this post was submitted on 02 Feb 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.


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Yesterday I was reading the post about the FUTO keyboard where there were a lot of messages deleted by moderators.
I've commented there

What the heck happened with all the messages deleted by moderator?

And it got deleted. Right now you can only see 4, but I've counted 19 messages moderated and the post has been locked. Why?
I've had a look ad the modlog and the messages don't seems to violate any policy (now they've removed them in the modlog too).

I'm pinging here lemmy.ml admin and the mods of the open source community where the post was posted so they can have their say about it and clarify the situation to me.
@kevincox@lemmy.ml @CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml @Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml @Cloak@lemmy.ml @davel@lemmy.ml @dessalines@lemmy.ml @nutomic@lemmy.ml @JoeBidet@lemmy.ml @cypherpunks@lemmy.ml

If I'm getting something wrong, please let me know, I'm here to discus and understand if I'm getting something wrong or if something went wrong in the moderation. Thanks!

Down here you can see the deleted comments.

P.s. I'm writing here because I think that this post on lemmy.ml wouldn't last long.

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[–] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 81 points 3 days ago (13 children)

That was me. I'm tired of FUTO fans derailing discussions about FLOSS with advocacy for their obviously-not-open-source software and insisting that it is open source.

Every time Futo comes up, someone will insist it is open source, others will correct them, and soon more than 50% of a thread that is supposed to be about open source is people arguing about them.

I'm pretty sure that Futo's (now recanted) position that they were open source (despite the term having a clear definition which is very internationally recognized and which Futo's license obviously does not meet) was an intentional marketing gimmick - "there is no such thing as bad publicity" and every time a bunch of people are arguing about them there is a chance they'll get more customers (some of whom might even believe it is open source).

I’ve counted 19 messages moderated

Probably more than that even; more than I want to count. The modlog is public.

and the post has been locked.

The What's the best open source keyboard for android? post where you commented has not been locked, but most of the futo-related comments in it are deleted. Note that while your comment was not advocating for futo per se, it was (successfully) encouraging others to continue the offtopic discussion. You could have answered your question by reading the modlog.

I did lock another post in the same community (the topic of which is, again, Open Source), which was What are your thoughts on FUTO? (and I left a comment there explaining why).

I generally try to assume good faith but I'm pretty sure some Futo proponents are actually just trolling at this point.

I hope this answers your questions.

[–] peregus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Every time Futo comes up, someone will insist it is open source, others will correct them, and soon more than 50% of a thread that is supposed to be about open source is people arguing about them.

In the removed posts that you can see in the screenshots I don't see anything you say.

Probably more than that even; more than I want to count. The modlog is public.

When I wrote the post, there were no trace of those messages in the modlog (or I've missed them, I'm not that into Lemmy, I admit that)

The What’s the best open source keyboard for android? post where you commented has not been locked

My bad, I must have confused them, sorry.

I generally try to assume good faith but I’m pretty sure some Futo proponents are actually just trolling at this point.

As stated above, I don't see any trolling in the comments scrreenshotted (and deleted). But over that, I think that deleting those messages is censorship. I still believe in free speech and I can't see any hate or misinformation in those messages.

Note that while your comment was not advocating for futo per se, it was (successfully) encouraging others to continue the offtopic discussion. You could have answered your question by reading the modlog.

It was a chit chat, what's wrong with that? It feels like school were you had to just pay attention to what the professor was saying and woe betide anyone who turns their head.

[–] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

But over that, I think that deleting those messages is censorship. I still believe in free speech and I can’t see any hate or misinformation in those messages.

I believe in free speech too, and I think moderated spaces for discussion help enable it. (Think about this...)

Nobody claimed there was hate in any of messages in that thread; you observing that there wasn't is knocking down a straw man, and using the word censorship here is just hyperbole.

There are however unambiguously factually incorrect assertions in some of the offtopic messages I removed from that thread.

[–] peregus@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

I believe in free speech too, and I think moderated spaces for discussion help enable it. (Think about this…)

I don't see any misinformation on the deleted messages, if you can see in the ones that I've screenshotted, please tell me which one.

There are however unambiguously factually incorrect assertions in some of the offtopic messages I removed from that thread.

Again, please tell me what is offtopic. Is offtopic asking why FUTO is bad in a post where someone suggested a FUTO keyboard? If so, then a message like this one

you generally don’t need an AV on android, unless you do really shady downloads. only download from fdroid, google play, github, apkmirror, and maybe some mod apk websites, the more known ones

should be remove, and so this one:

Yeah jail everyone doing piracy too (they also might do that lmao) im reporting every republican I know using an illegal firestick,ill make california blue

But the world is not only black and white (every single message MUST have an open source software in it), but its a shades of all colors!

IMHO free ~~speach~~ speech is let people write what they think, moderate misinformation only when there already is no clarification from others so that it's clear to everyone that a message is misinformation.

But Arthur, you're a moderator of your server where you make the rules. I now understand what others were saying about your instance and I'll just leave it. All the best!

