Nothing about this has been handled correctly from the beginning, so I will offer an explanation just to clear up the confusion.
When Staff is alerted to a potential outing, the correct course of action is to remove the thread from view, contact the individuals involved, and verify if an outing actually did occur. From there, we have only two options. First, if an outing occurred, we ban the outer for the appropriate amount of time, we edit the thread to indicate that it was a Guideline #5 violation, and we put the thread back into view and let it run its course. Second, if no outing occurred, we simply place the thread back into view unedited.
The first RTM was received on this thread as a Guideline #26 violation, to have the thread locked. All current and former Staff members were active moderators of this forum at the time that occurred. The first RTM about the outing occurred about 18 hours after the first RTM to close the thread. All current and former Staff members were active moderators of this forum at the time that occurred. The thread was closed a little less than five days after the first RTM about the party thread was received, and about five hours after the outing RTM was received.
Five days to close a thread that was RTMd for a guideline #26 violation is a problem. It never should have taken that long. Either not seeing, not acting on, or ignoring an RTM for outing is a huge problem, and it never should have happened. Staff has been talked to about this situation, and proper procedures will be followed in the future. Thank you to everyone who attempted to alert Staff to this matter, and hopefully this won't happen again.
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