Squidziod
LegendMystic
What The Hell Just Happened?
Our community was attacked yesterday evening by disgruntled former members of our staff. Our Discord, Planet Minecraft, and voting sites, were all deleted. These are the only things which were affected by the attack. This attack was possible because our ex-staff members retained passwords from previous work on projects related to these services. Our security in all cases has been checked and updated accordingly. The Discord has been restored, and will continue to be worked on in the coming days. Tickets have been opened with PMC and MCMP to restore our public listings and vote sites. I am told we already have success with PMC.
The people who are directly responsible for executing this attack are Rygan (Discord) and Arken (PMC, MCMP), but the motivation extends beyond these two individuals.
Early morning on Saturday the 27th, an argument broke out in-game that a number of players either witnessed or have heard of through word-of-mouth. This argument was followed by two bans, both on the server and our forums. This event is central to the chaos in the preceding days. The first of the two bans had been decided on several days prior; the player in question being a nefarious and unsavory person who posed immediate and serious risk to the community. This player’s name is omitted because this post is highly visible and additional publicity is against the wishes of the victim. After the volatile exchange between the player and several others, as well as several staff members, the first ban was enforced early.
In addition to the offending player, a second player was also banned. The design and intent of the first ban makes this a necessity; both players share a living situation. Testimony of those that interacted with both players in the past, as well as a past history of such behaviour, informed me that the second player’s in-game account(s) were very likely compromised and being used by the banned player. At the time of writing, their living situation is such that the second player’s accounts must be considered accessible to the first player, and banned accordingly. At such time that this living situation is no longer shared, this second player will be welcome back.
This incident has caused a lot of confusion and justified apprehension from our players, and the silence from Staff thereafter did not helped. The truth of this is that the ban happened early, and spontaneously—without the instruction of Moderation or myself. Shortly after the first ban, I made the call to follow through with forum and Discord bans. Scardrac, the admin responsible for executing the ban early, has already resigned. Participating staff member Arken, too, resigned. The remaining staff which participated in the heated display before and after the bans, will be officially warned for their conduct by Moderation.
Through all of the chaos and the unprecedented actions, I stand behind the bans. There was good cause for these bans, and the emotions behind them are valid. However, we still have our rules, and the players can still expect them to be obeyed.
Following the bans, debate among Admin began about the details and how to handle the situation. At the time, I believed that the public fallout from the bans would be minimal, and it was strongly in the interest of the victim that no public announcement be made. I declared to my Admin that no public statement would be made, but that players' questions would instead be answered privately and personally by myself. I also told Moderation that no punishments were to be rolled out on those who participated in the early bans, because I supported the ultimate conclusion of the bans.
This morning, Tuesday the 2nd, I was made aware by my Staff and Admin that the situation had progressed into a swell of confusion and anger within the community, as witnesses to the original event and others looked for answers they couldn’t find. The decision was reached to draft and publish an explanation to the players.
Rygan, Arken and Scardrac were vehemently opposed to this course of action because it would humiliate the victim. While attempting to draft an acceptably sensitive announcement, which was planned to be distributed via our Discord instead of Forums, tensions boiled over and the two aforementioned actors carried out their retaliation. Their accounts were subsequently demoted. Since then, they have all severed ties with myself, personally, and presumably with the community at large.
As Owner, I take responsibility for this outrageous sequence of events. There were numerous poor judgement calls on my behalf before the bans, and after, which ultimately allowed this damage to be done. I have never seen emotions run higher, and I have never been faced with a more challenging situation. I wish that we were walking away from these bans in a way which did not fracture the community, but instead united it. It is my sincerest regret and most significant failing, that we are in this place instead of riding high on well deserved bans.
In the coming days, we will be looking and listening to the community to try and help people get their footing again, and to address concerns. People, there’s no way to deny it: this has been a close call for us. We need to pull together to move forward into our future, whatever it holds.
My Discord (JUMP#2179) is open for any and all who want to chat.
Thank you,
Jon