Remove Michael as "Community Manager" on FFRepublic

The time has come yet again to deal with the problems caused by Michael O'Connor, the current administrator on the Final Fantasy Republic forums (ffrepublic.com). We regret having to bring this to your attention once more, but Michael has again proven himself incapable of reason, cordiality, or respect. We, the undersigned, feel obligated as members of the website community to present you with an account of his wrongdoing in hopes that you will relinquish his position as administrator/"Community Manager" of FFRepublic.

We have to assume that you remember how the community reacted to Michael's position of power on the Final Fantasy Extreme forums (ffextreme.com). Several of the key members of FFRepublic were also present on FFExtreme at the time of Michael's reign over that site. Based on your favorable reaction to the FFExtreme petition to have him removed, we hope that your reaction to this petition will be just as favorable. Let us remind you, with recent examples, of Michael's flaws when it comes to administrative responsibilities.

Michael is still deleting posts and threads. Anything he even considers sarcastic, he deletes immediately. People are not afforded the freedom to have a personality or to joke around even in the Sector 7 Spam forum, where it's been a long tradition on FFR to be silly. He has also deleted a club, which are meant for fun and conversation, on the grounds, to quote Michael, that "It [had] no real 'subject matter,' and some also felt that it was just... well... ****sucking, to put it bluntly." He also deletes any thread that he considers "drama," which includes threads posted by members to say goodbye to their friends when they decide that they don't want to post anymore. We believe it is common sense that deleting posts is not the proper way to deal with issues on a forum. It causes confusion, is a rude gesture, and aggrivates the situation.

Michael has been unreasonably hostile to members who attempt to negotiate with him. He is known for his bad temper when discussing things over instant messengers, and even threatens and bans people on FFRepublic for arguments over IM. He is also known for threatning people with lawsuits, which he continues to do to this day. Vulgar as ever, Michael has told members, to quote him from the FFRepublic shoutbox, to "Take your jokes back to your ****hole forum where **** like you are actually treated as something more than the worthless human [sic] you are." We believe that Michael's vulgarity and hostility do not maintain the friendly, welcoming image that previous staff and members have built at FFRepublic.

To be honest, there are a great deal of other points that we could expound upon: forcing veteran members to leave; ridiculous accusations of duplicate accounts; his "one size fits all" method of copying rules from his other forums; his overall vendetta against the staff who democratically banned him from FFRepublic less than two years ago. However, it's all been said before. Michael O'Connor appears to be incapable of change. His policy of censoring thought as opposed to positively influencing others through discussion simply is not right for forums; it goes against the very idea of a discussion forum to prohibit discussion.

We know enough about FFRepublic to realize that the activity on the forum is not what brings in the revenue. The forum is not a business to us, either. It's a grounds for discussion that most of us have enjoyed for years, dating back to 2002 when many of us joined. Michael will continue to prevent veterans and new members alike from enjoying each others' dictinct personalities. We, the undersigned, feel that "managing a community" is not Michael's forte, and request with all due respect that he be removed from his position on FFRepublic.