this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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Tags: fediverse news, lemmy news, lemmyverse

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After being harassed in multiple discord channels by powermod FlyingSquid the news mod blackbeard has shuttered his account and moved to bluesky.

https://ibb.co/cY44MgF

https://lemmy.world/u/Blackbeard

"The recklessness with which people downvote polite disagreements reminds me of all the worst parts of Reddit, and it proves to me that this isn't the social media savior I'd hoped it would be, and is instead just another echo chamber. I hope eventually lemmy.world (and the fediverse more broadly) can grow out of that, but some of the behavior I've seen on the inside from both mods and admins doesn't really inspire much confidence for that kind of evolution in the short term. "

FlyingSquid is the same mod who has the power to siteban people from lemmy.world

Why does lemmy.world keep having issues with their powermods and admins? Why do powermods get the ability to siteban their enemies from the largest instance?

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 month ago (6 children)

If you continue to report opinions and simple disagreements as misinformation, we will take action against your account for report abuse, same as we would any account.

It doesn't seem unreasonable to me to interpret that as a threat to ban the account.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (15 children)

Full disclosure, I tend to agree with FlyingSquid in the instance that kicked all of this off. I don't have a clear opinion of them as a mod, but personally I wish the LW mods would do a lot more about the "Kamala Harris = Hitler" type of misinformation that gets a free pass on a lot of LW.

FlyingSquid comes across as perfectly reasonable in this conversation. Their arguments that another mod thanked them for reporting stuff, that it's two reports over the course of ~~two weeks~~ a week which is hardly excessive, and then when the two people couldn't see eye to eye, they said they just wouldn't flag anything, sounds all perfectly reasonable and sensible. For some reason that wasn't okay, and the conversation got personal, with Blackbeard constantly posting these aggrieved attacks about how FlyingSquid was being childish if he didn't continue to report things in someone else's community occasionally, but never anything that the mods there thought was not worthy of removal. And then petulantly refusing to say something along the lines of, "Of course you're welcome to post there if you want" when asked repeatedly if it was okay for them to just post and participate still.

I haven't seen any Discord harassment, so maybe I missed something, but if this is what gets posted as justification for why FlyingSquid is a terrible moderator, I suspect that the "harassment" is more of the same. Maybe it's along the lines of "not saying exactly what I want you to say, or having conversation with other people where you say things I don't want you to say." People are allowed to disagree with each other over what is misinformation, or choose not to report content in someone else's community if they get some hostile responses when they do. Trying to order someone else around and then getting personally insulting with them when they politely tell you "No, I don't agree with how you see it," is ridiculous.

Edit: I don't know why I said two weeks, it was one week.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I’m not sure I’d agree that FS comes off as perfectly reasonable because I do get a pretty strong beg me to stay or I’ll leave vibe… but I am amused that OP here read that thread and decided that FS was the aggressor here.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I fully ack with this statement.

There is a failure to settle what Misinformation is, FlyingSquid can't be "more discerning about flagging/reporting" that Blackbeard wished him to do. YET Blackbeard failed to answer FlyingSquad exactly what he meant by this. And in that little inciting report "equating the US runners to X,Y,Z." is not just an opinion, its defamation, a felony.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Blackbeard had the option to clearly say, "We want to allow people to say any bad thing about the Democrats that they want, even if it seems clearly disingenuous or like a pattern on the part of that particular user. We don't consider that to be misinformation." That would have clarified things and my guess is that FlyingSquid wouldn't have argued with it. Blackbeard's desire to tiptoe around saying that directly, for obvious reasons, and just say "be more discerning," was what led to FlyingSquid's confusion which Blackbeard for some reason interpreted as being hostile and obstinate about it.

It's like a flashback to every boss who gives unclear direction about expectations, even when giving you a bollocking about how you did it wrong this time and even when asked point-blank. Except, FlyingSquid isn't getting paid to put up with it, hence the "I think I just won't participate then" which is probably a lot more polite than I would have been about it.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

Blackbeard’s desire to tiptoe around saying that directly

Well I imagine that a Moderator should have a solid stance regarding, well, moderation. Blackbeard simply didn't cut it. They could have just stepped down, but no, they had to nuke the account, post that screenshot to show their people skills and finally head to bluesky.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 month ago

Whaaat FlyingSquid made a huge deal out of a simple disagreement and made it all about themselves unprompted and made it personal? I'm shocked--that he didn't mention his offspring and him moving to England. 🙄

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm not sure how FlyingSquid is the bad guy here when Blackbeard is the one going around DMing Lemmy users off-platform about their reports. If you disagree with the reported content, then dismiss it. Blackbeard is the one who instigated this by opening a DM with FlyingSquid to begin with. Blackbeard doesn't understand how to be a mod, it seems.

