this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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Over the past months it has become increasingly apparent that the 196 moderation team has a member who does not align with the goals and values of the rest of the team.

196 has a very clear stance on tankies and other authoritarians. No authoritarian apologia of any kind is allowed in our space. It’s not our intent to tell leftists how to be leftist, but we’re not willing to allow somebody we so fundamentally disagree with to moderate our community.

Based on this stance we’ve decided to remove Kittenzrulz from the moderation team.

Why demote Kittenzrulz123?

Kittenzrulz has consistently been opposed to the condemnation of tankies and has made several worrying statements that show that there’s a deep ideological gulf between her and 196.

Furthermore it should be noted that kittenzrulz has not taken part in moderation decisions on lemmy for months, while she is only somewhat active on the matrix (as a mod). This will not be a major change in that sense.

The following is a list of screenshots that should help to showcase what we mean.

spoiler

This one is from yesterday

Demoting Kittenzrulz123

First to be clear we’re not banning her from the lemmy community or the matrix space and she is free to continue to interact with all of us. We still want her around as we think of her as a friend who we care about and want to see happy and healthy, though we understand this decision might cause kittenz some stress.

As of this moment kittenzrulz is no longer a mod of 196. A vote was held and all mods that voted voted in favor of demoderation, with a few mods abstaining (either due to not having an opinion on this or due to being inactive).

And just to make sure everybody is on the same page, this is not a condemnation of kittenz as a person. People can disagree on things and still get along, we’re just not comfortable letting her make decisions on our behalf and want to prevent any further problems we see as a likely outcome.

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[–] erotador@lemmy.blahaj.zone 82 points 3 days ago (1 children)

please try to remember that nobody should be rude to kittenz, while we disagree with them they dont deserve any harrasment

I appreciate both you and Jorunn for spearheading this. I know it wasn't an easy thing to do.

I second everything both of you said. I implore everyone to not make this situation worse for her than it already is.

[–] Tonuka@feddit.org 62 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Post text be like "we're worried kittenz may be a tankie" meanwhile the attached screenshots are all "I'm an unironic tankie I use that word to describe myself I'm not a tankie but I love the USSR I think using tanks to crush dissent is good"

Yeah I think you maybe did the right thing

[–] SailorFuzz@lemmy.world 52 points 3 days ago

A mod team sensibly policing their own to uphold their own ideals? Basing their decision on repeated patterns and evidence??

Fuck and color me impressed.

[–] kittenzrulz123@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Just woke up, I guess this is how I find out

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 days ago

Seeing how the first thing Kitten did after being demoted was to take over an anti-authorian community, you did the right thing.

[–] wraekscadu@vargar.org 12 points 3 days ago

Thanks for the transparency :)

[–] Loco_Mex@sh.itjust.works 18 points 3 days ago

Consistently based comm.

Fuck the authie red fash enablers.

[–] PinkiePieYay2707@pawb.social 13 points 3 days ago

Big W for providing receipts.

[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This is good, thanks for being transparent. It sucks when this has to happen.

[–] erinmeow@piefed.blahaj.zone 21 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] erin@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] erinmeow@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 19 hours ago
[–] snoons@lemmy.ca 22 points 3 days ago

Ouite, and might I add: fuck tankies.

[–] belated_frog_pants@beehaw.org 13 points 3 days ago

Good, tankie bullshit is exhausting.

[–] hildegarde@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 3 days ago (5 children)

This shouldn't have been an announcement. Its fine to remove moderators and enforce standards within the team, but you can handle these situations gracefully and quietly. The exact individual makeup of the mod team isn't relevant to most of 196's visitors, especially in this case where you claim this won't be a major change to moderation.

It seems disingenuous to claim this isn't a condemnation when you're dumping screenshots and pinning this post for maximum visibility. I agree with many here that transparency is important, but similar to modlogs, this should be posted somewhere those interested can find it rather than shouted from the rooftops.

You can and should separate amicability without involving all of us.

oh i'm actually a fan of giving explanations for mod decisions.

[–] wraekscadu@vargar.org 15 points 3 days ago (4 children)

A moderator holds quite a lot of power. Which is why sadly, power hungry people tend to want to become moderators.

A way to ensure that power isn't being misused is by being extremely transparent. This is the 196 mod team being transparent. I like it.

Does it stir up some drama? Maybe. Is this outcome more preferable over the Tesseract case, where "moderation action" wasn't being made aware to the the user? 100%.

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[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

should be posted somewhere those interested can find it

Does that place exist?

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[–] tomalley8342@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

The way the rules are being enforced as well as who is enforcing the rules are just as important as the rules themselves IMO, if any of the above 3 change it should be made aware to the users. In this case idk if it would even be condemnation, considering she doesn't seem to mind being a tankie at all.

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[–] Susaga@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You know the classic "I'm not racist but" lie racists tell? A lot of people with bad opinions try to pre-emptively cover their ass with a lie, then go "but" and share their actual opinion. Reading through the examples with this in mind... Yeah, I'm glad she's no longer a mod. Good call.

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[–] alapakala@quokk.au 9 points 3 days ago

Why does it read like the ⚪white censored excerpts are pugjesus?

[–] yamyam@piefed.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 days ago

this is a very chungus decision by the moderation team

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