Sex, lies and ... Mugglenet Chat?

So much has happened since I quit Mugglenet on Thursday... that was supposed to be a fun blog entry in itself, but its just snowballed. The long and short of it is mugglenet chat appears to be closing down for a while:

Regrettably, MuggleNet Chat has been closed for the forseeable future. We know this is sudden, but due to unforeseen circumstances, we have been left with no other course of action. In the event the chat will ever re-open, all room and nickname registrations will be archived. While this gateway page is now left as only a notice of closure, the chat network and servers will still be online until February 17, 2006. All users are urged to save any information they find useful, or may be required to move to another chat network. We would like to show our appreciation for those users who have been with us the entire time, and especially those staff who invested their personal time on this endeavor.

Don't, whatever you do, assume that I quit and all the Net Admins felt their soul die and needed to close chat. A hell of a lot of things happened, most completely beyond my knowledge and/or control, which have eventually led to Mugglenet Chat being in a bit of a state. I reiterate: I do not claim either blame or credit for Mugglenet's closure. Think Butterfly Effect.

Anyway, there's just too much stuff to explain in a single entry as to what has happened, so I got a great, great, person to simply interview me on what they wanted to know, so that I could answer that first and foremost and deal with other details later. This post is by no means comprehensive and so you have to have a fair knowledge of events for this to make any sense.

When did you first get the idea that you wanted to quit?

Well, like any mod (I presume) I had plenty of times where I wanted to quit, then decided not to for various reasons. The first time I was seriously going to do it was right after I went on holiday to Gibraltar. I had been away for two weeks and felt a lot better for it - quitting seemed like the obvious choice. When I came back, they made me server admin - and two days later Services Admin and the rise in status made me rethink - maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to stay after all. I already knew by then, however, that I didn't enjoy modding - I didnt want to deal with mainers etc. Not much to do with any of the other mods though.

So that was your reason for quitting?

Had I quit in December, that would've been my one reason with no others. But... When they made me Services Admin, I asked myself what on Earth I had done to deserve it. Irishlad, James and firebreathinghorntail were all moved up from Server Admin, which was understandable. Rich was promoted alongside me, to cover for fbh on omaha, understandably. Me? With no computer knowledge beyond the basic shun/gline stuff...? No reason whatsoever. So I asked Beth.

She couldn't give me any particular answer either - but she did mention to me that she didn't feel I was the one there who was least deserving. I instantly thought she meant either Ray or James - she was too chummy with Rich and fbh for it to be them. And I knew that within a few weeks one of them would be gone.

Do you feel that James was removed unjustly?

Definitely. It was while we were recruiting new moderators - plenty of good applications were turned down for a variety of reasons, and some chatter had apparently been told that his application was better than most and he should've got a trial. So this chatter starts mouthing off in one of the private rooms - where James happened to be idling. BAM! Suspended for "leaking staff information".

Was any evidence provided that actually proved that he was leaking staff information? Or was it all speculation?

They never had any evidence. Other than him happening to be in the room while that chatter yapped on.

Then of course, there were the disputes with Swagato and Brentos - those are complicated, but trust me neither deserved to be fired (though in technicality Brentos resigned).

What evidence was provided to support the firing of Swagato?

Well they fired him for 'leaking staff information'. (They're fond of that one.) They kept that one between the Net Admins as far as they could.

Did he leak information?

Not as far as I see - from what I've heard he said, it was all stuff that chatters knew anyway. What's interesting to note though is that both James and Swagato had had personal arguments with Beth mere days before they were fired.

Why did Brentos really resign?

Brentos' resignation I feel is personal to him. I don't particularly want to go into it without first consulting with him at very least. But he was in a corner - he had no choice but to resign, I feel.

The last ircop they fired was ANTDx1, which pissed me off personally, because he was an IRCop on my server, which was woefully short of experienced moderators and they fired him without consulting me at all. And the reason they told me? I have no idea what they told him, by the way. But Beth was frank with me. She and Laura don't like Ian (ANTDx1), and they weren't ever going to promote him, so there was no point having him there. And I paraphrase only very slightly.

So their reason for firing him was that they didn't like him?

Precisely.

Do you think they used Brent to gain power, just to dismiss him in the long run?

Brentosgate was very complicated, but Beth was suddenly very nice to people she hadn't been nice to for months - seemingly only to get him fired. For once he was disposed of, she ceased talking to those people.

Describe Beth's (and Laura's) attitude to you before and after they were promoted.

Laura never had much to do with me. She always seemed rather immature to me and when she and Beth got together they were like a pair of giggly, bitchy teenage girls.

