naniwazuni🧚🍂 · @naniwa_zuni
30th Jul 2022 from TwitLonger
Here's what happened to Pomucord on July 26th
TL;DR: Former Pomucord server owner went on a power trip and banned every other mod/admin due to private drama. The old mod team have created another server and released a statement on everything that happened in the server-announcements channel. The old server became pretty much unusable, and you should leave if you haven't already (remember to stop Nitro boosting it as well). If you want, you can join the new one here: https://discord.gg/pomu
I am writing this both to have it documented, and also so people can find out what's actually going on instead of hearing secondhand gossip. This summarizes drama between Xan (the original server owner) and other Pomucord admins (Gonxaleo, ReduX, Rabbit, and others) that resulted in Pomucord basically getting nuked. Several of these people are friends through being long-time supporters of Pomu, and have been modding Pomucord since basically day 1. I'm not privy to the exact details of what happened, so I'll be writing down only what I know as an "unbiased third party". I'm not part of the Pomucord mod team, I'm just a normal user.
== June ==
Minor drama over the server switching to a rainbow icon for Pride. It wasn't that big of a deal at the time, but it was the spark that would end up igniting this mess. Users asked for a server icon with a rainbow border, as a token gesture for Pride month. These suggestions got ignored, so users started getting more impatient - by June 4th, Pomucord was the only NijiEN fan server that had not added a rainbow icon. Discussion got more heated and wasn't so much about the pride border itself as it was about why the mod team seemed so against it - attempts to bring it up were typically met by a response like "we're working on something", or a dismissive smug anime girl gif.
== June 4th ==
Multiple users express that they are displeased with how the mod team is handling this. Responses from the mod team include "Do you want a poll so you feel better?" and pointing at the mod team's past charitable actions such as raising money for Rainbow Railroad to counter half-joking, half-serious jokes about how the mods hate Pride. Xan, the server owner, argues that they didn't want the server icon changed because it felt disingenuous like how corporations turn rainbow for Pride. Eventually, a (pretty awesome) rainbow icon was added, some of the existing mods apologized for how they handled things, and the server settled down.
https://i.imgur.com/gGP5PKt.png
https://i.imgur.com/5TE3jy3.png
https://i.imgur.com/u5QxEgC.png
https://i.imgur.com/cpAf7KQ.png
https://i.imgur.com/CDXd4JH.png
Toward the end of this was ReduX, a sort of pseudo-mod who had a bit of a meltdown, posting homophobic stuff and offensive memes in the server-suggest channel. Other mods were dumbfounded by his actions and tried some damage control:
https://i.imgur.com/X6e0K9L.png
https://i.imgur.com/CWl59Az.png
Xan defended ReduX for his actions, and both were pressured to step down. Shortly after the 4th, ReduX was removed as a mod, and left the server, and Xan also stepped down as admin/owner. When Xan left, he made another admin, Rabbit, the new server owner. Rabbit was not an active user on the server, and the existing mod team reportedly didn't have a say in this, but they generally trusted Rabbit and were fine with the decision. Regular users noticed that Xan left, but were otherwise completely in the dark about what happened.
== June 17th ==
Rabbit secretly gives the server back to Xan. The mods had a lot on their plate at this time, and according to their statement, Rabbit was tricked into returning the server to Xan. The other admins did not find out until some days later. When admins attempted to contact Xan to ask what he was trying to do, Xan did not reply to anyone's DMs for over a month and had his status marked as "offline" the entire time.
https://i.imgur.com/9wA1km6.png
== July 26th ==
6:30 PM EDT
The mod team has been waiting to request a server ownership transfer from Discord, which would require Xan to be inactive for a month. When the request is placed, Discord messages Xan to inform him about this, and Xan retaliates by banning nearly every existing mod/admin on Pomucord, and locks down the server from all discussion. He transfers the server to a new user named Hexagon#8669, which is either his alt account or someone close to him. Hexagon announces that he is "acting owner" of the server, and cites "rampant mod abuse and power tripping against former staffers with severe mental health consequences".
The first announcement was made at 6:30 EDT in the #server-announcements channel, then around 45 minutes later that channel was deleted and remade, with Hexagon reposting the same announcement again.
https://i.imgur.com/YIBZeth.png
https://i.imgur.com/QGppeCn.png
https://i.imgur.com/6NiYm8S.png
Normal Pomucord users find out that we can still post in the threads, so we use those to secretly communicate for hours while all this is happening. Some of the threads get deleted (rip #finana-real) but we migrate to other ones. The old mod team, all banned from Pomucord, try to work with Discord to get the server back. They also notify all affiliated servers to remove the current Pomucord from their related servers list.
