Why have some subreddits been banned?

submitted by DeadChild from self.AntiExtremes

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[–]magnora7 12 insightful - 2 fun12 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 2 fun -  (28 children)

Because someone took advantage of an exploit in the reddit open source (that has since been fixed by us) and registered a bunch of subs, when they're not supposed to be able to register subs. Plus they obviously don't have the best motives, they even registered the /r/magnora7 subreddit for themselves, as well as simultaneously registering the nazi subreddit and the antifa subreddit, and many more highly-inflammatory subreddits, basically with the obvious purpose of trolling (they registered a 'trolling' subreddit as well as topmindsofreddit and topmindsofantiextremes).

This person obviously wants to take control and stir things up, so we have removed them and their subreddits. Our community doesn't need this person around poisoning the well, so we're taking measures to correct this. We don't need bad actors running large portions of this site, that's exactly how voat was taken in such a bad direction. Sorry for any trouble in the meantime while we get this issue sorted to ensure we have a good quality community going forward.

[–]Priest 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Seems sensible tbh

[–]Vaxthrul 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (9 children)

Props to you for staying on top of it, gotta make sure to do this thing right, even if things are a little rocky at launch!

[–]magnora7 8 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 2 fun -  (8 children)

Yup. Thanks. We are not going to plow ahead while there are bad actors laying the groundwork to ruin the site. #1 goal is to have a nice community, #2 goal is to have more people. Not the other way around. We will kick out people if they're ruining the tone and quality of the community, which is something voat wasn't willing to do, and reddit goes way too far overboard on. There's a balance in the middle, and we'll do our best to find it.

[–]Vaxthrul 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

One suggestion (which I am going to assume is low on the list) would be to have preview for posts, especially the larger preview screen like reddit has. Thanks for all the hard work!

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Thanks for the feedback. We actually have those behaviors already functional in our RES plugin equivalent, called RESAE.

However it currently only works in chrome and requires chrome extensions to be in 'developer mode' to install the zip file for RESAE. You can see more info here: https://antiextremes.com/r/AntiExtremes/comments/3e/information_about_resae_antiextremes_version_of/

We may eventually try to build those features directly in to the site, and we are working to get RESAE in to the extensions store so developer mode is not necessary, but for now we're using this setup with RESAE to give us lots more features. Check it out!

[–]Vaxthrul 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Firefox here, trying my best to keep google from getting my information, haha. But if you guys decide to put out a Firefox extension, I would definitely be interested!

[–]necaremus 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

blocking all the google trackers? every other site has them.

[–]Vaxthrul 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

trying my best

Also, because they are actively attempting to gather a catalogue of information on the American public, they will eventually succeed (unless something changes, such as legislation being passed).

My argument is that we shouldn't make it easy for them, and attempting to restrict our usage of their platforms means the harder they have to work for that particular information, given a small population. Once you have a bunch of people that will willingly advertise for you for free, I feel that power kinda goes out the window too.

Perhaps I am being slightly idealistic, but if I want to see change in the world, surely I should attempt to live that change?

[–]necaremus 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

i just wanted to point towards those, so you can install/add a script, which blocks these trackers, to your firefox version ;)

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Ah yeah, we've got nothing there so far, sorry. If porting RESAE to firefox is easy, we'll probably do that in the next week or two. If it's not easy, then we may just start building these features directly in to the site, which will probably take months to complete.

[–]Vaxthrul 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Hey, having a greater degree of freedom regarding communication is worth a slight inconvenience given the context. Hopefully more people who come here will feel the same!

[–]DeadChild[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

Thanks for the reply!

Also I would like to tell you that the page https://antiextremes.com/help/contentpolicy hasn't been done yet.

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (9 children)

Oh okay. Thanks. How did you find that link? Where is the link posted? I'll make it point to something useful.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Should we get an official content policy together?

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

In my mind, the welcome page says everything about the content policy that needs to be said: https://antiextremes.com/r/AntiExtremes/comments/3a/welcome_to_antiextremescom/

Basically the pyramid of debate is going to be core of all administration and moderation. People who always drag discussion down to lower levels are not welcome.

I honestly don't think it needs to be more complicated than that, but if you've got a good idea let me know.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Yeah that sounds good I just worry about the 404ing links this user found. One of these links to "content policy" is from the bottom of the new post/submit to form, but there are probably others. Will put this on my list, low priority for now I imagine.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, I will redirect those links to something useful. I will probably make a brief content policy page I guess and link to it. I'll start working on that right now

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

There the 404 stuff is all fixed, let me know if you find any more

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

nice, will do.

[–]DeadChild[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Open one of the banned subs. Click on Reddit Rules ;)

It points to /rules, but then you get redirected there

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Ah thank you!

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

There I fixed it. :) Thanks again for the report and the details, much appreciated. Everything now links to /r/AntiExtremes/comments/63/antiextremescom_content_policy/

[–]Abraxas 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Likely a trollops from here https://archive.is/6JrEa

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Yup

[–]Jac0b777 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Beautiful, thank God for the intervention.

[–]an-arkhos 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

So we cannot create our own subs now?

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

there's a 3 day delay on making subreddits since the start, but we might end up extending that a day or two until we're sure everything is ok.

[–]an-arkhos 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Delay, that works.