this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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Ye Power Trippin' Bastards

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This is a community in the spirit of "Am I The Asshole" where people can post their own bans from lemmy or reddit or whatever and get some feedback from others whether the ban was justified or not.

Sometimes one just wants to be able to challenge the arguments some mod made and this could be the place for that.


Posting Guidelines

All posts should follow this basic structure:

  1. Which mods/admins were being Power Tripping Bastards?
  2. What sanction did they impose (e.g. community ban, instance ban, removed comment)?
  3. Provide a screenshot of the relevant modlog entry (don’t de-obfuscate mod names).
  4. Provide a screenshot and explanation of the cause of the sanction (e.g. the post/comment that was removed, or got you banned).
  5. Explain why you think its unfair and how you would like the situation to be remedied.

Rules


Expect to receive feedback about your posts, they might even be negative.

Make sure you follow this instance's code of conduct. In other words we won't allow bellyaching about being sanctioned for hate speech or bigotry.

YTPB matrix channel: For real-time discussions about bastards or to appeal mod actions in YPTB itself.


Some acronyms you might see.


Relevant comms

founded 9 months ago
MODERATORS
 

There's a post about it.

That post explicitly says it's not a place for debate or participation from users of other instances.

I'd like to respect that but I think events like this need debate and discussion because it helps to develop and evolve the culture of lemmy and the fediverse in general.

The post says:

This post is "FYI only" for blahaj lemmy members. It is not a debate, and is not intended for non blahaj lemmy users to weigh in and offer opinions.

I recently received reports of a feddit.uk user espousing transphobia. Specifically, this was a feddit.uk user refusing to use the word cis, repeating the "adult human female" dog whistle, and claiming that trans women are not women. I approached a member of the feddit.uk admin team and raised my concerns and sought clarification of their stance on posts like this, where the transphobia is mostly dogwhistles, and "civil disagreement" on the validity of trans folk.

I was told by the feddit.uk admin that their preferred response is this kind of transphobia is to "sort it out through discussion and voting". However, the comments in question are currently more upvoted than downvoted, and little "sorting out" has occurred. The posts remain in place.

At this point, the admin stopped responding to my messages despite being active elsewhere on lemmy. When it became clear they were ignoring my messages and had no intention of removing the posts in question, I made the decision to defederate the instance.

I know some folk agree with the feddit.uk admins approach of pushback through discussion and voting, but this instance is not designed to be that kind of space. Blahaj lemmy is meant to be a place where we can avoid the rampant transphobia universally visible on nearly every other social media platform, and where we can exist without needing to debate our right to do so.

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[–] Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com 104 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Just a sense check here, are you asserting that Ada is a PTB for defederating from feddit.uk after their admins failed to take action?

Blajah Zone is specifically run as a safe space for trans folks, so it's an emphatic YDI to feddit.uk from me.

Given that the UK Supreme Court recently ruled that the legal definition of a woman in the UK is based on biological sex, and the supposedly Labour PM Starmer is running with it (wtf Starmer???), it's not surprising to me that TERFs and their supporters are coming out of the woodwork on feddit.uk.

Fuck TERFs and fuck Starmer for jumping on Trump's anti-DEI bandwagon just to pander to transphobic voters.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 35 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

OP seems pretty neutral and this is just a "here's what's going on in lemmy moderation/administration".

[–] pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 33 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Then why did they post about it in this community?

[–] flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

100%. If this was an information only style post, they wouldn't be saying that it should've allowed debate... and we have a whole fediverse lore sub specifically for info.

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They pointed elsewhere they didn't understand the purpose of this comm.

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[–] Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 2 weeks ago

I wasn't sure how to take the post, so that's why I wanted a sense check. But yeah, I assume you are correct.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

I'm not asserting anything. My motivation was exactly what it says in the opening post. I think discussion about these things is important.

Sadly it seems I've made a mistake and that this sub might have been the wrong place to post. I didn't realise this community did PTB / YDI style determinations and yes, I failed to read the side bar prior to posting.

Unfortunately it seems like there is some actual discussion happening so it feels wrong to just delete the post at this point. I was going to report my own post but it seems that's not possible?

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yes, if you were just looking to report the news, the comm blaze pointed out might better. For the popcorn takes !fediverselore@lemmy.ca might be more appropriate.

[–] idegenszavak@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah that's what prompted my question really, because I wasn't sure how it fitted the format. I guess if we explicitly make the subject whether the feddit admin(s) deserved the defederation, then I guess it kind of fits the format though. And it's nice to see such a strong show of support for Ada and Blajah.

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[–] pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 79 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That's why I chose blahaj zone as my instance. It's nice not having to justify my existence

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yeah, Ada’s modding may be seen as heavy-handed by some, but that’s largely because it’s a reaction to the fact basically nowhere is safe for people who are trans. Maintaining a truly trans-inclusive space requires active heavy-handed moderation, because going easy or remaining passive just leads to transphobes sneaking in.

