Who the fuck cares not me

Why? If you attempt to remove all of the other mods in defense of a mod who was clearly abusing their powers to push a certain narrative, then I really don't see why you deserve to keep your seniority or even a mod position at all.

I think the case has already been made, but I can explain it all again if you want. He removed ALL of the other moderators! That alone should be enough to lose all mod privileges, not just be placed in #3 spot. If nothing else, it would leave way too much room for more drama in the future if he decided to try removing lower mods again and had to be overridden by the #2 mod.

I agree that I don't think SC had any history of political fuckery up until this point, which makes this all the weirder. Why come out now and side with DronePuppet (who absolutely should have been removed) and Flytape (who was defending DronePuppet and his actions, and who is incredibly politically biased himself)? That seems like a really unusual side to throw his power behind and a really strange hill to die on.

What's your case for him being #3? Why not at the very bottom of the list if you insist on keeping him as a mod at all? Then he could still do his mod duties but wouldn't be able to fuck things up too badly if he wants to try another mutiny.

What's your case for him being #3?

He's been rock-solid for many years. Do you have any screenshots of the sub without him as a mod?

You mean screenshots from before he was a mod or screenshots from now that he is gone?

And I agree, I don't think anyone had any problem with him in the past. But as I understand it his involvement in moderating the sub had really dropped off lately. I hadn't seen his name in the mod logs or any posts from him in at least a couple months. So why did he come back suddenly to help overthrow the rest of the moderators? That alone should be enough reason to take away his ability to remove other mods.

But as I understand it his involvement in moderating the sub had really dropped off lately. I hadn't seen his name in the mod logs or any posts from him in at least a couple months.

nothing wrong with just letting the younger guys gain some dirty hands experience inside the queue. then have some of the most senior mods focus on being an effective trainer and helper of the younger upcoming mods.

This isn't a gym, he wasn't "training" the other moderators for a big boxing match. He just wasn't involved in moderating the sub. And now that he's been removed, he's posted a bunch about how he thinks the mods are all admin plants and shills. That wouldn't make sense if he was the one training them all along. Are you just saying whatever comes to your mind or do you actually have a reason to claim that?

this place should be a true feather in the cap for any moderator. i always saw this as one of the best places on the site to learn how to really moderate a sub.

Sure, moderators here really have their work cut out for them. And the sub has some of the best mod transparency around. Butt that doesn't really address anything I just said.

So it looks wrong? That's your argument? Well I think it looks wrong for someone who tried to overthrow the moderators in favor of two politically biased trolls to maintain any power in the sub at all. Maybe, MAYBE if things were handled better with some less biased and abusive mods remaining in control after the coup then I could see it. But with the way he did all of this, I just can't buy the idea that his intentions were pure.

I can't argue with the fact that he's been top mod for a long time, but that shouldn't automatically make up for his recent actions. It sounds like had plenty of chances to work things out behind the scenes and fucked them up every time.

What's your issue, sudo?

Just say it.

I just struggle with change like this.

Why? What's different about the sub today besides the modlist? It seemd a lot less political/divisive to me...

I miss having the top 3 mods being here longer than I have been here... SC has been a top mod here forever.

In name only. Dude didn't contribute at all in a positive capacity for over a year.

If your problem is with Change (which is nebulous at best) - then you're gonna have a rough time. Change occurs.

I won't be replying to your shitpost any longer.

Imagine having to deao with a post like this complaining and venting about a user who actively tried to destabalize the sub multiple times - almost every day - after a month long campaign in the background to remove them (and improve the sub).

I'm not apologizing for not digging your humor.

You want them back? Go to /r/ConspiracyRight.

It seems to be firing on all cylinders.

Actually, I think only the right side of the engine appears to be working.

They'll end up just going around in circles and end up where they started.

Either that or it'll eventually break down.

Both are logical conclusions in my view.

I enjoyed debating with flytape, personally. He wasn't as educated and nuanced as he led on to be

I would argue the same about the OP.

Why not at the very bottom of the list if you insist on keeping him as a mod at all? Then he could still do his mod duties but wouldn't be able to fuck things up too badly if he wants to try another mutiny.

