There's been nothing but drama for weeks and I've resigned and left the Discord to get away from it all, but I don't think this is gonna kill GL. It's a blow to the community, but it's not something that can't be healed. I believe that even if the entire staff team resigns and 80% of the community leaves the server, GL can still recover. I've known Jabba long enough to know that he won't give up after this.
I've been sitting on the sidelines for most of this so I'm not as well informed as some other people making these posts, but I wanna give my two cents as some of the drama hits me close to home. There's a lot of mob mentality and bandwagoning right now, and one of the reasons I've left is because I couldn't keep myself from getting caught up in it. I hope to come back once everything cools down, but for now I'll just post my thoughts on all this and my part in the drama.
First let's talk about Proper and co. I can't think of a time I saw Proper in general and wanted to talk to her. All I've ever seen is her hijacking the channel and derailing whatever discussion is going on. I stopped reading general because of that, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. I didn't think about her most of the time, but anytime the topic of her came up I voiced that she was a problem that needed to be addressed. Eventually Proper and co started making fun of Sunny for dating Rogers, calling her a Gmod gf every time they saw her for months. This might sound harmless, but dealing with that from the same people for months can build up over time, especially if it's from someone who you've never had a positive interaction with. The tipping point came from an interaction between Sunny and Pierogi that needs no introduction. Now let me talk about why we shouldn't talk about the dead mom thing first.
Proper is a bully. She's here to cause trouble and talk down to others, and I've seen nothing from her that would make me think otherwise. If you disagree with me on this I wanna hear what you see in her. I'm no stranger to bullying. I dealt with it all through middle and high school, and I know what it's like to be the victim. I know that if you sit back and take it for too long, eventually you'll be pushed over the edge and do something you shouldn't in retaliation. In 7th grade, I was bullied by another student for months, and eventually I had enough and told the bullies I'd kill them. It was a completely empty threat, but the school saw me as a potential school shooter and suspended me without doing anything about the bullies. That incident was one of the main reasons I ended up going no contact with my family, and ever since then I've strived to defend victims at all cost, no matter what they did when they got pushed over the edge. If you can't see the difference between a bully picking on someone for amusement and a victim being pushed over the edge, please never work with children.
What Sunny told Pierogi was wrong and shouldn't have been said, but like my situation in 7th grade, the fault isn't entirely on her. The bullies have some of the blame for how they mocked Sunny for so long, and leadership shares some of the blame for not taking action against Proper sooner. I agree that Sunny deserved to be punished for what she said, but doing nothing about Proper is insulting, and when I found out that the victim was being blamed while the bullies got ignored I was pissed. That night I got in a crowded VC and exploded with anger. I can't remember the last time I was ever that mad, but I have no regrets about blowing up on the leads who didn't wanna ban Proper. While that was going on, I also talked with Jabba in DMs about this. At first he seemed hesitant to take action against Proper, but after I told him my bullying story he seemed to change his mind. I can't say for sure that I convinced Jabba to ban Proper, but if I did I have no regrets and I'm glad she's gone.
I asked Jabba what he wants GL to be, and he said he just wants it to be a community. He wants it to be a place where good people hang out, talk in VC, play games together, and have a good time. This can't happen if we allow bullies to run rampant with no consequences. If a new player comes to general and sees that there's no real conversation there, they're not gonna stay for long. The extra member isn't worth the toxicity they bring, and leadership has every right to remove people if they've shown time and time again that they have nothing positive to contribute. I want GL to be a fun space to hang out too, and I'm willing to tell someone to gtfo if they drive people away. I see this drama as a learning experience about what happens when you allow toxicity to breed without taking any action, and I'm optimistic about the future. If leadership starts taking action against toxic players, then we'll be a more welcoming community for new players, even if it means losing a large chunk of the current playerbase.
