Today, I have some unfortunate news. The officers of Stonewall Fleet and Knights of Stonewall have been forced to remove a few members of our community for extreme violations of the Code of Conduct and Member’s Handbook. Those removed have violated sections
1.2,
1.3 and
4 of the Code of Conduct.
The members concerned have decided to leave our guild and create a new one, but have been using our website to recruit new members from our membership. We have been made aware of several members being contacted on this site and asked to desert Knights of Stonewall for this new guild. Our members report that they have been given reasons to leave, but they are blatantly false.
Therefore, I feel it is important to take this unprecedented step of posting publicly about this issue in order to put the record straight.
BackgroundSince two weeks after the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic when full control of the Knights of Stonewall in-game guild was available to us, there have been some extremely critical posts in the forums and negative chat in-game from a small number of people.
We believe in the right for every member of our community to be able to post their opinion and influence the direction of Stonewall, so we answered all these posts, repeatedly, as best we could. We will continue to answer any genuine concern and encourage everyone to discuss issues that are troubling them.
Of those who were most vocal in their opposition to decisions made by the officers, we noticed that there was a commonality between them: nearly all of them had been members of a guild in World of Warcraft that recently cut ties with Stonewall Fleet and the Knights of Stonewall.
Shortly thereafter, a former officer of Knights of Stonewall left to create his own guild. While we try to give all of our members the benefit of doubt, when we discovered that the founding members and officers of this new guild were the very same people, we find it strains credulity to believe this is a mere coincidence.
Our PolicyStonewall Fleet and Knights of Stonewall enjoy a healthy relationship with other GLBTA guilds in the games in which we participate. We have made alliances with many guilds in other games so we can direct members to a guild in games we don't directly serve. We have also seen new guilds being created from within our community. We have supported these guilds as they offer something we cannot, and the founders of these guilds have a very valid reason for creating them.
That is not the case with this most recent guild. It has been created by plagiarizing our own Code of Conduct along with many other of our policies and procedures. This is not surprising as its founder was a long term officer here who was fundamental in our success and our decisions.
When we first discovered that this officer was unhappy with only being an officer, we tried to help by offering him any position in the guild he wanted. Short of providing full control of Knights of Stonewall, there seemed to be no solution. Therefore a new guild was born, not because of a genuine failing in Knights of Stonewall, but because an officer with some loyal friends decided he wanted control of our members.
Perhaps one of the great ironies of the entire controversy about banding our guilds based on class was that this former officer both proposed and was the primary advocate for this version of guild banding. In other words, the most vocal opponents of this decision wound up, unwittingly, leaving to follow the very person who proposed it.
In this organization, no-one has absolute control on how things are run. Officer positions are open to anyone and they are chosen by the current officers based solely on ability and the willingness to help all the members. We don’t promote our friends or play favorites, but we do link the responsibility of working for the members with the responsibility of making certain decisions.
We exist because of fundamental belief that all people should be welcome and treated fairly. In the gaming community, we all too often hear the word ‘gay’ used as an insult, are made to feel uncomfortable for speaking about our boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife, and even sometimes we’re simply not wanted. In Stonewall, we don’t restrict who can join based on their age or the current level of their character. We accept all people who come looking to be part of a community of equals and treat one another with respect.
We provide a website that allows our members to get to know each other in their own way. We have private groups in the Network, 18+ rooms on our Ventrilo server, and we try our best to get everyone involved so that our community has a variety of methods to communicate and interact. We are attempting to offer a place for everyone, and I hope you can all agree it can be a difficult job, but it is well worth it.
In ConclusionI’d like to apologize for this situation. I don’t enjoy having to publicizing these issues as we like to foster a comfortable and friendly environment. I can assure you that the officers are remaining vigilant to any new “attack” and I hope you can all get back to enjoying the community we have all help build over the last 4 years.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact an officer. If you are approached by anyone encouraging you to leave any of our guilds in Star Wars: The Old Republic for another “Stonewall” guild, please report the incident to any one of the officers. Our goal is to provide you with a safe and fun environment in which to make friends and enjoy your gaming experience.
Thank you for your support and assistance.
Sincerely,
NicholasJohn16
Community Leader
