Chronicling the Azure Exodus

This document details my story and point of view regarding the conflict that occurred between the Azure Infinitum and Midgardsormr Turks Free Companies in FFXIV during the December of 2023.

To be exceptionally clear, even though this document is written from my point of view, this is not really my story to tell. Behind the screen names, there are real people experiencing real hurt, and by writing this, I by no means am trying to inject myself into the situation. I just think this entire situation is so freaking bizarre, and I feel a need to write everything down as a form of covering my own ass, making sure I have a coherent story when I'm asked about this, and maybe also as a bit of a coping mechanism as well.

Also yes, I realize that I share a name with the FC that I was a member of. I talk about that in a second. But generally, when I say Azure in this document, I'm referring to the FC and not myself.

Context

For context, I play an online game called Final Fantasy XIV. The game is inherently multiplayer, with matchmaking for just about everything, and a built-in party finder for everything else. The game also has a system called Free Companies (called Guilds/Clans in other games) where players can come together to form their own communities in the game. FCs also get special perks for being active, like XP boosts, cheap housing, etc.

A few months after I started playing, I had progressed well into the game's second expansion, Stormblood. While running around Yanxia I received a private message from one Reika Fujishima asking if I was interested in joining the FC he was the founder of: Azure Infinitum. Of course, having used the word "Azure" in my usernames for several years now, I was immediately interested. In addition, the FC leaderboards on Lodestone revealed that Azure was one of the top FCs on the server. After mulling the offer over for a bit, I said "Fuck it, it's just a game, why not."

When I joined, I noticed that the FC was pretty well established and almost a decade old, which was pretty comforting. Most of the clans from my Destiny 2 years lasted 6 to 12 months at maximum, so seeing a longstanding FC be so inviting was a breath of fresh air.

I also noticed that, as a consequence, Azure had pretty strict guidelines for progression. This admittedly was a bit of a turn off for me. During my time in Destiny 2, I found that more structured clans suffered as a consequence of their arbitrary bureaucracy, and I much more appreciated my time in clans that were structured more like a group of friends/family. Knowing this, I immediately decided to forego climbing the leadership ladder, and instead opted to make my mark by working with them to develop plugins to make their events run smoother. My main contact on these projects was General Major Pain-OG.

Over the following ~9 months I would become really close with a lot of people in this FC. I would hang out in the FC text channel and chat with everyone about all sorts of stuff, like what our favorite classes/expansions were, things going on irl, etc. Klaudia Auslese took me through my first 50 floors of PotD while I was still new to the game. I'd frequently participate in events run by scout team members like Aurora Vaile or Lucinda Nakia and loved joking around with them. The day the Fall Guys event came out, I formed a party with Baby Shoes and played with him for a few hours. Everyone there was super neat, and I ended up befriending a lot of them!

Picking Up Vibes

Come the start of December, I started noticing a pattern of mysterious, unannounced departures from the FC which included some of the friends I made while I was there. For one example, I found out that Klaudia had left while I was live on stream:

After analyzing in-game membership logs later that night, I saw that several others had demolished their private chambers in the FC house and left. More interestingly, the logs revealed that several people on the senior leadership council were dismissed rather than having left on their own volition. This started setting off some red alarms in my head, but considering I had ongoing projects with the FC, I decided to not care too much.

That same day, an announcement was posted in the Azure Discord server which stated that Azure was experiencing a poaching/slander campaign led by Midgardsormr Turks, the FC most former members had migrated to. They also said that the Turks were using doctored screenshots to lure people away, and to let them know of any attempts at poaching their members.

Most interestingly, a screenshot was attached to this announcement of in-game chat logs, which revealed that Reika went to the Turks house and loitered in front of it in an attempt to gain an audience with the Turks' founder, Hesketh Tayuun. In it, Reika was... overly formal? And Hesketh responded like a sane person would. I thought that this entire situation was getting getting even weirder, but I dismissed it as some weird inter-clan RP thing that didn't involve me. Red flag number 2.

The announcement also said to forward any questions on the matter to the leadership council, so I decided to hit up my inside man, Major, and ask what was up. He essentially told me that two former leadership members, Klaudia and Fae'ryn, were sending misleading info to members to lure them away and that they couldn't say much more. The general message was "We suffered some losses, but we just gotta pick up and keep going." I laughed and played along, but the verbiage made it feel like this was an attempt to sweep something under the rug. There was a side of the story here that wasn't being told. The red flags were really starting to pile up.

