First of all, I want to establish that it is 100% the admin's right and responsibility to remove anyone from their site. This is not about protecting one's community or themselves, though. This is straight up bullying, and it's been happening for almost a decade. Normally, I don't do these sorts of posts or anything like this. However, it's been going on for so long that I think I should bring it up with the community so that people know what to look for and choose to protect themselves or their friends if they deem it necessary to do so.
For about 8+ years, there has been this one staff team that has been bullying me and has bullied at least one of my friends that I know of all because I said I needed to reserve a canon that was open to multiple characters, not just one character. Back when this first happened almost a decade ago, the head admin harassed me by repeatedly pending my app even after I made all the requested changes with them making up more reasons to pend my app again and again. Till, finally, they said "your character doesn't work here. You need to leave." My friend at the time took this as bullying and confronted the staff team. Eventually, the head admin - in their words - said that they did in fact bully me off their site because of that one comment I made.
Mind you: I had only ever said that one thing. That was the first and last thing I said before they decided they needed to get their revenge on me. My friend asked why, and this person made up all sorts of outlandish interpretations to my "oh, I need to go reserve [canon]." They were so outlandish to a perfectly normal remark that it really felt like they were just making up excuses to justify their actions, but not even a small child would believe these excuses.
After I left, they needed someone new to bully. So, they decided to bully my friend whom they had already accepted. Rather than having them leave, they started to make really restrictive rules that were in response to my friend and the ideas he came up with that they originally OK'd up until the point they found out he was my friend. After that, they refused to approve any character they made and started to treat him the exact same way they treated me. At some point, they eventually had to accept one of his characters and I suspect it's because it was starting to look suspicious to other members. But rather than asking him to leave as they should have done, they kept him around so they could use him as a punching bag. I had to keep pleading with my friend to just leave, because his mental state was getting bad. But he had nowhere else to RP and he really liked the characters he had. Eventually, he did leave because it got to be too much.
Fast forward over the years, they changed their name for every site they ran and I mistakenly joined a handful of them because of the name changes. I don't know why they change their names for every site they make, I suspect it's because they're bullies and people find out at some point but that's just my theory. Regardless of why: each time I tried to join a new site of theirs, I'd either say nothing at all before I submitted my app, or I'd ask a couple of questions - that's it. I never really got to interact with one of their sites because they, without fail, would kick me out of their site because I wasn't a "good fit." It had gotten to the point where I pleaded they just block me so I didn't keep accidentally joining their site, but they refused.
After so many times of this, I started to see the patterns of their usernames, their rules, and how many staff they typically had so I was able to avoid them for a couple years. However, just the other day, this was changed in enough ways I felt comfortable enough to join their site, not realising it was them. Their typical patterns with their usernames and how many staff they had was totally out the window. Instead of 3 staff, there were 4 staff. Instead of having matching names that were thematic to the site, they all had unique usernames.
So, I joined.
I asked three questions.
I submitted my app.
And again: I was dismissed immediately.
Not realising it was the same people and I assumed that my app being denied was a typical situation, I didn't read the "denied" message. I asked if I could overhaul this character, but as we're on opposite timezones I decided: "I think know what's wrong and I'll just remake him and make sure he fits better." So, I reposted his app and overhauled him almost completely. Different background and upbringing, streamlined it, added in a little short story. I had made sure to read a couple of other apps to get a feel for what they approved as they had some interesting and confusing rules. So, it should have been fine, at least fine enough that it'd get a pend and I'd know what to fix, and we would move on.
In the meantime, I discovered it was possible for me, as a guest, to chat in one of their channels. In fact, it was for that very purpose. So, while waiting for the admins to login, I started to hang out with several people - two of whom were in fact admins and acted completely fine around - and just enjoyed my time there. Afterwards, one if them very kindly and politely messaged me and said they saw my second message and would message me back once everyone was online. I thanked them and continued to chat with them and the others in the public server. There was no indication that there was anything wrong, and I felt like I was starting to make friends.
Eventually, all staff were online but I still hadn't been messaged. I thought "that's weird, what could be taking so long?" So, curious if I'd missed something in my denied message, I thought to actually read the message and this is what it said (linking to screenshot, names have been censored):
i(dot)ibb(dot)co/ZV6vxBN/image(dot)png
“Thanks for giving [Site] a try! Unfortunately, the staff has decided to deny your application, either because it did not fit the 5-3-1 critier or because the character did not feel like a good fit for our group and setting. We hope this does not deter you from writing, and that you’ll find a community that better suits your needs!
We have provided a copy of [app] application below, so that you can possibly use them on other sites. Though we cannot dedicate time to give every denied character feedback, feel free to politely message [Name] or [Name] on their staff accounts for a more detailed reason for the denial. Though you will not be joining us here, we wish you the best of luck with your other RP endeavours.”
