Briefly, I concur with Kestrel.
@simplications said in What Would it Take to Repair the Community?:
If someone is acting in a problematic way on a game you're on, you should take it to the game runners.
Recently, I did this.
What happened was something that isn't close to the level of Cullen, et al. It was apparent from the response that the game runner was aware of the issue. Regardless, I brought receipts; however, I know of nothing that was done to address the situation. That lack of action was one of the reasons I lost interest in the game.
This story has occurred many times in my 25+ years.
Going to the game runners is never a guarantee of action and brings with it a threat of exposure because, as Kestrel pointed out, that person may be good friends with staff. And if you want to stay on that game, you are potentially putting yourself in a difficult spot, one that might one day lead to your departure or start a whisper campaign against you.
That's why the original incarnation of this place was created.
They have the opportunity to hear what you have to say, possibly compare it to other reports they may have heard, and get the other side of the story from the accused.
To what end?
Due process is meant to guarantee the rights of the accused; however, no player has any cognizable right on any game, save for what is promised by staff. Staff who think they can adequately or properly investigate a situation in a manner that promptly and completely addresses it is kidding themselves or lying to players. Games by design are at best benevolent dictatorships and at worst a god-fantasy out of Black and White. So the only reason anyone would want to follow an investigatory procedure is doing so to protect their own sense of self-righteousness.
If the best one can hope to be is a beloved tyrant, it serves no purpose to pretend to be anything else.
As for the value of speaking here as opposed to game runners:
@Kestrel said in What Would it Take to Repair the Community?:
When abusers are banned, there are always people who are like, 'Wow that seems unjust. I happen to know his cat's uncle and he's a great guy. Maybe staff are the real abusers and banned him for no reason?' But when there's a public thread full of people coming out of the woodwork to put their hands up and say, 'This happened to me too,' it's a lot less sus.
Reporting has value. And a person can report what happened here. It is not difficult to make a report that follows the forum's rules, in my opinion, like so:
The player of Cullen was banned on two other games for his behavior. On Game X, the player, who went by the name "Azazello", approached me by page complementing my PC's played-by photo. He said that he thought the actress was cute and that he always wanted to have sex with them. I stopped communicating with him at that point.
(This is a fictional account.) Even with the rules here, it is simple to report someone's behavior. Stick with what happened. Take quotes if desired. I hope that people will do so moving forward.
