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Appealing the ban of user friendlysock

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Appealing the ban of user friendlysock

I noticed yesterday that the user @friendlysock had been banned.

I don't know friendlysock personally and am not even sure I've ever interacted with them on here, but I was surprised to see that their account had been banned because I find their contributions substantive and interesting. Checking their profile, I see that they've been a member for 11 years and contributed thousands of comments and stories.

Here is the conversation that led to the ban. It appeared in a subthread about a project's choice of mascot. I've slightly adjusted whitespace and elided extraneous text. I'm editing out names of the other users, as I don't want to drag additional people into the discussion:

Root comment: On a personal note: a bit weird to see the “art”, I wish this project was more neutral. Some people like odd things, and that is fine. But doesn’t have to be the loading screen for a whole bunch of websites[...]

Other commenter: I truly do not understand this. Every company has a logo; many have mascots[...] What’s different about [project author]’s anthropomorphic jackal?

Project author: TBH I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m transgender and people are trying to use anything they can to discredit me because of it.

friendlysock: It’s pretty obvious to me: it’s a weird anime girl mascot that’s coded as underage. Such a mascot is, at best, usually totally different design-wise than whatever is behind [project].

(archived, as the original was removed by mods)

One of the mods responded to the comment. The response is too long to quote here, but they made several claims that surprised me:

  • There's "clear intent" that friendlysock's “'coded as underage' wording is a veiled insinuation of pedophilia."
  • Saying the project mascot is "coded as underage" nearly rises to the level of the mod team having to notify law enforcement.
  • friendlysock's comment makes it "clear" that "[they] don’t like the art or the person who commissioned it."

The moderator told friendlysock that the mod team reached consensus that friendlysock "need[s] to apologize to [project maintainer] so that we can all move on from this." friendlysock did not apologize, and they were subsequently banned.

My understanding of friendlysock's comment was that they weren't personally taking issue with the mascot but rather pointing out why others might object to it independent of the maintainer's gender identity. I find friendlysock's claim credible, as I also think a large percentage of adults might find the mascot objectionable/unprofessional even if they knew nothing about who commissioned or created it.

To me, friendlysock's comment is similar to someone saying, "I could have predicted the negative reaction to Cracker Barrel's new logo." It doesn't mean that the speaker personally has a problem with it; they're predicting the average person's response.

I understand that bigots attack marginalized groups by making insinuations about their art, but I don't see evidence that friendlysock was doing that here. Just two weeks ago, friendlysock defended the right of Lobsters authors to include art that some might find objectionable:

Other authors here that are widely regarded have festooned technical content with all manner of furry art, lifestyle markers, and so forth–and yet we giggle or grit our collective teeth (to each their own), look past their chosen adornments, and engage with their technical content. You know, like functioning adults.

Could the mod team give this decision a second look?

I appreciate the mod team's work and respect their decisions, so I'm not trying to attack the mods. This just seems like a very harsh punishment to a longtime member, who, as far as I know is otherwise in good standing. Is there another path here?

Edit: I previously described the moderators suggestion as an "ultimatum," but @gerikson corrected me that there's no evidence of an ultimatum. I've updated above to directly quote the mod feedback rather than potentially mischaracterize it.

Discussion 284 comments · 114 points · mtlynch · 2025-08-30
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