Rian Statement | 17/06

Hey everyone,

Tonight I want to give you guys some explanations, because you deserve them. It's far due time that you have a better understanding at the decisions that I and the other Mods from the Community make. I would appreciate if you had patience with me and the others during this time, I want to answer questions that you have but I will only be able to do so if you give me the space to. Some people will look at this and say 'ok' or 'don't care' or 'tldr', and I can't do anything about that other than say that you should not be in this community. These are the people who will complain, and complain, and complain. They will offer no solutions, and if they do they are extremely irrational and unreasonable. I value every community member that has passion for Youtooz but when you prioritise yourself over the rest of the group you aren't the right person for us.

To the rest of you, let's discuss things.

We'll start in August when Webster and angelfacepeanut were removed from their Mod Positions. The reason for this was because there was Tweets that were potentially harmful to a newly found Youtooz's brand. Somebody was banned for using racial slurs and moved to Twitter to voice their unwarranted anger. Webster and angel, all credit to them, moved to Twitter as well but this probably was not the right decision and they shouldn't have fed any attention outside the Discord. It's worth remembering, everything was new at this point and poor decisions were made. Ultimately, they got their opportunities restored again, and if they are reading this, I am sorry that this happened.

Every few months there's a pretty noticeable ban of someone valued highly amongst you guys. I won't be naming names. I know that in most of these cases they spark 'protests' and anger within our community. I guess that's fair. I understand that these things can be subjective, but when they happen I believe that the Mob Mentality of this place takes over and us mods receive unjustified hate. It's often a point that you don't realise why we make some decisions that we make, and going forward, it seems likely that there will be a public log of incidents that happen inside our community. They will be censored, but if such offences happen publicly, then they can also be recorded publicly so that you all are aware before jumping to conclusions and hating on people who have done no wrong.

Obviously there's been a bit more events recently that have escalated to a point where some mods are being demoted. Earlier this month we had an incident that resulted in in10sity losing his Moderator status. The reason for in10sitys demotion was for abusing the powers he had as Moderator by closing chats for excessive periods of time (after multiple private warnings about committing the same offences recently). To make matters worse, he closed chats so that a user could mas******, without the distraction of Youtooz Chats. Many of you saw it as a joke, and I know it was intended to be that, but it was an act that had potential to damage the Youtooz identity. As a brand it is important they are seen a certain, professional way, and not as a company that will allow people to w**k in their chats, with their moderators closing chats for them to do so. I know in10 was a good mod, but as moderators representing a brand, we sometimes have to make difficult decisions for the betterment of the Community. There is no ill will towards in10 and we still value and respect him as a member of this system. That will never change.

I got a lot of hate that night for the decision that was made, and I didn't do anything to help that, I was reluctant to share details and upon reflection, I know that this was wrong. I wanted to handle it privately but I now know it affected you guys too, and you had a right to know. With that said, I think that hate is unfair. I do my best to keep the servers (and subreddit) running smoothly and sometimes I make poor calls. This time I got threats, photos of me edited into inappropriate images, and even concepts of me were destroyed by their artists. I know that I can be wrong but hate crosses a line. If I, or any other member of the server, mod or otherwise, makes a bad decision it will not be tolerated to bombard them with harassment and hate. Voice your concerns civilly, or you're just making the community a worse place.

On the topic of toxicity, we want to make measures that can ensure that this place, a group of people who just want to collect some plastic, will be free of an overwhelming negative energy going forward. One solution we hope to implement this summer is a system to act as a reciprocal of our warning and punishment system, this would reward good behaviour (in comparison to punishing bad behaviour). It is a shame that it hasn't been enough to expect people to be good, but I truly hope we can provide an incentive for it. If this doesn't work then personally I can not see this Community Platform lasting very long. It is everyone's responsibility to take care of this place that we are so lucky to have and I want you all to recognise that.

I've made a lot of requests for people to act more consciously and be kind to one another but this time I'm seriously pleading with everybody.

It's exhausting being a Mod in the current community climate, very few people make an effort to make the place better. This will mean that we've begun to take toxic energy and continuous poor behaviour more seriously and will not be as simple as getting a few warns before a user receives a ban. Recently things were said at my expense that alone may not classify as warn material but once compiled it shows a stream of horrible behaviour with lack of empathy or understanding of the feelings of others. Going forward, this will not be tolerated.

Yesterday, at the time of writing, Chinchilla was also stripped of his Moderator role. This was because he made some decisions that should never be made by a mod and turned a blind eye as certain users were being treated unfairly. This is unacceptable, but it can not be blamed solely on him. It has unfortunately become a systematic culture in the Mod Team to overlook their wrongdoings if the mod in question or their friends are involved. Things will be changing. There is no room for bias decision making in a team that is responsible for over 50,000 people. Chinchilla was not given the right to fair trial in his demotion, and this was a decision made impulsively but not a decision made poorly. I stand by the demotion that Chinchilla got, it was intended as a suspension but was not discussed amongst Senior Mods and as such we are going to reinstate the role, subject to change. I can not know for certain the outcome of this but I hope that he can redeem himself regardless. I ask that you all have patience during this process.

I know a lot of you have shown frustration at the current Moderators and I hear you. I know something needs to be done. There are complaints about some mods who are inactive, but I do not see this as my priority. Personally, and feel free to disagree, I would rather handle any mod making reckless decisions or being harmful to you guys before I move onto the more inactive members of the team. Normally we have reasons for our inactive spells and it needs to be understood that we do not need to disclose these reasons to you. It could be for mental health reasons, for work or school, for illness, and so many more. It is not right for people to call for the demotions of people who aren't online all that much. I will make an added effort this summer to get all the mods a bit more active but I will not demote anyone over inactivity. People claim that there are staff who are only staff to claim benefits such as free figures, but this is not true. We have only once ever gotten something for our Moderating duties, and unfortunately the other cases never carried through. If we joined staff only to get free things, it just wouldn't be worth it.

I am hoping to expand the Mod Team by between 5-8 people this Summer. So if you are interested, be sure to prove yourselves. Help us make this community better.

We will also be bringing some people into the Mod Team in the near future and I ask that you do not treat them with disrespect and allow them time to settle in to their role. This is absolutely crucial, if you treat them poorly, you are treating us poorly, and it will not end well for you.

I'm not sure if I have anything else to add right now, so if you have any questions let me know, and I will do my very best to answer them. I will not be discussing individual mods, it is unfair to expect me to do so.