So, I saw a report from one of my users. They reported:
https://ponder.cat/post/1594852/1813842
For the reason:
Unreasonable fighting with everyone in every simple post
I think thatās ridiculous, so I talked with them about it. Posting private communications is frowned upon I guess, but long story short, they werenāt receptive. Iāve decided to ban the account.
IMO the general culture on Lemmy is that users are entitled to their free account and everyone needs to be careful and circumspect about limiting that entitlement in any way, but I donāt see it that way. I donāt think itās a requirement for me to provide hosting space for anyone who wants to use my stuff as a jumping-off point for abuse of Lemmyās systems, and isnāt apologetic or receptive when I talk with them about not doing that. The fact that itās in service of harassing FlyingSquid in particular is just icing on the cake, since my perception is that people like to harass him apparently for no legitimate reason at all (with this as an example).
AITA?
Finally got banned from lemm.ee, did you?
@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] This dude is evading my attempts to block him, via an endless series of new accounts he makes on new instances. Please consider this a report for block evasion and harassment, as applied to his UniversalMonk account on your instance (all of those being instances on which heās previously made some new account and then had an interaction which caused me to block that account and ask him to stop contacting me.)
(Not that you losing an account on any given instance is really that big an obstacle of course. Like I said, itās a flaw in how Lemmy is set up, from the perspective of moderation, and actually exactly why I donāt give a ton of leeway to new accounts that show strong signs of being up to some kind of malicious behavior.)
Edit: Since it kind of got lost in the forest of replies below: Yes, I have proof of them deliberately evading blocks, by trying to talk to me on blocked accounts, then switching accounts to non-blocked accounts and then posting ārandomā comments as the first actions from the non-blocked accounts: https://ponder.cat/post/1596872/1838056
Theyāve also participated via voting in communities they were banned from. It was only a few times, so it could have been an accident. But also, theyāve making dozens of new alts because the old ones keep getting banned and they want to keep doing the same stuff that got them banned, so itās a little disingenuous to claim thereās no possible way they could keep up with all the blocks and bans that have been applied to them, because itās so complicated at this point, so it doesnāt count.
As that user said, theyāre not deliberately attempting to block evade. Just a side effect of making a new account
Iāve seen them posting in communities and instances they have previously been banned from. If they made an attempt to avoid it that would be one thing but they donāt.
Iām almost certain they are ban evading with their alts.
If you have, then DM admins directly about that. They probably mod those communities as well, so reports never reach the admins
But if I am posting to my own community that I have NOT been blocked from, and on an instance I have NOT been blocked from, how would that be ban evasion?
I posted some timestamps of them switching to an alt I donāt have blocked, specifically so they can comment on my posts and I will see it. Happy to send the logs in question if anyone wants to see without digging through their own database.
Name one. Provide examples. Lots of admins talk to each other. So letās see some proof of what you have seen.
The vast, vast majority of my posting is to my own communities. But Iām totally fine with you showing some screen shots of where you have seen me posting to places I am banned from withātime stamps to show that they were posted AFTER any ban. PhiliptheBucket seems to have every timestamp of everything I am posting and even he is not accusing me of what you just have.
So give me an example of where you have seen me posting to a banned instance and/or community AFTER I was banned.
But you just said youāve seen me posting in communities and on instances Iāve been banned from. Now you are saying āalmost certain.ā
So which is it? Did you see me like you said above or are you āalmost certain?ā
And if you are so sure of it it, did you report those to the admin? And do you have examples? Letās have a look.
I keep the same fucking username. So it would be pretty hard for me to post in communities that Iām banned from. Seems like the mods could spot it right away.
If wanted to ban evade, wouldnāt it be easier to just come up with a random name and then post wherever I wanted?
And again, guys. I am NOT the subject of OPās original post. This is all off-topic. This thread is not about me. Let it go!
You were caught here in the act posting to communities on an instance you were banned from.