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[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 72 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

Good decision by Ada. I'm also quite pleased with how many instance mates stood up in here to defend blahaj's decision.

PS: It occurs to me we might need a name for our peeps. I.e. like one talks about "lemmings" or "redditors", we could use something for members of the divisions by zero. Edit

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Dbzer0 users. Easiest way to use it for other instances as well

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Yes but, counterpoint: Boring.

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[–] flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.com 71 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I feel like this community serves a great purpose. And I'm a massive fan of drinking my tea and reading all the drama it attracts. But I am just beyond tired of the same handful of commenters popping up to always agree with whoever is opposed to blahaj.

I give this one a YDI. Anybody posting anything transphobic who gets caught by Ada is gonna be banned. Any instance with a mod or admin who makes transphobic posts or comments will get defederated. No one is entitled to having their content served on Ada's servers, and the people who join blahaj know that, and seem to appreciate it.

Which is sort of why I always wind up agreeing with her. Her server has clear, concise beliefs, and clear, concise administration, and she has the clear-throated consent of her governed or they would leave.

The only server whose vibe I appreciate more is divide by zero. Shout-out to what I feel is the most neurospicy, nonconformist bunch of pirates I ever met.

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 2 weeks ago
[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 60 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How are people still struggling with the basic concept that the person who runs Blahaj can do what they want with Blahaj?

All I get from this type of moaning is: “I joined a decentralised platform and now disagree with decentralisation in action.”

If this kind of action is what it takes for Blahajists to protect their necks then this is how it’s gonna be…

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They're not struggling at all, just supremely butthurt that they're not being given a direct platform to abuse people.

[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

Hit the nail right on the head here, they're whining because the trans people won't allow them to debate and strawman their existence. I'm happy that Blahaj challenges socially acceptable transphobia and I really wish more people would do it. These types of transphobes shouldn't feel welcome anywhere ~~with trans people~~ at all.

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[–] ElcaineVolta@kbin.melroy.org 48 points 2 weeks ago

terfs fuck off.

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 41 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

TDI (they deserved it) unless Feddit admins pop in with some extravagant response

[–] FancyPantsFIRE@lemm.ee 33 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

They chimed in elsewhere, sounds like they want consensus amongst the admin group and they are worried about the recent (frankly transphobic) UK Supreme Court ruling. They also expressed understanding that blahaj wanted to move faster and defederate.

Edit: Source I was referencing. Not advocating for or against, but there at least appears to be a bit more nuance than straight up support of or apathy about transphobia.

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 2 weeks ago

I'm not sure there is any nuance there.

Rule 1 for feddit.uk is explicitly against transphobia. The comment was transphobic and against the rules and should have been removed.

The UK Supreme Court ruling is, as you said, blatantly transphobic.

So they have two options:

  • Adhere to their own rules
  • Drop rule #1 and be OK with transphobic comments.

Regardless of the excuse (and I will not call it "reason", because it is just an excuse at best IMO) the only option for blahaj would be to defederate. Feddit.uk has, in their lack of moderation of transphobic comments, chosen option 2.

At present, feddit.uk is totally cool with transphobia.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 41 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Borderline YDI.

Reasoning for that is that the decision to defederate is one that is in line with the stated goals of blahaj. They have made it clear that they will defederate, ban, or otherwise use the available lemmy tool to allow blahaj to serve as a safe, sheltered place for people that are under siege by the world at large.

Ergo, this can't be a power trip as it isn't arbitrary, or outside of stated goals. Were I a blahaj admin, I would have taken similar steps to maintain the instance as intended, even though I tend to look on defederation as a last ditch tool in general. You can't maintain a truly safe space without aggressive defenses.

If blahaj was established as a general purpose instance, this would be power tripping. But it wasn't, and isn't a general instance. It's like beehaw was; they're using lemmy as the underpinning software, but the instance has a different goal than the typical ones. The federation status is one that's nice but not necessary for the instance to achieve its primary goal.

This is more equivalent to a forum blocking links to breitbart, only at a bigger scale; curation rather than control for control's sake.

However, I want to make it clear that .uk didn't do anything wrong as an instance. That's why it's "borderline" YDI. It's only YDI in the sense that the instance policy is incompatible with the instance goals of blahaj. The decision to aggressively moderate dog whistles is a difficult one, as dog whistles change over time, and are not always something every admin is going to hate resources to do.

Now, once you're aware of a dog whistle, you have a few choices. One is to hide your head in the sand and pretend it isn't anything at all. Another is to remove that specific occurrence, and do nothing else. You can delay a decision until you have time to verify that it is a dog whistle (you don't have to just accept someone's word that it is, no matter who is saying it). You can choose to not give a fuck. You can even agree with the dog whistle and directly support it. You'd be an asshole if you chose that option, but it is an option.

