Due to multiple factors, such as unaddressed ableist removals from the /c/196 moderators, defense of chasers, no-quarter rules regarding our users, leakage of good-faith DMs from our admin team, and a general lack of initiative to punish these behaviors, we have come to the conclusion that the 196 community on lemmy.blahaj.zone has made the fediverse an unsafe space for our queer, disabled, neurodivergent, non-western, and other marginalized comrades on this forum, and we will be defederating from lemmy.blahaj.zone until we can be confident that this will not continue to be an issue.

We have attempted to make good-faith parley with both the instance admin and the comm moderators, but we've reached a point which we feel that until these behaviors are addressed by instance administration, we can no longer continue to federate in good-faith while our users are being actively invalidated by a small-but-vocal portion of the forum. Once we are confident that these behaviors have ceased and are unlikely to continue, we are more-than-happy to refederate in the name of queer solidarity.

Thanks for bearing with us :07:

  • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    so am i missing something or are the blahaj zone admins just letting that c/196 moderator go clout-drunk with power & fuck the vibes of their whole site lmao

  • AcidSmiley [she/her]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I hope that this issue will be resolved in the future by the admins of blahaj.zone, they should cut that threat to their own userbase loose ASAP and instead work on actively onboarding trans subreddits instead of that place infested with chaser pests. I would love to see a bigger, unified queer community on lemmy and it hurts me that you had to make this decision, but at the same time i fully, 100% agree that with c/196 around, we couldn't maintain the safe space that this site has been since briefly after its inception when we purged the r/stupidpol crowd to make this more inclusive to our already large queer userbase. There's a lot of people who've helped me throughout my transition, but that list wouldn't be complete without those of you who made this the place where i could first talk about my gender exploration and experiment with my pronouns. We all owe it to our community to place safety before the desire to dunk on some of the most insufferable libs in the entire fediverse.

    • silent_water [she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      a trans instance not banning transphobia just fucking blows my mind. hatred for chasers is something pretty universal amongst trans people.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        It all comes down to the mods. You can have the most left wing instance in the world on paper, but if the folks running it are just Black Hammer weirdos...

          • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            It's wild how lemmygrad seemed almost split on us for a bit because we aren't explicitly Marxist Leninist, but since federation I'm seeing a huge overlap of grad posters here.

            Warms my heart really, and shows that even if you do have some made up ideological reservation about people, what really matters is how you are able to interact with one another in mutual defense and education.

            • ImOnADiet
              ·
              1 year ago

              Pretty much. I think most of my fellow grad posters who expressed concerns were worried about cross site struggle sessions over stuff like that but I dont think they considered that 99.9% of hexbear dunking energy would be directed at liberals lol

              • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
                ·
                1 year ago

                Oh yeah, we ended all of those like 2 years ago. We're a legit left unity instance. We're always going to be 1000% more focused on fake leftists and libs than any possible tired ML/Anarchist fights.

                • GenderIsOpSec [she/her]
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  the only kind of tiring ml/anarchist "fight" i support: left-unity-4

                  tfw no cutie anarkitty to call me red fash: desolate

                • ImOnADiet
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  there were other concerns like potential sex work struggle sessions, but even those concerns were way overblown lol

                  • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Oh yeah, again like a snapshot of Hexbear in 2021. It's actually wild how much we've overcome in terms of being a united front on most issues

      • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Hating chasers is pretty universal among all LGBT+ people. Just ask bisexual women what they think of "unicorn chasers". Or ask lesbians how they feel about straight guys that try to "convert" them.

    • alexandra_kollontai [she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      I would love to see a bigger, unified queer community on lemmy and it hurts me that you had to make this decision, but at the same time i fully, 100% agree that with c/196 around, we couldn't maintain the safe space that this site has been since briefly after its inception when we purged the r/stupidpol crowd to make this more inclusive to our already large queer userbase.

      Perfectly correct take on this

      • AcidSmiley [she/her]
        ·
        1 year ago

        To clarify further: My problem is not individual users, otherwise a few dedicated wreckers could get every instance defederated. My problem is a provenly toxic moderation policy that openly embraces the fetishistic objectification and harassment of trans people and turns a blind eye to ableism.

      • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Go check their community page. The vast majority of their activity comes from that comm. Like, it's not even close. This is why the admins there have been handling that chaser nest with kiddie gloves. The entire instance goes black with that comm gone. Typical of liberals, they care more about popularity and clout than principles.

