Leaked weasyl staff chatlog re rape allegation accusation journal

[a pigeon]

A furry by the netname of uglylilmonster alleges that one with the netname of oceanotter raped her. She has made these allegations at length on tumblr, twitter and on Weasyl journals.  As far as I know she has not reported this matter to the police. Matters like this always seem to be, or have the potential to be very divisive.

It seems that her linking directly to her tumblr, in her journals on weasyl and naming oceanotter, was against weasyl rules about call outs and she was asked to delete the portions of her journal linking directly to her tumblr, however she was allowed to tell people to go and look at it, and the journal is still up:

https://www.weasyl.com/journal/70879/warning-to-anyone-attending-mff-please-read


This matter has perhaps upset at least one member of staff since a thread was made on lulz.net containing a link to a pastebin with what presumably is a leaked log from a Weasyl staff only chatroom (IRC channel?):

http://pastebin.com/p6NY9cDd

It seems to me that a key thing from the log is this:

14:44:25 <term> we're an art gallery website, not the sex offender registry.

A member of weasyl staff in the log mentions that Oceanotter is looking into legal stuff so they intended to keep this matter secret:

15:04:50 <pinardilla> I recall the other party in this filing a ticket on her submission that mentioned legal action - is that something we may want to note to help emphasize the difficult position we're in, or is that best kept secret?
15:05:37 <Ikani> I think that should probably be kept secret in both directions

I've copy and pasted it here. For reference, all the people appearing on the log are members of Weasyl staff, you can verify that here:

https://www.weasyl.com/staff

If anyone vanishes from the staff page over the next few days it could be because they leaked.

