Hey, everyone! Actions such as deleting a post as important as colonelsalt's game update don't go without an explanation and a bit of actual truth. From a public perception standpoint, it is completely understandable to see posts get deleted and see only one side of the story. So, let's start from the beginning.
Pokemon FireRed: Rocket Edition was hosted on this community for years. Throughout that time period, it has two pieces of objectionable/offensive dialogue that were present:
- a transphobic slur, and
- usage of "gay" in a pejorative manner
The first sentence is important; just because a hack has been hosted on the community for years and has objectionable content does not make that content okay. It simply hasn't been reported or noticed yet, and that brings us where we are today. We reached out to colonelsalt to remove the offending material and he has done so to his credit, however reluctant he might've been. PC is a place for everyone. Bigotry, even as dramatic irony, doesn't belong in content posted on our site. This has always been our stance, which is why we reached out to colonelsalt about removing it.
It would be remiss of us, however, to not acknowledge errors where we've made them. Banning colonelsalt in hindsight was not the right thing to do, but we've made clear in his ban appeal that we have done so because he has left previous versions of his hack up which, to us, is the equivalent of not doing anything at all after being asked to remove said offending material. We interpreted this as an attempt to evade the verdict and took action accordingly. After a conversation with colonelsalt, he has agreed to remove all the previous versions of the hack since the offensive dialogue was present in all previous versions. Where we erred is that colonelsalt did consult with one of our staff beforehand and was under the impression that he was allowed to have them up. In this sense, his frustration is perfectly warranted.
On a personal level, I get it. I understand how frustrating and annoying it can be to have conflicting instructions on what the right thing to do is. However, justified frustration does not mean you should drag PC staff publicly in the mud. colonelsalt is more than welcome to reach out to us directly about his grievances and we can resolve any issues in a candid manner (as we have done so in regards to his ban appeal which is testament that things
can be worked out, even if the fault is ours). Ergo, the post was removed because the snark was quite frankly unnecessary, as justified as it may possibly be. It misrepresented and misconstrued the situation as a whole, and painted us in an unfairly poor light. While we take responsibility for our error in judgment, it is unfair to drag moderation where they have little to do with this. It is our decision as administration and we will own our mistakes.
So, from this, we will strive to better our communication between staff to ensure this doesn't occur in the future. But as a takeaway from this that I hope is learned not just for colonelsalt, but for anyone: again, satirizing sexuality and identity is not okay. Consider whether the type of humour you choose to use in your hack is appropriate for PokéCommunity, because "it's just a joke, bro" logic isn't going to fly, here. When you make your hack public here in PokeCommunity, you agree that it abides by our rules and that it contains generally inoffensive material for everyone to play. If someone reports a hack or a fangame for offensive material, we have a duty to investigate and take action if it's necessary. Not everyone is going to share the same humour as you do.
Thanks for reading, and apologies to colonelsalt for the misunderstanding and the confusion this whole situation has generated in this thread.
