Pxls staff

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The Pxls staff are a group of users who are in charge of maintaining civility and enforcing general rules among the Pxls community. They have access to advanced permissions on the site and Discord server to meet this goal. Pxls staff has an extensive history with shifts in policy and responses to events.

Permissions and privileges

Site

  • Chat ban: Purges messages from a certain user (optional) and prevents them from talking in the website chat for x amount of time. Does not prevent them placing pixels on the canvas.
  • Purge: Delete a users message history or specific messages
  • User and chat lookup: View a user's ban history, chat history, and other information.
  • Canvas ban: Prevents a user from placing on the canvas or talking in chat for x amount of time. This also (optionally) removes their pixels on the canvas, in a fashion similar to a nuke.
  • Faction management: Can delete[1] factions from the site list. (admin only)
  • Staff Override: Allows staff to ignore cooldown to place pixels. (does not count towards pixel placed stats)
  • Admin Panel: Allows staff to view reports and other information.
  • Staff badge: Exists to set them apart in the chat. Both admins and moderators show up under this badge.

Discord server

  • Kicking/Banning: A one-off removal or a permanent ejection from the Discord server.
  • Announcements: Can send out announcements to a) the main Pxls.space server and by extension any Discord servers "following" the announcements channel, and b) an announcements feed on the website. (admin only)

Other Responsibilities

  • Reset: Choose reset dates and future canvases.

Current Pxls staff

Canvas name Role(s) Pxls Staff join date Notes
Nanineye Owner, Manager, Administrator May 23, 2021 Owner of the Pxls.space Discord server, co-owns the site.
Sidestep Manager, Administrator June 1, 2020 (with breaks from staff)
Iceydwagon Administrator May 17, 2017 (with breaks from staff) Zephyr on Discord, Pxls community manager, Pxls subreddit moderator, Leader of The Void. Also known as Dark.
Etos2 Moderator February 26, 2019 (with breaks from staff) Former owner of the Pxls.space Discord server.
filipus098 Moderator March 9, 2023 Currently the only staff member to be both canvas and Discord banned previously
gaudi999 Moderator April 5, 2022 Gaudi on Discord, Leader of Gura's Supermarket
Haku Moderator June 21, 2024 Admin in ManePxls. Also known as Dragon2075.
Laoarane Moderator November 12, 2023 Is Magistratus in Legion
Pannenkoek Moderator June 21, 2024 Template manager in osu! Logo Builders
Sen_Ruoka Moderator May 23, 2021 (with a break in 2022)
__ Developer May 21, 2021 [ ] on Discord. Also known as Blank.
Doxylamin Developer April 4, 2017 (with a large break) Owns the site.
Vanilla (FlyingSixtySix) Developer April 6, 2017 (with breaks from staff) Previous owner of Pxls.

