Ban Reason: Universal Monk

So I started a piefed account, mostly for my writing so that dbzer0 (and Lemmy) wouldn’t have to put up with all my weird fiction stories all the time. Plus, I wanted to check out the biggest Piefed space, piefed.social, because I'm excited about some of the new concepts they are bringing to the table.

I created a writing community, a Socialist community, and a Green Party community there today.

Nothing outrageous or controversial. I posted one news article in each of the Socialist and Green Party communities, and a couple to my writing comm.

The Socialist and Writing communities were local only, so they wouldn’t even show up in the larger Fediverse. I only posted in my own communities. No controversy intended, none created.

I just got banned, almost immediately after starting the communities. The reason in the mod log says: "Universal Monk".

The admin, @rimu@piefed.social, hasn't replied to my DM asking why (yet). I guess being me is reason enough. I feel so famous! Or maybe infamous?

I'm still a libertarian socialist tho! Piefed.social and Lemmy ain't gonna change my mind.

Oh, I already know how the votes (down) here are gonna go! But doing my part in adding content to Lemmy anyway; being the change I wanna see. No regrets! :)

EDIT: I'm posting this here, and I've repeated it in this thread. Just in case piefed.social banned me on the assumption that I’m “conservative” because I’ve posted links to conservative news articles… then, by that same logic, shouldn’t I also be considered socialist and anarchist because I post so much socialist and anarchist content? I actually post way more socialist content than anything else. And there is nothing in my fiction writing that is conservative at all. My entire post history is public, it doesn't take much effort to see that I post practically anything I find interesting.

49 comments

Well, I gotta point at PTB on this one, despite generally being okay with preemptive bans.
I'm not saying that an admin shouldn't be able to do this; they take the risks and hassles of making the fediverse function, so they get some leeway before PTB can be fully applied.
But there is still a range of ways to execute this kind of decision that aren't cool. Making it personal is right at the PTB side of that range.
As an example, if I wanted to ban you from southsamurairocks.edu because I didn't agree with your beliefs, and the hassles that might come from them, or your reputation, I think it would be my obligation to give that as the reason, not just the fact that it's you. It crosses the line from making a measured policy decision into just being a dick without the guts to just be a dick outright and honestly.
Like, if we had beef, and that's why I ban you, I'm going to publicly state that I don't like you, and thus don't want you in my instance. Not just be snarky by using your name as shorthand for it.
It's the smugness of it that makes it PTB instead of a legitimate preemptive ban. Nobody has to let anyone onto their instance if they don't want to. But you gotta be up front and detailed about it if you don't want to be the asshole.
- Good points. Mods, I give a little more leeway to. I expect a bit more informative reasons from admins giving instance bans. It makes me think that the admin just assumed bad stuff because of my rep without any actual proof or research. Especially since I posted nothing controversial on his instance.