Roll20 Facing Backlash Over Banning Controversy on Reddit

If you've ever tried to get a group of friends together for a weekly session of D&D or Pathfinder, you know what a challenge it can be. It's hard enough to find a time where everyone is available, and harder still to get people to meet up in one place. This is the problem that Roll20 originally set out to fix. Roll20 is an all-in-one digital tabletop, video chat room, campaign tracker that's easy to use and livestream. So what's all this controversy about?

The Issue

On September 25th, Reddit user u/ApostleO posted a full account of his ban from the Roll20 subreddit, including transcripts. Below is a short summary of the events he listed:

ApostleO began by posting a detailed list of technical issues he had faced with the program on the Roll20 subreddit. This, together with a mild comment about sharing music, was the user's first post on r/Roll20. ApostleO was immediately banned from the subreddit.

Naturally, ApostleO appealed the decision and was put in touch with a moderator. Co-founder of Roll20, NolanT, responded, claiming that the Roll20 moderation team suspected ApostleO was an alternate account for a user who was banned a year ago, u/ApostleofTruth. At this point in time, NolanT showed no clear intention to verify whether the two accounts' IP addresses matched or whether their writing styles were remotely similar.

Well, it turned out that ApostleofTruth had been banned for claiming that the forum's moderators were abusing their power to silence criticisms — something which seemed to be accurate, given how they were handling ApostleO's situation.

ApostleO reached out to Roll20 on reddit, twitter, and the company's website with evidence that he was not the same individual as ApostleofTruth. After waiting over a day to hear back from Roll20, ApostleO indicated that he would likely publicise his ban if NolanT failed to respond to his claims of innocence.

This was the response he got:

Thus ApostleO posted the events on the DnD subreddit.

What happens now?

At the time of writing, ApostleO's original post is sitting at over 45,000 upvotes. NonalT's reply is sitting at 35,000 downvotes. Moreover, the DnD subreddit, which has 700,000 subscribers is ablaze with users looking for alternatives to Roll20, posting their own complaints about the service and the company's moderation practices.

This is more than just an issue of lost subscribers, though. Over the last two years, Roll20 has become increasingly involved with RPG developers like Wizards of the Coast, who advertise the ability to buy their D&D rulebooks and content through Roll20's website. The day of this incident, Pathfinder developers Piazo were marketing their involvement with Roll20 for the release of their new rule set:

Wield @paizo's Pathfinder RPG Bestiary's wildest beasts and generate new characters in a flash after they wipe you out using the Roll20 Charactermancer... It's now possible and easier than ever using today's big combo release! Read all about it here?https://t.co/QR2XONUc2A pic.twitter.com/Ill8pN7Fi6

— Roll20® (@roll20app) September 25, 2018

While a handful of larger RPG livestreams, like Critical Role, focus on the players being together at an actual tabletop, most RPG streams use Roll20. If organizations like RollPlay follow forum users in walking away from the application, it could have long-lasting effects. So far Dawnforgedcast is the first to step away from the platform, with WebDM and Taking20 likely following suit.

This story is continuing to evolve as more community members become involved. If you're enjoying our coverage of tabletop and digital board games, you might enjoy this article on classic board games coming to the Nintendo Switch.

As always, we're interested in your thoughts in the comment section below. Is this backlash overblown or did the Roll20 team bring this on themselves?