I’ve banned all Sane alts (while leaving the main account alone) for spamming. If Sane (or his group) wants to post on Voat, they can do so without using alts to hide behind, thus preventing their main accounts from being downvoted and thus restricted. I am done letting this group stomp all over Voat unfettered* like a spoiled toddler and pushing me to enact draconian rules to prevent them from doing so.
Don’t for a second be fooled at the motivations this group has for Voat, they seek not to help. They seek only to force censorship, drive away users, and ultimately destroy Voat while ruining Voat’s commitment to Freedom of Speech. I will not let them win.
They setup an unwinnable situation for Voat, and no matter Voat’s action, they can claim a victory.
If Voat bans them, they claim censorship. If Voat does nothing, reasonable users depart. Regardless of the action, a user subset will be infuriated, and this is entirely the purpose, divide and conquer. We all need to recognize exactly what is happening here. This isn’t about a single user, this is about an organized effort.
If you ever wondered why Reddit has so many private and obfuscated areas in code, fuzzed counters, shadow bans, etc.? It is to stop groups like this. The problem is, as you all know, once this code is implemented it can be used for both good and evil. I choose not to use the little time available on such things, and will instead ban users who engage in Amalek/ManHood101 style spamming in order to maliciously claim censorship later.
A user is free to say whatever they wish, but if they resort to using alt accounts in order to circumvent the protections we do have, these alt accounts will be banned for spamming.
I’m also pulling Sane off v/TIL and v/ReportShills and moving both to @system. Both these subs were transferred to “him” and “he” has not been a good steward. What a joke. Enough of this as well.
* Screenshot taken from statistics page located at https://voat.co/statistics
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Grifter42 ago
What are you going to do about the spammers that aren't Sanegoat? Every day there are more and more of them.
Also, what are you going to do about people who buy upvotes? There was that guy who got to the front page using an obviously brigaded post to sell shitty sunglasses.
I'm not too worried about the Sanegoat situation, to be honest.
Still, there are bigger and more problematic issues beginning to arise on Voat, like the rise of power-users. We've got a bunch of people who just farm upvotes until they can downvote, and they use those accounts to slingshot their posts to the front page, and to downvote anyone who calls them out on it.
There's also the /v/chicago situation, in which we have a mod who freely admits to not giving a shit about free-speech.
Owlchemy ago
Putt and Cynabuns have been slowly but surely dealing with spammers at v/ReportSpammers. Anyone can post there, so if you see it, report it. I, and many others do. Domains of spammers and often spammers themselves are being dealt with.
Grifter42 ago
I'm highly suspicious of /v/cheers.
Owlchemy ago
As far as what. I don't post there anymore, but used to.
Grifter42 ago
Take a close look at it.
It's an upvote farm used by certain people to make their accounts look credible.
Owlchemy ago
Not really. People just like music, and it's up voted. Rarely does any one song get more than five or six up votes. You can think what ya want, but I've never seen any manipulation, and I posted there a lot. You get the same general upvote/downvote at v/music, or any of the popular music subs I've posted to. Now there are people that post exclusively in there, but that's their thing. If a place you enjoy posting to and you get maybe six upvotes for a post is an 'upvote farm' ... okay then ... but hey, many subs are like that with a subscription base that enjoys the subject and upvotes new content. I can do the same by posting good content to my v/gunsreallyarecool site ... but not because I'm looking for up votes. In fact, who really gives a shit about fake internet points anyway unless someones brigading or running bots, or such. Now that does happen, but not in that sub.