Members of SBFII know that the last six months have been strange and discomfiting. The one thing I find most inexplicable in the whole fiasco is the smearing of three women; Dyebat, lchris and Citroenlady.
Dyebat was everyone’s hero, the intrepid traveler who wouldn’t let anything stop her from attaining her goal, even if she had to sit outside in freezing weather knitting all night. She brought that can-do spirit into play when the forum was up for sale. When everyone else was worried, Dyebat said “Let’s do it ourselves!” And we embraced her for that. Many, many people offered money to purchase the forum, but the impetus came from Dyebat. After the purchase, she logged many miles and many hours in meetings and in efforts to develop the management and financial structure for the non-profit. Everything seemed to take three times more time and effort as it ought to, but Dyebat got it done in the end. She should be our hero still.
Then there is lchris. lchris did not have to offer to help Dyebat. She could have sat back and watched. But this was her area of expertise and she generously offered to help. lchris has spent untold hours (over 1,000) working on the forum since the sale. It was a complicated group of accounts and sites purchased by people with no prior experience in doing anything like that.
Transferring, recreating, and reconnecting all the pieces was just the beginning. It was also necessary to organize, document, and train on the technical as well as marketing and financial areas. It is mainly because of lchris’s many, many hours of labor that there is even a forum today for us to maintain. She spent her entire summer working on the forum. Without her, it wouldn’t be there.
Citroenlady was concerned about the divisions between people on the forum. She knew a lot about the history of the forum because people were drawn to her and confided their problems. She saw the members' purchase of the forum as a chance for a new beginning. She had discussions with Dyebat, Chris, Tink and Kalua about changes she hoped to see.
One such change was a way for members to appeal decisions they thought were unfair. Another was a way to deal with members who had been banned for reasons that would not bring such a result now. All of this was discussed with admin, it was not a secret conspiracy, it was not hidden. I think she should be commended for her efforts towards fairness and reconciliation.
All three of these women wanted what was best for the forum. Yet all three were vilified by cruel lies. All three were accused of being untruthful and of being part of some imagined conspiracy to take over the forum. It is not true. It was never true. Those who believed it were patsies for a vicious internet bully.
Some of the staff believed the lies, in spite of their own experiences with Dyebat, lchris and Citroenlady. But at some point, it was learned that the lies came from the cyber-bully. The tech staff, who has been afraid that lchris really was involved in some kind of “takeover”, realized that they were mistaken. And what did they do? They apologized to her. That was something that other staff members would try very hard to avoid doing.
What did they rest of the staff and the Board do? The staff and Board members let the lies and slander remain unrefuted for months, long after they knew from where the lies had come. They tried to prevent members from raising the issue on the forum.
They blew off members who raised the issue in PMs or email. I know that because I tried. I sent messages to eight different staff and/or Board members. Only after that proved fruitless, did I begin this blog. And only after I began this blog, did the Board issue a report. What took them so long?
Had the staff members who made the false accusations simply said that they were fooled by the cyber-bully, retracted the accusations and apologized, the forum would have limped along for a while, but recovered. Instead, the Powers-that-be chose to stifle discussion, ignore questions and obfuscate.
I wonder if there are some staff and Board members who do not understand the significance of what has been done. Staff allowed accusations they now knew to be from a cyber-bully to remain unrefuted. They allowed the lies to continue to be passed around behind the scenes, without taking a stand. They allowed the reputations of three women, who did not deserve it, to be dragged through the mud.
Why was this the remit of the staff/Board? Why not just fall back on the old standard that everyone is responsible for their own posts? Because many of the people making those accusations were staff. Because CanadianBill consulted staff before posting his slanderous thread. They could have stopped it and they didn’t.
It is bad enough that the staff and Board delayed clearing the names of Dyebat, lchris and Citroenlady for many, many weeks. But when the official report was published, it was not accurate. The specific lies have yet to be retracted and new lies were told. What could have possessed them to print something about Citroenlady they knew was untrue? What could have possessed them to print things which they knew lchris would recognize as untrue? How did they think they would get away with that? Why did they think it would be a good idea?
