That shit was blown out of proportions, yeah. Critique is fine and all, but that ended up as straight up harassment. Fuck the people using that as an excuse for their transphobia.
But I actually started chiming in when the mod team doubled down presenting themselves as spokespeople for the movement and, in a case of “cannot possibly be timed worse“, presented some kid as a new mod? Spokesperson? I don’t remember. That whole mess got so stupid I zoned out after a while.
The mods were misfiring for sure, but what made me step away were not the mods – that could have been addressed over time – but the users. My reaction to the video and what the mods said was basically, “Oh haha, that was bad!” and I think that’s where it ended for me. I had noted issues with the mods prior to that and brought them up, and no one seemed to care at that time – I even pointed out several times that one of the mods had a stickied post on their profile specifically requesting interviews – so it’s hard for me to believe that the users were acting in good faith. Why did no one seem to care before that interview happened? But everyone got drummed up into an emotional frenzy, and that sort of thing is what tears movements apart – not one or two bad mods.
I agree the mods shouldn’t have positioned themselves as spokespeople, but there were so many other ways it could have been handled without melting down.
That shit was blown out of proportions, yeah. Critique is fine and all, but that ended up as straight up harassment. Fuck the people using that as an excuse for their transphobia.
But I actually started chiming in when the mod team doubled down presenting themselves as spokespeople for the movement and, in a case of “cannot possibly be timed worse“, presented some kid as a new mod? Spokesperson? I don’t remember. That whole mess got so stupid I zoned out after a while.
The mods were misfiring for sure, but what made me step away were not the mods – that could have been addressed over time – but the users. My reaction to the video and what the mods said was basically, “Oh haha, that was bad!” and I think that’s where it ended for me. I had noted issues with the mods prior to that and brought them up, and no one seemed to care at that time – I even pointed out several times that one of the mods had a stickied post on their profile specifically requesting interviews – so it’s hard for me to believe that the users were acting in good faith. Why did no one seem to care before that interview happened? But everyone got drummed up into an emotional frenzy, and that sort of thing is what tears movements apart – not one or two bad mods.
I agree the mods shouldn’t have positioned themselves as spokespeople, but there were so many other ways it could have been handled without melting down.