Giving a Community Manager too much power in a Discord server (or any online platform)?

This ban was unnecessary, unright, unjust; a pathetic move to censor me.

10 min readMar 16, 2017

TL;DR

I’m an ex-forum and Discord Moderator that got banned for trying to improve the community. In the end, I got treated wrongfully. I didn’t deserve this.

UPDATE #1 (3/16/17): Got restricted access to the Official PUBG Forums (read below).

UPDATE #2 (3/16/17): Got banned from the Steam PUBG Discussions (read below).

UPDATE #3 (3/21-22/17): It seems most of the Moderators that I had contact with and also on my friends list mostly defriended me and/or blocked me on Discord/Steam. Maybe Sammie/FWG made them in order to keep their Moderator role?

UPDATE #4: Today (3/23/17) is Steam Early Access Launch Day… Still banned from the Discord, Steam PUBG Discussions and still restricted access to the forums.

UPDATE #5 (3/25/17): An “I’m sorry” from Sammie or FWG won’t make it right/just anymore. I’m done with this mess.

UPDATE #6 (4/7/17): Got banned from the Official PUBG Curse server now and I didn’t even say anything ‘mean’ or drama based. I only posted dearsomeone PUBG videos and PUBG related news. Which means I can’t even talk in the playBATTLEGROUNDS Twitch channel.

UPDATE #7 (around 7/5/17): I rejoined back into the server under a different username to see what changed.

UPDATE #8 (11 AM — 11/28/17): Moderators now have banned me from using the site (view image below).

UPDATE #9 (12/18/18): The Admin who banned me quit her job and still unable to get an unban on all platforms and be given the Moderator role.

UPDATE #10 (7/31/19): New Community Manager Hawkinz said, “ I appreciate you reaching out but unfortunately your ban is permanent and will not be removed. Your ban will remain regardless of staff movement.” To view full context of the conversation, scroll to the bottom.

They shouldn’t have that power to begin with. A Community Manager should NOT have this much power. A CM is their to help people, inform and give insight to the game in the announcements channel when important information is out. An Admin and Moderator in forces the rules, not a CM.

What is PUBG?

PUBG is an acronym of PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS.

A survival shooter, where you try to become the last player standing against other online players.

Great game, but horrible Community Manager (at the time).

Who’s the Community Team I’m talking about? Sammie Kang, aka PoopieQueen or kangnkim (poopieQueen on Medium) & Andro Dars, aka FWG.

Where did it all start? This all happened when I got invited to the PUBG Discord server as a Pre-Alpha Tester.

I joined this server back in July of 2016 as a Pre-Alpha Tester. I had no intentions of being a Moderator in the server at all. But, PLAYERUNKNOWN (the Creative Director of the game) gave me the Moderator role because I manage the /r/BattleRoyaleGames subreddit. When I joined of course their was a standard of Mod rules anyways, remove any racist or homophobic language, etc… Keep it clean.

But they didn’t state anything about don’t do anything to improve the server.

Months go on, in the server I created the Content Creator role. Just a role to give CC’s (YouTubers and Livestreamers) the ability to stand out and show their support for supporting the game by making content (they still use the role to this day).

Months go on again and later we test Duo’s in Alpha. Duo’s needed a place to talk where they won’t get interrupted by randoms joining their channel and talk with there Duo partner. So without asking, I created around 10 or 11 Duo VOIP rooms in the server (as seen in the pictures below this paragraph). Everyone loved it. Literally, everyone used the rooms, even the developer’s.

As of a few days of rejoining (around 7/5/17) the server again, but under a different username, these VOIP channels still exist.

Then the forums came about in November/December. We Moderated for months keeping it clean, then months later in February, we got demoted. Me and Equusmotive (another forum Mod) for some reason got demoted by FWG, another Community Team member, but yet the other Mods can stay? Later, I found out it was a personal vendetta towards me (to the point where PoopieQueen ordered FWG to remove my Moderator role on the forums).

A few weeks go in March, I sent out a mass email to CC’s (to some large creators and small ones) to inform them about the PUBG server.

As of a few days of rejoining (around 7/5/17) the server again, but under a different username, this CC role was removed. The only roles that exist now are; Creative Director, Community Team, Admin, Moderator, Contributor, tester and tester 2017.

Since this was Closed Beta (back in February — March of 2017) for these creators and PUBG was fairly new still to the public, I thought I’d let them know about the server so that they join in with the community (if they want), talk, make new friends and expand it even more. I didn’t force them to join, it was a small PSA email. But the CC’s didn’t read it that way. I think the action of CC’s emailing Sammie and DM’ing her if it was a scam or phishing email triggered her and she sent me a DM stating that “we have it under control and you don’t need to worry about it.” And I sent her a long paragraph back stating that “I didn’t know” and that the CC’s are morons to even think that, to think that I was trying to scam them. They handle all their money for ad’s, subscribers, etc and they can’t do simple research. Or maybe I should have wrote it better because their reading level is pretty low based on what I just saw.

