this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2026
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Ye Power Trippin' Bastards
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398 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
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MODERATORS
Active vs structural oppression. Why is one acceptable and the other not. They're currently using their position as developer to silence diverse groups of people.
As an example:
Fuck you asshole, why the fuck can't you learn to read and think?! Two wrongs don't make a right, get it through your thick skull.
Is that in any way acceptable? Had I said it for real, as an attack to you conflating two radically different things, that would be a shitty thing to say, and would make me an asshole.
But you are still conflating two radically different things. Maybe, if I said instead:
Look my fellow lemmite, what I'm getting at is that doing something nasty to someone just to be nasty doesn't change what they did. It does nothing to correct the wrong done, it doesn't even help the person being nasty, unless one wishes to also conflate being smugly self satisfied with being good for mental health.
This isn't some tin pot despot here. It's just a guy that made some software and doesn't want it used in ways he considers unethical. He did it in the worst way possible. Well, maybe third or fourth way possible.
There are many ways to go about handling that error. But there is no universe in which sending childish messages to harass the person are on that list. It's just an excuse for someone to feel superior by being shitty to someone. Justifying that by pointing to the wrong done is bullshit.
Do you see what I'm getting at? It isn't about what he did or didn't do. It's about what we do and are. Are you the kind of person that dogpiles hate and venom, or are you the kind of person that recognizes human error, finds sympathy and/or empathy to say "there but for the grace of the FSM go I"?
Me? I'm an asshole. It's a fact I've learned to live with. I have little tolerance for bullshit, and my filter broke a long time ago. That I'm the guy saying to chill out and remember that there's a human behind the error should frighten people into looking at what they're doing and why. I should never be the voice of reason in a community because I'm nucking futs.
What we should be doing, instead of sending shitty DMs with infantile virtue signalling is just let it fucking go. Block his accounts, communicate with one's admins to see if a fork is being used on one's instance, then either advocate for a fork to be in place instead of the shitty version or be prepared to move instances. That's it. That's the sane, adult response.
As a pure emotional outburst? No. As a response to someone who has openly refused to understand or acknowledge their abuse of influence. I can't blame them. If you want respect you show respect. Which dubs hasn't been known to do. I'm not going to @ them myself. But they've certainly soiled their own reputation.
Had the feature been opt in and transparent would this have been an issue? No. They knew what they were doing and obfuscated this on purpose. Further they've been unrepentant regarding it. Taking advantage to more or less be Shadow admin on the servers of those who run the front end.
I have little respect for the way the Lemmy devs run their own server. Among other things. But at least they keep their influence to their echo chamber. Unlike this.
So, to translate your stance:
When I get butt hurt by someone's actions, I can be nasty and childish, and that behaviour should be excused.
Again, it isn't about respect. It's about how a person comports themselves in a social structure. You know the whole sinking to their level idea? Where the more you sacrifice your own ethics, your own adherence to some kind of code, the closer you become to whatever it is you're angry at.
IDGAF what he did, I am a grown ass man. I will always strive to treat others in the way I believe everyone should treat everyone. That's who I am, and I think that should be the default, not an exception. In life, you may have to take action to protect someone or something, or even to avenge some wrong. It's up to all of us to decide how we'll do that, how ugly we're willing to be to achieve that goal.
What I'm saying is that if you want to talk to the guy, go ahead. Say what you need to say. But don't resort to that kind of childish, churlish, performative malarkey. Say to that other human being: hey, what you did sucked. I'm angry about that. I don't believe your explanation has enough weight to counter your poor execution.
I 100% agree with you, attack the ideas, not the man. The idea of a secret filter being applied, whatever the stated intention, is in itself a massive ethical problem. Of course, the person implementing such a filter can and should be shunned, but any overt forms of bullying and harassment are totally counterproductive, as it only serves to bolster the claimed need for such a filter, like you mentioned.
Having said that, I'm not in any way defending what he did. And tbh the memes have been quite funny and mostly on point.
Hmm, maybe you should start a list and put people's names on it who don't conform to your beliefs!
Okay, out of all the tangential silliness thrown at my comment, this approaches absurdity. It makes zero sense based on what was said
You're propping up straw, and it ain't even man shaped