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“We apologize to all promotion candidates, the IO captains and Akimoto for the nature of these miscommunications.”

The DrAkimoto Incident, also informally referred to as “The Akimoto Clusterf██k”, was a prolonged event within the SCP Wiki staff that resulted in the public resignation by WikiDot user and operational staff member DrAkimoto. It concluded with DrAkimoto’s reinstatement to staff along with a promotion to moderator. The incident was cited as the result of several miscommunications, as well as failures to assign responsibility within the SCP Wiki staff. It resulted in voluminous discussion between staff members regarding perceived issues within the culture and political structure of leadership at the SCP Wiki.

For the Autumn 2021 promotions, DrAkimoto was initially nominated to the moderator position in staff chat rooms consisting of only site administrators and team captains (Admin + Captain, or “AdCap”, chat). This nomination was challenged after an individual or individuals questioned and/or objected, due to DrAkimoto’s past behavior. Without clear resolution, DrAkimoto was then excluded from the official O5 Command thread for Autumn 2021 promotions. This resulted in DrAkimoto’s public resignation from the staff where the denial of consideration for promotion was cited. The promotions were then paused by an official statement, and a public apology was issued to DrAkimoto in a dedicated O5 Command thread. DrAkimoto was then included in the voting and the proceedings were unpaused, ultimately leading to his promotion to moderator.

According to official statements, the staff committed fourteen (14) consecutive errors to cause the DrAkimoto Incident, these a combination of miscommunication, ignorance, incompetence, and not reliably assigning responsibility for tasks:

the administrators’ unawareness that DrAkimoto was co-nominated by both team captains
the recognized team captain’s failure to inform administrators of #1
the failure of the conducting administrator and other administrators to follow through and contact either DrAkimoto or DrAkimoto’s team captain(s) in the week available prior to promotions
an administrator’s miscommunication to one of DrAkimoto’s team captains that the administrators’ doubt surrounding DrAkimoto’s fitness for moderator was a value statement, rather than an interrogative
the team captain’s inability to recall established promotions policy, which disallows #4
the administrator’s misinterpretation that the team captain’s assent was a voluntary withdrawal of DrAkimoto’s candidacy
the general administration’s misinterpretation that the team captain’s assent was a voluntary withdrawal of DrAkimoto’s candidacy
the team captain’s reply to DrAkimoto that his candidacy had been vetoed by administration
the administrators’ assumption that DrAkimoto chose to resign rather than address their concerns
the administrators failing to confirm that DrAkimoto had been given an opportunity to address their concerns prior to concluding #9
the administrators failing to request chat logs of this exchange
the team captain’s unawareness that the administrators were agreeable for DrAkimoto’s promotion to proceed
the conducting administrator’s removal of DrAkimoto as a nominee from the Autumn 2021 Promotions thread, which was against the intent of this administrator and others
a Google forum error is stated to also be at fault that did not list a second team captain as co-nominating DrAkimoto^[3]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus

As a result of the event, the site administration cited systemic issues regarding communication and workflow. To correct these issues, staff considered the creation of focus groups within staff, as well as “… formal task tracking such as setting up a Jira, assigning responsibility for handling investigation into internal staff matters, and the potential establishment of an intra-staff team to handle administration issues of this caliber ranging from investigation of potential problematic staff behavior to creation and assignment of purview responsibility [“IntraStaff Issues Team”].”

In conjunction with The Cerastes Incident, the DrAkimoto Incident led staff to focus on rewriting the Site Charter in order to officialize disciplinary and accountability protocols for higher staff members. As a result of intrastaff discussions on topics proximal to the DrAkimoto Incident, staff restructured the Disciplinary Team’s Discord server to allow access to other staff members, made the recaps of the AdCap chat available to general staff, and removed casual chat channels in the staff Discord server. Future discussions took place about reform of the Disciplinary Team, and how to achieve intrastaff accountability.

The incident was recapped in detail as part of the October 2021 Recaps.

History

Pre-Promotion

Circa 2020, DrAkimoto was active in managing the SCP Wiki’s official Facebook and Instagram pages, posting daily SCP promos, stories, art, news, organizing at least one fan art contest, and replying to messages to increase engagement. He was also active regarding site seminars and community surveys.^[15]http://grave-box.wikidot.com/drakimotostaffchart, archive^[16]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-13078259/latewinter-promotions-2020 DrAkimoto was promoted from junior staff to operational staff in February 2020. A review from the site Crit Team read:^[17]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-13078259/latewinter-promotions-2020

“DrAkimoto consistently attends Site Criticism meetings and provides excellent input regarding such. They have been active for quite a while now and remains enthusiastic about the community at large. They have worked with authors in the past to help them get deleted articles back on the site successfully.”

A recommendation from the Community Outreach team read:^[18]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-13078259/latewinter-promotions-2020

“Akimoto is a fantastic staffer all-around. I know that he is a good asset to all the teams he is present on, and for Seminars he is indispensable. The amount of work he does in general is astounding. He has been instrumental in planning and helping to execute the Orientation Seminars and they wouldn’t be getting off the ground without his input and work. He is by far one of the most active people I see not only on JS but on Staff as a whole, and his promotion is something he easily deserves.”

