I dunno, a bit before that my only account of 10+ years got sitewide shadowbanned without warning or explanation, with everything I ever wrote (and all replies to it) vanishing from public view. I used their appeal page, got a message saying it was an error and my appeal was approved... and then it stayed broken and and appeals won't work because it says the account is normal.
I resurrected an ancient career-advice-throwaway account to ask for help, and the same thing happened. And their generic support site is a total black-hole. I'm not ashamed to say the process was way more emotionally-devastating than I would have expected, as it was my primary social-media identity.
That certainly tore off some blinders about how close we are to being sharecroppers to our Kafkaesque system overlords.
I don't have a banned account with Reddit (fortunately), but I know those who have had bad experiences, so I thought it was worth bringing up.
This worked (this year) to restore an account of mine that was locked for over 8 years that none of their systems could or would review or resolve. They never replied to the letter, they just silently unlocked it and flagged my profile as verified.
I never received any warning or any reason for the suspension. I have a common name but am not impersonating anybody.
It ended up being a waste of time . I can no longer see friends or relatives or co workers. It’s all “for you” spam and I deleted it of my own accord after a week anyway.
On topic: yes the Overton window either moved a LOT on Reddit or they’re overwhelmed or don’t care anymore. Purely anecdotal in favor of a window shift; there are a lot of comments in /r/musked that would have gotten you a wide reaching if not site wide ban just a year ago (and still get you bans from /r/elonmusk and /r/teslamotors even if you’ve never posted there.) but for , I think, obvious reasons it’s almost impossible to take it “too far” on that subject or say anything harsh enough about that company or its owner on Reddit now.
Many examples of people or subjects that were untouchable and met with great force just a year or two ago that are fair game now. While probably not against the rules on HN, I don’t want to get into it. I stuck with a safer , mostly not political one.
Left-on-left criticism of the DNC is also apparently wide open now that the election is over. It would have been moderated or banned just two or three months ago. Not only does nobody care , but sometimes it’s even heavily upvoted.
I’m only in the USA for work and have no opinion on this but it’s hard not to notice it.
I'll have to look into some kind of system that can multi-publish things I really care about in-between social-media sites and my own (woefully abandoned) blog.
(A couple of the location subreddits i follow have seemingly shifted political allegiance over the past 3-4 years. Changing demographics, perhaps. Pandemic-related sanity level changes, possibly. Maybe the mods have found they've got more engagement by encouraging this.)
This defines Reddit. No bots involved.
Delete your account and the trend stops.
source? What's the range of the supposed overton window?
There may be biases from supermods, and that's an issue, but there's dozens of examples of diametrically opposed subreddits with thriving communities.
Very little has changed on Reddit since the protests. A few tight knit communities went to discord. But tons of people loooove to complain.
And that’s just it. After the API changes, mod revolt, AI scraping deal, and IPO, the owners got what they wanted while in the process breaking the back of the community and now it’s virtually rudderless and adrift, and would probably drop off the radar entirely if it weren’t for all the effluence openly running through it every day. I wasn’t using the site much after the API changes, but the disdain I was treated with sealed the deal.
I imagine it's only become worse since. Reddit was reddit from 2005-2016. Since then it's just been Facebook refugees and bots.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/UserBenchmark-gets-banned-from...
Guess they prefer the bots. So I come here and go on Mastodon for ocean-pissing
I remember being able to attract bots from a certain eastern mediterranian country and a certain south of Siberia country with just certain trigger words. They seem a lot more sophisticated now.
in the sr about economics over there the mention of a certain economist would instantly attract the 'bury brigade' to downvote the post. Haven't been there in years so I have no idea what it's like now.
Until we find our Neo, the only thing we can do is run when we attract the attention of an Agent.
Back then, it wasn't because of bots, but I did think that most websites going through enshittification will eventually be filled with bots.
I did find https://discuit.net to be a good alternative, as well as Lemmy.
1. Lemmy (Lemmy.ml or other instances):
◦ Federated: Lemmy operates on a decentralized model, similar to Mastodon (in the Twitter alternative space). This means that there is no single governing body—each instance is moderated independently.
◦ Focus on Communities: It focuses on subcommunities where niche interests can thrive without corporate interference. Lemmy also has a strong commitment to free speech and critical thinking.
◦ Federation Across Servers: Even if you're waiting for Lemmy.ml approval, you could try other federated Lemmy instances, which all talk to each other. For example, Lemmygrad is another Lemmy instance with a large user base.
2. Mastodon:
◦ While Mastodon is primarily a microblogging platform, many instances of Mastodon cater to users interested in thoughtful, critical discussions. Communities are tightly moderated to avoid trolls and toxic behavior. Mastodon is another federated platform like Lemmy, so you can choose an instance that aligns with your interests and values.
◦ Instance Focus: You can look for an instance dedicated to intellectual discussions or more niche interests that you care about, like critical thinking or philosophy.
