cross-posted from: https://lemmy.perthchat.org/post/226786

Autobans coming for participation in subs that promote brigading of landlords

I know there was some debate surrounding whether to allow dissenting views or not on the sub. As I mentioned before I’m of the idea that political views shape business views. Back in the 50’s through to more modern times steering minorities was commonly done. Was race a political and social issue? Sure. Should landlords of the time have been paying attention to it? Absolutely. Were there landlords at the time who thought it shouldn’t have been part of a business discussion? Again, I’m sure there were.

I look at today’s political climate as just another trend in social issues affecting the business world, our business world. If there can be civil conversation about it, I think it should be encouraged. After all, the people with those political views may end up being our tenants, our neighbors, or the neighbors of property we own. Understanding what they’re thinking, expecting, and more importantly what actions they may take can only help us as business people. While I am sure that none of us agree with rent strikes, and 5 years ago no one would have even thought of such a thing affecting them, today’s political and social environment has made it a reality we need to deal with. There was an attempt made to start a new sub over at /r/land_lord for only “non-communist” ideologies to post. That sub lasted a couple days before it was brigaded to death and the creator deleted their account. We’ve survived many attempts at brigading. I’ve taken the harassing message for me to die, to be taken for a walk to the guillotine, and the overall harassment directly sent simply because I am a mod of this sub. C’est la vie. Decades as a landlord has given me think skin.

The sub being private has worked out to quell the brigading that has been going on. We’ve got just about 600 users who requested and were permitted as approved users of the sub. While I am against autobanning people for having alternative views, there is a bot that can autoban users who post in controversial subs, then we can whitelist later if the user isn’t here to harass and requests access. We’re starting off by autobanning those who post or comment in the 3 main Chapo subs and LateStageCapitalism. If more need to be added, we’ll get them added.

To assist with the potential for new users brigading we’re going to re-implement account aging and minimum karma requirements for posting/commenting. This will increase the number of posts and comments which get removed, but it will help keep the brigading down. The bad part is that anyone who creates a throwaway account to try and post will have that post/comment auto-removed and it will need to be manually approved.

With the upcoming re-opening of the sub publicly to see if these new features help, I would ask that everyone remain vigilant and report any comments or posts which don’t belong. We’re a community and self-policing the content is important. Reporting things brings them up in a list that can easily be read and removed. Some trolls have multiple accounts which they age and gain karma solely to use in subs that have conditions like this. If opening the sub up floods us with brigading again, we’ll go back private.

I’ve been getting a lot of messages from tenants that want access to the sub because they are searching Google for information and our sub is being linked to the answer. Much like I think it’s good for landlords to learn the differing views that might affect them, I think tenants seeking out the view of landlords in these times only helps us all.

Thanks for being a member of the community, thanks for helping, and most of all, thanks for making this a great place to share ideas, resources, frustrations and successes.