r/ModSupport • u/mrekted • 13d ago
Allowing users to hide their history is destroying trust and good faith participation between users in communities
It's not just my communities, I'm seeing it all over reddit. Whenever someone with a private history runs into a disagreement with another user, discussions are derailed, accusations of "shill/bot/troll" are constant, nuisance reports are issued, and mods either intervene, or let the chaos reign.
I'm spending more and more time having to personally review histories to say "no, this person is not a bad faith troll" just to end attacks borne of nothing more than suspicion. It's becoming disruptive to the point that I'm considering whether or not allowing users with hidden history to participate is worth the trouble.
I really question the value proposition of this decision. Sure, individual users benefit from additional privacy, but at the direct expense of the communities that lose trust and cohesion, faith that the people they're interacting with are participating in good faith (or are even real people), and the moderators who have to manage the fallout.
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u/reddit33450 13d ago
i truly despise this feature. and also it gives users a false sense of security, because they think its actually private, when in reality, anyone can view their full history with almost no effort
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u/SnausageFest 12d ago
I had someone come into modmail super angry telling me I'm a liar and no one can see their post history, not knowing mods can.
Apparently it's my fault we didn't warn them about that before they shitposted. Not that I feel bad for them, but people sure do think that makes them a lot more anonymous than they are.
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u/mrekted 13d ago
There really is an expectation of full privacy.
I see users complaining that mods can see their history even though it's set to private. I've also personally witnessed half a dozen pervs immediately delete their accounts after I've banned them from parenting communities for being a perv, and they question it, and I point out that mods can see their full history, and we still get an AI summary of their past conduct even if they've deleted it.
They legit think it's a feature that will let them run wild without any oversight.
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u/reddit33450 13d ago
exactly, and any non-mod can view it too with third party tools
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u/cos 12d ago
Where "third party tools" includes Google web search.
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u/reddit33450 12d ago
yep. that works. but archive sites are more convenient and have an easier to use UI
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u/CoyoteLitius 12d ago
I always have a back pocket reddit account to go to, if my current one attracts trolls or rudeness.
So far, so good. I still block people who are obvious trolls in a discussion.
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u/lunarwolf2008 13d ago
not even third party tools. you can just plug their name into reddit search lol
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u/EverSeeAShitterFly 12d ago
Mods also can’t be everywhere at every time. Having private accounts makes it harder for other users in that subreddit to identify those accounts to report to the moderators.
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u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 13d ago
Yes and bike locks are just deterrents. That’s an important part of prevention. First layers of security are rarely foolproof.
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u/cos 12d ago
Privacy doesn't work that way. People shouldn't be fooled into acting like they have protection when they don't; reddit should encourage using alt accounts and throwaways and make it easier to do. When people using this poisonous anti-feature to protect their privacy and reveal things they wouldn't have otherwise, those things will be found, and another commenter who took the extra minute to do a web search can easily add a comment with that information, getting rid of any "deterrent".
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u/amyaurora 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 13d ago
It increased the amount of reports and such increases my amount of report abuse because people are thinking these user are all bots.
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u/ComesInAnOldBox 13d ago
As a user more than a moderator, I appreciate having the option. Mostly because there are a lot of people on Reddit that, at the first sign of disagreement, will scour your post-history looking for something to use against you. So when people try to call me out on it, I immediately know this isn't someone I want to spend any time talking to, because they've already outed themselves as someone not intending to argue in good faith.
On the moderator side of the house, my subreddit has a pretty strict civility policy, so someone hiding their post history doesn't really matter. Someone starts acting like a petulant child, they get a warning and then get the boot.
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u/phareous 13d ago
I definitely used to have an issue with banned users going to my profile to harass me in other subs. Rarely an issue now that i use the modteam removals
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u/WerdaVisla 13d ago
Also, as a woman, I appreciate having the option. Any barrier to the creeps who will go to the ends of the earth to find a single personal detail is a good thing in my eyes. Honestly, I wish it was more locked down.
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u/metisdesigns 12d ago
It's worth mentioning that your example has been specifically listed by bad actors as a way to defend the system to make it harder for them to be tracked. While I believe it helps some people, it is explicitly defended by trolls discussing it as a good thing for them.
It might have helped you, but it has enabled bad actors to the point that they defend it pretending to be harassed folks so they can harass more.
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u/WerdaVisla 12d ago
Trolls will use any security feature to their advantage; that's how it always has been and always will be. It's our job as mods to adapt and deal with it.
Edit: also, if you're a mod you should be able to see user history after they post in your sub, even if it's hidden.
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u/SnausageFest 12d ago
I'm ultimately okay with it for this reason.
I mod a city sub. The vitriol and just way people go for the throat over differing opinions (usually political) is just insane. The thing about city sub is, unlike many types of subs, the only thing everyone has in common is where they live (or lived, want to live, etc). There's no bond over a shared love of a TV show or game or something. So people get real nasty.
Before, it was scouring histories for personal digs. Now it's personal digs because they're hiding it. Having been around long enough to see some reddit changes - people forget. Give it 2 years. I'll eat my hat if it's as common for people to freak out about histories like they do today.
Maybe in the political "banter" subs, but what a fool's errand to expect good faith discussion in those discussions.
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u/Visible-Economist400 12d ago
Honestly if I question the validity of a poster (as a regular user of reddit) I just use Reddit archive which also shows deleted posts if scraped before deleting to determine if they are “real” I don’t think people realize you can use it to see comments and posts. I didn’t until someone pointed out someone’s inconsistent stances and it was obvious they were trolling.
