Let’s work it out on the remix.
Following my announcement that the People’s Imperial Confederation would be shutting down, I intended to shift my focus onto other areas of the group chat and release another post. This is still in the works, however, I felt it necessary to respond to a recent post released by Alucard, Villa, and Scars. I don’t consider their post to be mean in any capacity, and I understand their desire to share their perspective. In order for me to adequately address claims they have made, it is necessary for me to establish a complete timeline.
November 25th – Initial Concerns Raised
The situation began when Rowan Alden was momentarily added to a PIC high command group chat by Miffy and Ellie. Several people had been added and removed as a joke. Notably Miffy made an off-handed joke about adding Eden, in which he stated PIC acted weird over. Rowan found this suspicious, questioning why they’d feel weird over Eden’s presence if they had nothing to hide. He messaged Sidie and I in our group chat, advising us to look into this further. His concerns prompted a conversation where I agreed I would attempt to gain access to the group chat.
As you can see in the images, PIC’s autonomy was one of my main focuses and priorities from the beginning. However, concerns presented to me at this point along with the group chat name warranted some type of further investigation.
November 26th – The Logs
Things took a turn the following day. Sidie and I were approached by Miffy and Ellie in a group chat regarding a message Villa had sent into PIC’s hcom group chat. I want to make it clear that I am the one who asked for the logs, as demonstrated in the screenshots. Miffy and Ellie did not offer these unprompted.
Jemma and I both felt concerned at this point, however once again I reaffirmed the autonomy of the leadership. We did not want to unnecessarily infringe, only ensure that those involved in the chat were safe. Additionally I expressed my worry over the minors present in the group chat. Miffy and Ellie were the first to say that their own conduct within the chat was “edgy”, however the logs were sent regardless.
As Sidie was out of town at the time, I went through the entirety of the group chat myself. At this point, we had not contacted the leadership. In real time here are just some of the screenshots I sent her from the chat. I am including this here in timeline to establish I was investigating and taking this seriously from the beginning.
Contacting the Leadership
Though I had not fully finished looking through the chat, I had seen enough to warrant a conversation with the leadership. Jemma and I created a group chat to discuss this with them.
As the above screenshots demonstrate, we did not force this conversation. It was made clear that it could resume later if any of them needed time to collect themselves. Those present chose for the conversation to continue. Sidie observed that the culture within the group chat is one mostly everyone had engaged in, Villa agreed. At this point the conversation shifted towards Miffy and Ellie, as they were the ones who sent the chat to us.
The conversation then moved on to Sidie and I’s suggestions for safer chat communication. We advised moving all discussion to the staff server, and Alu expressed that group chats worked better for them. As the group chats would be continuing, Sidie stated that she felt it would be best for me to be added to staff chats to ensure conduct was appropriate. No concerns regarding this were expressed to us, we all began talking about something else.
Though I still needed to further investigate, I felt much better following this conversation.
November 30th – First Secretary
At this point Jemma had returned home, and we began discussing this in person. As she had decided to rejoin Templars, PIC expressed that they’d feel better with having a First Secretary whose sole affiliation was PIC. Sidie wanted to give the role to me, however I left the decision to PIC because I didn’t want to overstep. They never replied.
Let me clarify, as I should have then to PIC, what I meant by “my involvement will be whatever you guys need/what you are comfortable with”. In matters relating to safety, this is always something an army’s guardian should be responsible for, and due to recent events, I had already taken on this responsibility. In terms of their actual leadership and what it entailed, that is what I didn’t want to overstep with. So I wanted my involvement to be whatever they needed or were comfortable with. I’m sorry I did not word this better, however at any point the leaders could have asked me to clarify what I meant by this if they were confused.
December 1st and 2nd – Leaks
On December 1st, I was made aware of some screenshots which included Miffy using racial slurs. Assuming this came from the hcom chat, I alerted the leaders and gave them some advice.
Contacting Rowan Alden – First Discussion of PIC Closure
Now that we knew things had began spreading, Jemma and I decided that the appropriate next step would be to bring Rowan Alden into the loop. We wanted a trusted friend to oversee the investigation and hold us accountable for any oversights. We knew before messaging Rowan that he would consider PIC’s full closure as the only reasonable solution, we had already began considering this. His view of the scandal reaffirmed the fact PIC would need to close.
