I would agree. Some brief thoughts & examples on why this toxic mess is not and has not been limited only to Mystic and Rob but, in fact, remains ongoing.
Mystic and Rob lived by one rule, and that rule continues beyond Mystic and Rob. That rule, stated clearly:
CRITICISM OF MODERATORS IS NOT ALLOWED.
In 2007, the message board changed from "Sonic Robo Blast 2" to being a Nazi joke for the lolz. It would take 13 more years before the mods were removed; this incident was not enough, apparently.
Notice that the "punchline" of the joke is that this is a response to criticism from Moderators.
How have Moderators responded to criticism since this thread? Well, for posting
this thread to discuss it, I was banned for a week and then the thread was locked before I could respond.
Trying to respond to this in the Discord led to being banned there, too. I should've grabbed screenshots but I think you can find it if you just search "Moose" which was all I did to see Moderator Chrispy bring up my name and encouraged other users to bash me. I literally only got to say Hi, I've read your comments, and then was warned for "starting up trouble" and then banned! Chrispy again, I believe.
Chrispy joined the community in 2006, per his profile. Did he change his avatar to a Nazi symbol as a joke? How about RoyKirbs? Also joined in 2006.
I hadn't looked at the Mods wiki page before that thread, but you'll see if you click on Moderator D00D64's wiki page, it includes a rape joke for the lolz
Am I the only one who thinks it's weird to spend 10 or 15 years being a Sonic fan game message board moderator?
For lack of anywhere else to respond to questions given to me about the Moderation, I will answer them here.
"Why would a community of Children need to elect their own moderators? They're children!!!" -- multiple
When I was in elementary school, we elected a student council. So what's your point? How well have these moderators served Children with Nazi imagery and secret porn forums?
"Nobody else seems to have a complaint about the moderators!!" -- mostly the moderators
Well, that might be because people can see how the Moderators react to criticism and see how you make an example of anyone who does so. Instead you have threads like this one where -- how many? -- people say they were too afraid to post under Mystic's reign. Hm, wonder why.
You're a verified leader of a toxic community, and posts like this contribute to that. Also, it's odd that SRB2 encourages so much replay, because the soundtrack becomes
extremely grating after the first play-through and thankfully there's a mute option.
Though the thread was locked, this post is a good example of the only real rule on the forum -- stated again --
CRITICISM OF MODERATORS IS NOT ALLOWED.
Everything and everyone else is fair game. No wonder the community is the way it is.
Despite the store being non-profit and based on illegal usage of an IP, let's go with this "small store" analogy.
For however many years Mystic was running things, you had a Store Manager who was openly harassing "customers" and other staff. Comments were ignored because you didn't need to worry about turning a "profit" or being held "accountable" to anyone. How has this changed? It hasn't.
Moderators have a little bit of extra power. They don't want to get rid of it. People get off on power trips. It's not mysterious. It's not limited to Mystic.
...But I'm guessing this will prompt a "About time to lock this thread, everyone's had their say, and we're getting off topic now."