User is Vaednari, the user involved in the incident for which Aelanna was removed from the site & banned for 48 hours.
User has sent Aelanna a number of PMs which, we believe, constitute harassment, and are provided below.
Note: Boldtext & other formatting omitted from the PMs Aelanna received, but apparently was used rather extensively. In case it matters.
Aelanna received the following PM on 25 September, right after the user deleted and re-created his account:
Vaednari
Subject: SCPs vs SCPs—A LIST (SCP 682? SCP-076-2? Yeah…)
Okay, then, genius…let's SEEE….
…gee. if the Foundation doesn't use SCPs to take down SCPs…
WHERE THE FUCK DID PROJECT ABLE AND MOBILE TASK FORCE OMEGA-7GO, YOU ABSOLUTE BITCH? Do you think you can hid behind your little computer screen, and take out whatever petty anger you have about what is most likely a very unfulfilled or near-meaningless life, on someone that put their neck on the line in terms of literary criticism and got metaphorically gang-raped by a bunch of has-been nobodies like you? To think, I was actually excited to join this site…a site obsessed with the macabre, with the fictional, with the deliberately hopeless. Empty…empty, empty, EMPTY. That is EXACTLY what this, and this whole site, is. A gang of dark-loving fools skilled at the infantile craft of frightening others…PLEASE. If you think you could be a Joe Hill, or an Edgar Allan Poe, or a Stephen King, or an H.P. Lovecraft, or a Clive Barker, give up now.
Hmph…here there be dragons? No, here there be egotistical, hollow bitches that give no positive feedback whatsoever. You ne'erdowell FUCK.
But anyway, onto the subject of SCPs, Oh, or what about using other SCPs to try TO DESTROY SCP-628? Or the termination log of SCP-531 D, with the aid of SCP-408? Hmm, or what about the time when SCP-076-2 pretty much destroyed SCP-517-ARC?
Let's see a list, shall we?
The Foundation in canon made about, say…hmmm, what was it?Annalea Yeah, at LEAST 7 times where several SCPs were used to attack or damage SCP-628, a recorded case where SCP-076-2 fought with SCP-628, and…hmmm…well, you know what? Here's a link! :D
http://www.scp-wiki.net/experiment-log-t-98816-oc108-682
So, yeah…get the fuck off my back.
A shame, really…
…oh, who am I kidding? Getting bitched at by you has actually made my day better because I realize how better to spend my time then wasting it reading overly-macabre bullshit people like you pour your little hearts into.
XD
Aelanna did not reply to this PM. She mentioned receiving it, but at the time declined to provide logs, in part (per her) because she felt partially responsible. Therefore, no staff action was taken.
It is my opinion, not necessarily shared by Aelanna or others, that this first PM constituted harassment in and of itself.
Aelanna received the following PM, this morning.
Vaednari
Subject: Honey Badger 0, Newbies 1
…well…
…it IS comforting to know that I'm not the only newbie you've treated like shit. And even more so, to know that there are others that won't tolerate you treating newcomers like you treated me. I certainly wouldn't call this a flawless victory…
…and it would seem that, while my SCP was indeed quite flawed, it was not nearly as worthy of the cruelty you threw at me, as you had seemed so certain it was. I failed to read up on Able being the litmus test, but I can certainly say with great joy that this was not, in fact, as lovely and painless a cruelty to inflict as it might've seemed at the time.
Aelanna provided the reply she sent to this PM:
Aelanna
You think you won something? Let this be your wake-up call, then.
The only thing in my critique of your god-awful draft that could even remotely be construed as having been in violation of the Criticism Policy — which I'm fairly sure you've never read — was the threat to "reach through your monitor and strangle you". For that, I officially apologize.
Everything else in that critique, however, was true. You have zero comprehension of the Foundation's central themes, you have shown a complete lack of understanding of our site culture, and you have absolutely no clue about what contemporary writing standards are. The counter-examples you gave are grandfathered-in classics that site members will give as explicit examples of what not to emulate.
At the end of the day, despite the efforts of certain members of site staff to slander me, I'm still here. I'm still a highly respected member of the site, the biggest technical contributor, and the third most prolific author in the community. I wrote all of the essays that I wasted my time linking to you. I've helped hundreds of newbies, spent countless hours critiquing drafts so awful that no one else even wanted to touch them, and guided honest, hard-working site members to greatness. I work my ass off to maintain the high standards that the community expects and covets. At the end of the day, you're still a stuck-up kid who threw a hissy-fit because everyone here didn't instantly fall in love with your writing, and you rage-quit because you couldn't take the feedback. I still win in the end.
If you continue to harass me with private messages, I will escalate this to both SCP staff and Wikidot. Have a nice day, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.