14:36:15 <Taw> https://twitter.com/sigilgoat/status/538823551520759809 oh boy
14:36:15 <Wesley>  Twitter  @sigilgoat: Oh no Weasyl, please do not protect rapists please do not punish rape survivors for speaking out
14:38:52 <Matt> https://twitter.com/AnnaHyena/status/538824222714261504 yeah, what is going on
14:38:52 <Wesley>  Twitter  @AnnaHyena: Weasyl essentially protecting a rapist and silencing a rape victim. Neat.
14:39:21 <Taw> cause y'know, it's not like we don't allow call outs of any kind, regardless of the reason
14:39:53 <Ikani> or that we offered to let them make it just slightly less calloutish
14:40:51 <Taw> idk why people seem to think that certain things should be allowed even if it's against the rules, just because of a certain subject it touches on. Rules are rules. <.<
14:41:17 <term> but taw, their case is special.
14:41:18 <pinardilla> is it the one from a couple months ago that didn't name names, or a different one
14:41:43 <SkylerBunny> Just to play devil's advocate, then why do we allow the Dragoneer journals on Calypso? They're roughly as substantiated and suggest he's embezzeling money.
14:42:07 <Ikani> this one isn't naming names, but they're linking directly to where they are naming names
14:42:30 <Ikani> SkylerBunny: We've had some minor updates for Calypso to make, but there is that
14:42:48 <SkylerBunny> Well, maybe our further responses to this person should be more along those lines.
14:42:56 <SkylerBunny> "If you would be willing to change X to Y, we can let it stand."
14:43:01 <Ikani> we did
14:43:05 <Taw> they refused
14:43:05 <term> that's what I already did.
14:43:06 <Ikani> they responded with "no"
14:43:30 <term> I said you have two options: either edit the journal to remove the links or remove it in 48 hours.
14:43:44 <term> and they responded, as Taw said, with the one word answer "no"
14:43:44 <Ikani> (worded nicer of course)
14:43:55 <Ikani> er, yours was, that is
14:44:01 <term> yes of course.
14:44:09 <Fiz> weasyl isnt the place for this crap
14:44:13 <Fiz> how dare we have rules
14:44:25 <term> we're an art gallery website, not the sex offender registry.
14:44:44 <pinardilla> perhaps we should get on top of this and note what we did offer before removing it
14:45:11 <SkylerBunny> (Also make sure that whatever you reply with has these points in it, because you know they'll immediately repost it to Tumblr anyway. Just assume you're talking to the world.)
14:45:26 <term> yes we're aware.
14:46:00 <Fiz> "this isn't even going into them fucking with my rape comic submission" wait waht
14:46:13 <SkylerBunny> Fay asked the same thing, Fiz.
14:46:15 <term> https://paste.weasyldev.com/show/FOg4DgBh4WdHPWiJDDZq/
14:46:15 <Wesley>  Page title  Paste #FOg4DgBh4WdHPWiJDDZq at spacepaste
14:46:27 <term> this is the response we're planning on going with.
14:46:31 <Fiz> https://www.weasyl.com/staffnotes/uglylilmonster#cid2201327 oh it got rerated
14:46:31 <Wesley>  Page title  Weasyl
14:46:34 <Fiz> 'fucked with'
14:47:14 <Fiz> term, that looks good
14:47:26 <term> thanks to Fay for that.
14:47:39 <SkylerBunny> One possible suggest: 'If you are willing, we would like to'.
14:48:01 <SkylerBunny> (Just to think on it. Makes it more of a positive reachout on our part.)
14:48:06 <pinardilla> looking at the removed submission, the description says "If you want to know who my rapist is, you can check out my tumblr or twitter.
14:48:06 <pinardilla> I can't directly link you to anything or it might be considered a call-out post."
14:48:17 <pinardilla> is that what we're considering a link, or did it get changed?
14:48:38 <Ikani> pina: that part is actually fine to have in
14:48:46 <pinardilla> where's the link then
14:48:51 <Ikani> the link is on the journal
14:49:10 <pinardilla> oh, there's another part to this?
14:49:21 <Fiz> https://www.weasyl.com/journal/70879/warning-to-anyone-attending-mff-please-read its this
14:49:21 <Wesley>  Page title  Warning to anyone attending MFF - please read — Weasyl
14:49:22 <term> https://www.weasyl.com/journal/70879/warning-to-anyone-attending-mff-please-read?anyway=true
14:49:22 <Wesley>  Page title  Warning to anyone attending MFF - please read — Weasyl
14:49:33 <term> this is what this is all about pina.
14:49:34 <Fiz> therse three direct links
14:49:54 <Fiz> honestly if she jsut changed it to "if you want more information, please go to my tumblr" without making it a direct link to it all
14:50:07 <Ikani> yup that would be fine
14:50:18 <Ikani> even saying "in my faq" is perfectly fine
14:50:23 <Fiz> yeah
14:51:06 <Fiz> like shit we let that person keep that journal up where they were calling me a pedophile as long as they editted it to not have a direct link
14:51:07 <SkylerBunny> Maybe we should be more explicit about that. Term's first response isn't quite that direct.
