Why do .ml users get a bad rep?

Because of the atrocious behavior they exhibit 100% of the time I've been unlucky enough to engage in "dialogue" with them.

I'm sure there are, among their ranks, some capable of critical thought, but if I see the .ml I generally know to expect a bunch of bad faith arguments and a large number of conflicting, morally ambiguous stances on world affairs.

In general: self-important, ill-informed buffoons with axes to grind coalescing around the simulacrum of Marxist-Lenninist philosophy, who would shrivel to unmanned husks were they to endure what they loudly call for.

The similarity to the standard issue MAGA specimen is most uncanny, and typically varies only in regards to which idol they worship.

The admins over there have some profoundly questionable views, which tends to push away reasonable people and attract bootlickers.

The problem is not the users as much as the site itself and its admins. I wish reasonable people (not bootlickers) would stop using lemmy.ml and go somewhere better. Lemmy.ml's biggest function right now is to scare away good people who would have been happy elsewhere.

Having an ideological focus for an entire instance feels like a major mistake. I can understand one admin having that take, but not the whole team. Thanks for the heads up.
- I think instances with ideological underpinnings is fine, and maybe inevitable. The crucial thing is that they need to be honest about it, so that those not interested can go elsewhere.
  The problem with lemmy.ml is that it pretends to be a catch-all instance when it's in fact very much not, and that it doesn't tell users up front what it's all about. Both Hexbear and Lemmygrad are better in that respect—at least they're honest.
Biggest issue is that said admins are the lemmy devs. .ml is their test instance.
Learned about this today, was mainly on lemmy.ml because lemmy.world was blocking too much instances -_- Now trying piefed.social
- I've enjoyed piefed a lot so far. I think it's a good choice.

.ml is the official one created by the lemmy guys, who are tankies, and that instance has a lot of tankie opinions and bad takes.

Tankies traditionally but more recently pro-Russian imperial fascists, ruZi if you will.
- I got banned for calling that yogurtz guy a ruski simp.
  And I'll do it again.
- Same thing in most cases.

I am subbed to quite a few communities over there, zero issues for me.

I was just banned from there because I said The Invasion into Ukraine is murdering people. They called me a fascist because I kept saying I don't agree with murdering people.

That's because they think Ukrainians are Nazis because Putin said so.
- The entire worlds media saw them as the nazis they are before the war
You don't have a banned tag and there is nothing in the mod logs? What do you mean you were banned?
- This is an alt, they said elsewhere. They were banned on their .ml account.
Welp, that feels like a red flag. Thanks for the info.
If someone says something happened on the fediverse without providing a link, they're lying.
- No proof but instead saying asking for proof is a bad thing.
- Oh, hi, it's Mr Asymmetric Demands for Proof again!
  How about for a change, you go and dig about in the modlog instead of demanding everyone else does?
  Provide a witness statement that you found out their .ml username and searched the modlog and found nothing, and you'll lend your viewpoint a shred of credibility. But without that, all we have to go on is your weird demands for proof that behaviour we all know the .ml mods are renowned for actually happened again for the 1758th time.
  If someone says something happened on the fediverse without providing a link, they’re lying.
  I say that you argued with me for hours and hours yesterday after I said that you were as unnecessarily argumentative and bad at backing down as the person you were calling toxic. I recall finding it amusingly ironic. I remember you being particularly upset when I pointed out that calling me names wasn't really proving me wrong. That's when you started swearing at me in DMs and calling me things you weren't prepared to call me in public.
  I refuse to supply a link. Am I lying?
  TL;DR Demanding proof that something that happens a lot happened again is reality denial masquerading as rationality.
Weird, there's no history in your mod log.
- I'm banned so I am on another instance.
- Weird how he's not giving us the alt, I'm sure there's no reason to do that. Context and evidence is bad, I guess.
When it comes up, which isn't too often, I find I'm not really the model archetypal .ml user in outlook and have run afoul of a few people that took exception to that there, but that came in the form of angry comments about the thing I said and either the literal meaning of it or sometimes what they took it to mean, and for a forum that seems entirely appropriate. I was briefly banned from one of the communities there once too because I was accused of being a bot. Funnily enough I actually didn't notice that and it had been overturned by the time found out there was a modlog and figured this out.
It would be hard for me to know obviously, but based on this experience, it doesn't seem to me that they're particularly ban-happy, particularly not instance wide. Kind of a bummer that happened to you. I'm fairly happy basing my account there and speaking my mind when I see fit. I do pick up the prevailing winds and can accurately presume what would and wouldn't be taken well, but I don't generally feel a need to self-censor or worry about bans.
- My ban has been lifted now. Are you able to tell me how to find the modlog? I'd like to see what they actually banned me for. There was a point where I said I thought Russia should be broken up and given to it's neighbors and they started responding by claiming I wanted nuclear war and posting pictures of Hitler. It was pretty over the top. I am wondering if that was what got me the ban. When I log in to my ml account I can't find anything, no message or anything, that says what the ban was for.
Give murdering a chance!