Edit: typo

[–] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

IMHO free speach is let people write what they think, moderate misinformation only when there already is no clarification from others so that it’s clear to everyone that a message is misinformation.

imho "free speach" is a typo, and one often made by people with the funny idea that free speech means any form of content moderation is a violation of their rights 😏

I don’t see any misinformation on the deleted messages, if you can see in the ones that I’ve screenshotted, please tell me which one.

look again; two of the comments in your screenshots (and many more that i deleted) are explicitly claiming that futo makes open source software:

click to expand for screenshots of your screenshots

and, the rest of them are discussing and/or promoting futo, which, again, is a commercial product which many people incorrectly believe to be open source due to its maker's now-recanted false statements to that effect, and therefore offtopic ("spam" would also be a fair label for some of it) in a community about open source.

also, note that i did not even delete 100% of the comments about futo in that thread! i left enough that any good-faith reader should be able to see why further discussion of futo is offtopic there, and, i even linked to this thread you started, to give anyone who wanted to discuss it further a place to do so.

if you still believe that deletion of (most, and not even all in the thread) offtopic/spam comments is a free speech issue... ok, i don't know what else to tell you. all the best to you too.

[–] peregus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

imho “free speach” is a typo, and one often made by people with the funny idea that free speech means any form of content moderation is a violation of their rights 😏

This says it all! Bye

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 32 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, Rossman getting in bed with people that are deliberately trying to dilute the meaning of open source really killed my opinion of him.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Who are some of those people? I'm still trying to get my bearings about this entire thing, I never heard of it before yesterday.

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 28 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Louis Rossmann is a prominent right to repair advocate on youtube, I don't like his videos personally, but he's usually on the right side of things.

FUTO is a company owned by Billionaire Eron Wolf, they release several pieces of software under their own proprietary licence, that they originally tried to claim was "open source". When they got called out on it not being open source they literally tried to redefine open source. Although they've since backtracked, and decided to use the term "source first" instead, it makes the whole organisation seem incredibly sketchy to me.

[–] ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com 1 points 1 day ago

Louis is such a nothing creator.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Rossman explained the dealio... daddy owner wanted this, it is his money.

Not ideal and there was some shoddy marketing. We still got a free app out of it.

But yes, this app is not OS and people should stop fucking arguing that it is.

If you don't like it, don't use it.

With that being said, i don't see an issue with mentioning it as a viable alternative to OS but saying it is OS is bad faith behavior.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

saying it is OS is bad faith behavior.

As far as I can tell, no one in the second comments thread who was deleted was doing this. They were talking positively about FUTO in ways that still acknowledged that it wasn't open source.

I've reached the limit of my caring about this issue, but you can search the modlog for particular users whose comments in the second thread were deleted, if you want to check what they were saying about it.

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[–] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 13 points 3 days ago

Rossmann's billionaire patron is Eron Jokipii (aka Eron Wolf). As you can see here he comes off as a bit of a bumbling rube; it's possible that he sincerely doesn't understand the harm in what he is doing since he's one of those people who became unfathomably rich by selling a company to Yahoo in the late 90s and has probably been surrounded ever since by yes men who can't afford to contradict him.

picture of Eron Jokipii aka Eron Wolf. he is wearing a Yahoo Games hat, and a yellow t-shirt with the crudely-written words "step on snek and find out" above a drawing of a green snake

[–] sorrybookbroke@sh.itjust.works 16 points 3 days ago

Thanks for the level-heades and reasonable explination. These actions make complete sense

[–] beyond@linkage.ds8.zone 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Thank you for standing up for the free software definition. As someone who has been heavily critical of fauxpen source licenses including FUTO it's refreshing to see moderators taking a stance against it.

The main concern I have with this attempt (by FUTO and other organizations trying to "fix" open source) is that watering down the open source and free software definitions causes damage to the community/movement. Whether the FUTO EULA or any other proprietary license is "good enough" for an individual user is not the question (and I have even seen people argue in favor of fully-proprietary blob software on the basis of being "privacy friendly"); real free software disadvantages rightsholders in favor of users and communities, which is important in case those rightsholders go defunct or rogue.

I try to assume good faith as well but I am seriously considering the idea that FUTO is astroturfing free software spaces to promote its version of open source. Despite publicly backing down on their openwashing attempt Eron Wolf-in-sheeps-clothing seems very determined that open source is broken and needs fixing.

[–] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 17 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Holy shit. A .ml mod being reasonable and making mod decisions based on what'd best for the community instead of pure personal bias. Congratulations perhaps their is still hope for .ml to be redeemed and forgiven.

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[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Unrelated but you should post one more comment

[–] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

nice.

(although that is just the subset of my posts and comments which are visible on your instance; on mine i have more than twice as many...)

[–] ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com 1 points 1 day ago

Just 3 more for me

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[–] redrumBot@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 days ago

obviously-not-open-source

Yes: futo keyboard license. And also a contradictory license with that definition of 'use'.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I would submit that even if it is misinformation and people are climbing all over the comments claiming that FUTO is definitely open source, removing the comments to leave only the remnant of it that is "truth" is often not the best way to handle it. The majority of the removed comments didn't seem like they were saying that, some even specifically said that FUTO isn't open source but blah blah blah, but even if so, here's my feeling:

The way the conversation looks right now is just confusing. There are people who have no idea about FUTO who have the feeling that they're just not allowed to talk about it, or to say true statements (for example, whatever you think of their license, they fund real open-source projects.) Because FUTO is officially "bad" and they might get banned or something for wanting to talk about it or ask questions. It actually doesn't look to me like people are coming in primarily to evangelize. But regardless of that, my personal feeling is, you have to let people talk.

