this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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Ye Power Trippin' Bastards

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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:

  1. Which mods/admins were being Power Tripping Bastards?
  2. What sanction did they impose (e.g. community ban, instance ban, removed comment)?
  3. Provide a screenshot of the relevant modlog entry (don’t de-obfuscate mod names).
  4. Provide a screenshot and explanation of the cause of the sanction (e.g. the post/comment that was removed, or got you banned).
  5. Explain why you think its unfair and how you would like the situation to be remedied.

Rules

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.

YTPB matrix channel: For real-time discussions about bastards or to appeal mod actions in YPTB itself.

Some acronyms you might see.

Relevant comms

founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
115
3 days ban from [email protected] for "siphoning users" to [email protected] (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
90 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Modlog: https://feddit.org/modlog/242334

Tl,dr: got a 3 day banned for pointing new joiners to [email protected] , a more active version of [email protected]

Context

[email protected] was established to promote European products and services. It got popular recently due to the US decision of potentially dropping support to Ukraine. It had a diverse team of moderators, and was getting some activity.

A feddit.org user (potentially unaware of the existence of the first community) decided to create [email protected]

They deleted their Lemmy account after, but promoted a new moderator before leaving.

This moderator created a post to vote about keeping the feddit.org community, or consolidating with the feddit.uk one: https://feddit.org/post/8679890

That vote itself is kind of debatable, as the only option to vote for the consolidation was to downvote, which is not enabled on instances like Blahaj or Reddthat. Also people tend to upvote more than downvote, so the votes expressed may not reflect the actual opinion of the community, but anyway.

Usually, I don't really care that much about consolidation, there has been a lot of parallel communities for a while, like

It's not that big of a deal usually, but this case is a big different due to the BuyFromEU movement.

BuyfromEU movement and Lemmy new joiners

https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/ is getting quite large recently, even getting some press coverage. There are a few posts promoting Lemmy over there, with more or less success.

What happens then is that people join Lemmy, just look for "buyfromeu" and find the feddit.org community, while the feddit.uk is actually much more active. Some stats:

feddit.org:

  • 1.04K users / day
  • 2.34K users / week
  • 3.02K users / month
  • 3.02K users / 6 months
  • 1.9K subscribers
  • 125 Posts
  • 1.34K Comments

feddit.uk:

  • 3.79K users / day
  • 8.11K users / week
  • 8.86K users / month
  • 8.92K users / 6 months
  • 2.7K subscribers
  • 354 Posts
  • 5.58K Comments

The main issue with this is that as the usually is kind of active, they think that the feddit.org community is the main community on the topic, while the feddit.uk is much more active. So I started to check for new joiners account, and if they hadn't posted or commented on the feddit.uk community, I would point them to it, with comments like

Welcome here!

A few pointers for you:

The sidebar also lists a few complementary communities to this one, such as [email protected] or [email protected]

Apparently this seems enough to give a temporary ban. The mod team is also quite expressive about the "consolidation cannot be discussed stance" https://feddit.org/post/8905532

Just to add some more context, those are the type of comments I give to every new joiners. Some recent examples

Now, a last section about why I'm personally in favor of consolidating.

Federation and decentralization is about spreading power and responsibilities, not splitting a small user base between different places

Some people argue that consolidating communities goes against the spirit of federation and decentralization. However, for people posting content, there is a consensus that our small user base can only sustain so many communities. Splintering the discussion between places is detrimental to the whole platform. Example of recent consolidations:

In the buyfromEU / buyEuropean case, we see people asking recommendations on the same topics on the two communities, while they might have seen a post from the other one is there was only one: https://feddit.org/post/8925080/5204057

Note that there are cases when new communities need to emerge due to power tripping mods. But here, the feddit.uk mods and admins have been good, no such issue to be reported.

Also, quite a few communities are "the main ones", without any parallel community

Choice overload and decision fatigue are a thing

Too many options hurts users’ decision-making ability. How they feel about the experience as a whole can be significantly impacted as a result.

https://lawsofux.com/choice-overload/

Isn't one for European Union and the other for the whole Europe?