Following this, another Moderator told the all the other Moderators in a private channel in the public PUBG server that we were in that big and partnered CC’s have their own private and different Discord server. Invite only.

Now I understand why she said, “we have it under control.” She split the community. One server for big streamers/YouTubers while the other one is for nobody’s, the plebs… They don’t want big streamers or partners to collaborate with more or less, peasants, the gamers… The actual players.

Now it all comes together. Miscommunication. If she was more open and not keeping everything a secret to me as a Moderator, I wouldn’t have been in this situation in the first place. But she wasn’t. She wasn’t open at all.

A few more weeks go on and I posted a VOD of PU’s interview that he did from PAX in the #announcements channel. An interview that the Community Team didn’t post because they were busy with PAX East 2017, getting rid of that PAX After Party hangover or flying back home. More or less to inform people about the VOD, for those who missed it (as seen in this image).

She didn’t like it at all when I posted the VOD. She said “the team was going to handle it.”

I thought I was doing the right thing, improving/informing the server for the community as time goes on. But Sammie and FWG didn’t see it that way.

“It’s my words vs a Community Manager”

What power does the ‘Community Team have?’ When I was in this server they had everything, every permission selected.

They had the ability to censor anything you say.

Talk back? Demotion of roles, ban or deleted messages. Have an opinion they don’t like? Demotion, ban or deleted messages.

Because I have a loud Cuban mouth, I stood my ground. I messaged her back stating that she was wrong about demoting me in the server. She kept throwing the CC email topic back at me when that discussion was already over, blaming me for blowing up her email/DM’s and told me it was against the “rules.” But yet there are no rules she gave us? She didn’t like my statements and she banned me from the server minutes later.

I messaged PU (with all the screenshots I had with Sammie), the Creative Director that gave me the Moderator role back when I joined the server for Pre-Alpha Tester. But right now, he can careless about this drama since he’s too busy with just coming back from PAX, pushing out this week’s final Closed Beta game update and having his game be out on Steam Early Access in 1 week. But let’s face it, it’s my words vs a trusted Community Manager.

Me and Equusmotive we’re treated like dog meat by the Community Team of PUBG. It’s truly disrespectful.

It’s pretty scary to see a CM have this much power. Just look at the /r/StarWarsBattlefront subreddit awhile back. Community Managers/Staff of EA managed the subreddit and bribed fellow Moderators to remove rant, hateful and negative discussions around Battlefront. More or less censoring the community. Only 'good' threads were allowed to get posted. Because this is against Reddits sitewide rules, the Reddit Admins came in and purged the whole subreddit mods and they brought in new mods that weren't censoring people nor the community. Source — http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2015/11/12/star-wars-battlefront-reddit-mods-bribed/#/slide/1

It’s unright and pathetic

This ban was unnecessary, unright, unjust; a pathetic move to censor me. She wanted my opinions not to affect the server and not stir something up, so she banned me from the server. And she got away with it, no vote with the other Community Team members or Moderators to agree to ban me. She just did it, she’s a close minded CM that dislikes talk back. She’s a cold-hearted Community Manager, don’t let her ‘kindness’ get to you, she’s hiding behind a mask and she will do anything in her power to get what she wants.

Sammie, she’s not fit to be with that much power, any Community Manager or any Community Team in-regards that reads this (or future business owner going to give this power). Or if you are a Community Manager, don’t be like her, become better.

What I want in-return? An “I’m sorry” across all Social Media to all the Moderators that she and FWG affected, the Community Team members to have their permissions revoked (As Community Team members, they don’t need most of those permissions, certainly they don’t need the ability to ban/kick people) and bring me back to the Discord server; along side with the ‘Alpha Tester’ and ‘Moderator’ role that I had (I want to take part in the community again). I can say yes, inviting the CC’s to the server was my fault, but we weren’t told NOT to.

I’m one of the only ones that is focused driven by this game to this day while others have left the Moderator team or can careless about it. I help manage the PUBG Wiki adding and updating new content, updating the weapon statistics, and more all from day one of Open Beta back in 2016.

I don’t mean harm to Bluehole/PUBG Corp or PoopieQueen. I was inappropriately treated and didn’t deserve to be treated like this nor get these bans. I shouldn’t have been punished for voicing my opinion.

#bringbackazgoodaz #bannedforNOreason #bannedfor0reason #overpoweredCommunityManager or you can retweet my tweet to share this article with others: https://twitter.com/azgoodaz/status/842430200143056903

Legends will never die.

UPDATE #1 | 9 PM — 3/16/17
FWG gave me restricted access to the Official PUBG Forums. You can check out my ban status on my profile here: http://forums.playbattlegrounds.com/profile/27-azgoodaz/

UPDATE #2 | 10 PM — 3/16/17
I posted my link about my discussion about my ban from the server and I got a permanent ban by FWG from the Steam PUBG Discussions.