A couple of months ago I wrote a single comment under a post about a hateful rage upon israel in c/news, literally I wrote “What could Hamas do to end the violence?”
Nothing else.
And I got immediately banned.
The moderators refuse to answer my messages.
Not even that, they even banned a buddy who spoke up in my defence per message - not per c/news but really just a personal message to be sure.
In 15 years of Reddit my posts got deleted a lot - but NEVER my comments and I got NEVER banned for anything.
If this is what Lemmy wants to be, then be it but without me.
Do you think this is what Lemmy needs to be?
This was the comment. Emphasis added.
The reason a mod called it bad faith: Israelis were actively settling the land after the IDF cleared it out.
Thanks for finding it; I couldn’t on my mobile app.
Also if that’s the reason it was “bad faith”, I think a far more appropriate action is to just say “they’re actively settling the land they claim they don’t want anyways” ideally with a citation as a comment.
That sentence was a fraction of what I’d said anyways. To remove the whole comment due to an objection to one sentence is ridiculous.
Looking back, that was a bad day, with tons of reports coming in, and I believe the mod team was just working the reports as fast as they could.
We’re all only human and it’s a hot button issue that’s divisive even within the left leaning US political spectrum. Still, I suspect you can appreciate how frustrating it is from my perspective and why it has sat with me rather unfondly.
The Lemmy attitude has been staunchly anti-Israel (and at times frighteningly pro-Hamas) across the platform and having moderators remove a “mild mannered” comment, not in support of Israel, but in defense of situational nuance… It just further reinforces that narrative.
As I recall that day, several people I was engaging with were being much more uncivil and fervent than I was; Lemmy’s moderation weirdness likely doesn’t help as I’m not sure cross-instance reports really do much.
As a mod, what I can say is this:
If something of yours is removed, or you receive a ban, send us a message. We can work through it. Also, if you see something, report it.
We’re volunteers, and don’t police every comment or post, as we have full-time jobs. We tend to look at the reports, try to gather some context if time allows, then take action or not, based on the community rules.
Thanks for your feedback. I really appreciate it!