According to staff recaps, both captains of the Internet Outreach team (Yossipossi and LadyKatie) nominated DrAkimoto for promotion to moderator for the autumn 2021 promotion cycle.^[19]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus Objections were raised in AdCap upon the nomination. According to the official apology to DrAkimoto, these objections were regarding “questionable trends with writing that could potentially represent red flags for a staff member’s approach to marginalized users or sensitive discussions”. It was noted that DrAkimoto had been denied promotions to moderator for these concerns by a prior team captain (Modern_Erasmus). The present administrators decided to ask one of DrAkimoto’s current team captains (Yossipossi) about the concerns, in case the issues had been addressed and/or improved upon.^[20]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus DrAkimoto’s second team captain (LadyKatie) was not initially consulted; this was later admitted to be an oversight.^[21]https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14226168/an-official-statement-and-apology-to-akimoto-regarding-promo, archive

During the week between the above discussion and the publication of the Autumn Promotions thread, no contact had been initiated with DrAkimoto’s team captain(s). This was discovered the night the promotions were set to be published.^[22]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus The publication was delayed so the issue could be addressed, but was also rushed so as to post the promotions at the desired time.^[23]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus An administrator (aismallard) was tasked with contacting one of DrAkimoto’s team captains (Yossipossi) to relay the concerns of the administrators, and to request closure regarding the concerns of the nomination. According to the official apology, the administrator either unintentionally or incorrectly implied to the team captain that DrAkimoto’s nomination was being rescinded by the administrators. Under this impression, the captain then assented to the perceived veto:^[24]https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14226168/an-official-statement-and-apology-to-akimoto-regarding-promo

“Feeling pressured by time, aismallard conveys [to] them in such a matter implying that the admins want Akimoto’s promotion rescinded. Yossi assents, interpreting this as administration vetoing the promotion nomination. aismallard relays the assent from Yossi to administration, who interpret Yossi’s response as them voluntarily withdrawing Akimoto’s candidacy. Consequently, Bleep removes Akimoto from promotions thread and posts it to O5.”

Autumn Promotions 2021 – O5 Command

DrAkimoto was not initially listed in the Autumn Promotions 2021 thread on the O5 Command forum. Upon reading the post, DrAkimoto contacted one of his two team captains (Yossipossi) asking about why he was not included, and was told that the nomination had been vetoed by administrators. In reply, DrAkimoto vocalized an intent to resign from staff to the team captain (see “Retirement/Un-Retirement”). This is conveyed to the administrators, who concluded collectively that DrAkimoto resigned rather than address the administrators’ concerns over his nomination to moderator. An official statement notes that the administrators were at this point unaware if DrAkimoto had been given an opportunity to address those concerns, and that his team captain was also unaware that the administrators wanted DrAkimoto to have an opportunity to address those concerns prior to candidacy removal.

In AdCap chat, DrAkimoto’s second team captain (LadyKatie) then vouched for DrAkimoto, saying he had no behavioral issues, and that DrAkimoto’s staff work was above average. The recap of the moment states:

“It becomes even more clear that there was a complete breakdown in communication, from failing to talk to Akimoto, to miscommunications about what the admins wanted to do, to a complete lack of follow through.”

Soon after, and less than 24 hours after the Autumn 2021 Promotions thread was created, the promotions were thus suspended (October 8th), with an explanatory post stating that a severe miscommunication had occurred.

On October 11th in general staffchat, the administrator responsible for conducting the promotions cycle (DrBleep) stated:

“I have stopped promos completely as I recognize how dirty Akimoto was done. For them to continue I wish for a direct conversation with Akimoto to happen, in which discussion about their previous work occurs, and Admins extend a full apology, and I personally will add them to promos.”

An administrator (Dexanote) informed the general staffchat during a discussion about the official statement that AdCap had been discussing the issue “for the past three days”, or since the date of DrAkimoto’s resignation letter.

Promotions were paused until the miscommunication could be resolved.

On October 13, the originating post for the Autumn Promotions 2021 thread was edited to include DrAkimoto as a nominee for the moderator position, and the vote time was reset to 7 days. DrAkimoto’s “Why” section of the promotion nomination stated:

“DrAkimoto has been a valuable asset for the Internet Outreach Team, running the Facebook and Instagram alongside [another staff member]. He has proposed numerous initiatives that indicate a very fine sense of how the outer fandom runs and how to help promote lesser-known quality works, as well as exposing the fandom to lore which may otherwise be dense or inaccessible.”

DrAkimoto’s nomination received 30 “yes” votes and 9 “no” votes, passing with a 75% approval percentage, higher than the requisite 61% for moderator.

Retirement/Un-Retirement

On October 8th, after the initial publications of the Autumn 2021 Promotions thread and before the vote was paused, DrAkimoto posted a dedicated thread in the “Staff Updates” portion of the O5 Command forum, then titled “Retirement”, announcing his resignation from staff:

“Hello folx, today I am resigning from all of my on-site staff positions. In the spirit of actual transparency; Its been brought to my attention that my recent (and most likely past 3) promotions have been squashed by member(s) of upper staff simply based off what I assume to be personal “concerns”. The fact that despite the work I’ve done, I’m not deserving of a promotion or even have the trust of my peers is disheartening. Regardless of the reasonings the promotion itself is not very important to me but the lack of trust and feeling of of being unwelcome is enough for me to say goodbye. I do love this community and hope to see it thrive but I will be doing so as a normal member of the community. With no hard feelings, I sincerely wish you all the best.”