14:51:12 <term> the fact that its a direct link we can't really excuse. if it was just, "go to my tumblr" then whatever, that requires a bit more snooping on someone's part then "click here to see my rapist"
14:51:20 <SkylerBunny> 'If you wish to say 'If you want to find out X and Y about the person, go see my Tumblr or Twitter.'
14:51:23 <Ikani> Term, I'm tempted to say don't pull the journal yet, and in the response something like "We're only asking you to remove the links themselves, not any of the text."
14:51:34 <Fiz> yeah maybe we need to spell it out for them
14:51:39 <SkylerBunny> And this: perfectly acceptable. "..."
14:51:42 <pinardilla> alright, I remembered the submission and I thought that's what got pulled, which I would have had a problem with
14:51:47 <pinardilla> but I can see why the journal needs to go
14:51:48 <SkylerBunny> Spell it out for them, yes, exactly.
14:52:06 <Fiz> the submission didnt get removed, they said it got "fucked with" for being bumped to moderate
14:52:11 <Fiz> which is like...ok
14:52:19 <Ikani> the journal doesn't even need to go, it just needs to not have that text be clickable
14:52:42 <term> the only reason we'd remove it is for outright refusal to do anything on their part.
14:52:49 <pinardilla> since this is becoming a public thing, though, we should maybe dedicate some space in our response to acknowledging that this is a difficult issue and we understand their frustratin
14:52:56 <pinardilla> frustration*
14:53:04 <Fiz> yeah
14:53:07 <Ikani> agreed
14:53:12 <SkylerBunny> Probably. And also, as I say, even if it means 'If you say these words, we will gladly let the journal stand.'
14:53:39 <SkylerBunny> 'If you want blah blah blah check out my Twitter or Tumblr sites.'
14:54:15 <SkylerBunny> The way she's seeing it, and I kind of get it, is 'You can't say it your way or it'll be removed. We didn't give an explicit counteroffer ending with 'And with that, you can leave it up.'
14:54:58 <term> as far as I'm concerned about pulling the journal they still have a 48 hour deadline. so yeah if we want to keep trying to get them to understand then great.
14:55:10 <term> I'll get another response ready.
14:55:14 <SkylerBunny> Kind of like with Calypso when we said 'Look, you can leave this journal up, but sentence X has to go.'
14:55:23 <Fiz> yeah
14:55:27 <Ikani> term: yeah agreed on that
14:55:52 <Ikani> offer them the clarification, but in the background the journal still goes if they refuse
14:56:04 <Fiz> basically have to say "direct links to the info is something we can't have, indirect links or saying 'check out x page for more info"
14:56:37 <SkylerBunny> Indirect links (like to your Tumblr, but not the absolute post in question), or a general statement of sites on which you can be found, where the information is, is okay.'
14:58:02 <Fay> like we did though
14:58:22 <Fay> she could keep all the info, literally just removing the direct link
14:59:03 <SkylerBunny> I've read Term's response. It doesn't say that. It says 'You can't do this', and the mitigation is too general for a person to necessarily understand what's meant.
14:59:22 <SkylerBunny> Spell it out with exact quotes and sentences, ending with 'We will happily let this journal remain if you do this.'
14:59:30 <Fay> hmm
14:59:49 <Ikani> I'm agreeing with Skyler here
14:59:49 <SkylerBunny> Say THIS. : 'Exact quote provided.'
15:00:55 <Fay> lemme write something up.
15:01:02 <pinardilla> "While we support your free expression of your experience as a rape survivor, we cannot open ourselves to liability by permitting an accusation or a direct link to such an accusation to remain on our site.  If you instead simply stated 'Please see my Tumblr for the details' in lieu of a direct link, this would be sufficient to shield us from this liability."
15:01:04 <term> I'm working on it Fay
15:02:59 <Ikani> "shield us from liability while still allowing your experience to be shared."
15:03:05 <Ikani> or something like that
15:03:58 <SkylerBunny> I still think "and then we will happily allow this journal to stand" really wants to be in this response. Absolutely clear that our primary interest is NOT in removing the journal.
15:04:50 <pinardilla> I recall the other party in this filing a ticket on her submission that mentioned legal action - is that something we may want to note to help emphasize the difficult position we're in, or is that best kept secret?
15:05:37 <Ikani> I think that should probably be kept secret in both directions
15:05:54 <SkylerBunny> ...if it was filed as a ticket, right, I was going to say, I think there's an expectation of privacy. But we don't really have to go there.
15:06:17 <pinardilla> yeah, I figured as much :\ thought it was worth considering tho
15:06:25 <Ikani> yeah
15:07:51 <Taw> was afk to make/eat dinner, back now
15:08:29 <pinardilla> wb
