r/The_Donald builds a wall... around itself

[Cthulhu 2020]

In an act that surprises absolutely nobody, r/The_Donald has gone private "in defiance of reddit admins" and their supposed hate of free speech. This coming from a subreddit that will outright ban anyone who does not get on their knees and become Trump's "mouthpiece". This coming from a subreddit where you get karma from posting about terrorist attacks that didn't even happen.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDr...test_of_their/

The_Donald has gone private.
Here is the text of their reason for posterity

At 8:41pm ET on 5/19/2017 Reddit removed three The_Donald mods because we refused to comply by a special set of rules that were solely imposed on this subreddit to marginalize the only major community which doesn't conform to the echo chamber of Reddit and corporate media.
Our mod team continues to stand strong in support of free speech, equal treatment and application of the rules for all subreddits. We are temporarily private in a show of strength against these unfair and unequal rules.

For context, /r/The_Donald has clashed with the admins for quite a while, and had several rules imposed on it, like being banned from linking to r/politics. It is also speculated that the algorithm for r/all being redone and the ability to filter r/all were specific acts taken because of and against the_donald. This crackdown from the admins also comes after a new set of much stricter rules for moderators. While resentments between t_d mods and the admins have been simmering for a long time, there are some specific recent events that have led to this which I detailed in a post yesterday, copied here
Yesterday, this post daring the admins to change the score appeared on r/all for a few hours despite showing a score of 0. Many users inside and outside of The_Donald assumed the admins had actually manipulated the score. (Although it's worth noting there's no evidence of this and it could be related to the same glitch that caused the entire frontpage to be r/the_donald. Others are speculating that the post had a positive score before reaching r/all and being downvoted by non t_d users, and then it took a while to disappear from the listing). A similar thing happened with a second post. To my knowledge, the admins have not responded to these accusations.

Today, a t_d mod stickied a post ( mirror ) condemning the restrictions admins have placed on the subreddit and threatning that t_d users will leave. The moderator promotes reddit clone Voat, which yesterday announced it may shut down due to lack of funds. Another user is promoting both Voat and his own site as an alternative.

A few posts are cropping up on like this in defiance of the rule against linking r/politics. There are a lot more posts like this in the anti-trump subreddits but they're not worth linking because it's just circlejerking.
Other subreddits have so far reacted with derision. An iamverybaddass post mocking the t_d mod. Rebuttals from trump supporters are buried in the controversial sorting. 1 2 3

The current #1 post on r/all is this one. A stickied comment accuses Voat of brigading. There's no drama in this thread because it's been overwhelmed with trump opposers.

EDIT 9:45 EST: t_d mods are announcing that the poster of the complaint and the top mod of t_d has been suspended for 3 days. As of right now, OhSnap's complaint is unstickied and showing as [removed].

UPDATES
9:55 EST: kaminsky_ has provided me with this screenshot of the "rising" page, and told me it was taken after the first mod was removed from the_donald
10:00: Here is a screenshot posted to Voat of the alleged message from the admins to the mods of t_d. (I say alleged because I can never know if a screenshot is real or not)
10:04: the_donald users are reacting in this thread
10:12: here is a post made by a moderator shortly before the subreddit went private
10:46: The message in the_donald has been changed, promising an update at 9 EST tomorrow
At 8:41pm ET on 5/19/2017, Reddit Admins removed three The_Donald mods without warning. This was punishment for our refusal to comply to a special set of rules that were imposed only on this subreddit and prevented our members from fully enjoying reddit or our mods from defending users against harassment.

We are temporarily private in a show of strength against these unfair restrictions. Check back at 9 PM EST tomorrow for an announcement.
and here is a comment from wearytunes, who is lurking their discord
The general plan seems to be:
Post in pro-trump communities, link to discord, then upvote
go to /r/all/rising and upvote userpage posts and pro-trump content.

The second is obviously because the admins would have to play whackamole with accounts.
The first is a bit more devious. They're explicitly trying to implicate as many pro-trump subs as possible, hoping that the crackdown from the admins will so wide that it forces all trump supporters onto voat.

12:22: As the_donald users flee to voat, the current userbase is none too pleased and there is a bit of a war (and some damn buttery popcorn) between voat's subreddit for Donald Trump and the official replacement made by the t_d mods. It would seem that the t_d users are losing this battle as there are many posts on the front page of voat right now that are critical of them

1:28: Since t_d went private, users and mods have been organizing on the aforementioned discord and talking about possible plans for a response. Here is a screenshot from that discord. I don't know of anything being a solid plan right now, since I assume anyone in that discord is free to make suggestions.

1:42: A mod of the_donald says it will be open tomorrow

This came up in another thread, and figured rather than derailing said thread, it should have its own.

[GennGreymane]

They banned me

[Acidbaron]

Is giving a bunch of people barely able to read and write understandable text that show they are able to understand complicated matters or any subject currently occupying the minds of people today attention really a good thing?

Beyond being a display of fake conservatism did that group ever really have a purpose beyond angry people spouting their conspiracy theories.

[Skroe]

I think we can tell from the Trumpkin crybaby's here, how much of an irony it is that these snowflakes need safe spaces. Not surprising they walled themselves in at The_Donald. They're soft people and they've had a bad two weeks.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Before r/The_Donald went dark, the entire front page of the subreddit was whining about how the media was talking about "fake leaks" and not Seth Rich's murder by the DNC/Hillary shadow government.

[Felya]

Sometimes this forum drama gets more complicated than actual political news.

