City-Data.com

I had posted since 2008 using different names, one of them scoring a little over 2,000 points. I was drawn to the Politics forum and had been temporarily banned by the ultra-witch IbGinnie. I had a recent screen name for about a year and a half, but FORGOT my password to get back in. My iPad was saving the password in memory, until it WASN'T. When I tried to get back on using the "Forgot password" function, I got nowhere. I e-mld a moderator without reply.
I invented a new name and managed to stay on a few weeks. Very suddenly and out of nowhere, I received a notice that I was BANNED, LIFTED- NEVER, Reason- Troll.
I honestly don't know what was trolling, but I did call trump the biggest con of all time- hee heee. That could have been it? I'm done with it for good. It's like walking on eggshells with them.

This is what I noticed repeatedly about City-Data:

If you're discussing politics, you can state just about anything you want, if your political thinking is to the right of center.

OTOH

If you're to the left of center in politics, your comments will not be appreciated.

I tried repeatedly to post verified negative information about Trump's relationship with Putin and each time it was deleted.

I also attempted to post information about the Alt-Right movement here within the US and how Trump has appointed Alt-Right propents as closest staff members, like Stephen Miller, Julia Hahn, and Steve Bannon.

Those posts also got deleted!

Anytime you post anything either anti-right or anti-Trump, expect to get banned.

The posts and the comments on City Data are very racist. If I were to take a guess it's mostly older white Trump voters living in the middle of nowhere. Go to any city post (especially Chicago) and you will see people posting that never lived there. Trying to speak from a place of experience. The other odd thing is it is the same people responding to any thread. For example, I've seen gay people ask if some area is gay friendly and here comes the 3 same grandpas chiming in. You can tell by their comments they're not exactly in 2021. Any random crime that happens they come on there like a kid that found a new toy. It's disgusting.

Why are these old racists spending all day writing nonsense? Some of them post all day! I'd say they should visit their grandkids but something tells me they were cut out due to toxicity. I've been considering three cities for relo and I also noticed some of these people post in several different city forums. It is very weird.

Also, the website looks like it was last updated in 2001. That should be your first hint to go look elsewhere. I thought I'd never say this but Reddit is a much better source.

A lot has been made about so-called "troll farming" attacking Americans. But troll farms are not the only way that enemies of state and fringe groups have been sowing dissension in American. Foreign nationals and fringe groups have been opening and managing so-called "American forums" or US-centric sites for years to spread propaganda and spy on the thoughts of American citizens. For example, I remember not too long ago when a white nationalist site targeting Americans was shut down, because it was really based in Romania.

A lot of "Americancentric" sites are this, just fronts to attract decent American citizens to them and spread propaganda and agitprop to gaslight and confuse. City-Data is one of these sites. Upon research, I read through the grapevine that it's really owned by Eastern Europeans. I don't know how accurate this is, but having also been banned for calling out disinformation, this certainly seems to be the case. I was banned because, as a native New Yorker, I became suspicious of the "regulars" who didn't seem to have any familiarity with NYC culture or history. After several months there, one of the outed themselves as a disinfo troll. They posted a lie that housing rates had soared because Chinese people were doing anything they could to avoid blacks. As soon as I called this comment out, a mod edited my post then gave me a "warning." When I complained, I was banned, with the reason that I was a "troll." I had been a faithful poster there, giving out historical and cultural information about NYC, with photos and everything, because I am actually a New Yorker. The troll who seemed nothing but post racist dog whistles all day was allowed to remain.

If you, as an American, have evidence that this site is really Disinfo, contact the Department of Justice with your story, as well as screenshots. Get this site investigated. Don't just post at Sitejabber; contact your representatives.

They banned me innumerable times for posting warnings about interacting with certain people, visiting certain places, rules and regulations, and such. And I get the following message;

You have been banned for the following reason;

Trolling.

Date the ban will be lifted; Never.

