This isn’t bitching so much as a curiosity. Here in Lemmy.ml, would it be considered abusive for an admin to actively participate in a discussion, then get upset and delete the same comments they themselves have been replying to?
I’d just like to clarify the administration posture of this instance. There are lots of accusations of unfairness here. I don’t know if that’s an individualistic thing or a matter of policy.
Mainly asking so I can more easily identify what discussions are not safe to participate in.
Cheers!
I’ve been part of moderating a subreddit that has a loose conflict of interest policy, so I’ll throw in my two cents. Our policy is to avoid commenting and moderating in the same thread. There are some exceptions, like with particularly egregious violations. But even then, replying to the comment, deleting it, then banning the user would be considered an abuse of power. Instead, the common practice is to just report it for other moderators without a CoI to deal with.
I consider a conflict of interest policy to be as much about protecting the community itself as anything. Many online communities have run into trouble when someone with elevated permissions like a moderator is even perceived as having abused their powers. Community splits or failures have happened over even just one moderator “power tripping.” That’s why it’s necessary for moderators to put some restraints on themselves to maintain community trust.
The post that inspired this one had upward of 15 people given a site ban in a post with 80 comments. Several of those had a reply from the banning admin. The bans themselves may have been justified, but the optics are terrible. That’s exactly the sort of thing that has a history of eroding community trust. Even for people who have the aim of an instance for Marxist-Leninist thought, there are going to be schisms. Setting boundaries is necessary to preempt problems.