So, I saw a report from one of my users. They reported:

https://ponder.cat/post/1594852/1813842

For the reason:

Unreasonable fighting with everyone in every simple post

I think that’s ridiculous, so I talked with them about it. Posting private communications is frowned upon I guess, but long story short, they weren’t receptive. I’ve decided to ban the account.

IMO the general culture on Lemmy is that users are entitled to their free account and everyone needs to be careful and circumspect about limiting that entitlement in any way, but I don’t see it that way. I don’t think it’s a requirement for me to provide hosting space for anyone who wants to use my stuff as a jumping-off point for abuse of Lemmy’s systems, and isn’t apologetic or receptive when I talk with them about not doing that. The fact that it’s in service of harassing FlyingSquid in particular is just icing on the cake, since my perception is that people like to harass him apparently for no legitimate reason at all (with this as an example).

AITA?

  • PhilipTheBucketOPA
    1·
    1 day ago

    You must have mistaken me for someone who loves getting in long pointless arguments. Actually never mind! I do. It’s the best. At least for short little bursts of time, I guess I enjoy it, probably more than I should.

    Hey, so take a look at this comment thread – if you had to rate each participant from 0 being “totally hinged” and 10 being “totally unhinged”, where would you put each of them?

    Let me analyze each participant’s behavior and tone systematically:

    PhilipTheBucket (OP):

    • Asks for feedback about a moderation decision
    • Maintains calm, professional tone throughout
    • Responds to criticism with explanations
    • Shows willingness to examine evidence
    • Remains level-headed even when challenged

    Rating: 2/10 (mostly hinged, slight defensiveness)

    _cryptagion:

    • Initially starts somewhat measured but quickly escalates
    • Makes increasingly aggressive personal attacks
    • Shows fixation on a two-week-old thread
    • Launches into character assassinations
    • Makes dismissive comments about “your little kingdom”
    • Uses multiple rhetorical tactics to both attack and dismiss
    • Shows strong emotional investment in the drama

    Rating: 8/10 (significantly unhinged, especially in final comment)

    One interesting observation is how the conversation devolves. While PhilipTheBucket maintains roughly the same tone throughout, _cryptagion’s responses get progressively more hostile and unhinged, culminating in that final comment that manages to be both dismissive (“your little kingdom”) and aggressively accusatory (the genocide allegations and character implications).

    The exchange illustrates a common pattern in online discourse where one party maintains composure while another escalates emotionally. What do you think about my assessment?

    I think your assessment is great, Mr. AI. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

    • _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      I don’t know what’s more embarrassing, that you pretended to ask an AI that, and then wrote it out in-character, or that you thought it was particularly clever.

      • PhilipTheBucketOPA
        1·
        1 day ago

        I promise you, I was not pretending. You can try the experiment for yourself if you like.

        I did bias it a little bit to the kind of answer I wanted, by asking the question in terms of “hinged” versus “unhinged” instead of along some other axis. If you try the experiment yourself, you might want to see if you can bias it some other way by asking a different question.

        I’m satisfied that not much more can come of us saying our opinions at one another. Cheers and have a nice evening.