- - - Updated - - -

Before r/The_Donald went dark, the entire front page of the subreddit was whining about how the media was talking about "fake leaks" and not Seth Rich's murder by the DNC/Hillary shadow government.

Is that why those were posted seemingly randomly into Trump thread over last week. I figured it was either sarcastic or trolling.

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I think we can tell from the Trumpkin crybaby's here, how much of an irony it is that these snowflakes need safe spaces. Not surprising they walled themselves in at The_Donald. They're soft people and they've had a bad two weeks.

Seeing as they are Trump supporters, I think their gap of good news was limited to a day in November.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Is that why those were posted seemingly randomly into Trump thread over last week. I figured it was either sarcastic or trolling.

The people who have self-proclaimed to have swallowed "the red pill" (probably their dementia medication) genuinely believe Seth Rich was murdered by the DNC/Hillary shadow coalition.

These are the same people who without a hint of irony, vehemently deny every single thing being leaked out of the white house even as it is confirmed by Trump himself.

They genuinely believe that Hillary would off a 27-year-old Bernie supporter long after the primaries/election is over just for funsies.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

About time.

I fight for the freedom of speech. I think that being able to discuss everything is a human right.

But they've isolated themselves, continuously censored people who disagreed with them. They've auto-censored themselves and now they ask for support while playing the victim?

No. May TD have a terrible, long and painful death.

[Felya]

The people who have self-proclaimed to have swallowed "the red pill" (probably their dementia medication) genuinely believe Seth Rich was murdered by the DNC/Hillary shadow coalition.

These are the same people who without a hint of irony, vehemently deny every single thing being leaked out of the white house even as it is confirmed by Trump himself.

They genuinely believe that Hillary would off a 27-year-old Bernie supporter long after the primaries/election is over just for funsies.

Really? But, isn't the source of those email a phishing scam?

[Snorkles]

Are they tired of winning yet?

[Bullettime]

About time.

I fight for the freedom of speech. I think that being able to discuss everything is a human right.

But they've isolated themselves, continuously censored people who disagreed with them. They've auto-censored themselves and now they ask for support while playing the victim?

No. May TD have a terrible, long and painful death.

They also use their platform to try to infect the rest of the website and controlled all the popular/top articles through botting and vote brigading. The only reason they're even still around is the admins putting them in quarantine to try to control the damage, but they're finding ways around it now.

[Mormolyce]

If only we could apply a travel ban to it too.

Before r/The_Donald went dark, the entire front page of the subreddit was whining about how the media was talking about "fake leaks" and not Seth Rich's murder by the DNC/Hillary shadow government.

I hear they spirit cooked his corpse in a pizzeria.

- - - Updated - - -

Are they tired of winning yet?

The nefarious mainstream media misquoted him. Goddamn fake news. He meant to say "you're going to get tired of whining".

[paralleluniverse]

❄️❄️❄️Snowflakes.❄️❄️❄️

[Garnier Fructis]

I'm slightly saddened, since I used the_Donald to satisfy my morbid curiosity.

[lazypeon100]

I'm slightly saddened, since I used the_Donald to satisfy my morbid curiosity.

I would go just to do the whole "know your enemy" kind of thing.

But they needed a safespace, who am I to say they can't have one?

[Deleted]

So they made a Safe Space?

[Garnier Fructis]

They're back. They made it public again because 'Seth Rich's killers haven't been found yet.'

[Jester Joe]

They're back. They made it public again because 'Seth Rich's killers haven't been found yet.'

Such a show of strength.

I mean, they already have a wall basically by banning anyone who disagrees, it's not like making it private makes a huge difference.

[Deleted]

T_D is a weird place. Its obviously a subreddit designed to praise trump, just like other subreddits are for other policitians, but T_D doesn't seem to want to admit that they are just the same as other, similar subreddits. Instead they seem to see themselves as some bastion of free speech on reddit, mostly because you can post pro Trump stuff there without getting banned like you would on a lot of other subreddits, users of TD just dont seem to realise they themselves are banning people for anti trump speech, which is fine imo, they just need to be less hypocritical about it.

- - - Updated - - -

So they made a Safe Space?

The_donald basically is just a safe space for Trump supporters on reddit, which would be fine if they would just acknowledge that rather than thinking of them selves as any different to other politician/party based subs.

[Bullettime]

T_D is a weird place. Its obviously a subreddit designed to praise trump, just like other subreddits are for other policitians, but T_D doesn't seem to want to admit that they are just the same as other, similar subreddits. Instead they seem to see themselves as some bastion of free speech on reddit, mostly because you can post pro Trump stuff there without getting banned like you would on a lot of other subreddits, users of TD just dont seem to realise they themselves are banning people for anti trump speech, which is fine imo, they just need to be less hypocritical about it.

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The_donald basically is just a safe space for Trump supporters on reddit, which would be fine if they would just acknowledge that rather than thinking of them selves as any different to other politician/party based subs.

Which would be fine if all they were dong is posting pro Trump stuff. They keep getting smacked down by the reddit admins because of them getting caught vote brigading, botting, doxxing, etc to "spread their message" and attack opponents. The admins are in a pickle right now because outright killing things like t_d, Stormfront, etc could lead to them attacking the website like a plague but quarantining them isn't proving to work any longer since they're coming up with other ways to bypass the quarantine.

Reddit either gives them more freedom and undoes some of the "punishments" they took for doing things like doxxing and vote brigading which sets a horrible precedent on their site, continues on the current path of quarantine which is getting less effective, or outright rip the bandaid off and try to fix the damage which would be a disaster.