The last red flag came the following morning when I realized that Baby Shoes had left, which really bummed me out because I had enjoyed playing with them. I decided to send them a message while they were online to ask what was going on, and Shoes replied with something along the lines of "My friends left, so I did too. As for why everyone left, that's not my story to tell." I left that conversation under the impression that former leadership did not leave on good terms and would appreciate any support they could get.

Probably against my better judgement at the time, I decided to directly reach out to Klaudia that night. Told them I was thankful for the PotD carry all those months ago, and that I wanted to check in. He said that he was okay and that he appreciated me reaching out. I mentioned that everyone was being pretty hush-hush about the whole thing which was odd, and he replied by saying "Do you want to know what happened? It's my story to tell."

I said sure, while clarifying beforehand that I had no plans to leave Azure due to ongoing projects with them. He understood, and said that he would never ask anyone to leave their FC as a result of what happened, which was... in direct opposition to what Major claimed in my chat with him. Klaudia said he simply wanted everything on the record in case Azure tried to paint him in a bad light.

Here's what I was told.

Klaudia's Story

Near the start of the month, someone on the Azure Leadership team had the idea to send a poll to all of their members to gauge satisfaction on many things. This was an idea that was approved, and to my understanding, was up for discussion.

From what I could glean from the chat logs, Klaudia expressed the opinion that it was way too long, and believed that the FC wouldn't get many responses if it felt too tedious. He suggested that they trim it a bit in order to increase engagement. Reika dismissed Klaudia's suggestion and started getting passive-aggressive. Klaudia mentioned they didn't appreciate this behavior, to which Reika blew up in DMs.

I won't log any of their DMs here, but they essentially boiled down to Reika removing Klaudia from his role of Lieutenant off of grounds that Klaudia was not a team player. Reika offered Klaudia his position back if they agreed to enter a voice call and discuss everything, to which Klaudia declined. The two parted ways, quite unamicably.

After these events, Reika went to the council announcement channel and went on a several paragraph tirade which started with expected phrases like "Azure needs leaders" and that they "will not tolerate insubordination," but quickly devolved into personal attacks. The most notable phrase from this tirade was the following:

Bastard gets free clears cus he's disabled [...]

This phrase, to my understanding, caused an uproar in council discussion. Several other high-ranking members agreed that Klaudia could be a bit of a stickler at times, but felt that demeaning his achievements because he is disabled was unethical and wrong.

Those people ended up being dismissed as well. I don't know the full context of each person's departure, but seeing the names of the people who defended Klaud in chat, and then correlating it to the list of people that I saw were dismissed from the FC in the in-game logs was pretty damning.

Reika also sent direct messages to other leadership members that I can only describe as exceptionally hurtful and absolutely unacceptable. I also won't include these here, but they severely affected the way I view Reika. One of the most notable lines from him came at the end of one of these DMs which read:

You want to bait me into a text conversation like usual so you can share like what comes back around to me? Don't treat me like that I'm not stupid.

Reading this explained his unusual insistence to always use voice chat to discuss things: VC didn't leave a paper trail. It confirmed my suspicions that the FC was being led along, and solidified my belief that we were dealing with a Grade-A sociopath. Nothing he said could be trusted from here on; past, present, or future.

Nine senior members of Azure's leadership team left in the days that followed and migrated to Turks. Two more have followed since I started writing this piece. All of them are good people that I knew and had interacted with.

But the drama doesn't stop there. Oh no, no, no.

A few days after the initial wave of people leaving, Reika, joined by generals Major and Terry, went to the Turks' front lawn each donning Azure's ceremonial blue armor and the "Exterminator" title. This lined up with the timeline that was provided by the screenshot in Reika's earlier announcement. However, it turns out they weren't just seeking an audience like the announcement had painted them out to be.

The three supposedly also had it out with defectors in tell chat and threatened the Turks with legal action, citing damaged roster as financial damages they plan to sue over. In real life.

Of course these messages (which were corroborated by multiple people) were conveniently cropped out of the screenshot Reika attached in the announcement. Kind of ironic, considering this was the same announcement that accused the Turks of spreading a false narrative by cropping chat logs and omitting context. Every accusation is a confession, etc. etc.

Klaud wrapped up our chat by reiterating that he didn't care whether people stayed in or left from Azure, and that he just wanted to be able to tell his story. I thanked him, and went about the rest of my night with a lot to think about.

