this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2024
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Blahaj Lemmy Meta

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Blåhaj Lemmy is a Lemmy instance attached to blahaj.zone. This is a group for questions or discussions relevant to either instance.

founded 2 years ago
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Whilst this is not a local only post/community, it is primarily intended for blahaj lemmy members. Top level replies from non blahaj accounts will be removed.

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I want to take the moment to clarify the Blahaj Lemmy position on things, given recent events and the fallout that has followed. This will give people the chance to decide for themselves if blahaj zone lemmy is the right space for them, or if it doesn't meet their needs.

First and foremost, blahaj zone lemmy exists to give a space for queer folk to exist, with their needs explicitly protected as the highest priority, and with a particular focus on the needs of gender diverse folk. Most lemmy instances are not run by trans folk, and whilst many are still inclusive, they don't always prioritise our needs. Others barely consider trans folk, and react only to the most blatant of bigotry.

We are not a political instance, however political communities have a space here, as does any community that is actively protective of the needs of queer and gender diverse folk. Given the impact of politics on gender diverse folk, that means lots of dialogue and strong opinions exist, and as long as those opinions are honestly held, and not bigoted or exclusive, people are welcome to have and express those opinions here.

For what it's worth, I am a member of the Greens Party in Australia. I have no time for the middle ground politics of the Australian Labor party, let alone the right wing beliefs of the Australian Liberal party. Yet a community of queer Labor Party aligned folk would fit on blahaj lemmy, because the parties ideologies, are not explicitly anti queer. A community aligned with the Australian Liberal party likely would not have a place here, unless the goal of the community was to work at actively challenging the anti queer policies of the party.

That being said, political communities (or any other communities) that exist solely to target and take aim at other queer folk have no place here either. The goal of blahaj lemmy is queer inclusion, and a community whose sole goal is division, will be removed.

The downside to this is that as we assume good faith in members and we don't gatekeep or deny access to people because of their pronouns or gender identity, (even when those identities are challenging to many) it is possible for bad faith actors to take advantage of our inclusive policies. Unfortunately, that's just something we are going to have to navigate as it occurs, because I won't let bad faith folk push this instance to defaulting to exclusion or gatekeeping the validity of someone's identity. I will respect a trolls pronouns even as I ban them, because to not do so, normalises the idea that pronouns are something that are earned by good behaviour, or that other people have a say in the validity of another person's identity and pronouns.

So that's where we stand. Hopefully this will help people decide for themselves whether or not this is the right instance for them.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago

the only good bad actors are those in my theatre group. :3

thank you for the instance i love it here <3

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

Thank you for your work and level head Ada. You keep this community a safe and accepting place.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

Thank you for your work, Ada!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I wasn't involved but this seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Carry on 👌

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

the reception you, once again, got to a nothinburger response very much confirms this is not an apolitical instance, but a lib instance. that's as much as your voting habits count for.

ps. are you finally gonna tell us whether fascist trans folks are welcome or not? no skin off my tits at this point, i just think people deserve to know.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago (2 children)

We're not an apolitical instance. We're not a political instance, but that doesn't mean we're apolitcal. I quite explicitly described both my own political position, and a clear bias against right wing spaces in terms of communities that are allowed.

are finally gonna tell us whether fascist trans folks are welcome or not? no skin off my tits at this point, i just think people deserve to know.

My post outlined my own strong left political beliefs, highlighted the instance bias against conservative political communities, and explicitly stated that bigoted and exclusionary opinions are not welcome.

If you think fascism somehow has a home here after all of that, then either you didn't read my post, you misunderstand the nature of facism or you're not acting in good faith.

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

right, i am not acting in good faith. this is unreal.

sorry to have wasted your time.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If you are acting in good faith, then I am at a loss as to how you could possibly believe that fascists are welcome here. I stand against literally everything they stand for. Their existence is inherently antithetical to the existence of the queer community.

If you can read my history, read my post just here and read the guidelines of this instance, and not understand my position on fascism, then I am genuinely unable to wrap my head around how you arrived at that understanding...

