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submitted 11 months ago by lemmyingly@lemm.ee to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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.

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[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 12 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 11 months ago

Usually, but not always. Depends on the mod and their mood, of course.

[-] lemmyingly@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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.

[-] lemmyingly@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] ttmrichter@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

There's also a link in your profile so you can see all the moderation actions taken against you anywhere.

[-] AustralianSimon@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Managing mod mail on reddit sucked so bad

[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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.

[-] lemmyingly@lemm.ee 0 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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.

[-] lemmyingly@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

Thanks.

Turns out in this specific occasion that it wasn't removed/hidden; so it must be a bug with Sync for Lemmy.

[-] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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

[-] lemmyingly@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 11 months ago

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

[-] ekky43@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 11 months ago

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?

[-] lemmyingly@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago

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

[-] ekky43@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 11 months ago

Haven't seen that behavior myself yet, but yes, that does sound like either a bug or shadowbanning.

Excuse me for not being able to help.

[-] LazerDickMcCheese@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 months ago

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

[-] ttmrichter@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago
[-] LazerDickMcCheese@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

Weird, I'm telling ya I've had MANY comments disappear

[-] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 11 months ago

Fun fact: modlogs aren't fully synced between instances.

Looking my name up on some instances shows different mod actions against me compared to others

If you know what instance you posted on you can check the modlogs there to see what's up

[-] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

Mods tools on Lemmy are pretty rudimentary. We mods can ban users, ban users for a defined period of time, and or ban user while removing all their content posted to a particular community.

As for posts and comments. We can remove them with or without providing a reason in our logs.

If you’re worried about getting banned or having content removed, you can see all of that in Lemmy’s public mod logs.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

You can get stuff deleted by mods that don't tell you about it, but I don't know about actual shadow banning

[-] zout@kbin.social 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I've had this happen, but I found out it is of magazines I had blocked later on, hiding the comments for me. (I'm on Kbin, don't know if this works the same way elsewhere)

[-] roguetrick@kbin.social 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Actual banning but the federation making it weird is also a thing. Example would be us on Kbin. Folks can get banned from a community but if they're on our instance they can still comment and it'll still show up for us.

this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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