Is this forum privately owned?

I love it when people just declare there’s nothing left to say once they’ve finished criticizing the management and shutting down the topic...

This is my response to the thread about what exactly is wrong with this site. It gave me some things to chew on. 😬

One word: nepotism. Second: inconsistency. Third: double standards.
Sure, this platform is private property, but let me ask you something—is one troll really worth more than a handful of decent users?
Why are the regulars getting stepped on while the trolls get a pat on the back? 🤷>
Just so nobody gets their feelings hurt?
Why is "polite" insults allowed? How is that supposed to be constructive discussion? People turn around and lecture me on morality, yet they'll claim they haven't experienced a single real thing in their lives. And then the punishment is just having to admit you wrote something, whereas on another thread, if a mod pulls someone's data, it's considered totally fine.

Yes, since this is a private forum, you can permaban anyone without a shred of guilt. And that is exactly what happens. It is Fascinating, though, how the bans don't happen when actual questions are being asked; instead, a hundred excuses are manufactured just so the troll doesn't feel offended. 🤣

Neither the mods nor the admins should ever allow users to be insulted and then call it "discussion."
We all have opinions about the people we see around here all the time, but if the mods and admins aren't setting the standard, what are we even expecting?
You reap what you sow. Reddit used to have a reputation for being a breeding ground for spam, garbage, nepotism, and cliques. I joined, took a look around, and thought the situation had improved. It's Fascinating how much a person can realize in just a few months.

I personally saw "The Persephone Case" right before the posts were deleted. I didn't have time to save them because I refreshed the page to see what on earth was happening—the posts were gone, and I couldn't even see the reason for the red card. I remember the "justifications" regarding reputation. It is Fascinating how some people have a reputation, while others can never seem to earn one. 🤣

I also followed "The Euclid Case" quite closely and caught a few posts before they were wiped. That was a case where both moderators were very confidently shouting, "Now we've shown you!" The guy wasn't hiding anything—he actually left an AD stating he was married. But then came the lynching, accusing him of daring to tell a story about being happy when it wasn't with his wife, essentially painting him as some jerk trying to slide into someone else's bed. 🤦
Isn't it sad when the mods join in on the lynching? If they wanted to point out a "potential problem," they could have simply written, "Um, aren't you married?" Just a little nudge to remind everyone on the thread who they were talking about.
On the other hand, is it even necessary? I got reprimanded for commenting on a person rather than their post. Why are mods allowed to comment on people and even insult them, while I or any other user isn't allowed to? Well, I guess some other users can.

I don't need moderator privileges to be online. 🥳 I don't need to be a mod for my friend to be online and spam my inbox with potential nonsense. It is Fascinating how much of it has been piling up lately.

But the truth is, I've personally wondered where this forum is heading several times over the last month. My conclusion is that it isn't going anywhere, and I'll be moving further and further away from it.
It went from a place where I enjoyed spending time to a place that, in a very short window, became somewhere where you can no longer find any rational explanation to justify certain actions.

I’ve spent time acting as both a moderator and an admin on several different forums over the years, covering all sorts of topics. I know firsthand just how thankless that role can be. But I also know this: the teams I was part of always aimed for best practices; we tried to be the gold standard. And I’ll be the first one to say—don't disrespect the mod.
But let’s be real, I can't exactly defend a moderator when they're being a complete jerk to a user. I just can't. I have no patience for double standards.

When a moderator or an admin starts insulting forum members, even if they try to wrap it up in polite packaging, it creates a logical fallacy where people assume that behavior is permitted. It isn't. Not for everyone. Apparently, some people get a pass while others don't.
I haven't been able to find any consistent pattern as to why certain behaviors are tolerated for some individuals and not others. All I've found is a massive pile of contradictions.

Isn't it somewhat symptomatic that so many "exemplary users" end up getting banned or silenced because of a single individual? The reasoning usually goes: "No, no, no, this person is actually right. We can't punish them because what they said wasn't technically against the rules; the way you interpreted it is your own problem. Sure, they troll a little, and maybe they bend the rules occasionally, but who doesn't?"
And then comes the classic: "We're looking into it." I don't see anyone taking months to ban someone who calls out a troll, yet I see cases being "under review" for months on end.

