2017 UYScutix Revolution

The UYScutix Revolution was a campaign against the server's administration over the course of the 2017 in a bid for more democracy, the removal of a developer, and ultimately control over the server. It was spearheaded by UYScutix/VJ, a former Senior Admin who grew sick of the server's administration and had such bad blood with management and developers that it ultimately resulted in his indefinite suspension and ban from the server. The movement severely divided the admin team as many chose between supporting his cause and supporting his rivals. Its collapse, which was caused by a group of three people, led to one of the biggest suspension waves in the server's history.

Background

Mark ran TotalFreedom with an iron fist, and this is one of many factors that caused the revolution in the first place.

The revolution's roots began in early 2016 as a combination of multiple factors which ultimately boiled down to unrest with management at the time:

• How management handled public outcry and unpopular decisions: Starting in late 2016, people became increasingly irritated with markbyron's tendency to dismiss public outcry as "nasty drama". A notable case was when several admins resigned in protest after he introduced a controversial program (which gave specific players a special secret rank that only him and a few other executives knew about). He responded by banning those involved from every platform he had control over for at least a week. People were also becoming increasingly frustrated with his tendency to be too forgiving.

• VJ himself: VJ had an unstable history and possibly an untreated mental illness. Having joined in late 2013 and becoming an admin in early 2014, he had resigned in early 2015 due to disputes with other staff members and began to attack the server and its staff with a group of other rogue staff members named DDOXYZ. After attempting to return to the server under different identities, he came back again with the name UYScutix. Some players still didn't trust him and viewed him as unnecessarily strict and hugely hypocritical whenever he complained about other people's pasts.

• Savnith: Savnith was a former admin who was known to act in a cycle of claiming he changed to gain everyone's trust and then engaging in rogue activity after a period of time. Following several years of this cycle, players rejected his attempts to appeal so he had to resort to returning under new identities in order to keep playing on the server. He also became increasingly problematic, to the point where he built a "shitlist" on his website to list the IP addresses of admins he disliked.

• marcocorriero11: Marco was a developer who became a staff member on January 1, 2016 under the Telnet Picks a Super program. He was a controversial figure among his peers, and many criticized him for his actions or behavior. Attempts to vote him off for this behavior often fell flat, which led to accusations that Mark was trying to protect him.

Chapter 1 - Rodeo with Mark

Obsessed with being strict and insistent on being by the books, VJ frequently objected on people's admin applications with lengthy over-dramatic essays for reasons. This style of objections was rather controversial amongst staff members, but the straw that broke the camel's back was his vote on an admin application by Savnith. This prompted many staff members to complain to Mark, who then sent a private message to VJ about it on February 18, 2017. To try to curb this style of objections, Mark essentially banned him from providing reasoning in his votes on admin applications for the rest of the month. It resulted in a lengthy back-and-forth between the two with ultimatums being issued and the same being retreaded several times.