The text what to expect says, that we are focusing on the EU, but if other befriended countries slip through we are not enforcing rules. We called it a soft limit, so pepole tend to limit themselves, rather than mods jumping each post.

https://feddit.org/comment/5211878

Due to the inherited name, buyFromEU we would like to soft limit the discussion to the European Union countries. We are tempted to read this as EU + friendly countries as long as this is within reason.

https://feddit.org/post/8545702

Wouldn't consolidating lose people?

An example of successful consolidation/migration: https://lemmy.world/c/football

Shouldn't people see the other community from the sidebar?

Sidebars aren't usually visible on a lot of apps, on Voyager for instance people have to actively look for it:

https://vger.app/search/lemm.ee/c/[email protected]

Why is this case different from other parallel communities?

Due to the growth of the /r/BuyFromEU sub (now at 148000 subscribers), some posts promoting Lemmy are appearing every few days: https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/comments/1j7vkrg/the_european_hosted_reddit_alternative_lemmee_is/

As you can see, the main comment is about community split across instances. The commenter was incorrect about the working of federation, but us being unable to provide one community for the discussions to happen isn't putting Lemmy in a good light as a viable Reddit alternative.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Honest question: why can't both communities just exist separately? Isn't this the magic of the Fediverse?

Your biggest point is that the communities are identical in content and I disagree. Just looking at the top posts of the week, the feddit.uk version has a bunch of memes, while feddid.org seems more news focused. The Fediverse allows us to moderate these communities differently and to have different styles of communities, perfectly shown with this example. They are not identical.

We shouldn't build up just one community all the time. That just runs into the same problem why people disliked reddit: centralized moderation. It's not a problem now, but if it ever will be, why can't there be alternatives. Let's not try to become the next reddit, but become something better.

Also some people left reddit because it all became to big, they want small groups that actually feel like a community. If people prefer a smaller lemmy community, let them have it. They voted against merging, so let them have it. [email protected] is already linked in their sidebar. Everybody that wants to can switch the community or subscribe to both (which is a possibility!!).

I think you're in the wrong here, at least on trying to grow the uk community over the org one.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

They are not identical.

People posting to both communities without distinction seems to indicate they are identical

You would not see such things happening on [email protected] and [email protected]

Let’s not try to become the next reddit, but become something better.

We are not the same Reddit because admins don't have absolute power: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/18234778

It's everyone keeping everyone in check, with meta communities like the ones we're in keeping balance.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

having some similarities does not make them identical. having all similarities makes them identical. having one community generate traffic and distractions with memes does make a big difference.

both communities should coexist. siphoning users from one to another community is a dickmove. however, i expect most users to be smart enough to just join both. i think a 3 day ban is not the end of the world, especially since you make it sound like your only input in their community was advertising for another community. i guess nothing of value was lost on that front and it had a nice side effect sparking this discussion.

i think posting your issue in this community here is also a dickmove.

maybe you should contact the mods privately and talk with THEM on that matter. i think your comment was phrased fairly and did not really say "hey, leave this community and join us!" - so i think it is worth trying to find a solution.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago (2 children)

PTB, banning people for sharing alternatives is shitty and comes off as you trying to gatekeep your community and prevent people from learning about alternatives.

Also since @[email protected] decided to comment, it doesn't matter if the Rest of the team agreed with you or not, that just makes all of you PTB as well. The fact this was even considered as a good idea and implemented to suppress knowledge of alternatives makes it PTB.

If anyone is reading this, stay away from that mod's shithole and go to [email protected] instead. It's more active and isn't run by PTBs.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

It's nice that both parties are discussing here.

I read all of the discussion, I think it may be useful to point out that here are two different issues at hand here:

  1. The debate around the question: should we not have or not have multiple similarly-themed communities since we severely lack users to make them thrive. That's technical consideration that's easy to debate, imho.
  2. The other one is more related to a question of ego (No blaming here, my own ego is the size of the Eiffel tower ;), and is about deciding if it's ok to ban someone because they're doing something you don't agree with but technically is not against the rules AND AT THE SAME TIME it's about deciding if it's ok to keep bothering the admin/mods of another and similarly-themed community once those mods made it clear to you they prefer you stop doing it but you think they're wrong?

