And the replies explained that to them. It sounds like they were actually about even on upvotes to downvotes, but it was enough for an automod to act. They got unbanned after a real mod intervened. It is a frustrating experience, but one that’s going to vary by instance and community. They mentioned in an edit that they might give it another shot.

The other post did have some legitimate complaints about lack of content, most activity being tech bros, far-left politics, and shitpost, cumbersome ui, bad moderation, and elitist users. All of these I agree with even if I think they were exaggerated considerably. But they have all gotten better over time or can be much mitigated with some effort on the user’s part.