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submitted 3 months ago by Coupable@lemmy.world to c/main@sh.itjust.works

The mod banning these users is the same mod who made the posts they downvoted. This is mod abuse, turning the downvote button into an auto-self-ban button.

The message is "If you disagree with me, you will be banned"

Monitoring and banning users for using lemmy as intended to signal boost your opinion should be grounds to have all mod privileges removed. This behaviour undermines the integrity of the server and the wider fediverse.

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[-] QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 months ago

We don't need Reddit's power tripping back

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[-] alekwithak@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

So it's literally just Elon.

[-] skisnow@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 months ago

That mod is also literally the only active user in that group. Your post is the most attention it's ever got.

[-] Coupable@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

And this is the second time in just over a day that I've seen moderators abusing the ability to monitor how people vote.

This behaviour undermines good faith participation. Users should not be afraid of copping bans for using the downvote button as they feel is appropriate.

[-] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

This behaviour undermines good faith participation. Users should not be afraid of copping bans for using the downvote button as they feel is appropriate.

As a moderator, I can see who votes on what and how in my community. But it is not my job to really do anything with that information (except if I notice a brigading attack / vote manipulation, then I might keep an eye on users for that). So I don't even look at them. The community hasn't been brigaded yet, and since its a moderately low traffic community, it would be pretty obvious if that ever happened.

But votes are information that normal users should definitely not be able to see at all. Eventually, sooner than later most likely, it will lead to "User X voted 'wrong' on Y" posts. You and I both know Lemmy users cannot be trusted to be mature enough to not do that kind of Fecal Flinging, especially from the comfort of online anonymity, and once that starts it's not going to stop.

Users upvote or downvote posts for ten million different reasons. Nobody should feel like they can't vote how they want on a post for fear of a moderator ban or other users yelling at them. If they are engaging in vote manipulation, its a different story, but people doing that are not only using a single account, so they know what they are doing and should expect nevative consequences. I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying, just adding on that beyond a moderator's ethical duty regarding (not) taking action for vote activity, normal users should also be held to the same ethical duty.

[-] Skavau@piefed.social 1 points 3 months ago

Yes and no.

There are accounts who genuinely do go around downvoting en masse without any contributions. When I was growing my community, I caught about 5 accounts - some with no post history, and no contribution history on my community doing it. They also had a long mod log history of bans for doing it elsewhere.

So I banned them because they kept burying new posts. That is my right.

[-] PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au 1 points 3 months ago

But votes are information that normal users should definitely not be able to see at all.

Votes on Lemmy are public. lemvotes.org exists, and Friendica and mbin both expose votes, and then obviously it's decently simple (though not super-trivial like those three methods) to set up your own instance and look over all the votes.

You might feel that there should be a special category of "lesser" (you say normal) user that is unable to see votes, even though another category of user is able to. We could talk about that philosophically, but regardless, normal users can see votes. Vote accordingly. The error lies with the Lemmy UI being designed in a way that doesn't make it clear to people that their votes are not fully private.

[-] Juice@midwest.social 1 points 3 months ago

Thanks for the heads up I'm gonna go get banned from a shitty elon musk fan community. Badge of honor as far as I'm concerned

[-] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Because mods can only mod a single community, right, and no-one makes it almost their entire personality of "being a mod"?

I've sometimes found I've been banned on the weirdest communities which I've ever even visited, because some dipshit Russian got mad at me for calling out their propaganda and then banned me from all the communities they could. Pretty common on Lemmy

[-] powerstruggle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

If you don't like a community's content, ignore/block it. Why are you downvoting a bunch of stuff?

[-] Coupable@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

because downvoting is one of the central actions pivotal to the kind of social media that Lemmy/piefed/reddit is.

[-] powerstruggle@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago

Yeah, that's great for flagging spam or stuff that's not relevant to the community it's posted in. Downvoting content that's good for a community just because you don't like the community is like the godbotherers that yell at people about sin during pride celebrations. Don't be like them.

[-] Coupable@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Downvoting a toxic community is also a valid use of your downvote. Reddit has several examples (gamersriseup, the_donald, fatpeoplehate, among many more examples).

Think of it like concerned citizens yelling at the westboro baptist church for being hateful pieces of shit.

An analogy can really color an argument eh? I don't usually engage in that kind of rhetoric, I find it undermines the conversation by overtly engaging with peoples emotions.

[-] Hell_nah_brother@thelemmy.club 1 points 3 months ago

Yeee, I’m in this pic and I like it! Good job me 🫶

[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

BRB, gonna downvote all his posts so I don't have to bother blocking that community.

(I also blocked it anyway.)

[-] Ileftreddit@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

You’ve found Elons alt

[-] vatlark@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

I made the list!

