- Pronouns
- They/she
Effective immediately, LocustOfCharon, also known as Askar, is subject to an administrative ban. He had previously requested a voluntary ban, but we have decided to alter this to an involuntary one. This likely will not come as a surprise to many after the events of the last week, but please take the time to read the following explanation for this decision. Much of what happened was not actionable at the Admin level, and we believe it is important to identify what our decision was based on (and what it was not) as clearly as possible.
Recently, a channel dedicated to learning about sex-themed roleplay was created in a non-Europeian server that is frequented by many of our members. Askar announced that he would be using the channel to teach people about such roleplay. Several people approached HEM and others to express concern that such a channel might be abused by predators. Concern was also expressed that hosting such a channel in a server with a large amount of overlap with the Players Against Misconduct (PAM) group could potentially create a conflict of interest or send mixed signals. HEM, as a member of PAM, and Sopo, as a prominent member of the server, spoke up raising these concerns.
The channel was ultimately removed due to the public controversy. The Admin team has no authority over what people decide to do with their private servers and took no position on this matter. However, as noted above, HEM and Sopo both expressed their personal opinions on the matter as members of the impacted communities. The existence of such a channel, and more generally conversation that is sexual in nature between consenting adults, is certainly not administratively actionable. We encourage everyone to be aware of the dangers of sharing private information and intimate details on the internet, but the choice to engage in such activities as an adult is yours. We want to stress that the creation and operation of the channel was not administratively actionable and our decision is not based on that in any way. That said, while we view this as a separate issue, to avoid any appearance of impropriety, HEM and Sopo recused themselves from this decision in view of their involvement in the events described above.
Having clarified what our decision is not based on, we now turn to the reasons why we have banned Askar. As we have explained previously, our primary guiding principle in deciding whether to ban someone is whether we believe they pose an unreasonable threat to the real-life wellbeing of members of our community. That can be physical, emotional, mental, or financial. Whether the threat posed is unreasonable is a function of both likelihood and severity of harm. In this case, we have several reasons to believe that the threat posed by Askar is unreasonably high.
Several things stood out to us in Askar’s behavior as concerning. Much of this behavior occurred before the recent controversy over the sex-themed roleplay channel. We received reports from several people that they were concerned he exhibited controlling behavior, and his own words that we saw first hand back up that conclusion. We confirmed one instance of Askar lying about his real-life identity, and he exhibits a pattern of making statements about his life, including his overall health, to gain sympathy and develop connections that is very concerning. More generally, we heard from several people who are unwilling to interact with Askar because they feel he does not respect boundaries regarding what is acceptable behavior. Perhaps most concerningly, he also exhibited a tendency to deflect from conversations about real-life concerns by trying to paint it as an in-game political matter. Collectively, this paints a picture suggestive of someone willing and able to use leverage to emotionally manipulate others.
The other major factor in our decision relates to Askar’s threats of real-life litigation. Askar has made several threats surrounding real-life litigation over the last few days. He made several threats to sue the Admin team as well as a currently unknown author of an article from the Panda’s Pen for defamation. He also threatened legal action for a copyright-related matter. None of these threats appear to have any basis in real-life law, but we want to take a further minute to address why they are concerning to us.
If he were just threatening to sue the Admin team, we would be annoyed and a little stressed, but the threat to us is not what concerns us. Rather, it is the threat it represents to the wider community. A threat of even a frivolous lawsuit is stressful. We had nothing to do with any of the events that apparently angered him, but he didn’t hesitate to threaten suit multiple times over several days. This was not one hot-headed comment in the heat of the moment, it was a persistent pattern that at a minimum was an attempt to intimidate us. Askar’s actions demonstrate a propensity to make damaging threats that could easily be repeated against others if he ever feels slighted by them. On top of that, if the suit was filed, it would still require time and money to defend, no matter how frivolous it is. Plenty of people have been financially stressed or bankrupted by such lawsuits. In short, someone who is willing to threaten, and possibly go through with frivolous lawsuits when he doesn’t get his way is a threat to all of us.
Possibly even more concerningly, one of the threads running through his threats of suit was that he wanted us to reveal to him information about who had written the article in the Panda’s Pen. He specifically threatened to use real-life legal process to force us to turn over that information (which, incidentally, we don’t have). We take any attempt to obtain information about our members that they have not chosen to make public seriously. It does not matter whether that is through hacking, manipulation, intimidation, or bogus legal claims, we take the privacy of our members seriously.
The sum of Askar’s actions clearly demonstrate his presence would represent an unreasonable risk to the real-life wellbeing of the community. Therefore, Askar is now involuntarily and indefinitely banned from the Europeian forums and the EuroChat Discord server. We are aware that this is not the extent of the universe in which Europeians converse. There are numerous social servers and other regions that share membership with Europeia. We would like to remind everyone that such places may not have the same level of protection and oversight that we provide. They can be great sources of entertainment and camaraderie, but please take a moment to be aware of who else has access and authority in a given environment as well as what systems are in place to protect its members.
