After a Geometry Dash Moderator's in-game and Discord accounts were hacked, the latest six months of activity in Mod Chat, a private Discord server only for Geometry Dash Moderators, was leaked and multiple in-game accounts were banned.

This has led the community to criticize the Mod Team's handling of the situation. Further developments also reveal controversial conduct within the Mod Team.

The Hacking

We've noticed lots of contradicting statements to the point where we are unsure exactly what happened. But what is known for sure is someone managed to get access to a Geometry Dash Moderator's in-game and Discord accounts. Using this, a few levels were sent to get rated and the past six months of Mod Chat messages were leaked.

For better or worse, Mod Chat purges any history older than six months, which is why more was not leaked. What was leaked is believed to consist of all available logs that the hacker could access.

Response from the Mod Team

During all this, a player known as Stellar who was involved in this situation reached out to Pauze, a Geometry Dash Elder Moderator, to explain the situation.

After this, Stellar had their account banned, reportedly for sending levels via the compromised account. Stellar was reportedly not involved with the hack and was only brought in after it had occurred.

From what we've managed to piece together, Stellar was not the person who hacked into the account, but they did use the compromised account to send levels to get rated.

Another player, Geomaniac, also had their account banned. Geomaniac claims that they never sent any levels, but there's sources that contradict this. Either way, Geomaniac's involvement is believed to be very small, if any.

It is unclear if the actual hackers were ever banned.

Community Reaction

Upon the banning of Stellar and Geomaniac, the community was quick to voice their criticism for the handling of this situation. In particular, community members criticized Pauze for his poor handling of the situation and unprofessional conduct regarding his communications with Stellar.

After Stellar went to contact Pauze about what they believe to be their unjust suspension, Pauze responded with the following:

i dont owe you shit
thanks for your cooperation with my investigation

Regardless of whether or not Stellar's ban was justified, this is an inappropriate response. Members of the community were quick to note that this is not how situations involving a potential unjust suspension of a player should be handled.

While Stellar apparently did send some levels, they were also the one to come forward and explain everything before the leak occurred. Some community members therefore call their suspension unjust. It suggests that the Mod Team wants to disincentivize people from coming forward and cooperating.

Stellar's suspension appears to be permanent. While not responsible for the hack itself, Stellar was brought on after it had occurred and did use the compromised account to send an estimated 20 levels.

While this is by no means a good look, due to not being involved with the hacking of the account itself and Stellar's willingness to cooperate and confess to Pauze, some community members believe a permanent ban is unjust.

Pauze's Response

Pauze later put out an apology for his unprofessional response to Stellar but claimed that the banning of Stellar and Geomaniac was RobTop's decision and something he could not do anything about.

His apology was criticized for not being genuine and only serving as a PR move, especially since he reportedly never privately apologized to Stellar or Geomaniac.

His statement that there is nothing he can do to get the accounts unbanned was also criticized after Geomaniac was later unbanned after days of community backlash.

Mod Chat Leak

The Mod Chat leak also prompted further information regarding controversial conduct within the Mod Team. In specific, it was revealed that another Geometry Dash Moderator, Grax, sympathized with Hinds, a former Geometry Dash level creator who confessed to having feelings for underage individuals.

That being said, it is worth noting that this information has been known prior to the Mod Chat leak but was merely resurfaced with the leak.

This also led to information about Viprin exposed in 2023 to be brought back up. In specific, Viprin was exposed for dating someone nearly five years younger than him.

Response From Former Moderators

This situation has prompted some former Geometry Dash Moderators to come out and criticize the Mod Team.

Danzmen reported that the Mod Team consisted of "The toxicity, power trips, deep-seated insecurity" and more things that made him "absolutely miserable."

He went on to say:

I can see these problems are still rampant, and it just makes me sad. I just want the best for this community, and while I know I’m not very active these days, I still love the game with a passion.

After this, former Geometry Dash Moderator YakobNugget noted that Pauze "really needs to step down if he doesn't want to be the bridge between us and [RobTop] that his role requires, out of everyone in this situation he seems to perform actions based on spite and vibes while completely disregarding what actually happened."

While most of the community believes Pauze is mostly to blame, statements from former Moderators like Danzmen suggest a systemic issue that has been going on for a while.

While existing moderators have responsed, their responses have been criticized for not being genuine and deflecting blame.

RobTop's Involvement

As the ultimate person in charge, RobTop has been criticized for the Mod Team's shortcomings. It reportedly required Viprin to push Geomaniac's situation all the way up to RobTop to get him unbanned. Stellar is still banned as of the publishing of this article.

But one thing is clear: with Pauze and Viprin being the two most powerful Moderators, but also the two most controversial, there isn't much hope for any reform within the Mod Team. Instead, the only person who could do anything is RobTop, but as stated earlier, he seems to be checked out of the situation.

It is clear that Stellar shouldn't have abused a compromised account to send levels. But it is also clear that the Mod Team has some problems. Both sides have made mistakes.

The question is whether or not any changes will be made going forward.