- Pronouns
- I don't give a flying fuck.
All —
Yesterday we announced that an indefinite ban we had placed on Festavo in 2018 was being lifted.
Our policy has always been that bans are not about punishment. They are about safety. That is always why we strive to never impose administrative bans with a fixed time limit. We have strayed from this rule a few times and always regretted it, because a time-limit gives the false expectation that a safety concern will be resolved by a fixed date. Thus, a ban represents the current status of the subject, but it is never immutable. We are open to reconsidering bans if we have reason to believe the risk of threat has diminished or additional evidence becomes available that changes our analysis.
When Festavo approached us, we engaged in an interactive conversation with him where we discussed his past actions and he displayed what we interpreted as sincere remorse. In our view, this was not someone throwing up an apology to save their career or reputation, and pretending like they changed overnight. He discussed with us about how he had evolved over the past six years and regretted his transphobic and anti-LGBTQ+ comments. The key question we had to consider: Does it seem like this individual would put our members in danger?
We reflected on this question very seriously. Our administrative team is majority LGBTQ+ with queer and non-cis representation, and we are not naive to the harm that words can do — many of us have been on the receiving end of harassment and bullying.
But after our conversations with Festavo, we were convinced that he longer posed a safety concern to our community.
We knew that any return to the community would have to mean Festavo revealing his identity, public apologies, and facing the consequences of his initial deceit.
Additionally, we weighed whether more people should be brought into the conversation. Traditionally, we have tried to keep our decisions close to the chest and free of external influence. This policy has served us well in many instances where we had to make unpopular or surprising decisions. In this instance, it may have been a mistake, and we will be thinking of formalizing our processes of ban reviews and soliciting feedback from persons or groups who may be impacted.
On announcing this news, we received a lot of feedback, and this morning Administrator Malashaan formally asked for thoughts to be shared with them or in public. Based on that, it is clear that many members are not comfortable sharing an online space with Festavo.
As an administrative team, we believe in redemption. Many of us have been playing this game for a decade plus, and have seen the power of our community — this community — to change hearts and minds. Even in the hours since our announcement yesterday, we worked as an intermediary to try to arrange a personal apology from Festavo to one of the players he harmed back in 2018. We think that is meaningful and important.
But while we may believe that the balance of evidence shows Festavo no longer presents a safety concern, and while we may desire our community to offer the coveted second chance, we cannot force those feelings on the community as a whole.
Some valued members are understandably not willing to look past the things that Festavo said six years ago, and we cannot and will not force them to do so.
Given that, we are reimposing the indefinite ban on Festavo.
It is worth noting that every single ban status review in our administrative team’s history has brought significant stress and left people dissatisfied. Beyond the feedback we have received today, we are open to suggestions on how to improve the reviews process or, indeed, if we should shift to a system of “permaban” where administrative bans are not open to review .
To address a few final points:
— It has been suggested by some that HEM’s comment noting that Festavo’s behavior took place outside Europeia indicated that we did not care about Festavo’s conduct because it took place elsewhere. That is obviously not the case, as he was banned for six years and numerous members have been banned for conduct outside Europeia.
— We are appreciative of everyone in our community who openly expressed their feelings and shared their thoughts. Your feedback is a gift, and we are grateful. We are also appreciative of non-Europeians who reached out to us individually with information or questions in good faith.
— We heard reports that some community members received some targeted backlash for expressing their views on this contentious matter. We understand that this is an emotionally-charged topic, but ask that members be charitable toward each other and assume good intent when it comes to respective views on this specific issue — and frankly, all contentious issues.
— As a team, we are reflecting on how we may have missed the mark here. As stated above, many of us have dealt with both harassment and bullying, including in this game. On top of that, we are an older group of players both in-game and IRL who have far too much experience with previous administrative investigations. Our formative experiences of the internet were different than many members, and it might be easier to compartmentalize things said online than those with different digital experiences. This is something we will also be considering with our future decision-making so we maintain the trust you've put in us as a community.
