IS THAT A PINEAPPLE NEXT TO THE PIZZA??!!!

Original post:

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Hi everyone,

Well, it has been a wild ride. I joined reddit over a decade ago, when it was still much smaller and different from today. I quickly stumbled upon r/theoryofreddit and was fascinated by all the discussion and theories about how communities work. So when after a while mod applications opened up I applied, which was my first experience modding on reddit. My experiences there also prompted me to start experimenting with ways to make moderation easier through various user scripts and CSS hacks. This eventually resulted in a very early version of toolbox, although some earlier experiments never made it to the general public.

In the decade that followed I was involved in various communities and Toolbox developed into a project that used by over 20.000 (twenty thousand) mods all over reddit. But over the past few years reddit has been moving slowly in a direction that I believe is not good for the health of many communities. So even before this whole API debacle properly started I was already burned out and tired with reddit.

What I said in this post holds true even more today. I am just tired with the platform’s now accelerated decline, see also this comment.

So, over the past two weeks I have decided that I am not going to use reddit anymore.

As a mod, I already did quit my last actual subreddit last year (r/history). Yesterday I cleaned up a few of the smaller subreddits I was still involved as well. As a user I went through all my subscriptions and unsubscribed from all of them with the exception of r/modnews and r/modcoord. The last two because I’ll stick around a bit for the meta stuff, certainly to see how things end up. But I think I have invested more than enough time in this platform, probably more than has been healthy at times.

I want to use this post to thank everyone who has been involved with me in a mod team, involved with toolbox and all users of toolbox. “Wait, why is this posted on r/creesch and not r/toolbox?”

Fair question, with a simple answer. This is me saying my goodbyes for now, not strictly a toolbox announcement. While a lot of people see me and toolbox as one and the same thing, many different people contributed over the years and the project itself is not going away. I am also not going nuclear by disabling it as that would make me no better than certain admin actions in the past couple of weeks. As I said here two weeks ago. I will speak my mind, but toolbox itself has since it’s inception be there for all mods to help them out. I am not going to abuse that trust we build over the years by forcing my opinion. “Why not quit reddit entirely, delete your account, be done with it?”

I thought about it. But I am not really the nuclear type. And to be completely honest, over a decade of work and effort is difficult to entirely let go. I really do dislike the direction reddit has chosen to go but I’d like to be able to check in to see if there is a shift in course. And yes, while reddit profits from the information on reddit it also is information regular people might benefit from. If I deleted my account, including scrubbing all comments my voice, over what has happened in the past two weeks (years, honestly) will also no longer be there.

👀

So you’ll get old and have jacked arm muscles?

I’m too afraid to ask what the rule is.

These are all reasonable feature request! I’ve heard that devs are working on instance banning and migrating communities between instances, but it was second hand.

I sort of think it has… Honestly, I’ve had to practice listening for the bell, myself.

I recommend using the jerboa app in mean time. It doesn’t suffer from this bug.

Likewise, I don’t speak to many people outside of the US.

I think you’ll find that westerners tend to be more loose with thier definitions. We adopt analogies and political shorthands very quickly.

Additionally, many “progressive” Americans like me are extremely critical of nationalism. Capitalist and conversation Christian propaganda is everywhere here, and it cultivates a short of hyper sensitively to certain subjects. I’m very critical of states, especially socially conservative or militaristic ones.

In your situation, supporting a communist party might be your best choice, just like mine is voting for capitalist Democrats (over Republicans).

I hope you make more Western friends. You’ll surely teach them new things and vice versa.

I like you and I respect you. I need to go to sleep (it’s 1:15am here). Take care!

Lol. To the contrary! I think communist lady has proven to be in interesting person to argue with. 😅😅😅😅

Interesting. I don’t want to put a burden on you, but you might want to consider that Western people who use the pejorative “tankie” might not be ideologically opposed to you in any particular way, and if you were to instead reply first with what you did just now they might even agree with you.

I got really triggered when you said I was a Holocaust denier. Maybe you felt the same way with me comparing Stalin with hitler and Andrew Jackson.

I’m sorry if I made you feel attacked or uncomfortable as a Trans individual. While I personally don’t identify as a communist, I have a strong empathy for Marxist. I can only imagine the fear and anxiety you must feel at home, and I hope that you and your allies succeed in building a better world for yourselves.

Either you have a misunderstanding of what a tankie is in common vernacular, or I do.

My definition of a tankie is as follows: A “tankie” is a term that originated in British politics, referring to individuals who unconditionally supported actions of the Soviet Union, including the use of military force to suppress dissent. Today, it’s often used more broadly to describe those who uncritically support or defend perceived socialist or communist authoritarian regimes, sometimes even in the face of human rights abuses. The term is typically used pejoratively within leftist circles.

I don’t believe a communist is necessarily a tankie, but a tankie would call themselves a communist.

Personally, as an American, I would never fly an American flag. To me, it represents the violence of the state, the genocide of the indigenous people, and capitalism.

I believe that the Soviet union, as well as some modern communist states, have largely failed to represent the Marxist vision, and I am extremely critical of people who are embrace the theater of certain communist states.

It’s a semantic argument, then. To me a fascist is a Donald Trump. To me, Facisim is a broad set of characteristics which can be attributed to people outside of the context of Nazi Germany. For example, I might call an ancient emperor a fascist.

Facisim to you is a political movement linked only to the Nazis and thier allies.

That’s not unfair. It’s a different definition of the word.

My comments are split now, so I’ll let you read my other one. I would just like to emphasize that I consider myself a socialist, and that it’s not really that vague of a criteria for the purposes of an Internet argument. It’s just broad. I believe all current world superpowers current share elements of fascism which I despise and oppose.

I’m not obsessed with Stalin. I’m also not a Holocaust denier. You really seem keen on saying inflammatory things about me without any preceding context.

I will observe that I think Stalin was an awful person who tarnished the reputation of socialism for a century. I don’t have anything against socialist, being one myself.

I have a beef with apologist for failed communist states like the soviet onion. I feel they deeply misrepresent socialism.

I am of the strong opinion that fascism doesn’t care if you call yourself a communist, a capitalist, or a Democrat. If someone promotes a state which strips the power of local and individual labor for it’s own use; cultivates violence as a means of domestic control; supports expansionism; and finally the consolidation of power under a personality; I oppose it, and call it what it is.

The Holocaust most definitely happened and was perpetuated by the Nazis. Please don’t accuse me of denial.

Communism, or to be most specific, Marxism, was most definitely aligned against Hitler.

Stalin, was not. He would have watched Hitler kill all of Europe had the Nazis not attacked Russia. Same as the united states if Japan had not attacked them.

Fair

Both. Fascist apologist like to cherry pick palatable characteristics of figures like Stalin, or Hitler, or Andrew Jackson in order to destigmatize thier idolatry of these figures. These “certain aspects” are the tip of the wedge they use to destroy rationality and peace.

A reasonable person who would like to discuss the benefits of communism would point to the value of labor, advantages of unions, and the dignity of the worker, not the evil, paranoid, and violent person of Stalin.

Always, the stink of fascism follows the idolization of so called “great men.” Excuses after excuses.

Fyi the jerboa app doesn’t have this issue for me. I installed it out of desperation, and it’s actually very stable. You might want to consider using that until the fix comes in.