This thread is garbage. OP is bad and should feel bad.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If you disagree with the reported content, then dismiss it.

This is what I don't get about "report abuse". It's entirely in their power to completely ignore reports they think are unnecessary or in bad faith. They do nothing unless the mod acts on them. I got an instance ban for reporting someone that instantly resorted to cursing and insults after a minor correction from me. Apparently someone else reported the same comment (shocking) and the admin decided it was "brigading" 🙄

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Flying Squid has a site wide reputation for being like this. Arguing/discussing anything with this person is like talking to a wall. Not to mention their overuse and abuse of authority.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (4 children)

If you want some insight, check this user's comments and sort by controversial. Then do the same for FlyingSquid.

Have some citations for that abuse of authority? OP alluded to abuse of authority by pointing out various powers FlyingSquid has, but in my mind very tellingly didn't actually provide any examples of abuse of authority. The screenshotted conversation, where a person with some site admin powers is reporting things as a regular user, and then when a mod gets really hostile and insulting with them, simply says "Oh, okay, I think I just won't participate in your stuff then, if my presence is unwanted," doesn't exactly paint the picture of some kind of power-mad petulant tyrant.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Hey, yo, I got one! I once argued with FS about something where he continuously attempted to goad me, argued disingenuously, and acted childishly, and when I rightfully called him out on all of that, he removed my comment. It was a rather small abuse of power, but I have seen him act righteously indignant, especially when he is called out for acting like a child. He does not differentiate this from a personal attack, especially when he was very much responsible for escalating several interactions he has with others.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's clear FS has been doing this for some time and Blackbeard was getting sick and tired of it. Telling someone who regularly reports users to mind what they consider report worthy is something I imagine a lot of mods have to do. Saying "Well then, I guess I won't report anything if that's the way it's going to be" is pretty childish IMO. Especially considering FS is a mod themselves.

FS is just very combative in nature. I've seen it several times. They're not an easy person to have a discussion with.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (15 children)

So, no citations for abuse of power? Just that they had a disagreement with someone in Discord?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yeah i cant believe the people defending them in this thread. I guess anyone can build up a little following of devoted supporters regardless of how childish and argumentative they behave. Really makes you think. Flying Squid does not come out of this looking good in any way.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (12 children)

Why not? flyingsquid simply wanted clarification on how to discern what something is misinformation and what ain't.

Blackbeard seems to not cut it as a mod.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Blackbeard was actually an excellent mod. I'm not picking sides on this fight, as it was resolved 2 months ago.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Lmao he was literally sea-lioning. Misinformation is also not something that needs to be clarified beyond blackbeards first statement which is "someones opinion that you disagree with, that is clearly just an opinion, is not misinformation". I think the person trying to silence dissenting opinions and then acting like a child when they get called out for it is the one who doesn't cut it as a mod, actually.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

yet the other mod (next to blackbeard) said it was fine what FlyingSqud was doing. So how to effing trust in this matter?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

FS is annoying and thinks every single time someone disagrees with them, its a personal attack and they must be aligned to some power.

Literally anytime someone used to just lightly criticize their favorite thing or person, FS would write blocks of text explaining why that opinion or fact was unjustified, and if you continued, you got banned.

FS is annoying and acts like they are better for just random things. Literally recently they said they're trying to leave the United States, and acting like its a noble sacrifice to leave the queer and BIPOC they once "defended and care about" behind. Said "Maybe I'll give some GoFundMes, I don't care."

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Why are Lemmy mods from .world coordinating on discord lmao

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago

you gotta coordinate somewhere, no?

but yeah, matrix would have been nicer.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago

I just wish FS would slow down on commenting. Lemmy world comment sections feel like a FS echo chamber because they feel the need to comment on every single post.

Even if I agree with many of their opinions, that's just not what I want out of Lemmy, so I have them filtered.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hi, LW Community Team here.

We've made efforts to avoid the kind of supermods that existed on Reddit, and this is a great example. We've tried to have more mods with fewer communities each, and to limit the number of major communities under the same mods. This was a disagreement between two mods of major LW communities, FlyingSquid at worldnews and Blackbeard as a moderator of News and PoliticalDiscussion. Notably, this seems to be a disagreement from a couple months ago.