December 3rd – Another Group Chat, Villa Announces Retirement
It was the next day when I learned of another group chat, one several PIC members had participated in at different points. Upon hearing that similar acts of misconduct took place within this chat, I tried to learn as much as possible about it. I established that it was an external group chat, one with several community members floating in and out of. I asked around, however notably I checked through the hcom chat logs once again to see if there were references to what I was looking for. I did find conversations regarding a chat, so I asked PIC about it our shared group and Alucard in DMs. At first it was fine, and I appreciated Alu’s clarification.
However then it took a turn I honestly wasn’t expecting. Villa was clearly upset, and things went south, there was a complete breakdown in communication.
It became evident to me at this point that there were ongoing issues with my involvement that had not been adequately communicated to me from the beginning. With the information I had gathered so far, I only wanted to ensure that PIC had not accidentally left out key details. However understandably I was confused and offended, as my efforts in investigating and asking questions had been solely for the purpose of safety. I took the concerns of Villa seriously, as I have established and proven from the beginning I did not want to overstep. Though I had asked Miffy and Ellie several questions about this external group chat, they had not attempted to turn this onto the leadership in any capacity.
As proven through my above conversation with Rowan Alden, I had already determined that PIC would need to close. The announcement of Villa’s retirement was something I fully supported, however it is not what led to my decision to close the army.
December 4th, 5th, and 6th – Investigation Continues
I spent these three days speaking to community members, gathering as much information as possible. My main focus was on the external group chat, and I found out the name of the group chat, it’s participants, and who owned it. Additionally, I received screenshots from the group chat itself, showing the participation in antisemitism by Miffy, and the use of racial slurs by both Alucard and Miffy respectively. I did not let either of them know that I had this information. No screenshots of this will be released in this post.
Behind the scenes Sidie was struggling with the idea of shutting PIC down. We talked about a variety of different solutions, however all of these would need to involve more of an active presence from me, and leader cooperation. After the last conversation with PIC leadership, we didn’t believe this would be possible. PIC needed to close.
More Drama – Alu and Scars Announce Retirements
Fun fact the Templars Christmas Chaos battle was at 4am our time and Sidie set like ten million alarms, aka she WOKE ME UP. PIC had their own event then anyways, so I got up to attend.
It was 5am for me and I’ve since been removed from the chat, so I don’t know exactly what started this conversation. However, PIC leadership (notably Villa, Alu, and Scars) started speaking of their drop in morale and the impact it was having on the army. I told them to get through Christmas Chaos and we could speak about the future of PIC after the battle, I offered to help lead or with anything else if they needed it. The conversation shifted into anger and accusations, leading to an argument within the chat. Apologies in advance for the all of the screenshots.
I would like to highlight a few key points from this conversation. First, is Villa showing absolutely no remorse over his treatment of Znation. Secondly, Alu states that what happened within the group chat wasn’t a big deal. I would like to state for the record that the misconduct within the group chat extends beyond the use of racial slurs, this will be discussed in a later post. Miffy and Ellie were blamed for blowing everything up, and this just factually is not true. Other notable mentions include Scars’ reference to Sidie’s past use of racial slurs, which took place around five years ago. I found this point to be fair, however, Sidie’s prior actions do not eliminate the need for stricter standards of conduct within PIC staff chats.
December 7th – PIC’s Closure
I began preparing my post regarding PIC’s shutdown. As long as I have been involved in PIC, all closures have been announced by myself and Sidie. Based on past precedent, as First Secretary it was my responsibility to shut down the army. I did not want the shutdown to serve as a means of those involved escaping accountability. Though I did not include screenshots of the conduct at that time, I made it clear through my post that PIC shut down due to behavior I had witnessed throughout my investigation. This is still very much true.
As PIC had expressed that they would not be participating in Christmas Chaos, I moved forward to release the post and shut down the army. They changed their minds at the last minute, deciding to attend. I coordinated with judges and the CPA administration to let the CC battle move forward as a practice battle. As Sidie and I are the owners of PIC, this battle couldn’t have happened without our permission. Tensions were high as a result of my post, so out of respect for the leadership I won’t include that conversation at this time. This concludes my timeline so far.