This statement was met with well-wishes from DrAkimoto’s peers. Three days later on October 11th, DrAkimoto replied to this initial post, the title “UnRetirement”, writing:

“Update: Thank you for the well wishes but after a discussion with my captain I will be resuming my former positions. In other words, y’all are stuck with me.”

The post was presumably made after one of DrAkimoto’s team captains directly contacted DrAkimoto and gave an informal apology, as according to an official statement, administrators had not contacted DrAkimoto by that time to offer an apology. This was met with congratulations from DrAkimoto’s peers, welcoming him back to staff.

Official Statement and Apology – O5

On October 13th, five days after DrAkimoto resigned and two days after he recanted his resignation, staff issued an official and public apology to DrAkimoto, explaining that “a number of errors in communication and diffusion of responsibility on our part led to Akimoto being removed from consideration for promotion.” The post gave an extensive and detailed timeline of events that elucidated the miscommunications that led to the exclusion of DrAkimoto in the Autumn 2021 promotions, and was similar to the earlier version posted in staffchat.

The promotions cycle was resumed within the hour with DrAkimoto as a nominee.

Controversy & Criticism

The majority of controversy and criticism resulting from the DrAkimoto Incident was internal to staff operations and was compounded within internal discussions, which led to worsening relations and trust between the upper staff and the general staff. The general view of the participating general staff members on the ensuing discussion relative to the DrAkimoto Incident, in conjunction with other ongoing events (e.g. The Cerastes Incident), was that the upper staff leveraged its exclusivity to excuse their failures and infractions, being exempt from “Rule 0” citations, and that this strata of staff was untrustworthy.

Once the official account was presented to general staff, the quoted miscommunications of the DrAkimoto as well as these concerns from the general staff led to a restructuring of the chat’s rules by administrators, as well as a rehaul of the Discord’s channel structure, e.g. removing channels marked for “casual” discussions, including those between only administrators and team captains. In agreement with the administration’s official account and apology to DrAkimoto, general staff members concluded that a systemic problem existed that resulted in miscommunications, which the DrAkimoto Incident was a manifestation of. The issue was partially pinned on administrators’ naturally tendency to self-police, and behind closed doors, and resulted in pushes for greater transparency in higher staff to general staff and to the public.

One staff member (Rounderhouse) claimed that the official statements given on the event “… paints a picture of administrators passing blame from one another without acknowledgement of systemic communication issues within the staff structure,” and feels that “the statement does not properly accept blame,” and “lays blame on [others] for other people’s communications problems.”

Another staff member (gee0765) identified a tendency of the administration to postpone important tasks until the last minute, as seen in the failure to contact DrAkimoto and/or one of his team captains, and also in the administration’s apparent delay in releasing an official explanation of the events to the general staff.

AdCap vs Staffchat Tension

General staff members perceived an insular nature of the administrator/captain-exclusive chat room during and after the DrAkimoto Incident, and felt as though it was being used to avoid direct questions/discussions that would hold them accountable. This is observed in conjunction with other incidents wherein higher staff seemed incapable of delivering and receiving punishment, e.g. The Cerastes Incident.

On October 11th, a staff member requested an update on the ongoing promotions freeze. An official statement (similar in content to the Official Statement and Apology later posted to O5 Command on October 13th) was shared to the general SCP Wiki staffchat, which included staff members of all ranks (as opposed to AdCap). An administrator (Dexanote) instructed those present to withhold comments on “the wider topic of miscommunication” until one of DrAkimoto’s team captains (LadyKatie) could comment on the incident first. The recaps quote LadyKatie as saying that “more pressing issues” needed to be addressed before policy discussions, such as the emotions of DrAkimoto. Several staff members took issue with this moratorium on discussion, asking why a statement was posted if it couldn’t be discussed, and that “delaying this conversation to address other issues that should have already been addressed is unnecessary.” The present administrator (Dexanote) also asks the general staff to give “the people responsible for this situation… time to resolve it before discussion continues.”

During this time, a parallel discussion on the events and staffchat response was being held in AdCap. This was brought to the attention of staffchat, first by suspicion, and then confirmed by an administrator (aismallard). In the parallel conversation in AdCap, administrators and captains had been addressing how heated the discussion in staffchat was.

Staff users expressed discontent that discussions had been and were still being isolated into AdCap. One user (gee0765) asked why certain staff members “retreat” to AdCap. Another then-captain (LilyFlower) informed staff members that she was the first to bring the situation to AdCap’s attention, believing it was the most efficient and fastest way to get the attention of the administrators and team captains.

The general conversation criticized the insular nature and posture of the AdCap chat channel, and how it contributed to miscommunications, and asks how administrators can be held accountable for actions and missteps, if they are the ones policing themselves. A protean “IntraStaff Issues Team” is proposed and discussed for this purpose.

Policy Errors

The DrAkimoto was arguably an inadvertent breach of policy in that administrators are not able nor allowed to veto a nomination from a team captain, and only the nominee’s team captain can revoke a nomination once placed. It is not mentioned or addressed how/why DrAkimoto’s team captain was unaware that administrator’s cannot by policy rescind a moderator nomination.