SC agreed to do this multiple times and reneged or disappeared each time it actually came down to doing it. The final time, he said he would agree if JCP was removed from the team. JCP volunteered to step down, and then SC refused to voluntarily accept a lower position yet again - that's when the admins stepped in.

I just saw that in Sarah_Connor's AMA. When asked about why he didn't follow through with the deal, his response to JCP was "because fuck you, that's why". I'm finding it really, really hard to sympathize with S_C at this point.

Depends what you are looking for. S_C doesn't actually answer many questions and his responses are all pretty hostile. And the question I really wanted answered ("What's the full story with DronePuppet and his alts?") was mostly ignored and hand waved away by mastiglia as no big deal. He even said it didn't bother him, which is a huge red flag to me. But the thread does offer a little bit more insight into everything since there a bunch of mods commenting in it so you can get a couple of different perspectives at once.

Is the AMA worth delving into?

Hi u/sudo-tleilaxu. Read this, if you haven't already. It gives a fairly good overview of what happened over the past 30 days - first the removal of all mod positions, followed up by S_C decimating the mod team. Includes screen shots and links to conversations among the other mods as it all went down.

Full disclosure.

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/6xy9se/my_name_is_sarah_connor_ama_but_know_youre_fucked/dmkcy6t/

Let me know if you have questions.

Yeah. Personally I had very little tolerance for SC's antics and wanted him and DronePuppet gone from the beginning, but a lot of the other mods were far more understanding than me and gave SC many opportunities to redeem himself. Even I was in agreement that having SC on the team (just not as top mod) would have been fine. I wish him well in life but he doesn't have anyone to blame but himself in this situation as far as I'm concerned.

Could you maybe offer a bit more specifics about DronePuppet's alts then? The question was mostly ignored in the AMA. I see that there were four known accounts. Can you name them? I know of two (MAGABolt and WarmBacon) but what were the others? And what was his actual justification for it and why were some mods okay with it?

As far as the accounts, I don't remember the last couple. I think /u/Amos_Quito might have screenshots saved. Sorry but I hope you understand that this was about a month ago when this happened and we get dozens if not hundreds of messages per day, I would be scrolling down modmail for the next hour probably. He also never gave us a full list of his alts though, we only know of the ones we called him out for and yes MAGA + WarmBacon were two of these. Another one was BuildTheWalle.

He didn't have a justification for it really. He offered some half-baked explanation about how he was using them as part of some "experiment" to find political trolls/shills or something - it really made very little sense and he was clearly being defensive and sketchy about it. It took him almost a week after being accused before he admitted to using the alts at all and then when he did he gave barely any specifics and then totally shut down. He also claimed that he was working on a "report" where he would reveal his findings, but of course that never happened and hasn't happened.

I don't know why some mods were okay with it or didn't immediately call to have him removed from the mod team. I was one of the more vocal mods because in my opinion it was a blatant abuse of mod powers and I thought he should be removed ASAP. Some others agreed with me, some defending DP, some were indifferent or wanted to give him a chance to explain his side of things. I suspect that this might have had something to do with all of the SC drama just because the timing of it was so suspicious, it all seemed to start when we caught DP using the alts. That's just speculation on my part though, I have no proof the situations were related.

Thank you! I guess that pretty much answers most of what I was wondering. As much as I'd like a list of all the mods who were okay with this, I know that wouldn't be appropriate. It just seems like this should have been an issue where everyone was against it, but that's obviously not the case. And the fact that there are still users who are surprised to learn that MAGABolt = DronePuppet means this might have been buried amongst all of the other drama.

Only one of the mods actually argued in DP's defense, and he is no longer with the team. Most of the others either kept silent, were apathetic/indifferent, or basically just said that DP deserved a chance to explain himself and things like that. Misguided in my opinion considering that he literally was caught using alts to troll his own sub and bait users so he could ban them, but not totally indefensible.

And the fact that there are still users who are surprised to learn that MAGABolt = DronePuppet means this might have been buried amongst all of the other drama.