Nope. Read the entire thing. Thatās a robotic ban that the the mod, auk, admitted was a ban that I would know nothing about. In fact, after reviewing, auk said: As I said under the other post, I do believe this evasion was entirely unintentional, for the reasons you outlined.
And later the mod, auk, said of my participation: Iām not planning to set the bot up to notify dozens of users about their bans in a community they have never posted in and donāt care about. Notice it says ānever posted in and donāt care about.ā
And the admin of that instance and other instances agreed that I couldnāt have known about the ban because it was robotic. Other users also agreed look at the subs modlog, users who HAVE NEVER POSTED THERE GET BANNED without their knowing: https://sh.itjust.works/post/27848698
Which is why I didnāt get banned from that instance after admin review. Funny how you left out those details. Screenshot proof of convo:
Also caught cloning other usersā¦
Wasnāt ācaughtā doing anything. I havenāt closed other users. Do you have proof of this?
I use my own name across several instances. I havenāt cloned or copied anyone.
What?
Still waiting on proof that I cloned or copied anyoneās username. You brought up, so show us the proof.
This is a community about proof of accusations. So show us.
Woah glad you caught that, just gave a ping to sopuli.xyzās admins on the page hopefully theyāll respond soon and deal with that.
Already done, and I asked them to removed accounts that were cloned/parodying me as well. I wasnāt the one who cloned anyone or anything.
Please provide proof to me, this audience, and the admins if you have any proof.
He has a few other alts as well, but itās not exactly my day job to keep detailed notes. However, I am sick of his shit and that dude is a fucking cockroach.
TBH, I donāt think itās really against any rules to dup a username across instances as SMCF is actually on .world. However, this is being done with malice and should be addressed. UM must have been holding a grudge from when he was banned from .world.
As in alt names or instances? Because i have no alt names. If you donāt have proof, then donāt falsely accuse.
Please show us the proof.
Then why bring it up?
You have no proof of this. Please show posts where I have malice.
No, YOU have been holding a grudge from that. Let it go. It was before the election. I didnāt vote for Harris. And she lost. But her loss wasnāt my fault. Get over it.
Honestly, I think the issue is that it really is a job, and there isnāt anyone whoās really well-positioned to take charge of it.
Any system which allows easy, anonymous account creation is going to be subject to some level of abuse. Any system which does that, and also is distributed among multiple instances with admins who donāt always see eye-to-eye on things, is going to be absolutely helpless in the face of even a very rudimentary attempt at abuse, and anyone who wants to will be able to run rings around the admins and just kind of run around doing whatever they want. Telling people ājust block the obnoxious people on whatever new accounts they make when they get bannedā obviously isnāt the answer, but itās what people fall back on because it is the only thing that can be relied upon to work.
I think Blueskyās idea of federating out block lists (basically, as I understand it) is probably the most straightforward non-awful way. You donāt want to make every new user encounter every obnoxious person and learn, one by one, who they are and that they need to block them. That way lies madness.
Yeah I agree, having multiple accounts with the same username is okay when your intention isnāt to cause malice. When one is doing it to impersonate/namesquat or just to troll and ban evade then itās a problem. Itās part of why I have as many as I do. It makes it extremely difficult for people to impersonate me, except on the handful of excommunicated instances I never signed up to but those will be very clearly recognized as impersonation.
What in the actual fuck are you talking about? The user is deliberately block evading. Its so bad, I am going to start publishing a daily UM blocklist for people.
How am I block evading? Itās not up to me to check on who has blocked me and who hasnāt.
Just ignore and or block me and move on. Iām not sure why you all are so obsessed with me.
Just ignore me! And if you donāt want to interact with me, then donāt comment about me or reply to me. And tada! Problem solved.
What difference does it make what my name is? If I were to actually ban evade, and used a different screen name, the comment I made would still be the same.
