this post was submitted on 04 Mar 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

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I'm gonna get real with you folks, we've had way too many of these posts recently. I've been reflecting on this topic a lot the past few days. For me personally, I couldn't care less about my gender identity. But just because that's true for me, doesn't make that true for everyone.

The beauty of the fediverse is that if you don't like the way a particular instance or community is moderated you can simply choose another to hang out on, or create your own.

Blajah has made it pretty clear by now they will ban anyone who argues against the validity of xenogenders, in order to create a safe space for those folks. That's fair enough imo.

Safe spaces should be respected, and Blajah's admins/mods do not deserve abuse for creating and maintaining those spaces.

I can completely understand why Blajah users don't want to have to constantly argue with external users about the validity of their chosen identities. Bans are one way Blajah has decided to manage that problem so that their users can experience lemmy in relative peace and safety. While it is a blunt tool and I have my reservations about preemptive bans, there are not many other options for @[email protected], other than defederation from most instances. That would be a terrible outcome for the fediverse as a whole.

In order to help Blajah to maintain their safe space, I would like to propose, if @[email protected] agrees and community sentiment is positive:

  • that we no longer accept posts about this topic in this community; and
  • we also remove previous posts on this topic from the community.

That's all folks, have at 'er.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 32 minutes ago* (last edited 6 minutes ago)

I'm OK with that but it has to be a bit more targeted specifically to blahaj's rule about gatekeeping and neopronouns, and I would add everything drag of course.

I wouldn't delete old posts, just lock them.

Maybe make it a temporary moratorium?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 hour ago
  1. Leave the threads up, probably locked. Don't erase history.
  2. I wouldn't start on wholesale topic bans just yet. This should be an absolute last resort and this will probably do more harm than good.
  3. Possibly create some extra categories for titles so users can filter it out if they don't want to hear about it. Instance name of the potential PTB? Not sure.

My suggestion for this topic right now is to get everyone together that needs to and talk/scream/yell about it in private. I think everything has been said publicly at this point and the reading comprehension has gone down the toilet. The amount of misunderstandings, blanket downvotes, pettiness, bad assumptions, baiting and finger pointing is getting ridiculous. Have your damn say and find a conclusion, even if said conclusion is 'fuck you' from each person.

For shit like this in the future? If it comes to it, it is far better to lock first, talk to the person, and then unlock it. We can tell each other all day to be an adult, but it isn't that simple. There will always be some big event that floods the community at some point or another. This community practically begs for it. It will eventually be filed into PTB history.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 56 minutes ago)

Why do you need to delete old posts?

Where can users banned by blahaj admins for lurking in other communities report it? Especially because the lahaj admins ban so many people for gatekeeping despite them not gatekeeping.

There's a theme here of covering up dissent instead of engaging.

Blahaj admins started this whole ordeal in december for banning dissent and losing dozens of users instead of engaging with their community.

PTB

[–] [email protected] 3 points 51 minutes ago

I stopped visiting this instance because the transphobic screeds became too much for me. Someone who doesn't 'get' half of young trans people but just feels being nice to people exploring themselves or ignoring them if they're too much is easier.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 hours ago

Well, I'm for this move. The why is obvious, as you've covered it in the post already.

I would also like to voice support for a couple ideas from previous comments

First, that previous posts stay up, and locked, so that people can still see that the issues were.

Second, that y'all consider the possibility of an FPT (frequently power tripped) thread at some frequency where folks can still hash out the common subjects. This and the mod abuse C/ are valuable pressure relief valves. I worry that a total banning of "frequent fliers" (sic) might have effects down the road.

I know that's extra work for mods, so it's definitely a big ask, but lemmy does need places where disgruntled users can complain. Having multiple places is better because one community would get swamped if they're the only place people can go for specific complaints.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I agree in at least a memorandum or a break on this so everyone, myself included, can outside and breathe from air. Play games they enjoy. Read a good book. Listen to music.

Taking a break from the keyboard helps me when I'm upset about online stuff that doesn't impact the real world.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

Mad love for the user name, btw :)

[–] [email protected] 46 points 4 hours ago

In favor of doing this, but keep the old posts locked without removing them so people know what happened and what led up to this.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 hours ago

I wouldn’t be against a temporary ban on posts about getting banned from LBZ over neopronouns, but my general inclination is to keep the previous posts up but locked as a wall of shame. I also understand wanting to take them down altogether and I wouldn’t be that fussed about it if they were.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 hours ago (6 children)

This shouldn't even be a debate or question. This hateful bullshit against Blahaj just needs to stop and mods need to put their foot down and say enough is enough. Like if this kind of shit arguing against a queer friendly instance for being queer friendly is okay or permitted I don't think that [email protected] should even be on our instance anymore, and our admins should just remove it.

I hope it doesn't come to that. I hope this community can put an end to this bullshit and stop endorsing queerphobic users' complaints.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Like if this kind of shit arguing against a queer friendly instance for being queer friendly

Nobody is arguing against blahaj for being queer friendly. People are arguing against some of their members for being unfriendly to people, including queer people, among them LittleRatInALittleHat. That’s the only reason people are caring about this.

The type of mentality “you’re not allowed to criticize me, because I am X, and so unless you agree with me you’re being anti-X” is tempting but it is wrong. You might think dragon is a gender, or you might not, it is fine, but refusing to agree that dragon is a gender is not and has never been “transphobia” or in any way anti-queer.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (2 children)

You might think dragon is a gender, or you might not, it is fine, but refusing to agree that >dragon is a gender ...

Well, I'm gonna chime in again, because it's a nice jumping off point.

That argument, that anyone is actually saying dragon is a gender, is simply misrepresenting all of the subject.

