LMG censor Reddit

[illuanonx]

As a new user on Reddit, I am not allowed to write in /r/LinusTechTips. I need 50 karma points, to write - otherwise it will be deleted. So basically I can not write on the sub and earn points.

 

Why do LTT censor me and is this really the road LMG want to take?

[TVwazhere]

LTT has no direct control over the Reddit subforum. They are likely implementing restrictions so that new users do not come in and flood the site with arguments. 

 

The LTT Forums, on the other hand are hosted by LMG, but are run entirely by volunteers and are not officially LMG staff. We allow all criticisms, discussions and comments so long as they are civil and follow the Community Standards.

Edited August 18, 2023 by TVwazhere

[illuanonx]

There has to be a relation and influence between /r/LinusTechTips and LMG. The censorship benefits LMG at this moment. I understand its damage control, but IMO does it hurt more, than what they gain of it. It fall in line with the bad behavior of LMG so far. 

[venomtail]

Incredible gaslighting this op. "I go on a different site and they censor me. Why did you guys here censor me?" :DD

[AHPanda]

1 minute ago, venomtail said:

Incredible gaslighting this op. "I go on a different site and they censor me. Why did you guys here censor me?" :DD

it is funny indeed.

[Erioch]

I'll pray for you, subby.  You're so repressed.

[Mertrodome]

27 minutes ago, illuanonx said:

There has to be a relation and influence between /r/LinusTechTips and LMG. The censorship benefits LMG at this moment. I understand its damage control, but IMO does it hurt more, than what they gain of it. It fall in line with the bad behavior of LMG so far. 

Honestly I think it did just get pretty out of hand for the moderators over there - arguments in every thread, dozens of reposts of the same screenshot of a tweet, etc.

It's frustrating because I've wanted to reply to a couple of folk there and been unable to (not even about the core issues at hand, but side topics deep within threads). But I get it - they had a huge influx of people from places like r/all and from other sites once the news began to break more widely.

I genuinely don't think it's censorship - if anything the sentiment over there currently is very much against LMG right now. I think it's just the moderators trying to find some way to keep things manageable.

[Holmes108]

1 minute ago, Mertrodome said:

I genuinely don't think it's censorship - if anything the sentiment over there currently is very much against LMG right now. I think it's just the moderators trying to find some way to keep things manageable.

 

100%, and it's not only the LMG subreddit that does this, even if it is a new practice for them (not sure if that's the case). Many subreddits have similar rules.

 

OP You'll just have to earn some Karma in other sub reddits first.

[dight]

the 50 karma requirement is to stop people who are banned from the subreddit from creating an alt and immediately posting rule-breaking content again. it's probably also to protect the subreddit from being flooded with bots. if u wanna post on the sub just make a couple mildly popular posts to get to 50 karma.

[Mertrodome]

4 minutes ago, Holmes108 said:

OP You'll just have to earn some Karma in other sub reddits first.

Ah, on this one they do require the karma to be *from* that subreddit specifically I believe. So currently there is no way to post if you didn't already have enough before the change.

 

But yeah, not a huge deal either way, I doubt it'll stay in community mode for long.

[Needfuldoer]

Did you read the pinned thread? They were inundated by new accounts kicking up dust.

 

Quote

I've temporarily switched the subreddit to Community Only mode, meaning only people with 50+ combined /r/LinusTechTips karma can post or comment here, to deal with the influx of traffic we've had in the past few days.

This isn't in an attempt to censor dissenting opinions or cover for LMG, I'm just bored of having to deal with incels and bandwagonners from /r/all that have have just jumped on an opportunity to derail conversations and spread hatred.

Hopefully this should improve the standard of discourse, and again this is only a temporary measure that I’ll remove by Saturday.

All the best

Edit: The top post is now reinstated after being removed initially by Reddit Admins.

The mod team on these forums is not the mod team on the Subreddit. The subreddit also isn't run day-to-day by LMG employees.

[Holmes108]

7 minutes ago, Mertrodome said:

Ah, on this one they do require the karma to be *from* that subreddit specifically I believe. So currently there is no way to post if you didn't already have enough before the change.

 

But yeah, not a huge deal either way, I doubt it'll stay in community mode for long.

 

Indeed, looks like I stand corrected. Didn't know that was a thing. I can understand the temporary locking down though, given the circumstances. It's not like there aren't a ton of naysayers in there with 50+ Karma, so I don't think it's about censorship. The arguing will continue.

[Needfuldoer]

1 minute ago, Holmes108 said:

The arguing will continue.

Of course, it's Reddit!

[cmndr]

Neither the reddit subreddit or this forum are primarily moderated by LTT staff. 

There is no conspiracy, the subreddit added a rule to keep trolls and bots from creating 2000 accounts and abusing others. 

 

Go use reddit for a day or two and you'll hit the threshold. 

