Sometimes, that link is behind text in the header and I accidentally select something else when I'm trying to select it and the entire header disappears and I don't know how to get it back. How do I get it back?

Hi, try switching your theme from what it currently is and then back to it and let us know if that works. You can do that in your settings.

Post edited to make it clear that it’s a free thread

Comment removed at user request

Yes, people who are transitioning can request a name change and that change will be automatically applied to all of their comments and posts.

That has been possible for years.

Yes front page Metafilter posts are saved when you click preview aka you can start a draft and finish it later.

This does not work on any other sub-site.

Once comment deleted as requested.

One comment deleted containing harmful and outdated language/terminology.

double comment removed

One deleted. Poster's request.

One double comment deleted.

...now I'm thinking maybe I should leave, after setting this burst off.

I've got some thinking to do.

A lot of members have had positive reactions to what you're posting and the mod team has already spoken about "yeah, keep an eye out for her posts to make sure things don't go off rails 'cause of the bigots."

Ultimately it's up to you and do whatever feels right for you, but your presence and posts have had a positive affect. You're posting for good reasons with good intentions, just remember that you're not responsible for ugly reactions that bigots might have to your posts or comments.

Also, don't feel as though you have to post every week, that can feel like burden and/or lessen the joy.

Kutsuwamushi: " You would easily find these arguments unacceptable if they were applied to black people"

Nope, as a black man born and raised in America, you're dead wrong there. We may disagree in this instance and that's fine, but as black man born and raised in America, I do try to find the best in people and am willing to give some people a chance if I think there's potential for change.

But that's a personal thing, and it doesn't have to be so as moderator if trans members and allies think differently about the tiamat account. So we're making the ban permanent on that with notes and links to the previous 8 comments in this thread to make it clear to any future moderators how the community feels about reinstating that account.

Thank you to everyone for speaking up and expressing their opinion about this, it definitely pushed things to make the ban permanent.

maryellenreads: "My question now it, what's to stop Tiamat from unbuttoning their main or sockpuppet accounts?"

Whether an account is closed by the member or by mods, it can only be reopened by mods.

The HonestAlly-sock account has several notes on it reminding us not to unban it at all. It's permanently closed.

The Tiamat account is noted not to be unbanned unless we have a talk with the user and make it clear that their behavior on trans issues is unacceptable and if we do reopen it, anything vaguely resembling previous behavior will result in a permanent ban.

Toddles: "Thanks - moderators feel free to fix." Fixed!

mrgoat: "An official mod comment explaining if Tiamat button'd themselves..."

They did indeed button the main and sock puppet account themselves.

No deletions made so far, but wanted to note HonestAlly-sock's first comment that is being pushed back against. Let's avoid speaking on behalf of other people and discussing their experience like an academic topic; invite them to speak for themselves instead!

june_dodecahedron: "Yes, mods, will the transphobes from this thread be banned?"


Yes, bluemat and Czjewels have been permanently banned for being transphobic and a note has been left in that thread stating so.

Frimble originally noticed the comments and reached out to the mod on duty, goodnewsfortheinsane, who removed the comments and put a note in the mod Slack requesting another opinion on whether the two accounts should be banned. I happened to be up and noticed what was going on, told gnfti that a perm ban made sense. Gnfti went ahead and did the actual banning, made a goof and temporarily banned fight or flight, Rhaomi pointed that out and the mistake was quickly corrected.

Apologies about that fight or flick, it was a mistake on our part and quickly made right.

Otherwise, yes we are serious about being more aggressive about transphobia on the site. Loup explicitly left a comment on the mod slack about it yesterday: "We should be more aggressive towards these types of comments", in reference to transphobic comments made by The Master and Margarita Mix and CyberSlug Labs, who were permanently banned yesterday.

Hello, MetaFilter moderation staff here. Do not come into this post or anywhere on MetaFilter to gloat about transphobia or be transphobic in any way, shape, or form. The accounts for bluemat and Czjewel have now been permanently banned for doing so. The moderation staff of MetaFilter intends to be more aggressive about dealing with transphobia on the site and much quicker than previously to redirect conversations and assign bans. If you're not sure what transphobia means or is, you're welcome to reach out to the mods with questions. Otherwise, if you're not sure about whether a comment you want to make is transphobic it's perfectly fine to not say anything and just read a thread and learn something.

