cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/35891683
I have changed the original title of this post, as it is imo, thanks largely to discussion in this thread, with a lemmyusa mod, unnecessarily incendiary.
Original Title:
"lemmyusa.com is engaging in vote manipulation, suggest defederating unless it is addressed"
Mod Abuse:
https://lemmy.world/modlog/1432313?page=1&actionType=All
The instance has 3 active subs, it's unlikely the admins are not also the mods engaging in this.
Banning anyone who downvotes is a clear attempt to foster a chilling effect on dissenting opinions. The mods and admins of this instance are putting their thumb on the scales in order to make their ideas appear more positively received than they actually are.
Thanks for your attention to this.
I realize that doing a cross post here is... unorthodox, and this doesn't drectly involve my own interactions, and I am technically breaking a number of the rules of this comm...
... but I think this is worth the discussion and consideration of, and potential further investigation from this comm, which essentially functions as a de facto place for discussing things like this.
Further context / info I have been able to gather:
Here is a direct link to their own modlog.
Their dedicated legal page:
Their described 'sidebar rules' appear to only be:
We're keeping it simple:
Be thoughtful, act responsibly, and treat others with respect.
No NSFW content.
Everything else seems to be in the Legal / TOS / Privacy Policy section.
My preliminary, most charitable interpretation of mod/admin activity here... is that they can and will essentially ban anyone who posts on their instance and is not a lemmyusa user, as any other user would not have agreed to their TOS.
???
Further, this instance appears to be hosting an account that is impersonating SatansMaggotyCumFart, a fairly well known, mostly parody/dedicated 'bit' account here on lemmy...
The profile description of their version of SMCF claims to be 'the only real profile!', and is using a clearly AI generated avatar/profile pic... and uh, to me at least, it seems very unlikely this is the actual SMCF.
UPDATE:
Ok.
After some conversation in this thread, I should add:
There is, and there was at the time this all started, a rule in the comm that much of these downvote bans took place in, which reads:
'No Serial Downvoting.'
Personally, I find this rather vague.
How many dowmvotes, in what timeframe, across how many comms/comments/posts, etc?
I am also still uncertain to what extent these actually are dedicated, persistent, serial downvoters, vs just a whole lot of randos seeing something on their feed and then downvoting it and moving on.
I get the intent behind trying to stem a mass wave of negativity, nobody likes a wave of mass downvotes and hostile comments...
But on the other hand, there should probably be a bit more clarity and specificity here, less heavy handed actions for less comitted and persistent behavior.
IMO, a balance has to be struck between allowing people to genuienly freely express their opinion via downvoting, but at the same time, there are clearly also cases where people or groups of people basically just downvote all comments or posts from a specific user or in a certain comm or pertaining to a certain topic, etc.
I myself am fairly confident I have managed to attract at least one person who downvotes all my posts/comments on their instance, simply because I am on their shitlist, apparently.
So ideally... we could maybe have a constructive conversation about that.
As to the SatansMaggotyCumFart profile on lemmyusa being an impersonatory account:
We've got one mod from lemmyusa here saying he really isn't sure, and personally blocked him, I think from his own user standpoint, not from the standpoint of himself as a mod.
IMO, the account still strikes me as likely another person, impersonating the actual user... I of course cannot be certain, but the profile still strikes me as very sus.
Finally, I am least personally going to strongly discourage any one reading this from popping in to lemmyusa and going out of your way to downvote every single thing on there simply because it is on that instance.
They are already in more or less lockdown mode, call that a win if you must.
I did not intend nor do I want this very post to act as an attack vector.
UPDATE 2
SatansMaggotyCumFart, the real one, has appeared in this thread and confirmed that the lemmyusa profile is indeed an impersonation, is not them.
I did read them, some I had even seen prior to them being posted in your community. I thought they were bad posts, and I downvoted.
If you don't like downvotes, disable the downvote button on your home instance and defederate from the rest of the fediverse.
Otherwise, accept that with the larger reach federation provides, there will inevitably be dissenting opinions.
Admit you are just banning people for disagreeing with you too often.
that doesn't stop people from downvoting. it only stops members from my own instance from downvoting. you woudl still be able to downvote them.
and even if i could do that, u wouldn't be able to downvote, which is what ur mad about. im not teh admin for my instance anyway. but what you are saying isn't true.
i ban serial downvoters like many people on lemmy do. why are u mad being banned form a community you don't like? ur mad just becuase you can't downvote anymore?!
lets say that lemmy eventually comes up with a way for communities not to have a downvote button. then you wouldn't be able to downvote. woudl u still be mad? isn't that the same thing happening when u get banned and can't downvote?
ur mad u got banned because now u can't serial downvote. its obvious.
