Hey everyone, it’s time for an update.
Over the last nearly two years, Meso and I have endeavored to facilitate the running of a new series of canon contests for the BIONICLE universe, focusing only on characters from Generation 1 that were featured prominently and had speaking roles. While we never sought out the creation of these contests, the concept of them was brought to us and when the BIONICLE community voted in favor of them occurring, we felt that we were the right folks for the job.
In the time since their inception, we have been saddled with immense amounts of public pressure, stress, responsibility, and work. None of this has been what we would consider easy. The sad part is why.
While running the first two contests, the main issues that plagued us were that of growing pains. Determining the infrastructure that would be necessary to carry out voting, and working with a large variety of people from around the BIONICLE community in order to achieve a fair, reasonable, and agreeable ruleset. It has always been our intention to work with the community that voted for these contests so that they can be the most fun for everyone involved.
Unfortunately, we have been plagued by two main issues: A lack of staff/aid, and the unyielding energy of detractors, of whom have dedicated themselves to having these contests shut down. This group is small, and not representative of the large number of individuals from the community that wished for these contests to take place. Their reasons vary, from legitimate concerns about the impact on the community, to infantile, wishing only to shut them down out of a perceived dislike of us, our platform, our content, and our involvement.
While these contests have always been community focused, due to the history of their beginning and our unique infrastructure, they have been hosted here on The TTV Message Boards. As a result, participants in the discussions and creation of entries have been subject to our rules, in addition to the contest rules that have been laid out. But despite that, and especially as of late, select members have felt it acceptable to come here and act disrespectfully toward us, our staff, and other members. This has resulted in the second greatest loss of morale for Meso and I, only surpassed by events that took place between August 2017 - February 2018.
As such, we had to remove ourselves from the situation, after members opted to turn up the dial and increase their toxicity and misbehavior. This was done for the sake of our mental well being, and to give us time to reassess the situation and determine the best path forward. At this time, we are finally ready to make this statement.
Moving forward, we shall no longer be tolerating this disrespect on our website. We have always endeavored to work with the community and not claim sole ownership of these contests aside from managing them, but this is our site. We will, from here on out, be permanently banning any members that participate in the behaviors that brought us to this point. The disrespect, the attitude, the instigation of controversy. It’s done.
We will stress, this is a version of a site-wide rule that is contest specific. Whenever a member on our website breaks its rules, we will generally (most instances are handled case-by-case) opt to warn a member three times before moving into suspensions. After the second suspension, the member is permanently banned. Due to the high degree of toxicity and volatility shown by a select few members during these contests (behavior that could have very easily been avoided, especially considering what this is all about), we are forced to adopt a no-tolerance policy for this behavior. As our general board rules state: “…while we don’t require you to always respect the person, you are supposed to respect the position they are in.”
We would never and have never been in the business of shuttering discussion, and just because there are people that disagree with us doesn’t mean that we don’t want to hear it. But disagreeing with us and disrespecting us on our website are two different things, and we want to make that perfectly clear. If you have an issue with something we’ve done, or something we’re considering, then please understand your voice is welcome. But we will not be talked down to, berated, or disrespected any further.
With that all out of the way, allow us to move on to a few updates.
On the subject of TheUnderscoredDouble: Taking his previous conduct into account, both in the Helryx contest and in this one, and considering the immense trouble he has caused with his actions, his behavior, and his conduct, we are making the decision to bar him from any further participation in any contests held on The TTV Message Boards. This includes Canon contests, member run contests, and other related TTV contests. As for his entry, it will remain the basis for Bomonga, but his actions will not be permitted to happen again. We will not be reprimanding him further at this time, but a note of this will be added to his account for staff to view and any further inappropriate behavior will be heavily scrutinized.
On the subject of the polls: Based on the feedback from many members on the site, we will be re-evaluating the entries that were sent in, and reaching out to the creators for any corrections that are found. Members will have a week to make corrections if requested, and if not made in time, the entries will not move on to the polls.
On the subject of help: We need it. Send Meso and I a PM if you have any interest in assisting with entry curation for these contests. We aren’t offering moderator powers, but you would be tasked with helping us make sure entries are following the appropriate guidelines.
On the subject of the future of the contests: This continues to be a source of discussion and debate between Meso and I. Personally, I would not like to see all of this effort, all of this passion, and all of the creativity and drive the community has shown go to waste all because of the effort of ~10 people. I still feel the potential is there. But at this time, we’re going to get through this contest first, wrap it up, and focus on deliberation during a break between this one and the possible next one.
And as of now, that covers everything. One last note, we are going to be keeping a close eye on several members that have been at the center of major controversy instigations, and we are banning a couple that have no intention of contributing to this website or these contests in a constructive manner, and that have been personally harassing us on and off the Boards for months.
Thank you all for reading, we hope to hear your thoughts in this topic while we reassess and clean up the other one to reopen for further discussion pertaining to the contests. We don’t anticipate this topic will be open forever, but for now this is the place to speak your thoughts.
-Eljay