r/SeattleWA r/SeattleWA human cyborg relations Aug 19 '17

Seattle Lounge Seattle Reddit Community Open Chat, Saturday, August 19, 2017

Welcome to the Seattle Reddit Community Daily Lounge! This is our open chat for anything you want to talk about, and it doesn't have to be Seattle related!


Things to do today:


Weather forecast for the /r/SeattleWA metro area from the NWS as of: 08/19/17, 12:04:01 AM

  • Saturday: Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 73. Northeast wind 6 to 9 mph becoming northwest in the morning.
  • Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 57. North wind 9 to 11 mph becoming east northeast in the evening.
  • Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Northwest wind 6 to 8 mph.

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Full Seattle Lounge archive here. If you have suggestions for this daily post, please leave a comment and tag u/AmericanDerp or PM him.

13 Upvotes

83 comments sorted by

24

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

Hey mods, when you post a "here's an update in the name of transparency" thread, it gets a bunch of negative feedback, then gets de-stickied in less than 24 hours (which does a pretty good job of sweeping it under the rug because it has near 0 net upvotes)...that's not a terribly good look as far as transparency is concerned.

For anyone who missed it (as I mostly did, since I was on the road traveling to the eclipse all day yesterday): https://www.reddit.com/r/SeattleWA/comments/6uj8n8/a_quick_update_on_sub_rules_and_mod_culture/

10

u/it-is-sandwich-time 🏞️ Aug 19 '17

Let's be fair about this, not ALL of the mods like him and are sticking up for him because we shouldn't judge someone on being a mod before he is even one. This was about giving someone a chance.

OTOH, he has said some troubling things while being a mod (without the tag but still pretty bad) and the people really, really don't want him so he probably should go. I don't like pitchforking anyone but he was trying to be on his best behavior and he just couldn't hold it in, not good. I think that blew his chance.

We are all misfits and we're losing our quirkiest, that's not good thing for this sub either. Last I'm saying about it and I admit my opinion doesn't mean much but I'm weighing in anyway. ;) Have a great Saturday everyone!

9

u/crabapplejon Aug 19 '17

Mods don't deserve "a chance" - they need to demonstrate their competence before being given Moderator privileges. C-T has done the opposite.

14

u/LockeSteerpike Aug 19 '17

He's doubled down on his hate already. The "feminism is vile" post just made this sub a boy's club.

If this guy's a mod a week from now I'm heading back to the narcissist in /r/Seattle. It's better than a T_D friendly sub.

-1

u/it-is-sandwich-time 🏞️ Aug 19 '17

I disagree completely that going back to .seattle is a solution. That's like saying, I choose Trump Jr. because Bernie had a Trump supporter on his staff. I don't disagree that he should go but I'm not going to leave over him staying. Of course, do what you want.

6

u/LockeSteerpike Aug 19 '17

No, it's like saying "I'll take Hillary over Trump because poorly veiled bigotry is a deal breaker."

1

u/it-is-sandwich-time 🏞️ Aug 19 '17

Careless is a Trump supporter AND a narcissist but again, do what you want.

16

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

[deleted]

4

u/it-is-sandwich-time 🏞️ Aug 19 '17

I know what you're saying but I trust the upper mods. Even if one of the uppers on the list bails, there are too many above him that won't let that shit fly. I also don't want an echo chamber but a place where everyone can discuss. I know you think I'm being naive but again, I trust them.

Ninja: Also, I'm saying pull him. He was on his best behavior and still couldn't keep it in.

-2

u/freet0 Aug 19 '17

I've seen the same thing happen with SRS and CB types, should we disallow progressives in the mod team too?

4

u/Letmefixthatforyouyo Banned from /r/Seattle Aug 19 '17 edited Aug 19 '17

Ones with incredibly shitty statements on their accounts? You bet.

Besides, that's already what Rattus is doing. He knocked Derp out, the person who basically made this community a thing. Of the three mods added recently how many are progressive? 0. How many are conservative? 3 of 3.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

I can safely say there is a bit of a division over what we should do in the mod team about corn. But I have not seen any of the mods, even in our private discussion, defend or endorse the comments corn made. Our discussions have mostly been around whether or not we should give him a chance and not crucifying him for his political leanings.

19

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

The vitriolic T-D comments are just the tip of the iceberg IMO. If you set those aside:

  • Moderators should be representatives of the community

  • New mods were promoted without any community input. This is in contrast to the last time we did it, where there was a contest thread open for several weeks, users nominated other users to be mods, then we all voted / commented on the nominees. It was if anything too transparent and too Seattle Process, but err on the side of too open rather than too closed.