Former Pxls staff

Canvas name Role(s) (Held at some point during tenure) Pxls Staff leave date Notes/Reason for leaving
_Etta Moderator June 15, 2024 Personal request. Quit Pxls.
Mikarific Developer, Moderator May 21, 2024 Removed from position (see user page).
drake Moderator April 20, 2023 Personal request. Also known as koro.
Snegovich Moderator March 9, 2023 Personal request.
dani26795 Moderator, Administrator December 29, 2022 Did not return to staff after staff civil war.
TheWaffleLord Moderator September 16, 2022 Removed for inactivity, took a long break from Pxls.
Nya Moderator July 16, 2021 Personal request.
Funta Moderator May 13, 2021 Removed, see this document.
Faust Administrator, Moderator May 12, 2021 Personal request.
Helislothic Moderator April 14, 2021 Removed for inappropriate behavior. Also known as Heliotic.
Netux Developer March 12, 2021 Personal request.
SR17740 Moderator January 24, 2021 Removed for inactivity.
Chalkless Moderator September 24, 2020 Personal request, lost interest.
1 Moderator September 16, 2020 Personal request, work/time constraints. Also known as Rasputin.
Styx Moderator August 30, 2020 Removed for inactivity.
GlowingSocc Developer, Moderator May 31, 2020 Personal request.
Pahanya Moderator, Administrator May 19, 2020 Personal request.
c4rt Admin Assistant, Administrator, Moderator, Media Team May 13, 2020 Personal request, loss of interest.
nerfarrow Moderator January 19, 2020 Personal request.
pharot Moderator January 16, 2020 Personal request.
Atomic10 Moderator January 14, 2020 Removed for inappropriate behavior. Also known as Andrew.
Fruity (Cutiefruity/qtFruity) Moderator January 12, 2020 Personal request.
Ske Developer, Administrator, Moderator November 18, 2019 Retains staff to this day, but retired. Created Pxls.
Royal_Chaos (Elaine) Moderator, Administrator, Community Ambassador, Media Team September 17, 2019
squiddies Moderator August 18, 2019 Demoted for unprofessionalism. Later permanently banned from the site.
Simius Administrator, Moderator March 27, 2019 Maintained staff and reserve admin for some time.
Lana (Karling) Moderator March 15, 2019 Removed for condoning a terrorist attack.
Hoppy Tiller Moderator March 8, 2019 Personal request, Vanilla's brother.
Rainsford Moderator March 4, 2019 Personal request.
Sorunome Administrator, Moderator, Devleoper, Reddit Mod January 7, 2019 Retains staff and developer to this day, but retired.
Kori Moderator December 11, 2018
Snawbollz Moderator November 28, 2018
Mizuxe Moderator September 9, 2018 Permanently banned later for grooming. Also known as Jade/Nyx.
deferter (GROCSIG) Moderator, Media Team June 9, 2018
LittleEndu Developer, Moderator June 9, 2018 Made a template tool. Is now permanently banned from the site.
Quazillionaire Moderator June 9, 2018 Made the original Pxls logo. May have had other staff roles.
nudl Moderator April 6, 2018 Removed. He was theorized to be dead for 3 three months at one point.
Alanha Moderator, Administrator, Community Ambassador October 21, 2017 Quit. Managed Pxls community for some time. Also known as Tea Love.
Kaide Moderator, Community Ambassador, Reddit Mod, Media Team October 21, 2017 GHOST on discord.
N1ftyBiscuit Moderator October 21, 2017
ReportingIn (Lastya) Moderator October 6, 2017 Removed for inactivity.
Mayube (Kaho/gunnerwolf) Moderator, Administrator, Developer, Community Ambassador October 3, 2017 Quit due to lack of interest. Helped Ske make Pxls and was the first staff.
Ludus light Moderator, Developer July 6, 2017 Quit.
Darky dash Moderator, Community Ambassador July 5, 2017 Quit after being told not to build nazi pony artwork.
Steven Developer June 15, 2017 Was a developer for a few hours.
Kooleyy Moderator, Community Ambassador June 14, 2017 Quit.
Rose Moderator, Community Ambassador June 13, 2017 Banned.
vanilla (novella) Moderator June 10, 2017 Quit. Later permanently banned for grooming.
XGeNXX Moderator, Community Ambassador June 3, 2017 Removed for leaking Pxls staff chat logs on 2ch.
Cyntalli Moderator May 24, 2017
Chocolate Moderator May 21, 2017 Was fired after using his staff position to spy on an opposing faction. He used a selfbot to clone the entire server and log messages.
CherishedZero Moderator May 15, 2017 Removed for inactivity.
RastaBobby Community Ambassador, Reddit Mod May 6, 2017
Former Staff with missing leave date 2018/2017
Elly Moderator
chill0r (haruna/mike) Moderator, Reddit Mod Made a template creator tool.
Topsie (Rayne/Slicerdice) Moderator, Reddit Mod
Kairavii (Kai) Community Ambassador
El3ven (Thxbault) Community Ambassador
Wilhelm von Hasburg Community Ambassador, Media Team
ranitidine150mg Community Ambassador
Koi Moderator, Developer Banned?
Lyse (Rivernal) Moderator
Anxious Genius Moderator, Media Team
FruitPunchSamurai Moderator
Torofad Moderator Removed for inactivity.
Voltasalt Reddit Mod
Slynthos Reddit Mod
E1Offical

"pxls Writer", "Twitter Team", and "VK Team" are consolidated into "Media Team" on the table.

History

[WIP]

This section briefly details the creation of Pxls Staff and its history over time. Information in this section was derived from publicly available messages in the Pxls Discord server and information provided by Dark/Zephyr.

Beginnings

April 2017 - May 2017

Ske began working on Pxls while the original r/place was still ongoing. She kept Mayube updated on her progress with the site and he gave some input. By technicality, Mayube was the first member of Pxls Staff. Pxls was opened to the public on April 3, 2017. Users began joining and placing on Canvas 0. A user known as DerpyDose created the first Pxls Discord server and subreddit, but they started spreading Nazi rhetoric and refused to transfer power, so a new Discord was created. Pxls was very simple at its inception and there were no rules, so on April 4 a user called Koi brought up the need for moderation. Koi would also go on to become a moderator themselves.

Message log of the origin of Pxls Staff

After this, Ske began appointing moderators on the site. A public application form was released on April 5th. There was also a form to apply to be a Developer and Community Ambassador (a staff role whose job it was to maintain healthy relations with Pxls factions and the community.) Some users were exclusively reddit moderators.

When Canvas 2 started on April 9, staff decided that the canvas was to be pg-13 (with other rules.) During this canvas, staff used new moderator tools to add clothes to characters drawn nude. One of the first major controversies happened when staff decided to ban lolis (April 13). This was met with discontent in the Pxls Discord server. Half an hour later Ske announced the first "botpocalypse" where the site would automatically ban users who were detected using a placing script. This was done due to rampant botting in the first two canvases. Staff gave users advance warning to turn off their bots before they would get banned.

Alanha (Tea Love) started taking on more responsibility managing staff and the discord server. She fully set up the staff role on the Pxls Discord on April 16. 17 users in the server were given the staff role on the day of its creation. On May 6 the Pxls Staff Head role was created, with Alanha being its first holder.