Those two issues should be dealt with separately, if anyone is hoping to reach any agreement.

Could the two communities thrive? Maybe, maybe not. They could both die, too.
Could they merge? I think so (because I don't see large enough differences between them).
Should they merge? I think so but not if one of them doesn't want to merge, it's simple. It's called freedom and respect.
Should they discuss a merge even if they don't appreciate each other, instead of banning and/or spamming? I think so too. At least in the interest of the two communities. Failing to do so would only reflects we're not better than some of those elected clowns we call our representatives... And seeing how crass stupid some of them are, I'd rather try my hardest to never look like them :p

A few more general considerations, keep in mind they're coming from an old fart that probably doesn't understand much:

  • If I go to some place and the owner tells me they don't like I what do at their place. I will either stop doing it, or stop going there depending the situation.
    If I really think they're wrong, I may ask other persons around me but if none agrees with me, well I'm back to square one and I will either stop going there or stop doing whatever I was doing.
  • As a member of both communities, I find it a pain to have two similar communities even more so when both post the exact same content because it creates more noise in my feed and because it forces me to waste my time and energy deciding where I will read said duplicated content and maybe post a comment. The solution is obvious: I will unsubscribe from one (for the time being, I still follow the two communities).
  • Fediverse is about networking and non-centralization. It should not be about owning and dictating what one should or should not be allowed to do... which is what Reddit turned into and why I quit using it entirely.
  • I know it's somehow trendy 'to be right' and to present the other dude as being 'the bad guy' the one that is wrong and that should be punished. At best, it's naive. Simply put, no one is the asshole because we all are at one time or another—and if anyone needs help understanding that, consider the following: we all need to poop and once we've pooped we all need to wipe our dirty ass clean. So, yeah, not only we're all assholes but(t), no matter how briefly, at one time we also all have our ass dirty. What matters is not that it's dirty it's how we clean it.
  • We don't own communities or their members. If we're anything special it's their janitor, trying to keep it working and clean.
  • I'm old enough that I've learned to not give a crap about sensibility, be it my own or other's.
    I try to not be mean but I will also say what I have to say and I'm fine with some people not liking it (or not liking me) as I'm fine with me me not liking what they say.
  • I'm not fine with people insisting on convincing me I should change my mind and I should (dis)like what or who they (dis)like. My answer to that behavior is to block them. Am I wrong or excessive in doing so? I could be, sure, but why would i want to waste my time discussing with someone that doesn't want to discuss and only want to convince me I'm wrong and they're right?
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

As a member of both communities, I find it a pain to have two similar communities even more so when both post the exact same content because it creates more noise in my feed and because it forces me to waste my time and energy deciding where I will read said duplicated content and maybe post a comment. The solution is obvious: I will unsubscribe from one (for the time being, I still follow the two communities).

Thank you for pointing this out. It's a major effect known in research, I linked it in the OP.

I don't have the time to address the rest of your comment, but I think I've already presented most of my perspective in the OP and in other comments.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Not PTB, and not quite YDI.

your history of trying to consolidate communities to external instances (such as our wonderful privacy discussion) may irk moderators. You are the number 1 community dissolver on lemmy. Especially when you cross post someone's post from community A to community B and siphon the user activity by being the more recent post.

A moderator may not agree with your consolidation choices (i.e. they like the TOS on a different instance) and reasonably see your actions as a net negative.

I think its more fair to do community competition through better and more frequent content. Reposting content to your favored community (i.e. top post content jacking), and going into other communities to direct users to your favored community isn't very nice.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Hello,

such as our wonderful privacy discussion

Sorry, I don't remember, is it this one? https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/35817877

your history of trying to consolidate communities to external instances (such as our wonderful privacy discussion) may irk moderators. You are the number 1 community dissolver on lemmy.

These days it's usually @[email protected] : https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/39673185?scrollToComments=true

they like the TOS on a different instance

Indeed, that's what's happening with [email protected] vs [email protected]. What differences are they here between feddit.org and feddit.uk

I think its more fair to do community competition through better and more frequent content.

