[meta] "." is not a rule

spujb@lemmy.cafe to 196@lemmy.blahaj.zone – 616 points –

Screenshot shows three comments being removed from !196@lemmy.blahaj.zone (this community) by one of 196’s mods with the reason for removal being “.” (literally just a period).

I looked into this and discovered that the comments were just some fairly polite, if snarky, comments in response to the mod themselves. I could not identify a reason for comment removal per the site or community rules, so if there was one, “.” doesn’t cut it.

This is a callout post y’all. Do better. Start putting actual moderation reasons into the modlog for the benefit of you and other mods, otherwise what is the point of a transparent and federated platform?

As of now, it looks like the mod involved is just using their mod powers in a self-serving fashion. I am not making that accusation now, but that’s how it looks.

Please and thank you. Mods here do an excellent job keeping 196 on Lemmy a bearable place to be, and I know you are already struggling to staff the positions, but please also hold one another accountable when it comes to misuse of power. Thanks :)

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Mainly because I sometimes need a reality check. I agreed to be a mod here at a normal point of the last year, and the last ~5 months have been putting so much weird shit in my brain it's not been healthy.

Wtf is this mindfulness on the fucking Internet. This MF a real one.

I try to be. Not always.

Honestly mad respect for owning it. No one's perfect all the time, and it takes a lot of courage to be able to admit when those mistakes happen.

In my opinion, that makes you MORE qualified to be a mod -- not less.

Yeah I'd rather see an Internet community keep a mod who has shown they're capable of introspection then they made a mistake, than try and pretend they can find a new mod who won't make mistakes.

Anyone who says being a mod for a community is easy has never been one

That shit is hella hard on your mental health

IMO an ideal mod team is one where there's enough mods that all of them only have to head over to their community once every few days so that it doesn't become overwhelming

Only if you give a fuck, be an adult and ignore that shit, and if you can't, then being a mod is not something for you.

judging by this comment alone: you'd be an awful mod

Lol I mod multiple large subs. I hardly ban anyone and am very pro free speech. People bitch about changes and target me and my fellow mods but we ignore it because it's petty drama at the end of the day. My point still stands, if you get emotional and abuse your power like this mod did because some user talked shit about you, you're a terrible mod. Judging by your comment, you have no clue what you're talking about, but that's typical for the Internet.

I've been a moderator of a large discord server for the past 2 years, none of the problems were solved by "ignoring the drama"

Cool, so you ban people for talking shit about you and abuse your power?

obviously not? And the mod of this community owned up to their mistake of abusing power and didn't ban anyone.

Where did that even come from, we were talking about mental health, moderation responsibilities & ways of handling them, why are you escalating

No you brought up how you mod a discord, and how you think you should jump into petty drama to solve problems. The mod in question removed comments that were critical of them, meaning they fed into drama. I made a statement, that points out that being a mod requires thick skin and if your feelings get hurt easily you shouldn't be a mod.... apparently a bunch of thin skinned mods/people didn't like that.

lmao, either reading comprehension is not strong with you, or you're really trying to instigate conflict by intentionally misinterpreting what I said in the worst way possible. Also "everyone that disagrees with me is thin skinned" lol.

Anyway, I'm not a mod here, I'm not interested in resolving this one sided conflict, and neither am I interested in furthering it, so peace o7

It isn't always that easy.

Some people are human.

Here is what being a mod can do to your mental health (all three videos are basically the same, watch the one with the best thumbnail or whatever.):

Which makes my point stand. If it's effecting your mental health, modding isnt for you. How no one here is understanding that is beyond me. Being a mod/admin on anything that deals with people/the public is a thankless job and requires thick skin.

The thing is that everyone is affected. Everyone just reacts differently and it might take a bit longer for some people.

It isn't healthy for anyone.

Maybe someone without any empathy whatsoever can be fine, but not anyone else.

Sure, it can be, not denying that. You can have plenty of empathy and still learn to ignore trolls and drama and just do the job.

I feel this deeply. I don't think you should have to leave over this unless there is a large community sentiment that it's time.