This was originally posted as a comment response in !asklemmy@lemmy.world.

Back in December, the instance hosting 196 (lemmy.blahaj.zone) announced that, as part of its mission as a trans-friendly space, harassment based on gender or neopronouns would remain** prohibited—even if the user in question was suspected of being a troll. Users were asked to disengage, block, and report suspected trolling behavior rather than bring harassment into a community already vulnerable to that kind of bullying.

There was a small backlash to the policy from some users. This led to a number of “toe the line” posts that weren’t outright gender-based harassment but strongly signaled an intent to misgender or harass in the future. Blahaj admins promptly removed all offending comments during this wave of dissent.

Important to note: The majority of the Blahaj and 196 users supported the policy, upvoting and praising the admins for creating a safe space for trans individuals.

By January, the backlash had mostly subsided, and the trolls causing issues had moved on. While the 196 moderators, including @moss and their team, did agree with the specific neopronouns policy, they remained unhappy with the broader policy of respect for trans identities. They cited “personal differences” and expressed discontent with instances where Blahaj admins directly removed comments which harassed or openly expressed intent to harass trans identities, feeling that it overstepped their role.*

Yesterday, @moss and the 196 moderation team enacted a major decision without consulting the community. They locked !196@lemmy.blahaj.zone and instructed users to move to !196@lemmy.world.

This move was extremely unpopular. Many users strongly dislike lemmy.world for various reasons (a complicated topic better unpacked elsewhere). The announcement post was met with widespread backlash, and @moss eventually locked it. In response, a few users created a new community on Blahaj: !onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone. The new community quickly grew in size and activity, with most users opting to stay on Blahaj rather than migrate to lemmy.world.

It’s clear @moss and the 196 moderators underestimated the community’s attachment to its home on Blahaj. By attempting to uproot the group without input, they alienated much of the community. As a result, most users have moved to the new Blahaj-hosted community, which has already become the more active space.

TL;DR:
@Moss and the 196 mod team tried to move the community to lemmy.world without consulting anyone. The decision was extremely unpopular, leading to backlash and the creation of a new Blahaj-hosted community that most users now prefer.

*This paragraph has been edited after receiving correction or clarification from @A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.world. You can find that discussion here.

**”Remain” being the key word here. Blahaj has openly held the same trans-focused policies as always, and the admin Ada was simply reasserting her position here.

  • Rhoeri@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    5 hours ago

    Yeah. The problem is, they report people for using they/them. And it’s successful.

    • Katzastrophe@feddit.org
      31·
      3 hours ago

      Yes, because it’s still misgendering. If we allow ourselves to misgender someone because they’re an asshole, then what the hell makes us better than open transphobes? Please explain to me how misgendering drag is different from misgendering my good friend using neopronouns who isn’t a troll? How can you misgender drag, just to turn around and tell me that you respect me? If drag can somehow lose the respect to be gendered properly, what does that mean for me? At what point am I considered too much of an asshole to be given the basic human courtesy of having my pronouns respected?

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
        3·
        3 hours ago

        I’ll admit, the neopronoun thing in general is where I stop taking someone seriously.

        Gender neutral pronouns are fine, and I fully support using them, but deciding words that have been used to refer to a person, or group, of non specific gender for generations are now offensive is very presumptuous.

        Even if it’s done in good faith, you’re trying to change language by command, and that’s just not how that works.

        • Katzastrophe@feddit.org
          3·
          2 hours ago

          I don’t get them either, but that’s the important part, just because you don’t understand them doesn’t mean it gives you a free pass to ignore/invalidate them.

          I myself consider it/it’s pronouns to be extremely weird, but does that mean I misgender the people who use them? No, obviously not, because that is rude.

          Even if it’s silly, using neopronouns is much less of a hassle than people think it is. Drag’s are extremely simple at that too.

          • Rhoeri@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            1 hour ago

            But they are making a mockery of pronouns for the purpose of trolling. And I have no intention to support that.

            • Katzastrophe@feddit.org
              21·
              1 hour ago

              Is drag doing that? Or are you just trying to find a flimsy excuse to misgender someone? Because you still have yet to tell me why specifically Drag deserves to get drag’s pronouns disrespected. And being an asshole should not be a reason as stated before

          • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
            1·
            1 hour ago

            Are there actually people other than the dragon using neopronouns on this site? I thought it was just one person with a bunch of alts.

        • Katzastrophe@feddit.org
          2·
          1 hour ago

          Once again asking you at what point someone deserves to be misgendered? If it’s because of troll behavior? Congratulations, you are literally telling me basic human decency depends on if someone perceives me as a troll or not.