pull down to refresh
One of the things that people generally distrust in their echo chambers is outsiders. This is a bit different here on SN, but I catch myself also being more skeptical of newcomers, and if there is even a remote sense of slop, I ignore the first post.
Note that sufficiently downzapped content reduces its public visibility (downzapped posts do not enumerate outside of top downsats / new, downzapped comments render hidden in SSR) and removes anchors on links, so the effect is similar-ish on SN in terms of public discovery (and I think search engine discoverability too)
Sure, but the decision to limit visibility is open to everyone, not just the mods.
And if someone was savvy, they could figure put how to boost themselves back into visibility (I acknowledge at that point you are pretty much an insider).
Your observation that outsiders are risky (or perceived as such makes a lot of sense). However, that was not the only forum I checked out and the trend I see is that people assume I'm attacking them or their way of (internet) life.
the decision to limit visibility is open to everyone
Which in some cases is an absolute disaster. A lot of people need protection from evil oligarchy by a benevolent dictator-moderator.
Are you still using SN the same way now that we have extended oligarchy versus before? I'm not. I never visit lit and top anymore. Just subscriptions + new + clientside filters (+ legacy mutes that I need to get rid of). I'm literally working around "money is the moderator", because I feel money is a poor moderator.
the trend I see is that people assume I'm attacking them or their way of (internet) life.
Hmm.. honestly, I think I feel the same.
Ah I didn't mean you're attacking me as in personally, but you are definitely attacking habits on the internet formed over more than 3 decades - I still don't see why that should get you banned though.
I think there's an important difference between what I said and you said:
- money is the moderator
- money is a moderator
Sounds pedantic but I don't think it is when you think about it. Still, I'd rather not have moderators at all - and the discovery feature at the moment is what one guy funded by the anonymization of stolen coldcard funds likes and does not like, so, for now, I am personally not going to follow that standard. stackers are much more important than an algo.
Pretty sure it wasn't VPN related. It was because I signed up and made a post describing a generic forum moderated by money (no names, no links, no mention of Bitcoin) and for some reason they find this problematic.
I did a bit of research first and tried to match the tone and attitude on the forum. They do seem to like discussing the idea of how to moderate communities, but the idea of using money is perhaps a bridge too far.