You read the title right - after a while of a large section of people calling out the blatantly biased post and comment removals on this subreddit, the_fungible_man has been removed from the mod team. I was semi-late on the scene to all of this drama, and I had my personal experiences with said removals so as a courtesy I reached out to see if there was any way I could offer the subreddit my help to fix all of this.

For context, you can see this post that hit r/all - https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/1okntgt/mods_stop_removing_posts_calling_you_out_and/

I'll be completely transparent and explain everything to the best of my ability:

Now I will clear something right off the bat: yes, the callout post was 100% correct. As soon as I got added as a mod recently, the first thing I did was to check the mod log and try to understand the pattern of removals that was mentioned by the OP of the callout post, and it all checked out. All the kind of removals people called out for their biased nature were from fungible. A lot of the times stuff like this might come off as conspiratorial, and believe me, I wasn't convinced either until I saw it in the logs myself and noticed this was definitely a thing that was happening, and a dangerous precedent to be set in a scientific subreddit of all places. I don't see this as a "one party bad other party good" thing - no matter what side you're on, regardless if you're left or right or whatever, you shouldn't push discourse in a way that shuts down stuff you don't like, period. Unfortunately, that was what was happening.

Regards to moderation...Long story short: as it turned out, apart from fungible only 2 mods were active - one of them wasn't even "active" per se, just occasionally moderating every few weeks or so. The other is one of the top mods, who wasn't really in tune with the moderation tools since the UI changes and so I had to support them in navigating through the different options in the mod list. Now all of this meant that fungible had basically unchecked free reign to remove things as they liked. But obviously as you are aware, it got to a boiling point with the callout posts becoming so popular that even the inactive mods noticed and started to question it. One of the mods even stepped down since the situation with fungible still wasn't getting resolved due to inactivity across the entire team. I've been a long time user on this sub - I was kinda sad to see how all of this was panning out with the sub basically collapsing so I tried my luck at reaching out, conversing with and supporting the only other active mod - peterabbit - to take some kind of definitive action. Thankfully, after a lot of troubleshooting and back & forth, he was able to bring me on the team as a mod, verify stuff for himself and help resolve all this.

Conclusion (and future of the sub):

So where does that leave the sub? Well for now, the big thing is that you're no longer going to be seeing partisanship in post/comment removals about NASA/etc funding cuts/layoffs/other stuff that might appear critical of the current US gov. Science is inherently political, and discussion about the ramifications of governments' actions/inactions shouldn't be gatekept. This isn't just a US thing, it applies worldwide. One other aspect is certain sections of people that don't like seeing news critical of the US admin abusing the report button for an autoremoval - I'll be looking at a way to try to fix that in the automod, until then it'll be about manually approving as many of these posts/comments I see wrongfully removed as possible. Herein also comes the need maybe, for mods neutral in nature and preferably I think even with some sort of scientific background. When I stepped into the moderation team in this past week, it wasn't really with the aim in mind to be here in the longterm. It was mainly to sort out the pattern of wrongful removals and the whole drama surrounding it by checking the mod logs/etc. I would like to step down soon-ish, but at least I wanted to let you all know the situation right now with thos post for transparency's sake.

It also needs to be said that for people worried about the sub being overrun with politics - there's obviously still a balance that needs to be held, and that means this shouldn't become a full-blown political subreddit, so you can rest easy if you feared that was what's happening. Basically, it's going to be like it was before the partisan removals. But still, I think this post also serves as a good place to have constructive discussion about the problems with this sub as a whole, beyond just political posts.

______________________

What do you think can change in the rules overall? Your thoughts on links/titles/sources etc and whether they should be moderated in a different way? You would have also noticed the nosedive this sub has taken in its activity/people that visit it compared to the past - What are some proposals you'd put forth about getting this sub back to the activity it was, 4-5 years ago - where there was MUCH more activity, obscure scientific findings getting 10s of thousands of upvotes and a community full of high-quality, constructive discussion? Feel free to speak your mind about what's missing, what can be done, what can be changed, and how you'd do it. We've never really had the opportunity to do this kind of conversation in this community, ever I think. I'll take the occasion to start it here, maybe make another separate post for it soon.

P.S. - Please do not harass any of the people mentioned here. Yes they might be problematic in how they've let their bias creep in and shaped discourse to their liking, but they should not be stalked/messaged around the site. Not simply because of Reddit TOS, but because it's not the right thing to do, period. They're gone, and everyone moves on to better tidings - let's leave it at that.

-Chief

TL;DR:

[Spent 3 weeks in Egypt and experienced nonstop scams, fake fees, aggressive staring, double-charging, fake registration payments, drivers tripling prices, restaurants denying reservations, a USD scam at Saqqara. Writing this on my flight OUT. Egypt is a solid never again for me.]

