| RE: Administrative Interaction With Unibot |
|
This is a topic that has been brought up many times in many areas, but ultimately seems to fall to the wayside due to some of the parties being called out in it going radio silent until the topic matter is forgotten about again. Given that, I feel that it is appropriate to open a thread in the Private Halls of the Assembly on the topic, so we can discuss as a region what is frankly a really troubling set of affiliations and interactions between some of our Admin Team (as well as other), and Unibot.
For Some Context: Unibot is a pretty well-known NSer, starting out in the General Assembly and then moving into Gameplay. He's known for his history in TEP and TSP, as well as being the founder of the now-defunct United Defenders League, and the Delegate of The Rejected Realms. At this point in time, he is banned and blacklisted from pretty much every GP-involved region on NS. The reason that Unibot is blacklisted and banned is after evidence and victims came forward a couple years back alleging an extensive history of sexual harassment, sexually suggestive remarks, and generally creepy behavior towards women on NS. This resulted in a domino effect of Admin Action by Regional Admin Teams, including TSP's, that now brings us to our current state of affairs - Unibot being widely known as a sexual harasser, and banned from pretty much everywhere. Unfortunately, as the actions occurred off-site and no overly-comprehensive evidence submission has been made to NS Moderation (as they only revised their policy on taking action from off-site evidence some years after this all occurred), Unibot is still welcome on the site. This is something that multiple NS Moderators have expressed frustration at, especially considering some Game Moderators were also Regional Forum Admins and saw the evidence themselves. Ultimately, it's more-or-less agreed upon that Unibot committed extensive sexual harassment and predatory behavior towards women on NS. What makes it even more fucked up is that Unibot, for years, alleged that this was all one big politically-motivated character assassination of him. It's honestly pretty par for the course for Unibot, though, who took NS more seriously than he took RL basically right up to when he was banned from everywhere. Only recently did he admit his guilt, but he carefully worded it just vaguely enough that it technically wasn't actionable for NS Moderators. The Main Problem: Multiple individuals within The South Pacific continue to maintain close friendship and relationships with the player known as Unibot. What's most concerning is that these individuals include:
Unibot also clearly hasn't reformed much either. When Escade briefly visited that server, Unibot immediately began going around claiming he "had access" to Escade. I'm not sure if you could ever find a context in which that doesn't sound ridiculously predatory, knowing that man's extensive history of sexual harassment. What Can Be Done: I think part of this post is simply spreading awareness, so that any individuals who may ever have the misfortune of being exposed to Unibot - either on-site or off-site - know what kind of person he is and what kind of actions he's committed without much in the way of remorse. Given that we have so many high-up members interacting with Unibot, especially individuals in roles that are responsible for Out-Of-Character Community Safety, it needs to be made clear that Unibot is not a safe individual to be interacting with. Even if you put aside the sexual harassment, this is an individual with an extensive history of flaming, misogyny, and treating NS as if it's as important if not more important than Real Life. Furthermore, I do not think that it is conducive towards the health and stability of our TSP Community that the same individuals who are tasked with protecting us from and acting upon evidence of OOC Misconduct are so casually all residing in a private server with one of the most notorious sexual harassers present on Nationstates. I think their authority and role as protectors of our community is severely compromised should they choose to hang out in a server with Unibot. It's not too far of a stretch to imagine Unibot subsequently reaching out to new people within our community, and pointing out that 3/4 of our Admin Team hang out with him in a private server, so clearly he can't be all that bad. Their close association with Unibot frankly corrupts and derails the potential stability of our region moving forward. Ultimately, I'd like to see the Assembly make clear to our Administrative Team and Government that such close association with a multi-count sexual predator is incredibly detrimental to our community's health, especially when considering that said individual is still actively trying to get re-involved in Nationstates Gameplay. If they wish to keep that association, they should do it from a position that isn't subsequently compromised due to that association. Our Administrators are here to protect our community, and this action by so many of them does nothing but endanger us further.
Could you provide more details as to this server?
Minister of Media, Subversion and Sandwich Making
Associate Justice of the High Court and Senior Moderator ![[Image: B9ytUsy.png]](https://i.imgur.com/B9ytUsy.png) (07-31-2018, 05:55 PM)Belschaft Wrote: Could you provide more details as to this server? Based on what I heard, I believe it's Kris Kringle's private server, similar to the sort of private friend group servers people start. I know at one point it was called "Lampshade Bar And Grill", though I'm uncertain as to what it's called at this point. Alongside those Admins and CRS mentioned, I know Seraph spent some time there some years back (though not for long), and Escade did for a brief amount of time last year before being quickly made very uncomfortable by Unibot and departing from the server.
