Regarding Auntie Sahar

The Metal Storm staff have decided to part ways with Auntie Sahar. Henceforth she shall no longer be part of the Metal Storm staff or community.

No doubt this will come as a shock to many of you. Sahar has been a part of Metal Storm for many years now and she has been contributing to it in an official capacity on and off for over a decade. She was a valuable and formative part of the Metal Storm crew for a long time and we owe to her some of what the site is today. Excising her from Metal Storm was not a decision that we reached in haste or ease. The details are private and will remain so. Nonetheless, there are certain things we should not hide.

Likely some of you have been privy to her volatile behavior over the last couple of weeks. There’s no point in disguising the fact that Sahar has been at the center of several vitriolic arguments lately, both in public conversations and behind the scenes between staff members. For the record, our decision has nothing to do with Sahar’s political opinions. We are not opposed to having differing viewpoints discussed; we’re all different people here, and it’s not as though those of us on staff are entirely in agreement about everything, so you need not concern yourselves with the idea that this is due to some kind of political agenda. We’re always in debate about how to moderate discussions. But the one serious prerequisite for any kind of discourse here, whether it’s about ongoing wars or 40-year-old NWOBHM albums, is that participants be capable of civil, respectful discourse. We declared three years ago when we relaunched the site that Metal Storm would be a welcoming environment where people could explore music free from discrimination and antagonism. To that end, we demand appropriate behavior from staff as well as users.

Sahar’s communications showed a complete lack of respect for her fellow staff members. The disputes got very personal and a lot of unacceptable remarks were made. In the heat of the argument both sides said enough to each other and, as a team and as individuals, we are sorry and sincerely apologize for (some of) it. In the end, we had to conclude that if Sahar doesn’t treat us with dignity and abide by the rules we set for ourselves, we won’t be able to work with her anymore.

To be more precise, however, these recent arguments are not themselves the ultimate justification, merely the trigger. There is a long history of clashes between Sahar and other staff and users. They haven’t always spilled into the public view, but there are exchanges going back a decade where we tried to settle things with her in a rational, friendly manner and found our efforts contemptuously rebuffed, and after enough cycles of the same arguments we realized that this arrangement was probably never going to function. Undoubtedly things look different from Sahar’s perspective; we can give you only our side of the story. But it has grown apparent to us over time that Sahar does not care to work as part of a team or show us the basic considerations that we expect. This is why we have taken the step not merely of demoting her from the staff ranks but banning her from Metal Storm altogether: our relationship has deteriorated to the point that we no longer believe that she would remain a positive presence in any capacity. The trust that we placed in Sahar has been compromised on so many levels over the years that we simply see no further role for her here.

Last week Sahar declared that she would be deleting her account, following one of the aforementioned arguments. She made this publicly known and said her goodbyes in the Shoutbox. This is not something we asked of her or expected to happen. Quite the opposite - we were disappointed that she had taken such drastic measures and left herself no room for debate, because we wanted the chance to talk it over and smooth things out the way we have always tried to. It was a surprise announcement that seemed to come as a sudden impulse. Sure enough, after some time to cool down, she reversed course and informed us that she would not be leaving Metal Storm and, in fact, wanted to take an even more active role. By that time, however, we had also made some more serious considerations, and we had already concluded that Sahar leaving would be for the best. Now it has become our decision rather than hers, but it was a unanimous one for us, and while it's not one we were happy to make, it's a decision we felt was necessary for the maintenance of civil conduct both in public and in private.

Sahar made a lot of notable contributions to Metal Storm over the years. As one of our first and most regular Roadburners and a proponent of noisy, psychedelic, meditative, avant-garde, and just plain weird sounds, she brought a particular flavor to Metal Storm’s coverage that continues to characterize the site to this day. A lot of the unorthodox and underground focus that has helped MS to stand out stems from her influence. We’re grateful for all the time and effort she put into Metal Storm over the years and we hope that she finds similar success elsewhere.

To those of you reading this, obviously this is a sensitive topic. It wasn’t easy for us, as it is not just a professional matter but a personal one as well. This thread is not for the discussion of politics or personal information, because they aren't relevant and this is not the place for recapitulating the same arguments that were already had. We will not be answering questions about what transpired between us and we will not be providing any details beyond what you see here in this message; by now it is a fait accompli and the only thing to do is move on. Please be thoughtful in what you post and remember that all of this comes down to showing respect for your fellow Metal Stormers.

Oh dang. I was blissfully ignorant so since I've no real idea of what transpired I'll just say this. I'm glad for all the stuff I discovered throughout the years because of Auntie. As much as I trust in the staff's judgement and believe this was a tough decision to take, the OG is still going be missed for all the knowledge and good music. I wish the drone empress all the best in the future.

Yeah, I wasn't aware of any of this. I appreciate having a post like this to explain a bit instead of her just disappearing.

You’re not going to delete her lists and articles are you?

Be a shame to let all that info go to waste.

Written by A Real Mönkey on 04.06.2024 at 21:26

You’re not going to delete her lists are you?

No, we'd like to leave everything up. In spite of how things ended, she did a lot of great work for Metal Storm and I know I've personally gained a lot from her publications, so we're not going to touch them.