The mods were misfiring for sure, but what made me step away were not the mods – that could have been addressed over time – but the users. My reaction to the video and what the mods said was basically, “Oh haha, that was bad!” and I think that’s where it ended for me. I had noted issues with the mods prior to that and brought them up, and no one seemed to care at that time – I even pointed out several times that one of the mods had a stickied post on their profile specifically requesting interviews – so it’s hard for me to believe that the users were acting in good faith. Why did no one seem to care before that interview happened? But everyone got drummed up into an emotional frenzy, and that sort of thing is what tears movements apart – not one or two bad mods.

I agree the mods shouldn’t have positioned themselves as spokespeople, but there were so many other ways it could have been handled without melting down.