I just rolled out a new, rather controversial feature which should help get some of the shitposters which voat attracted over the past few weeks under control.
How this works
- If a user has -50 CCP or less, they will only be able to post 5 comments per day until their CCP improves.
- If a user has -50 CCP or less, they will only be able to submit 1 discussion or 1 link per day until their CCP improves.
Why do we need this?
There are voat users with CCP at around -300 and these guys submit 20+ links per hour. While voat userbase is relatively small, allowing shitposters to run free and post copypasta crap day in and day out, may have negative effect on legit users.
This feature may be seen as as a tool to limit free speech (voat moto is "have your say" after all), but free speech doesn't mean that everyone should be allowed to post endless copypasta crap all over voat in matters of minutes and thus impact the free speech of other users as shitposting copypasta crap will push down submissions of other users from /v/all/new and as such, if left uncontrolled, have a negative effect on freedom of speech of other users.
I don't care about the kind of content is being posted, as long as the content being posted is legal and not being spammed all over voat. If you want to get your message across, why not try doing it in a thought-out manner, discussing the topic, letting other users chime in and taking it from there, rather than just shouting your message across random subverses?
Now what?
I will keep this feature operational as a test-run to see how it works in practice.
Please feel free to discuss this and tell me how you feel about this.
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SpaceRosa ago
5 comments a day...Hmmm.
I don't know about this. I think if I were limited that way it would just put me completely off of using Voat. Then instead of having a reformed or pissed user, you have an empty space where they used to be. It also allows people to shout down unpopular opinions. Just downvote them enough, and they have all of 5 comments a day to make their case. And if their opinion stays unpopular, what do they do then? They roll over and agree with whatever's popular or they stay with 5 comments a day until the wind eventually changes and their opinion becomes popular again, or they just make another account, or they leave.
I see why this is being done, I think, based on your statement. Are you perhaps referencing-but-not-referencing a certain white supremacist who likes to post the same copy paste crap everywhere? That I could understand. It's just concerning to me that this could very easily be abused to support the circlejerk and shout down dissent, especially from new users. I wouldn't want to be the feminist joining this website right now with this in place.
Get9 ago
Conversely, if people are downvoted to hell, is that not also censoring their words? Brigading in this sense seems to me almost exactly the same with one exception: I guess their words are still available to be read, but do you often go and read those hidden comments?
I'm not able to really propose an alternative to either, as I can see how both have their place, yet have drawbacks.
SpaceRosa ago
Yes. I always read the hidden comments.
Sepiku ago
If I make it to the hidden comments I also will read them. I may not like it but a lot of the time I think hella downvoted comments are funny or relevant.