The Intermission

Later that night, I ended up speaking with a friend/neutral third party about the entire situation. I didn't want to leave because I initially enjoyed working with Major, but at the same time I felt weird continuing to support Reika's FC and also not following my friends.

The conversation, which lasted around 30 minutes and all took place via in-game tells, was pretty enlightening. The takeaway was that if he was in my position, he would just leave. Unpaid volunteer work shouldn't be something that ties you down somewhere, especially if the only people it benefits are the same people who made me feel uncomfortable. I agreed.

I ended up moving out of my room in the FC house that night, transferring everything from there into my hew house in Empyreum. I didn't want to leave yet, but I wanted to cover my bases in case I needed to make a quick exit.

I decided to let everything stew overnight before making a decision.

The Following Morning

The next day, I woke up, did some work in the morning, and then logged on in my free time. I ended up deciding that, like Shoes, the thing most important to me was sticking with friends and that I should be there for them. Plus, it felt weird having a perpetually growing selection of people on my friends list leave and subsequently be vilified by existing leadership.

That same day, Azure published a new announcement about their next upcoming event that acted as if nothing was wrong. Big "there is no war in Ba Sing Se" energy, which just turned me off even further.

I drafted a brief exit letter that I figured I would send to Major upon my exit, and after editing it meticulously for like two hours to make sure it didn't come off the wrong way, I sent it. Immediately afterwards, I vacated my room in the FC house and left Azure Infinitum.

From there I made my way over to the Turks house, and as I was walking up, who else would be on the lawn but Klaudia Auslese himself. He was AFK but immediately noticed me walking up, started jumping around, and sent me a tell. I told them that I ended up speaking with a friend about everything the night before, and after thinking the whole thing over, decided to follow everyone to Turks out of my own volition.

Klaudia personally invited me to the Turks after our chat, which I accepted. I joined their Discord and saw lots of familiar names from Azure welcome me into their community. It felt good being back together with everyone again, and I was excited to have a fresh start at my new home.

Major later responded to my letter saying that he wished me the best. We haven't spoken since.

Post-Blast Investigation

That evening on the Discord server was particularly enlightening. I read through countless chat logs of all of my friends recounting their experiences with Reika and the entire situation. It simultaneously felt validating, as if confirmation that I made the right decision to leave, but also exceptionally concerning because of the serious nature of the entire situation.

Where do I start...

Many of my suspicions that Reika was a manipulator were confirmed. I'm now exceptionally glad that I left exactly as I did, because I've since heard of multiple instances of people messaging Azure leadership about leaving and leadership trying to manipulate them into not doing so.

Reika loves gaslighting. Several ex-leadership members confirmed instances of Reika directly messaging them and saying out-of-pocket things, then following it up with phrases like "lots of people say this" without providing evidence. You can see two examples of this tactic in the original tirade screenshot, when he says to the council "You don't want to know how many strikes that [Klaudia] should have but I kept this to myself" and "You guys don't even want me to go into detail of what [Klaudia] said about each of you."

The vast majority of these claims are unverifiable or sometimes demonstrably false. There's several instances where Reika's victim would go to the people Reika was referring to and ask if what Reika said was true, only to find out that he was lying about the whole thing.

Oh, there's also the cease and desist. Reika sent an actual cease and desist letter to the Turks' team sometime near the loitering incident.

Apparently, Reika believes Azure Infinitum to be more than a video game guild. Rather, Azure is a media brand that organizes various "wings" across multiple games, with this media empire's main offering being their podcast, which averages like... 50 listens on per episode on YouTube.

Anyways, poaching members from their FFXIV roster is apparently impacting Azure's financials, which they believe they can sue over. (Still no idea how we affected financials. Loss of views? Listens? Did people ever actually donate through the website? I really don't know.)

This isn't speculation, by the way.

I am not a lawyer, but in case you're interested in the codes referenced in the letter, California Code Section 8670.69.4 falls under Chapter 7.4, which is titled Oil Spill Response and Contingency Planning and I'm fairly certain does not apply to individuals. US Code 4632 falls under Title XII, titled Banks and Banking, and in a chapter called Government Sponsored Enterprises. I'm- once again- fairly certain that this does not apply to individuals.

I'm very confident that Reika did not consult with legal counsel before writing this letter, and that he just drafted this up after googling "Cease and Desist Code" and pasting the numbers from the first few results.