Regardless of one's view on xenopronouns in specific, or neopronouns one general, the claim hasn't been that dragon is a gender.

The rule, and the argument behind it, is about pronouns. And it isn't *really z about the pronouns themselves, as much as it is about who gets to decide when someone is deserving of being respected as an individual.

We're not biking being asked to share a belief that a person is a dragon, or fucks dragons, or that humans can be part dragon.

What we're being asked to do is to respect pronouns or just not talk to someone. That's it. That's what it's about.

The rule simply lays out what will happen if people don't do one of those two things.

You don't have to agree with the word being used as a pronoun meaning anything other than that it replaces traditional pronouns and makes them happy. Does it matter if they think they're a dragon, or a tiger? No. It doesn't matter. If the cognitive dissonance of using a word in an unconventional way is so high that you simply can't do it, that's okay. You have multiple options at that point.

One, you can ignore the request, and accept the consequences as they come. Fair or not, those consequences are known.

Two, you can use them anyway, and roll your eyes while you do it. Nobody will know you're rolling your eyes.

Three, you can use them anyway, and complain about it, which may also have consequences, depending on how you complain.

Four, you can block the individual and never interact with them again, thus preventing cognitive dissonance entirely.

Five, you can choose to just not interact with them at all.

Six, you choose to not interact, but complain about it elsewhere, with possible consequences (as these posts have shown).

There's even other options, but they're absurdist stuff like juggling oranges while singing "I'm a little teapot". So, you know, only entertaining to me.

Now, that's separate from anything else, I'm only talking about the idea that one has to share a belief to be able to use someone's pronouns. Like, my pronouns are he/him, they/them, and I'll accept any gender neutral neopronouns as well. But I'll accept she/her in a pinch, though I may correct those if it's relevant. It's why I never list my pronouns, I'm cool with almost anything, up to and including "that asshole". That's not even a joke, I'm fine being referred to that way as a replacement for a pronoun, or in general.

You don't have to agree with my belief that I'm not obligated to behave in the way a pronoun implies to use any of those. You don't have to agree with my belief that by accepting almost any pronoun that I improve myself by challenging my own concepts of gender in order to use he/him, or any of the rest.

So, why would you have to believe in anything at all to use any pronoun? You aren't expected to log off and tell your roommate or whatever, "jeez, this cat I was talking to was a real weirdo, he's just nuts" and you aren't expected to log off and tell the same person "I was talking to this cat from blahaj and drag sure did annoy me" you can use any pronoun you want when you aren't in the presence of the person requesting an individual pronoun, or any neopronouns, or a xenopronoun.

You don't need to believe anything except that the person, the human being with their own life and needs and pains, is made a little happier by the use of it. That's it. That's all you have to believe.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 minutes ago

Regardless of one’s view on xenopronouns in specific, or neopronouns one general, the claim hasn’t been that dragon is a gender.

[heavy sigh]

Drag’s gender is dragon rider

[–] [email protected] -1 points 26 minutes ago
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

If I might make a suggestion, assuming it wouldn't cause more of a moderation nightmare: Maintain a list of soft banned topics that get relegated to a weekly "containment" thread. Complaints about explicitly stated instance wide rules get routed there. People have their space to complain but it keeps things cleaner. It also still allows this place to serve as kind of a watch for abuse. Just because it's a clearly stated instance wide rule, or that anyone can pick up and go somewhere else on the fediverse, doesn't necessarily mean it's not being abused.

Either way, I despise the idea of deleting the previous threads. There's nothing illegal and people should be able to draw their own conclusions about those shitshows. I think the previous threads should be locked to prevent any further comments requiring mod work, but left up. They are important context to this whole mess in case it flares up again. Really sucks coming into something late and being attacked for asking questions that are only obvious if you're already up to date, that come across as attacks to people already in it, but you have no way of knowing any better about.

I also have some concerns about this comm if certain topics start becoming forbidden. It limits the ability of this space to allow the community to pass judgement on and discuss mod/admin actions. But not limiting could end up with this com just devolving into a complaint quarantine for leapords ate my face "contestants".

Tl;dr- don't ban topic (maybe a weekly quaratine thread for certain topics), lock old threads and leave up

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago
[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 hours ago (7 children)

The way I see it, is that the rules and aim of the instance are all written out pretty fucking clearly and people on a platform dominated by longform text don't really have an excuse for not being able to comprehend it. Like seriously, I had been using Lemmy for two days when I checked out Blåhaj, and I feel like I understood then already because it's not hard and English is my native language.

So that said, when I see people complaining about it, I think they're either fucking stupid, or they're probably these 'free speech' people that want the right to go around insulting everyone without consequences (while doing the most epic pearl clutching the moment anyone insults them).

As far as I'm concerned, moderators and admins doing exactly what is clearly fucking written in the description and rules is not power abuse.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Someone was banned yesterday who didn't even participate in the instance.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 minutes ago

That person seems to be an alt wanted to rehash the whole 196 debacle

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/39114269/17051352

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 hours ago (26 children)

I'm completely in favor of this.

Frankly, most of what I see on this comm is BPR and YDI, and most people could probably benefit from taking their bans and touching grass. But having some posts be YDI makes the PTB's more exciting so maybe i'm wrong.

Maybe we should make some penalty for earning a YDI or BPR, so that people who receive them aren't encouraged to re-hash the same conflicts over and over? I'm honestly not sure. Part of the problem is that the same people cross-post the same conflict on similar comms, which makes it feel as if the same issue is being litigated repeatedly.

But complaining about receiving a ban from a protective community with strict conduct policies is certainly not the intent of this community, i don't think.

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