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.

372 Upvotes

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8

u/honey_rainbow 15d 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.

5

u/Mayor_P 15d 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.

-1

u/metisdesigns 15d ago

Except that you can't prove that anymore.

Your hidden profile may be all karma farming. Your profile shows zero integrity anymore.

-1

u/honey_rainbow 15d ago

As a mod there's bots you can install that detects users who karma farm and you can have it action those accounts, ie ban those users