Was recently banned from a whole bunch of DB0 communities for, as best as I can gather, downvoting once when I viewed by All (potentially accidentally while scrolling).
Important notes:
- I don't use scripts.
- I don't mass-downvote Communities. If I see a post I generally don't like when browsing All, I may downvote one post, block the Community and move on.
- Some of the communities I was banned from don't have any posts in them so I wouldn't have been able to downvote anything.
- Of all of these Communities, in my history I downvoted one post in one of them. Voting in this manner is not vote manipulation. It's quite literally a feature of the platform and as a mod of another Community, I would consider it pretty good etiquette.
- One of my bans reads "Appeal Granted, not a brigading member" but I'm still banned.
- I don't troll.
WTF is going on here?
EDIT - Updated Info from the conversation below: In the initial image, you can see two "ban waves."
The 10 bans three months ago stem from a single downvote in one Community. It was @Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com See here: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/34853477
I was called out by name for a single downvote and culled from a score of Communities I did not participate in by them.
The other bans from two months ago are from four total downvotes over a 10-month timeframe in one Community.
I have also stated in this thread that I don't have issues with AI-gen images, but there are shoddy ones and well-done ones.
EDIT 2: Now unbanned from the ten Communities listed as "3 months ago" in my initial image, but have been banned from three more because of this thread with the reason given being "self-proclaimed anti-AI brigader" which are two things I didn't claim to be. God dammit Lemmy...
After reading this thread I gather the following.
OP says they browse all and if they see content they don't like they downvote. They say it's not a conscious move to brigade or anything.
Some mod pointed out that for some of those communities OP only downvoted them, never upvoted a single post or contributed in any meaningful way.
I don't even see why OP is angry with being ban from communities they obviously don't like. I seems like those are AI communities and when OP sees an AI post on All they downvote. Why want OP those communities keep being part of their feed? Why complain for being banned if they don't like their content.
It doesn't make much sense to me. If I was banned of a community that makes a content that I heavily dislike and that I'm actively saying I dislike it via downvotes I wouldn't care on the slightest. I should probably just block the community to begin with.
If some of those communities ban are not AI content communities and the ban is thus unjustified I can see an appeal to uplifting that ban. And the reason for the ban could be a little more cordial. But I really don't know why OP wants to get unbanned from communities they don't like. Which introduced the evident skepticism that maybe (just maybe) there is an intention, more or less focused, of just trying to negatively influence AI communities without being a part of them. Which IMHO would guarantee a ban.
I think general Fediverse etiquette is that if you see some place that does things that you don't like that are both legal and in line with instance rule then you should just issue a personal block to that space, not trying to downvote it to affect their visibility or reputation, as other people may like that space.
OP down voted ONE post. Not even one post per community.
Reading other comment of both the OP and mods from that communities. Have been stated that there were multiple downvotes over the course of several months.
My point is that doesn't seem that OP is interested in those communities anyway, not that they have interacted in any other way than downvoting. That's why I don't see why they are bothered for the ban. It's not like they took them away from a community they liked or were interested in following.
Non-biased explanation: in the initial image, you can see two "ban waves."
The 10 bans three months ago stem from a single downvote in one Community.
The other bans from two months ago are from four downvotes over a 10 month timeframe in one Community.
I have also stated in this thread that I don't have issues with AI-gen images, but there are shoddy ones and well-done ones.
EDIT: Added the info to the initial post along with some more explanation now that we've uncovered it. Should hopefully save me from having to go over it constantly.
The thing is, AFAIK, the ban only preclude you from voting, commenting and posting. From all of those actions it seems that only the downvote button was used. So, not much was loss.
I think the modlog message was too harsh, that's true. And I don't know if the ban is deserved or not.
It's true that if there was an initial wave of bans for one downvote, and after that only the downvote button was used until the second wave, it seems unlikely that there was going to be other interactions. And if we add the factor that some other user pointed out that you may have a higher than usual upvote/downvote rate. So maybe the mods knew what they were doing.
Or maybe baning for just a few downvotes is not justified.
But what I have doubts about is why it's so important to make this post. If it seems that you never saw anything you liked on those communities, and most of them are really small communities, some without even any posts. That's what questions me.
I understand the mod pov and motives, their communities get frequently brigaded so they are extra (probably overly) cautious with downvote behavior of people who doesn't engage with the community.
But I don't really know if you want the ban revoked, if you want to actually engage with those communities in other way, or what are the intentions here.
I was subscribed to one of the communities that I was banned from and was in there pretty regularly.
If I'm unbanned or not, that is ultimately up to the mods. I'm not really stumping for it one way or the other.
My main purpose here would be essentially to say that these kinds (multi-community, permanent, and over very light and expected interactions from normal people) of bans are not justified and perhaps mods should rethink the process and not assume the worst of everyone.
Fair point then, well explained.
I think ultimately I do agree with you. A few downvotes shouldn't be a reason for a multi community permanent ban.
STOP COMMENTING! You have 420 comments. If you comment any more you'll ruin it.
Several over months, whoop de fucking doo.
Why did you downvoted me?
I'm just giving you information that's already disclosed on the thread and my own unimportant opinion.
The default version of up and down votes are described in the lemmy docs, which I agree with, and this instance and community do not have rules that supersede it.
It was such a ridiculously irrelevant point to make that the post was worse for having it. If you feel my comments are the same, feel free to down vote them.
I don't think it was ridiculous.
It's not the same one single downvote than 4 downvotes without any single upvote. One downvote says nothing, several indicate a pattern.
OP says that some bans come from a single downvote. And others come from the mentioned 4 downvotes over several months. Which actually makes me question if mods banned anyone who made a single downvote, or if any other criteria was followed.
I'm not "like that" with downvotes. I mostly downvote rude people. Or maybe people with opinions I consider harmful. Any other opinion politely expressed I don't think there's any reason to try to preclude others to see it.
Surely I don't see the point of downvoting a question that was only directed to you and that you have already read 😅 the intended user that needed to see that comment already did, so there was little point with the downvote, isn't it?
Not spread over months they don't.
It takes literally microseconds to to up or down vote as opposed to writing a multiparagraph comment about how other people are 'down voting wrong'.
All downvotes in our own conversation do indicate a clear pattern, though.
You need to take into consideration those are small communities, post per month may not be that high, and post may not get a lot of engagement. If you are a mod of a small community I can see why you should check and worry about even little things. Size of the community and the threats they usually endure make it relevant I think.
After reading more of the OP I'm inclined to think that the mod actions were overly cautious. Probably they should step down a little. I'm a big fan of mods issuing warnings before a permanent ban (and with small communities it's possible to do without getting overwhelmed). I'm starting to think that they should just message OP stating that they have seen that they had only issue downvotes in the communities and that they will need to take actions if nothing changes in the future, or something like that. Anyway, I'm thinking that ban was not justified.
Still think that people tend to be too happy with the downvote button. It has its uses, but systematic downvoting without good reasons it's not good lemmy etiquette I think.
Disengage