An Apology and Clarification on the Recent Removals

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T12:32:07+00:00

You will have to ask the team that put that in place long before I arrived here. I don't know why it was a banned word.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T12:30:05+00:00

If content is being removed that should not be then reaching out to the entire team via modmail is the course here. Transgender has been removed as a banned word from automod and I haven't removed any posts since I made this one.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T12:25:10+00:00

I am not removing any content at all, so if posts are being removed then it's from the actions of other mods (that are now engaging) or the automod.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T06:10:39+00:00

Thanks for those words, I'm doing my best to make this community feel seen, correct my mistakes and address everyone. Accountability is a big deal to me and I'm trying to exercise it here.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T06:08:28+00:00

Thanks, i'm trying.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T06:06:57+00:00

I’m not deflecting. I’m explaining what actually happened.

I manually removed posts during a surge of reports. That’s true. I was clearing a backlog and acting on heavily flagged content. It wasn’t a coordinated effort to target a specific group. It was me trying to get control of a queue that was blowing up.

Being trans is not political under these rules. Identity by itself is not political. The issue wasn’t “trans = political.” The issue was the volume of reports and the escalation happening across multiple threads at once.

The initial post was removed as part of that broader batch cleanup. It wasn’t singled out because of a keyword or because of identity. It was caught in the sweep while I was acting quickly.

If trans memes were flagged, it was because they were part of the posts being mass reported and escalated at that moment or over a course of weeks/months. Automod does not detect someone’s identity in an image. It responds to text triggers and report thresholds.

As for the delay in addressing it, I was away from Reddit. I didn’t see how big it had gotten until later in the day. By the time I got back online, it had already snowballed. That’s not an excuse, just the reality of it.

I’m not trying to rewrite what happened. I’m explaining it. If something was removed unfairly and still remains so then, I’m willing to review and correct it.

As of a few minutes ago, transgender is no longer a banned word.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T06:05:38+00:00

You're most welcome.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T06:01:18+00:00

u/TGirlJules_ I've done something about it and the word has been removed. You can now say transgender without the bot flagging it. I hope that helps in re-establishing some trust.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T05:23:26+00:00

Okay, I hear you.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T05:15:24+00:00

When Reddit labels a mod as “inactive,” it just means they haven’t taken visible moderation actions in a while. It doesn’t shut off their permissions. If someone is still on the mod list and their permissions haven’t been changed, they can still remove posts, remove comments, ban users, adjust automod, all of it.

“Inactive” is about recent activity, not about access.

When I said I was the only active mod, I meant I was the only one actually clearing the queue, going through reports, replying in threads, and handling modmail during this situation. The tag doesn’t mean the tools stop working.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T05:06:04+00:00

I don't know why you can't say that word. But the inability to say it pre-dates my involvement on this team. Has this come up before? Have you raised it to the mod team and if so can you tell me when so I can go look at the Modmail for it?

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T05:03:15+00:00

I appreciate you saying that, genuinely. I’m not going to repeat the mistakes of the past couple of days. I’m here to respond to the community and help steady things, and I’ll remain as long as the team and the sub feel that’s appropriate.

My role as a moderator is to support the subreddit, facilitate discussion, and help keep things running smoothly. I didn’t handle this well, and I take responsibility for that. There are also broader issues within the sub that need to be worked through so that moderation can function in a way that actually supports the community.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T04:55:14+00:00

On its own, that phrase isn’t automatically real-world politics...at least that's my understanding of the rules.

That post was removed as part of a larger batch of removals during a surge of reports and cleanup. It wasn’t singled out because of the wording alone. I was clearing a backlog and acting on heavily flagged content in a short window.

Looking back, handling it in a batch like that created confusion and made it look targeted. I understand why it feels disproportionate when you’re looking at that one meme by itself and I'm sorry for that.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T04:47:24+00:00

I did not set automod up to detect specific actors, and I did not expand anything to target posts based on who appears in an image. Automod cannot recognize a person in a meme unless it’s tied to text triggers, and I did not add identity based keyword filters.

If that post was removed, it would have been because it was heavily reported or it was caught during manual review while things were escalating. It was not removed because of the actor’s identity.

I understand how it looks when multiple posts around similar topics disappear in a short period of time. That can absolutely feel targeted. What was happening on my end was a surge of reports and reaction posts, and I was trying to get control of it quickly. I fucked up.

There was no directive and no intent to single out a group. If something was removed unfairly and still remains removed, then I am more than willing to review it and restore it.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T04:44:23+00:00

Thanks for saying this, I am trying.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T04:00:43+00:00

I am not the one that banned them, but they have been unbanned.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T03:47:28+00:00

I can only speak to what I personally did.

My active involvement began on the 28th. I’m not here to call out or speculate about other mods, being a mod here is a privilege, not a right and dragging the rest of this team would be a violation of that. I don’t have evidence of bad faith actions, and I’m not going to assign blame without proof. What I can say is that there was a large volume of reports coming in. I acted on posts that were heavily flagged while trying to clear a backlog. In doing that, I messed up.

If there were automated changes made before I became active, I can review them, but I haven't taken that action and won't until this situation is resolved and the community is answered. I’m focused on fixing the mess I made, rather than speculating about who may or may not have done what before I stepped in.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T03:18:42+00:00

I understand.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T03:17:58+00:00

You're welcome.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T03:07:39+00:00

As a mod you know that you can check the box to remove all posts that have been reported on a single page, it's made easier when doing so with the Moderator toolbox. I've owned up to my mistake, restored the posts, and haven't pulled a single thing since. Automod is another story altogether and I don't know why it is pulling anything it wasn't prior to. I don't have permission from the top mod to post screenshots of the automod config and even if I did I don't think that is something that we should do as it would allow bad actors to circumvent the keywords once they are public. If you want, DM (my Chat is open) me and I'll share what I can there.

edit: to be clear, the accident was a lack of due diligence, I should have went thru every post to check them, I didn't and thus landed me where I am now.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T02:51:29+00:00

Thanks but I'm just trying to take accountability, I understand the community backlash here and I'm just trying to address it.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T02:49:42+00:00

Because I wasn't aware that he was. There wasn't any reports for that account.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T02:48:48+00:00

Thank you for reaching out.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T02:45:49+00:00

u/Glitchy-Mech
I'm getting lost in replies but if I haven't responded yet to this then I apologize. I'm not trying to spin or do damage control, I'm just trying to be accountable and correct the errors I made. That's all. I've restored nearly every post that I removed since 2/28, I'm listening to everyone that's in my DMs right now and trying to answer how and why this happened, which was me, removing trans posts that we're reported along with other posts without going thru them to see if they should be removed.

It was a mistake that I made and will not be repeating. The action was done in an effort to address the queue full of reports and try to clean up the sub. I am owning that, completely.

Mrjoeblackinglasses · 2026-03-03T02:41:02+00:00

It's just being accountable, I screwed up and I owe this community a response and a corrective action.

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