FlyingSquid moderates one major politically involved community (the other is closed). If Blackbeard wanted to ban him from News for report abuse, he certainly could have done that. Admins and the Community Team here try not to get overly involved in individual communities, and that wouldn't seem extremely out of line.

Blackbeard seems to have been concerned about getting side-wide banned by Flying. I've seen no evidence of anyone using the bot outside of extremely obvious scammers, trolls, and ban evasion. And I don't believe FlyingSquid would use that bot inappropriately. If that does become a problem, we'd absolutely take action. You always have the options to appeal directly to the admins (email in the LW sidebar). Currently, it's nice to have the extra help in keeping scams and spam off the site.

I do wish Blackbeard had talked to us about his concerns. He seemed to be pretty reasonable from my interactions with him. He'd be welcome back if we could get through this misunderstanding.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Blackbeard seems to be okay with Harris=Hitler and doesn't want an "echochamber" but is going to bluesky?

lol

lmao

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago

Everyone Sucks Here.

Oh, this isn't r/AITAH? Sheesh, thought I somehow stumbled back onto reddit.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Jeeze both people come across as petty idiots. Lots of passive aggressive nonsense, and both sides want to have the last word.

Also it drives me up the wall when 2 people argue and one person tells the other to "calm down". And in this case it's "CALM DONW" and "CALM YOURSELF" between line by line quotes. So fucking childish.

I wish Blackbeard all the best on Bluesky; I think they will be disappointed. Human nature is human nature; I've been around long enough to see the cylical nature of social media. A new thing comes along, everyone joins, there is a love-in, and a "consensus" is built around how this time it's be great and what is and isn't allowed. Then things grow and a consensus that holds with 10 people breaks down with 100 or 1000, and people blame the new people for the change.

And mods at each others throats is just the nature of the beast. This has played out over and over on the internet - Usenet through to X, Reddit, etc, and the fediverse will experience the same. It's just human nature.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So who am I supposed to listen to?

Both of us.

Well that’s your problem right there. If a user (because in this case FlyingSquid was operating as a user) is misinterpreting the rules according to one moderator, but being encouraged to flag content by another moderator (tacit endorsement), the mod team needs to talk amongst themselves and get on the same page regarding the reports. Offering to leave was a bit dramatic, but the mod’s response of “just read the rules” was a lazy move that did nothing to get at the core problem of inconsistent encouragement/discouragement of reporting and clarification among the mod team.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

As stated in the screenshot, this happened in August. The team DID actually talk about this, and I put it to rest by hashing it out amongst both parties.

The person posting this is doing so WELL after the fact, out of context, and after resolution.

Neither side shared the screenshots with me, but the ones being shared proved they were shared by Blackbeard to someone. That's their prerogative, but I would have asked the other involved party prior to doing that.

It sucks that we lost a good mod, and that this event happened (again, resolved 2 months ago).

If the parties involved want, I can explain the entire situation. I'll DM both before I do that, though, as this wasn't my fight.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

Speaking to the bot thing, a few of us have access to it in order to remove egregious violations in communities where we may not be mods.

I've used it to remove CSAM accounts and posts for example. Middle of the night spam attacks, and so on.

Really it's for content in which there is no question it should be removed... when the bot is working. :) Sorry @[email protected] ! ;) It doesn't work a LOT!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

Flying Squid takes things personally rather often, and can get heated especially on controversial topics. I don't always agree with their behaviour as a user and as a mod, but tbh they are the more reasonable party in this particular exchange, though some of the responses are more annoying. The conversation could have easily ended like 1/4 of the way through by either of them. It's unclear if it's harassment to me, because I am reading it as both persistently acting childishly at times.

If they leave they leave, that's fine. No matter who is right in this, Blackbeard has no obligation to deal with stuff he doesn't want to.

Sounds like this was already resolved within the mod team. So if OP you're posting for history or were unaware, fine (but you ought to look for, ask and add surrounding context and actions, next time). If you're posting just to cause drama and a flamewar, shame on you.

Lastly, discord? Come on, we're on Lemmy here, harass people on a federated FOSS protocol like matrix! /s

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

I’m pretty sure Squid can’t siteban from lemmy.world. He’s not an admin.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Sadly this is what happens on oversized instances. If your goal is to grow, you will foster the worst community spirit. It's a shame that Blackbeard isn't giving another instance a chance.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

discord 💀

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

joins the reddit-lite instance

mad that it's like reddit

leaves entirely instead of trying a better instance

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago
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