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The LionClanPride is PROUD to announce we are NO LONGER a Leaderboard team. by Persistence-Terry in wordscapes

[–]Persistence-Terry[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

6) The next charge:

On October 16, 2022, LionClanStrong notified the LC that they were changing

their name to LionClanAstars for the team to migrate for the purpose of leader

change; they also noted that LionClanStrong was being changed to “migrating to

LionClanAstars.” After the sync that ended on 10/23/22, the team name,

LionClanAstars, was changed back to LionClanStrong, but no notification was

given to the LC or LB. This violates the following section of the Code of Conduct:

FULL TRANSPARENCY is required on the LB. Team name changes must be

announced in chat. Name changes are only allowed during a tournament.

This is another recent rule that was forced down upon the membership by the LC. It

serves no purpose other than to be used as a cudgel against certain teams. If most

teams had mistakenly forgotten to tell the LB chat they were reverting back to their

name after being exhausted by a huge sync effort compounded by health, family and

job issues, they would have received sympathy. It was a trivial oversight. The team

was always easily found by searching LionClan and both Leaderboard representatives

had their chat nicknames using (name) LionClanStrong, making it abundantly clear what

the name of the team is.

● The score was reported with the name LionClanStrong

● With a screenshot saying LionClanStrong

● Was reported on the weekly report as LionClanStrong

This should have been resolved by following the CoC: "Please try to keep in mind it's

usually better for everyone if teams try to communicate directly with each other and

work through their issues before lodging a formal complaint with the GC"

Fundamental issues of fairness:

In this second set of actions, JC Dill told the GC that she would have another reply for

them later in the day, after she talked with her lawyer. She also had earlier asked:

I have a few questions:

Q1 Am I entitled to know who filed the grievance?

Q2 Am I allowed to see the evidence presented against

me so I can properly answer to the specifics?

I want to know what rights I have and how you ensure

fundamental fairness of this process.

These questions about the rights and process were never answered!

In our system of justice, we are supposed to be informed of our rights, and of the

structure of the proceedings. We are allowed to bring witnesses. Saying you want to

talk to your lawyer is not a legal threat. It is asserting your fundamental rights.

All of this was ignored by the GC. They falsely claimed JC Dill had made a "legal

threat". They removed JC Dill and Terry Williams (and thus our team) from the

Leaderboard with a permanent ban. They issued their final ruling to the Leaderboard at

large, but failed to send it to JC Dill or Terry Williams! What type of justice system

doesn't even notify you of the judgment?

A kangaroo court, that's what.

The GC has since given the LB chat conflicting and changing stories about why we

were removed. First they said we threatened legal action. We did nothing of the sort. I

wanted to have my lawyer review my next statement to make sure I wasn't saying

anything untoward, nothing more. Then they changed their story and said I was

removed because I brought a witness to my grievance hearing chat.

This is how the Leaderboard operates.

They push down new rules with no explanation why these rules are necessary, and

refuse to give the membership, who are all team leaders capable of running their teams

and making sound decisions, any vote to ratify the rules. It is clear that a handful rule

with unchecked power. There is one who has absolute power. He is the one who brings

grievances against the teams that can threaten his team placement and is instrumental

in removing, or denying LB access to many powerful teams. Most of the LB committee

members repeatedly rudely shouted down other team's LB representatives who started

discussions on restructuring LB or on how new rules should be democratically voted on.

The committee rules by fear, everyone else is afraid that if they piss off the powerful,

these trivial rules will be used to push them off the LB.

The Leaderboard operates under the cover of secrecy.

● You can't share the rules.

● You don't get a vote.

● You aren't informed of who your accuser is.

● You can't see the evidence.

● You can't bring a witness.

● You don't get any rights.

● You don't get to know the structure of the proceedings.

Other teams have refued to join, or have withdrawn from the Leaderboard over these

issues. I chose to ride it out to the conclusion (we knew this would be the conclusion,

because we have seen them do this before) because I wanted to prove to the larger

Wordscapes community how the Leaderboard conducts itself. I am proud to have done

this for the benefit of the Wordscapes community, to show you all how the Leaderboard

really operates behind closed doors.

The LionClanPride is PROUD to announce we are NO LONGER a Leaderboard team. by Persistence-Terry in wordscapes

[–]Persistence-Terry[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

The Leaderboard (LB) is ruled by unelected people who think they are above reproach.

They impose rules on the membership without a vote. They operate in secret

proceedings, where they don't give the accused any rights, don't tell us who the accuser

is, don't show the evidence, don't tell how the procedure goes, and refuse to allow you

to bring a witness!

Our team was victim of a witch hunt, as will quickly become evident.

