Before I address what the title says, I’d like to make clear the ways in which anybody can communicate with us (the mods) about anything they are concerned about in this community. If you’d like to talk to us, please message us privately through any of the following means.
- Each member of the staff team has a Discord account that they check regularly. If you join the official PokeBase Discord server, you’ll be able to see all of our accounts and direct message any of us with server DMs open. If you do not want to join the server, then please know that I will personally accept friend requests and DMs from anybody in this community.
- I have recently revamped the ‘ban report’ thread. Using the new Google Form linked inside it, you can tip us off to any misbehaviour you see or suspect on this site. Please share this form with new users in particular, who may be disconnected from the community at large but still need a way to message us.
- If you are not comfortable sending us a message through either of the foregoing methods, then you are welcome to leave us messages on our walls. Please be discerning about the information you choose to publicise and the potential for it to cause drama.
- If you are not comfortable sending the mods a message about your matter, then please tell somebody about it.
We will always be receptive to honest reports of misbehaviour, and feedback on our own processes. Please send us a message if you are worried about anything or anybody in this community.
Pokemaster and the rest of the staff team recently agreed that the Hellfire Taco report thread posted last week should be hidden. Pokemaster himself has now removed the post. I’ve summarised the reasons for this decision below:
- The abrupt and public way the information was shared does not set a good example for how we would want a situation like this to be handled in the future.
- The post is written in a mocking and humiliating manner. While this does not detract from what HT did and the fairness of his demotion, we don’t believe it is fair on him or the others involved that such an exaggerated account of the events is its only point of reference.
- The post contains links to unpleasant text conversations that many people regret partaking in. A good deal of them are sexual in nature, while others could have created divides between community members. We believe that their function as evidence has been served and they no longer have any business as a public resource on the Meta section.
- We would like to move on from the situation. It concerns somebody who is still a member of our community and is believably apologetic for their actions. The post itself reflects badly upon the site as a whole. We do not want to pretend it didn’t happen, but we also don’t want to leave the wound open.
For posterity, I have summarised the situation as follows. Please tell me if you do not believe this is a fair and objective account.
- Hellfire Taco (HT) is a former staff member who was promoted to Editor in 2018 and Moderator in April 2020.
- In July 2020, a community member made a Meta post revealing to the public for the first time a series of private text conversations involving HT. Some of the screenshots were second-hand. The post’s contention was that the conversations proved HT to be an unfit moderator, despite many of the messages dating back years before his promotion.
- The messages showed that HT had previously been immature, disrespectful, and irritable toward other community members. The post also detailed a sexual relationship HT previously had with an unnamed community member when they were both minors.
- The staff who promoted HT were unaware both times that any of these events had taken place.
- Following dialogue from others in the know, and various testimonies of HT’s conduct both in the past and present, Pokemaster decided that it was ‘best for everyone’ that HT was removed as a staff member ‘for the foreseeable future’.
We hope that you understand the reasons behind our decision.