I agree. That really should be the big take away from all of this as it was (in my opinion) the catalyst for everything.

• u/DronePuppet
• u/SmokeOnTheDirt
• u/BuildTheWalle
• u/WarmBacon
• u/MAGABolt
• u/RussianToe
• u/TruthButter
• u/HAL989O
• u/HAL9890
• u/-ThePedoHunter-
• u/QuantumPlasma
• u/TruthNuggets
• u/AlienLips
• u/NameSanitized
• u/BitchyTerrorist
• u/MentalKick
• u/CloakedMod
• u/KeepItAmerican
• u/DeplorableBot
• u/TrollShillWars
• u/SpacePuppetz
• u/TrollBond007

Dang, that's WAY more than I thought! I thought the ones I knew of were bad, but this is some serious manipulation that was going on. And despite all of the talk of shills and outside forces messing with this sub, it ended up being a moderator who was responsible for so much of it.

No it shouldn't. If you are a higher up mod, you should be able to remove lower mods. Nothing wrong with that.

Even if the rest of the mods hold an official vote and determine that you should no longer be top mod? If you take that power away from the rest of the mods, you make it that much easier for a single rogue mod to hijack a sub. And let's be real, that's exactly what this was. Do you think the sub would be better off today if DronePuppet and Flytape were the only active mods running the place?

Are you asking me or telling me?

Which question? The first one was mostly rhetorical but the second one was genuine. Do you think the sub would be better off with those two running the show?

The top mod owns the sub. If they want to remove the rest of the mods, I'm fine with that. What problem do you have wit that?

Do I think the forum would be better off? I think that's a bad question. It's a web forum, not a pet.

What's DronePuppet doing? Running puppet accounts poising as a alt-right spammer?

I don't follow mods much, but I think I would be fine if it was just FlyTape and SC.

I literally have no clue nor do I care one bit, who the moderators are. The sub works well and when it begins to not work well there will be a new sub replacing it. Until then I really couldn't care less about the moderation. Sorry if I come off as toxic I'm just fed up generally with life, lol.

Sorry if I come off as toxic I'm just fed up generally with life

we've all been there...hope you find your bliss friend.

If you read through the various accounts of this drama, SC was giving plenty of time and plenty of warnings to simply demote himself on the team.

Since he had unilaterally neutered the mod team on two different occasions (which prompted admin action) we felt that he was too much of a loose cannon to have at the top of the team.

Naturally, as you rightfully are pointing out, SC has ridiculous seniority here and we absolutely still wanted him on the team.

However, I don't think it was ever his intention to step down.

After the last drama when he actually removed the mods, we gave him 3 days to step down (but be remodded!)...instead of accepting he wrote several rule-breaking comments (almost seemed on purpose to elicit a response from us).

I removed one particularly egregious comment of his that was attacking a legit user for shilling and working at Eglin air force base.

It was the kind of comment that would earn any other user a warning and potentially a temp ban...again it was so dumb (and uncharacteristic) of SC that I feel like he did it on purpose (after seeing what happened next).

I simply removed his comment, and pleaded with him via modmail to stop attacking users and breaking the rules.

At this point, he announced that because this comment was removed, he was refusing to step down.

Again, I'm not sure how a veteran /r/conspiracy could possibly think that accusing folks of working at Eglin would be even remotely productive under the circumstances.

The only explanations I can think of are that SC is unstable or SC deliberately baited us to remove his comment so he could use it as an excuse to not step down.

So, put yourself in our position: we had a rogue top mod that was making dangerous unilateral decisions that was rousing the concern of the admins; we voted (in good faith) to simply demote this mod (which he had personally offered months earlier); the mod ignored our vote and made another dangerous decision; we voted again to simply demote the mod; the mod ignored it again and proceeded to unnecessarily rack up several rule violations, meanwhile claiming he wouldn't be stepping down after all.

It was a volatile and dangerous situation.

All SC had to do was step down voluntarily, get remodded, and much of this drama would've been avoided.

He didn't and it wasnt, and here we are.

At the end of the day, I do respect SC and appreciate his time and dedication to this sub.

