9 ms·

Both Reddit's admins and their future-employee mods are completely out of control, in a way that makes Facebook's intentional topic manipulation seem tame by co

by bryans 5y ago

Both Reddit's admins and their future-employee mods are completely out of control, in a way that makes Facebook's intentional topic manipulation seem tame by comparison. These people go out of their way to ban people for no reason -- constantly, every single day -- in a way that can only be described as intentionally abusive. They appear to get some kind of sadistic pleasure in reading ban appeals and denying them, knowing full well that the bans are improper and the appeals are justified. In fact, they make a point of not properly responding to reports of harassment (including the sexual proposition of minors), but they will permanently ban well-known and popular accounts that never broke a single rule. They'll even ban people directly out of spite, or because they disagree with you. There is nothing too petty for them. They're even swindling advertisers in the most brazenly shameful way, and they've been banning live streamers to protect the lie[1]. Ultimately, Reddit's strategy is to simultaneously file their IPO and switch the design to be a TikTok clone with a web3 component attached to the awards system. They're going to tank rapidly, but it doesn't matter to them because they already got paid. The bans were a way to prevent rocking the investor boat until the IPO, but they got caught up in it, and now it's going too far. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29574786 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29574786

hutzlibu 5y ago
"They appear to get some kind of sadistic pleasure in reading ban appeals and denying them, knowing full well that the bans are improper and the appeals are justified." Or they get pleasure by making more money, in not paying enough people to manual review issues.
- k8sToGo 5y ago
  I thought mods are unpaid?
  - darebak 5y ago
    Mods are not paid by Reddit, admins are paid but I think that some admins are also modding a few subs.
    - commandlinefan 5y ago
      I'm conspiratorial enough to believe that some of the power mods are being paid, but not by reddit.
      - darebak 5y ago
        There are mods that are paid, for example mods that run a company subreddit. But, I am also sceptical about transparency of mods of large subreddit, ie the powermods.
      - hajile 5y ago
        I've wondered for a while if reddit powermod /u/MaxwellHill isn't actually Ghislaine Maxwell (who apparently had some kind of association with former Reddit CEO Pao). Reddit would be a great place to run interference AND a place for her to find troubled kids for "recruitment". https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/r45a5n/here_is_the_evidence_that_reddit_user_maxwellhill/ https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/r45a5n/here_is_...
    - MerelyMortal 5y ago
      The r/cryptocurrency mods were paid by Reddit in their cryptocurrency called "moons" which can be traded for cash.
- bryans 5y ago
  Except some of the people they've banned were making them lots of money, so it's not as simple as your suggestion.
core-utility 5y ago
I'm utterly amazed at how ban-wild some communities can be. I occasionally see stories of people being banned from communities they've never posted to (reading/lurking only) simply because they also subscribe to another community that is "opposite" of the first. Take /r/novavax_vaccine_talk for example. There was recently a member [1] there who was banned from /r/coronavirus simply for being a member. These people aren't anti-vax by any means, but because it doesn't "fit the picture" they get ousted. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Novavax_vaccine_talk/comments/sa78hi/when_novavax_supporters_get_the_youre_an/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Novavax_vaccine_talk/comments/sa78h...
- 0cVlTeIATBs 5y ago
  This used to be a joke. "You have been banned from /r/Pyongyang."
  - core-utility 5y ago
    I miss that joke. It's too bad the mod didn't create a bot to automatically actually ban people from the dead sub when called out, just for fun. Edit: Ironically said in a comment about the overuse of banning people
- mns 5y ago
  Ha, it happened to me on Sunday, I posted a message like "We got our booster 1 month ago and didn't have any side-effects" in lockdownskepticism (which is not even an extreme or anti something sub) and started getting messages from pics/netflix/showerthoughts and so on that now I am automatically banned from subs that I never even posted in for posting in a sub that promotes medical misinformation. I send a message showing the message that I posted and one of the mods from one of the subs just blocked me from contacting them again. Basically my 14 year old account is useless now, because a message in a sub (regardless of content) triggered an automatic ban on most of the subs I subscribed to.
  - hajile 5y ago
    This violates the mod guidelines/TOS, but Reddit simply does not care. They enjoy the echo-chamber they create.
archerx 5y ago
This is very true and it is already having an effect. The amount of posts in the development sub reddit has declined so much it is borderline dead. For example the front page of r/javascript is mostly days old posts which means I can visit it once a week and not really miss anything and it has 1,873,376 subscribers! It seems people have recognized that the post quality was garbage and moved on to greener pastures. It truly is the end of an era. I got banned from r/webdev because some said "using PHP is stupid" and I replied "that is ignorant and that the comment itself was stupid" and I got banned for that and I never looked back. Good riddance reddit.
- cainxinth 5y ago
  I’ve been using Reddit since the beginning, and I still use and like it, but your ban for saying “using php is stupid” comment resonates. One of my biggest Reddit pet peeves is downvoting or punitive mod action in response to subjective opinions. It’s not a new problem, and it’s one that can happen in any forum with downvoting, but it drives me nuts. The downvote is not a disagree button!
  - nekcihc 5y ago
    >>The downvote is not a disagree button! Downvote is a disagree button as it is perceived as such and that is an issue. Same functionality is in NH - it just has a higher treshold when you can use it, but not really that different in essence. Banning for arguing is normal - from the times, when early web forums existed. Banning can be for any reasons - disagreeing with mod, arguing with someone, who is friends with mod. Mod is a god in forum. The solution to that is - either be a friend of mod or do not argue with idiots for idiotic reasons unless you are an idiot or simply want to be banned. PHP might be stupid or might not be stupid - who really cares in the end, when you log off from forum.
    - ganzuul 5y ago
      Well I disagree but I understand your golden rule so I'll downvote you since this is the behavior you are requesting. Please note that I don't want you to reciprocate. To me downvotes mean I posted something irrelevant or forgot to be polite.
shitlord 5y ago
My account was permanently suspended for "threatening violence" when I said that the reddit admins are enabling pedophiles. Aimee Challenor used to be an employee of reddit, hired without any background check or scrutiny. I wonder how many others like that are still in employ.
- addingnumbers 5y ago
  Reddit like to claim some lofty, detached sense of free speech as if the sexualization of minors was something that happened without their influence. One thing they don't want to talk about these days is how they minted a one-of-a-kind profile trophy called "Pimp Daddy" to commend u/violentacrez for his sustained and voluminous work on maintaining the "jailbait" subreddit, plastering Reddit with bawdy pictures of high school girls he scraped from social media. It wasn't until Anderson Cooper did a piece on the practice that the whitewashing began, with sudden claims of disinterest in the matter for the sake of free speech.
- 14 5y ago
  I was hit with a warning for threatening violence when I said something, in response to all teen moms should have their baby taken away, I said “like Indians have had done for decades in Canada? I don’t think they should be taken away but rather supported and checked in on by case workers to help with the stress of raising a kid.” I was literally showing support not to take a teen moms kid away and offer them more social support but got a warning. Wft.
Loeffelmann 5y ago
I got banned for harassment because I said that something was kind of gay.
- zht 5y ago
  did you think that it was homosexual in nature?
  - T3RMINATED 5y ago
- barneygale 5y ago
  Good.
commandlinefan 5y ago
I'd honestly throw a party if Reddit completely collapsed under its own weight and its owners/investors lost everything they had... but I still haven't seen anything else that will replace the niche that it fills. As long as there's no alternative, they'll continue to make the rules.
newsbinator 5y ago
I got banned from /r/CanadaCoronavirus for saying "we are currently experimenting to learn how many boosters are needed. My rabies shots required 5 injections at specific intervals.". They banned me for saying that vaccines are experimental. I contacted the head mod and explained that I did not say and do not think the vaccines are "experimental". They ignored my message for a week then upheld the ban, saying "the vaccines are not experimental". I guess it was my time to be shown the door and nothing I said after that mattered. They are also the mod of /r/AskReddit and /r/Covid19
- twic 5y ago
  This kind of complete lack of reading comprehension seems to be a job requirement for Reddit mods.
CountDrewku 5y ago