And another deleted: your trite sloganeering will not stand here.

One comment deleted, at the poster's request.

One transphobic comment and two followups deleted. Absolutely do not with your gloating in here.

Added 'uspolitics' tag

juliebug: "To that end... any updates on the site downtime stuff? "

Looks like it's been database timeout issues. I believe they've been fixed, are you still having issues with site slowness?

sagc: "or do you think this might look, from the outside, like yet another example of immediate mod defensiveness and retrenchment in the face of valid criticism?"

Two users have been banned and it's been fairly clear it was because of transphobia.

That said, I am seeing users breaking the rules/guidelines with the justification that they are in the right for doing so. I don't think that's exactly wrong, but do believe it's important to note and pump the brakes on members breaking rules/guidelines because they believe it's morally justified, end of story. That's line of thought/feeling is completely understandable, but don't want to encourage members feeling that they're morally justifiable to do this whenever they want.

We're probably gonna disagree about that, which is fine, we'll handle these situations as they come up.

brook horse: "It would be helpful to understand if The Master and Margarita Mix did something else to trigger a ban, or if that was how long it took mods to discuss the ban, given they were made aware of at least two transphobic comments on April 6th."

Previously they had been mention in discussions about someone to keep an eye on. When june_dodecahedron brought up their comments this afternoon, I went through their comments again, thought "Yes, it's time for ban", talked it over with loup, who agreed a ban was fine, and so they were banned.

ftrtts: "Brandon Blatcher, do you still stand by your comment that told june_dodecahedron to chill?"

Yes, I stand by my comment, made in moderator role, that told june_dodechedron to stop telling other people to fuck off. That is a rule on the site, has been for a while.

The feeling and desire to say that is understandable, but we do want to members to avoid deciding who deserves to be told to fuck off. 'Cause that tends to slide down to personal interactions ("you don't like my comment? Well, F off or F you!") so we tend to discourage that anywhere on the site

Good question and fascinating conversation, so of course it's been added to the sidebar and Best Of blog!

Were the mods actually planning to ban this user before this metatalk post went up?

Yep.

We aim to avoid having one person ban a member with no conversation with other mods so that no person is dispensing bans as they see fit. So I gave CyberSlug Labs a week off to prevent them from saying anything else on the site, emailed them why there getting the temp ban, and that a permanent ban was being discussed.

I was pretty sure the other mods would agree with the ban, just wanted to touch bases with them to get that full agreement. It was a pretty short conversation.

Yes an argument could made that I should have just gone ahead and banned them, but again, it's important that we're not out here being total cowboys when banning people. Plus I was rocking a helluva head cold and felt a second opinion wouldn't hurt anything as long as CyberSlub Labs could no long post in the meantime.

june_dodecahedron: "@loup, the poster of the previous transphobic comment I flagged, were they banned? If not, why not?"

That user, The Master and Margarita Mix, has now been banned.

Were the mods actually planning to ban this user before this MetaTalk post went up?
Yes, totally. I met with Brandon this morning and we agreed to ban them for good.

Transphobia needs to be grounds for an immediate and irreversible ban. Nothing less will do.

Yes, a full ban is in order. Transphobia has no place here. Period. The temporary ban while the moderation team discussed the issue was a decision to stop the user right there and allow some time for us to discuss collectively, not because we need to decide our stance when it comet to transphobic content, but because we take full ban seriously and discuss them together as a team.

Duplicate comment deleted.

One comment deleted as requested.

Duplicate comment deleted.

BlueHorse: "Stupid hag. I could have had 1/1000th of empathy for her actually being afraid to face a stronger opponent with more reach due to body proportion and losing. But having competed with men the week before some of who were no doubt taller, stronger, and perhaps more talented than Sullivan, she was just being a bitch." BlueHorse, this type of sexist language is not ok MetaFilter, it violates our Content Policy, which is there to make it clear that the site is not a haven for hate speech. Please avoid using this type of language in the future, as it may lead to removal of content and/or a ban. For now I'm leaving the comment up to make it clear what's occurred. I'm assigning a day long ban and sending this note to your email.

woman: "How is it possible for Jews to use the phrase "never again" without understanding how they are participating in a modern day atrocity?" Just following up on this comment and what other members have pointed out: Painting Jewish people as a monolithic block is anti-semitic. Not all Jews agree with the Israeli government. Not all Jews support various actions of the Israeli military. Anyone who said all blacks agree with "X" would be quickly condemned as racist, so please be cognizant of your thoughts and language when speaking of the Jewish people.

