The URPG Staff Team in tandem with a representative from PXR have been discussing Monbrey's status in URPG for the past few days. About one week ago, PXR made the decision to ban Monbrey from their forums. As a collective part of their community and family, we respect this decision on their part. Pokemon Trainer Sarah was forthcoming and helpful in aiding URPG to move forward with their decision in mind. We will be nothing but cooperative with them in this matter.
PXR's decision along with some other feedback we have received in regards to Monbrey's status as Second in Command of URPG and Head Referee have prompted us in Staff to rethink our initial position on his situation. It has also prompted Monbrey to do some introspective thinking himself. In the end, Monbrey, myself, and the majority of Staff have come to the mutual decision that Monbrey should step down from a Staff position. He will also be demoted from Head Referee to Senior Referee. Ash K. and I will co-head the Battles section from here. The position of Second in Command will be dissolved until such time arises that it becomes necessary to reinstate it. I fully trust the Staff team to be able to make decisions on a democratic basis during my absences. Do note, however, that our decision to re-open discussion was not based on any new information regarding Monbrey's offense. Nothing new has occurred in regards to that situation.
I recognize that this decision may come as a shock to many of you. I am going to try and preemptively address some concerns as best as I can, but I won't be able to cover everything. As always, if you have any questions or concerns please come to me, or any Staff member(s) you are comfortable with. We are always here to talk and listen.
Transparency
I know that at the forefront of many people's minds is the question of why the fact that this was discussed was not public knowledge. There are a number of reasons I decided to keep these discussions private.
1) To reduce anxiety. This decision took days of steady discussion between members of Staff. It has large implications for URPG as a whole for many reasons. I knew that we would be discussing this for a long time and I didn't want people to worry or stress over any potential final decision. We have endured enough anxiety as a community as it is.
2) To reduce speculation. With a decision this serious, there are bound to be rumors and speculation. I trust our community, but I did not want to leave room for others on the outside to make guesses as to why we are suddenly reopening discussion on Monbrey's situation or where he would end up as a result of it. Again, I want to reiterate that the discussions were not based on any new offense or information.
3) To reduce personal biases. The reason discussion was reopened was to address the fact that my initial decision may have been influenced by bias. I needed to take a closer look at the factors that caused me to take my initial stance, and ask for outside perspectives. In fact, coming to this conclusion was a very introspective experience for Staff as a whole. I did not want any additional pressure on us to make a decision either way. I knew there were people who felt strongly about Monbrey's situation, and I know that as a community many of us have a great deal of respect and reverence for him (which I will assert he has worked to deserve). I also acknowledge the huge amount of support Monbrey has provided to the URPG in both his leadership and technical improvements. Despite all of this, I thought Staff should consider his position in URPG with the least amount of bias possible. There were certainly reasons for his demotion that are present that we cannot and should not overlook.
In the end, I apologize that we could not be more transparent with our decision-making, but I felt it was necessary to allow us to make the best decision. I am also sorry that this probably comes off as such a shock to many of you that we are suddenly taking a different position, but I think I have outlined enough why we thought it was necessary to do so and will explain further and reiterate more later in this post.
Technical Implications
We understand that Monbrey has had a very large technical impact on the URPG as well. Over the years, he has supported us with many features that we continue to use today. He has also dedicated time and money to supporting URPG. With his demotion, he has decided to phase out most of these services. We support his decision, and are grateful for the support he gave us this far. In the absence of Monbrey's server support, Elrond has graciously offered to host URPG's many services on a server he owns and pays for. URPG is immensely thankful to him and our Staff and members will aid him in transitioning and supporting us wherever he may need it. This is a very large endeavor, and I have full faith in Elrond, but I encourage our community to reach out to him and offer help so that everything does not fall on his shoulders. Here is a summary of how services that were previously hosted/supported by Monbrey will transition:
Discord Server: Monbrey has already transferred ownership of our Discord server to myself. His admin role will be dropped, however URPG is looking into creating a new role for not only Monbrey but all retired Staff that will allow them to contribute where they would like to. This will, of course, be separate from current Staff.
Dicebot: Monbrey will continue to host and develop URPG's Dicebot services. We thank him for his decision to do so.
Infohub: Infohub will be transferred over to Elrond's server by February 22nd. This will result in Staff needing to update a great many links on PWN, PXR, and other areas of Infohub itself. We appreciate your patience as we do this, and help is always appreciated. Individual members will need to update their own links on personal areas such as stats and other posts. Do note: Infohub will not be updated any further until this transition occurs as any recent updates would be lost. If you see anything that needs to be updated, please make note of it in the Housekeeping Thread and we will change it as soon as possible.
BMG Archives: These will also be transferred to Elrond's server by February 22nd. Again, once we transition to the new server, we will have a great many links to update. Individual members are still in charge of updating their own stats and posts.
Ultradex: In tandem with Ataro, Elrond will work to transition the Ultradex's host server to his own. Once again, links will need to be updated on a case-by-case basis. Please continue to report and Ultradex errors in the relevant thread, but do note that these will also not applied until the transition is complete.
Referee Calculators: The online calculator has public source code. Elrond will host the online calc and use the source code to keep it up-to-date. The offline calc will be more complicated, but I have been assured that it is possible to continue its development along with automatic updates as well.
I encourage anyone with technical experience (coding, file transfer, etc.) to reach out to Elrond or myself as soon as possible if they are able to help. There is a lot of tedious work to be done, but other than links, things will remain pretty much the same.
Basis of the Decision
To say that we had a tough decision to make here is an understatement. There were a very large amount of factors that played into our stance. I'm certain that Monbrey himself also took a lot of things into account as well, but I can't speak for him entirely. In the end we had to reach a decision that we thought was ethically right, fair, free from bias, and what was ultimately best for URPG and its members. The Staff decisions to ask Monbrey to step down as Second and to not ban him were unanimous, however from there Staff diverged quite a bit on where we wanted to ask Monbrey to step down to. However, a rough majority including myself agreed he should no longer be a Staff member. Despite the fact that the incident in question occurred so long ago, the fact remains that Monbrey never faced consequences for it in URPG. It is extremely unfortunate that he is facing them after having changed so much, but I believe it is necessary.
I acknowledge that there will be those on either side that do not find this decision favorable. Some may feel it is still too lax, while others may feel it is too harsh. I welcome feedback on our decision, however at this point it will take a lot to change. I already took a hard stance on my feelings of Monbrey before. I stand by what I said about defending his character as a person today. He has many great qualities, and the worst of his bad qualities has not been seen for years. However, while I apologize that I am backtracking a bit with this decision, I still fully believe it is necessary for Monbrey to release his current Staff position. After PXR's decision, I simply could no longer deny that the outside perspective of his actions was very different from my own thoughts. It made me question my own biases, and seek to reach a decision that transcended them more. Keep in mind that this was a mutual decision as well. Monbrey had his own reasons for no longer feeling comfortable in a Staff position. I reiterate that it was not an easy decision for any of us to make.
I have to thank our Staff for their insight and introspective thought throughout the past week. They have dedicated a lot of time and energy and anxiety to making this decision and I am very grateful to have such a dedicated team. I also have to thank Elrond for stepping up. He carries a lot of weight now, and we are here to help him however we can.
Finally, I need to thank Monbrey. It's unfortunate that he is leaving his position under such circumstances, but I can't deny the vast amount of good he has done for this community for many years. He will always have a future here in some form, even if it is not in Staff.
Once again, if there are any questions or concerns regarding this decision or the future of URPG, Staff and I are here to help with them. As always, we will keep moving forward.
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