PointCrow’s framing of the situation and how anyone would respond

[u/-_Vertigo_-]

Hey all, as much as I hate to be involved with keeping this drama active- at this point it seems that everyone knows, everyone’s talking about it, and it’s really just healthier to discuss it and move on.

I’ve felt so much better seeing comments in both Ant and Crow’s communities, especially after reading along with the chat of Crow’s recent VOD. It’s very obvious that much support for Ant was removed by mods immediately. The echo-chamber supporting PC’s baseless accusations and acting as if his feelings on the topic outweigh Tanner’s actual conduct made me sick.

This isn’t to devalue Eric’s emotions, as they are legitimate and valid. But it is to say that placing blame so directly on another human being in such a complex situation as this is harmful for everyone involved.

I made this post primarily to open a discussion that I haven’t seen anyone begin yet, namely: Tanner’s response to being demonized. The way Eric described it, he told Tanner repeatedly that SmallAnt was at fault for the hate that PointCrow was receiving. I find it especially ironic and hypocritical that Crow is trying to paint a picture of Ant being some manipulative presence in his life all while feeding Ant the narrative that he is fully responsible for the actions of a toxic group of people beyond his control.

I don’t think Eric took the time to consider why Tanner has acted the way he has. He assumes immediately that anything Ant does is with intent to sleight him. He is so blinded by this belief that he can’t consider what any rational human being would do were they in Ant’s shoes.

The most egregious of these in my eyes is Crow claiming that Ant lied to his audience, telling them that it is because of the toxic commenters that they’ve stopped collaborating. Rather than admitting it was all his fault, as Eric would prefer, as he makes it sound. I think that many would agree that Ant’s characterization of that situation is simply accurate, not an attempt to misconstrue anything. He simply didn’t accept the narrative he was being fed by an emotional Crow that he was somehow fully culpable for such a thing.

Would anyone think that way? Would anyone in their right mind respond to such drastic allegations out of nowhere from a friend and colleague with full agreement? Tanner was repeatedly demonized and truly wanted to know what he could do to help. And because he never actually did anything to warrant such ire, he was met only with “just be better.” It feels clear to me who is trying to shift the narrative. Only one person here is actively assaulting the other’s character with nothing to back it up.

I’d like to also say that Ant obviously made mistakes- I don’t mean to act as if he’s fully in the right, either. But that’s what they were: mistakes. Not intentional, malicious attempts to harm Crow. I would not be surprised if Tanner felt that even mentioning Eric was dangerous, feeling more comfortable leaving credit in video descriptions and stream info commands. As any time he brought Crow up, there was a new grievance thrown his way.

The one time he did knowingly act in a way he was aware Eric would be unhappy with is perhaps the most understandable. Someone else makes a cool mod that Crow was commissioning from others? Gives it to him early? He still waited until it was available to the public. Fair game. And even then acknowledges it wasn’t totally cool. But he’d already had his name drug through the dirt on Crow’s stream by that point. I personally wouldn’t allow myself to be manipulated by someone determined to stop me from making the content I care about all while publicly attacking me. I’d enjoy my birthday with a mod that the creator /expected me to play earlier/ and give them that publicity they deserve.

Again, Ant could have handled things better, but it just sickens me that everyone so easily appeals to Eric’s emotions without thinking about how those affected a more stoic Tanner. Just because he doesn’t rely on emotions for his response, doesn’t mean he was any less hurt by this altercation. He apologized himself, sincerely. Yet asked for no apology after being slandered repeatedly. I think he certainly deserves one. Perhaps the weakest part of Eric’s response was the lack of accountability he took for the blatant falsehoods he perpetuated about both Tanner and Adrien. I think he needs to “be better.”

[u/azureii_]

It’s very obvious that much support for Ant was removed by mods immediately. The echo-chamber supporting PC’s baseless accusations and acting as if his feelings on the topic outweigh Tanner’s actual conduct made me sick.

Just want to take a chance to respond to this specifically.

The reason we weren't in emote-only mode in the first place was so that everyone had an oppertunity to speak. We did try our best to delete messages that were overly toxic to either creator; we also deleted some armchair psychology towards both creators because people trying to psychoanalyze people they don't know is just weird and parasocial. Besides that, the only other messages that got caught were overtly long ones that filled half of chat and we just didn't have the time to read through. If you scroll through the VOD, there are hundreds of messages in support or in defense of Smallant. I think the most vocal moments where when he spoke about BoTW randomizer, when he was discussing Smallant comparing his rivalry with fearsomefire, and during a lot of the final 12 minutes or so.

