Is there such a thing as shadow banning submissions, comments, or users on Lemmy?
I’m having trouble seeing a couple of comments that I know were there at some points, one of them is my own and I haven’t deleted it. So it got me wondering, is shadow banning a thing here.
Moderation actions are logged in the modlog, but they aren’t sent as notifications to users.
If you find some of your comments disappearing, check your username in the modlogs.
I think this is supposed to reduce the amount of grief that admins/moderators deal with when performing mod actions.
And the mods usually leave a comment so you know why your post/comment was removed or your account banned. It’s a nice system.
Where can modlogs be found?
Personally I dislike shadow banning/hiding/deleting, but I’m never intentionally an ass hole - even though I’m sure there are occasional moments where it comes across that way. I wonder how many people are motivated enough to create new accounts to circumvent bans/content deletion.
There is a link in the bottom of the sidebar for each community.
I agree, it can be frustrating, however I have also seen moderation mail before, and holy shit some people just get so fucking angry about mod actions and just want to harass the mod endlessly. It kind of makes sense to reduce users ability to do that in response.
Thanks.
Turns out in this specific occasion that it wasn’t removed/hidden; so it must be a bug with Sync for Lemmy.
Some mod actions can be shockingly moronic, so I can also understand why some people get annoyed. I suppose some people must get next level angry to harass mods though.
Defederation will result in an effective shadowban, just due to the way Lemmy is structured. If you yourself can’t find one of your own, though, that indicates it was probably removed, which is different from a shadowban.
Standard forum-system here, each community sets its own rules and moderation strictness, so best to read the sidebar before you participate. Some communities are extremely strict, others are extremely loose. Applies to whole Instances too.
Would it show that the comment was deleted on the user side?
I use Sync for Lemmy and there is no indication that it was hidden/removed.
Try going into that specific community, and in the sidebar towards the bottom you’ll find a button for “modlog”. It should have all moderator actions in there, and they usually give a reason for why they did it. Though they don’t actually have to or anything, it’s just up to them.
Also maybe want to check the modlog for the entire Instance, on the Instance sidebar.
I’m not sure if the Sync app has things in different places in their specific UI, incidentally. But there should be sidebars with modlogs somewhere.
One thing I’ve noticed was not getting notifications for bans or comments/posts getting removed
They’re in the modlogs but I never got notifications for the actions
It didn’t matter if it was my home instance or on other instances no notifications were sent to me
So it’s not really shadow banning or shadow removing as it’s all in the open modlogs, but not getting told about it does feel pretty shitty
Edit: I’d love to actually get notifications for when my stuff gets removed or whatever as how am I expected to shift my behavior if I don’t know I’m fucking up
as how am I expected to shift my behavior if I don’t know I’m fucking up
Or alternatively, know when your submissions/comments are not welcome and you should find an alternative community.
And that’s another good point
A great example is an astrophotography shot I took that I was really proud of that I shared with an astrophotography community around here, it got removed because there was landscape visible in the shot
I only found out about that weeks later when I was looking myself up in the modlogs along with some other entries with my name on them
I understand that on the surface it might seem like a good idea so that mods don’t get harassed by users that they took action against, but in the long term those users will continue to post and comment not knowing that their actions are unwelcome
I’ve encountered a few times where the post or a parent comment got deleted, which also appears to hide any sub-comments.
Might that be it?
I use Sync for Lemmy. When I click my own comment or the reply from the other person it takes me to the comments section where it only shows the parent comment. Hmmm… Maybe it’s a bug in Sync for Lemmy
I’ve had many comments (and I know a few others have too) quietly deleted for talking about the downsides of Linux, so mild censorship is definitely a thing depending on where you visit. But “shadow banning”, if I’m not mistaken, is kinda nonexistent on a platform like this
https://a.lemmy.world/lemmy.world/modlog/view?target=1685058
Modlog says you don’t have any moderation actions against you.
