u/demmian from r/askfeminists temp banned me because he disagreed with my opinion, called me stupid in the mod message, then permabanned me when I politely asked for an explanation of the ban, breaking the subreddit's rules and reddit's rules for mods
I know what some of you are thinking - that I must be some sort of anti-feminist troll or a crazy TERF. On the contrary, I invite you to look through my post history - I am a very non-TERF-y feminist who has participated for years on r/AskFeminists and r/Feminism, discussing feminist issues in good faith and with no prior issues for a substantial part of my almost five-year history on Reddit.
I have been permanently banned from r/AskFeminists for an "offense" that is not in violation of any rules, for which no further explanation was given. I have reason to believe that the Mod in question singled out all the low-upvoted posts on a particular thread and banned users whose opinion he did not agree with on the topic of sex work, essentially using the ban to punish users because he could get away with it, after waiting until the post was several hours old and inactive. A look at the deleted comments of the thread shows the mod deleting comments they did not agree with, which are stated respectfully and are discussed from a feminist position:
**Regarding my ban:**The mod action came from the mod account at r/AskFeminists, but u/demmian was the one performing the action, as can be seen at the link. I was at first temporarily banned from r/AskFeminists.I was not given a warning, nor was a rule violation cited from the subreddit's selection of rules to justify a ban. I received the following message notifying me of the temp ban, whose wording indicated its temporary nature:
Mod: "Reconsider this stupidity in the meantime, your moral bearings are all wrong"
(My comment was linked, letting me know I was banned for this statement)
I invite anyone to check out the comment referenced - I don't know how I could have expressed my opinion in any more civil a manner, nor what about it warranted calling it "stupid" or "immoral."
I also invite everyone to check out the top comment on that thread: It states virtually the same content as I did in my comment. While I know discussing feminism on a generic subreddit might become contentious, to avoid derailing into a discussion of what is and is not feminist, I suggest the focus be upon the content of the other comments, and whether my comment is in line with those as a reasonable standard of comparison. Note that there was no reason provided for removal for my comment, but as you can see in the forum sidebar, the general rule governing moderation is that top-level comments must be from a feminist perspective. Therefore, if a comment warranted removal, it should be substantially different in tone and content from other comments in the thread: recognizably not feminist. However, this is not the case, as you will see if you review the other comments.
Similarly to my own comment, the top-voted comment implies that "socialized sex work" might not be exactly approved by feminists, but turning a blind eye to it does not help women who do work those sorts of jobs in the present-day, as it can pay the bills in a tough economy. This top-level comment was not deleted. Additionally, my comment argues much the same thing as the rest of the remaining comments on the entire post, not substantially diverging from any of the upvoted comments the mod allowed to remain. Clearly, the content of my comment cannot be the reason for the ban.
I attempted to solicit an explanation from the mods.
Me, via modmail: "Can you explain what's immoral about what I said? I'm very surprised it's being taken in this way."
Mod: "The temporary part of the ban was a mistake. It has been remedied. No further communication is wanted."
Then I was muted to prevent replying.
This mod action is in violation of not only the subreddit's stated rules, but the reddit rules for mods. Below, you will find a google doc of the full rules for the moderators of r/askfeminists and r/feminism.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TpHPEo3pG-QlB7dWCF-fcJFgayFmlQia-RjpKQGFP4A/edit?usp=drivesdk
The rules state that respect and courtesy are to be upheld when participating in the subreddit, neither of which are demonstrated by u/demmian's extremely unprofessional response:
Be respectful and courteous – focus on the topic and not on the persons arguing, and refrain from hostile or derogatory personal remarks. Feminism does not work in isolation, but rather is interconnected with all other work for justice and egalitarianism, and we believe that as injustice is addressed and overcome in society, all marginalized groups will benefit.
Another rule cites that discussions may not be removed because a redditor disagrees with them. u/demmian's action is in direct violation of this rule.
“X argument is wrong, it should be deleted”
Arguments that are formed in a polite and constructive manner, in conformity with our posting rules, will not be removed, in most situations. We prefer that such cases are used as a learning opportunity, at least when there is a reasonable presumption that someone genuinely interested in understanding feminism would have asked the same question.
Regarding Reddit's moddiquette, which can be reviewed below, we see that u/demmian's actions violate those guidelines as well: he has certainly removed content based on his opinion as what qualifies as feminist, and he has certainly banned at least one user who has not broken any rules.
https://www.reddit.com/wiki/moddiquette
"Please don't:
Remove content based on your opinion.Ban users from subreddits in which they have not broken any rules.
Lest you think this is all the gripings of one malcontent with an axe to grind, I am far from the only redditor who has been banned capriciously and with no proper justification from r/askfeminists. There is an entire subreddit of people who have posted about their negative experiences with this mod, who are feminists seeking to find alternatives on Reddit to the two main feminist subreddits, purely because of the toxic behaviour of this mod:
https://www.reddit.com/r/bannedfeminists/
In addition to bans for comments supporting sex work or sex workers, there are also documented cases of bans by u/demmian for supporting Muslim feminists - indicating an Islamophobia that, in my opinion, certainly qualifies as discriminatory.
Because of my experience with this mod's bad behaviour, I am no longer interested in participating in any subreddits run by a power-hungry xenophobe, and have voluntarily left the other subreddit he moderates, r/feminism. I would suggest that any redditors who are active in r/AskFeminists and r/Feminism should consider whether they can, in good faith, participate in a subreddit where people are treated unjustly and where discrimination against Muslims is practiced.
A mod who abuses their power in this way should be removed from their post by reddit admins, as they are harming the user experience of the subreddit and violating several sets of rules.
Posted Oct 10, 2019, 2:13 PM UTC