# Joint Statement from Essem and Micr0byte We want to address the recent situation regarding moderation actions taken on wetdry.world and fuzzies.wtf concerning Alexia's accounts. After careful review and discussion, we have realized that the moderation decisions were based on significant misunderstandings. What started as confusion about identities, believing '[individual A]' and '[individual B]' were different people when they are actually the same person, led to a cascading series of misinterpretations that fundamentally changed how the situation was understood. Micr0: I personally want to apologize to Alexia for allowing my personal feelings to influence how I interpreted our conversations. Once I began viewing certain interactions through a negative lens, this perspective colored everything else, creating a snowball effect of misinterpretations. I presented this subjective understanding to the moderation team as fact, which was wrong. I failed to properly account for important context, including that when I originally informed Alexia that [the individual] was 17, she stated she didn't know his age and ceased public interactions of that nature with him. Essem: I was originally informed of the situation when micr0 presented to me a lengthy account of their experience, and we agreed to place a limit pending further investigation. When Alexia messaged me I was trying to figure out how to respond, so I messaged micr0 about it; this was a big mistake on my end, and I should have responded directly rather than deferring it. More info was shared and I was leaning towards lifting the limit, but when '[individual A]' was brought up alongside '[individual B]', we both assumed that they were two separate people, and decided to keep the limit out of further caution. I believe that had I known more about the situation, it would have gone very differently, and I deeply apologize to both Alexia and everyone else involved. We need to address the specific concern in Alexia's blog post about 'collecting evidence' after moderation actions were already taken. What happened was that micr0 was beginning to doubt the initial assessment and was reaching out to verify information, particularly about the '[individual A]' situation which we now know was the same as the '[individual B]' situation. As micr0 continued investigating, serious doubts emerged about the reliability of key sources that had shaped the original perspective. In conversations with trusted friends, micr0 expressed growing uncertainty about the credibility of certain information and whether action against Alexia was even warranted. This wasn't an attempt to retroactively justify actions already taken, but rather part of micr0 actively questioning the basis for the moderation decision as conflicting information came to light. The approach to verification was flawed - reaching out to mutual contacts created the impression of building a case after the fact, when it should have been part of a more structured investigation before any limits were applied. This underscores why we're committed to establishing clearer verification procedures and involving multiple perspectives before taking moderation actions in the future. As a moderation team, we acknowledge that: - The actions taken were based on incomplete and misunderstood information - We should have engaged in more thorough verification before implementing account limitations - We will be removing all limitations placed on Alexia's accounts immediately - We need to improve our processes to prevent similar situations in the future Regarding this last point, we recognize that our current approach lacks sufficient diversity of perspective and proper separation between decision-making and appeals. We will be recruiting additional moderators to expand our team, developing and publishing clear moderation guidelines, implementing a formal appeals process handled by uninvolved moderators, and establishing better communication protocols to ensure all parties are spoken with directly before significant actions are taken. We understand that our current processes allowed this misunderstanding to escalate, and we are committed to building a more robust, fair, and transparent moderation system going forward. We recognize that our moderation actions created significant distress that goes beyond the technical limitations placed on Alexia's accounts. When Alexia discovered these limitations, she felt the need to defend herself publicly, which unfortunately led to further escalation of the situation. The fact that this became public at all stems from our initial error in judgment. Together, we are committed to publicly correcting the record, taking responsibility for our mistake, and rebuilding trust within our community. This harm cannot be easily undone, and for that we are deeply sorry.