15:08:51 <Ikani> on a personal note, I at one point saw some statistics on false rape accusations. The numbers are pretty insanely low. If we didn't have a legal requirement here, I'd probably be arguing to keep the journal entirely.
15:09:00 <Ikani> That said, I also don't want to go to court over a website
15:09:31 <pinardilla> right
15:09:41 <Taw> Eh, regardless, we're an art website, not a sex offender's registry as mentioned. It's not really suitable to have on our site
15:10:04 <term> https://paste.weasyldev.com/show/HlMVmTQWWPYNnGFC9VGl/
15:10:04 <Wesley>  Page title  Paste #HlMVmTQWWPYNnGFC9VGl at spacepaste
15:10:17 <term> https://paste.weasyldev.com/show/HlMVmTQWWPYNnGFC9VGl/
15:10:17 <Wesley>  Page title  Paste #HlMVmTQWWPYNnGFC9VGl at spacepaste
15:10:25 <pinardilla> taw: we don't hold journals to artistic standards and there's a community interest here
15:10:26 <term> my draft here.
15:10:46 (-) Armaina joined
15:11:07 <SkylerBunny> If you all can give me a few minutes, I could do some edits, see what you think.
15:11:17 <Taw> True, though I'd much rather our site and journals be used for something other than calling out other users on things. :v
15:11:34 <pinardilla> yeah go for it skyler, there's a couple clarity suggestions I can think of too
15:11:55 <Ikani> hi Arm!
15:11:57 <Fay> https://paste.weasyldev.com/show/5LypMWfqrnyMLtnVMMVb/
15:11:57 <Wesley>  Page title  Paste #5LypMWfqrnyMLtnVMMVb at spacepaste
15:13:43 <SkylerBunny> Hm. Okay, now I've got two to merge. May take a bit longer but working.
15:13:54 <Ikani> hah
15:14:12 <Ikani> Fay, I'd kill line 5 from yours entirely but otherwise like the tone
15:14:14 <Fay> whoops sorry >.>
15:14:26 <Ikani> its okay
15:14:34 <Armaina> Ikani, hii
15:14:35 <Ikani> Skyler, work your magic
15:14:36 <Fay> also sure can do that. whatever draft works best for you guys
15:16:44 <Fay> got a tweet we might want to respond to after this note goes out
15:17:07 <Fay> can't seem to link to it but it's the latest @weasyl one
15:17:17 <SkylerBunny> Still working as fast as I can.
15:17:35 <Ikani> the kogifir one?
15:18:16 <term> skyler take your time.
15:19:22 <Ikani> I'm also thinking that we make a very public post about our position on callouts, and our position on censorship, after this
15:19:49 <Taw> Might be a good idea
15:19:51 <pinardilla> probably a good idea
15:19:52 <Armaina> yep
15:20:50 <Fay> kogifur yeah
15:20:54 <Ikani> okay
15:21:00 <pinardilla> https://twitter.com/Kogifir/status/538831947976290304 for reference
15:21:00 <Wesley>  Twitter  @Kogifir: @krinndnz @weasyl curious whether any of these policies get run past Actual Lawyers
15:21:05 <term> mmm yeah I can work on something regarding that.
15:21:29 <term> fuck'n hell I really didn't want to have to pushback the spotlight.
15:21:30 <SkylerBunny> https://paste.weasyldev.com/show/d0TpaUjROEInw1ZXhebv/
15:21:30 <Wesley>  Page title  Paste #d0TpaUjROEInw1ZXhebv at spacepaste
15:21:41 <Fay> "we're happy to report we have on staff lawyers to review our TOS and policies"
15:22:37 <pinardilla> are those URLs okay, or is that still too close to a direct link?
15:22:56 <Fay> director call on that one
15:22:57 <SkylerBunny> I don't know. But I wanted to give this as a good starting point either way.
15:23:13 <SkylerBunny> The main thrust is that I want to spell out EXACTLY what she can do, and then we say 'Great, journal stays'.
15:23:41 <term> pinar: this issue is the direct link to the FAQ.
15:23:44 <SkylerBunny> If the answer is no, I can reword it so that it says 'My Twitter or my Tumblr'; you can check my profile page (_link_) for either.
15:23:52 <term> Everything outside of that is fine.
15:24:02 <SkylerBunny> Term: Would you say then that what I put in that response above is acceptable?
15:24:12 <term> I'd say so.
15:24:13 <Fay> I like the message
15:24:18 <SkylerBunny> Okay. Let me actually make one more tweak to it.
15:24:42 <term> post it here and I'll send it on its way.
15:24:49 <pinardilla> I'd like to put in my own input too if you don't mind
15:25:04 <Fay> directors are okay with it?
15:26:45 <Taw> I'm fine with it.
15:26:50 <Ikani> sorry was getting more background on them from Farore, who's known them for a while
15:26:53 <Ikani> let me read over it quick
15:27:01 <SkylerBunny> I'm writing another draft Ikani, one sec.
15:27:17 <Ikani> oh okay
15:27:19 <Ikani> waiting <3
15:27:47 <Ikani> also Lacuna says she remembers there being a ticket a few months back with a reported journal on this subject
15:28:15 <Fay> There was a submission
15:28:28 <Ikani> aah okay
15:28:41 <SkylerBunny> https://paste.weasyldev.com/show/xQvR3AYBMfoN2A5xmUhy/
15:28:41 <Wesley>  Page title  Paste #xQvR3AYBMfoN2A5xmUhy at spacepaste
15:29:11 <Fay> she has a submission about her experience. Which was reported by oceanotter. we let it stay as itremoved reference to ocean otter
15:29:22 <Fay> or rahter it had no reference
15:29:41 <Fay> the ticket stayed up since otter mentioned he would be looking into legal stuff

