Messages from the Admins

Hello Members of AIN,

This Nate Saathoff one of the admins of
the site. In the last week Peter, Matt and I discussed the recent union
tensions between Gaius Baltar and Dljrfn2000. We discussed what has
happened in the past, and recently in the last week or so. Gaius,
Dljrfn dispute has been problem we've been aware of since Gaius joined.
We understand this can happen, as member tensions do happen. But its
gotten out of hand. We banned Dljrfn 2 weeks for member disrespect. The
ban was served in 2 separate weeks. We split it cause of RL issues with
Dljrfn. Yes understood that's its not smart, and was bad idea.. But our
goal here AIN is to make everyone feel welcome, and be a family.
Showing respect for everyone. We have talked with leaders of other
sites discussing our current situation. We talked about both members to
them and discussed what we should do. We unfortunately had to come to
decision the either way might affect this union.The admins are going to take the following action of permanently banning Gaius Baltar.
Were sorry this not something we would like to do. But its nothing that
couldnt be left alone. If you have any questions please pm any admin.

Thank you for your time everyone, and have a great day.

I agree 100% with your decisions. Something needed to be done. In the words of Captain Spock, "may the union live long and prosper." :aoin:

TylerD30 wrote:I agree 100% with your decisions. Something needed to be done. In the words of Captain Spock, "may the union live long and prosper." :aoin:

Taking a quote from the issue.....

"QFT"

thank you Nate and the admins of the AIN. I never wanted for things to get this bad in the union and I hope that both Diz and Wood would consider staying in the AIN as valued members as we move forward from this time of darkness. I admit at times in the union I said and did things I am not proud of and I apologize to the remaining members and I thank those who supported me and helped us get to this point. Therefore I submit the following decree's.

As sort of self punishment for my actions and to help comply with the 3 days I missed in my suspension I will spend the next 3 days (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) on a leave of absence from posting on the site even though I will be in to check up. I am doing this on my own and not at the request of anyone else.

I'd like to formally congratulate Orchid on his title as the Foreign Affairs Adviser and welcome him to this daunting task. May you serve the AIN well my friend.

I'd like to ask of the remaining members the following few items.

I've discussed a summit on this judiciary department with Tyler to happen some time during August. If it is ok with the members of the Union I'd like the CIB to be temporarily reinstated until this summit so it can be properly evaluated at this time in the controlled and calm environment of a summit.

I'd like Diz and Wood to except my apology to them for any remarks I made to them they found personally offensive. I fought for what I felt was the betterment of the union and ultimately the admins and the key members of the union felt that I was in the right and Giaus was in the wrong. I recognize that you guys felt that you were fighting for the betterment of the union just as we were and that at times in the fight things can be said that are not meant. I hope I speak for all when I say we wish to keep you hear as members of the union despite your friendship with Giaus and with no conditions.

I'd also like to head a new development and collection of AIN history and work on a new admittance system to the union to help prevent a repeat of the issues that nearly split the union apart.

Finally I'd ask that every year on this date that we declare all across the Sim Nation we declare this AIN Day so that we will be reminded of the goals Matt, Nate, Peter, knarfmo, Aranho and I set up in the first AIN summit. To always be respectful of other AIN members, to work together to enjoy the game of Sim City more with each passing day, and to build the strongest and most secure union in the sim world. :aoin:

Do reconsider this banishment.

As a witness to the dispute between Dljrfn and Gaius, all I have seen was a Dljrfn's selfishness and very large ego against the actions a beliefs of Gaius to ATTEMPT to change what he has the right to believe are faults in the organization of this newly formed union.

As wood already clearly addressed, it is rather ignorant to believe a system is perfect from the start of its creation. Everything needs to be altered before it is perfect. Among the new members, Gaius has been the only one to pursue for such a change WITHOUT FORCING IT UPON THE MEMBERS as he does not bear the power to do so.

On the other hand, Dljrfn's preachings obviously suggest that he does not want changes, even taking Gaius' suggestions as insulting. I believe he therefore has a big ego all due to the fact that he is one of the older members of this union and he has "been to the first summit".

Well, if this is how you guys treat your new members for wanting to change things a bit for the better without even giving them the proper rights for a fair arguement, then I no longer wish to be associated with this union.

The only way to prevent my departure is to give Gaius a fair trial as he has already suggested. If not, then good riddance.

