Gladiator & The Staff Team

I just want to point out again that whomever is running the staff team appointed an inactive global mod to the highest [public] position on this website.

Gladiator has literally done NOTHING for the website over the past year (I’ll be loose and say “publicly”).

Some how, he topped over the only global mod who was active for a majority of 2022. The dude didn’t even say anything when he was appointed. He was ready to strike so he could continue whatever nonsense he had going and delete the evidence potentially costing members.

So I think the community deserves an answer and an apology from whomever or just the staff team as a whole for being put in danger so recklessly. The threads evidence isn’t public and maybe we might even need to address any reports / infractions he’s dealt with.

On top of all of this maybe the staff team should be evaluated. There is GOOD there is BAD and there is WHY.

 

I've had no interactions with Gladiator myself. So his ban does not affect me in neither a positive or negative way.

However, I completely agree that the community needs an answer. Evidence against someone who held this kind of position of power should not be kept secret and only for other staff members to see. He had access to confidential information of other members, handled reports and so on. Keeping things private is bad for the community and I believe is bad for him as people will never trust him to be staff again. Making a statement and provide evidence as to what he did is good for the community and allows him to own up to his mistakes and have a shot at redemption. That's my opinion.

Transparency and communication is key.

 

It's understandable why the evidence is kept private and there is no real reason any of us need to see it

For the apology that's just retarded expecting anyone from staff to apologize for this when it was happening behind their backs. They can't control what someone does and once they found out he was removed and dealt with.

If anyone is here wanting a apology out of any of the staff then holy fuck get your life together

and on that note @Pendulum fuck you this was all your fault

 

[Superfluous]

Speaking as a member of staff, sharing all the details that are being asked for is tricky because that constitutes leaking staff lounge content. I realize that's an unsatisfying answer, and perhaps an admin will post sharing more details in the near future. For what it's worth, I don't believe anything that occurred was prompted or enabled by Glad's promotion to admin, although the coincidence of this realization and his promotion was unfortunate. Furthermore, I think the number of people directly affected by this is very low. I also don't think anything that happened biased his judgement on reports or in staff votes, and I think the statement that staff put users in any sort of danger is overstated. I'm not aware of any sort of misuse of user data, widespread abuse of staff tools, or anything of that sort and suspect the evidence, if made public, will be underwhelming to most of you.

Speaking personally, I've known Glad for over a decade and can't say I'm not disappointed by everything that's gone down. He was a great member of staff for longer than many of you have been on this site and, like several of us, was more active in staff channels than regular users got to see. I'll probably update this once I've had a chance to process fully, but it is hard seeing a friend in this situation.

 

[Bubly]

The staff team here isn't a meritocracy.

It's in large part a circle jerk of people that have known each other a long time. That's just the way it goes.

I know people on the staff team and I know people who've been on the staff team in the past, from what pretty much all of them say once they feel they can speak openly - this is just how it works.

Look at what happened with Video. Higher up staff were well aware he should've been demoted long before he actually was, but nothing was done until a public spectacle was made.

 

[Coze]

Idk man - I barely post here but Glad has been 100% helpful to me all the time. He's literally been a message a way since I've known him. Not just with transactions or when buying/selling gold, but also with giving overall market advice, etc. I find it very difficult to have someone like Glad to be in this situation

 

This thread would’ve made more sense with Video’s demotion. We didn’t get anything back then so I’m fairly sure we won’t now. The timing seems off though but perhaps older admins review newer admin’s work to ensure there’s no misconduct and that’s how this was brought to light. If that’s the case though I’d suggest doing such research before promoting them.

 

[Potatobotter25]

didn't even notice he got banned. shortest lived staff member i've ever seen

 

[Laptop65]

Has a general reason been released at all? To warrant a demotion AND a ban it has to be something pretty serious.

 

[Bubly]

Has a general reason been released at all? To warrant a demotion AND a ban it has to be something pretty serious.

Gladiator

 

[Laptop65]

Gladiator

Well we don't know the full story but from that alone seems a bit silly to just throw away his staff rank over that. Assuming he had something to hide or he made a REALLY poor judgement call.

 

[S]

Furthermore, I think the number of people directly affected by this is very low. I also don't think anything that happened biased his judgement on reports or in staff votes, and I think the statement that staff put users in any sort of danger is overstated. I'm not aware of any sort of misuse of user data, widespread abuse of staff tools, or anything of that sort and suspect the evidence, if made public, will be underwhelming to most of you.

