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A thread including out-of-context screenshots is circulating regarding Puppy/Steele& #39;s departure from the Fanexus team. The following thread provides full context for the events in October that led to Puppy leaving the Fanexus Discord of their own accord.
@/naminepuppy was a valuable asset to the Fanexus team since they agreed to take on the role of Public Relations Manager in July of 2020. However, in late October it became increasingly apparent that Puppy does not work well in a collaborative environment like Fanexus.
In early October, Puppy wanted the site admin, Brandy, to make a public announcement. Brandy has the final say in mod decisions and felt it was unnecessary. Puppy then declared this was a failure on the admin’s part to step up, and demanded the rest of the mods do something.
Brandy considered removing Puppy from their role as PR manager, but then decided against it when Puppy calmed down and apologised the next day. However, a week later one of our head mods (@/morsecodex) contacted Brandy with concerns regarding Puppy.
While Morse recognized Puppy’s background in PR and experience, Morse felt that Puppy was not a good fit for the team. Morse addressed Puppy’s lack of professionalism during a crisis, their unwillingness to compromise, and technophobia preventing some basic actions.
Over the months of Puppy’s tenure, multiple mods expressed concern with Puppy’s behavior: Puppy would regularly explain how stressed and overworked they were, and continue to work even when told to rest. This clearly affected both their self-assigned work and their health.
Puppy had also shown a further tendency to catastrophize; claiming that decisions that had been made before they joined the team, which had been announced publicly without backlash, would cause the site to fail.
Puppy would also sometimes interpret disagreements and frustration as personal hatred...
...despite previously claiming that they “didn’t mind bluntness”.
Before Brandy was able to act on this information, Puppy DM-ed Morse over disagreements they’d had in the mod channels. This violated our mod conduct policy, which was for mods to contact a third party for mediation, instead of directly confronting each other.
Morse clearly told Puppy that when under stress, she has difficulty filtering her words. Puppy continued on anyway.
Morse did speak bluntly in her DMs with Puppy; however, while frustrated, she tried to explain her POV without losing her cool.
Puppy DMed Brandy next, claiming that Morse was being unfair to them. Puppy seemed very agitated and Brandy said they could discuss the issue once Puppy was calm, but Puppy carried on.
Brandy suggested Puppy temporarily switch to low-stress tasks that wouldn& #39;t involve interaction with Morse and Puppy agreed, but then immediately returned the conversation to how much they couldn& #39;t stand Morse. By then it was late on a work night and Brandy had to disengage.
Over the following days, Puppy began DMing some mods to tell them that Morse was abusing and gaslighting them. They demanded two of the head mods, Wolf and Tox, do something to solve the situation, and did everything in their power to turn them against Morse.
They also contacted Maya, a newly appointed site mod still learning their role in Fanexus, to attempt to have them intervene, breaking mod protocols. Puppy did this in spite of admitting in DMs to Maya that it was not Maya& #39;s job, showing further unprofessionalism.
When Puppy falsely claimed to Tox that Morse did not respect Tox, Tox turned to Morse directly, and together they went to Brandy to discuss what to do about Puppy’s campaign against Morse.
Since 17 Sept, Puppy had been talking repeatedly about how stressed they were and how much they wanted to just quit. They would then turn around and double down, working harder even after claiming they needed a break.
It was in Brandy’s opinion that Puppy’s best course of action would be to step down. Puppy had been a well-respected member of the team, regardless of what they think now or in recent weeks, and no one was keen on making them feel outcast.
Early on 20 Oct, the day of Puppy’s departure, Morse and the other head mods agreed to shift Morse’s focus from the community discord server to her internal work, in order to lessen the chances of another stressful altercation.
Before this information could be relayed to them, Puppy got fed up with a discussion about a question posed to our Twitter account. The discussion devolved into our mods attempting to offer support to Puppy, as they were clearly emotionally compromised.
Puppy then left both the beta community server and the mod server of their own accord. To protect Fanexus, all their access was immediately revoked from every document, sheet, form, and Discord server, the site alpha, as well as all extraneous accounts used by Fanexus staff.
Within minutes, Puppy DMed Brandy, saying they never intended to step down and telling Brandy to solve the Morse issue, while also DMing several other members of the mod team, attempting to control the narrative despite no longer being within the server.
This was the point at which Puppy was leaning wholeheartedly into the idea that Morse had gaslit them. Brandy was tired of the situation, but did their best to gently tell Puppy that it was in their own best interest to leave the project.
Puppy continued, claiming everyone else was at fault, and when Brandy tried to end the conversation due to mounting stress, Puppy refused to relent.
(this is the limit to the amount of tweets that can be made at once, more to come)
(this is the limit to the amount of tweets that can be made at once, more to come)
Puppy then started DMing the other mods to tell their version of events, repeatedly guilt-tripping anyone who would listen.
Meanwhile, several mods have come forward since they left, claiming that Puppy made them extremely uncomfortable: one mod even came back from an extended absence that had been directly caused by discomfort with Puppy’s behavior.
Puppy compromised the mod team with inappropriate behavior before and after their departure, using manipulation that was not obvious until very recently. Puppy has continued to try to cause problems for Fanexus now that that relationship has ended.
Puppy has claimed that they were promised monetary compensation for their work, which is untrue. At most, the admins stated that if Fanexus eventually becomes profitable, mods may get some form of compensation.
This experience has helped us grow as a team and as a project: shortly after Puppy& #39;s departure, we instituted new policies to proactively support our mods through stressful times, implemented tightened moderation guidelines, and expanded the HR and PR departments.
While we are disappointed that contextless screenshots were shared from our private mod chat, we are more frustrated by the fact that the privacy and security of our mod team have been put at risk with the release of screenshots that had no reason to not be redacted.
We emphasise this isn& #39;t a matter of Fanexus vs Puppy. Puppy chose to make public an internal issue instead of speaking to us constructively. Our goal is to show our side, and the unsafe environment that this internal issue created. Please do not harass any parties involved.
Our mod staff is excited and hopeful about the direction that we are moving and while this situation is unfortunate, ultimately, it has helped our staff align with the values that will make Fanexus a home for both creators and fans.