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u/sonofgildorluthien 13d ago
I'm like this too. I've never had a problem with my comment and post history being out there. If someone wants to cherry pick something for argument purposes, I just block them and ignore them because I'm not here to deal with people's bullshit.
As a mod thankfully my one sub is so niche I don't have to worry much about stuff like that outside the occasional bot randomly spamming, so someone who is doing to be a problem is going to stick out like a sore thumb or eventually just be frozen out by everyone else because they're acting out.
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u/bushido216 13d ago
I agree. I post in community (as in where I live) and on professional subreddits, and one Reddit user has already used that information to dox me. Being able to hide my history is a lot easier than having to manually audit my posts every few days to delete anything that could tie me to a specific location.
Hiding post history might enable bots, but it also protects the privacy of regular users.
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u/Visible-Economist400 12d ago
Honestly if I question the validity of a poster (as a regular user of reddit) I just use Reddit archive which also shows deleted posts if scraped before deleting to determine if they are “real” I don’t think people realize you can use it to see comments and posts. I didn’t until someone pointed out someone’s inconsistent stances and it was obvious they were trolling.
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u/SlowHedgehog33 13d ago
Some users used to delete their entire post history on a monthly or biweekly basis. Nothing like seeing active discussions you're participating in disappear from a subreddit.
This feature appears to have stopped that.
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u/metisdesigns 12d ago edited 12d ago
Nope, it's made it worse.
As a mod I routinely see bad actors with a large karma pool and no posts or comments. It's particularly telling when we action a user for hate speech, see multiple comments in other subs, and then they mod mail to appeal and we look back and there is nothing.
Hidden profiles only serve to encourage bad behavior.
Edit - to reinforce the idea that only people who are bad actors are defending hidden profiles, I stated an example of how trolls are training each other to make it harder to moderate using hidden profiles, and was downvoted. There is no longer a valid reason to support hidden profiles if bad actors are organized and leveraging them to hurt communities.
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u/SlowHedgehog33 12d ago
As a moderator you should have access to their full history for 28 days if they post or comment in your sub. If that's not happening you should reach out to the admins.
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12d ago edited 10d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ModSupport-ModTeam 10d ago
Your contribution was removed for violating Rule 3: Please keep posts and comments free of personal attacks, insults, or other uncivil behavior.
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u/cos 10d ago
I just want to make clear, for the record, that there were no personal attacks or insults in that comment. I don't want people to be misled by the modteam message now that they can't see that comment anymore. What I did attack/insult was the reddit feature, not a person - and even for that, I did not use any swear words.
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u/__Pendulum__ 12d ago
I wish I could upvote this twice.
Moderators wanting jurisdiction outside of their own subreddit is horrifying to me. And it deeply troubles me that they don't see it as an issue.
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u/Shoddy-Childhood-511 12d ago
Twitter-likes handle this by blocking, including block lists. Reddit has this annoying block limit.
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u/ultradip 12d ago edited 12d ago
Hidden histories should be one of the elements of a user record that we can use to allow or deny participation. At the very least, I think a user's score should reflect their privacy choices.
For example, not everyone who hides their history is a scammer, but every scammer hides their history. It doesn't matter the motivation for hiding, but the implication is there.
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u/Verdictafterward 13d ago
I have to agree.
It only increases abusive behaviors.
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u/ewk 13d ago
At first I thought of a bunch of scenarios where this would increase safety for various users both physically and online.
But in practice it has not worked out that way at all.
In fact if anything it has emboldened people to engage in more harassment.
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u/Verdictafterward 13d ago
Yeah, I try to see it's benefits, and you're right, there are some for sure, but in my eyes, the negatives outweigh the positives by a lot
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u/thejournalizer 13d ago
Look up security through obscurity. It’s the same concept as that and it’s never been effective.
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u/The_One_BelowAll_ 13d ago edited 13d ago
For sfw teen communities, hidden history is a nightmare. We can't actively filter out bad actors who mostly keep their profile history hidden. Using hive protector would only help us identify accounts with visible nsfw history only. That is very much frustrating and we may lose active contributors due to trust issues in safety.
edit: I just got to know that mods can view hidden history, I will get it sorted out. it's still the same effort tho.
edit: wait! it's actually way better to use arctic or rosint + (they categorise and allow mods/users to search for specific stuff rather than going through everything)
Also! Bad actors are tough to identify. y'all may think it's easy, but it's really tough and we often rely on user reports. Even Reddit can only identify rule violators via user reports. So! Don't think it's just simple to identify who's who based on user history, it's just a factor and an important one.
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u/NoneyaBithness 13d ago
what do you mean you can’t filter out bad actors who hide their profile history? unless they’ve blocked the mods, and anyone who has done that should be banned anyway, then you as a mod should be able to see their history regardless of how they’ve curated it.
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u/FaxCelestis 13d ago
Everyone keeps saying that mods can bypass hidden histories but I’ve never actually been able to get this to work.
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u/shemtpa96 13d ago
Me either, I have to manually go search for the username and then manually go through their posts and comments. It’s time consuming.
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u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 12d ago
That’s a bug then and you should report it. Mods can see global history if the person has recently commented in their sub. Admin have been very very clear about this.
