• AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Reddit implemented this, and it was abused heavily to push trolls posts and disinformation up the algorithm, since by blocking people who disagreed with them, after multiple attempts the naysayers could no longer see the posts.

    Somebody tested it, and was able to get their testing misinformation posts heavily upvoted after just a few days.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/sdcsx3/testing_reddits_new_block_feature_and_its_effects/

      • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.orgOP
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        4 hours ago

        Do you really believe that someone could get their a misinformation post heavily upvoted here? The main differences with Reddit are

        • actual moderation (most of Reddit mods are inactive since the API shutdown)
        • public votes (via Mbin) which allows to identify bots and brigading
        • meta communities like !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com which allow to call out toxic behavior in a meta way.

        If someone would do something similar here, they would at the very least get called out on !fediverselore@lemmy.ca or !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com , and mods and admins would get called out to act on those. Reddit does not have such mechanisms.

        • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works
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          3 hours ago

          I disagree with you to some extent.

          1. Moderation does not matter if the post is made on a comm or instance which favors it cough .ml cough
          2. Bots and brigading are not the issue here. Neither of them were a factor in the post I linked, and they are not a necessary part of the abuse process under discussion.
          3. Yepowertrippinbastards works on a small scale, but it is not inherently scalable. As the fediverse grows, it will become less practical to name and shame bad actors on an individual basis. It also does not matter when the abuse system (preliminary blocklist) can be implemented by any new account.
          4. The very nature of the abuse system being described means that anybody who would report it on YPTB or similar comms can only do so once before themselves being blocked and unable to view future posts of that sort.

          We should try to keep in mind that the fediverse and lemmy will likely grow to larger scales. Any systems and safety measures we implement should take that into account. The block mechanism as you suggest is extremely ripe for abuse at large scale, and relying on mods / admins to combat it will place an unnecessary extra load upon them, if it is even possible.

    • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      Has happened multiple times to me. I called somebody out for saying something wrong or bigoted or whatever, they blocked me after responding to me, I could no longer respond back to their response. And then presumably they kept saying shit that I was not able to see because I was blocked

      It’s a short-sighted way of implementing blocking, since it allows for heavy abuse by bad actors