Yesterday, Reddit closed a number of subreddits including r/The_Donald, which they say violated the site’s hate speech rules.
Twitch and YouTube took similar actions.
This is an appropriate moment to highlight that Hubski has no policy regarding user bans. Of course, I do not appreciate or support speech that could be classified as hate speech. It is not relevant that a person might live under the Constitutional right to speak their mind in a public sphere. Hubski is a platform for thoughtful conversation, and hate is antithetical to that goal. Furthermore, if you are the kind of person that communicates with hate speech, you are first and foremost an asshole.
Hubskiers can mute, filter, and block others users, so assholes usually lose their audience soon after revealing their damaged and self-loathing nature. This has happened many times, and the user that hurts others because they are hurting inevitably leaves. That said, Hubskiers are a kindhearted lot, and often assholes will be lent an ear, and chances to redeem themselves. Sometimes it works. We all have our bad days, and each and every one of us has been an asshole for a time, even unknowingly. We all carry pain.
That said, if a user's behavior is making Hubski worse, that user might be banned. They might be given warning. They might not. There is no algorithmic weighting and determination of a user's ban-worthiness or criteria that needs to be met. Hubski is not a judicial body with a goal of fairness, nor an imitation of one. Sometimes assholes do damage for a time before they leave or are banned. Sometimes, Hubskiers quit because of the presence of an asshole. That makes me feel terrible. We have lost some good Hubskiers because we suffered an asshole for too long.
If you are worried that you might be banned for being an asshole, then Hubski is not right for you, at least at this time. When you have love in your heart, we welcome you back with open arms.
Be good to each other.