For moderator promotions, the protocol for promotions at the time of the autumn 2021 promotions (updated in August 2021) stated:

“Mod Promotion:

If a member of Operational Staff requests to become a moderator, ask them to write a short wikidot PM to the administrator or administrators who are covering promotions with the following information:

* Their greatest strengths and accomplishments on the site.

* Their most obvious flaws and weaknesses.

* What they need this power for and what they’re going to do with it.

After or before receiving this PM, discuss the user with other members of the site. Get information on them and how they act, including the opinions of a great many members of staff and site users, especially Team Captains they serve under. Check their site activity. Once their wikidot PM has been received, distribute it to administration and their Team Captains to see if it passes muster, and they’re the kind of person we want with deleting capabilities on the site.

If the answer is yes, put them up for promotion.”

The phrase “especially Team Captains they serve under” was not closely followed in The DrAkimoto Incident.

It is not addressed in the staff’s official statements, or is unclear, whether DrAkimoto followed this protocol in seeking to become a moderator by sending a PM to the administrator covering the promotions cycle (DrBleep). DrAkimoto maintained a resume of staff work and accomplishment on the Topiary sandbox, last updating it in February 2021, and porting it to a different sandbox on October 11, 2021, the same day as DrAkimoto’s “unretirement”.^[51]http://topia.wikidot.com/drakimoto-s-staff-accomplishments^[52]http://www.wikidot.com/user:info/drakimoto, page 3)

In the official procedure guide for promotions to moderator, it states that a nominee’s PM application should be discussed among administrators and their team captains “to see if it passes muster, and they’re the kind of person we want with deleting capabilities on the site.” This is in contrast and contradiction to another official statement, given in recaps:

“Admins are unable to outright veto/pull a promotion candidate. Even as captain of MAST, I do not have the ability to outright reject a promotion candidate. Only a captain is able to do so, and only by withdrawing the nomination.”

In questioning whether or not DrAkimoto had improved upon perceived concerns for his promotion to moderator, the administrators noted that there were no logged records of DrAkimoto’s prior team captain (Modern_erasmus) addressing these or following up. This implies that such records should have been made, or that the process was not formalized in a way that administrators expected them to be.

Contradictions

Contradictions exist between official statements by staff on the event, with external data, and with staff-established policy.

The official claim that administrators were not interested in influencing captains to rescind any nominations^[55]https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14226168/an-official-statement-and-apology-to-akimoto-regarding-promo is contradicted by (1) the voicing of an initial complaint by an administrator upon the AdCap nomination of DrAkimoto as a potential moderator candidate (with this administrator’s identity being redacted in later discussions), (2) the process of asking DrAkimoto’s team captain about any response to past concerns prior to approving his nomination, (3) the “Mod Promotions” section of the Promotions Policy^[56]https://05command.wikidot.com/promotion-procedure (published one month prior), and (4) the removal of DrAkimoto from the nominations list by an administrator prior to the promotions thread, as opposed to the voting staff on the O5 Command thread itself, (5) the administrator overseeing the promotions who wrote “Speaking as an individual, the initial conversation brought up concerns that I thought should be addressed”, and (6) two known examples from recovered staff chat logs that demonstrate moderators and an administrator arguing against potential junior staff and operational staff candidates prior to public voting.^[57]https://www.containmentfiction.net/wiki/reverendfox-discussion/, archive^[58]https://www.containmentfiction.net/wiki/reverendfox-discussion/, archive^[59]https://web.archive.org/web/20211209115012/https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/meet-the-staff)

The October 2021 recaps state that the administrator responsible for the promotions (DrBleep) “… [asked] admin chat on the night promotions are supposed to go up if this has been addressed, if Yossi and by proxy, Akimoto, have been talked to about this issue, though a conversation with Akimoto is not directly stated to be needed.” Later, the same administrator writes, “I wanted a conversation in private between Akimoto’s captains an Admin as well as Akimoto himself to discuss this issue, how he had improved, and whether our concerns were unfounded or not.” The latter statement contradicts the first, where a conversation with Akimoto is not directly stated to be needed.^[60]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus

According to both the official account & apology, as well as the October 2021 recaps, several administrators stated after DrAkimoto’s public resignation that they would have rather seen this matter resolved by promotion vote, with the concerns public. The recaps note that this “… [runs] in contrast to the language used in the initial discussions.”^[61]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus^[62]https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14226168/an-official-statement-and-apology-to-akimoto-regarding-promo This contradicts the promotions policy at the time, which stated regarding a moderator’s application that “Once their wikidot PM has been received, distribute it to administration and their Team Captains to see if it passes muster, and they’re the kind of person we want with deleting capabilities on the site.”^[63]https://05command.wikidot.com/promotion-procedure Similarly, in the official account & apology, it is stated “Admins will make it clear to staff that we do not believe it is ever appropriate for administrators to push team captains to rescind any nominations”, which contradicts the same portion of the official procedure for moderator nominations.^[64]https://05command.wikidot.com/promotion-procedure

Many of the miscommunications of the DrAkimoto Incident were attributed to “a perceived time crunch for promos to move forward” (see Controversy & Criticism, #4-13). The administrator responsible for conducting the promotions (DrBleep) wrote that “I was willing to delay promos as long as needed in order for proper conversation to occur, but no desire to hold off other than my own was expressed.” The administrator paused promotions with conditions that had to be met first, stating that “For them to continue I wish for a direct conversation with Akimoto to happen, in which discussion about their previous work occurs, and Admins extend a full apology, and I personally will add them to promos.” That the promotions (1) could initially be delayed, (2) were technically paused, and (3) were done so with prerequisites that needed to be met prior to moving forward, contradict that a time-pressure was present or necessary, and suggests it would have been self-imposed by the administrator(s).