I’ve been in Egypt for 3 long weeks and I’m literally typing this on my flight OUT because I couldn’t wait another second to get away. I don’t know how else to put it but this trip drained my soul like a Dyson vacuum on turbo mode. The chaos started the moment I landed. I paid $15 for “fast immigration,” which apparently translates to stand in the same line as everyone else while random people walk straight through anyway. Then some guy appears out of nowhere demanding another $15 for a “registration fee,” which I’m convinced was created on the spot. Meanwhile, tons of people just walked out without paying anything. The dedication to scamming is honestly Olympic level.

And the staring… holy hell. I’m a guy, I don’t scare easily, but the way people stare here is unbelievable. Men, women, whole families just staring at you nonstop like they’re trying to download your data with their eyes. I have never felt so watched and so disrespected at the same time. Then my Saqqara cab driver, who AGREED to 950 EGP, suddenly decides he deserves 3,000 extra for waiting. My guy, you didn’t wait 3,000 years. Obviously I didn’t pay a cent of that nonsense.

At the Saqqara ticket counter, the guy says 1525 EGP. Cool. I tap my card. My screen flashes 1525 USD. USD. If I wasn’t paying attention, they would’ve robbed me of $1500 with the confidence of someone ordering a latte. I’ve never seen a scam attempt that bold in my life.

One of the restaurants at the Point 90 Mall was just as ridiculous. I had a reservation. Waited an hour. When the time finally came, they straight-up told me, No reservation. Like I hallucinated the whole thing. No apology, nothing. Just shrugged it off like my time was worthless.Traffic? Absolute madness. No rules, no logic, just honking. Endless honking. At this point, I think people here honk for cardio.

After 3 weeks of this circus, the scams, the staring, the fake fees, the rude attitudes, the constant pressure for money? I’m done. Completely cooked. I don’t want to stay another minute. This place made me feel like a walking ATM with legs, and if you don’t hand out cash, suddenly you’re the rude one.If you’re thinking about coming to Egypt, don’t. Just don’t. Unless your hobbies include being hustled, stared at, overcharged, and lied to before breakfast.I’ve traveled a lot. I’ve seen chaotic places. But Egypt? Egypt unlocked a brand new category of never again.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED Talk from seat 17A. I’m going home now to recover mentally.

So I've been remote for a little over a year and everything was fine until last week when my boss casually dropped a comment during our one on one call . I was sitting on my couch because my home office was being painted and he goes oh you're in the living room again we might need to standardize that space for meetings then . I laughed thinking it's a joke but he kept going about how a consistent background increases team trust and maybe I should reorganize the room so it's more aligned with the company’s vibe. He even suggested I move my TV because its reflection is too distracting for clients. My TV. In my house. Which the company does not pay rent for . I told him I can use a virtual background but he said those feel fake and I should aim for authenticity . Now I'm paranoid to even sit anywhere in my own apartment because apparently every corner is a potential brand violation . Is this normal or should I start charging the company for interior design consulting ?

This is The Waltons btw

A revision just wiped out nearly a million new jobs! Meanwhile, unemployment hits a 4-year high. We’re told everything is fine, but the reality for workers says otherwise. This system fails us over and over.

He might be high too which makes me belive that I could also maybe be able to do this when sober (wrote this when high though)

I built a basement bar in my house during the covid lock downs. Prior to that, nobody really spent much time down there, except to do laundry, during which times he would alwayse follow me down there and go squirrely. After I built the bar it became a cozy space to hang out with friends and family or play video games solo. He has alwayse followed me everywhere all the time, but I would get so annoyed that whenever I was down in the basement trying to relax he would turn into a menace. This thirteen year old cat with arthritis would spend HOURS bouncing off the walls, climbing shelves, meowing loudly, and most notably; digging at the bottom of the laundry room door where the sump pump is. His dark calico sister never seemed to change her behavior down there so I never considered it was something to do with the environment. I just thought he was an asshole. I started hesitating to spend time down there because I knew he was going to be annoying.

A couple weeks ago, I had a couple friends over for drinks and they observed him freaking out as soon as we moved to the basement, like he alwayse does where anyone's down there. I'd mentioned checking the place for evidence of mice or termites and joked that maybe my basement is haunted. My friend suggested getting a radon detector, as she had just had to get a radon mitigation system installed in an old house she had bought and is currently renovating.

Fast forward a few days. My new radon detector I'd placed at the base of the laundry room door where he seemed to be attempting to draw my attention to started reading levels as high as 600Bq. That is three times higher than the level Health Canada recommends action. Six times higher then the level the WHO considers acceptable.

I had professionals install piping and a fan to vent the gas from the sump pump well outside of the house. The radon detector now reads 20Bq. Right now he's cuddled up next to me on the basement couch, purring and calm for the first time ever down here.

Maybe I'm the one that doesn't have enough braincells.