this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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Okay so here's what happened.

There is a mod of some AI-generated image forums who has been slinging out bans for "anti-AI trolling" to people who have never participated in their community, apparently more or less at random. Full disclosure, I am one of those people, and I'm confident I have never done any anti-AI trolling.

Apparently the justification for this is that other people are being aggressively hateful to this mod, coming in and being incredibly abusive, transphobic, insulting her for alleged alcoholism and making fake pictures of her and generally just being horrible. Conveniently, one of these people showed up in the thread where we were talking about it, on cue, and started slinging around horribleness which provided a convenient cover for people to say "And THAT's why we have to be really strict with the bans!" type of things. We never really got to the bottom of what the connection was between that and the random bans to other people who were longstanding accounts that didn't seem to be doing any of those things.

Anyway, now another abusive alt of the (now obviously bannned) abusive alt that originally stirred up trouble has made a pitch-perfect effort to inflame divisions and create a balkanization between the "pro AI" people, centered around dbzer0 (edit: ~~and blahaj~~), and "anti AI" people, centered around everywhere else.

This is two identical posts, made to two separate communities which are guaranteed to have totally opposite takes on it based on their different levels of information about the issue, which will then lead everyone to assume that the other community is just being horrible about it on purpose when they draw different conclusions:

(Edit: The troll has now been banned, so I can't link to their posts anymore. Just imagine this post, except made by one of the trolls who are featured in the comments of that post, you can dig in the modlog or in spoiler text of some other comments to see some of what they were saying. Anyway, the troll posted the exact same complaint about being "unfairly" banned both to lemmy.world, where they got tons of sympathy and upvotes, and to dbzer0, where people who were aware of what they were up to gave them derision and downvotes.)

Like I said, if the goal is to create division and heated argument between two opposing "camps," this is pretty much as perfect as you can get it. I expect it to work, at least to a certain amount, to get people embittered towards one another and arguing about the issue impassioned that the other side is wrong and stupid.

I can't find the link right now, but there was someone on reddit who claimed that they used to do this professionally (trying to disrupt online communities so that organized shilling could succeed better there, because the previous coherence that they had had had been replaced by confusion and bickering, and then they could insert bullshit without it being pushed back on as strongly.) It's fascinating. What they described isn't exactly like this, but it definitely sort of rings similar to me. Just to throw that out there.

Also, UniversalMonk is involved, because of course he is.

Edit: Fun with grammar

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[–] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Also, UniversalMonk is involved, because of course he is.

I'm gonna repeat your favorite comment and ask where's your proof? Give me receipts.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au 0 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/u/UniversalMonk?page=1&sort=New&view=Comments

Pretty much all of the bottom section of that page is UM getting involved in the drama of this particular "anti-AI troll." He's getting involved on the correct side, but the point is he is certainly involved.

[–] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

that's bullshit. when you say "UM is involved", you make it sound like UM is behind it in some way. feeding trolls isn't being involved, and you know it.

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

But how would else Phillip win when he can ignore your posts and say no one has anything to say?

[–] PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au -3 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

In my opinion, someone who's involved in the conversation is "involved." Cryptagion's point isn't totally weird or crazy, but I don't really agree with it. Especially given the nature of UM's previous involvement on Lemmy, I think it's relevant if he was heavily involved in the comments for this thing, so in passing, I noted it.

I've had my share of slapfights for the day at this point. Probably for the week. What could possibly be gained by me creating a reply saying, "No, it's not bullshit! I didn't make it sound that way!" and similar things?

It feels like you really want the hostility to continue beyond the point where everyone's had their say. I have no idea why. Excitement? A desire to see as much disagreement and arguing as possible? He asked for proof, I provided, he disagreed with the interpretation, and at that point anyone who wants to read can make up their mind whose argument made sense. I have absolutely no interest in continuing beyond that point. You're free to conclude for some reason that it's a sin for me to do that, I view it as a pretty constructive approach to take.

