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

https://imgur.com/YSoJbgs

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?”

  • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
    162·
    2 months ago

    In my opinion it was a mistake for Lemmy to copy the same failed moderation model as Reddit.

    In offline politics, we’ve learned from history that non-democratic governance always leads to the abuse of power. But somehow we imagined that in the online world this same dynamic would not play out. However, I don’t have a fully formed alternative in mind right now. It’s a thorny issue.

    And I’m not trying to shit on LW admins here. I generally think they’re doing their best. But they’re only human, and it’s hard not to respond to people being shitty to you without being shitty to them. If you have an issue with what they’re doing, I would highly recommend you approach it in a polite way. Not just because it’s likely to have a better outcome. It’s also just the right thing to do.

    • SorteKaninA
      7·
      2 months ago

      However, I don’t have a fully formed alternative in mind right now.

      The fediverse is already the alternative. The fediverse is democratic, you’re just not thinking about it that way.

      It’s not democratic in the sense that you vote for your instance’s admins and your communities’ mods (though that is an option too). It is democratic in the sense that any user chooses their own instance and communities. So if you don’t like your current instance, go to a different one. You vote by choosing your instance and your communities.

      Of course if you would like an instance that democratically elects their admins and mods, you are free to go to such an instance (or start your own). But anyone who “loses” the election are also free to simply start their own instance and be an admin anyway, even though they lost. The users who voted for the losing candidate could then just go to that instance. And then we’re kinda back to the same situation: you vote by choosing an instance and that’s a good thing.