I upvote most of threelonmusketeers' posts (voyager confirms my votes are net +44) , but my down vote finger gets itchy when I see a string of pro Elmo content.

Not sure about that specific case.

[-] miss_demeanour@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 months ago

Rule #0.0
Don't hurt moddy-woddy's fee-fees.

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 months ago

this but as an actual legitimate rule, more explicit version of "don't be a dick"

[-] mudkip@lemdro.id 1 points 2 months ago

THIS IS RIDICULOUS!

[-] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Oh hi, this post is about me!

I'm experimenting with the moderation policy for niche communities described by @jet@hackertalks.com.

@TheDude@sh.itjust.works, do you have any issues with this?

[-] Coupable@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

Punishing users for their individual votes is mod abuse and vote manipulation. You are removing the voting rights of users who dislike your content.

The only acceptable grounds for banning a user based on their votes would be using a sock puppet to vote on a single post or comment multiple times.

If people think your posts are shit, they should be allowed to express that without fear of phantom banning. Suck it up, or delete your account.

[-] Skavau@piefed.social 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The only acceptable grounds for banning a user based on their votes would be using a sock puppet to vote on a single post or comment multiple times.

What about if someone entered the community to mass downvote everything? Or did so every day?

If people think your posts are shit, they should be allowed to express that without fear of phantom banning. Suck it up, or delete your account.

If I made a metal music community, and an account came in every day to downvote every post because they don't like metal - would I be justified in banning them for that?

[-] Coupable@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

What about if someone entered the community to mass downvote everything? Or did so every day?

That's fine, if the post is legitimately popular, the upvotes will outweigh the downvotes. That's how all of this works, and how it has always worked.

If I made a metal music community, and an account came in every day to downvote every post because they don’t like metal - would I be justified in banning them for that?

No, that would be an abuse of your mod powers. Conversely, how many downvotes do you think a user should be allowed before you can ban them for disagreeing with you?

[-] Skavau@piefed.social 0 points 3 months ago

That's fine, if the post is legitimately popular, the upvotes will outweigh the downvotes. That's how all of this works, and how it has always worked.

No, this doesn't apply to small and growing communities. Or niche communities of specific interests. When I started up my community, many posts wouldn't get many votes - and an early downvote or two could easily sink a new post from trending at all, leaving it to languish to nowhere.

No, that would be an abuse of your mod powers.

Based on what?

Conversely, how many downvotes do you think a user should be allowed before you can ban them for disagreeing with you?

It's not about numbers specifically. People downvote in my community now - and I see the same names whenever I check from time to time, but they also upvote and contribute - so I am not that bothered. I have only banned a handful of users for this behaviour since I started. Each one of them did nothing but downvote everything, and never contributed at all to the community.

[-] Coupable@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

Each one of them did nothing but downvote everything, and never contributed at all to the community.

Downvotes are a contribution, they are just the kind of contribution you don't like. based on this, I don't think you area good fit for modding; you should probably look to pass your role on to someone who can moderate responsibly.

[-] Skavau@piefed.social 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Downvotes are a contribution, they are just the kind of contribution you don't like.

I fail to see the valuable contribution of an account that has literally never posted on the community they are downvoting in, never even posted on the fediverse, quietly downvoting every single post in a community. It is nothing but vandalism that hurts the growth of new communities.

based on this, I don't think you area good fit for modding; you should probably look to pass your role on to someone who can moderate responsibly.

By your logic almost every single community moderator on the fediverse is not a "good fit for modding" because they too, will ban accounts for spam-downvoting on their communities.

[-] Blaze@lemmy.zip 0 points 3 months ago

Replying here as it's higher the thread , but the other person you were replying to just seems to be sealioning.

Also, a 3 months old account with 3 posts, 2 about moderation issues, seems like an alt looking to stir up drama.

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[-] ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 months ago

this is “downvote trolling”….
basically if you have a community that a lot of people hate, people will come in and downvote everything… some will even subscribe and downvote everything.
so, obviously “the boring company” will get a lot of musk hate (and i hate musk).
but yeah, if someone never participates in a comm and just shows up to downvote totally on-topic posts it makes sense to ban them….

i’ve been permanently shadowbanned from communities i totally liked and agreed with for making a comment that reasonably stated a disagreement with a post… banning for downvote trolling makes sense… even though i do hate Elon Musk….
(the whole boring company community should be deleted because it’s a company owned by a literal Nazi).

[-] Thorry@feddit.org 1 points 3 months ago

What are you talking about? Shows up in a community? People see Musk fellatio posts in their All feed and downvote it. Lemmy communities aren't a closed thing and banning people for voting is dumb.

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this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2025
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