This was originally written as a reply for this thread: https://lemmy.world/post/19238577
I’m copying it here because I don’t trust a LW admin to just not delete it right away since that seems to be something they love doing.
tl;dr - a user calls out the LW mods for rapid fire banning a bunch of users today, I investigate
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Let’s review some of these bans, as called out by ChomskyWasRight@slrpunk.net:
https://lemm.ee/post/40926293/14446156
From the top:
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LagrangePoint@lemmy.world https://imgur.com/4XsXuOC
Quote: "LW admin/mod team seem to have this overbearing and weird belief that they need to tell everyone else what to think and how to think it. How about… you all just fuck off and don’t?
Result: Permaban
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aniki@lemmings.world https://imgur.com/LIye27F
Quote: “All rights are won through violence, child. Bans on here means less than the nothing platitudes you utter”
Result: 15 day ban
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catloaf@lemm.ee https://imgur.com/ONGdgNo
Quote: [the quote is really long, pls dont make me type it and just look at the link lol]
Result: 15 day ban
Note: the comment precedes the ban by 26 days, but catloaf’s recent comment history contains opinions critical of the LW News mod team
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DoctorButts@kbin.melroy.org https://imgur.com/q2kktNQ
Quote: “Damn what a shame, guy almost stopped being a moderator on an internet forum, would have been a grave tragedy”
Result: Permaban
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stormesp@lemm.ee https://imgur.com/ZCRtuJe
Stormesp’s profile at lemm.ee: https://lemm.ee/u/stormesp
Quote: [there were no comments removed in the modlog, but stormesp’s recent comment history contains opinions critical of the LW News mod team, read them yourself]
Result: 15 day ban
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MindTraveller@lemmy.ca https://imgur.com/YwIMSOq
Quotes: [multiple quotes, there are a lot, check out the link]
Result: 15 day ban
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Summary
Most interestingly here is that the two users who got permabanned didn’t use slurs and didn’t call for violence, they merely insulted the moderator team. I guess in the LW News mod team’s eyes, that’s a horrible, terrible, awful, unforgivable offense, so… PERMABAN.
Aniki literally is saying “words are useless, let’s resort to violence” but that’s a 15 day ban only, OK, makes sense, right???
Catloaf and Stormesp were actively leaving comments sparring with the moderator team in that thread. To be honest, none of what I’m seeing in these comment seems worthy of a ban. Unless of course, you’re a LW mod and you go “this guy is disagreeing with me, therefore they deserve a ban.”
Edit: I forgot to write about MindTraveller since that guy douchecanoe was a last minute addition. But look at those aggressive comments, guy douchecanoe deserves a ban for sure.
Edit 2: fixed pronouns for MindTraveller
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Conclusion
Not a good look. Does LW want to grow into a good Reddit alternative or do they just want to turn it into Reddit for themselves only?
LW can at least come clean about this and say “yes, the rest of you can get fucked” or maybe they will have a moment of realization at some point “oh my god, are we the baddies?”
Something I learned the very hard way, against my will, is when you have a user who is seriously against the mods, and doesn’t really care about the sub, it’s often best to just ban them.
Normally, the max I give is a week or two, long enough for most to move on, but some people just get obsessed. Others will literally ask to be banned. Those catch a perma.
Not saying the LW admins are right, but moderation is harder than it looks on the outside. Also ban evasion is basically a feature of Lemmy, it’s so easy, and a lot do it.
It sucks, mods suck, being a mod sucks, everything sucks.