Have I been banished to the Greys?

"marshknute" (marshknute) 07/10/2020 at 09:30 • Filed to: None

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I just noticed that I’ve been greyed on the FP. Like super greyed. As in, I’m greyed when I hit “publish ,” but my post isn’t visible at all when I reload and click “show pending.”

Perhaps not coincidentally, this happened less than 24 hours after my last Oppo post asking if the Jalopnik Admins were deleting comments. I don’t think I said anything offensive. I certainly wasn’t trying to be. I was asking an honest question, but i f I did cross a line , please let me know so I don’t make that mistake again.

Can any admins fill me in? Was I shadowbanned?  

Here’s a unicorn for your time: Mosler Raptor GTR!

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 09:38

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Nice McLaren F1!

FP has never worked properly for me...Im still greyed i think 

CalzoneGolem > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 09:40

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I don’t think Oppo mods have any clue as to what happens on the FP just like the rest of us. 

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 07/10/2020 at 09:42

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I never got ungrayed.

DasWauto > CalzoneGolem 07/10/2020 at 09:45

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I don’t think he is asking the Oppo mods, just asking the question in a public, visible space where a Jalopnik author may see it, much  like his post about comments being removed yesterday. 

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 09:46

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We don’t control Jalopnik and they don’t control us. So your guess is as good as mine

DasWauto > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 09:46

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Looks that way. I un- greyed a couple by recommending them but someone will have to reinstate you properly by following you for Jalopnik (assuming that’s still how it works). 

marshknute > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 07/10/2020 at 09:48

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This is the first I’m learning that there’s a difference between Jalopnik admins and Oppo admins. I had always assumed they were one and the same.  

marshknute > DasWauto 07/10/2020 at 09:50

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Does it have to be a Jalopnik admin , or can any un-greyed Jalopnik user follow me ?

vondon302 > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 09:50

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Frankly you might be better off.

DasWauto > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 09:55

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Jalop admin only. Any un-greyed commenter can bump  comments out of the greys by recommending them but that only applies to those comments.

3point8isgreat > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 10:15

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Mmm Mosler.  I was so surprised when I saw a Consulier GTP driving near my work a few years ago.  Ugly car, but neat to see one in person.

Thomas Donohue > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 10:30

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I’m happy to shit-comment for you on the FP if necessary.

I’m still in the black, but that Bradley guy will eventually have me shadowed out.

punkgoose17 > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 10:46

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I am just here for the Mosler.

KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 10:50

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I am happy to report that my “Premium Gold Level” FP commenter membership is intact.

TheRealBicycleBuck > DasWauto 07/10/2020 at 11:28

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Are you in the greys on Gizmodo? If not, would you mind doing the same for the following post? It’s a comprehensive response to someone and I doubt they are going to respond, forever keeping it in the greys.

https://gizmodo.com/1844335346

Thanks.

CruzeHatch > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 11:34

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I seem to have been shadowbanned as well starting like 2 days ago. I’ve been ungrayed for years over on Jalopnik. Suddenly I’m getting ZERO replies to my comments and when I post I’m gray. I’m still fine here and on Lifehacker, AV club and The Takeout where I’ve been ungrayed for some time now as well. Stars and replies to stuff on those sites is working normally. I’m also grayed on Giz but stars and replies are working fine there too. I shot an email to Jason asking so see if he could look into it but haven’t heard anything yet, probably won’t for a few days I’d assume.

Derpwagon > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 11:37

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Welcome to the club. My shadowban was a couple of years back, and I never got back out of the greys. Jalopnik is mostly garbage anyway these days, no real loss. 

knutemotorsport > CruzeHatch 07/10/2020 at 11:51

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How did you get Jason’s email? Am I allowed to ask you for his email address ? Not sure about privacy etiquette on a public forum like this.  

4kc > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 12:09

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Once upon a time there was more relations 

A Boy and His Longtail > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 07/10/2020 at 12:29

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Dude, I’m pretty sure that’s a Lambo

CruzeHatch > knutemotorsport 07/10/2020 at 12:29

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If you click on an author’s name on any article it’ll bring you to their page and if they’ve elected to list an email it’ll be there. His was listed, jason@jalopnik.com.

