In a move that isn't particularly surprising given their lack of support for intellectual diversity to date, Reddit has introduced outright bans to replace its shadow banning policy.
Reddit has introduced an "Account Suspension" feature that will replace Shadowbanning for non-spammers, though previously shadowbanned accounts are not going to be automatically unbanned.
A post on July 28, 2015 by Reddit admin /u/krispykrackers explains the basics of Shadowbanning, a tool initially created to counteract spammers by hiding their content without letting them know their account had been shadowbanned. However, this was Reddit's only tool for an account-wide ban, and it has since been used on people other than spammers as well.
Account Suspension will be more straightforward and transparent than a Shadowban. An F.A.Q. page (sic) linked in the announcement post states that only Reddit administrators will be able to apply suspensions, which can be temporary or permanent. Permanent suspensions will result in a message about the account's status being added to that account's userpage.
See, I'm a veteran. This means I was willing to take a bullet for the right of my countrymen to speak their minds. On this at least I have not mellowed as I've aged. My personal line in the sand is that we will never site ban for anything but over-the-top spamming or gross/repeated illegal activity while I am on staff. See my journal if you feel the need for that last statement to be expounded upon.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12 2015, @11:04AM
If you want to see how Reddit is systematically deleting comments to push an agenda, check out unreddit [unreddit.com]. Actually, you can place any Reddit feed into the unreddit URL to see how they are editing comments, for example:
https://unreddit.com/r/videos/comments/3s5wz2/yale_administrators_responds_to_safe_space_hands/ [unreddit.com]
And if you *really* want an alternative to Reddit, kind of like how SoylentNews spawned from Slashdot, you can always use the free-speech alternative Voat [voat.co], although their computing sub-topics (example: /v/linux vs /r/linux, /v/bsd vs /r/bsd, etc) leave a lot to be desired.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by nekomata on Thursday November 12 2015, @12:25PM
what the flying fuck. I had _absolutely_ no concept of this. Basically, this is opinion-genocide (almost, Godwin, almost!). Who makes these deletions? Is it the mods? Admins? Is unreddit actually trustworthy?
I'm really quite astonished, especially since almost none of those comments are bad, it's really just disagreement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12 2015, @02:26PM
it may be a good site, I don't know, but saying VOAT makes me feel uneasy, kinda throw up in my mouth kinda uneasy.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by NCommander on Friday November 13 2015, @12:54AM
I knew on some level there had been mass mod abuse, but that really puts it in black and white. I don't hang out in /r/video, but most of those don't seem to be against the rules.
I don't know if unreddit is reliable, but given what I've seen in other subs, basically sums it up. As for Voat, well, I dunno what it is, but something about their site rubs me the wrong way; it reminds me a lot of kuro5hin back when they were a rival to Slashdot.
Still always moving
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12 2015, @04:55PM
That is not one or two here and there... That is systematic mod abuse. Fuck me...