As a lot of you know, there have been rampant rumors about Bittersweet being Crying Vegeta. Some of you have even pushed us into looking into it, but we looked again and again, and we found no proof to back it up, so until we found something that we considered good enough proof, we made a decision months ago (when "Bittersweet" also got banned on Mike's fourm) that we would not do anything to Bittersweet here - though, it obviously stinks that we were actually technically correct to do it in the first place all those months ago.

A few days ago, someone came forward with proof that gave very good, but not 100%, evidence that Bittersweet was indeed Crying Vegeta, and a second member pointed out things that gave further suspicion as to the identity. Based upon this, I requested (and obtained) permission from the other admins to look into Bittersweet's PM box. What we found there was plenty of proof that undeniably made Bittersweet out to be Crying Vegeta.

We also found out that one of the moderators had known about it, talked to him, passed along our communications and kept it purposely hidden from us.

Therefore, we all gathered, sifted through the proof, and have investigated what we believe to be everyone involved with this. We are handing out the punishments accordingly, using the handy list that Bittersweet provided us in their final moment of glory.

  • Mcjon01: Directly aided and abetted CV in keeping Bittersweet "clean," right down to letting CV do a few posts when he visited him to keep us from figuring out IPs. It doesn't matter that CV didn't tell him it initially, the fact is that he did eventually know, and he did not come forward. He claimed that he did not know he should come forward, but this should be really common sense, and since it wasn't a rule before, it sure is one now, since it seems like if we don't make it a rule, people won't follow it.

    Punishment: One Month Ban.

  • Kyte: We investigated, but found no plausible evidence that he had anything to do with helping CV hide.

    Punishment: None.

  • ZidanReign: We investigated, but found no plausible evidence that he had anything to do with helping CV hide.

    Punishment: None.

  • RR121: We found that he was aware of CV's true identity, but did nothing to actively help him hide it.

    Punishment: Public Warning.

  • Velsper: We found that he was aware of CV's true identity, but did nothing to actively help him hide it.

    Punishment: Public Warning.

  • LeopardBear: Well, it should be obvious. Knew, aided, and abetted, right down to passing along what was being said in the admin forum. That it'd go this high up the chain seriously disappointed all of us.

    Punishment: One Month Ban, revocation of Moderator status.

  • Kotonoha: We investigated, but found no plausible evidence that she had anything to do with helping CV hide. (If anything, she figured this out on her own.)

    Punishment: None.

  • Spinach: We found that he was aware of CV's true identity, but did nothing to actively help him hide it.

    Punishment: Public Warning.

  • I3uster: We found that he was aware of CV's true identity, but did nothing to actively help him hide it.

    Punishment: Public Warning.

  • Randy_Hamblast: Utterly moot, as he's been banned for months.

    Punishment: Digging up the corpse, hanging, drawing, quartering, followed by shaking the head, limbs, and torso on all sorts of pointy spears and stuff.

  • Frantic Author: We found that he was aware of CV's true identity, but did nothing to actively help him hide it.

    Punishment: Public Warning.

In the end, we're thoroughly disappointed with all of these turns of events. On one hand, the popular rumor was indeed correct, and it would've been okay if that was all it was, but to know that one of our own, someone whom we trusted, actively helped him seriously let down all of us.

And, just to make sure this is clear, If you know about a sockpuppet account, and do not come forward with proof and the information, you will be held as a guilty party when that sockpuppet is discovered. The argument of "It wasn't me, so I didn't know better!" really doesn't apply here. Use some basic, common sense.

Don't think we'll always be so lenient on punishments if you only "know" a sockpuppet.