Warning and Partial Sanction

User	Message
markbyron	So it seems your back-tracking and I won't tolerate it: "Seems uyscutix is at it again with his dramatic speech objections. http://totalfreedom.boards.net/thread/49519/savykilo-sa-application I moved that dramafest to the administrator lounge for review. His behavior seems hypocritical - he says people don't deserve many chances yet has had many himself." I fully agree with that statement and in addition to the warning, you may not post anything on an admin except vouch or object; that sanction is valid until 1 March. If you won't abide by that sanction, I can remove all of your posts or demote. Focus on being positive and do not make drama speeches on admin apps.
uyscutix	Is this a joke? Savnith had more than enough chances. My objection was strong enough- in fact, there was more reasons why I would've objected but my reason became too long, because he has done so many bad things I can't list any further. And it's not hypocritical since I never exposed myself to the public, Savnith however did- if he didn't expose himself then he would've be fine by me, but he decided to do it and try scapegoat his exposure to Scarlet (unlike me, who just quietly reported admins who violated the policy). If he didn't expose himself, I would've treated him like a noob/newcomer OP; especially since I have no time and have better things to do then lookup his name on NameMC or find ways to see if he's Savnith. You can't tell me to be positive about Savnith since the amount of chances he had is a joke. Nobody except people like taahanis (who vouch on almost everybody) trusts him. Majority of us already know his cycle, he keeps posting apologies saying he changes but later on he goes rogue or does something warranting perm suspension. If he gets admin again, I am resigning. Savnith is not ever getting my trust back, I'm all right for 2nd chances; and maybe even 3rd chances. But the amount he had is a joke.
uyscutix	I know it's been said before, but I think it needs to be said again. People are getting admin way TOO easily. If you tell me it's "volunteer work" or "unpaid job", why don't you just rename the server motd "TotalFreedom - All Admin Server" rather than "All Op"? Clearly that's what the main goal of this server is, to keep looking for admins. We have over 100 admins; and we have admins on 24/7. The goal has been achieved. So we don't need anymore admins. The main goal of this server is to make sure everyone has an OP experience, but the fact that you keep going on approval sprees (because of how easily people get admin) shows that it is not the goal of this server and that it's to have everyone on the server as admin. Savnith wasted all his chances. He doesn't need more.
markbyron	now you're going on a drama rant with me - I suggest you immediately calm down and if you don't agree with the philosophy of how I've run this server for the last 7 years, you can find a different server. We've argued this before and it won't be argued again. If savykilo has properly followed the change of identity policy, he'd probably be an admin right now but he exposed himself and probably wont get admin now but no credit whatsover to you. If I became a hard-ass owner, you'd be the first one I removed because you power-trip and cause dissension with other admins. This isn't about savykilo; its about you and do you understand what I've told you here? Yes, I understand, No, remove me that's your two choices here. Think about it before you say something you'l regret.
uyscutix	Well then just rename the server motd to "TotalFreedom - All Admin Server" if you always have a reason to go on Quantity > Quality. Notice; we have less players on the server compared to 2-3 years ago. Are you happy about that? We're losing players and players have been leaving the server due to poor quality administrators. Major admins especially people like Savnith are not fit for administrator yet you appear to be a giving chances over and over again. Also FYI, i'm not ranting- i'm pointing out the truth. Because what everything I said is true. Your server has a poor reputation of admins and you actually like having your server's reputation down. 2 years ago we always had a full server on TF; TF was very popular. Nowadays we only get 20/45 players online.
uyscutix	And no, I'm not accepting it. Feel free to remove me then. I am not ever accepting Savnith being an administrator on the server. I don't think I'm stupid enough to fall for his traps again since he keeps saying he changes when he doesn't. He said this many times and there's always going to be an admin like taahanis out there vouching and supporting him. He proved that he is not trusted since every time everyone thinks he changes for good, he goes rogue.
markbyron	Savnith would never get admin back - that's why we have a change of identity policy which wasn't followed. You are ranting and you're of course you're part of the problem if there's any reputation problem. If you have complaints, handle in private instead of making a public stink - DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!!! Last chance vance.
markbyron	and stop writing stump speeches and books - this is a game server not the military or white house. Just chill.
uyscutix	No. I'm not accepting it... that's the end. What even is the whole point making complaints anymore? Even if it is via PM, complaints don't get resolved. So many admins I know off make complaints about poor quality admins and you blatantly ignore them, even some OPs have made complaints about our admins. Getting admin is too easy but then it's too hard for them to get suspended. Since you clearly like having immature and abusive admins on your server. Why don't you do me a favour and remove me? You can replace me with having an abusive and immature admin, Savnith as admin. I happen to know the conduct policy off by heart and I am known to be professional to lots of admins. Since you want to get rid of the quality admins and have highly abusive and immature admins, just remove me.
uyscutix	also don't tell me that this server isn't military or white house. If an OP misconducted, they'd get sanctioned instantly. If an admin however misconducted, they will receive constant warnings. Which is another example to why complaints are now just pointless since they don't get resolved.
markbyron	savnith isn't getting an admin; you're just using this case to grandstand and power-trip. When you're not grandstanding, you're a decent admin and that's why I allowed you back to begin with despite your habit of causing dissension. Now, if you want to be removed, I'll do but you'll be perm banned for two weeks before you can return. I'll assume this is what you want if I don't get a reply in 30 minutes to change your mind. You might to cool your jets and think about it.
uyscutix	and don't tell me I'm part of the problem of TF's reputation going down. It's clearly your problem since you're the owner of this server. I'm actually trying to give you advice how to STOP the problem of TF's reputation going down. Quality > Quantity. 100 admins is enough for just a single damn server. 100 admins or more is what is expected on a network server but here it's just for one single server.
markbyron	assuming you want the removal, I'll post a message that you're leaving at your personal request and you can return as you wish without penalty. There will be NO drama
markbyron	if you have suggestions admin improvements, send to the execs but you're assumptions are wrong as we have a solid process for selecting admins and esp. for promoting them. This is the wrong thread to be arguing about admin quality - answer the question - shall I remove you as requested?
uyscutix	Remove me. You clearly don't appreciate me as admin. People like me and Galahad are always doing hard work enforcing the server since we are pretty much the only admins who actually memorised the conduct policy off by heart, we did it for our own sake and to show how much we care for the server. People will say that I'm biased that I'm always supporting Galahad, but actually it's the truth.
markbyron	if you want to help, you will not grandstand and you will be respectful of all admins instead of smearing people with your ugly brush - is that clear?
markbyron	you might memorize the policies but you don't follow them - the admin application response policy for example. Again, you're grandstanding and are hypocritical.
uyscutix	Yes
markbyron	i have removed you from forum status - i will take the next steps in minutes if you don't come back correctly.
markbyron	i took that yes as a commitment on your part to follow my request and I have not removed you.
markbyron	this thread is finished and I will take your future actions as evidence of whether or not you are going to honor what was said here. In a week, if you have real to the point suggestions (sans grandstanding and smearing) for improving the admin policies, send them via PM to infamas and myself.

Following this exchange, VJ conversed with Video about the situation and forwarded the PM. The original chat logs discussing the matter have since been lost.