So,

I've noticed this for some time now, but just ignored it, as it didn't affect me as much.

Recently something happened on the internet and I've been thinking more about this. I was banned from a sub reddit, AND I'm wondering if it's just me or is this a more systemic issue? I felt judged…

What can we do about this?

Does anything need to be done at all?

There seems to be clear levels of game dev success, each with higher and HIGHER levels of gate keepers, with good reason, but it seems more and more people are being judged and relegated AND STUCK AT SPECIFIC LEVELS.

Is this actually a concern or am i making a mountain out of a molehill?

@GeneralJist I'm sure you weren't banned for not being successful enough 🙂 Unless you pretended you were…

This is not a Business And Law question. Moved to the Lounge.

And: when you say “What can we do about this?” what do you mean by “we”? Are you including us?

Many subreddits will ban you for having the wrong opinion. It's easy to get banned on the political discussion groups, either right or left leaning, and you don't even have to actually break any of their listed rules. With game-dev groups it's harder but if you break any of their rules it's still possible. What group banned you?

In general, reddit is not a free speech website. It's a tribal website, and if the tribe leaders feel you don't fit in for any reason, they can and often will ban you for no offence whatsoever. This is a general problem with user moderated sites, and it's worse these days as free speech is often considered bad by younger generations. There used to be this idea of “I don't agree with what you are saying, but I defend your right to say it”. That mentality is mostly long gone.

GeneralJist said:
Recently something happened on the internet and I've been thinking more about this. I was banned from a sub reddit, AND I'm wondering if it's just me or is this a more systemic issue? I felt judged…

Having read a lot of your recent posts here… yes, it's 100% you. You show an attitidue of narcissism, lake of empathy or ability to view things from others viewpoints, and show a general level of grandiousity that doesn't sit well with people. I don't mean this as an insult, but I just think it's something you need to realise. People don't like this. Whoever is right, nobody like someone who constantly brags about their own “achievements” and takes every ounce of criticism as a personal insult. I think I remember you said something about having a general mental illness, from which this comes. In which case, I'm sorry. I've struggled with clinical depression for a few years some time ago and I know this stuff messes with your head. But, what this thread kind of confirms to me is that, you just need to learn to accept who you are, and not rely on what other people think of you. If you are successful, you don't need to constantly say it and expect people to agree with you. You should just try to accept what it is: You are just a guy. You are not the next coming of jesus, nor are you a complete and utter failure. You have achieved a lot of things, but you are not an earthshattering success that everyone and their mother wants to strive to be. Learn to accept who you are, stop worrying what other people thing, and stop shoving your opinion down other peoples throat. Learn to distinguish the genuine haters and trolls (which there are some) from the people who you just generally offset with your (abjectively) weird (current) behaviour. Good luck on your journey on finding your inner peace. (lol I sound like a hippie right now).

PS: As in a lot of your posts here, I base this upon not exactly knowing what you wrote that got you banned. You could have been banned for simply writing “Hey guys, nice weather today is it not”? (unlikely); or maybe something along your usual “look how fking awesome I am compared to you lol you all suck” for the 20th time that month (probably); or for all I know you could have posted something along the line of “<insert minority here> should be exterminated” (equally unlikely but)… we simply don't know, without you showing what you said.

So, I'll admit, I do have a reality distortion field, as I seen most people do as well, I'd disagree that I'm as narcissistic. as people like to characterize me.

Also from all my experience since I 1st got on the internet, my bare naked typed words are usually sounding a lot harsher THAN HOW i ACTUALLY AM. I strive to be correct over being liked, And i think this inner position is passively conveyed.

Tom Sloper said:
by “we”? Are you including us?

YES, This is a community?

How can we as a community combat elitism in our industry?

Gnollrunner said:
What group banned you?

Dam, A direct question, I was hoping to hide this, Sigh, R game dev classifieds…

This on one end kinda screws me over, but on the other hand, the way the moderator responded to me made me not feel welcome, and that he was looking down on me, thus this thread.

I asked people to buy my book, and in return, I'd help them out.

They interpreted this as “Self promo" and “working for free” which are both not allowed.

I think a temporary ban would have ben appropriate, but the moderator did a perma ban, which I felt like it was a “GTFO” and “we don't want your kind here.”

He bitched that I was promoting Rev share in his sub, which was not true.

I haven't posted in his sub since they banned “rev share”.

Gnollrunner said:
There used to be this idea of “I don't agree with what you are saying, but I defend your right to say it”. That mentality is mostly long gone.

I still try to maintain this, but it's getting harder and harder. This in itself is what used to make America Great. We could disagree fundamentally, on issues, yet still shake hands at the end of the day.

m_waddams said:
Unless you pretended you were…

All this has made me realize “success” is actually really subjective.

It's only in the comparison, that how successful a person is, is what and how is measured.

I used to think there were clear ranks and levels of success…

I don't think I handled this issue correctly, I let my emotions cloud my judgment.

GeneralJist said:
Tom Sloper said: by “we”? Are you including us?

General said: YES, This is a community? How can we as a community combat elitism in our industry?

Oh. I thought the problem was you got banned from some subreddit. Didn't realize “elitism” was so rampant in game development. Sexism, yes. Ageism, yes. Racism too, but elitism? And I don't see how your being banned from some subreddit is indicative of ANYthing inherent to the game industry, much less worthy of my taking up a sign and marching in protest against the unfairnesses of Reddit.

GeneralJist said:

R game dev classifieds…

This on one end kinda screws me over, but on the other hand, the way the moderator responded to me made me not feel welcome, and that he was looking down on me, thus this thread.

I asked people to buy my book, and in return, I'd help them out.

They interpreted this as “Self promo" and “working for free” which are both not allowed.

I think a temporary ban would have ben appropriate, but the moderator did a perma ban, which I felt like it was a “GTFO” and “we don't want your kind here.”

He bitched that I was promoting Rev share in his sub, which was not true.

I haven't posted in his sub since they banned “rev share”.

The r/gameDevClassifieds rules are pretty straight forward. You offer services for pay, or you offer to hire for pay ( pay == money). As you know, revshare is not allowed. That being said if you post a revshare project, someone will warn you, remove the post and you will typically be told to go to r/INAT. I've never seen someone banned for that, at least not for a first-time offense. Selling your book is a different matter. I mean yeah, that's self-promo in my opinion. r/gameDevClassifieds is really not an appropriate sub for that, and it might even be taken as an attempted scam.

GeneralJist said:
I asked people to buy my book, and in return, I'd help them out. They interpreted this as “Self promo" and “working for free”

You did the same thing here. I interpreted it as “the price of my worldclass assistance is that you buy my book,” so I hid the post and warned you about offering services for pay in Hobby Project Classifieds.