Signed,
The Administrative Team
Yesterday we announced that an indefinite ban we had placed on Festavo in 2018 was being lifted.
Our policy has always been that bans are not about punishment. They are about safety. That is always why we strive to never impose administrative bans with a fixed time limit. We have strayed from this rule a few times and always regretted it, because a time-limit gives the false expectation that a safety concern will be resolved by a fixed date. Thus, a ban represents the current status of the subject, but it is never immutable. We are open to reconsidering bans if we have reason to believe the risk of threat has diminished or additional evidence becomes available that changes our analysis.
When Festavo approached us, we engaged in an interactive conversation with him where we discussed his past actions and he displayed what we interpreted as sincere remorse. In our view, this was not someone throwing up an apology to save their career or reputation, and pretending like they changed overnight. He discussed with us about how he had evolved over the past six years and regretted his transphobic and anti-LGBTQ+ comments. The key question we had to consider: Does it seem like this individual would put our members in danger?
We reflected on this question very seriously. Our administrative team is majority LGBTQ+ with queer and non-cis representation, and we are not naive to the harm that words can do — many of us have been on the receiving end of harassment and bullying.
But after our conversations with Festavo, we were convinced that he longer posed a safety concern to our community.
We knew that any return to the community would have to mean Festavo revealing his identity, public apologies, and facing the consequences of his initial deceit.
Additionally, we weighed whether more people should be brought into the conversation. Traditionally, we have tried to keep our decisions close to the chest and free of external influence. This policy has served us well in many instances where we had to make unpopular or surprising decisions. In this instance, it may have been a mistake, and we will be thinking of formalizing our processes of ban reviews and soliciting feedback from persons or groups who may be impacted.
On announcing this news, we received a lot of feedback, and this morning Administrator Malashaan formally asked for thoughts to be shared with them or in public. Based on that, it is clear that many members are not comfortable sharing an online space with Festavo.
As an administrative team, we believe in redemption. Many of us have been playing this game for a decade plus, and have seen the power of our community — this community — to change hearts and minds. Even in the hours since our announcement yesterday, we worked as an intermediary to try to arrange a personal apology from Festavo to one of the players he harmed back in 2018. We think that is meaningful and important.
But while we may believe that the balance of evidence shows Festavo no longer presents a safety concern, and while we may desire our community to offer the coveted second chance, we cannot force those feelings on the community as a whole.
Some valued members are understandably not willing to look past the things that Festavo said six years ago, and we cannot and will not force them to do so.
Given that, we are reimposing the indefinite ban on Festavo.
It is worth noting that every single ban status review in our administrative team’s history has brought significant stress and left people dissatisfied. Beyond the feedback we have received today, we are open to suggestions on how to improve the reviews process or, indeed, if we should shift to a system of “permaban” where administrative bans are not open to review .
To address a few final points:
— It has been suggested by some that HEM’s comment noting that Festavo’s behavior took place outside Europeia indicated that we did not care about Festavo’s conduct because it took place elsewhere. That is obviously not the case, as he was banned for six years and numerous members have been banned for conduct outside Europeia.
— We are appreciative of everyone in our community who openly expressed their feelings and shared their thoughts. Your feedback is a gift, and we are grateful. We are also appreciative of non-Europeians who reached out to us individually with information or questions in good faith.
— We heard reports that some community members received some targeted backlash for expressing their views on this contentious matter. We understand that this is an emotionally-charged topic, but ask that members be charitable toward each other and assume good intent when it comes to respective views on this specific issue — and frankly, all contentious issues.
— As a team, we are reflecting on how we may have missed the mark here. As stated above, many of us have dealt with both harassment and bullying, including in this game. On top of that, we are an older group of players both in-game and IRL who have far too much experience with previous administrative investigations. Our formative experiences of the internet were different than many members, and it might be easier to compartmentalize things said online than those with different digital experiences. This is something we will also be considering with our future decision-making so we maintain the trust you've put in us as a community.
Signed,
The Administrative Team
