There were some things I left out of my original post because they were excessive. These were mainly criticisms of Cimmerian's additional behavior.
Guess how many staff members he asked independently to post this or speak with me about it? My count is, at the very least, four. Of course, instead of approaching me directly about it, like an adult, he has attempted to strong-arm people I like and respect into convincing me to change my mind (by presenting them with a narrative of the facts known to him to be false) or, as I will quite likely discover in a handful of hours as administrators sign on, go above my head (good luck, buddy).
This was known to staff, and administrators, well over twelve hours before my final decision post was made. ARD bent over backwards to show these to me, and recused himself because of them. This general information was made PUBLIC, IN THIS THREAD in Dex's posting of Cimmerian's PM at 3/11/2018 at 4:39 AM EST. This is, in fact, the category of arguments I refer to in my decision post as so absurd I refused to entertain them at length.
And I still refuse. The basic summary of my thoughts on the argument, which were echoed or at least understood by everyone I ran through them with (including administrators)
Namely: ARD appears to have got the impression that it was a few dozen PMs at most from that conversation. This is the impression I would expect any staff member to walk away with, and is certainly the one I would have. 650 PMs is unthinkably fucking nuts, for Cimmerian to have not said that is an intentional lie of omission (and we'll be looping back around to lies in a bit). Attempting to put the onus on staff that we somehow could or should have expected six hundred and fifty PMs is pants-on-head loopy. That dog, as they say, won't hunt.
Or, to put it better in the words of someone else:
11:22:32 AM <@ MobileMagnus> Frankly the entire convo between Ard and cimm is one of distracted non-commitance.
11:22:41 AM <@ MobileMagnus> And using it as a defense is infurating.
11:23:01 AM <@ MobileMagnus> Like it sounded to me like Ard going "right. Sure. Cool. Of course, yeah".
As for the above claims of "collusion". I am familiar with the methodology Cimmerian used to enact this. I can verify that it did not, in and of itself, break any rules. Its largest objective crime was being really pathetic and depressing. While I am profoundly displeased by ARD's behavior here, the truth is, there is no reason that ARD would have had to share it with Shaggydredlocks, or that its concealment from him represents any behavioral infraction beyond shittiness from my fellow Team Captain who I expect far more of.
I will briefly note that this is the second attempt by Cimmerian in this thread to throw someone who has expressed fondness for him under the bus.
Back to lies, and the segment I cut from my original post.
Cimmerian has proved himself throughout this to be a manipulative liar. It was obvious very early on that he was attempting to use what he had learned of staff process to manipulate us and make our jobs more difficult. An easy example may be tracked through the course of this 05 thread. He contacts either Decibelle first, then Dexanote, or the two of them simultaneously. Then, when he doesn't get what he wants, he contacts Ghostchibi. For those of you who are unfamiliar with staff process, that is a bizarre lateral move to an uninvolved staff member with no oversight of the situation. Then he goes to ARD, at length. Attempts to emotionally blackmail ARD when he doesn't get what he wants (logs of this have not been posted but wow). Maybe contacts kaktus immediately afterwards (for reasons I am unclear of, although Kaktus and I privately discuss some of my rulings at around this point in the timeline). Goes dark for some hours. Then, at like 4 AM my time, I get informed by Taffeta (another largely uninvolved member of staff) and ARD again, apparently simultaneously, that he wanted them to post the above. Then I go to bed and wake up to him having done the same with kaktus.
I'll be forthright here: what Cimmerian is attemptimg to do here, likely knowingly and intentionally, is tie ribbons around my feet by making me answer to as many people as possible. Each random person he brings in is someone who I then have to explain the situation to, correct Cimmerian's lies to, and then justify my course of action to them- all while they're unable to actually do anything about the situation, a fact Cimmerian knows as well. Cimmerian would have seen this method of behavior used to great success by other users during his tenure as staff; if I may be blunt, it usually makes us give up. What Cimmerian did not know is that we realized the attempted exploitation of our process almost immediately and then took steps to correct.
Another three things Cimmerian seems not to have have processed. The first is that it was this manipulative behavior that brought both myself and staff around to such a severe punishment. He was, how you say, largely hoist by his own petard. The second is that my decision was actually on the lower side of some of the final suggestions for punishments (such as Decibelle's, which I found uniquely helpful to my final decision). I did this for one reason: I was so utterly disgusted with Cimmerian and his behavior that I was concerned I might abuse process and make an indefensible decision. So I did what I do whenever I feel that might happen: I go back and ascribe good faith wherever I have questions and then make that decision. To wit: Cimmerian's punishment is based on, if not necessarily a charitable version of events, a version of events that is largely more generous than I believe was actually the case, and has segments of decisioning based on an assumption of good faith that is so shaky it may or may not disappear if I was to glance at it sidelong, let alone collect the evidence I have and discuss it with staff. Thirdly, I described my order in a PM as final and unappealable. There is however, a caveat to this. If my order was based on an error, such as an incorrect understanding of facts (which, despite Cimmerian's attempt to create a narrative along those lines, was never the case), or an incorrect assumption of good faith where it becomes obvious there was only malicious action (which is something I am very swiftly running out of reasons not to believe), I am within my powers to change it.
Edit: I was told I missed an entry in the "list of folks Cimmerian contacted". Updated for sake of completeness and accuracy.
