue.

“You guys are not entitled to the fruits of our labor, no matter how much you think you are.”

Fair enough. If that’s how you feel, then I’ll remove my labour from your archives.



...







Wow, I made the group slip backwards 21 ranks in the community ratings.

I kind of regret that my 200th post was asking for clarification about the group’s future without a group owner.

“The truth is, he's no longer relevant. And neither are you. Consider this us granting you your freedom. You're free to go forth and create something new. […] You're free to build a community of your own and post there every day.”

And so we have. This is my final post here, I will be continuing on at Antishurtugal-reborn.dreamwidth.org along with Epistler, Anya, MinonNumber2, and others. Anyone who wants to come along who isn't par tof the "core antishurtugal staff" who have apparently not been neglecting the group for years, is welcome.


Thought: If Anti-Shurtugal is an irrelevant, obsolete circle-jerk as you claim, why do you even care what happens to it?

It seems to me that nine-tenths of the drama in this situation is a product of lack of communication from on high. If Quen had announced her retirement and outlined the chain of command, I think we all would have accepted it. If Hackslayer had been visibly present at all in the last, what, six years instead of pretending that she no longer existed, we wouldn't have questioned her mysterious "return". If the moderators and admin staff had taken an active role in dealing with member queries and complaints and controlling spam and the moderation queue and etc (you know, actually moderating the group). so that we didn't have to bother people cap-in-hand to ask them to please, sir, won't you deign to notice us? then none of this would have happened.


And then you have the gall to make up lies and libel about us for daring to question the way you mismanaged your "legacy".


May a thousand book worms eat your magnum opus.