Mastodon isn't one thing. It's many sites with different policies. Some
are very open, some highly restricted, many in between. I came across
fandom.ink because Pemmi-Con has its feed there. Wondering what other
interesting accounts might be there, I looked around the site a bit and
came to its rules.

https://fandom.ink/about

Most of the rules are a reasonable attempt to keep the site from turning
into a battleground for insults or worse. But there's this rule in the
"never tolerated" list:

expressing or defending derogatory, harmful,
and/or contemptuous views of marginalized
persons or groups, including in the context
of playing "devil's advocate" ("it's not
really racist because...")

That is to say, you may not defend someone against accusations under
those categories. If someone is falsely accused of racism, you may not
demonstrate why the accusation is spurious.

Some people are marginalized because they deserve to be. If the rule is
consistently applied, you can't say "Nazis suck" or defend someone who does.

Joe McCarthy lives on.

In separate news, I noticed this morning that I can't post or comment on
/r/atheism in Reddit, though my status on other subreddits is
unaffected. I haven't seen an explanation, but my best guess is that I
pointed out one time too many that religious people have First Amendment
rights too.

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

On Monday, April 24, 2023 at 11:08:53 AM UTC-4, Gary McGath wrote:.
>
> In separate news, I noticed this morning that I can't post or comment on
> /r/atheism in Reddit, though my status on other subreddits is
> unaffected. I haven't seen an explanation, but my best guess is that I
> pointed out one time too many that religious people have First Amendment
> rights too.

Just as mastodon isn't centralized, Reddit subs are 'owned' by small groups
of 'mods'. Mods aren't Reddit employees; they are the subs creators, and
people they delegate modhood to.

They have arbitrary powers to block people and topics, and very little
accountability. For example, I'm robo-banned from a couple groups
because I commented in another sub that those subs opposed. That
I was posting criticism instead of support didn't matter.

Most subs are fine, and the ease of creating new subs means that blocks
can't really suppress a viewpoint.

Pt

On 4/30/23 7:13 PM, Peter Trei wrote:
> On Monday, April 24, 2023 at 11:08:53 AM UTC-4, Gary McGath wrote:.
>>

> Just as mastodon isn't centralized, Reddit subs are 'owned' by small groups
> of 'mods'. Mods aren't Reddit employees; they are the subs creators, and
> people they delegate modhood to.
>
> They have arbitrary powers to block people and topics, and very little
> accountability. For example, I'm robo-banned from a couple groups
> because I commented in another sub that those subs opposed. That
> I was posting criticism instead of support didn't matter.
>
> Most subs are fine, and the ease of creating new subs means that blocks
> can't really suppress a viewpoint.

I've run into some wild ones. One banned all posting of links to
articles on the Web; they called it "sharing violation." Another removed
a post where I linked to an article defending Beethoven against a silly
accusation, because the mods didn't like the website where the article
was posted. This is the first time that I've found myself unable to post
to a subreddit at all.

My favorite subreddit currently is /r/Mozart, a very small, friendly group.

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com