this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2026
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Proposed instance defederation for multiverse.soulism.net - an instance administrated by Grail aka Dronerights aka Hardlightcereal aka Exocrinous aka Drag
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
This is a FAF defederation vote for !multiverse.soulism.net. Note that I have tried to summarize views both for and against this proposal, rather than pushing a particular view. Please feel free to comment if you want to contribute your own thoughts and experiences.
The reason for this vote is that admins have been getting a lot of reports about Grail and Their instance from our users lately, but tbh I am not sure whether the reports warrant a ban or not. While most cases are more clear-cut, I wanted some more admin & community feedback on this one.
For context, the soulism instance is (for all practical purposes) a personal instance run by infamous fediverse "personality", Grail. Grail is suspected to be a recent alt of DroneRights aka HardlightCereal aka Exocrinous aka Dragon Rider aka Drag.
Grail, the current incarnation, is (imo) a liberal progressive masquerading as a leftist (a self-described "Anarcho-Antireal theorist" whatever the fuck that is). And I really don't think this qualifies as a "No true Scotsman" situation where it's arguable either way - it's immediately obvious from reading Their comment history.
I don't really want to rehash the extensive history of this user and Their alts in detail here, however I'm pretty sure long-term Lemmy users will be aware of at least some of these previous alt accounts, which have been almost universally banned. I'll try my best to summarize the issues below.
The case for defederation
Here's some recent examples/summaries of why the user is so problematic:
- Concise summary of past trolling behavior:
. - Recent YPTB post: Banned for Nuttin'
- Recent example of Grail's electoralism and criticism of c/flipanarchy rules, including a claim that pugjesus isn't a turbolib ๐ https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/63720883
- More blue MAGA electoralism demonstrating that the user is about as "leftist" as Joe Biden
Recent examples of hating on / agitating against our instance:
The case against defederation
- Grail is neurodivergent (trans and NPD afaik), so we should be willing to make some accommodations for Their behaviour
- While some folks (including myself at the time, unfortunately) took the "DroneRights" account as an attempt to troll transgender folk with the "my gender is an attack helicopter" line, it could also have been a genuine attempt to advocate for xenogenders. There's no way to know 100% for sure what Their intentions truly were, but on reflection and with the benefit of time, I think it could be reasonably argued They should have been given the benefit of the doubt on that topic.
- Just because this user seems to have a grudge against our instance and bad-jackets anyone to their left as politically "right wing" doesn't mean we should ban them. They are still entitled to express their opinion.
- Given Grail's unique personality, is there anywhere else They would potentially fit in other than the Fediverse? Maybe we should cut Them some slack and just let users block Them individually.
Warning
Please do not attempt to re-litigate the topic of xenogenders in this post. Such comments will be removed as off-topic. As an instance, our policy is to respect personal pronouns, whatever they are. This is not a referendum on the validity of xenogenders. The topic of the post is clear - whether or not we should defederate from the multiverse.soulism.net instance. If you want to bring your own experiences into the comments that is fine, but please keep them pertinent to whether or not we should defederate from this instance / user on the basis of Their problematic behaviours, not on the basis of Their identity or pronouns.
Instructions
The proposal is:
We should defederate from the multiverse.soulism.net instance due to an extensive history of trolling by the main admin's alts, and due to the admin being openly hostile to our instance.
Please upvote this post to vote for defederation. Downvote to remain federated. This proposal will require a 2/3 majority to pass.
P.S., Please be sure to use Grail's preferred pronouns of "capitalised They/Them", so we don't have to remove comments for misgendering.
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I dislike Grail.
I dislike defederation more.
I dislike unsupported claims that multiple usernames are aliases of the same person even more.
I dislike the prospect of this instance moving into closer alignment with select other instances the most.
Against defed under the present circumstances.
Addendum: I do not agree that anyone else can compel my use of capital or lowercase.
all very reasonable before the addendum, you're being transphobic. the question of "would you be able to tell when spoken?" is moot because we're not speaking. we're on the internet where you can tell.
that's all to say, I appreciate your arguments that are relevant and not your transphobic irrelevant little nugget (that you were specifically asked not to attempt to relitigate) at the end
Not pandering to an obvious troll is transphobic now? Tumblr delusions like that are actively ridiculing of actual trans people who experience the condition of gender/sexual dysphoria...
Edit: Your usage of the word transphobia also actively waters it down and distracts from the real discrimination trans people phase. Broadening it to shit like this does no favour to our struggle
Your opinion about casing of letters and the meaning of such, the fundamental overlap between that and the broader dialog around communicating respectfully regarding gender - these cannot be meaningfully disentangled nor discussed in this comment thread or governance decision. Your points are made worse by your addendum.
You were asked politely in the post submission not to make those questions the focus here. You can of course do as you wish, to an important degree (important to me, I mean) your freedom counts. Nonetheless, I would see that as distracting from what aims to be a much narrower discussion and decision, and your own typing suggests you think so too.
Not much to defend with the addendum, let it go friend.
This isn't a good hill to die on, this is just encouraging misgendering. If someone asks you to use their preferred pronouns and that includes capitalization you kind of need to respect it or you're an asshole. Grail prefers people address Them with capitalized They/Them pronouns, you should respect Their wishes. Arguing against that isn't productive.
Disagree, on the basis that capital/lowercase do not inherently change a word. The word is still the same word, despite the case of the first (or any) letter. Spoken aloud, would there be any difference? Is there any way to discern the case of any part of the word in such a circumstance, or are they equivalent? Attempting to dictate case is, at best, performative.
That said, I typically don't refer to Grail at all. I see little benefit in doing so. I can't imagine many interactions that would enrich either party.
This, however, is not the place for discussion of such. It is a place to ponder defederation. As much as I dislike Grail and find prescriptive casing to be an exercise in ridiculosity, I do not see ample reason to persue defederation. As I understand it, the point has become halfway moot, as defed has occured from the other direction.
Capitalisation can change a word. See for example German "sie" (she) versus "Sie" (you, polite); both are homophones [zi:], but treated as completely different words.
Plus I think those identity pronouns have a lot of aspects from symbols, not just words. So messing with the capitalisation of a pronoun when someone is explicitly asking you to capitalise them is a lot like defacing a symbol for their identity. It getsโฆ yucky, you know?
You were asked by our admin. It is not optional. This is not the time or place to debate the merit of people's pronouns or how much you think it matters, and you should not have added it to your comment in the first place. When someone asks you to respect preferred pronouns you do it without question, because it's a sign of basic human respect.
Uh source? I just checked and we're still federated both sides.
I'll add whatever to my comments that I wish, thank you kindly. Excellent job of repeating my sentiment that it isn't the time and place for that discussion, terrible follow through on the concept. Police yourself, not me.
I could be mistaken about the defederation from the other side. I saw someone else's comment suggesting that it had taken place, and I did not care enough to find out further if it had or had not. It does not change my stance that we should not defed.