- Joined
- Dec 29, 2002
- Messages
- 16,999
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- 2,429
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Staff
- #1
Here at Bulbagarden, we have a policy of not discussing bans. We have broken with this policy only rarely, in situations where criminal activity has occured, or where we feel that our members may have been put in danger by the activities of the banned user.
Regretfully, we have found ourselves in such a situation today.
The user Brumrha has been permanently banned for his harassment of female members of the forum, harassment which was on a number of occasions sexual in nature. In particular with Brumrha, we are concerned that his conduct towards a number of female members was outright manipulative, showing all the signs of someone attempting to groom young women for sex. Any of these alone would have been sufficient for a permanent ban, and the final decision to ban was agreed upon by all moderators.
Given the discussions which arose from a ban applied to PlatinumDude in similar circumstances last year, I would like to stress the following points.
1. Brumrha was not hacked. His account has only ever been accessed via one IP.
2. This ban is not based on a single incident. Once we had a report of an incident and investigated, we found evidence that he had approached a number of women over a period of time. Particularly given that his conversations with his victims followed a set script, with him telling them the same sob story to try and built sympathy and empathy for him with his victims, we cannot believe that he would not have been aware of what he was doing. Nor do we find it believable that a hacker could have done those things for all that time without him noticing.
3. The reason this behaviour was not detected earlier was because it was happening mostly in VM's and PM's, and had not been reported to staff. If it had been reported, going by the material we've seen while investigating this, we would've banned him well before now.
As a staff, we have no further comment on this ban. But we felt it was reasonable and respectful to all involved, and to the public as a whole, to outline at least this basic information. We do not tolerate this sort of behavior at Bulbagarden--harassment and manipulation, sexual or otherwise, of our members.
More generally on these kinds of issues, we would like to encourage people to speak up if they feel they're in a similar situation, or if they have reason to believe people they know are in a similar situation. If another member is PMing or VMing you and making you feel uncomfortable, report it, or at least inform a staff member informally.
Regretfully, we have found ourselves in such a situation today.
The user Brumrha has been permanently banned for his harassment of female members of the forum, harassment which was on a number of occasions sexual in nature. In particular with Brumrha, we are concerned that his conduct towards a number of female members was outright manipulative, showing all the signs of someone attempting to groom young women for sex. Any of these alone would have been sufficient for a permanent ban, and the final decision to ban was agreed upon by all moderators.
Given the discussions which arose from a ban applied to PlatinumDude in similar circumstances last year, I would like to stress the following points.
1. Brumrha was not hacked. His account has only ever been accessed via one IP.
2. This ban is not based on a single incident. Once we had a report of an incident and investigated, we found evidence that he had approached a number of women over a period of time. Particularly given that his conversations with his victims followed a set script, with him telling them the same sob story to try and built sympathy and empathy for him with his victims, we cannot believe that he would not have been aware of what he was doing. Nor do we find it believable that a hacker could have done those things for all that time without him noticing.
3. The reason this behaviour was not detected earlier was because it was happening mostly in VM's and PM's, and had not been reported to staff. If it had been reported, going by the material we've seen while investigating this, we would've banned him well before now.
As a staff, we have no further comment on this ban. But we felt it was reasonable and respectful to all involved, and to the public as a whole, to outline at least this basic information. We do not tolerate this sort of behavior at Bulbagarden--harassment and manipulation, sexual or otherwise, of our members.
More generally on these kinds of issues, we would like to encourage people to speak up if they feel they're in a similar situation, or if they have reason to believe people they know are in a similar situation. If another member is PMing or VMing you and making you feel uncomfortable, report it, or at least inform a staff member informally.
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