When I put up the previous sticky, I said I would listen to pizzagate researchers. After a number of conversations with different longtime users I trust and respect, I have come to the conclusion that the way I handled this -- mainly changing the sidebar without first ensuring there was a consensus for it -- was completely backassward and wrong. Some of you have pointed out concerns with how a Comment Abuse rule could itself be abused. Others supported it -- but were afraid to do so publicly.

What I should have done is explain the problem I see, and engage the whole board in discussing how to address it. I hope you will forgive me for approaching this in the wrong way.

In my nearly three years modding here, I have been repeatedly humbled and deeply encouraged by the level of commitment so many of you have shown to exposing the truth about the evil abuse structure undergirding national and international politics, government, business, media, churches, charities, "health"care and education. Some of you research, many actively spread the word, many more mostly lurk and pray. But all of you have courageously refused to look away from a horror that turned out to be far more dark and pervasive than any of us imagined when we first read about Podesta's handkerchief with a "pizza-related map" on it. Together, we've amassed 33,036 submissions (as of today) which expose this web of filth like no other resource on the planet. It's no wonder there is always one or more people here trying to disrupt, discourage, distract, derail and divide.

Our requirements that contributors take the time to explain how their submissions are pizzagate related, source every major claim with a link that can be vetted, and keep unsourced discussion, disputes about moderation and other meta material in v/pizzagatemods or v/pizzagatewhatever, while somewhat of a pain for both users and mods, has resulted in strong content and a board that runs well much of the time.

It has forced those here to screw with us to go to great lengths to complete their mission. By and large, they have to create legitimate-seeming alts by submitting research exposing elite pedos or posing as advocates for other users before they attempt to run their divide-discourage-defame operation. The only place they can even get away with doing that is in the Comments because we were told by ProtectVoat we could not touch comments.

There is a whole story here going back to the banning of this subverse from Reddit, the herding of researchers to this subverse and the purging of all original moderators that I might get into when I have more time. But suffice it to say, that what ProtectVoat claims is not, actually, true. There is no Voat rule that says subverses that are not System subverses (such as v/whatever, v/news, v/funny etc.) cannot make rules or policies regarding Comments or remove those who are only there to disrupt. It has been done occasionally to deal with egregious "comment spammers" both locally and Voatwide". Here's how the Voat User Agreement FAQ puts it:

Each subverse has its own rules which are usually stated in the respective subverse's sidebar. If you ignore said rules, your account may be banned from submitting further content to the subverse or in some cases, globally.

We have a situation here in v/pizzagate in which anyone who wants to "ignore said rules" to attempt to sow division, stir up drama, or push unsupported disinfo can simply do so by using other people's submissions' Comment section. I'm not talking about normal discussion. I'm talking about exactly what we've always banned users for: a pattern of repeated disregard for subverse rules like Rule 4. I have always used an approach where the pattern is documented and the user warned before losing their posting privileges, so that no one gets shut down simply because they were having a bad day, or got discouraged about the subject matter, had a few drinks and vented, or whatever. So:

1. Do you want to add a general warning to the sidebar that a pattern of repeated disregard for subverse rules may lead to a ban, and take it on a case by case basis when this becomes a problem in Comments?
2. Or is that a terrible idea that ought to be completely scrapped, and we should continue to only respond to egregious disruptors with challenges in comments and/or informative stickies?
3. Do you want a more limited version of #1, such as mods only be able to ban users for repeatedly using Comments to subvert Rule 4 instead of making a submission in the appropriate subverse?

I want this sub to run fairly and smoothly, with maximum effectiveness. I think the time is coming soon, in the run-up to 2020, when we will have unprecedented opportunities to share our research and make a public impact. With that, we can expect to be thwarted even worse than we have been so far. I want us to be ready!

Pizzagate contributors, please comment below and share your thoughts, or any others you might have.