That user posted to this community asking for opinions. I gave mine as it fits into this communityās rules. I didnāt even check the name of the poster.
I read the OP. I replied per the sub rules. Thatās it. Move on, guys.
Itās just Lemmy. I promise the world isnāt going to end because of any of my posts. Most people outside a few raging posters donāt even know who I am. As has been shown in the threads where you all try to ban me and users say, āIāve never heard of Universal Monk until now.ā
The OP just posted an entire essay in this very thread about me using server times, SQL queries, and other statistics, and his theory about my motivations. I donāt even know what any of that means. I definitely donāt think of you guys that much. He says he blocks me, but he keeps a dictionary of statistics on me? Seriously? Go outside, guys.
If you all want people to stop talking about me, then you all should stop talking about me. Easy.
You guys drive the mods crazy yelling about me. Just ignore me when you see my comments. It aināt that hard!
All these comments about me are about to be removed anyway because they are off-topic, plus Iām not even the subject of the original post for the thread!
I wonāt consider you talking with me about this in this thread to be block evasion, FWIW. Weāre talking, since you switched to an alt to start an interaction with me, and itās not really offensive for me to continue this conversation. We might as well. I probably wonāt answer a reply, but hereās my take:
This is a really key point.
The internet (and phone system before that) has developed a norm that if someone doesnāt want to hear from you, thatās their right. Over the phone it can actually be illegal. The reasons should be pretty self-explanatory, but itās basically just anyoneās right to decide that someoneās being obnoxious and they donāt want to hear anything else from that person. Violating that decision is symbolic, on both sides: Some people will get bent out of shape by someone sending even a single ping if they donāt want to hear it, because they tried to set a boundary and it got stomped on. And some people will take a kind of pleasure in violating someone elseās attempts not to hear from them, even if the context is something totally meaningless. You can see kids do this kind of thing with their siblings sometimes when someone sets a boundary. The core issue that gives it power is that factor of consent, or violation of consent.
The internet has decided that communicating with someone whoās checked the box that they donāt want to hear from you is crossing a line. The content or context doesnāt mean anything. Thatās why the block function blocks DMs, and posts, and comments. And actually, the same type of person who thinks itās fun to make comments to someone who doesnāt want to hear them, often will also think itās fun to make perfectly innocuous comments so they can then claim theyāre being abused if the person doesnāt want to hear the innocuous comments, and is making a big deal out of nothing. Again, you can see kids do this sometimes to each otherās boundaries.
Itās not hard to understand. Two separate times, once right after I mentioned you in a comment, you switched from the alt you usually use to one you rarely use, that I donāt have blocked, and then instantly commented on one of my posts. And then feigned perfect ignorance and claimed not to have even noticed that it was me who made the post.
I posted some of the details, just for verifiability by anyone whoās in an admin role, but thatās what happened. Pretty straightforward. You are communicating to me on purpose, dodging around my blocking of you, and then lying about why and how you did it.
I would hope this isnāt true. Thereās a reason why we want the pattern of little tiny lights on the screen to look one way and not another way. At the end of the day, itās all just pixels, but it makes a difference whether whatās on the screen in the words shaped by the pixels is kindness or maliciousness, truth or falsehood, stuff we want or stuff we donāt want. Youāre saying you have the right to shape the pixels on my screen, and trying to paint it like Iām making a problem if I inform people that youāre breaking the rules to get them to shape the way you want them, instead of it being the way the network is normally set up to operate, keeping things in a more voluntary pixel-shape instead of an involuntary one.
Harassment is pixels, personal insults are pixels, misinformation is pixels. Your messages are pixels. I would prefer not to have them arranged for me on my screen. Please stop doing creative things to continue sending them to me.
I actually donāt think this message is going to do much, either for your behavior or for the adminsā reactions. Actually I think sending you a thought-through message may just sort of egg you on in terms of giving you attention which is going to lead to further interactions. Itās usually my habit for how to try to first approach problems, though, is just explaining them clearly and addressing whatās going on with them, or answering what people have to say about them.
