When a notable face disappears
Disclaimer: I don't quite know how to address the topic, so I want to state I'm trying to approach this with sensitivity; I hope this might lead to a helpful and insightful conversation on a potentially difficult issue. Apologies if I don't quite get it right!
I noticed the absence of a name I'd become familiar with on Tildes and wanted to start a discussion on how the community should handle situations where a person of community renowned abruptly departs.
The user in question is @daychilde, who is one of the users I'd seen around quite a bit. I've been on Tildes for quite a while now, and would like to think I've had a positive - if not vast - contribution. Overall, I probably read more than I respond; I bring this up because I am aware that I probably represent the voice of a significant portion of the userbase here: I'm figuring stuff out as I go and probably am not in the loop on the majority of stuff going on on Tildes. All in all, I don't recognise a lot of names on Tildes, but @daychilde is/was a character who stuck out and seemed to have a significant impact on the community.
From what I deduce, @daychilde has been banned some time in the past week, and I thought it worth discussing given there are at least a couple of things left in the lurch as a result that people might seek information on. The ones that have crossed my vision are the following:
https://tildes.net/~tech/1od9/personal_offer_do_you_have_a_website_based_project_youve_been_wanting_to_do_but_worried_about_cost
and
https://tildes.net/~life/1n7e/daychildes_walking_thread
At the risk of broaching a difficult topic - I'm not looking to cause drama or speculate - we should probably discuss the fallout of a situation like this. Hopefully at the very least this topic might be something others can find if they also become aware of the departure of a notable person and are looking for confirmation or where might be appropriate to discuss any fallout that might occur.
For @daychilde in particular, this website seemed to be a resource that helped him manage his life. I wonder if we should consider whether there is some duty of care to users to depend on Tildes in some capacity?
There are also people who might be looking to discuss the hosting that he had offered/agreed, and might now be left in the lurch.
Unfortunately I don't have solutions, but I didn't see any discussion or information on this kind of a topic, nor any precedent for this kind of a situation!
I'm going to post a brief statement and then lock this thread. I understand that situations like this are confusing and that there are repercussions related to it, but turning it into a public spectacle usually just ends up with more negative effects than positive.
daychilde is definitely a prominent user, but that can't be a reason for someone to be immune to consequences for their behavior. There's no question in my mind that a ban was appropriate in this situation. One of the main reasons that I'm locking this thread is because I think it's unfair to the other user(s) involved. Imagine if someone was abusive to you, and then when they're punished for that behavior you need to see a thread where people are saying, "oh, but they're always so nice", "they couldn't have done something that bad, right?", and so on.
If daychilde wants to contact me to discuss and appeal the ban, I'm sure they know how to. But honestly, it was egregious enough that I'll be hesitant to give them another chance.
Aw, now I’m quite worried. In the, what, seven years I’ve wandered this lovely website, daychilde was one of the most consistently pleasant presences. I know he’d been struggling lately and I just hope he’s doing alright. We didn’t talk much outside of the Minecraft group, but he still through his activity ended up being a little part of most of my days!
Much concern, much love.
Oh that's interesting. Definitely a well known name.
If you click the "bans" tag there's some relevant threads on the topic from 2018-2020. Transparency certainly seems like a complex issue. I do like lemmy's utter transparency but that's built into the DNA of the system in a way that a small more-traditional forum like this doesn't have. And I personally can't say it's more than pure curiousity that would drive me to want to know causes of bans. Being transparent about it only in cases of a person who is more of a "public figure" in context of e.g. hosting community resources gets grey very quickly.
More generally on the topic, I am curious what the stats around registration and bans looks like now, like Deimos posted before in one of the threads from 2020.
Yeah, I was trying to scope this thread away from another discussion on transparency, as that seems to be a topic that has already been discussed and didn't seem to lead to a productive conversation. I think irrespective of transparency on bans, there is still impact and fallout to notable figure leaving the community, and hopefully this will remain a useful place to discuss that
Is there a banlog maintained anywhere? I, too, recognize the name and am surprised he got banned. Seemed respectful every time I've seen. Would be nice to be able to see when/some context people got banned but that is another level of work for our unpaid moderators
Deimos, the site owner, is the only one with permissions to ban users.
How do you know he was banned? It certainly is plausible but sometimes people quit social media for a bit or take breaks from specific sites, etc.
Click on their username in the body text above.