this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2025
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Ye Power Trippin' Bastards

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This is a community in the spirit of "Am I The Asshole" where people can post their own bans from lemmy or reddit or whatever and get some feedback from others whether the ban was justified or not.

Sometimes one just wants to be able to challenge the arguments some mod made and this could be the place for that.


Posting Guidelines

All posts should follow this basic structure:

  1. Which mods/admins were being Power Tripping Bastards?
  2. What sanction did they impose (e.g. community ban, instance ban, removed comment)?
  3. Provide a screenshot of the relevant modlog entry (don’t de-obfuscate mod names).
  4. Provide a screenshot and explanation of the cause of the sanction (e.g. the post/comment that was removed, or got you banned).
  5. Explain why you think its unfair and how you would like the situation to be remedied.

Rules


Expect to receive feedback about your posts, they might even be negative.

Make sure you follow this instance's code of conduct. In other words we won't allow bellyaching about being sanctioned for hate speech or bigotry.

YTPB matrix channel: For real-time discussions about bastards or to appeal mod actions in YPTB itself.


Some acronyms you might see.


Relevant comms

founded 6 months ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm probably an asshole sometimes. When people act like bullies or Nazis, I tell them to fuck off. I'm no saint. I do try to be fair, and also brutally honest. Here's my personal modlog. I have nothing to hide.

A defense of my modlog...OpinionHavers was a place for trolls and right wingers to spout shitty opinions.

Raccoon is a Lemmy app. Someone posted a screenshot of their search, saying they couldn't find the app on F-Droid. I pointed out that they spelled "Raccoon" wrond since it has two Cs, and got my comment removed by the mod for being "annoying". LOL! I was literally pointing out the problem with their search. 🤦‍♂️ I still can't believe this one! They also removed another comment where I asked someone why they didn't just edit their original comment to correct an error instead of only doing so in a reply to a reply, since it was confusing people. That one got removed too. That's when I said "Fuck this community" because the mod and app author was just so heavy-handed.

I'm certain the "hot glue" thing was a joke and not an attack, Although I don't remember the context. I sure it was posted as a joke question, and not a suggestion that someone do it like an insult. It only got removed as "gross".

That SPH sub was some kind of roleplaying sub. Or maybe they're taking themselves seriously. I don't know. But I gave a roleplaying answer that said, "don't click this link" that op had posted and I got banned.

In c/technology, someone said I sounded like in "ad" when I listed what I liked about YouTube Premium, and they said I triggered their "uncanny valley response" and then said "never do that again". Which was kind of weird and ticked me off a little. So to prove I wasn't a bot, I said, "Would it help if I said, 'fuck off'?"

That picture towards the end was because someone kept posting the same insult over and over again, so I screenshotted their profile and shared it as a reply saying they need to come up with a new insult. Here's the picture.

At any rate, I don't think I'm a real asshole. Not usually.

Trying to be fair and brutally honest is why I got banned.

ITAP on Lemmy.world is modded exclusively by Stamets. He's a mod of several communities and heavy user of Lemmy. He's really active.

He created the community and named it "ITAP" after the subreddit of the same name. The point of that original subreddit is to post OC photos. It's right in the name. But his community rules specifically say that you can post non-OC. I find that a little weird, but it's okay. His community, his rules.

Here are the rules for his ITAP:

ITAP Sidebar rulesWelcome to /c/ITAP, a place to share any photos you may have taken or seen that you think others would enjoy! It does not need to be OC, it just needs to be a photo that you think is beautiful and worth sharing.

Rule 1: No bigotry or discrimination.

Rule 2: No photos of politicians or political rallies.

Rule 3: Keep it civil.

Rule 4: Add OC or Not OC to the title.

Rule 5: NSFW posts are allowed provided they’re marked as such.

Rule 6: AI generated art isn’t allowed but a low level of digital touching/enhancing is fine

Rule 7: You don’t like the name. I don’t care. The community is called the way it is because I decided to do so. It is almost as if the word took could be used in different ways, such as physically taking the image yourself or storing a copy of the image that you found pleasing. If you have a problem with this, feel free to set up your own community. You may not feel free to openly whine and insult the community or the mods simply because you disagree with it.

Wow, rule 7 is new, and I feel like it's specifically calling me out. That's funny! I didn't insult him. Rule 4 must be new, too because Stamets hasn't been following it, which is the whole point of this post.

Stamets posts a photo about every day and none of them are his and none are tagged "Not OC". Invariably, he gets comments like "Wow, gorgeous photo! How did you take that?". Or "Beautiful! What's the story behind this [abandoned] boat?" He doesn't reply to any of them that I've ever seen.

That last one was an actual comment, almost verbatim, and after seeing so many of these comments day after day, I finally decided to say something. I wish I could copy my comment, but Lemmy doesn't let me see it because Stamets didn't technically remove it. I think banning me merely hides all of my comments, and I can't copy it from the modlog because it isn't there. I'll try to summarize. It was like 3 paragraphs.

Stamets only posts photos he didn't take. He gets a lot of comments like yours and never replies. I don't understand why it's called ITAP. I posted some OC here to try to encourage other people to do the same, but I'm going to delete it and just block the community. Just use c/pics for non-OC, Stamets, and let ITAP be ITAP. Posting non-OC while not saying so--in a community called "I took a picture"--feels something akin to stolen valor.

I used a lot more words, but that was it. He banned me, saying I was creating unnecessary drama. Then he changed the title to say "not OC". It wasn't there originally. Here's the post: https://lemmy.world/post/25565845

Turns out, he made just a sticky post about this: https://lemmy.world/post/25582946 trying to defend himself and his community's name. "I made /c/ITAP for myself and by myself." Well, that's a really weird reason to make a public internet community. 🤷

I don't really buy the whole "took" pun thing. Then again, it's kind of clever, even if really obscure. As for not even acknowledging that he created this community's name as a direct copy of Reddit's community... That's an odd position to take.