Through all this drama I've been getting caught up in mob mentality with a certain group of staff members. At first I was completely on board. Some of the bandwagoning led to Proper getting banned and a certain staff member being demoted after the staff team decided they were too uncomfortable with some of his views to keep him, and I saw this as the beginning of a community who can stand up to problem players instead of letting them be toxic. Unfortunately, that group's bandwagoning and mob mentality didn't stop with the problem players. They started going after a player who's done nothing wrong, all because that player was socially awkward. I stood up for this player because he's going through more hardships than most of us are gonna deal with in our entire lifetimes, and a certain conversation I had about it made me instantly lose respect for people I once considered friends. One of the members of that group told me he believes relationships are transactional and that he doesn't wanna talk to someone if they aren't gonna provide anything to him. The rest of the people in the VC seemed to agree with him, and I left that server after that. I've seen now that Jabba isn't the problem. Through all the interactions I had in that server, I realized that they aren't interested in rebuilding a torn community, but I have hope that GL can recover.
This isn't the first drama we've had on SGM/AHG/GL. On 1/11/2017, a combination of Highwon demoting a beloved admin while her mom was in the hospital and removing locked channels from the SGM Teamspeak led to 75% of the staff team resigning on the same day. That was a big blow to the community, but it didn't take long for the community to recover, and SGM lasted another 4 years before Highwon finally called it quits. SGM kept getting new players, and those new players formed a new staff team along with the community members who stayed, and the same thing can happen for GL. Before GL opened any game servers, it was a server where Jabba invited random people he played Fortnite with to form his own community. This went on for 2 years before he opened the TTT server and brought all the ex SGM players back. I know Jabba well enough to know that he's not gonna let this drama stop him. If the entire community leaves the server today, he's gonna keep inviting whoever he meets to rebuild the community. Jabba didn't handle this drama perfectly, but he never will. As a leader he's gonna have to make tough decisions, and he's not gonna please everyone with his decisions. If he does what he thinks is right, he's gonna attract more players with his values. If he tries to please everyone, he's gonna piss everyone off.
I know I'm gonna get hate for this post, and I don't care. If you don't agree with me, go ahead and rate me dumb, tell me why I'm wrong, or send me angry DMs on Discord. Show me what type of person you really are. I'm personally excited to see what new players we can get, but if you don't like that direction you have 3 options. You can leave and move on with your life, fight to change that direction, or stay mad and shit talk Jabba/leadership with no goals in mind. Just make sure you don't convince yourself that you're taking the second option when you're really taking the third.
I've been sitting on the sidelines for most of this so I'm not as well informed as some other people making these posts, but I wanna give my two cents as some of the drama hits me close to home. There's a lot of mob mentality and bandwagoning right now, and one of the reasons I've left is because I couldn't keep myself from getting caught up in it. I hope to come back once everything cools down, but for now I'll just post my thoughts on all this and my part in the drama.
First let's talk about Proper and co. I can't think of a time I saw Proper in general and wanted to talk to her. All I've ever seen is her hijacking the channel and derailing whatever discussion is going on. I stopped reading general because of that, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. I didn't think about her most of the time, but anytime the topic of her came up I voiced that she was a problem that needed to be addressed. Eventually Proper and co started making fun of Sunny for dating Rogers, calling her a Gmod gf every time they saw her for months. This might sound harmless, but dealing with that from the same people for months can build up over time, especially if it's from someone who you've never had a positive interaction with. The tipping point came from an interaction between Sunny and Pierogi that needs no introduction. Now let me talk about why we shouldn't talk about the dead mom thing first.
Proper is a bully. She's here to cause trouble and talk down to others, and I've seen nothing from her that would make me think otherwise. If you disagree with me on this I wanna hear what you see in her. I'm no stranger to bullying. I dealt with it all through middle and high school, and I know what it's like to be the victim. I know that if you sit back and take it for too long, eventually you'll be pushed over the edge and do something you shouldn't in retaliation. In 7th grade, I was bullied by another student for months, and eventually I had enough and told the bullies I'd kill them. It was a completely empty threat, but the school saw me as a potential school shooter and suspended me without doing anything about the bullies. That incident was one of the main reasons I ended up going no contact with my family, and ever since then I've strived to defend victims at all cost, no matter what they did when they got pushed over the edge. If you can't see the difference between a bully picking on someone for amusement and a victim being pushed over the edge, please never work with children.
