I’ve been posting in the meme communities in Lemmy for a few months now. For the most part, if I make some silly meme about how broke I am or how bad American healthcare is, it doesn’t get removed and the meme does well. But I’ve had several memes get removed that I was pretty sure don’t violate the rules of the instance or the community and now I’m getting pretty frustrated. In each case, I’ve gone to the modlog and (if there’s any reason given at all) they say that I violated a rule that is written so generally that anything could count as violating it. Meanwhile, a meme about American kids killed in a school shooting makes the top of front page.
Now, if you’ve made it this far, your first reaction is to question whether my posts are crossing the line. But I think all of my memes are pretty light hearted even if they’re about controversial subject matter. Let me give you a few examples.
A few weeks a go I posted a meme with the caption “My wife out-drinking everyone at the table-- Our unborn son:” [picture of Tom the cat in the womb]. I understand abortion is a touchy subject for some people, but it’s not like I was advocating for or against abortion. After that, I posted a meme complaining about the lack of specificity of the rules on Lemmy and that post also got removed. That’s enough to let me know that the mods on that instance (lemmy.ml) will delete anything they disagree with. But I’m sure that a meme about killing the rich 1% with guillotines would stay up no problem.
I know what your thinking: Lemmy is a big place, just post on a different instance. And I thought the same thing. I went over to lemmyshitposts@lemmy.world thinking that if they’re allowing shitposts, then they would have a more lax mod policy. Post a few memes about innocuous things, it goes fine. Then I post a meme that pokes fun at the LGBTQIA+ acronym for being too long and that gets removed too. So I’m coming to the realization that any post that is completely innocuous or anodyne to the mods is fine, but if you even touch on certain subjects (e.g., miscarriages, queer culture, Lemmy’s rules, etc) it will get taken down.
in other words, you’re upset that memes that punch up are accepted and memes that punch down aren’t
Maybe that’s what’s happening. I just don’t know where the line is anymore. Feel like I have to stick to “I can’t function without my coffee” type memes.
Or you could just not care so much.
If you post memes that are likely to offend someone somewhere, then there’s a risk that one of those someones is going to be a mod, and they’re going to delete it. And really, that’s just the way it goes.
Certainly you might prefer that they have explicit, precise and closely followed rules so you can accurately predict what they’ll do, but there’s really no requirement that they do so - if they want vague rules arbitrarily enforced, that’s their prerogative.
And really, what are you out if they do delete a post? It’s not like you paid for it or you have some sort of quota you have to meet. You just toss things out into the internet, and some of them float and others sink.
Reading this comment, I think you may be right. It’s just outside my control. It is frustrating to spend time editing images and trying to create something funny only for it to be taken down. But maybe there’s a lesson to be learned here in not letting it bother me so much.
The lesson to be learned here is that Lemmy mods are fickle, unpredictable and prejudiced just like Reddit mods. It’s a rare mod that can moderate objectively and consistently. In a way, mods tend to moderate their own values above and beyond the community’s needs. Lemmy.ml mods have a strong reputation for being skunks. Take that time you are putting into meme making and spin up an instance. Call it LemmyMemeWorld. Then post to your hearts content.
I think that’s willfully distorting the situation. Punching down should refer to jokes that seem to be or obviously are made with malicious intent, it’s not about certain groups being protected from humor altogether, that’s infantilizing. From what OP said and posted somewhere in this thread I don’t think their jokes were in any way malicious.
I just want to chime in and agree.
Treating any demographic like they’re too fragile to hear a clean joke (not hateful or malicious) is insulting in its own way.
We should let the vote system handle unfunny or mean-spirited memes. Moderation should be light handed, IMO.
The problems with “let votes decide” are that most people won’t vote on the best interests of the community in question, and that it increases the impact of brigades. It’s specially bad when dealing with marginalised minorities - because even if “outsiders” don’t underestimate the impact of the mean-spirited meme in question, people put their own enjoyment over the well-being of the others.
As such, even if I’d usually agree with you (moderation should be light-handed), I don’t think that relying on the votes is a good idea.
Instead I think that mods shouldn’t jump at the gun and assume. Context is king; a meme about the LGBTQIA+ acronym being too long can go from anything between “it’s fine” to “it’s prejudice”, depending on:
Also, sometimes mods should talk officially with the users. Speaking officially is seriously underused, even if it defuses issues before they even happen. Simply commenting “I’m leaving this up because it’s about the acronym alone, but I don’t want to see bigotry here, OK? Everyone, please be excellent to each other, including the LGBTQIA+ members of this comm.” and then watching OP’s reaction is often enough.
not referring to this specific case, specific user, or specific instance — but that policy is exactly how you get an instance full of porn, white supremacy, homohobia, transphobia and general chuddery