Banned Sites
I put up with a lot when I play petsites, admins powertripping, bad game design, and much much more. What I won't put up with, however, is any decision that will increase risk of bad actors in communities claimed to be safe. This is why Pixpet, Dragonadopters and any other petsites made by the same team will not be featured on my website.
Why you might ask? Years ago I tried Pixpet out, and i enjoyed it, i didn't find the weird rpg part as fun but it had interesting things going on gameplaywise. However, the admins handled a dogwhistle situation so extremely poorly, you should never, ever take someone claiming that something is a dogwhistle lightly, you should listen and do research. You should never defend your favorite meme because you don't think it's a dogwhistle. This is exactly the choice the Pixpet staff team made, I need to preface the following evidence with: this is not a leak, this was publicly released after the incident occurred.
Posted to Discord around Feb 9, 2022 (Archive)
I should not have to explain why the behavior by the staff members who weren't hexadecks/inked is appalling, because pepe the frog was very much used as a dogwhistle and hate symbol (probably still is!). The fact that none of the staff did adequate research is disgusting and they should not have treated hexadecks the way they did regardless of how rude hexadecks came off as because as hexadecks said, "it is very much a sign of right-wing troll personas". Chicken Raptor denying this was ignorant and dangerous, and telling hexadecks that they were not better than racists is grossly inappropriate for this conversation regardless of Chickenraptor's half native status.
Additionally Chickenraptor calling hexadecks racist and then claiming white racism is real is also inappropriate in this discussion, white people have colonised so much of the world and destroyed so many cultures that "b-but South Africa!" is not an excuse I will accept. White people colonised Africa and made South Africa an Apartheid that mostly benefited white people. Of course, this is not to dismiss their struggles, poverty and other struggles among white South Africans did increase post-apartheid, and this is not deserved, but touting them around and pretending like this is a reality 99% of other white people can face, ignores the role white people play in destroying other cultures. White people hold so much power of other groups in so many parts of the world that, we cannot treat "white racism is real" as something that is true everywhere, yes, they should not be getting death threats and be getting discriminated against, however this is simply the case in one country. I will not sit here and pretend that white racism is real anywhere else in the world when white people are very much continuing their own flavors of racism in places where they are "dominant". Furthermore, calling someone racist because they told you that you should maybe, just maybe, stop telling a black person to not be offended by a hate symbol used by people who are racist against primarily black people (a little more rudely than that, but you get my point) is disgusting, your half native status does not give you an excuse to be racist nor does it allow you to waive the possibility of something being anti-black. Hexadecks is not South African, they cannot and do not have power over white people to legitmately discriminate against white people past, perhaps, making a mildly rude post that could get them harassed by white people with more social power. Touting the same white south africa arguments over something probably as simple as a contextless "I hate white people." If you don't believe this is true you have never seen a black person make a social faux pas online and then instantly get dogpilled for it, which is argubly what happens to Hexadecks during this chat. The repeated refusal to listen to hexadecks in this conversation is telling, and starkly paints the staff in a awful light, because hexadecks brings up good points, that South Africa is not built off of the bones of white people to the same extent places like the USA is with POC.
I will not claim to have done the greatest amount of research on South Africa, however I can say with certainty that Chicken Raptor makes bad statements about BLM as well, claiming that "the other half target only white people." which is a gross assumption to make about people fighting for their rights. And Chickenraptor's repeated insistance that pepe "was always a joke meme" and refusing to let it go because that would allow the alt right to "win" is dangerous. Additionally Draconic Emperor Takkju, and Chicken Raptor bringing up strawman arguments and forcing Hexadecks to engage is distracting from the topic at hand. I will not entertain and argue that you can me ethically rich in a capitalist society, I will not enertain any of these arguments, Draconic Emperor Takkju and Chicken Raptor are being centrist and ignorant of how meaningful change is made. Regardless hounding a black person and telling them that they're wrong about the racism they experience is harmful and gross, and those two admins do not belong as admins on any website. I do not claim to know Hexadecks, but I hope they are doing well.
The statement linked was posted in the discord and players were allowed to discuss it, however after the discussion Chicken Raptor did not take discussion of pepe the frog seriously, and made a joke along with another user about it. Hexadecks allegedly having Pixpet's source code and threatening to make a copy petsite does not excuse this behavior whatsoever, it is still disgusting to its core.
Pixpets, Dragon Adopters and any future sites made by Komodo will not be allowed on my site further and have been mostly disallowed. I will keep the bonus page up, incase it is still helpful for people doing clicks on dragonadopters but I will not update it if it breaks. I will be leaving them behind permantly, and I reccomend you do the same if they have no changed their behavior since 2022.