The statement (see above) that “… but no desire to hold off other than my own was expressed” contradicts official statements that the administrators were hoping for DrAkimoto to address their concerns prior to the promotions thread being published.^[65]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus, “Yossi is unaware that admins wished Akimoto to have this opportunity.”

When DrAkimoto conveyed to Yossipossi that he was resigning from staff as a result of not being included as a promotions candidate, some administrators concluded that DrAkimoto resigned rather than address the administrators’ concerns over his nomination to moderator.^[66]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus However, an official statement notes that the administrators were at this point unaware if DrAkimoto had been given an opportunity to address those concerns.^[67]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus, “Yossi is unaware that admins wished Akimoto to have this opportunity.”

In the official account, administrators were unsure about whether DrAkimoto’s team captain (Yossipossi) was aware of DrAkimoto’s past behavior and nominated him due to known improvement, or if the team captain wasn’t aware of the past behavior and nominated him due to ignorance of his past behavior.^[68]https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14226168/an-official-statement-and-apology-to-akimoto-regarding-promo, “Agreement is reached that this should be brought to Yossi’s attention, in … Continue reading

In official accounts, responsibility for the event is not tagged on any individual administrator, but per the October 2021 recaps, one administrator’s name was redacted from the record “to not attract any possible negative attention towards this admin for making the initial complaint.”^[69]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus

In the October 2021 recaps, an administrator (Dexanote) asks that “… the people responsible for this situation have time to resolve it before discussion continues”. This contradicts the official statement from the administrator conducting the promotions (DrBleep) that the issue was a systemic issue.^[70]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus

In the October 2021 recaps, an administrator (Dexanote) and one of DrAkimoto’s team captains (LadyKatie) suggest that “Akimoto being hurt takes precedence” over policy discussions, or discussions on the miscommunications that occurred. This conversation took place on October 11th, three days after LadyKatie’s vouching for DrAkimoto had moved the administrator(s) to pause the promotions voting on October 8th. Since that time, per the recaps, the AdCap chat had been discussing the problems of the situation for three days (ongoing and over a weekend), contradicting the statement that the feelings of DrAkimoto took precedence over discussions of policy or on the miscommunications that occured.

After staffchat points out general issues in miscommunication that extend far beyond DrAkimoto’s promotion, administrators and team captains formulate “… a communications team to give one or more admins the responsibility personally of preventing something like this happening again.” This team necessarily creates new work for administrators and team captains. In the next sentence, the administrators and captains blame overwork for their miscommunications, and recommend relieving themselves of some duties to combat the overwork.

The administrator responsible for overseeing the promotions (DrBleep) stated in the October 2021 Recaps that they recognized “how dirty DrAkimoto was done”. This is contradicted by the administrator’s refusal to reveal the name of the administrator who made the initial complaint against DrAkimoto in AdCap, writing “this was done to not attract any possible negative attention towards this admin.”

Trivia

On the October 2021 Recaps that summarizes portions of the DrAkimoto Incident, a preface states: “This is a recap of all unique points made during two day, multi-pronged discussion occurring in Staffchat. Fun fact: 5% of all messages ever sent in #staff-discussion were sent on the first day. Reader beware. We’re serious.”

The DrAkimoto took place 4 months after ProcyonLotor’s failed Administrator promotion, almost 1 year after The Cerastes Incident, and one month after the policies and procedures for promotions had been re-emphasized by staff.

DrAkimoto maintained a “Staff Accomplishments” sandbox, detailing their work and a loose resume while on staff.

A similar procedure and result had happened for DrAkimoto relative to his possible promotion to moderator three times before. In their resignation letter, DrAkimoto references having not been nominated during the past three promotion cycles (in order, the October 2020 promotions, the February 2021 promotions, and the Summer 2021 promotions). DrAkimoto was not listed as up for promotion in any of these, suggesting his name (if mentioned) did not pass the closed-door nomination phase.

Of the four times that DrAkimoto’s potential promotion to moderator was stymied, the only time that miscommunications were identified and an official account published was the time DrAkimoto publicly announced his dissatisfaction with the process.

The released statements by staff do not indicate who, whether singular or plural, raised these concerns, and effort is later taken to redact the names of some individuals involved. When asked about the refusal to name of an administrator who argued for initially removing DrAkimoto from the promotions candidate pool, the administrator overseeing the promotions (DrBleep) stated “this was done to not attract any possible negative attention towards this admin for making the initial complaint.”

The webpage anchor on the October 2021 Recaps for the promotions suspension discussions reads “promsus”.

In the official accounts of AdCap discussions, and in the official retelling of the miscommunications that led to the DrAkimoto Incident, numerous mistakes occur due to the administrators conveying their messages through team captains, and an individual administrator. The recaps at one point state “a conversation with Akimoto is not directly stated to be needed”.

The boilerplate messages given by administration to team captains to initiate nominations includes a section asking for the nominee’s weaknesses.

The passing grade for a moderator nomination is at least 61% in favor.

