The happenings on Discord yesterday and it's outcomes

For those who are not active on our Discord, yesterday there was an incident involving a few members of GP and a moderator, naatkinson. It got heated, and language was used by a mod that was entirely unbecoming. As it became an argument instead of a discussion, I tried to end it as best I could, and figure how to respond as a whole. More happened after the incident, including conversations amongst the mods, as well as private conversations between naat and other GP members and private conversations between myself and GP members.

Ultimately, I consider everything that happened to be in part my fault. I have, for a lack of better words, largely been an absentee landlord. I keep doing development work for the site, hoping in and out, but I'm never deeply involved, not as I should be. I trust the mods to act on my behalf, and I've largely stood by their decisions, even if I didn't 100% agree. In this case, it was clearly shown that my absentee behavior had created negative environments pocketed through the community.

naatkinson has been removed from his role as an admin and has been banned from the site. I am very sorry for those of you are currently in games with him, be it as a GM or player. I've always tried to foster an accepting community. This goes in all directions: giving marginalized people the space to be themselves as well as not throwing around accusations to individuals in privileged groups just because they're in those groups. Members of the community have behaved poorly and caused problems, whether they meant to or not. I gave a final warning yesterday to a particular member, and it will stand. I also spoke with multiple GP members in private and have made clear I take issue with their behavior. However, naat's behavior yesterday was unacceptable for a moderator. He used language completely inappropriate and stood by it, while using his position to enforce the behavior. Had it ended there, I would been fine removing him as a mod and leaving him to enjoy the site. Unfortunately, as he was removed, he became aggressive, levying accusations against me (some of which may be true, I don't know), threats, and what I'd call violent language. It may be me abusing my power, but I made the decision to ban him from the site at that point.

Alongside this, a number of mods have chosen to step down. Not all are in response to yesterday's incident/my decisions today. I don't know everyone's reasoning, nor will I be divulging what I do know; if any of the former mods wish to give their reasons, that's their prerogative. The decrease in moderation team will have an affect on the site. As I said before, I have not been nearly as active as you all deserve for me to be. Development of the site has been very slow, there are bugs galore, nor have I been supporting the admin team or community how it deserves to be. I have a swath of personal/mental health issues, but that's not good reasoning. I'll try to be more active going forward, though I've said that many times, and it comes and goes in waves.

We will also start searching for new mods. The site cannot survive without them, not in any meaningful way. It's a thankless job; at least I get to be the face of the site, to some degree. I don't know how we can make the mod search better, but part of it will be the establishment of new rules/guidelines. Mods will be held to a higher standard, but I've let too much slide that led to yesterday's incident. I am also thinking about how to enforce rules against myself, though given I'm the owner, I don't really know how to do that save something like a swear jar, wherein my punishments would be donations to a charity. I had new code ready for staging, but I'm going to refocus to give the mods new tools, get new mods, and to establish better rules/guidelines for the site first.

So there we have it. I don't intend on giving up on the site, though it may be rough for a bit. Thank you to all of you; the site exists for you and because of you. I'm going to leave this thread open for discussion; please do not abuse that and put me in a position where I have to lock it.

Keleth, I want to come in and apologize for escalating the situation yesterday. I stand by what I said, and recognize that so much of it could be a PM with Naat. Some of my own responses were sarcastic; destructive instead of constructive.

That being said, the main reason I'm posting a response is because I think it's unfair to accept the blame yourself. I think people are well aware that you put a lot of trust in the mods and are focusing your energy on the aspects of site management you do best. I, personally, appreciate that your going to spend time giving the mods some more tools to work with: had they had those earlier, so much of this probably wouldn't have happened. But hindsight is 20/15. Always a little better when you look back.

I appreciate what you do for the site. I appreciate the moderators for what they do. I also really appreciate that the team and Keleth took our (the community) comments and complaints seriously. Thank you guys, nobody else has the patience to be HR for the internet. 😉

I have decided to step down as moderator from GP. I have been thinking about it for a while already and yesterday's incident was in the end the catalyst for me to take that step right now.
I don't really want to go into the details of why. I will be sticking around as a regular member as I still very much love this site. I simply didn't want to be a moderator anymore.

Keleth -- thank you for all you've done and the recent difficult decisions you've had to make. Thanks to the mods who are stepping down for all their service, as it's not an easy job. And thanks to those who are remaining on to help with situations like this one.

The community you've fostered and that many of us have helped to build will carry on and be stronger for this. The 2025 landscape is not an easy one to navigate for communities like ours, but level heads and clear ears can really help. The ability to see both sides of an issue, and to actually moderate and not attack, will be key.

I suspect you won't have trouble finding new mods, and you need to know that you have the whole rest of the community behind you. GP is an incredible thing and we should all cherish, protect, and support it as best we can.

Thanks for the note.

I have stepped down as mod as well. While I'd normally just mute or ignore conversations on the Internet that bothered me, as a moderator that felt like it wasn't an option.

Now that I'm free to mute most of the channels, or even withdraw from the Discord entirely (undecided), I'll be a happier person, free from the increasingly toxic rhetoric from parties who are never censured for their words.

As a new GM, one of the impacts is the little note I have to contact Moderators if necessary. Since some have stepped down, where would I find the updated list?

I currently use this message in my "Newcomer message and links" patterned off a couple of Great suggestions but at the end it has this:
If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to contact any of the following moderators:
BedzoneII
bowlofspinach
CancerMan
LightOfMidnight
Naatkinson
Qralloq
Keleth (site owner)

I have lined out the ones that are no longer the Moderators, but is this list accurate as of today?

Yes. I'll look for where we want to update that list right now, but you have it correctly. I'll be making a post soon looking for more moderators.

We're also thinking of having a pinned thread that would basically be an intro by each mod. I'd want to crowd source some general/fun questions to answer there.

"Now do I see the earth anew
Rise all green from the waves again;
The cataracts fall, and the eagle flies,
And fish he catches beneath the cliffs.

-Voluspa, vs 59

This is a great idea. Although I sort of know most of the mods well enough to maybe predict the games they'd be interested in, I think it would help all of us to get to know them better.

it might help to have a permanent mod recruitment page too.
let people know what's required, who qualifies etc.
I have no idea how technical a mod's job is, how many hours a week it takes, or if I could contribute or not.

@THAC0 there is an open thread about that, at the moment

thank you!