Add additional moderators, and seek community input before adding new rules.

Start by unbanning everyone you’ve banned in the last 24 hours and then maybe a conversation about moving forward can happen.

Have a moderator team that doesn't institute odd topic bans over personal events or circumstances.

For example, if I was a mod here: A car driver tried to kill me. I also read that many motorists can be violent and that cars are controversial. This doesn't mean that as a mod that I'd limit posts around it.

At this point I have no faith in you as a moderator, and believe you view yourself as the "owner" of this sub. In order to allow for healthy discussion, there needs to be accountability through diversity of moderation. Without additional mods here, I'll be sticking to /r/camberville

My tone is entirely civil when noting that your takeaway from the events of the last twelve hours just sort of demonstrates that you are not fit to be a mod - let alone the only mod in a community without any posted rules or guidelines. Based on what's being written (and quickly deleted) here and elsewhere, people are less upset about their ability to speak on the specific (entirely pertinent) topic of bicycling and more concerned about the idea that one single power-tripping mod believes that they should be allowed to dictate what the community can and cannot discuss and how on the basis of their how their day is going.

You've behaved like something of a petty tyrant. You've made unilateral decisions without first either setting any reasonable/appropriate expectations or guidelines (community rules) or engaging the community for stakeholder feedback before making said decisions. When dissent has been raised in the forum (some of it obnoxious/toxic, most of it perfectly levelheaded and direct), you've responded by simply muting and/or banning members.

It's not about the issue of bikes. It's about the fact that you are not r/CambridgeMA**.** You are a mod. If this sub is meant to be an open and engaging resource for folks in and around Cambridge community to connect with each other about topics relevant to life in the city, it needs to better reflect the input of the actual users and not just be subject to the whims of one single middle-aged guy who may or may not have had a bad encounter with another single person who happened to be riding a bike.

Establish and publish rules and guidelines after allowing stakeholders/members of the community to contribute to their development in a meaningful way.

Add at least 2-3 other mods and consider turning the keys over.

Trying not to be hostile: Don’t be a tyrant and promise not to do so in future.

In 2000, Saparmurat Niyazov was advised to quite smoking by his Doctor. Being the president of a dictatorship, he banned smoking outright in the country of Turkmenistan. Don’t be Saparmurat Nayazov - post and let post* in spite of what is happening in your daily life.

*especially something so basic as bicycle themed posts. We’re not talking about neo-nazi how-to literature or legit Kanye quotes. We’re talking bicycles.

Add additional moderators.

Unban any accounts that were removed (but didn't violate say, the reddit code of conduct).

Realize that moderators have a responsibility above and beyond that of a normal user and consider using alt accounts if you have to post about personal issues into the future (if it's something contentious at least, I'm not trying to chase you off, please don't think I'm insinuating you shouldn't post at all)

/u/taylorhayward_boston you were spit on and that’s inexcusable behavior and I’m truly sorry that happened to you regardless if there was a reason. I’ve experienced my fair share of road rage and it is a truly awful experience. There’s a reason why spitting is considered assault.

But everything you’ve done in the last twelve hours is all on you. It speaks volumes about how you see your role here on /r/cambridgeMA, and to many, your idea of moderation is completely out of sync of what most of this community expects and from generally established Reddiquette.

Put simply, you have abused your power and done so arbitrarily and without transparency.

• You invited people to PM you with concerns then banned or muted them even when they were constructive.
• You’ve banned others for posting their disagreement with your decisions as a Mod even when they were not abusive.
• You’ve continued to lie and make excuses for the reasons you’ve lashed out at the community and some of its best contributors. We’ve all had a bad day, but instead of apologizing and making things right, you’ve continued your abuse of power and made frankly laughable excuses

All this is enough for you to have shown yourself unable to handle having power over others. It’s hard not to see this attempt at damage control as a means to hold onto power when there is now a credible alternative subreddit who is promising a fair and transparent moderation team.

But the last 24 hours is only the tip of the iceberg. This subreddit has suffered for years without an adequate Moderation Team, the reason for which I believe is illustrated by the last 24 hours and how you have chosen to conduct yourself: a person who is bad at wielding power, rarely wants to share it.

One doesn’t have to search hard to see complaints of a long Moderation backlog, or compare how posts at /r/boston are helpfully filtered by flair by the strong (albeit perhaps overly sarcastic) Mod Team. Here there’s not even any rules except for the ones you make up on the spot.

The fact is you don’t moderate /r/cambridgeMA and when you do so, it is self-serving, opaque/lacking community input, and arbitrary. As one of the few city employees here, I am not afraid to speak plainly and honestly even though you have shown to ban those for doing far less. I’ve helped countless people here publicly and privately here and on /r/boston with animal-related concerns. It’s your loss if you choose to add me to the long list of those you’ve banned because you lack the maturity and integrity to have the power you do.

TL;DR: I’ll say it again: **Step down. ** That is the only way to save face after years of barely moderating and then showing up only to abuse your power because of something shitty that happened to you outside of Reddit and your decision to turn around and hurt those you have power over. It’s just pathetic and just shows how far away you should be kept from any kind of power or responsibility since you are simply not up to the task.

Spare us all and don’t reply with your faux high road ‘I’m listening to all feedback’ bullshit. You fucked up and I’m far more interested in an apology and an unbanning of all those you abused while on your butthurt power trip*. Frankly, I think this is all an act to hold onto power…but prove us wrong and start to make things right.

