Banned on Lobsters

Technically, my account is still accessible: I can post links, but I'm not allowed to submit links to my own blog or my GitHub.

It all started when I wrote a post arguing that blogs should have comment sections. The post gained some traction and generated discussions on Lobsters (later post was removed, here is the archived version). However, at some point, someone in the comments suggested that the article had been written with the help of an LLM. It was not; i wrote it myself! Yes, on my own website, I left a comment that could be interpreted as if the text had been generated. I guess I need to add a sarcasm badge to my comments. A moderator saw that comment and concluded that the blog post was indeed written using an LLM, and considered that a sufficient reason to ban me.

Separately (and more fairly), I was also accused of self-promo. When I first joined Lobsters, I noticed the release tag and assumed it was appropriate to share my own project releases there. At the time, that seemed reasonable to me. I got banned for the first time, I realized that this wasn't aligned with the community's expectations, and I adjusted my behavior. Admin unbanned me, thanks! But I still enjoy building projects, and I genuinely want feedback from the community. Most of the projects I shared on Lobsters received positive responses. From my perspective, this felt like fair and transparent participation.

Now I'm banned for the second time, Lobsters policy effectively prohibits self-promo: if you build something yourself, you're expected to wait until someone else submits it. You're not supposed to post links to your own work (the allowed ratio is 25%). But I mostly read Lobsters, and that's where I discover "new links." I'm not entirely sure where I'm supposed to find alternative sources. But those are the platform's rules, and they have the right to define them as they see fit.

To be clear: I'm not trying to litigate Lobsters rules. They can run their community however they want, and I'm not here to argue about it.

Instead, I've decided to build my own link-sharing website. Ideologically, it will be very close to Lobsters (I still generally like the idea and approach). With one important difference: creators will be allowed (and encouraged) to submit their own work under a show tag; as long as it isn't spam or pure advertising.

That site is called Crow Watch.

Why "Crow"? Partly because crows have a reputation for being smart and highly social. And partly because they're collectors: they notice interesting things and bring them back to the flock.

Crow Watch will be invite-only. That's not meant to be gatekeep-y; it's just the simplest way to keep spam down while the moderation tools and norms settle.

That said, a link site is nothing without people. So I'm inviting you to join and help shape it.

You can register here (temporary link):

• https://crow.watch/join/medv