Also, I have every right to believe that Dljrfn is two faced. He claims he has nothing against me, yet this is what he said in the Union Cup thread:

Dljrfn2000 wrote:let me just say Dizflip while I don't think to highly of you on a personal level just these two days with this tournament have been unreal, if with this is a preview of things to come in say a simlympic bid I would support you 200%

All I've done so far is stated facts that happend to be in favor of Gaius. I've never had a confontation with him as Gaius has had. Yet he says this.

I respect the Admins decision, but I think some form of sanctions could be another route. Banning parties from running for public offices and excluding economic and political support is an option.

And I mean this for all parties involved in the disagreement. Not just one person.

On Dljrfn2000 comments. On the CIB and Judiciary Branch. I think the CIB be should be part of the Judiciary Branch, cause both are doing basically the same thing. the CIB investigates and Judiciary Branch applies the law by banning and such. Whatever the case may be.

The CIB and Judiciary Branch should be discussed during the next AIN Summit. I guess we could have Judiciary Summit in August. In Lisieux.

As for AIN Day. Im cool with it. But we need to vote on that as a union.

like Tyler said May the union live long and prosper

Hey guys, I would be more then happy to hold the first AIN Judiciary Summit in Humboldt, Lisieux.

Dljrfn, was the CIB more to investigate things that had to do with making rules for warfare? If so we could make the CIB a division of the Judiciary System.

Also, I was wondering if we were going to vote to decide the head justice at the summit or if everyone just came to a consensus that i would be chief justice?

As far as im concerned, Tyler should be the Chief Justice, cause it was ur idea in the first place for the Justice department

Thanks Nate. If it is ok with everybody i would like to assume the position of Chief Justice of the AIN Supreme Court System. I was thinking if it's ok with everyone else that we could have the summit July 13th because after that I will be starting my corn detassling job and will be very tired for about 2 weeks. At the summit we can discuss things like the power given to the justices and if terms should last until the justice "steps down", if we do this then we could talk about making an impeachment rule so a "power mad" person can't stay on forever and cause problems with the system.

Sounds fine to me. Like I said before, I would like Tyler to become Chief Justice.

To our members of AIN,

First off, on behalf of the other admins, I would like to apologize. And I know that apologizing can only go so far, but I feel that I need to express this. Yes, Gaius Baltar was banned, as a result of a uninimous vote from the admins. Yes, we know we have broken the guidelines that we have established during the first AIN summit.

You guys are probably wondering why all this happened. I don't want you guys to feel like you guys are being left in the dark or that all this secrecy is happening in the background or that the admins are taking total control. I think that this all began with the Dljrfn-Gaius conflict. We gave dljrfn a 2 week ban, but chose to allow him to have a split ban. Yes, we know that this is not exactly the best idea and for that again, we're sorry. Everything is going calmly, then a second round occurs. Dljrfn has served his ban truthfully, but now he and Gaius are at it again. At this point, the admins came to a conclusion that someone had to leave before it gets too far. Then came the FA elections. Yes, we know that its not fair that Orchid did not bid. Did we break a rule by not giving the job to Gaius? We probably did. But as Orchid said "bidding isn't always about everything". That's true. To be honest, given the circumstances with Gaius' conflict with Dljrfn, we did not see him fit to replace dljrfn. It wasn't personal, we were just trying to prevent any union uproars. But I think that this decision, either way would've caused one, as it did.

Yes, we porbably lost the respect of Gaius, clearly as he had done so by creating a post on "Separation of Powers". I respect that. I may have been slightly offended by the contents, but I think that everyone has the right to say whatever. I commend the fact that Gaius told us that we can discuss and vote on it. Like I said, the said contents in the post, as it had every right to be suggested, still caused some offense, some highly more offense than others. No, we didn't ban Gaius regardless of his proposition to strip our powers. It's what I call, wrong timing.

Then what's the real reason? Its really unclear, but a major factor that lead us to ban Gaius was his past. I've heard two accounts in the past week. The first account was that Gaius and Dizflip tried to run and take over a union. The second account, which I heard today, was that Gaius just got caught in misfortunes of the unions that he was in. The first account calls Gaius guilty, while the second calls him innocent. Of course, I heard the second account today, a tad late to save Gaius from being banned. We just didn't want to take a risk of finding out whether the rumors were true or false.

