I'll explain it as simply as I can:
BACKSTORY
Voat has a culture to it that hindered @srayzie from removing the undesirables from the conversation here. That culture did the same to /v/PizzaGate and caused many users to leave the subverse.
Within this Voat culture, not all subverses are equal. Subverses like this one MUST be subject to all kinds of rules and regulations and "discussions" on whether or not the mods did the right thing, based on the opinions of people not of this subverse, but of those that hold to principles of a Voat that existed 3.5 years ago. Shitposting subverses, however, can be run however they want, and none of those "old goats" will complain.
Same with monarchical subverses and democratic ones; @srayzie always wanted to be able to remove what she didn't like from this subverse she made. I know most of you probably felt that he doing so would make this a better place, but she was fettered by the will of those that are not part of this subverse; forcing the idea that this was a "democratic" subverse, where these shitposters could infiltrate and push their agenda on others here. This very thing happened on /v/Pizzagate.
DECISION
Will you all accept that GA is now a "shitposting" and "monarchical" subverse, thus forcing those "goats" that want to meddle to have consistency issues that will cause them more problems and keep them off our backs? Thus allowing your mods to unilaterally decide to remove things like this which was submitted by this sleeper account, that pretended to be part of GA, but was out to DIVIDE and destroy us, without having to bother with oversight from some unhealthily interested parties, invested in keeping mods weak to allow for shitposters to run wild over the website?
-or-
Do you want to continue the charade of the "free speech for all" ProtectVoat charter, when these shitposters can and will have MORE speech than you, can and will flood this place with horseshit, and your mods, with work having to cite rules; discuss rules; ponder removals; ponder bans; and get second-guessed by outside groups; ultimately winding up like @srayzie and @shizy?
These trolls and shitposters will push the envelope with every rule until a mod steps out of line, then ProtectVoat will swoop in to hammer that mod into submission. Do you want your mods subjected to that, or do you trust them to not need this outside meddling?
TL;DR
Do you want to declare GA's independence from the bullshit of "goats" and shitposters that do not have your best interests at heart? Do you want to tell them that we declare ourselves a shitposting, monarchichal, INDEPENDENT subverse that they can either ignore or find themselves at odds with their own doctrines, and by doing so, take away every fang they have to direct at us?
-or-
Do you want to continue under the thumb of a knowingly-brigading, vote manipulating, shadow-cabal-from-reddit-using @kevdude and his posse of merry dead-child-posting and threatening shitposters that somehow have everyone believing they want to be fair to us?
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The former in this TL;DR will keep me and your other mods from having to post nearly as much meta crap as we would otherwise have to going forward.
Tying up loose ends:
I have done things that go against their charter on GA before this post and your decision. If you choose to declare your independence, may I ask you all to pardon my PV-related transgressions against you by removing shitposters and their posts and comments without citing a reason for each?
Last bit:
I implore you to declare your independence from this 3.5 year old tyranny that is not sanctioned by the admin of this site. Free yourselves from the yoke of their absurd rules for mods that causes people not not even want to become mods due to the red tape, fine lines, tight-rope-walking, and eventual torch-and-pitchfork treatment after the lines of rules being pushed.
I once again promise this:
I will protect the GA users against all threats to their ability to post here. This is YOUR place - an AMAZING place - and it was built for you by someone no longer with us due to these "goats".
Thank you all for your consideration. Please vote below with your base-level comments.
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divine_human ago
independence.
GA is our room in the voat house. when someone shits into the room, shit gets removed. when he repeatedly abuses the room for his personal bathroom, he gets denied further entry.
free speech is not free shit. we also dont do that in real life.
but the rules of the game need to be clear so everybody knows how to play in here. and the mods need to strictly stick to those rules and will be called out for every removal that appears unjustified.
we have the mod logs and its our right and duty to regularly check them. this is not reddit where power mods can secretly play their manipulation game. nothing is really hidden but we fricking have to keep track of it.
i checked the mods logs just now.
comment log didnt look good 12 days or so ago when the drama was on super-hype. the removed comments though were all related to srayzies good-bye post; they mostly didnt deserve a removal and i also complained about it, heheh. but hey, it was clean-up time, everything was a bit emotional, and crensch promised that things would get better.
and well, they did. ever since, hardly and removals, and 2 bans (no opinion on that, didnt observe the process).
post logs are another thing. i see a few removals there that i cant understand at all. https://voat.co/v/GreatAwakening/about/log/submission
for example, the decision on the quality of a post is pretty subjective, this rule needs to be specified. i also dont like the general rule of 'no questions'; if the post contains more than a question and is not a call fro being spoon-fed, simply removing it because the header contains a question isnt justified, from my pov.
that being said, lets fine-tune the rules and then strictly mod accordingly. makes it easier for everybody and spare the mods a lot of shit.