A Protest of the Hypocrisy within #occupywallst IRC channel

Dear #occupywallst IRC CHANNEL on Freenode and those that run occupywallst.org:

#occupywallst is a joke.  It's a group of 20 or so people all banning people for their opinions, constantly.  Yes there are trolls, yes there are people that are "out to cause trouble" but the moment you ban someone, you're officially designating the exact opinion of OWS, designating trends of thought, flexing muscle against those whom you disagree with, oppressing whatever that person had to say, be it for bad or good.  You do not realize how awful this makes you look, how much it reflects badly on the movement that is fighting in the streets while you chat away on a computer screen.  All the people you ban with differing opinions, no one will ever know, who might have actually gained knowledge from them, or Hell, even swayed their opinion if you gave them longer than 3 minutes to have an actual discussion.

I've been around long enough to see it countless times, for the smallest offenses, disagreements, opinions, hunches, over and over from the moderation in this channel.  Not every mod has the same amount of detrimental behavior, but it's very apparent something in general is "wrong".

This is not a good place, it's not at all like it was at OWS protests, the feeling of oppression is coming from WITHIN the "leaders" who moderate.  As far as circle-jerking internet cliques go, your channel is one of the absolutely the worst I have ever seen, and that is saying a LOT.  Everything about it feels different from the actual protests I and others that have been "banned from the internet" have been a part of.  I don't agree with certain views that have been made by many mods.  A lot of them, I consider fringe.  And it is very rare that I find that the people who have spoken their minds, even if mildly offensive, deserve to have their opinions monitored and then "corrected" in the form of persecution and silencing through abuse of moderation power.  The very offenses you people ban others for, many of your mods are extremely guilt of, on a regular basis, unapologetically, and the only difference is that they are moderators.  They have "power" within a movement that is supposed to have no real leaders.

The default Scarlett letter of this channel is the word "troll".  Since I have joined this place, I've even seen the regulars that actually survive after a while catch onto the trend, and when they are in the hot seat about their opinions, they start calling the other person a "troll", and guess what, it works.  Goodbye new opinions.  You're setting precidents and all the people are following suit.  It's the internet... But there are actual people behind these computer screens, whose opinions and feelings affect other people each and every day.  These whims of judgment will ultimately influence them and their decisions.  And if a mod bans because they are  "tired" or they "had a bad day" or just don't want to "deal with it anymore" or they even just misunderstood greatly what someone has said (all of the above I have seen spoken aloud), it should be a big deal, it should be a problem.  In some cases, even when the moderator admits fault, they will still not unban the person.

All of the times I thought someone's opinion was ridiculous, and I disagreed with them, I never asked for them to be banned, I never wanted them to leave... The very RARE few moments I've had when I have disagreed with someone, and some asshole mod didn't jump the gun in the middle of my conversation with, I felt I could get somewhere and really talk to them, and I've also learned things from them as well.  The instances of "wtf why did you do that?" have been so fucking frequent, it's almost too hilarious to believe that the moderators of this place don't understand why.  I've seen people who actually have agreed with the opinions of moderators ask why they banned someone, only to be banned themselves for questioning it.  And the most obvious problem has always been, the moment I'm not agreeing with a mod, whichever mod is present at the time, the moment I'm on the other side of that arbitrary fence, I'm trolling because I disagree with the thought police.  Oh no I am inciting an argument because there are many different opinions and I happen to disagree with them.  You guys can't STAND that.  You can't let the facts speak for themselves, or for information to sort itself out, you have to get the last word, you have to show people that OWS actually does stand for something... And that "something" happens to be whatever the fuck mod is active in the channel.

The fact that this observation is not apparent to your channel's operators is absolutely hilarious.  How is it that a movement as dramatic about protesting, about having their voices be "heard", has an IRC channel known for oppressive moderation?

