You see many examples of comments, I'm sure, that look like they could happen anywhere.
And you continue to believe that, right up until you see a comment just like them, that gets someone banned from reddit. And then you're irate, and you wonder why you were banned. But you can't even get much explanation, because having been banned from reddit, they've taken the one way you might use to demand the explanation.
But even that's not the full picture. Sometimes there are people whose "contrariness" is a bit higher than other people's. And they refuse to participate in places where they aren't allowed to say whatever they want, even if pretty much all the time they'd never say anything that would get them banned. Are those people more interesting than others? Who knows, you'll never find their stuff on reddit.
I think in the legal world, you call this over-moderation a "chilling effect". You don't have to censor everyone, it turns out, if you can scare or bully them into self-censoring.
Eventually, I think, everyone sees what we're talking about. It's just by the time it's so overt that even you can't deny it anymore, there won't be much anyone can do about it.
And you continue to believe that, right up until you see a comment just like them, that gets someone banned from reddit. And then you're irate, and you wonder why you were banned. But you can't even get much explanation, because having been banned from reddit, they've taken the one way you might use to demand the explanation.
But even that's not the full picture. Sometimes there are people whose "contrariness" is a bit higher than other people's. And they refuse to participate in places where they aren't allowed to say whatever they want, even if pretty much all the time they'd never say anything that would get them banned. Are those people more interesting than others? Who knows, you'll never find their stuff on reddit.
I think in the legal world, you call this over-moderation a "chilling effect". You don't have to censor everyone, it turns out, if you can scare or bully them into self-censoring.
Eventually, I think, everyone sees what we're talking about. It's just by the time it's so overt that even you can't deny it anymore, there won't be much anyone can do about it.