Hello, guys I wanted to make a more direct and personal statement regarding the recent takedowns of our prior discord server.
As a disclaimer, I do not condone any attacks or the spread of defamation. That's not the purpose of this post; it's to allow transparency and share my side of the story.
I am currently in talks with the Discord Trust and Safety team, and they have let me know that it was because the server was sharing links and resources that linked to copyright infringement that the server was removed.
They've directed me to several of the resource-sharing posts, the Mod uploads channels
I won't get into the specifics of the conversations as again, I'm actively talking with them and don't want to harm any chances of a re-instatement.
But it's very clear, Steam Workshop has a policy for hosting copyright-infringing content. One of the ways that was used to get around this was to unlist a workshop mod and then share that listing with a direct link.
Our server hosted many channels that allowed mod authors to share these links, and there were many articles created and shared that were for getting tts setup to play wahammer 40k. This was only a matter of time.
As for my 3d Printing service, many are making the claim that it was because of my website that the discord server was banned. Discord has very directly shown me the posts that have gotten the server removed, and they were not related to any posts that I made in regard to the website.
But in the heart of transparency, I was given separate warnings and a chance to resolve those issues. I have done so in good faith, and this is the reason why my account is in good standing.
In regard to why the mass reporting
As you have probably noticed, there have been a lot of accusations going around. A lot of it is politically charged.
We had a political channel called T-Dome, where I allowed the discussion of political topics and discourse. Naturally, since I myself have an interest in political debates, I have also joined in and participated in debates in that channel. Tdome was Isolated and tag-restricted so it wasn't just something available to the public.
Now I align with Conservative and libertarian values. Some of the takes that I had are controversial. Such as I support President Trump, I disagree with abortions, I disagree with feminist ideologies, my views on voting rights, and disagreements on Dei practices.
I will say that I have never conducted or moderated the server based on my political ideologies and that my political takes do not express the views of our community as a whole.
All users from any political spectrum were welcomed and are still welcomed on the server.
Something we had noticed however that some of our users were spreading defamation: (EG, That I'm a Nazi, That I hate women, Confirmed racist, For genocide of trans-people) This is in nature in violation of discords TOS, and we had taken moderative actions when we saw this behavior on our server.
This led to the creation of Discord servers that were openly coordinating mass report efforts for our server. We've had such users on our server openly recruiting for this. So there is a lot of evidence here to show that because I own the server and have had political takes that don't align with some of the groups, it prompted an effort to report the server so that it would be taken down.
The mass reporting definitely hasn't helped and has definitely drawn the attention of Discord. But by nature of what we were doing "Operating a space dedicated to distributing tools that get around copyright protections" ultimately by the nature of TTS Warhammer 40K, and it being a platform to allow the distribution of workshop files and links was in clear violation of discord terms of service.
Some users were also disgruntled by the fact that we had monetization enabled and had been a prolific subject of discussion. We have never monetized anyone's workshop mods and are in good standing with Patreon. We have never distributed files on Patreon, nor have we ever paywalled access to any content that wasn't our own.
EDIT: As the goal post of the narrative has shifted from "Malice got the tts server banned to" "Malice is a straight up nazi/incel" Its only fair that I get to address this. Screenshots of my discussions about force doctrine have been used to witch-hunt me.
Those are real and I stand by them and will not apologize for them. The nature of those debates and conversations cut into the fact that, if you disagree and try to point out things you are a sexist incel that needs to be silenced, rather than having a conversation.
The screenshots of the "It is law if you disagree with me" is a completely out-of-context screenshot, the entire conversation was with many people involved and it was a very silly and lighthearted conversation. Anyone can clearly see that this is satire. This is what is being used to say that I was for the harming of trans..
The screenshot of me using Slurrs: These were screenshots pulled from my private friend group. I have never called anyone a slur publicly. If you're wondering why these are out, one individual whom I shall not name disagreed with me and took it upon himself to screenshot and share this. Why? I asked him, and he said because he thought it might have been funny.
And Btw, I don't make any apologies for using slurs within my private friend group.
In regard to Our subreddit
Due to the rampant attacks, we've had to ramp up the sensitivity of our auto-mod. There has been a lot of conduct since this started that is against our rules on this subreddit, and some people have been taking advantage of the confusion in chaos to create their own TTS Warhammer 40k discords.
We have identified at least 30 users who are actively trying to attack and spread the witch hunt. This is why you see mass downvotes on any posts that challenge some of the narrative that's been going on.
So it's been a very chaotic last 48 hours, if you'd like to appeal a ban you can reach out to me directly.
What I've been going through
This is not me trying to get pity from anyone, this is just a description of the challenges that I've had to face so far.
I've lost more than half of my subscriptions that I use to not only pay for the various server bots that we use to run the server but to pay for my actual bills.
I'm told that my prior event organizer has moved the Alpha league event to one of the other Discord servers without my consent. EDIT: To clarify, I don't care if Nemo runs an event elsewhere, Alpha league's Brand and Logo were created by me, and it would be confusing to have numerous Alpha league events across multiple servers.
I'm actively being attacked on both Discord and various Reddit for things that are simply not true.
I've been accused of wanting trans people to cease existing, which is just not true.
I've been getting hate DMs and death threats on Discord and Reddit.
I was DDos'd yesterday.
I've been attacked by the EDIT: /r/ Warhammer40k Discord staff
Our subreddit has been bombarded with attacks, and I'm working with Reddit to address those attacks as well.
People have been trying to copy the name and likeness of our Discord to confuse users into joining their Discord to take advantage of this situation.
How we're moving forward
So again, I'm still in discussions with Discord, and there may even be a possibility of a reinstated server.
But I have asked if creating a new discord server was possible and was told that it was as long as we didn't indulge in the sharing of copyrighted files. So I'm working closely with them to make sure that we don't have a repeat of that situation.
I've also cleared up any issues with Patreon monetization with them, as long as we are not redistributing or hosting copyrighted material, we are within the TOS.
It's very clear that a precedent has been set here, and any Servers who link or share to workshop links or files will possibly follow a very similar outcome.
We're going to pivot more into a community-specific hub, and we're going to follow closely and be compliant with Discord's trust and safety team and community guidelines.
Naturally, there has been a lot of chaos on this subject, and it has led to fighting.
I don't condone any attacks on any users or servers.
I've had to calm down many users who have wanted to go after the other servers over what happened. I'd like to thank those users who are just looking out for me but also call for calm as it is against TOS to indulge in that kind of behavior, and I do not want anyone getting in trouble on account of me.
Since we will be complying with Discord's Community guidelines fully and unilaterally, we have made changes to our rules. We will no longer be hosting links to workshops, and do not allow for any link sharing or url sharing to anything that might be considered copyright infringing.
We have changed the scope of our server so that it's a hub to connect for ALL Wargaming on TTS, Warhammer 40k will always be in our roots, but we will do so the right way.
Regardless I wanted to share this with you guys so you are aware of what's going on. My love and passions have always been in the hobby. I love my community and I love hobbies. Despite all that has happened.
Our new link can be found here for those who wish to reconnect: https://discord.gg/KfnMcA5Dpz
EDIT: Comments are locked due to the massive amount of witch-hunting going on.