On Censorship

[CoinCube]

It is time for a post on censorship

Two recent posts from by Anonymint were deleted from the Economic Devastation thread by moderators. This is a very unpleasant first. Until now this thread has been a contentious but censorship free back and forth about economics.

These deleted post appear to be collateral damage.  Yesterday there were several (at least 4) repetitive posts in the altcoin forum promoting Ethereum. TPTB_need_war took a contrarian position and posted counterarguments against Ethereum in all of them.

I read these posts which do not interest me as I own no Ethereum. They contain typical Anonymint confrontation but are overall pretty tame. I certainly saw nothing that would explain or justify widespread censorship and mass deletion of posts. I cannot help but wonder if there was a financial interest behind this. It is odd and represents a break from an otherwise laudable and hands off moderation policy.

I am a guest here on this forum. I do not pay the bills or expect to make the rules. I also appreciate this free space to discuss Bitcoin. However, I would like to make it known that I would strongly prefer a more hands off and censorship free approach be applied in the future if not forum wide then at least in the Economic Devastation thread.

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[dogie]

Often posts are deleted when users get nuked (superpermabanned).

[Lauda]

So let me get this straight, moderation is an abstract thing that only exists in a fantasy and everything that we do is censorship? I don't see how this could be censorship in any way.

Often posts are deleted when users get nuked (superpermabanned).

Due to other people quoting non existent posts, correct. This was the case in this thread as well.

I cannot help but wonder if there was a financial interest behind this. It is odd and represents a break from an otherwise laudable and hands off moderation policy.

Honestly, nobody who's really invested in Bitcoin cares much about Altcoins. You should check with the local moderator/global moderators if you have questions in regards to deleted posts (if they were not by newbies). There's no need to start a thread because of a few posts (a lot get deleted daily).

[SebastianJu]

So let me get this straight, moderation is an abstract thing that only exists in a fantasy and everything that we do is censorship? In no way is this any kind of censorship.

Often posts are deleted when users get nuked (superpermabanned).

Due to other people quoting non existent posts, correct. This was the case in this thread as well.

So quoting the wrong persons post will make your own post vanish too? How is it connected to ones own post? A flag that you clicked on quote there? I would have thought a quote is only a link to a nonexistant post like it can be seen often.

Sounds like nuking is dangerous if it goes that far. Maybe i misunderstood...

[shorena]

So let me get this straight, moderation is an abstract thing that only exists in a fantasy and everything that we do is censorship? In no way is this any kind of censorship.

Often posts are deleted when users get nuked (superpermabanned).

Due to other people quoting non existent posts, correct. This was the case in this thread as well.

So quoting the wrong persons post will make your own post vanish too? How is it connected to ones own post? A flag that you clicked on quote there? I would have thought a quote is only a link to a nonexistant post like it can be seen often.

Sounds like nuking is dangerous if it goes that far. Maybe i misunderstood...

No, it has to be done manually. If the post you reply to is removed because its offtopic your answer can hardly be on topic, unless you answer to several replies at once. At least thats my understanding of it.

[SebastianJu]

Ah, that's fine then. But i already see myself stopping to quote you easily.

As long as you get a notice about your post being deleted it's fine. Though you get no notice when a whole thread was killed or the user who started it and you posted in this thread.

[shorena]

Ah, that's fine then. But i already see myself stopping to quote you easily.

As long as you get a notice about your post being deleted it's fine. Though you get no notice when a whole thread was killed or the user who started it and you posted in this thread.

You dont get a PM if the entire thread is trashed (or rather moved in the trash section), but this was not the case here. I would think its also pretty rare for an entire thread to get removed unless its new.

[CoinCube]

So let me get this straight, moderation is an abstract thing that only exists in a fantasy and everything that we do is censorship? I don't see how this could be censorship in any way.

The goal of moderation is to improve the quality of open discourse intervening only when absolutely necessary.
It should not be used as a tool to censor open and on topic debate.

I realize moderators have to juggle many different hats and deal with a lot of flack. The purpose of this post is mearly to voice my discontent with this particular judgement call as this episode appears to have crossed the line into censorship.

Hard working and well meaning moderators can make mistakes in the heat of the moment especially when dealing with provocative posters like Anonymint. It is the responsibility of the community to call them out when that happens.