Should you face moderation, the reason will be visible in the modlog
The modlog can omit the original comment and may not include a substantive reason for removal. That means moderators can remove content while leaving little or no trace of what was removed or why, effectively enabling silent unaccountable censorship.
If the modlog is incomplete by design (or even buggy), it should be described honestly.
If the original comment is not present, it's because it was deemed offensive, you don't want slurs being showed in public. You know what you posted or commented, reasons are always given, so you know when to ask a moderator or admin for a possible mistake or if you actually erred.
Just to be clear, yes, we are in favour of censoring content that's deemed offensive or discriminating, or that promotes right wing ideologies. It is not silent, or unaccountable, though.
I understand not showing slurs publicly. My point is that if the original content can be hidden and the reason can be vague, then "the modlog will show the reason" isn't meaningfully accountability ... it's closer to "trust us." If you're moderating based on moderator discretion (eg. "deemed offensive" or "right-wing ideology") in addition to the written rules, it'd be more transparent to state that explicitly in the rules or policy.
The nice thing about the fediverse is people can choose communities whose moderation philosophy matches them ... but only if it's clearly documented up-front.
how do you think moderation happens if it is not "based on moderator discretion"? There is no rule that fits all scenarios, you always need a human to decide that...
I’m not arguing against moderator discretion, I’m saying this community would benefit from stating the discretion boundary explicitly.
You’re already doing it in practice ("deemed offensive," "promotes right-wing ideologies"), and that’s your right. But between what’s been stated in this post and the current written rules, it’s easy for users to assume a level of consistency and auditability that the tooling doesn’t really provide.
Maybe something like this would help:
Rule 3: Respect the community’s principles.
Posts/comments may be removed if they conflict with our mission to center Global South perspectives. This includes (but isn’t limited to) discriminatory language, colonial/imperialist framing, or right-wing ideology.
Removed content may not be shown in the modlog. Removal reasons may be brief.
That would make expectations crystal clear and avoid confusion.
I think some of those are superseded by the instance's rules, so communities generally avoid stating the same rules twice. E.g.: the instance's rules and the community's rules. I'll message and admin and ask their opinion, though.
Here, we consciously prioritize the voices of the global majority
Based. Exactly this.
Anyone who considers themself a leftist should dream of a world where one's birthplace does not determine their political power, and should be outraged at how much global power the US wields, through force, despite comprising such a small segment of the global population. The principle of "one person, one vote" while living in an imperial hegemon means that we have a responsibility to prioritize the voices and perspectives of the global majority, and of the people affected by US aggression who have no say in our politics.
...even if that means getting called "selfish" by scratched liberals on .world who explicitly say that American lives are more valuable than those of foreigners.
Thank you for this, it's a breath of fresh air. The rest of Lemmy (minus the explicitly socialist instances) has basically been Reddit-lite ever since June 2023, and it's getting worse in some ways. I didn't want to be a part of that even though I was also leaving Reddit at that time (but had been highly disillusioned with the platform and barely posted at that point), and found a good home here. I love it.
The thing is that Lemmy.ml is a general purpose instance, it's not about promoting Marxism, but still it upholds values that for certain people look like inconceivable requisites. We do not ask you to become a communist, but simply to understand that the rules based order imposed by the US do not apply here. We want to hear what oppressed people cannot say elsewhere.
Most definitely, I didn't mean to imply that this was itself an instance focused on socialism. Just that it tends to avoid the pitfalls of US-centric Reddit culture in a way I find welcoming and easy to adhere to as it matches my values, which happen to underpin my Marxism. As a (mostly) lurker with limited time, browsing local and reading comments is pretty great for me after a hard day of work.
For context, I naively joined Lemmy.world when making my initial Lemmy account. Moved here within a month or two, lol, cause it was too much like Reddit.
Another thing I like about Lemmy.ml - being a general purpose instance it has a lot going on in terms of topics, and stays federated with instances that I may want to engage with for the purposes of casual conversation or to occasionally discuss politics when I have the time (like today, while recovering from an illness). I appreciate you and all the other admins and community mods here for keeping it this way.
I'm positively shocked reading this I have no other choice but than to return post ~~hog~~ haste back to reddit!
Careful now. Many of the people you make fun of have a hard time understanding irony, let alone read.
oh shit the memes have been seized oh god oh fuck
I used that comment as a ban but honestly I could have chosen any, they were all over the community commenting all sorts of things.
"No investigation, no right to speak"
But I’m a marginalised white middle class Christian man and I demand for you to read and accept my opinion as fact!!!
Nice 
This is why .ml keeps getting posted on YPTB, but in reality, they just don’t like that there are rules and ideals that they are made to follow or be moderated. They think of the whole lemmyverse as new Reddit, their playground. Sorry, guys. We have standards here.
this post is step in right direction: this not open forum, and important to tell peoples its for leftist memes not lib arguments. change rules too so no lib talk allowed. ban all libs.
Which is always ironic because db0 is way more of a tyrant than anyone on ml
They're okay with the actions when it's done to those they witch hunt or just want confirmation of their actions getting banned or removed after specifically trying to have that happen
Excellent! Glad to see it, it's nice to have a space where this is the norm.
Bless you 🙏
UNLIMITED GENOCIDE ON GLOBONORF!!
o7
Lemmy.ml and Hexbear have been wonderful to read. I always learn something.
Love it, keep up the good work.
Y’all have a great opportunity to make MoG’s biggest dreams come true (YPTB’s too).
So far, 19 people have downvoted this post and had their votes federate.
That doesn’t seem very nice to me.
How do you use custom emoji on .ml? :o
Add emoji to the title: [](url "emoji")
But that requires the images you have to be formatted like emojis, so go copy from hexbear they have a lot of emojies already, you can see the markdown source by clicking the paper icon in-between the downvote button and the reply button.
thanks comrade :^) I take one too many breaks and forget how to do markdown entirely
The cat basically covered it - even outed my usual source. My only disagreement is that they don’t need to be emoji formatted. You can emojify anything, it’ll just look bad and take way too long to load.
Thank you comrade!
Oh right, yeah, you can, I just meant that it would look bad as you say.
Thank you for stating this, can not agree enough
Eurolib/eurosettler-centric views, begone!
Well said. I do sometimes wish the same approach was used when posts are hostile in the other direction though. I have no stake in this, so seeing the bickering just makes me eye roll now and mod actions can be very one sided from all parts of the fediverse.
In terms of civility, I feel that respect should exist on both sides, if trying to argument or convey a point. There's an important distinction, though. If you're talking with someone about something that directly affects them while you're on the other side, it feels and is different. For example, if you're talking with a Latinamerican about what recently happened in Venezuela, your "argument" feels pretty much like an attack filled with hate, while on the receiving end that impoliteness towards this person is more about frustration and a negation of the whole reality they're living. Violence by oppressors is hate, violence against oppressors is liberation. Of course no one is going to topple the US empire discussing online, but to illustrate my point a bit.
the other side is fascists who support ICE or Israel or the American military. don't suggest we respect nazis.
I've never said that, my point is that are normal people who are indoctrinated and need discussion. They are much more likely to internalize that discussion if you do so in a civil manner, you don't need to insult to get a point across. I know of many comrades who believed in imperialist propaganda but changed their minds thanks to people doing this. Maybe that's not you case and you were born a Marxist Leninist.
As revolutionaries, we don't have the right to say that we are tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We also know that when the people understand, they cannot but follow us.
Thomas Sankara