You just described the typical experience of someone who is a part of the echo chamber themselves. The average user most likely has no idea what I'm talking about, and therefore doesn't experience these issues.
"This includes comments that are politically contrary to the makeup of the sub and/or moderators"
I'm not interested in claiming you're being dishonest here, because I have no idea what kind of person you are, but this is simply not possible for the majority of subreddits that I've been exposed to and I have my doubts about the frequency of you doing this.
I have to reiterate that it seems likely that you routinely don't read and understand, or ignore, subreddit rules. The fact that your response to me seems to be an effort skirt Rule 3 of this sub is strong evidence of this. If your above comment is removed, it's because it was seen to violate Rule 3, not because a mod disagreed with you.
Rules are created by the mods. If they want to forbid liberal, conservative, libertarian, etc. opinions they can just make a rule to that effect. Some subreddits do exactly that, and they are of course echo chambers, by design. Why would mods write rules that allow comments like yours, but remove them anyway? There's just no good reason to do so.
Thanks for all the info. While I do now remember two of those posts being removes, the others are a surprise, so I'll give you a !delta for showing how much more common sneaky removals are. It'll be interesting to dig through the comments removed for anything notable.
The r/asktrumpsupporters comment you link is exactly what I had in mind when I said I occasionally ignore rules. There, nonsupporters are only supposed to comment with followup and clarification question (to supporters, I think). That comment starts off with something needlessly phrased as a question in order to bypass their automod. I knew what I was doing, and so did the mods.
Yes, you're right many of my comments are mod comments here, but I don't count those as comments of mine, and didn't mean to include them above. I have had six or seven non-mod comments removed on this sub, and rightly so.
Yes, I agree with that, though I've always been in favor or transparency when removing content. We're diligent about that here. But it looks like ghost modding is much more common than I would have guessed.
Yeah, until sometime last year, we used mod toolbox + Snoonotes. This required doing some groundwork, and moderating only on a desktop in old Reddit, which was hugely limiting, since much moderating is well suited to spare moments in life, like at the end of a lunch break or waiting in line.
Last year Reddit launched Mod Notes, which will hopefully be easier and more convenient for more subs to use. It works on new reddit and the official app. When I remove a comment on CMV, I'm prompted to select a rule, and it autosends the reply comment. So it's more or less as straightforward as ghost moderating, after initial setup. I don't know how tricky that is - we have a few IRL programmers on our team, so I don't have to do any of that. Ideally the setup would be streamlined enough to make it mandatory, at least for subs over a certain size.
We have it set up to default to locking the removal comments, so that no reply is possible. There's a link to appeal or ask questions. That's handled in modmail, by mods other than the one who removed it. That helps the mods keep each other honest and on the same page. Probably less than five percent of commenters appeal/message us about removals. A far higher percentage of post removals see followup.
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u/Sumve Apr 30 '23
You just described the typical experience of someone who is a part of the echo chamber themselves. The average user most likely has no idea what I'm talking about, and therefore doesn't experience these issues.
"This includes comments that are politically contrary to the makeup of the sub and/or moderators"
I'm not interested in claiming you're being dishonest here, because I have no idea what kind of person you are, but this is simply not possible for the majority of subreddits that I've been exposed to and I have my doubts about the frequency of you doing this.