Sorry for asking if this was explained somewhere else I searched as best I could and didn’t find anything.
A poster in that community posted a link to stonetoss (a vocal transphobic nazi artist). The post was removed by an automod, only to be manually restored. The person who posted it (the only mod of the community) hasn’t deleted it. It’s still visible on the home instance today.
For that reason, the community and the person who posted the nazi artist have been removed from blahaj, because if they won’t moderate nazi content, it means I have to double check every submission to that community.
Here’s the magic link, looks like it doesn’t work: !comicstrips@lemmy.world
Full disclaimer, I don’t really know what I’m doing. But I’m bored so I took a look.
Looks like the moderator of ComicStrips received an instance ban from Blahaj because they were posting nazi art. Here’s their record in the modlog. That post has been deleted from Blahaj, but here’s a link from lemmy.world
It looks like the image has been deleted, but from the context, it sounds like it was a Stonetoss comic, and that guy’s a well known nazi artist. I think I may have seen this comic before, and unless I’m mistaken this is it: A dig supporting AI art
Okay, so here’s the technical question for people who understand how Lemmy and the fediverse works better than me: If the sole moderator of a community was banned from an instance, does that make the community unavailable to the instance they were banned from? If the community had multiple moderators and only one was banned, would that still be the issue?
Regarding the ban, it seems a bit heavy handed. According to our mod log it looks like they were originally removed by automod because people were reporting a Stonetoss comic on principle. Then the post was restored (?) before the user was ultimately banned.
There’s no other activity for this user in the modlog so this suggests it was their first and only offence. And if the comic shared was the one I think it was, then they weren’t actually supporting fascism, they were sharing a fascist’s comic about AI art.
Every time I’ve seen someone share a Stonetoss comic, they seem surprised to discover they’re a nazi. If you read a lot of the comics, you definitely get the vibe that he’s a bigot. But if it’s a one-off then I understand that you might not have the context to know that this guy is an asshole.
Taking a look through Lawrence’s post history, I don’t get that impression from them. There’s a fair bit of antiwar and hopeposting content here. They’re sharing War and Peas, Sara Scribbles, and Calvin and Hobbes which to me suggests that they’re all right.
Anyway, long story, it looks to me like their ban was a result of overzealous reporting because of an artist that the moderator shared, although the overall impression I get from this poster is that they don’t have a particular affinity for this artist. They seem to have dropped Stonetoss entirely since learning he was a nazi.
Question for the mods: Is it possible to open a proper investigation to see if we can restore access to !comicstrips@lemmy.world? I love comics, it’s kind of a bummer that I can’t look at content (or even find) the largest comic community on Lemmy
If the sole moderator of a community was banned from an instance, does that make the community unavailable to the instance they were banned from?
No.
No, it doesn’t make the group inaccessible by other users, however, if the content posted by the banned user is also removed, it means that a lot of the group content also goes away if that user was active.
In this case, I also banned the group itself, because a group that won’t moderate against nazis is a group that I have to moderate to ensure nazi content doesn’t slip through.
But if it’s a one-off then I understand that you might not have the context to know that this guy is an asshole.
If you have any evidence of Lawrence acknowledging that stonetoss is a nazi and making it clear it won’t be posted again, I’m happy to restore that user.
If they just stayed silent on the whole topic, and didn’t acknowledge, I’m not giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Question for the mods: Is it possible to open a proper investigation to see if we can restore access to !comicstrips@lemmy.world? I love comics, it’s kind of a bummer that I can’t look at content (or even find) the largest comic community on Lemmy
If you can show me that something has happened to ensure that stonetoss won’t appear in that community again I’m happy to restore it, but as it stands, the stonetoss comic that started this is still visible in that community on lemmy.world. Lawrence (the only mod of the community) hasn’t removed it.
Okeydoke, thanks for the explanation.
I don’t really have any more evidence and I agree that silence on the topic would be damning. I guess I’m more inclined to give the benefit of the doubt, but I understand you can’t moderate based on vibes. I respect the rationale behind zero tolerance moderation especially where Blahaj’s mission is to create a safe space. I’m sure we’ve all heard the parable of the nazi bar.
Wow thanks for the thorough investigation!
No problem, this was the first I was hearing about it and it got me curious.
I like comics, I was thinking, “Hey, why can’t I look at these?”
If the sole moderator of a community was banned from an instance, does that make the community unavailable to the instance they were banned from?
yes, if the ban was with content removal and they’re the top mod.
If the community had multiple moderators and only one was banned, would that still be the issue?
the filter is whether the user being banned is the top mod.
