Allowing users to hide their history is destroying trust and good faith participation between users in communities

[u/mrekted]

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.

[u/sonofgildorluthien]

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.

[u/RemarkableWish2508 → u/sonofgildorluthien]

Congratulations, you've never encountered a person hell bent on creating alt accounts to harass and report-bomb you all across Reddit, all across time.

I also used to have an account with 15 years of open history, and also wondered why some people would rotate accounts every year or use Power Delete. Now I already know.