Systematic MSO issues.

[Somepan]

I would like to preface this complaint with the fact that i acknowledge the lack of accountability TG has for host and that i do not think any expects any kind of punishement, i'm writing this complaint more so for the sake of record keeping MSO's trimestrial abuse of his power more so than actual consequences for him.

MSO has been for the past years embedding himself in conversations surrounding issues of feminism or men's issues and banning whom he deem where sufficiently bigoted towards men. He has also sparked some of these discussions.
MSO has been banning and muting people for using words such as incel or manosphere, claiming that these people were demonizing spaces dedicated to men's rights, ignore the obvious misogynistic component of groups that use these terms, all while proudly displaying himself as an anti-feminist.

MSO will come into a discussion, assume what you're saying is bigoted if you're seen criticizing groups that have resentement towards feminists, and label you as a misandrist, from there threaten to ban you, then do so if you keep disagreeing with him on such topics.

Why is this a problem ?

1) MSO is activly administrating interactions with other members of the discord, this is activly against admin conduct, he justifies it by claiming he's the only one morally virtuous enough to admin these things instead of seeking help from Discord Jannies.
2) MSO is incapable of remaining impartial; he will spend hours on end defending terms heavily associated with misogyny, all while critisizing feminism, a movement widely regarded as the source for many social advancement in terms of women's rights. These discussions portray him as more of a misogynist than they do of his opponents as a misandrists, even if those discussions segway into systematic criticism of MSO will ban people calling him out for his erratic behavior. Today alone he has banned half a dozen people on premises that get as weak as correcting him on a definition (See
3) MSO is the host of TG station, and yet acts the least responsably. The most reliable way to avoid getting a mute or a ban from him when such topics are talked about is to avoid talking to him, and he will mute you if you advise others not to interact with him.
He will use his status has a host to force nonsensical measures such as replacing "Inc*l" by autist on forums, or even a systematic mute for using the term on discord. He will retroactivly try and seek changes in rules that will give more leverage to threaten people for bans. He will frame arguments with you in a way that's almost entierly detached from what was actually said, in favor of what he believes you said.
All this to say, he will make TG worse for you if engage with it just a little more than as the silly space man game, any involvement in policy, in adminning, in talking on discord, is tainted by the shadow he projects.

Relevant collection of images about today's spree of bans.
https://imgur.com/a/l0jxSNH
https://imgur.com/a/xKkHnIK

Ps: MSO has been claiming both in private and public that posting stats about crime offenders should remain bannable because it reinforces biases towards some groups. This his hypocritical, as in his tumblr, which he advertises both on TG, and DMs, one of his posts which he will readily repost under the form of an image consists in showing that actually, women are the real offenders of SA or DA and such crimes. Reminder kids, posting stats is only evil villifies the group i want to defend, i am a true egalitarian.
https://imgur.com/a/qAGpnde

PPS: Looking forward to you stepping down MSO, you may not see the consequences of your actions, but you removing yourself from host is enough for me.

[dendydoom]

mso is stepping down as host and (assumedly) will have passed on these responsibilities to scriptis in the near future.

i don't know what an upheld complaint against the host would even look like because they run the infrastructure that allows any of this to exist in the first place so the only will they are accountable to is their own. after they have stepped down it seems like an even more unproductive venture.

other than continuing an argument with someone who has made every effort to distance themselves from you because you clearly don't see eye to eye and cannot coexist without every conversation being twisted back onto the topic that causes you to argue, what outcome from this do you want? what is this looking to achieve?

[TheFinalPotato]

I think that some of the ways MSO uses power are harmful and hurt the community, but I think you're more focused here on continuing an argument with him. S not productive and just burns your soul. Stop doing self harm via internet interaction.

[Timberpoes]

I'm closing this complaint unilaterally.

Not because of its merits. Not because of whether it can be upheld. Not because I want to quash public discourse on it. Not because I want to protect MSO or even bury the truth.

I'm closing it because during the host handover both MSO and Scriptis are busy. I want the host handover to be smooth. Tgstation as a whole needs it to be smooth. It is a time of great uncertainty. Bagil has been taken down pending pop. Terry was down for so long MSO realised maybe it's time to change the host. Sybil lost its healthy daily pop count. Players and admins alike are wondering what the future of tgstation is.

In my experience, pointless drama bombs like this cause MSO to retreat into his hermit shell or get distracted arguing about shit on the Internet instead of focusing on getting the host handover done. Or worse.

With the mitigating and unique MSO-specific circumstances, I don't believe it's in the public interest to litigate this right now. And depending on what shape the future of tgstation takes under Scriptis, I don't want incidents like this to unduly influence MSO or his approach to the handover. My advice in these moments is often that he's the host, he can do what he likes, you just have to deal with it if you can't get him to see your point of view or agree with you.

Since we now live in interesting times, that advice has evolved. I will add the additional caveat; the advice we give every time the Headmin team pisses someone off. Wait until there's a new host and maybe the problem can be addressed or will vanish entirely under the change in leadership. I can't see the future and right now the priority isn't figuring out what administrative role the host takes in the day-to-day running of the servers. The priority is figuring out the baseline day-to-day running of the servers themselves.

I also want to publicly state that the admin team without a shadow of doubt holds MSO to account for his actions when he does stuff they disagree with. Sometimes people end up deadminned, timed out or in the case of headmins who are more difficult to remove he'll just block them (speaking from experience).

As a headmin I've asked him to pretend I did a lengthy Timberpost about standards and transparency and why we all pride ourselves on being the best admin team because we hold ourselves to the best standards and try to self-reinforce that. Members of the admin and DJ teams have also dogpiled him in the admin channels. Scriptis is aware of the situation and also has very informally and very non-bindingly all of this is just back of a cigarette packet informal discussed how he intends to approach moderation as a future host which I believe are ideas the community will receive positively if they do come to fruition.

On these final points - anyone in the community that would want to see a complaint like this upheld or was hoping for any tangible change to result from this complaint will have to let me barter in the only real currency I can give on this topic, trust. Please trust me that things happen regardless of any such formal complaints being made here rather. I want MSO to feel comfortable focusing on the host handover rather than defending himself, especially if he believes he was fairly and justifiably exercising his right as host to moderate this community into the shape he sees fit within the scope of the rules he wrote and in the light of those rules as he intended them.