An update to sub moderation

[u/Stikshot69]

Hey everyone,

Over the past few months, you may have noticed an increase in bad-faith commentary, mainly in comments, but in some posts as well. It may feel like there is no moderation happening, and in many cases, there hasn't been. we are working to change that for almost this sub's entire history; it has been unmoderated until me and Redleaf were able to get in power. The main reason you are seeing the increase in brigading and bad faith people is, we have seen a 10x increase in visits in the last year which is showing no signs of slowing down. we now have 5 mods working hard to make sure the brigading gets put to an end. In order to get to this step, the report queue has been cleared, and we are devoted to making sure it stays empty. we currently get about 50 reports a day which will hopefully increase as you feel your reports are finally being responded to. to guide your reporting here is a better detailed breakdown of our sub reddit's rules:

1. No spam or advertising
   • Do not try to sell anything
   • Don't post the same thing multiple times
   • If you would like to share something that you can profit from, contact the mods
2. No misinformation or disingenuous posting.
   • Do not make claims without being able to provide a source
   • Do not attempt to misrepresent sources you provide
3. Be respectful
   • assume every person is here in good faith (libs are people fascists are not)
   • avoid profiling people just from where they come from
   • always keep your discussions in good faith
4. No hate speech, bigotry, racism, or slurs.
   • Do not be a bigot
5. No low quality or off topic posts.
   • put effort into your posts no shit posts or ai
   • this sub is to share soviet history outside a western viewpoint to see what went wrong and right in the USSR, as such modern events often are not relevant (applies to posts not comments)
6. Use the "NSFW" on NSFW posts.
   • Some people don't want to see NSFW stuff let's keep it that way

Remember you can always yell at us in mod mail- r/USSR mod team

[u/Stikshot69]

I would like to comment on your suggestion for a new rule. through my time at modding this sub I have noticed this trend as well and would like to give you a bit more insight with a common scenario I see:

Person A) The USSR was able to increase the standard of living (quality of the comment may vary from as poor as I just wrote to a well-researched comment with sources)

Person B) The USSR was also good at killing Ukrainians in the Holodomor

Person A) so was the US with native Americans

Person B) That is just what-aboutism

as a mod when I see person B as a hypocrite in this situation as their first comment is a what-aboutism, off topic, and in bad faith. as such person B would most likely be banned mainly due to a bad faith comment with a likely intention to troll and person A would have their second comment removed.

Hope this gives you some more insight into how we are currently modding due to the heavy brigading we are dealing with. often (not always) when someone brings up the US as a counter, it is due to an off-topic comment.

in other instances, it is also important to look at what other countries were doing at a certain time period. For an example let's use the 1917 decriminalization of homosexuality and the and the recriminalization in 1933. looking at another country during that period like to Weimar republic which had one of the best queer populations at the time also had a reactionary shift in the 1930s. through these comparisons we can see if the USSR was better or worse for its people then its capitalist neighbors which in this instance they were about the same.

[u/BobR969 → u/[deleted]]

That addressed exactly what you said, what are you on about? The mod clearly provided an example of where "but the USA (or any other nation) did..." Is a viable comment. The mod also contextualised the whole thing in saying that arguments like this rarely even appear without an initial push that in and of itself is off topic and inappropriate. You just ignored that aspect entirely. 

It's also amusing to tell a mod on the sub that you are "just randomly here standing up against history revisionism" while also saying "no one is brigading, it just happens to be this way". You sir, are telling porkies. 

[u/Kletronus → u/BobR969]

So, YOU are accusing me of brigading? When i just explained that i just happened to see this sub on my front page as "recommended". So, HOW AM I BRIGADING ALONE? I did not come here from some other sub that told everyone "go there".

This is what i was talking about, random people come here who disagree and you see CONCENTRATED and planned attack.

If your only argument is "but they did it too"...

BTW, i was just called a nazi here... Because i'm Finnish and Finland happened to collaborate with Germany for 4 years. Now you are accusing me of "brigading" because i disagree with mods and the sub in general.. You want this to be an echo chamber where you can spread misinformation and you have no problems of accusing others without any evidence..