Administrators, of a region, are by their very nature endowed with immense power and responsibility. They, through their example, set the tone for what is and isn't respectable and acceptable.
In the case of predatory players, such as Unibot, having "access" to the majority administration team of a region like TSP, including players who are also members of the CRS and hold other government positions, validates his belief in his ability to get away with sexual harassment. That's why this is unacceptable. In 2017, I was invited to this server and can confirm its existence as well as its membership at the time. I left quickly citing that I felt uncomfortable. I felt uncomfortable because the first thing Unibot did was to spread to other players that he "had access to Escade" which led to other players contacting me to confirm this and making assumptions about my character that were negative and also in some cases sexualized whether or not intended to be this way. I also did let know the CRS member I trusted most at the time that I thought Unibot was slime and that TSP as a region and TSPers should stay far away from him. The response to that was that I could not make anyone do anything. Therefore, I backed off and occasionally brought up in other places (whether NSGP Discord or through private conversations) was that if players really wanted to get rid of Unibot they had to stop talking to him and about him and cut him off from the game. The most disturbing part of this is learning today that Unibot wants to re-integrate into the NS community and is writing his version of events and planning to recant the apology he made for sexually harassing players in the first place. To know that a friend might have to deal with this is actually horrifying to me. Whether it's Unibot or Sam111 or Brunhilde or the numerous other players who have made this game hell for female players with their twisted predatory behavior, we need to make it clear that we do not justify sexual harassment or approve of it or legitimize players who have engaged in it. Administration and the CRS are responsible for the safety of this community as well as the upholders of our community values. They should not be associating with Unibot or any other sexual harasser because if they do then there is no more belief in the justice and safety of our community. That Unibot is emboldened to come back to NS because of his powerful friends speaks to how dire this situation really is. Escade ~ Positions Held in TSP ~ Delegate | Vice Delegate Minister of Regional Affairs, | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Minister of Military Affairs ~ The Sparkly One ~ My Pinterest
Whilst I don't think the Assembly can control who people are friends with, any reasonable person would find a close association between members of the Admin team and a player banned from TSP for sexual harassment and emotional abuse of female players deeply troubling.
I hope that the members in question will clarify the nature of their relationship with Unibot. Minister of Media, Subversion and Sandwich Making
Associate Justice of the High Court and Senior Moderator
This is a horrific detail to see. I thank Tim for displaying all of this so we can be fully aware of this troubling situation. Sexual predators must not be accepted, and I truly hope that the respectable members of our community cut their respective ties with him, posthaste. It sets a dangerous precedent for victims and all of us overall: that demons can come back in full force, and if you're a victim, you may be haunted again. And if you're a target, now you're part of their perverted and putrid list of "achievements". That is not what we should aim for. That is not what a safe community should aim for, ever.
Deputy Regional Minister of the Planning and Development Agency(March 8-May 19, 2014)
Local Council Member(April 24-August 11) Court Justice of TSP(August 15-December 7)
I'm not going to deflect. There are reasonable concerns being brought up, which I will address in this post. But before I do, I must urge the reader to consider that this is quite obviously a move not motivated primarily out of community safety.
