[N00bN00b]

I'm being censored on Reddit myself.

I'm not really sure why exactly. I suspect it has to do with having a NSFW tag on my account (that I didn't put there) that I'm afraid to turn off, because of the warning that's next to that button and it doesn't explain what "swearing" is exactly and if I turn it off and write "fuck" I might get banned.

My account provides a lot of help to other people, it's highly valued by the community, I have loads of karma, I've paid for quite a bit of server time by the rewards I've received.

But you can't search on my username, it won't show up (not even if you have NSFW visibility turned on).

I'm not about politics, or covid or any hate stuff. I'm just there to try and help people with depression, anxiety and other issues. And I'm being censored for some reason.

So whatever they're doing, it's guaranteed to overreach and it's counter productive and who knows how much damage it does to society as a whole.

It's just that no one knows the severity of the damage the censorship does.

[colpabar]

> I'm just there to try and help people with depression, anxiety and other issues.

Then it's mostly like because those topics aren't "advertiser friendly." Youtube did something similar during what was called the "adpocalypse." Advertisers don't want their products to be associated with the things you talk about, and reddit cares more about selling ads than helping you help people.

[belltaco]

Servers and bandwidth are not free. People maintaining them need to eat too.

[LocalH]

That doesn't mean that people should be restricted to only discussing things that don't piss off the advertisers.

Fuck advertising.

[belltaco]

>That doesn't mean that people should be restricted to only discussing things that don't piss off the advertisers. Fuck advertising.

They're not. It's easier and cheaper than ever to host content online or even host it at your home.

[N00bN00b]

Computation, bandwidth and (open source) software is so cheap these days that it approaches free for many people (but not all). It's just a matter of coming up with a functioning model.

Ad supported is just one such model and it's not a very new one at that. Remember, you made this comment on server that was provided to you for free without the need of ad support.

[boogies]

> Remember, you made this comment on server that was provided to you for free without the need of ad support.

HN has ads, just sneaky ones that blend in with user-submitted links on the front page ($YCStartup is Hiring, Launch HNs. But on the positive side, they don't seem to rely on tracking to target any narrower audience than the whole HN userbase).

https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented#percei...

[N00bN00b]

Comes down to your definition of advertisement.

It's not without self interest. But that was kind of my point. So I'd say you and I are on the same page, I just used a different way to describe it and if that wasn't clear, that's probably because of how I wrote it. But thanks for giving me your feedback.

[belltaco]

Reddit-like software is open source, what's stopping anyone like you then? Talk is cheap.

>Ad supported is just one such model and it's not a very new one at that. Remember, you made this comment on server that was provided to you for free without the need of ad support.

There are job ads on HN, plus HN is even more highly moderated than Reddit. So it's a very bad example.

[N00bN00b]

>Reddit-like software is open source, what's stopping anyone like you then? Talk is cheap.

That source code hasn't been updated in years.

>There are job ads on HN, plus HN is even more highly moderated than Reddit. So it's a very bad example.

If you add meaning to the words of others that is not there, then indeed, the examples are bad.

To bring up the moderation here, you're supposed to be nice and interpret the words of others positively. Your reply is bordering on malicious:

>Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

[belltaco]

>That source code hasn't been updated in years.

Oh so it does cost effort and money to hire people to make a site like Reddit, thought you said it's easy and cheap and approaches free. So how does Reddit recoup that money???

Anyway, I said Reddit-like, not Reddit. E.g. https://github.com/libertysoft3/saidit

Old Reddit code is still pretty good.

>If you add meaning to the words of others that is not there, then indeed, the examples are bad.

>To bring up the moderation here, you're supposed to be nice and interpret the words of others positively. Your reply is bordering on malicious:

My point was that HN runs on ads and the financial goodwill of YC. If there's hate speech and misinformation on here then it would reflect badly on YC and YC backed companies. So we run into the exact same problem with Reddit and Youtube servers running with ad companies that don't want ads on a site with hate speech and misinformation.

If you want to set up or donate to such a site to prevent these influences, as you seem to think servers, bandwidth and maintenance is cheap. I think only talk is cheap, prove me wrong. What are the reasons for not creating such a site since you feel so strongly about censorship?

[0des]

It's not free, it's just not something you compensate with cash. Let's not pretend that HN does not derive value from the people using it- that's a key component of the business.

[N00bN00b]

"Approaches free" does not mean "free" in this context and that HN derives that value in other ways than advertisement was the point I was making.

[ModernMech]

Reddit’s search is incredibly (purposefully?) broken. It won’t give you nsfw results for anything. You have to go to old.Reddit.com and use that search system. It has a checkbox for “include nsfw results” that is missing from the new ui. Check that and see if it helps you find yourself.

[N00bN00b]

I don't really need to find myself, you know. I know where I am. The problem is more that others can't find me and don't even know that I'm missing. Maybe you're right about the reason, but even that's irrelevant.

It's scary. I happen to know this was done to me. How many times have others made you disappear without you knowing you were scrubbed without being given any notice?

This isn't my first account on hackernews (not my second one either, though with one exception they are all in good standing).

But my very first account, I was happily participating here for years, until someone kindly told me I had been shadowbanned and I don't how much of my voice was censored exactly and I don't know why.

So the issue isn't reddit. And apparently it's not really about me. The problem is exactly what this article is about, private censorship. Web3 is supposed to address issues like this (though, I don't know how much of that is handwaving and make believe). As soon as I can, I'm going to move there.

I just can't trust these corporate entities, they don't operate in good faith, aren't transparent and avoid accountability for their actions. The utopia that was promised to me has failed and is in full decay, the signs are everywhere. It's time to move on.

It's sad that a "normal user" like me ended up with those beliefs.

I just wanted to be left alone and allowed to voice my opinions, I don't want to have to deal with censorship, I don't want to have to tell others how I've been impacted by it, to make them aware of what's happening behind their backs. Instead, here I am having a discussion like this with others.

Am I even allowed to say this? Will this be wiped as well? I don't know. I wish this was all a joke. What kind of dystopian future is this? It's ridiculous beyond belief.

[rjbwork]

I don't think I've ever seen an account with an NSFW tag/flair. Posts? Yeah. Subreddits? Yup. Possibly a flair for your user on a particular subreddit added by a mod for some reason? Sure. But not accounts. Can you link to this tag?

[N00bN00b]

Oh yeah. Accounts have NSFW tags these days. Also impacts chat functionality. You'll get warnings there. They call it "profile" but your profile is 100% of your account activity.

https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/pfpw4y/any_way_to_rem...

This link has pictures in it, showing you the NSFW tag:

https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/8qhay9/why_is_...

[coolgeek]

It seems that there are a fair number of sex workers on reddit whose profiles are tagged NSFW. Presumably, they would view the tag as an asset.

(I don't have any experience with these accounts myself. But I've stumbled across more than one in mainstream subreddits, and my curiosity was piqued. Only pointing this out to note that this comment reflects the totality of my knowledge on the subject.)