Beth I knew rather well. She befriended me back in April, I believe, when I was fairly new to the chat. She only noticed me because I had most of main trying to guess who I had a 'crush' on. (I was young - I was allowed to have a crush!)

Was it me?

Yes, of course! Marry me!

Done. ..back to Beth.

Erm.. she's a little.. hard to take. She will lauch herself at you relentlessly, if she wants your attention. And has this annoying habit of thinking she's something entirely new to every other girl on the planet. I had to grit my teeth a fair bit when she flirted with me. And she fancied me. A lot. That's probably why I was modded and got as far as I got. I'm the first to admit I didn't deserve a mod spot, having been a troublemaker in main, and I didnt deserve to be Services at all.

Beth always treated me well. In a way, I can see how it's a bit mean of me to throw it in her face, but in the end it wasn't worth putting up with her just to retain my mod position.

Would you say that her actions were inappropriate for an admin? (In regards to her advances on you.)

Yes, though once she had me on her msn list she made her advances there rather than on mugglenet. Until then, using the network to solicit it never deterred her.

Would you say that she treated staff fairly?

Well, if you mean treating all staff equally, then no. But then, if you mean treating everyone individually the same way every time... then no again. I mean.. I was promoted for nothing. James was fired for nothing. It all depends entirely on her mood and what she thinks of you as a friend.

Would you consider her unstable?

Haha, maybe not a complete and utter loon. But she definitely neglects reasoning if it clashes with her emotion. She frequently told me her self-control is something she values - it hurts me to say she doesn't demonstrate having much of it.

How did Beth's actions affect your decision to quit?

Well I realised that as long as I was in Beth's pocket, I was sorted. The problem was, I felt genuinely uncomfortable with her - ffs, no I don't want to cyber, yknow? I dreaded getting messages from her and I couldn't very well block her. I knew that if I outright rebelled and told her to leave me the F alone, I'd lose her friendship and my oline. I figured I'd lose her friendship anyway, cos I just didnt want to have to deal with her anymore. So I put my plan in place - I was going out in style!

Lol! Where did you get the mass kick script? :)

Now, that'd be telling! Masskick scripts are freely available if you google for them, but my script, I got someone nifty with scripting to personalise it for me - though at the time they didnt know why.

Explain: Wallow in your own filth, Pigs of Satan!!!!!!

Haha! I have to give credit to Slythergenic for that beauty. She knew my plan in its entirity, as well as the reasoning. I told her that I thought of Mugglenet as repulsive and between us we came up with the catchy little phrase that seemingly has gone down in history. But "Pigs of Satan" was her part. I seriously love that woman.

What was your involvement in the post-kick festivities?

'Festivities' meaning 'disruption', none. I merely came back to watch the chaos.

What do you want to say to the current MNC administration?

You mean what's left of it? Rik's already quit - he's a good guy. I'm sorry he had to get caught up in all this rubbish.

To Rich and Ray - no qualms with you. I love you like brothers.

PetPeeves - whatever your reasoning, quitting was the right course of action. I hear it's because of your own personal reasons and the latest chaos was just a final push. I hope whatever happens with you goes well.

Beth - I know you're puzzled as fuck, but I just lost respect for you. I hope you come to realise that you've made a few bad decisions - and after my quit, some horrendously bad ones. I also hope, probably in vain, that you're not too proud to admit you've been wrong and take the right course of action: standing down. Besides, your personal life needs sorting out even more than mnc does. Try focussing on that for a while instead.

firebreathinghorntail - you're tricky. I used to respect you, but you've become my staunchest critic. I think its rich that you, even today, tell mainers to remain courteous and whatnot, yet tell them that if they support me they're idiots. Surely its up to them to decide? Either way, you're hardly in a position to form any coherent critique of me, so I forgive you for your shortsightedness in the matter.

And last of all Ryzer, the only server admin mnc had. You're probably confused. I only hope you're old enough to have a nice, stout glass of port.

Damon - I know you've had a long, rather cosy friendship with Beth. But just as she does, you're allowing your attachments to cloud your vision. She's not capable.

Discuss IrishFaerie's permanent g:line.

Bollocks. Complete and utter bollocks. It's no secret Beth didn't like Irishfaerie and so she opportunistically used IrishFaerie's support as a reason to gline her. All IrishFaerie did was have a nickname that had a reference to me in it. There is a long, long, boring, perplexing history of Beth's dislike of IrishFaerie and she's never once produced a scrap of evidence why. Beth acted purely out of spite, in my opinion.

Is there anything else you want to say?

Yeah, Beth said she would've quit the same way, so none of Beth's supporters can really criticise my actions effectively. Not without compromising their Fuehrer.

Is there more?

Is there something in particular you're getting at?

The thing everyone really wants to know: how old are you?

Hahahaha! Legal!