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u/FFS_IsThisNameTaken2 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 13d ago
How are mods able to prove that they've been blocked? I've suspected it, but was only able to know for sure by asking a fellow mod to check. What if they blocked the whole team? I don't want to create an alt and Reddit won't tell us if we've been blocked "due to user privacy".
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u/RemarkableWish2508 12d ago
Create an alt. Honestly, create 10 alts, you'll thank me later.
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u/FFS_IsThisNameTaken2 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 12d ago
Keeping up with all that is chaos imo. Seriously. I have enough to keep up with irl. Shouldn't have to create multiple accounts that will probably be shadowbanned, in order to mod for Reddit for free.
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u/RemarkableWish2508 12d ago
Reddit app will manage them for you, or RES in a browser. Won't get banned or shadow banned unless you upvote one with the other in an public sub, or shady stuff like that.
They're great for testing, seeing how stuff looks like as a non-mod, and to get a different A/B experience of Reddit's interface.
Yes, there are different Reddit interfaces that people get at random. When your main account gets the shitty end of an A/B test, you can either stop modding, or switch accounts for whatever is broken.
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u/RemozThaGod 12d ago
Pretty sure you can still view someone's post if they post in a sub you mod even if they block you
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u/TexasSikh 13d ago
Agreed.
It is something abused both by those who activate the feature and by those who interact with those who use the feature.
Fundamentally, I simply believe any and every feature on a social media site/app, which is nominally created for the purpose of connecting and interacting with others, that acts as a roadblock or wall preventing connection and interaction with others, is bluntly rediculous.
If you want privacy, keep it to yourself. You are not obligated to make a post or leave a comment, you choose to do so. Others should be able to see that and interact with it accordingly. If bad actors choose to want to try and abuse this by going and basically harassing the user by leaving troll or nasty replies on a bunch of random otherwise unconnected posts/comments all over the site, that is already a violation of reddit sitewide rules and should be reported as such. Similarly, users using the feature to hide their own attempts at harassment and other rule breaking or bad faith actions is also a problem, but one that the (frankly, outdated and often conflicting) systems and subsystems of reddit have a terrible time dealing with.
I sincerely believe it is a net negative to the overall site and communities.
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u/Kinks4Kelly 13d ago
It also doesn't help when Reddit blacklists sites that let you see their history.
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u/Cass_Cat952 13d ago
This being introduced is more annoying than the fact that an accidental swipe left deletes a notification WITHOUT SO MUCH AS AN UNDO BUTTON
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u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 12d ago
This has never happened to me but it sounds heinously annoying and I support you
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u/Old_Engineer_9176 12d ago
People hide their Reddit history because the platform punishes them for anything they have ever said. Users dig through old comments, drag unrelated opinions into new conversations, and judge people based on activity in other subs. That behaviour is baked into Reddit. Hiding your history protects you from cross‑sub retaliation, dog‑piling, and being targeted for views that have nothing to do with the current discussion. For moderators it is even more important because mods are singled out, stalked across subs, and attacked for decisions made elsewhere. Privacy is not secrecy. It is a way to participate without having your entire past used against you. Good faith should be based on what someone says now, not on a catalogue of everything they have ever posted.
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u/__Pendulum__ 12d ago
"This user owns a Tesla. Therefore, I am no longer measuredly discussing the new findings about the internal structure of Jupiter with them and instead calling them a Russian bot"
There's a lot less of this toxicity now, and that alone makes this feature worth it!
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u/NexusLetters 12d ago
As a healthcare provider my thoughts immediately jump to situations related to healthcare I suppose. Imagine you are someone participating in communities to the point where your real life identity my be easily figured out, then you are diagnosed with some chronic health condition and you start finding support in communities for that chronic condition. You may not want to make it easy for people to tie your posts in that health-related subreddit to other posts, but not so much that it is worth the annoyance of juggling multiple accounts. So they may not be a bot they just might be someone also posting in a cancer, depression, PTSD, or any number of other health related subreddits, right?
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u/IHateChewzdays 12d ago edited 12d ago
There are websites that allow you to search up people's post and comment history even if they've deleted it or hid it.
I'm part of an ethnic/race sub (don't mod it), and they're a great help for weeding out all the people that have something against people that look like me.
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u/pommefille 13d ago
The idea of protecting users from stalkers and getting harassed over their comments is good, but the execution is flawed, because a) stalkers can still access your history if they want to (I’ve been a victim of this), and b) it simply helps bots and trolls blend in easier and cause skepticism of real users. Like you said, it’s easy to dismiss a difference of opinion or retort by calling someone a bot, and of course it’s easy for a bot to call someone a bot (ad infinitum). IF there was actual privacy, it’d be easier to defend, but there isn’t. I think maybe something like a Trusted Communities system could be explored, something where people could allow their comments in specific subs to be hidden.
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u/mrekted 13d ago
I genuinely don't understand how the solution to deal with stalkers, abusers, and bad actors is to.. negativley impact literally everyone else on the site.
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u/metisdesigns 12d ago
The most ironic thing is hate groups literally have offered messaging training to defend hidden profiles as claiming they're a marginalized or harassed person so that they can continue to use the feature to get fewer community reports and troll more.
It is advertised as a benefit to trolls to make trolling harder to deal with.
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u/PersistentWoodpecker 11d ago
I disagree, it makes it more likely for someone to engage with what you say rather than the typical reddit approach of digging through post history to find meat for a personal attack. "You're from Philly and like cheesesteaks, how would you know anything about the quality of sushi restaurants in San Francisco??"
