Delete, Ban, Mock, Repeat: Inside r/Miami's Moderation Problem

On January 25, 2026, Julien Autissier collapsed around mile 19 of the Life Time Miami Marathon. He was 33, a financial analyst from Boca Raton, and an incredibly fit athlete who had just completed volcano climbs in Guatemala weeks earlier. He was rushed to Mercy Hospital, where he died. First fatality in the marathon's 24-year history.

Within hours, his widow posted to the subreddit r/Miami, the city's largest online forum with over 400,000 subscribers. She shared his age, the mile marker, the time. She was seeking information. Trying to understand what happened.

The post received 127 comments and 410 upvotes. Witnesses came forward. Someone who spoke with the first responder confirmed the account. Users cross-referenced the marathon's chip timing data and found a 33-year-old male whose splits ended at mile 18.6. Everything matched.

The moderators deleted the post. Labeled it "Misinformation/Speculation."

When the Miami Herald confirmed the death three days later, those articles kept getting deleted too. One moderator reportedly claimed the news was "AI-generated."

The Timeline

Sunday, January 26: Widow posts to r/Miami. Community responds with condolences and corroborating information. Moderators delete the post for "Misinformation/Speculation."

Monday-Tuesday, January 27-28: Users attempt to repost. Those posts are removed. When one user messages the mods asking why a Miami New Times article is being deleted, they're told: "You are neither the person involved, the original author of the post, nor are you a moderator of this subreddit. We are not discussing this with you."

One mod tried to restore the posts. That mod was removed from the mod list. The mod doing the deleting was added back.

Wednesday, January 28: Miami Herald publishes confirmation. Miami Fire Rescue confirms transporting a male in critical condition. The Medical Examiner's case number matches. Anyone can look it up: Case #2026-00260 on the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner database.

Herald and New Times links are posted to r/Miami. Also removed.

Friday, January 31: The moderators finally address it in a post that has since been deleted. The title they choose: "OMG SOMEBODY DIED AT THE MARATHON."

Read that again. A man is dead. His widow came to them for help. And their official response is to mock it in all caps.

• Link to archived post

In the post, they describe the widow as "a random account with no history" who made claims with "almost no details posted at all." They call users who questioned the deletions "terminally online attic-dwellers" engaged in "massive circlejerks." They insist they have "families and hobbies and friends and jobs and lives outside of reddit."

They also write: "You will notice that no major news outlets are included in this list."

The list includes the Miami Herald. The paper founded in 1903. The paper with 24 Pulitzer Prizes. The paper that broke the Epstein story. Not credible enough for the anonymous moderators of r/Miami.

Meet u/Snert196: The Mod Behind the Chaos

The moderator deleting marathon death posts and posting that mocking title? That's u/Snert196.

This is the same u/Snert196 who previously created r/bannedfromflorida, a subreddit designed specifically to mock users who they banned from Florida subreddits. The description reads:

"Are you a raging homophobe? Do you like to belittle other races to cover your own insecurities? Do you believe in alternative facts? Have you been banned from Florida for these reasons? Then join us and partake in the most toxic community of brainwashed basement dwellers this basementless state has to offer."

So this is the person deciding what Miami residents can talk about. Someone who bans users without explanation, then creates a subreddit to call them homophobes, racists, and "brainwashed basement dwellers." Someone who deleted posts about a man's death, then titled their explanation "OMG SOMEBODY DIED AT THE MARATHON" like it's a joke.

This is who has power over your city's largest online forum.

u/Snert196 also moderates r/SouthFlorida, r/lakeland, and all the other subreddits listed below.

They're part of a network.

The Network

In January 2023, the Tampa Free Press published an investigation that mapped how a small group of moderators controls Florida's largest online communities. The findings should concern anyone who uses these subreddits.

Of 21 non-bot moderators for r/Florida, 12 also moderate at least one of three major metro subreddits: r/StPetersburgFL, r/Orlando, and r/Miami. Same people. Same tactics.

u/RallyX26 moderates r/StPetersburgFL, r/Miami, r/FloridaCoronavirus, and r/lakeland. This user "appears to surf Reddit looking for abandoned communities to take over as moderator," collecting subreddits like they're Pokémon. They moderate r/youtubers, r/DrivingProTips, and requested control of r/FLPolitics and r/vanart. What does any of this have to do with Miami? Nothing. It's about control.

u/FLTA moderates r/Miami and r/Orlando.

u/josetavares moderates r/Miami and r/SouthFlorida. This user posts more in r/Dominican, r/PuertoRico, r/bronx, and r/newyorkcity than any Florida subreddit. Why are they moderating Miami's community when they're clearly more invested in New York?

u/hectorhector moderates r/Orlando and posts and comments much more on r/Atlanta than on r/florida. Another moderator more active outside Florida than in it.

u/razzertto and u/preludeoflight moderate both r/StPetersburgFL and r/Miami. u/iamthemarquees and u/the_lamou (who doesn't live in Florida and openly expresses their hatred for the state and its residents) round out the r/Miami team.