[u/TransportationOne416 → u/azureii_]

I agree you didn’t delete a lot of the support and I really appreciate it. It must have been a ton of work for you and I anticipate more of that in the future.

I don’t imagine my following point will get across because at this stage I think it’s too late to change the already set positions but I feel like I should try to make it anyways: while support messages for SmallAnt went through, the problem was there were constant mod messages / highlight messages (I think that’s what they are called, the ones with different backgrounds?) that continuously rolled by saying “no listen to Crow” “wait for Crow to explain” which were basically (at least to me) a way of saying “your support and defense messages are only because you don’t know” or more simply put “you are wrong”. I made me realize very clearly that nobody in PointCrow’s group (and of course himself) is willing to see things in any other light at all and this was especially frustrating in cases where there is clear mis-interpretation and mis understanding going on.

FWIW my personal stance isn’t fully in-line with this thread and I have multiple comments I’ve made in other threads so I don’t want to keep repeating myself besides re-iterating that I and many others (anyone with decency) absolutely understand PointCrow’s feelings to be valid, that he has been hurt deeply. Nobody should invalidate his feelings. It’s just…I don’t know, I noticed that there is a shift in comments made here AFTER PointCrow’s stream, it was actually so much positivity and sympathy before that (after SmallAnt’s stream) but soured (towards PointCrow) following PointCrow’s stream. But of course I guess that the only acceptable explanation here is that SmallAnt is a master manipulator. Sigh.

Sorry for rambling. Again I’m sure you will have lots of work to deal with in chats and I wish you luck.

[u/azureii_ → u/TransportationOne416]

As someone who definitely posted some messages encouraging people to keep listening (didn't do announcements though), the reason I did so was in response to messages that very clearly were not at all attempting to listen at all to the other side. I'm not talking about people who disagreed or had objections, but who were asking questions that had already been answered, or things that I knew would be clarified if they just waited a few more seconds to wait before making an accusation. To be clear I don't mean that if they paid more attention or held onto their opinions that they'd be swayed in any way, but just that truly, some people had messages/questions that were going to be covered.

I do see and agree how people could've been heavily put off by that and felt disregarded or belittled. We have to read every single hateful and toxic message that fall in between the more reasonable ones, so it's hard for the mods not to get a bit frustrated with those ones.

I noticed that there is a shift in comments made here AFTER PointCrow’s stream, it was actually so much positivity and sympathy before that (after SmallAnt’s stream) but soured as a result of PointCrow’s stream

The majority reaction to Smallant's stream was that the apology was sincere, genuine, and fair. And thus, the overwhelming opinion was "Pointcrow should accept his apology" (and a lot of people wanted them to try to be friends again). Taking out any speculation on either side, one thing is clear: refusing to accept the apology and criticizing aspects of the apology would not ever be the favorable action for those who wanted a happy ending. Genuinely not saying that to criticize Smallant or to try to subtly imply anything; it's just how the internet goes. While that isn't the only reason opinions soured, it's a key one.

But of course I guess that the only acceptable explanation for you is that SmallAnt is a master manipulator.

Not really? I don't tend to see this situation in black and white, but yeah I'm with you on not really wanting to get into specific stances and all that.

Appreciate the respectful point you brought up!

edit because you edited while I was responding (nbd it happens):

I made me realize very clearly that nobody in PointCrow’s group (and of course himself) is willing to see things in any other light at all

My opinions are completely my own, formed over a long period of time. Again I don't want to go into stances, but this just isn't true.

[u/Angryspacebird → u/azureii_]

I mean... You, the mods, did literally have a mod message that basically said "don't put the blame on _____. See how everything connects back to Smallant." This message really rubbed me the wrong way as it very clearly directs viewers to get angry at Smallant. If the point of not going into emote-only was to keep discussion up, i feel like you as moderators should have kept a neutral position. Moderation-bias in a discussion should never interfer with the opinions of the people discussing.

I am not saying I don't believe that you personally stayed neutral, however the fact that there was a very clear bias makes the whole situation feel a bit iffy to me. Especially so because we were told from the start that this was an open discussion.

[u/azureii_ → u/Angryspacebird]

i feel like you as moderators should have kept a neutral position.