Tim, to his credit, has always been consistent about his views on Unibot. That being said, many of the details he has brought up in the OP as well as his first reply are things he has known for quite some time, and only now decided to bring up. In the TSP Discord as well as the NSGP Discord, he has brought up contact between Unibot and one or more of the South Pacificans named in the OP on the following dates:
Note the rapidly increased frequency in the past few weeks. There was no Unibot-related incident anywhere that I am aware of that could cause this. When the revelation that I initially got some R/D training from Unibot hit the NS Gameplay forums last summer, there was some obvious fallout. At multiple times spanning the past year, Tim outright stated that while he dislikes that fact, and doesn't approve of occasional contact between Unibot and other NSers (myself included), he acknowledged that I have a brain and would never let Unibot near TSP or any other place in gameplay. Escade's role in this is even more disingenuous. When she rejoined NationStates and was informed of Unibot's site-wide ostracization, she stated that she was not surprised, given the constant harassment (so, she knew). Nonetheless, she acted kindly to the point of obsequiousness toward Unibot, both in conversations with him (in the server mentioned above) and in conversations with others, even after the "access" incident Escade describes in her post. She comforted me when Cormac leaked the revelation regarding my R/D training to NSGP, stating that she doesn't care who does or doesn't have contact and that she's annoyed that the issue is being used politically by the other side. So, what's going on here? Tim and Escade's knowledge of all of this well predates this thread by over a year. But now, all of a sudden, it becomes an issue Tim begins mentioning more frequently and much more strongly (literally "endangers the community"), and Escade reverses herself on. It's not a stretch to claim that this is the aftermath of the Motion of No Confidence at work. Escade has completely demonized me ever since then, and Tim has outright stated that he took this OOC personally. I have comported myself, and they have nothing left to attack me on - so they reach for this low-hanging fruit (and they also knock down Glen for free in the process). I hate the word "toxic" in an NS context. I feel it is entirely overused and has become, for the most part, meaningless. I do not consider TSP intrinsically toxic, and have answered as such on the Prime Minister's survey. But what is happening now? Glen is being slandered within and outside of TSP with claims that he told Escade to go to rehab based on a deliberate misreading and/or misphrasing of something he wrote. Information that Tim and Escade knew for literally over a year is now being brought up as literally endangering our region (their words, not mine). Everything that is being done by Glen or myself is phrased in terms of "the cabal", mirroring the worst talking points of TSP's enemies on NSGP. A long-time South Pacifican and former Delegate has now just outright resigned Legislator status and left the Discord server over this. This? This is toxic. And you're obliviously tearing TSP apart, all out of petty revenge for an IC thing I did and Glen agreed with that you didn't like. Shame on you. Now, as I said in the beginning, trapped beneath the hyperbole of the OP are perfectly reasonable concerns and I will address those. First off, at no point will Unibot be welcome in TSP again, either politically or administratively. Period. No discussion. This isn't my opinion alone, this is the opinion of both the Discord and Forum administration teams. Second, this isn't some unique "problem" of TSP. There are very good reasons Unibot is ostracized across the greater NationStates community, and while the detailed reasons are known to few, the overall story is well known. The NationStates moderation team actually is aware of the detailed reasons (after all, it was then-Game Moderators Sedgistan and Crazy Girl who administered Unibot's TRR ban). Nonetheless, the NationStates moderation team did appoint Unibot as the OP of the NS History thread in January of this year. Even if for no other reason than that, Unibot still has many contacts within NationStates, including high-profile forum administrators and political leaders in other regions than the South Pacific. Third, contact with anyone does not automatically impede the ability for administrators for sensible and objective judgement (or recusal, if appropriate). Sam was beloved by many in our community, and somebody who I frequently wrote with, and yet we took the measures we had to take when push came to shove, without regard for any of that. The good of the community comes before any personal convictions. As mentioned in the previous point, there are many other individuals also affected whose judgement would then have to be questioned, including people Tim has worked with extensively on OOC matters. Fourth, the server in question was born out of an old IRC channel that was a hangout group for a variety of South Pacificans. It's a group that is slowly dying out, with Seraph being the last one to join back in 2016 (though he left briefly after); the only reason Escade got into the server later by virtue of having been in the IRC channel back in the day plus demonstrable awareness of the Unibot issue. The topics of conversation are usually canadian politics or NS history. Unibot's membership in the server also came from his membership in the IRC channel (which predates his ban), where he would occasionally show up to expound on some obscure aspect of NS history and then leave again. It was never called "Lampshade Bar And Grill", it was always called "The Bar"; I don't know where Tim got that information, but it's clearly wrong. It is also not the TIL server, before anyone gets that idea. And now I'm going to sleep, as it's well past 5am. I may have missed something pertinent, just tell me if so. I'll answer any and all questions tomorrow. ![[Image: XXPV74Y.png?1]](https://i.imgur.com/XXPV74Y.png?1)
The only reason that I spoke to Unibot in that manner was he approached me about making amends and seeking forgiveness from a player in the game who he harassed and attempted to ruin the reputation of. My first instinct was not to speak to him at all and several people are aware of this as I referred to him as "slime." The player he harassed, who has asked her evidence be kept from certain TSPers due to their involvement with Unibot, and I spoke extensively about the situation and what happened and she wanted to know if he would even admit to the wrongdoing in the first place. It turned out he only wanted to make an apology if it would allow him back into the game. Bringing up that is unfair here and to anyone involved. After figuring out he was not interested in actually apologizing in any way (just being allowed back into the game), I cut off all contact with him and urged other people to do the same. Apologies for OOC sexual harassment cannot be used as avenues back into the game.