Edit: Also, I completely forgot this even, but when UM raised the exact same objection up at the top of the thread, I actually had a pretty long conversation with him including explaining myself in detail and also apologizing about sort of bringing his name up in the nature of a punchline. We talked over DM a little bit, it didn't go anywhere because UM, and I exited the conversation, but because I'm not just a shouty little conflict creator, I actually took it seriously and had a conversation about it.

This is, again, why I think it's incredibly weird that a certain contingent of Lemmy is all up in arms about "PugJesus starts arguments!" as this big sin he's committed. Y'all love this kind of slapfight, you love finding shit you can complain about or having endless hostility with people you don't like. It's fine, I do that sometimes too although I try to cut it off when it seems like it's beyond the point of anything useful, but for you to accuse someone of arguing, stalking, following people around to give them votes or argumentative comments, etc etc, as a bad thing is hilarious given these last few messages (to pick one of any number of examples I could.)

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Weird how you didn't reply to the other person but okay. _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com

This is, again, why I think it’s incredibly weird that a certain contingent of Lemmy is all up in arms about “PugJesus starts arguments!” as this big sin he’s committed. Y’all love this kind of slapfight, you love finding shit you can complain about or having endless hostility with people you don’t like.

lol

Please lemme know when I'm anywhere near as bad as pugjesus, calling people fascists because they want democrats to fight harder, or saying they don't do something as they actively document themselves doing it. My admins will remove my messages/comments when I fuck up, hold me and them up to it. Unless I have the grave sin of "I don't like .world" which is why UM and R2O get harassed despite not doing anything.

But I know you'll always side with Pug over the people he harasses, and never actually talk to the people who are more equipped to deal with you than I am. Like the admins you ignore, or the users who are more familiar of your style.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au -4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

My admins will remove my messages/comments when I fuck up, hold me and them up to it

Make sure you guys agree on a safeword beforehand

[–] Canyon201@lemmy.world -4 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Look.

I'm DONE with these TANKIE instances I'm going with my man @cm0002@lemmy.world and lets BOICOT these instances that collect tankie takes like the Community Party of China collects human rights abuses.

DB0 (the man not the instance) is always talking about camps so i'm putting him in the UYGHYR CONENTRATION CAMP DENYIER camp at this point because he is letting DB0 (the instance not the man) become the forth member of the tankie triad

Maybe if they kept the porn on the PORNLEMMY we could keep this place clean of NSFW and Tankies.

Write this down because I won't repeat myself

Make 👏 Tankies 👏 Afraid 👏 Of 👏 Social 👏 Media 👏 Again - donate to piefed

[–] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 hours ago

We'd rather you not repeat yourself regardless.

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 16 hours ago

Damn, anarchists who explicitly hate tankies are tankies now.

[–] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 21 hours ago

listen, it's db0 and dbzer0. if you're gonna make shit up, at least get the names right.

[–] UniversalMonk@quokk.au 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Also, UniversalMonk is involved, because of course he is.

How am I involved?! I have nothing to do with this drama. I'm not the mod of those communities, nor am I the person complaining about any of it.

Only thing I've done is vote and comment in the !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com community where the issues first came up.

Thanks, friend! :)

[–] Walk_blesseD@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

"pro AI" people, centered around dbzer0 and blahaj,

Jesse what the fuck are you talking about

[–] PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, maybe I was wrong. I thought there were some blahaj people in the grouping that was saying "yeah this makes total sense" but I don't see it looking back now. Maybe it was in the deleted threads or maybe (more likely) I entirely hallucinated it, I'll remove that part.

Idk, it's entirely possible that there's one or two of them on here, but from what I've seen it's definitely not the majority opinion, that's all I'm saying.

[–] andyburke@fedia.io 22 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Hang on, you're telling me I can be randomly banned from AI communities?

How do I get my name on the list for sure? I don't want to have to just hope the randomness gods smile on me.

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 5 days ago (2 children)

You could just block them you know.

