I'm honestly baffled that people are surprised by the mods' reactions to this. This has always been how they handle things. The only difference is that the target has become a critical mass of regular Hexbear users.

I mean, you shouldn't be that baffled. More people have been onboarded in those four and a half years. I personally wasn't a part of the original exodus from Reddit or the early years. I came at an awkward time when most of the major site-wide changes like changing the name or getting rid of downvotes already happened but before federation. The behavior of the staff is new to me.