        • silent_water [she/her]
          ·
          1 year ago

          we dwarf their activity though. appeasing us was a better way to maintain post activity across the whole instance.

        • beef_curds [she/her]
          ·
          1 year ago

          It's going to get worse over there too because the people who are concerned with that behavior will leave, the ones who aren't will stay. The 196 mod knows they're untouchable. Good times ahead.

        • Galli [comrade/them]
          ·
          1 year ago

          I can't cut out this tumor, it's bigger than any of my organs and showing astronomical growth!

  • PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Incredibly based. Civility is a two way street, and I didn't like how we were bowing and scraping to get them to do us the favor of remaining federated. Hopefully some of their cooler users will migrate over

    I also wish their Anarcho-Bidenist mod/admin team a very biden-leftist

    • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Hopefully some of their cooler users will migrate over

      Me with the "I'm gonna use Kbin because Lemmy's developed by a tankie" to "I'm gonna use Blåhaj because Kbin can't moderate transphobia" to "I'm gonna use Hexbear because Blåhaj can't moderate ableism" pipeline

      • silent_water [she/her]
        ·
        1 year ago

        I am happy to report that this is the only online community I've ever been in where a minority of the userbase can raise issues and get them dealt with. it took some struggle the first time but we're very proud of the strong anti-bigotry stance we've collectively settled on, made all the stronger because it comes out of users, mods, and admins doing self-crit when these issues are brought forward.

      • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Tankie is a bullshit term anyways, in the end all that means is that we'll militantly defend one another and fight for a better world instead of rolling over and allowing norms and civility to bog us down in reactionary quagmire.

        I know the term was originally used to refer to rolling tanks into Belarus, but like 90% of people on this site's parents weren't even born when that happened so nah.

        Just know that sometimes you need to exercise power to protect yourself, and the way we do it here is very much "mass line" style where the users dictate action to the moderation and administration teams. With the role of administrators and moderators being to defend the community from reactionaries and step in to resolve internal conflict in the most democratic way possible.

          • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            Hey I'm drunk and they happened when my grandparents were 20, but you're right.

            You'll get some discussion about that if your want it, but most of our positions come from the history of revolution in the global South and how revolutionaries survived the onslaught of Western Capital.

            The USSR is dead, their ideas live on in ever evolving forms in the revolutions sparked after 1917 and 1940. There is no dogmatic position we can take when the position of the global proletariat is in constant flux and the revolutionary avenues available in nation states vary so much.

                • Mindfury [he/him]
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  y'all getting paid for this when i do it for free??

                  (i just like maps, i think they're neat)

                  • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Definitely get into QGIS or pick up an ArcGIS personal license if you haven't. Playing around with open data can be really fun and they both have scripting languages that let you build really complex and beautiful dynamic maps. If you can find a data source that live updates you can even publish it somewhere and use it to keep track of stuff. Or do things like import your phones GPX history and build a network of locations and your visit density or whatever.

                  • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Telecommunications/OSP Designer. We draw the maps for the Internet. Mostly getting fiber optic service to cities and towns in the US.

                    It's fun, but also exhausting. Were the ones that have to handle all the changes and what the permit office wants is always different from what the customer wants which is always different from what the contractor wants and all of them request materials that aren't in stock lol.

      • CriticalResist8 [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Hopefully in a month or two "I'm gonna use Lemmygrad because Lemmy's developed by a tankie"

    • combat_brandonism [they/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      didn't like how we were bowing and scraping to get them to do us the favor of remaining federated.

      Preach, this shit's been obnoxious

        • combat_brandonism [they/them]
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah that's what we're happy about. Until today the official stance from admins and mods had been appeasement. No linking to their posts, no tagging them, etc. etc.

          All to appease these anti-communist doomscrollers that were always going to have a problem with us, and whose anti-communist attitudes would always give fash a way in. Nice of them to go mask off so soon.

          We are the larger instance, with a larger queer community. We don't need them. I guess I don't get the point of your reply shrug-outta-hecks

          • silent_water [she/her]
            ·
            1 year ago

            sorry, thought you were saying we should defederate them when it was already done

          • VILenin [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Federation going awfully well;

            You’ll love it, you’ll get to dunk on the libs! Ok, well not on their instances. But you can do it here! Ok, well actually no you can’t. We have to be nice to the liberals or they’ll defederate us.

            gets defederated

            Ok guys, I know the last thousand times haven’t gone as smoothly as planned, but we need to be nice to HeilHitler1488 or they’ll defederate us!

        • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]
          ·
          1 year ago

          I dunno, I think it's pretty neat how it's capitalized as "IJsselmeer" because ⟨ij⟩ is seen as inseperable.

          • iridaniotter [she/her]
            ·
            1 year ago

            Dutch is actually very cool and fun hehe I'm just giving it a hard time

                  • iridaniotter [she/her]
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    I had a phase in high school for about a year. Nowadays I only know a handful of words and the fact that they use diaereses for words like tweeëntwintig.

                      • iridaniotter [she/her]
                        ·
                        edit-2
                        1 year ago

                        Currently busy doing a very poor job at learning Chinese. In the unlikely scenario I end up fleeing to Europe, I guess I'd learn Norwegian or Dutch lol. Are you Dutch?

                        • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]
                          ·
                          1 year ago

                          I'm from Norway but my mom was born in the USA. Dutch to me basically feels like the mid-point between English and Norwegian, to the point where I can read a lot of Wikipedia articles in Dutch with more or less complete comprehension.

                          Fleeing to Europe, you say? Where are you from, then?

                          Chinese is a good language. I spend a peculiar amount of time looking at YouTube videos for Chinese learners despite not being a learner of that language myself: I'm in fact focusing on Japanese right now, and a good baseline in Chinese I think can be a huge help in learning that language, due to their shared history. I'm thinking of eventually shifting over to learning Chinese, but who knows when that might happen.

                          Are you familiar with 808CJK on YouTube? Which resources do you use for learning Chinese?

                          Oh, and remember: the thing that matters most in language learning is that you know more today than you knew yesterday! The same goes for most skills.

                          • iridaniotter [she/her]
                            ·
                            edit-2
                            1 year ago

                            Yeah Dutch is relatively close to English, and some of the grammar resembles Middle English which is fun. I'd only try fleeing if shit hits the fan in the US, and my partner and I both have close friends in Europe. I'm not familiar with 808CJK but I will check the channel out. I'm in college, so Chinese is my major. Knowing kanji/hanzi definitely helps with learning Chinese/Japanese, but as far as remembering pronunciation I'm not so sure...

                            Oh, and remember: the thing that matters most in language learning is that you know more today than you knew yesterday!

                            side-eye-1

                          • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
                            ·
                            edit-2
                            1 year ago

                            I'm from Norway

                            Samme her lenin-laugh

                            I know there's a handful of other norwegians here as well

            • forcequit [she/her]
              ·
              1 year ago

              I would like to redeem my Fuck The Dutch voucher on behalf of aussie-flag-emoji please

  • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    If you are in a relationship with a person that is always talking about breaking up and begging for reasons why to not break up the responsible thing to do is break up with them.

    They are not a mature community that knows what it wants and what it stands for. It is not our responsibility to help them grow up. They have chosen to say their pro nato-cool and anti-tankie identity is more important than their identity as a place for LGBTQ to come together and have discussions.

    Their choice will turn them into a Rainbow NATO instance that uses their LGBTQ users to rainbow wash the crimes of the empire. They spread anti-communism which in turn leaves their own members vulnerable to attack by fascists. Only the leftists have ever stood against fascists.

    Their more open minded users will find somewhere else to go even if they don't end up here and the rest of them will be bullied into support of obviously scratched liberalism.

  • Twink
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    deleted by creator

  • JohnBrownsBussy2 [she/her, they/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    For all the work you folks were doing to try to make federation with blahaj.zone work, it sucks to see a clique of vaushites piss all over it. It'd be nice if blahaj.zone could clean this up. Most of the folks seemed reasonable, but this shit is intolerable.

  • GenderIsOpSec [she/her]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Probably the best outcome, honestly. We were bending over backwards for them and their response was to smear shit in our faces. Hopefully we'll pick up the cool people and the v*ushite chaser scum can wank themselves silly with trans porn or whatever they consider "being a good ally" means.

    To the poor trans-comrades who are stuck there, you don't need to do this "pick me" bs, just drop the toxic assholes. You're worth that cat-trans

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Fair.

    I hope that the Blahaj admins hold queer people as more important than this behaviour and take action, so that we can federate again, I actually like some of their content. I think they will, if their previous statements are anything to go by, but we will see from this what their real priorities are.

    If I were adminning Blahaj I would purge the problematic 196 mod and replace them, as well as adding several significantly better mods to that team. This isn't complicated to resolve without losing the users, the mandate for removing a problematic mod like this is going to be very high. Exert some authority.