BanApple [none/use name]

I know, but it's already been a week with no response on the original comment.

I could just circumvent the ban, but I do respect the mods here, so I'd like to understand why I was banned.

Thanks. I put a lot of work into it.

It's one of the things I don't like about the community, but won't fight to change. Lots of people have a different sense of humour.

Bans are a name change, unless the mods decide that's ban evasion.

Ban Apple, @GrandAyatollaLenin

The official ban reasons are listed as:

history of sectarianism, hostility, wrecking, constantly toeing the line, enough is enough

My responses are:

History of Sectarianism: I'd like to apologize for this. I was, and still am, unclear about where the sectarianism lines fall. Apparantly I've had multiple comments removed for sectarianism, something I was not aware of until this week, as I don't check the modlog often. Most of these are on threads that were already struggle sessions between different tendencies. One of them was just rephrasing what the post said, but using emojis.

Wrecking: I've had disagreements with mods, and I've always respectfully explained why. This is not wrecking. You can see I was an active member of the site, and the subreddit before, for years. Why would I try to wreck it? I've been clear that I like the community, I've explained what I like about it, and I've advocated for those positive elements.

Hostility: I try not to show any more hostility than is shown towards me, but users can be abrasive at times, and I've found responding in kind to be effective. A certain level of hostility has been normalized in the community, including by moderators.

Constantly Toeing the Line: What line and when did I cross it? I've seen people express the same opinions, with the same level of hostility, without being banned.

Regardless of ban litigation, I would like clarification on all of these points. A big issue with the site at present is unenforced rules and unclear limits, compounded with the fact users are not notified when they they've crossed a line. This makes it difficult to understand the precise interpretation.

Now for why I think I was actually banned. I have not posted anything that could be construed as wrecking or sectarian in the last few days. If those were the reasons I was banned, I believe the ban would have acompanied the removal of those previous comments and come at an earlier date. However, I had two comments removed immediately before the ban. I believe these were the reason my account was banned.

Both of these comments were part of the Vegan Struggle Sesh. The removal reasons are listed as: 'show me the fucking plant brain,' and 'extremely reductive'. Neither of these are justifications for comment removals nor bans. These are arguments to what I said, but instead of responding to the thread and continuing the discussion, this moderator decided to remove them. This seems especially inapropriate in c/StruggleSession, which is explicity designed for argumentation. If an argument is wrong or bad, a vocal response is more useful than silent removal.

I was about to make this same point on the thread with the 'extremely reductive' comment before it got locked. That was also about a comment removal I thought could have been better handled in the original thread, through discourse and de-escalation. I also want to address 'Show me the fucking plant brain' for two reasons. First, in that thread I was attempting to break an impasse that I saw developing, where vegans and meat eaters talked and shouted past eachother, without attempting to reach a synthesis. This resulted in spiraling tensions and unproductive discussion. I was attempting to lay out the key issue to guide both sides towards a a resolution. Second, I believe the wording indicates that the moderator who took this decision was aggrivated. I understand that. I've obviously gotten heated in disucussions before, and I understand how this discussion can elicit strong emotions in people. I explained earlier that I do not eat or support eating meat and that I've tried evangalizing against meat-eating in the past and found it unproductive, especially by the methods that were being employed.