I’ve told this story on Lemmy a couple of times since being banned from Blahaj Zone, and I’ll tell it again.

I once posted a meme to a Blahaj community I moderated in which someone named Obvious_Troll@hexbear.net was attacking a trans person. It was a political meme, and I’ll try to avoid saying what the political viewpoint was so that this thread doesn’t get derailed. But as part of the meme, Obvious_Troll was being transphobic, and the reader was expected to agree that transphobia is bad and Obvious_Troll is… an obvious troll. The username wasn’t actually important to the meme, I was just including a picture of a Lemmy comment and had to include a name, so I made one up.

Ada then messaged me to say that the post would be removed unless I redacted Obvious_Troll’s name. Ada said that Obvious_Troll is a real, trans lemmy user, and I’m not to attack them. There is nobody on hexbear named Obvious_Troll, I made that username up.

Read bottom to top:

So Ada defended a fictional transphobic troll, deciding they were trans for some reason. The troll’s username was not the point of the meme, the point was what they were saying. So I made up a nonsense username to support the point of the meme. I don’t think anyone would choose the username Obvious_Troll unless they wanted to be seen as a troll. As near as I can tell, Ada defended Obvious_Troll because they were from Hexbear, and Ada seems to think every Hexbear user is trans. Even a made-up one who wants to be seen as a troll and who harasses trans people. Why did Ada hyperfocus on the instance name, and not notice that the username was ridiculous? I don’t know. I don’t understand it.

Blahaj is intended to be a safe space for trans people. And Ada’s intention with asking for redaction of this fake made up name was, somehow, to protect a trans person. And that’s good. But it’s really weird that Ada thought the way to protect trans people, is by defending fictional transphobic trolls.

EDIT: So, the discussion got derailed not by politics as I expected, but by Ada claiming Obvious_Troll is a real person again. Here’s the original post in which Obvious_Troll is being transphobic and the reader is supposed to agree that transphobia is bad:

  • AdaA
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    2 months ago

    I once posted a meme to a Blahaj community I moderated in which someone named Obvious_Troll@hexbear.net

    Hexbear was defederated from Blahaj Zone long before you were active here, so your recollection is flawed.

    If you’re talking about the person I think, then that account is from aussie.zone, where they still have an active account, which would be unlikely if it was simply a troll account.

    If it is the person I think, then they were accused of being a troll because they used pronouns that many people found challenging.

    I’m not going to gatekeep pronouns. If someone trolls, I’ll respect their pronouns even as I ban then

    If you’ve got an issue with that, blahaj.zone was never the right space for you. If that’s “fedidrama” for you, then blahaj.zone was never the right space for you.

      • AdaA
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        2 months ago

        As near as I can tell, Ada defended Obvious_Troll because they were from Hexbear, and Ada seems to think every Hexbear user is trans

        There are no hexbear based accounts on blahaj.zone and have not been for a long time.

        • MindTraveller@lemmy.caOP
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          2 months ago

          Yes, it was a meme. It was fiction. There wasn’t really a user called Obvious_Troll@hexbear.net, they never existed. They don’t have an account on aussie.zone because they’re imaginary. There was never a debate about their pronouns because I made them up. They only existed in the meme you asked me to censor their name from.

          • AdaA
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            2 months ago

            So you “ironically” posted a transphobic meme, in response to nothing in particular, and the drama is that it was moderated?

            I’ll stand by my original comment. If you take issue with that, then blahaj.zone was never the space for you. I would do it again

                • MindTraveller@lemmy.caOP
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                  2 months ago

                  That’s after I said the name was fake. Ada started out thinking Obvious_Troll was a real person, and only realised they were fake when I said so. Then she changed her request to censoring the instance instead of the person. You need to read the screenshot bottom to top, because Lemmy puts more recent private messages at the top. I know it’s annoying.

            • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
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              2 months ago

              I reread your message again, and it makes sense that even if the username is made up, it’s better to not mention a specific instance in this kind of posts.

              You made a reasonable request.

      • MindTraveller@lemmy.caOP
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        2 months ago

        They’re not. I made them up for a meme. I created a meme where someone said a bad opinion, and I gave them the fake username Obvious_Troll because I wanted the reader to think they were obviously a troll. If Obvious_Troll is real, can you give me a link to their profile? Any of their posts?

        • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
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          2 months ago

          I’m talking about the aussie.zone user with the specific pronouns. I just read a thread from a while ago about their pronouns, you are actually in that thread too.

          I can’t find the meme you mention in the OP as it has been removed, but it might be that Ada thought you were speaking about that person and asked you to remove that mention.

          We’ll probably never know as you’ve been banned and your posts removed.

  • AdaA
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    2 months ago

    Ok, now I recognise the scenario you are talking about, I’ll respond with specifics.

    These are the messages I sent you, when you reached out to me asking to set up a community on blahaj.zone

    Despite these messages, after you created the community, the second post you made to the it was a meme targeting hexbear.

    tl;dr, The conditions were clear. You agreed to them. You then ignored them. The only drama here is of your making

    You were acting in bad faith when you reached out, and you’re acting in bad faith now

    • MindTraveller@lemmy.caOP
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      2 months ago

      This post isn’t about the instance the fictional troll is from. I made a post with a transphobic troll in it, and picked a username, instance, and post name that fit with the message. I picked a silly name for an obvious troll, a silly post title for a post about abstaining over Palestine, and a silly instance for the troll to be from. I didn’t really think any deeper about the association than “Troll needs an instance, I’ll pick the one known for having trolls”. And when you asked me to redact the instance, I did, and the post remained up until you deleted the community. I always followed the rules and did as you told me on Blahaj. This post isn’t about the instance redaction, that has always been a non-issue. This post is about you seeing a meme about a fictional transphobic troll and assuming they’re a real, trans, person. Which has now happened twice! Why do you keep assuming every transphobic troll you hear about is trans? It’s weird.

      • AdaA
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        2 months ago

        So to clarify, at the time you made your post here, the drama was that I briefly thought a faked screenshot was real?

        • MindTraveller@lemmy.caOP
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          2 months ago

          I said the user didn’t exist five times in this post. I just counted all the times I said “fictional”, “fake”, or “made-up”. And then you left a comment saying Obvious_Troll is an aussie zone user, the transphobic troll uses neopronouns, and I’m transphobic for calling them a troll. Multiple people told you that Obvious_Troll doesn’t exist, and your response was that I must be mistaken about Obvious_Troll not existing, because you defederated from Hexbear. What??? Why do you keep insisting this person is real, and why do you keep insisting they’re trans? What quality of this fictional troll telling trans people to kill themselves repeatedly convinces you that they’re a trans person?

  • Scary le Poo@beehaw.org
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    1 month ago

    To be fair, blahaj zone is a bit of a mess. Let’s not forget people trying to navigate the insane user insisting that their pronouns were goddess and going mental over claiming that people who didn’t capitalize properly were misgendering them.

    At some point, you have to set limits as to what you will tolerate. I understand that an all inclusive instance would be reluctant to do so. However, you’ll end up with MAGAts doing shit like this for fun, just to see an entire instance bend over backwards to try to accommodate, and you will get genuinely insane people doing the same thinking that they are doing nothing out of the ordinary.

    Interestingly enough, while I am not part of the lgbtq+tia community, I am a staunch ally and even I feel as though bz is a place I want to steer far away from.

    Moderating that instance must be fucking exhausting.