for what it's worth, oracle manipulation was vaguely known, largely due to the experimentation of Kael Hate. I don't recall him sharing specific methods, likely out of respect for the then-active Zanz, and other active community members at the time didn't seem to actively research it, so there weren't many public details. the concept seemed to just not be interesting enough to the community at large for it to not fade into myth more than anything else. I had a couple conversations about it with different people over the years that never resulted in new attention or research on it
I definitely expect that some others found it over time and used it also, and chose not to share it, maybe for reasons similar to whatever yours may have been. I would like to assume good faith and think that if anyone came across the exploit and believed it would negatively affect the pvp scene, that they would bring it up, and not simply try to gain a large competitive advantage. maybe in a pvp ecosystem that wasn't slowly dying, more people would have looked into oracle manipulation and a discussion would have been necessary
No idea why nobody said it or if this rumour was shutted down and kept in the staff/council. Probably a way to get a staff position was keep the secret, seeing how much incompetence i assisted in the years. I can't believe i was the only to do it since it was so easy to figure out. It did not even started for nymphs, but simply not spinning crappy elements for submitting the arena deck.
to speak plainly about this bit - on some level, I sympathize with where you're coming from, as someone who both suspects that certain events had some unfair activity behind the scenes, and had to clean up other staffer's messes on occasion (with the clear acknowledgement that I created some problems for others also)
but I can absolutely guarantee that knowledge of oracle manipulation was not something ever used for staff leverage. it just wasn't a concept valuable enough to be limited and used as currency. the reasons for staff incompetence were far simpler than that: not enough active and dedicated people left to fill the sheer number of roles created over the years, with many longtime members falling to burnout. I know we didn't get along in that time, but I hope you can understand that I have zero reason to lie about the history of this place, given how much time has passed since then