And there's in betweens of all those.

The .uk admin decided to refer to their standing policy and take no action. Since it is a standing policy, it isn't a direct support for the bigotry, only an expression of some factor that leads them to choose not to tale actions outside of instance policy. That factor may be something unpleasant, but that's not the same as being something like bigotry, or even apathy. We don't have anything at the time I'm writing this book from a .uk admin giving further insight. In other words, while I don't agree with their choice, they didn't do anything wrong either, unless there's some evidence of bigotry on their end. And no, just not agreeing to remove a single comment or post is not enough evidence to determine that.

From my end of things, though I won't go far into it because I don't believe in derailing the main goal of this community, dog whistles are so common now, and have been so effective that they get picked up by people that aren't expressly bigoted, they should be as aggressively monitored as possible. But nobody can keep up with all of them, even just one targeted branch of the practice. I try to keep track of the ones that are most relevant to my personal areas of militancy, and I keep running into new ones because the people creating them change them so frequently. But, when reported, they should be taken seriously, and after confirmation, be treated just the same as slurs and other hate speech. I also recognize that nobody is obligated to act before confirmation, and that it may not always be possible to confirm that a newish dogwhistle is one. It takes time for such knowledge to circulate.

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

There is only one part I don't agree with...

.uk didn't do anything wrong as an instance.

Inaction is also an action. I read that inaction as implicit support, regardless of any statements otherwise.

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[–] CaptainBasculin@lemmy.bascul.in 26 points 2 weeks ago

fair for both sides, I don't see a PTB here.

[–] UpperBroccoli@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 2 weeks ago

Clearly not a power trip, just protecting their user space like they promised they will.

[–] Dragonstaff@leminal.space 24 points 2 weeks ago

I've composed a little ditty for my barbershop quartet:

"Hell Yeah!"

I'm afraid it loses something in text.

[–] qaz@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago

Seems fair, I don't think this is PTB

[–] CapriciousDay@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 weeks ago

It's totally reasonable for them to enforce their level of anti-bigotry protections to protect their safe space instance. It's not power tripping. Besides feddit.uk is full of full time labour centrist true believers and/or probable astroturfers and is is largely low value subreddit copy paste for their most substantial communities.

[–] RymrgandsDaughter@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

makes sense to me, that is what blahaj is for 😒 besides people that agree with that user don't want to interact with blahaj. And those that do could do it elsewhere

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 14 points 2 weeks ago

literally the fediverse working exactly as intended… blahaj clearly states its purpose and lives by it. on any other instance it might be ptb, but on blahaj thats just good instance administration

[–] Samskara@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (31 children)

Ada‘s post contains no details or reasoning. Linking to the offending content would make this appear more deliberate.

The offending content was apparently this.

A woman is an adult female. A transwoman is an adult female who used to be male. It’s not difficult to grasp that they are different things. You can admit that and still believe that transwomen should be treated with dignity like anyone else.

Personally I don’t give a shit what bathroom people use or what they want to be referred to. I’ll go along with whatever… But a woman and a transwoman are different things, and it’s disingenuous to pretend otherwise. Always have been different things and always will be, no matter what the law states, now or in the future.

Kier’s words are still not transphobia. There is no fear, dislike, prejudice, discrimination, harassment, or violence in his statement. The scream of ‘transphobia’ is thrown around too much for anyone who disagrees with a narrow definition. Any disagreement is labelled as hate, and it’s silly.

Should a transwoman have the same rights and respect and opportunity as a woman (as per the legal definition)? Absolutely. Are they the same? No, they are not. Is that a hateful bigoted viewpoint worthy of scorn? I don’t believe so.

I don’t use the term cis. I use the term woman and you knew exactly what I meant. A blonde woman is a description of a woman’s hair colour and is a semantic-based response that is nothing to do with this point. You know this; it’s a foolish riposte that’s nothing at all to do with the clear and simple fact that a woman who used to be a man is not the same thing as a (cis) woman.

I can call it a woman who used to have a penis or a woman who used to be a man if you want me to be pedantic about it. Nothing to do with hair colour, or skin colour, or anything else except previously being a biological male and now identifying as a woman.

‘adult human female’ is not a dog whistle. It’s a legal and common-sense definition that you clearly understand but are trying to make out to be hate for some reason. I am not denying the legitimacy of transwomen; nor is Keir.

Transwomen and (cis) women are different things. And Transmen and (cis) men are different things. They have different names, which you yourself use for a reason. That reason being they are not the same thing. This is exactly the same as saying transwomen are not women, because they are not. They are transwomen.

It’s pretty simple.

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