I used to see this on Reddit, I’m disappointed this behaviour is also on Lemmy.
Users collecting mod status on multiple communities, and then using that power to mass-ban a single user from a bunch of communities.
Modlog show how incredibly trigger happy some mods can be. Minor transgressions, deserving to have their comment removed at least, but then banned from unrelated communities as a consequence. This will only get worse as users become supermods.
Edit: It seems this is how an instance ban is reported, by banning from any communities the user has participated in. Then perhaps it isn’t all as bad as it seems.
Could it be an instance ban?
This. This is how an instance ban shows up, as a series of bans on any community they were active in on that instance.
Ah! Really!? Then that maybe what it is. I went looking through the modlog and kept thinking “again?” over and over as I saw similar entries. Okay, maybe it isn’t as bad?
It’s probably still bad.
In other situations, mass bans sometimes happen because it’s easier. Moderators often use custom scripts they’ve written to ease the administration burden. Personally, I don’t even provide a reason for bans, its just one more field to fill, and for the benefit of someone disruptive or acting in bad faith? Why bother.
Moderators don’t owe anyone anything. If you don’t like a mod, it costs you nothing to spin up another community. Hell, if you do it on another instance, you can even have the same name, and with crosspost merging apparently coming to this corner of fedi, it makes even less difference.
It’s sensible to provide a reason for the bans because the community should be able to know when, why, and how you enforced the power they delegated to you. It isn’t just for the one being banned.
And mods do owe the community something. At the very least: transparency, safety, fairness, and reliability.
What do you mean by, “should?” Why do you think mods owe the community something?
Do admins, who not only put effort but actual money and other personal resources into providing a server, owe something to their mods? Or do WE owe our admins?
If a mod tells someone “don’t say this here”, or “get the fuck out”, their word is law. That’s power. And that power is delegated by the other users, when they join the community, under the condition the mod will use that power to improve the collective space that everyone (not just the e-janny) is building there.
And without users, there’s no community. It’s only when you have a bunch of people there, sharing stuff, connecting, etc. that you can say “yup, this is a community”. Same deal with an instance - without users, it’s just a computer wasting power.
So it’s a give and take. Both sides owe each other, as both are necessary to build the community.
There’s also the matter that all human beings eventually fuck up, sometimes really bad. If that human being is a mod, acting as such, a community needs tools to tell them “you fucked up”. And then decide to either keep trusting the mod or pack their things and emigrate. But for that, you need transparency - and for transparency you need to know why the mod did something.
Regarding money, instance costs should be a collective effort. That’s why so many instances rely on donations.
“Fuck you. I do what I want.” is just childish individualism, the antithesis of any stable community.
Can I have a list of communities you mod so I can avoid them?