If you haven't seen it already, please read my introductory post about American 2G Cooperative - then come back here.
As my linked post says, I currently serve as President and CTO of A2GC - but this non-profit corporation was only formed in the spring of 2025. What was I doing previously? Answer: for many years (going back to 2013) I led a project named FreeCalypso, seeking to design and build my own phone handset based on GSM/2G technology and TI Calypso chipset. That project has its home page, but that page had its last update in 2023 and is now due for more updates...
Back in 2018 there was a now-defunct project named ZeroPhone - another person, completely unrelated to me, designed a DIY smartphone in which an off-the-shelf GSM modem module from SimCom was controlled by a Raspberry Pi Zero, with the latter component implementing and controlling the phone UI. Those SimCom GSM modules used by ZP project were proprietary, while my FreeCalypso solution was the only available GSM modem whose firmware source code is fully published. So I got in touch with ZeroPhone main developer and engaged in a dialogue toward building a ZP+FC variant - but that original ZP developer then lost interest (not just in FC, but in his own project too), and ZeroPhone project went defunct.
In its heyday, ZeroPhone had its own Reddit community, and in December of 2018 I joined Reddit specifically so I could engage with that community. I named my Reddit account MotherMychaela: Mychaela is my actual first name (yes, it appears on my California driver's license), and Mother is the title by which I went in my own then-active FreeCalypso community.
But then the unexpected happened. When I joined Reddit in December of 2018, I did it with the express intent of participating in that ZeroPhone community, and didn't have any other uses or activities in mind. But when I went to create that MotherMychaela account, Reddit somehow psychically learned that I am a trans woman (physical fact, irrelevant to my work with cellular phone technologies, but a fact nonetheless), and recommend a bunch of transgender-related subreddits to me. I joined those subs, thinking "why not".
After that beginning in December of 2018, ZeroPhone project very quickly went dead, but all those other subs I joined (TG-related) naturally remained quite active - so I started participating in them, commenting from my lived experience. And thus between that time in late 2018 or early 2019 and the end of my Reddit tenure on 2026 May 30, I used that MotherMychaela account to make posts or comments of two different kinds:
- Posts and comments related to my technical work: FreeCalypso GSM MS project, Osmocom Cellular Network Infrastructure, Themyscira Wireless CN software and eventually A2GC.
- Posts and comments of a more personal nature, primarily in transgender-related subreddits and some other subs dealing with my marginalized minority status.
None of my posts or comments in category 1 per above breakdown ever broke any rules, subreddit or site-wide, and I was never subject to any adverse moderation actions (or adverse actions from site-wide admins) in any of the technical subs I participated in, including the principal one /r/vintagemobilephones. However, when crimes against humanity occurred beginning in 2020-March and then continuing for two years or so, my once-beloved LGBTQ+ community took the wrong side in those events - and while I continued engaging with TG community on Reddit due to the unchangeable physical fact that I am a post-op trans woman and thus have a lot of interest in common with the larger TG community, my interactions with them became a lot more tense.
My interactions with transgender community in the post-Covid era earned me some subreddit bans - but those subs were all TG-related or otherwise personal-type, not technical, hence my ability to do high-quality technical work and post about it in technical subs was unimpeded. But on the more personal side of my life, as a result from having been banned from the more mainstream TG subs, I felt forced to seek out and participate in more marginalized ones. Those marginalized subs have much less aggressive subreddit-level moderators, at which point I met a new enemy: Reddit site-wide admins.
It also needs to be understood that the more marginalized, less mainstream TG-related subs on Reddit attract those trans women (as well as trans men and non-binary folks) who have a lot of trauma, stemming from inability to pass, "failed" transitions, getting worn down by being the target of intense transphobia on a daily basis - hence the mood in those subs is often dark. In that atmosphere, every now and then someone will post musings about a certain unmentionable act that is widely associated with a certain number that reads as 41%.
As it happens, I am pro-choice: not only with regard to abortion, but also with regard to that other issue. Between 2023 and 2026, a total of 5 comments of mine got "[ Removed by Reddit ]" as they say it - I had to dig through my still-visible (to me only) account history to count them. Every single one of those 5 instances were in personal-type subs, either transgender-related or related to another marginalized minority I am a part of - never in any of the technical subs in which I participated with stellar reputation.
Unfortunately my fifth offense before Reddit site-wide admins (or rather their AI algorithms - the suspensions in reaction to my comments were far too immediate to be done by any human moderator or admin) moved that AI-powered behemoth to ban (or "permanently suspend", as they say it) my entire Reddit account. And from what I read online regarding new accounts in such circumstances, it is basically an impossible task if the objective is to maintain a continued identity and presence in those subs in which I was always fully welcome without any trouble.
I fully admit that I fucked up: I showed my last fateful comment (the one that triggered the last and final ban) to a non-autistic member of my family, and she told me in no uncertain terms that what I said was not appropriate for any public platform. My Aspie brain meant absolutely no harmful intent with that comment, absolutely no intent to harm anyone, violently or otherwise, but I was told (after the fact) that mainstream society's norms say otherwise.
However, I argue that the punishment meted out to me by Reddit site-wide admins was and is not appropriate to the crime. It might have been proper to ban me from all personal-type communities or subreddits, such that I can never again post anything on their platform of a personal nature, while leaving my ability to make purely technical posts purely for work-related purposes, strictly related to my job of building a new GSM/2G cellular network that is highly desired by /r/vintagemobilephones community in which I never had any negative interactions - but Reddit site-wide bans don't work this way, instead they block my ability to post in those subs where the resident communities were nothing but appreciative of my content.
Going forward, this new account I created on RetroLemmy in the fediverse shall be strictly "bonnet on": aside from the present post and any clarifying replies, I intend to post only in conjunction with my official role as CTO of American 2G Cooperative, only technical or business-related content that relates to our mission of building a new GSM network and providing working service to those who wish to use 20 year old Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson etc phones.
As for the original /r/vintagemobilephones community on Reddit, the best scenario would be if high-ranking members of that community (mods or otherwise) discover on their own this new A2GC online presence in the fediverse, and on their own initiative inform the rest of that community as to what happened. It would also be ideal if some other member of VMP community, someone who is not subject to a Reddit ban, were to join this Lemmy community and act as a human bridge between the two communities, cross-posting important valuable content back and forth. Alternatively, if no existing member of VMP on Reddit feels up to the task of serving as this human bridge, but someone else with an interest in Vintage Mobile Phones (and 2G cellular services to make them work) finds this post - if you are not banned from Reddit, I and the rest of A2GC team strongly implore you to join both /r/vintagemobilephones and this Lemmy community and start bridging content.
We as in A2GC are also exploring the possibility of having other A2GC corporate officers create Reddit accounts and post in /r/vintagemobilephones. As I understand it, Reddit site-wide ban applies against me as an individual human - and while they won't carve out an exception for me posting solely in my job role, A2GC as a corporate entity has not committed any Reddit rule violations. Thus if a different A2GC corporate officer creates a Reddit account and posts A2GC content in a subreddit where such content is fully welcome, can they still call it ban evasion? It is an avenue which we are still exploring.