1
submitted 1 year ago by polymerwitch@lemmy.ml to c/portland@lemmy.ml

Hi all, I wanted to let you know about an incident that happened a few days back. An individual requested to become a mod on c/Portland when they thought there was no moderators due to a federation issue. Then, an admin mistakenly made them a mod.

I reached out to the admins to let them know I was upset by such a mistake happening on their part. I also de-modded the individual, but tried to encourage them to make a post getting input from all of you about becoming a mod. I'm honestly not against them becoming a mod.

I think having more mods would actually help this place grow. If you've posted here at least a few times, and are interested in volunteering, nominate yourself below.

I doubt anyone will have any red flags to call out, but if you do contact me about it or post.

Thanks all. I hope you were able to stay cool these past few days.

[-] polymerwitch@lemmy.ml 43 points 1 year ago

I'm not a part of the demographic who would experience racism around this. So, I can't comment there.

I am a white hipster though. So, I usually call my window manager customizations "artisanally hand crafted".

[-] polymerwitch@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

What are you talking about? I suggested you should talk to the community and if everyone is cool with it then we can make you a mod. The issue is that our autonomy was undermined due to the mistake, and it can be corrected by you demoding yourself and making a post asking the community if they are OK adding you as a mod.

[-] polymerwitch@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Mods on Lemmy don't have permissions to remove other mods. You need to demod yourself, or an admin needs to remove you.

I think it would be totally reasonable to make a post and ask the active members there what they think about you becoming a mod. We've been having conversations there on what we want the community to be, and I've been trying to empower everyone to give input. So, suddenly seeing a new mod with no community input runs counter to that.

Also, regardless of the federation issue, it is concerning that the admins did not verify that the community was abandoned, when simply clicking on my account would have quickly shown it was not.

57
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by polymerwitch@lemmy.ml to c/meta@lemmy.ml

** Update: I still haven't heard from any mod, but the user did get back to me though they weren't very receptive to the frustration. However, I did find out that you can remove others as mods but the option is hidden in having to click into one of their posts. So, this unique situation is resolved, but the appointing of a mod without checking if the current community is actually abandoned should still be addressed.**

A user posted on !community_requests claiming that a sub I'm a moderator of had no active mods despite the fact that I have actively been posting on there and holding a moderation discussion with the community this week. At the time of request the account was only a day old. Still, an admin proceeded to make them a mod in our community.

As far as I can tell, this was a mistake on both the user and admin's part.

Within an hour of the new mod appearing I responded to both the admin and the user politely asking them for answers about what happened. I also privately DMed the user on Matrix asking them to demod themselves and put a post up in the community petitioning to become a mod instead of just sidestepping the people who are already there.

It has now been nearly 8 hours and no admin has gotten back to me, and the user hasn't responded.

Even if this is a mistake, it gives me a lot of pause. The fact a one day old account could come and claim our community was abandoned, even though clearly it was not, and be given mod powers for hours upon hours after the mistake being reported is really scary.

Again, I think this was a mistake on both the admin and user's part, but there needs to be a better process to deal with this going forward. I'm really disappointed.___

[-] polymerwitch@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

For example, I posted this (as a mod) in c/Portland 5 days ago (3 days before BarterClub claimed it had "no mods"): https://lemmy.ml/post/1841804

[-] polymerwitch@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Process question: As I am a mod and active on /c/Portland and was not checked in with, what process is being used to evaluate things like this? I would have been fine chatting with BarterClub, but we have been trying to have community discussions on how the place should be ran and what sort of content fits. Now suddenly there is a new mod and we weren't consulted!?

[-] polymerwitch@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It would have been cool to be included in this. I am a mod over there, and I've been active including posting on the community in the past couple days.

To be clear: c/Portland was certainly not dead or abandoned and had many active posts and participation in posts and comments from myself as a mod.

1
submitted 1 year ago by polymerwitch@lemmy.ml to c/portland@lemmy.ml

Hi all,

I am noticing that a lot of what is being posted is the same outrage clickbait articles on crime and poverty that have overrun other Portland centric communities. These are absolutely important topics, and something I hope everyone is thinking about and involved with advocating for improved policy around. However, I do question the usefulness of a constant deluge of these types of articles.

When we go to a space like the local coffee shop, pub, or bookstore, a place where we immediately feel the "Portland vibes", we usually aren't met with a non-stop stream of poverty, drug, and crime news. If I we were, then we would probably leave (or at least I would). Similarly, I feel like our online space can be so much more than just the same daily rehash of divisive arguments that don't go anywhere.

This is especially true on our Lemmy community, where we are small and still developing a culture. There are not many other types of posts here yet, so the click-bait outrage headlines dominate. Personally, I would love to see more events, reviews of concerts, pictures, slice of life stories, and other things that make this feel like the "Portland vibes".

This isn't a moderation decision. It's more of an appeal. I haven't removed any links or banned anyone (other than some obvious malicious spam), and I don't plan to. I haven't even been down voting.

IDK ... what do you think about the future of this space and how we might build a community space that isn't just local doom scrolling?