In the promotions policy at the time of the DrAkimoto Incident, a line suggests a meeting between the administrator in charge of promotions, any team captains, and a junior staff member nominee in order to address any concerns prior to listing for or denying promotion to operational staff. However this suggestion is struck-through.

DrAkimoto’s second team captain (LadyKatie) was not consulted at any point on the night promotions were posted, and she did not find out about the withdrawal and Akimoto’s resignation until the next day. A retired admin (thedeadlymoose) did not know she was co-captain with another.

The administrator responsible for the promotions cycle (DrBleep) declined to accept responsibility for the lack of follow-up communication with DrAkimoto’s team captains prior to posting the promotions thread, writing: “In some ways, this responsibility might have fallen to me, but given my IRL activity, and the fact that this was the third time that Akimoto’s promotion was blocked, with no evaluation of whether or not those pieces in the past were representative of current Akimoto, I feel like this was a systemic and communication issue. Admins are actively discussing how we can address this systemic issue, and suggestions are welcome.” This was never recognized as a failure of leadership on the administration’s part, but was noted in follow up discussions by general staff members.

In the (unpaused) Autumn 2021 Promotions thread, all 8 of the then-current administrators voted “yes” for DrAkimoto. No one who voted “no” for DrAkimoto cites the reasons that administrators initially didn’t want him promoted. The “optional areas of improvement” section on DrAkimoto’s eventual nomination does not include anything about these initial concerns.

DrAkimoto initially realized that his nomination had been rejected when reading the promotions thread. He had not been given a private apology by administrators at the time of the official apology on O5.^[89]https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14226168/an-official-statement-and-apology-to-akimoto-regarding-promo

One of the reasons given for why LadyKatie was not contacted during the precipitating events of the DrAkimoto Incident is that a retired administrator (thedeadlymoose) wasn’t aware that LadyKatie was DrAkimoto’s co-captain.^[90]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus It is not addressed how/why the other administrators failed to recognize this and did not contact LadyKatie for comment in the week the questions were unanswered.

The only individuals who accepted responsibility for the DrAkimoto Incident were DrAkimoto’s team captain (Yossipossi) and the lone administrator who contacted this team captain (aismallard). In the October 2021 recaps, they accepted partial blame for the event, and apologized that they were not as resistant as they should have been, and should have pushed back instead of going forward.^[91]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus

In the October 2021 recaps, an administrator “Dexanote” asks that “the people responsible for this situation have time to resolve it before discussion continues”. The names of these individuals said to be responsible for the event are not revealed.

According to the timing laid out by the official apology to DrAkimoto, multiple administrators personally apologized to LadyKatie before apologizing to DrAkimoto.^[92]https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14226168/an-official-statement-and-apology-to-akimoto-regarding-promo

After DrAkimoto posted his resignation to the O5 Command on October 8th, the official statements note that LadyKatie cleared DrAkimoto of all potential issues, and that this discussion caused administration to pause promotions (also on October 8th). The October 2021 recaps note that in a discussion on the incident on October 11th, LadyKatie had not yet reached out to DrAkimoto, with an administrator (Dexanote) remarking, “[I want] Katie to be able to do her job before discussion is picked up.”^[93]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus

During the October 2021 Recap discussion between general staff members and administrator/captains about why the discussions were being so tightly regulated and quarantined to AdCap, a team captain (LilyFlower) stated that she was the first to bring the situation to AdCap’s attention, believing it was the most efficient and fastest way to get the attention of the administrators and team captains. This is the same chatroom that failed to contact two team captains about DrAkimoto in a week.

During the AdCap vs staffchat discussions regarding the DrAkimoto Incident, an administrator (ManyMeats) details a “call out” mechanism, where general staff members can address when they believe a discussion is taking place inappropriately in AdCap. A staff member (gee0765) immediately invoked this mechanism to pull the discussion about the DrAkimoto Incident from the confines of AdCap to the general staff chat.

In the AdCap-vs-staffchat discussions, general staff users criticized administrators and team captains for hiding their statements behind the wall of their exclusive chat room, with the insinuation that AdCap was leveraging its inaccessibility to say things that should be said publicly. User Rounderhouse intuited that a member of the AdCap rank had complained about the discussion in AdCap. The October 2021 recaps state: “Members of AdCap briefly dispute, investigate, then confirm this.”

The DrAkimoto Incident occurred during the prolonged Cereastes Incident, which, in the October 2021 Recaps, was used as an argument in favor of higher staff being untrustworthy, and ineffective at policing themselves and their own actions; the common thread being administration’s perceived immunity to accountability or disciplinary measures. A majority of the recorded discussion about The DrAkimoto Incident in the October 2021 recaps becomes about The Cerastes Incident.

In the midst of a discussion regarding the perceived secrecy and unaccountability to general staff members, a retired administrator (thedeadlymoose) attempts to explain why disciplinary measures for an administrator (Dexanote) were “toothless because of [REDACTED AS I’M NOT ALLOWED TO SAY THIS EVEN THOUGH I WANT TO]”. The retired administrator would later clarify that they were referencing “internal political reasons [they weren’t] allowed to discuss”.

The individual(s) responsible for the miscommunications inherent to the DrAkimoto Incident also wrote and released the official account of events, essentially the staff member investigating themselves and absolving themselves of direct or actionable wrongdoing by concluding mass miscommunications.