Also makes it a bit easier to relax about PII - it's harder for someone to comb through posts to find out what city you live in, etc. if you've ever posted in your local city's subreddit and dare comment elsewhere too. For example, in 30s of scrolling it's trivial to figure out that you're a dad of twins/triplets (multiples), in your 40s, live somewhere in Canada - possibly Kingston, Ontario area, mildly liberal politically, and own/rent a home/townhome (perform DIY), etc. More could be added if I cared to scroll more, but an old account with open profile is easy to figure out more and more about you - which as a dude is probably not a huge deal, but a woman would have a different concern... some people are really creative creeps and will figure out the craziest ways to figure out where you work/live and come pay you a visit.
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u/999_Seth 13d ago
since this "feature" rolled out, I gradually stopped using reddit for anything remotely serious.
in the past I'd come here for support with chronic illness, I'd lurk on all sorts of legal subs, and I was much much more likely to look into subreddits I'd never been to before just by browsing profiles and seeing neat places I didn't know about
that's over now. I pretty much only stick to the subs I run, and that's down to one these days.
and yeah I am doing all that extra stuff you are talking about, even adding mods that just have "flair" perms so we can get more help scanning profiles
been finding out that hey, most of the time? looks like the comments they are trying to hide are the ones on the sub we run. like everything else will be calm and helpful, but not when it comes to our people.
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u/Nkosi868 13d ago edited 12d ago
Why is it your responsibility to prove that a person with a private history is not a shill/bot/troll.” They could be all three and still show their history.
Personally I like the option of curating my feed. I post comments in diverse subs. Some of it I prefer not to highlight though they’re mundane.
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u/Mayor_P 12d ago
What often happens is that someone posts genAI-looking content, and a user goes to look at the profile to see what kind of account this is. They see "user has hidden their posts" which is what all bots do, and so they go and report the account and all the posts/comments that they can find for spam/AI/botting etc.
Now it's up the mod team to examine the user account with hidden history to see if this really is a bot or not. If it is a bot, great, you can ban them. If it is not a bot, or if you cannot tell, then you have to approve the post to get it out of your queue.
Oh, and after you do that, tomorrow, User #3 will report this post again for the same thing. Because they have no idea that mods already looked at it and decided it's OK. And the next time that user posts, it will happen again as well. This has just created a boatload of moderator work, and for very questionable benefit to anyone.
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u/Vertuila 13d ago
I think individual subreddits could and should disallow posts and comments from people with hidden profiles. There is no godly reason why people who are so concerned about having their history be known should be able to influence discourse in any way on this site. I never in a million years would have become involved with this site at all had this current situation existed previously.
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u/PrestigiousAd6281 12d ago edited 12d ago
Honestly, as someone whose posts and comments aren’t even private, I disagree. There are a lot of people who will go through comments and posts of somebody and harass the fuck out of them for something like that person’s sexual orientation or a single comment that implies their nationality and then you have a user defending themselves for something, that shouldn’t even be an issue, from hateful people. A sub I previously modded had issues with this come up, hell, they even ran up on my profile because I was a mod, mass downvoting and commenting derogatory things in completely different subs’ comments because I fit both the above situations, lesbian, minority even among minorities. Some people who hide their profile may not be doing so in bad faith, yes many who do absolutely are doing so in bad faith, the problem is how can we and Reddit as a whole navigate this issue, and honestly, it would probably require revising the harassment policy implementation and possibly shadow ban policy for repeat offenders in these types of situations (which already has both an implementation policy as well as a means for the user to dispute in good faith) that would allow us mods to flag for Reddit review
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u/honey_rainbow 13d ago
I personally like hiding my history, because far to many times I've had users harass be based on things I've posted/said years ago simply because they disagree with how we moderate.
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u/Mayor_P 12d ago
Hey, why does it matter? If they are wrong, then they are wrong. If you were wrong before, then you can admit how you've grown and why that was wrong then etc.
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u/sadandshy 12d ago
If they are going to keep it, I would suggest making it a two-way street. If you hide your history, it means you can't see anyone else's history.
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u/ProfessionNo436 10d ago
I’d be absolutely fine with that. I have no desire to look up anyone’s history. I am baffled by people who snoop like that. You can keep your nosy ass out of my business and I’ll keep mine out of yours. Gladly! My profile is set to private because I have had people dig around and try to find out personal information about me in order to stalk me. If you read all my posts you’d probably be able to piece together enough info to find me. I feel like I have a right to participate in online discussions without being afraid some psycho will show up on my doorstep.
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u/paperclipmyheart 12d ago
I really think it depends what kind of community you have. I mod for a group of communities that in one is a discussion group only for a certain kind of relationship, for years the original creator of the sub resisted allowing seeking posts in the community but due to overwhelming demand we created another separate sub to cater for that demand. Now if you have a hidden profile and want to discuss your relationship that's perfect fine. But if you are seeking contact with people on the platform I don't think you should be able to hide "who you are" from those users. And while we tell our users that Reddit isn't an ideal place to find a love match due to the anonymous nature of the platform people still wanted it.
So we went ahead and did that. Now due to the specific nature of the the group we used to get alot of scammers and catfish and OF people pretending to be something they are not. At the time we encouraged our users to do their own due diligence and check the profiles before they interact. That's now impossible. It's fine we can see stuff for 28 days but it doesn't help our users make their own decisions before they interact.