[camellia sinensis]

Are they saying that they had to request her to change the journal due to worries about legal issues coming from it? Is there really any basis for that?

This is really disappointing to see, regardless.

[scribbles]

Remember when people thought Weasyl would be a good alternative for Furaffinity because Furaffinity does everything in its power to protect rapists? Yeah, me too.

[rodox_video]

[20:11] <Luminous> https://img.lulz.net/src/tumblr_nftlhpTAsj1qa7z4eo1_500.png   actually this is dumb and so is the weasyl mod who wrote it, people can link to stormfront for all your liability is concerned
[20:13] <Luminous> gj stirring up drama where the weasyl staff needn't be involved
[20:13] <Luminous> this is why you will never replace fa
[20:22] <Luminous> was it Taw or Fiz
[20:23] <Luminous> no matter what rules you have on-site, you can't expect to sway off-site shit like rapes and hotlinking
[20:44] <Luminous> wait was that message a collective effort from all the weasyl mods?
[20:44] <Luminous> you're all fired
[20:44] <@Kindri> #weasylgate
[20:45] <Luminous> i hope you weasyl scrubs see how off-the-rails you are on this one and put your moderator status back in your pants, tia
[20:46] <Luminous> they are literally trying to become the Internet Police, making sure the tone and calloutish-ness is at a minimum in all hotlinks

[Conan]

SkylerBunny is listed as a "Tech"... indicating this probably took place in the tech/development IRC channel.

Why a fucking sysadmin is coordinating an administrative response to controversy is beyond me. Goes to show how absolutely fucked Weasyl's management structure is. All these "directors" and "administrators" and someone who is supposed to be working to add stuff to the site and keep it running is busy botching a response to rape claims. It's no wonder this blew up all over the place.

EDIT:

15:08:51 <Ikani> on a personal note, I at one point saw some statistics on false rape accusations. The numbers are pretty insanely low. If we didn't have a legal requirement here, I'd probably be arguing to keep the journal entirely.

The law actually says the exact opposite.

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

People can go on your website and scream "RAPE!" all day long and there's nothing anyone can do to you as long as you don't join in.

[nrr]

The law actually says the exact opposite.

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

People can go on your website and scream "RAPE!" all day long and there's nothing anyone can do to you as long as you don't join in.

NB: IANAL, but damn, my upbringing by politicians and lawyers has taught me a lot.

More to the point, though, the case law for that, especially in suits involving defamation (i.e., the same sort of thing for which a legal liability is claimed by Weasyl management), the courts consistently uphold immunity from such claims. There doesn't seem to be any legal liability past "we just plain don't want to be served with a summons and have to deal with the inconvenience of retaining an attorney to get the suit dealt with."

