Skyler's 'secret' forum

In the summer of 2010, tensions were high amongst the staff. In August, specifically, interpersonal drama was at a peak after Skyler commited the The July 15th Incident, and not only was his trust in jeopardy, the staff as an entirety was falling apart.

Origins
Not only had Tobi resigned in the past few weeks, Neo was still at large, making numerous attempts to ambush he community using hoards of duplicate accounts (see: The Clone Rush) and attempting to bypass the proxy detector.

After managing to get Hollow's trust back, most of the staff had calmed down, but Poke Pokey still had harsh feelings for Skyler. While managing to hide it at most times, towards the end of July, he began acting less tolerant of Skyler's previous ill will and began demanding to Hollow Abyss that Skyler should not nor ever be forgiven for his actions. Hollow, along with some other staff members Pokey had talked to, agreed he was being too rash.

Hollow Abyss had made the inept move of alerting Skyler that Pokey had not forgiven him. Pokey made it obvious when he called Skyler out in a late August staff thread for placing inauspicious blame on his friend Xiao. Stating that Skyler "should have never been repromoted", he made it clear that he disliked him, and the two were launched into a destructive online battle.

Not only was Skyler and Pokey's friendship ever able to heal, the staff had began taking sides, and Pokey's argument was not in favor.

The Forum
After Skyler had had enough of Pokey's badgering, he decided that instead of hosting an MSN conversation like staff usually did when there was a pressing problem, he would create a secret forum. The catch was - Pokey was the only person on the staff team unable to view it.

Skyler created a sub-forum of the staff lounge (titled the "Lounge of Doom") and using his administrative permisions, set it to 'read-only' by certain staff members, Pokey being the only one left out of the list. He invited every staff member to join, but set one requirement - Pokey can not, must not, will not know, or they will face severe consequences.

The other staff was initially confused as to why the forum was set up, but after reading the thread that lay within it, they understood the concept and purpose it presented.

The Thread
Within the sub forum was a single thread. The threads title was some deriative about the situation (those who were there hardly remember, and it is assumed to simply be lost in time) prompting the staff to reply. It's context was simple - a list of reasons why Poke Pokey (Avis Cyrus at the time) should be removed from staff.

The list varied from personal problems to administrative issues (i.e. Avis was never meant to be Admin and was promoted with little reason or thought in a time of haste) ranging to bias (using Avis's dislike of Skyler as a reason to demote). The thread was open to discussion, with every active staff member invited to weigh in on the subject at hand - should Avis be demoted to maintain his position.

Avis's Discovery and Reaction
While Avis had his detractors at the time, he still had faithful friends, a few of which were on the current staff lineup, one of them being Xiao Dre. Xiao Dre made the descision to message Avis about the thread because he not only felt that it was wrong, he felt that the idea of the staff being selective with what they shared was morally reprehensible.

A few days after the forum was created, Xiao Dre gave in and sent Avis the PM. Initially shocked, Avis went into a rage. He made no hesitation rushing to the staff lounge to begin typing a thread. Within this thread, he outed Skyler for being a "lunatic" and stated that it was ironic for such a high ranking staff member to act so immaturely (irony in and of itself, considering Avis was emulating Skyler at this point). Avis lambasted Skyler, giving reasons why he should be taken down instead of himself.

Avis's thread was met with near universal panning from the staff. Avis launched himself in to a fight with nearly every single member of the staff that night, insulting Hollow Abyss primarily. The staff had already made up their minds, and this only fueled the choice.

The morning later, Avis was demoted from his Administrative position.

Direct Results
First and foremost, the direct result of this forum and thread was the near immediate demotion of Avis Cyrus. Avis had severed nearly every bond with staff members in the thread, aside of Adam, who was not present for the event (he would later go on to be involved in Avisism, a group of "rabble rousers" that were deemed immediate threats to the community)

The forum and it's events were a catalyst in the descruction of Solstice v1. Not only did they coincide with the creation of Avisism (the channel was created the day before Avis was demoted), it created a literal split within the forums between two sides - those who sided with Avis, and those who didn't.

It should be known that Avis went to near extremes to publicize the event. Between leaving sly wall messages digging jabs at the staff, or spam posts that, when looked at objectively, were obviously ominous or direct slashes at Skyler's posse. This was probably the leading cause for the rift, seeing as Avis had managed to get nearly every relevant member of the forums involved or explicity avoidant.

Resolution
This issue saw a resolution (at least from the Skyler side) when the entirety of Avisism was banned from the forums and 'Lavender' was opened. To the members of Avisism and Avis's supporters in the situation, the issue was never truly resolved until Skyler was banned, or at the very least - demoted.

Avisism inevitably ended up getting what they wanted, persuading Sableye, using video evidence, to demote Skyler to member on Lavender (It should be noted that Sableye remained neutral throughout the incident, citing that he did not wish to take any sides).

Before Avisism could return to prominence, the forum was closed, leaving the member of the infamous group stranded on Destiny, until Hollow decided to reopen Solstice. In an ironic sense, Avis (and to a lessor extent, Avisism) ended up getting their wish - Avis was restored to power, and Skyler was banished from the staff team, never being able to be a part of it again.