1y ago

One of the absolute best features of lemmy is that everyone is simply allowed to post.

automod filters made reddit an absolute nightmare. pouring my heart out on the depression sub and getting it removed because it didn't have 300 characters or it was image post saturday or god knows what. you basically just don't get to post on any sizable sub --- before it was at least a lottery! post, see if people will like it! but now you can't even get a post through!

there are 50 automod filters on everything, forbidden words or topics, perfectly good questions cast away to megathreads no one reads!

it's a dire, awful landscape, and really terrible user experience, having something on your chest and wanting to post, but oh hey this won't be posted until our 'mod team' 'reviews' it. isn't that what voting is for? please stop treating me like a spambot or troll by default!

54 comments

Your post has been removed for violating the following rules:
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I'm gonna go through my old reddit messages and see what subreddits I've been banned from and why
You've been banned from /r/GamingCircleJerk not for breaking any rules, but for making a joke one of our mods doesn't like (I said "kill me now please" in response to journalists showing footage of actual literal Russian soldiers being actually literally killed, describing said footage as "Call Of Duty style")
You've been banned from /r/JusticeServed for pointing out that Donald Trump got vaccinated in /r/Conservative
You've been banned from /r/LateStageCapitalism for arguing with conservatives in a variety of subreddits
You've been banned from /r/WitchesVsPatriarchy for arguing with libertarians in /r/PoliticalCompassMemes. You may appeal this ban.
In your appeal, you must:
Explain your participation in a subreddit that promulgates hate speech and brigades other subreddits
Explain why you feel you should be unbanned
Explain your feelings on the Patriarchy.
Your appeal must contain the words "Formal Ban Appeal", otherwise it will not be considered
Appeals submitted without these four elements will not be considered.
(Actual real text from the /r/WitchesVsPatriarchy mod team)
I'm ashamed of how many of these bans I tried to appeal instead of just logging into my alternate account to evade them
- instead of just logging into my alternate account to evade them
  Just unsubscribe the community and go participate on some other.
  It's not worthwhile to engage with people that behave like this. And the mods of large subredits were always forced to behave like this, so it was never worthwhile to participate in any large one.
- Every subreddit I listed had the biggest pussies for mods. I didn't include any subreddits where my appeal was accepted without the mods saying something along the lines of "you'd better behave yourself this time"
  Shout-out to /r/me_irlgbt mods for being chill and immediately unbanning me because I only visited /r/conspiracy to argue with flearthers
- I just have to say, your punctuation and grammar are immaculate.
  Are you some kind of mod or English professor?
  Perfect formatting, 5/7.
  
  Now try it with rice.
- I just made new accounts constantly on Reddit because they'd ban you for basically nothing from a ton of the major subreddits. Aquire a few bans, nuke account and start over was how I interacted with the platform recently.
  I had my original account for years before I got a single ban. I think the moderation teams just got overtaxed and started throwing down the ban hammer for about anything. Plenty of bans just for saying something whoever reviewed it didn't agree with. Have to love enforcing an echo chamber and killing all discussion.
  
  Same, which also meant I was unable to participate in many places because of ridiculous karma requirements.

man am i the only one who had no problems with automod? either y'all needed to visit better subs or the problem wasn't on the reddit side..
- Yea bad rules for automod (ex. Each day of the week only a particular type of post is allowed) aren't really a good justification for not having automod at all.
  As Lemmy grows, we're either going to need automod or the feeds are going to be filled with spam. Even if you add an unreasonable number of mods to every community (which comes with its own issues), you're relying on users reporting the problem and some mod seeing it.
  It's fine for now because there's just not that many people, and so there's not as much incentive to come in posting ads/spam/malicious/horrifying content.
  I did moderate on Reddit and while we had discussions about which rules were useful or bad for discussion, we didn't consider turning it off completely because of how much bad stuff it took care of.
- Well, they shadowban you for just mentioning certain things. Like lemmy.... so I had that happen a few times. The automated mode tools have gotten progressively more aggressive and oppressive over the years.
- yeah i never gave a shit about those subs, too popular to be fruitful to engage with.
- Yeah. Karma requirements pretty much just force you to make a few comments without being an asshole to anyone before you can post. This seems like a fairly low bar to me, at least for anyone who’s not an asshole.
  
