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.
Edit: This will include banning Grail's alts as well, for clarity.
So if I asked you how I should vote, how would you vote? Do you believe it's best or less. I know what I want for the future of the fediverse, but don't know what others want until I ask. I want a unified growing body, that derails corporate ownership while supporting access for all who don't have that access to exist until they breach the rights of others. That may be whatever views they have. The code here states (paraphrasing) that none shall condiscend/ look down upon, or pick a fight with one who does not choose to obstruct those rights for others. One who feels they don't want to fight but feels they could argue could say disengage. It's not always going to work. But if we try, it's a goal to aim for. I guess what I am saying is if you believe your instance won't abide by the ability to diffuse people antagonizing people, and tell the people trying to tell people to shut up and let it go without insulting either party, then you know my standing. Let the fediverse grow, delete or block those who scar your instances name and I will always stand by it
I'd prefer that you vote against the proposal by downvoting the post, because I want our instances to remain federated. I want a strong and diverse community of anarchists on the Fediverse. If every anarchist on the forumverse has to be pro-AI and anti-voting, I think of that as a bad outcome. We'd be purity testing people and excluding them from our movement for no reason. The forumverse has 5 anarchist instances. Three of them are pro-AI and anti-voting. The fourth, SLRPNK, I'm not sure on. But MULTIVERSE stands as the option for anarchists whose identity is excluded by mainstream reality, and who don't share the views of the mainstream bubble here. That diversity is our strength.
We have four rules here on MULTIVERSE. The rules are against bigotry, authoritarianism, violence, and abuse of power. Three for the users, one rule for the staff. A lot of people on dbzer0 have been banned for breaking those rules. Mostly for supporting the subjugation of nonhumans, or for fixating on electoral actions that help Trump. But I don't want to kick those people out of the entire community, like dbzer0 does for the people who are anti-AI or pro-voting. I just want to put them over there on dbzer0 where they won't bother us. They're still welcome in the broader movement, they just aren't part of our smaller cause. We want to spend our time talking to people who are open to a dialogue, to talking out our differences. Nobody who seems open to change is banned from MULTIVERSE.
One of the reasons dbzer0 has a problem with Me is, they don't say what they mean. I'm a strong believer in the idea that if you want to use power over others, you have to say what you mean. Some communities here have a rule against electoralism. But I'm not an electoralist. I think we should be focused on direct action, protest, and movement building. The electoralists are the ones who are always talking about how you should vote. I wish we had fewer conversations about voting here. But the electoralists keep on saying "you have to vote for nobody or you're not an anarchist", and then they call Me an electoralist. It's nonsense.
And that causes a problem, because I don't respect nonsense. I don't listen to someone telling Me what to do, if they won't say what they mean. If the rule is "don't be pro-voting", make the rule say that.