I explained what’s going on and said I had no idea why I would suddenly be shadow banned. He actually replied right after I made the above post and said he’d get be back ungrayed today.

DasWauto > TheRealBicycleBuck 07/10/2020 at 13:04

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I wasn’t sure if I was greyed there as I have mostly  avoided Giz since the Jesus Diaz days. Alas, my star-click did nothing. 

TheRealBicycleBuck > DasWauto 07/10/2020 at 13:08

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I appreciate the effort! I asked another person in the same thread to reply or star it. T he world shall see that Mr. Piggy is in error! :)

AdamVIP > CruzeHatch 07/10/2020 at 15:23

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Ive been demoted as well. I emailed Rory 2 days ago and have not received a response. I am not grayed on the Takeout only on Jalopnik.

I am a bit bummed as I have been posting for years and even got a COTD thread last year. I probably rank pretty high in site interaction.

SmugAardvark > marshknute 07/10/2020 at 21:48

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I suspect that the comment sections of the rest of the front page Kinja sites will eventually go the way of Deadspin, and just be disabled altogether .

Admittedly, I have mixed feelings about that idea . I do love having a place to talk with some like-minded folks. But on the other hand, it’s no secret that the anonymity of the internet brings out the worst in some people.

I’ve been greyed and un-greyed across multiple sites on Kinja over the years (except for never leaving the greys on Jezebel and The Root, which is fine, as those are both places where the voice of another straight white male is wholly unnecessary ) , seemingly at the wills of individual writers and how they feel on that particular day . What some people see as a good-natured question or comment, others see as a personal attack. And you know what? That’s okay . It’s their site, not mine. But it has left me leaning towards the idea that doing away with comments is ultimately for the greater good.

As long as they allow the sub-groups like Oppo stay as they are...

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > A Boy and His Longtail 07/10/2020 at 23:11

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CruzeHatch > AdamVIP 07/11/2020 at 06:04

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And you were gray here until I just starred your post lol. Jason s aid he’d get me ungrayed yesterday but I’m still gray and seemingly shadowbanned as I’m not getting ANY replies to any of my posts.

Urambo Tauro > marshknute 07/11/2020 at 10:35

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Shadowbanning is a dick move ( unless the offense was so blatant that they can confidently say “you know what you did”) . I f you weren’t notified of having been banned, then I say you have every right to consider it a glitch and report it to the Kinja team.

AdamVIP > CruzeHatch 07/13/2020 at 08:50

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Interestingly I can see your comments on Jalopnik. They are definitely gray though. Not sure if shadow bans are nulled by following someone though so you may still be shadow banned.

CruzeHatch > AdamVIP 07/13/2020 at 10:45

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Strange. Still not getting any replies to my replies though which is weird

AdamVIP > CruzeHatch 07/13/2020 at 11:35

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I don’ t get them either. Its likely that we can just see it because we follow or maybe they lump all the shadow bans together. 

CruzeHatch > AdamVIP 07/13/2020 at 11:51

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Maybe. Strange that it seemed to get us at the same time. I’m sure there’s others. I’m going to shoot Jason another email today and ask what’s up

AdamVIP > CruzeHatch 07/13/2020 at 13:42

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Checking the other thread it seems there was a bit of a mass banning from Raph. I’m guessing we got caught up in it. It was the thread about the protesters getting hit in Manhattan  by that car. I don’t remember posting in that one but who knows.

EDIT: HEres the thread with Raph going on about a mass banning

https://jalopnik.com/1844309558#replies

I cant find any posts from me in my history for that thread.

CruzeHatch > AdamVIP 07/13/2020 at 14:51

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I was in that thread as well. Well not in jimmy-buffett’s actual thread but I had commented on that post plenty. Never said anything bad though. The two replies from Blinker Fluid and Eddie-Brannan to me were in that article and those were the ones that I first noticed I couldn’t see, then noticed I was gray. Yet the posts I made that those replies were in response to are still there - stars and all. Funny how Jimmy isn’t shadow banned after all the stirring he did lol.

