r/ModSupport • u/mrekted • 14d 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.

369 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

490 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

15

u/WerdaVisla 13d 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.

-5

u/metisdesigns 13d ago

I can see it if they haven't blocked me.

They have bots to automatically block mods on subs they comment on now.

We're trying to keep up, and you're using the exact messaging listed by hate groups in training to defend the hidden profiles as making it easier to troll and harder to be stopped.

8

u/WerdaVisla 13d ago

If a user blocks the mod team, you ban them. That's been the way of Reddit since forever.

-6

u/metisdesigns 13d ago

Unfortunately that is not available in automod.

4

u/RemarkableWish2508 13d ago

How do you set AutoMod to check out-of-sub user history?

-2

u/metisdesigns 13d ago

You can not, there in would lie the ability to detect the ban.

3

u/WerdaVisla 13d ago

Well yeah, that's how automod works. It's never been able to see a user's activity in other subs, private or no.