*My empathy for your horrible experience being spit on has run dry watching you try desperately to hold onto power while refusing accountability or undoing the abuses you have done to this community. You took your pain and used it to hurt others and this community and that tells us all we need to know about the type of person you are.

The fact of the matter is that street safety is a contentious topic no matter where you go. Vulnerable road users are growing in number and visibility, and are understandably frustrated with the status quo of car dominated planning which makes everything more dangerous for them. Putting a ban on discussing this is not going to help that whatsoever.

If you’re seeing uncivil things happening in the comments, and you think it’s overwhelming to moderate it all alone, that’s a clear sign that you need to expand the moderation team, not that the (very relevant) topic shouldn’t be allowed at all.

I'm not trying to be argumentative here, but it's worrisome that you're continuing to remove cycling related posts. Are you also banning the people who make them?

Seriously, asking for recommendations about where to ride a bike in Cambridge is not a hostile post or an attack.

I don’t mean this to be a dig, but I do think at least one more active moderator would be a good idea. I sympathize with the reasoning behind the temporary moratorium on bike related posts and I agree that the toxicity surrounding the issue is a problem, but I also sympathize with people who are upset and I think that having a team of moderators make decisions about stuff like that goes over a lot easier. It lends a degree of consensus to what at the moment is not an inherently transparent or democratized decision making process.

Step down and seek out moderators with the integrity, maturity, and time to moderate properly and transparently.

You’ve done too much damage in the last 24 hours to ever recover your reputation as a Moderator in the eyes of many of the most active members of this community. For example, you already asked for feedback and then banned or muted anyone who critiqued you.

This is “too little too late” damage control.

No, the insults do not illustrate why you did what you did.

My suggestion is for you to relinquish control of this sub or shut it down so another one can be created in its place.

I think the time for civility has passed. You need to go away.

Add additional moderators. Do not institute a blanket ban without some feedback from the community.

Allow posts about cycling

Please run a program to transfer responsibility to at least three other moderators with the patience, EQ and organizational skills to run a small subreddit like this.

You want advice, here’s mine. The community at large has clearly lost faith in you to be a good moderator. Conduct a search, select a new top mod, and step down

It’s generally not a good idea to say ‘yea don’t talk about that’ when there’s nothing inherently toxic about bikes, only the people who may ride them. If you want to limit toxic comments, I’m all for that, but banning a topic of conversation outright will only make people more upset then if you try to foster a conversation about it. I know you’re upset over the biker spitting in your face, and that’s fine and understandable, but there is no need to apply rules on the subreddit based off who has wronged you

I don’t know, maybe actually moderate impartially and not be a shitty driver?

😭a cyclist was mean to you? Thoughts and prayers!

It's crazy how they allow moderators like you to even be a mod lol

now mate, please explain how bicycles are controversial. no one's ever been killed by a bicycle itself. i'd get angry about cars if i were you, because they're hella controversial.

also please unban the people, that's not cool

Doubling down on a bad decision and trying to rationalize it is an interesting move.

If you're such a shitty driver that it drove [sic] someone to spit on you, I suggest that as well as stepping down as a moderator you also take a driver's ed class. Or just stop driving, even better.

Sounds like this subs mod is a little bitch

My thoughts:

While I don't t think this was a good moderation decision, I think I do somewhat understand the reasoning behind it. I am pretty much in favor of a rapid roll out of a complete network of bicycle infrastructure as rapidly as possible, removing whatever minimum amount of parking is necessary to achieve that. But, even as a supporter, many of these bicycle related posts are very repetitive. People supporting the change bring up the same points they brought up last time a similar change was rolled out; opponents trot out the same objections, which are then disputed in the same way. I feel like I could write a computer program to have these conversations for me.

On top of that, many times these discussions get sort of nasty. Like, even though I think the status quo is bad, I recognize that many people have adapted to it in various ways and it probably has some upsides for some one. There's no need to castigate some one because they prefer to drive for some trip or another. And it's not like the other side of the debate is any better; its a lot of useless "Some one using mode of transportation X did something bad once!". This being the Internet, some one will always read a post in the worst possible way, and they are the most likely one to reply.

So, those are the reasons I can imagine for implementing this policy. I think trying to justify it with an anecdote about an expectorating cyclist was not a very good explanation, however personally enraging that might have been.

Now, why I don't think it is a very good policy: Changes to the roads and infrastructure more broadly are news. Its important for people to, firstly, be aware of the specific changes. And I suppose if this is a discussion site, to have the option to discuss them.

That said, I'm not sure what is the best way to have a less repetitive and mean discussion. Maybe a weekly or bi-weekly mega-thread?

booooo! 👎

How can bicycling even be controversial lmao

You should step down as mod. And you should go for a bike ride.

And I thought my city’s sub was bad sometimes. Turns out we got it pretty damn good after seeing this mod.

>dEmInIsH tHe ToXiCiTy ArOuNd ThE pRo AnD aNtI bIKe DeBaTe

mission failed, we'll get'em next time

[deleted]

You can't even spell diminish right in this statement, lol.

Don’t let members of the DSA bully you or the way you moderate. They’ve grown accustomed to having the loudest voice in online local forums.