hinatot that'd be charlie. https://northernruins.com/character/O-TUVI-004
This is here in case the original letter is taken down from Northern Ruins.
Before delving into the details, keep several things in mind.
This all happened because two staff members, Min and Yolk, quit after not being allowed to discuss the idea of compensation for hundreds of hours of work in just the past few months. We just quit after leaving behind a notice of resignation with grievances in only the mod server. The goal was never to hurt Northern Ruins because despite all this, we still dearly loved it and, above all, its community. Northern Ruins contained so many friends that we would not want to hurt just because we were quitting. The only one who had the power to delete the servers was Aug despite what he has been relaying to people. And keep in mind, he has yet to release a comprehensive statement just explaining things to the people caught in the crossfire of his decisions.
Also note, Aug has not made any attempt to directly contact Min nor Yolk after quitting. Min has not been available for contact since the stress of the situation has landed them in the ER so lack of contact with Min might be excusable. However, Yolk has always been open to civil conversation and has told such to each and every messenger Aug has sent his way. Almost every messenger seemed to also think that Min and Yolk were at some fault for the servers being taken down or for the supposed destruction of Northern Ruins. As said previously, we merely quit because of lack of compensation. The only thing that was directly changed was that Min repossessed unpaid decorative code that they wrote and are the rightful owner of. Min left a lot of the code they themselves paid for along with other things on the site despite everything to make sure the site stayed perfectly functional with the database intact.
All destructive actions are by Aug’s hand only.
Plus, it was by his suggestion Yolk quit initially and Min followed soon after.
While Aug will repeatedly say he would have given compensation if he had known, he was the one who did not even want to discuss it in the first place. That is an undeniable fact. The issue is not a matter of money but rather a matter of fairness, transparency, and attitude. Aug does not entertain the idea of compensation in a transparent manner but instead opts to try to push it off till later. Compensation desired wasn’t even necessarily monetary but since he did not even want to discuss it, he would not have known. Min, who spent hundreds of dollars out of pocket, deserves monetary compensation especially considering their personal situation that Aug is completely aware of. Yolk did not want monetary compensation but rather wanted pets, items, and/or slots that were higher than common. But, again, Aug did not want to discuss compensation and therefore would not have known by his own choice. Note, previous staff-wide compensation was a single common slot. The only scaled compensation was a single Aspirith slot for Min. Compensation was not repeated nor otherwise scaled per work time. ONLY slots for compensation is a slap in the face since it requires work to truly get the benefit. Those bogged down by work by Northern Ruins or otherwise or even personal life would not really get any benefit from the slots at all. He also claims that the privilege to do adopts when he chooses to do them is compensation ignoring the fact that creating the adopts in itself is work. The price of an adopt pays for the adopt’s creation. It does not pay for the cost of the assets done. It does not pay for the cost of the site. It does not pay for the time spent on work for Northern Ruins outside of the adopt.
But, these words are nothing without the evidence to back them up. Aug, we know you keep telling people your version of the truth. So, we will tell our truth with the evidence to back it up.
If you wish to know the truth behind the issue at hand, this link will take you there.
If any questions come up, feel free to comment on the linked sheet. Since some of the images may be small, it is recommended to view it in presentation format. Imgur links will be added later to ease reading. For the sake of not overwhelming people, please do not DM any party involved! Additionally, please do not harass Aug. Even if we have issues with him, we do not want to cause him unneeded trouble in that regard. To be transparent, this letter and the attached compilation of evidence have been created and curated by Yolk. In order to ease the reading process, I have been referring to myself in third person. Min has had a limited amount of input regarding this because they have been hospitalized and are still ongoing treatment. Further details regarding their personal health will not be given at this time to respect their privacy.
Thank you for your time in reading this.
〔Edit 9-May-2021〕
Steve from Gumroad finally learns to read.
"If you haven't gotten your refund yet, you purchased through Gumroad, and you are being ghosted or dismissed by Komugitsune, please email [email protected] directly to get your refunds. They will process the refunds for you."
‣ Gumroad is now giving out refunds!
---
! ! ! ONGOING BREAKING OF TOS AND POTENTIAL SCAMMING ! ! !
Aug is currently upselling several designs despite not adding to their value via commissioned work or through any other valid means.
‣ NotDamien's Statement on Sell Value of Designs
‣ SnorkMaiden's Statement on Sell Value of Designs
‣ Heelies's Statement on Sell Value of Designs
If you wish to keep track of what he is attempting to sell and to see if anything might have inflated sell values, the link to his trade/sell thread is below. If you find something that may have inflated value, please report it and make a comment on his thread about it so more people can know. If you wish to, you can also comment here and I will add it to the list here.
〈Komugitsune's Trade/Sale Thread〉
EDIT: Image Transcription of Slides
PDF Version of Slide (Note: this will not be updated as fast but will be updated alongside the original.)
〔Edit 3-May-2021〕:
I'm adding this edit here since Aug decided, in a relatively confusing move, to lie blatantly on his site about the situation. Considering that, the following links will be added for ease of access to emphasize what he has had a direct hand in. This has gone beyond an issue concerning former staff since it has deeply affected many people unrelated to the original grievances I wrote. I sincerely hope this will help open more eyes to the issue.