It is never addressed why the questionable trends cited as concern for DrAkimoto’s possible promotion weren’t conducted publicly on the O5 promotions thread, only that some administrators resented that it took place in private.

The phrase “… a complete lack of follow through”, present in the draft version of the official account in staffchat, does not appear on the public O5 Command official apology version which otherwise closely matches it.

When ex-SCP Wiki administrator pixelatedHarmony was asked if any operational staff (to moderator) promotions were vetoed behind the scenes during her tenure (2017- 2021), she replied: “Oh all the time… lots of whispering goes into making those lists.”

Quotes

“LadyKatie announces that DrAkimoto has rejoined staff. stormfallen asks if promotions will be resumed and an O5 post made. DrBleep says she will reopen promotions tomorrow.” — October 2021 Recaps

“Croquembouche adds that the lack of formalized delegation chains can cause issues like the recent problem with DrAkimoto’s promotion. gee feels that the fact that a small, closed discussion failed to handle an issue properly is an argument for having such discussions on a larger scale.” — October 2021 Recaps.

“LadyKatie proposes “we move all major discussions like this to O5. If we’d done that sooner, we’d have a statement. And it’d be easier to keep logs of everything.” — October 2021 Recaps

“gee reiterates that AdCap is holding a conversation which should be occurring in the “public” channels.” — October 2021 Recaps

“ROUNDERHOUSE asserts that AdCap being easier is not an excuse for “Avoiding hard conversations because they will result in long, drawn-out and admittedly confusing discussions.” — October 2021 Recap

“No matter what has improved there is still no way to hold certain people accountable or enforce rules on certain positions.” — Pedagon, October 2021 Recaps

“ROUNDERHOUSE responds to this by questioning whether Moose doesn’t see the problem of having the people with power acting as the ones adjudicating whether or not said power has been abused.” — October 2021 Recaps

“Moose responds to ManyMeats’ suggestion for an anonymous process of submitting complaints to Disc by expressing confusion why there isn’t already such a process of anonymous as there is for AHT.” — October 2021 Recaps

“Cyvstvi argues that AHT and Disc should have similar levels of transparency in order to resolve the issues brought up by Pedagon around trust in staff.” — October 2021 Recaps

Moose agrees that Disc should reform to reduce their blackbox nature, but rhetorically asks “why would [Disc] want to be less blackbox, when they have been approached in massively shitty ways” which is answered when gee0765 opines: “because they shouldn’t be acting to protect themselves, they should be acting to make the site a better place.” — October 2021 Recaps

“Due to TheDeadlyMoose’s habit of responding to every substantive post on a significant delay, a parellel [sic] conversation has been taking place about the November 2020.” — October 2021 Recaps

“stormfallen summarizes the action items from this difficult day:
1. Get an 05 statement about the whole Akimoto clusterfuck
2. Restart promos
3. Discussion about why Disc chat should or shouldn’t be visible to general staff
4. Discussion about staff-wide Jira
5. Resuming discussion about censure for Dex and Mann
6. Discussion about who should handle inter/intra-staff issues, and how they should be reported.
He later adds:
7. Discuss how to better format these long conversations so that people who aren’t around/can’t follow along as easily can still know what happened
8. Draft proposal to reword Rule Zero”

— October 2021 Recaps

Unanswered questions/topics I won’t address (on the Confic Wiki article) due to them being too editorializing:

What was DrAkimoto’s problematic writing referred to by administrators questioning his nomination and how was it a “red flag”/insensitive to marginalized users?

Who is the promoted mod with the lowest approval percentage? (https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-15640555/winter-promotions-2023, psychicprogrammer; http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-13078259/latewinter-promotions-2020, modulum)

Who was the redacted admin whose identity was protected “to not attract any possible negative attention towards this admin for making the initial complaint”?

Why was there such an incompressible time crunch, or at least the perception of it, when it was clear any deadline was technically artificial, and that the administrator conducting the promotions had the power to delay, pause, and even reset the vote? Either incompetence or

~~Was the official statement shared to staffchat before staff spoke with DrAkimoto? (GG, http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus)~~ To staffchat Discord; yes. To O5; no.

If the administrators were interested on whether or not DrAkimoto had improved or responded to Modern_erasmus’ hesitations with his potential promotion to moderator, and if this was the crux of his possible promotion, why wasn’t there follow up regarding protocol for such records in the aftermath? Why is the lack of any records of this sort not addressed as part of the issues that needed to be prevented from a similar situation occurring? Why are such records not kept now, and why weren’t they routinely kept prior?

Why are the administrators allowed to investigate themselves and dole out the report themselves?

Why did there have to be behind-the-scenes discussion at all, and the administrators’ concerns not simply be voiced on O5 Command, like everyone and anyone else voting would do? What in here couldn’t be mentioned or discussed in the ensuing O5 Command voting thread? If it was not Admins intention to sink a nomination, then why did they have to have the discussion in their own channels and speedily, prior to the public vote?

What is more likely; that all these miscommunications occurred, and that no pre-vetting process occurs by administrators for promotions even though that happened exactly in spite of the miscommunications and official account; OR, that DrAkimoto had a political ceiling placed over him for what was seen as permanent and unforgivable affronts to the culture’s strict political climate?

Why are these gaps in time between these so large? Why in ample time to have fixed the miscommunication clearly presented to them, didn’t Staff reach out to contact Akimoto from making this public and mortifying statement?

