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Macha Awareness (And Unappreciation) thread
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@junipersky said in Macha Awareness (And Unappreciation) thread:
I feel like one of her most defining traits is the way she talks about her OOC life. She could very legit have all the issues she talks about, but the way she phrases it is very much in a way that digs for sympathy and pity from others. She emphasizes her disabilities as reasons why people, especially those in authority, are out to get her.
I haven’t had much contact with her directly, but her constant RL overshares are one of the most awkward and uncomfortable and unavoidable things about being in the same play space as her.
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Her having/not having a disability is irrelevant. However, her discussing having a disability as a reason why people are out to get her IS one way to tell her from the masses.
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@Pavel said in Macha Awareness (And Unappreciation) thread:
@shit-piss-love said in Macha Awareness (And Unappreciation) thread:
Is there a reason these call-out posts don’t include a list of the characters/games these people have played on?
There are two factors complicating this. First, we don’t necessarily know instances of this particular person being a player vs some random person who made someone uncomfortable that one time. Second, we have a memory for repeated behaviour far more robust than the transient names attached to said behaviour.
Nonetheless, it might be a good idea for someone to compile a list.
A counterpoint to consider (not saying this is a bad idea, just something to think about):
I think if you do that, you start getting into a situation of policing, and there are various factors to consider if you’re going to do that. Not that this is a bad practice to implement, but it’s one that probably needs to be well thought out.
There are definitely some reprehensible people in the MU* community. There are also people who get lumped into that category, fairly or unfairly, based on association or having done similar things to the reprehensible folks (but perhaps not to the same extent). Is that fair to them? I don’t know.
There is a tendency to witch hunt that I’ve seen on here and MSB, and I usually try to avoid participating in these forums as a result. I’ve been banned from a game in the past for what I would say is probably a debatable misunderstanding at best, but I could see the argument from the other side, and in my particular case, the other side was older and more known quantities, so it’s pretty understandable that that’s the narrative the staff went with. It happened, I got over it, no hard feelings, and I came away with an awareness of what tendencies I may have had that apparently had similarities to some bad actors of the past. Cool, a learning experience I could grow from.
What would not be cool IMO is if that circumstance and situation were to be perpetuated as a black mark for the entirety of my MUing career. While there are definitely some folks who are definitive bad actors and get identified resurfacing again and again with the same behaviors, there are also times where “that person I had an issue with that one time” is used to justify actions against a person again, at which point folks are given carte blanche to harass that person. To use a literary trope, it’s like that person is no longer a citizen and therefore has no rights, so you can pretty much do whatever you want to them and they can’t complain.
Because they did something once, somewhere, then clearly they are guilty again. I’ve seen that play out. I’ve seen people abuse the crap out of someone because they knew they could get away with it, because that person had a “reputation” (warranted or unwarranted). So clearly, if they were the ones complaining about BEING harassed, it must not be real.
There can be a lot of pitchforks and torches, and I think if we reach the point of “naming and shaming of every character ever”, there probably should be a bit more review of what actually even happened. While generally speaking the group think on here tends to be right when all is said and done, it’s not always, and I don’t think anyone is infallible. And the result could be perpetuating harassment against a victim. Particular since there are some members of this community (not many) who go after particular people like a dog with a bone, and WILL relentlessly harass someone who has caused them affront in the past. Not everyone on here is benevolent and nice.
Yes, we need to protect the community. I think that’s ultimately paramount. But are we ok with subjecting people to harassment (on here and IRL in some cases if there are personal details that get sniffed out) based around one side of the narrative? Because I can also tell you that someone who is accused of something nefarious or questionable on here has really strong incentive to NOT answer for or explain their side, and just to simply accept whatever fate befalls them on the game in question and not try to counter the narrative. I’ve seen what happens when people try to explain themselves, and it can be pretty vicious. So much so that when it happened to me, I didn’t even bother trying to come on and explain. And I’m much happier for having chosen that approach. (And no, I’m not going into it, I’m even leery of making this comment, but I feel it’s worth noting what the impact is on the other side.)
I don’t necessarily have a good answer, because there’s not really any court system here other than the court of public opinion. Just suggesting that we consider heavily whether we want to start nuking people from orbit.
Again, in cases like this it seems there is a pretty clear pattern. But where do you draw the line between a long clear pattern like this one, etc. That’s all.
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I don’t really remember who she played on ESH. I asked other staff and we sort of think she was playing some version of Rogue.
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@CuriousGamer Sabrielle@Comic Adventures is Macha. She has at least one other character there, but I’ve long since forgotten that name.
