Good points!

Could just be sincere disagreement and I’m chasing ghosts, but I’ve seen some stuff that looks REAL fishy.

Agreed. But another problem is that some people think anyone who disagrees with them is a troll.

Just today, I got banned from two communities. The reason? According to the mod: “known zero-sum narcissistic troll/spam user.” Which is wild, because I’ve barely posted in either place. I never said anything political or controversial as far as I can tell—and none of my comments were even removed.

And I think the last time I posted there was a few weeks ago?! LMAO.

The only thing I can figure is that some mod or admin saw me posting elsewhere, remembered they hated me for being a Socialist, and made up a reason to ban me. Totally random. Totally ok, their community. Their rules. Just like my community, my rules (as in I ban serial downoters).

No real loss—I rarely comment there anyway, and apparently nothing I said was bad enough to delete. Still, banned.

Lemmy’s a strange place. The echo-chamber mentality might be what kills it in the end though. If it turns into Reddit 2.0, what’s the point? And I am adding to the echo chamber by banning serial downvoters. So, meh…

I love Lemmy, but I can totally see it withering if it becomes harder to navigate and more toxic than Reddit. That said, I refuse to be bullied off the platform. I’ll be here until the servers go dark.

But I’m on PieFed, and really loving that platform too. So no big loss if Lemmy goes away, because I’m already on the Lemmy replacement. :)

What’s also funny is that now that people are finally talking about “serial downvoters” being a problem—and now that more users can actually see who’s doing the downvoting—a lot of those serial downvoters have suddenly stopped.

Personally, I’ve noticed a huge difference. For a long time, it didn’t matter what I posted—no matter the subject, I’d get flooded with downvotes almost instantly. That’s just stopped.

Now the voting feels way more natural and organic—based on content, not just someone hating me and hitting downvote the second they see my name.

Yeah, I feel the same. So sad that they are so obsessive that they let things like posting on Lemmy take over their lives. I’ll never understand people like that. It’s just Lemmy and none of this is real life. lol

Wondering if this is personal grudge

Definitely a personal grudge. It was against someone who the downvoter was convinced is an alt of mine (it’s not).

Several months ago, I mentioned how weird it was for someone to have an ai girlfriend in general, not calling anyone out directly. One particular dude stalked me for months over that comment, and serial downvoted everything I did.

Then he put his sights on someone else (the subject of the scenario in OP’s example), wrongly thinking it was me, and started stalking and harassing them, and calling them my name. Literally saying, “I know you’re Universal Monk!” Over and over. Again, the person he thought was an alt of me, isn’t me. I don’t have any alt names. I just use my Universal Monk name on any instance I use.

As soon as it was mentioned that the serial downvoter guy may be involved in sending the Nicole fediverse chick spam (many of the same addys, obsession, etc), the downvoter deleted his account.

I have no idea if he was involved in the nicole spam, but the M.O. of revenge and obsession definitely fit the profile for both the incidents. Also pretty suspicious that the minute someone mentioned he may be involved in Nicole spam, he bailed and deleted his main account and a lot of his alt accounts. lol

Ok? Is that really something ya wanna brag about though? lol

all the censorship proves that the only true difference between liberals and maga is the kool aide flavor.

Yep, and Lemmy hates the “both sides suck” statement, even tho it’s true. Lemmy likes to mock it by typing it like,“bOtH SiDeZ.”

But the the main parties here are both sides of the same coin. The duopoly is what keeps us stuck. And why I voted third party.

Thankfully Lemmy is finally starting to be a little more open-minded about third parties, because capitalists have destroyed both the main parties.

But back to the main subject, I think the preemptive ban is just gonna start being a thing unless the feature gets removed. I’m seeing it more and more every single day.

Lemmys are just gonna end up preemptive banning everyone who disagrees with them, and we’ll fall into a mini-echochamber coma. lol

We actually have good admins here, but the automod can be a bit overactive at times. If it’s just the automod, that’s one thing. If actual mods are behind it, that’s a whole different issue.

I looked more into what happened with me. Turns out, some third-party apps people use with Lemmy let them preemptively ban users from their communities that they mod.

It was meant to stop trolls, but now everyone’s calling anyone they disagree with a troll. So we’re heading toward a situation where people are just banning each other over nothing.

I’ve even been called a troll for posting in communities I created and moderate. It’s no longer “you don’t like what I like and that’s fine,” it’s “you don’t like what I like, so you’re a troll!”

I’ve been banned from communities I’ve never visited or even heard of. It’s not a big deal since I wasn’t going there anyway, but some users dig up ban histories and use them as ammo in arguments.

Trust me, I have personal experience with this. Someone started an entire thread about me called “I’m Calling For the Fediverse to Ban UniversalMonk” (https://sh.itjust.works/post/3101725) Or just search for the title if link doesn’t work.

Hundreds of upvotes and comments on that thread. All about me. And why? Because I voted third party (Socialist Workers Party) in the presidential election. So of course, I must be a russian spy paid by Trump using “russian bitcoin,” all paid out to me just so I could vote for the Socialist party. The person who started that post, and all the people who agreed with them, wanted me gone from all of Lemmy because I didn’t vote democrat or republican. LMAO

And I am still being preemptive banned from communities because of that. lol

Honestly, Lemmy’s starting to feel more pro-censorship than Reddit.

I personally think that sh.itjust.works and lemmy.dbzer0 are the best instances on Lemmy, have the best admins on Lemmy, and seem to stand up against the bullies more than anyone else.

Disclaimer: I’ve personally used the preemptive ban against two individuals who have harrassed me and called me a troll for months on end.

Good question.

I thought it was sweet.

Only one of those is me though. I have nothing to do with those other people. I don’t have any alt names; only alt instances.

People are totally free to block people on that list if they want to, but has nothing to do with me, friend.

Your account is only 5 days old. So seems like you have some sort of alt thing going on.

Yep, you make valid points!

Awesome news. You guys are rockstars. This is legit the best instance on Lemmy!

Yeah, I definitely wish I would have went that route when I was younger. I’m retired now, so I can’t complain, but I could have a lot more cool shit if I would have made more money! lol

Good luck, friend! Most people won’t wanna put down PokemonGO long enough to even try something like that.

But hey, admirable that ya wanna try it! I’m all about self-sufficiency. It allowed me to retire early!

And what do you suggest that is?

Congratulations you lived in a different world.

And I’m still in this world. Dude I still date. I’m only in my 50’s. I’m not even as old as Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise.

We’ll be fine. I promise.

No clue. Some people just like to hate.

America has gone AWOL and is selling random people to slave camps.

What?! lol no. Just no.

And AI is getting close to being able to improve itself, leading to the singularity replacing us all.

No.