This was originally written as a reply for this thread: https://lemmy.world/post/19238577
I'm copying it here because I don't trust a LW admin to just not delete it right away since that seems to be something they love doing.
tl;dr - a user calls out the LW mods for rapid fire banning a bunch of users today, I investigate
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Let's review some of these bans, as called out by ChomskyWasRight@slrpunk.net:
https://lemm.ee/post/40926293/14446156
From the top:
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LagrangePoint@lemmy.world https://imgur.com/4XsXuOC
Quote: "LW admin/mod team seem to have this overbearing and weird belief that they need to tell everyone else what to think and how to think it. How about... you all just fuck off and don't?
Result: Permaban
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aniki@lemmings.world https://imgur.com/LIye27F
Quote: "All rights are won through violence, child. Bans on here means less than the nothing platitudes you utter"
Result: 15 day ban
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catloaf@lemm.ee https://imgur.com/ONGdgNo
Quote: [the quote is really long, pls dont make me type it and just look at the link lol]
Result: 15 day ban
Note: the comment precedes the ban by 26 days, but catloaf's recent comment history contains opinions critical of the LW News mod team
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DoctorButts@kbin.melroy.org https://imgur.com/q2kktNQ
Quote: "Damn what a shame, guy almost stopped being a moderator on an internet forum, would have been a grave tragedy"
Result: Permaban
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stormesp@lemm.ee https://imgur.com/ZCRtuJe
Stormesp's profile at lemm.ee: https://lemm.ee/u/stormesp
Quote: [there were no comments removed in the modlog, but stormesp's recent comment history contains opinions critical of the LW News mod team, read them yourself]
Result: 15 day ban
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MindTraveller@lemmy.ca https://imgur.com/YwIMSOq
Quotes: [multiple quotes, there are a lot, check out the link]
Result: 15 day ban
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Summary
Most interestingly here is that the two users who got permabanned didn't use slurs and didn't call for violence, they merely insulted the moderator team. I guess in the LW News mod team's eyes, that's a horrible, terrible, awful, unforgivable offense, so.......... PERMABAN.
Aniki literally is saying "words are useless, let's resort to violence" but that's a 15 day ban only, OK, makes sense, right????????
Catloaf and Stormesp were actively leaving comments sparring with the moderator team in that thread. To be honest, none of what I'm seeing in these comment seems worthy of a ban. Unless of course, you're a LW mod and you go "this guy is disagreeing with me, therefore they deserve a ban."
Edit: I forgot to write about MindTraveller since that ~~guy~~ douchecanoe was a last minute addition. But look at those aggressive comments, ~~guy~~ douchecanoe deserves a ban for sure.
Edit 2: fixed pronouns for MindTraveller
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Conclusion
Not a good look. Does LW want to grow into a good Reddit alternative or do they just want to turn it into Reddit for themselves only?
LW can at least come clean about this and say "yes, the rest of you can get fucked" or maybe they will have a moment of realization at some point "oh my god, are we the baddies?"
It does seem heavy handed, but given how incredibly insufferable and annoying vegans on Lemmy have been recently, I can't say I blame the admins for deciding they've had enough.
Lemmy.world admins made it very clear they considered the statements being made as animal abuse, and that it wasn't welcome on their platform, and the community mods actually banned an admin in response, and reinstated a bunch of deleted comments.
I think the vegans will probably move communities, and it's probably the best option at this point.
If the LW admins feel justified in permabanning people for what they perceive as animal abuse, then surely the vegans are equally justified in being mean to people for what they also perceive as animal abuse. Your comment seems to indicate a double standard.
Also the LW admins decided to reinstate the c/vegan mods because they correctly identified that the admin who went rogue was overstepping.