Everything that is critical of China or Russia is cia propaganda. Everything their sources say is unquestionable truth. That sums up my experience

After four days on that instance, have you not figured it out for yourself yet?

You will, eventually

Edit: a bit of instant-hopping is not unusual in the beginning. Part of the Lemmy experience is finding an instance where you feel comfortable. That might take a while and more than a few attempts.

Just a side note
The instance you’re on doesn’t really matter very much if you never read the local feed. If you do, you’ll definitely notice the local vibe sooner or later.
If you’re on an instance that is widely defederated, you may also notice that it’s difficult to find communities. Also, people may comment on your instance if it happens to be particularly notorious. The server hardware and bandwidth may also matter in some extreme cases.
Other than that, instances don’t really matter that much.
- The instance matters if you post about anything political. If your instance admins don’t like your posts, they will delete your account. Mods and admins of other instances can only ban you.
- There are some exceptions to this. Blahaj blocks downvotes, for example. You can downvote a post on Blahaj, but people (like me) with accounts on Blahaj cannot downvote nor can they see downvotes. I'm sure there are other instances doing similar things, as it sounds like Lemmy has a robust set of instance settings/options.
- The instance you’re on doesn’t really matter very much if you never read the local feed.
  Yeah, Ive been on .ml for like 5 years as of writing this and I just browse my subscribed feed. My experience has been great!
- If you’re on an instance that is widely defederated
  Or one that widely defederates.
  I believe mander is the only instance that has a policy of only defederating illegal content.
  In contrast .world has a huge de-federation list.
No, I don't think 4 days is enough to distinguish between a user's hot take and an instance's position. I didn't focus on the local feed, so I wouldn't have known. Most of the posts I've seen have been centered on Linux and privacy.
As I keep scrolling, though, I can see some troubling posts.
- OK, I apologize for my tone. I’m not here to criticize you. I am legitimately interested in helping:
  All of those things you mentioned? Do all of that. Focus on your local feed, check out comments that originate from your instance. That’s how you will get a good feel for those who subscribed to your instance.
  And, as others have mentioned, you can sign up to any instance and still interact, however, you are still beholden to the rules of rest of Lemmy. Follow the rules of whatever community you’re commenting or posting in, sure, but, aside from the instances that are defederated, you can interact, post, comment, vote, whatever, regardless of your home instance. It’s just that a lot of people take particular care in choosing their home instance, and they choose a home instance that sociopolitically aligns with their own views.
  This is neither necessary, nor demanded from the vast majority of Lemmy users, but it is good practice. It’s just how Lemmy was designed, and if you’re not interested in doing that, fine.
  Like any other online interaction forum, what really matters is the quality of your posts and or comments.
  Edited: spells and grams
I don't think I've ever posted on a community in my instance... But yeah, I'm not federated with .ml, so I am happy.

Because of the way they are.

Because they tend to breed assholes there.

I've also noted that people from lemmy.zip slrpnk.net sh.itjust.works blahaj.zone programming.dev also have some argumentative assholes too.

Sh.itjust.works also has one of the most abrasive trolls who ban evades and attacks users and admins. You may have unfortunately ran into them under multiple names.
I think we are one of the larger servers so we just have a more visible share than smaller instances. Our admins are pretty on top of complaints about users.
Hello :)

It took me maybe a week to figure out that I don't want to be there and why.

If you haven't figured it out yet, you either need more time or you are just like the .ml gang and that's your home.