Hey there everyone, I'm here right now and I have a lot of things that I want to say about this whole situation. First of all, I want to thank all of you who sent me kind messages both within these threads and on discord as I really appreciate them! There are so many times where I look at the state of the society that we live in and question the impact that one person can have against the tide of bigotry and mental health stigma that exists, and comments like yours do a lot to alleviate those concerns!
As for the big accusation, there's a lot to say about this. First and foremost, I want to make it clear that I did not invade Robin (my girlfriend's) privacy to look through her private discords, messages, or anything else. I am not interested in being the kind of person that can not be trusted in the most basic ways, and it was shocking for me to see staff assume that I would do that so quickly. When I made that initial post talking about moderation and the issues that exist within it, I posted some information that was from a private staff discord. I knew it was from there, and I chose to post it publicly instead of going to them in private or attempting to find a real solution to it. I regret posting it in that manner as I never had any intention of starting any large scale drama about this incident, and I chose to keep the names private for the safety of the moderation team. However, I now see that I didn't put as much consideration into that as I should have to begin with. There are quite a few places that exist off-site purely to document and harass notable people on this forum, and that includes people on the moderation team as they tend to stand out more. I have dealt with harassment from these people as being a minority or part of a vulnerable group seems to make you a target for them, and this is doubly true for minority staff members. I was hurt and disappointed that people that I consider close friends believed that I was capable of this, but they're not bad people for thinking this. They're just scared. And I don't fault them for that.
The reasons that they provided in that initial thread detailed a history of suspicions that I was looking into their discord as well as that I knew some moderation terminology that was used behind the scenes. In the email that I sent, I referenced a very specific thing that is used however this specific term is one that is an open secret of sorts and I've seen it used in quite a few places. Throughout this investigation that occurred, I was never once contacted or informed what any of these suspicions were actually about, so as of this moment, I am still unaware of what they are and unable to comment on them. It's hard to hear that there's evidence against you that you aren't allowed to see, but again keep in mind that at this point they're still concerned for their privacy and unsure if they can trust me. I don't blame them for wanting to avoid more of that, especially as they went looking for that conversation and did not feel the same way about it. I was assured by someone on the team who I deeply trust and is LGBT that the claim that this statement and the person who made them were against asexuals was incorrect and a misunderstanding.
And I do want to reiterate here at the end, I left out the names on both of those issues in my post for a reason. I understand the desire for wanting to know who said what in these conversations, but the way that this desire has manifested is worrying. There are mistakes that have been made by the moderation team throughout this whole ordeal as I know all too well. But at the same time, we can not realistically expect the people who moderate this website to feel safe when people are digging through their personal lives looking for anything that can be used.
I regret posting that line the way that I did and I'm sorry for all the headache that this has caused both you as users and the staff throughout this ordeal.