8:00 PM
Hexagon appoints two new admins, Karaba la Sorcière and miracleorange. Neither have any post history on the server and both say that they know Xan. Two temporary mods are also appointed, bep and tunket. Both of them are helpful regulars on the server and were trying to do what they could to help the situation. They manage to get some of the audit log screenshots shown here, which was helpful as well. bep also manages to use temporary mod powers at some point to change the server's vanity URL, allowing other community members to claim the discord.gg/pomu URL. Hexagon presents themselves as some kind of "unbiased third party" attempting to transfer the server to new ownership, but offers absolutely no proof about any of this when confronted.
https://i.imgur.com/5bxhPRu.png
10:00 PM
The regular chat channels are opened again and people start pouring in, both a mix of Pomucord regulars and a huge number of tourists who have been following the drama and numerous @everyone pings. A narrative quickly spreads that Xan is homophobic (due to his behavior back in June and him stepping down afterwards) and this gets parroted by many users. Hexagon, Karaba la Sorcière, and miracleorange all make appearances in chat, but never give any information about what's going on or any indication that the server will go back to normal. All three get viciously attacked by chat for hours. Both of the two most active discussion channels on the server are eventually deleted, which leads to people pouring into other channels to demand that Hexagon return the server.
bep is at some point made "acting server owner", but only gets a role showing this, so it's largely meaningless. They do what they can to help, but bep ultimately leaves the server after it's clear the situation isn't salvageable. Users start leaving en masse to the NijiEN fan server (discord.gg/nijienfans), and many of the remaining users spam pride flags or harass Hexagon/Xan/the admins. Two additional temp mods (Lino Taiki and Emu <3) get added at some point, but they seem to just be random people who filled out the google form without knowing what they were getting into. Neither have much post history on the server, and Lino of them is made "acting server owner" after bep leaves, only to get attacked by chat when it's clear they have no idea what they're doing. What probably happened is that they were given this role to become a scapegoat for chat, and the statement from the new Pomucord mods says they had nothing to do with Xan.
https://i.imgur.com/497BtZU.png
11:55 PM
The public chats are locked again and the server quiets down. Some users still chat in the few surviving threads on the server. A lot of server history has been permanently deleted at this point - both the #niji-talk and the #general channels were deleted as they were the two most active channels after chat got unlocked. The history in #server-announcements was also deleted, so the first message in the channel is Hexagon's announcement that they would be taking over. Additionally, a channel with links to all of the other affiliated servers (other Niji fancords, Holo fancords, and the general NijiEN fan server) was deleted for reasons that are unclear - maybe to prevent people migrating somewhere else, maybe because Xan no longer wanted to be affiliated with them at all.
== July 27th ==
Pomucord is still locked down, and almost all of the channels have been deleted or archived, so no one is able to post. There is no word the entire day from either Xan in the original Pomucord, or the new mod team in the new server they're setting up. Pomucord regulars settle down in the #pomulive channel on the NijiEN fan server, which causes a little bit of friction with the regulars who were already there - a lot of us were treating the channel as just Pomucord 2.0 instead of being respectful of the server's culture and of the people who did not expect a massive influx of new users with their own culture and in-jokes. This is discussed peacefully and resolved - thanks again to all of the OG users in #pomulive, many of whom were around since Lazulight debut, for putting up with us.
== July 28th ==
The old mod team makes Pomucord 2.0 public at 9:00 PM EDT. Gonxaleo is new server owner, much of the old mod team has returned as mods/admins, and several new mods/admins are also added. They've also made the mutes/bans log public as a way to be more transparent going forward. Their statement on the situation is here:
https://i.imgur.com/plCQTvF.png
Additional context and follow-up screenshots can be found in the #server-announcements channel in the new Pomucord. Other affiliated Niji servers show support by advertising this new server in their announcements channels. Pomucord 2.0 gets 1500 new members in just a little over an hour. Things look on track to go back to normal.
https://i.imgur.com/AnmHcQ6.png
FAQ:
* What happens next?
The former Pomucord admins have created a new server here (https://discord.gg/pomu). They have their own statement breaking down what happened in the #server-announcements channel, which you can see part of here (https://i.imgur.com/plCQTvF.png). It's up to you whether you are satisfied by this statement and want to stay in the server. This is the server most likely to be re-affiliated by the other fancords.
The NijiEN fan server also, as always, is a great place to talk about any liver. Even if you don't end up joining Pomucord 2.0, I hope you stay part of this community. You should also leave the old Pomucord in case anyone posts TOS-breaking content in there, and if you're a Nitro booster, remember to stop boosting it.
* Why did you post this?
I think it's important to have a written record of this kind of stuff for the future, or else it gets lost forever. I also wanted to make people informed on what happened instead of hearing about it secondhand or thirdhand through gossip or misinformation. This is not meant to be some kind of manifesto exposing people, this is meant to be an archive and a resource.
* What's this talk about the mod team being homophobic?
Refer to the screenshots from June 4th for context. I won't defend Xan's actions, but the narrative that "he removed the other mods because he was homophobic and they weren't" is wrong. Several of the mod team handled those events poorly, not just Xan, but none of them for reasons I would call homophobic - just a strong, if misguided desire to keep the server as apolitical as possible.
Xan taking over the server may have been started by the Pride drama, but the reason Pomucord self-destructed in the first place is solely because of the conflict between Xan and the rest of the mod team.
* What if we don't know the full story? What if Xan is right?
Regular users probably won't ever know ALL of the details, since some of it is deeply personal. It's possible Xan is somehow justified in taking the server away from the other admins, but the way he went about it was so god-awful that I would not be comfortable being on a server he owns. Additionally, note that the other mods posted screenshots as proof to back up their side of the story, whereas we have heard literally nothing from Xan/Hexagon since things started.
* What will happen to the posts on the original Pomucord?
If the server stays public and the channels are preserved, most of those posts will still be there. Some of the channels that were deleted are simply gone forever, and so are those posts. It's not clear if the other channels that are now hidden were archived or simply deleted. Most emotes, stickers, timestamps etc have been saved by the community and should survive.
* How does this affect Pomu?
Ideally? Not in any way whatsoever. She had a totally normal MGRR stream just as all of this was happening, and the new server is recovering quite well.