Moderating Molly's Message Makes Metafilter Meltdown: comment deletion launches a thousand angry replies across Metafilter and its Reddit offsite

Last time I covered Metafilter, site operator Josh "cortex" Millard had been driven to confusion by the mental assault of the Metafilter userbase, and agreed to step back in some fashion. A month later he more formally announced this.

Since then, this has been realized with cortex's complete separation from any role in Metafilter's operation. Ownership of the site has been transferred to his longtime friend and former Metafilter colleague Jessamyn "jessamyn" West, with the Oregon corporation dissolved and a Vermont LLC constituted.

Jessamyn, however, is supposed to be a fairly hands-off owner. In her words: "I own the place and am the ultimate "buck stops here" person if it gets to that and handle legal and taxes." Of unknown real name, Metafilter moderator "loup" serves as day-to-day manager. But there is also supposed to be community control, as per cortex's resignation post: In recent months, Metafilter has established a STEERING COMMITTEE. It operates under a charter established by the Transition team. It is maybe kind of like a real non-profit board if a real non-profit board was fake and had no power.

The site was also months from bankruptcy at current non-zero levels of janitorial pay, so there was a bunch of fundraising, which actually seems to have stabilized finances in the near-term. So they had a celebratory thread announcing this, and that kicked off the most recent meltdown.

On MetaTalk, Metafilter's own meta section, this is the fundraising celebration thread, and that comment is the mod "taz" announcing the deletion of MollyRealized's Comment - a whiney and critical but fairly inoffensive post about the insufficiency of fundraising drives without attracting new membership. Let's skim the comments after that:

I personally would have liked to have read MollyRealized's comment. But not only is the comment gone but it was apparently so offensive that MollyRealized is now banned from MetaTalk? That shouldn't happen.

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jessamyn: I know deletions and other moderator decisions are awkward but mods really can't talk about individual moderator actions or private conversations they've had with users.

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I saw it, started to read it, then quickly realised it was a destructively negative essay (and not a comment) that could sap the willpower out of current and future volunteer efforts on the steering committee, and stopped reading. I too am glad it was deleted.

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Steering Committee member: ...not speaking on behalf of the SC as a whole: As jacquilynne mentioned - the decision to delete MollyRealized's comment was purely a mod/admin decision, and the SC was not consulted or informed prior. I personally do not think that comment should have been deleted...

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MollyRealized is over on Reddit -- a site with an exponentially bigger userbase than this one -- telling people that their account has been essentially locked as of a few hours ago, meaning that they can't participate in any meaningful dialogue.

This is the thread that really broke the dam on the /r/MetafilterMeta offsite that the Metafilter mods long pretended wasn't there. With "Molly says XYZ on Reddit" becoming the main topic of discussion, here's a last attempt at dismissal: "One of the most important things for running a healthy internet community is that we don't react to off-site social media ... It's a fact of human nature that people who are upset -- for good reasons or for bad reasons or because they had a hard day at work and their frustration is coming out sideways at MetaFilter -- are always going to be the ones most likely to post on outside social media." The mods then stopped posting in this MetaTalk thread and didn't allow another one for several days. The users go on for days about every fine detail of this deletion and banning.

Here is MollyRealized, as u/MollyInanna, on Reddit, in the parallel thread for the fundraising announcement. Most of that post's comments end up being about the drama.

• Here's Molly sharing her formal message to the mods, closing her Metafilter account.

• Here's talk about those who leave Metafilter because of this kind of drama, and those who stay there because of this kind of drama.

• "I did not expect for the thread surrounding my departure to cause such a ruckus as it did." Here's Molly's farewell message to Metafilter users

Eventually the Metafilter mods allow a MetaTalk meta post about MetaTalk comment deletion policies, and it gets a parallel r/MetafilterMeta post. Somehow only as things peter out for now does it become relevant on Reddit and on Metafilter that MollyRealized used to post as WCityMike. There's plenty more besides in those threads, especially as users question the actual roles and power of the Steering Committee, but I tire - you can dip in and out freely.

Best of luck to the Steering Committee!