When I first joined Reddit I really enjoyed the conversations I had with other people. I don’t really care about internet points and I always just sought out people whose opinions are different than my own to get diverse perspectives. In this way, subreddits centered around a particular point of view would guarantee me a conversation that was engaging and perhaps an opportunity to learn something.
But lately I noticed that moderators on that site have been using their bans to simply silence dissenting opinions and control the narrative and looking through moderator code of conduct it seems that the practice is not discouraged at all.
The first ban I ever received on that site was just a few months ago when I wrote just two sentences in response to someone. My post was not offensive in any way and I was writing in good faith. This was also the first time I ever posted on that subreddit. The moderator who permanently banned me claimed I was just to stupid to be allowed to continue posting in their community.
I am certainly capable of profound stupidity but just not the type one could devise in just a few sentences so I suspect that moderator was not being genuine with me.
Since then I have received two more permanent bans for posts which again were made in good faith and not racist, sexist, or displaying any obvious reason to take such a drastic action. Never a warning that I was violating the rules or a even a temporary ban. When I ask the moderator why, I get “muted”. A permanent ban should be for obvious trolling, spammers or people who repeatedly violate the subreddit rules. Not for just expressing a different opinion.
I feel like a certain breed of moderator has hijacked most of the subreddits I would have once found interesting to participate in. They come with a mandate to advance a specific agenda and it seems like Reddit’s fate has to become just like every other social media website that groups people by their beliefs while re-enforcing and radicalizing them.
Oh and the first moderator that banned me, he is active on the fediverse as well and they have re-created their community on kbin. So I suspect these types of people will eventually control the communities here as well.
It’s gotten worse over there.
Nice thing about the Fediverse is how difficult it is to really control, due to its decentralized nature. It’s unquestionable that some bad actors will acquire positions of power here, that’s just inevitable. It’s not an internet thing, it’s a life thing. Corruption.
But here anyone’s actual ability to dominate any particular subject matter is slashed down, just by the ease of creating nearly identically named duplicate communities.
It’s still possible, and will occasionally happen, but its just harder here.
I’ve noticed voting manipulation, astro-turfing and bots here on the fediverse, but it’s not even close to how bad it is/was on reddit.
Maybe it’s only because there’s less peoole here.
Nah, there were whole entire threads with me and a few bots over there. You can tell by a few things that they probably don’t know we can tell yet.
That is true. I haven’t been there since the exodus, but before the exodus there already were a huge percentage of bots.
I have lurked for ancient questions that needed to be asked, but I haven’t signed in since the exodus. It was like an abusive relationship searching for the good times with way more bad times. After a day or so of habit, I didn’t miss it all.