Spite-muting

**Spite-muting**, also spelt as **spitemuting** or **spite muting**; otherwise referred to as **false muting** or **muting without cause** is when a moderator of a community, server, or any like online social medium mutes someone, usually for a brief period of time, for petty or inflammatory reasons despite no infractions of any rule or precedence of decency. In the most popular sense, spite-muting occurs out of comic jest and not actual malice.

In large, public communities, unregulated yet lighthearted spite-muting is generally frowned upon or even treated as abuse of power; however, in sparsity there are varying levels of tolerance depending on the community's management. Spite-muting out of actual animosity is treated as an abuse of power in almost any case, regardless of the size of the community, though the perceived severity of this abuse varies.

In smaller public or semi-public communities, like Gobcord, there is much more acceptance of innocent spite-muting as a humorous gag on members, though it is still typically objected when in excessive amounts or bad faith. In Gobcord, spite-muting was frequent among moderators during the first few months of the server's existence. After the refinement of Gobcord's staffing following the Goup d'Etat, the muting of members without cause was reigned in. Presently, spite-muting in jest is to be done sparingly with the awareness that it is an inconvenience to members if lacking discipline; when someone is spite-muted, it is unethical to keep them muted for an exaggerated period of time, no more than 15 seconds or so. Spite-muting within the ranks of the Gobernors' Council, however, is still unregulated, but similar considerations are expected to be made. Even with these restrictions, unethical spite-muting on a seldom basis still occurs in Gobcord.

## Etymology

The term "spite-muting" describes a behavior which has been present in online community management since the advent of social media. The term originates from the spiteful and petty nature of extralegally punishing someone who has done nothing wrong over matters of personal offense or egomaniacal lordship over the less powerful. Even though spite-muting is inherently unfair, the term and action are connoted more humorously than malignantly. This specific iteration of the term was used in Gobcord to describe moderator abuse but was neither invented nor coined by the community.

## Abuse of Power

In the general management of communities and people online, spite-muting is a form of power abuse done unto community members by community moderators. Spite-muting as a form of administrative abuse is among the likes of wrongful kicking, banning, suspension, etc., though it is not held to as great a gravity as these other forms of power abuse. This is due to the fact that muting -- preventing someone from communicating partially or fully, whether through voice, text, or media, temporarily or permanently -- is far less of a bother to members than being removed from a community entirely.

Because spite-mutes are often administered during outrageous banter and are brief and temporary, it is an acceptable perversion of supervisory responsibility, within reason, in many communities.

1. ↑ https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mute