nev on Nostr: my inner dialogue: look, as a moderator, eventually you are going to be called a ...

my inner dialogue:

look, as a moderator, eventually you are going to be called a Nazi, accused of racism, etc., and you need to be able to handle it professionally, without melting down. if it's spurious or hyperbolic or in bad faith, the best you can do is explain your actions transparently ("the user was not banned for their political stance, but for repeatedly sending unsolicited DMs asking people for photos of their feet"). if it's in good faith, you should have some sort of statement ready, along the lines of "as a white person, i'm aware that unlearning white supremacy is a lifelong process and i'm grateful for people calling me out on any—

oh I see. one of your moderators has a reddit account where he endorses…oh. yes I see. well, that's a bad look. you'd better put out a statement explaining that you did not know of the moderator's reddit account or that he is a fascist-sympathizing all-round bigot; that you make moderation decisions by consensus as a group, and so as far as you know his political views did not influence any particular decisions; and that going forward you'll establish procedures to thoroughly vet moderators, including looking at their other social media pro—

…oh. you're fine with that. you're saying publicly that you don't see a problem with a moderator having those views…okay. right. well, you're on your own, buddy

Context:
- summary: https://awawa.club/notice/AtQeTiRp559GTG3Iau
- thread with examples, screenshots etc. (note: mod has since deleted his account/the posts) https://mastodon.social/@lo__/114370692797365997
- admin's defence: https://fosstodon.org/@mike/114394345053697948
- one admin's blog post https://kevquirk.com/blog/my-thoughts-on-the-fosstodon-drama
- another admin's blog post https://mikestone.me/2025-04-28-do-what-you-love (note, they both describe it as "drama")
- both links via https://mastodon.art/@Curator/114400044441100499

Current status: the offending mod's Mastodon account is apparently gone; it sounds like the admins are taking their ball and going home

#FediMeta #moderation