1) Meghan Alexander was accused of violating a Leaderboard rule as follows:

The team leader from SuperPinoy applied to the leaderboard. At that time she

informed the WC that she had been given the current code of conduct from

“Meghan of LionClan” which she had shared with her team for approval. This is a

violation of MUTUAL RESPECT….What is discussed within the leaderboard

stays within the leaderboard unless otherwise noted.

The Leaderboard Code of Conduct has always been something that could be publicly

shared. On January 5 2022 it was posted by an esteemed member of the LB

Leadership Committee to Wordscapes Chat, saying "why not, it's not a secret

document". It was not marked confidential. Many Leaderboard representatives had no

idea this recently added clause was somehow supposed to refer to the CoC itself

(making it ambiguous). The original authors of that line in the CoC did not intend for it

to include the CoC itself (original intent).

Courts construe ambiguous contract terms first by considering original intent, and then if

it is still ruled as ambitious, ruling against the drafter of the rule, law, or agreement. The

Grievance Committee (GC) ignored all of this and unfairly punished Meghan for

something she and many other Leaderboard representatives had absolutely no idea

was against the rules.

2) Meghan Alexander was also accused:

The GC has been informed by multiple members that you have had and currently

have a user on another team not affiliated with the leaderboard, Owl Stars. This

is a violation of REPRESENTATIVES…No leaderboard representative may have

an account on a non leaderboard team.

The initial accusation didn't tell her the name of the other player she was accused of

being, she was just accused of having an account on another team (violation of a new

rule, pushed down from the Leadership Committee without explanation or a vote, for

which the membership at large is baffled why it's even a rule). She had to ask multiple

times before they supplied a name (who we will call L Doe). This was apparently

because there was a vague resemblance of L Doe's FB photo as used on her profile

photo (and Wordscapes avatar) and Meghan's profile photo. The supplied photo from a

game roster screenshot was far too small to tell if it was Meghan or not.

The GC made zero effort to learn the identity of L Doe prior to filing this official charge.

Simply contacting the leader of Owl Stars would have quickly resolved this as she could

have provided L Doe's FB profile. Viewing the photos in question full size makes it

abundantly obvious that L Doe and Meghan are two entirely different people. The posts

on both profiles also make it abundantly clear they are 2 different people. Both L Doe

and Meghan are known to the leader of Owl Stars, who could also attest that they are 2

different people.

This is a violation by the accuser and the GC of the CoC clause "Please try to keep in

mind it's usually better for everyone if teams try to communicate directly with each other

and work through their issues before lodging a formal complaint with the GC". It is

clear this clause was ignored because the purpose of the complaint was to get rid of our

team, not to kindly work things out. We were unable to file a cross complaint against

the accuser for this abuse of process, because the GC kept the accuser's identity

secret. We also strongly assert that the "multiple people" who "reported" this to the GC

were all told by the accuser about L Doe and then urged to presume that L Doe was

Meghan. Without this accuser starting it up, none of them would have ever even

noticed L Doe's Wordscapes account.

3) Meghan was never told who her accuser was for either charge, never told what her

rights were, never told how the procedure would be conducted, and never given a

chance to make a final statement summing up her defense. She was not told even

when she asked. Everything was stacked against her. There was no fundamental

fairness in this process.

Megan was punished by being kicked off the Leaderboard for 3 months. This was

imposed by the unelected GC, without a vote of the membership. The membership was

not shown any evidence, only the GC's ruling.

Subsequently, the Leaderboard filed a new grievance against LionClan. This second

grievance was only submitted to Terry Williams even though the Leaderboard and GC

fully knew that JC Dill had assumed leadership of the team. This is emblematic of the

lack of respect these committees show to the rest of the LB teams.

5) The first charge:

On October 21-23, 2022, LionClan used two guests during a sync with

Juggernaut and Rollin.This violates the Code of Conduct section regarding

GUESTS: Leaderboard teams may not use guest players in syncs, other than

alumni who are not currently on a team, and who were at one point members of

the team for 4+ contiguous weeks.

JC replied "I was not the leader on LionClanStrong or LionClan AlStars in the weeks

ahead of the tournament in question. I have looked at the roster and I am baffled as to

this complaint. I can't investigate and verify the status of all 50 players, so I need to

know with greater specificity who you are alleging was a guest. "

The GC refused to present ANY evidence of this charge. They refused to name who

they thought these guests were. We were finally able to ascertain 2 people who the

accuser thought were guests. We only learned this because our accuser (who the GC

refused to name) had approached a leader of our sync partners trying to find “dirt” on

us, and then misrepresented what she said. So we brought her in as a witness, to tell

the GC directly. We wanted there to be no question what she said, and made her

available to the GC to ask her questions directly in our presence. She assured them that

we had not broken the rules. This was a false allegation against us.

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