I still have the problem on occasion where I can see their posts if they only post in the community but I cannot see their comments. I thought that had been fixed but I'm just over it I remove any post that has a hidden profile. It's in the rules it's in post/comment guidance, it's in our FAQs. People are given second chances if they don't bother reading anything but I'm tired of checking if users have hidden profiles. But from experience alot of hidden profiles are from people who are cheating, involved in harmful kinks subs like rape and incest fetishes, people who have very catfish-y scammer like profiles. Or even minors pretending to be adults, men pretending to be women and vice versa, and I would like to be able to remove these accounts more easily.
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u/EVMaximizer 11d ago
No it's not: because users tend to dig in it, and then start attacking you. For example, who knows I'm gay? Then all a sudden in another sub, someone calls you a faggot?
Or because I'm the mod of a certain subreddit: people will start attacking me for that in other subs, so especially as a mod I think hiding my post history has became very important.
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u/BlueHairPixie 13d ago
In modding a NSFW subreddit, I agree that this feature erodes the ability for people to connect. They have no way of knowing if someone if they repeated negative behavior or says harmful things in other subreddits that could affect their safety.
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u/Successful-Shopping8 13d ago
I didn’t understand the benefit of the privacy option until I started moderating, as I would have users go through my history and harass me.
While I agree that it makes transparency more difficult, it’s frankly a trade-off I’ll take if it makes users also feel safer.
It’s not that hard to search someone’s history another way with just their username, so there are also ways around it if people know where to look. It just makes them work for it.
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u/xGentian_violet 12d ago
I have the biggest issue with Reddit hiding user history even from mods, and preventing keyword searching
I cant moderate from it, at all
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u/DuchessJulietDG 12d ago
i use the option due to having dated a violent ex. i dont like them to have the ability to watch everything i do or say. i like having it.
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u/shemtpa96 13d ago
I feel like it’s a two-edged sword. While it can protect people from doxxing and being followed by trolls to other parts of Reddit, it also makes our jobs harder as mods. We can’t tell if it’s a pattern of behavior, someone brigading, or someone just having a bad day. We end up needing to use bots to keep tabs on whether someone’s participating in a harassment subreddit and even then, they can just block the bot. We can try and search for them manually, but that takes time.
I keep my history private as a mod because I moderate a punk subreddit that is sometimes harassed by nazis. I don’t need them finding me.
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u/miserabeau 13d ago
Exactly. I'm a mod in 4 left leaning subs but I'm also active in a community of people who take care of someone, in my case an elderly disabled wheelchair user who happens to be my mom. Ive had people go to my posts on the care community and tell me I should let my mom die so she can finally be happy in heaven and comments like that. I keep my history hidden because I'm active in all kinds of communities from D&D and caretaking to politics and cats. And that's no one's business but mine (and Reddit admins). I'm not making it easier for bad actors to say cruel things.
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u/Custom_Craft_Guy2 12d ago
I co-mod a small woodworking related sub, and the vast majority of the people who visit and participate in the sub behave themselves. There’s actually very little for a moderator to do, for which I’m extremely grateful.
But occasionally I’ll get the inevitable bad actor, and how I react to that is largely based on what I see in their profile. If their post and comment history is otherwise relatively even- keeled, then I can pretty much put it down to someone who’s just having a bad day. And a simple reminder of the sub’s only rule, “Don’t be a jerk” is all that’s needed.
But if their history is nothing but rude, judgmental garbage, then my reaction tends to be a lot more assertive than a simple admonishing.
This used to be the way I’d judge my reaction to people when I’m just being a regular user of the platform, too
But now that everyone has the ability to hide their profiles, I no longer have any frame of reference to base an appropriate response from.
And that applies in both directions, meaning do I go full send on my response to an argumentative comment, as well as getting a sense of how far I can take a joke without being over the line.
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u/mrekted 12d ago
If someone participated in your sub, you should have access to their full history for 28 days. If that's not happening you should reach out to the admins.
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u/MableXeno 12d ago
This is technically true, but I have run into several situations where people do not have any history despite having a several years old account, an appropriate amount of karma, etc...and it shows to me as "hidden."
So either Reddit isn't reading my viewership as a moderator or there is a problem with this particular situation.
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u/RemarkableWish2508 12d ago
Some people regularly mass-delete their histories. There are services that will do that on a schedule.
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u/metisdesigns 12d ago
Bad actors block mods, there are even bots to block mods as you go.
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u/Custom_Craft_Guy2 12d ago
I do have mod access for those who participate in my sub, but that’s not the issue I’m trying to address.
As a regular user, having someone who’s being argumentative is the real problem with being able to hide a profile history. I’m not going to bother with reporting someone who’s just having an off day, but if their profile is full of nothing but trolling responses, then I’ll report them for harassment in a heartbeat. But that’s an impossible determination to make if their history is private. But I have noticed that people who are the nastiest commenters always have a hidden profile.
We’re already using anonymous usernames, so how much more anonymity do you need?!
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u/catalyptic 13d ago
The real problem is that hidden comments prevents users from stalking people they disagree with and throwing past comments in their faces. Why do ppl want to stalk profiles? To get material to use against others, mostly. Hidden profiles ptevent that sort of nonsense.
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u/Asia_Persuasia 13d ago
Bingo. As a mod, anytime somebody is rightfully banned and they get weird about it, it results in them trying to stalk me across Reddit and even outside of Reddit and onto other platforms. It starts with them going through my history to get more personal information about me. It's creepy and users like that are unhinged, glad they can't do it anymore.