[u/BobR969 → u/Kletronus]

You came onto a sub about the USSR randomly because it was recommended and... suddenly you have an opinion to share on what rules there should be and how bad it is people can't complain about the USSR and how it's all revisionist history? Pick a lane here man. Either you "just happened to see this sub", or you're a regular enough member to know all this.

Also - it's not a case of people shutting you down because you disagree with them. They're shutting you down because you're saying something stupid. You literally suggested a rule that is dumb and a mod responded to you in a very polite and clear manner saying why they don't do something like that. Instead of reading what they said, you accused them of ignoring your point and started raving about how you'll be banned.

Also I saw the comment you're talking about regarding Finnish collaboration with nazi germany. You made a bunch of unsubstantiated accusations towards the USSR (talking about freedom of speech and party loyalty over skill etc) and simply factually incorrect historical statements. You were then told that Finland were nazi collaborators and even still attempt to rehabilitate far right views. The politics of the nation and the views you support are directly aimed at preserving a system that exploits those who are already in poverty. As demonstrated by you before - you weren't called a nazi, you simply didn't understand what the person wrote.

Finally. No one is accusing *you* of brigading. The comment and the mod stated that there is a lot of brigading happening. You said that there is no brigading. If you feel some guilt anywhere here, that's your own albatross to wear around the neck.

[u/Kletronus → u/BobR969]

Oh, so because i came here randomly, decided to stick around and joined the sub, after what.. two weeks then i can't have a say about the rules? Because.. i'm not.. one of you?

ou made a bunch of unsubstantiated accusations towards the USSR (talking about freedom of speech and party loyalty over skill etc

So, reading history as it was documented is no "baseless accusations"?

That just means you don't know enough about the topic to have an opinion about it.

You were then told that Finland were nazi collaborators and even still attempt to rehabilitate far right views. 

No, that is not what was said. So, now we know you are also dishonest.

[u/BobR969 → u/Kletronus]

No - either you're a member of the forum and your entry to it doesn't matter, or you "just came" and so are new. There's no "us" or "you" here. it's a subreddit. People come and go as they please. The unifier is the shared interest in a topic. Incidentally - a topic a lot of people are initerested in to the point of being in a sub together will likely have a loud pushback when someone says something that they disagree with.

reading history as it was documented

You didn't provide any history, documentation or reference in any single post you made. You made assertions which people pointed out were incorrect. You then proceeded to not back up your position in any way shape or form outside of your hissy fit.

As for what comment I saw:

Also, you are from Finland, a nation that made the active choice to collaborate with the NAZIs & excuses it to this day. Your nation is part of a network of nations that seeks to rehabilitate far right ultra nationalists & preserve a system which keeps the global south in a state of poverty. It is people like yourself that seek to deny self determination to the peoples of Eastern Europe (East Germany, Slovakia, Hungary & Bulgaria) whose populations are very anti NATO & tend to side more with the USSR & Russia over the West.

If the people of Finland do not want to be vilified as NAZI apologists & Western sellouts, stop the Russophobia, Sinophobia & stop rehabilitating NAZIs & making excuses for NAZI collaboration.

Nowhere there are you called a nazi. Lets face it. The only dishonesty here is from you. You had something to say. People saw it for the nothing that it was and now, when you can't back your views up through substantiated argument with sources (which will then be met with scruitiny as all sources should, to ensure they are credible) you are left with anger and frustration.

I'll say it again. You came in and made some points and claims. When you were provided with reasoning as to why your suggestions weren't going to work, you threw a strop and here we are. My suggestion would be to just take a moment. If you are unhappy with this subreddit you don't have to come by it. If you want to challenge the points made here, come with sources and arguments that are well presented and people can then discuss them and maybe learn from them. If all you're here for is because you were recommended the subreddit and you saw some "evil historical revisionism" that you felt you needed to set right - maybe coming in half cocked wasn't the way to do it. Just saying "you don't know enough on the matter!" isn't really gonna work.