https://hexbear.net/post/2226865

You can find further details on how the survey was conducted here (yes I was drunk the whole time). 158 people responded yes or maybe. Noticed the survey here recently and wanted to share.

  • CarcosaEnglish
    9•2 months ago

    Timezones are a fuck but what was left out of the below response was:

    I messaged Ada to ask the 196 mods if they would consider removing the “fuck tankies” banner as multiple trans users expressed they didn’t feel welcome due to being labeled a tankie (it is a generic insult for anyone more left than the person using the word, anarchists have been called it). She said that she didn’t feel comfortable doing that, which is valid, and said I could DM them.

    I DMed them asking if they would consider removing the banner and explained why. I did not get a response, instead a screenshot of my DM was pinned to the community along with an ableist slur. This DM leak post/slur was left up for over a day, finally the moderator used paint to partially obscure the image and put up a passive-aggressive comment about being tone policed.

    All the mod had to do was say “lol no, fuck tankies” and I would’ve dropped it, but it is a huge red flag when someone in charge of stewarding a community on an instance dedicated to marginalized people (which I am) chooses to publically ridicule rather than talk. This is after I asked the community mods of the dunk tank to change their rules to ensure that no other admins or mods could be posted to the community, which they did and the “people of NATO” post that referenced a lemmy.blahaj admin/mod was removed.

    That mod is still on the 196 team, while anyone doing such a thing on hexbear would be demodded and permabanned. I think ultimately there is a significant disconnect between moderation expectations and actions resulting in the sustained defederation. We’ve put up user polls on refederation twice since this happened, and hexbear users overwhelmingly do not wish to refederate.

    I am saddened by this in part because I think Ada is a great person and that the instance is great, other than 196. With transphobia a problem in a large part of the lemmy-verse supporting each other and sticking together despite any political disagreements is very important and look forward to cultivating a thriving, safe, and positive trans space in this corner of the fediverse with all of you.

    • AdaAEnglish
      7•2 months ago

      The only thing I will add to that is that once I became aware of the leaked DM, I removed the post myself, contacted the lead mod and made it clear that posting DMs without permission is not acceptable.

      I don’t feel it was something that warranted demoting or removal, unless the action is repeated, which it has not been. I agree that reposting it blanked out with passive aggressive comments didn’t help anything, but by the same token, neither did the active dog piling that several of our users (including myself) received from Hexbear, most/all of whom are still active. Just as you disagree with the Blahaj moderation expectations in regards to 196, I disagree with the Hexbear moderation expectations in regards to dogpiling and harassment. Norms tolerated on Hexbear would get someone banned from Blahaj very quickly. I watched as you tried to work around the dunking culture just enough so that we could work together, and I watched as your efforts failed.

      I won’t defend the actions of some of our users in the events that went down, yet I feel that many Hexbear users seem to gloss over the actions from many of their community members. Hexbear was not an innocent party in this.

      For all of that, trans solidarity is incredibly important to me, and like you, I would refederate with Hexbear if it were simply up to me, because I think trans solidarity is worth striving for, but like Hexbear, Blahaj users are strongly against refederating, and it seems like a bad choice to enforce “solidarity”, because at that point, it isn’t solidarity.

      And on a final note, despite the fact we never resolved this situation, working with you as we tried to resolve it was a moment of positivity in an otherwise shitty series of events. You do Hexbear proud