What Sunny told Pierogi was wrong and shouldn't have been said, but like my situation in 7th grade, the fault isn't entirely on her. The bullies have some of the blame for how they mocked Sunny for so long, and leadership shares some of the blame for not taking action against Proper sooner. I agree that Sunny deserved to be punished for what she said, but doing nothing about Proper is insulting, and when I found out that the victim was being blamed while the bullies got ignored I was pissed. That night I got in a crowded VC and exploded with anger. I can't remember the last time I was ever that mad, but I have no regrets about blowing up on the leads who didn't wanna ban Proper. While that was going on, I also talked with Jabba in DMs about this. At first he seemed hesitant to take action against Proper, but after I told him my bullying story he seemed to change his mind. I can't say for sure that I convinced Jabba to ban Proper, but if I did I have no regrets and I'm glad she's gone.
I asked Jabba what he wants GL to be, and he said he just wants it to be a community. He wants it to be a place where good people hang out, talk in VC, play games together, and have a good time. This can't happen if we allow bullies to run rampant with no consequences. If a new player comes to general and sees that there's no real conversation there, they're not gonna stay for long. The extra member isn't worth the toxicity they bring, and leadership has every right to remove people if they've shown time and time again that they have nothing positive to contribute. I want GL to be a fun space to hang out too, and I'm willing to tell someone to gtfo if they drive people away. I see this drama as a learning experience about what happens when you allow toxicity to breed without taking any action, and I'm optimistic about the future. If leadership starts taking action against toxic players, then we'll be a more welcoming community for new players, even if it means losing a large chunk of the current playerbase.
Through all this drama I've been getting caught up in mob mentality with a certain group of staff members. At first I was completely on board. Some of the bandwagoning led to Proper getting banned and a certain staff member being demoted after the staff team decided they were too uncomfortable with some of his views to keep him, and I saw this as the beginning of a community who can stand up to problem players instead of letting them be toxic. Unfortunately, that group's bandwagoning and mob mentality didn't stop with the problem players. They started going after a player who's done nothing wrong, all because that player was socially awkward. I stood up for this player because he's going through more hardships than most of us are gonna deal with in our entire lifetimes, and a certain conversation I had about it made me instantly lose respect for people I once considered friends. One of the members of that group told me he believes relationships are transactional and that he doesn't wanna talk to someone if they aren't gonna provide anything to him. The rest of the people in the VC seemed to agree with him, and I left that server after that. I've seen now that Jabba isn't the problem. Through all the interactions I had in that server, I realized that they aren't interested in rebuilding a torn community, but I have hope that GL can recover.
This isn't the first drama we've had on SGM/AHG/GL. On 1/11/2017, a combination of Highwon demoting a beloved admin while her mom was in the hospital and removing locked channels from the SGM Teamspeak led to 75% of the staff team resigning on the same day. That was a big blow to the community, but it didn't take long for the community to recover, and SGM lasted another 4 years before Highwon finally called it quits. SGM kept getting new players, and those new players formed a new staff team along with the community members who stayed, and the same thing can happen for GL. Before GL opened any game servers, it was a server where Jabba invited random people he played Fortnite with to form his own community. This went on for 2 years before he opened the TTT server and brought all the ex SGM players back. I know Jabba well enough to know that he's not gonna let this drama stop him. If the entire community leaves the server today, he's gonna keep inviting whoever he meets to rebuild the community. Jabba didn't handle this drama perfectly, but he never will. As a leader he's gonna have to make tough decisions, and he's not gonna please everyone with his decisions. If he does what he thinks is right, he's gonna attract more players with his values. If he tries to please everyone, he's gonna piss everyone off.
I know I'm gonna get hate for this post, and I don't care. If you don't agree with me, go ahead and rate me dumb, tell me why I'm wrong, or send me angry DMs on Discord. Show me what type of person you really are. I'm personally excited to see what new players we can get, but if you don't like that direction you have 3 options. You can leave and move on with your life, fight to change that direction, or stay mad and shit talk Jabba/leadership with no goals in mind. Just make sure you don't convince yourself that you're taking the second option when you're really taking the third.