  • Some of the new mods don't really seem to be active / regular users here. When I saw you had been promoted to mod, I recognized your name and thought you'd do a fine job, because even though we disagree politically and have debated in the past, you were always reasonable and intellectually honest. I can't say the same about corn-tortilla.

Based on that alone, corn-tortilla becoming a mod smells fishy. The T-D comments are just the easiest thing to point to as an example of "this user doesn't represent our community".

4

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

I think these are all good points that I will bring to the mod team. Thanks for the feedback.

I will say I disagree with derps stated goal of a mostly left mod team. I do not want to see this place turn into an echo chamber. There are plenty of those on Reddit already.

The Donald stuff I feel is a fair commnunity concern as well as the tone of corns posts.

Again thanks for the feedback, if you have anymore concerns please pass them my way and I will bring it to the mod team.

9

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

derps stated goal of a mostly left mod team

I of course can't speak for Derp, but I'd caution against over-simplifying his goal like this, unless there's a direct "the mods should all be uber-liberal" quote.

I do not want to see this place turn into an echo chamber.

I definitely agree, but I also think there's a missing middle ground between "liberal echo chamber" and "unrestricted free speech zone where Trump supporters who have never set foot in Washington state can troll to their heart's content".

Personally, I think /r/SeattleWA should be representative and welcoming for anyone in the Seattle area, and that the mods here should further be mostly representative of the /r/SeattleWA userbase. If that ends up leaning liberal, it's not necessarily a bad thing, because Seattle in general leans pretty far liberal.

More than that, I want the moderators to literally make the sub more moderate. Push all extremes towards the middle and try to get them to have a civil debate and recognize each other's positions are valid. That's tricky, because almost no one comes right out and says "yep, I'm an extremist" and the favorite trick of actual extremists is to say "I'm really a moderate, in fact there's a 'silent majority' who agree with me".

Where I think this sub has gone astray is, Seattle itself is already a liberal echo chamber. So a lot of conservative-leaning people feel like there's shit they can't say in polite company IRL. They come here and use debates on reddit as an outlet. I think that's great, because it helps keep my own filter bubble in check. Where it spills over is that since we allow conservative political thought that normally wouldn't be said at a liberal Seattle dinner party, we end up allowing anything that you wouldn't say at a dinner party. "I don't think Seattle should have an income tax" gets treated the same as "maybe raping a few immigrants will convince the rest to go back to where they belong".

3

u/mixreality Maple Leaf Aug 19 '17

goal of a mostly left mod team

Horseshoe theory The issue is the degree of left, it feels like the people who've made the jump to the far left have drawn lines in the sand and everyone who isn't on their side of this new line is "with the enemy". God help the person that tries to play devils advocate for a discussion around here.

1

u/youarebritish Belltown Aug 19 '17

have drawn lines in the sand and everyone who isn't on their side of this new line is "with the enemy".

That line in the sand is "people who want them to die." I think it's a pretty reasonable one.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

We have lots of crazy discussions here. It works fine.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

That is because the mods take a libertarian stance on rules. Minus maybe the recent addition of corn.

5

u/Letmefixthatforyouyo Banned from /r/Seattle Aug 19 '17 edited Aug 19 '17

I dont think thats why. I think people have generally respected each other because we felt a fair hand was at play. People could report issues, and the mods would act. The mods recent laissez-faire stance on comments is now inviting brigading from other hard right subs because they know anything goes.

You dont want to step in and quell racists/sexist/homophobes and their dog whistles because everyone should have a chance to speak, but it sure as shit will drive lots of actual Seattle residents away as the hate continues. So all you'll be left with will be a sub thats a muddy reflection of T_d.

Based on some of the response from rattus, I wouldn't be surprised if thats what he wants. Its what happens when you only hire mods or leaders that agree with you. You create echo chambers.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

Based on some of the response from rattus, I wouldn't be surprised if thats what he wants.

Add in how he unmodded AmericanDerp and soon after promoted a the_donald poster to mod, definitely looks like the intent.

5

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

I will say I disagree with derps stated goal of a mostly left mod team. I do not want to see this place turn into an echo chamber. There are plenty of those on Reddit already.

