Discord moderation, User slides into DMs, can you help me decide how big a deal it is?

https://lemmy.world/post/12814053

Discord moderation, User slides into DMs, can you help me decide how big a deal it is? - Lemmy.World

I’m part of the modteam for a book club. We have biweekly pub in-person meets, but we’re primarily online. One of our members has a body-positive fitness social media presence. She shared this exchange with the modteam as a kind of “hey, this is a thing that happened.” We’re currently discussing how to handle unwanted advances with the lady mods taking lead. Lots of planning talk that when applied to this instance may have blowback. Our discord club rules disallow being disrespectful (be respectful), but it isn’t explicitly stated this extends to private conversations and in-person interactions. There is an easy interpretation of the exchange can be summarized as, “Male user offers a makes a bad joke/compliment, is rejected, apologizes, and tries to reconcile.” The prevailing interpretation is he is being a creep. I think the in-person interactions between the two is she stopped by a club meeting to say hi to us, and he was in attendance. He is a new member. Is the exchange problematic, boys will be boys, or red flag, or yellow flag, or no flag? Is this a just have a talk with him, or tell him to take a hiatus for a couple weeks, or tell him to not come back? What’s your read? ____ Male User, Day 1: Just want you to know I followed you and I can’t help but it I am looking disrespectfully. You are ridiculously attractive. Female User, Day 2: I don’t think that’s the compliment that you think it is. Male User, Day 2: It was a meme I was attempting to reference and it clearly was not a good attempt. I’m sorry. Male User, Day 3: I know I embarrassed myself yesterday but could I make it up by buying you a drink sometime? At book club or elsewhere?

Guy chiming in but

Gut reaction says yellow flag, pull him aside tell them the behavior is not acceptable as warning and that a second incident will be cause for a ban from all club activities.

Gut also says, defer to the lady mods if they have a preferred method of handling it.

They expressed a concern that a warning means that it’s ok to sexually harass members once, but not twice.

Without knowing your ruleset, I can see two ways of handling it.

Situation one, the rules did not call it out. If this is the case, it feels a little (like 5% if you can quantify feelings) bad to immediately ban someone for violating a non-exist rule. Particularly if it could have been an accident.

Situation two, the rules called it out. It could be worth talking with both people separately to determine intent. If it seems that the harassment was intentional, bannable offense. If it seems like he was not trying to harass her, strict talking to with a strike. Accidents do happen and a nuke option for an accident could lose a loss of other members out of fear.

Who admits to intentional harassment?
  • that’s why both parties must be interviewed separately of course. That will give you both perspectives allowing for an informed decision to be made.

  • For this specific situation I would say 2 is sufficient if it’s clearly an accident according to both parties. 1 is sufficient if it seems to be intentional based on review.

  • that’s why I addressed if the rule was stated. If it’s not there, you’ll need to weigh in on the situation and make the judgment call. Then the rules have to be addressed to show the club’s stance on the matter and the consequences. After that, whatever consequences are stated by the rule are how each incident is handled no exceptions.

  • Up to you and the mod staff, but were I a mod I’m aware of no situation in which a racial slur is used as an actual prank. To drive home a point though, I am very well aware of situations where I’ve make a joke that didn’t land well. I intended it to be funny, but it came across as weird and creepy. I apologized and it was an accident. Fortunately, that was taken into account when the situation was reviewed.

  • I apologized and it was an accident

    Was the joke that you were horny for someone’s photos, even though you didn’t know this person at all? Did you only apologize after getting shut down, insisting the whole thing was just a “meme reference”? Did you completely undermine your own apology the following day by sliding into this person’s DMs again asking for a date, which made her so uncomfortable that she reached out for support?

    This feels oddly aggressive. Given I merely wanted to give my answer and cover some uncertainties I had regarding the situation and have done so with op, I’m going to disengage now as I neither feel up to nor deserve to feel attacked.
    A summary of the sexual harassment incident we are currently discussing makes you feel personally attacked?
    It was the way in which you personally stated it and now continue. If that wasn’t your intent then I apologize for saying it was. Nonetheless, I have nothing more to say to you given this clarification.

    You inserted yourself into the situation personally, to “drive the point home”, as you put it. I asked how similar the situation in question really was to your own.

    You’re obviously distressed by this comparison. With that in mind, can you imagine how this woman might be feeling?

  • No but really. What is the difference between intentional and unintentional harassment? How do you ask him that? What kind of question would you use? How do you detect lies?
  • 2-4 aren’t super interesting. I’m not agreeing, but it’s just not useful to continue.

    Lastly, I think it’s obvious you’re a little bit younger than the other commenters. That’s no sin. Young people don’t always think through their actions, especially how they might be received. Case in point, edge lord humor, which often uses deadpan sex and racial references; someone who faces sexual and racial threats frequently is more likely to be bothered by those kinds of “jokes” and might not understand it’s supposed to be a joke. Since we don’t carry forms detailing what topics bother us, it’s often best to avoid those kinds of jokes. It’s not censorship, but instead a courtesy we can extend to others. Caring about others is not a failing.

    I would urge you to keep in mind who your audience is, that there are jokes you can make to friends that are different than those you make to acquaintances, and remember inflection and tone don’t transfer well in text. Mistakes do happen, and so do consequences.

    The reason most of us are on high alert, is there are countless instances of women being raped, beaten, and/or murdered by men with “a strange sense of humor.” Where the women reported concerning behavior and the instigator was given a stern warning, and then the woman is found a week later in a field. I keep pressing the intent question because this method doesn’t work at identifying bad intent.

    When you make someone uncomfortable with your words, you might not have thought the knife was sharp, but someone did get cut. Your intent doesn’t change the fact you hurt someone. We might not call the cops, but we might ask that you stop showing off your proverbial knife or not come around any more.

    And that’s where this conversation stops.

    I don’t need you guessing my age and I very much don’t need you acting like some kind of familial figure giving me a lecture about something I know fill well how and why I fucked up on and owned up to.

    Good day to you.

    It was a prank, bro.

    Ahh I see.

    How about your shove your prank up your ass, bro?

    So 20 years old, then?

    I’m just kidding around. (It’s ok even though you said no because I get two strikes for free.)

    I see you had no real interest in good faith discussion. I change my recommendation,jus do whatever the rest of your mod staff decides.

    People like you are why leaving reddit was a wonderful idea.

    Dude. You got told me to shove things in my asshole and tried quoting Fez. Is that you telling me you have a good faith interest?

    We’re not on Reddit?

    The problem solved itself. They guy said in the main chat that he enjoyed hanging with us in person, but he got a job a dozen states over.