My Response to the Statement of Alu, Villa, and Scars
This next section will be speaking directly to the former PIC leaders. I want to address a few key points from your response post. I will not be addressing nor defending the accusations of Miffy’s mistreatment of Armenzia. Instead, I’d like to remind you all who the leaders were at that time, you three. Dealing with that conflict was your responsibility, and if it was this big of a deal to you, you should have fired Miffy. I’d also like to remind you all that Sidie and I had your back through and through, and if you had felt like firing Miffy was the best solution, you would have had our support.
Villa sent the initial message regarding [REDACTED]. As that’s not the primary focus of this post, and we don’t wish for it to be further shared (for the sake of all parties), the message will not be shown. However, the message contained contents of sexual abuse. The message was definitely out of line and never something that should have been said in that group chat, let alone mentioned in general. However, it was from there when, rather then addressing it to the person who said it, or even speak to any other leaders about it, Miffy and Ellie would export the group chat, sending it to Jemma and Sha. This is when the lack of trust really started to spiral, seeing as this is yet another instance of, rather than speaking to us, things were taken to Jemma and Sha, even going as far as exporting everything.
Why isn’t Villa’s message the primary focus of your post, in fact, why isn’t the conduct in general a focus of your post? As I have established, the group chat is what I shut PIC down over. While your frustrations regarding Miffy and Ellie are valid, you have used that to deflect your roles in this situation throughout this entire process.
The use of slurs was absolutely not normalized in these group chats. The only slurs that can be cited were Villa and Scars exchanging screenshots of one another jokingly towards the end. These screenshots were not only not messages from the group chat, but also date back to late 2021. The irony of this is laughable, if slurs said in 2021 is punishable, our own creator should be getting lectured just as we were. However, they paint us entirely as the villains here, which can be seen by just the title of the post “Sympathy is a Knife.” Next, antisemitism was an issue by “most participants.” This claim is just simply untrue, anti-semitic things may have been said, however not be any leaders, and these things were in fact, told off by the leaders.
The majority of this paragraph is false, as I will prove. Once again I’m seeing deflection. Sidie’s former actions do not excuse your own, and this does not mean we are not allowed to expect better of PIC’s leadership. Villa admitted himself that these behaviors were normalized, as seen in above screenshots. You also need to again remind yourselves of who the leaders were, you three. If you were unhappy (you should have been) with Miffy and Ellie’s behavior within the chat it was your responsibility to tell them to stop and/or remove them. Your exposure of Miffy and Ellie’s conduct also serves to highlight your own incompetency in adequately addressing the behavior. You were not bystanders to this, you were directly responsible for the group chat itself.
While I refuse to defend the conduct of Miffy and Ellie within the chat, it was unfair of you to include screenshots of them, while ignoring your own participation. Though in many instances Miffy and Ellie were acting on their own, your representation of this group chat is inaccurate. I’m disappointed, as you’ve used your access to sensitive information as a means of pushing an agenda. Either you are oblivious to your own contradictions, or don’t see an issue with your behavior in general. Regardless, now I have been put in a position to where I need to provide additional context, including screenshots.
The following images contain slurs and other sensitive conversation, keep that in mind before reading.
Due to you three deciding to send screenshots of Miffy and Ellie around, and include them in your post, the way I planned to handle this evidence has changed. I wasn’t going to publicly reveal things at all, only forward it to the appropriate people. However you were the ones who decided to initiate the spread of screenshots, so I have been put in a position to where I needed to clarify what actually happened in the chat.
Prior to being given FS, we were essentially pressured into adding Sha to the group chat as we were lectured at like 1am. This is even after we had independently added Saber to monitor things and handle the PR stance of the gc persay.
As proven through my timeline and the screenshots I provided, you were not pressured into adding me into the chat. Jemma suggested it as a means of things being safer, no one opposed. We were even okay with you returning to the conversation later, as shown in the screenshots. Besides the chat being named “lectureville” as a joke, I fail to see where you were lectured either. At that time, you did not inform me that you had added Saber to the chat for PR. This would have been good information to have, as it would have indicated that you had seen the problem.
