Firstly, I understand why, most blank profiles are bots, but it’s so frustrating trying to dm people, and interact in communities when you are mostly a lurker. Now I’m not a lurker here, but on other places it’s very annoying when you just want to talk to a specific person. Reddit is especially dreadful for new accounts or lurkers. Karma requirement’s are such bullshit.
I’m pretty active here. And I’ll never do anything with my profile. I think it’s dumb.
Why would you need anything in someomes profile to join a discussion?
Why are you DMing people instead of joining the discussion?I remember the joke used to be that Facebook was where you talked with friends and Reddit was where you talked to people you never wanted to meet.
I remember when my 12 y/o cousin found my /u/ and it freaked me out.
I kind of feel the same way. I don’t think I’ve ever checked a single profile on Lemmy.
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Usually cause a post is archived and I want to ask something. This post is mostly about other platforms.
My answer is the same for the other platforms. Except Facebook because thats family and friends.
You’re starting with a faulty assumption that everyone wants to participate in DMs.
Why on earth would I want to exchange DMs with random strangers? On reddit, I never got a single DM that wasn’t a bot/scam or a creep asking for nudes or offering to be my foot-worshipping sub or telling me I should shut my woman mouth. Being a man on the internet must be so wild, seeing DMs on a pseudonymous platform as anything but a hidden channel to be sexually harassed.
Honestly, last time I used DMs was to give someone support during their finals since they were debating streaming during the time or not, and letting them know that their future and mental health are more important was well received.
I think the issue is that most well adjusted men see that there’s almost never a reason to DM a stranger since you can just reply where anyone can see it, and the depraved see it as a chance to unleash their inner ape behind a safety shield - so friendly folk do the friendly thing and simply don’t use the function until there’s a solid reason, and that almost never happens.
Anonymity and social things really don’t mix well when we have so many abusive and self-centered people who see it as an opportunity to ape out.
Regarding DMs, my experience on other social medias is that people seem to take DMs as “their own home” - even if the door is either ajar or fully open, it’s impolite or even offending to enter without being invited first.
Regarding interacting with communities, some may see an unidentified profile as someone’s alt or, as mentioned by you, a bot, and other than making well founded points, I don’t see much that could be done to mitigate mistrust towards blank profiles.
And regarding Reddit specifically, I don’t know if it’s a flawed design, a flawed and long-going moderation, the platform being parasited by problematic users and external groups, or a mix of the 3, but even marginally big communities and even before Spez’s stunts, most communities I’ve seen there are a test on patience and composure.Hard agree.
Reddit has been shadow banning every single account I touch; it’s incredible. I burned through 3 accounts in the past month and got fed up, just haven’t bothered since. I seem to be incapable of not getting shadow banned lol, when at least 30% of the activity on that site is bots arguing amongst themselves and reposts of content that did well. I even tried setting a “snoo” (yuck) and a bio on my last account, but it made no difference.
You can ask someone to check your profile in /r/shadowban to find out for sure (if you weren’t aware). I checked and old account because I thought I was shadow banned, turned out I wasn’t it’s just my comments were buried under AI slop
So sad what happened to reddit, it really had a chance to be great
That is how I confirmed that every single one of them was, yeah! It’s also possible to check by just going to reddit.com/user/UsernameHere in an incognito window (or any browser that isn’t logged in). If shadowbanned, the page shows “This account has been suspended.”
I do check their profile when I receive a DM from someone I don’t know. If only, to get an idea who is trying to reach me, what I can expect, and how I should reply. My profile tells people where I’m from and how old I’m, stuff like that. So, anyone checking it will at least understand why my English can be lacking, and why I may not be that interested in stuff or questions younger people consider important. I also share my blog url in that profile but so far I don’t think anyone ever contacted me there coming from Lemmy ;)
I don’t mind a blank profile, but it won’t help me feel… connected to the person. So, my reply may not be as complete or personal as it could have been.
