Even though the management does not directly censor, various groups on Voat appear to do so on their own.
Censorship by sponsored proxy is still Censorship.
It is the same as reddit, if you don't agree with the group think prepare to get downvoted.
It is understandable to a point that a forum is going to take on an identity, hopefully Poal will continue to be one where people can respectfully disagree.
I'll fight to keep it that way until there isn't any fight left in me.
I think the no downvote unless spam culture is pretty well ingrained at this point.
I think what you really have to worry about is turning into an echo chamber, which is what all small social forums on the internet have to worry about.
Although this forum seems to be doing pretty well so far.
I'm not going to lie, i kinda do miss the disrespectful aspect of disagreeing on Voat.
Not that I would ever advocate it here, I love this place and it's culture, but I do miss mindlessly yelling at people and calling them faggots.
Up until early 2018 it was friendly name calling, for the most part. Then a reddit influx happened that just made Voat a lot nastier. Anger, in many cases, replaced joking around. This was not just anger, it was deep mean fucking anger. I think it's why Owlchemy left Voat and came here to roost. Voat got to be a turnoff, and just not funny anymore.
I always felt the mindless yelling at people and calling people faggots was done in the spirit of comradery. I did feel like I had to self-censor a lot there to avoid being downvoated into oblivion though.
This is the difference between banter and insults.
Mindlessly calling someone a faggot is banter.
You can still call people faggots, you just need to do it a with a little class. For example if you say "I miss calling people faggots" I would say something low key like "project much?"
It really tugs the ego. All Reddit-esque systems have become hyper aggressive due to chan methods spilling over to the normies.
It's useful in filtering out retards that don't process information before emotion. Talking to dramatic children isn't easy or fun. Most consider it to be a waste of time.
You'll often have some of the most engaging conversations after both parties call each other a cock gobbling faggot. It's relatively rewarding.
That happens everywhere. I remember my first post into an Anime fanboi site. Got so many downs from the fans of the top-poster that I had to abandon the account.
This is an issue I've spent a great amount of time trying to address. Like at this points its multiple thousands of hours. I cannot even quantify the mental anguish I've spent on it. I still don't have a complete answer I try everyday to tread that line and its not as easy of one to tread as you would think. I started this thinking it would be easy and it fucking is not even close to easy.
The answer is when you see someone trying to use their voice to censor an opinion you can either let them shout them down or you can step in. When its right or wrong to do that is a hard call to make.
I can understand the frustration. I'm unwilling to doxx myself but I have a reasonable amount of experience with this problem that spans a long period of time on the Internet.
The problem with Voat appears to be almost zero involvement from management directly, which allows various groups to organize and fill the proverbial "power vacuum". To the uninformed passer-by, this can be misconstrued in many ways - such as silent approval of their activities. It's certainly a unique catch-22, but one that I see going outright ignored by Voat.
At this point, it's pretty clear to me that Putt has gone Galt and moved onto other things, I can't say I blame him.
My guess would be if you know something about this, then you can understand my frustrations. I'd love to have a conversation about it with you I really would. Perhaps you might have some tips for me. I won't be giving up anytime soon.
Today I'm mourning the loss of a friend. So I'd rather have that conversation tomorrow.
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