I'll state my opinion publicly.
I will begin by saying that the circumstances before us are particularly egregious and unusual. I was not on this wiki during its most tumultuous times (having been banned for the ass end of that age), so I cannot speak to its entire history- but I have never seen a user generate such a miasma of hatred around them in my time here. This itself is not a rule violation; however, that Dread appears intent on instigating these acts of hatred means we have what I would call legitimate and altogether reasonable grounds to issue a major rule violation. It is little different than harassment, only on a large scale.
As I'm typing this I see Crab's message posted above me- I would agree with his conclusion that Dread ought to be permanently banned. Dread probably should have been permanently banned to begin with, but mistakes can be made, and the bureaucracy can obfuscate what must be done. Dread is little more than a troll at this point, and within a day of returning to the site has solely stirred the pot. We have nothing to gain by his presence.
As for the other users involved. Broadly speaking, I am in favor of some amount of clemency for those who verbally abused Dread, given the extraordinary circumstances- they were goaded and manipulated into doing it, and mystifyingly enough, they were goaded by none other than the apparent "victim"; thus it seems to me difficult to suggest as heavy punishments as they might otherwise receive. It is my opinion that anyone partaking in that thread who did not issue threats or wishes for harm or death may be appropriately considered innocent.
These more extreme actions ought to be more carefully considered, especially acknowledging that several of those doing them did so recognizing that they were consciously breaking the rules- the defense of manipulation or ragebaiting is harder to argue when one can take a step back and realize such things. The users in particular are as follows:
It's worth noting Arceus0x is a borderline case (
here,
here) but I wouldn't take him as doing anything worthy of a ban. Da3ggman also referenced the death of Dread (
here)
but clarified the mention of death wasn't the intent (take it with what grains of salt you want). I would consider everything else water under the bridge. My suggestions are as follows:
- Informal warnings for all participating in this stunt. Dread is an unusual case- clemency will not be the norm in the future.
- Formal warning for @Arceus0x. Even taking the above aside, he contributed to the atmosphere more than most- including the above makes it worthy of particular rebuking, in my opinion.
- A ban for @DaMonkeMan. He claimed he wanted to be banned anyways, I'm not sure whether he stands by that or whether he wants it to be permanent, but regardless, much of the non-Dread side of this situation arose from him, and practically all of the explicit death threats were made by him. It crosses a line one can no longer reasonably ignore. @DivineAura44 mentioned support for him, shown above, and so I would recommend a shorter ban. I'll wait to hear from others before discussing formal time suggestions.
