Alright, so I think I've deliberated this enough.
First, I'd like to say that I think hime has been given the raw end of the stick through this whole ordeal. Not to suggest I love the way she handled this, but I thought in spite of her clear frustration she was composed and fair. To be accused of sabotaging her own game elsewhere I think is unacceptable, especially when I feel like her opinion on what transpired here at the very least has some merit.
Ultimately, certain hosting practices that should have been observed, were not. These practices exist primarily as a means to cover one's back - they are mostly optional here, a place that doesn't have strict hosting guidelines, but you can't have it both ways - if as a host you're not going to protect yourself from accusations of interference by observing the correct hosting practices, then you can't also attack players who suspect this when they're on the receiving end of them, and you certainly can't assassinate their character like what was done in the Avatar game sign ups.
With all that being said, while I acknowledge that the accusation of interference does have merit insofar as it isn't transparently out of bounds, I don't have reason to believe in this case that CakeWalker intentionally undermined her own game to favour one side or another. Indeed, I think some of her hosting decisions had favoured both sides, and that this one was only keyed into because of when it happened and what it seemed to mean for the Mafia team, who were no doubt expecting their win to be confirmed.
Given the above, I think what I'm going to suggest is that next game, CakeWalker has a co-host with her. Ideally, this would be from a coach, which would be either Rej or myself. I accept that it's not a wide pool, so I'm open to her having someone else as long as they're relatively experienced. This isn't really for balance purposes, but to help with making sure that she doesn't inadvertently assist one side over the other in some ways, or is confident that her role pms are clear enough for what they need to convey.
I am disappointed with how receptive she was towards my intervention here. Firstly, to allegorise me locking this thread with sexual assault, is obscenely out of bounds. The two things are not, in any way, comparable, and to even tenuously link them is tone deaf at best. I also feel like I was poorly represented, pretty consistently, presumably under the assumption that I was going to ban outright. This goes for everyone really - I would strongly advise to wait until someone actually says something, before attacking them over what you think they might say. Not as a rule, simply in general - it's good practice!
I'm not going to force anyone to make up if one or both parties are unwilling. I have no means to do that anyway, but there will be no punitive measures here for that. I would encourage it though, but if it can't be done, I expect all involved to be able to keep it away from the games here moving forward. Again, this applies equally, to everyone.
I don't see anything that needs a strike so none will be given here.
TL;DR Cake needs a co-host next time ti assist with the hosting of the game, co-host will be flexible as long as it is within reason.
cc
@CakeWalker