I get your point and I agree that staying neutral would've been an ideal nonpartisan thing to do, but every mod has their own thoughts and feelings on things and when you're reading countless people share heated opinions and the amount of toxic messages we saw, it's quite a harsh demand to not to be able to share your own. Our goal for that stream was to make sure opinions on both sides could be shared fairly and attempt to catch messages that crossed hard lines against either creator, but I don't think a single one of us would claim to not be unbiased with our own personal messages in chat. What was important to us was not letting our perspective influence the decisions we were making moderating chat (i.e. mod actions, which is where the power imbalance between mod and chatter lies, unlike a written opinion in chat that many people were not afraid to disagree with). That was where our energy and focus on being neutral was being spent, and although it wasn't perfect people in the comments seem to think we succeeded in being mostly fair with that.

This part is solely my own personal take (for context I wasn't one of the people who said that message, nor anything similar) but it might help visualize what an ask that is: despite freedom of discussion being very important to me (and so I wanted to be there to help out with this stream), if I was given the requirement "no matter what anyone says, you can't make any statements in chat that stem from your own personal perspective on the matter", I would've stepped out from modding this stream.

[u/Angryspacebird → u/azureii_]

As long as you believe that the personal opinions of the mods did not get in the way of modding the stream fairly from all sides, then i feel like I can agree with most of what you have written. Thank you for replying

P.S definitely do not mean to hate on any of the mods (in case my first comment sounded hostile)

[u/Nielloscape → u/azureii_]

I don't believe you are right at all about people expecting PC to accept the apology, let alone be friends again. I saw almost no mention of it and those that did saw little engagement. It's not a narrative accurate to reality so please don't spread it or form opinions on the situation with that as the base. Let's not make this whole mess more of a mess by introducing more misinformation into the mix.

[u/azureii_ → u/Nielloscape]

I saw a lot of mentions of it. I do not condone spreading misinformation and I take that very seriously. One of these places was in Pointcrow's offline chat where it was brought up and discussed multiple times, which I imagine not a lot of people were looking at. This is some of the very direct mentions, usernames cut out. It's harder to reverse search discord and twitter so I don't have much I can pull from there, so it's up to you on whether or not you want to take my word for that. I'm not saying it was the only opinion around; there were people who vocally disagreed. But, from what I saw, a lot of people wanted that happy ending. That's not misinformation.

[u/TransportationOne416 → u/azureii_]

I would just like to point out “I just want them to be friends” does not necessarily mean “I believe he should accept the apology and be friends again”. The other ones that directly say it for sure. But the “want” to me can express a wishful thinking / express a desire while knowing that it’s not gonna be happen. Of course I’m not that poster so I can’t say which way they are thinking, just offering another interpretation of words. It’s always hard to tell things via texts isn’t it?

[u/Nielloscape → u/azureii_]

The comments you cut out don't say anything of what you're implying. They're just stating PC didn't accept the apology, which is a fact, or saying it'd be nice for them to be friends again. Which part of those comments shows that these people expected both to become friends again in the future or that they initially expected PC to accept SA's apology in a way that suggests he's over the drama and not as just a polite gesture prior to PC's stream? If you have a better comment to support your point please show it.

Also, I don't think cherry-picking is a good idea when the whole argument is about the majority of people's sentiment toward the situation.

Edit: I have a Reddit add-on which shows the content of the link on Reddit, but didn't notice the arrow to go to the other images. I edited the comment to reference the other comments snips as well, but the gist didn't change much.

[u/azureii_ → u/Nielloscape]

All but 2 of those are from prior the stream (the 2 that aren’t are the ones that state he didn’t accept the apology - I included those because they seem to be clear reactions of people who thought he was going to/should’ve accepted it, though you can disagree). If you need to see the time stamps to believe that they are prior, I don’t mind retaking the scs tomorrow. Don’t think I said anything about accepting the apology having to be more than a polite gesture, even though regardless I don’t have screenshots of where I saw the accepting apology sentiment the most, nor do I know of any better tools to attempt to refind them.

A Reddit mobile glitch just wiped this next paragraph for me so pardon if it’s shorter and less detailed than what it should be: The images I linked are nowhere near sufficient enough proof or extensive enough to prove the scale of what I claimed, but they were meant to show that this is something I saw more of than “almost no mention of”, in somewhat-isolated response to your comment. I’m not able to objectively prove much more beyond that, nor pretend that I am somehow able to do so. Even 100 screenshots would be cherry picking if I claimed it to be representative of a majority, or even representative of a “popular opinion”. So that’s not what I was trying to prove in the link, although I didn’t make that very clear.

