A Statement Regarding Closure of Relations with Grace of Gaia
From the Monarch and Riksråd of Wintreath
Relations between Wintreath and Grace of Gaia have been closed, effective December 10th.
On December 5th, Grace of Gaia’s ambassador to us, Lies Kryos, contacted then-Jarl of Foreign Affairs Chanku requesting more information regarding the events that led to several Citizens leaving the region last month. Chanku’s response, crafted in consultation with the rest of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and which reiterated the statement forming the Regional Truth Commission, was unsatisfactory to Grace of Gaia, who then issued a termination of embassies over the “unwillingness of the government to release any substantial information” on the matter. It was then stated that they had received information on the matter from a “trusted source” that we had given them no reason to not believe.
At that point, the matter was referred to the full Cabinet, and ultimately Emoticonius was asked to assume direct negotiations with Grace of Gaia, with Ruguo representing the Commission. Our goal was to assure Grace of Gaia of our intention to get to the bottom of the matter without providing information that had not been vetted to be objective. Unfortunately, they were very insistent on receiving more information, and voted to uphold the termination of embassies. At that point we felt there was nothing left to do but to withdraw from talks and allow the closure to take its course, which was completed at around midnight on December 10th.
This is a very frustrating situation because the fact of the matter is, right now nobody knows the full, unbiased story. Even I can only provide the perspective of the ops team, and if we believe that the incident came from misunderstandings and miscommunications that led two groups of people to believe the other was acting in bad faith, then sharing that biased perspective would only inflame the situation and make the work of the Regional Truth Commission more difficult. This is why I stopped talking about this once the Commission was established...because I did not want to turn it into even more of a he said she said. I ultimately decided that I could not risk making the situation worse in order to satisfy the curiosity of a foreign region.
However, in the course of talks, we were provided a report used in establishing their opinion, which included a number of extremely biased views as well as factual inaccuracies according to the facts as I know them. Out of concern that this version of events is floating around in other regions, I do feel the need to decisively respond to them. The report provided is below, then the report is broken apart with responses added:
Full Report Text
Yesterday, several prominent members of our embassy-ally region Wintreath announced that they would be leaving the region and the associated Discord server. This announcement, made over the course of several hours came after the region founder, Moot, dismissed any suggestions of a new Discord Moderation staff. Two meetings held on the 9th and the 16th were the catalysts to this issue; the meetings, centered on the topic of a new moderation team, grew heated shortly after those meetings began. Favoritism, according to my trusted source, has played a large role in the selection of the Moderation staff on the Wintreath server, as well as those who serve in their government. Moot has not updated the Moderation team in some time, but, despite the fact that many members of the current moderation team are inactive or unwilling to do their jobs, Moot refused to replace any of them. The conclusion of the higher ranking or more active members of the region was that a new moderation team was needed, but Moot shot it down without any consideration. According to the group who left Wintreath, Moot condescendingly and dismissively shot it down. Those members then expressed resentment towards Moot due to his constant and clear favoritism in his selection of moderators and high positions They complained that those who were in those higher positions were essentially playing Moot for power. Later on, more members became angry and upset at Moot over things said in DMs about this topic and other things.
Yesterday, several prominent members of our embassy-ally region Wintreath announced that they would be leaving the region and the associated Discord server. This announcement, made over the course of several hours came after the region founder, Moot, dismissed any suggestions of a new Discord Moderation staff. Two meetings held on the 9th and the 16th were the catalysts to this issue;
The meetings mentioned are general gatherings of Citizens where any Citizen can submit items and questions for discussion. The topic of concerns over Discord op activity and training was
one agenda item on the meeting on the 9th, in which discussion about adding additional ops was a minor portion of the discussion on that item. There was no discussion about moderation on the 16th, although progress made on action items from the 9th, including items to improve the effectiveness of the ops team, were displayed at the start of the meeting.
the meetings, centered on the topic of a new moderation team
To the best of my recollection, a
new moderation team was never brought up, either in public or to me privately, much less a focus of an entire meeting. At most, it was communicated to the ops team that it was felt by some people that additional ops should be added, which was discussed publicly during the November 9th meeting.
