So for those of you unaware, last night someone claiming to be a long-time poster confessed to being in a sexual + romantic relationship with what turned out to be a minor 15 years his junior. (Here is the post for additional context.) Several people - myself included - failed to immediately condemn the relationship and in fact sympathized with OP and put blame on the kid for lying to and manipulating OP (who claimed to be unaware of the kid’s actual age until the cops told him), completely ignoring the fact that a 15-year-old cannot consent to such a relationship. Even if he jumps through a bunch of hoops to illegally get into a kink space and fabricates an of-majority-age persona in order to get with a much older man. In my own case, I believe that my own perception of the situation - not helped by OP’s way of telling the story - was warped such that the sexual side of the relationship was sidelined in favor of the more emotional side, as well as having an incorrect perception of consent as it pertains to teenagers going in. Either way, I admit that my gut reaction was wrong both legally and probably morally, and that I clearly have much to learn about consent and sexual laws and norms (from harassment to rape.)
My recommendation to the mod team would be to permaban all people whose first reaction was to side with OP (yes, including me), and have a stern discussion with the site about the gravity and absoluteness of consent, especially with respect to children and teenagers (to cover the rest of your asses.) Advice on further steps to be taken would also be appreciated.
Shout-out to u/BeamBrain for shaming me and setting me straight. I hope the few others who sided with OP have also come to realize the error of their ways.
Just a chapo mod, not sitewide.
The original post is up, but none of the replies are loading for me. I don’t really have any clue what happened in the thread but to me, its apparent that the OP should have at the very least definitely been asking more questions than they were.
I’m not currently in contact with any admins, and I will leave any sort of continuing plan of action to them. That said, I will definitely state that rape apologia here won’t stand, not anywhere on this site. The user ghostofwhoiwas was wrong, and any sort of “just asking questions” about the culpability of people who fuck teens will result in a ban from here on out. Previous posts have been removed without bans.
u/GorbinOutOverHere is a ban evasion account for @AmericaDelendeEst@hexbear.net that comments about evading the ban here (https://hexbear.net/comment/2837010) and there’s a removed comment in the old ban appeals mega
now supporting child abuse in addition to the previous report abuse, anti-veganism, and “Constantly spreading disinformation and misrepresenting events. Repeatedly baiting out drama” that caught a ban in the first place
hopefully admins will take a second look at this, with the new 2 year ban from this comm and the reasons why, to at least consider further disciplinary action
I literally came here just to be like “you know it’s been forever so I don’t even remember what their first account was, but they were already permabanned and for good reason so I’m glad to see them finally gone again” lol
Hopefully their next ban evasion accounts actually get banned on the basis of being ban evasion accounts and they either give up and go somewhere else or thoroughly change their behavior
Those two accounts are obviously from a user that was banned long ago, everyone knows who they are and I’m actually surprised they were not banned for ban evasion sooner, if that’s what the mods are doing now. I was under the impression that they were allowed back on hexbear as a sort of “you’ve learnt your lesson now” type deal.
wasn’t gorbin the rowing machine poster? i liked those posts. sad
There are a few users who have names that kind of flaunt the fact they’re evading an old ban. (coughzedcough. excuse me, getting over covid again.) I took it the same way you did, that mods knew what was up, but were just like “don’t do it again and we’ll let it slide.” Fair enough, the way I see it, especially when they consistently post good takes… mostly. But then there are also sometimes prolific people who come back immediately after a recent ban with an obvious name and still expect mods not to do anything about it. Keep that popularity contest shit out of here, I would say.