This one requires a bit of background.:
Hexbears keep opening the_dunk_tank posts about our mods and our instance in violation of their own comm rules. That compels me to go in them and try to correct the bad faith disinformation being peddled about us.
In one such thread one commenter made a reply to me ending it with “disengage”, which was a clear indication they didn’t want to engage in discussion any more, which I respected.
Note that there’s no indication of how disengagement works in any sidebars. And even their own Code of Conduct, merely states:
So it appeared to me this is how it works.
Later in the thread, someone kept making bad faith replies and at some point I thought, “I’ll just use this handy disengage rule to avoid being further provoked”. So I did, at which point I was gleefully and summarily banned by the mod with the following comment, to which I couldn’t respond anymore of course.
Now I knew already that plenty of hexbears had a grudge against me for rejecting “left unity”, so they were just looking for an excuse to get rid of me, they finally found enough of a plausible gotcha and all they could think of for the reason was “liberal”. Note that the first person “abusing the disengage rule” was never banned or affected in any way.
Ultimately this led me to being banned from hexbear itself, but that’s a post for another day.
So what do you think? Am I "liberal "enough to deserve a ban for “abusing” an unwritten disengage rule. Power trippin’ mod or nah?
Everything you just said about me was quoted completely out of context, but of course it would be. At least this time you can’t go and remove my comments when I explain my position.
Context One of our users had been reported by a hexbear user for “homophobia” for what seemed to me at the time, a pretty innocuous statement. Here’s what OP had written:
I mean, not to directly play devil’s advocate but I heard plenty of the ‘that’s so gay’ stuff in high school and even then it was commonly understood to mean silly and stupid (ethics of this not discussed here). If you were actually gay no one gave a shit. Are you 100% sure it’s your sexuality they were talking about? Or is that something you assumed because you were self-conscious of it? I am not advocating for either way or saying it wasn’t done in hate, I just want to make sure you’re not putting yourself through undue hardship. [OG post by a dbzer0 user that was reported for homophobia]
Having reviewed the comment thread after a report of homophobia, my stated position was as follows:
It seems to be, as a gay person myself, that this is a perfectly reasonable take and not homophobic at all. He points out the common use of the word ‘gay’ in a common usage in high school. He doesn’t try to justify it ethically, just observes that it occurs, and asks if perhaps the common use of ‘gay’ as a general pejorative may have been the case here, instead of a direct comment on a person’s sexual orientation. So, it seems to me that the one example you provided is by no means a clear example of anything, except perhaps of hexbear users immediately making bad faith assumptions about users not from their instance. […]
I’ll point out here that I at no point argued that it was ok to use the term “gay” as a pejorative, and neither did the user who was reported as being homophobic. It seemed to me the user was simply pointing out that the term is unfortunately in common use as a pejorative, especially in a high school situation, and is often applied to people anyone and everyone, regardless of whether they are gay or not. And looking at their post history, there was absolutely no indication they were homophobic in previous comments, and in fact it indicated the complete opposite. Where the evidence points to a bad-faith interpretation of a user’s comments (as in this example) then we will generally give the user the benefit of the doubt. Again, I don’t apologize for that approach. Serious accusations require substantive evidence, and I found no substance to this report.
In this particular example, the hexbear user chose to “disengage” from the conversation (a classic hit and run job), and so my comment was removed by a hexbear mod, removing any context from the discussion. So, I’m now apparently considered by some hexbear users to be “a homophic mod, hiding behind being gay”, in large part because any contextual information was immediately removed, and I was almost immediately perma-banned (subsequently changed to a temp-ban).
And ever since, I’m branded as homophobic gay man by hexbear trolls everywhere, because haters gotta hate I guess?
Edit: had extended quotes too far
edit 2 Also this moderator is a mod of our trans community, something reserved for trans users. So yes you are targeting a marginalized person, the same person that you have harassed in direct messages. This combined with a history of not dealing with homophobia/transphobia in the past. I think there is a clear pattern that comes from the top in this instance, which is truly disheartening.
Just because someone is marginalized doesn’t make them immune to criticism nor does it mean that any criticism of them is oppressing their identify. This is ironic in the same thread when you then proceed to accuse one of our mods of the hiding behind their identify.
