Why is this sub here

After the last wave of Reddit censorship, many new users have been coming over to Saidit.

While the increase of users was great, it has also put Saidit on the radar of multiple hostile entities. Ever since then, Saidit has been under attack - both a technical, and a cultural one.

While many users were wondering what a solution may be, the bad news are - asking for a single solution is the same as asking "how can a nation win a war against another nation with one simple trick?" - there simply isn't one.
The good news are - there is a solution, it just requires a bit of effort from everyone involved.
The three pillars of the solution are:

[Technical] Keep up to date and improve systems for user activity pattern detection (strange spikes of upvotes, upvoting threads/comments they never viewed before, etc).

This solution is on the admins, but given the fact Saidit has managed to combat DDOS better than any alternative I know (Voat and Ruqqus, to name a few), I believe they're up for this challenge.

[Organizational] As the forum owners, keep the users aware of the shill attacks, and educated to understand how they operate.

This is basically another way to say "the culture starts at the top". On Reddit, attempts to expose and highlight bad actors (shills, propaganda posters, agenda pushers... ) are actively discouraged, and users/subs dedicated to this purpose are often banned. Here , it (thankfully) doesn't seem to be the case.

[Crowd Sourced ] Keep other users educated about shill tactics, and highlight obvious shill threads, compile evidence of shill activity

This is what you can do, and what this sub is about.
More details will be posted below, but the gist of it - the second best thing you can do to fight the corrosive influence of shill on platform is to highlight them, and educate others about their tactics.

# What can be done

Before you continue, understand that you can put as much (or little) effort in this as you'd like - any help is better than none.

The fight against shills on this platform is a whack-a-mole that's never going to end - as long as hostile organizations (likely backed by states) have resources to throw at their shills, you will have those shills to deal with.
However, with the right approach, it's possible to minimize their impact on this platform, and perhaps even snatch a positive from the situation - educating more users about propaganda, both online and offline.

So, in this war, you have to understand what resources this site has - how it's "HP" is measured, and what the shills will try to go after in any way they can:

Freedom Of Speech

The most important, and most prominent resource Saidit has is freedom of speech. It has countless implications, of course, but the most important part of it is that anybody is free to express their opinions under constant, non-changing constraints (no threats of violence, illegal content, blatant spam, etc).

Moderate Majority

Unlike some other platforms, which likely underwent Artificial Radicalization, this platform still has a majority capable of reasonable discussion.
Even (most of) the extremists from the depth of the conspiracy and antisemitic subs are capable of normal discussion, which is more than I encounter on platforms like Reddit or Voat.

Regular User Appeal

Combining the two above attributes, this site currently appeals to not only nutjobs from either side of the spectrum, but to many regular users as well, which helps sustain user growth.

Each of the above will be attacked, relentlessly, on this platform and others.
Examples of attacks:

• [Freedom Of Speech] Using various tactics and techniques to call for users to apply pressure on the admins (or call the admins directly) to censor specific groups.

• [Moderate Majority] [Regular User Appeal] Using Artificial Radicalization to encourage each extreme on this site to be more extreme, and discourage discussion with "the other side".

• [Regular User Appeal] Using fabricated outrage to create a fake feeling (for those looking from the outside) that this site is already radicalized.

• [Regular User Appeal] Using various logical fallacies to discredit Saidit on both this, and other platforms - e.g dropping comments like "Yeah, I don't go to racist shitholes like Voat and Saidit" (false association), "There is literally a thread on /s/all calling out anti-semitism, why would I want to go on an anti-semitist platform", etc.

What YOU can do about this

Educate Yourself

Sorry for the infamous SJW quote, but this is the first and most important step.
Without knowing what you're fighting, you're just blindly swinging at everything nearby - thus, helping them win.
This isn't too long of a post, anyway.

Educate Others

And by this, I dont mean randomly spam resources on shill tactics to people.
Rather, when talking about relevant topics, or when exposing somebody who is very likely a shill, quote the relevant Logical Fallacy / Tactic / Technique he's using, or link to the relevant resource, so others can understand what is happening.
Do not, however, overwhelm them with information, or post it in unrelated situations.

Archive Shill Behavior History

Every time you see an account posting something that ticks too many boxes of shill behavior, and his comments / lack of history match, feel free to post it here for archiving.
It's not going to stop them, but it'll force them to put much more effort into accounts rather than reusing old ones.

Highlight Behavior - Not People

Whenever you successfully identify what appears to be a shill tactic, highlight it, and link to / quote from the relevant resource explaining why it is one.
Do not call out the OP, unless this account specifically has an archived history of shilling (which you can link to / post screenshots of).

[Optional] Promote Saidit On Other Platforms

While this might seem unrelated to the other points, if you look back at what the shills are trying to destroy, you'll notice that all their effort are directed towards harming Saidit - thus, helping it grow is actually the best thing you can do to counter their campaign. You can't win a war of attrition by only protecting your resources - you need to replenish them, too.

If you care about this platform enough to help it, hope I'll see you out there in the comment sections of /s/all (and maybe some other platforms).
And if not, I know I at least gave you the tools to resist future manipulation from shills. Study their tactics - know your enemy.

That's all for now - enjoy posting on one of the last remaining bastions of free speech.