If you don’t like downvotes, disable the downvote button on your home instance and defederate from the rest of the fediverse. I said it in my previous comment. Migrate to an instance which does not federate and has downvotes disabled, like hexbear, or deal with being a part of the fediverse.
And if your opinion crippling moderation strategy is so popular, why do the two posts I have made over the past day regarding this behaviour have more upvotes than your entire community has had over the course of its life?
Also please stop with the "u mad bro" stuff, it's embarrassing.
again, that wouldnt stop the downvotes, it would only stop members of the instance lemmyusa from downvoting. the rest of teh fediverse would still be able to downovte.
and u are mad because u can't downvote, so u'd still be mad. ur mad because u can't downvote in my community any more.
and u got so mad that u couldn't downvot u tried to defederate an entire intstance. thats it lol
i don't care if we get defederated, it ain't my instance. i just think its funny ur so mad u can't downvote posts u don't like lol
Actually that's not how it works. People would be able to downvote, but your instance would reject all downvotes for the comms you're hosting. The downvotes would only stay local to the originating instance. Other instances would not see downvotes from other instances.
Do you have trouble reading? If you have a learning disability, can you please get someone close to read the post to you?
Do you have trouble reading? i'm not the admin and its not my instance. what part of that don't u understand?
i have no control over that. ur mad because u got banned for serial downvoting. it says in the rules that no serial downvoting. that's it.
if u can't follow the rules of a community, then get banned. u don't evne like the community so get over it.
Is this your best attempt at trolling? Touch some grass my friend.
if you don't like the fact that ur instance hasn't defederated from us, then u can migrate to an instance that isn't federated with my instance.
serial downvoting still won't be allowed in my community
Yes, that's why we are here.
The title of my original post is "lemmyusa.com is engaging in vote manipulation, suggest defederating unless it is addressed"
Several replies in, and you still haven't grasped the purpose of the actual post we are talking about?
We are discussing the defederation of your server, based on your behaviour as a mod.
and i think its silly u were so mad that u got banned for serial downvoting that u think ur entire instance should defederate from another instance. lol
serial downvoting isn't allowd in my community. thats why u were banned. thats not going to change
"u mad bro?" - a moderator, lol
actually it's y u mad bro?
serial downvoting isn't allowed in a lot fo communities on lemmy. don't serial downvote and u don't have to worry about it
Don't abuse your mod privileges and you wont find posts discussing your servers defederation.
Also, because I like to think the best of people, I have to assume you are an actual child. I have to believe no adult could possibly respond the way you repeatedly have and think they come out looking like someone worth talking to.
As such, this is my last response to you, so make sure your next reply is as 'devastating' as you can manage.
I'm glad you enjoyed the song.
i didnt abuse my mod privileges, i banned you for serial downvoting, which is against the community rules. and as for seeming like a child, maybe look at ur replies that I was responding to. i responded with same attitude u came at me with.
glad we can agree to disagree. best of luck to you
I choose this to be the time for when you explain to me again that you moderate in good faith. You need to go outside more.
This is, and I cannot state this forcefully enough, fucking hilarious.
the modlog is availiabe to anyone who wants to look. i have never tried to hide it. i have nothing to hide. and pics of the modlog have alrady been posted here. im fine with it
u were banned for serial downvoting, we ban for serial downvoting. u weren't the only perosn who did serial downovting, so u weren't the only one banned.
u got banned for it and now ur mad ya can't downvote anymore. that's how it is, even if we got defederated, u still can't serial downvote in my community. feel free to start ur own community and allow all the serial downvoting u want. i ban it in mine though
Caught in 4K, tremendous.
the only one who got caught was u. u got caught for serial downvoting and u got banned for it. feel free to start ur own community and allow all the serial downvoting u want. I don't allow it in my community though.
Try not to use any sockpuppet accounts on your way out the fucking door lol
im not the only mod for the community or sockpuppet so none that affects me at all and I don't visit those commuities so im not mad about being banned from them and i defintely wont be writign to admins saying we shoudl defederate from them for banning me. u got banned fro serial downvoting, and that's not going to change, now matter how many instances ban me. because I mostly post to my own community
the only one who got caught was u. u got caught for having sockpuppet accounts and u got banned for it. feel free to start ur own community and allow all the sockpuppet account voting u want. I don’t allow it in my community though.
i don't have any sockpuppet accounts and i don't care if I got banned from communites i don't visit. ive never been to any of those or planned to go.
u got caught serial downvoting in my sub and thats why you got banned from my sub. We can move on from the conversation,. You've already said u were done with it, yet you keep going on. I'm not going to unban u.
Honestly thanks for this, it's been just so, so much fun. What a fucking hero.
ciao
disengage