I suggested you're acting in bad faith, because it's the only way I can make sense of it...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

you were asked before. you did the same kinda dodging you're doing now & locked the thread. i'm familiar with your history.

btw, this is exactly why people don't trust you.

gotta say, though, it takes some guts to suggest one of the few users around at all to care at this point, after all that's transpired, is acting in bad faith. i'm trying to hold you accountable, you're not having it, that's fine. but bs like this is just gonna keep on happening.

it seems you're back to removing comments, so i'm not expecting this to stay up for long, either. just know that people know about what's happening.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago (5 children)

wow, sorry Ada for having to put up with bad actors.

if somehow not bad actor: how is "communities whose sole goal is division will be removed" not against facism? where do you find an "opening" for facism here?

also, I'm not sure you're aware of the meaning of liberalism, at least outside of the very american neo-liberalism context - as you seemingly use it as a slur? or otherwise very negative thing. Liberalism is the John Locke thing

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

As a spectator with no stake in what happened, except of course wanting people to feel comfortable, I feel like two things were still left unaddressed:

  • It looked like the owner of the affected community was driven out by something that almost resembled a witch hunt, with accusations that appeared to be unfounded or even maliciously pushed by people opposing the views or moderation style of the community.

  • There was a particular user who stood out to me because they tried to respond to as many posts as possible, seemingly fueling the drama, or at least actively pushing their opinion on everyone. I feel like this is not the appropriate way to interact in such a forum, nor healthy for that individual.

What did the admins do or are planning to do in regards to these concerns?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

It looked like the owner of the affected community was driven out by something that almost resembled a witch hunt, with accusations that appeared to be unfounded or even maliciously pushed by people opposing the views or moderation style of the community.

That's not something I can speak to from an admin perspective. I wasn't active in the community, and unless it was reported or otherwise brought to my attention, I saw very little of it, so I don't really have a great sense of Links specific reasons for departing.

What I do know, is that Links left on good terms with me, and expressed thanks for the blahaj community.

There was a particular user who stood out to me because they tried to respond to as many posts as possible, seemingly fueling the drama, or at least actively pushing their opinion on everyone

There were two users at the center of much of the recent drama. One has recently been banned and their communities removed, after it became clear that their goals were divisive and targeted.

I've spoken to the other user privately, and addressed some of the issues that arose, and since then, I've seen no indication that the problems have re-surfaced.

That's as much detail as I'm willing to go in to on moderation of individuals.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I'm from lemm.ee (because of its anti-defederation stance; I want the whole firehose of as many Lemmy instances as possible) but I've always felt especially comfortable seeing and interacting with content and users from your instance.

And I'm incredibly grateful that you are actually trying to accommodate it/its identities, because I definitely am one. I recognize difficulty in actually asking others to refer to me as such because they're used to "it" being disrespectful and cruel, or if they're the kind of person who would call someone an "it" to insult them, I'd be outing myself as the kind of being they don't want to talk to. But when I see you making an effort... It means the world to me 💜

The friends of mine have gotten used to that aspect of me... Every time they refer to me this way, I feel so... Just .... Good? Good! Seen, heard, acknowledged, understood, known. It matters :3

Thank you for running blåhaj zone. It's my favorite by far. Maybe I might even switch instances, but it'd be more convenient if it didn't come to that.

edit: is there a donation link? I must be lost in plain sight. I'd like to contribute a little material support...
Edit again: FOUND IT! :D

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Regarding what I called a "witch hunt", it seemed like some users quickly jumped on board accusing the previous owner of the libertyhub community of intentionally misgendering a user, when it appeared to be a singular slip up ("you" instead of "You"), that he quickly apologized for and fixed. Maybe there were valid concerns regarding the moderation of that community and it was indeed the right choice for the owner to step down – I am totally missing the context for this – but I felt like there was a large focus on the wrong issue that might've driven him away from Lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

To make it as clear as I can, I had nothing to do with Links leaving. I defended the right for his community to have a place on blahaj zone several times in response to requests to remove it. I explicitly stood by his moderation decisions, and as long as his moderation didn't breach the instance guidelines, he was welcome to moderate in the way he best saw fit. I didn't take action against his accidental misgendering of another user, because the post was removed even before I saw it, and the misgendering wasn't a pattern of repeated behaviour. It seemed to me to be a mistake, and one that he later apologised for.