---

Some context - certain activists groups on twitter have often pushed for BS along the lines of "someone alleged that ___ violated some norm, someone go make a bot to spam a bunch of things all over the internet and make THOSE people pay."
Also foreign agents trying to sow dischord. 

50 karma is a very low threshold to protect against THAT stuff. 

[Mertrodome]

It may have changed then. I had two replies auto-removed last night, and I have orders of magnitude more sitewide karma than their requirement. But if folk have posted there now and had their comments remain then hopefully that means community mode time is over, or they've relaxed the restrictions somehow.

[Vexenar]

1 hour ago, TVwazhere said:

LTT has no direct control over the Reddit subforum. They are likely implementing restrictions so that new users do not come in and flood the site with arguments. 

 

The LTT Forums, on the other hand are hosted by LMG, but are run entirely by volunteers and are not officially LMG staff. We allow all criticisms, discussions and comments so long as they are civil and follow the Community Standards.

While it has probably caused a lot of stress and unneeded workflow for you guys I do have to express my genuine appreciation that you are allowing both sides of the argument to discuss it on the forums, without too much interference besides what's absolutely needed. 
 

[Middcore]

1 hour ago, illuanonx said:

There has to be a relation and influence between /r/LinusTechTips and LMG. 

 

Why does there have to be? 

 

There's barely a relationship between this forum and LMG (at least until very recently) and even less for the LTT Discord. 

[Cosmic Emotion]

They are :

Quote

just bored of having to deal with incels and bandwagonners from r/all

You know, they very politely don't want incels and bandwagonners. Simple as that.

 

Like it's better now. XD

[YoungBlade]

1 hour ago, illuanonx said:

There has to be a relation and influence between /r/LinusTechTips and LMG. The censorship benefits LMG at this moment. I understand its damage control, but IMO does it hurt more, than what they gain of it. It fall in line with the bad behavior of LMG so far. 

The actual subreddit's description disagrees with you. They explicitly state that they are an unofficial community:

[Timotheus865]

1 hour ago, illuanonx said:

Why do LTT censor me and is this really the road LMG want to take?

Take it as a sign to go touch grass

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, TVwazhere said:

LTT has no direct control over the Reddit subforum.

This is not true. 

While the subreddit is advertised as "unofficial", a large portion of moderators on it are LMG employees.

 

I believe the mod who implemented the change is not an LMG employee (I'd have to look that up), but the fact remains that a large portion of the mod team are LMG employees. 

I don't really like this "it's unofficial! (but we have the power to do whatever we want on it)" attitude. 

 

I think LMG needs to decide. Is it an official subreddit? Then they can moderate it if they want. 

If it's suppose to be an unofficial subreddit then they can't have several employees as moderators. It should be 100% community moderated. 

They can't have it both ways. 

[saintlouisbagels]

1 minute ago, LAwLz said:

This is not true. 

While the subreddit is advertised as "unofficial", a large portion of moderators on it are LMG employees.

 

I believe the mod who implemented the change is not an LMG employee (I'd have to look that up), but the fact remains that a large portion of the mod team are LMG employees. 

I don't really like this "it's unofficial! (but we have the power to do whatever we want on it)" attitude. 

 

I think LMG needs to decide. Is it an official subreddit? Then they can moderate it if they want. 

If it's suppose to be an unofficial subreddit then they can't have several employees as moderators. It should be 100% community moderated. 

They can't have it both ways. 

If I'm remembering correctly from past controversies, LMG Staff are moderators, but they are only used in emergencies when the volunteers moderators on Reddit are overwhelmed or unavailable.

[OcDmn]

53 minutes ago, AHPanda said:

Not true, I used a burner reddit account there with 100 karma from other communities.

I had never interacted prior on that subreddit before that.

Message went through.

Depends, the community only setting was set later. if you're commenting there before the restriction and got enough karma from it, you won't be affected.

[Uttamattamakin]

Just now, saintlouisbagels said:

If I'm remembering correctly from past controversies, LMG Staff are moderators, but they are only used in emergencies when the volunteers moderators on Reddit are overwhelmed or unavailable.

@LAwLz is still right on.  Either its unofficial and LMG should not be involved at all, ever, or it is official and is moderated along the same lines as this forum.   (But you know the people on reddit just dont' want to join up on yet another forum) kind of a deal.   The reason to have this forum being to be 100% certain no matter what LMG has a method to get it's message out to it's followers. 

[TVwazhere]

36 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

This is not true. 

While the subreddit is advertised as "unofficial", a large portion of moderators on it are LMG employees.

This is actually the first I'm hearing of this.

I will strike one astrisk to the "it's run by LMG staff" and that is technically speaking, LMG staff on the forum also have mod level viewing access, so while Emily and Colton (Caltane) are listed on reddit as mods, this may be for visibility and not active participation. The LMGcommunity user has also taken over for Jake in terms of the official communication between LTT Forum mods and LMG, so I imagine this is true for the LTT reddit. They do not actively partake in moderation themselves.

 

However I can see how this would be confusing, given it's listed as "unofficial".