this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2025
71 points (89.9% liked)
Ye Power Trippin' Bastards
1768 readers
57 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.
- Keep the comments in YPTB posts about the moderation action itself, not about the general topic in which the moderation took place.
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.
YPTB 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 2 years ago
MODERATORS
This isn't how you improve mod behaviour.
You (octoshrimpy, not op) went out of your way to push their buttons, not converse.
Part of the reason the fediverse is so cozy, is that a lot of us remove users and comments the second the tone goes adverserial. I too do "vague" rules because when you don't, you inevitably get people who deliberately mess with a community and its users by finding every shitty thing they can do that is technically allowed.
And if someone I banned in one of my communities, comes at me in the comments on another community I mod, you better believe that ban then (and only then) goes into effect on every community I mod.
Contact me with a DM asking me to justify, and if I fail to do so, change my decision, and I'll engage in a back forth for as many messages as you like.
You might feel that this stuff should happen in public for transparency, but the reality is that people are far more likely to listen when changing their mind doesn't involve losing face in front of a bunch of spectators.
That goes both ways. I take the discussion into DMs with problematic users all the time, because they're far more likely to actually engage with what I'm telling them, instead of wiriting performatively for an imaginary audience cheering "fuck mods".
Edit: What I'm saying is this. Even as they are failing, this mod is trying to be reasonable. That should be adjusted, not blasted for all to see as a complete failure, crushed never to contribute to moderation again.
Are they power-tripping and justifying themselves after the fact? Maybe. But you're not gonna get that admission in public. You might, after you get it in private. And that's how you get them to do better next time.
As you can see by my replies here, I'm not here to insult the mod at all. I have replied to all their comments in a civil manner. I don't condone people coming here just to insult them, but wanted to have a discussion about modding practices. This is the second time I've been banned for downvoting a mod and neither of them contacted me beforehand, just dished out a permaban. I just think that's a silly and unproductive thing to do. It's a bit frustrating when I'm trying to be friendly to everyone and then still get randomly banned for frigging downvotes.
Ah. I'm adressing octoshrimpy here. Didn't realize the users we're different.
I edited my comment a bit further. The mod overreacted, but the thread is grilling them a lot hotter than I would have.