I also know how haphazardly hexbears accuse others of bigotry when they aren’t cowered. Much like you threw your trans identities as a shield against criticism for power tripping and hypocrisy and then strongly implied we’re transphobes due to the that or when’s you accused the trans admin of blahaj of harboring transphobes and chasers.
We’ve already went through your arguments against unruffled and we already explain how you stretch what they said to arrive at these accusations. But I’m not going to rehash every grudge you have against our instance because you’re salty for one post criticizing one mod.
It is telling that you have no arguments to make against what I posted (hypocrisy and powers abuse) in the except to try keep trying to stretch reality so that we’re seen as bigots.
I am specifically calling out your original post image where you use the admin privilege to deanonymize the modlog I have no issue with you posting where she self-discloses in an attempt to clarify the rules
What difference does it make once she admitted it? Anyway I wasn’t aware that lemmy deanonymizes for admins tbh as I only use this account. I’ll keep it in mind for the future.
And in spite of her personal opinions about you or the db0 instance, still followed the rules and removed a post targeting you. How is that a power abuse?
The power abuse was the banning as I have clearly stated?
Any hexbear user can become a moderator, what is the process for a divisionsbyzero user to become a moderator?
that’s completely irrelevant to whether someone abuse mod powers.
How are the mods in the wrong? you were liberal in your defense of the meme and despite ideological difference the mod remove the post targeting you, sounds like they are doing an exemplary job.
“You were liberal in the defense of the meme”? Wtf does that even mean? If you’re saying that your mods can just YOLO ban people based on vibes and then justify it by calling them “liberals” , I’d still call it power tripping.
Anyway I think I’ve been pretty clear that I think the mod is hypocritical and used their mod power because they have a grudge and you haven’t said anything to dissuade me. And honestly it doesn’t matter. She’s your mod, not mine. Do what you want and I reserve the right top criticize them as your whole community criticizes us.
So it is ok for you to criticize moderators publically, but it is wrong when hexbear users criticize you and unruffled? Another case of hypocrisy yet despite that you were afforded the same protection as any other in the dunk_tank. That is no mods/admin or users of no consequence are to be posted.
I already have told you it’s ok to criticize us. I don’t particularly mind the dunk tank posts about us which is why I don’t particularly care to be your snitch. I care however about a community constantly spreading disinfo and then banning is us “liberals” for trying to defend ourselves. I only point out your hypocrisy in keeping a community around whose members routinely violate it’s own rules with abandon.
I won’t hold my breath for you to begin criticizing the liberal, cis, white or male users of lemmy. It is sad to say you have already let the community become worse than the dunk_tank as I have shown you are lacking rules that prevent brigading.
This is because you consider this comm as alike dunk tank, which it isn’t. This comm criticizes mods and admins, not random takes. But it just goes to showing how biased you are that you think we’re secretly bigoted because I dare to call you hypocrites.
The_dunk_tank rules and moderators work towards providing a place to ideologically criticize politicians and people of importance, not as a vindictive place to encourage bullying of other lemmy users and mods.
And yet, the latter is routinely on the menu. Your delayed mod actions once the party is over don’t change that fact. The idea that you’re not about bullying is rich when you literally have respected hexbears claiming that bullying randos is great praxis. Or do you you think that so much of lemmyverse has defederated from hexbear specifically due to bullying and brigades is just propaganda?
Please don’t throw stones from a glass house, you are just a hypocritical as the mods you claim to expose.
Please do point out my own hypocrisy. You said I don’t allow criticism of me and my own mods. I do. Even in this comm. What else have you got?
I know you like to dig into arguments but creating a community to vent your own grievances in a non-productive way is sad.
I find that having a place for public criticism of power is healthy for a leftist spaces. I find that unchecked mods become incestuous and out of touch until they destroy their own spaces. But we don’t have to agree.
edit also the disengage rule is written in the code of conduct, you know that as you referenced the
I literally posted all that your coc says already in the op. It doesn’t say anything about the word needing to be alone.
Don’t fall for the usual Hexbear stuff where they pretend they’re not just a bunch of trolls. And if you fart too loud, they’ll somehow find transphobia in that.
I know, it’s quite obvious they have weaponized trans issues and identity politics as a way to troll other instances. Just look how they went after the ml admins recently, and they are supposed to be best buds. It’s like they’ve just got to have their weekly purge, or they don’t feel right about the world lol.