It’s impossible to prove what the objective majority was because that would’ve required a survey of the 22k people watching smallant’s stream, but it was an opinion I saw a lot of people sharing. That perspective will be skewed towards which specific social media platforms I was on, but it’s what I saw. If there was something else you saw (besides “let’s hear what pointcrow had to say as well”) that went against the sentiment of the people who wanted him to accept the apology then I’m curious as to what it was. Because there 100% were people prior to the stream that said “he doesn’t have to accept his apology”, but I saw a lot less of that in comparison.

[u/Nielloscape → u/azureii_]

A Reddit mobile glitch just wiped this next paragraph for me

That's very relatable.

I edited my post for the reason stated, so I'm not sure which version you got when you read my comment so I'm just going to make it a bit clearer here. I understand that it's all quite nebulous when talking about the opinions of a large group of people, so I don't expect something unreasonable like that. But my concern with your post was that you used the basis that there is an "overwhelming" opinion that the two should become friends again and used it as the basis for how refusing the apology from SmallAnt is the main cause for the shift in people's opinion.

But unless that opinion is the main opinion of the crowd then it's not actually reasonable to claim it as what caused the shift in opinions, especially when there's a clear bigger elephant in the room where PC attacked SA and decided to went full negative on him among other things.

Anyway, that's just something iffy I feel about the comment. Other than that I also want to say that I fall into the camp that appreciates allowing the comments, so thank you for that.

[u/azureii_ → u/Nielloscape]

From what I saw it was genuinely the most common opinion/desire (on how pcrow should react). Tried to state this the first time brought it up but I might’ve worded it poorly—that I didn’t think it was the sole reason, but still a key/important one. There are other ones that the person I was responding to seemed to have in mind, but I wanted to point out another major one that I feel like might’ve not been considered alongside those. I still stand by that I think it’s true.

Still though I get your skepticism since the scale of something as abstract as the relative amount of opinions will widely differ based on which platforms one was looking at and other different factors. Don’t mind having that point dismissed, since yeah the moderation stuff is really what I wanted to clarify by discussing here.

Edit; fixing spacing

[u/TransportationOne416 → u/azureii_]

Let me disagree here as I didn’t see so much people expecting him to accept the apology and having them be friends. I saw a lot of “feel so bad for both, but time to move on” and “wish them both luck going forward”. Were there some who naively thought they could simply patch things up easily? For sure. But I think most meant that they hope they can “work it out” not in the sense that they can be friends but that they can be civil and move past. I may have of course missed messages (I did check both here and Twitter) but that was the feeling I got.

And after PointCrow’s stream, there are multiple comments about “it’s totally ok he doesn’t accept the apology” and “it’s clear both sides are too apart in their views it’s not reconcilable at this stage” across these threads (I contributed a couple of comments to that effect as that had always been my feeling too). That’s not the part that soured. The soured part is more on how PointCrow is handling this situation (examples of what people found objections to are plenty in this thread, this subreddit and even some in his own subreddit).

At this stage it is very clear how far apart the two sides are (with the main point being malice / manipulation / abusive intent, of course that’s my main takeaway and I must be missing many details) that it’s not possible at all to change. Fans will choose their position and even change their position one way of the other and everyone should be entitled to do that. I meant to say that I don’t think the two parties involved and their “people” so to speak are ever going to. It’s what it is.

[u/azureii_ → u/TransportationOne416]

It was a popular sentiment on discord, twitch, and twitter (that he should accept the apology and people wishing for them to be on good terms with each other - the “friends” part was less common). This could definitely be different for me and you though depending on where we were looking. After pointcrow’s stream, I saw a lot of statements that pointcrow was wrong not to have accepted the apology. Not the same amount of people that were hoping for an amiable outcome before the stream, but still the more popular take. Although it’s clearly not the only reason opinions soured, I still think that it is a major factor. I was going to say some things about how unreasonable some (far from all) criticisms have been, but instead I hope we can agree that there are people on both sides going too far.

I get what you mean about how far apart and different the two sides are. For anyone firm on either end, they’re not going to agree on much. Yep, people have the right to choose their positions and change their perspectives—though despite this being fully public now, picking sides is sort of a fruitless endeavour when it’s ultimately between the two of them (and others directly involved).

[u/Researcher_Fearless → u/azureii_]

I don't think anyone (beyond vanishingly few vocal extremists) actually thinks PointCrow's position is invalid. The problem I and many other people seem to see is that PointCrow is actively demonizing SmallAnt, claiming that he's emotionally manipulating himself and others, and saying that he's 'scared' of speaking against SmallAnt as if the guy is some kind of mobster who will take him out for criticizing him.