That's when I realised: "oh no... I think I know who these people are." Every site I joined before then of theirs, I got the same message almost word-for-word. But, their patterns weren't the same. So, I checked in with a couple of my friends and asked "is this normal? Is this normal RP protocol these days?" They all said no. Then I checked in with one of my friends who I knew played there and asked "they hadn't pended me a single time and immediately deleted my character and seem to be dismissing me? Is this normal?" and they said "no, I've never seen this happen before." And, on my behalf, they started to get very upset. They said they were going to have some words with the staff and get to the bottom of this and ask why that happened. However, I didn't want this friend to go through what my other friend had gone through almost a decade prior and asked them not to bring it up, that I didn't want to cause problems because if they brought it up then they too would get bullied.
However, as nervous as I was, I decided to hang on tight just in case because I hadn't been removed from the site, and I hadn't been removed from the server. So, I kept chatting while waiting.
Eventually, I was messaged and the message confirmed that it was, in fact, the people who have been bullying me off their sites for the last decade. Here is the message (names are removed):
i(dot)ibb(dot)co/J7hDLDR/image(dot)png
I'm not going to quote it in text as this one is quite lengthy but as you can see: they wrote with very vague language (which is on point for them), they never explained why my character was denied (I did, in fact, follow the 5-3-1 rule of theirs as well as followed their rules on narration/etc so this bit about that is not true), and then the proceeded to treat me like a problem child for continuing to chat on the server when they a.) never told me either in the guidebook or in the denied message they sent me or anything that I wasn't allowed to chat in the server while I was waiting for their reply (normally, people remove those they don't want on their site from their site and server: but remember, they refuse to do this. At this point, I'm convinced it's part of their mind games they like to play to feel empowered over others). They then tried to treat me like I was the villain for reposting my completely revised app when they were the ones who deleted my character without pending even a single time or giving any sort of actual explanation. Even people who read this and didn't know anything about me pointed out how weird that is. One even thought it sounded like manipulation. Personally, I don't know. I don't want to assume or invalidate their feelings. Maybe they were genuinely uncomfortable. I don't know why they would be, but I'm not them. Yet, other people pointing out this being questionable has made me question "is it?"
Keep in mind: they've really only heard me say four things over the past decade: that I wanted to reserve a canon (which was when it all started), and three questions pertaining to their site most recently. They've not had any reason to target me or anyone who knows me. They don't know, and I don't know them.
My response is in there too. Again, I requested to be banned again, and even gave them my list of IP addresses and emails that I could find both in my home country and my current country. After that, I blocked them on Discord in hopes that it'll indicate which sites to avoid if I see any "blocked messages" on servers going henceforth, but the issue is I don't know if they change their discord handles every time they change sites like they do with their usernames. We'll see.
So please: this team is full of bullies, don't join their sites. They've not only bullied me, but they've also bullied one of my friends. I wouldn't be surprised if they have bullied other members on their sites over the years. If you can, avoid them. Tell your friends to avoid them. They're not good people.
Some things to look out for:
- They seem to always have a 500+ word count rule for history (though maybe they'll change this up after I post this so they're less recognisable).
- They are very particular about their rules on graphics like using HQ graphics.
- They almost always come in 3s, but I've recently seen them come in 4 now.
- Their skins are always very beautiful, and almost always custom jobs.
- Their names used to match each other thematically (this is an example, I don't think they ever used this example for their usernames: matcha tea, oolong tea, herbal tea ), but I've recently started to see them with unique usernames from each other.
- I've noticed a strange pattern that they tend to follow trends, but I almost think they might be following my suggestions? I posted wanting a Final Fantasy site, and they made one. I posted wanting a Rune Factory site, and they made one. I posted wanting a cyberpunk or futuristic site, and they made one not long after I posted that. I think it's coincidence and that it might just be whatever's trending but it's a really weird coincidence.
- They typically make fandoms, but they started to make originals. Their sites I've tried have all been animanga, but I don't know if they run RL sites as well.
Knowing them, their site won't last long but here is one of their sites (their newest one as of this post). It gives you an idea of how nice their skin is, and their rules if it's still open by the time you check it out:
elysium(dot)jcink(dot)net
Thank you for reading this very long post.
P.S. I have tried talking to them on multiple occasions, and as I mentioned earlier one of my friends tried talking to them as well. They have no interest in communicating what the issue is. They keep their answers vague and refuse to answer questions while proceeding to victimise themselves and vilifying other people. (Which, ironically, I'm doing right now. I know it's a bit hypocritical, but I'm doing this because I think bullying is bad and that this needs to stop. )
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