Hey everyone, I've removed bans for everyone that did not request one in the previous admin thread. (I think. If you got banned and I didn't restore your account yet, let me know and I'll fix it.) Don't worry! We're not gonna just ban people for no reason.

In case anyone hasn't seen it yet, Alaskaball confirmed that Sangria was their admin alt. They were messing around with their admin tools on their own account and figured it would be seen as a funny bit, but without being informed of the bit many of the mods and admins were just as shocked, confused, and appalled as you were. I've talked to the other admins and mods, and we're all gonna take it easy on bits for a bit. (Pun intended. This is the last one, I promise.)

If you're afraid that there's been an infiltration of transphobic, egomaniacal wrecker mods who hate the users, I want to assure you that's absolutely not the case. The overwhelming majority of mods and admins on this site are trans. Our admins are all trusted, long-time users in good standing. We regularly browse, comment, and post on our main accounts. You post and chat with us daily as comrades, and we value all of you. You may not recognize the usernames on our admin accounts because we regularly swap the alts used for admin privileges. This is why you'll see really old or unused alt accounts as well as really new accounts on the admin team.

I've seen a lot of speculation down below, some entertaining, some upsetting. We absolutely do not accept transphobia or any form of bigotry on this site. Some of the statements provided by mods and admins have been seen as transphobic and bioessentialist. I want to offer some transparency, but also clarify that I can't get much more specific on this for personal security reasons.

During the earlier discussions on how we felt things could be improved with these communities, multiple trans mods and admins described their reasoning in favour of the change by expressing with a variety of wording that it's the [he/him] demographic in particular that has been the source of toxic and troubling behavior in the tanks. That the he/hims haven't been beating the accusations, so to speak. With that group being largely cishet white guys on this site, these two terms were assumed to roughly correlate. We weren't making prepared statements for release, the comments that got posted here were paraphrased and combined from more casual comments made by trans people, in the mod chat to mostly other trans people about some of the chauvinistic and ironically bigoted posting habits that they saw as alienating and unhealthy for the site, and what we could do to improve the situation. We genuinely didn't foresee the potential for a miscommunication of those statements as being bioessentialist, and want to extend our sincerest apologies for the misunderstanding.

Edit: Please feel welcome to post in c/gossip as you would have posted in the_dunk_tank, and in c/counterpropaganda as you would have posted in the_dredge_tank.

  • Lyudmila [she/her, comrade/them]A
    ·
    4 days ago

    TransComrade69 gave several temp bans out in the previous thread to users she felt were retreading the same points or leading the discussion in a bad direction to the point that it was devolving into conspiracy theories. (Paraphrased slightly from her explanation for formatting)

    Several other users asked to be banned elsewhere in the thread.

    • NewAcctWhoDis [any]
      ·
      4 days ago

      Did she decide to reverse them or was this a group decision?

      • Lyudmila [she/her, comrade/them]A
        ·
        4 days ago

        It was a group decision, but one she agreed with. She said she feels bad for the bans, and I believe her.

        • SixSidedUrsine [comrade/them]
          ·
          4 days ago

          I wasn't banned, but I was angry for the people who were. If she feels bad about it as you say, it seems like the right thing to do would be for her to apologize to the people who she felt bad for banning. Maybe she still will, but I would think for most users who got banned it would be cold comfort being told second hand that the person who condescendingly took away their ability to discuss this with ban-reasoning like "give your keyboard a break, take deep breaths" now "feels bad about it." Some of those people no doubt went to bed assuming they won't get to talk again for 3 days and may not come back to even see they aren't banned until that time is up. This isn't some terrible crime or anything, but it is yet another action in a long line of them that demonstrates total disrespect of the users here and just a disregard for how they feel.

          • dont_trust_the_skull@thelemmy.club
            ·
            4 days ago

            At least one of them had a panic attack, made an alt account, and poured their heart out into a post no one read and cried for a solid 6 hours (and has yet to be unbanned)

            I dont really want an apology. I just want to be heard and taken seriously and not be brushed off like a child. I just ... expected more from the people i respect deeply, who i thought would protect and listen to us, i guess. Instead i got... flippancy and callousness. Nothing but silence

            • PaX [comrade/them, they/them]
              ·
              4 days ago

              I just read it meow-hug

              Based rejecting irony, embracing sincerity

              Idk maybe we are silly for liking the website and taking it seriously even if it helps us connect with other people, get through bad times, or realize we're trans........... butttt nahhhh actually lol, this idea that the only REAL, SERIOUS, NON-CRINGE social space is the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party or something is much sillier

              Tbh..... you should repost it here under a CW spoiler, it's seriously very heartfelt, maybe what we need

              • morte [she/her]
                ·
                4 days ago

                Thank you, for reading it, and for caring. I think its ok to be a bit silly and a bit cringe. Frankly the world is a bit silly and cringe

            • whatnots [he/him]
              ·
              4 days ago

              i saw what you wrote and i'm with you comrade, yesterday was not handled well. please try to take care if you're able cat-trans

            • booty [he/him]
              ·
              4 days ago

              I've personally witnessed overzealous, extremely aggro mods and admins bully random users all the way off the site before, too. One of them didn't even require a ban, just one comm mod harassing them for like 2 hours straight and they just logged off and never came back.

          • Lyudmila [she/her, comrade/them]A
            ·
            4 days ago

            TransComrade69 appears to have deleted her account and has resigned. I'm not sure if she will see this and apologize, but I'm definitely apologizing on behalf of the remaining mods and admins.

              • Lyudmila [she/her, comrade/them]A
                ·
                4 days ago

                Yeah, I've been pretty flabbergasted by the last 3 days as I know most of you are.

                "Weeks where decades happen." catgirl-flop

                "It's 6 am on Monday." marx-doomer

                kitty-cri

              • Crucible [he/him, comrade/them]
                ·
                4 days ago

                It was a truly baffling choice to immediately make her an admin again when she had been gone for years. You can't be expected to do that job when you have virtually no connection to the userbase anymore aside from the mod and poweruser cliques friend groups

                edit because I forgot cliques can be more than just the mean girls meaning

        • NewAcctWhoDis [any]
          ·
          4 days ago

          Thanks for the answers, this has to be a rough time to act as the face of the admin team rat-salute-2

        • Cowbee [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          4 days ago

          I believe hir too, that thread was a mud-flinging disaster that really shouldn't have gone down the path it did. I don't think TC69 intentionally contributed to it even if some of hir actions definitely compounded things, having hir handle almost everything as the face was undue pressure I'm sure.