this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
137 points (94.8% liked)
Ye Power Trippin' Bastards
749 readers
367 users here now
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:
- Which mods/admins were being Power Tripping Bastards?
- What sanction did they impose (e.g. community ban, instance ban, removed comment)?
- Provide a screenshot of the relevant modlog entry (don’t de-obfuscate mod names).
- Provide a screenshot and explanation of the cause of the sanction (e.g. the post/comment that was removed, or got you banned).
- Explain why you think its unfair and how you would like the situation to be remedied.
Rules
- Post only about bans or other sanctions that you have received from a mod or admin.
- Don’t use private communications to prove your point. We can’t verify them and they can be faked easily.
- Don’t deobfuscate mod names from the modlog with admin powers.
- Don’t harass mods or brigade comms. Don’t word your posts in a way that would trigger such harassment and brigades.
- Do not downvote posts if you think they deserved it. Use the comment votes (see below) for that.
- You can post about power trippin’ in any social media, not just lemmy. Feel free to post about reddit or a forum etc.
- If you are the accused PTB, while you are welcome to respond, please do so within the relevant post.
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.
- PTB - Power-Tripping Bastard: The commenter agrees with you this was a PTB mod.
- YDI - You Deserved It: The commenter thinks you deserved that mod action.
- YDM new - You Deserved More: The commenter thinks you got off too lightly.
- BPR - Bait-Provoked Reaction: That mod probably overreacted in charged situation, or due to being baited.
- CLM - Clueless Mod: The mod probably just doesn't understand how their software works.
Relevant comms
founded 10 months ago
MODERATORS
I quite like that admin, he has a very 'no bullshit' attitude.
I get why you might be confused though, he tends to issue bans for comments or posts on other instances that he finds or are reported (instance admins get reports from users on their instance regardless of if it originates on a different one). I actually quite appreciated it myself, but I very much share his political perspective so its not for everyone.
Midwest.social is small anyway, so its not a big deal.
There is more going on with that instance than meets the eye.
https://lemmy.cafe/post/10511187
https://lemmy.world/post/18414833
Like I said, I quite like that admin.
I get why people (especially people who do not share his perspectives) might not appreciate the blunt moderation, but I happen to agree with both of those examples.
The first one was someone abusing the report function against people who were not breaking any server rules. Midwest.social does not have a rule against calls to violence, and I personally do not have a problem with calling for violence against billionares, just like I don't have a problem with calls to violence against nazis or genociders. If it were my server, and I was getting dozens of reports from the same person complaining about people wishing harm to billionares, I would probably ban them, too.
I honestly don't see a problem with the second post, unless you just think he's being an ass.
Banning people for downvoting your posts is a little weird. People can run their instances however they like but it helps to have truth in advertising, e.g. Beehaw is quite up-front when they do it, as too is Admiral Patrick of dubvee.org, whereas even Hexbears (notorious leftists) have dunked on Seahorse for having such a fragile ego and acting cowardly (their words).
Obviously you are free to do as you please, I was just pointing out some references in case they help. Normally when people ask what leftist instances to join, I tell them that yours (lemmy.dbzer0.com) and slrpnk.net are awesome, and then stop there without mentioning midwest.social.
As in, the instance is small for a reason, due to people avoiding it. :-P
Where do you see that he was banning people for downvoting? He locked the post, sure, but things were certainly devolving in that thread. Looks like he just said an unpopular thing and then taunted downvoters for disagreeing.
Frankly, I think large instances are a huge problem. I think every instance should be as small as midwest.social.
Yea, go nuts with avoiding it if you're not a fan. I think seahorse would actually appreciate it if people who know they aren't going to like his community not bother him with new registrations.
Since you do not seem to be sea-lioning, I will add some more details, but all of this is available from what I sent already.
It is the very title of the post in the 2nd link. The top comment starts with "Confirmed its real...".
Yes small instances are great. Some are as small as just one person, and do not even allow sign-ups for anyone else. This one, however, advertises that it is welcoming as it desires to become larger.
What you are missing is that additional people are being affected, beyond merely the instance admin and the people who wish to block that instance. There are communities that have been placed on that instance, by people who were unaware, and are now mods. Some of those communities have since been moved elsewhere, after this community we are in now discussed the issue, making it less impactful but still present for new people coming here from Reddit who were unaware.
The admin may come across as "no-nonsense", but there is more to that story than simply that. Obviously you will do as you please regardless - I just wanted to offer that knowledge so that your choice could be as informed as possible.
The post title says he locked the post, not that he banned anyone.
It's welcoming, but not to everyone. "No bigotry, hate speech, No zionists, No fascists". Doesn't say it's limited only to activity on their server.
Every admin and every instance has their own rules and their own standard for who can participate in their communities. This admin has chosen the proactive route, but those who get locked out have plenty of other places to go, and they can even successfully appeal their ban. That's the benefit of the fediverse, and I think it's perfectly acceptable to preemptively ban people from your community if they display the kind of behavior you find unacceptable. It's your party, and you can uninvite whoever you want.
I don't have any problem with you sharing your take, but I haven't seen anything here that I take issue with. You're free to disagree but I like that server just fine.