Chanku was excluded from such talks because she has been radical and entirely unopen to compromise to the point of zealotry. Others that share her concerns have proven themselves to be more open to discussion rather than total surrender. She approaches it as a hostage situation and uses the community as a bargaining chip while others have been willing to negotiate.
You have absolutely no remorse for absolutely unacceptable behaviour.
Do not speak for me, or any of the Operators ever again. I unequivocally denounce every letter of Church's statements. This is not why Chanku was removed, that is an internal matter and I do not wish to make it public. You have violated my privacy, along with Chanku's privacy.
All of the details I will provide about the situation and Chanku's removal--
because now I have to,--was a result of personal reasons, which made me feel unable to work productively with her. This matter will not be discussed further, no more details will be provided, out of respect for Chanku's privacy, and my own. You have broken my trust, Church, that information wasn't yours to share, especially twisted and mischaracterised the way it was. I never used those words in reference to this conversation or any other, nor would I. Ever.
For the record I don't regret a single word in my statement. I said what the ops team isn't allowed to say. They haven't been allowed to express their anger while the group driving people out of our community have acted like children and rabid dogs. Someone had to say it and I am happy to have expressed that anger which the ops team has had to bury.
Spoiler
The following is my individual opinion.
For two weeks now a select few pushed the ops team around. For two weeks now they've chased people out of the server and out of the region with no remorse. They have pursued their agendas and Wintreath has paid the price for it. But no more. One way or another THIS ENDS NOW. They have refused to be reasonable and so I draw the line here. Their destructive and toxic methods END NOW. Others who were driven away by them and their destructive and toxic behavior unfortunately can't be here for this. So this ends now. However there are those among them that do not approve their methods. So this paragraph is not directed at those individuals. To those among them that approve of their methods so far; I will not allow you to tear this community apart any longer. We are the ops team. We are tasked with protecting this community and enforcing the rules. So we will do just that. You are not above the rules.
Now that I've went cold, logical mod on this it's time I get a little personal. A little down-to-earth about it all. This select few has spent its time turning friends against friends. They've handed out pitchforks and torches to you and told you that you are in danger. That you face an enemy. And that that enemy is the very people you've gotten to know for so long and become very close with. That among others that enemy is me. I sat back while they (and you) said what I meant. That I meant one thing as opposed to another. That they know my mind better than myself. That in some way I had acted as a bad person. And some of you believed them. I can't begin to express how hurt I was to see my friends turn on me so quickly. So viciously.
I was even more hurt to see that select few attack me even more viciously. I've known them for so long. I've helped them with so much and they in turn helped me. Admittedly I've lost all respect for one of them. How could I not? It may be a long time before I can respect them again. If not ever again. I'm not sure if or when I can consider that select group of friends my friends ever again. They'll have to earn that back. But that's not on the rest of you. Their actions have consequences and those consequences are on them. Not you.
You should feel sorry. Your behaviour was patently unacceptable. You don't speak for the Ops team, you may feel you do, but we are able to speak for ourselves.
We're people, we do need to vent our frustrations in a healthy way so we talk with each other. Those words, they aren't representative of our views. They're driven by pure emotion and the way we feel emotionally at that moment. Everyone says some inflammatory stuff in their head or out loud with friends when they're upset, the Ops are human too. Any other time, when we aren't upset or performing our duties, we try our best to consider both sides, though we do fail sometimes.
Our current discourse is a result of understanding our mistakes, and now we're working to help repair the damage.
Where We Go From Here
I and the Ops team are absolutely committed to helping resolve things and bring about positive change because we know that there must be change. The group chat was created because there was a need to have a way to have everyone's voices heard and for us to remain informed. The members, who will remain anonymous unless they choose to voice themselves, were selected because they represented a diverse set of viewpoints. Those viewpoints and their input has been immensely helpful in the short time that this group has existed, so I'm excited to see how much we're able to accomplish. Hopefully, we can turn the page to a new, brighter chapter soon.
We're an LGBT+ community, we know diversity is strength. I hope we can come out of this situation stronger than when we went in.
Here's to a better future for everyone here!~
~trader
@Anthony (XXURBANXX) Also @ everyone, I guess.
Edit: Minor stylistic changes.
Edit 2: Clarified some statements.
