Moderator Stand-Down of Separatist Peoples

[United Calanworie]

.
[edit: Please see updated announcement here.]

Separatist Peoples has been stood down from the General Assembly Secretariat, effective immediately.

Last week, Separatist Peoples privately announced a leave of absence to last over a year. GenSec is required to maintain six active team members to ensure that it can reliably fulfil its duties. As with all of our volunteer staff teams, allowances are made for individuals to have periods of inactivity for RL reasons - however it is expected that when members need to take a lengthy absence that they step down from the team. This is in line with how other staff teams such as Moderators and Issues Editors are managed.

GenSec were therefore asked yesterday to begin the process of appointing a replacement, following which Separatist Peoples returned to flame a staff member, announce that he would stay on the team, and threatened the site staff with leaking details of the conversation. On being instructed to confirm whether he would follow the Code of Conduct required for GenSec members, a threat was again repeated.

His position became untenable at that point, and thus he has been removed from the team. It is with regret that things came to pass this way, given his previous lengthy period of contributions to the team.

The GenSec team will shortly be commencing the process to appoint a replacement.

On behalf of the moderation team,
United Calanworie
Technical Moderator

[Separatist Peoples]

Separatist Peoples has been stood down from the General Assembly Secretariat, effective immediately.

Last week, Separatist Peoples privately announced a leave of absence to last over a year. GenSec is required to maintain six active team members to ensure that it can reliably fulfil its duties. As with all of our volunteer staff teams, allowances are made for individuals to have periods of inactivity for RL reasons - however it is expected that when members need to take a lengthy absence that they step down from the team. This is in line with how other staff teams such as Moderators and Issues Editors are managed.

GenSec were therefore asked yesterday to begin the process of appointing a replacement, following which Separatist Peoples returned to flame a staff member, announce that he would stay on the team, and threatened the site staff with leaking details of the conversation. On being instructed to confirm whether he would follow the Code of Conduct required for GenSec members, a threat was again repeated.

His position became untenable at that point, and thus he has been removed from the team. It is with regret that things came to pass this way, given his previous lengthy period of contributions to the team.

The GenSec team will shortly be commencing the process to appoint a replacement.

On behalf of the moderation team,
United Calanworie
Technical Moderator

I asked for a leave because my daughter died.

You guys told.me to pound sand.

[United Calanworie]

This is to note that Separatist Peoples has now had to be declared DOS for posting internal staff messaging in a public Discord server after being stood down.

-- United Calanworie
Technical Moderator

[Attempted Socialism]

I hope that the involved admins, upon reflection, can see that this was ghoulish behaviour, and take appropriate steps to apologise and rectify.

[Fachumonn]

I hope I don't face consequences, this is completely fucking unacceptable in every form.

No humanity, nothing. Fucking incredible.

You tried to tear our community apart, but we are coming together instead.

[Archasia]

I am wholly with Sep on this. The mods should have some humanity.

[Neo-Hermitius]

what the fuck??
some random ass polsim from 20 years ago doesnt matter more then a man's child dying.
do mods have any humanity for the players
jesus fucking christ

[Untecna]

In agreement with the above - the decision to both force a member of GenSec to stand down amidst the death of their child and to then declare them DOS is a terrible move and should not have occurred.

[Ash Blossom and Joyous Nation]

The lack of empathy, grace, and conflict resolution shown by the Site Director is very disappointing. Every possible moment to have a better response and attitude towards the situation was simply avoided.

[Adkissa]

Absolutely insane. This situation required communication and humanity, neither of which was given to Sep by despite GenSec’s assurances they could continue their operations.

Shame on moderation. Have some decency.

[Fachumonn]

There will be a response to this. You better believe it.

[The Western European Commonwealth]

Telling someone to “pound sand” in response is a bit much, no? This guy’s probably grieving right now, y’know…

[Bananaistan]

This is a terribly bad day at the office for the m/a team. Whatever about the utter contempt continuously shown to this part of the community, the utter contempt shown to a fellow volunteer staff member is shocking. What was the rush before teasing out the facts and going off half cocked without any consideration for anyone other than your own egos?

[Bisofeyr]

This is the most insensitive handling of an incredibly tragic situation. Rational, level-headed potential solutions were offered and ignored. There was a clear solution that everyone could have been happy with if powers-that-be decided not to escalate something like this to the degree that they had. I work in a field where I deal with a lot of sensitive situations and people who have experienced the worst pain one can experience, and this is by far the most cold reception someone going through something like Sep has that I have ever seen; it is completely devoid of humanity and empathy.