I have no interest in communities dedicated to female celebrities. When they started cropping up, I blocked them (well until I found out it was mostly one user creating the communities and then posting to them, so I just blocked them, but... Same result).

Its pretty easy, about two clicks typically.

[–] UniversalMonk@quokk.au 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You could just block them you know.

Amazing how many on Lemmy refuse to do that, and instead just complain. lol

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Why block when you can harass! That's more sane and normal, right?

[–] UniversalMonk@quokk.au 3 points 3 days ago

Right? And as for the people accusing me of sealioning, that is one of the most made-up, fake terms I have ever seen.

I had literally never even heard the word sealioning until someone threw it at me on Lemmy. I had to have it explained to me multiple times, and even after reading the definition, I still don't think it is a real thing.

I'm not that smart. So when I ask, "What does that mean?" it's because I genuinely do not know. But somehow, just asking basic questions gets me accused of sealioning.

I still remember the first time it happened. And then I asked what sealioning was, and my question got removed for sealioning. Lol. Good times.

And that goofy cartoon people always post to explain it still makes no sense in ninety percent of the cases where I see the term thrown around.

[–] andyburke@fedia.io 13 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I was hoping I wouldn't need to do any work and the AI people would just automatically save me from them.

Guess AI disappoints yet again...

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 5 days ago

They might ban you preemptively, actually.

I'm just saying you have a readily available tool at your fingertips, which you could use rather than just complain about the existence of a community you apparently haven't even seen.

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

I don't think being banned prevents it from showing up on your feed. Best to block as you scroll.

[–] gofsckyourself@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

The dbzer0 admins and users are definitely creating a problem where there is none, even if there are some anti-AI trolls.

Take a look at this thread where a dbzer0 user was harassing people and using a handful of accounts to manipulate votes: https://lemmy.world/post/32430859

Multiple admins and users came around to start shit about anti-AI when the problem had absolutely nothing to do with that at all.

[–] geekwithsoul@piefed.social 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I was one of the ones banned from a number of AI communities despite not engaging with them really on my old Lemm.ee account. With UM involved, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised :) Sounds like just the sort of shit he'd have a hand in stirring up and just the way he'd do it.

[–] UniversalMonk@quokk.au 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (7 children)

With UM involved

I'm not involved though. I have nothing to do with it. Someone saying, "universalmonk is involved!" doesn't make it real. Please provide any proof that I have anything to do with what OP is talking about. I'm not the mod of the community OP is talking about, nor the person posting that OP is talking about. I've commented on comment about the issue, as many are doing here right now, but I have nothing to do with the actual issue.

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[–] floo@retrolemmy.com 12 points 6 days ago

Also, UniversalMonk is involved, because of course he is.

Ugh, the cancer of the fediverse

[–] SereneSadie@lemmy.myserv.one 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Man, someone going around harassing mods by making 'fake pictures' of them.

Gee, I wonder what they could possibly be using to make those fake pictures, huh.

Glass houses.

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[–] funbreaker@piefed.social 8 points 6 days ago

Ten USD says any criticism of AI is being lumped in with the actual trolling.

[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 days ago (4 children)

I want to know what I did to be marked as an anti-AI troll. There are specifics in what trolling is imo so I'd like to know more, maybe even defend myself.

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Not the mod, but if you've ever down voted with no other interaction, my guess would be that. Or timing of a downvote coinciding with a bunch of others from other accounts, again as a singular downvote.

There is a tool which will coord down votes across multiple accounts, which is helping some trolls - notably the anti-AI trolls mentioned - coordinate mass down votes to try to avoid detection.

[–] lemonySplit@lemmy.ca 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Louder for the people in the back

"Downvoting (a single vote) on its own does not constitute trolling"

Its literally participating in the fediverse whether you cry over karma or not.

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[–] PatrickStar@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

There was someone who talked about this in fedilore a few weeks back, but they got dismissed because everyone thought it was an isolated incident. Those people look stupid now in my opinion.

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