, grew heated shortly after those meetings began. Favoritism, according to my trusted source, has played a large role in the selection of the Moderation staff on the Wintreath server, as well as those who serve in their government.
This is the core allegation in this report: that I appoint people to positions based on favoritism, however appointments in both the ops team and the government are almost always made in consultation with other groups. In the case of chat ops, appointments have always only been made if the senior op (in this case HannahB) concurred. In this particular case, HannahB and I discussed adding more ops on October 20th, but concluded that nobody was ready to join the ops team at that time. The matter was then discussed again on November 5th in the ops team chat, and the full ops team came to the same conclusion.
Moot has not updated the Moderation team in some time,
Crushita and Pengu were added to the ops team on February 13, 2019, only nine months prior to the public discussion of these events last month. As far as appointments to the ops team go, this is fairly recent.
but, despite the fact that many members of the current moderation team are inactive or unwilling to do their jobs, Moot refused to replace any of them.
As discussed in the November 9th meeting, the inactivity of the ops team was disputed, insofar that the team was unavailable to respond to a situation if notified. It was felt that the core problem was that the ops team was rarely notified of a matter until after the fact. During the meeting, it was emphasized that the community could call ops to a situation using the @operators tag, and subsequently a method of privately notifying the ops was created. As mentioned during the meeting, our intention was to measure how much time it took for an op to respond to situations, and then react accordingly. However, at this time no situations have required the ops to be called.
The conclusion of the higher ranking or more active members of the region was that a new moderation team was needed, but Moot shot it down without any consideration. According to the group who left Wintreath, Moot condescendingly and dismissively shot it down. Those members then expressed resentment towards Moot due to his constant and clear favoritism in his selection of moderators and high positions.
Again, replacement of the ops team was never discussed, and as I indicated in point 3 the idea of adding more ops had been discussed twice prior to the November 9th meeting. It may seem to some people that I dismissed the idea out of hand, but I was able to reply immediately specifically because it had already been considered twice. This would not be known outside the ops team, and illustrates why it is unwise to rush to conclusions or judgement on the matter until the complete, objective story is known, which is the work that the Regional Truth Commission is doing. I do admit that I could have used better language than to state that “nobody is currently qualified”, but it was the conclusion of the Founder, the Senior Op, and the full ops team that there is nobody currently ready to join the ops team at this time.
They complained that those who were in those higher positions were essentially playing Moot for power.
I think this is an unnecessary insult to the people that have received appointments in our region. I make very few appointments without prior discussion with the involved groups, and I know that even in the few cases where I did not, their appointments were warranted based in their skills and their history in the region. I know this is more of an opinion, but I don’t think a statement as egregious as this should be allowed to stand.
Ultimately, nobody knows what the full, objective story is, myself included. We simply don't have the story to be able to provide it to anyone, much less another region. All we know is that events came to a head and because of that a lot of people are hurt and upset, including many who did not leave. Trust is at a premium, friendships have been broken, and everyone feels the loss to our community. Until that full story is known, it’s unfortunate but perhaps understandable that speculation, gossip, and attempts to reignite the he said she said would fill the void...but we have to remember that that’s exactly what it is, and that it’s unwise to rush to judgement based on incomplete, biased, one-sided, and perhaps outdated versions of what happened.
The fact of the matter is that regions have a sovereign right to open and close relations with each other for any reason they wish. However, it is deeply regrettable that they did so in a rush to judgement over an internal matter based on a one-sided version of events, without waiting for the full, objective story. This speaks to a lack of faith in the relationship between our regions, and if that is the case perhaps closing that relationship was the only thing left to do. This statement is not made in malice towards them, we wish Grace of Gaia the best going forward. We simply felt the need to explain the situation and respond to a version of events that is obviously floating around.