Here is what I think they are really saying;

You have been banned for the following reason;

Violation of, and disrespect towards, the Juche Philosophy, showing disrespect to our leaders Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il, and Kim Jong-Un, and violating the laws of our country (North Korea).

Date the ban will be lifted; Never.

The site itself is okay. The political forum is full of right-wingers, many of them on the fringes. I suspect they mostly live in their moms' basements or maybe in ramshackle cabins in the woods, surrounded by their guns. But whatever, it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round. My issue is more with the mods. Ibginnie is one who likes to delete posts that she doesn't like; strangely, the posts she doesn't like are generally the ones that call out one of the RWNJs for saying something stupid. She leaves the original stupidity alone, though.

All of the forums have their nutters. I guess they are professional (unpaid) trolls. Lots of millionaires in the personal finance threads, lots of people who can't spell in the writing forum, people who post like they've never even laid eyes on a child in the parenting section. Conspiracy theorists galore. Occasionally you can get a question answered, but most of the time it's just a lot of one-upping to the point of absurdity. Decent way to pass the time, anyway, if you're super bored.

I broke a rule- for which I repeatedly apologized- and received 'infractions' for it. I was not banned for breaking the rule.
I followed the TOS re: what they tell members to do: attempted to get assistance from moderators. As the TOS also says members can contact the Admin, I did this- no reply.
One of the mods informed me that both senior moderators and the admin are all co-owners of the site, so I directly contacted the owner asking for his assistance, and because of this I was permanently banned. Was not even notified that I'd been banned- only found out when I tried to log in. Seems they also blocked my ISP address so I was no longer able to access the site at all.
Telling members to go through the 'chain of command' when they all own the site is dishonest and deceptive.

Topping it off, they clearly know nothing about operating a forum- I read complaints on a different site from many others with similar experiences, accused of 'trolling' when asking moderators to resolve situations. Evidently they don't know what the word means.

It was a disgusting display of disrespect.

Citydata forums is a white supremacist forum that does not allow for other views to refute the conservative view point that is actively promoted there. When the conservative views are in trouble by an informed poster giving them that work the moderators will abruptly lock the thread to end the intellectual butt whooping of the conservative racist. The forum has regular posters who make it a mission to disparage black people and black history, and promote casually racist lies and ideologies when it comes to those situations. They are obsessed with trying to deAfricanize ancient Egypt, and they have what paid personnel/accounts to periodically disparage black African history in an antagonistic way. This is a tactic to attract conservatives racist over to their platform. Then when a black person comes to set the record straight they will disable the account in the middle of a discussion without formerly banning that account, because banned accounts are indicated under their avatar on post that they made in the past. By not banning the account, and instead disabling the posting features it makes it appear that the person behind the account bowed out of a debate or discussion.

This is an extremely racist forum that allows racist white supremacist to disparage black African people, and will ban those who rebut their lies.

Great site and free speech is allowed. Why do liberals hate free speech? Why not just go back to Reddit? Liberals made accounts just to give a bad review how pathetic.

This is run like the GOP, it is a cult, you disagree with someone, you are banned for life. It has members that have nothing better to do than trash certain areas of the country. It has members that are in a clique, and if you do not fit their narrative you are gone. PATHETIC PLACE TO GIVE YOUR VIEWS.

The political forum is a r-wing disinformation machine filled with ignorant posters who are immune to facts and bereft of decency. Any dissenting moderate or liberal post ---even if it contains supporting documentation & links--- is trashed by "regulars" or removed by the moderators. It is a bully silo of hate & anger for those who are anti-women, anti-democracy, anti-education racists and xenophobes. I often wonder if it is funded by the NRA because any mention or discussion of commonsense gun reform or regulation is immediately shutdown and the poster mocked and then penalized for being a troll. White Christian Nationalism is promoted ad nauseum and many accounts are folks who appear to live on the forum at 12-hour intervals bullying those with opposing worldviews. Go up against them one too many times and one will be banned permanently. An ugly site whose frequent flyers wrap themselves in the American flag yet cheer the trampling of the Constitution. Terrorists, Trump & Tucker are revered as is any radical destructive person or position.