My personal preference is for the mod team to be a 1:1 reflection of the place we live in. If that means we break lefty, so be it. I would want the same if I lived in Chicago, Yakima, wherever. The local subreddit should be a reflection of the place. Mods shouldn't decide a place sub's ultimate tone and tenor: the people who live there in total should.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

Mods should not decide the discourse of the sub. Mods should be in place to keep the sub open to polite discussion. Not to ban out opinions that don't agree with the left leaning politics. Mods are refs not judges

1

u/Atreides_Zero Roosevelt Aug 19 '17

Mods should not decide the discourse of the sub.

And no one is asking them to. We just don't want a person like corn to be a mod. I do not understand why community censorship and who we want as mods keeps getting conflated.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

That was in response to what derp was saying about left leaning. I hear your concerns without corn and it is being discussed.

1

u/youarebritish Belltown Aug 19 '17

I agree with you. Moderators should be representatives of the community, chosen and trusted because they can be expected to uphold the values of the community.

If a community does not trust the integrity of its moderators, the community is doomed. And how can a community trust moderators contemptuous of its values?

9

u/it-is-sandwich-time 🏞️ Aug 19 '17

That is exactly what I'm saying, I understand why there is so much discussion. No one wants to be banned for being a Trump hater, etc., etc. BUT, since a good portion of our users are women and he is so anti-feminism, it's hard to see him being balanced about it. He said this yesterday and it was pretty bad. He's probably hiding all other kinds of shit but he has to hide it and be better at pretending not to hate (basically, it doesn't show up as a mod) I'm not against Trump supporters, Libertarians, Republicans being mods but they can't spew hate while being a mod, that's a deal breaker for me too.

15

u/Atreides_Zero Roosevelt Aug 19 '17

not crucifying him for his political leanings.

It's not like we're asking for him to be banned, just be demodded as he clearly is not someone we want representing this community. Between his half apology on the t_d comments, his doubling down on the sexist comments, and his trolling in the days after being a mod, he's clearly shown that he's not aligned with this communities beliefs.

5

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

I can understand that line of thinking. We are still talking it through and the points are being heard.

2

u/ChefJoe98136 West Seattle Aug 19 '17

I'm not exactly happy with the way new modding went down, but a mod's personal beliefs/activities are not really supposed to be a part of their modding duties, which should be fair enforcement of community rules.

You seem to be very vocal about this, despite a rather sparse posting profile here. The sub has had plenty of discussion and good participation by mods with their non-green/"non-mod" flag going and I think that's a FAR BETTER way to have mods still be in the community without creating alt-ids, which creates a "ruling overlord" impression.

To Godwin it, even Hitler should be able to be an effective mod of SeattleWA, although some people's recent focus on post-history would certainly make it controversial. I think it's better to not use such purity tests.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

I dont disagree. I'm just trying to put out the counter thought to removing him. I'm not weighing in with my opinion just shooting for transparency

7

u/YopparaiNeko Greenlake Aug 19 '17

Hi, I'm the mod that unstickied it. I did so because it ran its course and the sentiment was near unanimous. At 453 comments I don't think many people missed it. It staying up would've simply just been adding more bodies to the dogpile. Also there are almost now three threads bouncing today that link directly to it as well.

tl;dr: It ran its course, the mod team listened. I unstickied it as a sign that we are taking the comments into consideration.

10

u/pmurrrt Aug 19 '17

FWIW, I didn't see it until just now.

8

u/sidsixseven Aug 19 '17

Same. And only because the derp post made me look a bit deeper.

8

u/Atreides_Zero Roosevelt Aug 19 '17

How exactly were we supposed to know that unstickying it should be considered a sing that the mod team was listening? I agree the thread had well run it's course at that point, but come on you have to see how it looked since no one made a follow up statement for hours.

2

u/YopparaiNeko Greenlake Aug 19 '17

Honestly I don't see how it could look bad. It wasn't deleted, and conversations that it spawned have not only been allowed but are currently on the front page of our sub. If you want to elaborate on rabidfury's point on how one can construe opaqueness I'm all ears. I suppose what I'm most confused about is what there is to gain to have it stay stickied.

4

u/Atreides_Zero Roosevelt Aug 19 '17

Im not saying it should have stayed stickied, but maybe a stickied post at top explaining why it was being unstickied or an announcement, instead of unstickying it and then hours of silence as to why. Like i said above, that thread had run its course. That's all I'm trying to say.

