this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2025
248 points (98.4% liked)

Ye Power Trippin' Bastards

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190 users here now

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.


Posting Guidelines

All posts should follow this basic structure:

  1. Which mods/admins were being Power Tripping Bastards?
  2. What sanction did they impose (e.g. community ban, instance ban, removed comment)?
  3. Provide a screenshot of the relevant modlog entry (don’t de-obfuscate mod names).
  4. Provide a screenshot and explanation of the cause of the sanction (e.g. the post/comment that was removed, or got you banned).
  5. Explain why you think its unfair and how you would like the situation to be remedied.

Rules


Expect to receive feedback about your posts, they might even be negative.

Make sure you follow this instance's code of conduct. In other words we won't allow bellyaching about being sanctioned for hate speech or bigotry.

YTPB matrix channel: For real-time discussions about bastards or to appeal mod actions in YPTB itself.


Some acronyms you might see.


Relevant comms

founded 1 year ago
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Note: Can you guys please stop downvoting stuff of his that is unrelated to the situation? Just because he's a shitty moderator in this particular moment and situation does not mean that his other posts deserve to be criticized or downvoted as well. Leave the dude alone. Only criticize him on his moderator behavior in this thread or when seen in the wild. Do not bully or go after this guy for no reason. Please. That's not what I made this post for, and it's not what I'm trying to direct.

[Update]: He's deleting all of his communities and plans on pulling back from Fediverse posting until he's able to control all aspects of it, by owning his own instance. Update is here

Bro is used pretty colloquially and, admittedly, often as a dismissive turn of phrase. Exactly as it was in this comment of mine on the post "Lemmy users are in an uproar because MAGA fascists spun up their own server."

I made a pretty off hand dismissive comment because I thought the wording of the post was a bit sanctimonious. Didn't even downvote it. Then I took a nap and woke up to a comment from the mod. He has now deleted it after it hit -20+ comments but was

"Yes, that's what I'm saying. Also, we're not related. Refrain from the bro speak."

A comment that I thought was kind of idiotic and so I dismissed it as much with a response

What I didn't see was that the moderator had DMed me at the same time.

So because of a moderators personal interpretation of how the word "bro" is used, using the word at all is offensive to them and ergo is banned from usage on !fediversenews@piefed.social under the rule of "Be Civil."

Now this is utterly impossible for any user to ever follow unless it is made clear. This moderator refuses to make this information clear publicly so I edited my original comment, gave context and added a screenshot of that message.

At the same time I also responded to the moderator via DMs.

I got another notification from @shifty@leminal.space with this comment:

I went to respond but by the time that I had, the moderator had already banned me (effectively permanently) from the community.

So let's recap here. The moderator is taking the word "Bro" as personally insulting/offensive for whatever reason. They're using the rule of be civil as a cudgel to enforce their opinion but they refuse to make this opinion clear. Meaning that it is impossible to properly follow this rule. On top of that, if the moderator messages you then you must keep that entirely private or you will be banned.

@atomicpoet@piefed.social is out here complaining about fascism while using fascism. Neato.

The whole time I thought I was just dealing with the atomicpoet@piefed.social account but I didn't realize that user has made his own instance and account on it with @atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org. THAT account was what posted the original post and that account doesn't even have moderator abilities. What an utter joke. But this entire community is filled with extremely heavy handed moderation. 11m ago, 12m ago, 22m ago, 23m ago, 24m ago... My apologies to people like @TherapyGary@lemmy.dbzer0.com, apparently you've been permanently banned from the above community for "Downvote Brigading". This AtomicPoet dude should go back to reddit...

I'd suggest people start defederating from this dude though. Looks like he's a hairtrigger away from doing it to you if you piss him off.

Also... I couldn't help myself. I sent him the link to this post with the wording "Here you go, bro"

What can I say. I'm also an asshole.

Edit: I forgot to add these into the post and that is entirely on me. One of them doesn't make me look awesome but I should have put it in and it's unfair of me that I didn't.

After my initial response to his DM, he sent this back:

Immediately after he sent that message, he banned me. My guess is that he clicked on my username and refreshed or something, saw the screenshot that had been added to the comment and then banned me for the previously mentioned reason of posting a screenshot of a DM. Guess I'm really violating this now.

