Glenn:
In short, a couple weeks ago they refused to ban someone over a likely racist comment that was documented—and banned the person the comment was made to. When people started grumbling about that, they banned those people. They gave me a 1 week ban (now extended with no explanation to 3 weeks) for suggesting people submit in-system support requests to have these other bans reviewed by a different moderator.
Horrible? You tell me.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. And that’s exactly what’s happened to me too.
More specifically, the statement the admins put out after the initial drama said that they banned the Woman of Color who was initially attacked because they *claim* they had proof that she was trying to doxx Feabie admins. They didn’t substantiate that at all tho, we were just supposed to believe it. And like, I didn’t know her but that’s one hell of an accusation to make about a person and not back up, don’t you think?
The admins’ statement didn’t even refer to the white woman who made this likely-racist comment past inferring that she had apologized— which, when I was scanning the whole feed in the heat of the moment, she and the other few trolls like her were doing anything but repenting. They were doubling down (i blocked them all after that, no one needs that energy in their time on Earth). So we were also supposed to believe they pulled a random, total 180. They don’t make it sound like she even received a temporary ban like we did! Because they didn’t “troll the admins” bc of course not, they had no reason to, *because* they weren’t getting reprimanded. Feabie admins are coming down on “trolls”, but only those who they perceive as “trolling the admins”— a.k.a., us. Nevermind the not-subtle difference between trolling, which is just to be abrasive to get negative attention out of your bored life; versus legitimate thought-out criticism of the poor and unfair way they handled this whole situation. The fact that critique got miscast as just trolling is really illuminating as to how fast they are to skew the narrative, which casts doubt on their claim that the woman who was targeted is guilty of any foul play like attempted doxxing. And it’s also illuminating that they chose to focus on banning us over banning the real trolls of course.
The thing that stings is that even if the original “I’m studying you like Jane Goodall and her apes” comment wasn’t supposed to be racially motivated, it was still really bloody clear that the original instigator should have been kicked off the platform entirely (and again, never saw any punishment that I know of) because all she did was double down over and over. People called her out and she threw it in their faces, angry-laughed, very edgelord-esque. Two or three joined in her chorus, all laughing about others being “triggered”, yada yada…. you’ve seen this type 1,000 times before on the Internet, it’s so old. They were completely destroying the peace of the community, and worst of all they- these white users- didn’t pause for a second to consider the hate inherent in them twisting the knife towards users who were People of Color. It did not make them stop and think. None of them had that obvious moment of, “you know what, I’m a white woman being accused of being racist by a Black woman, maybe I should back off, reevaluate, apologize for causing them harm, do my best to clarify my non-racist intention and learn from my mistake”. I’m white and I would be *fucking mortified* if I realized I had done that. Anyone engaging fairly would do that: admit that they’re the privileged party hurting someone outside of the privilege culture grants them. But those trolls were acting with anything but humility, happily tearing everyone else apart, and that’s how you know they were in the wrong. And they’re still there right now, smugly patting each other on the goddamn shoulder.
So yeah tl;dr Feabie is the Hottest of Messes lately/generally and the admins are prioritizing themselves and doing their best to make the community more toxic for the rest.
