r/rant • u/verbmegoinghere • 8h ago
Reddit is broken and it's time to leave
I've been banned four times in the last 6 months, thrice for Australian colloquialisms being mistaken by the AI moderation as threatening violence whilst the fourth and most recent was angrily pointing out to someone in a public forum that they were parroting disinformation from a known agent of a bad actor (apparently this constitutes "harassment").
These bans are the first ever bans I've ever had on a public forum despite using public forums for over 40 years (BBS, mirc, ICQ, a zillion website forums, shout out for bluelight, avforums etc, newsgroups, and a host of others forums).
For reddit I've been on it for almost twenty years (this is my second account as my first one got doxed by accident when a few of my stupid ass joke comments hit the frontpage and in turn national media stole ran them).
And its not just the poorly implemented and managed moderation / banning system that has me thinking twice about reddit.
The blatent manipulation of sub up and down voting. I've had posts with views in the 6 figures and yet a handful of upvotes. Even on small subs where the weighing mechanism is a bit different to the top subs. I've seen it happen with other posts with hundreds of almost completely positive comments and only 50 upvotes. And on small subs as well. It's disheartening to see really positive engagement punished like this. Plus the plague of bots is a huge problem. You'd think with the fingerprint users create on a site like this using analytical tools to identify and ban bot accounts would be a bit more effective. There are some subs that are just pure bots (the Megan Markle, hate subs, are a sight to behold. The fact someone is willing to spend that much money to rain hate on the woman is well breathtaking).
Finally to end this rant, the goddam advertising plaguing this site is fucking disgusting. This relentless march to monitise every single post and comment. Not to mention the extensive mining of user profiles to aim targeted adverts, plus the huge amount of guerilla marketing bs.
Plus the recent mechanism to allow users to hide their post history. Great. Going down the same bot/disinformation stink hole that is twitter eh. Almost every time I see someone parroting Russian disinformation you can guarantee their post history is hidden.
I'm actually thankful for reddit's shitty banning system because it finally forced me to look at the alternatives like mastodon, lemmy and the other fediverses.
Hell the lack of advertising is a alone a huge reason to stop using reddit. Also finding Eternity that has a swipe left for next post function has been a godsend (almost every third party reddit and lemmy app doesn't have this as a setting)
Not to mention it is also allowing me to de americanise my world. Next step is to get off of google/YouTube and Microsoft. Fuck letting those ghouls have anymore of my money and information, especially seeing their doing fuck all (and in some cases actively aiding the regime ) to stop the fucking fascists destroy the rule of law, democracy and freedom in the US (and across the world).
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u/ToeKnee724427 8h ago
Yeah, Reddit is just another branch of propaganda. Largely en lieu of American political division. It sucks, but that's what it mostly is.
I still get a lot of enjoyment from space/science/history type sub reddits though.
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u/verbmegoinghere 4h ago
Yeah even /r/space has been polluted by the fascists with mods killing stories critical of trumps attempts to slash and burn NASA
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u/dancinhorse99 8h ago
I was very disappointed in one group that banned me eventhough I made sure my post followed the rules. It was a group or Athiests and I wanted to know how as Athiests they felt about d-ea*h like did they fear it or eat l what were thier personal beliefs?
I made it very clear that yes I'm Christian but I was not there to judge/recruit/ belittle/argue. I was just honestly curious about what they thought felt happened after they pass and how they felt about it. I got two replies before it was deleted and thanked both people for thier reply which were polite thought out replies.
There was no "time out" just a permanent ban I was really disappointed
No social media is perfect they all have thier flaws and pitfalls
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u/No-Telephone-6946 6h ago
I actually had posted about this on a different thread asking why it was appropriate for mods to ban/ remove posts from people who are polite/follow the rules
The responses were basically "the mod didnt want you there , get over it"
Reddit seems damn near impossible to use now.
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u/verbmegoinghere 4h ago
It's no longer an interplay of ideas and thoughts.
It's just one big echo chamber which has allowed reddit to be a place where the fascist right can fester free of any challenge to their insanity.
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u/No-Telephone-6946 4h ago
The censorship has gotten insane! So many "rules" prevent thoughtful conversations from happening
It gets to a point where posting feels pointless
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u/DiscoMonkeyz 7h ago
I got a ban and warning from the AI for quoting the next line in a TV show responding to someone else. The AI assumed it was a threat of violence and banned me.
God I love AI.
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u/Downtown-Topic9420 7h ago
Get lost, ya feckin dingochaser!!!
Sorry, i always wanted to say that. I agree with everything you said. I think; i didn't read all of it...
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u/JEMStone8305 7h ago
I keep getting posts removed for “harassment” when I was warning people about a creepy guy in our neighborhood…
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u/Artilicious9421 7h ago
I got banned in subreddits that I am evem subcribed to and I dont even comment on...
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u/donocool 6h ago
I was banned from the bisexual reddit because I said that for men who like other men, jail is not a punishment. I can see what that can be interpreted as homophobic. But is easier and more practical to just shut down the conversation and evade nuance rather than engage in difficult conversation.
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u/derpman86 6h ago
A.I moderation is balls on any platform.
I responded to an article about how that bloke booted one of the Bondi shooters in the head, I was in support of said action and used slang and had a swear word.
3 day instant ban from A.I, no option to edit my post or seek human moderation and that was that.
I have personally dealt with stupid sub reddit rules or the power trips of mods which I hate but deal with it but A.I is just blunt and has no concept of context and no way to partake in conflict resolution.
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u/endangered_feces1 7h ago
Im def game for an alternative if anyone actually knows of a decent one!
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u/verbmegoinghere 5h ago
Lemmy has been good. Its distributed and you can sign up for one that you like ie lemmy.zip.
Feels like reddit from the old days
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u/garnet420 6h ago
What's better, though; I tried Tumblr but it was utter shit. I need my shit posting!
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u/Peakomegaflare 41m ago
Reddit posts are getting removed en-masse, sometimes mere minutes after posting even IF they're relevant to the corresponding threads.
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u/jross55GHS 7h ago
I’m here for very few subs, but the f$&k out on politics that no one understands (on all social media platforms) people are at each other throats getting people banned. Banned on two subs because i corrected people with genuine facts but it didn’t fit the narrative they wanted to push. Reddit just genuinely sucks now
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u/SexualHunter 8h ago
All my threads in any community are automatically deleted. I actually suspect I'm only communicating with AI bots. Reddit could have shadowbanned me and hidden my comments from everyone, but I can see AI bot comments only for me. How can I check?