Bear blog: Is it toxic?
I read a post this morning: Leaving BearBlog | Yunzi's Blog
This isn't the first such post I've read before. There have been a few. But the shared points are usually these:
- They feel attacked by meta reply posts
- They think their blog has been shadow banned (or it has been)
- And therefore they are upset with censorship on the platform
I've definitely seen some of the back-and-forth posts that sometimes get heated, but I don't feel that anybody has piled onto someone else. I can't speak to the issue of shadow banning, because I don't look at the Discover feed enough to say, "Oh, that post used to be here, where did it go?"
It's fair to say I'm writing this from a privileged position: nobody hates me (maybe). I've written reply posts, but nothing vitriolic (at least, in my opinion). Anybody who has linked to my posts or replied to me have been positive experiences.
Unfortunately that means that I don't have an answer to the question posed in my post title. I do not know if Bear Blog or the community is toxic. I only ever see the positive side. Is that a function of upvotes, or is it actually shadow banning in practice?
Ultimately this is a single person's project (Herman) and we're all living in his world. Moderation is a tough thing to get right, especially for one person. I will ask this question: has anyone volunteered to Herman to say "I can help!"? I certainly haven't (nor do I want to help with moderation, I've done that before and it is thankless).