Comment by iri@programming.dev on I apparently got shadow banned almost a year ago from blahaj, for a comment I made on lemmy.world

For the record I was posting in support of inclusive language, but pointing out that context and convention matter.

They seem to have even scrubbed my comment from their instance, lol.

I don’t think there is anything like a shadow ban on Lemmy?

It seems to be an unintentional side effect, that ends up being similar to a shadow ban.

What I mean to say is that I can still make comments on blahaj posts, but they will never show up to users of their instance. So, to me, it seems like everything is okay, when in reality, I’ve probably been commenting into the ether for 10 mo.

Example:

https://lemmy.sdf.org/comment/16663205

It’s not like a shadow ban. It’s just a normally instance ban. A shadowban is by definition invisible to to the affected party. This is very much immediately visible through the modlog.

My greater point is that it’s dishonest to liken this to a shadow ban due to the secretive connotations of the latter and the way this paints the admins who gave it out

So your argument is that because a modlog entry exists for the ban, nothing else about how it is applied matters? That’s a little obtuse imo. I have seen several users claiming not to even know the modlog exists and being thrilled to learn about it. For many users, it’s a small link in the footer they never noticed. Users don’t get a notification about bans and if the end result is your comments appear to show up for you but not others, that definitely meets the normal definition of a shadowban. Lemmy could introduce some new features(s) to help with that but in the meantime it’s absolutely reasonable to see how a user would interpret things this way. I’ve been on Lemmy over a year and I’m just now finding out this is possible so I wouldn’t say it’s the fault of the user for not understanding how it works.

Lemmy lacking moderation notifications in the UI or email notification backend doesn’t make it a shadowban, if they were absent from the modlog and didn’t put the banned flag on your profile then that would be a shadowban. They didn’t make an attempt to hide it from you, the communication methods are just very poor right now, there is a reason why Lemmy is on version 0.19.3 or 0.19.8 for the later instances, this is still considered alpha software, it’s not finished. The jank is to be expected for a software in its infancy.

CC: @db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com

I mean, I was saying what it seems like, not what it is. The user unfriendliness leads to confusion. And yes I understand software takes time, development is what I do for a living. I was just saying it’s reasonable to feel like you have been shadowbanned given the circumstances

My point is that that instance admins didn’t intend it as a “shadow ban”, but as a normal lemmy ban for someone they don’t believe deserves a platform towards their instance membership. Therefore insisting on calling it “a shadow ban” when most people understand that term to be something else than an instance ban, is egregious and misleading with the aim of revenge.

Sure, lemmy could introduce notifications, In fact, since the modlogs are public, this could be done by any frontend. But it’s still doesn’t mean that the admins tried to shadow ban someone.

Well my comment made clear that it wasn’t about intent but rather a reasonable interpretation.

Most users don’t habitually check the modlog, let alone of every individual instance they engage with. It has pretty much been invisible to me for the last 10 mo, and I’ve commented here and there multiple times on blahaj posts in that timeframe, with no immediate indication I had been banned.

Seems to fit the definition to me.

I noticed that you were banned from there a couple of months ago.

I noticed a conspicuous absense of wesker posts, and then reviewed the wesker profile with my computer.

In response to your edit, I don’t particularly care about how this post paints an admin that would call me a transphobe and instance ban me, over the singular given comment and the context in which it was made.

Any instance admin can ban users who are toxic to their instance member. Calling all these completely normal bans “shadow bans” is disingenuous.

It doesn’t matter if this is Lemmy’s default behavior. Allowing users to post comments that cannot be viewed by anyone in the receiving community is shadowbanning, regardless of whether Lemmy puts that label on it.

I would argue that’s the fault of the frontend not informing the user that they’re banned, and not a shadow banning.

That’s about the least egregious part of it all, but noted. I’m still going to refer to it as shadow banning, because it makes no difference to me that it’s technically a misgiving of the Lemmy platform.

Sure but your argument loses credence and is also confusing since most people have something more egregious and underhanded when talking about shadow bans. You’re being deliberately misleading in order to hurt the reputation of said admins more.

The notion that his comment was “toxic” is objectively ludicrous.

Sorry, but they didn’t call that comment toxic. Just that if an admin finds someone to be toxic, which is of course subjective, they can ban them.

How do you know they don’t see your comments?

Compare with the thread as it appears on their instance.

https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/20091173

A safe space to report and discuss the daily abuses of power that occur on the Lemmy.

I apparently got shadow banned almost a year ago from blahaj, for a comment I made on lemmy.world(lemmy.sdf.org)

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