this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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Yesterday I created a post on a regional community on lemmy.ca.

Fairly quickly thereafter, I got a DM saying that the post had been removed because someone who disagreed with me complained. Oddly though, the DM came from a @Automod@lemmy.world - not the server hosting the community.

Furthermore, I still see the post when I go looking - and there has been a bit of discussion about it.

So my questions:

(a) Can a post be removed from a specific federated instance without being removed from the original instance? (b) Is there an appeal process for removed posts? I'm sorry that the guy got all butthurt, but my post was sincere, measured, and (I think) reasonable. If it offended someone, they should discuss it.

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[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

(a) Yes. Instance admins have the ultimate say in what's on their server. They can delete posts, entire communities, ban remote users and delete remote users. At least they had the decency of notifying you!

Since lemmy.ca owns the post, lemmy.world can't federate out the removal, so it's only on lemmy.world.

(b) You have to go appeal to lemmy.world. Each instance have its own independent appeal process.

That's the beauty of the fediverse: instances can all have their rules to tailor the experience to their users, and it doesn't have to affect the entire fediverse. Other instances linked to lemmy.ca can still see and interact with your post just fine, just not lemmy.world.

[–] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

At least they had the decency of notifying you!

Absolutely. I was just looking for clarification of how it worked. This takes me back to the days of Usenet and .killfile editing.

[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm curious which post it was? Dm me it if you want.

Is lemmy.world automod a mod on that community on lemmy.ca?

[–] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I don't think there's a problem with posting it here. I didn't do that initially because I wasn't trying to draw attention to the post as much as I was trying to understand how it all worked.

And in answer to your question, no the automod is not a moderator on the community.

[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Wtf, why the hell is their automod touching posts in a community on our instance. They're not the mods of the entire fediverse.

[–] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but from what the good folks in this thread have said, their automod deleted the post only on their instance. It's untouched on lemmy.ca, and any others that federate with us.

(I think.)

[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's correct, but it still irks me.

Controlling what your users see via defederation or blocking a community is public, but users aren't going to notice the occasional post disappearing.

It's manipulative in a non obvious way, and prone to being abused.

[–] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

That's a very good point. What may be a neutral (or biased for that matter) community 'at home,' can be invisibly skewed on another instance by their administrators. That's actually a bit concerning.

[–] Muehe@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Ah with that link it's easy to track down what happened.

First you go to the community on the server in question: https://lemmy.world/c/alberta@lemmy.ca

Then you click on Modlog in the sidebar: https://lemmy.world/modlog/3835

And since there is pretty much nothing in it we immediately see the entry for your post saying:

reason: Deceptive content. Calling to abuse government system.

Note that when you compare your servers Modlog that entry is missing there, so yes, only removed for people connecting through lemmy.world.

Not sure how appeals work there, you can probably reply to the account that notified you, or go to the !support@lemmy.world community.

[–] CommunityLinkFixer@lemmings.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn't work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !alberta@lemmy.world

[–] Muehe@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

Nah, this one was a direct link on purpose. But the edit box swallowed the @lemmy.ca part at the end due to trying user name auto-completion, so thanks for making me re-read the post. Good bot!

[–] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

This is fantastic information! The things I'm learning from one deleted post are remarkable!

The account that notified me is an unmonitored auto-mod account, which says "don't reply - nobody will read it!"

I might actually post in !support@lemmy.world on this one. Thanks for the info.

[–] zeppo@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

From what I understand, yes, moderation is not federated. That’s good in that instances can enforce their own mod standards, but it also means spam/harmful content has to be removed by each server individually.

No idea if there’s an appeal process but you could ask on the lemmy.world support community.

[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 4 points 10 months ago

Moderation does federate out, but only from the originating instance, the one that owns the post on question.

If someone post spam on lemmy.ca and lemmy.world deletes it, it only deletes on lemmy.world. If a mod or admin on lemmy.ca deletes it however, it federates and everyone deletes it as a result (unless modified to ignore deletions, but by default Lemmy will accept it).

There's some interoperability problems with some software, notably Kbin where their deletions don't federate to Lemmy correctly, so those do need to be moderated by every instance. But between Lemmy instances it does federate.

[–] tutus@links.hackliberty.org 1 points 10 months ago

I'm curious as to what rules were broken? You mentioned 'somebody complained' but that is surely not enough for the bot to remove your post?

I don't like cancel culture but I don't see anything wrong with your post at all. There's no obvious issues (sexism, swearing, harassment, etc.). It's written fairly respectfully. So I don't really see what grounds there are for removal (I don't know, and haven't checked the posting rules for your instance though).

[–] TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

I had something similar just happen and I'm pretty confused because I see in the lemmy.world modlog that my post was deleted but I posted here, on .ml... though when I look here I don't see it either but it's also not showing up on modlog...