— Aelanna
Aelanna mentioned this in side chat, but initially did not pass the PMs on to staff, because:
[11:59] Annalea It's not bothering me, and he's not a site member any more so I wasn't going to make a deal out of it
[11:59] Annalea That and technically it's my fault so you can't really blame it all on him
However, two things happened:
(1) The user has rejoined the site and been accepted (Aelanna had been unaware of this when she received the first PM this morning)
(2) Aelanna received further PMs, after making it clear that she would report him for harassment if he kept PMing her.
After this, Aelanna passed on all PMs that appear in this post. (She only sent the user in question the one single message.)
Vaednari
You gloated over your 'flawless victory'. And slander you? Oh no! Someone had a problem with you being a total bitch! It couldn't POSSIBLY be true, could it? I mean, the whole SITE has to be against you, or something!
According to those higher up, that was NOT the only thing you were guilty of, and you KNOW it. I certainly don't consider having won something, but you CERTAINLY didn't win. Sure, you're not kicked off…but you're recorded as driving people away. And this not being a people-person bullshit is a joke. You're just MEAN
Vaednari
And do it, PLEASE do it. Escalate it a little more. I'm not the only one you've treated like shit, and broken guidelines over. Granted, I'm willing to admit that my first SCP was bullshitand COMPLETELY unfit for SCP. HOWEVER, what YOU have done, and will most likely continue to do, will almost certainly end up damaging the siteand you know what? What the others said in the O5 command, was completely right. You are NOT irreplaceable, and you ARE a problem child.
And as for rage-quitting? I don't like being told that my work is absolute shit by people that didn't even bother to read the whole thing. Don't fucking crucify me because the ONE document I didn't thoroughly read was the secondary supplement for crafting a
In the words of your fellow SCP members:
This is unacceptable. Aelanna understands the difference between constructive criticism and ripping into someone for the sake of it, and has been warned for this behavior in the past. Following this post, she proceeded to gloat about ripping into the author in 14 and I saw mention of it in 19.
Log of #Area14
In light of the fact that prior warnings have been issued, I am motioning for a minimum 24 hour ban from the site. This isn't acceptable behavior for anyone.
This particular incident, in the context of her repeated flare-ups and overreactions, merit a month's ban at the very least, and I would ask for a permaban if not for the need to maintain the PF fiction. She has once again crossed over the line of blunt feedback into bullying, threatening, and comedic overreaction. As a direct result of her unnecessary venom a user who could have developed into a contributing member of the community deleted their account. She then proceeded to gloat about it.
Look, we have this conversation once a month and now she's blatantly hurting the site. There does not seem to be any room for equivocation here.
This is an unchanging pattern of behavior, and it's only hurting the credibility of staff, the userbase of the site, and our collective heads from banging them against a brick wall. I like Aelanna. I've had fun conversations with her, and I've been in some great tabletop stuff with her. Personal friendliness doesn't change the fact that her attitude is poison. We can, if need be, hire someone else to write a new site (though that is a different conversation for a different time). We can get a new bot, with all of Nala's features. We can do all this and not have someone rampaging around, taking out whatever aggression they have on some poor dumb newbie who doesn't know any better.
I'm going to be awful and relate a story TroyL told me. When he first joined the chat, he was new to the site, and eager to get to cracking on writing stuff. He didn't know how to change his username because he'd never really used mIRC. A nameless chatOp at the time kicked him without even bothering to give him a warning or asking him to change his name. Now, Troy's a decent fellow. He's got an even temper, and he moved on. But it soured him on the site and chat for a while. Imagine how much worse it is when Aelanna blasts a newbie. We honestly don't know what we're losing, but sooner or later, someone with the best of intentions is going to get fried by her, thus losing us the next great SCP author.
I know that some of you are thinking: "this behavior isn't unique to her". But stopping it in general starts with stopping Aelanna.//
You're completely blind if you think that others accept your brutality towards newbies. And even moreso, if you think you really won.
Because guess what? I don't really give a shit about whether or not I'm kept on the SCP site or even wikidot. Granted, I would love to contribute to the community, but to be frank, with you here, any of the many non-humanoid SCPs I've engendered will never be seen, because I'd rather not waste my time being attacked by you. And you know what? It'd be a shame. I was wrong about this site in what I wrote in my first emailthere ARE people that genuinely want the newbs to succeed. But YOU, despite what you've said, have proven not to be one of them.
So you know what? I'm SO sorry I didn't read any of YOUR essays. I'm SO sorry I wasn't the first person to come up with the idea of an SCP like Able, who is broken as fuckto be honest, I just wanted someone to draw the character for me in the future on Deviantart. But you know what? I have FAR more to show, in terms of success, than you do, when it comes to literary work. Contemporary writing? The Headmaster of my high schoolwhich is over a century old, and steeped in success of its ownnot only holds a copy of my seven-year-gestation novel, but has had it added to a grand case of novels written by alumni of the school, including Deliverance and several World War 2 Memoirs. So your statement about my not having a clue about
And ME being stuck-up? You're CERTAINLY no one to talk in that department. And let's be frankI will gladly come clean about the hate MESSAGE I sent you. Hell, I'll even post it up in a sandbox, if that's what you prefer. But I will NOT back down on that front. Granted, I will not continue my first SCP beyond the contents of my sequelwhich, given the fact I have no agent, I make more money from than would usually be the case…
…okay, you know what? I'm just tired of this. I'm SORRY, okay? Jesus Christ, I just wanted to join SCP, not get ripped apart by people like you. I don't have TIME for that. Let someone a little more constructive rip me open. Just not you.
You have not won. Not in the big picture. Maybe you had a private victory of making me quit before…but that won't happen again.
Vaednari
Oh, and one more thing.
You sure as HELL did not follow Wil Wheaton's Law, in ANY fashion.
But then again, you don't really strike me as the kind to like any rules you didn't make yourself. So whatever.
Vaednari
And for the record, you got banned for 48 hours. So no, you didn't have a 'flawless victory'.
User then came into #site17. This violated no rules, but it's here for context.
[13:28] -->| vaednari (ude.agu.tenx.6EC6F8EC-CRInys|tibbiM#ude.agu.tenx.6EC6F8EC-CRInys|tibbiM) has joined #site17
[13:28] vaednari So…I'm back.
[13:28] vaednari Never been on this chat, certainly, but I'm back.
[13:28] vaednari and I would like to ask if that's okay.
[13:29] vaednari I'm the guy that wrote that post that Aelanna was apparently reprimanded for her reaction towards. And I know it was shit, please don't give me more shit about it, I ALREADY KNOW.
[13:29] -->| Dmatix (ten.tniqezeb.der.AF947AC8-CRInys|tibbiM#ten.tniqezeb.der.AF947AC8-CRInys|tibbiM) has joined #site17
[13:29] =-= Mode #site17 +h Dmatix by ChanServ
[13:30] vaednari And because she was the first admin-type person I encountered, I assumed ALL of those in charge, would be as vicious as she was. And yes, she was vicious, and without due reason. There is a way to tell someone their draft sucked without telling them their work is a pile of shit.
[13:31] vaednari I don't even know if anyone's out there, but you know what? It gets things off my chest.
[13:32] |<-- vaednari has left irc.synirc.net (Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client)
[13:32] -->| vaednari (ude.agu.tenx.6EC6F8EC-CRInys|tibbiM#ude.agu.tenx.6EC6F8EC-CRInys|tibbiM) has joined #site17
[13:33] vaednari …did anyone get that, or are all of you absent?
[13:33] |<-- vaednari has left irc.synirc.net (Quit: vaednari)
UPDATE: Right before posting this, I've been informed that the user posted the PMs as well, to a sandbox page, with the preface:
You know what? I don't know how long I'll be lasting on the site this go around, but here's that nasty letter I sent Aelanna, and subsequent messages.
Sandbox here: http://scpsandbox2.wikidot.com/vaednari-2-0
The user who informed me (not Aelanna) saw this in his user activity; as far as I know he hasn't passed that link around (and no staff have contacted him in any way not listed here; this sandbox page was put up before any staff PM was sent).
User has been sent a cease-and-desist PM, with universal staff agreement in staff chat (although this is a 'weak' consensus and no other admins were involved, it was enough for a PM to be sent at least, albeit with some delay). Soulless is drafting and sending the PM, and will provide its contents shortly.
It is my opinion that this constitutes serious harassment for many reasons and at the very minimum requires some kind of ban.
Given my extensive involvement in the incident that partially prompted this, I am going to hold off on coming to any specific conclusion on ban length for now; the Site Rules support anything up to and including permanent ban for this particular offense ("extensive harassment").
From the Site Rules:
The following offenses may result in a permanent ban at staff discretion:
[…]
Blackmailing or extensive harassment1 of a user, group of users, or the site as a whole.
1. While there are several possible interpretations of "harassment" and "extensive", a general rule of thumb is if you are told to stop interacting with a user, further interaction qualifies as harassment.
It is true that PMs are a gray area. However, we have disciplined users for the content of their PMs before, and it is my strongly held opinion that if anyone uses the SCP Foundation or its community as a venue for harassing another member — whether they do it in a side chat, or in Wikidot PMs, or wherever — we then should still discipline for it.
Reminder: Three admins can together decide on a ban, but anyone on O5 may weigh in at their discretion (I imagine Aelanna may recuse herself here, but that is up to her), and all posts will be taken into account.
In the interim, I've informally requested of Aelanna that she not respond to further messages sent by him (which is what she's been doing anyway).