This was originally posted as a comment response in !asklemmy@lemmy.world.
Back in December, the instance hosting 196 (lemmy.blahaj.zone) announced that, as part of its mission as a trans-friendly space, harassment based on gender or neopronouns would remain prohibited—even if the user in question was suspected of being a troll. Users were asked to disengage, block, and report suspected trolling behavior rather than bring harassment into a community already vulnerable to that kind of bullying.
There was a small backlash to the policy from some users. This led to a number of “toe the line” posts that weren’t outright gender-based harassment but strongly signaled an intent to misgender or harass in the future. Blahaj admins promptly removed all offending comments during this wave of dissent.
Important to note: The majority of the Blahaj and 196 users supported the policy, upvoting and praising the admins for creating a safe space for trans individuals.
By January, the backlash had mostly subsided, and the trolls causing issues had moved on. However, 196 moderator @moss and their team remained unhappy with the policy. They cited “personal differences” and felt Blahaj admins had overstepped by removing comments themselves rather than allowing 196 mods to address users who openly expressed intent to harass others.
Yesterday, @moss and the 196 moderation team enacted a major decision without consulting the community. They locked !196@lemmy.blahaj.zone and instructed users to move to !196@lemmy.world.
This move was extremely unpopular. Many users strongly dislike lemmy.world for various reasons (a complicated topic better unpacked elsewhere). The announcement post was met with widespread backlash, and @moss eventually locked it. In response, a few users created a new community on Blahaj: !onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone. The new community quickly grew in size and activity, with most users opting to stay on Blahaj rather than migrate to lemmy.world.
It’s clear @moss and the 196 moderators underestimated the community’s attachment to its home on Blahaj. By attempting to uproot the group without input, they alienated much of the community. As a result, most users have moved to the new Blahaj-hosted community, which has already become the more active space.
TL;DR:
@Moss and the 196 mod team tried to move the community to lemmy.world without consulting anyone. The decision was extremely unpopular, leading to backlash and the creation of a new Blahaj-hosted community that most users now prefer.
For anyone thinking “it’s their community, they can do what they want with it. Start your own if you disagree”:
A lot of users (including myself) believe that a community fundamentally belongs to said community. It’s not so much “you need to ask for permission to do X” but more like “is this what the community itself wants?”
Of course, not everything can be solved by community consensus, but to me, a community is nothing without the members. And if the members want X, Y or Z, provided it’s within instance rules, moderators should help facilitate that.
I don’t remember who said it, but the “community members are not cattle that you can just move around” seemed fit
Precisely. Add to this that 196 has history that precedes both Lemmy and Blahaj zone. The 196 community is a group of humans with their own wills and values, irreverent to any mod or leader.
196 chose Blahaj and Ada. The mod team should have respected that.
They certainly don’t seem to see it that way, from this comment:
lmao sure enough
that comment was posted while !196@lemmy.blahaj.zone was still locked. it’s now unlocked.
at the time i think the mods hadn’t realized how deeply they stepped in it and thought it was simply a matter of misunderstanding that could be corrected. i think they are starting to catch up now.
These are some great points. To be honest, before reading this conversation I was in the group of: “it’s their community, they can do what they want with it. Start your own if you disagree”
After reading about all the 196 stuff, I’m definitely rethinking my views. Thank you!
That is exactly what happened, to be fair. But nobody truly owns the community, it’s made of individuals who choose to gather there.
I go back and forth with my thoughts on this. I mean, if someone actually started the community, I sorta think it’s theirs. But if you just have a bunch of mods, and the original founder is gone, then I think it’s the community.
I have very small communities that I mod. And as of now, I am in charge of what goes there and what doesn’t because no one posts. If it grew, I’d still like to think I was in charge (under instance admin of course)
I mean are the posters of an instance in charge of the instance or is the admin who set it up?