06-22-2021, 03:24 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-22-2021, 03:33 PM by La Flama Blanca. Edited 1 time in total.
Edit Reason: fix a couple typos
)
Rand asked me to respond, and as Ramesses II states in the 1956 film The Ten Commandments, “So let it be written, so let it be done.”
What happened here appears to be a textbook example of something known as “groupthink.” I, of course, am only a mere amateur psychologist so I will instead defer to the professionals for a definition as to what this term means. According to Psychology Today, groupthink “is a phenomenon that occurs when a group of well-intentioned people makes irrational or non-optimal decisions spurred by the urge to conform. The problematic or premature consensus that is characteristic of groupthink may be fueled by a particular agenda—or it may be due to group members valuing harmony and coherence above critical thought.” As the article goes on, “even in minor cases, groupthink triggers decisions that aren’t ideal or that ignore critical information.” The Oxford Dictionary defines the term as “the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.”
First of all, there was a group involved here that made the decision to make a concerted effort to post on the forums and the Discord at approximately the same time. From what I have been told, this group involved Rand, Laced Xanax, Derp, and Deadpool. All of these individuals are former staff on the TTT server, with three being former moderators and one being a retired administrator. Derp was also previously the Deathrun administrator. Some of them have been in the community for longer periods of time than others, with that length of time resulting in an extended knowledge of past incidents which the group decided to classify as “drama.”
I will return to the definitions of groupthink which I have cited in the second paragraph of this response.
A non-optimal decision was clearly made by the individuals involved here, including Rand. The decision was non-optimal because it caused a ruckus on the Discord, which required the Discord administrator to step in and institute a slowdown of the chat. Many responses in the Discord were also deleted because they were written in such a way to work around or anti-slur rules. Rand himself may not have been one to almost write a slur, but members of the group which was involved in this rush upon the Discord did.
I do not want to go as far to demand that there be a guilt-by-association ban here. That comes across too similar to the “Addressing Toxicity in the Community” thread that has been oft-criticized. I will state, however, that in most states, accomplices can be found guilty of the same crime as the actual perpetrator of the crime. An extreme example of this is sometimes known as the “felony-murder rule.” An individual who is the getaway driver to a bank robber is an example here. They are obviously an accomplice to the bank robbery itself, but if that bank robber kills someone while the robbery is taking place, the getaway driver themselves can also be convicted of felony murder. That is despite them not knowing that the bank robber would engage in any violent acts while in the bank, or even being inside the bank while the crime was being perpetrated.
An irrational decision also occurred here. Rand had just come off a Discord ban for inciting drama a few days ago. Rand may not consider this drama, but engaging in activities that he himself has stated “we'd figured we'd at least get strikes” for, suggests that there was some awareness that the actions being taken here were not within the scope of appropriate behavior.
I also highlighted within the definition of groupthink the phrase “fueled by a particular agenda.” I think this may be the case here. There was likely a ringleader involved in this decision to blitz the forums and Discord. I will not speculate as to who that ringleader was, though I certainly have my own theory. I will provide my more-innocent speculation as to what the “particular agenda” was in the decision by these individuals to engage in this behavior. That would be that the members of this group were simply bored and wanted to rile themselves up in such a manner that one might crudely categorize as a “circlejerk” of sorts. An added bonus for these individuals would be to garner the attention of others. This seems similar to the pattern of past outbursts by the perpetrators.
Rand wrote in his unban request that “I don't want drama, drama just tends to need to happen when certain decisions are made, or certain things are let to slide.” That clearly was not the case in this particular circumstance. Drama was absolutely not warranted in the slightest here. There was no incorrect decision made here, nor did anyone let anything slide here. What was posted was literally just dragging up old drama, none of which has any relevance today. The current TTT admin team has not been involved in the decision-making for any of the past events criticized by these individuals.
The choices made by Rand and the other individuals also failed to rise above critical thought, and triggered decisions that were neither ideal and ignored critical information. This was most evident by the decision to include information regarding past staff members that have engaged in illegal and disgusting conduct with children. There are real-life victims involved here. It is inappropriate to just write these things off as “drama.” Both of the most recent events were particularly shaking to the PH staff. These were people that had been ingratiated in the community for years, with friendships and other ties as well. These challenges have made it harder for people in the staff community, myself included, to trust others here and far more apprehensive about what some might consider benign comments or actions. Some of the information included by these individuals was also either factually incorrect or misstated the scope of the issue. In the “List of Drama (by year)” document that was attached to the deleted thread on the forums, the extent of the recent issues in PH were misstated. The quote that I found particularly bothersome was “Abdel and some random PH staff were weird ass hoes” in reference to the recent issues. There were two people that were caught. This quote suggests that there were more than two people by not simply including the name of the other individual involved, but rather making the grammatical choice to go with the open-ended “some random PH staff” that could mean any number of individuals. The inclusion of this information was insensitive, inaccurate, and inappropriate.
The final part of the definition of groupthink that I had underlined was individual responsibility. That seems to be lacking here. The thread on the forums, as well as the blitz on the Discord were a group effort. Some may have been more guilty than others in writing the more offensive posts and sections of that thread. What I am seeing here in this unban request seems to be a bit of “finger-pointing” already. It is true that Rand wrote that he is not trying to alleviate blame and not trying to say he didn’t do anything wrong. However, some of the language in this unban suggests that he is trying to minimize the role which he may have had in this such as “I was the most tame of the bunch of people doing things, some of which got as little as a strike.” Another example is with the references to the guide on staffing and warnings.
My thoughts are that this all came as the result of groupthink. Poor decision-making by all involved. A two-month ban seems excessive, but a single warning seems too light. I do not see the need to alienate the individuals involved here from the community entirely as a ban would do. I think a more appropriate response might be an extended mute in the Discord. This would allow Rand and other guilty parties to remain a part of the community, but unable to cause any further rancor for the duration of their mute.