by bryans 5y ago

hutzlibu 5y ago

"They appear to get some kind of sadistic pleasure in reading ban appeals and denying them, knowing full well that the bans are improper and the appeals are justified." Or they get pleasure by making more money, in not paying enough people to manual review issues.

k8sToGo 5y ago
I thought mods are unpaid?
- darebak 5y ago
  Mods are not paid by Reddit, admins are paid but I think that some admins are also modding a few subs.
  - commandlinefan 5y ago
    I'm conspiratorial enough to believe that some of the power mods are being paid, but not by reddit.
    - darebak 5y ago
      There are mods that are paid, for example mods that run a company subreddit. But, I am also sceptical about transparency of mods of large subreddit, ie the powermods.
    - hajile 5y ago
      I've wondered for a while if reddit powermod /u/MaxwellHill isn't actually Ghislaine Maxwell (who apparently had some kind of association with former Reddit CEO Pao). Reddit would be a great place to run interference AND a place for her to find troubled kids for "recruitment". https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/r45a5n/here_is_the_evidence_that_reddit_user_maxwellhill/ https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/r45a5n/here_is_...
  - MerelyMortal 5y ago
    The r/cryptocurrency mods were paid by Reddit in their cryptocurrency called "moons" which can be traded for cash.
bryans 5y ago
Except some of the people they've banned were making them lots of money, so it's not as simple as your suggestion.

core-utility 5y ago

I'm utterly amazed at how ban-wild some communities can be. I occasionally see stories of people being banned from communities they've never posted to (reading/lurking only) simply because they also subscribe to another community that is "opposite" of the first. Take /r/novavax_vaccine_talk for example. There was recently a member [1] there who was banned from /r/coronavirus simply for being a member. These people aren't anti-vax by any means, but because it doesn't "fit the picture" they get ousted. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Novavax_vaccine_talk/comments/sa78hi/when_novavax_supporters_get_the_youre_an/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Novavax_vaccine_talk/comments/sa78h...