To that, I say, "Tough shit." If you run a site like this, be prepared to retain an attorney if you haven't already.

Furthermore, before enacting policies prohibiting calling people out or otherwise enforcing community standards, be sure to have those reviewed by a legal professional as well. Depending on the circumstance, individuals acting on behalf of site management _can_ be charged as an accessory to a crime if their actions as moderators led them to know about a crime that is considered reportable by law.

The best course of action is just to leave things unmoderated and to take a stance of "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" except in the most exceptional circumstances, namely those that cause the site itself to come to harm.

[Gryphoneer]

Remember when people thought Weasyl would be a good alternative for Furaffinity because Furaffinity does everything in its power to protect rapists? Yeah, me too.

Bound to happen if you instate former FA mods.

[a pigeon]

An statement has been made:

https://forums.weasyl.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?6727-A-Few-Words-on-Our-Callout-Guidelines&p=75340

Where Term apologizes to the user involved and explains what happened: setting the log in a fuller context.

Here is an excerpt from from the statement, (though reading the whole thing there is the most informative):

I’d like to provide you all with as detailed an account of the events which led to that log. The person whom The User alleges raped them contacted us, along with other users, about the journal posted on November 27th. The primary issue at hand were the links The User posted to an off-site blog, in which The User specifically names the person they allege to have raped them, as well as a second link which details a story in which someone else makes a similar claim that they were also raped by the same person. We immediately took the issue to our moderation channels on IRC and, as we do with all reports of this type, discussed our options. The solution we came to on November 29th was to give The User the opportunity to edit the journal to remove the links while allowing the journal to remain up, with a 48 hour deadline to comply or we would be forced to remove the journal, as is consistent with cases similar to this. This deadline is still in effect. You can read the notice here: http://gyazo.com/c3f3caa22f8e0ba33ac73f163be5f37b

After sending the notice, I received a message from The User which simply contained the word “no”. The User then reposted the above message to a personal blog, expressing their disappointment at our decision. It was at this point I became frustrated and made my comments on the staff channel. The events following are detailed in the log that was previously linked. What wasn’t shown in the logs was that the second message being discussed and drafted in the logs was completed after an hour and a half of discussion and sent to The User (seen here: http://gyazo.com/c0a7cb60800ef7bd4e7235a199bd1b2d). As this more specific response illustrates, we proposed a specific change to one section of the journal, and left a deadline to change it in place; the user can decide what they wish to do. As of this writing the journal is still up and will remain up until our deadline Monday evening, assuming there is no contact from The User regarding the journal. We've even gone so far as to mention that if the journal is removed it could be reposted with the appropriate changes made. The User then responded that they wished to investigate for themselves if we could actually be liable for libelous content posted on the site. Somewhere around this point, someone compromised a staff member’s account and gained access to our staff chat, copied the logs, posted them online, and shared them with The User. The logs were also reposted to lulz.net and Vivisector.

Admittedly, we jumped the gun regarding the discussion on what we may be held legally liable for on the website. This was a new situation in which The User made serious criminal accusations against someone and we were put in an awkward situation in which we were dealing with a private dispute that was not only a violation of our callout policy, but we feared could also lead us to potentially being held partially responsible for any and all harassment or other actions taken against the accused. After a discussion involving those of our staff with a legal background, we determined we're not liable for the content our users put on our site in regards to accusations made against their character or acts. However, the callout policy has never been solely dependent on legal concerns. We also want to maintain a safe and positive atmosphere on our site, and enforce our guidelines in a fair and impartial manner.