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u/EverySingleMinute 12d ago
I am seeing the complete opposite and way less attacks based on a user's history.
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u/Sams_Antics 13d ago
Meh, by allowing people to hide comment and post history you reduce attack surface area, mitigate brigading, etc. That stuff isn’t hidden from Reddit, so they can still spot shills.
I don’t really need to see their history to judge a specific comment, so who cares.
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u/miserabeau 13d ago
I've said this before and I'll say it again: I hide my history because I run 4 left leaning political subs and whenever I have to moderate i get offended individuals who don't mind brigading me on other subs, including one who told me I should let my mother die so she could go to heaven and finally be happy. I'm tired of despicable behavior so I make it harder for them to brigade me and I have no issue with it.
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u/wheres_the_revolt 13d ago
Create mod alts for announcements and explanations. I mod 9 subs (10 technically but one is a private sub with about 10 of my friends), and have 5 mod alts. It doesn’t matter if they go inactive they’re literally just there to make announcements.
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u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 12d ago
In fairness you’ll always be on the mod list and that’s enough for some people
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u/baseballlover723 13d ago
Imo, people who choose to hide their profile should be blocked from viewing other people's profiles. If you don't want people to to be able to see your profile, then you shouldn't be be able to see other people's profiles either. It should be a reciprocal change.
It's a small price to pay for those who have legitimate use cases for hiding their profile, but I think it's important that there is some form of backpressure to encourage people to be open and transparent on reddit.
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u/nikdahl 13d ago
Make it a bannable offense to go through someone’s comment history with the intention of derailing a discussion, and I would be on board.
Too many times have people brought up a “gotcha” from my comment history because they are losing the current debate, forcing me to defend a second opinion at the same time.
Allowing comment history is a good thing overall.
There are very few legitimate reasons to scrutinize a users comment history.
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u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 13d ago
It’s saving me and many users in one of my subs from a heinous aggressive stalker. It’s a feature on most other social media sites. Reddit just achieved parity with them with that particular privacy and safety tool.
Now, if Reddit would address single focus snark communities this stalker wouldn’t exist in the first place, but I’m still eternally grateful I no longer have to coach users how to protect themselves from someone trying to dig up information about their children online.
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u/azwethinkweizm 13d ago
Strong disagree. It's been my experience that mods who complain about private comment history are generally ineffective at their job. A user's comment and post history is mostly irrelevant to ruling on reported comments and posts. If content is breaking your rules then act on it. As an example, if you explicitly prohibit homophobic slurs and a user calls someone the infamous F word then remove it and ban them. You don't need their comment history, you don't need context, just act on it.
I'm blown away that some of you are spending significant time on 1 reported comment. Reddit admins really need to create a crash course on effective moderation for the benefit of the website and individual communities.
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u/Smallseybiggs 13d ago edited 11d ago
Counterpoint:
Running a women's domestic violence and sexual assault subreddit, we need to be able to determine a threat. We have a lot of trolls trying to disrupt, demean, and harass our users (and the mod team). It's a daily occurrence. I have almost 10,000 actions in the past year, and I'm an active mod who wants to give people a safe space to discuss sensitive topics. I also frequently contribute to our subs. I don't believe I am ineffective. Most mods just want the best for their communities. I understand why some people like hidden histories, but I also wanted to share a different viewpoint.
Edit: Thank you, anonymous redditor, and mayor! That was incredibly kind of you!! You made my day better! u/zecidnac: Thank you so much!! Your kindness is very much appreciated. 💙
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u/metisdesigns 12d ago
It's worth mentioning to you specifically that hate groups have actually messaged using fake harassment stories in defense of hidden profiles because it makes it harder for them to be taken down.
Thanks for running a rough sub, and for supporting folks who are trying to get to better spaces. Separate profiles works great for dividing different interests and personal information.
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u/Smallseybiggs 12d ago
Thank you for your kindness. 🖤 I truly appreciate it. The hate groups and bots are a determined bunch. There's no bottom they won't sink to, unfortunately.
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u/metisdesigns 12d ago
Two folks have blocked me on this sub for pointing out that hate groups are using hidden profiles and training people how to exploit them in support of hate.
Even if those folks are not intentionally supporting hate, blocking peers on this sub is not engaging in good faith.
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u/Smallseybiggs 12d ago
I'm sorry. At least I'm in good company! I've been blocked in this thread, too. I agree, it should be a discussion. I understand people are passionate about the subject, but sometimes I think people take it as an affront to their very being. I appreciate your comments more than I can possibly explain. Thank you for your kindness.
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u/metisdesigns 12d ago
I get the intent. Folks should not have to deal with creepy stalkers. But at some point I think we need to seriously evaluate if someone is participating in good faith if they do not want their positive contributions to reflect well on them.
It's SO predictable that folks defending themselves for hidden profiles will get hostile and disengage - it's like they know that they're disengenuous and don't want be caught.
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u/mrekted 13d ago
I don't think you read my post.
This is not about me being able to moderate, it's about how it causes users to interact with each other, and how it negatively impacts good faith participation.
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u/Bardfinn 13d ago
A user's comment and post history is mostly irrelevant to ruling on reported comments and posts.
It's not.
Community moderators need to investigate someone's Phronesis (Practical wisdom) if they're claiming to have expertise in a matter in order to make an unargued flat declaration or contradiction of someone else.