I will preface with two important links.
This form is to collect formal evidence against komugitsune (Aug). As of right now, we are prioritizing gathering evidence of financial malpractice in order to strengthen cases against him in PayPal and Gumroad. However, if you have evidence of him doing any unsavory acts, we welcome that as well.
〈Please share this twitter link on the issue.〉
I have been informed that the issue is not well known outside of TH so it would be wonderful if you can spread the word outside.
Please note for posterity that this was done in a midst of a spike in anti-Asian crime. Both Min and I are Asian. Threats of police, in itself, is not a joke. But threatening it in this climate is horrendous especially considering he knows both of our addresses as well as the addresses of many others.
‣ Min's statements against Aug's allegations
‣ Persistent lack of communication
I would like to note that Aug has still never attempted to directly contact me and has blocked me everywhere instead.
‣ Cutting off communication avenues
It has been documented that Rook has been aiding with refunds as well as trying to be an avenue of communication between Aug and everyone else since he refuses to communicate directly. Since they have been cut off, Aug has effectively decided he would rather not face the allegations against him. Aug seems to have been using them as a scapegoat for failed refunds.
‣ Proof of selling traced Picrew design
He sold this to me when we were still friends and he had the picrew image hidden.
‣ Chargeback issues as well as Aug's indecision regarding NR
I don't know why Aug doesn't seem to be settled on what will happen to NR. But I will note his waffling on it seems to correlate with his waffling on refunds.
‣ Proof Aug said despeciesing applies to Official designs
‣ Aug lying about refund issues
I, and others, have experienced this. Aug has repeatedly been trying to lie on paypal about "nobody" trying to communicate with him. He's blocked most people seeking refunds so the only avenue of communication is PayPal where he, again, seems adamant on lying.
‣ Aug blocking those requesting refunds
It should be noted this wasn't a chargeback but a formal request for a refund. Basically, chargebacks seem to be the only valid avenue at this point.
yes, that's the exact design- i didn't know he'd changed the species, and in theory it should still be on the dainty masterlist, since discontinued dainties are still on there (just marked as discontinued ), but i couldn't find the design on either da or the new website. other designs associated with him are still up on both, which i find odd, but he did have a very public and dramatic severing of ties with dainties, which could contribute to the missing entry (or entries, who knows if there's others that are removed )
but yes- that's definitely the design. thank you for so quickly knowing what i was talking about-
Akira The issue is not knowing the npc, the issue with that is not being told or informed of the npc’s age. We are aware of our npcs, they’re like our mascots but Aug never gave us an age and some of us, like I was, joined after the introduction of the npcs and wasn’t even aware they had ages either.
Aug also has a habit of changing rules and forgetting his own rules sometimes. It’s nothing new if we were to find out it was a against a rule to do something despite him saying we could that. Example being the DO NOT rules under the NPCs official post.
A lot of the mods are as surprised as everyone else that the npc used for the breeding banner are minors, we were never informed or told about their official ages. I know I wasn’t. Didn’t event know they had confirmed ages so you could imagine my own surprise.
hinatot (sorry for the ping) I think when Aug left Dainties, their MYO designs (this included Charlie) were removed from the group and the masterlist as well (I noticed that both Charlies and her parents are missing from the group and I don't recall seeing them when Aug was getting rid of their dainties. It should be noted that those that were in the journal and traded off are still on the masterlist). Charlie's dainty design is still featured in Aug's artwork however.
MissKirsten From what I know, it might have been added at a later date, might have never been brought up in conversation, not all the mods ever looked too deeply into deviantart (most of the mods at the end years were more active on toyhouse and twitter) or simply... did not read every piece of lore that Aug wrote, on misc pieces of art-- I don't think that should ever be a requirement.
The main point is that it was never explicitly stated to moderators, who have no obligation to read through the description of every piece Aug wrote.
Even then, towards the end Aug basically straight-up lied to our faces about what he's changed about the lore. Like, I'd point out something that didn't line up and ask if that was a new thing and he'd be like "Oh yeah it's always been like that :)" so we were never sure what was still real or not.
Elfen sorry for the ping, just giving some extra confirmation irt Blithe! She was originally a personal OC that Aug no longer felt connected to- he took offers on her for a lil then decided he'd rather just make her into an NPC instead. Her listed age is probably the age he initially gave her as an OC. I don't recall Wishstone or Hickory ever having listed ages on the original deviation before Blithe was added, so it's likely that he added the ages around that time.
especially considering aug has a long and proven history of quietly changing things and not telling the mods until it blows up in their faces. this is a known thing he does, and you can see that the deviation with the three npcs was edited by the fact that some of the comments on the deviation refer to "these two," implying the original version of the image did in fact only have two of the npcs. that means it was definitely edited, and it's absolutely within reason to assume that the age information was added during that edit.
in addition, it's absolutely conceivable (and likely) that aug never made absolutely certain to show the mod team to that specific deviation with that description when showing them the npcs—those npcs were visible in a lot of official art and it's absolutely possible for someone to draw the npcs based on just the copious random images they were in, not necessarily the specific ref that does include their ages that was definitely updated at some point in its online history.