Am I an asshole for telling him that posting non-OC in ITAP and not labeling it is like stolen valor? Am I really creating unnecessary drama? I'm definitely creating more by posting here! 😂

It looks like he edited some of his submissions to say "Not OC" to follow his new Rule #4. Good! Now I feel like I've made a positive change and I don't feel like an asshole at all. I feel like I took one for the team for making that community slightly better. I had seen so many of those kinds of comments praising "his" photos. I don’t feel like I deserve a ban when he changed to rules to fix exactly what I was talking about. My comment clearly had merit.

I don't need or want any remedy. Although, if he gave up moderating ITAP and let it be a community in the spirit of the one he copied, the spirit that seemingly everyone thinks it has, that'd be great. It's never gonna happen, though. He could apologize for taking criticism so badly, but I doubt he'd ever do that, either. If you look at some of the comments he's made in defense of the Star Trek show he's named after, and comments he's removed for spurious reasons, I think you'd come to the same conclusion that he's just your average PTB.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Sorry Stamets, but gotta call it a PTB.

I don’t feel like I deserve a ban when he changed to rules to fix exactly what I was talking about. My comment clearly had merit.

Exactly this!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago

Yeah, PTB. Very thin skin.

Honestly, looking at the mod log, it seems the only reason ANYONE was banned was because they commented on the name. It was called "uncivil behaviour" before a new rule was added, and it's the longest and most bitterly written rule there. Seems like a weird hill to die on.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

BPR.

Bottom-line, I think that you asking for clarification, I think the rules change, all of it was for the better. But you made it clear that the comment that was the catalyst in all of this starts with you putting Stamets' actions on the same level as stolen valor, and without doxing myself that is such an egregious and uncalled-for statement I had to actually do something else for half an hour before I came back and posted this.

Not everyone has the clarity of mind or the physical capability to walk away when they see something so insulting, so I'm giving it a BPR. If you hadn't done that, I would've gone with PTB, but that was... too much.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

stolen valor

Yup. I agree. I made other comments in this thread saying I agree it was dumb. Sorry to have insulted you.

I need to find better words to express what I meant.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago

Yeah, this is a pure PTB situation.

Which is kinda strange, since stamets is usually not that thin skinned. Which would be fine if they took a step back, cooled off and set things right instead of grudgingly and pettyly (is that a word? Doing thing in a petty manner) changing the rules. Everyone has bad days and bad moments, I've had more than my fair share for damn sure.

Stamets, I'm not going to ping you because that gets annoying as fuck, I'm sure. But if you run across this, I get it (or I think I do). You created a community and did the usual thing of seeding it. That's a good thing.

What isn't good is using the name of an established subreddit where oc content used to be the expected content, and where the name implies that the "I" in question is the person posting having actually been present to have operated the camera. When you do that, and then get upset to the point of banning people for being confused and talking about it (and, since the comments aren't visible to us, we can't verify anything other than that the comments were about that subject), you're screwing up.

My advice? Fix it. Just change the rules again so that they aren't so petty, undo the ban until and unless the same people do something else that violates the corrected rules. It would help to acknowledge that it was an overreaction, but that's less about being a mod, so isn't necessary. We're all human, and we all fuck up, so fixing the mistake is what really matters, not a mea culpa.

For real, I've done way worse back in my days in the early internet moderating forums. Fucking up is easy. It's human. And it's okay. It's how you handle it afterwards that really matters.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I can only hope that Stamets was just having a bad day and ended up taking it out on you, and that this isn't going to be repeated behaviour. This is all pretty egregious, PTB for sure. This all seems really out of character for him.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

I don't know. He had banned 3-4 other people for questioning the community name, without even replying to them. One comment: banned. No explanation and a modlog note of "uncivil". A couple of those people chimed in in this thread.

I also looked through the log of his mod actions and the number of times he's banned legit looking opinions as "dogwhistle homophobia" is alarming. I only saw 2-3, but that's enough. They were perfectly fine arguments against the writing of Star Trek: Discovery. At least from my perspective as a straight person and ally. The comments were in no way homophobic.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Clear PTB.

Doubly bad because Stamets seems pretty cool from what I've seen. This is some bullshit, though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

Doubly bad because Stamets seems pretty cool from what I've seen.

Ironically, he posted in this same community a week ago!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago
[–] JackbyDev 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

[email protected]

Not sure why you posted all that without a link to the community lol.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

~~There are several links in my post to the community.~~

Well, I take that back. Turns out he deleted the community. Good!

Or it was banned by admins. I dunno.

[–] JackbyDev 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You have links to posts, but not the community. I know it sounds like I'm just being overly pedantic, but with the way federation works you can't know where a community is without the instance. You only ever call it ITAP, not [email protected].

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

OK, but it's gone. It's been deleted. It's moot now.

Besides, by clicking on any of the comment links you'll find the community easily. At least you could before it was deleted.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

It's completely gone for me too. Must have been deleted.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

When I find another platform some time in the future and I'm talking about how unfriendly this place is towards feminism and how it allows Christians to criticize other people's beliefs but doesn't allow criticism of Christianity; you can blame the .world moderators that dropped everything and ran to remove my comments for someone that was reporting me while having a 'discussion', while leaving that person's comments up that time not so long ago.

Not impressed with what I've seen there so far. They're the most Reddit-like moderators in this place. Just a bunch of professional basement dwellers that get to feel a little less powerless in life here.