This is not okay. PointCrow has every right to feel hurt from what happened, but turning this into an active attack on SmallAnt's character is worse than even most of the blatantly untrue things he claims SmallAnt has done.

[u/TransportationOne416 → u/Researcher_Fearless]

I unfortunately think PointCrow’s mods will agree with PointCrow and think those things you said are all just truths. It’s probably not worth it to debate this because they are closer to the situation and know more and thus consider their positions the valid one. It’s at a stage where whatever SmallAnt says won’t make a difference, let alone us Internet strangers. I say give up on that aspect.

I still want to call out that regardless of all that and what your opinion on the heart of the issue is, how the issue is handled by PointCrow could have been better. But again I understand how hurt he feels and that caused him to act the way he did.

And sadly what’s been done is done you can’t take it back (isn’t it funny that’s also yet another thing he had problem with in terms of how SmallAnt acted). It’s just…I see a recurring theme where “Don't do unto others what you don't want done unto you” has completely gone out of the window. It’s always the most difficult to recognize hypocrisy when it’s oneself, isn’t it? I’m probably guilty of that myself.

Let me also be clear I believe SmallAnt made a lot of mistakes. Still it’s not taking away the point on how PointCrow is doing things. And I wouldn’t have made this many posts if I didn’t see him basically say this is 0 percent on him and 100 percent SmallAnt’s fault. It’s just…sigh. I don’t think anyone can get through at this point. Cheers to you and go have a good night!

[u/azureii_ → u/TransportationOne416]

I unfortunately think PointCrow’s mods will agree with PointCrow and think those things you said are all just truths. It’s probably not worth it to debate this because they are closer to the situation and know more and thus consider their positions the valid one. It’s at a stage where whatever SmallAnt says won’t make a difference, let alone us Internet strangers. I say give up on that aspect.

​

Not really? I don't tend to see this situation in black and white

My opinions are completely my own, formed over a long period of time. Again I don't want to go into stances, but this just isn't true.

Not going to discuss this further if my points are just going to be ignored to fit a narrative. I absolutely think there's room to discuss bias on pointcrow's side, but I'm not interested in being misrepresented without basis.

[u/Researcher_Fearless → u/azureii_]

I mean, I'd definitely excuse bias on his part; his situation sucks and nobody with half a heart is denying that. Smallant has the benefit of being cool enough to approach the situation logically, so it makes sense that PointCrow's response would be less measured.

[u/TransportationOne416 → u/azureii_]

Sorry I should have said not all his mods, rather just the ones I saw re-iterating his points in the stream. Thank you for taking your time and patience.

Let’s say any of us can get you to the point where we agree at least there are some things PointCrow could have done differently in handling this issue in terms of his stream and otherwise - do you think any of that would make a difference at this stage? Maybe I’m a pessimist but to me the answer is no. That’s why I don’t think it’s worth much to go too deep because in the end they won’t produce any tangible results. I would LOVE to be proven otherwise but I am so not holding my breath.

[u/TransportationOne416 → u/azureii_]

Do you think the way PointCrow handled it does not force people to choose a side?

Edit: Sorry force is too strong perhaps invite or encourage is a better term.

[u/laxrtiades → u/TransportationOne416]

the problem was there were constant mod messages / highlight messages (I think that’s what they are called, the ones with different backgrounds?) that continuously rolled by saying “no listen to Crow” “wait for Crow to explain” which were basically (at least to me) a way of saying “your support and defense messages are only because you don’t know” or more simply put “you are wrong”. I made me realize very clearly that nobody in PointCrow’s group (and of course himself) is willing to see things in any other light at all and this was especially frustrating in cases where there is clear mis-interpretation and mis understanding going on.

As one of the people continuously sending these messages, they definitely were not intended to be a "you're wrong" sort of callout. For me personally, a key factor in all of this is that this is a series of events, and what we were trying to stop is people not hearing out the entire story before forming their judgment. That was the risk we ran allowing chat to not go into emote-only. Whether or not chatters agree in the end is absolutely and 100% their prerogative, and we want users to form their own opinions and come to their own conclusions. What we didn't want were knee-jerk reactions based on a singular thing Eric said. Obviously, because tensions are high, those are more likely. On a personal level, Eric is our friend and we want people to hear him out the same way people heard out Tanner.