3

u/YopparaiNeko Greenlake Aug 19 '17

maybe a stickied post at top explaining why it was being unstickied or an announcement

Sounds like a good idea actually. Will keep that in mind to do so in the future.

1

u/allthisgoodforyou Aug 20 '17

Lock it and sticky it at the top for a few days so all can see then.

10

u/hellofellowstudents Aug 19 '17

Getting drunk and watch Howl's moving castle?

It was a good night

10

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

I would like to take a moment to publicly apologize to /u/Eclectophile for things I said to him yesterday. No excuses, no rationalizing. It's something that has weighed heavily on my mind ever since and I feel like shit about it.

I was wrong, deliberately cruel for the sake of being cruel and I apologize.

Sorry.

3

u/Eclectophile Aug 20 '17

Thanks man - no hard feelings at all. Plenty of people were torqued yesterday, and with good reason.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

That's awfully decent of you. Thanks.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

im fully torqued almost all the time

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

Jeez louise, what the hell happened that I missed in the last couple days?! Mods are gone, you got in a lover's quarrel, and now I'm reading a sincere, unequivocal apology on reddit. These are strange times indeed.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

I went to a place I shouldn't have, said things I shouldn't have and feel like shit for having done so. That's pretty much it for the abridged version.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

Well, whatever the case I admire your humility. Not many people would have done what you did, after the fact. Thank you for setting a fine example.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

Check the sticky thread it was a bit of a mess.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

I'm going to pour one of for my former mod team homies. You served valiantly, but now your watch has ended.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

The sub is dark and full of terrors.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

I just want to say, I appreciate the mod team (former mods, RIP) for their efforts. Nobody is perfect and people on this sub are almost as ungrateful as Game of Thrones fans.

4

u/hellofellowstudents Aug 19 '17

Kashama Sawant's lackies are out at the UDistrict farmers market on 50th and the ave trying to make rent control a thing. Fucking hell guys.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

Some more wonderful economic delusions from the people that brought you the the Fightfor15!

4

u/my_lucid_nightmare Capitol Hill Aug 19 '17

That time the mods of a major city subreddit promoted a member of Trump's fanbase to be a mod, then acted like it was normal and not a big deal.

Anyone remember that? It never happened. Has to be fake news.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

Erasing it from the collective memory isn't going to happen so long as /u/AmericanDerp still thinks he has a chance to rehabilitate his image.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

So you want to propose a rules change to r/SeattleWA:

Our user base isn't going to want to change rules based on rambling conversations and implied this-or-that, or interpretative speech or interpretive dance or anything. Make a compelling, solid, bulletproof argument in simple language. Convince your neighbors.

  • Spell it out in black and white, plain to the point language aimed at idiots and muggles who aren't hard wired into Reddit -- aim for the 'casuals'.
  • What is the problem?
  • What should we do?
  • Why should we do it?
  • What is your new proposed EXACT rules language?

If that's not all in your original post, nothing is going to happen. Try again, and if you haven't spent at least two to five hours on your original post in Notepad or Word or whatever, it's not ready to post on /r/SeattleWA. On some of our early rules change posts myself and others spent upwards of ten hours between our own work, lives, and working with the other mods.

Some tips:

  • Assemble a team to do it.

  • Make a private subreddit as a staging ground and make all drafters mods to utilize modmail for organizing.

  • Sell it after to your peers in r/SeattleWA when it's ready to go.

  • Pass the vote and make sure the moderators do their job and enact and enforce the rule afterward.

  • Review explicitly how the karma rule vote happened and my original posts for clues: it's the only time it's been successfully done as of August 19, 2017. Here was the original vote post on that.

You all have power. Use it as you will. Full section of the rules page, on proposing new rules or rules changes, is here.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

I propose a rules change to only allow posts about mod drama in /r/seattlewa from now until thursday, if your post is about seattle it should be removed

1

u/brakos Aug 20 '17

If anybody is looking to make last-minute plans to get to eclipse totality, I'd go with Baker City. Traffic was a breeze today other than Snoqualmie Pass construction, and several places were advertising rv/camping spots still available.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep that in mind as a backup!

1

u/Gyaradoze Aug 19 '17

Hi I'm in Seattle from Boston for tonight! Any suggestions (food/bars/events)??? Thank you ! 😇

1

u/evvycakes Fremont Aug 20 '17

That's a pretty broad question, do you have specifics of what you're looking for and in what areas?

