A total of 42 Geometry Dash Moderators were demoted today after RobTop announced a major restructuring of the game's moderation system ahead of update 2.209.

The "Moderator" position has been renamed to "Rating Advisor" and "Elder Moderator" renamed to just "Moderator."

RobTop said his goal was to start with a smaller group and give each Advisor's recommendations more weight.

I have also reduced the size of the team by roughly half. The goal is to start again with a smaller group, make the role clearer, and give each Advisor's recommendations more weight.

RobTop also noted that announcements for Rating Advisor promotions and demotions will no longer be publicly announced. Applications have also been permanently closed, with RobTop saying he "will be keeping an eye out for active and helpful community members to add to the team."

This comes after years of criticism of Geometry Dash's moderation system from the community. Additionally, former Moderator DashTY recently came out and criticized Geometry Dash's state of moderation. He was part of the 42 Geometry Dash Moderators who got demoted today.

Allegedly, Moderators only found out they were getting demoted this morning. It is also likely that most Moderators, even higher up ones, were unaware that this was happening. The criteria for who got to stay on the team has also been criticized as "nonsensical."

Criteria for getting demoted

Sink, a former Geometry Dash Moderator, said in a now privated stream that he believes the factor that determined whether or not a player was demoted was how close they were "to the people at the very top." In specific, he says that players who were close to Pauze, Viprin, and RobTop were kept on the team. Although he admits that this is only speculation.

Sink also noted that many of those who were demoted had previously called out people for misconduct. In specific, Sink says he called out Pauze for misconduct. Sink also criticized many of the "people at the very top" for protecting community members who engaged in alleged inappropriate behavior.

Whatever the criteria was, other former Moderators have said that it doesn't appear to be based on activity. Specifically, Sink said that many Moderators who did level request streams were demoted, meaning it could be harder for creators to get their levels sent to RobTop. Although he also said he doesn't think this will affect the game much more beyond that.

But aside from this, Sink's testimony paints a bleak picture of the Geometry Dash Moderator Team. He criticizes the "maintenance members" in the team, including Pauze and Viprin, for mismanagement. While Viprin resigned back in April and Pauze more recently, Sink speculates that Pauze is still involved behind the scenes, but he is unsure if Viprin is still involved.

Why the purge happened

Sink also claims that the decision to purge the Moderator Team was discussed by Viprin three years ago. He claims Elder Moderators and other "maintenance members" kept telling them that Viprin was only joking. Sink also claims to have asked these upper members a week ago whether or not this was happening, and he was told that it wouldn't. Although he admits that it is possible those who he spoke to genuinely were not aware that this was happening.

Whether or not RobTop is solely responsible for this change or if he talked to others about it is unknown. But what is known is that the vast majority of Moderators were not aware that this was happening.

It is possible that RobTop simply wanted to start from scratch after years of criticism and therefore only kept people who he was close with. But it is also possible that he talked this through with other upper members of the Moderator Team and that's why Sink alleges critics were targeted.

Sink also leaked an alleged private message from RobTop. Supposedly, RobTop sent this message to the Moderator Team before the purge.

I also do not want Rating Advisor to become a role where people feel like they have to constantly watch everything they [say], or act like official representatives of the game. Advisors are still members of the community and should still be able to have fun, joke around, disagree with people, and have their own opinions.

Sink criticizes this statement in light of the "Pauze situation."

Sink said the Moderator position grew into something very community focused and that RobTop just wanted it to be something where people send him stuff. Sink claims he would be fine with this if the demotions didn't "line up perfectly with what Discord server you were in." He claims that you would only keep your position if you were "friends with certain people." Although he does admit that this is speculative.

Misconduct within the Moderator Team

Sink criticized many upper members of the team like Viprin for having "a stranglehold on the community. So much so, that people were genuinely afraid of him." He claims people were afraid of getting kicked out of their friend groups and getting demoted because Viprin had "absolute control" over these things.

Sink also said that he doesn't think there should be a "ridiculous amount of secrecy at the top of the game" and that those at the top of the game shouldn't be defending players who engage in inappropriate behavior. He claims that "a person who was second in command to [RobTop]" was in a relationship with a 16 or 17 year old while in their twenties. Sink doesn't confirm who this is, but he is likely referring to Viprin.

Criticisms of the purge

SMJS, a popular programmer in the Geometry Dash community, said that "the permission to rate and moderate were separated from the badge" and that some accounts had no badge but did have permissions.

He also suggests that the decision to no longer publicly announce Rating Advisor promotions may have been done in order to allow players with controversial backgrounds back onto the team.

I'm guessing RobTop is implementing this officially now to allow some active elders with not so clean backgrounds back in the team.

Alternatively, this decision could have been done for other reasons. For instance, it is possible that RobTop simply doesn't want the role to be super community focused, and this is his attempt at achieving that.

Conclusion

This testimony of Sink and other former Moderators paints a bleak look. At best, former moderators criticize RobTop for being out of touch and not doing what is best for the community. At worst, the Moderator Team was just purged of the only members who were actively working to improve the game.

RobTop also said in his public announcement that this restructuring of the Moderator Team was "part of the upcoming update 2.209." It is therefore possible that many of the community's criticisms will be addressed in this update.

Either way, because of the testimony from former Moderators like Sink, the general community outlook on this is bleak. Many fail to see how reducing the number of people who help get levels rated and increasing secrecy is going to help things, especially when the moderator team was historically criticized for being very secretive.

As with all things, this situation is nuance. It is also an actively developing situation, so we will likely have more news once update 2.209 releases.