This was originally posted as a comment response in !asklemmy@lemmy.world.
Back in December, the instance hosting 196 (lemmy.blahaj.zone) announced that, as part of its mission as a trans-friendly space, harassment based on gender or neopronouns would remain** prohibited—even if the user in question was suspected of being a troll. Users were asked to disengage, block, and report suspected trolling behavior rather than bring harassment into a community already vulnerable to that kind of bullying.
There was a small backlash to the policy from some users. This led to a number of “toe the line” posts that weren’t outright gender-based harassment but strongly signaled an intent to misgender or harass in the future. Blahaj admins promptly removed all offending comments during this wave of dissent.
Important to note: The majority of the Blahaj and 196 users supported the policy, upvoting and praising the admins for creating a safe space for trans individuals.
By January, the backlash had mostly subsided, and the trolls causing issues had moved on. While the 196 moderators, including @moss and their team, did agree with the specific neopronouns policy, they remained unhappy with the broader policy of respect for trans identities. They cited “personal differences” and expressed discontent with instances where Blahaj admins directly removed comments which harassed or openly expressed intent to harass trans identities, feeling that it overstepped their role.*
Yesterday, @moss and the 196 moderation team enacted a major decision without consulting the community. They locked !196@lemmy.blahaj.zone and instructed users to move to !196@lemmy.world.
This move was extremely unpopular. Many users strongly dislike lemmy.world for various reasons (a complicated topic better unpacked elsewhere). The announcement post was met with widespread backlash, and @moss eventually locked it. In response, a few users created a new community on Blahaj: !onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone. The new community quickly grew in size and activity, with most users opting to stay on Blahaj rather than migrate to lemmy.world.
It’s clear @moss and the 196 moderators underestimated the community’s attachment to its home on Blahaj. By attempting to uproot the group without input, they alienated much of the community. As a result, most users have moved to the new Blahaj-hosted community, which has already become the more active space.
TL;DR:
@Moss and the 196 mod team tried to move the community to lemmy.world without consulting anyone. The decision was extremely unpopular, leading to backlash and the creation of a new Blahaj-hosted community that most users now prefer.
*This paragraph has been edited after receiving correction or clarification from @A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.world. You can find that discussion here.
**”Remain” being the key word here. Blahaj has openly held the same trans-focused policies as always, and the admin Ada was simply reasserting her position here.
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So I actually agree with everything you wrote here except that “that is the narrative a lot of you ran with.” I didn’t. And I told off everyone who did. I appreciated you banning Drag for the user’s disgusting behavior. You did the right thing. Ada was calling out commenters who were using harassment and misgendering to combat trolls. Most that were mad were upset at Ada. Few to none interpereted that as a diss on you. Certainly not me.
You are getting pretty acerbic about this already so if you do respond please be chill. But I would encourage you to engage with the concept that this wasn’t even about you until you made it that way by locking the community.
In general, this is showing me that you just really never even had a finger on the pulse of your own former community, so I think this has all been for the best.
Op, I have no skin in this but can’t you see that the post you have made contains the narrative you are being told is false?
i made an edit to the language of my post that might have been misleading a small minority, including you and AVBF. feel free to check it out and let me know if it makes more sense.
Thank ypu and it did!
YIPPEE 🥳🥳🥳
You literally just told everybody that the mods disagreed with the neopronouns policy that Ada created over the Drag drama. None of us did, and it had nothing to do with why we wanted to move.
I understand that you don’t want to feel like you’re in the wrong, but you are. You are putting words in our mouths and we’re being labeled bigots because of it.
I’m just now finding out that drag was banned and was a troll and not just some novelty rando that I’d see in comments every now and then.
I only started seeing stuff from Drag… maybe a week ago? And right away, they had all the hallmarks of a troll. I think the first I saw was a thread they made about an “experiment” on .world(?) to test the admin’s actual upholding of Dutch law Re: Luigi and incitement to violence.
I was probably about half way through the 2nd paragraph when I realised that this person must be a troll. Then going through the comments Drag was absolutely stirring the pot, clearly every comment they made responding to people who weren’t fully on board with what they claimed to have done in this “experiment” was vitriolic and seemed purposely written to create strife.
Then I started seeing their comments outside of that thread, only had to see a handful to decide that I really didn’t need them in my feed.
Hey I just wanted to say I empathize with how stressful this situation must be for all of you & i can see that you all had good intentions at heart when doing this. Everybody makes mistakes & I feel bad about how much venom you guys have gotten. Yes the community should have been consulted, but also you’re just people and no one is perfect.
I hope you all are staying healthy & aren’t letting this get to you too much 💜
Thank you. It’s been…a wild couple of days haha.
I appreciate this a lot
I can only imagine, big drama like this is never fun lol.
Heres to hoping this blows over quick & something else captures the attention of the lemmiverse
I see now that you’re making a distinction between the neopronoun policy and the broader principle that trans people are to be treated with dignity in their identity. I apologize for not recognizing this distinction earlier, and I’ll work to communicate more clearly within those terms. (edit: And I have now applied these corrections to the original post.)
This isn’t accurate. Ada has always moderated in this way. The increase in users has amplified challenges, both from trolls and well-meaning participants, and in her “neopronouns aren’t trolling” she reaffirmed her long-standing position in response to these specific issues. While I’m glad to see you agree with the policy, it’s worth noting that this moderation style is not new.
Regarding Moss’ recent post: their specific example of disagreement isn’t about neopronouns but about the broader policy of respecting trans identities—a continuation of the same priorities Ada has upheld. To clarify your earlier reading of my post:
Again, I genuinely hope this helps. It looks like you are having a fairly significant misunderstanding of the goings-on in the community and instance. I want to thank @hazeebabee@slrpnk.net for their kind words. I have no ill will toward anyone here; I simply believe that addressing this now helps avoid larger misunderstandings down the line, as the community evaluates how leadership aligns with its values and needs.
Jesus Christ, spujb, no it is not. I know what’s in that post because I wrote a significant portion of it, and revised everything else.
Nothing that we wrote suggested our move was motivated by Ada’s policy towards respecting trans identities or neopronouns. We were very clear that our differences with Ada stem from her heavy-handed mod actions.
If you don’t want any ill will, a good start would be to stop putting words in our mouths. Especially words that incite harassment against us. I’m done arguing with you. Do the right thing or don’t, I’m not your boss.
Not responding to you—I don’t expect a response, but for those reading, here is the moderation you have issue with. To 99% of us, this is clearly an example of that broader policy of respecting trans identities.
Good idea to show the screenshot