I was researching why I was summarily banned and appeals ignored... it came down to one issue: race.

They have this huge profile questionnaire where race, background, orientation questions are asked.

For race/ethnic background I put down the truth, in descending order: german, english, cherokee.

Apparently my (higher than Liz warren but less than a casino owner) percentage of american indian blood is grounds for dismissal.

Then I did more research... for every 100 posts in the section about cities (supposedly adhering to city data) there are ******* posts in the alt section dealing with white supremacy.

The site is owned and funded by 'stormfront.org' which is a modern neo-nazi org. Stormfront gets shutdown or delisted from time to time by the DOJ for its crap, so now they are using it as a backdoor.

It is your right to read and participate in that crap, yes I said crap, in the US. But I would not. I have started efforts to get city-data delisted from google or at leasdt re-categorized.

Citydata.com used to be a helpful site when I joined in 2013. The forums were a great way to hear insight from locals who would answer questions and give advice. I recently started frequenting citydata.com again to find out more about a location we were moving to, and was shocked.

Right wing extremists have taken over the site and are allowed to post lies and conspiracy theories with no restrictions. They routinely insult "liberals: and Lefties" accusing them of doing the very things that the GOP an the alt-right are guilty of. They will not acknowledge the truth, even when you provide irrefutable documented proof that they are wrong.

I was banned for life with no warning and labeled a troll, like many others here. The management and moderators have drunk the Koolaid as well apparently, because members in good standing include those who post conspiracy theories and who engage in blatant projection. There is no point in trying to debate or discuss an issue, and it doesn't matter if you avoid the politics section of the forums.

The rules don't matter, and these racists are allowed to roam at will, spreading their lies and hate like Johnny Appleseed, hoping for a bumper crop of idiots like themselves. There is obvious influence by anti-American actors who use this site to spread disinformation in order to undermine our democracy. The origins of this deceit should be investigated like any other act of espionage.

The forum is like many such forums, full of idiots & social rejects patting one another on the back & trying to feel more special than they are. There is a lot of bullying of newer members & blatant stupidity/ignorance by the older members - even if the question and/or commentary of new members is clear - that makes you wonder what the combined intelligence level of the old members is (rather low most like). There was, as an example, one new member who commented that she wasn't interested in sex prior to marriage due to cultural reasons & the idiots kept disrespecting her choice by trying to bully her into sex is ok, etc.

It's not even useful for city information. I've lived in a lot of cities & some of the information, well most that I've seen actually, is just copied & pasted from google. This was best exemplified with a post questioning about my home city & the responses; most of the responses were either from just passing through (maybe spending a day in the city) or so obviously retrieved from google they were all around little more than pathetic jokes. I wouldn't trust anything posted city related on this forum & most certainly not to make a moving decision.

You can get advice on where to move but if you go into the general forums, be ready for overt racism, being judged for not having a million dollars in your 401k by age 25 or having someone ridicule everything you do. If you post about the best way to wash a cotton blanket, you can bet someone will reply "why do you use cotton? I only use wool. Getting cotton is ridiculous" I'm not even kidding.
The racism is insane but if you call them a racist, you'll probably get banned or be called a liberal (a curse word there) and then get a long explanation by white people about how racism isn't real. I'm a white male moderate but the nazi atmosphere of some people paint me as a commie. It's so black and white to the Trumpers. The intelligent people can't even have a discussion because it's like Trump good liberal bad. My dog is a better conversationalist.
I forgot the best. Anytime you ask for advice on a work or personal or housing matter, the majority of answers will be along the lines of you don't like it? Move. If your husband snores, divorce. Your coworker wears too much perfume? Brush up your resume and get a new job. Etc.
There are some nice people but the aggressive ones really make it difficult to form a true online forum. The specialized general forums like economics and genealogy and automotive tend to stay on point and give helpful information.
I think they ban a lot of people because I don't see people around and notice they've been kicked out. I don't know how they decide because a lot of people were always helpful.