I also know that unlike Azure, Midgardsormr Turks is not registered as an LLC or any legal entity, so I'm uncertain who the lawsuit would actually be served to. Maybe Hesketh for being the head of the Turks, but I'm unsure how you could prove in court that he is responsible for the individual actions of each of his FC's members. They could try suing each individual member for slander, but that's a lot of money, time, and effort best spent elsewhere. Several former senior Azure leaders also pointed out that the Azure does not have the money to follow through with this threat either.

Even though I think it would be extremely funny if Azure tried following through on this and represented themselves pro se, it won't happen. This entire thing is just so superfluous, and solely an attempt to intimidate us into compliance.

The most realistic threat that Reika has made is reporting the Turks to the Midgardsormr "Alliance of Masters" which, judging by the name, is what I can only assume to be a high school model UN or something that Middy's FC leaders use to stay aware of server-wide developments, like Azure's current falling out. (I'm not involved, so I can make jokes like that!) Supposedly, this Discord server could be used to enforce punishment by like, telling all of the FC leaders in it to blacklist Turks members from their events or something? I don't really know. Nothing substantive, at least.

Anyways, Hesketh decided to beat Reika at their own game and invited several leaders from another alliance to the server- namely, Jak Mar and Elizabeth Serkette- to see all of the logs the Turks had gathered on the matter. Notably, Elizabeth is the head of Perpetual Cuteness, which is currently the 17th highest ranked FC on Midgardsormr.

Here's a screenshot from Jak, in response to Reika talking about the alliance in his screenshot a few paragraphs up:

Yeah, Azure never joined. Wild. Another example of the bureaucracy they love so much coming back to bite them in the ass, I guess. Some more screenshots:

Needless to say, I don't think that Azure Infinitum is winning in the court of public opinion any time soon.

A few days layer, Hesketh joined the Azure Discord server in order to send Reika a direct message. Before Hesketh could even formulate an introduction, Reika initiated the conversation by inviting him to a VC that several senior leaders were already in. This led to a pretty interesting text exchange between the two that I'll link here: 1 2 3 4

As it currently stands, Azure Infinitum is hemorrhaging leadership as a result of Reika's actions. I now have no plans to interact with my old FC, and instead plan on spending my time working with people in the Turks on future events or other tools that we could use to improve our experience.

A Cult of Personality

Throughout this entire situation, it's granted me some clarity to just take a step back and re-evaluate the entire situation, starting with looking at all of the red flags I noticed over the months. I already mentioned the strict progression guidelines, but there's lots of other red flags about Reika in particular that I think should be mentioned because they really help flesh out the gravity of the situation.

I would like to point out that this section is all my opinion, and that I'm not stating anything as fact beyond what is provable.

It goes without saying at this point that Reika runs Azure Infinitum like a fucked up version of the Navy. Everything must be formal. Everything must be in depth. This is a well oiled machine, you know.

The most outrageous statistic that I saw during my postmortem was just how long Azure's rules document was. (Which I've never read in full, for the record.)

Final Fantasy XIV's User Agreement, which includes the list of prohibited activities that get you banned amongst lots of other things, is nearly half the size of the rules document for just this one free company.

Fun fact: Azure Infinitum rule 7 reads "We ask that you are thoughtful of what you put into chats, and keep in mind what could be seen as offensive or insensitive towards topics like medical conditions, sexual preference, or even spam." It's at this point I'll remind you this all started because Reika made fun of Klaudia's disability and refused to apologize. L M A O.

Reika's typing obsession doesn't stop there, unfortunately.

Azure Infinitum officially sponsors a segment on their forums called Azure Lore Chronicles, a series of posts written by Reika that apparently describe his own head-canon which he injects into the game via the FC. At the time of writing, there are two of these posts on the forums, each over a thousand words long, and the second post even has diagrams.

This head-canon is also reflected in Reika's character on Lodestone.

Note the titles that he's given himself, too. He uses these everywhere:

Reika of the Azure Dawn, of House Fujishima, First of Her Name, Liberator of the Crimson Blades, Mother of Azure, Victor of Falling Stars & Raging Seas, The Aetherborn, Infinitum Master, and The Unsundered.