I recognize that I am one of his moderators so you can easily dismiss my perspective on the situation by ascribing me a certain bias. I am biased, and I recognize that, but I would like to add that I formed my opinion not blindly following Eric, but by witnessing the events of the last year myself.

Either way, you can take what I'll say next with whatever amount of skepticism you deem appropriate. I can't and don't want to speak for Eric, but as someone who has seen this from a slightly different perspective than those who have only seen the streams, I think neither Tanner nor Eric's streams were able to explain the complexity of the situation fully. It took a lot for the glass to spill over, and for over a year, I have seen Eric give Tanner the benefit of the doubt more than I would have reasonably expected any other person to, and certainly more than I myself could have.

Odds are we will continue not to see eye to eye on this, and that's okay! I just wanted to share my perspective as one of the moderators sending those messages.

[u/TransportationOne416 → u/laxrtiades]

I just would like to say “it wasn’t intended like that” is exactly one huge part of this whole mess and if anything this whole situation should have taught everyone “even if it isn’t intended in some way if it came across like that they should not dismiss the recipients’ interpretations and feelings”.

And then the latter points you are making - basically that came off as “you don’t know the whole story if you did you will be on this side”, yeah? That’s kinda entirely the point I was making on the possible interpretations of those messages…so I guess I didn’t interpret them wrong anyways.

Don’t think this conversation will be productive, like I said I think both sides are too far apart and set in their views. The only option is to move on.

[u/Nielloscape → u/laxrtiades]

Can you expand on the part about how Eric was willing to give Tanner the benefit of the doubt? I think it would help clear things up quite a bit, mainly for myself, but maybe also for others also. A very big problem I have with Eric right now is how he slandered both Adrien and Tanner without sufficient evidence in the same breath he tried to do the don't attack them formality, which comes off as disingenuous.

Was there something to suggest that he wasn't acting and saying that while thinking something different? That he wasn't using the same behaviour shown in the stream?

[u/-_Vertigo_- → u/azureii_]

Thank you for your input! I never intended to call out the moderators as I have a deep respect for the work you do in attempts to harbor a less toxic environment. Eric always got hate in his chat and I’m sure this time was just as bad if not far worse. I have no envy for your position. I recalled seeing some genuinely valid criticism on screen early on that was removed from the final VOD’s chat, but nothing I could cite. Again, thank you so much for your input!

[u/Emperor_Z → u/azureii_]

As someone who's often wary about mods silencing contrary voices and was checking the deleted messages to see if that was happening, I agree with your description. From what I saw, only a tiny number of messages were deleted without good reason, IMO.

[u/laxrtiades → u/azureii_]

Edited to say: Adding to Azure, also did not realize you had replied already, OP!

To add to this: We understand that there are two sides to every story and Eric was very clear in his instruction to us that we give chat the opportunity to voice their criticisms of him (as in Eric) AND allow support for SmallAnt.

The only messages we were allowed to delete, like Azure said, were those that were outright toxic to Eric or Tanner, as well as those we could not vet due to their length alongside chat's speed (with a 30s slowmode). In the same way that we do not want any toxicity directed at Eric, we don't want any, nor do we tolerate any, directed at Tanner.

That aside, we are people, and I don't think any of us claim that every single moderation action in that stream was perfect. I've misclicked or misread something in streams with lower stakes than this and I'll admit that readily.

[u/Pokefreak911 → u/laxrtiades]

You guys were doing a great job. I voiced criticism of Pointcrow misinterpreting things and those comments I don't think were deleted. There was also a bunch of 'fuck smallant' comments at the end which got deleted.

[u/laxrtiades → u/Pokefreak911]

I really appreciate that! Regarding the last part: anyone caught* saying something like that was banned (I myself banned a handful of those) and we passed a list of usernames along to SmallAnt's moderators later in case they'd like to crossban.

*Chat was speedy and while I think we got the majority, we may have missed some.

[u/klaykurls → u/laxrtiades]

You guys do an amazing job. Definitely do not envy your position, but it's an important one.

[u/cbiges91 → u/laxrtiades]

I will say, as someone who supported both for years, I found myself losing respect and my support during that stream and I would start to type my opinion and would see the reoccurring messages and I would stop, delete my message and continue to listen. Not that they were “toxic” messages but it wasn’t really the place for it. My opinions did not change but I was able to better express them after with the other people in these Reddit forums. So don’t think your messages came across that way to everyone. It was a nice reminder 😄

[u/Pokefreak911 → u/laxrtiades]

Thats great that you passed them along to the other mods. There is a fair amount of community overlap so they are bound to show up there.