I've seen a lot of instances of people on Lemmy saying you can get banned from Blahaj for forgetting someone's pronouns. And then Ada has to come in and explain why they're wrong in their interpretation of the rules. These people were banned for good reasons, they're transphobes. But I think they misunderstand the rules of Blahaj for a legitimate reason.
It's because Blahaj doesn't have rules. It has two guidelines. Very subjective ones. People want to know what will get them banned, so they try to understand the rules of that subjectivity. The rules for what Ada considers to be empathy and inclusion. The rules of Ada's psychology. Because like it or not, with highly subjective guidelines, Ada's interpretation and understanding of that subjectivity is the rules.
And Ada didn't write the rules of her psychology in the sidebar. So people have to speculate. And people are speculating wrong, and starting arguments about it.
I think a ruleset should be a transparent explanation of how a mod team thinks about acceptable behaviour. By not having rules, Blahaj is being opaque about how the mod team thinks. And the only way for people to deal with that is to practice amateur psychoanalysis. Which is unpleasant and creates division.
If people understood how trans people think about acceptable behaviour, they wouldn't be transphobes. So the result of this system is that everyone who is banned for transphobia doesn't understand why and needs it personally explained to them. If the sidebar explained acceptable behaviour in a way everyone can understand, they wouldn't misunderstand it so often.
I think the current system is creating pointless drama.
No, that's ridiculous. The admins can just change the rules to close the loophole.
That's how the government does laws. They don't just wave their hands and say "don't misbehave". Problems like police brutality are more likely to happen when enforcers don't clearly understand the rules, and aren't held to them.
But the government still makes an effort to control corruption by having clearly defined rules, and that's good. That leads to less abuse of power.
Blahaj is supposed to be a safer space for trans people than the streets of most countries. It should be more careful about the rules, not less.
Laws need to be stringent because governments involve lots of people, and people's livelihoods and well-being are on the line.
No one's livelihood is on the line here, worst case scenario they get banned and then they find a new server.
There's only two (really one) admins, and they enforce the safe space according to their own judgement. This isn't a government, it's a Lemmy server. Fleshing out rules would only invite rules lawyering which bigots love and is a headache for little practical gain.
There's no need to "control corruption" or prevent "enforcers not understanding the rules" when the person making the rules is also the person enforcing them.
That's exactly when you most need to control corruption. You're talking about the legislative and executive branches of governance. Most states separate those TO control corruption. I don't think it's practical to control corruption that way on an internet forum, but that's why the other controls need to be stronger to pick up the slack.
People like PugJesus think they're controlling corruption. PugJesus is a transphobe, the specific decisions he thinks are abuse aren't. But people like him don't have the ability to read Ada's mind, so she's got to explain it to every single one of them or they'll all start rumours about what the secret rules of Blahaj are. And Blahaj certainly does have secret rules. They're the rules of how Ada thinks. And everyone is interested in knowing them, since she won't explain them.
This isn't a state. There is no corruption. There is no need to prevent corruption on a private forum. If it happens, we leave and tell Ada she's an asshole on the way out.
Shame and shunning are the only actual tools for social change. You can't "teach" this PugJesus out of his bigotry. Shun him and move on with your life. Either he takes the hint or he dies alone. Either way, you did your part. The rest is up to everyone else to follow you. Lying to yourself that you or anyone can do more is just self harm