Early Instability

May 2017 - February 2018

Early Pxls was filled with uncertainty. People were unsure how long the site would last and things were still getting figured out. Many early staff members quit or lost interest after a short period of activity. Early Pxls also had many staff that were removed for various reasons. This could have been due to there being more staff than there are now, or less intensive requirements. 4 staff members left in May, and 5 in June, making these two months the highest ever for staff turnover rate.

On May 21 Pxls staff removed a moderator called Chocolate from their position for using his role to spy on an enemy faction. Before he was removed he used a bot to clone the Pxls Discord server and log every message.

On May 18 a moderator called XGeNXX leaked logs of the Pxls Discord staff channel onto 2ch (a Russian imageboard site.) This went unnoticed by the rest of Pxls Staff for a couple weeks until a user reported it to Darky Dash. Darky Dash then set up a gorup gm on June 3 to discuss the breach with other staff. XGeNXX was removed from Pxls staff, but he remains in the Pxls Discord to this day.

Vanilla (Flying) became head staff on July 6. By the end of October Alanha and Mayube had already resigned, marking a shift in Pxls staff as the leadership changed.

Sorunome became Pxls Head Staff on December 2 of 2017. Around this time she was also the project lead and handled most of the site development and canvas resets.

Stabilization

February 2018 - May 2020

By February of 2018, Pxls has stabilized substantially and no staff member had resigned or was removed since October of the previous year. On February 10, the Pxls Queen role was created, which acted as a role for the project lead. Sorunome was the first Pxls Queen.

-Lower amount of changes in staff members

-elaine pushed out

-first 2ch nuke

-Chat

-Response to large events on site (ie tiktok invasion)

Challenges

May 2020 - October 2022

-Drama in staff

-Responses to events

In late October 2021, Pxls staff and retired Pxls staff held a discussion on leadership and the future of Pxls. It was agreed power should be more spread out and to have no sole person calling the shots. The results of this were Etos2 being removed from staff (for the time being), the Pxls Queen role being retired, and Sidestep and Nanineye being added as "Managers" a couple weeks later. Vanilla remained as "Project Lead" but was to have no say in moderation.

-Funta, Mika, 2ch

"Staff Civil War"

October 2022 - January 2023

The previous year, Pxls staff had held the discussion about leadership, however, staff had no real way of enforcing checks on Vanilla's power since she owned both the site and Discord server.

This all came to a head in late December 2022. Vanilla brought up an image of a partially completed kekistan flag in staff chat and requested to ban the users that were building it. (For context, a kekistan flag is a meme flag from 4chan that is based off the nazi flag and made for a fictional country called "kekistan.") A couple staff members agreed no questions asked, but several other objected and a discussion happened. A list was created of various problems the decision created. Many staff members decided what they would do if Vanilla banned the users. Towards the end, Vanilla said “I'd like to add that with this action, I've decided that as staff, we need to be pushing towards a policy of harsher punishments towards bigotry. We've put it off long enough, and the community is fed up with it.” With that, the users were banned. By doing this, Vanilla posited that she indeed had the authority to make executive decisions. On December 29, Sidestep, Nanineye, Etos2, Dani, Snegovich, Sen_Ruoka, and Drake resigned from staff. It is to be said that these staff members did not resign due to banning users for making a kekistan flag, but rather the nature of the ban being permanent and Vanilla's sudden shift in ideas about policy/authority, which was not discussed at all. Vanilla knew that the decision may cause resignations, but perhaps did not except most of the staff team to do so.

This result put lots of pressure on Vanilla and spread unease in the Discord. On December 30, after discussions in the retired staff channel, Server Ownership was transfered to Nanineye and all of the staff members who recently resigned came back (except for Dani and Sen). Dani had been in Pxls staff under the condition that there would be no drama, so he didn't want to come back again after this incident. Though it was never said publicly, it can be assumed they decided to transfer power away from Vanilla and have Nanineye be owner in name only, with the same say in decisions as everyone else. Vanilla regretted their actions stating "in the end, I want whatever is best for the place, and the way I went about it was definitely not the way." Additionally, the users who were banned by Vanilla were unbanned.

Adapting

January 2023 - Present

In 2023, staff adjusted to the new leadership. Pxls went through another period of stabilization with relatively low staff turnover.

However, that is not to say things were perfect. Some users, former staff members, and even a current staff member had reservations about the way Pxls was being ran. They had a group dm to share grievances and discuss what could be done to improve the situation. The conversation largely had to due with perceived staff inaction. A critical piece of information is that images from staff discussions and tickets were shared. The group dm slowed down around the turn of the year. Later in May 2024, the group dm was reported to Pxls staff and the end result was a few users receiving temporary bans and Mikarific being permanently banned from the Pxls platform (More information here). This was the first time something like this had occurred in several years. The situation affected some people's trust in Pxls staff. During the investigation period, several false rumors were spread about what had happened, which stoked fears of stolen data.

As it stand today, Pxls staff is comprised of 13 members (3 administrators, 7 moderators, and 3 developers.) The last change in Pxls staff members was June 21, 2024.

References

  1. As evidenced by the deleting of a faction tag with a shield on it for impersonating the staff badge.