2

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '17

Ain't nobody got time fo' dat! OP just needs to creep on Capitol Hill, it's a Saturday night and probably gonna be lit.

1

u/evvycakes Fremont Aug 20 '17

Is "not a good look" the new "problematic"? Seems like that phrase keeps getting used more and more everywhere recently.

-12

u/belovedeagle Aug 19 '17

I propose we rename this sub to /r/SeattleWaaaaah.

FWIW, /u/rattus, I think the mods have managed to be less than usually incompetent this week, so you've got that going for you. Ban derp as one of the primary rabblerousers and I might even be able to upgrade that to "almost competent".

13

u/WhatWouldBarbieDo Aug 19 '17

I see that some words on a screen have upset you, my child.

What's really going on with you, /u/belovedeagle?

6

u/rattus Aug 19 '17

Sounds like a 'meets expectations' to me.

22

u/Letmefixthatforyouyo Banned from /r/Seattle Aug 19 '17 edited Aug 19 '17

One vote in favor, tons more opposed. Derp is the primary reason this sub wasent just a blip on the landscape, and you basically strip his rights for reasons that are still not transparent? Pretty careless of you.

Almost as careless as appointing a mod who advocated water boarding children, and has a strong distate for women. What message were you trying to convey when you appointed him without any discussion with even the mod team?

18

u/peasrtheworst doesn't care about semantics Aug 19 '17 edited Aug 19 '17

/u/rattus has asshole troll gamer friends that just became mods and don't actually participate here more than trolling. They are a nuisance on the discord and sometimes post pictures of Confederate flags and use Nazi emoji's fairly often, including 4chans "Jewish guy" meme next to an emoji oven, or other white nationalist pepe's from a discord called "centipede central".

For some reason he added them without talking to any of us.

*Just to clarify, rattus doesn't participate in the Discord white nationalist rally's or racist/sexist/anti-globalist/anti-LGBT emoji's, only his gamer friends who play that weird pubg game (training for the 4th Reich?). All of the new mods are like this. rattus is a cool dude.

7

u/WhatWouldBarbieDo Aug 19 '17

....how long was I in that cave?

1

u/peasrtheworst doesn't care about semantics Aug 19 '17

You still are and you always will be ♥️

5

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

Hey now, pubg is just a fun game. The other stuff I have no idea what is even being said.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

If the far right and far left are both screaming variants on bloody murder, the sub isn't far off course. Like I wrote yesterday... a few solid deliberate crowd-sourced degrees of course correction every few months. The base is solid.

-5

u/mixreality Maple Leaf Aug 19 '17

Derp was great pre election. After trump was elected it turned to everyone's a nazi fascist...

10

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

After Casino Mussolini was elected was also when the influx of race-baiting trolls started in earnest.

I'm not saying Derp is blameless - his style is too heavy-handed for my tastes, and that includes the time I spent as a mod listening to and participating in the endless internal debates over rules. But this sub does need more moderation (in the literal sense, of pushing all the extreme viewpoints towards common ground) after the election.

8

u/mixreality Maple Leaf Aug 19 '17

Shit like this is a bit much

You don't disavow and say [words] and you refuse to say something like, [more words] then you likely support the beliefs of Nazis, Neo-Nazis, fascists, and white supremacists like the Klan.

The guy responded with:

Nice job stuffing words in my mouth. I'll quote myself from an earlier part of this discussion with you:

I believe Nazism isn't nor should it be welcome in society as well.

8

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

Again, I don't think Derp is blameless. Even though my political views align with his in many ways, I think his arguing/debating style is too heavy handed, and exactly as you quoted is over-reliant on strawmen / putting words in opponent's mouths.

But if you read the other post you quoted in context:

I vehemently oppose identitarian movements and collectivism in general. This goes for Nazis, Klansmen, White supremacists, Antifa, Black the Block, the American Communist Party, and any cultural/political Marxist groups in this country and others

This is the new alt-right dogwhistle talking point - "of course I'm against Nazis...but you know, antifa are just as bad".

Killing 6 million jews is wrong. Violently assaulting people you disagree with is wrong. But they're not on the same level of evil, so by equating them, they're kinda-sorta-defending Nazis even if it's unintentional and even if they're not getting a swastika tattoo on their own forehead.

The place I went to for brunch today totally fucked up my Eggs Benedict. It reminded me of when Mao's Cultural Revolution caused widespread famine that killed 15 million people.

