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?

          • @[email protected]
            6•6 days ago

            He has a few other alts as well, but it’s not exactly my day job to keep detailed notes. However, I am sick of his shit and that dude is a fucking cockroach.

            TBH, I don’t think it’s really against any rules to dup a username across instances as SMCF is actually on .world. However, this is being done with malice and should be addressed. UM must have been holding a grudge from when he was banned from .world.

            • @[email protected]OP
              4•6 days ago

              Honestly, I think the issue is that it really is a job, and there isn’t anyone who’s really well-positioned to take charge of it.

              Any system which allows easy, anonymous account creation is going to be subject to some level of abuse. Any system which does that, and also is distributed among multiple instances with admins who don’t always see eye-to-eye on things, is going to be absolutely helpless in the face of even a very rudimentary attempt at abuse, and anyone who wants to will be able to run rings around the admins and just kind of run around doing whatever they want. Telling people “just block the obnoxious people on whatever new accounts they make when they get banned” obviously isn’t the answer, but it’s what people fall back on because it is the only thing that can be relied upon to work.

              I think Bluesky’s idea of federating out block lists (basically, as I understand it) is probably the most straightforward non-awful way. You don’t want to make every new user encounter every obnoxious person and learn, one by one, who they are and that they need to block them. That way lies madness.

              • @[email protected]
                4•6 days ago

                Shared block lists could be implemented into the clients as well, but it would take a bit to keep those from getting abused and wouldn’t scale over time too well.

                But yeah, this is a major issue with Lemmy and is probably the major reason I don’t think this platform can scale up to Reddit size. Once trolls take over, everyone will leave.

                • @[email protected]OP
                  3•6 days ago
                  • Here’s me, at 9:04 on Feb 4, mentioning you: https://ponder.cat/post/1520414/1734558
                  • Also there is you, at 9:10, replying to me (which I didn’t see because I have that alt blocked): https://ponder.cat/post/1520414/1734616
                  • I’m not sure how much I can say without violating some kind of privacy line. But, at 9:38, you were interacting with my content from a little while before any of this had happened, from your sh.itjust.works account.
                  • Then, at 9:39, you switched to your vegantheoryclub account and the first thing you did was comment under a post I’d made a couple of hours prior: https://ponder.cat/comment/1734903

                  Not sure how much clearer I can make it. I would love to be able to block and move on, that’s what I did. You are committed to not respecting the block, taking actions from new alts which will send me notifications, and then lying in this strange fashion about it. I understand why you’re pretending that’s not what you did. But I’m happy to provide proof in the form of screenshots or anything else. Or, any admin can verify it.

                  You are allowed to be here, sure. Everyone is. You’re not allowed to violate the rules of the space. And, when someone’s sufficiently unrepentant about not respecting the rules of the space, they lose their right to be here. Your commitment to going beyond “saying what you want” and instead, among other things, starting to harass and irritate other users deliberately when they exercise their right to say what they want, is exactly what keeps losing you accounts. That’s the system protecting itself.

            • Draconic NEO
              3•6 days ago

              TBH, I don’t think it’s really against any rules to dup a username across instances as SMCF is actually on .world. However, this is being done with malice and should be addressed. UM must have been holding a grudge from when he was banned from .world.

              Yeah I agree, having multiple accounts with the same username is okay when your intention isn’t to cause malice. When one is doing it to impersonate/namesquat or just to troll and ban evade then it’s a problem. It’s part of why I have as many as I do. It makes it extremely difficult for people to impersonate me, except on the handful of excommunicated instances I never signed up to but those will be very clearly recognized as impersonation.

                • Draconic NEO
                  2•6 days ago

                  I frankly don’t believe you and I don’t think you believe that yourself. You’ve been caught in the act both for impersonation and ban evasion. You are not innocent here and if you were you should’ve appealed instead of making more accounts.

    • @RhoeriEnglish
      2•5 days ago

      You are notorious for ban evasion. The fact that you’re here casting aspersions on others for doing what you do clearly indicates the fact that you’re a troll.

        • @RhoeriEnglish
          2•5 days ago

          Aaahhh… the old “it’s not me” trick.

            • @RhoeriEnglish
              3•4 days ago

              While that is some top-notch trollsmanship, you do know I don’t believe any of that bullshit, right? I’d imagine very few do. And, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but- most people generally don’t go where they’re not wanted. And as you have acknowledged, no one wants you here.

              Lastly, if you’re accusing @[email protected] of impersonating you, you should own the accusation and not beat around the bush.