This is basically what I think at the moment. Sleeping on it might help clear up my feelings a bit more and more information would certainly inform my opinions considerably.
1. I get why people are upset but not all the info's out yet and there hasn't even been a formal statement yet afaik. A lot of this is speculation and nobody's giving anyone the benefit of the doubt. I wish they would, I don't think we need to always assume the worst of each other.
2. I don't know anything about the donation situation other than a couple of rumors that I heard. Someone would have to clue me in before I could talk about that because I'm completely uninformed about it. With respect to the people who left over that situation, I can't really say anything because again, I don't know enough about it.
3. Regarding the stuff about the site admin, again, a lot of what I've heard is rumor, but the most consistent rumor seems to be that he got in trouble for having a 16 or 17 year old girlfriend when he was 22 and this landed him on the sex offender registry until he was removed from it. A couple things on that:
- I think AoC where I live is 16, so if that's the case, and this happened as rumored, it wouldn't be illegal here
- supposedly the only elements of these rumors that are confirmed fact are that he was on the sex offenders list for his state until he was later removed, and that this originally happened 35 years ago
- he's never been accused of any kind of negative sexual conduct on the forums or with any forum member, so this is purely about something that happened 35 years ago and many people's judgements of his character based on that one single event rather than his 15 years of running the site without even a hint of sexual misconduct toward any community member
- I don't like someone's ancient past being dragged out and used to crucify them no matter what that past is; I think people can change a lot in a lot less time than 35 years (I know I have) and that if someone's done their time and committed themselves to being a better person, we should assume good faith about their actions until they show a reason not to
- I'm saddened and disappointed that more people won't speak out against this kind of witch hunt
4. I intend to stay here. I have no desire to leave; quite the contrary, this place means a lot to me and I want it to be here for the next nine years too. I don't know enough about the donations thing to make any judgment and I've already stated my thoughts about the site admin issue, so at this point I think leaving is unjustified; even if it wasn't, I'd rather see internal change if there was a problem than a schism.
5. It sounds like the Discord server is maintained by people who have decided to leave. That sucks, because the Discord server's mainly where I hang out these days and most of the people I like to talk to have decided to move to a different one. I don't plan to migrate to the Discord server they've set up because I don't want to have anything to do with any attempts to try and migrate away from here, even if they're probably well-intentioned. This place is important to me and I want it to get past this, not split in two. If a new Discord server is set up by PC's site administration or by others who have made a commitment to remain here, I will migrate to that one instead, otherwise I guess I'll just sit in the dead IRC channel for all eternity. This is probably the most disappointing thing of all to me because I really like a lot of the people who decided to leave. I sincerely hope they come back someday because I think they're a lot bigger than all of this.
I'm pretty saddened by all of this and I hope people come to their senses, but I won't be holding my breath. I won't hold anything against anyone who has come to a different decision than me about this; if I liked you before, none of this will change my mind and I'm always open to talk, but I hope you'll reconsider at some point when maybe things have calmed down a bit.
Regardless of what may come of this, I wish you all well and hope you have better luck in your affairs than some of my friends and acquaintances are having in theirs.
1. I get why people are upset but not all the info's out yet and there hasn't even been a formal statement yet afaik. A lot of this is speculation and nobody's giving anyone the benefit of the doubt. I wish they would, I don't think we need to always assume the worst of each other.
2. I don't know anything about the donation situation other than a couple of rumors that I heard. Someone would have to clue me in before I could talk about that because I'm completely uninformed about it. With respect to the people who left over that situation, I can't really say anything because again, I don't know enough about it.
3. Regarding the stuff about the site admin, again, a lot of what I've heard is rumor, but the most consistent rumor seems to be that he got in trouble for having a 16 or 17 year old girlfriend when he was 22 and this landed him on the sex offender registry until he was removed from it. A couple things on that:
- I think AoC where I live is 16, so if that's the case, and this happened as rumored, it wouldn't be illegal here
- supposedly the only elements of these rumors that are confirmed fact are that he was on the sex offenders list for his state until he was later removed, and that this originally happened 35 years ago
- he's never been accused of any kind of negative sexual conduct on the forums or with any forum member, so this is purely about something that happened 35 years ago and many people's judgements of his character based on that one single event rather than his 15 years of running the site without even a hint of sexual misconduct toward any community member
- I don't like someone's ancient past being dragged out and used to crucify them no matter what that past is; I think people can change a lot in a lot less time than 35 years (I know I have) and that if someone's done their time and committed themselves to being a better person, we should assume good faith about their actions until they show a reason not to
- I'm saddened and disappointed that more people won't speak out against this kind of witch hunt
4. I intend to stay here. I have no desire to leave; quite the contrary, this place means a lot to me and I want it to be here for the next nine years too. I don't know enough about the donations thing to make any judgment and I've already stated my thoughts about the site admin issue, so at this point I think leaving is unjustified; even if it wasn't, I'd rather see internal change if there was a problem than a schism.
5. It sounds like the Discord server is maintained by people who have decided to leave. That sucks, because the Discord server's mainly where I hang out these days and most of the people I like to talk to have decided to move to a different one. I don't plan to migrate to the Discord server they've set up because I don't want to have anything to do with any attempts to try and migrate away from here, even if they're probably well-intentioned. This place is important to me and I want it to get past this, not split in two. If a new Discord server is set up by PC's site administration or by others who have made a commitment to remain here, I will migrate to that one instead, otherwise I guess I'll just sit in the dead IRC channel for all eternity. This is probably the most disappointing thing of all to me because I really like a lot of the people who decided to leave. I sincerely hope they come back someday because I think they're a lot bigger than all of this.
I'm pretty saddened by all of this and I hope people come to their senses, but I won't be holding my breath. I won't hold anything against anyone who has come to a different decision than me about this; if I liked you before, none of this will change my mind and I'm always open to talk, but I hope you'll reconsider at some point when maybe things have calmed down a bit.
Regardless of what may come of this, I wish you all well and hope you have better luck in your affairs than some of my friends and acquaintances are having in theirs.