3. Discourse:
◦ Discourse is an open-source forum software that powers many community-based platforms. While it doesn’t have the same level of reach as Reddit, it offers features like:
▪ Better community management tools to handle bots and trolls.
▪ Topic categorization, which helps in organizing meaningful discussions.
◦ Many independent forums use Discourse, which allows you to find active and vibrant communities where civil discourse is encouraged.
4. Hacker News:
◦ If you enjoy more tech-oriented or intellectual discussions, Hacker News (owned by Y Combinator) might be a good fit. It’s known for its focus on tech, business, and science discussions with a strong community of knowledgeable people.
◦ While it has its own challenges, like any online community, it has fewer issues with trolling compared to Reddit.
5. Voat (now archived):
◦ Voat, which was a similar alternative to Reddit, was taken offline, but it had served as a niche community that didn’t adhere to Reddit's moderation policies. While it no longer exists, there may be alternatives that have sprouted in response to its closure, though they could have similar moderation issues.
6. 4chan/8kun (Caution Required):
◦ 4chan or 8kun could be alternatives if you're looking for platforms with fewer restrictions. However, be aware that these platforms are infamous for being more chaotic, with unfiltered content that can range from meaningful conversations to highly offensive posts. If you're looking for critical thinking, proceed with caution—you might encounter a lot of noise as well.
7. Tildes:
◦ Tildes is another Reddit-like platform designed for high-quality discussions. It's a non-profit that focuses on having meaningful conversations. It has a smaller user base than Reddit, but it is ad-free and focuses on user-curated content.
◦ Critical Thinking: Tildes encourages more thoughtful posts and discussions than the typical Reddit posts, which are sometimes filled with memes or low-effort content.You see the themes everywhere. Similarly worded comments and posts made at the same time and upvoted in order to manipulate thoughts and emotions.
the sas forums are great, but there were always lost nuggets of code you'd come across that made your day when you were stuck
i still browse the site but stick to a small handful of niche subs
Many topics are repeated numerous times. I know the relevant XKCD, but still have trouble accepting things like “TIL the sky is blue” .
The preferences of HN in recent months have also changed in some hard to pinpoint way, but I suspect it is now gamed to a degree that is hard to fight due to all the tools for writing AI bots.
Anything that is not targeting current events is super easy to game.
Hot chicks, historical photos, "TIL", and "interesting" subsa re rife with unoriginal content and onlyfans bait. Then, as some have noted, there will be bots that steal comment top comments of those reposts, for another layer of bullshit.
Many current events subs are safe spaces of far left or far right agendas.
I'm left wing, bit the Texas subreddit got co-opted by overtly political moderators and it is mostly political now (though it's hard to avoid politics these days).
The only genuine places these days are hobby subs that are hard to game karma from. And maybe some local or regional subs.
Otherwise... Yeah, it's gotten really, really bad.
I should do a write up with some of my findings.
I think the quality of discussion on these sites has definitely gotten worse, but it's always been pretty bad. Digg people would post absolutely idiotic shit, even by today's standards. The thing that sticks out to me is something that I don't even think is appropriate to mention here, but I want to mention it because I think it illustrates how insanely poor the level of discussion was on these older forums -- there was an ASCII art meme that was reposted in seemingly every thread -- pedobear, a bear that wanted to molest children. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedobear. Hilarious (sarcasm)....
I switched to Reddit because it did not have people posting this crap in every thread. It was refreshing to have a forum where people weren't spamming idiotic ascii memes but actually discussing things.
But even so, it's all relative. At one point probably near 2009 or 2010, I was struck by the amount of unhinged comments where people called for outright revolution and violence against the US government / capitalistic systems. I stopped sometime after reaching 100 count in a week or two. I hope it goes without saying, but any violent overthrow of the current status quo is not going to be replaced with something better. It's going to have end up in an authoritarian dystopian nightmare.
At least back then though I felt like it was actual people being unhinged. Now I don't think you can use Reddit as a barometer for the public opinion on anything. I simply think the amount of fake shills and accounts are too high. Reddit got its start by faking comments, but there was definitely a peak in the ratio of genuine to fake comments, and we're in my estimation doing very very bad on that benchmark nowadays. This became evident on large subreddits like r/politics back in 2016, where on a dime it was like a button was pressed in a machine and the shape and color of comments all change in unison. The site is gamed to hell and back.
I like Discord nowadays because I can be sure I'm interacting with a real human, though how long this will stay true I don't know. The internet desperately needs a system in place which can distinguish between genuine human beings and bots. I think much of the social issues we have nowadays stems from how bad actors are manipulating what people see online, and confusing people on where the consensus actually is. Various actors are waging psychological warfare on the public, and the public does not even seem to acknowledge it, even when it is blatantly obvious (as in the example of something like Tik Tok).
Tell me otherwise and prove it!