One comment removed for doubling down on saying "fuck you" to another member. That rule is pretty straightforward, please do not double down on breaking it. Another comment removed for pulling information from a user's profile into the thread and demanding a user be banned. june_dodecahedron, you absolutely need to chill on these types of derails in this thread. You're welcome to take it to MetaTalk or email the mods. Your anger is understandable and the mods are your side, but please avoid continuing to derail the original thread.

CyberSlug Labs, take the week off while the moderation team discusses your comments. In the meantime, it is suggested that you seriously rethink your participation on the site, your comments were transphobic because they blamed child predators and social media for creating trans people. Completely unacceptable. This note has been emailed to CyberSlug Labs.

june_dodecahedron, thanks for bringing this to our attention. In the future, please flag and then shoot us an email to get our attention in these situations. There's only one mod on duty and I am just now seeing the profile you've pointed out. Let's refocus this thread back to the topic it was intended for, as OP has requested. I can confirm that I'm bringing this up to the team right now and working on taking action. Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any other concerns.

Comment and reply to it deleted. It’s 100% uncalled for and not ok to make comments about groomers and predators in a thread about Trans athletes. Do not do that again.

One comment deleted. Let's avoid turning a post about women in space about someone's breast. Please refer to the content policy.

Two comments deleted as requested.

One comment deleted as requested.

One comment deleted. Let's not call an entire demographic "nazis".

A few typos corrected and one comment deleted per poster’s request.

One deleted at poster's request.

Changed to Rewatch per OP’s request

Comment removed at user’s request

One comment deleted as per the Content Policy: MetaFilter is a place for people to share their own knowledge and ideas with each other, not to interact with algorithms, so using ChatGPT or other generative AI tools is discouraged. Please do not query ChatGPT or other LLMs and then post the output unless the discussion itself is about those types of tools, and in those cases, please clearly label what you are posting as coming from an AI tool. All other LLM content will be deleted.

A couple of comments deleted. Please remember that advocating violence against others violates our Content Policy. Additionally, let's try to be considerate and respectful in our discussions. While disagreement is welcome, there's no need to criticize what others are enjoying.

One comment deleted. Wishing violence on other people is not OK and goes against our Content Policy.

One comment removed at member’s request

Klipspringer: In other news, did this post always have a content warning? Do posts about comedy on a website for adults generally need content warnings? If it was added later, where's the mod note?"

The post always had that content warning, no edits have been made to the post.

Added Canada tag

Great link, thanks for sharing, we added this post to the sidebar and Best Of blog!

Added USPolitics Tag

One comment deleted, please make sure your comment answers the question being asked.

Two comments deleted, please make sure your comment answers the question being asked and please avoid making fun of a person's drugs issues.

Several questions removed per the OP's original request: "PLEASE if you don’t believe in chiropractors or think its woo or nonsense or whatever, skip this question."

Removed a comment by rongorongo that looked like it belonged in FanFare. They’ve been notified.

Reopening the thread now as agreed.

One deleted. Poster’s request.

One comment deleted at poster’s request

One comment removed for recommending unpasteurized milk as a possible solution responses left up though. The FDA believes raw milk can pose a serious health risk.

Brandon Blatcher: "Mod note: One comment removed because it links a knock off site (Said it was to the MET store, but was not). Checking with poster to see if they're ok with changing the link."

Poster prefers that comment remain deleted.

One transphobic comment removed (but responses left up), because it violates the Content Policy and MetaFilter is not a place to be posting hateful comments about trans people.

Another comment removed that advocating for violence and/or murder. Don't do that, violates the Content Policy

One comment removed because it links a knock off site (Said it was to the MET store, but was not). Checking with poster to see if they're ok with changing the link.

One comment removed at user’s request.

Kybard: "I've asked the mods to put this up in the original post for clearer visibility, but I know their availability is limited this weekend.
"

This has been done, took all of 10 minutes from original message :)

...will you please add a direct link to Klipspringer's archived moderation log...