Which is all to say, he had my support, and I didn't ask him to leave or encourage him to.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 months ago (1 children)

i 100% agreed with the respecting a trolls pronouns thing, until i came here. i still do, with the notable exception that i will not respect someone's pronouns when those pronouns make me feel sexually exploited - and when those pronouns have absolutely nothing to do with gender and are more about making a mockery of trans people and playing out a power fantasy over other people.

ban me for this if you want but i haven't spoken directly about this situation on this instance precisely because i expect to be banned for doing so, and it's simply not the same as any other situation with pronouns. the pronouns themselves are the issue. i'm a discord mod and sometimes i have to ban trolls with obviously racist, transphobic, or nazi pronouns - i don't respect those either. i can't see this situation as any different when the pronouns themselves genuinely make some people feel unsafe.

i would also add that you cannot have an instance without politics. trying to do so is making a political decision, and it is one that ultimately invites fascism. i would love it if all trans people had politics that were safe to be around. but they don't.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

when those pronouns have absolutely nothing to do with gender and are more about making a mockery of trans people and playing out a power fantasy over other people.

If and when you can demonstrate evidence that that is what was happening, I will act on it, but until then, as I stated, I'm not willing to gatekeep people's identities on my personal assessment of their validity. That's not going to change.

I can and will moderate on behaviour however, but in the case of the person I believe you are referring to, after a moderation chat I've seen no evidence of continuing behaviour at odds with our instance guidelines.

i can't see this situation as any different when the pronouns themselves genuinely make some people feel unsafe.

If someone's pronouns make you feel unsafe, that's more of an issue you need to work on than anything else IMO. I know I've struggled with "it" as a pronoun, because it's historically a slur that has been targeted against our community. Seeing people use it made me deeply uncomfortable, and when I first heard it, I assumed, as you're assuming, that the people using it were doing it in bad faith. I've since come to understand that my assumptions were incorrect, and that my discomfort is my issue to work through, not something I get to force on to others.

And until such time as we find a way of reading people's minds to determine their intentions, all we can do is respect what they tell us about who they are, and respond to their behaviour.

If you disagree with that approach, then you're likely to find your experience here frustrating.

i would also add that you cannot have an instance without politics

Of course not. As I said in the post that you're replying to, political communities are welcome here. This is especially true, because of the impact that politics has on our lives as queer folk.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago

This is definitely the instance for me. Thank you Ada!!

[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 months ago

Thank you Ada. I appreciate the work you do here 💜

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago

Beep boop, thanks for the work you do for the community.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Once again Ada cuts through the bullshit elegantly and unapologetically. This is 100% the home for me

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

👏👏👏👏

[–] [email protected] 43 points 4 months ago

Many thanks to Ada here for the wisdom and patience it takes to navigate these challenges. Running an instance is hard enough; throwing user politics into the mix (especially those around trans identities) makes things down right treacherous.

I'd support policies aligned with expected user behaviors and punishments for violations. Bad faith actors are going to try to burrow their way in here, and they're going to make themselves known by testing boundaries and creeping up on the lines of what counts as unacceptable behavior. I'm comfortable with those kinds of edging-trolls being shown the door.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I appreciate everything you and the other admins do to keep this a trans and queer centered instance 🩷🩵🤍

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 4 months ago (1 children)

There isn’t a thing here I don’t agree with. Which affirms that this is the right place for me.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, even to my outsider eyes, that does seem an incredibly reasonable and well thought out statement. “Everybody is welcome - but these are our rules.” One of the strangely most adult things I’ve read for a bit…

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago

Welcome to moderation by Ada. One of the most levelheaded people I know of.

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