Community Awareness
William Tsai
A pattern of inappropriate requests from a moderator of major lightsaber Facebook groups.
Encounters: September – November 2025
Last updated: 12 Apr 2026
In the lightsaber community, moderators of large Facebook groups occupy positions of trust and visibility. They are the gatekeepers — the people who shape discussions, approve posts, and set the tone for thousands of members. William Tsai is one such moderator. His presence in major lightsaber Facebook groups is well-established, a status earned not through any particular expertise or craftsmanship, but simply by hanging around long enough to be absorbed into the "in crowd." It is a recurring pattern in this community: longevity is mistaken for authority, and proximity is confused with credibility.
William first contacted me in the normal course of saber community interactions. What followed, however, was a pattern of behaviour that was, at best, deeply inappropriate and, at worst, genuinely unsettling — repeated and persistent requests for personal photographs of me.
William Tsai
Moderator of major lightsaber Facebook groups. A fixture of the community's social hierarchy — proof that if you hang around long enough, you get into the "in crowd."
📍 Chino, California
📍 From: Rowland Heights, California
📷 Instagram: @celestial_sabers00
The First Request: "What Do You Look Like?"
On 23 September 2025, during what began as a routine exchange, William abruptly shifted the conversation with an unprompted and entirely out-of-context question: "Odd question but I'm kinda curious what do you look like."
This was not a video call request for a saber deal. This was not a community meet-up coordination. This was a stranger on the internet, whose only connection to me was lightsabers, asking what I look like. I redirected him to my LinkedIn profile and issued a clear warning: "U have to be careful how u ask these questions William. Or be flagged as a predator or at very least very dodgy."
William asks an unsolicited and inappropriate question about my appearance during an unrelated conversation about saber referrals. My response was immediate and unambiguous.
The Second Request: "Did You Take Any Photos of Yourself?"
Two months later, on 22 November 2025, William struck again. After I mentioned I was taking a break at a forest onsen resort, he replied: "Did you take any photos of yourself at the onsen."
For those unfamiliar, an onsen is a traditional Japanese hot spring bath where guests bathe nude. Photography is strictly prohibited at virtually every onsen facility. The implications of asking someone whether they took photos of themselves at an onsen are self-evident and deeply uncomfortable.
I responded plainly: "photos are not permitted in an onsen" and pointed out that this was the second time he had made such a request. His backpedalling was immediate but unconvincing: "No just thought you might of taken some pictures if it was in a forest resort. Not that I was asking to see it."
Despite having been warned two months earlier, William again asks for personal photos — this time specifically at a location where guests are unclothed. The context makes the request particularly disturbing.
The Apology Tour: Damage Control
By 24 November 2025, William had evidently seen a post I made about the encounter and launched into a frantic apology campaign. Over the span of several hours, he sent multiple unprompted messages attempting to reframe the situation.
"I'm sorry that I asked about the photo I'm not sure if you believe me but I really wasn't asking to see a photo of you I just thought since your in a forest resort you might of taken some photos as people do when at resorts so that's why I asked that question again I'm sorry"
And then, most revealingly, a message that no one had asked for:
"I definitely wasn't not asking to see a naked photo of you or any of the other guests at the onsen"
Note the double negative: "I definitely wasn't not asking to see a naked photo." Beyond the grammatical confusion, the fact that William felt compelled to specifically deny requesting naked photographs — when no one had accused him of that in those terms — speaks volumes. It is a textbook case of an unsolicited, overly specific denial.
I informed him that others in the community had also flagged him as manipulative and prone to back-peddling gossip to gain favour and stay in the saber conversation. I also noted that a US attorney had reviewed the messages and advised that while the requests did not amount to a criminal charge on their own, persistence would change that calculus.
The Broader Pattern
William Tsai's behaviour fits a pattern that is unfortunately common in insular online communities. Individuals who accumulate social capital — not through skill, knowledge, or contribution, but through sheer persistence and social manoeuvring — begin to believe that their position grants them licence to behave in ways that would be immediately flagged in any professional or mainstream social context.
Being a moderator of large Facebook groups does not confer authority, expertise, or trust. It proves only one thing: you hung around long enough. And in a community as small and insular as the lightsaber world, that bar is remarkably low.
The screenshots speak for themselves. The pattern is clear: an initial inappropriate request, a warning issued, the same behaviour repeated in an even more uncomfortable context, followed by frantic damage control and an overly specific denial that raises more questions than it answers.
"Restraint is always far better — but also harder — than apologizing."