This kind of stuff gives me hugbox vibes, i would not feel safe there. I'm somewhat sure some of the moderators use the website as personal political leverage.
I used to have an account on that site as well and left for the same reason: repeated messages telling me I had been flagged and I needed to reconsider when I dared to venture too far outside the desired narrative. There will be many others who have made or will make the same decision which leaves sites like this with a population which is mostly ideologically cohesive. Maybe that is a good thing for those sites and maybe the participants feel 'safe' in such an environment but it surely is lacking in stimulating curiosity and widening one's intellectual horizon.
At least HN allows you to come back under another name and with that is less at risk of totally succumbing to the echo chamber mentality. It also does not tie new users to existing ones nor are existing users who happen to invite new users who are deemed to be 'problematic' punished for those invitations.
> At least HN allows you to come back under another name
You can also come back under the same account, which is what I did. I emailed dang, and promised to respect the site's guidelines this time.
Lobste.rs on the other hand has terrible moderation, with moderators arguably being from one political clique. You can find details about the ridiculous ban they issued on my account in this X thread: https://x.com/sridca/status/1751586241110519837
Yes, well, I probably would be lying if I did so so I just reincarnate instead. All my bans have been over the same thing, this me not following the 'west coast narrative' in some clearly political discussions. I can't promise to say what I consider to be closer to the truth and I do think sites like these are better off with a more diverse [1] group of participants so I'll just settle for a short lifespan while I wait for the place to become more accepting to different viewpoints.
[1] diverse in the only way which really matters, this being diversity of opinion. On the internet nobody knows you're a dog after all.
Does this person actually buy into the nonsense, though, or are they just being provocative? Both are reasons to mute someone, but only one is ideological.
Yep, just pointing it out. It's like a completely unironic version of that joke:
> Conservative: I have been censored for my conservative views
>
> Me: Holy shit! You were censored for wanting lower taxes?
>
> Con: LOL no...no not those views
>
> Me: So....deregulation?
>
> Con: Haha no not those views either
>
> Me: Which views, exactly?
>
> Con: Oh, you know the ones
"Oh no, I keep getting kicked out of places for throwing around neonazi references"
https://lobste.rs/moderations
Also incidents like this:
https://lobste.rs/s/zp4ofg/lobster_burntsushi_has_left_site
This kind of stuff gives me hugbox vibes, i would not feel safe there. I'm somewhat sure some of the moderators use the website as personal political leverage.