I don’t see any post in there from Rapha about banning people though. Maybe I ’m just not looking hard enough 

EDIT: Found his post:

https://jalopnik.com/1844310333

we be bannin’

I am amazed at people:

1. taking time out of their day to post racist shit online

2. thinking that their voice needs to be heard in this community

3. thinking that Jalopnik would want anything to do with commenters who would find it “understandable” to ram their car through a batch of protesters! this is not a place for assholes to hang out

I guess I fell into the #3 category for saying I agreed with t he driver for driving through because people were smashing his windows out. I guess Raph feels that self-defense is something to ban over?

AdamVIP > CruzeHatch 07/13/2020 at 15:02

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The thread was put up to be political and they don’ t want dissenting opinions. Th e site has been hugely political the last year or so. I must have been flagged for a different post since I didn’ t post on that one. There are plenty of dissenting opinions form me though so they may have picked one of those from another thread .

Of note they seem to be rerunning iterations of all the political threads in the last few days.  They are probably baiting for more banning.  I’ve been following a few of the top rated comments against the narrative so well see how it goes.

Stormin-Norman > AdamVIP 07/13/2020 at 17:34

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I guess misery loves company lol . To address your above comment, I responded to OP with this and the post was deleted (and then magically re-appeared the next day):

I’ve been on this site in some shape or another for over 10 years. For the first time, I got “grayed” on Jalopnik. Check the comment history, there’s no hate, merely a viewpoint that dissents from the overall tone of the article. Last I checked, isn’t Kinja (or whatever we’re calling this) designed to promote friendly conversation? I’ve been nothing but civil (even thanking people for doing the same), and yet I’m getting silenced on here. Go ahead, you SHOULD ban Lizardo: He’s a racist pig and there’s no place for people dropping N-bombs out of nowhere.

That said, there’s a bunch of people on here that are rightfully frustrated with the lack of transparency and the blatant omissions from this article. Here’s the full video showing protestors brandishing a weapon and slashing tires. You don’t slash tires if you want someone to leave. You slash tires because you intend to hold them there. What’s the next step? Smashing windows? Or are they about to turn this motorist into the next Reginald Denny? I’m unbiased enough to admit that we still don’t know what occurred prior to the cameras rolling in this video (and thus it’s very possible that this man initiated this confrontation willingly), but its undeniable that this video below paints a far more complete picture than the one you’ve held to be the “truth”. Silencing commentors because they have a different viewpoint is unacceptable, especially when they present evidence (such as the video below) to merely state that there’s always more than one version to a story.  

USE YOUR IMAGINATION - THERE WAS A VIDEO LINK ED HERE

CruzeHatch > Stormin-Norman 07/14/2020 at 07:44

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Yea I emailed Jason yesterday saying that it would seem Raph decided to go on a ban spree based on his feelings. Haven’t heard back yet as of right now.

Pretty bullshit stance honestly. I made a reply basically saying that if a bunch of protesters started surrounding my car and threatening me I’d put my gun in plain sight. If that didn’t work I’d try to drive away. If they prevented this and started smashing windows I’d surely be at minimum pointing the gun. I managed to acquire quite a few stars on t ha t comment so I know I’m not alone in my thinking. I made another reply to someone else and said that I had no problem with t hat guy driving away and if they started surrounding my car and smashing windows I’d do the same. MattcannonTM replied to me (see my picture above) and then I replied to his comment with “Well as far as we know. The posted video doesn’t show the whole situation” and of course that comment is long gone.

Sad that writers can write articles that’s open for discussion an d then start banning people that don’t agree with them. I wonder if he went and found people who starred comments that he didn’t agree with and banned them too.

The sad part is that there’s ungayed people who post some REALLY bad shit sometimes and I never see them get banned. I make thoughtful posts, didn’ t attack anyone, offered counter arguments and I get banned.

Stormin-Norman > CruzeHatch 07/14/2020 at 09:59

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I honestly have no clue what’s going on with the authors/moderators. It’s obvious that they’re purposely trying to weed out the users with dissenting opinions to ban/gray them. Why would they ban/gray us? Well, I have two theories.

First, I think they simply don’t want to have a conversation with us. It seems to me that many of the moderators/authors will never change their tone on specific issues, and we are a nuisance to what would otherwise be a comment section filled with similar opinions.