Is it like when the news reports a lunatic driving the wrong way on a major highway, and some guy in his car just starts yelling, "Who cares about one guy? There are hundreds of us!"? ☕

Look, I’ve got a bone to pick here...
I honestly think that if any moderator—let alone an admin—responds to a legitimate question from a user with something as vile as "go fuck yourself," they have absolutely no business running a serious community like this one. It completely destroys any sense of credibility and flies right in the face of the basic terms of service we all agreed to when we signed up, not to mention the actual community guidelines. Because of that, I’m openly calling on the owner to step up, get involved, and finally address the fact that this place is being run by a headless crew who seem more interested in turning this platform into their own private venting session for their personal frustrations and complexes.👍

Anderson, it's your move!

I thought I was being clear enough. Is there actually going to be any consistency here, or is the reputation of mods and admins acting like untouchable gods—surrounded by a tiny circle of nepotistic favorites—not just a reputation, but the reality?

Are the moderators and admins ever going to start treating users with basic decency?
Honestly, it’s impossible not to notice when they turn on one of their own, behaving with such blatant disrespect and vitriol. It doesn't have to be a direct attack on me for me to see it and realize that this isn't how you run a community. If you want a healthy environment, this isn't it.

Look, I know I can walk away. Unlike some people, I’m fully aware of my options. I’m not hiding behind "freedom of speech" or any other nonsense; this is a private platform. But I find myself wondering: I read the rules, I follow them, yet I watch everyone else ignore them and I just end up feeling foolish. What is the point of having equal rules if they aren't applied equally?
Sure, rules are supposed to be flexible—that’s how they work—but isn't it telling that when several people point out the exact same issue, management just shrugs and says, "No, you're just interpreting things wrong"?

When a troll acts up, the staff calls them a troll. Fine, whatever. But the moment you tell one, "Okay, that's enough, back off," suddenly you're the one being targeted.
Do you honestly believe you're doing a good job by coddling trolls while punishing the people who call them out?

It really makes you wonder: does Reddit, as a corporate entity, actually want a sea of trolls, or do they actually want a community of users?
Do trolls bring in the revenue? Is the only metric that matters the total number of accounts?
If that's the case, wouldn't it be more efficient for the mods to just create a few thousand bot accounts? At least then they wouldn't have to moderate them, and they could still hit their engagement targets. 🤷

Ash and everyone else who’s decided to make such a massive scene over these two—do you actually have any concrete intel on what's happening behind the scenes? I’m talking about seeing actual receipts, deleted posts, private warnings, or some sort of backroom deal between the mods and admins. Or are we all just collectively deciding to jump on the bandwagon and stir up unnecessary drama? Honestly, let's take a moment to be real about it.

@ hollowviper97 the owner appoints an admin just so they don't have to deal with the dirty work themselves 😬
I know this firsthand, because I actually served as an admin for an owner who wanted to dodge "that kind of work." But we made sure to maintain order through sheer consistency—applying rules strictly and predictably, whether we were dealing with a brand-new user, a veteran, or a fellow mod. We did our best to stabilize the atmosphere during that time.
A moderator has no business insulting users. An admin has even less right to do so.

I get it; sometimes people just snap. A moderator’s job is to exercise restraint, or to decide that someone is simply too toxic to be allowed on a specific sub-forum or board.

And honestly, users snap too when they see blatant injustice. You have to account for that.

The goal should be to actually resolve the situation.

Don't just constantly hide behind phrases like "we'll look into it" or "we're watching."

Where are the actual results?

I realize that when a user loses their cool, they often end up looking just as bad as whatever triggered them. But that requires the wisdom of an admin to step back and see what actually caused the explosion. Things happen, and things get messy, and I agree—you shouldn't go in swinging a stick immediately. But you also can't let certain people terrorize others and then act shocked when those people finally fight back.

Alright, does anyone actually have anything useful to add here, or is this just another one of those "LifeIsUnfairWAAAAH!!!" threads?

To answer the question in the title—yeah, the forum is privately owned. The owner could decide tomorrow to shut the whole thing down to new members, ban everyone with an odd user id, and there wouldn't be a damn thing anyone could do about it.