Now, what did the moderation team say was the reason for the ban to others? 

This is from the post given an explanation to non-banned members:   “As of today, we have banned the majority of ThistleClan after months of harassment and being made aware of a separate server in which complaints about the server were discussed but never brought to the moderation team. When we tried to work with these members we were met with hostility and aggression, being called passive aggressive and attacked for any moderation we did.”

Let’s address that statement!

Was there a chat made to discuss issues within the server?

Yes, absolutely! We as a clan had many troubles with how moderation handled a lot of the members of ThistleClan. We had very active members leave the server entirely because of their discomforts, and a number contemplating the same action. But, we didn’t want it to come to that. So, as a collective, we made this server so we could all discuss our grievances with the moderation team. We wanted our thoughts to be collected and presented by a more neutral mediator, instead of a bunch of disgruntled ThistleClanners going at the mod team.

It should also be mentioned: Some of the individuals who were banned were not involved in this server discussing the issues whatsoever. So, this was not a ban that was reserved only to those involved with this discussion server.

So, we never brought the issues to the mod team?

False. Our chosen mediator, Em ( who played Marigoldstar ), brought these thoughts and worries to one of the mods and would relay their responses to us so we could respond and give our thoughts. These discussions seemed to go pretty well. After the discussions were had, ThistleClan began to feel normal and active again.

What were the issues Thistleclanners had with the mods?

Overall, many ThistleClanners felt ignored or brushed aside. I, for example, felt like it was pulling teeth to get any of my desired plots for my characters moved forward. I had to wait for permission on an event and time from the mods, which is fine, except I felt frequently left in the dark. I didn’t hear from moderation for what felt like ages and did often ask them again about matters. I wound up feeling ignored, and undesired within the RP. Like my plots that I felt were important didn’t matter. It was like being in limbo.

 Some players also felt like mods were passive aggressive or condescending to them. There were times when players would joke, and be shut down immediately despite mods making similar jokes. Additionally, players felt like their recommendations were ignored when it came to server suggestions and the like. 

 Players felt their characters were micromanaged and power-played by the moderators. One of our players was literally told by a mod that they couldn’t make a certain choice because it was out of character….for their own character….the character they made and played. It didn’t make much sense and just felt as though the mods were trying to push for something that favored their characters, rather than allowing the plot of our clan progress naturally.

 In the overall environment that brewed from this, most of us were uncomfortable approaching the mods. We felt we had to walk on eggshells, and some of us even stopped feeling comfortable talking in the general chat. We were happy within our own clan chats, but, uneasy most other places.

Of course, the blame of how things went isn’t entirely on the mod team. Despite our best efforts, communication fell through in a lot of areas. Because we couldn’t fully recover from things with the tension initially, some things just remained awkward. Sure, we should have communicated better. But up until this event, when we were banned? We generally thought things had been worked out. We thought that the discussions we had of our problems had gotten through. Things seemed to have gotten better. But, I guess not.

I want to point out, that to my personal knowledge nobody in ThistleClan was privately or collectively spoken to about this issue before it happened. It took us all for a shock. I was absolutely broken to find out what had happened, and so were many of us. Many of us had invested nearly a year into this RP. I had been RPing in it since July of 2018, and now...it’s all for naught.

I wish things had gone better, but they didn’t.

*ADDENDUM:

An additional issue that may need to be addressed is some of the dark nature of plots in ThistleClan. Yes, our clan was considered “edgy”. We had many dark and heavy things happen within the clan, and that is not denied. But, these things were done with permission. Many of the gruesome events were even given by mods. ( Including a fox maiming multiple warriors, and a hawk maiming an apprentice. ) There were things that needed to be worked on, namely that individuals like myself needed to take more care to tag some content. However, this content was almost always discussed prior. And when it was brought up that mistakes in tagging were made, we apologized and tried to correct the behavior.