I would like to report an abuse of mod power

Question

I’m reporting @tchrist for the abuse of his mod power, for the following reasons:

• Deleting comments that were helpful but didn’t serve his question well:

All the comments from different users above were deleted. I want to believe this was a simple “decluttering” but he/she did not move the comments to chat like they had previously done before. He said “I did the move to chat, I don’t know what you’re talking about” in the transcript but as you can see the above comments were never transferred (I was referring to the comments above and that is the reply they gave after I decided to bring it up to them). A link to view [image 1] is there.

• Deleting comments of an instance where I reported said moderator for rude behaviour and inappropriate comments and inferences about my “grammar”

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to screenshot this :(

• I mentioned in chat that I noticed that he deleted these messages and he replied in a rather repetitive-spam like manner and decided to look at all my chat history, answers, questions or comments to compile a list of “my mistakes”

• In the chat telling me to be consistent with BrE and AmE spellings but later saying “defense” and “offence” in the same sitting. I then proceeded to say “some people are hypocrites” (which was deleted) and I was unfairly banned on chat for 29 days - when said moderator was the one sending me spam like messages.

This does not seem to me the appropriate behaviour of a moderator.

I have linked the following transcript here.

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Edit:

It is important to note several things:

1. I did not say tchrist caused my ban but I had stated that said moderator was showing digressive actions towards me and I was unfairly banned for what initially said 29 days and was changed to 24 hours at around the time I posted this question. A link to [image 2] is there. It has been questioned that this could be a bug but I have contacted SE and they will provide more information << I will leave this matter at that.

2. A finding: It seems that a moderator can ban a user for any set amount of time. It doesn't show that there is an automatic 30 min suspension when a user is suspended, but at the discretion of a moderator. If you think a 29 day suspension is implausible, how about a 3250 year suspension (A guide to moderating chat)?

3. I'm editing my answer for the sake of cleanness. The images of screenshots can still be found if needed as e.g. [image 1]

4. I'm also editing and putting the images in links since, people have seem to forgot that the comments (whether they were fairly deleted or not; we cannot know as we cannot read the mind of a moderator and whether those deletions were biased or not. For example, if they were decluttering why delete all of them and not keep the useful ones? Those comments in [image 1] are just part of the comments deleted) and that was not the only act of regression. In effect:

What happens if a user violated any of the Be nice policies in regards to the reasons I'm reporting said moderator? They could potentially be suspended or banned. But if a moderator violated these actions, it seems there is no recourse for them.

Answer 1

From this answer to the Meta post "What recourse do I have if I believe a moderator has abused their privileges?":

It's often best for you to try to work things out at as low a level as possible. If you have a problem with one moderator, it's faster for you to reach any of the other elected "Diamond Moderators" on your site as they have the most experience with your specific site and may even have seen other actions you have taken that give context to the issue at hand. Sometimes you want to go above someone's head (or even straight to the top) with a complaint or request, but realize that the recipient will wonder why this person with a complaint couldn't resolve it with the team of moderators that were put in place to do just that.

Earlier in the answer, it says how to contact another moderator:

Flag for moderator attention and request a second moderator to have a look.

What you flag would be something as closely related to the problem as possible—the question, the answer, or one of the (still existing) comments under one or the other.

There was some interesting information in the comments under that answer.

For instance:

There is an (unwritten?) rule that, if you complain about a specific moderator, then that moderator will not handle a flag that is about them, and will leave it for other moderator(s) to look at.

And also:

Related: Can moderators handle flags cast on their own content?  — “But Moderators are bound by broad prohibitions against conflict of interest.  If a Moderator were to find themselves in the middle of an incident in which they find themselves a party, we ask that they recuse themselves and find another Moderator to resolve the conflict.”

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Without going into details at this particular time, I recently had a similar experience with regard to an abusive comment directed at me by a moderator—which was then deleted, but not before I had flagged it as abusive.

Not knowing if my flag would survive the deletion of the comment or not, I raised a custom flag against a still-existing comment, and (in the space provided) mentioned the name of the particular moderator, hoping that it would be handled by somebody else—as indicated in the information provided above.

As it turned out, both my original flag and then subsequent custom flag were marked as "helpful." This tells me two things. First, that my original flag did survive its deletion. (That's good to know.) Second, and mainly because my custom flag wasn't processed until many hours later, that it was likely handled by a different moderator. Of course, it was good to know that I seem to have been warranted in raising my concern about the violation of the code of conduct.

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In short, I suspect that this is the best way of bringing such things to the attention of other moderators—just raise a flag, and it should be looked at by somebody other than the person involved. So long as others are aware of it, they will deal with it in the background as they should. (So far, I've had no reason to lose faith in the underlying checks and balances that should be in place.)

It can be tricky when the person you have a problem with is a moderator, but I suspect that we should still handle things in the same way as we would if they weren't a moderator. Probably there is more so-called fear involved in this specific case—but I'm going to choose to think that it's mostly unwarranted so long as you handle yourself politely and professionally.