Thread:Sannse/@comment-36574594-20190211200335

Hello Sannse. I just wanted to offer my thoughts on the whole brouhahah on the Walking Dead Wiki regarding the bans of Cam the Woot and Ghostwolf.

First and foremost, I am not YoungAnarchy, as many of the admins and users charged on the thread I was, and something you seemed to agree with here. https://walkingdead.fandom.com/wiki/Thread:400601#38 An IP address scan would have told them I was not YoungAnarchy or they could have asked you, and he even admitted that I was not him. https://walkingdead.fandom.com/wiki/Thread:399192. If I were him, would it really make sense for me to report myself for having an inappropriate username. I didn't even know who this person was until a month ago.

Secondly, I honestly think all the anger against Brandon is completely misdirected. Brandon was making a judgement call in regards to the content I reported. One of the defences that users on the Walking Dead Wiki are using is that the content was years old, but the two admins were banned for much more recent comments. Comments 15835, 15830, 15829, and 15837 were all very recent when I reported them, and Brandon promptly deleted them. The defence that Cam and Ghostwolf were banned on years old content is completely false, and similarly, the argument that they matured simply does not fit given that they still used the racial slurs as recently as two months ago. Another defence used is that the staff never asked for the content to be changed. The staff visited the wiki multiple times over the years to ask for the comments to be removed and for them to stop using it. Ghostwolf actually told Mira Laime that he would stop using offensive language. https://fan-fiction-library.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:13359. Brandon should not have to apologize for doing his job, and I don't believe he should be fired, as some of the users on the Walking Dead wiki have called for, simply because he determined that a wiki had to be closed down or because he felt two users had gone over the line and had to be banned.

Thirdly, I am astonished at all the ways the users on the walking dead wiki are taking this. While I understand there is always some chaos when a user like an admin or burecrat gets banned, let alone two, the way they went after Brandon disgusts me. The threat of resigning their posts or leaving Wikia altogether to protest a TOU violation. Honestly, if they really looked at it from a Staff member's perspective, they very likely would have seen something akin to what you said when you described the wiki as toxic: a wiki which had been given ample warnings and opportunities to reform and cease the spewing of racist comments, but either never materliazed or it just resumed. Brandon felt he probably had no choice, but to close down the wiki. It is not an injustice or unfair to ban users who repeadetldy pledge over the years to change and cease making racist comments, but continue to do so. I disagree with giving into their demands to lift their global bans immediately. I honestly felt that the discussion of the ban lifting was left to the staff, Cam and Ghost, and the staff. Since the ban had been reduced to a month, you should have made it clear that although you understood their anger, Cam and Ghost should have served out the remaining month of the ban. A frequent comment is that the loss of the Walking Dead Wiki would have led to a drop in revenue. Given that Wikia has millions of wikis, I doubt how the loss of one wiki would impact Wikia that heavily.

Finally, there is the issue of my motivations. Because people mistakenly believed I was YoungAnarchy, they assumed Cam and Ghost were banned for a cheap laugh at everyone's expense. Since I am not YoungAnarchy, that is not true. My motive was that I was sick and tired of seeing constant pledge after pledge of promising to change from two users who were burecrats and are supposed to set an example for the wiki, but instead kept using racial slurs that violated the TOU so commonly in messages between each other, or even in jest. Racism is not funny, and it sets a bad example to other users if it is people like burecrats who use it in jest.

I think the staff needs to make it clear to the users of the walking dead wiki that Cam and Ghost were banned not on slurs from years ago, but much more recent comments, and that the users had been given multiple warnings over the years. Similarly, the staff should make it clear that users, even if they disagree with something a staff member did, cannot respond by calling the Staff "idiots" or "halfwits" and whatever else they did, and that any negotiations involving bans are left between the staff and the users and should not be influenced by the opinion of users. Furthermore, a staff member should not be forced to lose his job or apologize, because he made a decision that upset some people, since staff members don't like to make those types of calls anyway, and usually do it if they have no choice.

Thank you. I apologize if this sounds a bit harsh to certain users, but given how Brandon, and the Staff in general, had the F bomb thrown at them over a completely reasonable decision, I honestly think what really happened in this whole disaster needs to be made clear. 