Upon the release of the logs and The User’s own posts regarding the issue, several people have begun spreading misinformation and outright false claims about Weasyl staff and how we handle the site. At this time I’d like to address a few of these claims:

1. “Weasyl is punishing a rape victim.” – As can be seen from the notes sent to The User, at no time were they threatened with actions against their account. We are sympathetic to The User's situation and their desire to voice their concerns to the community, so we attempted to reach a compromise in which The User could keep their journal up in a way that adheres to our callout guidelines. The User was asked to remove the links which directly linked to the name of the person they alleged to have raped them. While the first message could have been more constructive and offered possible replacements, we did offer to meet them halfway by keeping the journal up so long as the direct link was removed and offered to sit down and discuss the matter to greater detail through PMs. Removing the journal was not and still is not our primary desire, and at the time of this announcement, it remains up. “Punishment” was never considered in this case, and that remains the case.

2. “Weasyl is protecting rapists.” – Weasyl’s callout rules apply to everyone, regardless of the situation in question. We also do not take sides in any private disputes between users. If roles were reversed, and The User was being attacked by another user in a journal pertaining to this matter (or any other reason), either directly or by offering to share the name via a link or through private messages, we would have taken similar action on that journal. This is because the staff believe Weasyl should not become a place where people call out users of this or any other site, which may potentially lead to harassment or other actions taken against the person being called out. The nature and authenticity of the claims being made is irrelevant to this policy. From the feedback we've received from our community, we also believe this is the kind of policy the majority of our users want as well.

3. "Weasyl has a Twitter bot that looks for any and all tweets made about them and posts them to the staff IRC chat." - Weasyl does not have a Twitter bot. What we do have is an IRC bot, named Wesley. Wesley does not become active unless a member of the chat posts a link in the chat. At that point, if the link is to a public tweet, Wesley is able to post the content of that tweet without us having to actually click the link to Twitter. For all other websites, Wesley simply reposts the page title. Weasyl staff have been known to look at tweets which mention us, either offhandedly or with an "@weasyl" mentioned in the tweet. Anyone can search for all tweets containing the word "Weasyl" simply by using Twitter's search bar at the top of their web

^
https://forums.weasyl.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?6727-A-Few-Words-on-Our-Callout-Guidelines&p=75340

This part I found the most curious:

Somewhere around this point, someone compromised a staff member’s account and gained access to our staff chat, copied the logs, posted them online,

Edit:

Here is a statement from a Weasyl staff member about the comprimise, (does anyone know which moderator they've just removed?):

https://forums.weasyl.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?6727-A-Few-Words-on-Our-Callout-Guidelines&p=75347&viewfull=1#post75347

This post was not intended to brush off the security concerns, here is the information in that regard in detail.

The account in question was a moderator account on main site, moderator accounts also have some privileges on the forums to view and comment in staff areas. These accounts however do not have access to payment information or sensitive information, which is viewable only with admin accounts and higher (payment information in particular is only accessible by high level accounts beyond admin level)

The Moderator account in question has already been removed from staff and all access was removed as soon as staff were made aware of a "compromise". At this time, based on the information at hand, we are virtually certain the moderator while claiming to have been compromised was acting of their own accord.

The development staff have been reviewing the site security measures since yesterday when the compromise was first indicated to us by the staff member who has been removed. Of all activity at the time, the only suspicious activity was accessing the IRC staff logs for November 29, which coincides with the information leaked to The User, and beyond. Meaning that the extent of the breach was only accessing staff logs.

The staff logs specifically are part of the irc staff channels. The discussions of the channel are automatically logged and stored in a separate area of the server which requires staff privileges to access and understanding of where the logs are located. These logs are kept so that admins and moderators are able to review discussion they may not have been present for.

This is deeply concerning to staff, and we have been taking this opportunity to review site and staff security. However the leak only pertains to the specific log posted, and moderators do not have access to sensitive information both on main site and on the forums. Moderator access only pertains to reviewing tickets, reviewing "friends only" submissions for moderation purposes, account information, and access to 'staff notes' which is a history of action taken on an account. Moderators do not have access to higher level chats nor the logs of these chats where more sensitive information (IDs, legal names, etc.) may be discussed by higher level staff.

As for the rumor regarding "starrykitten", this person has not worked for Weasyl by this name nor known aliases.