However, I hope you consider what I've told you here. The /r/conspiracy mods have enough on our plate as it is, and the last thing we need is to consistently have to fear what a potentially unstable senior mod might do in the spur of the moment.

This was offered multiple times but SC threw it in our faces and told us to fuck off even after originally agreeing. The ship has sailed.

Will the real Sarah Connor please stand up?

I've been asking myself that for 18 months now.

It has been an entertaining mess, you have to admit.

For you guys and gals I bet.

Pain in the ass for us.

What did he/she/it do?

I feel like any TLDR won't do it justice and will miss out on some of the finer details, so read through this thread a bit to get a good rundown.

https://np.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/6wx5og/update_on_the_state_of_rconspiracy_moderation

The whole drone puppet thing is still really weird to me, and I feel like we haven't gotten a good explanation.

Here's one mod saying that it didn't bother them at all. Take that however you want, but I'm really weirded out by it too.

https://np.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/6xy9se/my_name_is_sarah_connor_ama_but_know_youre_fucked/dmklud2?context=6

What do you want to know?

One of the mods discovered that DronePuppet had been secretly making a bunch of accounts approved submitters without them ever asking for it in mod mail or anything. We started investigating and discovered that these accounts all had similar posting patterns, discussed similar things in a similar tone (lots of political propaganda and trolling/baiting other users), and many of the accounts were no older than a month or two. We started to suspect that they were DronePuppet's alts, so we confronted him about it. He was a ghost for about a week, never responded, and then finally did respond and admitted that they were his alts. His explanation for why he had them or what he was using them for was barely coherent and he was clearly hostile/defensive at being called out. He kept saying he was going to produce a "report" of the findings of his "experiment", but of course no report was ever produced. He also admitted that he was using the alts to bait users into rule breaking so he could then ban them - a clear abuse of mod powers. So yeah, that should be the big takeaway from all of this and he certainly needed to go.

Shortly after all of this came to light, SC removed our permissions for the first time. Personally, I think confronting DP about his alts was the catalyst for everything else that happened but I have no hard proof of that and doubt any will be forthcoming. Just a gut feeling based on the timing and the way things went down.

What do you want to know?

How many people use this sub regularly (5+ days per week), consider it an important place for discussion, and care about the moderator dramas?

I would be surprised if this place has even 300 regular users as defined above. It seems to me that most people use this place for light entertainment, and don't really care.

Kind of like society more broadly. Few people really care.

Okay - your point?

The politics of this place operate very similarly to the politics of any group of people. A few at the top argue over the deck-chairs, a few in the vicinity argue for a spot on the deck, and the rest simply go about their business, paying attention to whatever amuses them at that moment in time.

Many complain but few care enough to do anything productive or constructive.

Okay again. Still not sure what this has to do with the discussion at hand, but thanks for sharing your opinion about what the sub is to you.

Still not sure what this has to do with the discussion at hand

Oh, I think you know full well. But I'm happy to leave it there.

If I was /u/Sarah_Connor I think I would be done with being a mod. This has been a drama fest

agreed!

Should be mod 2 after IW, with Fly as 3. They should then fire whichever current mods they see fit to.

No.

Asking the air: Why must libshits ruin everything good by attempting to co-opt and attach themselves to it?

The conspiracy community (at reddit and elsewhere) over the last 24-36 months has been a great example.

No. To much drama. Time to move forward

Riff-raff? Thanks a lot sudo.

I guess you weren't around in the last year when us 'riff-raff' mods were subject to his increasingly deranged drunken tirades, policy u-turns and off-topic manic outbursts eh? I'm just glad I was away travelling during his latest meltdown. If he wanted to still be on the mod team he was given every opportunity as far as I can see, and then burnt that bridge in style.

I'm just sad to see previously valued contributors like yourself getting drawn into worthless mod drama personally.

Sure, moderators here really have their work cut out for them. And the sub has some of the best mod transparency around. Butt that doesn't really address anything I just said.

Actually, I think only the right side of the engine appears to be working.

Riff-raff? Thanks a lot sudo.