Call me whiny on the internet for making this long observation, it's okay with me, because I can remember many times where OWS has raged over being called special snowflakes in the media, whiny brats who have nothing better to do.  Even though I have taken time out of my days off to come and join in, I never believed I'd be subjected to the same observations on the internet, that people make about OWS every day in real life.  What does that make me?  Well what does that make you?  :)

Do you not see the correlation between oppressing OWS opinions in real life vs. the accumulating despotic status of your own channel? In real life, these people all came to once place, they all come from different walks of life, they all have different opinions about what the problem is, about the people running this country, powers that be in the world, and their personal solutions... And they talked, and disagreed, agreed, stood together, and despite the message (or lack thereof), it was one of the most unbelievable things I witnessed.  There was no "official" OWS platform, so these people came together, talked, debated, held signs, and let words fly but stood together because they all recognized that something is wrong, and the debate about WHAT is the reason why they are there.  They didn't eject people because they disagreed.  They didn't affiliate with someone else's opinion.  Everyone gets a chance to speak, to be heard.  It's in the very message that people came together for.

These same people are being banned from your channel every day.

People who may have stuck around and learned something, who were actually, maybe even for the first time in years, were at a point where they may have listened to someone else's opinion, exchanged information, learned something, had resources to help out the people whose properties have been seized at camps because they were just too small... They are now gone.  Alienated, and whoops, there goes that chance.  The amount of people in your channel has dwindled significantly, yes some of it is natural, but I can't help but observe that you guys have helped it get to that point much quicker than it should have been.  Where is everyone?

The good feeling, it's been replaced.  This online place is a disgrace, a sour taste in the mouths of every person that has PM'd me after being banned because I was in mid-conversation with them and asked wtf happened.  During the winter people want to talk, only to come in and be surrounded by a dictatorial attitude towards imagined adversity. I personally rarely talk in there any more for a reason.  The drama that happened to cause me to write this has been accumulative from months of witnessing the bullshit that happens constantly in there every day.  It has gotten to this point because of the overall authoritarian attitude.  And you guys talk of Fascism!

The way your channel is run represents everything that is wrong with the way authorities handled the actual protests against OWS.  I've heard excuses for banning anywhere from "they are trolling, they are obviously trying to stir the pot and cause trouble" to "if we let these people stick around they will take over the channel".  Do you not see any of the irony?  All these huge fears.  Except everyone fears something different, and the impression I am getting is the people running your channel mostly happen to have many very similar opinions that are just begging for real debate.  But since there is so much overmoderation, since there is so much sifting, the people that have stuck around are very much similar to the mods themselves in opinion.  Just observe, watch them, you're not going to get any moderate opinions in there for long.  I know one mod that agrees with me about all of this, but IMO will not speak out because the majority of the people in charge, even if they rarely talk, have and will continue to abuse their power.  Yes, this is the internet, yes there are many places that are run this way.  But that doesn't make it right, and it doesn't make your message any less detrimental to the OWS Movement.  You are supposed to be different.  I thought that was the point.

One of the biggest excuses for @buse has been stated that you are a group of people that will moderate on your own whims, and if we don't like it, tough.  Well then take the channel off the fucking website.  Stop inviting people to freely go in there, because you're going to ban 75% of them for trivial shit anyway.  You're giving OWS a bad name.  All of the people that have donated money and time to help.  You're hurting them.  People that join from the actual physical OWS movement to talk, to connect, to update, are all but ignored in favor of the "subject matter" that whatever mod is in charge of wants to discuss. The OWS people that are actually physically protesting, with an actual role in this movement, joining the channel to show the videos they post, their feeds, all of that, are even mocked because they apparently came to the wrong place.  The people running this channel care more eager to spread whatever thought-process they subscribe to and "defeating" those that dare challenge their rhetoric.  You are all missing the fucking point.

I will be telling everyone I know to not affiliate with your channel, that is of the OWS movement.  Your channel's constant oppression of free thought is detrimental and frankly embarassing.  The special snowflakes that run it have, and will continually, selfishly alienate any chance for people to actually talk and learn and feel any hope whatsoever for the so-called change that the mods say they believe in.

There have been a few exceptions.  But as far as I can tell, "mod apologists" were already in full swing, and I cannot see it ever getting any better.  You've gotten what you apparently wanted, a place with as little interesting people as possible, where people need to get into the inevitably small line with certain ideals.  A small group of people too small to accomplish anything other than circlejerk themselves.  Your little 1%.

I feel I'm speaking for the hundreds of people that have been banned over and over for the last 3 months in #occupywallst.  They no longer have a voice, and I know for a fact that people PM mods after being banned, only to be openly ignored until they just go away.  You've all but squelched them, and if I am the only one left to really waste my time to deliver the most obvious message that you should all already know, then so fucking be it.  Happy Holidays, and shame on all of you.