While I don't doubt your friendship with, and how well you know Gladiator, nor do I doubt that the reason for his ban is likely tepid at best - I believe in this instance, for the sake of transparency, and to reinforce members best interests, it is important for the community to know what happened and why. Ultimately, members of this website put their trust in the staff team. If that goes awry, I believe it's A) understandable for the community to question what happened, and B) require some semblance of an explanation, that goes beyond the vagueness of what's understood at present.

Furthermore, the community can't be certain that this situation may not play-out similarly to @Azie's. Understandably, these two situations are similar in some manner, and different in others, but the overarching theme is: Global/Admin lied about being the original owner of multiple accounts/the safety and trustworthiness of the accounts.

This resulted in numerous users being scammed out of upwards of $15,000 (likely more), via accounts being recovered en masse. More importantly, @Gladiator's influence, reputation, and reach, significantly outweighed @Azie's*. This could potentially result in far more members at risk/a far higher $ total scammed.

Lastly, I circle back to not doubting how well you know Gladiator. However, is it fair to ask the community to have trust in someone as you do, when they have no such relationship or understanding of said person? Is it fair to ask the thousands of people that bought accounts of him to simply trust in him, after what he has done? Don't forget, multiple staff members endorsed @Azie, and how trustworthy he was. Did it matter in the end? No. I think it's imperative for us to accept the fact we cannot, with certainty, presume to know what Gladiator will or will not do. With that said, measures need to be taken to ensure members best interests are the focal point of what has transpired - and that begins with ensuring members have all the information - to better prepare themselves for what could happen.

* Azie Scammed Max Cape Account I Bought
* Azie recovered almost-maxed account
* Azie scammed me!

 

Just looking at Gladiator's market history.. this is a disaster waiting to happen if he decides to go full Azie.


Hopefully he can come back and make amends. Everyone is human, but I agree with the other posters in this thread. Typically I'll buy from mods/admins because I personally deem them to be the most trustworthy. This incident creates doubt by association for probably a lot of people. I feel like each staff should have Wortel (back when he was staff) level checks to ensure their integrity before given the position.

Maybe make an investigator rank who has limited access to staff tools so they can internally investigate staff or vet staff considerations.

 

[Laptop65]

If the staff felt he was dangerous or malicious then they would have stated the reason and warned everyone NOT to do any trading with him. This is more likely a piss poor judgement call he made and made him unsuitable to be on the staff team and needed a "time-out" for 3 months... but not to the point of "he scammed someone".

Somewhat similar to my demotion years ago, I made a dumb ass judgement call and wasn't suitable to be on the staff team back then then however it wasn't to the point of "do not trade with Laptop".

 

[Superfluous]

While I don't doubt your friendship with, and how well you know Gladiator, nor do I doubt that the reason for his ban is likely tepid at best - I believe in this instance, for the sake of transparency, and to reinforce members best interests, it is important for the community to know what happened and why. Ultimately, members of this website put their trust in the staff team. If that goes awry, I believe it's A) understandable for the community to question what happened, and B) require some semblance of an explanation, that goes beyond the vagueness of what's understood at present.

Furthermore, the community can't be certain that this situation may not play-out similarly to @Azie's. Understandably, these two situations are similar in some manner, and different in others, but the overarching theme is: Global/Admin lied about being the original owner of multiple accounts/the safety and trustworthiness of the accounts.

This resulted in numerous users being scammed out of upwards of $15,000 (likely more), via accounts being recovered en masse. More importantly, @Gladiator's influence, reputation, and reach, significantly outweighed @Azie's*. This could potentially result in far more members at risk/a far higher $ total scammed.

Lastly, I circle back to not doubting how well you know Gladiator. However, is it fair to ask the community to have trust in someone as you do, when they have no such relationship or understanding of said person? Is it fair to ask the thousands of people that bought accounts of him to simply trust in him, after what he has done? Don't forget, multiple staff members endorsed @Azie, and how trustworthy he was. Did it matter in the end? No. I think it's imperative for us to accept the fact we cannot, with certainty, presume to know what Gladiator will or will not do. With that said, measures need to be taken to ensure members best interests are the focal point of what has transpired - and that begins with ensuring members have all the information - to better prepare themselves for what could happen.

* Azie Scammed Max Cape Account I Bought
* Azie recovered almost-maxed account
* Azie scammed me!

Fair points. I'm sure you've seen this by now, but for posterity, this clarifies a lot of things: Abe, scammed over $5k USD