I just found out I was shadowbanned from /v/canada... so a heads up, shadowbanning seems to be a problem on VOAT as well. ( conspiracy )

submitted by salvia_d

  • NOTE: For those interested in uncensored - a hands off mod subverse - I've ended up creating /v/canadians ...so if you feel like sharing Canadian related content you are welcome to do so there. Peace.

Note: The title should really say banned, not shadowbanned. See UPDATE below for explanation.

That subverse is now off my radar, which is too bad since /r/canada (Reddit) has some major problems.

Not sure if this was an automated ban or deliberate. I did talk to the mod there and his/her main reason and recommendation was:

i can disable letting shadowbanned users post, but I put it on because there were bots spamming articles. Or contact the admins and repeal, or just make a different account. I can't even manually put your posts through :/

VOAT is in alpha mode so my guess is mods are trying to get a hang of how everything works. I can understand trying to prevent bots from posting, unfortunate though the measures end up killing the subverse right out of the gate.

My reply to the above message was:

Oh man, so much for /v/canada ...I'm definitely not into creating a different account, and definitely not into contacting the admins every time I want to make a post or a comment. Too bad... i found /r/canada [Reddit] to be way too censored for my taste but I am still active there since it is tolerable. Being shadowbanned here definitely puts this subverse off my radar. If you can fix it then please message me, otherwise good luck with the sub.

Anyway, just wanted to give people a heads up.

UPDATE:

So I contacted Atko about the ban and here is his message:

You are manually banned from /v/canada by its moderator. Please note that the ban reason contains word "auto" which is a word manually typed by the sub moderator. There is no "auto banning" mechanism on voat.

Here is the ban entry from ban log (ban logs will be public when I'm done implemeting this feature):

SubverseName: Canada

Username: salvia_d

BannedBy: Haredeenee

BanAddedOn: 2015-03-20 23:52:12.463

BanReason: Auto - Spam

Thanks to Atko for the quick reply and users Haredeenee - /u/Haredeenee - is officially a SHILL ... watch out for their post.

clinton2016nazi

I think the banning and censorship on VOAT is actually much worse than found on twitter, or reddit, or even zerohedge. IT's telling that when news about reddit and their child-porn operation, that zion news told everyone to go SWISS where its safe,

A honey-pot by another name?

salvia_d

Thanks. Just joined :)

doesitmakesound

He is just being a prick. Shirtwascash is about community and creating an anything-goes shirt idea type of platform. We're building a standalone website for the future central hub and I have mentioned several times that I would prefer /v/shirtwascash be removed from voat.com/v/all.

Rogerguy123

It's a very fine line. I think the biggest thing is just transparency. Shadow-banning should need a really good reason.

New_years_day

Atko is a fucking god send! I bet he pissed excellent every morning.

salvia_d

Agreed, i personally think if users like /u/Haredeenee are found to be censoring and banning people from certain subs then their accounts should be deleted by the admin.

doesitmakesound

Just because I would prefer not lose a moderator and supporter in /v/shirtwascash , I would like to propose a more level-headed warning. I am not sure if he necessarily broke rules here. We're in the wild west. I support Voat full-heartedly and want to see it become awesome, but let's make these decisions and eventual rules transparent and public as they arise. I can talk to him too but really I don't know what's going on.

salvia_d

There is no doubt in my mind that he is a shill, either paid or just a willing puppet. He lied, he banned users for no reason, he deleted comments, he lied again when asked what was going on, and he has not replied to any of the criticisms. He is a virus and he should be purged.

As for not knowing what's going on, you should read what I posted and what experience others have had with him.

doesitmakesound

It looks like he power tripped and lied to you. I obviously don't like that. I'd prefer to let the admins handle it since this is a learning experience for them but I can mention it if necessary. It'd be helpful if you included what your comments were for reference but it appears that this basically goes against the community's agenda on Voat from what I gather from you and atko.

salvia_d

As far as I know, there were no comments. It appears that he bans users based on what content they post, i.e., he bans users posting content that he doesn't like. As I said, a virus.

doesitmakesound

I will, my internet monitoring service brought this topic up so I've only read the stuff regarding my community. I'll read through everything now. As for shill, what do you mean? For /v/shirtwascash ? I can guarantee you he is not but would want to know your point of view if otherwise if there's something I haven't seen.

salvia_d

I don't know your sub and would never join one modded by /u/Haredeenee . My experience is through /v/canada .

doesitmakesound

That's fine, I am definitely not a power trip and am completely transparent. It's hard to evidence that here with simple words but my actions in my own sub and elsewhere speak for itself for those involved. I would appreciate considering separating your thoughts about whatever happened to you and the things I am doing. He is not the one working their ass off to try and make something awesome. His relation with what we're doing does impact my overall impression of him but I am also not one to go crazy over someone without legitimate, and directly impacting, issues. If he's abusing stuff on my sub, then that's an issue I don't take lightly. If his reputation damages our community, I make a note of it and carry on until repercussions would need to be discussed / acted on.