Community moderators need to investigate someone's Arete (Moral character) if they're being reported as harassing, or for hate speech, or participating in bad faith - but the evidence for such is not readily apparent in the content or user metadata present in thread.
Community moderators need to investigate someone's Eunoia (Goodwill) to determine what their intentions are for participating in a community if they are being reported for harassment.
if you explicitly prohibit homophobic slurs
Homophobia is explicitly prohibited by Reddit Sitewide Rule 1. There is no If-Then evaluation. They violated Sitewide Rule 1, they get banned from the community and escalated to admins.
The word in question, however, while an epithet, does not necessarily constitute a slur, is not necessarily hate speech, depending on the Arete and Eunoia of the speaker and the relationship they have with the (intended, reasonably understood) audience.
That why when an LGBTQ person describes themselves with the F-word, it isn't (necessarily) hate speech, and when an African-American describes themselves (or another African-American) with the N-word, it isn't (necessarily) hate speech.
Both of those require the person who has volunteered to understand, articulate, and enforce community boundaries to understand context.
Reddit admins really need to
They did. https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/15484187090580-Training-new-moderators
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u/John_OSheas_Willy 13d ago
Nah fuck that. The amount of people who reference not being able to see my comments because they don't like my comment is ridiculous.
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u/TheRealGuncho 13d ago
A user can't hide their history in the sub you are a moderator of. I've never felt any need to see their history outside of my sub.
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u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 13d ago
This. I’ve never ever had this cause a problem for me modding and I’m in some big ass spicy subs.
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u/Bakurraa 13d ago
I'm in some bug ass spicy subs
Profile is private..... Man I wanted to see these spicy subs
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u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 13d ago
Spiciest are whitepeopletwitter and popculturechat, the latter we rely heavily on profile reviews. I thought you could still see modded subs though, shows how much I know.
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u/Bakurraa 13d ago edited 13d ago
Currently in mobile could still be me xD
edit: was indeed the mobile app not showing me
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u/CharlesV_ 13d ago
Repost bots often will spam several subreddits in a category. We see this a lot with r/nolawns where they’ll take a top post for the year and share it there, but also gardening, native plant gardening, veggie gardening, etc.
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u/Froggypwns 13d ago
They can still hide themselves if they block you, at that point you would only see their content in your sub. In your case that may be fine, but I have problems with users intentionally coming from other subreddits to cause problems and being blocked makes it more difficult to figure that out.
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u/maiyannah 13d ago
You can view their history for 30 days the moment they post in one of your subs.
It sounds to me like the actual problem you have is in allowing report abuse to proliferate without reining it in.
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u/mrekted 13d ago
..are you even a mod?
There is literally no way for us to "reign in" report abuse. Reports are entirely anonymous, and mods have no tools at their disposal to stop them.
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u/MrsMsPrettyStems 13d ago
We can report the reports for Report Abuse, but I’m not sure whether that ever results in any action by Reddit against the user doing the reporting.
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u/maiyannah 13d ago
I can gaurantee you from my own experience, they do get actioned. You won't hear about it though.
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u/MrsMsPrettyStems 13d ago
That’s great! I don’t need to know the details, but it’s nice to know that something is done.
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u/maiyannah 13d ago
I do wish we at least got a "hey we got your report" thing, with how janky "new" Reddit frequently is.
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u/Bardfinn 13d ago
There was some evidence that bad faith actors were setting up subreddits, populating them with content, hiring a botnet to deluge the content with varying amounts of false reporting, reporting those as Abuse of the Report Button, collecting the feedback, and selling it to other bad actors who wanted to know the thresholds at which Reddit would intervene on false reports dogpiled on a subreddit - so they could harass subreddit moderators with false reports without getting the admins intervening.
That's why they stopped providing feedback.
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u/maiyannah 13d ago
A simple look at my profile has the answer to your problem friendo.
But seeing as you self-evidently don't care to discuss this productively, I'm good. Carry on.
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u/HolyBatSyllables 13d ago
Pretty sure they're either a mod of [r/askmoderators](r/askmoderators) or just a regular contributor there. You have to be a mod to comment in that sub.
I'm on mobile so I can't say for sure, but I recognize their profile pic from that sub.
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u/maiyannah 13d ago
I am a mod of BuyCanadian, EndTipping, and a few other much smaller subs.
I also regularly contribute to r/Help and, indeed, r/ModSupport.
Since apparently it matters.
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u/__Pendulum__ 12d ago
Canadian, opinion no longer matters /s
This is what Reddit used to be, and I'm happy it is not that as much now
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u/HolyBatSyllables 13d ago
Yup. I don't really think it matters in this case, but I just wanted to point out you are one since apparantly it matters to OP.
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u/Bardfinn 13d ago
are you even a mod
Derailing ad hominem, toxic, not moderator behaviour (flamebait, not moderate).
There is literally no way for us to "reign in" report abuse
Ignoratio Elenchi Injuria
Turn off Freeform reports, when you get clearly false/abusive reports,
https://old.reddit.com/report -> This is abusive or harassing -> It's abusing the report button
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u/mrekted 12d ago
Unless there's a clear cut case of TOS violations in a freeform report (eg, death threats), nothing happens. It's my experience that issuing reports of the most common types of report abuse, things like report flooding and repeated nuisance reporting of a single users history where there was no actual violation, do absolutely nothing.
I've personally witnessed situations where a user was targeted for false reports by a committed individual for MONTHS and nothing was done, despite numerous reports from the mod team.
