This is your reminder that past Reddit powermods and hired staff allegedly include Ghislane Maxwell [0] (who Ellen Pao knew and socialized with in Pao's time as Reddit CEO [1]), alleged rape and kidnapping accomplice Aimee Challenor [2] (criticism of whose hiring Reddit censored for days before relenting), and convicted domestic abuser creeps like u/bardfinn who abuse their moderator powers and allegedly flood competing subreddits with CSAM material [3]. These people do not deserve anonymity, nor an assumption of good faith.
>Whatever your politics: The reactionary conservative movement, with its campaign to politicize everything (now working on the FBI and Department of Justice, for example), has permanently degraded the country; we won't have these institutions back for generations.
It's such clear flamebait and "ideological battle"-ish that your reply to me, upthread from the above which sits there unflagged, feels like a slap in the face. In all likelihood I'd have gone on with my day if I hadn't stumbled on such a ridiculous, inflammatory, un-moderated comment.
Incidentally, even my very clearly rule-following comments on this link appear flagged:
I'm used to old high-karma accounts with clear biases abusing user flags and community moderation features. It's much more frustrating to see arbitrary, inconsistent enforcement from actual moderators.
Consistency in moderation isn't possible because we don't come close to seeing everything that gets posted here.
I've read that comment and flagged it and posted https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34493349 now. Still, it was nowhere near as much of a guidelines violation as what you did. Your reply didn't even relate to what the GP had said—it was pure offtopic ideological boilerplate, plus name-calling. That kind of thing will get you banned here regardless of what you're arguing for or how wrong other people are or you feel they are.
People routinely accuse us of being secretly aligned with their enemies. It always feels like the mods are against you. This is a reflex response that has zero to do with how we actually moderate HN. Do you have any idea how many people accuse us of being secretly aligned with your views? They do that from exactly the same cognitive bias. Every side feels that way, and they all get super mad about it. The one thing you all ironically agree about is who to blame!
And here's another bullshit flamebait comment, upvoted and unflagged. I won't bother to reply to this one. Will you take action? I will watch and take note.
I've reflagged that comment. However, there's a big gap between that and what you were posting here. That user was clearly engaging in a conversation, albeit using flamebaity terminology, while you were pulling in wheelbarrows full of pre-existing talking points, complete with lists of links. That's obviously using the site for ideological battle and obviously off topic.
There is evidence for both of these, you just choose not to accept it.
Also, Bardfinn is a particularly creepy guy who is also known for violence towards women, including his ex-wife. Is this libellous? There are police reports, you know.
Here's the relevance: when a privileged few extracts special concessions from the United States Supreme Court, the public deserves to know who they are and what they've been up to.
I've posted verified facts along with relevant circumstantial evidence. It's telling that your reflex is to make threats and reach for the banhammer.
>>These people do not deserve anonymity, nor an assumption of good faith.
sorry no... We do not strip essential liberty simply because there are bad actors out there who abuse it.
The problem is not these individuals persay. The problem is Reddits moderation system in the first place. That enables "power mods" and gives the community no power to remove bad mods, and creates corrupting incentive systems along with admins that further corrupt this system by bestowing favors and powers upon the mods they favor.
This has been a problem since the start of reddit and could be solved if Reddit had any desire to stop it, they dont so reddit continues it path on becoming worse than Twitter (if it has not already beaten it)
Ohh yes it is an essential liberty, and the founders of this nation clearly thought so which is why they published their Federalist Papers advocating the ratification of the new constitution under Pseudonym, anonymously.
Secondly I give no shits about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is a terrible document and no one should respect it. It is an authoritarian power grab guised as freedom. Nothing the UN does is for freedom.
Finally, the US Constitution is not an enumeration of rights, in fact Madison did not even want the Bill of Rights for fear people later in history would claim just as you are now that the Bill of Rights is the enumeration of all Human Rights. Which is why they added the 9th amendment. Perhaps you should read that one sometimes. it is pretty important and often ignored
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." -- Amendment IX
And don’t forget about violentacrez, the original power mod moderating a child exploitation subreddit (jailbait, which was a subreddit for posting sexually suggesting photos of children). They gave him an award for this and called “jailbait” subreddit of the year.
[0] https://www.the-sun.com/news/4460492/ghislaine-maxwell-reddi...
[1] https://nypost.com/2020/07/08/ex-reddit-ceo-ellen-pao-knew-g...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aimee_Challenor
[3] https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/theres-another-abusive-...