I donāt want this to hurt your feelings, but I actually donāt care about you enough to harass you. My reply in this thread wasnāt harassment by any sense of the word. I didnāt even know it was you.
You are a prolific poster. One glance at your profile shows how much you are all over Lemmy. So yeah, our paths are gonna cross.
I have never called you names. I have never sent you harassing DMās. Weāve only talked in public forums. And even then, we havenāt actually interacted that much.
Think of it like this. Letās say your goal was achieved and I was banned from across the fediverse.
Do you think that would make me disappear? No, Iād just create a new name, and come back. (Which by the way, would officially be the definition of ban-evasion, unlike your definition.)
But you wouldnāt know it was me.
So an example from that scenario: Letās say I pick a news name of BobSmithy. I see this post. And I reply with. āPTB in my opinion. It seems banning someone for one post is a bit extreme.Totally your call, but thatās how I see it when other mods do actions similar as to yours.ā
Ok, youād read it, shrug, move on. Not that big of a deal.
Thatās the exact fucking thing I posted. But you saw it was from the big bad evil āUNIVERSAL MONK!!!ā and you lost your shit.
You gotta stop thinking about me so much. Itās making you crazy. Youāre talking about yesteryear of dial phones, and philosophy of pixels and search query and wanting to make long legal history notes of how what I am doing is targeting you.
Look how many posts I make. How many have been about you or to you? Maybe 5 or 6? And you think thatās targeting you?
Also, just so you know, if you all wouldnāt have fought soooo fucking hard to get me banned on .world, we wouldnāt have this problem. Because Iād still be on one instance. One block and youād never hear from me.
But you and a few others decided to get soo vocal and scream to the moderators that now I never know when Iāll get banned, so I have to spread my name out. Which is what the point of the fediverse is.
I posted a reply to a PUBLIC POST that you made to this community. And the reply wasnāt personal. And it followed the rules of this community.
Not only that, but you listed with glee that I was banned for lemm.ee. And youāve listed all my other bannings. But I have no idea if you have been banned from any instance. Cuz i donāt look you up. And I donāt care.
But you certainly look me up. And post stats.
Think about that: I donāt know about your post times, or servers, what comments have been removed or where you have been banned from.
Because I donāt stalk you. Yet you know all that info, and post it. And this isnāt your first time posting my stats.
Think about that, friend.
Iām not leaving Lemmy. If banned under this name, I would come back under something else. (Before you all message the poor mods, donāt convict me of thoughtcrimes before they happen.)
So for your mental health, just ignore me, donāt react to me, or comment about me. Itās not healthy to obsess so much.
I have no ill will toward you. I will try to not reply to you unless you ask me to. But dude, you post more than I do, youāre in almost all the communities Iām in.
Iāll just drop one of your other accounts here: https://sopuli.xyz/post/22490143
(There isnāt any point in reading your stupid rants and crying.)
Not me. Not my account. Not even my username. Iāve reported you for falsely stating that this is me.
Do you have any proof at all that that is me? I donāt even know why you would think it was me.
Please provide proof, because I, and the admin, would love to see it. You keep bringing that up as me and I have already said it was me.
And it looks like that user was banned anyway.
Itās your MO.
Quit mumbling.
Thatās actually not true. People overuse the word āgaslighting,ā but this is actually a perfect example of the original meaning of the term.
