1 upvotes, 0 direct replies (showing 0)
1000 times this. Reddit's #1 problem right now isn't "someone got fired with no warning", it's the total lack of moderation transparency. Shadowbans and silent automods should be reserved for the most extreme cases, not the norm. The way it works right now feels like it's ripped directly from a conspiracy novel. Utter the wrong word and you get put on The List, getting your post - and potentially all your posts in a given sub, or in all of Reddit - silently censored the second you submit them, and having no (easy) way to know this is happening. And if you do realize your post was deleted, have fun trying to guess why.
One thing I discovered recently that particularly bothered me is that deleted threads don't show up in your saved links (but if you do find your way back to them, they're still marked Saved). So the mods of each sub have (unknown to most users) the authority to say not just "this doesn't belong on this sub" but "nobody should be allowed to see this, we'll pretend it never happened". WTF is that? Why does some random mod get to arbitrarily remove things from *my personal bookmarks*? I don't care if it's technically off topic or breaks some silly obscure rule of that particular sub, obviously I wanted to see it.
Between complete opacity, shadowbans, silent removals from both subs and personal bookmark lists, and some blatantly obvious shill posts that somehow make it to the top of popular subs every so often, it's very difficult to hold any viewpoint other than "Reddit has sold out and silently censors any content/users that threaten their ad revenue".
Reddit was "the new Digg" when Digg censored themselves to death, and it's become "the new Digg" again by censoring itself to death. You want to appease people? Start having some transparency. No more threads/posts deleted with no explanation. No more shadowbans, silent removals, silent spam filter/automod flagging except as a last resort against spambots. No more letting one person mod 100 subs. No more letting mods decide what I can and can't bookmark. And if /r/worldnews is going to keep instantly removing any article with "TPP" in its title, at least give it a more accurate name like /r/certain-world-news-articles-that-some-mods-like, rather than the current name that implies neutrality.
Hell, maybe there could even be a system where people post whatever they like and the users, collectively, mark posts as relevant/irrelevant and let the spam filter to the bottom automatically... hey wait a minute.
There's nothing here!