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Comment by thepasswordis | Hacker News Reader

"Hey guys no brigading okay? ;-)" followed by a page which directly links to threads for people to brigade.

They don't even bother to use the np.reddit "no participation" domain. Most other subs don't even allow you to link outside the sub, because they've been warned by admins about brigading.

Their rules barely even mention brigading: https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditdrama/wiki/rules, and you have to go to the expanded version of the rules to find even this, which just says not to vote in linked threads.

Literally the entire purpose of this sub is to brigade and harass other subs. Their politics align with those of the admins, though, so it's allowed. It is blatant bullying at the tacit encouragement of the people running the site.

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> Most other subs don't even allow you to link outside the sub, because they've been warned by admins about brigading.

I joined reddit in 2005 and have moderated several subreddits. The admins have never imposed anything resembling that on any subreddit I have moderated. I have a suspicion they impose it when they see a large amount of brigading behavior.

Perhaps it's not applied in an entirely fair or even manner, but I suspect it's only applied when there's an actual problem.

IIRC, np was the norm for many years and it just didn't actually change anything. Oodles of people do get banned from SRD for commenting in linked threads. The easiest way to see this is when month+ old threads get linked. Only the admins can see downvoting patterns.

Is simply linking to other threads on reddit sufficient for you to consider something promoting brigading?

> Is simply linking to other threads on reddit sufficient for you to consider something promoting brigading?

As I mentioned previously, linking to other subs, or even simply _talking_ about /r/StarTrek, was enough for admins to accuse /r/Star_Trek of brigading. They threatened to shut them down unless they stopped members from doing that, and so you're not allowed to do it in the sub anymore.

Whether you think that linking to other subs is brigading or not, it's clear that admins call it brigading when they want to shut down subs, yet then let continue on much larger subs dedicated to the act as long as the admins like the sub.

Edit: For example, here's a highly upvoted SRD post talking about the admins threatening /r/Star_Trek if they mention /r/StarTrek[1]. They call /r/Star_Trek linking to /r/StarTrek posts to complain about them "brigading," in the same post that they themselves are linking to a /r/Star_Trek post in order to complain about it.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/tuem1m/the_...

The big difference with Reddit is if posters get banned, or if the subreddit gets banned.

The "good" subreddits will get posters banned left and right, but accounts are cheap and they return.

The "bad" subreddits get banned.

What I got from similar subreddits (e.g. /r/bestoflegaladvice) is that you'll get (shaddow)banned really fast if you click a link in the subreddit and coment on the linked post.

Just mentioning this because I agree with the point you make (in general).

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