This is the second time recently heās āaccidentallyā posted on something I wrote, and both times, he switched away from one of his commonly-used alts, to a different one that I didnāt have blocked, right before posting. I can, if you want me to, send you the output of this from my system:
Huge SQL query
WITH target_people AS ( SELECT id, actor_id FROM person WHERE name LIKE '%UniversalMonk%' ) SELECT action_time as timestamp, actor_id, item_id, score, creator_actor_id, CASE WHEN score IS NULL AND content IS NOT NULL THEN CASE WHEN length(content) > 20 THEN substr(content, 1, 20) || '...' ELSE content END ELSE NULL END as content FROM ( -- Comments SELECT c.published as action_time, p.actor_id, c.id as item_id, NULL::smallint as score, creator.actor_id as creator_actor_id, c.content FROM comment c JOIN target_people p ON c.creator_id = p.id LEFT JOIN person creator ON c.creator_id = creator.id WHERE NOT c.deleted AND NOT c.removed UNION ALL -- Posts SELECT p.published as action_time, person.actor_id, p.id as item_id, NULL::smallint as score, NULL as creator_actor_id, NULL as content FROM post p JOIN target_people person ON p.creator_id = person.id WHERE NOT p.deleted AND NOT p.removed UNION ALL -- Comment votes SELECT cl.published as action_time, p.actor_id, cl.comment_id as item_id, cl.score, creator.actor_id as creator_actor_id, c.content FROM comment_like cl JOIN target_people p ON cl.person_id = p.id LEFT JOIN comment c ON cl.comment_id = c.id LEFT JOIN person creator ON c.creator_id = creator.id WHERE NOT c.deleted AND NOT c.removed ) combined_actions ORDER BY action_time DESC;Ā
So what it shows this time, is UniversalMonk using his sh.itjust.works account and lemmy.dbzer0.com account and nothing else for a few days, including most recently at Feb 12 at 23:27, and then at 23:36, switching to his r.nf account, which I havenāt blocked and which he doesnāt use much, and the first thing he did with it was comment on a post of mine.
The previous time was actually even a little more egregious. He was using his other accounts (including his lemm.ee one, before that one was banned), then at Feb 4 at 21:04 I made a comment in some thread mentioning the existence of a new alt of his, and he switched from other actions on his mainly-used accounts (most recently at 21:38) and then at 21:39 from his vegantheoryclub.org account, his first action on that account was to post this:
https://vegantheoryclub.org/comment/1670126
Then, when I semi-politely told him that he was evading the block (since it was pretty obvious to me that something along the lines of the above had happened, although I didnāt verify it at the time) and asked him not to, he played the exact same game of pretending he had just innocently stumbled across a post of mine and wanted to say something about it, and it was totally unreasonable for me to ask him not to.
Thereās a reason he switches to an account I havenāt blocked right before leaving these comments. And yes, I know it sounds semi-psychotic that I went digging around in the database to verify that he is gaslighting you when he feigns total shock and surprise that he had left a comment under a post by me, pretending it was total coincidence. This is why he keeps getting banned on different instances: His behavior is really very strange, dishonest, and malicious in a kind of unique way.
Anyway, yes he was block evading on purpose to minorly irritate me. Iām happy to DM you proof excerpts or similar. I know it sounds kind of petty for me to go to this extent, but the other way to look at it is, this is the extent that someone has to go to if they want to not be communicated at by UnviersalMonk. He has a history of targeted harassment of users in the past (which is what got him banned from lemmy.world), and for me he seems to have chosen this kind of āgaslighting and hoping Iāll complain about it, so he can feign innocence and write a big italicized innocent messageā approach.
Nice details
Dude, I didnāt even notice the name of the person posting. I just replied in the thread.
I have no idea what names of mine that you have blocked or not blocked. Iāve actually kept the same username so that people who want to block me can easily block me.
You posted in a public forum that I subscribe to. And I replied to the post, in the spirit of the community, and according to the community guidelines.
There is no deceit on my part.
This isnāt ban evasion. Iām not evading a ban because I havenāt been banned from this community.
And besides, if I did use an alt name and proceeded to post the EXACT SAME COMMENT as my original comment, then you wouldnāt have a problem. Yet it would still be me commenting, and you wouldnāt know or care!
If you donāt want people on Lemmy to comment on your posts, then donāt post to a Lemmy community.