I would like to apologize as well for failing to deal with this thread and the previous thread (for reference: Playing with Pencil2D tools to see what could be achieved) in a more proactive way that was more reflective of our code of conduct and overall environment we aim to promote within the Pencil2D community.
What started as an interaction with nothing particularly unusual, quickly devolved. I was initially hopeful that the individuals involved would be able to come to an agreement, or failing that at least agree to disagree, the conversation did not go that way. That is when @JoseMoreno stepped in to acknowledge both perspectives, provide his own perspective as an individual who has worked professionally the animation industry for a long time, and to most importantly try and wrap up the conversation before it got any further out of hand. I am glad Jose handled this as I would not have been able to provide the same level of insight for the topic of debate, nor would I have handled it with as much tact.
Unfortunately that was not the end of it, and things continued both on that thread and here. I should have stepped in right away to shut down any attempts to revive the fight, but I was again stuck in thinking the discussion was finishing up, only for someone to just escalate the conflict further. Whenever someone stepped over the proverbial line by just a bit, I was of the thinking that a little overstep was not enough for me to step in. But each time I did that, I redrew the line a little farther from the standards for conduct I helped to create. I never stopped to look back and see how much the line had moved over time. Looking back at the posts now, it’s clear to me now that at some point the discussion when from people expressing their views on an art topic, to people attacking other people’s views, and finally to people attacking other people. The first is acceptable, the second can be acceptable but only if it is done in a respectful manner in good faith, and the third is simply unacceptable and a clear violation of our code of conduct.
It is not my intent here to try to assign any blame, rather it is best left to each individual to ask themselves what role they played in this and what they may have been able to do differently (regardless of what everyone else was doing) to have a more civilized discussion that is more becoming of this community.
This is all simply my personal statement on the matter as one of the few moderators responsible for maintaining this forum and does not reflect the position of the Pencil2D team as a whole. We will be discussing this incident further in private channels and we will likely share another post, here or in a separate thread, focusing on where we will go from here. If anything good has come from this incident, it is that it has demonstrated that we still have work to do to provide the most inclusive and welcoming environment possible for our users.