A member suggested that we let Gaius back in, or maybe not, but give him a fair trial. To be honest, I don't know what to say. Yes, I want to be fair. But at the same time, Im considering what I've heard, majority of it gives Gaius a bad name. Yes, I know that there's people out there that are going "Why believe them?". My answer: well, think about it. If a person has been in several unions, don't you think that its the person and not the unions with the problem? I don't know. That's just my thought. Yes I know that there are some people out there that are saying "Why dljrfn?" To be honest. I don't know. Like I said, wrong timing. A couple of weeks ago, it was dljrfn that should've been evicted. But due to the circumstances, all these rumours of Gaius' past and his plans to not follow our rules ultimately led to his eviction. "What do you mean by not follow our rules?" After our decision with Orchid being head of FA, Gaius and saw this as unlawful. He then told us that we should expect him to not follow our rules consequently. I don't blame him, but if he doesn't want to follow our rules, then why does he deserve to be in AIN?

Honestly, I don't know. I have no final verdict. But this is just some thoughts I have. Frankly, I joined this union to have fun and meet new friends. I didn't ask for all this headache. I mean I was on vacation and all I could think about was "please dont let the union tear apart". Come on you guys, please all I'm asking here is some cooperation. Let's be a union like we should be. Let's grow strong and fix our problems so that we can once again become high. Let's not scare our future brothers away. Let's not be known as "there goes another union that fell apart". I said what I said above so that nobody feels like we're hiding info from you. At all cost, we would hate to see anyone leave this union. Please don't, but we can't make you stay. But all I ask for is that you consider. I'll step out of being an admin if it means saving a few people from leaving. Thank you for listening.

Peter wrote:The first account was that Gaius and Dizflip tried to run and take over a union.

I'd just like to say on behalf of myself that this first account is so utterly false that I highly take offense and insult to it. The one who claims such twistedly false rumor is ignorant to the point that he's just trying to make the victims look bad due to the fact that I was the founder and admin of the union(s) he is talking about, the first having been voted to hold the Union Headquarters as having "deserved it". I demand to know who is so low enough to commit such a treasonous act.

Peter wrote:
Then came the FA elections. Yes, we know that its not fair that Orchid did not bid. Did we break a rule by not giving the job to Gaius? We probably did. But as Orchid said "bidding isn't always about everything". That's true. To be honest, given the circumstances with Gaius' conflict with Dljrfn, we did not see him fit to replace dljrfn. It wasn't personal, we were just trying to prevent any union uproars. But I think that this decision, either way would've caused one, as it did.

Thank you Peter for giving the members {and myself} inside detail that we could not or did not know because we weren't apart of the Admins discussion. However I have to disagree with you on the excerpt taken from your statement. Three members showed interest in become the new Foreign Affairs Head. Then there was a topic made for bids. Even if two of the three members did not bid, that does not disqualify us from candidacy. If the FA elections went through with the whole union voting, I do not believe Gaius would have won anyway. To be totally honest, if the union-wide happened, I believe Spore would have won.

I tried to be neutral throughout the conflict, but after my victory of FA, I don't feel the need to be mediator anymore. When Gauis say that he wouldn't recognize me as FA Head, from then and there I excluded him from the union and any proposal set to be released by Foreign Affairs.

I did swallow my pride and say maybe he should come back (as stated in previous post) with some conditions, but enough is enough. Maybe its because everyone is one stuck in that high-school mentality where everyone needs to be in a clique and be catty to one another. I'm sorry but I'm not going to bite my tongue anymore and if that causes me to lose my new position, so be it.

Ok so I took my 3 days off, here are my responses.

@ Peter: you did what you had to as an admin and if anyone chooses not to leave if you step down as an admin they're seriously misinformed about what went down.

@ diz: We didn't know that at the time and the admins had to go on what they knew that's it. And the person who made the claims were not involved in the fight. Just to clear my name of any wrong doing on this I did not start that story at all.

@Orchid: I would agree with Giaus coming back with conditions but what conditions could we really put on him? He can't respond to my stuff? I think it would be sort of senseless to bring him back but restrict him, because if you can't be a full part of the union there is no reason to be a part of it.

*Moved the State of Emergency thread over to government, so we can formally vote on who to keep. Voting poll now open