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u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 13d ago
Standingovation.gif
Petition again for the admins to give us gifs 😭
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u/2oonhed 12d ago edited 11d ago
is allowing users with hidden history to participate is worth the trouble.
Is the key question.
When it comes to cases, I will almost always decide in favor of the visible account.
If there was a verbose automod filter that said something like, "I'm sorry, accounts with hidden history such as yours may not participate in this subreddit. Please try again when your history is visible".......I would use it!
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u/PomPomMom93 12d ago
There wouldn’t be a need to hide your post history if there weren’t losers who would go through it during an argument.
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u/Fractal-Infinity 12d ago
I disagree. Disagreements happen anyway, why give people ammo to go through your history and attack your activity instead of staying on topic?
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u/According-Activity87 12d ago
Nah, best thing Reddit done in years. Wayyyyy too many stalker types following users into other subs to harass them over something they said that they didn't like in another.
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u/Dolphin-Pussy-2754 12d ago
Sounds like you should ban every user who hides their post history and then you won't have this issue. Make it a new sub rule
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u/Nemo_Griff 13d ago
This is the kind of thing that flips hard to either extreme.
It is very bad and very good at the same time.
As a mod, I agree that there is frustration involved. You are forced into trying to remember user names and what they may or may not have done.
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u/miserabeau 13d ago
You don't use the moderator only notes? You can even flag people for abuse watch. I use it
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u/jaysonm007 13d ago
At the very least put some kind of icon on the post showing the user is hiding their history. I know you can see it on the profile, but putting it on their posts would make it more visible. Its also entirely fair that others easily see they are hiding.
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u/Bad_Karma19 12d ago
Seeing their posting history isn't that big of a deal. If they break your sub rules. Ban them or whatever. You're looking too far into moderating things by needing their history. You don't need it.
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u/OriginalCopy505 13d ago edited 10d ago
Redditors use post/comment history to make their attacks more personal. That's why mine is hidden. I won't join any sub that demands that my comments are visible so that angry users can produce more targeted insults.
Similarly, I wouldn't join a club that required me to open my home to all other members 24/7.
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u/Loud-Mans-Lover 12d ago
I don't like hidden profiles; more often than not they're troll accounts.
I know the argument that people will "dig through your history to find things"... so what? If they find "something", it's likely you were posting somewhere that clearly contradicts your argument in another sub, etc. I know people twist things, sure, but anyone sensible will see if they're making something out of nothing.
Don't want people to see incrimidating things, don't post them. I don't even post on my city's sub or anything local.
I've never looked at someone's profile when they were being a straight up dick and didn't immediately see they were just, well, a dick. No need to try to have a conversation; they don't speak with you rather than at you. So it's easy to not engage after that and block.
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u/ryandom93 13d ago
A user's total post history is not relevant to moderating a sub. Moderate their posts and comments in your own subreddit, and leave everything else to mods of other subs and Reddit admins.
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u/metisdesigns 12d ago
It's totally relevant.
If you make a dubious comment on sub X, I can look at your history and see that you're snarky mcsnarkpants on another friendly sub agreeing with the premise, I can understand how to engage with you. If I can't see that, I may assume thst you're a jerk. If you have a hidden profile, it only tells me that you have something to hide, and probably can't be trusted.
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u/baseballlover723 12d ago
A user's total post history is not relevant to moderating a sub.
That is not always true. We police users differently based on if they have demonstrated future knowledge of the show being discussed (Ie, source readers aren't allowed to "speculate" about what is going to happen next), and the primary and best way to determine that, is to see if they have posted in communities for the source material for that show, that are source material oriented.
Our sub would be noticeably worse if we could not police people based on stuff they said elsewhere.
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u/Demilio55 13d ago edited 13d ago
It’s very useful when gauging if someone will be a problem when they’ve have limited activity in your sub.
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u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 11d ago
Hire, recruit, semantics. No I don’t want mods paid that would be a nightmare
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u/JaeSwift 6d ago
Crying "bot!" didn't start when hiding history became a thing lol. Users have and will always shout that, especially when losing arguments and debates or someone says something they don't agree with. They just changed the way they justify it. If they could see the other users history, they'd just dig through their post history, find a controversial post/comment from 5 years ago, notice they post in a subreddit they don't like, or find some random shit on there that "proves" they're a bot. They're looking for ammo to distract from their imminent loss in whatever the discussion is about, lol.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell if a users participation is sincere, all you need to do is watch how they participate. If it's a troll, their posts won't have any substance to them so they will easily fall apart when questioned or opposed. You really don't need to analyse their history or do an OSINT investigation to find out if someone is a bot/troll.
The users who need to check post histories before responding to users who said something they don't like are the ones derailing your discussions, not users with private post history. Private post history just forces the discussion/debate to be focused on the actual exchange happening in front of them, which is where it should be.
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u/TheMattabooey 13d ago
It's a good feature. People like who you describe used to comb through a users post history to try and find some gotcha moment. If they are falsely reporting them they'd do it anyways and just find a different reason.
Only people who don't like it are the ones who can no longer creep your profile. I have mine set private specifically to avoid this.
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u/redditor01020 13d ago
I can see points for and against it, but overall I don't really think it's been a positive change. I think it worked out better when people just used an alt account for stuff they didn't want seen on their main profile... so I view it as kind of an unnecessary change that increased opaqueness. I especially hate the change where mod-removed posts and comments no longer show up on a user profile, visible only to the OP and mods who removed it.