Not only did you fire someone who has gone through something unimaginable who went through the steps to ensure his continued participation, but you then failed to show empathy in private. Following the reasonable reaction to that, along with an assurance that he had no intention of leaking private discussions, you fired him and heavily implied that he was not only in the wrong, but that he instigated the incident. Of course he will defend himself by providing context when such rash inhumanity occurred, and then you decided that he no longer has a place on this site.

Yes, rules exist and ought to be followed whenever possible. The issue is that the individuals who are behind the actions today seem to have forgotten that last part, which is the most important part. To every set of rules is a set of exceptions, and the circumstances here not only clear that threshold, but they catapult beyond them. Ignoring that simple and clearly digestible fact is gross misconduct and I sincerely hope that the individuals responsible are thoroughly reprimanded and Sep reinstated to his post. This is despicable.

[Cretox State]

What a heartless response to an unimaginable tragedy suffered by someone who volunteered so much time to this game. Utterly shameful.

[Zerph]

Can anyone explain what is so confidential about revealing that you were told to permanently leave a position you have served for years because your daughter died and need time to process such that it would require being declared Delete On Sight?

[Riemstagrad]

My deepest condolences to Separatist Peoples on this devastating loss.


This is a disgrace for moderation.

[Gagium]

What a cruel and bizarre response from the moderation team. This was possibly the worst way the team could’ve addressed Separatist People’s real-life circumstances that promoted their request for a leave of absence and what ensued. I can’t imagine why anyone would knowingly add on to that in the manner that they did.

[Omnicontrol]

Awful and inexplicable response to such a tragic event from the M/A team as we've seen time after time.

[The Clockwork Multiverse]

Disgusting behaviour from the moderation team. Us, the greater NationStates community, demand the removal of Sep’s DOS status and the reinstatement of his position. How dare you. That man’s child has died, and this is the response you give? Shameful. Utterly shameful.

Hope you’re happy with yourselves.

[Pellon Wesaurps]

The moderation team has showed a complete disregard for empathy and compassion; at the end of the day, someone is grieving through what might be the worst period of their life. The response was to DOS him and add additional stress and anger to his grief? Completely unacceptable—you should be ashamed.

[Ambroscus Koth]

I have been on my best behavior since the Moderation team overturned the DEAT of the very nation I'm posting this from, and I continue to strive not to incur another warning in the best interests of not only myself and the rest of the forum community. I hope then that it's taken in good faith when I feel compelled to say that this is the most unbelievable and shocking thing I've ever seen NS Staff do in my entire time playing this game.

Please, find it in your hearts to overturn this incredible misstep and reverse the DoS and deletion of Separatist Peoples, a well-respected member of this community who is going through an unimaginable grief and likely not thinking straight. I know that Sep broke the Staff rules by leaking, and I know that there has to be consequences for that, but I can't imagine that Sep would have been compelled to do so if he didn't feel like it was necessary to communicate how unjustly he'd been treated by this group.

Grief makes people act in ways otherwise unbecoming of their character. I genuinely hope you can open your hearts and forgive the transgression, just as I hope that Sep can forgive the injustice he has faced from your team after he has begun to heal.

[Refuge Isle]

In agreement with the above - the decision to both force a member of GenSec to stand down amidst the death of their child and to then declare them DOS is a terrible move and should not have occurred.

There's a few things I need to clarify here.

Separatist Peoples did not request a leave of bereavement. He requested a leave of absence for over a year. Any time someone is going to request a leave for over a year, we are going to begin a process to replace that member. It is unreasonable to keep someone on in any position when they do not intend to operate in that position for such a vast period of time. This is not an unreasonable expectation.

Separatist Peoples, additionally, was not made DOS because of that request, but rather because of leaking discussions that took place in staff areas. All staff members, including GenSec, are required to keep discussions in staff areas separate and confidential, and the penalty for disregarding those rules both during and after someone is a staff member, is not being permitted on the site. The same rules apply to myself.

[Reploid Productions]

Moderation cannot read minds. When we were informed that an "extended leave of absence from GenSec duties" was going to be necessary with no additional information provided, we proceeded with what should have been a routine process to ensure that the GenSec team maintains its required panel of six members. While I was sorry to learn of Sep's loss once informed of it, that doesn't change the fact that we could not have GenSec down a member for such an extended length of time. Grief is certainly not known to make anyone more reasonable, but it cannot be allowed to give someone a free pass to commit gross violations of staff conduct guidelines.

Sep was not told in any way to "pound sand", as prior to the aforementioned flaming and violations of staff conduct guidelines it would have been entirely possible for him to return to the GenSec once he was able to do so. Unfortunately, his conduct in response to a routine procedure has eliminated that possibility.

[New Bradfordsburg]

Separatist Peoples I'm so sorry for your loss.