  Its reddit, so what you really mean is "karma requirements pretty much just force you express opinions the botfarms and terminally online agree with for a while"
  I could deal with the doxxing and such by just routinely deleting my account to maintain opsec (deleted a bunch of high karma accounts). The reason I finally left reddit was the downvote brigades for any opinions that weren't specifically aligned with the zeitgeist.
  What's even the point? If I want my opinions artificially implanted in me, I'll just go watch cable news.
  
  It does get ridiculous when subs have 2k karma requirements or like 2 year old account requirements.

I was on Reddit for over 10 years, but I had less than 10 posts. There were many times I'd miss that it was image only day, or my post would be grouped into some category that wasn't allowed, even though I never thought it would fit that category. I have social anxiety so when my post wouldn't make it through, I'd feel like an idiot for not understanding the rules.
I developed this habit where I type out a post and then never submit it. I've been trying to break the habit for a few years now. Lemmy needs more activity, so I at least try to comment every once in a while to add conversation. Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to make my own posts again.
- Thank you for your post! I don't know how many times I wrote a response on Reddit out, and then thought to myself "I don't need the hassle" and then just deleted it; I totally relate.
- I just followed you so that, when I remember, I can read your future posts :)
- I was on reddit for a long time, and at first it was a great place to discuss and debate, but over time I noticed it became more and more locked down until the only thing you were allowed to do was agree with the stated opinions or you'd face mod actions and downvote brigades.
  I tried some alternatives like voat, but I just felt like going from being free to agree with one set of opinions I don't really agree with to being free to agree with another set of opinions I don't really agree with.
  I have gone all-in on the fediverse because it feels like the one place where I see all kinds of people being themselves, and that's what I want to see. I might hate people's opinions, but with the structure of the fediverse at least I have a better impression that they're authentic opinions and not just what it's acceptable to say.
  
  Voat was batshit crazy, but some of the things done there were done well. I really liked that the 'big subs' were considered voat run, so the moderators didn't get to make their own little kingdoms of folly in the most popular areas. The commitment to free speech was great. It just went down so hard because the first people who went to it were the type to scrawl on the walls of their house in pastel crayon and neon spray paint.

To be a little more accurate... I like the fact that each instance can decide what the rules are of what kinds of posts are allowed and what kind of behaviour is appropriate or not.
Some Lemmy communities and instances can have strict rules, some can be relaxed. It's that freedom that I enjoy very much.
- If you see "removed" here: bitch
  ...you're using lemmy.ml

- Might want to add an /s to that first sentence. I myself know that it's sarcasm, but it's not peoples' faults if they don't realize it, fam. ^^

Plus the number of times I got banned from what is this thing because my comment didn’t meet their standards.
- It's like r/history and r/science. Every single comment thread was completely empty with nothing but [removed] over and over. Why the fuck even have a sub at that point? And then anytime anyone mentioned how ridiculous it was, in other subs even, they'd get piled on by people defending it somehow. It's like being in the fucking twilight zone.
  
  I fucking hated those subs for that exact reason. What's good about a thousand comments saying "removed"? How does that help anyone? It's so asinine, and then the little goober defenders cry about how it's to keep the level of discussion high. What discussion? Discussion is blatantly not allowed.
  
  EXACTLY. could not stand that shit. smug and obnoxious. it makes sense to promote good answers, sure, but don't remove everything else! what if i don't need a PHD-level answer to something? can't you use flairing to showcase good answers instead of deleting everything?