Considering, Roavin, how I thought you were either Unibot, or by virtue of how much you talked about him, could just have been one of the people who describe him as "just a horny guy who didn't know how to deal with it," (indeed you refer to him as a "misogynist" in today's lounge conversation consistently rather than as a sexual harasser) I had no inclination to tell you anything more about what was or wasn't going on during that time period. My general views on Unibot are publicly known and privately known by enough people as "have nothing to do with him in any space whatsoever." I've actively told people not to communicate with him at all and sometimes received strong pushback on it. I've always hated the fact that Unibot is used against defenders and have mentioned that publicly and privately. It's the same as trying to slime someone with Nazism. The actions of a few don't have anything to do with the actions of the majority. It would help if he wasn't protected or encouraged by anyone. You'll note that I never reply to him on any venue over the past year. Finally, on the subject of victims of Unibot, Brunhilde, or Sam - I've spoken to at least one if not more of the victims of each of them. So "other people in NS do it" is not an excuse. If you've ever actually spoken to someone who has been extensively harassed and has to deal with their harasser being in the game or being given validation you wouldn't be trying to make this an issue about your personal vendettas against me and Tim and rather address the points brought up. I've consistently stated that the way to deal with Unibot by anyone is to cut of all contact. That's also publicly and privately available. I've received pushback on this by several people, some of whom I consider friends, and more recently choose to argue back rather than just move away. We've gotten to an era in NS, because of some consistent members of the community, to not have to just evade issues but can address them head on. Unibot thinks he can come back to this game because of his powerful friends which include the majority of TSP's administration team and some members of government. That's the problem here so stop deflecting or mixing up OOC and IC once more. This is an OOC matter. The only thing players are asking is admin team to remove themselves from any private servers and cut off contact with Unibot. I'm not sure how that can be interpreted in any other way, unless of course you refuse to do that and want to deflect the real issue here. Escade ~ Positions Held in TSP ~ Delegate | Vice Delegate Minister of Regional Affairs, | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Minister of Military Affairs ~ The Sparkly One ~ My Pinterest
What is the desired outcome by the OP? Is it somesort of resolution by this Assembly or voluntary actions by certain members mentioned in this thread?
I don't care on whatever toxic sludgefest anyone is trying to engage in right now, because I, and many others, cannot stop you from making a scene. All I can say is this: don't associate with literal sexual predators.
Honestly, it is shameful that such a sensitive topic as sexual harassment is being politicized here, a community that should guarantee safety from such evil harm. And having contact with this pig is nothing short of stupidity. I don't care if this is yet another political attack between groups or even "cabals". Whether the issue itself or the counterattack is the poison has no bearing on my soul, for you will ridicule the region regardless. What is certain is that this contact only denigrates the honour of our region. Unibot is literally used as a tool for our adversaries to insult us due to some members here still maintaining links with this devil. Shut these contacts off. It is as easy as that. What keeps you from finally ignoring this manipulative, heartless demon? How do you have a conscience? Think of your female relatives, your family. How will you be able to face your posterity when you talk with this psychopath? I certainly could not see my Mother and my Sister to their eyes again if I ever had some sort of relationship with such trash. Even if this slime has any contacts outside TSP, that does not justify yours. And it never will. Not in a million years. Not only it gives this garbage some sort of twisted hope, it is also an insult to all of his victims. Of all his "victories", such toxic displays of primal darkness, to which all should find this utterly revolting and disdainful at a first glance. Yet, this dirt has people to talk to. How is this still happening? You are all idiots for politicizing what should be consensus: no sexual harassers allowed, we need a safe community for everyone. It is disgusting, it truly is. What should be obvious is now divisive? Wow. Just, wow. It has come to this. This is so low for all of you, whomever are responsible for this toxicity. Examine yourselves, all of you, and think about what you've done.
Deputy Regional Minister of the Planning and Development Agency(March 8-May 19, 2014)
Local Council Member(April 24-August 11) Court Justice of TSP(August 15-December 7) |
![[-]](https://tspforums.xyz/images/sidr/blue/collapse.png)
![[+]](/images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
PREVIOUS ROLES 
| Users browsing this thread: |
| 1 Guest(s) |