[Gabe]

-snip-

Going to respond to some of your points. 

"Laced is not someone who should be able to silence opposition":
As I said before, he discussed it beforehand with me and specifically said he wanted to make sure it was not a rash decision on his part. I would never let him or anyone else delete posts, moderate, or intimidate someone on the forums just to silence their opponents. This is not what happened here. I explained in my initial reply here why that is not the case here and never will be. 

"Obviously I have no "hard" evidence for this since I'm never allowed in his private channels, nor would I ever want to be in a place so blatantly toxic. But the signs are there and they are obvious."
Respectfully, I think this is just making this is just making assumptions based on preconceived views and opinions. The same assumptions and preconceived view and opinions could be applied to every "dink's splinter" discord, private channels, etc. That doesn't make it true in the slightest. 

"This is clearly a favor for a friend and nothing more."
I have addressed this already in my first reply. if you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I want to be as transparent as possible.

"Laced is responsible for the majority of shitposting and opinion blocking that he has no place moderating it now."
For the latter part of "opinion blocking", as someone who was intimately involved with the "Addressing Toxicity," that a lot of people detested and other thing regarding opinion blocking, I know this issue more than a lot of people in the community I think. I'm not trying to sound self-righteous, it's just that I've garnered a lot of time as both TTT and Web Admin to see that issue. I don't think anyone denies that he has some not-so-good parts of his past in this community that can rightfully erode some trust, but people can change and grow up. I understand people can have a hard time believing people can genuinely try to grow up and change, but it's certainly possible. I already explained in my initial post why I picked Laced and thought he deserved an opportunity to prove himself again. He's shown signs of improvement and I wanted to give him a chance to prove that. That takes time. I think with time people will see how he's changed himself for the better and be a good addition to the web team. 

As for shitposting, yes he has gotten carried away with that in the past. But that hasn't been a pressing issue for a while. He knows how to control himself and take it seriously. In general, I don't see a majority of harmless shitposting as a massive turn-off, just an annoyance unless it causes other issues such as derailing, harassment, etc. The forums is supposed to be more lenient with shitposting. Again, I think he's genuinely changed.

"oh also caught laced himself streaming drama bingo in staff discord. Way to prove my point that you do not belong in power here! And no, this isn't me leaking staff chat since it has nothing to do with sensitive staffing material not suitable for public information! So don't try that with me ty."
I genuinely don't get what this has to do with anything. I don't see much of an issue of doing something like that, especially if it's in a closed environment that's doing no harm by 

There's too much to reply too, so I'll stop there

My only thought is I wish these spots would be open to applications instead of hand picked. Even if restricted to just staff like how discord did. Mostly likely would have avoided the current displeasure of some about laces spot.

web mod applications would be ideal. The issue is that it's a small team, generally 2-3 web mods at most. So that's why there were never applications. If we're looking to expand the team further in the future, I think an application could be good. Or at least requesting feedback from the community. Given how Web Mod is structured, the team size, and its role, the current system worked well. I'm not opposed to doing applications in the future if the team needs to be bigger, it's just that they might only be "open" during a certain period and not open 24/7/365 like every other application system we got. I think the current system works well.

My only comment is that it is weird that forum promotions happen entirely behind closed doors when every other promotion category is handled publicly

Same comment as above. Not going to reply to every application question.

Battons comment didn’t really add anything to the thread but, there wasn’t any real reason to censor it either. We publicly allow people to mindlessly post positive approval for each other but, we censor mindless disapproval. 

I don’t really get why.

The issue wasn't that it was mindless. Chell said it best. It was the manner it was expressed in. I don't think it added anything meaningful and just came across as a snarky remark. I also specifically said in the thread not to make it about that and if there were any concerns it should be brought to me or and I would've said to make a thread like this. Battons also did not get forum warned for it or any formal punishment, only a response stating why it was removed and the thread was locked. It wasn't intended to be censorship, rather keeping the intent of the initial forum post in tact. 

I probably have more questions than I will ever get answers for, but let's break a few things down.

I'll try to answer as much as I can.

For the original post, yes Battons the forums should 100% be the place for discussions and disagreements because that's where people are usually thrown to anyways when they disagree with something.

I Agreed with this and this I don't think this has changed at all.

As for shutting down threads, that should be a last resort effort. It makes no sense that the forum changes post was locked when no one had commented in 24 hours.

I wouldn't characterize it as it being "shutdown" moreso the thread being open past it's usefulness. There was meaningful feedback for the rule rewording, which was a work in progress when it was initally posted. I kept it open for those reasons. Once we finished the changes, I always intended to close it out and any further feedback, suggestions, etc could be made in seperate threads. After Battons' snarky comment was rightfully removed, it just made sense to close it out then. 

As for the decision to make Laced a Web Mod. I don't care how much you say a person has changed, when you state that past infractions and actions were taken into consideration for this decision, but then solely base this decision on an admin discussion, you forget one key thing, the trust the community has in that person. Looking at a lot of the outlash in this decision, there is a HIGH lack of trust in Laced based on his past and current self. I get that people can grow and change, but looking at a deeper level into Laced's actions on the forums, there is shitposting, arguments, and disrespectful comments (including telling people to "stop being stupid lmfao" on this very thread). How can anyone take this decision seriously?

As I said, it was taken into consideration and discussed. I also went back and did some research of my own in case I was forgetting anything. Anyone that knows me knows that I don't make rash decisions and that I try to do things as thorougly as possible.

Yes, I said in my initial post that I expected there to be some opposition and a lack of trust initially. That is what I'm hoping to build over time. I think some people(this is a general statement) are stuck in the past and can't rationalize that someone can change and grow over time. some think that people should forever be judged on their past and their past actions. I wanted to give Laced an opportunity after all this time to prove that he's changed and this is frankly a good first step in doing that. I've seen that he's changed. Again, I've seen him at his "worst" in this community versus now. He's genuinely tried to better himself and has done that in my eyes.

Some people are stuck in echo chambers, preconcieved views and opinions, and trying to hold onto issues/drama that have already been resolved, addressed, or fixed. The only way forward is to build trust and try to break out of these past bubbles. 

I already addressed the shitposting aspects. For arguments, I've seen them as still being civil. Intent and context matters. If you have any specific recent examples, I'd be glad to see them. He said "i love u guys but stop being stupid lmfao". Which to me comes across as a lighthearted way of saying to stupid, espesically since he knows some of the people that are shitposting. He's still being objective too there. He gave a tame response, all things considered, to this thread. 

Seeing someone say "I'll warn you for shitposting" but has a record past of that is almost hypocritical and hard to take serious, and I think that major point was forgotten in all of this.

Again, already addressed. I'll add that the fourms should be more lenitant with shitposting. I've already outlined in my changes thread & in the rules what constitutes shitposting.