It really did start to feel like a majority of the major subs were just 5 friends circle jerking each other and muting, blocking and deleting everyone else. Might as well just have made their subs private if they wanted it to be like that.

The big difference is: in reddit, you would actually be informed why your post was removed. Here, stuff vanishes without the poster even noticing
- Modlog
- Aren't people notified when mods removes their stuff?
  
  I‘m not in expert user. My experience: I planned to create a worldbuilding series for an sci-fi Aztec empire. Designed that empire, created some leading characters and made AI images for their spaceships.
  I then posted the image of the ship with the accompanying fluff and got some upvotes. I also crossposted this into an AI art area.
  Next day, my original post had vanished without trace, while the crosspost still existed.
  For me, this was my Wikipedia moment where I decided to not put more effort into lemmy.

The fact that so many Reddit users were willing to put up with the bureaucracy makes me lose faith in humanity.

I was never a moderator on Reddit or on any other platform and fell into the role here. Quite happily, actually, because when you do it right and delete people’s posts and they ask why because your pithy explanation in the modlog is too pithy and you explain the rules, the poster is grateful at best and at worst is slightly irritated by the rules, whether that be the Lemmy.world Code of Conduct or the community rules. The nice thing here I think is that moderators are accountable to rules and the admins. We can’t just subject people to whatever bot or whatever whim or whatever bot we whimsically put out. We actually moderate I thought this little job was going to be irritating. It isn’t. I really like it because we talk to each other. There is a public modlog. I love this! All mod actions I take are accessible to the users. It’s amazing and I love being a moderator here because everything is so transparent. It’s real moderation that is fair and helps the users. I don’t think any moderator on Reddit would ever like it here. I mean, really, every move you make as a moderator is available for the world to see. Reddit does not have this. Probably why it can’t turn a profit. Moderators here are held accountable and I am so glad to be held accountable.
- I am so glad to be held
  Ah, but aren’t we all
  
  Umm accountable. Held accountable. You chopped it off there. And I like being held accountable. Fire me any time you like for any reason. Not like I’m actually doing anything special.

Sorry your post has been removed for not being general enough for "General Discussion".
Also you have been banned from "General Discussion" for posting in other "Specific Discussion" channels which is against our policy.

Deleted for Rule 7: no capitalization allowed in posts, and they must begin with the letter “h.” This is our version of the Green M&Ms clause. Aren’t we clever?

I can't post in c/CasualConversation for some reason...
I've never posted there before and am not banned as far as I can see, posts just never save properly when I try...

Yes. The other thing I got tired of was “we’re locking this because moderation is a lot of work, therefore no one can talk at all.”
That should be an option in extreme cases but it should be considered a last resort, like locking the sub. Reddit mods would do it at the drop of a hat with any thread that was very active, with not one fuck to give about blocking legit discussion.

its made for andbby bots. robots can always remember proper syntax

I'm sure you'll love this AutoMod bot for Lemmy I have built, then!
Seriously though, I tried to stay as true to my morals as possible writing this and that includes not judging people for the communities they choose to interact with. So there's no shadow bans nor any "you've been banned from X for having written in Y once" crap. Just removal of no no words (set by mods) and some other extra features.

You want to hear about the absurdity of automod deletions on Reddit? I got a post deleted from illegallifeprotips. For involving revenge or some such nonsense.
All it was, I had discovered an amazing way to stop scam calls, bill collectors, really most anyone from calling you that you don’t want calling you ever again. It works like a dream, and if there is anyone standing next to you it definitely gets a reaction.
- So... does this tip involve procreation-like activities between consenting 'not parental' father figures?
  
  I sent you a private message because I don’t know if the details would break any rules.

Here fucking here. Everything on Reddit was a gated community and it sucked so bad.

If someone spams or continues to break the rules, the moderator can deal with it. Automods are horrible and can stay on reddit.
Same with karma. Karma can remain on reddit

54 comments