Finally, as always, if you have information about potentially actionable behavior (by Askar or anyone else), please do reach out to one of the Admin team to discuss it. If in doubt, report it. We’d rather hear too much than miss important information.
Recently, a channel dedicated to learning about sex-themed roleplay was created in a non-Europeian server that is frequented by many of our members. Askar announced that he would be using the channel to teach people about such roleplay. Several people approached HEM and others to express concern that such a channel might be abused by predators. Concern was also expressed that hosting such a channel in a server with a large amount of overlap with the Players Against Misconduct (PAM) group could potentially create a conflict of interest or send mixed signals. HEM, as a member of PAM, and Sopo, as a prominent member of the server, spoke up raising these concerns.
The channel was ultimately removed due to the public controversy. The Admin team has no authority over what people decide to do with their private servers and took no position on this matter. However, as noted above, HEM and Sopo both expressed their personal opinions on the matter as members of the impacted communities. The existence of such a channel, and more generally conversation that is sexual in nature between consenting adults, is certainly not administratively actionable. We encourage everyone to be aware of the dangers of sharing private information and intimate details on the internet, but the choice to engage in such activities as an adult is yours. We want to stress that the creation and operation of the channel was not administratively actionable and our decision is not based on that in any way. That said, while we view this as a separate issue, to avoid any appearance of impropriety, HEM and Sopo recused themselves from this decision in view of their involvement in the events described above.
Having clarified what our decision is not based on, we now turn to the reasons why we have banned Askar. As we have explained previously, our primary guiding principle in deciding whether to ban someone is whether we believe they pose an unreasonable threat to the real-life wellbeing of members of our community. That can be physical, emotional, mental, or financial. Whether the threat posed is unreasonable is a function of both likelihood and severity of harm. In this case, we have several reasons to believe that the threat posed by Askar is unreasonably high.
Several things stood out to us in Askar’s behavior as concerning. Much of this behavior occurred before the recent controversy over the sex-themed roleplay channel. We received reports from several people that they were concerned he exhibited controlling behavior, and his own words that we saw first hand back up that conclusion. We confirmed one instance of Askar lying about his real-life identity, and he exhibits a pattern of making statements about his life, including his overall health, to gain sympathy and develop connections that is very concerning. More generally, we heard from several people who are unwilling to interact with Askar because they feel he does not respect boundaries regarding what is acceptable behavior. Perhaps most concerningly, he also exhibited a tendency to deflect from conversations about real-life concerns by trying to paint it as an in-game political matter. Collectively, this paints a picture suggestive of someone willing and able to use leverage to emotionally manipulate others.
The other major factor in our decision relates to Askar’s threats of real-life litigation. Askar has made several threats surrounding real-life litigation over the last few days. He made several threats to sue the Admin team as well as a currently unknown author of an article from the Panda’s Pen for defamation. He also threatened legal action for a copyright-related matter. None of these threats appear to have any basis in real-life law, but we want to take a further minute to address why they are concerning to us.
If he were just threatening to sue the Admin team, we would be annoyed and a little stressed, but the threat to us is not what concerns us. Rather, it is the threat it represents to the wider community. A threat of even a frivolous lawsuit is stressful. We had nothing to do with any of the events that apparently angered him, but he didn’t hesitate to threaten suit multiple times over several days. This was not one hot-headed comment in the heat of the moment, it was a persistent pattern that at a minimum was an attempt to intimidate us. Askar’s actions demonstrate a propensity to make damaging threats that could easily be repeated against others if he ever feels slighted by them. On top of that, if the suit was filed, it would still require time and money to defend, no matter how frivolous it is. Plenty of people have been financially stressed or bankrupted by such lawsuits. In short, someone who is willing to threaten, and possibly go through with frivolous lawsuits when he doesn’t get his way is a threat to all of us.
Possibly even more concerningly, one of the threads running through his threats of suit was that he wanted us to reveal to him information about who had written the article in the Panda’s Pen. He specifically threatened to use real-life legal process to force us to turn over that information (which, incidentally, we don’t have). We take any attempt to obtain information about our members that they have not chosen to make public seriously. It does not matter whether that is through hacking, manipulation, intimidation, or bogus legal claims, we take the privacy of our members seriously.
The sum of Askar’s actions clearly demonstrate his presence would represent an unreasonable risk to the real-life wellbeing of the community. Therefore, Askar is now involuntarily and indefinitely banned from the Europeian forums and the EuroChat Discord server. We are aware that this is not the extent of the universe in which Europeians converse. There are numerous social servers and other regions that share membership with Europeia. We would like to remind everyone that such places may not have the same level of protection and oversight that we provide. They can be great sources of entertainment and camaraderie, but please take a moment to be aware of who else has access and authority in a given environment as well as what systems are in place to protect its members.
Finally, as always, if you have information about potentially actionable behavior (by Askar or anyone else), please do reach out to one of the Admin team to discuss it. If in doubt, report it. We’d rather hear too much than miss important information.