0cVlTeIATBs 5y ago
This used to be a joke. "You have been banned from /r/Pyongyang."
- core-utility 5y ago
  I miss that joke. It's too bad the mod didn't create a bot to automatically actually ban people from the dead sub when called out, just for fun. Edit: Ironically said in a comment about the overuse of banning people
mns 5y ago
Ha, it happened to me on Sunday, I posted a message like "We got our booster 1 month ago and didn't have any side-effects" in lockdownskepticism (which is not even an extreme or anti something sub) and started getting messages from pics/netflix/showerthoughts and so on that now I am automatically banned from subs that I never even posted in for posting in a sub that promotes medical misinformation. I send a message showing the message that I posted and one of the mods from one of the subs just blocked me from contacting them again. Basically my 14 year old account is useless now, because a message in a sub (regardless of content) triggered an automatic ban on most of the subs I subscribed to.
- hajile 5y ago
  This violates the mod guidelines/TOS, but Reddit simply does not care. They enjoy the echo-chamber they create.

archerx 5y ago

This is very true and it is already having an effect. The amount of posts in the development sub reddit has declined so much it is borderline dead. For example the front page of r/javascript is mostly days old posts which means I can visit it once a week and not really miss anything and it has 1,873,376 subscribers! It seems people have recognized that the post quality was garbage and moved on to greener pastures. It truly is the end of an era. I got banned from r/webdev because some said "using PHP is stupid" and I replied "that is ignorant and that the comment itself was stupid" and I got banned for that and I never looked back. Good riddance reddit.

cainxinth 5y ago
I’ve been using Reddit since the beginning, and I still use and like it, but your ban for saying “using php is stupid” comment resonates. One of my biggest Reddit pet peeves is downvoting or punitive mod action in response to subjective opinions. It’s not a new problem, and it’s one that can happen in any forum with downvoting, but it drives me nuts. The downvote is not a disagree button!
- nekcihc 5y ago
  >>The downvote is not a disagree button! Downvote is a disagree button as it is perceived as such and that is an issue. Same functionality is in NH - it just has a higher treshold when you can use it, but not really that different in essence. Banning for arguing is normal - from the times, when early web forums existed. Banning can be for any reasons - disagreeing with mod, arguing with someone, who is friends with mod. Mod is a god in forum. The solution to that is - either be a friend of mod or do not argue with idiots for idiotic reasons unless you are an idiot or simply want to be banned. PHP might be stupid or might not be stupid - who really cares in the end, when you log off from forum.
  - ganzuul 5y ago
    Well I disagree but I understand your golden rule so I'll downvote you since this is the behavior you are requesting. Please note that I don't want you to reciprocate. To me downvotes mean I posted something irrelevant or forgot to be polite.

shitlord 5y ago

My account was permanently suspended for "threatening violence" when I said that the reddit admins are enabling pedophiles. Aimee Challenor used to be an employee of reddit, hired without any background check or scrutiny. I wonder how many others like that are still in employ.

addingnumbers 5y ago
Reddit like to claim some lofty, detached sense of free speech as if the sexualization of minors was something that happened without their influence. One thing they don't want to talk about these days is how they minted a one-of-a-kind profile trophy called "Pimp Daddy" to commend u/violentacrez for his sustained and voluminous work on maintaining the "jailbait" subreddit, plastering Reddit with bawdy pictures of high school girls he scraped from social media. It wasn't until Anderson Cooper did a piece on the practice that the whitewashing began, with sudden claims of disinterest in the matter for the sake of free speech.
14 5y ago
I was hit with a warning for threatening violence when I said something, in response to all teen moms should have their baby taken away, I said “like Indians have had done for decades in Canada? I don’t think they should be taken away but rather supported and checked in on by case workers to help with the stress of raising a kid.” I was literally showing support not to take a teen moms kid away and offer them more social support but got a warning. Wft.

Loeffelmann 5y ago

I got banned for harassment because I said that something was kind of gay.

zht 5y ago
did you think that it was homosexual in nature?
- T3RMINATED 5y ago
barneygale 5y ago
Good.

commandlinefan 5y ago

I'd honestly throw a party if Reddit completely collapsed under its own weight and its owners/investors lost everything they had... but I still haven't seen anything else that will replace the niche that it fills. As long as there's no alternative, they'll continue to make the rules.

newsbinator 5y ago

I got banned from /r/CanadaCoronavirus for saying "we are currently experimenting to learn how many boosters are needed. My rabies shots required 5 injections at specific intervals.". They banned me for saying that vaccines are experimental. I contacted the head mod and explained that I did not say and do not think the vaccines are "experimental". They ignored my message for a week then upheld the ban, saying "the vaccines are not experimental". I guess it was my time to be shown the door and nothing I said after that mattered. They are also the mod of /r/AskReddit and /r/Covid19

twic 5y ago
This kind of complete lack of reading comprehension seems to be a job requirement for Reddit mods.

CountDrewku 5y ago