A look back on things (Part 3)

Make sure to read Part 2 and Part 1 if you haven't already.
totalfreedom.boards.net/thread/60756/back-on-2
totalfreedom.boards.net/thread/55364/back-on

On August 18, 2017, I joined the server to see a rogue operator conversing with not only marcocorriero, but also multiple admins. Their name was Panther. He explained that TF's security was very poor and that one of the exploit patches just barely patched one of his exploits. Under normal circumstances, I would have banned him and moved on from there. But today I was curious, curious to see what would happen if UYScutix joined forces with him. I asked him for his Discord; he agreed. In a trade with him, I would give him UY's Discord tag and he would give me the reason he attacks the server. The quotes say it all.


Shortly after this conversation, Scutix told me that him and Panther would be working together. Instead of breaking ties a day later, the two got along very well and their collaborations were frequent. Proud of what I had done, I continued administrating as usual.

That was, until the next day.

I joined the server and went to work on a build I started on weeks prior. The build was nearing completion and everything on the server seemed normal until a simple message appeared in the chat. At that moment in time, everything stopped right where it was.

When I read that message, I was totally shocked. My heartrate grew rapidly. My hands were shaking. My emotions were going everywhere. My stress levels were through the roof. The only thing I could do now was watch my worst nightmare come true: my 3 years of constant service and hard work just disappearing within seconds. Questions from operators and administrators immediately began to rise to the surface. Why was Video suspended? Did he deserve such a harsh punishment? Was he working for Scutix? What the hell happened? No one in the community knew the answer to any of these questions, only what Wild said: "a suspected breach of security."

I would continue to question the validity of my suspension for days after it was put into place. I even questioned it to Wild himself but he refused to provide anything useful; he only provided answers that were too vague for me to understand.



Despite my attempts at getting answers, my attempts were proven to be fruitless. I contacted Scutix about it and he was definitely confused.

My memory skips ahead to a few weeks later, when I think about my possible decisions: Abandon ship and never look back, attempt to prove myself innocent, or just wait it out. Knowing that I was actually an insider for Scutix at the time, I knew that the second option was out of the question. Abandoning ship would have been a very hard decision because I would have had to figure out how to get over my addition to the server, so my only option was to just deny that I was an insider and wait out the suspension to the best of my abilities. It was at this time that I was also very reflective about my time on the server, so I began writing my entire story using every fragment of memory of the server I had at the time in a thread that was called "A look back on things". The thread gained very positive feedback, with many users highlighting their favorite parts of the entire thread.

Despite the fact that I was still on the quest for the reason behind my suspension, it felt nice to sit down and talk about TF and how it changed my life. The quest for something I had already figured out myself would continue for a long time.

Except it didn't. It didn't even last an entire month. All because of a few knocks and a pair of riddles.


As soon as Scutix's Discord chat logs were leaked to the general public, it was abundantly clear what my suspension reason was. The proof was finally out. There was literally no practical reason to deny the fact that I was an insider for him anymore. I felt remorseful for lying to my closest of friends, so I privately apologized to Kash and Marco for betraying them. They were surprisingly cool about it.




A little less than a week later, I get a message in the middle of the night from mibbzz asking if I wanted to see some "funny stuff". Out of curiosity, I agreed. I was almost immediately sent various screenshots proving that Scutix's other accounts for services such as YouTube and his precious booter were all breached. All at once. In the heat of the moment, I asked him to use the Google Takeout feature to save everything that was on the Google account and then leak what was saved. He (or whoever he told to do so) followed through with this request, and shortly afterwards Scutix's Google Search history was uncovered. After he learned that he was totally compromised, he surrendered and apologized for the damages he caused. His "TF Revolution" was finally over and everyone could finally move on.

Addition #1 - January 21, 2019:

As I had no other choice, I created a public apology towards Marco and the rest of the server's community for being a liar and basically betraying the server as a whole. I was criticized for helping Scutix and lying about my involvement with him until I was caught. I was relieved to know that at least I apologized for what I did and didn't try to make up excuses. I didn't care if I wasn't admin anymore, the case was closed and I had the opportunity to leave the server peacefully. I chose to do something else instead: return to the road of recovery.

Because my reputation was destroyed and my 3 years of hard work was completely gone, it was time to build back up what I lost in 2017. Of course the process was going to be long and I knew that, but I decided to do it anyways. In response to Panther's attacks towards TF using Ktoby's IGN, I asked them to stop imposing as the operator. He agreed, and kept his word about it.

At this point, my memory stops for a few weeks and resumes in March 2018, when the server owner at the time (Windows) unexpectedly went inactive and went completely silent. Because of my tendancy to meme the living hell out of ongoing server issues, I created a meme with the intent of getting a quick chuckle from a few people. I posted it on the forums titled "Windows in a Nutshell". Instead of getting the standard 5-6 likes and then having a dead thread, the thread evolved into a collection of endless Windows memes from different administrators. For the most part, I got a great laugh out of the memes and would occasionally notify the unaware of the thread's existence.

After continuing to serve the server for a few months, I made the move to apply for reinstatement on my 4th year anniversary as an admin on March 24, 2018. I titled the thread "Video Returns - Reinstatement Application". Despite the good first impressions with a good amount of vouches, the application started to get objections for reasons like "you haven't done anything to warrant reinstatement", "you're prone to drama", and most insultingly, "an anonymous senior administrator objects because they can't trust you enough to know who they are because they're afraid you'll blackmail them". Despite these drawbacks, I was given my Super Admin status back on April 8, 2018. Rylie notified me of the good news via Discord, and asked that I join the server as soon as possible.



Although I hadn't been an admin for nearly 7 months, I decided to continue where I left off with my administration. Unfortunately, my first few days back as an admin were not good. I was warned for activities that were supposedly "intolerable" but then the person who warned me would do something that was in clear violation of the conduct policy. I didn't know how to react to hypocrisy like this, because I felt powerless. I felt that if I attempted to go against what these people were doing, I would just be suspended again for arguing with higher ranks. If I tried to report them for their actions, my report would just be ignored. To avoid losing my rank for the second time, I just went with it even if it felt wrong to me.

On April 18, 2018, I was warned for "creating a lag machine" when I was trying to make a huge snow fort that had redstone clocks connected to dispensers with fireballs and snowballs inside of it. The launchers, despite their appearance, weren't designed to lag people. I was scolded for creating it and was told that it was "very poor behavior from an admin". When I was read those messages, I took it personally and felt insulted. I wasn't able to stay positive after that, and I soon after disconnected in an attempt to prevent myself from disrupting others with what I would say.

My memory skips to May 2018, when I had a potential panic attack that turned into me yelling on-server (similar to how I used to in 2015). When I noticed that my behavior was very similar to how I acted in 2015, I immediately made the move to go inactive for at least a week so that conditions on my end improve. This was a good move, as it allowed me to prevent a possible disaster from striking.

- = More of the story coming soon = -