Yesterday I created a post on a regional community on lemmy.ca.

Fairly quickly thereafter, I got a DM saying that the post had been removed because someone who disagreed with me complained. Oddly though, the DM came from a @Automod@lemmy.world - not the server hosting the community.

Furthermore, I still see the post when I go looking - and there has been a bit of discussion about it.

So my questions:

(a) Can a post be removed from a specific federated instance without being removed from the original instance? (b) Is there an appeal process for removed posts? I’m sorry that the guy got all butthurt, but my post was since, measured, and (I think) reasonable. If it offended someone, they should discuss it.

  • Swordgeek@lemmy.caOP
    0·
    10 months ago

    I don’t think there’s a problem with posting it here. I didn’t do that initially because I wasn’t trying to draw attention to the post as much as I was trying to understand how it all worked.

    And in answer to your question, no the automod is not a moderator on the community.

    • Muehe@lemmy.ml
      0·
      10 months ago

      Ah with that link it’s easy to track down what happened.

      First you go to the community on the server in question: https://lemmy.world/c/alberta

      Then you click on Modlog in the sidebar: https://lemmy.world/modlog/3835

      And since there is pretty much nothing in it we immediately see the entry for your post saying:

      reason: Deceptive content. Calling to abuse government system.

      Note that when you compare your servers Modlog that entry is missing there, so yes, only removed for people connecting through lemmy.world.

      Not sure how appeals work there, you can probably reply to the account that notified you, or go to the !support@lemmy.world community.

        • Muehe@lemmy.ml
          0·
          10 months ago

          Nah, this one was a direct link on purpose. But the edit box swallowed the @lemmy.ca part at the end due to trying user name auto-completion, so thanks for making me re-read the post. Good bot!

      • Swordgeek@lemmy.caOP
        0·
        10 months ago

        This is fantastic information! The things I’m learning from one deleted post are remarkable!

        The account that notified me is an unmonitored auto-mod account, which says “don’t reply - nobody will read it!”

        I might actually post in !support@lemmy.world on this one. Thanks for the info.

    • Shadow@lemmy.ca
      0·
      10 months ago

      Wtf, why the hell is their automod touching posts in a community on our instance. They’re not the mods of the entire fediverse.

      • Swordgeek@lemmy.caOP
        0·
        10 months ago

        Yeah, but from what the good folks in this thread have said, their automod deleted the post only on their instance. It’s untouched on lemmy.ca, and any others that federate with us.

        (I think.)

        • Shadow@lemmy.ca
          0·
          10 months ago

          That’s correct, but it still irks me.

          Controlling what your users see via defederation or blocking a community is public, but users aren’t going to notice the occasional post disappearing.

          It’s manipulative in a non obvious way, and prone to being abused.

          • Swordgeek@lemmy.caOP
            0·
            10 months ago

            That’s a very good point. What may be a neutral (or biased for that matter) community ‘at home,’ can be invisibly skewed on another instance by their administrators. That’s actually a bit concerning.