Now let me preface the rest of this long ass segment with a quote from Sha herself days before things got unbearable for us: “We are on the side of PIC leadership always, let me make that clear.” Things were fine again for a bit, that was until the overstepping began. Prior to the following messages that will be referenced, Sha said, “I don’t want to overstep…but the extent of my involvement will be whatever you guys need/ what you are comfortable with.” A common factor with the last two quotes I’ve cited is that they both turned out to be false. We ended up being questioned about group chats with no relation to PIC that don’t concern either them, us, or the army. Old group chats such as: Znations gcs and an [REDACTED] gc were for some reason brought up? It was from here that Villa and Sha/Jemma got into a heated argument. Villa, knowing we were soon to retire let all our thoughts be known. Their actions showed a clear lack of trust in the leadership.
I’ve clarified what I meant by “I don’t want to overstep…but the extent of my involvement will be whatever you guys need/ what you are comfortable with”, I hope this helps you all understand my intentions. As far as being on the side of PIC leadership, I am confident that I’ve demonstrated this from the beginning and throughout my investigation.
Finally, the day we announced our retirements publicly in CPA main, Shallissa would INSTANTLY mention a closure. This was prior to our final argument which we stood up for ourselves and explained we had enough of their over-involvement. We had wanted to go out on a high note, beat Romans in CC, announce a peaceful closure, and retire. However, even in it’s final moments, it didn’t end. That was entirely ignored, and hours before the Romans battle, Sha notified us that she wrote a post that would announce our closure. Rather than sending PIC off in a peaceful manner as we all wanted, we were blindsided and met with several claims against us, painting us as the villains and that our “drama” had been the reason for the shutdown.
I rarely speak in CPA main, this is the first I’m hearing that your retirements were announced there. Yes, I mentioned a closure, as this had been in the works for several days. You had said you were not going to be attending the Christmas Chaos battle, which was disappointing as I wanted you guys to have a final send off. So due to PIC not attending, I had decided to publish my post before I went to bed. I do not appreciate your attempts to rewrite history, as you were the ones who told me you would not be attending. Once the post was published you changed your minds, and I coordinated with CPAJ and the CPA admins to ensure your battle could still happen.
Anyways, once that message was sent notifying us of the post, EVERYONES perms were removed, even those not involved. Not only were we unable to announce the shutdown of the army we were actually present for within the past year, but we weren’t even allowed to announce our own retirements. After almost a year of being left without advisory and leading on our owns, Jemma and Sha step back in when we’re doing well, kill our army, then don’t even allow us to give it the proper final sendoff that it deserved.
Yes we removed your permissions, you were no longer leaders as you had retired. Frankly, after what we had witnessed and your lack of accountability, we did not trust you with the perms anyways. Regardless, you had permission to speak in announcements, and you had author access on the PIC website. We told you that you were free to make a post or announce your retirements. For another time I’d like to remind you that the group chat is what killed PIC, not Sidie and I, or your retirements.
This concludes my timeline and my response to the PIC leader’s post. As there have been claims that the retirements of Alu, Villa, Scars is what led to the closure of PIC, I have provided evidence to prove this as false. While Miffy and Ellie’s contributions to the chat are evident and not worthy of defense, I have demonstrated that similar conduct came from the leadership themselves. Again, these screenshots have not been released as a means of causing harm to those who participated. I felt it necessary to release them in order to provide important context.
More screenshots from all involved members including Miffy, Ellie, and others, will be released in the coming days.
I find the majority of the claims present within the PIC leadership’s published post to be discredited through the evidence I have provided. They absolutely deserved the opportunity to speak openly about their own perspective, and I am glad they did. However, I’m disappointed that there was little accountability for their own actions demonstrated through their writing. While I am saddened and frustrated with how this has transpired, I hold no resentment towards them. I wish Alu, Villa, and Scars nothing but the best in their future, they are free to message me at any time.
Shallissa
First Secretary of the People’s Imperial Confederation
Filed under: Announcements | Tagged: people's imperial confederation, people's imperial confederation club penguin, people's imperial confederation cp, People's Posts, pic, pic club penguin, pic cp, piccp |
People's Imperial Confederation of Club Penguin 
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