This is a perfectly acceptable option and in fact one I’ve suggested to some. I have no way to know if anyone followed through with that suggestion but I like to believe some have and now enjoy the anonymity and “clean break” they were looking for.
There have been past users who used anonymization to attempt to skirt responsibility for being pas bad actors (because even behind the scenes when we anonymize a user we lose all of their login history, etc.) and reporting on these in this channel has resulted in the community catching those trying to use this process for nefarious intent, but thankfully that is a very small percentage of requests as well.
Today I flagged a post, and later got a notification that the post was edited (which removed my flag). Clicking on the notification opened this window:
It never stopped spinning and didn’t display history. Is this new? I’ve never seen it before
I like the idea of nottifying that a flagged post has been edited. I don’t like that an edit automatically removes a flag, though. That is way too easy to take advantage of (and in this case the flagged post is still just as off-topic as before the edit)
Well maybe, you could rely on the innate memory of the post, it will remember all the flags applied, and we can homeopathically read those older ones too.
One highly theoretical (actually impossible) situation where I would request anonymization: I knew that I was being considered for jury duty on a Trump trial.
Exactly. That functionality was specifically requested so that trivial edits wouldn’t restore a flagged and hidden post while leaving the people who originally flagged the post no further recourse.
User girard has been permanently banned for engaging in a continual pattern of replying to posts about severe issues of racism and misogyny and making sure to call out minor issues with the framing, presentation or tone of the articles or those replying as if that is the crux of the problem, the idea that those trying to stand against racism and hatred are not sufficiently pure and without flaws to have the right to challenge the status quo.
Excuse my directness but enough of that shit. Seriously. For some reason, it’s always the posts about vulnerable populations being targeted or assaulted that pull these “yes, but” commenters out of the woodwork, as if the important takeaway is the poor choice of words used by the reporter or the inexact metaphor being used to discuss the assault or some other minutiae that is what’s important, rather than the fact that real people are being targeted and harmed by the actions of bigots and racists every day.
If you can’t reply to posts without minimizing the harm suffered by the victims, then we ask that you not post at all. These stories are not games or thought exercises. Real people are affected directly by these monsters, and derailing the topic to talk about your pet peeve is incredibly disrespectful to those same victims.
