Actual Discussion

905 readers

37 users here now

Are you tired of going into controversial threads and having people not discuss things, circlejerking, or using emotional responses in place of logic? Us too.

Welcome to Actual Discussion!

DO:

Be civil. This doesn't mean you shouldn't challenge people, just don't be a dick.
Upvote interesting or well-articulated points, even if you may not agree.
Be prepared to back up any claims you make with an unbiased source.
Be willing to be wrong and append your initial post to show a changed view.
Admit when you are incorrect or spoke poorly. Upvote when you see others correct themselves or change their mind.
Feel free to be a "Devil's Advocate". You do not have to believe either side of an issue in order to generate solid points.
Discuss hot-button issues.
Add humour, and be creative! Dry writing isn't super fun to read or discuss.

DO NOT:

Call people names or label people. We fight ideas, not people here.
Ask for sources, and then not respond to the person providing them.
Mindlessly downvote people you disagree with. We only downvote people that do not add to the discussion.
Be a bot, spam, or engage in self-promotion.
Duplicate posts from within the last month unless new information is surfaced on the topic.
Strawman.
Expect that personal experience or morals are a substitute for proof.
Exaggerate. Not everyone slightly to the right of you is a Nazi, and not everyone left of you is a Tankie.
Copy an entire article in your post body. It's just messy. Link to it, summarize, and add your thoughts.

For more casual conversation instead of competitive ranked conversation, try: !casualconversation@piefed.social

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

AceTKen@lemmy.ca

jet@hackertalks.com

(WEEKLY) Lemmy's Aggressive Banning Issue (infosec.pub)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by AceTKen@lemmy.ca to c/actual_discussion@lemmy.ca

67 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. We try to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are highly encouraged as no-discussion downvotes don't help anyone learn anything valuable. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

We’re back! Instead of putting a neutral topic in the introduction, I'm placing a bit of opinion on an issue to see if it helps spur discussion. We are also actively seeking moderators and people who enjoy discussion (and understand that being wrong is an important part of being a better person)! Send me a message if you’d like to help out.

This week, I'd like to discuss something that's been a bit of an issue for me personally.

Lemmy (and Reddit before it) appears to have a problem with overly-aggressive bannings for perceived slights. In the topic linked above there were people permanently banning users from multiple communities (any they moderate - dozens in some cases) for single downvotes, 4 downvotes across a ten-month period, and bannings because a moderator thought they maybe sorta kinda read that a user may have had a negative thought about their pet issue.

I've personally been banned from Communities (and sent some pretty vile PMs) for posting in our weekly threads here playing devil's advocate where I state hard questions that I do not necessarily feel are correct. They think they've discovered some secret agenda by finding posts I've made here and use them as "receipts" in order to dismiss anything they think they're reading that may be contrary to their opinion. Any context provided for the post falls on deaf ears.

I'm someone who operates on the idea of "If you can not defend an opinion from scrutiny, you should probably not hold that opinion."

To quote myself:

It’s pretty tragic that people can't handle opposing opinions. I think the activist nature of Lemmy is kind of a self-destructive spiral and people need to learn how to live with each other again. But I guess that’s the issue with modern social media as a whole… Nobody has any idea how to convince anyone else, only to yell at them louder.

Some Starters (and don’t feel you have to speak on all or any of them if you don’t care to):

Are niche Communities correct for banning anyone who downvotes?
Do downvotes represent a "disagree" button for you (this Community notwithstanding)?
Most importantly, what would it take to change this?
Does it help build the Community? What about the platform as a whole?
Is there a way to build a "safe space" without building an echo chamber online? Is that even a valuable thing to build?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] peregrin5@piefed.social 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

in addition to what others said, it l matters who is making the rules.

in my own home i make my own rules and they are subject to my discretion and may change whenever I want. and even if someone is following all my stated rules if I don't want them there, they aren't allowed to be there.

following a community's rules doesn't guarantee anything and the person making the rules has a right to remove or keep whoever they want. you have no right or expectation to remain in a community if the community owner doesn't want you there.

businesses and hoas and neighborhoods make the majority of their own rules but can be superseded by rules from the county, town, state, or federal government.

when a business runs afoul, a customer may bring a lawsuit to the higher authority. in lemmy communities, other than instance admins there are no higher authorities so you get what you get.

furthermore if we lived in a fully libertarian world where there were no higher authorities governing business (which is a closer analogy to lemmy) you would either have to deal with being discriminated against, or try to organize with other members of your community a boycott to pressure the business into behaving as you want through capitalism. you can do the same on lemmy. you can boycott a community or instance and try to guide others to better communities.