Counterpoint: to bring regular posters, you need activity. With only so many people posting on Lemmy, activity can only happen in one place at the same time.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

After reading from thier mod, you just seem to be acting out. Delete this post because it really makes you look bad to the informed.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Not sure what do to with someone's modlog shows repeated insults in different communities: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/modlog?userId=1746189

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Wow some real toxic behaviour there, best to ignore Breezy

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

He is an online tough guy

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 days ago

Not at all. Its nice you would speak so highly of me though. Thank you.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 days ago

If im toxic then you're just a little snowflake. You cant tell me looking at that link that im too bad. Yeah ill say some shit, but im not like offense or anything bad. People can cry all they want or be a bitch and try to showcase my bad behavior but im actually one of the best people to find online. So please tell me what I said that was so bad. Because honestly you just seem like a shill.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Oh wow i didnt know you could do that. But yup im rude as fuck, thats why im saying you're looking bad.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's one click in newer versions of Lemmy

The feature gets used quite often, it helps to identify who you are dealing with

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Well this post will help others not to give a shit about what you say then. No offense really.

What app do you use?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Default Lemmy web page

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I dont have a pc so im stuck on mobile. Its a shame that feature seems realy cool

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You can use the web page on mobile.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 days ago

It looks to ugly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

the android community moved instances and then randomly split

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

YDI, aggressively trying to stifle a community like that leaves a very very poor impression IMO, people have their reasons for choosing certain instances and that should be respected.

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

their reasons for choosing certain instances and that should be respected.

I definitely agree. What I'm missing here is that feddit.uk and feddit.org are both handled by teams of multiple teams based in European countries, with similar moderation policies. This is not [email protected] vs [email protected]

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

And? This is the entire point of federated networks, if for example the .org instance imploded for whatever reason then the community could easily regroup and hit the ground running on the .UK instance, pushing for everything to be centralised in large communities undermines the benefits of federation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

[email protected] quickly disappeared afternoon the instance went down. People still reorganized on [email protected] and [email protected]

Also, historically the same thing happened with feddit.de went the admins went missing. People still managed to reorganize on feddit.org

I just had a quick look at https://feddit.org/communities

Where are the backup communities for [email protected] , [email protected] and [email protected] ?

Finally, I'm not advocating for a complete deletion of the existing community, just a lock, that can be easily undone if needed, in scenarios described above.

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

Nah, having a reasonably active community on another instance is also a bulwark against mods going rogue.

Trying to ask where the back up communities are for the ones you posted is not exactly relevant, if they did have secondary backup communities I'd be in favour of them staying indepdnent and active but we're talking about ones which do currently have communities across different instances.

And yes people will reorganise but that takes a degree of time even if only a few days, I see no reason to go around pressuring for "duplicates" to be folded into a single large community when they don't exactly impact the function of the subject matter and allow for a very quick migration should something go wrong.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

To be honest in this case people might prefer to move to [email protected] rather than [email protected] should [email protected] go bust

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Then people can choose to do so.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 6 days ago

Well I mean it's Reddit, that's half their MO now. The other half is being thought police.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

YDI.

Not because you're wrong about consolidating communities, and not even because you were trying to get people to move to the other comm; but because you're doing it in the least communal and democratic way possible, and for your disregard for the mod team and community's collective intent. I think the mod team handled this pretty well.

These kinds of crusades are antithetical to the spirit of the fediverse, and I really wish this community didn't attract so many Don Quixote-types fighting windmills.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

but because you’re doing it in the least communal and democratic way possible, and for your disregard for the mod team and community’s collective intent.

Reddit mods use the exact same reasoning when removing posts mentioning Lemmy

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago

And we don't usually get to see the receipts, but this time we do.

It's one thing to make mention of or recommend another community, it's another to spend your time flooding their threads with it repeatedly, even when asked to stop. What starts as impassioned advocacy can quickly turn into harassment and spam, and I think you crossed that line.

It should be evident just in the way you wrote an entire wiki article in this post - they were right to temporarily remove you from this conversation. If you only go there to dissolve their community, they have every right to kick you out of it.

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