1
submitted 1 year ago by polymerwitch@lemmy.ml to c/portland@lemmy.ml

Come join your fediverse neighbors on a bike ride.

Sunday, July 30th @ 4PM, Shemanski Park

More info: https://www.shift2bikes.org/calendar/event-17449

[-] polymerwitch@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

I never understood this logic.

I've been on Mastodon since 2016 and never really got into Twitter. I just don't understand why the "algorithm" matters. Who cares if people who don't follow you see your post? I want my followers to see my posts, and then favorites allow me to know that my followers liked what I posted. It's a nice dopamine boost and helps me feel closer to my community.

A lot of posts I make unboostable as well (followers only). "Promotion" doesn't really factor much into my use of Mastodon so much as being "social".

[-] polymerwitch@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 years ago

You keep implying that any "nuanced take" contains unverified claims, but you already said that my take (which I consider more nuanced than the straw-men takes I listed) doesn't. You just believe it doesn't warrant US aggression toward China. Hey, I agree. I have no delusions that my take is going to stop US aggression more than the fact that I ate toast this morning will. My nuanced takes didn't stop the invasion of Iraq in 2003, but neither did my organizing, marching, and shutting down the city I live in when the bombs fell. GWB literally just said "he didn't care about protests".

This thread is literally the most I've ever written or spoken about the Uyghurs, and probably the most I've criticized China this year. It was literally a response to someone posting a list of claims where I called for considering that a lot of it is filtered through the US propaganda machine.

I honestly have better things to do now. If you want to cancel me for saying China isn't perfect and some Uyghurs exist who are unhappy with China, then by all means do so I guess. I'm going to go and actually work on a project that helps change the material reality in the community I live in.

[-] polymerwitch@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 years ago

I don't use the word "tankie" personally. I find it over simplifies the position of many communists. Yes I straw-manned a fake ML take just I staw-manned a fake anarchist take, because I was trying to say that's those staw-men are how people often argue about this. The whole concept of anarchists treating both the US and China equally in the matter is a straw-man. No anarchist that I know of is organizing efforts in Xinjiang to fight China. While pretty much every anarchist I know in the US spends hours every week organizing efforts to fight the US in one way or another.

You keep claiming I'm saying something I'm not which is what is annoying to me. My entire point is that you are creating better propaganda for the US imperialist machine than a take of "some Uyghurs claim oppression" ever could. You make any claim that the West is producing propaganda on the subject with goals of imperial aggression seem childish and not worth listening to. You berate people who ostensibly agree with you, but they just don't want to start flying the flag of China outside their house either.

[-] polymerwitch@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 years ago

The only things I said that could be in anyway considered critical of China are:

  • China is not a utopia and has a number of areas where they could improve
  • Some of the Uyghurs have made public claims of oppression by China

Trying to argue against either of those seems silly as utopias don't exist in the material world and there is documented video of some Uyghurs claiming they were oppressed by China. Arguing against that with some anarchist, who would take to the streets to stop US aggression against China, on the Internet does nothing to stop US imperialism. It's even more useless than writing your political leaders and begging them not to take action against China.

[-] polymerwitch@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 years ago

I literally just said that part of my nuanced take is: "I would fight against a US imperial attack (militarily, economically, or otherwise) on China." And "The US getting involved sure wouldn't help anything."

But OK.

[-] polymerwitch@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 years ago

The discussion around China's treatment of Uygurs is always so unnuanced to me.

All of the arguments I see read like there are only two options:

  • China is a villain and needs to be stopped.
  • China has not and never will do anything wrong. Your criticisms are orchestrated by the CIA.

I tend to believe all of the following can be true at the same time:

  • The US is imperialist and the Biden administration is going hard against China
  • China is not a utopia and has a number of areas where they could improve
  • A lot of what the US is pushing in regards to the Uyghurs is filtered through a propaganda machine bent on helping their imperial goals
  • Some of the Uyghurs have made public claims of oppression by China
  • As an anarchist I believe in working toward ending oppression and I stand in solidarity with people's struggles against oppression
  • As an anarchist I would fight against a US imperial attack (militarily, economically, or otherwise) on China
  • As an anarchist in the US pretty much all of my organizing is focused on oppression here and not in other countries
  • My actions in solidarity with the Uyghurs are pretty much saying things like "I hope the Uyghurs find liberation in China, but the US getting involved sure wouldn't help anything"
0
submitted 3 years ago by polymerwitch@lemmy.ml to c/piracy@lemmy.ml

I just saw the huge list of sites that yt-dl supports, and it's ... well staggering. I've been playing around with it a bit more, and I'm writing custom aliases for ease of downloading. For example I made:

alias bandcamp-dl="youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3 --add-metadata -o '~/Music/%(artist)s/%(album)s/%(track_number)02d - %(track)s.%(ext)s'"

That alias allows me to do bandcamp-dl <http://some-album.url>, and then it creates the proper artist and album directories in my music library, adds the tracks as mp3s with formatted file names, and sets their metadata so my music app can pick it up.

Anyone else have some handy aliases or yt-dl commands that do something cool?

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polymerwitch

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