Best,
Nicky
What happened here appears to be a textbook example of something known as “groupthink.” I, of course, am only a mere amateur psychologist so I will instead defer to the professionals for a definition as to what this term means. According to Psychology Today, groupthink “is a phenomenon that occurs when a group of well-intentioned people makes irrational or non-optimal decisions spurred by the urge to conform. The problematic or premature consensus that is characteristic of groupthink may be fueled by a particular agenda—or it may be due to group members valuing harmony and coherence above critical thought.” As the article goes on, “even in minor cases, groupthink triggers decisions that aren’t ideal or that ignore critical information.” The Oxford Dictionary defines the term as “the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.”
First of all, there was a group involved here that made the decision to make a concerted effort to post on the forums and the Discord at approximately the same time. From what I have been told, this group involved Rand, Laced Xanax, Derp, and Deadpool. All of these individuals are former staff on the TTT server, with three being former moderators and one being a retired administrator. Derp was also previously the Deathrun administrator. Some of them have been in the community for longer periods of time than others, with that length of time resulting in an extended knowledge of past incidents which the group decided to classify as “drama.”
I will return to the definitions of groupthink which I have cited in the second paragraph of this response.
A non-optimal decision was clearly made by the individuals involved here, including Rand. The decision was non-optimal because it caused a ruckus on the Discord, which required the Discord administrator to step in and institute a slowdown of the chat. Many responses in the Discord were also deleted because they were written in such a way to work around or anti-slur rules. Rand himself may not have been one to almost write a slur, but members of the group which was involved in this rush upon the Discord did.
I do not want to go as far to demand that there be a guilt-by-association ban here. That comes across too similar to the “Addressing Toxicity in the Community” thread that has been oft-criticized. I will state, however, that in most states, accomplices can be found guilty of the same crime as the actual perpetrator of the crime. An extreme example of this is sometimes known as the “felony-murder rule.” An individual who is the getaway driver to a bank robber is an example here. They are obviously an accomplice to the bank robbery itself, but if that bank robber kills someone while the robbery is taking place, the getaway driver themselves can also be convicted of felony murder. That is despite them not knowing that the bank robber would engage in any violent acts while in the bank, or even being inside the bank while the crime was being perpetrated.
An irrational decision also occurred here. Rand had just come off a Discord ban for inciting drama a few days ago. Rand may not consider this drama, but engaging in activities that he himself has stated “we'd figured we'd at least get strikes” for, suggests that there was some awareness that the actions being taken here were not within the scope of appropriate behavior.
I also highlighted within the definition of groupthink the phrase “fueled by a particular agenda.” I think this may be the case here. There was likely a ringleader involved in this decision to blitz the forums and Discord. I will not speculate as to who that ringleader was, though I certainly have my own theory. I will provide my more-innocent speculation as to what the “particular agenda” was in the decision by these individuals to engage in this behavior. That would be that the members of this group were simply bored and wanted to rile themselves up in such a manner that one might crudely categorize as a “circlejerk” of sorts. An added bonus for these individuals would be to garner the attention of others. This seems similar to the pattern of past outbursts by the perpetrators.
Rand wrote in his unban request that “I don't want drama, drama just tends to need to happen when certain decisions are made, or certain things are let to slide.” That clearly was not the case in this particular circumstance. Drama was absolutely not warranted in the slightest here. There was no incorrect decision made here, nor did anyone let anything slide here. What was posted was literally just dragging up old drama, none of which has any relevance today. The current TTT admin team has not been involved in the decision-making for any of the past events criticized by these individuals.
The choices made by Rand and the other individuals also failed to rise above critical thought, and triggered decisions that were neither ideal and ignored critical information. This was most evident by the decision to include information regarding past staff members that have engaged in illegal and disgusting conduct with children. There are real-life victims involved here. It is inappropriate to just write these things off as “drama.” Both of the most recent events were particularly shaking to the PH staff. These were people that had been ingratiated in the community for years, with friendships and other ties as well. These challenges have made it harder for people in the staff community, myself included, to trust others here and far more apprehensive about what some might consider benign comments or actions. Some of the information included by these individuals was also either factually incorrect or misstated the scope of the issue. In the “List of Drama (by year)” document that was attached to the deleted thread on the forums, the extent of the recent issues in PH were misstated. The quote that I found particularly bothersome was “Abdel and some random PH staff were weird ass hoes” in reference to the recent issues. There were two people that were caught. This quote suggests that there were more than two people by not simply including the name of the other individual involved, but rather making the grammatical choice to go with the open-ended “some random PH staff” that could mean any number of individuals. The inclusion of this information was insensitive, inaccurate, and inappropriate.
The final part of the definition of groupthink that I had underlined was individual responsibility. That seems to be lacking here. The thread on the forums, as well as the blitz on the Discord were a group effort. Some may have been more guilty than others in writing the more offensive posts and sections of that thread. What I am seeing here in this unban request seems to be a bit of “finger-pointing” already. It is true that Rand wrote that he is not trying to alleviate blame and not trying to say he didn’t do anything wrong. However, some of the language in this unban suggests that he is trying to minimize the role which he may have had in this such as “I was the most tame of the bunch of people doing things, some of which got as little as a strike.” Another example is with the references to the guide on staffing and warnings.
My thoughts are that this all came as the result of groupthink. Poor decision-making by all involved. A two-month ban seems excessive, but a single warning seems too light. I do not see the need to alienate the individuals involved here from the community entirely as a ban would do. I think a more appropriate response might be an extended mute in the Discord. This would allow Rand and other guilty parties to remain a part of the community, but unable to cause any further rancor for the duration of their mute.
Best,
Nicky