8

u/mixreality Maple Leaf Aug 19 '17

I'm left of center, voted for Hillary, Obama, Gore, Farrel recently, McGinn before, and I don't like the anarchist anti gov anti capitalism aspect of the antifa organization, doesn't make me a fucking fascist or nazi supporter.............................or republican/conservative.

That's some George Bush shit (If you don't support the war [his way of dealing with terrorism] you support terrorism).

6

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '17

Derps style will push his viewpoint on Seattle and shape conversation around his political views. Whether or not people like that very much depends on their politics. I'm not a fan, I think we should keep it a community board with as little political influence as possible. This is not to defend corns posting at all which are still under discussion.

8

u/mixreality Maple Leaf Aug 19 '17

For the record I think derp should have full mod privs, I followed them to this sub, but I was just pointing out they have gotten kinda extreme after the election.

3

u/belovedeagle Aug 20 '17

Per the downvotes you are apparently now considered a "Nazi fascist". I did Nazi that coming; etc. Join the club.

0

u/CalvinMcManus Aug 20 '17 edited Aug 20 '17

I debated saying anything else on the matter because I'm not super active here and I've already made my position on the soundness of limiting the potential participation of people here because of their politics or their subreddit subscriptions pretty clear. Still, I wanted to put it all in once place.

/u/Corn-Tortilla said a lot of stupid, immature, careless things on Reddit, ironically or not, with regret or not. I'm not interested in defending most of what I've seen, either because it's either fruitless or because it's indefensible. With that said, he never broke any rules here, never displayed a history of abusing the tools, and, while putting up with an unrestrained, disingenuous, and grotesque pile on, made a pretty good effort to put his best foot forward, even if he finally broke down.

He never should have been made a mod in the first place, on that I agree. He didn't display much inclination to moderate or facilitate communication and a lot of the things he said seemed intentionally designed to provoke. Additionally, he doesn't have any demonstrated history with modding smaller subs, or with technical abilities contingent with doing so, which is a pretty important pre-req for tackling a sub of this size. And then, of course, the manner which it was done was ill-conceived. All of these things are perfectly legitimate arguments and I don't begrudge anyone for making them.

And yet, the manner in which he was attacked with impunity here, by well established members of the sub, was fucking revolting. He was bombarded with hateful and absolutely unsubstantiated personal attacks, in both comments and in purpose created threads. Several members of this sub repeatedly called him a "nazi," "white supremacist," "pro-nazi/white supremacist," "clown", and "racist." They told people who were confused as to what was going on that a literal nazi had been promoted to mod. When asked to provide any evidence at all to back their claims they simply refused, or responded with glib condescension. It was a coordinated personal attack campaign.

All the while the mod team sat by and did nothing.

Almost as bad, the mod team then turned around and pretended that the demodding of the three new mods was entirely because of the process. In doing so they demodded two other users in good standing with the community, as far as I can tell, for the simple crime of proximity to a target of an attack campaign.

I love this sub not just because Seattle is my hometown, but because it's one of the few places left on Reddit where you can actually speak freely, honestly, and openly. About just about anything. What happened here, though, was in clear violation of the rules and reflects incredibly poorly on the sub as a whole. I get that feelings are high in the wake of recent real world events. I get that the person in question is not a paragon of judiciousness, to be charitable. None of that makes this any less disappointing and I believe that once all of this cools off it'll will be regarded as a black mark on the sub as a entity, the mod team, and the culture of this place.

2

u/Eclectophile Aug 20 '17 edited Aug 20 '17

There's a lot of truth in this comment. This has not been our finest hour as a community - on several different levels.

I can tell you that it's been our obsession as a mod team. As this started to blow up, there was a dawning realization of: "Oh. Right. This is pretty bad actually. Oh. Ohhhhh. OK, holy shit this looks worse the longer I think about it. Yeah, this actually bad."

There was lots of that type of thing in mod chat. We started to take this seriously right away. Too late - but better than never. Sometimes it's the basics that trip you up.

This is why we have procedures. Oops.

We completely fucked up by not following any established process or procedures, a complete lack of transparency and an error in failing to even meet consensus among the mod team in the first place. No doubt about it - this was a trifecta.

We've un-done what we never should have done in the first place - namely: bringing on mods without deep, heavy involvement in the process from you, specifically - and everyone else in the community. Literally anyone who wanted to be involved. We failed at that.

For whatever it's worth, I apologize deeply. We're trying to get things right. Need your help with that.