Fun fact: Apparently this isn't the first time that Azure has had a major falling out! What a surprise. Instead of moving on like a normal person, Reika decided to canonize the original falling out in Azure lore as The Sundering and gave himself the title of The Unsundered. This event is apparently a pivotal moment in Azure's lore and, according to the tirade screenshot, Klaudia making fun of it is one of the primary reasons that Reika wanted him gone. Reika takes his head-canon very seriously.

Who knows what he'll end up calling this event. The Destruction of the Old Guard? The Azure-Turk War? The Sundering 2: Electric Boogaloo? Whatever. LOL

Reika is so obsessed with these titles and role-play that he goes so far as to create a lore-accurate oath for his leadership position, as if the position of Infinitum Master is an elected position or anything that warrants having an oath. Oh, and every time it's updated, a new version is sent in the announcement channel with everyone tagged.

Believe it or not, Reika's insistence in verbosity and procedure extends beyond even lore and documentation. Nearly every single announcement that was made in the Azure server while I was there were at least 200+ words long with custom-made assets. Former scout team members reported that training to run events for the FC would take several weeks. Even Reika's own house tour had to be lore-accurate, with bookshelves actually being "council reports," etc. Nearly everything he does is overdone.

Sigh.

I believe that this is more than just someone RP-ing character in a game. Reika eats, breathes, and lives for Azure Infinitum. His whole life is Azure Infinitum. And any slight against the FC is a slight against him, which is why he manipulates to curb any dissent from leadership and is why he's so obsessed with maintaining the brand and his public image for everyone else to see.

Oh and I'm not joking when I say he lives and dies for Azure. I had one former leader tell me that Reika believes that God put him on this planet to run the Azure brand. Now, I have no issue with players expressing their faith; many of the good people who migrated with me to Turks are religious peoples. But to take it to this level is Fucking Insane™.

And in response to all of this, under all of the formality of the press releases, Reika decided to be publicly passive-aggressive in a way most Discord users are very familiar with: by changing their status.

Reika's current status on Discord is the bible verse Isaiah 54:17, which reads:

"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn." (KJV)

A victim complex! How wonderful.

Reika is Azure Infinitum, and Azure Infinitum is Reika. There is no doubt in my head now. Whatever communities that have been or will be formed in that FC will always fade in importance compared to Reika's sacred charge of maintaining the Azure brand.

That's why I believe he initially banned Klaudia and others for dissent and then refused to apologize for his comments. Why he put out several long press statements that started pointing fingers once he realized Azure's community started leaving. Why he tried manipulating leaders to stay after they started showing interest in leaving. Why Azure's leadership is threatening legal action over a video game. And why they're now scrambling to maintain what's left, telling those who remain to forget and move on.

Actions have consequences, and I think he's extremely nearsighted.

The community that Azure once had is still very much alive and well at Turks. I look forward to hanging out and playing my part over the coming months- or god willing, years.

Out of pure CYOA protocol, I would like to reiterate that this section contains strictly my beliefs on the matter and I'm not stating anything as fact beyond what is provable. Your opinion may vary from mine, and that's totally fine.

Conclusion

Reika Fujishima, Hikaru Kazushime, or whatever they end up calling themselves in the future, is manipulative, delusional, and not someone that you should give a second of your time to. I cannot stress enough how much I would personally recommend blacklisting this person and avoiding the Azure Infinitum organization.

At the end of the day, real people were real hurt by his actions. The pain caused by some of the things that he said, whether publicly or in DMs, are very real and the wounds are very fresh. I believe that supporting those affected is the best thing that we can do right now.

Also, please don't go attack Reika or any other Azure Infinitum members as a result of reading this. I personally harbor no ill will towards anyone else in the organization. Most Azure members didn't have the same suspicions that I had which led me to find out what happened, and most are completely oblivious to everything that's going on. In addition, I know that most of the Azure splinter in Turks would like to put this chapter behind them. The best thing to do here is blacklist and move on, for the sake of everyone involved.

This entire situation is just fucking weird. But anyways. She broke, I'm up.

Onto the next big thing.

Update - 12/26

When I first wrote this document, I kept it unlisted and only sent it to revelant parties as a means of having a coherent story. Seeing as someone else has broken the news to the public, I have officially published this piece now.

Someone made a video report on the matter which has blown up. The FFXIV community's own resident bald man, XenosysVex, reacted to it for like 2 whole hours, although a good 90% of that was him struggling to read Reika's walls of text, xffing. Can't wait to see the YouTube recap in a few days.

