Thank you for your feedback. Sometimes solutions to problems take time. Thanks for being patient.

Be accountable. Stop making excuses. Do better.

The “toxic” posts were a scenario entirely of your own making. You continue to just dig yourself deeper.

> At its core, although it may be hard to see in all of this, maintaining my total control over this subreddit, escaping accountability and responsibility, and not losing members to /r/Camberville is my primary goal.

Fixed that for you. Prove me wrong.

The moderating over the past 24 hours was to limit the flood of toxic posts so a civil discussion could be had over the next few days regarding how to move the sub forward. Everyone who's been banned will have their banning reconsidered if they want to be part of the solution.

When a new plan is rolled out over the next several days, all the ideas I've heard will be considered with the intention of 1) diminishing the toxicity in general, 2) making it clear what the rules of the sub are, and 3) providing resources for more timely moderation of questions, concerns and abuse.
I get that people are frustrated, but I also see a world outside of Reddit, Facebook, etc. that's becoming more and more contentious due to unbridled social media. It's no secret that social media creates division, and while my reaction to it has created more division still in the short term, my hope is that the long term benefit to Cambridge, and the sub will be made apparent.

At its core, although it may be hard to see in all of this, the wellbeing of people although the city is my primary goal.

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The fact is that issues that concern the community should be allowed here regardless of what a single moderator who only shows up to abuse their power thinks.

/r/BikeBoston is a great dedicated place for bike-related discussions but there must be space for issues that impact the larger community.

And that is why /r/CambridgeMA fails. If we had a moderator, who actually actively moderates, posts would have flair allowing people to filter what they see by what is important to them. Those who feel that road changes, cycling, etc does not concern them could simply filter them out.

the solution is making someone else a moderator and removing yourself as one

> I look forward to coming up with a solution to some of the concerns on the sub over the next several days.

You don’t get it. We don’t want or trust you as a moderator. Why on Earth would we believe you’re suddenly going to hold yourself accountable next time? At least tell us what changed as you continue to not accept responsbility and deny wrongdoing. Why are you now asking for feedback and not banning people when they do?

You need to apologize and unban people. Full stop. This shouldn’t be something you need to think over.

It’s clear the most active members of this community no longer trust you. So why will we be at all interested in the rules you alone make after not moderating consistently for years and showing up just to abuse your power? Try and see this from our perspective.

Your comment should be:

> I’m am sorry to this community. I let my emotions get the better of me and ask you give me the opportunity to make things right and make our community better. I will be unbanning everyone who did not violate Reddit’s TOS. And while I’m not ready to step down as the sole moderator, I will be soon accepting applications for a moderation team to assist me with creating new community guidelines allow for more active and consistent moderation of /r/CambridgeMA going forward.

We all make mistakes. We all have moments where we would do things differently next time and what happened to you can be legitimately traumatizing. But you have yet to admit any fault or take accountability so you really cannot be trusted to do better next time.

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

I don’t believe you.

The right thing is apologizing, admitting your mistakes, and unbanning those you punished during your power trip.

Then and only then can this community determine if you have the right to rule over us without any accountability.

/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.

That will happen when a better moderation and policy framework has been put in place.

Thank you for your feedback. I look forward to coming up with a solution to some of the concerns on the sub over the next several days.

Thank you for your feedback. I look forward to coming up with a solution to some of the concerns on the sub over the next several days.

I agree with some of what you're saying here. I look forward to coming up with a solution over the next several days.

Thank you for your feedback. I look forward to coming up with a solution to some of the concerns on the sub over the next several days.

Restoring on-topic posts about bicycling seems pretty uncomplicated to me.

Thank you for your feedback. I look forward to coming up with a solution to some of the concerns on the sub over the next several days.

Thank you for your feedback. I look forward to coming up with a solution to some of the concerns on the sub over the next several days.

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?

The steps I've taken are temporary until I've sorted through the ideas and a path forward is determined.

You’re not going to ban them too?

/u/iheijoushin shared their message to you and was far more generous with you and you muted them.

You need to step down. Why are you suddenly OK with people critiquing you? Personally, I think it’s because you showed your true colors and are afraid of losing the keys to your castle because /r/camberville is trying to be the community you never cared enough to moderate except arbitrarily and for your own benefit.

Do you really want to change? Start by unbanning everyone from the last 24 hours. You are clearly incapable of having power over others but that’s one hell of a good start. But the fact your making excuses for what is transparently a decision you made because of a personal issue points to how you just need to go.

Despite “being bombarded”, you still can’t be wrong. Step down.

I assume by “civil” they mean people with a better and less instantly pessimistic attitude than you’re displaying. There’s no reason you couldn’t ask “will both sides be able to represent themselves in equal favor, if polite.”

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.

>>A person threatened me while I was walking around my neighborhood today. People are inherently toxic. As such, all discussion that revolves around, or even tangentially refers to, a human will be banned.