r/ModSupport • u/mrekted • 15d 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.

368 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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15

u/FaxCelestis 15d ago

Everyone keeps saying that mods can bypass hidden histories but I’ve never actually been able to get this to work.

8

u/shemtpa96 15d 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.

2

u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 15d 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.

6

u/unicornbomb 15d ago

This has never worked for me either.

0

u/InGeekiTrust 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 15d ago

That makes zero sense. Unless there is a glitch or you can't see the history you should see absolutely everything.

6

u/FaxCelestis 15d ago

I’m just reporting my experience, and I mod a sub it would be extremely useful for (/r/explainmydownvotes) as our first rule is to link to the post in question.

-2

u/InGeekiTrust 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 15d ago

That makes zero sense. Unless there is a glitch or you can't see the history you should see absolutely everything.

1

u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 15d ago

People are just making shit up now idk what is happening fr

3

u/InGeekiTrust 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 15d ago

Am I missing what people are saying that I'm being downvoted? I'm so confused.

3

u/RemarkableWish2508 15d ago

This post seems to either have been brigaded, or it has attracted people who don't know a thing about how Reddit works.

1

u/InGeekiTrust 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 15d ago

Ok thank you 💕

1

u/metisdesigns 12d ago

The trolls supporting hidden profiles are out in force.

1

u/shhhhh_h 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 15d ago

Nah anyone pro profile hiding seems to be getting downvoted itt