These people don't answer to Miami residents. They answer to each other. And when one of them goes rogue deleting posts about a man's death, the others back them up and mock the community for questioning it.

How They Treat Users

The Tampa Free Press documented users being permanently banned from r/Florida without violating any stated rules.

One user was banned minutes after commenting that "an increase in money supply leads to inflation." That's a basic economic observation. Banned.

Another user was banned after a comment about bears. Bears.

When users ask why they were banned, moderators respond: "That information is classified. Unfortunately you do not have the proper clearance."

They're cosplaying as government agents while running a city subreddit. It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.

The investigation found evidence of automated profile scanning. Users who had participated in certain subreddits got flagged and banned regardless of what they actually posted in r/Florida or r/Miami. You could post something completely reasonable, completely within the rules, and still get banned because a bot scanned your history and decided you were the wrong kind of person.

This is how you kill a community. You don't ban people for what they say. You ban them for who you think they are. You turn a city subreddit into an echo chamber where only approved viewpoints survive. You eliminate any possibility of constructive conversation between people who might disagree. You create a space where everyone nods along because anyone who might push back has already been silenced.

A healthy community has debate. A healthy community has friction. A healthy community doesn't pre-screen users to make sure they all think the same way. What r/Florida and r/Miami have built is the opposite of community. It's a clubhouse with a bouncer checking your papers at the door.

Then you get mocked in r/bannedfromflorida as a homophobe or racist, courtesy of u/Snert196. Banned without explanation, then smeared publicly. That's the system.

A poll in r/TheSunshineState, an alternative created for users banned from the main Florida subs, found that of 66 respondents, 23 had been banned from r/Florida. Of those who hadn't been banned, 19 said they only lurk without posting. People are afraid to participate in their own state's subreddit because the mods might scan their profile and ban them for "wrongthink."

The Structural Problem

Reddit lets this happen. City subreddits function as de facto public squares, and Reddit hands them to whoever registers the name first. No elections. No accountability. No oversight.

Reddit's official guidance when users appeal bans: "There may be a similar community you can try participating in instead." The platform explicitly states: "We are not responsible for actions taken by the moderators."

The first person to create a subreddit becomes its absolute ruler. They can invite friends to help moderate. Those friends share their politics, their grudges, their enemies list. The community has no say.

This is how you end up with u/Snert196 deleting posts about a marathon death and then titling their response "OMG SOMEBODY DIED AT THE MARATHON." This is how you end up with moderators more active in Atlanta and New York than in the Florida communities they control. This is how you end up with users banned for comments about bears.

Reddit doesn't care. These moderators generate free labor. Why would Reddit stop them?

The Question

Should random people with strong political opinions, some who don't even live here, and have no credibility, control what an entire city is able to talk about on one of the largest internet platforms?

Reddit's answer is yes.

A grieving widow came to r/Miami to share that her husband died at one of the city's biggest annual events. She was dismissed as a liar by moderators who think the Miami Herald isn't a credible source. The moderator who deleted her posts then titled their official response like it was a punchline.

That moderator, u/Snert196, also runs a subreddit calling banned users homophobes and racists. These are the people who decide what you're allowed to discuss about your own city.

We know their usernames: u/Snert196, u/RallyX26, u/FLTA, u/josetavares, u/razzertto, u/preludeoflight, u/iamthemarquees, u/the_lamou. We don't know who they actually are. We don't know where they live. We don't know if they've ever set foot in Miami. We just know they have absolute power over the city's largest online forum, and they wield it like petty tyrants.

The mod team's response to criticism? "Comments about the previous posts, the post/comment removals, the mods (present and past), or any other speculation will be removed."

They'll probably delete this article if someone posts it to r/Miami. That's how they operate. Delete, ban, mock, repeat.
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Julien Autissier was 33. Financial analyst at Saxena White. Born in France, married his wife Nathaly in Amsterdam in 2019. Devoted husband and stepfather. Preparing for his second CFA exam. Loved hiking and running. Cause of death pending autopsy.