My second theory relates to advertiser revenue. At the end of the day, Jalopnik exists to turn a profit. Full stop. Profit for Jalopnik (and the rest of the Kinja/Gawker platforms) comes from advertising revenue. The ability to curate your audience and specifically identify your core demographic makes your site much more attractive to prospective advertisers. In light of that, they probably don’t want our comments to be visible/at the very top of a thread if they’re telling advertisers that their core base is overwhelmingly left-leaning; after all, I doubt you’ll ever see an add for sex toys on Fox News, whereas this space is probably one of the few “news” outlets that will run a daily deals section where sex toys are prominently displayed. 

CruzeHatch > AdamVIP 07/16/2020 at 07:44

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Well after a few days of radio silence after my last email I emailed again this morning. We’ll see if he replies -_-

AdamVIP > CruzeHatch 07/16/2020 at 08:39

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Let us know how it goes.

CruzeHatch > AdamVIP 07/16/2020 at 11:39

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I’m back! Got two notifications saying Jalopnik started following me and I’m back to ungray! Thanks Jason!

AdamVIP > CruzeHatch 07/16/2020 at 12:38

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Neato.  Mind if I reference you in an email request to him?

CruzeHatch > AdamVIP 07/16/2020 at 13:36

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Nah man go for it. Just explain the situation and make sure to reference posts that show you clearly weren’t being racist or violent or anything.

Negative > CruzeHatch 07/16/2020 at 14:34

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Apparently I am out, as well. I simply disagreed with Raphael’s very bad take on an article. I said nothing even remotely racist because I’m not racist. Censorship is nonsense in the Western World, period. It’s almost as dishonorable as not even bothering to give a reason (Probably because they didn’t have one).

And to think I stuck up for that kid over on YouTube when some assholes were saying some very disgusting things about him. Won’t be doing that again.

CruzeHatch > Negative 07/16/2020 at 14:42

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Yea seems a bunch of us got caught up in it. I’m back to normal now as of this morning thanks to emailing with Jason (jason@jalopnik.com) and explaining the situation.

I understand Raph’s intent as there were all sorts of shitty accounts making shitty comments. From reading other comments on t ha t article it would seem he banned a ton of accounts and deleted like 80 comments or something.

He definitely got a little trigger happy IMO.

Negative > CruzeHatch 07/16/2020 at 14:42

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I wish I had the address. I’m over being greyed, I’m not sure I’d want to support a company that supports censorship and bans opinions they don’t agree with . At this point, I’d just like to know what it was I said that was so wrong. I damn sure know it wasn’t racist so what gives?

CruzeHatch > Negative 07/16/2020 at 14:50

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Wish you had what address? I put Jason’s email (jason@jalopnik.com) in my comment if you need it lol. I just told him what happened and explained I wasn’t being violent or racist or anything (and of course they can check your post history simply by checking your profile) and now I’m back.

Negative > CruzeHatch 07/16/2020 at 14:58

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Thanks man, I didn’t see your reply until I refreshed the page. I’ll see if Jason is willing to tell me what it was I said that was wrong-think.

AdamVIP > CruzeHatch 07/16/2020 at 14:59

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I sent Jason an email. Ill let you know how it goes. I didn’t reference you specifically. I’m s ure he ’ll comb my post history anyways and figure it out.

Negative > CruzeHatch 07/16/2020 at 15:12

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So I did some digging and here is what I said:

“ That’s not going to be a popular opinion around here even if it is a fact.” 33 stars

“ That’s not how they win arguments. Facts are meaningless. Deflection + name calling is the modus operandi taught at the university indoctrination camps, comrade.”

Both are just facts ? D efinitely a bit snarky, and large ly unnecessary, but how is that, in any way, racist?

AdamVIP > CruzeHatch 07/21/2020 at 09:39

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No reply back. Its a bit disheartening. I don’ t even have a post history in that thread so it would be nice to at least get a response back.

CruzeHatch > AdamVIP 07/21/2020 at 10:09

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That’s strange. He got back to me the firs time same day. Second time took a couple days and I had to email him again but then he got it sorted.