I would highly recommend watching the video, and also reading the comments from former FC members. This isn't the first incident that Reika has had, it's the fifth. Another incident involved the abuse of a roommate/officer and calling in a gun threat to their place of work after they moved out. Reika is a true piece of shit, and no-one in the XIV community should give him the time of day.

Additionally, I now believe Jak Mar has submitted their official report on the matter to the alliance, so hopefully every sane FC leader on the server now has Azure on their radar.

This entire situation still sucks, but hey. At least stuff is being done about it now. Fuck Reika and Azure. Good riddance.

Update - 12/29

Xeno did in fact upload a video covering the matter. Apparently, the entire situation is so juicy that it warrants a two-part series on the channel. Ooh!

In fact, Xeno covering the whole thing has pulled dozens- if not hundreds- of ex-Azure members out of the woodwork to tell their stories regarding Reika's sociopathy. More details are coming to light every day that make me more and more disgusted with Reika. Leaving was definitely the right decision.

Favorite moment from the stream is probably when he asked "Is anyone from the FC here?" and the chat was instantly flooded with messages from tons of former members. It seems Azure has made a name for themselves over the past decade, just not the type they'd prefer.

Anyways, this will be my last update on the matter. I'm about ready to close this book, as is everyone else. Thanks to everyone who read and reached out. Be well!

Final Update - 1/12/24

Last update. For real this time.

I had mostly moved on from this, but a recent conversation alerted me to the fact that Kazu put out a statement at the start of this year, which can be found here.

It's pretty clear to me that this post is one of the "articles" that Reika claims is spreading misinformation, so let me stand my ground for a second.

Such content has been boosted via mass submissions to small content creators, who have simply utilized the overall controversy for views & gain.

I genuinely don't care if you love me or hate me because of this post. I never wrote this with the intention that it would blow up like it did. There's no ads; I'm not monetizing this or attempting to farm drama for clicks. I've made zero dollars as a result of this post. I don't care at all. I just saw a lot of my friends get screwed over by Kazu's actions, and I don't tolerate bullshit very lightly.

Azure Infinitum Network has not been contacted or otherwise approached or given permission for such usage of any material, or for any collaborations with such entities.

I love this legal talk, because it shows that Kazu's still committed to the bit.

According to messages I've seen from friends, Kazu loves to flaunt the fact that he lives in California which isn't a one-party state, so he'll threaten people who leak conversations with violating that law. But as we saw with the cease and desist, he has no backbone to actually follow through with his accusations.

Azure Infinitum Network officially denounces [...] one such allegation of legal action regarding a formal cease and desist letter. No such official action has taken place or has been performed or requested by our admins or I.

This is another classic attempt at gaslighting. You can't put toothpaste back in the tube, man. You admitted in council chat to sending this dumb-ass C&D letter to a random former Azure member. This is documented in a screenshot already in this post. The letter was typed up in your style of writing, contained bogus legal codes, your company's letterhead, and your name at the bottom.

No shirking out of this one. You talked the talk; now you have take the walk of shame.

We have also found evidence to cause us to believe these attacks against Azure Infinitum Network and such personal attacks against I, had been in planning ahead of time, which contradicts many of the allegations made.

Yeah right, this statement is painted with the same brush that claimed people leaving to hang with people you banned over petty squabbles is poaching, right? A claim made with the one cropped screenshot as your proof, and which was apparently enough grounds to send the C&D? Knowing Kazu, someone in a splinter FC probably said something along the lines of "Yeah, Reika has made me feel uncomfortable for a while now" and he's just running with it.

Anyways, as you can tell by my tone in the Twitch clip or at the start of this article, I never had a bone to pick with Kazu or Azure before this incident. I was ignorant to most of what was going on. There is no premeditation here, just expression of utter disgust with the more I learn.

Since the days of RA:N, Azure Infinitum Network community admins and I have worked to maintain a respectful, active, fun, and resourceful, online community for nearly 20 years.

I agree with this point, surprisingly. The community that I met in Azure was wonderful! Apparently, so were the several other splinter communities that left during Azure's past incidents. The issue here isn't with the communities that are formed in Azure, it's the abuse of officers behind the scenes and the constant attempts to cover it all up and maintain a cordial public persona that are the problem.

Whatever.

You can either believe Kazu's statement, or you can believe the hundreds of members coming out of the woodwork to tell their stories from over the past decade. Whichever you pick, I genuinely don't care. At the end of the day, it's just a video game.

Have a great day, and happy new year!