Free Speech alternative?
I'm tired of moderators being buzz kills.
Is there a place where everything is permitted as long as the content isn't explicitly illegal?
Posted Jun 4, 2023, 5:04 AM UTC
427
Why would "Free Speech alternative" be downvoted here??
4
Free speech is good; the problem is that in practical application, people who end up getting banned from reddit and raving about free speech tend to be far right lunatics since that's the most common reason for getting banned for political speech on reddit.
10
Do you find it a little odd that Reddit permits left-wing lunatics and even promotes their content to the front page by default?
4†
I can assure you that there are zero left-wingers on the front page; like what you're calling "left wing" is like probably only as far left as the US Democratic Party (who aren't that left in the grand scheme of things)
8
Ahem, r/antiwork is a default sub.
4
Like what?
1
people who end up getting banned from reddit and raving about free speech tend to be far right lunatics since that's the most common reason for getting banned for political speech on reddit.
Not quite sure how you measured that.
The only clear knowledge I have of reasons for being banned are the times I was banned and lies told to me to excuse the fact. Half the time they deleted the post they claim got me banned, and I can't always remember its content exactly.
So even if you had a list from the admins of banned people complete with their "reasons", you won't have the actual content half the time to judge so you wind up taking the word of known liars and agenda pushers for the decisions they made.
3
you are so misinformed it isn't even funny.
reddit is HIGHLY censored and insular you can't share an independent thought without filtering/censoring it goes WAAAY BEYOND politics.
1
Because generally when people talk about "free speech" on internet platforms, what they really mean is "I want to be able to say the most toxic, hateful, disgusting trash that I can, and suffer no social consequences for it."
8
Top-down censorship is not a social consequence. It is authoritarian oppression.
1
A complete lack of moderation doesn't result in "free speech," but rather the most toxic speech crowding everything else out.
4
You wind up with something like 4-chan.
Moderation is needed and will never be perfect, but better rules and oversight could bridge the gap being chaotic slum and hyper-regimented gulag.
5
Free speech = toxic speech. If You can;t say/write things that other people don't like, it is not free speech.
1
A) The paradox of tolerance is not a new concept.
B) Saying whatever you want, without consequence, is not a privilege you'd expect anywhere else—go to a nice bar and start shouting racist slurs at the other patrons, see how long it takes before you're told to leave—why do you think it's reasonable to demand it online?
5
I am not demanding it. Owner of the medium have right to decide what content he want to be published in his medium. It doesn't change fact that I want places where it would be allowed to say truly freely. Including offending each other.
3
It's simple. This is Reddit in 2023. Most who care about free speech have left or greatly cut back their use if websites like Reddit. Speaking only for myself, I'm relatively "internet homeless" at the moment.
Ruqqus in 2020 seemed like it had potential, but then it flipped out and went authoritarian.
-1
Reddit flipped way earlier I think 2015/16, before that it was somewhat free speech friendly. You had idiots, Nazis and racists or whatever but they just stayed in their little shadowy corners. In general you could say and do whatever and the community votes would do their job, but then it got cleaned up for advertisers and subs started to be taken over by power mods with ulterior motives pushing narratives etc.
Ironically, the big push to clean up and moderate heavily just ruined discussion on most of the site.
1
The Elen Pao incident I think was in 2014. While some might say "we won" what actually happened is Reddit-owners realized they couldn't be so overt and forceful with pushing their political agenda, and instead needed to slow-boil the frog.
subs started to be taken over by power mods with ulterior motives pushing narratives etc.
The Reddit Admins installed those activist mods, and bullied/annoyed/banned/etc all the mods who didn't fit their political agenda.
got cleaned up for advertisers
I don't think the 2015-to-now censorship has anything to do with advertisers. Most advertisers don't actually care, they just want eyeballs and to sell products. They may pretend to care when someone creates a giant news-story or scandal, but they all come back once it dies down.
That said, for my own project, I intend to regulate advertisement to the last-priority for monetization. Free users will see ads, sure, but a few $/month, or use an ad-blocker if you don't want to see the relatively small number of ads.
1
You might be right, 2014 ish, basically around the Pao time, a little before. The activist mods/users made a fuss about unsavoury content and it was amplified by certain segments of media, bad press made Reddit start on their journey censoring and changing (or gave them an excuse to start doing what they had planned) - I would have guessed due to losing potential advertisers or money in some way, or it could just be that admins and higher ups who recently joined Reddit at that time were aligned with the activists politically or just in general, it seemed to be a mix of both. In any case, the old Reddit ideals were discarded and we started on the journey of censorship and subs being taken over. Crazy to think it's around 10 years ago now.
I believe Pao was set up to take the heat also, because spez and co are cowardly in how they go about making changes and betraying the reddit of old, there are always fall guys and pretenses rather than them just admitting what they're doing.
The most blatant example of a sub getting taken over is the politics one. Changed almost overnight, all mods were wiped and a new mod team was installed in 2016 (can check mod ages in the modnlist) and it turned into the mess it is now, basically a DNC propaganda hub. So blatant that admins must have played a part.
1
gee aigh bee dot com might be one
bluedwarf.top is small and has few rules but is very minimalistic
exploding-heads.com is pretty lax on the lemmyverse
scored.co is pretty lax as a reddit clone of sorts
discussions dot app still exists but is basically a zombie
check the sticky for a few more maybe?
3
Too bad you missed voat.
2
It was pretty good, but then it died in late 2020.
The only problem was each community was rather insulated from all of the rest.
1
How did Voat die?
1
voat
Ran out of money :(
1
I've been using mainchan.com
Not a lot of users, but the website itself is clean and works well. I think it shows real potential if enough decent users would sign up.
1
There was ruqqus, but that got killed from inside.
I wonder if the ruqqus admins are kicking themselves now imagining what could have been, they were the only site that had true potential IMO, were growing, UI and name were nice, they were just dumb as hell in regards to dealing with trolls and got taken for fools but that Carpathian loser who tried making their own site after killing off ruqqus.
1
Here's an alternative that fits your needs: GOING OUTSIDE AND TOUCHING GRASS.
Not being rude, just saying.
1
Have you tried Dreamwidth? They're pretty good.
Personally I've kind of given up and am just posting on one of my blogs that no one ever reads. I guess the only way I can have free speech is if I'm only talking to myself.
You could always host a BBS and let others know about them!