I feel like if there was a sticky comment from a mod / admin at the top of the comments, something like PSA: FUTO is not open source. The people that are claiming it is, are wrong, with respect to long-established definitions. (link) (link), then that would be fine. People can see the arguments, and presumably there's enough respect in place for the "leaders" of the community that they'll give a lot of weight to the sticky comment. But they still have the sense that they're allowed to talk about it and think about it on their own instead of being ordered to receive the correct interpretations from above, when they don't even have their bearings as far as what's even being talked about.

I'm not secretive about my strong disagreements with a lot of lemmy.ml moderation philosophy. I'm just making an effort, here, to explain why I have such a strong disagreement in a productive fashion, instead of just hectoring or being combative about it.

[–] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

removing the comments to leave only the remnant of it that is “truth” is often not the best way to handle it

i totally agree that it is often preferable to allow misinformed comments to remain so that they can be refuted.

in the case of futo, though, i feel like there are often actually some bad-faith actors who just want to keep the discussion going, and will continue to repeat their misinformed arguments in the face of any and all evidence.

and, in this particular case, it is even a thread in the Open Source community so any discussion of Futo is inherently offtopic. (and all of which is also effectively promotion for them; again see succès de scandale.)

The way the conversation looks right now is just confusing

the thread as it is now has lots of comments about open source keyboards, and a link to this thread for anyone who wants more information about all the deleted comments than they can find in the modlog. if you think it would be better if that thread was still mostly people arguing about Futo... well... i'm glad you're not a mod there.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oh, no, I was talking purely about the second post, about FUTO itself. I agree about protecting the first post, about open source keyboards, against being overshadowed by a big argument about FUTO which isn't an open source keyboard.

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[–] Rhoeri@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

Well, your first mistake is posting something in .ml. Your second mistake is asking a question that the admins don’t want to answer.

There are seemingly no mods in .ml. It’s just two authoritarian admins that are butthurt about everything.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

.ml has long been known to remove dissenting voices of any kind (Ironic because they always accuse .world and other instances like .ee of becoming echo chambers), especially voices that rightfully criticize their favored authoritarian governments such as China or Russia. Usually though those are removed under their catchall "RULE1 bigotry"

It's a little weird to remove software related comments for being off topic when they're clearly not, but this is a by-product of that moderation culture the Tankie Admins and Mods (Yes the main dev Nutomic (and transphobe, see stickied post in !meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works ) and major mods like dess are full bore tankies) pushed.

Oh, and don't bother tagging any .ml users, .ml hates their rank-and-file members from seeing the dissent against .ml so has blocked !meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works and I believe this comm as well on their instance. They'll also site-ban individuals that dare talk against them, even when that talk is exclusively on other instances.

PS, generally the people who say "They never have any issues" are Tankies themselves or at least align with that mindset enough that they can go for a while without a negative interaction.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 15 points 3 days ago

(Ironic because they always accuse .world and other instances like .ee of becoming echo chambers)

I had someone from lemmy.ml tell me "I’m happy that you libs have your own instances!", and apparently mean it sincerely. In their mind, maybe, the 4,530 active users on lemmy.ml+lemmygrad+Hexbear are "Lemmy," and the 39,721 other users are on "their own instances."

Not that being in the majority means you're right. But if you're in the minority, and you don't know it, that's often a warning sign.

[–] peregus@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I didn't know, I'm mainly active on lemmy.world. How can that instance have so much traction?

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I believe it was the original instance, it’s maintained by the devs, and the description on join-Lemmy.org is extremely misleading and does not make its extremist politics clear at all.

So it had a lot of momentum early on, and the largest coms for many topics were hosted there. However, they definitely seem to be declining in influence over time as many users have opted to avoid the instance altogether and seek alternative communities elsewhere. That’s what I would recommend doing.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (8 children)

First movers advantage, .ml is the first and "flagship" instance, the rest of the Tankie Triad (Hexbear and grad) followed closely after, though .world has defed from those because they were not as subtle on their "viewpoints" as .ml tries to be to avoid getting defed'd from, so you probably haven't even heard of those.

.ml also used to be the default instance on the join-lemmy website which is also run by Nutomic, but recently they changed the recommendation algo so that it would no longer recommend instances with >30% of the user base Lemmy-wide to include .ml and .world.

The hope is that someday .world will finish what it started and defed from the last remaining on the Tankie Triad, but until then the best recommendation is just not interact with it at all. No posts or comments or upvotes. If you want to take a more active roll, if you do see an actual good post on a .ml comm, crosspost it to the nearest non-.ml comm

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[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Futo is not open source but it is good and free option for people

I generally don't support comment removal but people arguing that it is open source is bad faith behavior so I won't shit on ML mods action here.

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