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@theworstburr said in Macha Awareness (And Unappreciation) thread:
because there’s not really any court system here other than the court of public opinion
I tried to set one up. Got the judge’s robes and everything. We’re talking British-style, bright red robes and shoulder-length wig.
The Honourable Lord Judge P. S. Kulikovskaya, presiding.
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@Nobody-0 Aww Jeez, yeah that makes perfect sense. I’ve heard she borrowed money from one player with the express purpose of not paying them back.
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I’ve updated the main post with the who@where’s, if there’s one you know of or I missed let me know and I’ll add
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@Jax I hope that is sarcasm? Though if you give money to people you know from the internet it’s best to assume your not getting it back.
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@CuriousGamer The story I heard she told the player she would pay them back then got the money and laughed at them behind their back calling them a sucker.
Oh I agree loaning people on the net is a bad idea.
My own interaction with her was her trying to get me on her side months after she had one of these incidents with another player and staff go involved. I walked out of the scene. She wasn’t a fan of me afterwards. Oh well, it doesn’t seem I missed out.
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Yeah I don’t expect repayment when I do an internet loan. & I have only done it rarely and for people I actually know ooc and care about.
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@Jax I have to admit I’m just slightly disappointed that this story didn’t end with her asking you for $20
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@CuriousGamer. Nah It probably would have ended with her saying 'I never asked him for 20 bucks he was confused, but he can give me 50 bucks to say he was sorry."
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@Jax Don’t forget the 3 people you’ve never talked to suddenly paging you about how your a horrible person for not giving her 50 bucks.
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Seriously, I must have like a digital aura that repels people, because I almost never get paged out of nowhere by anyone, and when I do it’s never dramatic. Point being I just can’t understand how these events occur. I’m assuming it has to do with the fact I don’t talk to people outside of channels very often. >.>
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@dvoraen Well, this is my understanding of the basic scenario.
Macha has something she wants. All is well till she doesn’t get it. When she doesn’t, she craptalks to you to circle of friends, making sure they talk to their friends. She used to have a good bit of influence, and as the bannings have been happening I do think that influence has been drying up significantly.
She’s influenced game runners (or the runners were her friends). She uses anything she can throw at you for circumstance to try to get you to feel bad. Or try to use a form of logic to retell events that are not quite right so she looks better, or not as bad to try to make you think that she is being ganged up on instead of taking personal responsibility. It could be something she’s claiming as rl, or a personal slight she perceives, something against someone else. Whatever gives her an ‘in’.
So at some point you hear from someone you do know - Hey, I heard this was going around about you? Did you know?
She finds way to wiggle into others confidence when she can, and tries to change their opinions of intended target. If your in her confidence, she’s probably talking about you to other people too.
I think that’s pretty much how it works. She’s still around. She hasn’t left the hobby, and is still trying to convince people things aren’t her fault.
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@CuriousGamer. Jokes on them/her. Somebody was probably already paging me that I’m the worst, so that doesn’t phase me.
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You know, hearing about her going around trying to get money from people – it makes me think of the big DM conversation she initiated with someone to get them banned from MSB. It was mostly a conversation about how awful I was. Among it, she said this:
“When a truly good person heard about something terrible happening to Roz, and couldn’t bring themselves to express basic sympathy, was when I knew I wasn’t the only one.” (To feel the way she felt about me, etc.)
The “something terrible” was my brother committing suicide a decade ago. And trust me, I would not have wanted to hear from Macha – or anyone else that didn’t like me – at the time! But man, it sure stuck with me that this was apparently an active decision, not just the normal “Oh that’s an awful thing that happened but that person and I don’t get along so it would make no sense to insert myself into the situation” thing, but “Oh that’s an awful thing and maybe I would say something but they are specifically undeserving of an expression of sympathy.” ETA: And the fact that she remembered this so specifically to bring it up ten years later.
Anyways that’s what I think of when it comes to her bothering people for their help.
she/her | playlist
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@Roz That is some pretty dark stuff. But that’s an example of Macha for you. For the uninitiated she can pull people in, try to show how she’s been wronged in any number of ways. And she hangs onto things.
Most people with common sense might say - I’ve been banned. This place isn’t working out for me. I did something wrong. It wasn’t a good fit. Etc. But she will try to mess with people from across mu*s. Instead of doing it openly she’s largely gone underground.
Sorry you had to go through that Roz. But as has been discussed, she’s not in a particularly sane headspace and plays by her own rules (that she makes up as she goes)
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@Roz Just when I think that I cannot dislike this person more, I hear more stories. I’m sorry that was ever said about you. It’s revolting and cruel.