^
https://forums.weasyl.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?6727-A-Few-Words-on-Our-Callout-Guidelines&p=75347&viewfull=1#post75347

My bolding in the post.

[KaylaLa]

(does anyone know which moderator they've just removed?):

I was curious about this myself earlier, so I looked up weasyl's staff page via google and their cache function. If you compare the cached page from November 23rd with their current staff page, you will note Wag missing appears to be the only change made.

[Conan]

As this more specific response illustrates, we proposed a specific change to one section of the journal, and left a deadline to change it in place; the user can decide what they wish to do. As of this writing the journal is still up and will remain up until our deadline Monday evening, assuming there is no contact from The User regarding the journal. We've even gone so far as to mention that if the journal is removed it could be reposted with the appropriate changes made.

W...what? Are they offering an editorial review process now? "Please make these changes by this date" is a bizarre way to enforce a "no callouts" rule.

With Weasyl having more staffers than FurAffinity and a fraction of FurAffinity's traffic, I can't help but wonder if they're just bored.

Also: I don't know why they're dancing around it and pretending like it never happened, but I've had it confirmed to me that at one point they did have an IRC bot that posted all mentions of Weasyl. However, it was discontinued for being "too noisy". Why they don't just come out and say that instead of yapping about the Wesley bot is rather confusing.

[pmart]

Wag speaks up about his account being compromised and his being fired.

And we get another gem about Weasyl security. Changing your password doesn't log you out of any active sessions:

[14/11/29 20:58:07] <wag> I just realized - after my password was changed, I had no idea anything was wrong until the email, I didn't get logged out of my current session
[14/11/29 20:58:23] <SkylerBunny> wag: True, you wouldn't.
[14/11/29 20:58:28] <SkylerBunny> That could be construed as a bug.
[14/11/29 20:58:39] <wag> Yeah, or at least a hole of some sort
[14/11/29 20:58:40] <@weykent> eh? you can deliberately log in from multiple places at once
[14/11/29 20:58:40] <SkylerBunny> Password change = all tokents invalidated perhaps.
[14/11/29 20:58:52] <wag> that'd be good
[14/11/29 20:58:57] <@weykent> changing the password invalidating sessions might be a good idea though yeah
[14/11/29 20:59:00] <SkylerBunny> Right.
[14/11/29 20:59:04] <SkylerBunny> Weykent, I meant that only.
[14/11/29 20:59:07] <@weykent> ok
[14/11/29 20:59:08] <Hendikins> SkylerBunny: As long as all /other/ sessions are invalidated, that's the important thing.
[14/11/29 20:59:10] <wag> since I assume whoever was logged in as me is still logged in as me

[Conan]

I don't see what's the big deal here... Wild conspiracy theories about enemies of the state, security flaws, and mysterious administrators suddenly appearing? Business as usual at FurAff.....

Oh wait, we're talking about Weasyl.

Wag's information makes it pretty clear to me that the people behind the curtain at Weasyl are still the paranoid children I dealt with a year ago. I mean...

[14/11/29 19:35:42] <pinardilla> I'm thinking they accessed your account, generated the key quick, and ran to irclogs with it
[14/11/29 19:35:53] <pinardilla> which would suggest inside knowledge, which makes me think Ben

Nice to see that, despite leaving more than a year and a half ago, Ben is still the big scary boogeyman who constantly causes Weasyl grief. This person deserves to be booted for being so utterly obtuse.

Given the evidence and the botched response (Do password resets not get logged? There's not an IP address anywhere?), I'd be more inclined to think this is an inside job, pulled off by someone knowing full well that everyone in the Weasyl IRC is paranoid that any amount of their secret clubhouse chatter will be exposed to the outside world (Which is why I was booted after waiting for someone/anyone to "get back to me" for a month) and that the finger could easily be pointed at any schmuck who'd instantly be villainized by the rest of the staff just because that's what they were told to do.

There are so many questions that should have been asked about this, and it doesn't appear any of them were ever brought up before jumping to one extreme conclusion.