Why did Staff continuously forget about LadyKaty?

If Admins “do not believe it is ever appropriate for administrators to push team captains to rescind any nominations,” if there was no precedent or normalized behavior for Admins to fiat-veto nominations pre-existing in common experience in Staff, why did Yossi comply so easily to the belief that they were doing just that? Why did Yossi have no problem relaying that to Akimoto as the official explanation?

Why is the discussion of The Cerastes Incident so close in content and character to the DrAkimoto one?

“the nature of these miscommunications”

References[+]

References
↑1, ↑5, ↑24, ↑38, ↑39, ↑55, ↑62, ↑89, ↑92, ↑98	https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14226168/an-official-statement-and-apology-to-akimoto-regarding-promo
↑2, ↑3, ↑6, ↑8, ↑19, ↑20, ↑22, ↑23, ↑26, ↑28, ↑29, ↑30, ↑31, ↑40, ↑42, ↑44, ↑45, ↑46, ↑47, ↑48, ↑49, ↑54, ↑60, ↑61, ↑66, ↑69, ↑70, ↑71, ↑78, ↑79, ↑80, ↑84, ↑85, ↑86, ↑90, ↑91, ↑93, ↑94, ↑95, ↑96, ↑97	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus
↑4	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#workgroup
↑7	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#jiraboard
↑9	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14233505/
↑10	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14415091/november-2021-recap#adrecapdeclassification
↑11	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14415091/november-2021-recap#discreformq
↑12	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14415091/november-2021-recap#affirmation
↑13	https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-14437452/december-2021-recap#channels
↑14	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap, “Autumn Promotions”, “Promotions Suspension and Communication”
↑15	http://grave-box.wikidot.com/drakimotostaffchart, archive
↑16, ↑17, ↑18	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-13078259/latewinter-promotions-2020
↑21	https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14226168/an-official-statement-and-apology-to-akimoto-regarding-promo, archive
↑25	https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14219973/autumn-promotions-2021, “7 Oct 2021, 19:03” revision, archive
↑27, ↑36	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14220486/un-retirement
↑32	https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14219973/autumn-promotions-2021#post-5103563
↑33	https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14219973/autumn-promotions-2021#post-5103563, “13 Oct 2021, 17:52” revision
↑34	https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14219973/autumn-promotions-2021, archive
↑35	https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14219973/autumn-promotions-2021#post-5113024
↑37	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14220486/un-retirement#post-5105968
↑41	https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14219973/autumn-promotions-2021#post-5107527
↑43	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14469551/discussion-culling-staffchat-casual-chats
↑50, ↑53, ↑56, ↑63, ↑64, ↑81, ↑82	https://05command.wikidot.com/promotion-procedure
↑51, ↑74	http://topia.wikidot.com/drakimoto-s-staff-accomplishments
↑52	http://www.wikidot.com/user:info/drakimoto, page 3
↑57	https://www.containmentfiction.net/wiki/reverendfox-discussion/, archive
↑58	https://www.containmentfiction.net/wiki/reverendfox-discussion/, archive
↑59	https://web.archive.org/web/20211209115012/https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/meet-the-staff
↑65, ↑67	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus, “Yossi is unaware that admins wished Akimoto to have this opportunity.”
↑68	https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14226168/an-official-statement-and-apology-to-akimoto-regarding-promo, “Agreement is reached that this should be brought to Yossi’s attention, in case this had not been previously surfaced as a concern, or if he had additional information regarding the concerns.”) Administrators were interested in “… whether our concerns were unfounded or not”. However, the official account also states that administrators interpreted the assent from DrAkimoto’s team captain (Yossipossi) as that team captain voluntarily withdrawing DrAkimoto candidacy. This implies that the administrators ultimately assumed the team captain had nominated DrAkimoto without knowledge of his prior actions. The administrators would have believed that their concerns were justified, and that their questioning of DrAkimoto prevented someone who was unfit for the position to be nominated. When DrAkimoto’s second team captain (LadyKatie) is spoken with after his resignation, she vouches for him stating that his behavior had been acceptable and his staff work was above average quality and effort. The administrators take this to be the affirmation that their concerns were addressed, which contradicts their initial statements about potentially problematic writing from the perspective of marginalized users, this originally necessitating a “discussion about their previous work”.((http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14351967/october-2021-recap#promsus
↑72	https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14130191/admin-promotion-june-2021
↑73	https://05command.wikidot.com/promotions-policy
↑75	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-13825397/fall-promotions-october-2020
↑76	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-13995669/early-year-promos-2021
↑77	http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14115866/summer-promos-2021
↑83	https://05command.wikidot.com/promotion-procedure, “Normally, the admin in charge of promotions should meet with the Team Captain (or captains) who suggested the Junior Staff member privately to discuss the issues brought up by staff, then meet as a group to discuss these issues with the Junior Staff Member in question. If after this meeting, the admin in charge of promotions is confident in the Junior Staff Member, they should be promoted. If the problems are not resolved, they should not be promoted.”
↑87	https://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14219973/autumn-promotions-2021
↑88	https://web.archive.org/web/20211005234554/https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/meet-the-staff
↑99	https://lackoflepers.medium.com/recap-harder-oct-2021-recaps-part-2-144f050d9a61