This has now been done, thanks for your patient (for the reasons stated above).

Post edited to put complete question in the body of the post, as some people do have titles turned off, making the question nonsensical

added the uspolitics tag.

Closing the thread temporarily since folks have asked us to close/freeze the thread while we have reduced moderation this weekend. Thanks for everyone's patience.

Heads Up: This post has received several flags asking us to close/freeze this thread for the weekend (when we have reduced moderation) to avoid it imploding throughout Saturday and Sunday. I've consulting with the mods covering the weekend shifts and they agree so I've reached out to lab.beetle confirm he's OK with this.

One comment deleted at user's request.

Added single spacing in between paragraphs for easier reading.

Two comments deleted at the user's request.

USPolitics Tag added

One comment deleted at the user'srequest.

Should be a post in the blue or an update in the open thread instead.

Added USPolitics tag.

Acknowledging the mistake above. As kirkaracha mentioned, he didn't know how to turn off the mod box and was acting as a regular member. We'll address it internally as well but if you want to discuss this further please create a new Meta about it.

Klipspringer: "Also the modlog isn't linked from anywhere on the site. It's only discoverable by URL and from MetaTalk posts which will drop away. As far as I can tell."

It’s in the Staff & Site info link in the nav bar.

Comment containing poem deleted upon user’s request

One deleted, posted in wrong thread.

One double comment deleted.

Note that I'm off this coming week, starting two hours or so ago, so things may be slower this week (neither Taz or myself will be around), so just have patience, thanks!

I do see the "ex cathedra" box on the comment you link.

Yep, I fixed that, 'a non mouse, a cow herd' was not seeing things when they made that comment

which, to me, why??? why is it so hard to edit? View source seems to make it look like one line of CSS or HTML? Why can only one person edit it? What if they get hit by a bus?

And, to get back to the original thought of this post, why are we still having the same issues all the time? The "flag" thing took how many years? Publishing BIPOC minutes got to over a year. We're still waiting on a community created cookbook for how long now? The initial excuse was that the community member who was going to do it had things come up. Yet, at least one other volunteered to take over but was shut down to let the first person still attempt to finish.

The code of the current site is a mess and done using a lot techniques from an earlier era of coding, where a lot of current practices just did not exist. Roughly speaking as an a non-developer, I think that analogy is this: Previously everything was hand coded, and I do mean everything, even seemingly common elements (like a footer,) were reproduced a number of times (the footer is at the bottom of every page).

Now imagine having to go into every single one of those different pages that the footer appears on, just to change one or two links. That may be decided to not be worth the time for part time developer to do, especially when there's other stuff going on.

Nowadays templates are built into a content management system (CMS), so that a non-developer has access to a single page where the template is and can just go into that one page to edit that template and those changes are immediately applied wherever that template is being used on the site.

That MetaFilter is more like the former, than the latter is frustrating for everyone, but it is what it is. That's not me being flip, just recognizing that a lot of things with the current site are what they are and are not going to change, hence rebuilding the site.

I think a lot of that also influenced general practices with the staff over time. A "we can't move fast, so we don't move fast". That is my personal opinion and expect that'll change with the new site (note how quickly the missing line around an official mod note was changed and as the person who made the change, it was super easy), which will allow general staff to change things on the site without having to go through a part-time developer aka much quicker.


There are number of complaints mentioned in your comment and I can't reply to every single one because I don't know all the details. But I will express my opinion about late things with the BIPOC Board.

Yes, it took a while and that was frustrating, but I think it's ok, while also noting the Board has changed its practice of doing meeting minutes, they're much more concise.

But asking or demanding that a group that is dedicated to helping people who may feel silenced in life and on this site to 'be quicker' isn't all that helpful to those people. In fact those very public demands may encourage people to disengage and move slower. Not a great result, sure, but a very human one.

Finally, I do think things are getting better. The very comment and "broken promise" that prompted this MeTa post were actually part of a longer comment where I was talking about working on document to make information users were requesting more visible.

So yes, something was promised and didn't happen. But work and improvements are being done and happening and I would encourage everyone to think of things on a larger site level scale and opposed to always focusing on one particular thing. That doesn't mean mistakes shouldn't be publicly called out. Just try to look at the large picture and when improvements are being made, to note that publically also.