Before realizing I had been banned, I then sent this DM to him. This is the one that does make me look like an absolute wankstain.

That last line is really arrogant and narcissistic on my part. I was just waking up from a nap and he was aggravating me but that's not really an excuse. I did act like a bit of a fuckstick there. I can be a twat. This is known. Also one reason why I don't do much in the run of moderation anymore, I just don't trust myself to not turn into what I hate. But I could have worded that a LOT differently. What I was trying to get across was that my most recent post was the Jordan Lund one and getting annoyed by his behavior and that acting like a power tripping moderator to the dude who literally just did an expose on that might not be the greatest course of action. But I didn't word it as such. I worded it the way I did and came of like a cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunt. That is totally on me and I hate myself for it.


If you liked this manuscript of moderator misconduct, you may also marvel at Jordan Lund: Master of Malicious Mismanagement and The Admins of StarTrek.website: Value Subtracted & Corgana’s Calamitous Command. Collect the complete compendium of corruption today!

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[–] GrammarPolice@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Getting pissy cuz someone called you bro is peak toddler behaviour

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

Excuse me, but most toddlers exhibit better behaviour

[–] Daikusa@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)
[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago
[–] Stamets@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago

I'm blown away by this petty behavior.

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 95 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (15 children)

Bruh, I've never seen a mod go full PTB like this just because of "bro" and downvotes. Someone really needs to touch grass.

EDIT: It also seems that this mod does not understand the social impact of sliding into people's DMs to warn then privately about his little community. Hint: It's not going to be taken the way you think this is going to be taken.

EDIT2: Whole community in lockdown. I can almost certainly guess they were flooded with comments and posts saying "bro".

[–] XLE@piefed.social 19 points 1 day ago

"It's often used to diminish what someone says"

Well yes, of course it is. What it isn't is more interesting to me, though. You aren't accused of being sexist, ableist, or anything broadly bad. Just dismissive.

I can't think of a smaller hill to die on.

[–] jjagaimo@sh.itjust.works 59 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Got my own

Dude needs mental help if a downvote is enough to trigger him this much

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[–] bro@piefed.social 35 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Seems like a great instance, just signed up.

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[–] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't bro but I would bro that dude.

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[–] ThorrJo@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 1 day ago

Lemmy: All the Worst Aspects of Autism in One Convenient Package™

[–] renrenPDX@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Of all things to get worked up over, (~~this~~ "bro") should not be it. Seriously.

[–] marighost@piefed.social 33 points 2 days ago

AtomicPoet if you're reading this bro, life is too short to worry about words like "bro" and downvotes. Just unban people and move on with your life.

[–] StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works 65 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I don't care about any of that, let crazy be crazy. But policing up votes and downvotes is some psychopath shit. Can you imagine him sitting there in his little den, seeing the -2 on his comment and just FUMING "I'll show them, they'll rue the day!!"

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[–] Chozo@fedia.io 68 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This is disappointing to see. I used to know AtomicPoet from back in the early Digg days, and I would sing his praises as he started offering his time and energy into helping the Fediverse grow. Sad to see that bro may be crashing out now.

[–] Stamets@lemmy.world 61 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If dude is threatening people over his own perception of a word... then yeah. He's crashing out.

Also didn't really put two and two together that he was that AtomicPoet. Jesus. This is even more sad then.

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[–] GeriatricGambino@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago

I remember his username from past exchanges he had with other people that left me with a perplexing impression of his behaviour.

But now, and I'm saying that without any malice, looking into everyone who downvoted your comments, and sending them threatening messages is unhealthy. As in I genuinely think he needs to seek some professional therapy to get help and some clarity. You shouldn't feel so intensely about complete strangers downvoting you, and you shouldn't want to control the behaviour of said strangers to the point where you decide what mundane word they are allowed to say or not in the community you treat as your "own personal kingdom". I can imagine living like anything else but miserable.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 27 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Isn't the term "atomic" way more offensive than bro because it reminds people of devastating deaths in war?

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