First of all, I'd like to thank the dozens of you who have reached out to me and let your opinions be heard over the last weeks. Historically RiptideLab has not been a place in need of any sort of moderation. It's been largely conflict free here for more than 8 years. These last two months have been different.
As I realized that conflicts were heading our way, I made attempts to defuse the situation before it escalated. I made this thread to try and set an open-minded discussion. I made posts like this one and this one to try to deescalate tensions. I've answered your messages, complaints, I've been on calls discussing the situation. This is not how I want to be spending my time.
I'm going to try to give my high level view of the situation. I had taken a long break from cubing, so I didn't really have the proper context when this all started. Various community leaders have reached out to me to share their experiences managing their respective cube communities. In each case, there's been a clear pattern. A marked increase in toxicity and hostility upon the arrival of certain members, a period of attempted moderation and rules enforcement that only led to further frustration, and finally, bannings.
There is a contingent who have now been banned from the mtgcube reddit. They've been banned from the Cube Talk discord. They've been banned from the Cube Cobra community.
Until this week, we've never had to ban anyone from RiptideLab.
I don't think it does any good to rehash any of the details of these conflicts. At a high level there are two parties that I see.
The first group has incited toxicity and frustration through multiple cube communities. Conflict seems to follow them everywhere they go. They've been banned from multiple cube communities, and I've had many parties share with me instances of repeated public, ad hominem attacks against various members of the cube community made by this group.
The second, much larger group, consists of long-standing community members who have been productive, thoughtful and conflict-free except for their interactions with the first group. This doesn't just refer to members of RiptideLab, but members of Cube Talk, mtgcube and CubeCobra as well.
My personal belief, and expectation, is that without the presence of the first group, the second group overnight returns to being productive, thoughtful and conflict-free members of the community. This has been the case elsewhere and I see no reason for RiptideLab to be the exception.
Effective immediately, the following changes are being instated. Members of the first group are permanently banned from the RiptideLab forums and Discord.
Members of the second group who crossed the line in terms of personal conduct have been temporarily banned. There will be zero tolerance for any future ad hominem attacks or rule breaking from this group.
Lastly, I want to make one thing clear. This has nothing to do with design philosophies. Users like landofMordor, who hold similar design ideals to some of the banned parties, are free to continue expressing their opinions in a productive and constructive manner.
As I realized that conflicts were heading our way, I made attempts to defuse the situation before it escalated. I made this thread to try and set an open-minded discussion. I made posts like this one and this one to try to deescalate tensions. I've answered your messages, complaints, I've been on calls discussing the situation. This is not how I want to be spending my time.
I'm going to try to give my high level view of the situation. I had taken a long break from cubing, so I didn't really have the proper context when this all started. Various community leaders have reached out to me to share their experiences managing their respective cube communities. In each case, there's been a clear pattern. A marked increase in toxicity and hostility upon the arrival of certain members, a period of attempted moderation and rules enforcement that only led to further frustration, and finally, bannings.
There is a contingent who have now been banned from the mtgcube reddit. They've been banned from the Cube Talk discord. They've been banned from the Cube Cobra community.
Until this week, we've never had to ban anyone from RiptideLab.
I don't think it does any good to rehash any of the details of these conflicts. At a high level there are two parties that I see.
The first group has incited toxicity and frustration through multiple cube communities. Conflict seems to follow them everywhere they go. They've been banned from multiple cube communities, and I've had many parties share with me instances of repeated public, ad hominem attacks against various members of the cube community made by this group.
The second, much larger group, consists of long-standing community members who have been productive, thoughtful and conflict-free except for their interactions with the first group. This doesn't just refer to members of RiptideLab, but members of Cube Talk, mtgcube and CubeCobra as well.
My personal belief, and expectation, is that without the presence of the first group, the second group overnight returns to being productive, thoughtful and conflict-free members of the community. This has been the case elsewhere and I see no reason for RiptideLab to be the exception.
Effective immediately, the following changes are being instated. Members of the first group are permanently banned from the RiptideLab forums and Discord.
Members of the second group who crossed the line in terms of personal conduct have been temporarily banned. There will be zero tolerance for any future ad hominem attacks or rule breaking from this group.
Lastly, I want to make one thing clear. This has nothing to do with design philosophies. Users like landofMordor, who hold similar design ideals to some of the banned parties, are free to continue expressing their opinions in a productive and constructive manner.
Last edited by a moderator: