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An open letter to Loctav and the Staff

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Topic Starter
Shohei Ohtani
Before I went to school for music therapy, I wanted to be an actor. I guess that's why I always tend to cause drama.

Anyways, I'm not expecting anything to come from this. However, after some discussion with various people, I've decided it's probably best to just get this out to the public.

For those that don't know, I was a BN from August 24th, 2014 - March ?? 2015. This was after a constant struggle for about 4 years to become a part of the BAT. Throughout my process of appliocations, I was denied time and time again, generally for my behavior, as I tended to joke around a lot in the game by using innapropriate humor. While I made people happy and laugh, I was silenced many times for it, and it barred me from joining the BAT for only that reason. It's been a hell-bent 6 years in the game, but I was finally added to the BAT, aka the BN, when the teams were split. Ironically, I was added mid 2-week silence, as I was planning on just letting my account rot for a while. I contributed heavily to the modding community, and made it to the #3 ranked spot of the BN (and often held the #1 ranked spot on the monthly rankings). However, I often felt that I was disrespected as, when I tried to contribute, I was either shut down by the staff, or otherwise ignored. I felt disrespected as I still was seen as unworthy even though I had proven myself worthy. I tried to change my behavior, and I did successfully for a while. Janurary 3rd, I was screwing around in #modhelp, when Loctav made a comment about me never being able to join the QAT. I didn't think much of it then, but it stuck with me, and fueled my unhappiness into anger. A few ignored posts later and a deleted post in Beatmap Management later, I ended up wanting to quit the team. I officially quit in Feburary, but after sending 4 PMs to Loctav (and 1 to p3n), I was barred from leaving due to the rules. Around this time, the BAT was also being dismantled into the BN. In March, I decided that I had had enough, and decided to come back and randomly rank bubbled beatmaps. I ranked about 5 maps before accidentally ranking an approval map without a 2nd bubble, and was silenced. Afterwards, I ghost ranked a map, as I still had the option open, and my silence was extended to a month. I was played with by staff, and they tried their best to make fun of me, trying to keep my Beatmap Nominator title on my profile while having me removed from the team. I was happy to have left the team, and that spiraled me into a long process of hatred and disapproval. From then on, I have been the core of spreading hatred of Loctav and the Staff to any of those who would listen. While I feel that I have opened legitimate discussions, and been on the right side of many things, I realize that I've been the cause of so many issues.

I'll go through a few things.

Ask.fm
http://ask.fm/CDFAsk/answer/124409027475

This is the core post in which I express my unhappiness for things. Let me go through each point

1) Loctav still has been rude to many people. He has a harsh tounge and can be very direct and stubborn. But I'm realizing that while he does have these traits, that I have fostered a personality that causes him to express these more directly to me. I tended to act purposely annoying to him, and while I did this in a joking manner because we were speaking as peers and not as professionals, he viewed it as immaturity. While I am still unhappy that this trickled down into the professional aspect of things, I mostly realize that I myself caused him to view me in a negative light

2) I'll avoid this point in light of recent power abuse issues of unnamed parties (and unnamed as in literally nobody outside of the offenders are aware of who pulled offenses), so that I don't look back at this and look stupid.

3) I'm still unhappy about this. But this is a problem with the system and not any specific person. This moreso I was angry about because I had worked so hard to be a part of staff, and leave a lasting impression on the game, I felt disrespected. I still don't care about fancy titles, I just felt as if the lessening and lessening impact that being a BN had would let my contributions to a game that I had worked so hard to build up be lost in time.

4) http://puu.sh/jOZgE/b7122135a2.png . I finally was able to find the chatlog to this statement that honestly was the main drive of my anger. I felt disrespected that my superior still would explicitly deny me something that I worked so hard for, for almost no reason. However, looking back into the chats, I realize that I was being immature at the time. I was joking around stupidly, and Loctav responded in a way that, had I been in the same position, I would have responded. I remembered only that one line instead of the entire story, and left that line running in my head. I've also learned that Loctav has no power to explicitly deny me. . . I think. I'm not sure to be honest. This is mainly the reason I've decided to make this thread, even, as those words were a major cause of my anger for the past 8 months, and I've realized that I was generally in the wrong.

5) No access to the actual post since I no longer have access to the Trello channel, but I still was unhappy about this, and I still am a little bit unhappy about it. Nothing much to say about this. People make boo boos I guess?

6) The members who are being talked about in this post have all since left / been removed from the QAT. I still wish that QAT was more based upon the modding skill of players, rather than if they use good grammar in all of their posts and never express any negative voices, but still. I'm pretty much explicitly wrong about this point.

7) While I'll admit that I still kind of feel this, I have been seeing more civility in how things are handled, and have been able to see that not everything runs Loctav's way.

Am I still unhappy about how some things turned out? Yeah, of course. Do I still feel disrespect? Yeah, I do, a little bit. Is everything my fault? Of course not. Do I still feel like some things are being done wrong or with corruption, and will I still speak out when I feel that? Of course. But the reason I'm making this thread is moreso an admission that I've done things wrong too, and I have overdramatized many of the issues that were moreso the byproduct of my immaturity and inability to see myself anything but positive. I have been running my mouth for the past 8 months or so about the staff, basing it primarily on ignorance and emotions, rather than viewing the full picture and seeing why I haven't been able to leave the rut I keep finding myself in. I've based my emotions on events that I didn't even remember correctly, or events that were just assumed instead of proven.

I'd like to not make this a "waa waa im bitching for attention" sort of thread, but I'd just like to say that at this point, I've found out that my behavior and emotional anger towards one particular individual have been relatively unwarranted, and I'd like to make that known to the community that has been aware of these issues. I'd like to make this known to the staff as well whom have had to deal with these issues, either through outside observance, or personal conversation. I know at this point that my relationship with Loctav is completely destroyed, and will be unable to be fixed, but I feel it's only respectful to state this in written format to various witnesses so I can state that I've made mistakes and have realized that. I know that I'll never be able to shake off the stigma that you have developed against me, but at least I can say that I've attempted to be aware of my issues and have attempted to apologize.

The damage that I've caused for myself over 6 years is irrecoverable, and knowing myself, I'll probably cause more damage to my reputation, especially seeing that my account is currently 1-2 silences away from being permanently banned at the moment. But I've been directing my frustration in the incorrect way. And I'd like to say that it was wrong of me to do that.

I still will stay an active voice in the modding community, and when I think things are wrong, I'll speak out without fear, but I will be aware of myself and see if I am actually contributing to the development of osu! or just expressing personal frustration.

Sorry about that

-CDFA

I also don't know what forum this belongs in so uhh
peppy
The fact you are calling him your superior is a problem (which I am currently working to fix).
Topic Starter
Shohei Ohtani
I'm speaking in a professional term. I was a BN, and he was manager of the BN. Kind of like if I was an employee and he was a supervisor.

Not saying you're wrong, just wanted to make that clear in case anybody misinterpreted my usage of that word :P
Loctav
http://puu.sh/jOZgE/b7122135a2.png

Maybe you finally realized that you asked in a stupid way and I answered Ina stupid way. It was a JOKE. And you totally threw a tantrum on that.
Topic Starter
Shohei Ohtani
I did realize that, actually.

I wish that this realization could have come sooner. I think a lot of problems that were caused by my could have been fixed by that understanding. I'm a little sensitive about denial, seeing as the 2-3 years preceding my addition to the BN were filled with denial for very weak reasoning. I guess I freaked out over the thought of having to experience that again, and let it control all of my actions.

Sorry about that, once again.
Loctav
As I similarly realized that the way this joke was made was also easily misunderstandable (sorry for that), I was sure that given the environment of this conversation, it was pretty obvious.
However, about your desire to join the staff, I want you to realize your misconception that being in the Staff is some sort of recognition, reward or telling you that you do a good job in this community.
Being part of our voluntarily staff is more a stressing job that require a lot of perks that not everyone has available. I am aware that some of our members are loud, weird, strict and sometimes a bit stubborn. But they are willed to follow the internal regulations and try to keep this place clean.

Now to you as in person. We appreciate your efforts to make osu! a better place, but honestly everything you want to improve here does not require you to be part of any moderation. Moderation is a job, not a reward. You wanted to join the staff so badly, but your motives are mostly the reason why we see no need or reason to let you join. As much as it is nice to see that you want to help out with things, there is a multitude of options you can factually use to improve osu! in any way. You don't need a red name, a green name and a "Lock thread" button for that. Because these are the sections of work that do not improve osu!, but just keep the place clean and maintained.

And as far as I understood your motives, you want to inprove things, not just keep them clean. Start with that! You don't need any green name as gratification to be an admired and respectable person within this community.
Sonnyc
Wow
Topic Starter
Shohei Ohtani
First off, I thank you for your reply. It's incredibly motivating to hear positive encouragement from someone who I previous thought wanted nothing more than my dead body served to him.

That makes a lot of sense. As much as I appreciate the work that many staff do, it's not my desires to perform in the staff role in terms of cleaning up the forum or replying to !report requests, it's my goal to ensure that beatmap moderation is done in the correct way for the overall benefit of the game, which is what I'm currently getting back into since I've re-opened my mod queue and participated actively in Ranking Criteria Discussion as well as other map dicussions. It's a product of my time, to be honest. It was either "You're a BAT and you're respected, or you're a player modder and nobody cares what you think", and that mindset has stuck with me well past its time. Especially with the development of a more community based modding system, I'm seeing more and more that that's not primarily the case (Especially since most of my favorite modders happen to not be part of staff either :P).

I'm going to avoid typing more before I start being overly sappy because I'm really trying my best not to do that. However, I've taken your words to heart, and will try my best to let them motivate me to continue doing contributions to the community. Additionally, I'll try keeping my temper in check too. It's been an issue with me for a while, but I'm getting better at controlling it, so that I don't hinder my desires to improve the game by creating my own impediments.

Thank you, once again. And I apologize for the past trouble I have caused, once again. If in the future I feel the need to express my discontent with anything, I will make it more of a point to have a discussion to express my thoughts, rather than bottling thoughts in and letting them ruin me months after. I'm learning, especially with understanding how QAT work, that discussion is generally a much better way of getting things done, and while I may not always agree with things, I at least understand them and am not blinded by an angry tirade of "this is explicitly wrong and this shouldn't be happening"
Ephemeral
a few things:

1) titles are linked to usergroups and it isn't really possible without palpable effort to split the two, which i sincerely doubt happened just to "make fun of you". that'd be ferociously unprofessional, and I can say with 100% certainty that dicks would be ripped off if that had actually happened

2) you seem to be divesting responsibility away from yourself governing how you act. it is not loctav's (or anyone else's) duty to regulate your own behavior - it is firmly yours, and yours alone. if you cannot divest your own personal misgivings of a person away from your interactions with them in a cooperative light, you probably aren't suited for working in any sort of team atmosphere

there are a multitude of things you need to address if you want to contribute meaningfully, but I believe that you're more than capable of doing it if you put your mind to it. acknowledging the consequences of your own actions is a good start, and i hope to see it get to a point where you return to the work ethic and standard that had you originally earn my nomination for BAT in the first place.

let's look to the future, yeah?
Bara-

Sonnyc wrote:

Wow
I however have to disagree with point one
I tried many times to become a BN (approx 5 applications)
I got rejected all times (except last)
He gave me a proper reasoning to why I was declined, should explain better, no more What the fuck dude, be a nicr guy and fix it
He really helped me improve my modding by quite a lot (just as Bakari and Gray veyron) so I ended up becoming a BN, which I'm still grateful for
He may be rude sometimes, but he is also honest and helpful which I admire
Gumpy
Honestly when I decided to join the forum and saw you for the first time (over a year ago) I just assumed you were just some high post count shitposter. Safe to say that view has changed in the past few days. Good luck.

But I probably shouldn't be in this thread I just like to read things /runs
Topic Starter
Shohei Ohtani

Ephemeral wrote:

a few things:

1) titles are linked to usergroups and it isn't really possible without palpable effort to split the two, which i sincerely doubt happened just to "make fun of you". that'd be ferociously unprofessional, and I can say with 100% certainty that dicks would be ripped off if that had actually happened

2) you seem to be divesting responsibility away from yourself governing how you act. it is not loctav's (or anyone else's) duty to regulate your own behavior - it is firmly yours, and yours alone. if you cannot divest your own personal misgivings of a person away from your interactions with them in a cooperative light, you probably aren't suited for working in any sort of team atmosphere

there are a multitude of things you need to address if you want to contribute meaningfully, but I believe that you're more than capable of doing it if you put your mind to it. acknowledging the consequences of your own actions is a good start, and i hope to see it get to a point where you return to the work ethic and standard that had you originally earn my nomination for BAT in the first place.

let's look to the future, yeah?
Its honestly too much in the past for me to figure out how it all went down, as similarly with the chatlogs, i may have a wrong idea. I also feel it might not be the best place to discuss this here, due to the nature of the topic, but id be happy to address the issue in PM

And thats what im realizing, that i tend to divert that a lot; and its something im progressively trying to improve. Especially though rereading chatlogs, im seeing moreso that im the cause of my own faults, sometimes unknowingly.

Lets look to the future.
LKs
Sorry but I can't help posting this somewhat unrelated reply when seeing you who I regard as old acquaintances.

Long time no see, Ephemeral and CDFA (well you have a new ID tho)

Eph:
SPOILER
I had once read the pm we sent to each other and my face really blushed while reading haha .

CDFA:
SPOILER
The entirety of your words implies that the game and the community may have had some substantial influences on you, no matter have you noticed or not. I guess you have been in a weird dilemma for a while that you need to perform good and energetic in public whereas hatred and discontentment keep harassing your mind. Actually when you are far too "obsessed" with something which doesn't really repay you with satisfaction you expect. Think of getting rid of it for a while and give yourself time to reconsider. Hierarchy can always be found where communities thrive. That's kind of human nature as we can conclude from our history. But that's not what you're supposed to discover in this game. Just think what cool and precious you got rather than those negative thoughts. It's necessary whether you want continue contributing or not. And most importantly, remember that NO ONE can DENY your/our efforts. In regardless of what title you/we have.
http://puu.sh/jPric/ac33f732dc.jpg
↑ My once colorful, now "monochrome" friend list ↑
Bara-
Also, CDFA
If there is one modder I'll always remember it has to be you
The way you word things made me happy
No matter how rude it may sound, your mods always made/make me happy
You're honest, and your way of wording makes it good to read
Even if you say it's a complete shitmap, your wording makes it feel reasonable
I have always admired you, and I'll still do
Just as Quib and VINXIS
You should keep going on the way you are
It's good
Even though you don't have a red/green name, who cares
You can do the same things (w/o the ability to lock threads) and get the same appreciation

@Lks, my friendlist is also that way xD
Want to help me make it more pinkish? :3
Same applies to Loctav and ofc CDFA <3
Chewin
deja vu

(and p3n is the best.)
The Gambler

Gumpyyy wrote:

Honestly when I decided to join the forum and saw you for the first time (over a year ago) I just assumed you were just some high post count shitposter. Safe to say that view has changed in the past few days. Good luck.

But I probably shouldn't be in this thread I just like to read things /runs
I feel the same as Gumpyy.

Having read your userpage some months ago, I was under the impression you sorta gave up on osu. Now this letter happened, and this reflection sounds a lot more positive in comparison to your userpage "months ago". As a fellow forum member, I salute you.

/runs
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