Haredeenee

I was linked here by a comment on the /v/canada sub

PrivateJoker

Did you delete that comment too? lol

Haredeenee

It was rude and off topic.

But I made sure to answer his question.

chronos

First an upvoat for your cause.

Second, I got a bit confused by your referencing of /v/canada and /r/canada . May want to review and edit your post?

salvia_d

Done, thanks.

taxation_is_slavery

That asshole deleted my posts too.

TexasComments

Maybe you're just a cunt.

taxation_is_slavery

Sweet, I have my first internet stalker. Quite an obsession you have. Might want to get that checked out.

TexasComments

Nah, the nurse cleared up the clap that your grandmother gave me last week and she said I was fine.

taxation_is_slavery

I'm impressed that you could get your withered rocks off sticking your micro penis into a pail of ash. Good on you.

TexasComments

I'm shocked you didn't know your mother's tracheotomy is more than tight enough.

taxation_is_slavery

You should look up some of these big words so you don't embarrass yourself further.

taxation_is_slavery

With two brain cells it's remarkable you can even breath, let alone identify anyone.

TexasComments

Just think of how much you could do with two! Careful though you don't want to lose that last one.

taxation_is_slavery

You've hurt my fee fees internet stalker.

GOT

mods ban and censor. This was to be expected

chmod

I'm voting for /r/Canada for worst CSS.

Haredeenee

Yeah, its a mess. I'll be working on it this weekend, thanks for reminding me! :D

chmod

I didn't downvoat you. Pretty good idea who did.

Haredeenee

meh its /v/conspiracy so I dont really care what they think of me.

Flagger

So what were you doing to get banned? I doubt very seriously that you were just picked out at random and banned so what is the story. Were you spamming? There will be bans on Voat you know, I am not saying you should be banned but people need way more information before passing judgment either way.

salvia_d

I don't know, maybe he/she didn't like what I was posting. The fact is that when i sent him/her a message he/she lied. They said that I was shadowbanned and that they could not even "manually put [my] posts through". ...as per their comment that I quoted.

The user is definitely a shill and a lier, as most shills are. They should be removed from being a mod for /v/canada ... I would even go further and ban them and their ip address from modding anything on VOAT. I think what our community, what this forum needs is heavy hard-handedness regarding shills. We don't what VOAT to turn into what most subs have become on Reddit.

snacksmoto

It makes me seriously wonder if that mod is an alt of one of the r/metacanada shills that infects and brigades r/canada .

Flagger

Alright bro, fair enough. I threw you some upvotes for exposure but would like to get the other persons side of it. I run /v/Uncensored and have not and will never downvote anything. It goes against what I came here for so I would certainly back you up 110% if you were banned for BS. Good luck to you man.

721r

The user is kinda strange, looks like a second identity or something:

28 submissions to shirtwascash

1 submissions to subverserequest

1 submissions to introductions

1 submissions to Haredeenee

1 submissions to CustomizingVoat

So "28 submissions to shirtwascash" (I don't even know what a meme is that?) then /v/subverserequest and here we go.

Flagger

Good point, does look sketchy. I am firmly against power users and this person may be trying to grab up a lot of popular named subs.

Harry

Shirtwascash is a sub that tries to make you go to their website to buy shirts with pictures from imgur on it. It's a whole sub posed as a contests to push their product.

doesitmakesound

Hey, don't drag me and my hard work into this. I started shirtwascash and we being here is a result of admin abuse on reddit. I'm not making anyone buy anything. The idea is anonymous user-submitted shirts with no politically correct boundaries.

Harry

Regardless of what the ban was for trying to cover it up in any sense makes it fishy and in turn will cause speculation towards other areas of this users usage of the website. IE your board being one he also moderates.

In researching background on this post alone I found your AMA and have no problem with what you're doing. I'm was noting on first glance to your sub it looks like an ad.

It should be understandable that there would be some speculation.

salvia_d

Thanks, I'll think about it. I'm basically a hands off mod and I really didn't have plans of modding a canadian subverse. I hate these shills that take over forums, they are the viruses of our society... argh!

I'll sleep on it a couple of night and see what comes next.

721r

Create /v/Canadians while it's an early phase for voat.

salvia_d

okay done :)

Guess I'll just post stories on Canada that I come across and want to share there. Thanks for the suggestion.

Freakazoid

This is not the first time that the community will have to react to shill and troll mods on poplar subs. I thought voat had a way of removing these types of mods.

catechumen

Correct me if I am wrong, but that's not a shadowban, just a ban...

salvia_d

Yes, it could be, but until I know for sure I will take this persons word for it... either way, looks like, dare I say... no I won't yet.